Banana-rama Muffins!

I woke up this morning craving banana bread. Every time I make it, though, I end up throwing some out. Why? Because one person should not consume an entire loaf of banana bread in three days. It's just not healthy.

So I made muffins. They keep longer, they freeze well, and I can share them more easily. No wasting food in this kitchen!

I adapted this recipe from one I found on allrecipes.com (I am forever referencing that site for starter recipes). My additions include semi-sweet chocolate chips (Valhrona, if possible), an extra banana, and honey subbing in for some of the sugar. Enjoy!

Banana-rama Muffins
Be sure to line your muffin tins with paper liners. Foil liners create too much heat and cook the muffin bases too quickly. Also, this recipe must be tweaked for use in mini-muffin tins--add more moisture to the batter with a few tablespoons of melted butter or some applesauce. Makes 16-18 muffins.

for muffins:
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup + 1 tbs. vegetable oil
1 egg
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 ripe bananas, mashed
1/4 cup chopped walnuts
1/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

for topping:
2 tbs. chopped walnuts
3 tbs. rolled oats
3 tbs. dark brown sugar

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Line muffin tin with paper liners.
2. In a large mixing bowl, beat together sugar, honey, oil, and egg. Mix on medium-high for one minute, or until mixture is pale yellow.
3. Sift together flour, baking soda, and salt.
4. Add bananas to egg mixture, mixing thoroughly, before adding flour mixture into wet ingredients.
5. Gently stir in walnuts and chocolate chips.
6. Spoon into prepared muffin tin, filling each liner 3/4 full.
7. In food processor (I use the mini one), combine the topping ingredients, pulsing until the mixture resembles very coarse sand. Sprinkle mixture on tops of unbaked muffins.
8. Bake muffins for 25-35 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.