Spiced Plum Muffins

I am back after a fabulous vacation in Tokyo!
I must say Tokyo is by far the most exciting and vibrant city I ever visited!
Absolutely loved it there! Friendly people and great food. And yes, I managed to find lots and lots of vegetarian options for all 3 meals
The subway was a bit overwhelming initially.. Tokyo subway is indeed like a bowl of Ramen!!
I am still sorting the hundreds of pictures, will post some soon!

Coming to todays recipe , Plum muffins which is a perfect grab and go breakfast!
Ideal way to start your day- Fruity, whole meal and absolutely yummy!

Spiced Plum Muffins

Ingredients

• 100 gms whole wheat flour
• ¾ tspn Baking powder
• ½ tspn Whole spice powder
• Pinch of salt
• 75 ml Milk
• 1 tbspn Oil
• 1 whole egg
• 2-3 tbspn Date Syrup/Honey/Maple syrup
• 3 large plums roughly chopped.

Directions

• Preheat the oven to 190 degrees.
• Sieve the dry ingredients together and stir well.
• Bring together the wet ingredients, Milk,egg,Syrup and oil.
• Beat well with an electric mixer or whisk to combine.
• Add this wet ingredient to the dry ingredients and stir with a spoon until just combined.
• Now add the plums and give it a gentle stir
• Divide equally among the muffin cups and bake for 20 minutes

Mango Muffins

It’s been quite a long time since I switched on my oven.

With parents around I tend to laze around a lot!  The only thing in my mind during weekends are Hmm.. whatz going to be Amma’s weekend special menuJ

Now they are back in hometown Land I feel like the weekend has suddenly become soo long!

So I decided to switch on the oven and bake something for the week.

I had bookmarked these Fresh mango muffins long back and gave it a shot today

I loved the feel of the chunky sweet mangoes as I bite into the soft muffins!

Mango  Muffins

Adapted from Muffins and Slices by R&R Publications

Ingredients

• 1 Cup Self Raising Flour
• 2 tspn Baking powder
• 1 tspn Ground Cardamom
• 40 gms Wheat germ/Oat Bran
• 60 gms Brown Sugar
• 1 Mango chopped
• 2 Egg whites
• 180 ml Low fat milk
• 60 ml Oil

Directions

• Sift together flour, baking powder and the cardamom to a bowl
• Stir in the wheat germ and brown sugar.
• Add the mangos and mix until the mangoes are coated well
• Place the egg whites, milk and oil in a small bowl and beat well.
• Add this mix to the flour mix and stir until just combined
• Bake in a 180 C preheated oven for 15-20 minutes.
• Let it cool down a bit and enjoy the fruity healthy muffins

Banana Blueberry Buckwheat Muffins

I just got a pack of Buckwheat flour few weeks back as they were on sale in the organic section in the supermarket
After making two batches of pancakes over the last two weekends I realized thatz the only thing I know to make out of the buckwheat is the pancakes.
Sigh….I still have a huge portion left in the pack :-) So chose to try making some muffins out of the buckwheat and turned out scrumptious
This whole meal, healthy, fruity ,nutty muffins makes a perfect grab and go breakfast
These grab and go muffins make a perfect healthy breakfast

Banana Blueberry Buckwheat Muffins
Ingredients
½ Cup Buckwheat flour
½ Cup Whole wheat flour
1 tspn Baking powder
1 tbspn Flax seeds
¼ Cup Pecans chopped
¼ Cup yogurt
2 Banans Mashed
3 tbspn Date Syrup /Agave nectar /Honey
1 tbspn Oil
1 Whole egg+1 egg white
½ Cup blueberries

Directions
Sift the flour +baking powder and add in the flax seeds and pecans and mix well.
Mix together the wet ingredients -egg, mashed banana, Sweetner, Oil, yogurt
Add the wet ingredients to the dry mix and stir until just combined.
Add the blueberries and spoon the batter to muffin cups.
Bake in a 180 Degree preheated oven for 25-30 minutes.

Lemon Polenta Cupcake

Belated Christmas wishes to all of youJ

Guess all of you had a fantastic Christmas with lots of good food with your family and friends

We celebrated Xmas at our friends place with some amazing food and had a great time!

After gorging on all creamy, chocolaty cakes and cookies..I made this simple Cornmeal Cupcake today..

