Banana Whole Wheat with Chocolate Chips Muffins

Delicious!  That's what teen has already declared on these muffins baked for a special guy's 5th birthday breakfast in the morning.  And healthy to boot!

Teen recently baked whole wheat french bread for a 4-H nutrition fair last weekend.  So instead of grabbing the regular all-purpose flour, I goggled my favorite site, Allrecipes, for a whole wheat banana muffin recipe.  And then modified it a bit.  I stole a pinch just to insure "quality control"!  YUM is right!

Banana Whole Wheat with Chocolate Chips Muffins (aka Monkey Muffins)

 (for original recipe click HERE)

1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup mashed bananas (for me that was grabbing 4 out of the freezer and defrosting in microwave)

1 cup applesauce

3/4 cup Splenda (or sugar or guava)

3/4 cup mini chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Spray muffin tins with cooking spray.

Mix flour, baking soda, and salt together.  Blend mashed bananas, applesauce and Splenda.  Blend the flour mixture and banana mixture together.  Mix till blended.  Fold in chocolate chips.

Fill muffin tins 3/4 full - this made 18 muffins for me.  Bake 20-25 minutes in oven.  Enjoy!

 

Mini Banana Muffins with Crumb topping

These were the perfect little muffins to bake for big and little friends that visited one morning!  I often have ripe bananas frozen.  When a banana gets too ripe, I toss the whole banana, peel and all in the freezer.  When I need to bake muffins or bread, I just lay the right amount of bananas (normally 3 for bread/muffins) on a plate and microwave for about 2 minutes.  The liquid from the frozen bananas is not an issue when baking.

Normally, my go to banana recipe calls for chocolate chips. But, I was out of chocolate chips!  So thanks to the power of the internet and the fabulous website called Allrecipes, I found another winner!

I baked the muffins in a mini muffin pan only because I was having guests the next day.  It is easier for a mom - and toddlers - to pop a tiny muffin in the mouth versus a regular size one.  And moms have to know how to eat fast!

Banana Crumb Muffins

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3 bananas, mashed
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 1/3 cup butter, melted
• 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon butter

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Lightly grease 10 muffin cups, or line with muffin papers.
2. In a large bowl, mix together 1 1/2 cups flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. In another bowl, beat together bananas, sugar, egg and melted butter. Stir the banana mixture into the flour mixture just until moistened. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups.
3. In a small bowl, mix together brown sugar, 2 tablespoons flour and cinnamon. Cut in 1 tablespoon butter until mixture resembles coarse cornmeal. Sprinkle topping over muffins.
4. Bake in preheated oven for 18 to 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of a muffin comes out clean.