Eggless Banana Wheat Bran Walnut Muffins

Baking is my passion. I can bake day and night without any break (of course if my toddler allows me) :)  I do not get much time but still I try to satisfy my urge of baking by creating all sorts of muffins as they take comparatively very less time to bake than a cake.  The other reason is that muffins are small in size and always looks inviting (not like a piece of cake which, to me, looks so weird after a day or two).  Above all, finishing a whole cake is a bit tough job for me but these little beauties are always welcome :)  

Today's recipe is also a baby of my hunger to bake :D  Nothing fancy going on here.  I had a pack of wheat bran which I try to add in every second thing be it cookies, cakes, muffins or breads.  So this time I added it to these muffins and they came out delicious.  I added no egg or butter for making them.  

Its a healthy option for breakfast and tiffin treats for both kids and adults.  The texture was so soft and fluffy.  Walnuts gave these muffins a perfect crunch so do not skip them.  

For parties, you can transform these muffins to show stoppers by adding a nice glaze or icing on top.  For chocolate frosting you can check here and for easy n delicious hung curd icing check here.

Recipe is so easy so you can involve your kids too. Don your aprons guys.  Happy Cooking :)

Makes - 5 muffins

Baking time - 25 min.

My 1 cup measures 250 ml

Ingredients:

Ripe banana (mashed)	1/4 cup
All purpose flour/Maida	¼ cup or 4 tbsp
Oats flour	1 tbsp
Wheat bran	3 tbsp
Oil	2 tbsp
Baking powder	½ tsp
Baking soda	1 pinch
Sugar	3-4 tbsp
Milk	1 ½ tbsp
Vanilla essence	Few drops
Walnuts (chopped)	¼ cup or 4 tbsp
Coffee powder	1tsp (diluted in 1 tbsp warm milk)

Method:

• In a bowl, mix together all purpose flour, wheat bran, oats flour, baking soda and baking powder.  Set aside.
• In another bowl, take sugar and mashed banana.  Mix well with a spoon till sugar melts (if using granulated sugar).  Add oil, diluted coffee and vanilla essence. Mix again.  Then add little flour and mix well.  Add 1 tbsp milk and mix again.  Add remaining flour and 1/2 tbsp milk little by little and make a smooth batter without any lumps.  At this stage if you feel the batter is not of dropping consistency, add 1 more tbsp milk and mix well.  At the end, fold in 2 and half tbsp of chopped walnuts.
• Preheat oven at 180 degree and line muffin pan with liners.  
• Fill the muffin liners till 1/2 or little more than that and top it up with remaining chopped walnuts.  Bake for 25 minutes or till you get the perfect browning on the top.
• Remove and shift to a wire rack. Serve warm.
• Store in an airtight container.

 

 

Notes:

1. I used castor sugar but granulated sugar can also be used.
2. You can substitute walnuts with any nut of your choice.  I strictly recommend to add nuts.
3. If you do not have wheat bran you can substitute it with oats flour or wheat flour or oat bran
4. Adjust the quantity of milk as per the consistency of your batter.
5. After 16-18 minutes, keep an eye on the muffins to avoid over baking as every oven temperature varies.  If your muffins gets brown before 25 minutes insert a toothpick in the center of a muffin and check if it comes out clean to make sure your muffins are not undercooked.

Strawberry Oats Bars

I love oats and experimenting with it to make different foods. Today's recipe is also made with oats and is a healthy one.  I got this recipe here and bookmarked it instantly as I found it very easy and ingredients used were also very simple and I must confess that I wanted to finish my strawberry jam too :D  

This recipe was in my TO TRY list and last weekend I finally made it and OMG it came out so yummy.  Trust me guys its seriously addictive.  You can't stop having just one. We finished up the whole batch on the same day and I myself had 70% of it :D  I loved these bars so much that I made a fresh batch again. This is the simplest recipe I ever came across.  Just mix up all the ingredients in one bowl, layer it in the baking pan and bake.  Super duper simple.

I made a few changes in the original recipe like I used thinly granulated brown sugar and castor sugar, reduced the quantity of butter, used vanilla essence in the base mixture and before baking topped the dish with chopped walnuts and I am glad I made those changes :)  Addition of walnuts and vanilla gave it a nice crunch and flavour. I also substituted strawberry preserve with strawberry jam. The final product was surprisingly divine.  (That is the beauty of experiments).

