Chocolate Chip Banana Bread Muffins

I’ve stayed away from banana bread for a while, because, let’s face it, banana bread is over done.  It’s like when the radio plays that one song on the radio over and over again.  You really like it, but now you want to BORE RIGHT THROUGH YOUR BRAIN WITH LEMON JUICE because you can’t stand hearing it one more time.  That’s what banana bread is like.  I love it.  And then it got overplayed.

It’s been a while and I had bananas on my counter just begging for me to end their slow death.  So I did.  Delicously.  These turned out more like muffins and less like the moist banana bread I expected.  This is probably because they’re muffins, not bread, so the moisture baked out a bit.  It was also a lot easier because instead of the typical 65 minute bake time, I only have to wait 12 minutes before diving in face-first.  Also, spices.  I can’t believe I never added spices to this before.  SO MUCH YUM.

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cups light brown sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1 ripe banana, mashed
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/2 cup flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 cup milk
• handfuls of chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Cream the sugar, salt, and butter in a large bowl.
2. Beat in banana and eggs until smooth.
3. Sift together flour and soda in a medium bowl.
4. Alternately add dry mix and milk to sugar mixture until well combined.
5. Add chocolate chips as desired.
6. Pour mixture into muffin pan with muffin liners.*
7. Bake at 350 degrees F for 12 minutes or until a toothpick comes out of the middle clean.

*This recipe is originally for one banana bread loaf, so it makes more than 12 muffins.  Fortunately I had a mini muffin tin to take care of the overflow (because I wasn’t patient enough to do a second batch of regular-sized muffins).  Want to make this a loaf?  Just pour the mixture into a greased/floured loaf pan and bake at 350 degrees F for 65 minutes or until a toothpick comes out of the middle clean.