WOODSTOCK INN'S BANANA-CHOCOLATE CHIP MUFFINS

 Be Our Guest. Cooking with Missouri's Innkeepers Cookbook/Travel Guide is the newest addition to my cookbook collection. The copyright is 1991, but I checked and the Woodstock Inn Bed and Breakfast still exists in Independence, MO.

According to the cookbook, the "Woodstock Inn, built in the early 1900's, is a former location for a collector doll business. Located in the heart of historic Independence, Missouri, it is only blocks from the Truman Library and home, historic mansions, Latter Day Saint religious centers, and a 10 minute drive to the Sprots Stadiums and Worlds of Fun Theme Parks.

Eleven guest rooms, all with private bath and individual climate control are tastefully decorated. Two suite rooms, which are handicap accessible, offer deluxe accommodations with sitting room.

Emphasis is on hospitality, good food (with special dietary needs considered) and knowledgeable hosts on points of interest. Private, lighted, off-street parking lot."

The online picture and the drawing in the cookbook indicates no change in the building. Sounds like the perfect place to stay if you are planning a trip to the Kansas City area. I have toured some of the historic homes in Independence and the Truman Library and home is a must-see if you come.

I had some bananas that were very ripe and saw the recipe for their muffins and decided to make them. I substituted sea salt & caramel chips for the chocolate chips because I had 1/2 cup left in a bag and wanted to use them up. Besides someone else was bringing a treat with chocolate chips for the Cafe Treat. That is also why I made mini-muffins instead of regular muffins. Mini-muffins work so much better in the Cafe at church. I also reduced the sugar from 1-1/4 cups to just 1 cup and trust me, they are plenty sweet.

The mini-muffins were just perfect and I really enjoyed the taste of the sea salt & caramel chips instead of chocolate chips. Even though I sprayed the pans, the first pan I allowed to cool probably five minutes before I tried removing them and that was a mistake. The problem was as the pan cooled, where the chips happened to be on the edge touching the pan, they stuck to the pan and so the muffin wasn't as pretty. The second pan I removed the muffins after a minute or two and none of them wanted to stick in the pan.

PRINT JUST THE RECIPE.

WOODSTOCK INN'S BANANA-CHOCOLATE CHIP MUFFINS

1       cup sugar

1       stick butter, softened

2       beaten eggs

1       teaspoon vanilla

3       tablespoons sour cream (I used Greek yogurt)

2       cups flour

1       teaspoon baking soda

2       ripe mashed bananas (about 1 cup)

1/2    cup chocolate chips (I used sea salt & caramel chips)

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Lightly spray muffin pans with non-stick cooking spray. (I made mini-muffins.) Set aside.

Combine sugar and butter until smooth.

Stir in eggs and vanilla and sour cream.

Combine flour and baking soda in a bowl with a whisk and

then add to creamed mixture.

Stir til all mixed up.

Fold in the bananas and

chocolate chips.

If making muffins fill 2/3 cup full. I made mini-muffins so I used a level tablespoon cookie scoop to measure amount.

Bake for 20 to 22 minutes for muffins or 12 minutes for mini-muffins.

Allow to cool only slightly before removing to cool on a wire rack. Use a knife to "run" inside the cup to loosen the muffin.

HEARTSTONE MUFFINS

The Heartstone Inn is located in Eureka Springs, Arkansas. We have personally never stayed there but have driven by. At an estate sale I found their cookbook and since I love cookbooks from inns and bed and breakfasts, I bought the cookbook for a dollar. I have so many recipes marked in the cookbook and have made a couple of them. 

Before COVID our church offered donuts and coffee in the dinning room between the two services on Sunday morning. As you might have guessed, it was a very busy place in the church between 10:30 and 11:00 every Sunday. Then COVID hit and the Bishop closed all of the United Methodist Churches in Missouri. Now that we are finally back to our pre-COVID Sundays, you hear people asking when are we going to bring back the donuts. Not the coffee, just the donuts. (There has been a pot of coffee available upstairs in the education building for people attending Sunday school classes for quite a while, but only recently has their been coffee available in the "Cafe" outside the Worship Center.)

Back in the fall there was a sign in the Cafe asking for volunteers to bring treats to share between services. I was told no one stepped forward. I offered to bake treats but said someone would have to serve them because I was in Sunday school.  Still no one stepped forward. They did put out a sign-up sheet for serving the coffee so I asked about the treats. Since no one had offered, I decided I would hopefully get the ball rolling and offered to bring mini-muffins which I did yesterday.

Of course the first place I went to search was the cookbook from the Heartstone Inn. There are so many pages marked  and pages that should be marked but this recipe for the Heartstone Muffins was on the opposite page of an applesauce muffin recipe that I had marked. (I did make the Applesauce Muffin for diabetics that I will be sharing later but the Heartstone Muffin was such a big hit I had to share it first.)

I did make a few changes which I noted at the end of the recipe. I printed the recipe as they make it. There personal note on the recipe says that it is the most requested recipe they get. 

