Banana Chocolate Muffins

These Banana Chocolate Muffins are so easy to make, yet taste incredible. Light and moist, filled with banana flavour, chunks of milk chocolate and a hint of cinnamon. Best made with very ripe bananas, they’re a great way of using those brown bananas in your fruit bowl.

BANANA CHOCOLATE MUFFINS

There’s a certain Banana Chocolate Cake I’ve been making for years. Full of banana flavour, plenty of milk chocolate and with a rich buttercream filling. But it does take quite a while to bake.

I think the speed at which you can whip up and cook a batch of muffins is the reason I’ve been making them more and more recently. They’re so much quicker than making one large cake.

So it was only logical that, after the success of my Raspberry & White Chocolate Muffins, that I’d turn that favourite Banana Chocolate Cake into a muffin.

RIPE BANANAS, PLEASE

I think you need really ripe bananas for making cakes, muffins and breads. In fact, I can’t abide under ripe bananas as I think they’re quite tasteless. That’s probably because an unripe banana can contain around eighty percent starch. But during the ripening process, that starch turns to sugar and more flavour.

Now, if you’re worried about eating all that sugar then I wouldn’t bother reading any further. These Banana Chocolate Muffins are an unashamedly sweet treat made for occasional eating and, unless you’ve specific health issues, I see nothing wrong in that.

Actually, ripe bananas do have some health benefits that under-ripe ones don’t: the browner the banana, the more antioxidants. Anyway, I don’t eat muffins for a health kick but because they taste good!

MILK OR DARK CHOCOLATE

I’ve used milk chocolate in my Banana Chocolate Muffins as I think the slight creaminess goes well with the banana flavour. But feel free to use dark chocolate if you like. However, I’d stay clear of white chocolate as that’d probably be a little too cloying combined with the sweet banana.

I always buy bars of chocolate for making cakes and muffins, never chocolate chips, and chop them up myself. I think having some small and some larger pieces of chocolate is much more interesting than the uniformity of chocolate chips.

Traditionally, many muffin recipes contain buttermilk. But I always use full-fat plain yogurt in my muffins, and in my scones too. I always have a big tub of yogurt in the fridge anyway and find it gives a light texture and good flavour. Use buttermilk if you like, or any type of milk.

I like a slightly crunchy topping on my muffin. To achieve this I sprinkle a little demerara sugar over each one before baking.

TIPS FOR MUFFIN MAKING

• Prepping the muffin mix is quick, so preheat your oven first.
• Don’t over-mix. To get a light texture only fold the ingredients just enough to combine. Don’t worry if the mixture looks a bit lumpy.
• Muffins only take about 17 minutes to cook, so keep an eye on them and turn the temperature down if they darken before the centres are cooked. A skewer or cocktail stick should come out clean when they’re done.

Although you’ll need to wait until the cooked muffins are completely cold before drizzling over the chocolate topping, I think they’re best served warm. Not only does this bring out the banana flavour and aroma, it starts to melt the chunks of chocolate inside. I reheat the muffins in a microwave for about 15-20 seconds which is enough to heat the inside without melting the topping.

While these Banana Chocolate Muffins are fabulous as a sweet snack, they make a really good pudding too. Heat some up, for a little longer than suggested above, so that the topping is starting to melt. Serve with homemade custard. Yum!

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Banana Chocolate Muffins

Banana Chocolate Muffins are so easy to make, yet taste incredible. Light and moist, filled with banana flavour, chunks of milk chocolate and a hint of cinnamon

Course Dessert, Snack, Cake

Keyword muffin, banana & chocolate muffin

Prep Time 20 minutes

Cook Time 17 minutes

Total Time 37 minutes

Servings 18 muffins

Ingredients

• 325 g self raising flour
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 0.5 tsp salt
• 2 large ripe bananas mashed
• 2 large eggs
• 240 ml yogurt or buttermilk or milk
• 200 g sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 120 g butter melted
• 120 g milk or dark chocolate chopped into approx 1cm square chunks
• 1-2 tbsp demerara sugar for sprinkling
• 50 g milk or dark chocolate, melted

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 200C. Line muffin trays with 18 paper cases.

2. Sift together the flour,cinnamon, baking powder & salt then set aside.

3. Take a large bowl and put in the mashed bananas, eggs, yogurt, sugar, vanilla extract and melted butter. Beat together (I use electric beaters) until well combined.

4. Tip the flour, baking powder and salt mixture into the large bowl with the beaten wet ingredients.

5. Using a rubber or plastic spoon, fold in the dry ingredients. Do not over-mix. When most of the dry ingredients are moistened, tip in the chocolate chunks and fold a few times more until they're evenly distributed.
   

6. Divide the mixture between the muffin cases and sprinkle the top of each one with a little demerara sugar before putting in the oven.

7. Bake until the muffins are risen, golden and a skewer comes out clean (approx 17 minutes).

   NOTE if the tops are browning too quickly before the centre of the muffins are cooked, turn the oven down to 180C and continuing cooking.

8. Transfer to a wire rack until completely cold before adding the chocolate drizzle.
   

9. Melt the chocolate in the microwave, stirring after each 10 seconds (should take approx 30 seconds in total).

   Put the melted chocolate in a piping bag or a freezer bag with a corner snipped off and drizzle over the tops of the muffins.

10. The muffins are best served warm: 15-20 seconds in a microwave should heat them sufficiently inside without melting the chocolate drizzle on top.