Banana Bread Muffins

I'm taking two classes for the spring term. One is floral design, where I will get to... well, design floral arrangements. The other is a cooking class. I had a full scholarship, and there were no classes I needed to take, so I figured I would take a couple fun classes.

Well, one of my classes was canceled a few days ago, so during my free time I decided to do something with my browning bananas. I hate wasting food.

I found a recipe for banana bread muffins that looked good, so I decided to try it.

I was mistaken. The recipe isn't good. The recipe is AWESOME.

These muffins are the perfect banana bread consistency and texture. I brought some of the extras to work and left them in the break room. Every single person who ate one walked out and said, "These are SO GOOD. Who made these?!?!?"

Mission accomplished, I'd say.

Banana Bread Muffins

Yields: 12 muffins

2 cups (10 oz) flour
3/4 cup (5 oz) sugar
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3 overly ripe medium bananas
1/4 cup sour cream (or plain yogurt)
2 eggs
6 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit. Line a muffin tin with paper liners.

2. Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, combine wet ingredients. Mix together until just combined.

3. Scoop the batter evenly into 12 muffin liners and bake for 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Tips:

• Use a cookie scoop to evenly distribute the muffin batter
• Remove muffins from the muffin tin within 5 minutes of removing it from the oven. If you let them cool in the muffin tin, the papers might peel away from the muffins after they cool. 

Cheesecake Brownies

Isn't it interesting how the order of words changes things? I keep accidentally calling this recipe Brownie Cheesecake, but it's definitely Cheesecake Brownies.

You see, in this situation, "cheesecake" is the adjective to describe the type of brownies (instead of "brownie" being the adjective to describe the type of cheesecake).

Have a mentioned lately that I'm a big nerd?

Anyway, I sent these cheesecake brownies to my sister in honor of... well, nothing. Just because. Because of this, I only got to eat one of these delicious jewels before I had to put them in a box to be shipped off to San Francisco (a fact over which I lamented as I edited the photos on this post).

Recipe adapted from Yammie's Noshery.

Cheesecake Brownies

Yields: 15 brownies

Brownies:
1 cup (2 sticks) butter
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 tbsp vanilla
1 1/4 cups cocoa powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 cups flour
1 cup chocolate chips

Cheesecake:
8 oz cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup sour cream
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 egg

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit. Grease a 9x13" baking dish and set aside.

2. Put butter and sugar in a microwave-safe bowl and microwave for 1-2 minutes, or until melted. Stir to incorporate. Set aside for 5 minutes to cool.

3. Add the butter/sugar to the bowl of a mixer and beat for 1 minute. Add eggs and vanilla and mix. Combine dry ingredients (not including chocolate chips) in a separate bowl and add the mixture slowly to the wet ingredients. Pour into the prepared pan.

4. Combine all of the cheesecake ingredients in a separate bowl and beat until smooth. Pour in dollops atop the brownie batter in the prepared pan and swirl around using a knife.

5. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes, or until desired consistency is achieved.

You may also like Brownie Cheesecake: 

One Bowl Double Chocolate Banana Muffins

One Bowl Double Chocolate Banana Muffins-- now that's a long recipe title! I just felt like I couldn't leave off any part of it! I'm not sure which descriptor I like the best:

One Bowl: simple clean up (though I must admit the one bowl I used when making these is still "soaking" in the sink... we all know "soaking" is just code for I'm too tired to do the dishes, right?) 

Double Chocolate: You can't go wrong here. Anything that has cocoa powder AND chocolate chips has to be good, right? 

Banana: You can read my ode to bananas by clicking here. 

Muffins: Pretty much cake wrapped up in a convenient package (muffin paper) that makes it seem "healthier." People might judge you for eating cake for breakfast (we don't befriend those people), but no one will ever judge you for eating a muffin for breakfast! 

I've posted this recipe before, but this time I've tweaked it to perfect it and updated the pictures! 

One Bowl Double Chocolate Banana Muffins

Yields 12 muffins

1 cup overly ripe bananas (about 2 medium-large bananas)
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg
1/2 cup veggie or canola oil
1/3 cup milk
2/3 cup sugar
1 tbsp brown sugar
2 tbsp unsweetened dutch processed cocoa powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/4 tsp baking soda
1 2/3 cups flour
1/3 cup mini chocolate chips 

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees fahrenheit. Line a muffin pan with 12 muffin liners.

2. In a large bowl, mash bananas (I used a potato masher). Add vanilla and egg. Stir well. Add oil and milk and stir well.

2. Add sugars and mix well, then add cocoa powder and stir well. The cocoa powder doesn't incorporate as easily, so you may have to do some extra stirring.

3. Add salt and baking soda. Mix well. Add flour and stir until just incorporated.

4. Add about half of the chocolate chips to the batter and reserve the rest. Scoop the muffin batter with a cookie scoop into the liners, about 3/4 full. Sprinkle the rest of the chocolate chips on top of the muffin batter.

5. Bake for 15-18 minutes, or until a cake tester or toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

They're great warm or at room temperature!

Here's another recipe you might enjoy:

Banana cake with fluffy brown sugar buttercream