Every
once in a while there is an overload of bananas in my kitchen :-). So far, banana nut bread has been
my primary go-to recipe to use up ripe bananas. There are a few other things I
like to make as well, including shira (Indian semolina pudding), banana
pancakes, bread pudding, and good old shikran (a simple Maharashtrian dessert –
sliced/mashed banana, milk, sugar, cardamom powder). But these typically don’t
call for as much banana as the banana bread. So whenever I had more than one
old banana to get through, I would always turn to the banana bread…. until last
weekend. I realized that I was a little bored of the banana bread and wanted to
try something slightly different, so I decided to add chocolate to it. But I didn’t
quite know what else to change in the recipe to adjust for this addition, so I
kind of just played with the ingredients till the batter tasted good and seemed to have
good consistency… and it actually turned out pretty nice! This can be baked as
a loaf, but I think it is better as muffins because of the light and moist
texture.
Ingredients:
(Makes approximately 18 regular sized muffins.)
1 cup sugar
2/3 cup butter
2
eggs
2
cups flour (all purpose/wheat)
3
tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking
soda
a
pinch of salt
2/3 cup buttermilk (See note below)
2
medium-sized ripe bananas (mashed well)
3/4 cup melted
dark chocolate
chocolate
chips (optional)
chopped
walnuts (optional)
Heat
oven to 340 F. Line muffin pan with liners or grease the pan. Mix flour, baking powder, baking soda and
salt in a small bowl (sift if necessary).
Beat
the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs and beat until combined.
(Do not beat after this step. Use a spatula to mix ingredients).
Add
the flour mixture and buttermilk. Mix well with a spatula. Add the melted
chocolate and bananas, and mix until combined.
Fill
the muffin cups ¾ full and bake for ~22 min or until toothpick inserted in the
center comes out clean. If you wish to sprinkle chocolate chips on top,
sprinkle them about 15 min after putting the pan into the oven.
~Gayatri
Note: If you don’t have buttermilk, use 1 Tbsp. lemon juice/vinegar for every cup of milk. Mix them well and let stand for about 5 min.