A simple, guilty free treat to munch on..

Lemon Polenta Cupcake

Ingredients

60 gms Polenta

20 gms All purpose Flour

½ tspn Baking Powder

2 tbspn Oil

2 ½ tbspn Yogurt

2 tbspn Lemon Juice

½- 1 tspn Lemon Zest

1 egg

60 gms Caster Sugar

Directions

Preheat the oven to 170 Degrees.

Beat together the egg and Caster Sugar until light in color

Mix together the Oil, Lemon Juice, Yogurt and Zest .

Pour this to the egg mix and beat well.

Stir together the dry ingredients. 

Add to the wet ingredients and mix well.The batter will be very runny.

Pour to the cup cake mould and bake for 20 minutes

Zucchini muffins- A low fat n whole meal treat

Vegetables are a must on a diet.  I suggest carrot cake, zucchini bread, and pumpkin pie. ~Jim Davis 

As rightly said by Jim I decided to take my veggies ..in muffin formJ

So here is a low fat n whole meal treat with the goodness of Zucchini.

It is an absolutely delightful treat and a perfect breakfast muffin.

Zucchini muffins- A low fat n whole meal treat

Ingredients

1 Cup Whole meal flour

1/2 cup All purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon All spice powder

1/2 teaspoon Ginger powder

Pinch of salt

1 egg

1/3 Cup agave nectar

1/3 cup Oil [I used Olive Oil]

1 cup grated zucchini

Directions

Preheat the oven to 325°F .

In a large bowl using an electric beater beat the egg well. Add the agave nectar and Oil and beat until smooth.

Add in the Zucchini and mix well.

Sift together the dry ingredients to the mix and stir until just moist. Do not over mix

Divide into the 6 muffins cups and bake for 30-35 minutes until a cake tester inserted comes out clean.

Muesli Muffins

I like to start my day with something sweet. And I really really love to have a sugary breakfastJ

..From simple bread butter jam to muffins , scones..and for Indi breakfast a spoon of sugar is a must must.

Bottom-line anything sweet is perfect for me. So sweet of me..na?!!!

Recently my fondness towards the sweet stuff has started showing around my waistline/arms..!!Sigh sigh

So I have been on a recipe hunt for healthy muffins for the past few weeks and made 6 different varieties of muffins over the last month

And this batch of Muesli muffins is definitely on the top of my fav recipe list

Crunchy, nutty, chewy, lightly sweet..A perfect muffin for breakfast.

Here goes the recipe

Muesli Muffins

120 gms Muesli- Used Almond/Apricot Muesli

120 gms flour

1/4 Cup Wheat germ

80 ml Oil- I used Grape seed oil

80 gms Brown Sugar

1 egg

250 ml butter milk [250 ml low fat milk +1 tablespoon yogurt]

1 tspn Baking powder

½ tspn Baking soda

1 tspn Cinnamon powder

Pinch of salt

In a bowl combine Muesli and butter milk and let it soak for an hour

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees

Beat the Oil, egg, sugar using an electric mixer until light and smooth.

Sift together the dry ingredients flour, baking powder, baking soda and spice powder.

Stir this into the wet ingredients alternating with the Muesli mix.

Add in the wheat germ and mix in until the dry ingredients are moistened and do not over mix.

Full in the muffin cups till 2/3^rd full and bake for 25 minutes.

Let it cool in a wire rack and enjoy the warm muffins with a cup of milk.

Orange Poppy seed cupcake

It’s quite difficult to find the black poppy seeds here in Singapore

That said you must be wondering how I managed to bake Poppy seed cupcake!!

It was during my last business trip to San Diego that I got it..someone gifted this to meJ

I actually don’t remember when I mentioned about Poppy seeds to Ada[ my colleague from SD]

It was such sooo sweet of her to remember that and give me a pack of poppy seeds on my last day in SD.

I have to say Ada and Pierre are such a sweet couple..They set aside one entire weekend for us

..Took me and my colleague out for a fun filled outing ..some good food and above all there was a surprise at the end of the day

Knowing my love for desserts they took me to an extraordinary place..The extraordinary dessertsJ Just one word to describe it…Seventh heaven

So this is for you guysJ Hope you njoy the visual treat !!

