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As mentioned in previous posts, my husband and I spent the first years of our marriage paying off debt. Working toward that goal, we had to be creative with some of our date nights. One of our favorite date nights is still grabbing dinner and then perusing the local thrift store. We’ve had fun finding inexpensive but unique items, cleaning them up at home, and then seeing if we can make a profit on Ebay. We are typically able to earn at least enough to cover our dinner from a night’s worth of finds.
The Nordic Ware pan I used to make these muffins was one such find ($4 at Salvation Army). I tried to find the same pan on their website, but it looks like they no longer sell that specific version. However, I found same one on both Amazon (Nordic Ware Pro Cast Zoo Animal Muffin Pan) and on Ebay (Nordic Ware Animal Pan – NEW), but below is an image of the pan to provide a visual. The only downside is it isn’t the easiest pan to clean because of the small nooks and crannies.
I did find two other cool pans on Nordic Ware’s website though, both made in America (see below). It is a family owned company, started in 1946 with a pretty cool history (read more on their website). They were the original creators of the Bundt® pan.
My son and I used the pan to make some unique chocolate chip banana muffins as part of our lockdown baking (both to keep us busy and keep the snacks flowing). We are now out of flour, so our lockdown baking will have to get a bit more creative. Hopefully you will enjoy our recipe below. These can also be made in a normal muffin pan with delicious results.
RECIPE
(Adapted from Epicurious.com’s Banana-Chocolate Chip Muffin Recipe)
Chocolate Chip Banana Animal Muffins
Equipment
- Oven
- Muffin pan
- Mixing bowl
Ingredients
- 1.5 cups all-purpose flour
- 1.5 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 cup mashed ripe bananas (about 2 large)
- 2/3 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
- 1/4 cup milk whole milk provides a richer taste
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 eggs
- 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips feel free to make this a heaping 1/2 cup
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F.
- Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt.
- In a separate bowl, mix together banana, sugar, applesauce, milk, egg, and vanilla.
- Stir wet ingredients into dry ingredients until just combined.
- Fold in chocolate chips.
- If using a Nordic Ware animal pan, brush the animal shapes with oil. If using a normal muffin pan, place paper or silicone lines into the muffin pan.
- Spread the batter evenly across either the animal indentations or your typical muffin pan.
- Bake muffins until tops are lightly golden and a wooden toothpick inserted into the center comes out with some melted chocolate attached but no crumbs, about 32 minutes.
- Cool muffins on a wire rack.
Notes
- When using the Nordic Ware pan, I filled the cups up completely which made a muffin top shape coming out of the animal shape. This made the muffins quite easy to remove from the pan.
- When using a normal muffin pan, recipe will yield 12 muffins.
