Upma Muffins | Savory oat muffins

I am a big fan of upma in any form! So when I came across the savory muffins in showmethecurry.com, I immediately bookmarked it to try it out for a Sunday evening snack. I have made an eggless version and this yummy muffins are sure to make you want for more :) Try it out for an evening snack or make in huge batches, refrigerate them and re-heat and relish for a wholesome breakfast on a busy day!

Ingredients: (Makes 10 muffins)

• Quick Oats – 3/4 cup
• Oat bran -1/4 cup (This is optional, you can omit this and include 1 cup oats instead)
• Quick Oats Flour – 3/4 cup (grind Quick Oats in a mixer)
• Whole Wheat Flour – 1/4 cup
• Salt – 1 Tsp
• Baking Soda – 1/2 Tsp
• Yogurt – 1 cup
• Lemon Juice – 1 tsp

Seasoning:

• Oil – 1 Tbsp
• Mustard Seeds – 1/2 tsp
• Curry Leaves – 1 sprig, chopped
• Green Chillies – to taste, finely chopped
• Asafoetida – 1/8 tsp
• Turmeric Powder – 1/4 tsp
• Onions – 1/2 cup, finely chopped
• Ginger – 1 Tbsp, grated
• Frozen or boiled peas – 1/2 cup
• Carrots – 1/2 cup, finely chopped

METHOD:

1. Heat oil in pan on medium heat
2. Add Mustard Seeds and allow them to pop
3. Add curry leaves, Green chillies, asafoetida and turmeric powder, give it a quick stir and add onions and ginger. Sauté it for a minute
4. Add the veggies (You can include sweet corn too). Cook for a minute and turn off the heat.
5. In a large mixing bowl, mix together all the dry ingredients - oats flour, quick oats, whole wheat flour, oat bran (if using), baking soda and salt
6. To the seasoned veggies, add yogurt, lemon juice and mix well
7. Pour in the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and gently give it a mix
8. Grease the muffin trays lightly with oil and pour in the prepared batter upto 3/4^th of each muffin moulds. Bake the muffins in a pre-heated oven at 180C for 15-20 mins (Mine were done in 16 minutes)
9. Serve them warm or cool them on a wire rack and they can be stored in air-tight containers and refrigerated. Re-heat in the microwave before serving! Upma muffins are ready to go!!

Eggless Sticky Date Pudding

The moment I saw the recipe of eggless date pudding in Yum's the word, I was tempted to try it immediately. After some recipe hunting, I came up with a healthier version of an Eggless whole wheat date cake with a topping of caramel sauce!! (drool :P) Absolutely yummy! The dates that I used was sweet enough so I reduced the additional sugar in the recipe. The cake tastes yumm as such and with an additional topping of warm caramel sauce........................... do I need to say more??!! Let me jump right away to the recipe :)

INGREDIENTS:

For the cake:

• Dates - 20, de-seeded
• Sugar - 1/3 to 1/2 cup as required and depending on the sweetness of the dates used
• Milk - 3/4 cup
• Whole wheat flour - 1 cup
• Oil - 1/2 cup (I used sunflower oil, any vegetable oil could also be used)
• Baking soda - 1 Tsp

For the caramel sauce:

• Brown sugar - 1/4 cup
• Milk - 1/4 cup
• Low fat cream - 50 ml
• Butter - 2 Tbsp
• Vanilla essence - 1/4 Tsp

METHOD:

For cake:

1. Grease and dust a cake pan. Pre-heat oven to 180C
2. Soak the dates in warm milk for 3 hrs. The dates will swell and become soft 
   
3. Blend the soaked dates along with the milk into a smooth mixture. To this add oil and sugar and blend into a smooth paste in a mixer 
   
4. In a large mixing bowl sieve flour and baking soda together and make a well in between as shown 
   
5. Slowly pour the wet mixture and gently mix it with the flour. Do not over mix. Now pour in the batter into the greased and dusted cake pan 
   
6. Bake in a pre-heated oven at 180C for 20-30 minutes (Mine was done in 22 minutes)

For caramel sauce:

1. While the cake is baking, start preparing the topping
2. In a heavy bottomed pan, add milk and sugar. Mix well till the sugar dissolves
3. Add cream, butter and vanilla. Cook on a medium flame and keep stirring constantly. Bring it to a boil and once the sauce starts to thicken, remove from flame 
   

For sticky date pudding:

1. While the cake is warm, poke a few holes with the help of a toothpick and pour the warm sauce over it
2. Serve warm or it could also be refrigerated after it is completely cooled down and can be served chilled with extra sauce later!!
3. And this is how it would get over within seconds :P

 

 

Eggless wholewheat blueberry muffin

This weekend's healthy snack - Eggless wholewheat blueberry muffins!!! If you don't have blueberries, then no worries at all, you can replace it with any dry fruit of your choice like raisins, apricots etc. I could find so many recipes for blueberry muffins and I adapted the healthy aspects from all the recipes that I came across. I have used whole wheat flour, light brown sugar and very little sunflower oil and added to these, blueberries make these cute little muffins absolutely healthy! It turned out to be so soft and spongy and everyone at home loved the combination of tangy blueberries with the sweet muffin. So, as I always say, eating healthy can be tasty too :)

INGREDIENTS: (makes 5 medium sized muffins)

• Whole wheat flour - 1 cup
• Salt - 1/4 tsp
• Baking soda - 1/4 tsp
• Baking powder - 1 tsp
• Light brown sugar - 85 g (approximately half of 3/4th cup - Measure it first and then powder it. You can use white sugar too)
• Oil - 38 ml (I used sunflower oil, you can use rice bran or vegetable oil too)
• Milk - 65 ml (approximately a little more than 1/4 cup)
• Vanilla essence - 1 tsp
• Fresh or frozen blueberries - 1/2 cup (can be replaced by 1/2 cup of any dry fruits)

