Banana Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Muffins

Fall is finally here, which means that it's Muffin Season.

Ha! Who are we kidding? Every season is Muffin Season!

Although, I think we can all agree that one of Fall's best personality traits is how welcoming and undiscriminating it is towards baked goods. 

While Summer says "Eat a salad. You have a swimsuit to look good in.", 

Fall says "C'mon, it's sweater season anyway. TREAT YO' SELF."

Fall loves you for who you are. Fall does not judge you.

Fall is the friend we all need in our life.

So in an attempt to be a similarly good friend, I present a delicious muffin recipe that will be warm and comforting to your soul.

I actually ended up creating this recipe because I was looking for a muffin WITH oatmeal AND banana AND chocolate AND the right amount sweetness AND without random, unnecessary ingredients that you can only get at Whole Foods, but I couldn't seem to find all of those things in the same recipe.

And sometimes when the exact thing you want isn't available, you just have to roll up your sleeves and make it yourself.

(It might have been Fall who encouraged you to do this.)

I love the heartiness and texture that the oatmeal brings, plus the combination of bananas and chocolate is always a winner.

Also, their ability to be breakfast, a snack, or dessert is a quality I admire and respect in food. 

(Just like cake! And tacos!)

These are comfort food, plain and simple. 

I recommend doubling the recipe and freezing a bunch, which will feel like a reward to your future self.

Slather these puppies with butter, and enjoy them over coffee with friends.

Or skip the butter and throw them at your children in the backseat, while you're speeding down the driveway, because you're late for school.

Either way, they will not disappoint.

Banana Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Muffins

Ingredients

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted and cooled

3 large bananas

1 cup sugar

1 cup traditional oats

2 eggs, beaten

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 1/2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

2/3 cup chocolate chips

Directions

-First melt the butter in the microwave, so that it can start cooling. 

-In a bowl (in a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, if you have one) mash the bananas and mix the sugar in until dissolved.

-Add the oats (adding them at this point is so they can soften a little.)

-Beat in the eggs and vanilla.

-In another bowl, mix flour, salt, and baking soda together. 

-Go back and add your melted AND COOLED butter to the banana mixture. 

(You don't want the butter hot, because otherwise it could scramble the eggs. Gross.)

-Once it's blended, add the dry ingredients and the chocolate chips to it and ONLY mix until it's combined. 

(This is a balancing act of making sure that there aren't any visible clumps of flour, but also making sure the batter isn't completely smooth. This will make your muffins fluffy instead of sunken and overly dense.)

(This rule also applies to pancakes by the way. If your pancakes are thin and flat, you've overmixed the batter. )

(Baked goods can be so selfish and high maintenance. They are the divas of the food world.)

-Add your perfectly not clumpy, but not smooth, high maintenance batter to greased muffin tins, and bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes, until they're golden and a toothpick comes out clean from the center.

Fall will approve.

Bon Appetit!