Banana Muffins With Walnuts And Chocolate Chips

Why is it that I always buy bananas for them to just get brown and gross so quickly. I am someone who likes a banana the moment it turns yellow. Once it’s been yellow too long, I can’t eat it. It goes straight into banana bread or I usually toss them in the freezer and use them in smoothies. However, my bag of frozen bananas is full to the brim! Clearly, I have a banana-buying problem. So what does one do with too many bananas? You make banana muffins. Or banana bread, or even, banana chocolate chip bread! Remember this? So good!

I don’t know why I ever bother to make the full loaf of banana bread though. I end up eating half of it in one day. It’s dangerous! So this time around I thought I’d switch things up and try out some banana muffins. Still just as easy to make and honestly, not that bad for you! I added into my banana muffins some chopped walnuts and chocolate chips. You can also totally add in pecans too if you like. Personally, I’m not huge on nuts in my food, but there’s something about the saltiness of the walnuts that I actually kind of like.

Another thing that I love, is that muffins are just easier to share. After my photographer Hannah shot these, I sent her home with half of these moist and flavorful banana muffins. Easy to take on the road for the office, or a snack later in the day. Or just enjoy at 3 pm with a cup of coffee which is what I’ve been doing!

Banana Muffins With Walnuts And Chocolate Chips

You can really take just about any standard banana bread recipe and pour it into muffin tins to make banana muffins. Just bake them at 350 for around 20 minutes instead of the usual hour. But I decided to try a new recipe from Tyler Florence (my favorite) and I love how they turned out. I added a few spices to the mix so it’s slightly different. Here’s how to make it.

Instructions

Step One

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit (if you’re NOT using nonstick pans, preheat to 375) and grease your muffin tins. OR you can always line them with cupcake liners too.

Step Two

In a bowl combine the flour, baking soda, spices and salt then set aside.

Step Three

Mash 2 of the bananas with a fork in a small bowl so they still have a bit of texture. Set these aside as you won’t need them until Step Five.

Next, take the other two bananas and whip them with the sugar for 3 minutes. This is the step that is TOTALLY different than what I typically do. But Tyler says so, so we did it.

Step Four

Add the melted butter, eggs, and vanilla to the whipped banana and sugar mixture and beat well, scraping down the sides of the bowl once or twice.

Step Five

Mix in the dry ingredients just until incorporated. Fold in the nuts, chocolate chips and mashed ripe bananas with a rubber spatula. Spoon the batter into the muffin tins to fill them about halfway. I topped some of mine with whole walnuts so you know what’s inside. If you like more nuts, you can do this, if you don’t, skip this step!

Step Six

Add muffin tins to your oven and bake for 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool for a few minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to fully cool. Store these in an airtight container at room temperature for up to a week.

Nutritional Information

Since I’ve been doing TRIM Bootcamp and keeping track of all my meals, I decided to figure out the nutrition content on these. They’re actually not THAT bad and make for a great sweet treat. They’d be even better with wheat flour for the higher fiber content helping to reduce the net carbs on these.

At roughly 125 calories per serving, these banana muffins have 16g of carbs, 1 gram of fiber and 6 grams of fat. They also have 1.5 g of protein.