While layering the dish in the baking tray I didn't put a thick layer of strawberry jam as I wanted to have both outer crust and jam flavour equally.  You are free to use as much jam as you like.  After cutting and cooling the bars I shifted them to an airtight container and kept in the fridge.  I loved these bars even more on the following day as they became more firm and crunchy due to cooling.  I strongly recommend to store these bars in the fridge.

Its a delicious and healthy anytime snack for kids as well as adults.  Even you can have it as breakfast too with a glass of milk.  I can bet you would love to make it again and again because of its simplicity and taste.  The biggest proof of its deliciousness is that I have bought a fresh bottle of strawberry jam again ... just to make these bars :D

I am so happy with this recipe and so here sharing the recipe.  Do try and enjoy.  Happy Cooking :)

Recipe adapted from thepioneerwoman.com

Ingredients:

All purpose flour	¾ cup
Quick cooking oats/Rolled oats	¾ cup
Salted Butter (cold)	6 tbsp
Brown sugar	¼ cup
Castor sugar	¼ cup
Baking powder	½ tsp
Vanilla essence (optional)	¼ tsp
Chopped walnuts	2 tbsp
Strawberry jam	As required (I used 4 tbsp)

Method:

• Preheat the oven at 175 degree.  Grease a square pan with butter and keep aside.  
• In a mixing bowl, take all purpose flour, oats, baking powder, brown sugar, castor sugar and mix everything well.  Add butter and mix with your hand until the mixture becomes crumbly.  Add vanilla essence and mix again.
• Take half of the mixture and spread in the greased pan.  Cover the bottom of the pan with the mixture equally and press to make it firm.
• Layer the strawberry jam evenly on the prepared base of oats mix.  Cover it with remaining oats mix and lightly press the layer.  Sprinkle chopped walnuts and press them lightly.
• Bake it for 35 minutes or till it gets golden brown on the top.
• Remove from oven and let it cool down.
• Cut into squares and serve.
• Store the remaining bars in an airtight container and keep in the fridge.

Notes:

1. You can top it with any nuts of your choice.
2. Instead of walnuts you can use chopped cashews or almonds.
3. White sugar can be used in place of brown sugar and castor sugar.  If using big granulated sugar, grind it slightly.
4. Layer as much jam as you want.
5. Do not over bake.

Whole Wheat Peanut Butter Cookies

Hi friends.  Marry Christmas to all of you.  I know its a bit late but there is no time constraint for sharing the good wishes :)

I had planned to make a fruit cake on this Christmas but couldn't manage the time for the same so now I will make it for the new year.  It would be an easy peasy recipe with no fuss.  No alcohol and nothing fancy going around.  So keep checking my space for the recipe.

Getting back to today's recipe i.e. whole wheat peanut butter cookies.  I had a bottle of peanut butter which I bought for some baking recipes.  I like peanuts but I can't have peanut butter on the bread.  So the bottle was almost full. Yesterday I was in baking mood so I mixed up different things with peanut butter and got these nice peanut butter cookies.  I added healthy flours to make it anytime craving snacks.  Fat is also very less.  Crushed peanuts gave a nice crunch to these cookies.  I used brown sugar for the deep brown color but you are free to use white sugar instead.  You can also decrease the sugar level, there wont be any compromise with the taste I bet.  We enjoyed these cookies with tea.  You also try out.  Happy Cooking :)

Ingredients:

Whole wheat flour	½ cup
All purpose flour / Maida	½ cup
Oats flour	¼ cup
Brown sugar	¾ cup
Peanut butter	½ cup
Dessicated coconut	2 tbsp
Baking soda	¼ tsp
Roasted peanuts (crushed)	2 tbsp
Golden syrup	1 tbsp
Cardamom (crushed)	1
Vanilla essence	1 tsp
Ghee/butter	3 tbsp
Water	3 tbsp

Method:

• Take a bowl and mix together wheat flour, all purpose flour, oats flour,coconut, baking soda and cardamom powder.  Keep aside.
• In another bowl, take brown sugar, peanut butter, golden syrup, vanilla essence and water.  Mix well and keep aside for 10 minutes.
• After 10 minutes, mix together sugar batter and flours.  Add butter little by little. Add crushed peanuts and mix again.  Check the consistency.  The mixture would come together if you press it with your fist but it would not form a soft dough.  The texture would be a little crumbly. 
• Take a small portion of mixture and form a ball and press it between both your palms and shape it into cookies.  You can use a cookie cutter also as I did.  As the mixture is crumbly, forming cookies would take a little more time.

