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.

 

Going Bananas: Frosted Banana Cookies

I am picky about the bananas I eat. I prefer a little green tinge to the bananas I consume for breakfast. Randy is less discerning. (Read less picky, if we're honest.) He'll cut up bananas that are way past their prime (in my humble opinion) for a swim in his cereal bowl.

But, I still seem to end up with bananas ripening on the counter, 90 percent of the time. During this Covid-19 pandemic, it seems we are all a little more creative in using up leftovers and past-its-prime food. After all, some of us remember standing side-by-side in the kitchen with our grandmothers. After a Sunday chicken and noodle meal, Grandma Neelly had us washing foil and plastic bags along with the pots and pans. In her mind, those "disposable" goods could be used again. Waste not, want not: I may have rolled my eyes at the time, but it was a good lesson to learn. (I'm not to the point of reusing foil, but I may be paying more attention to the squares of toilet paper - just saying.)

Back back to the bananas: My languishing bananas often end up in Byers Banana Bread. I usually have enough bananas to double the recipe so that I can stash some small loaves in the freezer for a rainy day or for when the kids come home for a visit. (I hope that will eventually happen again, don't you?!)

But this time, instead of turning to my go-to banana bread recipe to re-purpose a bunch of aging fruit, I tried a new recipe - Frosted Banana Cookies. When I was growing up, my sisters and I made a lot of chocolate chip cookies. Big surprise that we kids liked them the best, right?

But my dad would prefer soft oatmeal raisin or some alternate to the chocolatey morsels. These soft Banana Drop Cookies are more reminiscent of a cake-like treat, rather than the crisp outside-chewy inside of a chocolate chip version.

I frosted most of them with a flavorful icing. No sugar and milk sweet toppings for my cookies, no sir. I much prefer a butter and/or cream cheese cheese-based icing that has some substance and flavor.

I used the majority of the dough for the frosted version and stashed them in my freezer for a Palm Sunday reception at church. I like providing a little fancier alternative for these special occasion reception tables. Alas, there are still cookies in the freezer because the Holy Week services got canceled. Or maybe that's not such a bad thing. It's always good to have cookies on hand for Cookie Monster cravings.

I also decided to take a portion of the unbaked dough and add chopped walnuts and Ghirardelli Caramel Bits. I left those unfrosted. They were a delicious alternative, too. Unfortunately, I neglected to get a photo of the unadorned cookies before we ate (or shared) them all.

If you prefer more texture to your cake-like cookies, you could also add chopped nuts (walnuts or pecans or even cashews) to the unbaked dough and still frost them when cooled. Other add-ins would also provide some variety.

Enjoy!

Frosted Banana Cookies

Adapted from Shugary Sweets blog

Cookies:

½ cup butter, softened
½ cup brown sugar
½ cup granulated sugar
¼ cup sour cream
2 large ripe bananas, mashed
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg
2½ cups flour
1½ tsp cinnamon
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt

Beat butter and sugars. Mix in the sour cream, bananas, vanilla and egg. Add the remaining ingredients and mix well. Use a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Using a small scoop, drop dough onto paper. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 10-12 minutes until light brown and set. Cool and frost if desired.

Optional: You may add nuts and/or other add-ins to the unbaked dough. I used walnuts and Ghirardelli caramel bits in a portion of the dough for some variety. Any kind of nuts, cinnamon chips, chocolate chips or other additions would also be tasty.

Note: I doubled this recipe. The cookies freeze well.

Frosting:
8 oz cream cheese, softened
¼ cup butter, softened
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 Tbsp milk
1 tsp cinnamon
4½ cups powdered sugar

Beat cream cheese and butter until fluffy. Add remaining ingredients and beat until smooth. Frost  cookies when cool.

Flip for Pancakes: International Pancake Day

It's always a good day to flip for pancakes. But if you need an excuse to celebrate pancakes, International Pancake Day is today - Tuesday, February 25. 

Pancake Day is a moveable feast whose date is determined by Easter. It's celebrated exactly 47 days before Easter Sunday (April 12 this year).
 