Without further adieu here goes the recipe

Orange Poppy seed cupcake

40 g Poppy seeds

125 ml warm milk

150 gms butter softened

2 tspn finely grated orange zest

1 tablespoon Orange Juice

150 gms caster sugar

2 eggs

185 gms Self raising flour

For Icing

100 gms cream cheese

Orange juice 1 tablespoon

1tspn Orange zest

50-70 gms Icing Sugar

Pre heat the oven to 180 degree

Combine the poppy seeds and milk in a bowl and set aside for 15 min

Place the butter, orange zest, sugar, eggs and flour in a large bowl

Add the poppy seeds mixture, orange juice and beat with an electric mixer until well combined

Increase the speed and continue to beat for 3 minutes until the mixture is thick and pale

Spoon the batter into the paper cups and bake for 15 minutes.

Transfer onto a wire rack to cool

To make the icing, beat the Cream cheese, orange juice and zest until smooth

Add the icing sugar gradually and continue to beat until the desired consistency is reached.

Banana and Pecan Breakfast Muffin

Is there a better way to start your day than having a fruity n nutty muffin?J

This one is also a handy recipe to get rid of those oven ripe bananas from your countertop!!

This recipe is adapted from my all time favorite book from Martha Day, I like to call it as my Baking bible

It has a magnificent collection of recipes from breads, muffins, cookies to tarts and pies…

Since I made it for breakfast, I added some flax seed meal, little more pecans and little less sugar.

 

Here goes the recipe

Adapted from Baking from Martha Day

150 gms Plain flour

1 ½ tspn Baking powder

50 gms butter

100  -120 gms Caster Sugar

1 egg

1 tspn Vanilla essence

3 medium Bananas mashed

60 gms Pecan chopped

4 tbspn Milk

1 1/2 tbspn flax seed powder [Optional]

Preheat the oven to 190 Degree

Sift the dry ingredients, flour and baking powder and set aside

In a bowl cream the butter and sugar together.

Add in the egg, vanilla essence and flax seed meal and beat till fluffy. Mix in the mashed banana and continue to beat for a few seconds.

Add in the pecans. With mixer on low speed, add the flour alternately with milk.

Spoon the mixture to muffin cups, filling them two thirds. Bake for 20-25 minutes until golden brown and a skewer inserted comes out clean.

Let it cool on wire rack for 10 min and enjoy your breakfast muffinsJ

Off this goes to Healing Food-Banana Event hosted by Krithi and Siri and
Driver me nuts event hosted by Anamika

Orange Blueberry Muffins

When it comes to muffins or cupcakes I have a hard time to decide which flavor to bake.
There are a lot of options…chocolate, vanilla, orange…u name a flavor and there is a muffin or cupcake for it…
I have bananas in my table…..I have apples, oranges and blueberries in my refrigerator……ooph…
Why not a mixed fruits muffin… banana +apple +orange….hmmm shud I take that step??
Oo noo..I hate Mixed fruit Jam, Mixed fruit Yogurt…so no more mixed fruit…thatz too much flavors for me..

So I let banana and apple rest in peace and struck a note …Orange and Blueberry Muffin

May the muffins be with you …here is the recipe

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
Pinch of salt
1/4 cup Butter or Corn Oil
1/3 cup sugar
1 egg
1/3 cup Milk
1/3 cup freshly squeezed Orange Juice
1 tea spoon Orange Zest
1 /2 tea spoon Vanilla essence

1/ 2 Cup Blueberries
Almond Flakes for decoration

In a large bowl, beat in the butter and Sugar till the color of the mixture lightens. Add in the Vanilla essence.
Beat in egg and beat in low speed for 2 minutes.
Combine the wet ingredients- juice, zest, and milk in a small bowl.
Add half the wet ingredients to the bowl of butter- sugar mixture and beat on low speed. Add half the flour mixture and beat just until combined.
Repeat with remaining wet and dry ingredients and flour mixture.

Sprinkle a spoon full of flour to the blueberries and gently toss it to that the blueberries get a coat of the flour. This is so that the Blueberries don’t sink into the bottom of the muffins

Add in the blueberries to the batter and gently fold in.

Divide batter evenly into the muffin tray. Bake for 15-20 minutes, until the cupcakes spring back when the top is pressed or until a toothpick tester comes out clean. Remove the cupcakes from the muffin pan and cool on a wire rack.

Enjoy the muffins with a cup of Coffee :-)