Banana Chocolate Cupcakes

When I saw this recipe on Bakerella, I knew I had to try it! Since I don’t have lactose-free cream cheese, I used plain Greek yogurt instead and baked the cupcakes a bit longer, and it worked wonderfully. This recipe makes 18 cupcakes, though, so I froze half of them for later. The downside is that the paper liners were very hard to peel off, though more so in the case of the metal muffin pan than in the MicroWare one, and more so on the edges that were slightly more brown. I’m thinking it was because of the heat and I wonder if you could get better results by greasing the muffin tins instead of using paper liners. Note that the cupcakes are somewhat dense, and perhaps more like sweet muffins than true cupcakes. In any case, these were delicious!

For the yogurt mixture
8 oz. plain Greek yogurt (lactose-free)
½ cup sugar
1 small banana, puréed (mashed is fine)
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla
8 oz. semisweet chocolate chips

For the chocolate mixture
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup cocoa
1 cup sugar
1 tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. salt
2 large bananas, puréed (mashed is fine)
1/3 cup oil
1 tsp. vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 °F.

For the yogurt mixture
Beat yogurt and sugar together.
Add banana, egg and vanilla and mix together until combined.
Stir in chocolate chips and set aside.

For the chocolate mixture
Sift together flour, cocoa, sugar, soda and salt using a wire whisk.
Add bananas, oil and vanilla and mix together on low until combined.
Use a large scoop to fill cupcake liners with batter.
Repeat by topping the cupcake batter with the yogurt mixture.
Bake for about 30-35 minutes or until done.