Vegan wheat flour and oat bran muffin

The other day when I had been to Nilgiri's super market I saw oat bran. I remembered joyofbaking's oat bran recipe. So I bought it and made the muffins. I made a vegan version of the muffin and it came out very well. I replaced the egg with 1/4 cup applesauce and milk with soy milk. I did not have molasses, so after some thought process I decided to substitute with lion date syrup. The muffins came out surprisingly well and it tasted too good. As mentioned in the original recipe the oat bran gives a nutty flavour to the muffin which I enhanced by adding some walnuts.

Ingredients to make around 12 medium sized muffins
Whole wheat flour: 1 cup
Oat bran: 1 cup
Light brown sugar: 1/3 cup(I used demerra sugar)
Baking powder: 1 1/2 tsp
Baking soda: 1/2 tsp
Salt: 1/4 tsp
Ground cinnamon: 1/4 tsp
Apple sauce: 1/4 tsp
Unsulphured molasses: 1/4 cup(I used Lion brand date syrup)
Pure vanilla extract: 1 tsp 
Canola oil: 2 tbsp(I used refined oil)
Soy milk: 1 1/4 cup
Walnut: 1/4 cup

Procedure
1. Preheat the oven to 205 degrees C. Line a muffin pan with paper liners or grease the tin with vegetable oil. 
2. Mix flour, oat bran, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon in a bowl.
3. Whisk together the apple sauce, molasses, vanilla extract, oil and soy milk in another large bowl.
4. Add the dry mixture to the wet mixture and stir just until moistened. Gently stir in the walnuts. (The batter will be thin.) 
5. Fill the muffin cups with a ladle of batter and bake for about 12 to 15 minutes or until a toothpick inserted at the center of the muffin comes out clean. 

These muffins make for a hearty and healthy breakfast.

Eggless Apple Raisin muffins

Why do some women put on weight after marriage? Put on some more after child birth? Why did I fall into that category of women???

Why can't I exercise regularly? Why can't I stop indulging on fatty food?

The first 3 "why"s are beyond my control, but the last 2... definitely I can do something about it..

As a first step, I have decided to bake cake/muffin or any such bakery product only after I reduce a kg of weight in next 2 weeks. I have my own method of working out and dieting(not starving) which I charted out by doing some research in the internet a few years back..It has always worked for me..Let me see how I fair this time..

Till my next baking adventure, here is a muffin recipe which I adapted from Madhuram's. As with any other fruit based muffin, I had this one too with chocolate cream. The rest of them liked it as it was. It tasted better the next day.

Igredients to make 12 medium sized muffins

All Purpose Flour/Maida: 2 cups
Baking soda:1 tsp
Walnuts: 1/4 cup(Chopped)
Water : 1/4 cup(or a bit more if the batter is too thick)
Brown Sugar : 1/2 cup
Granulated Sugar: 1/4 cup
Raisins : 1/2 cup
Apple : 1 cup(peeled and grated)
Butter : 1/4 cup(at room temperature)
Cinnamon: 1/8th tsp
Nutmeg a pinch

Procedure

1. Pre heat the oven to 180 degree C.
2. Combine flour, baking soda and walnuts in a bowl.
3. Combine the rest of the ingredients in a pan and bring to boil.
4. Remove from heat and cool completely.
5. Add the flour mixture to the cooled mixture and mix until combined. (Do not over mix. It would result in hard muffins)
6. Place the muffin liners in a muffin tin and fill with the batter. If liners are not available, directly fill the muffin tins to almost full.
7. Bake for 15 minutes or till a tooth pick inserted comes out clean.

Cool and serve.

It makes for a healthy and easy breakfast.

Eggless whole wheat banana muffins

I have been postponing to make banana based muffins for a long time for the simple reason that I don't like bananas. I thought its high time that I overcome this feeling. So I baked these healthy muffins following Stephanie's recipe and replacing eggs with apple sauce along with a couple of changes to the original recipe.. I actually need not have used apple sauce as banana itself is supposed to be an egg substitute.. I could have just increased the quantity of banana. As there was one apple lying in the fridge for so many days unattended, I used it in the recipe by converting it into an apple sauce.The muffins tasted better than I expected. In fact, it tasted very nice and the texture was very soft too with walnuts here and there while chewing....There was no raw wheat smell this time. The taste was a bit cinnamony as I added it a bit more in an attempt to remove raw wheat flour smell. Overall the muffins came out very good and it made for a healthy, filling breakfast..The breaking news is, my son too ate one whole muffin..Its kind of a record.. :-)

