An Oktoberfest Treat: Banana Coconut Muffins

Tomorrow is Oktoberfest in Stafford, America. It's the 25th annual version of Stafford's Fall Festival. What small-town festival is complete without a parade?

It's also a reunion time for alumni of Stafford High School. Randy will celebrate his 40th class reunion. His sister, Kathy, will gather with her classmates to commemorate 30 years since leaving the hallowed halls of SHS. Jill's class will gather for their 10-year reunion.

Kinley - Oktoberfest 2013

This little parade-goer has done some growing since last year, and her little sister will be here for her first Oktoberfest parade. I'm guessing one of them will be more excited than the other.
 
I imagine many former Stafford students will make informal visits to the old high school, which burned down this past March. (It was no longer being used for classes.)

Our first Oktoberfest stop will be the Stafford Educational Foundation fun walk and run. Randy is on the Foundation board, so he's helping with the event. Kinley may be my walking companion. We'll see how things unfold tomorrow morning.

I will pull some of these Banana Coconut Muffins out of the freezer to eat as we head out the door. (They are appropriately dressed in red, black and white muffin wrappers in honor of the SHS Trojan colors.)

I had a bunch of bananas ripening on the kitchen counter and saw the recipe for Banana Coconut Muffins on one of the cooking blogs I read regularly. I also love using cream cheese in baked goods for both the taste and texture. How can you go wrong, adding mini chocolate chips, coconut and butter brickle bits?

Speaking of texture, I didn't put coconut in some of the muffins. While Randy is a big fan of coconut, Jill doesn't like it because of its texture. Since part of this recipe was destined for their freezer to welcome baby Brooke, I deleted coconut in some of them.

If you'd like a little hometown "texture" and are in the neighborhood, you are cordially invited to Stafford's Oktoberfest on Saturday, October 4. Start the day with a walk or run at 8:30 AM to benefit the Stafford Education Foundation. There are downtown arts and crafts and food vendors from 9 to 4, an 11 AM parade, a book sale at the Stafford United Methodist Church from 9 to 2 and free entertainment on a stage at Main and Broadway, beginning at noon. Wiener Dog Races begin at 2 PM. Yep, more than 100 wiener dogs are already registered. We'd love to have you!And welcome home, Staffordites! (Is that what Stafford people are called?)

Banana Coconut Muffins

Adapted from Inside Bru Crew Life blog

3/4 cup butter, softened
1 8-ounce package cream cheese, softened
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
4 ripe bananas, mashed
1 tsp. vanilla
3 cups flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 cups shredded coconut, divided
1 cup toffee bits
1 cup mini chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place cupcake liners in muffin tins.

In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter, cream cheese and sugar. Add the eggs and beat well. Stir in bananas and vanilla.

Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt, and slowly incorporate into the banana mixture. Stir in 1 cup coconut, toffee bits and chocolate chips by hand.

Fill cupcake liners or tins 3/4 full. Sprinkle with extra shredded coconut. Bake 20-25 minutes. Coll on a wire rack for a few minutes before removing from the cupcake tins. Cool completely before storing in a sealed container. You may also freeze the muffins.

Note:  I didn't put coconut in all the muffins, since Jill isn't a fan. The coconut-less version turned out tasty, too. (I scooped out some of the batter into the muffin cups prior to adding the coconut. To keep them identified, I topped each of the coconut version with a sprinkling of coconut on top. It made the muffin tops pretty, too, with the browned coconut.)