Peanut Butter Swirl Banana Muffins with Chocolate Chunks

I’ve been staring at some very, very, ripe bananas for the last few days sitting on my kitchen counter. I cannot bring myself to toss overripe bananas because I know that they morph from a firm semi-sweet breakfast item or snack, into something unbelievably sweet and flavorful when they are at their ugliest. For some reason that’s just a miracle to me and it seems like a complete shame to miss out on what they have to offer.

So last night as I was tossing and turning wide awake at 1:00 AM (a traveling husband and a semi-empty nest will do that to you), I was thinking about all of the things I could do with those hideously ugly bananas that kept calling my name. Banana bread of course, is usually the first and certainly the easiest choice. I didn’t feel like doing the same old thing though so I tried to think of all the things that would work well with a banana bread base. There’s a lot actually…it’s amazing the work your mind can do when you don’t have anything else to do and can focus on just one thought. However, I kept coming back to peanut butter and chocolate and I just couldn’t get it out of my mind. Not a huge stretch I know. Oh well, who needs to stretch when bananas, peanut butter, and chocolate are a marriage made in heaven?

Peanut Butter Swirl Banana Muffins with Chocolate Chunks

1/3 Cup Olive Oil

2/3 Cup Brown Sugar, Packed

2 Large Organic Eggs

1 Tsp. Pure Vanilla Extract

1 3/4 Cups Bob’s Red Mill All Purpose Flour

2 tsp. Baking Powder

1 1/2 tsp. Organic Cinnamon

1 tsp. Xanthan Gum

1/2 tsp. Sea Salt

3 Very, Very, Ripe Organic Bananas

3 Squares Semi-Sweet Baking Chocolate, roughly chopped

About 3/4 Cup Organic Extra Crunchy Peanut Butter, warmed for about 1 minute and stirred

Add all ingredients to an electric mixer, except the chocolate and peanut butter. Mix just until ingredients are fully incorporated. Add chocolate and stir to combine. Line a muffin pan with papers, squirt each one with a small amount of non-stick spray, and fill each paper 3/4 full. Put about 1 1/2  teaspoons or so of the warmed peanut butter on top of each batter filled cup and stir it around lightly with a skewer or chopstick.

Next, place the muffins in a pre-heated oven for 12-14 minutes. Do not over cook them.

You can serve them hot out of the oven or cooled. Store in an airtight container.