By One week has passed since the parking lot vigil and Mama is still there—the aides call me every two days with reports that are brief and not alarming, not good news but not the worst news—and I am cooking with a specific urgency this week, the urgency of a woman who understands that time with her mother is finite and that the food she is making is in some sense for Bernice, all of it, always, and that cooking is the only language with which she can speak to her mother through the locked door and the pandemic silence.
I made banana pudding this week. Mama's banana pudding, which is Bernice's banana pudding, which is the one Marcus loved, which means the pudding carries three people simultaneously—Bernice who originated it, Marcus who loved it most, Loretta who holds them both in the making. I made it on a Wednesday afternoon with no particular occasion, just because the bananas were right and the afternoon was available and the making felt necessary. Calvin came home from wherever Calvin goes when he has no church to go to—he has been driving around the neighborhood, he says, visiting people's driveways and saying prayers from the car window, which is the most Calvin thing I can imagine—and he saw the banana pudding and he ate a bowl standing at the counter and said, "For Bernice?" I said, "For all of them." He nodded. He understood. He always understands. That is the man I married.
The bananas that week were always going to become something—I had bought them without a plan, the way you buy things when your hands need to stay busy and your heart needs an errand. When the pudding was made and Calvin had eaten his bowl and gone back out to pray from the car window, I found myself thinking about the other banana recipes I keep in my body, the ones that live just below Mama’s pudding in the order of things I learned from her kitchen. These Chocolate Banana Crinkle Muffins are that next layer down: still banana, still carrying sweetness, but with a little chocolate darkness folded in—which felt right for a Wednesday in a pandemic with a mother behind a locked door. I made them the following morning, for no one and for all of them.
Chocolate Banana Crinkle Muffins
Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 20 min | Total Time: 35 min | Servings: 12 muffins
Ingredients
- 2 very ripe medium bananas, mashed (about 3/4 cup)
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
- 1/3 cup vegetable oil
- 1 large egg, room temperature
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon fine salt
- 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 1/3 cup powdered sugar, for rolling
Instructions
- Preheat & prep. Heat oven to 350°F. Line a standard 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners or grease well with nonstick spray.
- Mix wet ingredients. In a large bowl, whisk together the mashed bananas, granulated sugar, brown sugar, vegetable oil, egg, and vanilla until smooth and well combined.
- Combine dry ingredients. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. Whisk briefly to distribute evenly.
- Fold together. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir with a spatula until just combined—do not overmix. Fold in the chocolate chips. The batter will be thick.
- Form the crinkle tops. Scoop the batter into rounded balls (about 3 tablespoons each). Roll each ball gently in powdered sugar until fully coated, then place into the prepared muffin cups. The powdered sugar coating creates the signature crinkled crust as the muffins bake and rise.
- Bake. Bake for 18–20 minutes, until the tops are set and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with just a few moist crumbs. Do not overbake—the centers should remain fudgy.
- Cool. Let muffins rest in the tin for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack. They are good warm, but the crinkle top crisps beautifully at room temperature.
Nutrition (per serving)
Calories: 215 | Protein: 3g | Fat: 9g | Carbs: 33g | Fiber: 2g | Sodium: 175mg