Recovery and Baking - Banana Cinnamon Cocoa Muffins

            True to the title of this blog, today's post is all about dogs (my two and agility), love (for said dogs and baking) and chocolate (Banana Cinnamon Cocoa Muffins, to be exact). **Note to readers: I will not always be this good at sticking to the title of the blog - hence the "and Everything In-between" - have to cover my butt somehow, right?

             Last night was the fourth week of agility for us three (Beginners agility for Loki and Foundations for Lexi). It was a great session for both of them - even Lexi. She still is terrified of the equipment however there is hope! I finally got her to step on the travel boards and give me a "target" a couple times - and she actually (somewhat) enjoyed it! I'm finding that no matter what, I have to really believe in accomplishing our goals and envision what I want her to do before hand in order for us to get anywhere. Lots of praise and treats helps too, of course. I'm thinking some "behaviour shaping" with some clicker training is in order in the future - stay tuned for that adventure. Loki, as usual, enjoyed every moment we were there. We worked on jumps for the first time, and he loved it of course. We spent the majority of the time off-leash for the first time as well and, knock on wood for next week, it was successful! I'm finding with these two that everyday is one step forward and it is by no means either instant/immediate or without a lot of practice and trial and error. It is also very exhausting to train two dogs back-to-back for 2+ hours straight. Most people would think that this isn't very difficult however, in order to be successful, you must be very "present" and live in the moment. You also have to be very enthusiastic and animated, there to catch every correct move and let them know it! Energy begets energy, that's for sure. So this is the "Recovery" portion of this post. Next, baking.....

            Yes, you read that right. Banana. Cinnamon. Cocoa. Muffins. Do you think I could have fit any other ingredients in there? Well obviously I did. Below is a picture of what went into them - minus some yogurt and cocoa (more about those later). **Note: Before I go any further, let me just inform you that I am not a typical baker - I commit the cardinal sin of not following recipes - not even my own. For any of you that are not adventurous I suggest you close your eyes for this part or avoid this blog altogether. For those of you who are - scroll on down and follow my experiments!

Ingredients

 Approx. 5 very ripe large bananas

1 tbsp honey

1 c. apple sauce*

1 egg

2 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 c. (heaping) packed brown sugar

2 c. flour

1 tsp baking soda

2 tbsp baking powder

pinch of salt

1 1/2 tbsp. cinnamon
1 1/2 tbsp. cocoa powder**

*I ran out of applesauce about half-way through measuring a cup so I just topped it off with plain yogurt
**I felt like these muffins needed a little chocolate kick so I added some cocoa powder in there - it's not necessary so feel free to omit it (or add more ha!)

 

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Pre-grease two muffin trays.

2. Mix the dry ingredients (flour, salt, baking powder and soda, cinnamon and optional cocoa powder) together in a large bowl.

3. Mash the bananas to desired size (I left mine pretty chunky so you could really see the banana in the muffins but that's, again, up to you!) in a smaller bowl. Then add all the wet ingredients (including the brown sugar) in with the bananas and mix until well incorporated. 

4. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix until everything is just incorporated. DO NOT OVER MIX! I can't stress this enough - the muffins will be hard as a rock and dry if you over mix them.

5. Bake for 18-22 minutes or just until a tooth pick insereted in the center of the muffins comes out clean. This took 20 minutes in my oven.

6. Stuff your face!

 

          These muffins come out light, fluffy and moist. Unlike most banana bread, it doesn't feel like you're eating a dense loaf. Warning, this makes it very easy to eat several in one sitting. I should add the chocolate isn't very strong - it's more of a subtle background note so if you want them really chocolate-y you should add more cocoa.

          So there you have it! Agility and baking all in one! Hope you enjoy! If you do end up trying these, leave a comment and let me know how they turned out and if you experimented on your own!

   .......Back to homework I go.

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