It seems there's a day for every food these days. There are days delighting in doughnuts. There are days for sandwiches, hamburgers and hot dogs. Pie gets more than one day. But Pancake Day is especially important in Liberal, Kansas, and Olney, England. For the past 71 years, the women of the two communities have raced down the streets of their respective communities, flipping pancakes and running against the clock and each other. The race is always on Shrove Tuesday, the day before Ash Wednesday. It's the only race of its kind in the world.

"Shrove" is not a thing, but a verb. "Shrive" (shrove, shriven) comes from the Old English verb scrfan, "to decree, decree after judgment, impose a penance upon, hear the confession of," according to the dictionary. Shrove Tuesday is a day to reflect, to seek penance and get ready for Lent.

In Olney, the Pancake Race tradition dates back to 1445. Legend has it that a woman was busy making pancakes and using up cooking fats, which were forbidden during Lent at that time. Hearing the church bells ring to announce the Shrove Tuesday service, she grabbed her head scarf and ran to the church, with pancake-filled skillet in hand. In following years, neighbors joined the race to the church. The first to arrive collected a Kiss of Peace from the bell ringer.

Photo from the International Pancake Day Facebook page: Liberal's Billie Warden crosses the finish line in 1950. Billie won the local race with a time of 1:18 but lost to Olney's Florence Callow, who finished in 1:10.4.

The international race with Liberal began in 1950, when Liberal Jaycee President R.J. Leete saw a photo of the English race in Time magazine and then contacted Olney, challenging their women to race against the women of Liberal.

Racers must still wear a head scarf and apron. Each runner flips her pancake at the starting signal and again as she crosses the finish line to prove she still has her pancake after running the 415-yard course.

Photo from the International Pancake Day Race Facebook page

 According to the book, America Celebrates! A Patchwork of Weird & Wonderful Holiday Lore, some superstitions have evolved among Liberal racers:

• It is considered good luck to carry a past winner's skillet in the race or wear a past winner's apron.
• One year, the stack of concrete pancakes marking the starting point of the race was stolen. This was considered a bad omen, but the stack was later returned.
• Although the women practice running 415 yards, it is considered bad luck to run the official race course during the practice sessions.

I flip for pancakes anytime, not just on International Pancake Day. So I decided to try out a new recipe when Kinley and Brooke were here last week. I love to eat out for breakfast, but we don't get to do it all that often. (Let me re-phrase that: I don't eat out that much for breakfast. Randy meets his buddies at Joan's Cafe at least once a week.)  

I'm an advocate of breakfast-for-supper and so are the girls, so if you want to celebrate Shrove Tuesday in a way that's been a tradition since 1455, here's the recipe. And you don't even have to wear a head scarf or run a race to enjoy them!

Whether you make pancakes or not, I'll leave you with the traditional blessing bestowed upon the winner - whether it be in Liberal or Olney:

The Peace of the Lord be always with you.

 Banana Oat Pancakes

Adapted from Food Fanatic 

Serves about 6

3/4 cup old-fashioned oats
2 medium bananas, mashed
1 1/2 cups milk
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
2 tbsp. brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1 egg
3 tbsp. vegetable oil
1/4 cup chopped pecans (opt.)
Butter for griddle or skillet
Syrup, additional nuts and fruit for serving, if desired

In a medium bowl, combine oats, bananas and milk. Set aside to let the oats soak and soften.

Preheat pancake griddle or skillet over medium high heat.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flours, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Beat the egg and oil into the wet oatmeal mixture, then pour the wet mixture into the dry mixture. Add nuts, if desired, and stir until just combined.

Butter the preheated surface of the griddle or skillet. Use about 1/4 cup batter per pancake. Wait until the entire exposed surface of the pancake is bubbly and the edges start to look as though they are set, then flip the pancake. Cook the second side and remove pancakes to a plate or a chafing dish to keep warm.

Garnish the pancakes with more chopped pecans and/or fruit and serve with your favorite syrup.