Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins

So...I have a confession. I did it again: came this close to letting food go bad. The other day Chloe and I were meandering around Aldi (our new favorite discount grocery store) when I plucked a handful of bananas from a crate. "Taylor," Chloe eyed me, skeptically, "Are you really going to eat those? I mean, actually going to eat those?" I nodded, a bit too eagerly.

"YES. Promise," I assured her. Famous last words. In my defense, I kept an eye on the nay-nays because I like to eat them when they're well-spotted and slightly over ripe. They're sweeter that way. After days of waiting, I decided to take a closer look. As I lifted the bag, a swarm of gnats attacked. "UGH!" I yelped, flailing my arms wildly. When everything settled, I examined the bananas. They weren't very brown, but clearly beyond repair. I groaned irritably as they fell limp in my hands. 

"You're going to eat those, right?" Chloe asked without looking up at me from the table. I was silent for a moment. 

"No, they're not edible," I confessed shamefully.

"I told you to take them out of that bag!" she reprimanded. Did she? I can't remember. Based on my track record, she probably did.

"I'll use them. I swear." Yeah...that's what I said last time. I hurriedly scooped up my laptop and began Pinterest-ing for recipes by inserting "bananas" in the search bar. I had to be quick. These bananas did not have much time left. I came across a relatively simple recipe and ran down the list of ingredients to make sure we had everything I needed. "Chloe, do we have chocolate chips?" I asked. 

"We do, but I don't know how many. We're running low," she informed me. As a rather happy twist of fate, there were a few chocolate chips left, intermixed with peanut butter ones. Bananas and peanut butter go together well, I thought to myself. How bad could it be?

Not bad at all, turns out. Delicious actually. Here's my twist on the Life Made Simple recipe:


Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins:


Ingredients:

• 6 tbsp. melted butter
• 1/3 c. brown sugar
• 3 tbsp. sour cream (or buttermilk)
• 1 large banana, mashed
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1 c. flour
• 1/3 c. old-fashioned rolled oats
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1/4 c. chocolate chips
• 1/4 c. peanut butter chips

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease muffin pan.

2. In a medium-large bowl, combine melted butter and brown sugar. Beat together with whisk mixer.

3. Add sour cream (or buttermilk) and mashed banana and mix for 30 seconds.

4. Add egg and vanilla, mix until combined.

5. In a separate bowl, combine dry ingredients (flour, oats, baking soda, salt). Gradually mix into wet ingredients.

6. Fold in chips (translation: dump them into the batter bowl and mix using a spoon or spatula, not your whisk mixer)

7. Fill muffin tins 3/4 full with batter (or fill them higher if you want bigger muffins, just be aware that they could overflow)

8. Place in oven for 18-22 minutes. 20 minutes seemed to be golden for my little convection oven :-)

9. Remove from oven, let cool for 2-3 minutes then remove from muffin pan and transfer muffins to a cooling rack.

*Makes approximately 6-8 muffins

See original recipe

Rating: ★★★★ out of 5 stars

Lesson learned. But if you ever fall into this predicament like I did, this is a pretty scrumptious way to wiggle yourself out of it. Be sure to save your muffins in a sealed tupperware container or Ziplock baggie so they stay moist and don't go bad! ;-)

xo,

T

What I'm listening to: Adore You by Miley Cyrus

Photos taken by Taylor with an Olympus PEN camera