Banana, Walnut, Chocolate Chip Muffins from @MysteryMacRae

 

These are some of our favorite muffins and a great way to use up over-ripe bananas. Did you know that you can toss over-ripe bananas straight into the freezer until you have time to bake muffins or bread? When you’re ready to use them, take them out, let them thaw, and then nip off one end and squeeze the whole banana out of its skin like toothpaste. Lots of fun!

Feel free to use pecans in place of the walnuts and either light or dark brown sugar.

 

Banana, Walnut, Chocolate Chip Muffins

Adapted from Muffins A to Z by Marie Simmons

 

Ingredients

2 cups flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon salt

½ cup chocolate chips

2 or 3 mashed bananas

2/3 cup packed brown sugar (light or dark)

1/3 cup unsalted butter, melted

1 large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla

½ cup coarsely chopped walnuts (or pecans)

 

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 ℉.

Lightly coat 12 muffin cups with butter or nonstick cooking spray.

In a large bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. (Hint: if your baking powder or soda is clumpy when you measure it out, hold a fine mesh sieve over the bowl with the flour and rub the clumps through it. Little clumps of powder or soda in a muffin are unpleasant. I sieve both, and although I've never had clumpy cinnamon, I throw that in, too, while I'm at it.) Stir all to blend. Stir in chocolate chips.

In another large bowl, add brown sugar to melted butter, then the mashed banana, egg, and vanilla. Mix until well blended.

Add dry ingredients, all at once, to banana mixture. Fold until evenly moistened without overmixing.

Oops, I added the banana mixture to the dry ingredients. Doesn't seem to matter.

Divide batter evenly into muffin cups. Sprinkle tops with chopped walnuts. Bake until tops are golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. 15-20 minutes.

Cool on a wire rack before removing from pan.

Great with a cup of tea or coffee. No picture of that - we ate them too fast! 

 

These books are great with a cup of tea or coffee, too!

 

The Boston Globe says Molly MacRae writes “murder with a dose of drollery.” She’s the author of the award-winning, national bestselling Haunted Yarn Shop Mysteries and the Highland Bookshop Mysteries. As Margaret Welch, she writes books for Annie’s Fiction. Her short stories have appeared in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine and she’s a winner of the Sherwood Anderson Award for Short Fiction. Visit Molly on Facebook and Pinterest and connect with her on Twitter  or Instagram.