Best Muffin Ever I Tell No Lies

Where does this fancy new schedule allow time for book reviews? It definitely needs work. But not today, because today the world needs to know about The Best Muffins Ever, aka a significant part of my childhood, aka the stickiest page in the recipe book.

Have you ever bought bananas because you were going to be a super healthy person (except that bananas are just straight sugar and you can find potassium elsewhere probably, but that is a talk for another day), but lo and behold the next week they are brown and absolutely gross?

This recipe is your banana saver.

It is not your healthy-self saver - unless you find lots of people to help you eat these puppies, which won't actually be that hard. So bake away, friends.

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

1. Preheat yo' oven! 350 degrees.

2. Puree two extra-ripe bananas in a blender or in a bowl using a hand-blender.

3. In a medium bowl, beat:

• bananas
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup melted butter
• 1 tsp vanilla

4. In large bowl, combine:

• 2 1/4 cups flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup chocolate chips

5. Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients, pour in the banana mixture, and mix until just blended. Spoon into well-greased or paper'ed muffin cups - makes 12. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes.

You can also make jumbo muffins or mini muffins if you adjust the baking time (experiment with that; don't burn your house down), and the recipe is easily doubled or 1.5x depending on how many bananas you have.

Notes/Confessions: 

1. The recipe also calls for 1/2 cup chopped walnuts. (Me, quietly: WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT?) However, if this addition would make it your favorite muffin, I don't want to hold you back from that. Do yo' thing.

2. Apparently some people are allergic to cinnamon, among other things. Check with your people before you bake them things. The muffins are still grand without cinnamon. You're on your own without bananas, though, sorry.

3. Credit where credit is due: This recipe comes to you from The Muffin Cookbook: Muffins for All Occasions, by Beekman House, 1990. As far as I know, it is the only worthwhile muffin in the book, but I also haven't tried much else because these are too darn good.