What is brown butter?

Brown butter is melted butter that has been taken just past the point of melted to “brown it”. When you melt butter, you tend to get a separation of the milk solids (the white specks) and the yellow liquid, the butterfat. When you brown the butter, you toast the milk solids so they turn a golden brown which gives the whole thing a nutty flavour. You also see this method in cooking, like in crispy brown butter gnocchi with sage.

How do you quickly ripen unripe bananas for this recipe?

Heat the oven to 150c fan/130c regular. Lay bananas on a tray in their skins, and place in the oven. Bake for Bake for 10–30 minutes, depending on how ripe the bananas are. Keep checking them until totally brown. Once done, remove from oven, cool slightly and then peel the bananas, mash them, and add to the recipe as stated. This mimics ripe bananas as best as possible, although a proper ripe banana is best.

Do these have to be muffins? Can this be made into Chocolate Chunk Banana Bread?

You could also bake this in a 9x5 inch loaf tin for around 1h15 minutes at 160c. Or an 8x8 square tin for around 35-40 minutes at 160c again. Make sure you check with a skewer, it should come out nearly clean with just a few moist crumbs.

What else can I add other than chocolate chunks?

I also love to mix in nuts instead of chocolate chunks (or alongside). Try with chopped almonds, pistachios, walnuts or peanuts. You could also use milk or white chocolate here instead of dark, if you prefer

Banana Chocolate Chunk Muffins

Name: Banana Chocolate Chunk Muffins
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: PT-483369H47M4S
Total time: 40 min
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: 380g VERY ripe and mashed banana (3-4 medium bananas); 115g unsalted butter,; 100g light brown sugar; 100g caster sugar; 2 large eggs; 1 tsp vanilla extract; 130g thick Greek yogurt; 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda; 180g plain flour; ½ tsp salt; 250g dark chocolate, roughly chopped into chunks

Banana Chocolate Chunk Muffins

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5 from 2 reviews

The most delicious and simple Banana Chocolate Chunk Muffins, with golden tops and soft, fudgy centres with pools of dark chocolate.

Author: Margie Nomura
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes + cooling time
Total Time: 40 minutes
Yield: Makes 12 muffins 1x
Category: Baking
Method: Oven
Cuisine: American
Diet: Vegetarian

Ingredients

Scale

380g VERY ripe and mashed banana (3-4 medium bananas)
115g unsalted butter,
100g light brown sugar
100g caster sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
130g thick Greek yogurt
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
180g plain flour
½ tsp salt
250g dark chocolate, roughly chopped into chunks

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Instructions

Preheat your oven to 190c and line a 12-hole muffin tray with liners/folded parchment paper.
Begin by browning your butter by melting the butter in a pan over medium heat. It will go from melted to then bubbling loudly before going quiet and foamy. Keep stirring until it turns a light amber colour overall but the flecks are dark dark brown, and you can smell chestnuts.
Once browned, pour into a bowl to cool down.
In a bowl, whisk together the melted brown butter and sugars for a minute until thick.
Add in your mashed bananas, eggs, yoghurt, and vanilla.
Once all of your wet ingredients are mixed together, gently stir in the flour, bicarb and salt. Then, fold in the chocolate chunks, reserving around 24 chunks (a handful!) to push on top of each muffin.
Divide the batter into 12 muffins. Into the top of each, press 2 chocolate chunks.
Bake for 20 minutes or until a skewer comes out with a few moist crumbs. Store at room temperature in an air-tight container.

Notes

Scroll up for a full step by step guide on how to make brown butter and the banana muffins too.

To store: Store in an airtight container at room temperature for 5 days. These will get better the next day. But still delicious as they are - especially for from the oven and melty. So good.

To heat: Serving at room temperature is delicious but I sometimes like to pop a muffin in the microwave for 20 second bursts to warm it through and melt the chocolate chunks.

To freeze: Cool the muffins completely, pop them in an airtight tupperware or container and freeze for around 2 months. Defrost them at room temp when ready to serve, for at least a few hours. I like to reheat them in the oven at 160c for 5-10 minutes before serving.

Yoghurt: If you don't have greek yoghurt, sour cream, creme fraiche or buttermilk will work too.

Frozen bananas: If you froze brown bananas when they went past the point of eating and want to use them now, just defrost them and continue with the recipe, adding in where instructed above. This goes for if you froze whole bananas (just remove the skins) or if you froze peeled chopped bananas.

Find it online: https://desertislanddishes.co/banana-chocolate-chunk-muffins/