No Bluffin' with these Muffins!!

So, here I sit at home alone trying to occupy my time with something; laundry is done, loft is clean, kitchen clean, trash taken out, errands done so I really have nothing to do right now.  Christopher has gone and left for a job out in El Paso that he was dispatched to (hazard of this job) which leaves me time to create in the kitchen and time to blog about it.

So I was thinking of something in which I did not have leave to spend any extra money on; I mean, c'mon, I have a really perfectly stocked pantry and spice cabinet.  I tend to buy just about anything that peaks an interest knowing that I will eventually cook or bake something with it.  So my mission begins: chocolate, bananas, warm spices such as cinnamon & nutmeg....so the conclusion, MUFFINS!

Ingredients:

2/3 cup of baking cocoa 
2 large eggs
2 cups of flour
1/3 cup of sugar
2 tsp of baking soda
1-1/3 cups of evaporated milk
1 tsp of vanilla
1/2 tsp of salt
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground nutmeg
2 ripe bananas, mashed
4 oz extra bittersweet chocolate baking bar such as Ghirardelli, finely chopped

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

You can use cupcake papers (I love these) or spray a muffin tin with non-stick spray.

In a large bowl, combine all your dry ingredients:  baking cocoa, flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, cinnamon & nutmeg.

In another bowl, combine eggs, evaporated milk (you can use regular milk, but I was out so I tried the evaporated milk), bananas & vanilla.  Using a handheld mixer, blend on medium high until thoroughly blended.

Add the wet ingredients to your dry ingredients and mix until thoroughly combined.

Finely chop up your chocolate.  I personally prefer baking chocolate as opposed to chips.

I like Ghirardelli for baking

Fold your chopped chocolate into your batter.

Fill your muffin tin or papers about 2/3 - 3/4 full; I usually go 3/4 full with no problem because I prefer a slightly bigger muffin.

Bake for approximately 20 min or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.

This recipe yielded 18 muffins.

Too bad my taste tester isn't home, BUT let me warn you that these muffins are not your typical, sweet muffins.  Store bought muffins tend to be a bit on the sweet side for me especially chocolate ones.  I cut the sugar in this recipe and utilizing the higher cacao content in my chocolate, brought down the sweetness in these muffins down considerably.  They have a dark, bittersweet quality about them.  The ripe bananas add slight sweetness without too strong of a banana flavor.  I am really pleased with the outcome.

I think I will take some to work tomorrow because I know Priscilla likes muffins so she can be my temporary taste tester.

If you're interested in the nutritional values, I ran it through my analyzer to help you out:

Calories:             152
Fat:                        5.3
Cholesterol:       26
Sodium:               233
Carbs:                   24.1
Fiber:                    2.5
Sugar:                   8.9
Protein:               4.5

Good thing about these muffins is that the fat to calorie ratio is perfect, if you're looking at that.   Well, until next time guys, Happy Eating!