Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins

I had every intention of making some dairy-free banana nut muffins for a friend, but when I realized we were out of walnuts, I tossed in some semi-sweet chocolate chips and oops they were no longer dairy-free.  It's a good thing the boys had off of school(roads still flooded - read more about it here,) because my mistake won't last long.

Here's where I started.  There were 4 bananas in my fruit bowl that needed to be used.  They had become brown & spotty and my kids won't eat them that way.

I placed them into my largest pyrex measuring cup,

and mashed them up with a fork.  I like to mash them in a measuring cup, because sometimes 4 bananas could be as little as 1 1/3 cups mashed banana, and sometimes I have gargantuan bananas like these that will mash to 2 cups.  This is how I gauge how much of the rest of the ingredients I should add.

To this I added 1/4 cup vegetable shortening and 1/4 cup coconut oil.  It's been cooler around here and my coconut oil was in a solid state.  I heated these up in the microwave until the coconut oil had melted, then mixed vigorously so the shortening would partially melt.  I added the oil mix to the bananas,

 as well as 1 cup sugar, 1 egg, 1/2 tsp vanilla extract, and 1 tbsp Kahlua.  You can use espresso instead of the Kahlua or skip it altogether, but I think it adds a special something to my muffins.  Beat well with your fork.

In a separate large bowl, I whisked together 3/4 cup rice flour, 1/2 cup sorghum flour, 2/3 cup tapioca flour, 1 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp baking soda, and 1/4 tsp salt.

I then added the wet to the dry and mixed to combine. 

Here is where I would normally fold in 1 cup toasted walnut pieces, but lacking the nuts, folded in 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips.  I scooped the batter into a greased muffin tin by the 1/4 cup full.

Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes.  Turn out and cool on a rack.

The boys really enjoyed my mistake, and I'll be back in the kitchen soon to make a treat for my dairy-free friend.

Thanks for stopping by and baking with me.  I'm linking this up to Gluten-Free Homemaker's Gluten-Free Wednesdays.