peanut butter banana chocolate-filled muffins.

This week has not been a really good week, which is putting it extremely lightly.

Times like this make me extremely grateful for my ability to bake- at least I can do something right. A quick search for reviews on the peanut butter banana bread recipe by Baked Elements revealed that the bread was best left overnight for the flavors to meld together before eating. I didn't do a taste test and just made the muffins, left them for a day, and ate them the next, following the advice of those who have already tried the recipe. So I can't tell you if there is a noticeable difference is flavour before and after waiting, but I don't think that eating the muffins hot out of the oven wouldn't do them a great injustice.

The flavour of the muffins a day after baking was a nice balance of peanut butter and banana, leaning slightly to the peanut buttery side. If I had eaten them on the day of baking itself, I bet the banana taste would be stronger. So I guess it's up to you! If you like a stronger taste of banana, eat them within a few hours and if you like a stronger taste of peanut butter, wait until the next day. Or, you could save some muffins for the day after and have some on the spot, the best of both worlds.

Because I left them for a day and their crusts became soft, I tried heating them up before eating to sort of crisp up the surface area again but after a while they weren't so crunchy anymore. I guess these aren't the crunchy top kinda muffins but it's totally okay because they're still so delish.

Peanut Butter Banana Chocolate-Filled Muffins
adapted from Baked Elements
makes 12

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup + 1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 rounded cup mashed bananas (about 3 bananas)
1/2 cup oil
2 large eggs
1/4 cup milk
1 cup peanut butter

chocolate chips, for filling the muffins

Preheat the oven to 350F. Line muffin tin with paper liners.

Whisk the flour, sugar, salt and baking soda together.

Whisk the bananas, oil, eggs, milk and peanut butter together. Fold in the dry ingredients. Fill each muffin cup halfway, drop some chocolate chips in the center of the batter, then top with more batter.

Bake for about 15 minutes or until an inserted skewer comes out almost clean.