The Funky Kitchen

Holy moly! I haven’t been here in a while.

What’s new? Well, the wedding in Toronto was beautiful, even though I had the flu. Congratulations Dan and Sara! Portuguese weddings are my kind of wedding, I’ve learned, there was so much food. I didn’t get to partake in much of it, but it looked great and the Mister and our other tablemates certainly enjoyed their meals. I got hired for two really awesome jobs, being a day nanny for an eleven month old little girl, and being a personal assistant for one of my previous employers. I’ve already started the nannying, it is going swimmingly, but I don’t start personal assistant-ing until Monday.

This means that, with much regret, I left my daycare. Sadly, it didn’t end on a very good note. I cried. A lot. I’m going to miss a lot of things about it, but this next step into the future is going to be a good one. Still, I’m going to miss my coworkers, and of course my kids. I’m going to really really miss them.

These muffins are on the snack schedule at my day care and they are as ridiculously good as they are simple. The recipe doubles and triples really well, which cannot be said for all recipes. A single recipe will make just over a dozen muffins, so depending on how many muffins you are looking to make, multiply accordingly. What I really like, though, is that this muffin recipe only requires half a cup of sugar! So many of the recipes I know for muffins require a full cup. Half the sugar still giving good quality muffins? Awesome.

I’m going to carry with me the memory of these muffins, with little preschoolers sitting around the snack table, excited that today is a muffin day, and happily awaiting their snack.

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

(in the style of my daycare, which for privacy reasons will remain nameless)

Ingredients

1 3/4 Cups flour

1/2 Cup sugar

3 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

3/4 Cup chocolate chips

2 spotty bananas

1 egg

1/4 Cup vegetable oil

1/4 Cup milk

Directions

• In a bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.
• Add the chocolate chips into the dry mixture and toss to coat. The thin layer of dry ingredients over the surface of the chocolate chips will help to keep them suspended in the batter, rather than sink to the bottom.
• Mash the bananas in a second bowl. A potato masher works really well, but I couldn’t find ours so I used a pastry cutter.
• Add the egg, vegetable oil and milk to the mashed bananas. Stir to combine.
• Make a well in the dry ingredients, into which the wet ingredients can be poured.

• Mix the dry and wet until just combined, some small clumps are perfectly fine to leave.
• Scoop into a muffin tin, and cook until browned (~20 minutes at 400° F).
• Let cool and enjoy! (They are quite tasty with butter.)

These muffins are quite dense, and if you’re looking to achieve smooth tops, you’re going to need to smooth them with the back of a spoon before you bake them. I kind of like the textured look of the tops, though, so to each their own.

Maybe try these muffins out with your children, the kids at daycare really dig them.

Cheers to muffins!

Tags: banana, banana chocolate chip muffins, chocolate chips, day care, muffins, nanny, new job, personal assistant, work