Mom's After-School Snacks

When I was a kid, the best part of school was when it ended. That's because I knew when I got home my mom would have an after-school snack waiting for me.

The only thing that got me though a day of learning fractions was knowing there was freshly baked banana bread, oatmeal cookies, or chocolate pudding with bananas and graham crackers waiting for me.

Mom's after-school snacks are the inspiration for today's Crunchy Peanut Butter, Banana, and Chocolate Chunk Muffins.

So the next time your child has a test on fractions, surprise her or him with a chocolaty peanut butter muffin and a glass of cold milk. They may just be eternally grateful.

What after-school snacks did your Mom make for you?

Crunchy Peanut Butter, Banana, and Chocolate Chunk Muffins
Makes 12 regular size muffins
Print recipe only here.

Note: These muffins are meant to be a special treat, not an everyday food. However, if you'd like to reduce the calories and pump up the nutrition, you could replace half of the flour with whole wheat flour, whole milk with low-fat or skim, butter with Smart Balance butter substitute, and 1 egg with 2 egg whites.


Muffins:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 cup milk (whole or low-fat)
4 tablespoons butter, melted
2 large eggs
2 small bananas (about 1 cup)
1/2 cup crunchy peanut butter
1/4 cup coarsely chopped dark chocolate (I used 65% cacao)**

Topping:
3 tablespoons coarsely chopped unsalted peanuts
2 tablespoons coarsely chopped dark chocolate


Place rack in center of oven, and preheat to 375 degrees F. Spray a 12 mold regular size muffin pan with cooking spray.

Combine flour, sugars, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon in a large bowl and stir well.

In a separate bowl, combine milk, butter, and eggs and lightly beat with an electric mixer. Add the bananas and peanut butter and lightly beat (it's okay if it's a little bumpy). Add to the flour mixture, mixing until just combined. Avoid over mixing the batter as it will become leaden. Using a rubber spatula, fold in the chocolate chunks.

Spoon the batter evenly into the into 12 muffin cups. Sprinkle each muffin with some chopped peanuts and chocolate. Bake for 18-20 minutes, or until the tops are golden and a cake tester inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean. Transfer the pan to a rack to cool for 5 minutes before removing each muffin and placing on a wire rack to cool.

**You could substitute semi-sweet baking chocolate for the dark chocolate if you prefer.

You might also like:

Chocolate Dipped Coconut Macaroons




Reese's Peanut Butter Cup and Chocolate Chunk Cookies




Doughboys




Banana Coconut Almond Bread





I'm not the only one who loves any and all combinations of chocolate, peanut butter, and bananas. Check these recipes out:

• Chris's Peanut Butter Muffins
  
• Deborah's Banana Crunch Muffins
• Farida's Chocolate Banana Bread
• A Forkful of Spaghetti's Peanut Butter and Chocolate Muffins
  
• Happy Home Baking's Banana and Chocolate Muffins
  
• Margot's Banana Pancakes with Chocolate Sauce
• Nora's Banana Choc Bread

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Fresh Pineapple, Banana, and Pistachio Cake with Rum Icing

Buttercups, bananas, baby chicks.

Apricots, tulips, lemon trees.

Sunflowers, sweet corn, French's yellow mustard.

Peaches, pineapple, polenta.

Warblers, wildflowers, nectarines, and mangoes.

Hope.

These are a few of my favorite (yellow) things. Thanks to Livestrong, the Lance Armstrong Foundation, yellow has become the color of the fight against cancer -- the color of hope.

So this brilliant yellow pineapple is my entry to Bee and Jai's special yellow Click! event on behalf of Bri Brownlow from Figs with Bri who is battling breast cancer.



As most of you know, my husband Jeff is a dermatologist and has a blog called the Derm Blog. At the risk of sounding shamefully biased, his blog really is good. Even O The Oprah Magazine thinks so.

I'm proud to announce that Jeff is honored to be one of a handful of physicians in the country who is helping Lance Armstrong launch Livestrong.com. It's a new internet health and wellness site for all of your health care and fitness needs. You should definitely check it out!

