Banana Pumpkin Bread Muffins with Cranberries

E loves to help me. She loves to help clean, do dishes, do laundry, and cook. It's awesome, and I hope it stays that way, but sometimes it's hard to find ways for her to actually help. When it comes to cooking/baking, she is now my official stir-er. I measure the ingredients, she dumps them in and whisks them together. It's a pretty great system, and I hope it instills in her a love for cooking. I didn't learn much growing up, and am mostly self-taught. Knowing that she will at least have a foundation for cooking and baking for herself, and an appreciation of food and ingredients, makes me all kinds of warm and fuzzy inside (I think it's a mom thing). Bonus: when she's old enough, it'll be a great way to teach her fractions! I love my little sous chef.

Yesterday, she and I made these muffins. The original recipe is for a loaf of bread, but muffins are just so much easier to grab in the morning, instead of having to slice off a piece. I have one muffin tin, and one cupcake tin, and the batter was enough to fill both.

Ingredients

2 ripe bananas, mashed

2 eggs

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1 1/3 cups canned pumpkin puree

1/2 cup honey

1/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup brown sugar

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp pumpkin pie spice

1 tsp ground cinnamon

3/4 cup craisins (other options: raisins or chocolate chips)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°. Prepare your muffin pans (I used cupcake liners for the cupcake tin, and baking spray on the muffin tin).

2. In a large bowl, stir together the mashed banana, eggs, oil, pumpkin, honey, sugar, and brown sugar. (Fun fact: after she mashed the bananas, E informed me that they weren't bananas any more, they were soup.)

3. Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, pie spice and cinnamon in a medium bowl, and whisk together. 

4. Whisk the flour mixture into the banana mixture until just combined. Fold in the craisins. Spoon batter into prepared pans.

how full I filled my tins, for reference

5. Bake for 25 minutes for cupcake-sized muffins, and 35 minutes for muffin-sized muffins (ha), or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Move pans to cooling racks for about 10 minutes, then remove muffins from pans and complete cooling. 

mini-muffins

regular muffins

These are really moist, flavorful, and perfect for breakfast as they are not too sweet. Plus I hear bananas and pumpkin are good for energy! 

PS: I am creating a new label for the recipes E helps me with called "little helper recipes" so that, if anyone is interested, you can find recipes that are easy to do with your preschooler. I hope you find it helpful!

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