Banana and Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Muffins

A whole wheat muffin that's delightfully delicious--peanut butter, banana and chocolate chips turn this from humdrum whole grain to a sweet treat.

A few weeks ago I helped out a bit feeding the locusts musicians at marching band camp. I don't mean to call the kids insects--but when 100 of them go through the serving lines in 10 minutes . . . well, what else would you call them? You may recall last year when they demolished Snickerdoodle Cinnamon Ice Cream Sandwiches. I sure do. This year I also made some food--Potluck Tabbouleh will be up at some point--but I got to take home a real treat--leftover bananas.

I'm firmly in the camp of not liking to eat really ripe bananas. I can handle a spot or two, but I really prefer a bit of green at the top of the stem if I'm going to peel and eat it. However, I will take extra bananas any day--they are so useful and easy to store!

I just throw my ripe bananas in the freezer (nestled here with aquavit, unagi and our newest cow--link to 106 Ground Beef Recipes if you also need ideas). When I am ready they thaw in about 15 minutes on the countertop and we're good to go. I'm using them in PB/Spinach/Banana/Yogurt smoothies but I realized I hadn't posted my standard banana muffin recipe here. Time to remedy that. This recipe is from my muffin bible/font of all muffin inspiration in my kitchen: Muffins: A Cookbook (Amazon affiliate link) by my mom's classmates.

Before I get to the recipe, though--I've got some other suggestions for what to do with leftover ripe bananas. Luschka of Keeper of the Kitchen has a round up of 45 Things to Do with Ripe Bananas which you ought to check out. Emilie of Oh My Sugar High has a round up of 35 of the Best Banana Recipes. I've got a few in my Banana Recipes Collection, part of the Visual Recipe Index by Ingredient.

Banana and Peanut Butter Whole Wheat Muffins (makes about 2 dozen mini muffins)

2 large ripe bananas

1 egg

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup vegetable oil

2 Tablespoons peanut butter--I am smitten by Mighty Maple (Amazon affiliate link)

1 teaspoon vanilla

1½ cups (6 ounces) whole wheat flour

1½ teaspoons baking powder

¾ teaspoon baking soda

¾ teaspoon salt (I used kosher)

½ teaspoon Baking Spice (or an equivalent amount of cinnamon, or a cinnamon-nutmeg combo)

⅓ cup chocolate chips, optional, and the mini chips work best in muffins if you've got 'em

Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit and spray a mini muffin pan with vegetable oil spray or line with paper liners.
In a medium size bowl combine bananas, oil, brown sugar, vegetable oil, peanut butter and vanilla with a whisk until mostly uniform. Some small lumps of banana are cool.
In a large bowl whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and spice.
Dump the wet mixture into the dry mixture and stir briefly to combine. Dump the chocolate chips on top and stir a bit more until it's just barely combined.
Scoop [I like this cookie scoop for mini muffins--Amazon affiliate link] into prepared pan. Bake at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for 12 minutes.  Cool for 5 minutes in the pan then transfer to cooling rack.