Banana-Chocolate Chip Muffins

I seem to have a thing for bananas; this is the second baked good I’ve incorporated them into in two weeks.  I put them in a little pan to yield more so that the kids could grab them and run, as they do.

Banana-Chocolate Chip Muffins

Ingredients:

• 220g flour
• 160g sugar / about 3/4^th of a cup (I did half brown, half white)
• 1 stick of butter / 125g butter
• 200g cream cheese / 8oz package cream cheese
• 1 egg
• 3 tsp milk
• 3 tsp oil
• Tsp vanilla
• 2 tsp baking powder
• A pinch of salt
• 2 bananas, mashed
• Chocolate chips

Cook:

1. Pre-heat oven to 170’C/350’F
2. Mix butter, cream cheese and sugar together.  Add wet ingredients, then dry ending with the flour.  Fold in bananas and chocolate chips.
3. Pour into a papered muffin pan (about 3/4ths full) and bake 20-22 minutes (done when a knife, stuck in the middle, can be removed cleanly.)

I am quite proud of these little muffins, I wrote the recipe with only a vague understanding of what goes into muffin making -but please don’t let that discourage you from trying them out!  Everyone loved them (especially the kids) though I did think they were a bit thick for a muffin.  Does anyone have any tips on how I can make them fluffier?

-Ariel

Update: My grandmother says that by adding an additional egg the muffins will be fluffier.  I haven’t had a chance yet to give it a try, but as eggs do work as a leavening agent in cakes, it makes sense.  Why didn’t I think of that?  (Because I tend to think of eggs as binding agents as they are in cookies, probably.)