Chocolate Banana Muffins

I try to do something special for each of the kids to make them feel good and to get at least one day started off well. My oldest son stops at the convenient store once a week for a chocolate muffin.  Every Friday we leave a couple minutes early and he goes in to buy his muffin. $1.68 isn't bad, but I hate that I've been paying for something I could make on my own. Not to mention the fact that no matter what kind I make, it would still be healthier and better for him than that one he buys! So yesterday I asked him if he would like me to make him some so we didn't have to buy them. He was more than willing to let me make him some. He always has faith that I can do it. Even though I have made some stuff that wasn't even dog worthy. Talk about yuck!

So off I went to look for some chocolate muffins that might take the place of his Friday morning breakfast. Didn't take long to find a "healthy" muffin recipe that was chocolate on Pinterest. Usually those two words do NOT go together! I clicked the link and read the blog and looked over the recipe. Looked very good! It was sweetened with honey instead of sugar and had plenty of bananas in it to be qualified as a healthy muffin. Then it only had two tbs of oil! The perfect amount if you ask me. So I went to the grocery store yesterday and got everything I needed to make these muffins and got to work. Well, actually by the time everything was said and done I only had time to mix the batter then it was time to get kids and do our hectic routine of being busy till bedtime. So I covered it with plastic wrap and went. But when I got back I preheated the oven and baked them. I also prepared a not so healthy chocolate muffin recipe I found on allrecipes.com just in case these didn't turn out. Needless to say we have a lot of muffins to eat now!

The one of the left is the "healthy" muffin that I was proud to give to my kids for breakfast this morning. The one on the right is the regular chocolate muffin. Both are good by the way! The picture below this is the inside of them. I switched them around by accident though. SO the left one is the regular and the right one is the healthy. You can see that the healthy muffin has much more of a muffin like texture, but it's still moist and not so dry. The regular one actually has more of a cupcake taste and feel. Just doesn't have icing on it.

So if you want to make these take a look over here at Tutti Dolci to find the recipe! When I made them, I substituted some of the flour with whole wheat. 1/2 a cup to be precise. ;) And if you mash up all your bananas and you find that you are a little bit short, just throw in some unsweetened applesauce to make up the difference and call it good. I had to. LOL You just never know if those 3 small bananas are going to be 1 1/2 cups or not. I had to use about a tbs of applesauce. And if you are like me and just a little shy of 1/3 cup of honey, don't fret, it's still good!

Pan De Polvo

After searching for days I could not find a single recipe that made pan de polvo. A cookie that melts like dust(polvo) in your mouth. Only really tasty! I did find tons of recipes for a Mexican wedding cookie, which might be similar, but it's NOT the same thing! So I decided I would share my recipe.

Warning!!! These cookies are really not good for you. And they are totally addicting! The recipe makes a LOT and don't let their size fool you. These bite size cookies are too good to eat just one. I find myself sneaking in the kitchen to eat one, or two or three, all day long. And before you know it, I've eaten them all!

What you need...
Shortening
Flour
Salt
Ground Cinnamon
Cinnamon Sticks
Anise
Water
Sugar and Cinnamon mixture


First make a tea with the cinnamon sticks and anise seeds. What I do is put two sticks of cinnamon crushed up in about 1 and 1/4 cup of water and add about a teaspoon full of anise. Boil that for a little while to make a tea. I boil mine slowly then let it sit for a while to let the cinnamon flavor come out more. Once it's completely cool in the pan strain out all the cinnamon and anise and place in the fridge to get cold. You want the tea to be very cold for the recipe! It just works better, trust me on this one.

Sift the flour, salt and ground cinnamon into a large bowl. I use a wire whisk to mix it all upand evenly distribute the salt and cinnamon. I have no idea if this is actually necessary, but that's what I do. lol

Measure out your shortening and place into the bowl. This is the messy part... Use your hand to mix it all together really well.

Then add the cinnamon tea to the dough and use your hand to mix it up really well.

The next part is up to you! You can roll out the dough and use little tiny cookie cutters to make shapes. You can just make little balls and flatten them on the cookie sheet. You can use a cookie press... What ever you choose, it will all work out in the end. I like to roll it out and use the little cookie cutters. I love the way they look better. lol And you can make them to suit the season or holiday. Although, these are mostly eaten around the Christmas holidays around here.

Place the shapes(or what ever) on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 375 for about 25 minutes. Time may vary. You want the cookie to be barely even turning brown on the bottom. If you over cook them they kind of taste burned with out looking burned.

As soon as they come out of the oven toss them in the cinnamon and sugar mixture and coat them well. Then set them out to cool completely before storing. As good as these cookies are, they taste way better when they have cooled completely. Even better the next day!


Ingredients
6 cups of flour
2 and 2/3 cups of vegetable shortening
1 teaspoon of salt
1 table spoon of cinnamon
2 sticks of cinnamon
1 teaspoon anise seeds
1 and 1/4 to 1 and 1/2 cups water
Cinnamon and sugar mixture(to desired taste)
*I like a lot of cinnamon in mine that's why I added cinnamon to the dough.