You do prepare the batter the day before you want to bake them so the ingredients have time to interact with each other. I ended up making seven dozen  mini-muffins so I don't have as much batter left as I figured I would have. I just didn't have any idea how many I needed to make. If there were any left, it wasn't very many. After the 11 o'clock service the pastors had a Meet & Treat in the Cafe for visitors, etc to get to meet the pastors and learn more about them. They were enjoying them when we left the church.

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 HEARTSTONE MUFFINS

5      cups flour

3      cups sugar

12    oz raisin bran cereal 

1      cup golden raisins 

5      teaspoons baking soda

2      teaspoons salt

1/2   teaspoon allspice

1      teaspoon cinnamon

4      beaten eggs

4      cups buttermilk

1      cup oil

(For best results, prepare the batter the day before baking.)

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. when ready to bake.

Mix all dry ingredients (first 8 ingredients) together in a BIG bowl.

I had to weigh out 12 - oz of the bran flakes

before I added them.

(I use my big yellow Tupperware bowl.)

Add eggs, buttermilk, and oil making sure all dry ingredients are wet.

Cover and store in the refrigerator.

When ready to bake, remove the container from the refrigerator

 and "pour" into lined muffin cups (3/4 full) and

bake 15 minutes or until brown. 

Dip tops of baked muffins in the melted butter and

then in the sugar-cinnamon mixture

and allow to cool on a wire rack.

(1 cup sugar and 1 teaspoon cinnamon)

"This recipe makes almost a gallon of batter and will keep, covered tightly in the refrigerator for up to 6 weeks. Just use as needed. Makes 40 muffins. This is probably our most asked for recipe!" The Heartstone Inn 35 Kings Highway, Eureka Springs, Arkansas 72632

My personal notes: I made mini-muffins without liners. Since the recipe made regular sized muffins, I expect to make at least 80 mini-muffins. The mixture is thick so I used my 1-1/2 tablespoon cookie scoop to measure the batter into the cups. I cooked them for 12-14 minutes. I used bran flakes cereal and then used a 12-ounce box of golden raisins.

I melted about 1/4 cup of butter in the microwave while the muffins were baking and

prepared my space for dipping the muffins as soon as I removed them from the oven.

SIMPLE CHICKEN/TURKEY SOUP

 Friday morning we attended the dedication ceremony of our newly opened library about a mile from us. We are really fortunate in Kansas City and the surrounding area to have a library system called the Mid-Continent Public Library that covers three counties - Platte, Clay, and Jackson counties. The city limits of Kansas City is in all three counties but the library system covers many more cities in these three counties. 

The library near us was thirty years old and needed updating and enlarged so after voters approved tax money to build a newer, considerably larger state-of-the-arts library a mile or two away and right down the road from us. Green Hills Library Center is the result. The Culinary Center is the only one in the region and will open next year. It is going to be really spectacular. I am so looking forward to it. At the bottom of this post I will share some pictures of my first visit with grandkids Madison and Tyler. They were so excited about going as they watched it being built every time we drove past it this year.

We ran an errand to Menards afterwards and then went home to make some turkey soup with the leftover turkey from our belated Thanksgiving. Wayne immediately started looking for a recipe but I stopped him with, "Wait! I have a recipe I recently found that I wanted to try."

Finding the recipe our turkey noodle soup became a chicken soup using turkey instead of chicken. I had started cooking some rotini to use in place of the noodles but then changed my mind when I read the recipe and saw the ingredients especially the mixed vegetables. (I told Wayne he could just eat them with some butter.) 

Jump to the end by the time the soup was finished I had dished out some for him and added the cooked pasta. So the simple chicken soup turned into still a simple recipe but not exactly what the recipe intended. BUT it is very delicious. AND the little bit of turkey we had leftover after a couple of cold turkey sandwiches made us meals for several days.

PRINT RECIPE.

SIMPLE CHICKEN/TURKEY SOUP

2     cans (14.5 ounces each) chicken broth. (I made my own broth using chicken bouillon cubes and hot water) 

1     tablespoon dried minced onion

1     package frozen mixed vegetables

2     cups cubed cooked chicken breast or turkey

2     cans (10 ounces each) condensed cream of chicken soup, undiluted (low sodium)

1     teaspoon Nature Seasons

In a large saucepan, bring the broth and onion to a boil. Reduce heat.

Add the vegetables; cover and cook for 6 to 8 minutes or until crisp-tender.

Stir in the chicken or turkey and soup;

add seasoning

heat through.

I cooked 1 cup of chickpea rotini and

added it to some of the soup and then

added the rest of the soup to it. The turkey I used was smoked turkey our son Patrick made for our Thanksgiving so it gave the soup an extra yummy taste to it. 

At the dedication we learned that the fork outside the front of the library is the fifth largest fork on display in the nation.

Cups hanging over the "cafe" which is opening in January. 

The kids found books and they wanted to read them to me. I'M MY OWN DOG by David Ezra Stein was the cutest book and I would highly recommend it. It is told from the dog's point of view.