My son Andres loves bananas and recently asked me to make some banana muffins for breakfast. Looking in the pantry I saw I had some molasses and bran…I remembered seeing a recipe that called for those three ingredients and decided to adapt it and make these. Now don’t be scared of the molasses and bran! The bran is so subtle that you won’t even know it’s there and the molasses adds just the right amount of flavor to make these moist and yummy. The original recipe was from Barefoot Contessa at Home. I adapted the recipe and halved the batter since I can’t image us eating twenty-four or more muffins. This batter made twelve regular-sized muffins with just enough batter left in the bowl to make ten mini muffins (for the road!). You won’t believe how flavorful these muffins are…

Banana Chocolate Chip Molasses Bran Muffins
1 cup unprocessed bran
1 cup buttermilk
1 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 stick butter
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/3 cup unsulphured molasses
1 banana, sliced & diced
1 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup walnut pieces

Heat oven to 350 °F. In a medium bowl combine the bran and the buttermilk. Set aside. In another bowl sift the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Set aside. In a large bowl using a mixer on high speed, cream the butter and the sugar until light & fluffy. Add the eggs, vanilla and molasses. Pour in the flour and beat on low speed until just barely mixed. Sprinkle in the chopped bananas, chocolate chips & walnuts. Using a rubber spatula incorporate into batter. Scoop batter into muffin tins lined with paper liners and bake in the oven until ready. Regular sized muffins should be baked about 25 minutes and mini muffins 12 minutes. Remove from oven and cool.

Enjoy!

Linda~