Very Chocolatey Banana Muffins; Meatless Monday.

The holy month of Ramadan is going on for all Muslims worldwide. During "Iftar", when it is time for them to break their fast, they usually have some family or friends around and it is a small celebration of kinds each day. This recipe comes in handy for Iftar as there is not much to be done in the actual process of prepping and cooking.

Everyone in my home and at work love my banana bread.I make the eggless oatmeal flaxmeal banana raisin bread and the gluten free banana walnut cranberry bread, both of which are much liked by everyone.But there is one little problem. My kids do not like it with nuts!!! So I make them as muffins for them. My daughter will gladly eat them for lunch and it makes for a perfect "grab and go" breakfast for me. However, neither me nor my kids eat big portions. I therefore do not like humongous muffins. I like my muffins the size of a regular cupcake. My kids like them even smaller. So, I make mini-muffins for them and they are happy little campers!! I like to add the chocolate chips into these muggins as they look pretty and enticing . Then again who doesn't like chocolate?? Recently a friend of mine had an informal birthday party for one of her daughters. I had made these mini-muffins then. They were gone before we knew it. So here is an easy recipe that can be had for breakfast, snack or as dessert!

Servings: makes around 2 dozen mini-muffins and one dozen muffins.

Ingredients :

 Whole wheat flour: 2 cups + 1 tbsp ( for Gluten-free,use oat flour)
 Baking soda: 1 tsp
 Salt:1/4 tsp
 Ground cinnamon: ½ tsp
 Ground nutmeg: ¼ tsp
 Vanilla extract:1 tsp
 Butter:1/2 cup
 Brown sugar:3/4 cup
 Eggs: 3 beaten ( For eggless version, use 3 tbsp flaxmeal mixed in 9 tbsp water).
 Overripe bananas: 2 cups(3-4 bananas),mashed
 Dark Chocolate chips  :1/2 cup +1/2 cup,chopped.

Method:

Preheat oven to 350 F degrees. Line the muffin and mini-muffin pans with cupcake liners and keep ready.

Mix 1/2 cup chocolate chips with 1 tbsp flour and keep aside.

Beat together the butter, sugar, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg  in a medium bowl until smooth. Add the banana, and eggs, beating until smooth.
 Add the flour stirring until smooth. Mix in 1/2 cup chocolate chips.Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin pan until each liner is 3/4 full. Drop 3-4 chocolate chip on top of each muffin 2-3 on each mini-muffin.

Place the pan on the middle rack of the  oven and bake for 15 mins for the muffin pan and 6-8 mins for the mini-muffin pan. Do check if done by inserting a toothpick into the center of the muffin. It should come out clean.

Remove the pan from the oven and allow it to cool for 10 minutes before removing the muffins out of the pan onto a rack to cool completely.

Serve warm or at room temperature.

Enjoy with a nice cup of coffee or tea.

Cooking made easy:

Cupcake  liners are easy to use in muffin pans as it makes cleaning the pans a breeze. Also packing, serving and eating the muffin when a liner is used is easier and more hygienic. Iy looks pretty too..However, if you run out of liners, you can grease the muffin pan and make pour the batter directly into the pan .

Tip for healthy living:

Using whole wheat flour in cakes and muffins makes desserts a tiny bit more healthier as whole wheat flour has more nutrients and is less processed than all purpose flour or maida.

Food for thought:

To read without reflecting is like eating without digesting. Edmund Burke