I’m not ashamed to say that I love me some muffin top. In fact, one could go so far as to say that my muffin tops have saved me from my bad cooking/baking stint–muffin tops to the rescue! Well, in all fairness, the muffin bottoms equally contributed to this victory, but muffin tops are so much more fun to say. I had a surplus of overripe bananas chilling at the homestead, and decided to whip up some banana muffins for a nice breakfast this weekend. I got roped into reading an ultimate banana bread blog round-up, and came across a few with coconut in them. I love me some coconut almost as much as my muffin tops, and I wanted to find a recipe that allowed you to really taste it, along with the banana. So I started with this recipe from Epicurious. I had some coconut milk and shredded coconut in the cupboard, so I added a bit of those as well, along with chocolate chips and voila! The world’s most awesome muffin top.
Instead of just mashing the naners, I mashed 3 and chopped one in hopes of having nice bits of banana in the muffin. This didn’t really work…I got the chunks, but not an intense banana flavor in the actual muffin–next time, I will mash all of them, but leave it a chunky mash, so you get bits, but so the banana flavor permeates the bread, because let’s be honest. Even though we invited Coconut and Chocolate to the party, the muffin is still’s Banana’s house. You don’t want to f with Banana. He has been known to cut people.
*************************************************************** Leena’s Kick-Ass Coconut Chocolate Banana Muffins ? 3 to 4 ripe bananas ? 1/4 cup melted butter ? 1 cup sugar ? 1 1/2 cups flour ? 1/4 teaspoon salt ? 1 egg, beaten ? 1 teaspoon baking soda ? 1/4 – 1/2 cup of Chocolate chips ? 3/4 cup Coconut milk ? Shredded coconut, either toasted or untoasted, to finish Preparation Preheat oven to 350?F. Mash 3 bananas in a bowl. Chop the final banana into chunks. Add all the remaining ingredients and mix with a spoon, just until batter comes together, but not until smooth (smooth batter=tough bread!). I like to stir in a bit of coconut at this point, a few tablespoons. Portion out batter into cupcake tins and finish with a sprinkle of toasted or untoasted coconut. Bake @ 350 F for 25-30 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean when stuck in a muffin. Cool and serve! ~LTG!
