Banana, Peanut Butter and Choc Chip Muffins

After an unsuccessful cookie baking exercise last week I decided it was time to try another baking session with the kids. We had a glut of ripe bananas in our house, and whilst wondering what to do with them I came across two bread recipes from AllRecipes and from 12Tomatoes which looked quite interesting. We also had a party the following day so I decided to give turning the recipes into muffins a go. The first batch was quite small - giving around 10 large muffins, so for the second I  played with the recipe a bit. This recipe will create around 12 large muffins, or 20 smaller ones (good for kids). They went down a treat at the party and stayed nice for a couple of days afterwards in an air tight container.  I reduced the amount of peanut butter purely as I only had so much left - you can add more, I just liked the hint of peanut I got from this recipe so I would hold off on doing more than 1/2 cup although the original stated up to 3/4 cup.

Ingredients

Dry

• 2.5 cups self raising flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup of brown sugar

Wet

• 3 ripe bananas
• 3 tbl crunchy peanut butter 
• 1 tbl flax seed
• 3 tbl warm water
• 1/4 cup of margarine
• 1 tsp vanilla extract (optional)

Additional

• 1 cup of dairy free choc chips
• splash of almond milk

Method

• Pre heat oven to 180C
• Line a muffin or cupcake tin - depending on size of muffins you want.
• Take a medium bowl and mash down the bananas
• Take the flax seed into a small bowl and mix with the warm water 
• When the flax seed mix is thick/glutenous mix with the bananas 
• Add in the rest of the wet ingredients and mix together, make sure there are no large lumps in it. You can melt the margarine first but I didn't bother.
• Take a large bowl and mix together the dry ingredients
• Make a well in the dry ingredients and then slowly add in the wet whilst continuously mixing
• Once mixed make sure the consistency is quite firm - if  too firm add a bit of milk. The mix should stick properly to a spoon. At this point add the choc chips and give a further quick stir.
• For large muffins use a large tablespoon to put the mix into the cases, I filled them approx 3/4 of the casing.  
• Cooking time: 12 mins for the small cup cake size, 16 for the larger size

Sorry about lack of photos, will have to make them again and then update this post.

Peanut butter cookies

Today we broke free of the pop cake maker to try out a new cookie recipe. This is one I have modified from a cookbook, replacing the egg with flaxseed. My little one wasn't too sure with the first cookie he tried, but soon decided they were "tasty" as he asked for more and more. This makes 16 cookies.

The final product, the ones bottom left are the ones out of the oven after 10mins

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup chunky peanut butter
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup dark brown sugar
• 1 tbsp flaxseed
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 & 1/3 cups plain flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda

Method

• Preheat oven to 220C
• Cream together the peanut butter & butter until light and fluffy
• Beat in sugar
• In a small bowl mix the water and flaxseed toget to make a glutinous paste
• Beat in flaxseed mix & vanilla extract to mix - this makes the cookie batter
• Sift together the flour, baking powder & baking soda
• Slowly add the flour mix to the batter mix (mixing slowly) until just combined
• Shape into one inch balls two inches apart on a plain baking tray
  

  

  The balls ready to go in the oven

• Cook for 10 / 12 mins (until brown on edges).
• Put on cooling rack

Notes

I had to help the biscuit 'spread' with a fork in the oven as they cooked as they weren't doing it on their own, I did this after 5 mins. However I think they normally would spread on their own. I cooked these without the use of an electric mixer, allowing my son to do the mixing & adding of ingredients. This meant that the mixing was a bit hit and miss, and we had a small hiccup with the baking soda, he added too much (as in he tipped the entire packet in!) and it is possible I took too much out. He also tipped all the flour straight into the batter, which made it harder to combine and the mix ended up crumbly. I finished it off by almost kneading it together with my hands.
 I left my cookies in for 12 mins as thought they were too crumbly at 10 mins, I kept that batch out and just moved them a bit on the tray & then left them on the tray for a little bit before moving them, they held together ok after they cooled.