Hard Work Gets You A Mocha Chocolate Chip Banana Muffin

Yesterday was a great day!  One of the great features of our home is a beautiful flower garden surrounding the front of the house and another huge garden to the right of the house.  Except I am no gardener!  Over the past 3 years my inexperience and neglect have been slowly killing the poor gardens.  It was actually getting embarrassing because it began to look more like a giant long grass patch in our front yard.  

Thankfully my Mom, Step-Father and the Hubby helped me rescue the gardens yesterday.  Before everyone started working I whipped up a batch of Mocha Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins.  At first I was a little unsure of how coffee and banana would taste together, I knew coffee and chocolate would be good and chocolate and banana is delicious as well but the three together, who knows?  Well, it’s good! 

We started working around 11AM after it poured for most of the morning.  The muffins were great because everyone could take a small break and enjoy a little sugar boost.  Luckily the rain never started again and we were able to get everything finished, look how beautiful it turned out.  The pour garden hasn’t looked this nice since we moved in:)

I packed up muffins and sent them home with my Mom.  I even ate another muffin for dessert. 

Mocha Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins

Ingredients

• 1 cup margarine
• 1 1/4 cups white sugar
• 1 egg
• 3 ripe bananas
• 1 tablespoon instant coffee granules, dissolved in
• 1 tablespoon water
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Directions

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

2. Blend butter or margarine, sugar, egg, banana, dissolved coffee, and vanilla in food    processor for 2 minutes. Add flour, salt, baking powder, and soda, and blend just until flour disappears. Add chocolate chips and mix in with wooden spoon. Spoon mixture into 15 to 20 paper-lined muffin cups.

3. Bake for 25 minutes. Cool on wire racks.

ENJOY!

We have gigantic rhubarb growing in the side yard.  For most of the spring a wheel barrel was lying over top of it.  That definitely didn’t slow it down, now there is more than I could ever use. So here is my first use, Rhubarb Crumble Muffins.  Next time I will add some strawberries or raspberries to the batter.  I almost did that for this batch but thought I would give the rhubarb a chance to be the star for this one.  Unfortunately it wasn’t.  Don’t get me wrong the muffins are delicious. The rhubarb just didn’t really stand out for me.  The batter is nice and light and who doesn’t love crumble.

I was very sceptical of only adding 2 tbsp of fat to the muffin mixture.  Honestly, I really couldn’t tell.  They are absolutely a low-fat muffin and for a large portion they come in at only 210 calories.  I was pretty impressed!  I plan on packing them in out lunches for the week and hopefully I’ll make another batch on the weekend and try a strawberry-rhubarb version.

Rhubarb Crumble Muffins

Ingredients

FOR THE MUFFIN MIX

• ¾ cups sugar
• 1 ¼ cup rhubarb, small dice
• 2 tbsp sunflower oil
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• ½ cup buttermilk
• 1 2/3 cup flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda

FOR THE CRUMBLE

• ¼ cup light brown sugar
• 1/3 cup flour
• 1/3 cup oats
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• ¼ cup butter

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 390F.  Line 12 muffin tins with paper liners.  Stir together sugar and rhubarb and set aside while you make the crumble topping.
2. Mix together the brown sugar, flour, oats and cinnamon.  Then rub in the butter until clumpy.  You can use a fork or your fingers work well also.
3. Stir the oil, egg, vanilla and buttermilk into the sugary rhubarb.  Now, add the flour, baking powder and baking soda and stir well.
4. Spoon into the cases, the scatter each with a thick layer of crumble mixture.  Bake for 15-18 minutes until golden.  Cool on a wire rack.

TIP:  If you don’t have buttermilk on had put 1 tbsp of vinegar into a 1 cup measuring cup and top-up with milk.  Let rest of 3-5 minutes then use the amount require in the recipe.

SUBSTITUTIONS:  You can use a mix of fruit to go along with your rhubarb.  Just make sure that the total amount of fruit doesn’t exceed 1 ¼ cups.  Some possibilities are strawberries, raspberries or blueberries.

