Chocolate Banana Muffins

This Chocolate Banana Muffin has been in my baking list since I first saw in Honey Bee Sweets. I can't recall what was holding me back for taking so long to bake this muffin, but I am glad that finally made myself available for it.

Recipe adapted from here.

Ingredients (makes about 16)
250g unsalted butter, room temp
200g caster sugar (I reduced to 180g)
5 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
300g cake flour
1.5 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
80g unsweetened cocoa powder
200ml fresh milk
300g very ripe banana flesh, mashed
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips (I ran out of chocolate chips so I used duo chocolate (white & dark) chips)
2 ripe bananas, peeled and cut into 2 cm in length, dust in 1 tbsp of all purpose flour

Method:
1. Cream the butter and sugar together till light and fluffy.
2. Then crack in one egg at a time and mix well before adding another.
3. Add vanilla extract and stir well.
4. Sift the cake flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Then add in 1/4 of this flour mixture into the egg mixture and mix well. Then add 1/3 of the milk in. Repeat this until all the flour and milk has been added in and mixed in.
5. Add in the mashed bananas and stir well. Then sift in the cocoa powder and again blend well. Lastly stir in the chocolate chips.
6. Preheat the oven to 180°C.
7. Scoop the batter in to the muffin paper liners to about 3/4 full. Then insert a banana wedge into the middle of the muffin. Repeat till all the batter has been used.
8. Bake in the oven for 25 minutes or till the tester comes out clean.

Verdict?
This muffin is moist and soft, kind of melting in your mouth, the finest texture of muffin that I had ever ate. What's more, it tasted super chocolately and with the bite of banana chunk definitely added extra marks! I had reduced the sugar slightly since I was using very riped bananas, overall the sweetness is just right for me. This muffin is best eaten when warm.