Banana Muffins

We've tried lots of banana recipes, but keep coming back to our updated version of my grandma's banana cake. The secret to great banana flavor is REALLY ripe bananas. Black is good. Black and shriveled, almost fermented or frozen then thawed is even better. 

This muffin version includes mini chocolate chips and chopped pecans, but you can add or subtract whatever you have on hand that sounds good to you. The best part is that it can be made in your mixer bowl. No need to mash the fruit separately or sift the dry ingredients in another bowl. It's a dump and sprinkle and mix kind of recipe. Our favorite!

Recipe will yield 12 extra large muffins or about 18 standard muffins. They're best warm from the oven, but will keep, covered, at room temperature for about 3 days. You can also freeze them for about a month.

INGREDIENTS

• 3 VERY ripe bananas 
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 6 Tablespoons neutral oil (we use canola)
• 2-1/3 cups all purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon fine salt
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/3 cup sour cream, buttermilk or milk with 1 teaspoon of white vinegar (rest in measuring cup 5 minutes)

DIRECTIONS

1. Adjust oven shelves to bake on middle shelf. Heat oven to 350°F (180C). Add paper liners to muffin tins. Spray with cooking spray. If making soured milk, add 1 teaspoon white vinegar to 1/3 cup milk and set aside.
2. In your stand mixer, fitted with SideSwipe, add your bananas and mix on low to medium speed until mashed and fairly smooth
3. Add sugar and eggs. Mix until smooth.
4. Add oil and mix on low to medium speed until well combined. 
5. Sprinkle flour across the top of the mixture, then sprinkle the salt, baking soda, and baking powder across the flour.
6. Mix on your mixer's lowest speed just until it begins to come together. Then, with the mixer on low, drizzle in the milk until the batter comes together and looks consistent (no milk parts visible). It will look fairly runny.
7. Add chips and/or nuts and mix on low until distributed through batter (just a couple of seconds will do it).
8. Portion into muffin liners and bake for 16-18 minutes, until the edges are a golden brown and the top stops looking wet and a light finger tap bounces back. You can also use a toothpick to test, but don't wait until it's completely dry or it will be overbaked. Some moist crumbs should be present.
9. Cool for a couple minutes in the pan, then remove muffins to cool completely on a wire rack.