METHOD:

1. Pre-heat oven to 180C for 10 minutes
2. Wash and pat dry the blueberries/dry fruits and coat them with 2 to 3 Tbsp of flour (This is to avoid them from getting burnt while baking). Keep aside
3. Sieve together the dry ingredients - Whole wheat flour, salt, baking soda and baking powder. Keep aside
4. In another bowl, beat milk, sugar, oil and vanilla extract well until the sugar is dissolved and no lumps are left
5. Make a well in the center of the bowl containing the mixture of dry ingredients
6. Pour in the wet mixture in the middle and gently mix the batter (DO NOT over mix)
7. The batter should not be runny. If it is too thick or dry then add 1-2 Tbsp of milk to it
8. Now add the flour coated blueberries/dry fruits and fold into the batter very gently
9. Grease and dust the the muffin moulds or line them with paper liners
10. Spoon in the batter to 3/4th of each mould and bake in the pre-heated oven for 15-20 mins
11. Keep a check after 12 minutes. Insert a toothpick in the middle and if it comes out clean, then muffins are ready!! 
12. Cool them on a wire rack and serve them when they are mildly warm. You could serve them as a tea time snack or have them as breakfast with banana milkshake/fresh fruit juice to kick start your day with full power!!!

See you soon with yet another interesting recipe. Cheers!

Whole wheat honey oats bread

I recently attended a baking course and since then, I've been really tempted to try a lot of cakes and cookies. But what kept me on hold was the usage of maida and sugar in all baking products. Yes cakes are junk food and I didn't want my health and interest for baking part ways. So, then came the idea of using whole wheat flour instead of maida!! While I was just thinking about this on my way back home from baking class, I was held up in traffic jam and what struck my eyes then was, SUBWAY and my favorite bread at subway is honey-oats bread. That's how I ended up utilizing my Sunday evening by baking a healthy bread at home. There were a lot of recipes for this bread online and I referred a few that were easy to understand. Let's jump in straight to the recipe!

INGREDIENTS

• Whole wheat flour - 330 gm
• Boiling Water - 285 ml
• Oats - 50 gm
• Honey – 70 ml
• Butter – 15 gm
• Salt – 1.5 Tsp
• Dry Yeast – 0.8 Tsp
• Warm Water – 30 ml

METHOD:

1. Combine oats, honey, butter and salt with boiling water in a large mixing bowl. Keep it aside for an hour
2. When the oats mixture is almost ready (i.e. after 50 mins), in a small bowl, sprinkle the dry yeast over warm water (if the bowl is cool, then wash it in warm water before use). Gently mix it so that the yeast dissolves and let it stand until creamy for about 10 minutes. Once it is ready, pour the yeast mixture into the oat mixture and gently mix it.
3. Add the flour to this mixture 1/2 cup at a time, mixing well with a wooden spatula after each addition and make sure not to over mix
4. When the dough has come together, put it out on a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic, about 20 minutes (Rigorous exercise for your arms!!). Lightly oil a large bowl, place the dough in the bowl and turn it so that both sides are coated lightly with oil (as shown below) 
   
5. Cover the bowl with a damp cloth and set it aside in a warm place until it doubles in volume. This will take about 1 hour.
6. Remove the dough and put it again on a lightly floured surface. Shape the dough into a loaf. Place the shaped dough into a lightly greased 9x5 inch loaf tin. Cover the loaf tin with a damp cloth and let it rise until doubled in volume. This will take about 40-45 minutes (I had only a smaller size loaf tin, so I split the dough into two – one into a loaf tin and other into a small  round cake tin)
   
7. In the meanwhile, preheat the oven to 180 C.  Bake in the preheated oven for about 30 minutes or until the top is golden brown and the bottom of the loaf sounds hollow when tapped (A lovely aroma of oats and honey will spread across your home.. yumm)
8. Remove the loaf from the pan, and allow it to cool completely on a wire rack
9. Enjoy this fresh and healthy home-made bread along with any spread of your choice!

Healthy Banana Walnut Loaf

An absolute guilt free indulgence of "Banana-Walnut Loaf"
.. I replaced maida with whole-wheat flour and even better, just one spoon of ghee used!! A healthy n tasty bite 

INGREDIENTS

Ripe bananas - 2

Whole Wheat flour - 2 cups

Powdered brown sugar (or white sugar) - 3/4 cup

Yoghurt - 2/3 cup

Milk - 3/4 cup

Baking soda - 1/2 Tsp

Baking powder - 1/2 Tsp

Cocoa powder - 1 Tbsp

Vanilla essence - 1/2 Tsp

Cinnamon powder - 1/4 Tsp

Ghee or melted unsalted butter - 1 Tbsp

Salt - a pinch

Chopped walnuts - 1/3 cup

METHOD:

1. Sieve the following together: Whole wheat flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt

2. In a blender, mix the following and make a smooth paste: bananas, sugar, yoghurt, about 2 Tbsp of milk

3. Add the banana paste to the dry ingredients and mix thoroughly stirring without lumps

4. To the mixture, add ghee/butter, walnuts. Mix well

5. In case the batter seems too thick, dilute it with very little milk. The batter should not be runny. When you try dropping the batter with a spoon, it should fall in big globs

6. Add the batterto a greased cake tray or loaf tray. Bake at 150C in a pre-heated oven for about 30-40-minutes or till a fork insertted into the cake comes out clean

7. Let it cool completely and then slice them as you wish