I turn to these muffins whenever I need muffins fast, without making any special trips to the store.  These tender muffins are bursting with yogurt, bananas, and chocolate chips.  And as an added bonus, they couldn’t be easier to make.  I think you’re going to love them!

Ripe Bananas

Do you have some ugly bananas on the counter that look like they have passed their prime?  They are perfect for these muffins!

Mash a few of the bananas with a fork until they make a nice paste.  The bananas will add sweetness, moisture, and flavor to these muffins.

The Batter

To make the muffin batter, start by mixing butter and sugar together until well combined.

Make sure there are no clumps of butter remaining.

To this mixture, add the bananas, yogurt, egg, and vanilla.

Let’s talk about the yogurt for a minute….the bananas will add lots of sweetness to and moisture to the cookies, so lowfat, plain yogurt is the way to go.

Mix until well combined.  The mixture will look very thin and separated, but that’s totally normal here.   To the banana mixture, add the dry ingredients – including 2 tablespoons of unsweeted cocoa powder for an extra bit of chocolate flavor (and to hide the bananas if you have one of those kids – haha!).

Mix just until combined and then fold in some chocolate chips.  I used mini chocolate chips in this recips, but regular sized work great too!

Line a muffin pan with liners and and fill 3/4 full with batter.

If you’re feeling fancy, you can sprinkle a few more mini chocolate chips and some turbinado sugar  on the top of the batter.  But again, totally optional.  I don’t want you to have to make any special trips to the store for these!

Here is a pan with a mixture of both types of muffins so you can see it’s great either way.

Turbinado Sugar

Sprinkling turbinado sugar on top of your muffins will give the tops a little extra crunch.  Sometimes I like to sprinkle it on the top of muffins and pies to make them extra special.  Usually I forget to though – ha!

Can you see the coarse pieces of sugar on top of this muffin batter? That’s the turbinado sugar.

But no matter what you sprinkle on top, these muffins will be out-of-this-world moist and tender!

You’re going to love these!  I’ve made them more times than I can count on a Sunday night when I realize I have nothing for my breakfast or school lunches in the morning.  It saves me every time.  Enjoy!!

Chocolate Banana Bread

1/2 cup salted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large and very ripe bananas, mashed with a fork
1/2 cup plain yogurt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup mini (or regular) chocolate chips
Turbinado sugar, for sprinkling (optional)

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 F. Line a muffin pan with 12 liners.

Cream butter and sugar together on medium-high speed until light and fluffy. Beat in egg, bananas, yogurt, and vanilla until well combined. The mixture will look very thin and a bit separated – that’s totally normal. Add the baking soda, salt, cocoa powder, and flour. Mix just until combined and no lumps of flour remain. Add chocolate chips and stir until just combined.

Fill each muffin tin 3/4 of the way full with batter. Top muffin batter with a few extra chocolate chips and a sprinkle of turbinado sugar, if desired. Bake for 18-20 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the middle of the muffin comes out with no batter attached (but there will probably be some melted chocolate from the chocolate chips!). Let muffins cool 5 minutes in the pan before removing from the pan. Serve right away or store covered at room temperature for up to 2 days. Enjoy!