These Muffins are absolutely the best I’ve ever had!!!  They are super duper easy to make but so moist and springy! FYI though, the chocolate chips make them disappear quicker! Ditch a 1/4 cup of the sugar & the chocolate chips, if you want a healthier version. They have a lot of memories for me (which you can read the backstory below the recipe if you’d like), but then again, doesn’t all food?

RECIPE: Best Chocolate Chip Banana Muffin Recipe
FROM: Joanie Smith, but adapted for chocolate lovers by me.
MAKES: about 16 muffins

 Mix These:
1 1/4 cup All Purpose or Plain Flour
1 cup Sugar
1/2 t. Salt
1 t. Baking Soda

Creme These:
1/2 cup unsalted butter
3 overly ripe bananas, mashed (where there is more brown than yellow)
2 eggs

Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 350 F/180 C. Lower the temperature 25 F/10 C if you have a fan forced oven.
2. Mix the dry ingredients together.
3. Creme the wet ingredients.
4. Combine the 2 mixtures. Add in chocolate chips/nuts to your preference.
5. Butter & flour your muffin tins or your 8×8 inch pan.
6. Fill the muffin tins about 3/4 full.
7. Put in the middle of the oven for 25 mins or until the tops are dry & spring back after you gently push on them.
8. Let cool for 2-3 minutes. If you used a muffin tin, buttered and floured without the paper liners, take the muffins out of the tin.

TIPS:
1. Sometimes if the batter was sitting in the muffin tin too long before baking, the buttered & floured surface isn’t as effective when trying to get them out. Just be patient, and if worse comes to worse, it’s just another you get to eat!!! 😀

1. Bag up the extras & stick them in the freezer for up to 3 months (I made a double batch and it yielded 34 muffins!!).

BACK STORY: I was born in Medford (Wisconsin) nearly 30 years ago now. My Dad was the main breadwinner in the family, a common situation, where my Mom raised us kids. We moved around a little but once I got in school in Valparaiso (Indiana) we only moved 1 more time. Now in my late twenties, living in a new city & new country (Golden Bay, Western Australia), I find myself understanding more of my Mother’s emotions when we moved to Wauseon (Ohio) all those years ago. She had left; a career, community, family, and city she loved to move to a town so small, it was crossing its fingers for a few more residents, so it could register to be a “city”. When my Dad built our house, and we finally moved in, I’ll never forget the first few debacles. Like, running out of gas in the left-hand turning lane, because there were only a few gas stations, and someone decided it was best that they were within a few hundred yards/meters of each other. Or that when you can hear the headlining act at the county fairgrounds through your closed windows, you may have moved to close.

Luckily somewhere along the way, my strong-willed modern Mother, found a lovely needed friend. She was the mother of my childhood best friend (Laura), who lived 3 houses down. It wasn’t until I wrote this that I wonder if Laura & I (who are polar opposites) became best friends because we were the only girls on the block our age, or if we became friends because our mothers needed to be friends. Either way, what began out of necessity, and has evolved over the years, has lasted to this day.

As mother/daughters, we enjoyed lots of excursions together; Girl Scout Weekend trips @ Camp Libby, movies, shopping, restaurants, and orchards (to name a few). Joanie always kept her house super tidy & clean and was always very welcoming when I came over. Summers were my favorite because she was always baking with stuff from her garden. When she wasn’t making zucchini Bread, she was making Banana Bread. I’m pretty sure my Mom got sick of me running off whenever my friend called to tell me her mom made banana bread – hence why my Mom got the recipe.

L: The BEST Banana Muffins! M: Laura & Joanie on Laura’s Wedding Day! R: My Mom’s recipe book, a little charred after our house fire, but still readable!

THESE MUFFINS are absolutely MY FAVORITE!!! They are super gooey moist, and the chocolate makes them more of a snack. I dare you to only eat one!! My mom was kind enough to make them into bite-sized muffins with chocolate chips, and I still make them today. The coolest part to me is that, if you know me or have read my blog post about our house fire, this recipe book survived.

Currently, Joanie (my friend’s mom) isn’t doing very well health wise. She has been battling a very aggressive form of intestinal cancer for the past several years. It’s a subject of pain that my friend & I don’t really bring up very often, so I never really know how she is doing, or what I should say. But it made me realize that Joanie’s AMAZING Banana Bread Recipe is one tiny part of her legacy in this world. It literally takes me back to her kitchen that overlooked the backyard, swing set, and treeline. I obviously treasure this recipe, and hope that when you make them it brings you a little happiness too!