 

cookies ready to go in the oven

• Preheat the oven at 180 degree. Take a baking tray and line with an aluminum foil.  Grease the foil with butter.
• Arrange the cookies in the tray and bake for 15 minutes or till the cookies start getting brown.  Do not bake for more than 15 minutes.
• Remove from the oven and let the cookies rest for 2 minutes. 

Just out of the oven

• Shift the cookies to cookie rack and let them cool for 15 minutes.
• Enjoy with tea or coffee.

Notes:

1. Sugar level can be adjusted according to your taste.
2. White sugar can be used.  Brown sugar will give the deep brown color to the cookies.
3. Use the butter/ghee at room temperature.
4. If you find the mixture is too crumbly to shape into cookies you can add some more butter.
5. Do not over bake the cookies else they would burn.

Sweet Corn Idli

Hi friends. As you know, through my previous post of Sweet Corn Kheer that I love sweet corns. Today also I am gonna post a new dish with sweet corns. 

I had just two sweet corns left and I wanted to make something with it for lunch that too something which my baby could also have with us so decided to try this innovative dish called sweet corn idli.  At first I was apprehensive about the taste as sweet corns give a bit sweetness to any dish but when I tasted the idli, it was super soft and taste was just so good. We all liked it very much including my LO :) I accompanied it with Sambar and it turned out to be a perfect lunch. These idlis are delicious at the same time very healthy as it has no oil and I have added oats flour in it. These soft and spongy idlis will just melt in your mouth provided you dont forget to add fruit salt in the batter :D  Generally I do not like idlis much but these sweet corn idlis has just stolen my heart and I ate up more than usual.  I strongly recommend you to try it atleast once.  So here is the recipe for you to try.  Happy Cooking :)

Ingredients:

Fresh sweet corns	2 medium
Semolina / Suji/ Rava	1 cup
Curd	1 cup+ 1 tbsp
Oats flour	¼ cup
Ginger (grated)	1/2 cup
Salt
Oil	1 tbsp
Curry leaves	5-6
Mustard seeds	½ tsp
Urad dal	1 tsp
Eno fruit salt	1 tsp

Method:

• Take the sweet corns and wash them well. Grate them and get the pulp. (I got exact 1 cup of pulp).  Keep it aside.
• In a mixing bowl, add semolina and curd.  Mix well. Add oats flour and mix.  Add sweet corn pulp and mix again.  Let it rest for 10 minutes.
• After 10 minutes, add salt and grated ginger in the mixture. Stir well.
• For tempering, take a tadka pan and heat oil in it.  Add mustard seeds and urad dal and let it fry till dal changes the color to brown.  Add curry leaves and let it fry for 5 seconds,  Tadka is ready.  Pour it to the prepared idli batter and give a nice stir. Keep it aside for another 10 minutes.
• Take  the idli cooker/rice cooker / pressure cooker and put 3 cups of water in it.  Let it boil.  Till that time, take the idli stand and grease the moulds. 
• Take the idli batter and add in eno fruit salt and mix (do not over mix).   Fill the greased idli moulds with this batter and put it inside the cooker.  Keep the flame on high and let it cook for 15 minutes.  After 15 minutes, check if the idlis are prepared.  
• Remove the stand from the cooker and let it cool down for 5 minutes.  Remove the idlis from the moulds with the help of a greased knife or dinner knife.
• Arrange them in the plate and serve hot with chutney or sambar.

Note:

1. If you do not have the fresh sweet corns you can take frozen ones and grind them with the help of a blender and make a one cup pulp with it.
2. If you wish you can add green chilly and red chilli powder to the batter.
3. If using pressure cooker, do not put the whistle on it while cooking the idlis in it.
4. Do not forget to add eno fruit salt else your idlis would become dense and hard.
5. If you do not have eno fruit salt you can replace it with same quantity of baking soda though I have not tried with the baking soda.