Hellooooooo all!
I have returned from my brief hiatus! Hallelujah! I moved to a new apartment, met someone new, got my shifts switched at work—but now I am finally settling into a new routine. I’ve still been cooking like crazy, but just recently got my internet hooked up in my new apartment, so I can finally get back to the “challenge”!
I’ve been writing down a ton of recipes lately. I’ve been getting my hands on every single recipe booklet near the grocery store checkout and have been scouring cooking magazines for new foods. It’s great when you get the down time to find new meals, and those little booklets made by Pillsbury and Taste of Home always have an amazing collection of recipes. I found this multifaceted recipe in one of said booklets and was pleasantly surprised by how it turned out.
Muffins are a great, versatile food with a diverse range of uses. You can eat them for breakfast, brunch, a snack, or even dessert. I’m one of the relatively few people that prefer muffins to cupcakes…yeah, you read that right. I hate cupcakes. I’m not a fan of insanely sweet stuff, and the thick, sugary icing on cupcakes usually turns me off to the whole idea. Muffins, on the other hand, are just the right amount of sugar that I’m willing to eat. Just don’t ask me for a blueberry muffin, though. I’m also not a fan of blueberries 😀
These muffins include two of my favorite ingredients: bananas and peanut butter. Throw in some chocolate chips and vanilla and you’ve got yourself 24 little bites of heaven. Muffins can start sliding down the slippery slope of what I like to call “stagnant foods” if you’re not too careful. All you ever hear about are blueberry muffins, orange cranberry muffins, oatmeal raisin—-that’s why this recipe caught my eye. I’d never seen a peanut butter-banana-chocolate muffin before, but I knew I wanted one as soon as I saw it.
Monkey Muffins
- 1/2 cup butter, softened
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup mashed ripe bananas
- 2/3 cup peanut butter
- 1 TBS. milk
- 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
- 2 cups flour
- 1 tsp. baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 3/4 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips
1. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the bananas, peanut butter, milk, and vanilla.
2. Combine the flour, salt and baking soda; add to the creamed mixture just until moistened. Fold in the chocolate chips.
3. Fill greased or paper-lined muffin cups three-fourths full. Bake at 350 degrees for 14-16 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes before removing from pans. Serve warm & with butter!
This muffin recipe was so easy to make, a monkey could do it! I love bananas, so I added about a 1/2 cup more to my batch of muffins, and the banana taste really shines through. I definitely don’t pride myself on my baking skills…I like to stick with the savory stuff. Cakes and candies and trifles and clafouties seem like a heavy-handed task for me to try and conquer. The oven has to be juuust right, the racks placed in just the right spot, the temperature of your house can’t be too warm or too cold, the humidity in the air can make something disintegrate into a blob of broken dreams…yeah, no thanks. I’ll stick with my casseroles and soups and Sunday dinners, thank you very much.
…and muffins.
