I’m excited about this recipe. This is a case where I had a pretty good recipe that I had no plans to improve upon, but a missing ingredient forced a substitution. After crossing my fingers and making a change, I’m pretty sure the change may end up being permenant.
My go-to double chocolate muffins are a take on the Chocolate Ricotta Muffin from Mollie Katzen’s Sunlight Cafe cookbook. Today I had a child requesting his favorite after-school snack of chocolate muffins, but I was out of ricotta but . Soooo… after unsuccessfully searching my freezer for that hidden ball of ricotta (it’s still in there somewhere, I know), I decided I’d better make do with things I have on hand. Two brown bananas were calling me to take them out of their misery. Add some peanut butter and I was ready to give a new recipe a try.
I keep the sugar pretty low on this recipe and I also use freshly ground, soft, white, whole wheat flour. The peanut butter also helps bump up the protein. I used natural peanut butter, but if your peanut butter has added sugar, you can reduce the granulated sugar by a couple teaspoons. And, as always, if you don’t have good whole flour around, just substitute it with white flour. You won’t get the fiber and flavor from the whole wheat flour, but it will taste better than most store bought whole wheat flours.
All in all, I think these are a pretty healthy snack for the kids. The recipe makes about 18 regular sized muffins. If you don’t eat them all right away, you can freeze any extras so the kids can grab them out whenever they want.
Enjoy!
- 2 1/3 cups (10.4 oz) freshly ground, soft white wheat flour (or substitute with white flour)
- 3/4 t salt
- 2 t baking powder
- 6 T unsweetened cocoa (I use Dutch process cocoa)
- 1/2 c granulated sugar
- 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
- 2 soft, brown bananas
- 1/2 cup of natural peanut butter
- 2 large eggs
- 1 1/3 cups milk
- 1 T vanilla extract
- 4 T (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly spray 18 standard (2 1/2-inch-diameter) muffin cups with non-stick spray.
- Combine the flour, salt, baking powder, cocoa, sugar, and chocolate chips in a medium-sized bowl.
- Place the bananas in a separate bowl and mash. I use a potato masher to mash them. Add the peanut butter and stir. Then add each egg, one at a time, and combine with a whisk after each addition. Add the milk and vanilla, and whisk until blended. Add the butter, and whisk again.
- Pour the banana – peanut butter mixture into the dry ingredients and fold with a rubber spatula until just combined and the dry ingredients are moistened. Don’t overtax – a few lumps are okay.
- Use a large spoon or a scoop and scoop the batter into the prepared muffin cups. I usually like smaller muffins, so I fill them up about 3/4 full. You can fill to the top for larger muffins.
- Bake in the middle of the oven for 20 to 25 minutes until they are pulling away from the edge of the tin and the tops don’t collapse if you lightly press the top with a finger. You can also use the toothpick test to check doneness, but this is sometimes a tough check because of the chocolate chips. (A toothpick inserted in the center should come out clean).
- When the muffins are done, remove the pan from the oven and allow to cool 3-5 minutes. Use a knife of spatula to remove the muffins from the pan and place on a rack to cool.
Why shouldn’t the furry members of our family eat as well as the rest of us? We recently added a new dog to our family and we did the standard purchasing of new toys and treats for him. But as I was looking at the fancy, locally made dog treats, I realized that I could make these myself and for a lot cheaper. Plus, no preservatives or anything funny going on here. The pumpkin and peanut butter are healthy for your dog and he’s going to love them.