Banana Espresso Chocolate Chip Muffins

Wow that is a mouthful!  A mouthful of deliciousness!  Okay, corny, I know.  Anyway, after my sixth snow day this year, I had to bake more delicious things.  This whole snow thing is really killing my diet, but it is leading to some delicious desserts.

I had no motivation to make dinner last night, but really wanted to bake something.  So we ended up with Hamburger Helper and these muffins.  I had about four bananas in the freezer (they turned brown, so I peeled them and froze them) and  I also got some amazing silicone muffin holders (usually I would call them tins, but doesn't that require them to be, well, tin?) that are the size of a muffin you would buy at the store.  Sure that means more calories, but it always means that this muffin is more of a meal.  The recipe I'm putting below is for 12 muffins, but I only made six giant muffins.  You'll need to bake them longer if you want a meal-sized muffin.  Make these please, you will not regret it.

Banana Espresso Chocolate Chip Muffins
from: Baked: New Frontiers in Baking

1-1/2 cups mashed, very ripe bananas (about 4)
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
1/4 cup whole milk
1 large egg
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon instant espresso powder (*not the same as ground espresso that you would brew and optional but recommended*)
1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup (6 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a 12-cup muffin pan with nonstick cooking spray. In a medium bowl, stir together the bananas, sugars, butter, milk, and egg. 
2. In another medium bowl, whisk together the flour, instant espresso powder, baking soda and salt. Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients. 
3. Pour the wet ingredients into the well and stir just until combined. Fold in the chocolate chips.
4. Fill each cup about 3/4 full. Bake in the center of the oven for 20-25 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center of the muffin comes out clean. 
5. Move the muffin pan to a cooling rack, and let cool  for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, remove the muffins from the pan and let them finish cooling on the cooling rack. Muffins can be stored in an airtight container for up to 2 days.

*Note: you will see that there are large sugar crystals on top of my muffins.  I added a sprinkle of muffin sugar (for lack of a more accurate name) like you would find in a store to add that muffin-top crunch.

Yield: 12 muffins

Why yes, that is an OU snuggie in the background!