Banana Breakfast Muffins... with Chocolate

I ended up originally making this recipe because I was itching to make something with bananas. I toss leftover bananas in the freezer when they are about a week old and are turning brown. This doesn't happen too often in my house, but often enough that I had about eight in the freezer and wanted to do something to use at least some of them up. I also knew that this week was going to be really busy around here. The boys do most of their studying from home and listen to their lectures online (isn't that crazy?!) so they are home a lot  95% of the time. However, they have to be at school every morning this week. Since we share a car, I also have to get up and chauffeur them around so that I can drive to all my other activities I want to do that day (mainly going to barre fitness classes and the dog park... I realize how stay-at-home-mom-esque my life is right now, so you don't have to mention it). 

Anyways, I thought these muffins would be perfect for busy mornings on the go. They are chalk full of bananas and also have a little secret ingredient: coffee! That is why I called them "breakfast muffins" :) I look for any excuse to put more coffee in my day, which is probably not the best thing in the world for me, but it's my biggest vice. They also have not one, but two kinds of chocolate. Because why not? 

Banana Breakfast Muffins... with Chocolate

makes 18 muffins 

Ingredients

2 1/3 cups whole wheat flour (to cancel out the chocolate... ha!)

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt 

3/4 cup buttermilk 

3/4 cup canola oil

2 mashed bananas

2 diced bananas

1/4 cup black coffee 

1 egg

3 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup maple syrup

1/4 cup granulated sugar

3.5oz bar of bittersweet chocolate, broken into pieces

1/2 cup of semisweet chocolate chunks 

turbinado sugar for dusting 

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line one entire and half of a second muffin tin with liners.

2. Combine the first four dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl (flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt). Whisk and set aside.

3. In a second, medium sized bowl, mix together the oil, buttermilk, mashed bananas, coffee, vanilla, maple syrup, sugar, and egg until fully combined. 

4. Pour the wet ingredients over the dry and stir until almost mixed (leave some dry streaks). 

5. Add the diced banana and all the chocolate. Stir until uniform, but not over mixed. Lumps are a good thing! 

6. Divide the batter between the muffin cups, filling about 2/3 full. Sprinkle each muffin with turbinado sugar. 

7. Bake until the edges are golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean: about 18 minutes.