Homemade Jumbo Cashew Chocolate Banana Muffin that is a as good (or better) than store-bought. A tall, moist banana muffin loaded with chopped chocolate and toasted Cashew made right at the comfort of your own home. Just simple basic ingredients including 2 large overripe banana that could just be sitting on your counter top waiting to be used. Why waste it when you can transform it to something as good as this. Go for it and just give in to this huge piece probably the best chocolate banana muffin that you will ever make.

I would guess that if you are into baking, or have been baking even just basic cake and muffin recipes, you probably have a LOT of banana muffin or bread recipes. Understandable, I for myself do not know how many of this banana recipes I had tried through the years. There are some that are just ok, and there are some that are great enough to be in my for keeps recipes. This recipe is one of my favorite for keeps banana recipe for several reasons.

• This recipe is so easy to make. You do not need any electric mixer at all, and all the steps are done manually, and they are all very simple and easy to follow. This is a great recipe to make on your own or with kids.
• These muffins are HUGE, just like the muffin you can buy in cafe and bakery
• These muffins are loaded with great stuff. A good quality chopped chocolate and toasted Cashew, inside and out.
• These muffins are sturdy and stable enough to hold the chunks of chocolate and cashew so you can actually see and taste them. When I saw Cashew, there are really Cashew in here.
• This is a great make-ahead breakfast on the go. If you have a busy morning, make them at night and you have a tall delicious muffin waiting for you the following day
• As always. this recipe is a great way to use overripe banana, so nothing goes to waste

Ingredients for Cashew Chocolate Banana Muffin

• Banana – what is a banana muffin without banana? Use overripe Banana that already have black spots on the skin. The riper the Banana, the sweeter it is
• Vanilla Extract – just for flavoring but you can also use other flavoring like Almond ,cinnamon powder, All-Spice. You can also skip it if you do not have any of this
• Flavorless Oil – Oil makes this muffin moist even when refrigerated
• Egg – provides fat and structure to the muffin
• light or dark Brown Sugar – either way will work. Dark brown sugar have more molasses so it tends to be more wet and the sugar texture is coarser than light brown sugar. Although granulated sugar will work, there could be slight difference in the batter consistency as granulated white sugar are drier
• All-Purpose Flour – basic flour will be more than enough to produce a nice muffin texture, not too heavy as when using bread flour or too light and crumbly when using cake flour
• Cocoa Powder – Since we are using both baking powder and baking soda, you can use either natural of dutch processed, but I would recommend natural if you have it. Natural cocoa powder are acidic and will react with baking soda giving a better lift to the muffin.
• Baking Soda & Baking Powder – we are using both because this produces a thick heavy muffin batter that will require a lot of help to keep it rising.
• Chocolate Chunks – I like using chocolate baking bars and chopping it, the bars melts better and gives a better taste and physical appearance. You can definitely substitute this with chocolate chips, semi-sweet or dark will work. Even white chocolate chips will be nice or a combinations of 2 or 3 different type of chocolate
• toasted Cashew – I used raw Cashew and toasted with as is. You can also use store-bought toasted Cashew, use the plain non-spiced or salted one.

How to Make Cashew Chocolate Banana Muffin

This recipe follows the quick bread method. That is mixing all the wet ingredients first, then adding all the dry ingredients next. You can make this all in one bowl. I mashed the banana in a separate bowl because I want to make sure that I would end up with about 1 1/4 cups of mashed Banana, but a slight difference(more) is not a big deal. You can mash the banana directly in the bowl, then add the wet ingredients one by one, followed by the dry ingredients. The key thing to remember is to sift the dry ingredients to avoid lumps from cocoa powder. Expect a think muffin batter, that is fine. We want a thick batter so we get a tall muffin that can hold the chopped chocolate/chocolate chips and Cashew without them sinking in the bottom.

I used jumbo muffin tin but you can certainly used regular size muffin tin. You will probably end up with 6 or 7 pieces. Fill the muffin tin with the batter all the way to the top. Since we have a thick batter, this will rise up and produce a tall muffin.

Baking time will vary depending on the size of the muffin tin. This jumbo muffin took 38 minutes to bake because they are bigger. If you are using a regular muffin think check at about 20 – 23 minutes, toothpick inserted in the center should come out clean. You can also bake this is a 9-inch loaf pan. I would say 40 – 45 minutes, just an estimate as I haven’t tried it yet.

You can serve this as is,or drizzle some melted chocolate on top to make it extra decadent, because why not? It’s extra chocolate, go for it, you will have the whole day to burn all the calories after eating this muffin. My I say, it’s worth it 🙂

What’s the Secret to a Tall, Soft and Moist Muffin?

