south of the border muffins

I’m calling these “Mexican-Chocolate” because of the cinnamon and chocolate combination. If you’ve ever eaten or cooked with the Ibarra brand of Mexican chocolate, you understand.

On a totally unrelated subject – I haven’t been sleeping well lately. I keep waking up before the sun – but that turned out to be a blessing yesterday.

I got out of bed at about 4:30 and decided to make these muffins since I needed to take something to our neighborhood Bunco later that evening.

The day was a whirlwind, I wasn’t home for more than 15 minutes all day. If I hadn’t made the muffins early in the morning … I would have never had time to make a thing and would have had to resort to bringing a bottle of wine.

As you might imagine, that doesn’t fly when you have a cooking blog and teach people to cook!

Sometimes sleep deprivation actually pays off.

Now, I know that for some, 4:30 or 5:00 is a normal and routine time to begin their day. I’ve had that schedule before, so I get it. But back then, I fell asleep before midnight or 1 AM too.

Let’s face it – sleep deprivation totally sucks! Conversely, these muffins do not.

Mexican-Chocolate Banana Bread Muffins

5 or 6 overripe bananas
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla paste or extract
11 tablespoons (1 stick plus 3 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
3 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1  1/2 cups milk chocolate chips

Cinnamon Sugar
1/3 cup sugar
1 tablespoon cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line 24 muffin pan cups with paper liners.

Mash bananas in a large bowl.

Mix in both sugars, eggs, and vanilla. Then stir in melted butter.

In another bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt; then gently stir the flour mixture into the banana mixture. Do not to over-mix.

Fold in the chocolate chips.

Cinnamon Sugar: In a small bowl, mix together the 1/3 cup sugar and cinnamon.

Fill the paper liners just enough to cover the bottom with batter. Evenly sprinkle a little bit of the cinnamon sugar over the batter.

Add the rest of the batter to the paper liners, filling each about 3/4 full, and then sprinkle more cinnamon sugar on top.

Bake in preheated oven for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of one of the center muffins comes out clean.

Remove to a cooling rack to cool before serving or storing.

Makes 24