The Bite: Banana Cream Cheese Chocolate Chip Muffins

Am I the only one who has a hard time finishing all of the fruit and vegetables that I buy from the store? My intentions are always good, grabbing all of the fruits (bananas, strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, and blackberries) that I love to eat in my yogurt or blend up into smoothies. But a few days go by, I’ve had a handful here and one banana there, and the fruits are starting to age. Thankfully, with bananas, there’s so many delicious recipes you can make with bananas when they’ve been hanging around the kitchen a little longer than planned. I’ve tried banana bread a few weeks ago, so I decided this time I would give muffins a try. I found this recipe for Banana Cream Cheese Muffins from Dixie Crystals on Pinterest so I could use my almost over-ripe bananas!

IMO, muffins are one of the most versatile of the breakfast/brunch foods. They can be modified to be made rather healthy and have enough protein and other goodness inside that they could count as a meal. Or they can dressed up as more of a dessert with some additions like chocolate, or in this case, cream cheese! For me, I decided to modify the original recipe a bit and replace the chopped pecans with chocolate chips to satisfy my sweet tooth even more.

Banana Cream Cheese Chocolate Chip Muffins

Prep Time: 15m | Bake/Cook Time: 16m - 18m | Makes 18 muffins (or 12 mini muffins + 12 regular size muffins)

Ingredients:

Muffins

• 2 cups all-purpose flour

• 1 teaspoon baking soda

• 1 teaspoon baking powder

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 4 medium over-ripe bananas, mashed

• 1/2 cup Granulated Sugar

• 1/2 cup Light Brown Sugar

• 1 large egg

• 1/4 cup avocado oil

• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

• Optional: Chocolate Chips, Chopped Pecans

Cream Cheese Swirl

• 8 ounces cream cheese, softened

• 1/4 cup Granulated Sugar

• 1 large egg yolk

• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

• 1 tablespoon almond milk, if needed

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Line muffin pan with liners. I used two muffin pans for this recipe - one for mini muffins, and one for normal size muffins.

2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt until well combined. Set aside.

3. In large bowl, whisk together bananas, sugar, and brown sugar. I used my KitchenAid Stand Mixer to mix these ingredients, on a low-medium speed setting. Beat in egg, avocado oil, and vanilla extract. Slowly mix in flour mixture until the mixture is smooth and without lumps. At this point, you could fold in chocolate chips or pecans to have them distributed throughout the muffins. Fill the muffin tins approximately 3/4 full with muffin batter.

4. In a medium bowl, beat cream cheese until smooth. Add in sugar, egg yolk, and vanilla extract and beat until well combined.

5. Top each muffin with about 1 tablespoon of cream cheese mixture and use a toothpick to swirl into batter. This will not look smooth, but it will bake up much prettier. If your cream cheese mixture is too thick, you can beat in the 1 tablespoon of almond milk, if needed, to thin the mixture out. After I added the cream cheese mixture and swirled into batter, I added a few chocolate chips to the top of the muffins.

6. Bake muffins for 16-18 minutes, or until a you can insert a toothpick in the center and it comes out clean.

7. Serve fresh. Store leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge. Muffins are best at room temperature or even slightly chilled.