Banana Espresso Chocolate Chip Muffins

We had a gathering at my place and one of the guests brought a bunch of ripe bananas for potluck. So the bananas were not exactly that popular, so it was left almost intact by the time everyone left. Knowing my mom's kan chiong spider cum must-not-let-food-go-to-waste virtue, she's probably going to gobble up the whole bunch before everything turns black and she's going to have constipation heehee. To fulfill my role of being a filial daughter teeheehee, I used them instead hurhur. I just got this book as a birthday gift and had bookmarked quite a bit of recipes to try, so here we go!

Baked is a bakery in New York, famous for its fudgy brownies. I once saw their salted caramel brownie on Food Network Channel, damn I wish I was in USA right now! And...well you know baking young men are pretty hot you know! *coughMattLewiscough* I must say these guys at Baked love salt too. I think it's a guys thing to like savory foods. The recipe calls for slightly more salt than other muffin recipes do, so you can taste a slight note of salt here and there. But salt in dessert is in 'fashion' now, think salted caramel, sea salt in ice cream, and sprinkling fleur de sel over cupcakes. Can't wait to try out more interesting recipes from this book.

I'm absolutely thrilled when I pulled the muffins out from the oven. Heavenly banana chocolatey aroma filled the kitchen. Even my dog came to take a whiff of it. Flavorful moist (extremely!) banana muffins with gooey melted chocolate chips, good for sweet treats breakfast or afternoon tea break. The espresso added a pleasant touch of coffee which separates itself from other flat-note muffins. Unlike the usual muffins which taste best upon cooling from the oven, these actually become even more flavorful the next day, so you can prepare them in advance.
Banana Espresso Chocolate Chip Muffins (adapted from Matt Lewis & Renato Poliafito's Baked: New Frontiers in Baking)

Makes 12 muffins

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups mashed, very ripe bananas (about 4) (I mashed them just before I'm abt to use them because bananas brown quickly)
100g sugar
54g light brown sugar
113g unsalted butter, melted
60ml whole milk
1 large egg
210g all-purpose flour
1 tsp instant espresso powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 tsp salt
170g semisweet chocolate chips

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 175°C
2. Spray a 12-cup muffin pan with nonstick cooking spray
3. In a medium bowl, stir together the bananas, sugars, butter, milk, and egg
4. In another medium bowl, whisk together the flour, instant espresso powder, baking soda and salt
5. Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients
6. Pour the wet ingredients into the well and stir just until combined. Fold in the chocolate chips.
7. Fill each cup about 3/4 full. Bake in the center of the oven for 20-25 mins, until a toothpick inserted in the center of the muffin comes out clean (Mine took 27mins)
8. Move the muffin pan to a cooling rack, and let cool for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, remove the muffins from the pan and let them finish cooling on the cooling rack. Muffins can be stored in an airtight container for up to 2 days.