Here's Jeff's profile page which also lists his articles on the site.



Now for the cake. Since my local market recently had large fresh pineapples on sale 2/$3.00, I bought four. I mean, come on, 2 pineapples for $3.00? That's crazy! (Which I actually said out loud to myself in the store). The money I saved almost paid for the gas to get to the store. (Actually, at $4.69 / gallon, maybe not).

Yes, four pineapples is a lot. That's why I made this cake. The tropical flavors of pineapple, banana, coconut, and rum marry beautifully in this moist, richly textured cake. And isn't there something wonderfully old-fashioned about a cake with crunchy white icing and shredded coconut?



Fresh Pineapple, Banana, and Pistachio Cake with Rum Icing
Makes 2 (9-inch) round cakes; serves 16-20
Print recipe only here.

Cake:
2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1 1/2 sticks (12 T) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
3 tablespoons honey
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup canned unsweetened coconut milk
2 very ripe bananas, mashed (about 1 cup)
1 cup chopped fresh pineapple
1/2 cup golden raisins (or chopped dates)
1 cup sweetened shredded coconut, toasted
3/4 cup coarsely chopped pistachios

Icing and Garnish:
2 cups confectioners' sugar
2 teaspoons rum extract
several drops of milk
1/2 cup shredded, sweetened coconut, toasted, divided
2 tablespoons coarsely chopped pistachios, divided

Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees F. Coat two 9 X 2-inch round cake pans, or five (6 X 2 3/4-inch ) mini-loaf pans with cooking spray.

To toast the coconut, place in a dry skillet over medium heat, and gently stir until aromatic and golden brown, about 2 minutes. Keep your eye on it since it burns quite quickly! Remove from heat and set aside.

In a medium size bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ground ginger together.

In a large bowl, beat the butter until creamy. Add the sugars and beat at medium speed for a couple of minutes. Add eggs and beat well. Add the honey, vanilla, and coconut milk, and beat until batter is silky. Lower the speed, add the bananas, and beat briefly.

Add the dry ingredients to the liquid ingredients, and mix until just incorporated. Using a rubber spatula, gently stir in the pineapple, raisins, coconut and pistachios. Divide the batter evenly between the pans.

Bake for 40-45 minutes, or until the cakes are a deep golden brown. You'll know they're done when a toothpick or cake tester inserted in the middle comes out clean. Transfer the cakes to a rack and let cool for 10 minutes before removing from pans.

Meanwhile, make the icing in a small bowl by whisking together 1 cup confectioners' sugar and 1 teaspoon rum extract. Add a few droplets of milk and continue whisking until the icing is smooth and thin yet clings to the back of a spoon. Taste it; add more rum extract, if desired. When it's ready, pour it through a fine-mesh sieve to remove any tiny clumps of confectioners' sugar (thanks, Mom!).

Invert cakes onto a rack, then turn right side up. Using a spoon, drizzle the icing over the top of the cakes, and spread it with a thin, metal spatula. Sprinkle each cake with 1/4 cup of toasted coconut, and 1 tablespoon chopped pistachios. Allow to set for at least 15 minutes before slicing.

More yellow foods you might like:

Sauteed Corn with Mint, Butter, and Lemon





Roasted Rainbow Carrots with Chives and Thyme





Potato, Pepper, and Onion Frittata





Grilled Shrimp Skewers with Fresh Pineapple Chutney






Mini Custards with Limoncello-Spiked Raspberry Sauce





I'm also sending this cake to Suganya, of the beautiful Tasty Palettes, for this month's AMAF: Coconut. Here are more wonderful savory and sweet pineapple recipes:

• Cris's Baked T-Bone Steak with Pineapple Sauce
• Deeba's Pineapple 'n Cream Sponge Cake
• Dhanggit's Pineapple, Ginger, and Cinnamon Creme Brulee
• Maryann's Italian Pineapple Salsa (I actually made this the other night with baked halibut, and it was delicious!)

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