The Captivating Woman

Designed with purpose.

Double Chocolate Chip Muffins

The taste of warm chocolatey muffins in the morning. The sound of leaves rustling on the sidewalk. The smell the autumn breeze carries. The feel of the cozy blanket as you watch Elf.  Who doesn’t love this time of year?!

With Thanksgiving and Christmas on the way, this time of year is the perfect excuse to whip up something delicious. Something you would find in the bakery. Something extremely chocolatey. I don’t know about you, but when it comes to chocolate I could eat it all day, every day. I have fond memories of eating chocolate chip muffins in my grandmother’s home, in the Dublin airport, and honestly wherever I could get my hands on some. I especially enjoy a good muffin in the quiet of the morning.  But why limit muffins to the morning? For my family and I (at least for me), muffin baking and eating can happen at any point of the day.

This is similar to our time with God. In the past, I have enjoyed my quiet time with God at the beginning of my day. I would get up at six o’clock and have a good forty-five minutes of reading His word, journaling my thoughts, and praying before I walked out my bedroom door. There was a time where it was difficult for me wake up in the morning and still have my “Me and God” time. The times I did get up to do it, I would be so tired I could not concentrate on the words I was reading. I would get frustrated with myself because I knew I needed a positive start to my day or my day would go downhill fast. I was frustrated because I was believing that I could only have time with God in the morning. But I realized something. Yes, it is good to start my day with God, but I also need and can continue my day with Him.

God is our loving Father. He is the one who brings the peace and the joy to our lives. In Psalm 30:5, it says “Weeping may last through the night, but joy comes with the morning.” His joy is not a gift that comes only for the morning. His joy, His peace, and His presence come with the rise of the sun and last throughout your day. He will never leave you or forsake you. What is so beautiful about our God is that He whispers to you and me to be women after His own heart. He whispers to you at breakfast, at the art museum, at your job, at your school, at church, and so on. He loves you so much! He wants time with you! Small moments or big moments, our time with God doesn’t begin and end in the morning. It begins and continues when we choose to whisper back to His heart.

I hope that if you feel like making these mouth-watering, bakery style muffins, you will not think you can only make them in the morning. I hope that when you feel His tug at your heart, you will not think that you need to save your response for only the “You & God” time. You can make the muffins for a midnight snack! You can have moments of “You & God” time throughout the day! My challenge for you today, my sister in Christ, is to listen for Him, answer Him, and rest in Him. Think on that as you enjoy some chocolatey goodness!

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Double Chocolate Chip Muffins

Ingredients

  • ½ cup (8 tbsp.) of unsalted butter, softened (put butter in a small bowl & microwave for 10-15 seconds)
  • 1 cup of white sugar
  • 2 tsp of baking powder
  • 2 tsp of vanilla extract
  • 2/3 cup of unsweetened cocoa powder
  • ¾ tsp of salt (if you have to use salted butter, omit this tsp of salt)
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 cup of almond milk
  • 1/3 cup of Greek yogurt
  • 2 cups of all-purpose flour
  • 1 ½ -2 cups of chocolate chips (be generous!)

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 350F. Spray the cups of a stone or metal muffin pan with cooking spray.
  2. Take a large bowl and mix the butter, sugar, vanilla extract, and Greek yogurt very well until a creamy and smooth consistency is reached. Add the eggs one at a time and mix into the batter.
  3. In a small bowl, mix flour, salt, baking powder, and cocoa. Add 1/3 of the dry mixture to the wet batter and stir. Then add 1/3 of the milk to the batter and stir. Continue in this pattern until all the dry mixture & milk have been mixed into the batter.
  4. FINALLY (my favorite part) mix in plenty of chocolate chips!
  5. Fill the muffins cups ¾ of the way and bake for 23-25 minutes. Put a fork through a muffin. If it comes out with some batter on it, put muffins in for 2 more minutes. If it comes out clean, you are good to go!
  6. Let muffins cool for 5 minutes and enjoy the yumminess of muffins!! Oh… and maybe save some for your friends 😉
https://www.thecaptivatingwoman.com/double-chocolate-chip-muffins/

Banana Muffins

I love banana muffins. It’s just something about them that makes my mouth water. If I go to a cafe and they are serving banana muffins, I partake. I think a big reason why I love them is that they remind me of my grandpa’s banana pancakes. No one, besides him, has mastered the pancakes. The muffins are as close as I can get to my childhood.

About a year ago, I was living with my cousins and their two children. I was blessed to be living at the beach with a view of the ocean. The weather was incredible and the sunshine was perfect. The household lived off bananas. Instead of getting 5 or 6 bananas for the week, my family would purchase double. There were many weeks when we couldn’t get to all the bananas in time before they were dark and mushy.

I made a proclamation: I am making banana muffins.

So I searched high and low for a recipe that would make moist muffins. I don’t know about you, but dry banana bread/muffins should be a crime. I found a recipe that I liked and had to change the way I made them due to the tools I was using – a spoon and bowl. I thought this was going to mess the muffins up, but they actually made the best muffins I had ever put in my mouth.

Normally, this recipe is used with a KitchenAid or mixer (which you are more than welcome to use). But after making the muffins with a KitchenAid and with a spoon, I liked the spoon version better.

This is why I like the spoon version – I don’t over mix. Sometimes I get a little crazy with the KitchenAid and whip up the mixture too much. The muffins seem drier when that happens. I like using a spoon because I fold the mixture until blended. They are light, soft, and delicious.

Trust me on this: my cousin and I ate 85% of the muffins the day they came out of the oven. She asks me to not make them when she is around. Watch out with the streusel – you’ll want to eat the whole bowl before putting it on top of the muffins.

Enjoy!

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Banana Muffins

Rating: 51

Cook Time: 17 minutes

Yield: 12

Ingredients

    For Muffins:
  • 2 cups flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 cup butter, softened
  • 3/4 cups brown sugar
  • 2 eggs, beaten
  • 4 ripe bananas
    • For Streusel:
  • 5 tablespoons butter, melted
  • 2/3 cup flour
  • 2/3 cup powdered sugar
  • 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
  • pinch of salt (optional)

Instructions

    Muffins
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  2. Mash bananas with fork. After bananas are mashed, use spoon to mix and continue to break down bananas. The bananas mixture will be runny. Transfer to another bowl and set aside.
  3. Cream together the softened butter and brown sugar with a spoon. Mix, mix, mix! It won't be as perfect as using a mixer, but try your best. Add eggs one at a time and then incorporate the banana mixture until well blended. In another bowl, combine flour, baking soda, and salt. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet. Do not over mix. Spoon batter into prepared cups.
    4. Streusel
  4. Melt butter.
  5. Add butter to bigger bowl and put dry ingredients on top. Use fingers to mix butter with dry ingredients. Break down mixture to make the streusel crumbly.
  6. Add crumb topping onto muffins and bake.
https://www.thecaptivatingwoman.com/banana-muffins/

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