Banana Espresso Chocolate Chip Muffins

I've been in a baking mood, so I got all the ingredients I needed to bake up a storm on Thursday. I have wanted to cook my way through Baked: New Frontiers in Baking for awhile now, and when I searched for it on Amazon, I had a happy surprise when I learned that there were indeed TWO Baked books. Of course, I couldn't decide between the two of them so I bought both. NOT A MISTAKE, my friends. Baked: Classic American Desserts Reinvented is stunning, if not just for the photography and styling of the book, but for the recipes too. The owners/bakers of Baked are two dudes, and the cookbook definitely has a very rustic masculine feel; that's really unusual in a cookbook, and I'm glad to think that I can see their personalities shine through via the recipes and the photography/staging.

The perfect bananas for any baking endeavor--black and almost stinky!

So, what did I bake first?  I've been using a Banana Espresso Muffin recipe of theirs for awhile now, and it's just delicious--there's no denying that!  I typically use my jumbo muffin pan to get those gorgeous bakery-style muffins that you just lose yourself in, but this time I tried them out in a regular muffin pan and it worked out just fine!  Cute and petite. I also use as many organic/local ingredients as I can when baking, so those are noted below with a * for organic, ** for local!

Banana Espresso Chocolate Chip Muffins
From Baked: New Frontiers in Baking

Yield: 12 muffins

1 1/2 cups mashed, very ripe bananas* (about 4 medium bananas)
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
1/4 cup whole milk* (you can use skim milk here without noting a difference in the end product)
1 large egg * **
1 1/2 cups unbleached all purpose flour
1 teaspoon instant espresso powder (I actually use a whole tablespoon)
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup (6 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips (I use Ghirardelli double chocolate giant chips)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray at 12 cup muffin pan with nonstick cooking spray. This is important; I forgot to do this and I lost 2 muffins to lack of release from the pan! Still tasty, just deformed upon removal.

In a medium bowl, stir together the bananas, sugars, butter, milk and egg.

In another medium bowl, whisk together the flour, instant espresso powder, baking soda, and salt. Pour the wet into the dry ingredients, and stir just until combined--no more! Fold in the chocolate chips.

Fill each cup about 3/4 full. I personally like to take 3 whole coffee beans and place them in a little flower pattern on top of the batter--just looks pretty and gives you an extra buzz when you eat them!

Bake in the center of the oven for 20-25 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean.

Move muffin pan to a cooling rack and let cool for 15 minutes. Remove muffins from the pan and let them finish cooling on the rack.

These go wonky fast, so eat them up within 2 days. Otherwise they get sticky.