Not having baked anything in a while, I figured our first 80ºF+ day of the year was the perfect day to whip up a batch of muffins.
I assure you, there is some logic in that sentence. Hot, humid weather gives me migraines. The kind of migraines that make me useless for desk work or going for a walk, even after the meds have kicked in.
But baking, I could handle.
It being warm, I had a bunch of bananas on hand that were ripe past the point of me wanting to eat them. (For me, a banana is perfect when it is green at the stem – unless I’m in a tropical country, where for some reason they can have brown spots and still not be overripe. Probably a different variety than the Cavendish ones grown for export.)
So, time for banana muffins! I used peanut butter again, but in lower quantities than in the muffins I made several months back. The texture turned out a lot better this time, but the muffins don’t taste very peanuty. Ah well. They’ve still got protein.
Supplies
- measuring cups and spoons
- 2 small and 1 large mixing bowls
- electric mixer
- muffin tin with 12 2 ½-inch cups
- cooling rack
Ingredients
- 1¾ cups white whole wheat flour or whole wheat pastry flour
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- 1¼ teaspoon baking soda
- 3 tablespoons butter, chilled
- 1/3 cup natural, no-sugar peanut butter, chilled
- 1/4 cup sugar or xylitol
- 2 eggs, beaten
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 2/3 cup mashed bananas (3 or 4 small bananas)
- 1/2 cup chopped bittersweet baking chocolate or chocolate chips
Directions
- Mix the flour, salt and baking soda in a bowl.
- Cut the butter into small cubes and add to a small mixing bowl with the sugar or xylitol. Add the peanut butter in small spoonfuls. Beat together the butter, peanut butter, and sugar or xylitol in a small bowl until creamy, about 2 minutes.
It should look a little like chocolate chip cookie dough. - Transfer butter mixture and dry ingredients to a large bowl and mix them together with an electric beater until they are the texture of brown sugar.
- Beat in the eggs until just blended.
- Mash bananas with vanilla. Beat them into the batter until just blended. Do not overwork the dough.
- Fold in chocolate.
- Use a spoon to drop the batter into a greased or lined muffin pan, filling each cup at least ¾ full (about 1/4–1/3 cup of batter per muffin cup).
- Bake 20 minutes in a 400°F oven. Muffins are ready when inserted toothpick comes out clean.
- Cool on rack at least 10 minutes and serve.
