Modern Baker Challenge: Cocoa Banana Muffins

I'm enjoying my self-imposed flexibility with the Modern Baker Challenge: baking the breads from The Modern Baker that seem interesting when they fit my schedule (or fit the ingredients in my house) rather than sticking to a strict schedule or order.

Up especially early this morning, with three brown-spotted bananas on the counter, I decided to make cocoa banana muffins, which came highly recommended from Andrea over at Family & Food (the official Modern Bakers poster for this recipe).

This was a very easy recipe; the only time-consuming step was the fact that it required three separate mixing bowls (only a problem because I had to wash the dishes before leaving for work!). Into one went sifted cocoa, flour, baking soda, and salt. In another, I mashed up the bananas and mixed them with sour cream. Meanwhile, my stand mixer took care of the softened butter, two types of sugar, and eggs. Then I combined it all and put it into muffin tins. Just as with the blueberry crumb muffins, my batter made many more muffins than the twelve that Nick Malgieri said it would: I ended up with twenty-four mini-muffins and ten regular-sized muffins.

The kids loved these and kept asking for more. The hubby said, "They're just like chocolate-covered bananas, only you don't get to that annoying stage where the chocolate is all gone and there's only banana left." We both brought muffins to work, where most people seemed to like them, although a few were a little weirded out by the banana flavor in chocolate muffins. Will I make them again? I'm not sure . . . because the kiddos like to eat muffins for breakfast, I'd rather have fruit or veggie muffins instead of chocolate ones. But these were a fun treat today!