#MuffinMonday ~ Banana Bread and Chocolate Muffins

#MuffinMonday is a group of muffin loving bakers who get together once a month to bake muffins. You can see all our of lovely muffins by following our Pinterest board.

Updated links for all of our past events and more information about Muffin Monday, can be found on our home page

If you love bananas and chocolate, I hope you will give these muffins a try! I have a couple other variations of chocolate banana recipes on the blog (Chocolate Chocolate Chip Banana Bread, Banana Chocolate Snack Cake, Banana Bread with Nutella Swirl) but these muffins were a new fun twist on a tasty combination of flavors. I love the way the muffins look with their two-tone colors.

It was interesting to me how the bottom layer seemed denser, and the chocolate layer a little lighter / fluffier. I used good quality Ghiradelli chocolate and that is always a good idea, and good way to start the day! I definitely enjoyed these and will keep them in mind when I have a freezer full of bananas that need to be used up.

Check out all these tasty muffins being shared today!

• Banana Bread and Chocolate Muffins from Making Miracles
• Chocolate Chip Blood Orange Muffins from Sew You Think You Can Cook
• Grilled Cherry Muffins from Farm Fresh Feasts
• Jamaican Me Hungry Muffins from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Margarita Sour Cream Muffins from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Pancake Muffins from Passion Kneaded
• Sweet Corn Muffins from Food Lust People Love

Banana Bread and Chocolate Muffins from Five Heart Home

Ingredients

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick)  butter, softened
2/3 cup sugar
1 egg
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 cup mashed banana (approximately 2 - 3 medium bananas)
1/2 cup sour cream
2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Prepare muffin pans by generously spraying 12 muffin cups with nonstick cooking spray.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt. In another bowl, use an electric mixer to beat the butter until smooth, and then beat in the sugar until light and fluffy. Blend in the egg, vanilla, mashed bananas, and sour cream until fully incorporated. Gently mix in the dry ingredients until just blended.
3. Scoop half of the batter into a second bowl. Stir the melted unsweetened chocolate into one of the bowls of batter until fully incorporated.
4. Distribute the plain banana batter into half of each muffin cup. Then evenly divide the chocolate batter onto the top half of each muffin cup.
5. Bake muffins for 20 - 23 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center just comes out clean. Cool muffins in the pans for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to finish cooling completely.