Eggless Pumpkin Muffins | Halloween Special Pumpkin Cupcakes | Eggless Pumpkin Cupcakes

It's that time of the year when it starts to feel the chill and the kiddo's rhymes are always beginning and continuing and ending with Halloween :) And occasionally I can hear "Where's Santa Claus?" too from him ;) We live in India but with those rhymes and those carved pumpkins and everything he sees on TV, he's slightly obsessed with Halloween. Always asks me now to keep Halloween rhymes or asks me to sing them for him :) And he loves cakes. 

So to make it little bit more exciting for us, I decided to make a pumpkin muffin for us. It's an easy peasy recipe, like my most recipes.. Mix the dry ingredients and mix the wet ingredients. And mix them both. Voila. The job is done.. And it is eggless too.. And what's that made me more happy was that Deeps too loved it, see he has not got a sweet tooth especially for cakes. That made me really happy and the 9 cupcakes that I made in the evening got over by the night :) So shall we see how to make this yummy tasty pumpkin muffins..

Recipe Source: Here

Preparation Time : 15 minutes

Cooking Time : 10+25 minutes (pre-heat+baking)

Makes : 9 medium sized muffins 

I Used:

Unsweetened Pumpkin Puree*	-	1 cup
All purpose flour/Maida*	-	1 ½ cup
Baking Soda	-	¼ tsp
Baking Powder Cinnamon powder Dry Ginger powder Salt	- - - -	2 tsp 1 tsp 1 tsp A pinch
Sugar	-	1 ¼ cup
Unsalted Butter (melted)	-	6 tbsp (approx 3/8 cup)
Butter Milk*	-	½ cup
Apple Cider Vinegar	-	½ tsp
The Way:

1. For 1 cup of pumpkin puree, you need 1 cup of cubed pumpkins. Peel the skin and remove the seeds. Then cube them and take them in a pressure cooker. Add ¼  cup of water and pressure cook them for 2 whistles. Once the pressure is released, see if any water is remaining. If then drain them and mash the pumpkins to a puree. You can do that in a blender or use a masher. Once done, keep aside

2. Pre-heat the oven o 180 degree C

3. Take all the dry ingredients - all purpose flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon powder and dry ginger powder and salt in a bowl and whisk well. Then set aside

4. In another bowl take the melted butter, sugar, pumpkin puree, apple cider vinegar and  butter milk and whisk them well

5. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix just until combined. Do not over mix

6. Line the muffin tray with the muffin liners. Spoon the batter into the liners. About 2 tbsp for each liner should be good enough

7. Bake them at 180 degree C in the pre-heated oven for about 25-30 minutes or until a tooth pick inserted at the centre comes out clean

8. Once done, cool them for about half an hour and serve

Notes:

• The original recipe calls for self rising flour. If you are using them then omit the salt and reduce the baking powder to 1 tsp

• If you have pumpkin spice powder then use 2 tsp of them instead of the cinnamon powder and dry ginger powder

• Instead of buttermilk I mixed ½ tbsp vinegar in ½ cup of milk and allowed it to stand for 5 minutes. Then used this in place of buttermilk

• You can use normal vinegar too instead of apple cider vinegar

Cheers,

Chitz

Eggless Whole wheat Strawberry Muffins | Butterless Strawberry Muffins | Strawberry Cupcakes

My family exhibits varied emotions towards strawberry.. The hubby won't touch it, my son loooveeees it and I love it in forms of cakes and shakes and likes but not a great fan to eat it raw. My son loves the sight of it and is always happy to eat them as such. I should say as of now coz his interests change really quick ! Anyways, I had no difficulty in finishing off that box of strawberries thanks to Dhruv but I had been wanting to try this muffins recipe from Aparna's blog for quite some time and so this time I did it.. 

It is made of half all purpose flour and half whole wheat flour and so it is a bit dense. Deeps liked it and gave a thumbs up and that should actually translate to "great" coz he is not a cake lover.. And as for Dhruv he likes muffins so he too loved it.. It's so easy to put up, just mix the dry and wet ingredients separately and fold them together and bake.. Easy right? And if you too do not want to eat strawberries raw but want to try some cake out of it, here is the perfect recipe!!

Recipe Source: My Diverse Kitchen

Preparation Time : 10 minutes

Cooking Time : 30 minutes

Makes : 12 medium sized muffins 

I Used:

Strawberry	-	1 cup (chopped) (around 200 gm)
All purpose flour/Maida	-	1 cup
Whole wheat flour	-	¾ cup
Granulated sugar	-	½ cup
Baking powder	-	1 ½ tsp
Salt	-	½ tsp
Milk	-	½ cup
Oil	-	¼ cup
Thick yogurt	-	2 tbsp
Vanilla essence	-	1 tsp

The Way:

1. Take all the dry ingredients - all purpose lour, whole wheat flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl and mix well

2. Add the chopped strawberries to the flour and mix gently. Ensure that the strawberries are coated well with the flour

3. In another bowl take the wet ingredients - milk, oil and vanilla essence and mix well

4. Add the wet mixture to the strawberry-flour mixture and gently mix together in a folding motion about 4 to 5 times

5. Do not over stir. The batter will be lumpy and floury. I had to add 2 to 3 tsp of milk extra to eat up all the flour. But that is fine. With whole wheat flour it will be like that

