Monkey Muffins

It's probably "monkey business" to make people be "guinea pigs." But, during last week's ski trip to Colorado, nobody was complaining about me trying a new recipe for Monkey Muffins. With today's snow in Central Kansas, it might be just the treat to make in your kitchen, especially if you're like me and always seem to have ripe bananas on the counter.

Our two ski "monkeys" liked them just fine - as did the adults. (At least, the reasonable adults who like peanut butter. Randy is not as big a fan of PB, but he'll eat it.)

Of course, monkeys would like them because of the bananas and the peanut butter. And what creature doesn't like a little chocolate with their bananas and peanut butter?

I brought the muffins to supplement the breakfast casserole that was on the menu for the breakfast for which I was responsible. We had enough left over that they provided breakfast and snack treats on other days, too.

Just before we left for Colorado, Jill and Eric had parent-teacher conferences for both of the girls. They sent a photo of a poster that Kinley had made as part of an enrichment activity. It was something she worked on independently when she finished other classroom work. 

She found two different muffin recipes. She then did the math to find out how many ingredients she'd have to buy, how much they cost and her profits on those ingredients. Pretty impressive for a 4th grader, right? 

After seeing all of Kinley's computations for making muffins and making money, maybe I have found a business partner, if I ever want to break into the baking-for-profit business.

Hmmm ... that looks like a lot of math. She would need to be my math consultant, too.

On second thought, maybe I'll just stick with home baking. If you give them a try, let me know what you think!

 

 

 Monkey Muffins

From Taste of Home

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 cup plus 1 tbsp. sugar, divided

2 large eggs, room temperature

1 cup mashed ripe bananas

2/3 cup peanut butter (I used crunchy, but feel free to use smooth, if you prefer)

1 tbsp. milk

1 tsp. vanilla extract

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

3/4 cup miniature semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, cream butter and 1 cup 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. Combine flour, baking soda and salt; add to creamed mixture, just until moistened. Fold in chocolate chips.

Fill paper-lined muffin cups 3/4 full. Sprinkle with remaining 1 tablespoon sugar. Bake until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 15-20 minutes. Cool for 5 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks. Serve warm.