Banana Chocolate Chips Muffins and What-the-heck?

Please join us in giving a very big welcome to Sofie Kelly! Sofie, Daryl, Leslie, Peg, Sheila and I all go way back together. Back to the days when we were all starting out and none of us had been published. So we're especially delighted to have our dear friend visiting us today. 

Sofie has very kindly offered to give away a copy of her new book, FAUX PAW! Leave a comment with your email address to enter.

And heeeeere's Sofie!

During the summer in my house we eat a lot of fruit salad: chunks of melon, and peaches mixed with strawberries, blueberries or raspberries and as summer winds down, a taste of the early apple crop. But once fall comes fruit is more likely to show up in apple crisp, blueberry grunt and banana chocolate chip muffins.

In my Magical Cats Mysteries (Faux Paw will be out October 6^th) the characters like to indulge in something sweet. It may be Eric’s chocolate pudding cake at the café, Mary Lowe’s cinnamon rolls or Kathleen’s brownies. And yes, muffins. Lots of muffins.

I think of these muffins more as desert than a healthy breakfast choice. The recipe evolved from a recipe for banana bread in the 1952 edition of the Lily Wallace New American cookbook, the source of a lot of favorite recipes in my house.

Ingredients:

1 ¾ cups of sifted flour

¾ teaspoon baking soda

1¼ teaspoon cream of tartar

¼ cup margarine

¼ cup unsweetened applesauce

½ cup sugar

1 cup mashed banana (about 2 large)

1 whole egg and 1 egg white

½ cup of chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 375 °F. Line 12 muffin cups with paper liners or lightly grease.

Sift the flour, soda and cream of tartar together. In a large bowl beat margarine, sugar, applesauce, egg and egg white until the mixture is light and creamy. Add the mashed banana alternately with the flour mixture. Mix in the chocolate chips.

Divide the batter between the 12 muffin cups. Bake for 18 to 22 minutes until the muffins are golden brown and tops spring back when lightly touched. You’ll notice I don’t have any photos of the muffins once they were baked. If you have teenagers in your house you’ll understand why!

 

 

And now for the “what-the-heck.” I was going to share my corn muffin recipe. I baked them in my large toaster oven and this is what happened. They tasted great but kind of looked like they belonged in a cooking version of Alien. Does anyone have any idea of what the heck happened?

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