50 pounds of mini chocolate chips

You might think, who in their right mind would buy 50 pounds of mini chocolate chips. You're looking at her. With a child with nut allergies, you spend time finding things that will be safe. Guittard chocolate is one of those things. Luckily our local grocery carries Guittard chocolate chips. But alas, they do not carry mini-chips, and there are just some days you want a to use mini-chocolate chips. After a couple months deliberating such a purchase, I decided, oh what the heck, just do it. I did let those around me know I was doing such a purchase in case anyone else wanted some chips. The price is actually comparable to grocery store chips, and well, it's a much nicer chocolate. Yes, I do have 3 large (10 lb) Guittard blocks in my kitchen as well. I'm a fan of their chocolate.

I ended up with 30 pounds of mini-chips and decided I needed to try out some new things. I admit, I never had chocolate chip pancakes before. Wow are they good! And I plan some chocolate chip bagels, in my copious free time. But my new favorite thing is Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins. As I mentioned in a previous post, I love banana nut bread. But our home now being nut free, I don't get to indulge unless I buy a slice at work or some other event. And honestly, my homemade version is much better. (modest, huh?) I have found that the chocolate chips make up for losing my beloved banana nut bread.


I created this starting with my banana bread recipe, making a couple small tweaks to up the moistness factor.

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins


1/2 c shortening (I like Butter Flavor Crisco)
1 c sugar
2 eggs
1 c mashed ripe bananas
1/2 c sour cream
1 t vanilla
2 c flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 c mini-chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350.

Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a bowl.

In another bowl, cream shortening and sugar. Blend in eggs one at a time beating well between additions. Add mashed banana, sour cream and vanilla. Mix until combined

Add dry ingredients. After fully combined, add in the mini-chocolate chips.

Scoop batter into greased muffin tin. I use a large cookie dough scoop.

Bake until golden brown. I use a stoneware muffin pan (Pampered Chef! Completely love it) And they take 35 minutes. But things cook slower in the stoneware. A metal pan may be done in 20-25 minutes. I recommend checking them at the 20 minute mark to see how they are doing.