I’ve made so many muffins before, some turned out flat, some turned out a little bit dry and some turned out just ok. After all the testing , research and some recipe failures I finally found the secret to having a tall beautiful and soft moist muffin, just like the store bought but better.

• Oil – keeps the batter moist and it doesn’t harden as much even when stored in the refrigerator unlike when using all butter.
• Generous Baking Soda – Little amount of baking soda is not enough to hold and push the thick batter, you need to add little bit more than usual. In this recipe, I used 1/2 tsp baking soda and 1/2 tsp baking powder which may sound a lot but it’s not. Trust me, the thick batter will need all the help it could get rise tall and high.
• No over mixing – the most over used caution but has proven to be true. Over mixing can make the muffin tough resulting to a dense tough muffin. This has something to do with the gluten formation.
• Thick Batter – the consistency of the batter when making a muffin is crucial. The batter has to be thick, so it’s stable enough to hold the add-on like nuts, chocolate chips and jams. But most especially a thick batter makes a tall muffin and doesn’t collapse.
• Fill it to the top – Not 3/4 full but all the way to the top. A lot of times when baking a regular size muffin, the muffin tin are fill only 3/4 full. But when making a huge muffin like this, do not be scared of going all the way to the top. This assures a muffin top because it’s already guaranteed to pass the top level of the muffin tin, so anything above top will create a muffin top look, like a mushroom. This is another reason why it is important to have a think batter. So that as it bakes, it will rise and not collapse.
• Hot and Medium Baking Temperature:  Now we get to the most important item, the KEY to a tall Muffin. I’m saving the last most important thing that I learned when making muffin, that is the baking temperature. Most recipes baking temperature for muffin ranges between 350F and 375F, and I used to baked my muffins before in straight 350F all through out the baking process. There’s nothing wrong with it, you’ll still get the muffin nicely baked, but if you want a tall muffin with the traditional muffin top look, you have to bake it at first 5 minutes in 400F then lower it to 350F until the finish time. The high temperature will help the muffin rise fast as soon as it hits the hot oven. It’s like a balloon, it will expands and will rise as soon as it goes into the oven, thanks to the baking soda. That’s when you know that the combination of banana and baking soda are working together. The acidity in this ingredients gives the muffin the push when it hits the hot oven. It will also give a nice crunchy brown crust on top, while maintaining a soft and moist center. Now, as soon as the muffin rise in the first 5 minutes, you only need the baking temperature of 350 to sustain the tall structure of the muffin as it continues to bake. The end product is a brown crunchy cracked top, a tall muffin and soft and moist crumbs. Do not forget to lower the temperature (no need to open the oven, just reduce the temperature), you will end up with over bake and possibly dry and burnt muffin. You don’t want that.

Ok, now that you have what you need to know about making this Jumbo Bakery Style Chocolate Chip Muffin, let us put that to use. Let’s get started!

Ingredients:

• 2 large mashed ripe Banana (about 1 1/2 cups)
• 1/4 cup + 1 tablespoon Flavorless Oil
• 1 large Egg – room temperature
• 1 teaspoon pure Vanilla Extract
• 3/4 cup light or dark Brown Sugar
• 1/2 cup natural Cocoa Powder – sift before using to remove lumps
• 1 cup All-Purpose Flour
• 1/2 teaspoon Baking Soda
• 1/2 teaspoon Baking Powder
• 1/3 cup chopped Semi-Sweet or Dark Chocolate Chunks or Chips
• 1/3 cup chopped Toasted Cashew

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 400F degrees. Spray a jumbo muffin pan with oil or grease with melted butter.
2. Toast the Cashew: Toast the cashew for 5 – 8 minutes. You can use a toaster or oven. If using oven, toast at 300F.
3. Mash Banana Mixture: Peel the bananas and mash using a fork or immersion blender. It doesn’t have to be super smooth, a little of chunk is fine. You need 1 1/2 cup of mashed banana, measure once mashed and remove the excess if any.
4. Wet Ingredients: To the mashed banana, add the oil, vanilla extract, egg and brown sugar. Mix to combine.
5. Add Dry Ingredients: Sift the cocoa powder, all-purpose flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt and mix until just combined. Add chopped chocolate and toasted cashew. Mix just to distribute. Do not over mix the batter. The mixture will be slightly thick enough to handle add-on like chocolate chips without sinking the chips at the bottom.
6.  Divide the Batter: Divide the batter in 4 jumbo muffin hole, fill up to the TOP, NOT 3/4 full but to the TOP. Press chopped chocolate and toasted cashew on top.
7. Bake at 400F for 5 minutes then lower the temperature to 350F  (without opening the oven and while the muffin is inside) and bake for another 33 minutes. A toothpick inserted in the center should come out clean.

Makes 4 Jumbo Muffins or 8 medium size Muffins

Click the item to get the full recipe

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