Banana Chocolate chip muffins

Gorgeous looking Muffins

Baking happened to me when I came to US, back at my mother's place in Bombay my kitchen endeavors were very minimum. Never helped her in kitchen, but I did other things like decorating my house, cleaning, gardening, taking care of my fish tank, arts & crafts etc..etc. We did not have oven or microwave there so there were no baking sessions at home except that my mother used to bake tutty-fruity round cake in an old styled aluminum vessel we get in India.

USA- Land of opportunities was like exploring things in and around New Jersey and also in my kitchen too. I landed in US in Nov-2004 and my first baking session started with a birthday cake for JB (after 3 months). I was so scared to touch the oven so I used it to store dishes. Operating oven and dishwasher was totally new to me and I took the help of my childhood friend Lalita initially, (sigh) now I laugh looking back to myself.

Since then I was playing around with my oven and baking things. I have noticed that I didn't post any baking recipes so far on my blog so taking this opportunity to post this incredible recipe from My favorite cook book, Kid's Snacks from Better Homes & Gardens. I purchased this book at my local Library sale. I don't have much collection as I did not bring any books from India. Since luggage weight is the main factor to carry things from India to set up a new life in US, books and wedding album were last on my priority list. I know many of us can relate this story of mine with your initial days in US :)

Kid's Snack is a wonderful collection of easy and beautiful looking recipes, kid's love. I also have some other books on healthy home cooking, 101 pasta recipes, low carb diet which I bought from library sale, I tried some of them and much satisfied with the taste but will showcase sometime later on my blog.

thats me!

As Nags asked us to write in one line, I love this book to " Treat the Kid in me" Sending this post to Nags for Show me your cook books event and to JFI-Banana hosted by Ahaar.

Source : adapted from Kid's Snacks
Cuisine: American
Prep time: 10 mins
Baking time: 25 mins
Makes: 6 people
Ingredients:
1 large egg
3 tbsps vegetable oil
3 tbsps milk (I used 2% milk)
3 tbsps orange juice
1 tsp vanilla extract
2/3 cup mashed ripe bananas (about 3 medium bananas)
2 cups all purpose flour (unbleached)
½ cup castor sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
1/2 cup dark chocolate chips/morsels
Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F
2. Place the egg, oil, mashed bananas, orange juice, vanilla extract and milk in a mixing bowl and beat together with your hand mixer.
3. In another bowl sift the flour, sugar, salt, baking powder mix.
4. Pour in the liquid into the dry mix and stir until just blended.
5. Add chocolate chips and stir one more time.
6. Line a muffin tray with paper muffin cases, spray with non-stick spray and then fill each case to just below the muffin tray level.
7. Bake for about 20 minutes, reducing heat towards the end of baking if the top of the muffins gets brown quickly.
8. This recipe makes 10-12 muffins, depends upon the tray size you use, I used 2 ¾” size here.
9. They taste better the next day, just m/w for 10 seconds and its ready to munch on!

Banana Chocolate chip muffins