No-Sugar-Added Chocolate Chip Banana Nut Muffins

 

A few nights ago I came home from a really long day at work but still wanted to cook or bake. I made onion smothered chicken and a batch of my ever favorite chocolate chip banana nut muffins. The chicken was fantastic. The muffins were a bit of a crapshoot.

This is a testament to how tired I was--I've made these muffins hundreds of times, and I felt like I was forgetting something. I remembered two minutes after I put them in the oven: I had completely left out sugar! There wasn't much I could do at that point so I just let them bake and figured a little experiment couldn't turn out too terribly...right?

They were in fact a huge success. They came out much lighter and fluffier than my usual muffins (fine, a little mutant looking too), and the chocolate chips and banana itself added just the right amount of sweetness; honestly, if I thought of them as mini banana bread rolls (or almost popovers?), I couldn't find anything wrong with them. In fact, AK liked them better than my original recipe because they are so light and airy.

I guess sometimes mistakes/accidents can reveal great things (it worked for potato chips)...And this really makes me want to experiment with gluten free bread :)

No-Sugar-Added Chocolate Chip Banana Nut Muffins

Ingredients:

4 bananas, pureed
2 eggs, beaten
1 tsp vanilla
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 + 1/4 cup flour (I used gluten free)
1/4 cup chocolate chips
1/4 cup chopped walnuts

Directions:

1. Combine bananas, eggs, vanilla, and spices.
2. Sift together BP, BS and 1 cup of flour. Stir into wet mixture. Add additional flour as needed (depends on how big your bananas were; you want the batter to be relatively thick). Fold in walnuts and chocolate chips.
3. Divide evenly into a 12-muffin tin. Bake at 350 degrees 15-20 minutes until edges are browned and tops are firm and golden.

The cost: $4.00, give or take.