Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

See that cute little bird in the picture? A family of chickadees lives in an evergreen tree by my house. All puffed up in the winter snow, I can hear their bright chirps outside my window, cozy in their sheltered tree home. We recently had a good old-fashioned snow storm and I felt just like those happy little chickadees, ensconced in my warm home on a perfectly snowy day. I cranked up the oven and baked up homemade bread (three loaves: one to eat, one to store, and one to give away), a big batch of Sunbutter cookies, and these gorgeous little banana chocolate chip muffins.

I'm a cookbook-aholic. I read them like novels, take them to bed to read, mark pages, ogle pictures, write out out lists of ingredients so I can try out yet another dish, another flavor, another experience. Out of all the cookbooks I've browsed over the years, the Clinton St. Baking Cookbook has to be one of the best breakfast books in the bunch. Just check out those pancakes on the cover. *drool*

These are the Clinton St. Bakery banana chocolate chip muffins. The original recipe recommends chunks of Valrhona chocolate, of course, being a NYC bakery, but I used Hershey's chocolate chips instead and the world did not stop spinning. They are best the day they are made, warm out of the oven - I found they dried out a bit when I had one for breakfast the next day. But oh, that first bite of banana chocolate chip muffin on a cold snowy Sunday morning. Pure breakfast bliss with a mug of milky black tea for this chickadee.

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins
Makes 10 standard-sized muffins

Crumb Mix
1/4 c. all-purpose flour
1/4 c. sugar
Dash of cinnamon
2 Tbls. butter

Muffins
4 Tbls. (1/2 stick) softened butter
1/2 c. sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 large egg
1 c. all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/2 c. sour cream
3//4 c. semisweet chocolate chips
2 ripe to overripe medium-sized bananas, cut into 1" chunks

First, make the crumb mix by mixing the dry ingredients with the butter by hand until the mixture is pea-sized. Set aside.

Grease muffin tins or line with paper muffin cups. In an electric mixer, cream together butter, sugar and vanilla. Add egg and blend until combined.

Sift remaining dry ingredients together in a bowl.  Add half the sour cream to the butter mixture, then half the dry ingredients, mixing and repeating with remaining sour cream and then remaining dry ingredients until batter is combined.  Be sure to end with dry ingredients.  Do not overmix.

Fold in chocolate and banana. Spoon batter into muffin tins. Top each muffin with 1 Tbls. of the crumb mix. Bake for 25-33 mins or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of a muffin comes out clean. If not using paper liners, cool for 10 minutes before removing from tin.