A few good muffins…it really doesn’t hurt to have a handful of go-to recipes for these underrated (and too infrequently made) breakfast and coffee-time treats. Why don’t I make more muffins? After all, they are easy (even kids can stir them up) and come together quickly. In a matter of moments you can have a batch in the oven — and out — in a relatively short baking time.
The Baked Sunday Mornings recipe roster is getting me reacquainted with my fondness for and experience with home-baked muffins, with last month’s Orange Almond Blueberry Muffins, and this month’s Banana Espresso Chocolate Chip Muffins (recipe: http://bakedsundaymornings.com/2019/07/05/in-the-oven-banana-espresso-chocolate-chip-muffins/), both from Matt Lewis’ and Renato Poliafito’s “Baked: New Frontiers in Baking†(2008).
[N]ot only do I love any excuse to make muffins, I also I love having a reason to break out the espresso powder and infuse something with it (as well as add a caffeine kick to my baked goods). The combination here of banana, espresso and chocolate seemed unusual and intriguing to me, so I was anxious to try this recipe.
[I] did tinker with the recipe a bit, mainly adding a few things. For some reason, toasted pecans seemed to speak to me as something that would lend a bit of additional rich flavor and a crunch to the texture. I ended up using about 1/2 cup (folded in at the end).
[I] also added a couple of pinches of cinnamon to the dry ingredients (that included the espresso). I always seem to put cinnamon in my coffee, and I thought it would also team up nicely here with he other flavors.
[T]o the wet ingredients, I took it upon myself (and actually couldn’t help myself) to add a splash of vanilla to the four mashed bananas, melted butter, sugar, brown sugar, egg and milk.
[T]his muffin recipe also employed the “well method†of mixing, where the dry ingredients are distributed so there is a deep bowl within the bowl in the center, and into this, the wet ingredients are poured. Everything is stirred gently until just mixed.
[A]t this point, I folded in chocolate chips (I used mini chips here…and I’ll get to that reason shortly) and the toasted pecans.
[O]ne last bit of straying from the recipe was my decision to make these in mini muffin size (thus my downsizing of the chocolate chips), for the sheer reason that I wanted more muffin mileage — I had a work thing I wanted t bring these muffins to, so I opted to get more of them, in bite-sized form. This recipe filled about 34 mini muffin cavities, and I probably could have gotten 36 had I filled them a little less.
[I]t took about 15 minutes for these to bake completely (I have a slow oven). They were a beautiful dark golden-brown, and after I let them cool a bit, they released easily from the pans.
[I]’ve never been a huge fan of banana and chocolate together (like chocolate chips in banana bread or fudge frosting on banana cake), but I think the espresso powder flavor element helps tie everything together here. These little gems were moist and flavorful (and as I noticed as I put part of them away to store for later, smelled outstanding), and I do think the crunch of the pecans (or walnuts or your favorite nut) was a good decision. Despite the presence of such strong flavors as banana, espresso and chocolate, no one flavor dominated, so they almost teamed to create a new flavor of some kind.
Blogger’s Note: You’ll find the recipe for Banana Espresso Chocolate Chip Muffins at Baked Sunday Mornings: http://bakedsundaymornings.com/2019/07/05/in-the-oven-banana-espresso-chocolate-chip-muffins/.
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