Chocolate Banana bread muffins

I don’t know about you but bowl and spoon bakes are honestly the most liberating and delicious things you can make.  No fancy gadgets required. Let’s face it, with everything else going on in life, if we can cancel out a bit of stress, let’s do it. Think of these chocolate banana bread muffins, not simply as the yummy treats that they are, and trust me, they really are, but also as a touch of kitchen therapy. A little gentle mixing and you’re on your way to some satisfying comfort eating.

I know we all went, literally, bananas, for banana bread in lockdown and during the pandemic, but kinda for good reason, it is honestly one of the most satisfying, comforting and happy bakes there is. Everything about it is cosy. The flavours, the texture, the ritual…I mean no matter the time of year you know that some serious R&R is about to go down when banana bread is on the table. Throw in chocolate and you’ve got one seriously relaxing party on your hands. 

For me, these chocolate banana bread muffins are perfect and with the hint of cinnamon make them a truly comforting teatime classic. Give them a go!

I was inspired to make these, when a while back I made Nigel Slater’s brown banana cake which was delicious. I tweaked a few things and made these even easier by turning them into muffins, something you can whip up super fast, when you need a friendly little pick me up.

Chocolate Banana bread muffins

Recipe 

100g dark chocolate chunks

2 large brown bananas 

1 tsp ground cinnamon

2 tsp vanilla extract

¼ tsp salt

250g self rising flour

1 tsp baking powder

½ tsp bicarb

50g caster sugar

50g light brown sugar

75g melted butter

2 large eggs

125 ml butter milk (or add 1 tbsp of lemon juice to milk and wait 15 mins)

Method

To make the chocolate banana bread muffins, start by chopping the dark chocolate into chunks and coat with a tbsp of flour so that they don’t all fall to the bottom of the muffins when they bake. Leave to one side to add in later.

Measure out the flour, baking powder, bicarb, cinnamon and salt and sift into a mixing bowl. 

Melt the butter and let it cool for a bit before you add in all the wet ingredients. (If the eggs are too hot they will scramble the eggs, which isn’t the look we’re going for)

In another mixing bowl, mash the brown bananas with the fork. Add in the buttermilk, eggs, sugar, vanilla and melted butter and stir to combine. 

Add the wet ingredients to the dry and fold gently to combine. Don’t worry if there are a few lumps in the batter, that’s totally fine, in fact, you don’t want to overmix the batter so it’s better to have a few lumps rather than mix for too long. 

Leave a handful of chocolate chunks to one side to add on top of the muffins and then pour in the chocolate and stir to combine. 

Pop in the fridge for an hour for the batter to relax. (If you don’t have time you can bake straight away but I find it helps the muffins to rise better if you let the mix chill). You could even make this before you go to bed and let it chill overnight in the fridge and bake them in the morning, that would be fab. 

Preheat the oven to 190 celsius for a good 10 mins. 

Line a muffin tin with 10 cases and fill the batter right to the top. Add some chocolate chunks to the top of each muffin.

Bake for 20-25 mins until golden brown and cooked all the way through. I use a cake tester to see if the muffins are cooked. If no batter sticks to the tester and the muffin tops spring back when you touch them, they are all cooked and ready to eat. 

Transfer the muffins to a cooling rack for a bit before diving in.

Fancy some more chilled out bakes? Try my Double Chocolate Baked Doughnuts or Jammie Dodger cupcakes, both absolute winners!