ENJOY!

Banana Muffin Muffin Baby

For a long time I kept bugging the hubby to get a new dishwasher.  He resisted and tried to stay on top of the dishes so that I wouldn’t complain about having to do them all the time.  Then when he started renovating the bathroom he didn’t have time to do that and stay on top of the dishes.  This was my chance!  Every night I would do the dishes and not complain about it, then after over a month of it I said, “So I’m pretty tired of doing dishes, maybe it’s time to get a dishwasher? I think this company Bosch would be a good choice.” Bosch is a little more expensive but top of the line and I knew that he had a soft spot for Bosch.   He was sold!  I didn’t hesitate.  As soon as the bathroom was complete I ordered it and today it was delivered today, right to our door, they even took the old one that I had quarantined when we moved in.

So what’s left to do then bake and dirty some dishes to put in the new dishwasherJ  Also, my little bro is spending the entire weekend at my place and I wanted to bake something for him.  He told me that he brings muffins to school for his snacks so I thought I would make Banana Muffins.  I had a bunch of ripe bananas sitting on the counter so it worked out well.

The verdict…..He Says, “It's BananaY!”  those words exactly.  I say, these are the easiest muffins to make.  They take no time to put together, they taste great and the ingredients are simple.  I mostly like how you don’t have to remember to bring some butter to room temperature a few hours before making them, it’s melted!  I’ll definitely make these muffins again.  I'll cut the time down a little, I had them in for 25 minutes I think 20-22 would be good enough next time.

Banana Muffins

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3 large bananas, mashed
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/3 cup butter, melted

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Coat muffin pans with non-stick spray, or use paper liners.
2. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; set aside.
3. Combine bananas, sugar, egg, and melted butter in a large bowl. Fold in flour mixture, and mix until smooth. Scoop into muffin pans.
4. Bake in preheated oven. Bake mini muffins for 10 to 15 minutes and large muffins for 20 to 35 minutes. Muffins will spring back when lightly tapped.

ENJOY!

Homemade Granola Bars, The Way You Like Em'

Growing up my Mom always made these granola bars.  I would take them to school for a snack and on camping trips for some energy on the trail.  Throughout university I started making them myself and I would come up with different ingredient variations to change things up.          

One of my favourites was using dried cherries, dried cranberries and dried blueberries for a great fruity flavour.  Tonight I just went through my baking cupboard and emptied a few different jars.  They included slivered almonds, pecans, peanut butter chips, milk chocolate chips and raisins.  You can use just about any ingredient you would like, as long as you use 3 cups of oats, 3 cups of "extras", 1 can condensed milk and 1/2 cup melted butter. 

As I poured mixture into the prepared pan I thought of another variation, diced apples, pecans, raisins, a teaspoon of cinnamon and possibly a drizzle of caramel on top.  Once this batch is gone I'll give the apple cinnamon bars a try. 

The photo above shows how they look coming out of the oven.  From there let them cool, remove the foil and cut into portions as big or as small as you desire.  I usually make a rectangular shaped bar, but you could make em square too, the way you like em'!

Granola Bars

Ingredients

• 3 cups Oats
• 1 cup Chopped Peanuts
• 1 cups Raisins
• 1 cup Chocolate Chips
• 1 can Sweetened Condensed Milk
• ½ cup Butter, melted

Directions

1. Line a 13 x 9” pan with foil and grease.
2. Combine all ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Mix until all ingredients are well coated.
3. Press evenly into prepared pan.
4. Bake at 325 for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown.
5. Cut into 36 bars and store at room temperature.

Alternative ingredients: almonds, pecans, hazelnuts, craisins, dried blueberry, dried cherry, peanut butter chips, butterscotch chips, marshmallows.  Just make sure you use 3 cups oats and 3 cups of “extras” to 1 can condensed milk and ½ cup melted butter.

ENJOY!