Whole Wheat Banana Muffins with Pure Dark Chocolate Slab pieces

Over the weekend I had invited an old friend to come to my house for brunch.  It's easier to entertain at home these days since Nate has become a rambunctious 17 month old toddler.  I had not seen this friend in over 20 years and I wanted to roll out all of my culinary tricks to woo her.  I didn't have the energy or time to whip up a five star-breakfast-at-the-Ritz meal.  However I had just enough time and all of the ingredients to make my whole wheat banana muffins.  Plus I had a secret ingredient that I really wanted to utilize — a fabulous "Slab" of 70% Cacao chocolate from Pure Dark.  It was the 2nd chocolate sample I had received from FoodBuzz and I had not even opened the package yet — talk about will-power!  I was hoping to use the chocolate in a recipe and this one seemed like the perfect pairing.  The slab of chocolate worked even better than I would have guessed.  I cut the chocolate slab using a serrated knife and kept some pieces in chunks; the rest of the chocolate was finely chopped.  The results were amazing; pockets of dark chocolate pieces and feathers of chocolate throughout each muffin.  TASTY!

Whole Wheat Banana and Chocolate Muffin Ingredients:
This is version 3 of my banana muffins — you cannot go wrong with this recipe.

• 1 Cup Whole Wheat Flour
• 1/2 Cup All-Purpose Flour (or White Whole Wheat all-purpose Flour such as King Arthur brand)
• 1/2 Cup Quick Cook Oatmeal
• 1/2 Teaspoon Baking Soda
• 1/4 Teaspoon Baking Powder
• 1/2 Teaspoon Salt
• 1 Teaspoon Cinnamon (optional)
• 1/2 Cup Packed Light Brown Sugar
• 1/4 Cup Non-Fat Greek Style Plain Yogurt (use as much as a 6 ounce container if that's what you have)
• 2 Large Eggs or 1 Whole Egg and 1 Egg White (it depends on what you want-or of course, you could use egg substitute liquid)
• 1 & 1/2 Cups Banana Puree - about 3 Medium/Large Bananas. (It's okay to use a bit more, up to 2 cups, if that's what it measures)
• 1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
• 2 to 3 Ounces Pure Dark Chocolate Slab - cut into chunks with a serrated knife (or use a good, dark chocolate, 60% to 72% cacao)
• 12 Walnut Halves to garnish each muffin (optional)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 Degrees. Use a 12 portion regular sized muffin tin and line each with cupcake liners/inserts.
2. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients, flours, oatmeal, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Set aside.
3. In another large mixing bowl, combine the brown sugar and the yogurt and whisk to "cream" the sugar — incorporating the dairy product with the sugar to help the sugar to dissolve. Mix in the eggs, banana puree and vanilla. Whisk vigorously until the mixture is frothy.
4. Gently fold in the flour mixture and the chopped chocolate into the wet ingredients, folding to combine.  The batter will be wet, but should not be too loose.
5. Using a spring loaded ice-cream scoop, fill each muffin insert to the top with the mixture. It's easier to fill the muffin cups with the ice-cream scoop.  Add a walnut half, (if using) on the top of each muffin, pressing gently to slightly submerge the walnut half into the batter.  Bake the muffins until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean, 15 to 20 minutes.
6. Cool muffins in the muffin tin for 5 minutes before removing them. Turn out and cool the muffins on a wire rack completely before serving. Makes 1 dozen 4-6 ounce muffins.