Banana Chocolate Chip Cupcakes

We go through bananas like gangbusters in this house. Lola loves them and so do Matt and I. However, every now and then I'll buy a few too many and we can't eat them all before they get too ripe. Not that I mind because it just gives me a great excuse to make banana bread!

I had some overripe bananas the other day but instead of making banana bread, I decided to make some cupcakes with an homage to banana bread. Keeping that in mind, of course I used cream cheese frosting on the cupcakes!

Banana Chocolate Chip Cupcakes
with Cream Cheese Frosting
Makes: 18 cupcakes

Cupcakes:
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
3 overripe bananas
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg
3 tbsp milk
2 1/4 cups cake flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
1 cup mini chocolate chips

Frosting:
16 oz (2 bricks) cream cheese, softened
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla

Make the cupcakes:

• In a stand mixer or with an electric hand mixer on medium, cream together the butter and sugar. Whip until light and fluffy.
• Mash the bananas with a fork. Add them to the butter mixture along with the vanilla, egg, and milk. Mix until combined. Set aside.
• In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
• Gently fold the flour mixture and the chocolate chips into the butter mixture.
• In a cupcake pan prepared with cupcake liners, fill each cupcake liner 2/3 full with batter.
• Bake at 350° F for 20 - 25 minutes.
• Allow the cupcakes to cool completely before frosting.

Make the frosting:

• In a stand mixer or with an electric hand mixer on medium, cream together the cream cheese, butter, and sugar.
• Add the vanilla and continue to whip on high for about 2 - 3 minutes until light and fluffy.

This made a little bit too much frosting for the amount of cupcakes that I had. But I, uh, took care of that problem... haha

Also note, this recipe, along with all banana bread recipes, really come out better if you use overripe bananas. That way they're nice and soft and their sugars are well developed. Here are the bananas I used for this recipe:

Nutella & Banana Crepes

Mmmm... Is there anything better than Nutella? I love dipping pretzels and fruit in it and I love spreading it on toast or even a plain shortbread cookie. So far, I haven't been able to get a recipe to work out that actually has Nutella in it (such as cookies for example) but maybe that's just me.

One of the best flavor combinations - in my humble opinion - is Nutella and bananas. These are two very sweet flavors but somehow they go really well together. I actually made these crepes for dinner (I like to live dangerously) but they're also great for breakfast or even dessert!

Nutella & Banana Crepes
Makes: 8 crepes

2 Cups milk
6 Tbsp butter + 2 tbsp for cooking
3 eggs
1 1/2 tbsp sugar
1 pinch salt
1 cup flour
3 bananas
Nutella

• Combine the milk and butter in a sauce pan. Heat until the butter is melted but the milk is not boiling.
• In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs and sugar until they are light and fluffy.
• Very slowly pour a gentle small stream of the hot milk into the egg mixture, whisking the entire time. (This process is called "tempering." You're slowly bringing up the temperature of the eggs versus just dumping the hot milk right into the eggs which would give you a bowl full of scrambled eggs and milk. Not fun.)
• Add the flour and salt to the egg and milk mixture. Whisk until smooth.
• Heat a saute pan over medium-medium high until very hot.
• Add a small pat of butter to the pan then ladle the crepe batter into the center of the pan. Lift the pan from the heat and swirl it around so that the batter spreads to all edges of the pan.
• Cook for about 30 seconds to one minute until brown. Then flip and cook another 30 seconds until the other side is also brown.
• Repeat with the remaining batter.

 

• Once the crepes are cooked. Spread some Nutella on half of the crepe.
• Then distribute the bananas on one quarter of the crepe (as pictured to the left).
• Fold the crepe in half, then in half again so that you have a triangle shape.
• Repeat with the remaining crepes.
• Top with whipped cream or cool whip if desired.

By the way, just how much is a pinch of salt? It's generally accepted that a pinch is about 1/8 tsp. It's literally so small it's not even worth measuring. You can easily eye-ball a pinch because it will fit into the palm of your hand when you shape your hand into a cup. Like so: