Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

Yesterday, I was home sick. I had a really bad case of food poisoning. The day before, I started having mild nausea. I had attended a two day seminar prior to that and I went crazy with the desserts. hah..hah...I ate 4 slices of chocolate mousse cake. And oh, a slice of blueberry pie too. Naughty, eh? 

I could not sleep well because my stomach started feeling funny. Just past midnight, I got up and I knew I had to throw up. I hate that. What comes up smells and tastes awful (sorry for too much information). Huwekkkkk.....huwekkkk.....gosh it was awful. I wonder if my neighbor heard me. I felt better after that and went downstairs for a drink.

Then I tried to go back to sleep. At 2:30am I got up because my tummy felt acidic. I had to get a drink any maybe eat something light to ease the discomfort. When I reach the fridge, another wave of nausea hit me. I was feeling weak and had to drag myself upstairs, all the while holding back lest I throw up all over the stairs. In the toilet, I threw up again. After cleaning up, I went downstairs again for a drink of oral rehydrating salts. I also ate some chocolates and promptly felt better. But I was so weak and tired the whole day. I'm OK now. I felt that I was doing penance for my gluttony at the buffet. Serves me right!

Now back to muffins! When I first started baking, this Banana Chocolate Chip Muffin, was my first ever muffin attempt. Due to my inexperience, the muffins turned out very hard hah..hah...I over mixed the batter because I found it difficult to mix the dry and wet batter. I kept seeing the flour and I went on mixing and mixing and mixing. It took a few more attempts before I could combine the batter with the least possible strokes of the spatula.

Along the way, I learnt that buttermilk produces softer and fluffier muffins. I used to buy buttermilk from either Tesco or Aeon and I find that most of the time, there is no stock. I know that we can make our own buttermilk but somehow I never tried. Subsequently, I found that yogurt produces the same effect.

Up till today, Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins, is my favorite muffin. Every time I end up with very ripe bananas, I take  a walk down memory lane and bake my favorite muffins. These muffins are soft and fluffy, just the way I like it!

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins
Recipe Source : A mish mash of the many mufin recipes I sourced from the internet
Makes 12 regular sized muffins

Ingredients :
- 230 grams self raisng flour
- 2 medium sized ripe bananas, mashed
- 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
- 113g butter, melted and cooled
- 280ml plain yogurt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup milk chocolate chips plus extra for topping
(I left out sugar because the ingredients are sweet enough. Please add if you prefer sweeter muffins)

Method :
1. Preheat oven to 160C
2. Line muffin pans with paper liners
3. In a mixing bowl add mashed bananas, yogurt, eggs, melted butter and vanilla extract. Stir to mix.
4. In another mixing bowl, add flour and 1 cup chocolate chips. Mix to coat the chocolate chips with flour and make a well in the centre.
5. Pour the wet ingredients into the flour and lightly fold until just combined. Do not overmix.
6. Scoop batter into lined muffins pans and top each muffin with a few chocolate chips.
7. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes.