I have a love-hate relationship with muffins.
Growing up, I remember many Saturday mornings opening the Martha White brand of pre-made “wild” blueberry muffin mix, adding an egg and maybe some water or milk, mixing it all together and scooping it into a paper-lined muffin tin. We’d wait for it to bake, knowing full well that they would come out uniform and perfect every time, then slab some butter on one and go about the day.
Although the memory of making muffins from a box is salient, the taste was not. I grew up thinking muffins were just always overly sweet or filled with things that made me feel gross and sluggish.
It wasn’t until I started baking for H&F Bread Co. in 2010 and tasted their Morning Glory muffin that I realized muffins could be different. They didn’t have to be laden with sugar or from a box or topped with overly sweet streusel to be tasty. They could be filled with fruit or even veggies. They could use less sugar. They could be interesting!
This recipe starts with a base mixture you can leave in an airtight container indefinitely. Simply add the wet ingredients when you’re ready to bake.
Make sure to use very ripe bananas, which break down easily and mix in better than yellow bananas in their prime.
Finally, full-fat buttermilk is crucial to getting that nice, soft muffin crumb. If you don’t have buttermilk, heavy cream will also work but will create a denser crumb.
I love these muffins because the add-ins to the wet mixture can be switched. Once you get the hang of the recipe, swap the banana and chocolate with stewed apples and spiced pecans or try zucchini and toasted walnut.
Banana Chocolate Chunk Muffins
Sarah Dodge is an Atlanta-based bread baker, pastry chef and baking instructor. She is the owner of Bread is Good, which offers bread subscriptions to the general public and wholesale baked goods to local markets and restaurants.
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