my kitchen: easy banana bread muffins

Even though I love banana bread, I had never made it myself. I just relied on the good fortune of friends who knew how to make it and would share their baking results. So when I found some overripe bananas in my kitchen recently, I finally picked one recipe to give a try (and there are SO many banana bread recipes out there!) and it turned out really great!  I like this recipe because it's a one bowl recipe and there's no fuss of mixing dry and wet ingredients separately. I used a muffin tin instead of making a loaf and it comes out just about a dozen muffins unless you fill the cups even more so you get the overflowing muffin tops.

The second time I used this recipe, I used 3/4 cup cake flour and 3/4 cup bread flour and lowered the butter and sugar to 1/4 cup butter and 1/4 cup sugar. My bananas were also not as overripe and I didn't add the ingredients in the order of the recipe. It turned out less cupcake like and more muffin/bready if that makes sense. It was more brown and beige, not as golden yellow and pretty as the first time, and not as sweet overall. It was still good, but definitely tasted more healthy. That's why baking is so interesting-- can you get the same results all the time or will each time always be different?

Anyone have killer banana bread recipes to share?

EASY BANANA BREAD RECIPE
(adapted from Simply Recipes)

Ingredients (I starred the ingredients with a  * for the ones I added to or changed from the original recipe)

• 3 very ripe bananas, peeled
• 1/3 cup melted butter
• *1/2 cup sugar (I used half brown and half white. The original recipe uses 1 cup, but says you can use less)
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• *Pinch of salt (I only had salted butter on hand so I used that and omitted the extra pinch of salt)
• 1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour
• *1 Tablespoon cinnamon (I love the extra layer that cinnamon gives plus it smells so good, but you can add less if you don't want it to be as strong)
• *1/2 cup chocolate chips 

Method

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

In a mixing bowl, mash the ripe bananas with a fork until smooth. 

Mix the melted butter into the mashed bananas.

Stir in the baking soda and salt. Mix in the sugar, beaten egg, cinnamon and vanilla extract. 

Fold in the flour. Do not over mix, best to mix by hand once the egg is in.

Top with chocolate chips.

Pour the batter into your prepared muffin tin. Bake for 30 minutes (check at 20 minutes) at 350°F (175°C), or until a tester inserted into the center comes out clean and the top is a nice golden brown.

Remove from oven and cool. Or taste test one hot out of the oven is what I usually like to do!