Baking with Kate in Toronto

We were in Toronto for a few days, and my niece Kate likes baking (and eating), so it seemed only logical to bake with her. Also, she’s fun to hang out with, so really, I’ll take any reason that comes my way to do spend time with her.

We immediately ruled out anything that would require a stand mixer. Remember the ordeal of the stand mixer from my last trip to Toronto? No? It looked a lot like this:

image

That’s Linus, trying to find the 800 pieces that form the stand mixer she got as a present over 25 years ago. I figured that since she and my brother already had the four of us as houseguests, that was enough chaos for one weekend. (The truth is, it’s never enough. There is always room for more chaos!)

We settled for a one-bowl recipe that didn’t require any unusual equipment and included very few non-basic ingredients: Peanut Butter and Dark Chocolate Mini Muffins.

I didn’t bring my camera, and I didn’t need to take step-by-step pictures since I’ve already blogged this one, but I did snap some shots with my iPhone of Kate, Juliet, and my niece Ella all contributing to the creation of these delicious treats. Ella had a cough that sounded a bit like a cat with a furball, and Juliet kept getting bored and leaving, but what’s a baking date without a furball and some restlessness?

Juliet thought it was funny that the egg had a face drawn on it. (So did I.)

Katie and Juliet

Katie quickly got the hang of scraping the sides of the bowl.

Kate stirring

She was very happy when it was time to add the dark chocolate chips.

adding chips

Then Ella came by  with her furball cough and her adorable self.

Ella and Kate

Ella and Kate

Ella and Kate did most of the work getting the two kinds of batter into the pan.

batter in pan

And there you have it: Peanut Butter Dark Chocolate Mini Muffins.

peanut butter dark chocolate mini muffins

They turned out great, and were devoured with much enthusiasm by siblings, cousins, aunts, and uncles. A great way to wrap up a family weekend, I think.

Can’t wait to get them to our house in the summer for more.

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