6. Fill the muffin tray with liners and fill the batter in the liners. This batter will not rise much and hence you can almost fill the liners with batter

7. Bake them at 190 degree C for about 25-30 minutes till done and the top turns golden brown. Then cool for 10 minutes and unmould and serve

Cheers,

Chitz

Vanilla cupcake | Easy Vanilla cupcake (Eggless & Butterless)

I do not want to start the post with yet another apology for being away ;) as it is just the beginning of another fabulous year & also I am in a happy happy mood to share with you all the arrival of our bundle of joy - Dhruv. He is nearing his 4th month now & so you would all be understanding my busy schedule & lack of time to concentrate on other affairs :D But many a times I had been wanting to visit this another baby of mine as well, but you see, Dhruv takes precedence :D :D

I was planning to post this cupcake recipe on his 100th day as a celebration but was not able to. This cupcake stays close to my heart for another special reason as I craved for it the most during my pregnancy time. Weird or cute, you guys should say, but this muffin stays top on my list still ! It is super easy to make with quite a few calories loaded as it has no egg & no butter. And it is fluffy soft and moist and just melts in your mouth and you can relish it absolutely fine without any topping or frosting or icing. So I am sure you would want to try this out today eve itself with your coffee & do let me know how it turned out :) 

I Took : 

Preparation Time : 15 minutes

Baking Time : 40 minutes

Makes : 20-25 muffins

I Used:

All purpose flour/Maida	-	1 ½ cups - 3 tbsp
Corn flour	-	3 tbsp
Sugar	-	¾ cup
Baking powder	-	1 tsp
Baking Soda	-	½ tsp
Oil	-	½ cup
Curd	-	1 cup
Vanilla Essence	-	1 tsp

The Way:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180 degree C
2. Keep the muffin tray ready with the muffin liners or if you want to bake it as a cake, grease a 6 or 7 inch pan with butter & dust it with a tsp of flour
3. Sieve well the all purpose flour & corn flour in a bowl and ensure that they are evenly blended & mixed
4. In another bowl, mix well sugar & curd. Now add baking powder & baking soda into the mixture & mix well and allow it to rest for 2-3 minutes
5. Now to this frothy mixture add oil & vanilla essence & mix well
6. And then add the sieved flour, one tbsp at a time, and whisk well
7. Once all the flour is mixed, pour in 1-2 tbsps of the batter into the muffin liners (or the baking pan)
8. Bake them for around 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean
9. Allow them to cool for about 10 minutes & serve with ice-cream or chocolate syrup or any dressing of your choice

Cheers,
Chitz

Eggless Strawberry Banana Muffins | Strawberry Banana Yogurt Cupcakes

I love strawberries, but they have to be sweet. Now that's an ambitious request right? Very seldom I come across fully sweet strawberries. Most of the times it will be semi-sweet or sour. Then I resort to milkshakes or smoothies or yummy bakes, as they would need a small amount of sugar & would taste out of the world :) Last week we had a guest for lunch & they bought us a lot of fresh berries - blue, black, red & straw ;) And also we had a small outing to a nearby lake during the weekend. Then I thought I would bake some of these muffins & make it a tea outing that day ! I should admit that I thoroughly enjoyed baking these cuties, as they filled my whole house with a yummilicious smell. Do try them out as they are very simple & less time consuming and also you are guaranteed of a fabulous outcome !

Recipe Source: Joy of Baking 

I Took: 25 minutes (Prep) + 25 minutes (Baking)

Makes: 12 regular sized muffins

I Used:

Strawberry - ½ cup - cut into bite sized pieces Banana - 1 big sized - mashed All purpose Flour - 1 cup + 2 tbsp Butter - ¼ cup Yogurt - ¼ cup Vanilla Essence - 1 tsp Granulated Sugar - ¼ cup + 2 tbsp Baking Powder - ¾ tsp Baking Soda - ¼ tsp Ground Cinnamon - ¼ tsp or an inch stick mashed with banana Salt - ½ tsp

The Way:

1. Mash the bananas. If you do not have ground cinnamon then add the cinnamon stick to the banana & mash it
2. Melt the butter (in an oven or saucepan) & allow it to cool to room temperature
3. Pre-heat the oven to 175 degree Celsius in conventional mode 
4. In a bowl whisk together yogurt, vanilla essence & mashed banana. Add the melted butter & stir to combine
5. In another large bowl combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, ground cinnamon (if available) & salt. You can sift it for 3 times for even mixing of the dry ingredients
6. Then gently fold in the strawberries into the flour mixture making sure that they are coated well with the flour. This helps the berries to prevent from sinking during baking
7. Now add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients & stir gently so that they are combined. Do not over mix, else the muffins might become hard
8. Line a muffin pan with paper liners or butter the muffin cups in the pan 
9. Place 2 spoons of the batter in each cup using a spoon 
10. Bake it for about 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted through it comes out clean. Do not mistake the fruit within the muffin to be wet batter. Mine was done in 25 minutes

Cheers,

Chitz