Chocolate Banana Muffins

Confession:  I love muffins.  I especially love muffins that are made with banana, pumpkin, zucchini, or anything else that will make for a dense, moist texture.  These are the muffins that stay good for days on the counter top or months in the freezer.  Add chocolate to any of those muffins and I'm sold.  I also love google.  I had some spare bananas and wanted to bake a new twist on an old favorite.  Google lead me here.  Having failed miserably almost every time I've tried to make a quick bread, I now adapt all the quick breads I make into muffins.

Chocolate Banana Muffins
Adapted from joyofbaking.com

Ingredients:
3 ripe bananas, mashed (approx 1 lb)
1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup Dutch-process cocoa
1 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup chocolate chips (pick your favorite sweetness-I almost exclusively choose semi-sweet/dark)
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 cup butter, melted and cooled
1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line a muffin tin with paper liners.

In a large bowl whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. 

In a medium-sized bowl combine the mashed bananas, eggs, melted butter, and vanilla. With a rubber spatula or wooden spoon, lightly fold the wet ingredients (banana mixture) into the dry ingredients until just combined and batter is thick and chunky. Fold in the chocolate chips.  Spoon batter into prepared tins until ½ full. Bake until muffins have risen and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 18-22 minutes. Place on a wire rack to cool and then remove the muffins from the tin. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Yield approx 15 muffins.  These muffins freeze beautifully!