Monster Banana Chip Muffins

Bigger is better when it comes to muffins, eh?

(Except when you’re talking about the muffin tops that spill over a perfectly good pair of jeans. Of course.)

These muffins don’t look that big in the picture, and for that I am bummed. I bought these rather gargantuous (word?) muffin cups from I don’t remember where, and was excited to stuff them full of pretty much any kind of batter. So with a bunch of blackened bananas on the countertop, nature had decided for me what was going to fill the massive polkadot buggers. A healthy banana muffin. (In my heart I wanted to make my favorite banana bread/muffin of all time, my Banana Nut Bread recipe, but there were a couple of limiting factors: no brown sugar, and no nuts. And the recipe has lovely, wonderful BUTTER in it, which isn’t part of the definition of a healthy muffin. I was gifting a muffin to a friend of mine who is quite healthified, so I didn’t want to be the bad influence of giving a massive muffin of badness- like a drug pusher of sorts. So the healthy muffin choice was obvious. And I just realized that you probably don’t care about my decision making process, because all you want is the recipe.)

I hope you can find massively big muffin cups to fill with banana batter, too. If not, just make the regular ones and eat two. These are so healthy that I promise they won’t give you that dastardly muffin top of your own.

Adapted from my Impossibly Healthy Banana Bread with Dark Chocolate Chunks recipe…

4 very ripe bananas, well mashed

2 eggs plus 1 egg white, lightly beaten

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon light molasses*

2 cups whole wheat pastry flour*

3/4 cups sugar

1 tablespoon ground flax seeds*

3/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 cup chocolate chips
1. Preheat oven to 350° and grease either 7 monstrous muffin liners, 12 regular liners, or a large loaf pan.
2. In a large bowl, mash bananas and mix in eggs, vanilla, and molasses. Stir until well combined.
3. In a separate large bowl, combine flour, sugar, flax seeds, salt and baking soda. Stir into banana mixture until just combined. Gently stir in chocolate (being careful not to over mix batter) and pour into prepared liners/pan.
4. Bake monster muffin cups for 35 – 40 minutes, regular muffins for about 20 minutes, or a large loaf pan for 60 minutes (until cake tester or wooden skewer comes out mostly clean). Set on cooling racks for 5 – 10 minutes, then remove from pans to finish cooling.
Tips:
- Ripe bananas, please. Yellow ones just won’t do- they need to be more black than brown. I wouldn’t bother making the bread if the bananas aren’t ready.
- *Substitutes & exclusions? But of course. Use regular flour if you don’t have the whole wheat pastry flour. Skip the molasses if you don’t have it (or just use 3/4 cup of brown sugar instead of the regular sugar). Skip the flax seeds if you want.
- What kind of chocolate to use… it’s totally up to you. Milk chocolate, semi-sweet, bittersweet, white, dark (dark IS healthier, if that matters).
- Nuts… yes, nuts are lovely in banana bread, especially walnuts. Toast some and add them in if you’d like. They’ll bring a healthy fat to the party, which is good but something to consider if you’re looking to take some of the fat out of your life.
- Want more banana recipes? Try the famed Banana Nut Bread, the healthier option of the Impossibly Healthy Banana Bread, the Peanut Butter Banana Bread, the PB Honey Banana Muffins, and for a totally different direction, the Banana Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting. Yum.
- Enjoy!
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April 23rd, 2014 | More Sweets Please | 2 Comments | Tags: Bananas, Breads & Muffins, Chocolate

2 Responses and Counting...

Mary Beth 04.23.2014

these are so yummy! it’s incredible, i don’t even miss the butter!
More Sweets Please

I always thought butter was the key to deliciousness (WITH sugar, naturally), but it’s nice to know that it’s not always necessary. So glad you liked!