Ingredients to make 15 medium sized muffins

Whole Wheat flour: 2 cups(I used ashirvad aata)
Mashed Ripe Banana: 1 cup(Original recipe calls for 1 1/2 cups.)
Baking Powder: 1 1/2 tsp
Baking Soda: 1/4 tsp
Salt: 1/4 tsp
Ground Cinnamon: 1/4 tsp(I added a bit more than 1/4th tsp)
Apple sauce: 1/2 cup(peel, deseed and chop the apples, microwave it for 8 minutes by adding some water, cool it and mash it in a mixer.)
Golden Syrup: 1/2 cup(Original recipe calls for maple syrup and I didn't have it.)
Brown Sugar/Demerra Powder: 1/2 cup(I powdered it in a mixer)
Milk: 1/3 cup(I used Nandini brand)
Refined Oil: 1/4 cup(I used Sunflower brand, original recipe calls for canola oil)
Vanilla Essence: 1 tsp
Almond Essence: 1 tsp(optional)
Chopped Walnuts: 1/4 cup(Original recipe calls for 3/4th cup)

Procedure

1. Pre heat oven to 180 degree C.
2. In a big bowl, mix all the dry ingredients except for sugar and sieve once.
3. In another bowl, combine the mashed bananas, apple sauce, golden syrup, brown sugar, milk, oil, and vanilla extract.
4. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry mixture and fold lightly until the mixture is thick. I did this with the plastic spoon that comes with mixer. After folding, some wheat flour was lying without getting mixed, so I added 2 tbsp of milk and combined.(Do not over mix, otherwise it will result in a hard muffin)
5. Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin tins. I filled the batter in muffin liners almost till the top.
6. Bake for about 15 - 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
7. Allow it to cool and serve either as it is or by frosting with whipped cream. I had mine with dark chocolate frosting that was left after using it in the eggless whole wheat cake.

Verdict: Everything about this muffin was good. I think, it would have enhanced the flavour if I had added maple syrup instead of golden syrup. Overall a must try recipe.

Note: I pureed one big apple which gave more than 1/2 cup of apple sauce. I guess, just 1/2 an apple is enough to get 1/2 cup apple sauce. It would be better to add 1 1/2 cups of mashed banana(as per the original recipe) instead of just 1 cup. Also, I think any variety of banana is OK as long as it is fully ripened. For the apple sauce, if microwave is not there, the chopped apple can be cooked in gas stove, until the apple becomes soft.

This is my second entry to Madhuram's Whole grain(Eggless) baking event.

Eggless chocolate chip vanilla muffins

I have tried so many of Stephanie's recipes(substituting eggs wherever required), few I have posted in my blog, few I have not...Not even a single recipe has failed so far. The measurements are just perfect and it is so nice of her to give both cup and gms measurements which is one of the the main reasons why I always go back to her website for baking recipes..

Yes, I can just post the photos of the item that I bake and provide the link to her recipe and stop there. But I wouldn't want to do that for 2 reasons..Firstly, I make some alterations to the recipe(based on availablity of ingredients and preferences) which I would like to document.Secondly, if for some reason the site becomes unavailable to me (which I hope would never happen), then how would I ever bake all those wonderful cakes, cookies, muffins....

So here is the recipe for chocolate chips muffins that I adapted from joyofbaking. After getting stuck in the infamous banglaore-BG road traffic jam 2 kms from home in a bus, covering the 2 kms by walk on a road with knee deep rain water for almost 500 metres, with one of the sandals torn half way, covering the rest of the distance with a bare foot sometimes over slippery heaps of mud and huge stones, I still had the enthusiasm to bake this choco chip muffin after coming back home. One can imagine how much I am inspired by the wonderful website called the joyofbaking.

The muffins did not let me down. It was softer and moister than I expected with a nice combination of vanilla and chocolate flavour. It was a soothing end to my ordeal with the rain- flooded bg road.

Ingredients to make around 15 muffins

Unsalted butter: 113 gms(melted and cooled)
Curd/Yogurt: 150 gms
Milk: 240 ml
Vanilla extract: 1 1/2 tsp
All purpose flour/Maida: 260 gms
Granulated white sugar: 135 gms
Baking powder: 1 tbsp
Salt: 1/4th tsp (1/2 tsp in original recipe)
Chocolate chips: 100 gms (Original recipe calls for 175 gms)

Procedure

1. Pre heat oven to 190 degree C
2. Grease the muffin tin or place the paper liners.(I did the latter)
3. In a bowl, whish together the curd, milk and vanilla extract.(I used a hand blender for this)
4. In another bowl mix all the dry ingredients. Add the chocolate chips and mix well.
5. Fold in the wet ingredients and butter into the dry ingredients.(I did this with hand)
6. Stir onyl until the ingredients are combined well.
7. Fill each muffin cup with the batter upto 3/4th of the cup.
8. Place the tin in the oven and bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until a skewer inserted at the centre of the cup comes out clean.
9. Remove from oven and allow it to cool.

Vanilla flavoured muffins with gooey chocolate chips just tastes delicious.

Note: I deviated from the procedure twice by mistake. Firstly, I mixed the butter also with curd, milk and vanilla extract. Secondly, I folded in the chocolate chips after mixing the dry ingredients with the wet ones.But overall, the muffin looked and tasted great.

According to the original post,Over mixing of the batter would result in tough muffins.For even heating, fill the emtpy muffin cups with some water.