Silicone Baking cups - a product review

A baker can get away without investing in fancy tools but cannot do without good baking pans. Any hobby baker or an obsessive baker will have many pans and cannot resist trying out new pans. I belong to such a category of bakers. You name the shape and size of the baking pan, I probably have it. When Rizzi from 'The New York  Baking Company' contacted me to try their silicone baking cups and write a review on the product, I couldn't say no. Could I?

First of all, these are so cool to look at. Compact to store compared to the regular muffin or cupcake pans which take up quite a bit of space. Since these are silicone cups, you don't have to worry about the cupcake or the muffin sticking to the pan. And since they are not rigid, you can fit a lot of them on a cookie sheet and bake two batches on the same rack thereby avoiding the rotating the pan work.

I baked some chocolate walnut muffins and did not even grease the cups. I should have at least misted them with vegetable oil spray since a little crumbs did stick to the pan. But it could be just because the recipe was a low fat one and quite wet batter was used. Other than that, these worked great. These are dish washer safe, oven safe to 425 F, BPA free.

Since we don't have to line them with paper liners, it is a good way of going green. But, wash them in warm soapy water couple of times before using them for the first time.

Those of you who are interested in purchasing or knowing more about this product can check it out at  silicone baking cups.

Product Name: Silicone Baking Cups

Brand: The New York Baking Company

RRP: $8.95

Material: BPA free silicone

Disclaimer:  Product was given to use and write an honest review. I have not been compensated for writing this review.

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Vanilla Muffins

This is one of those recipes which can be tweaked into different flavors by changing the additives. I was planning to make it a mango muffin but when I went to chop the mangoes, I found it was spoiled from inside and I had to throw it out. This made good snack for the kids and is pretty easy to make too. Pictures are really bad since it has been raining like crazy for the past 2 days here with no sun light whatsoever.

One Year Back - Honey Rolls / Buns
Two Years Back - Lemon Coconut Bread, Vanilla Cake using Homemade mix
Three Years Back - Dry Fruit Yeast Bread/Cake
Four Years Back - Coconut Almond Cookies
Ingredients:
All purpose flour - 2 3/4 cups
Baking Powder - 1 TBSP
Baking Soda - 1/4 tsp
Sugar - 1/2 cup
Brown Sugar - 1/3 cup
Salt - 1/2 tsp
Oil - 1/3 cup
Eggs - 2 large
Milk - 3/4 cup
Vanilla - 1 TBSP
Optional - 1 cup of dried fruits or chopped fresh fruit or chocolate chips or nuts.

Method:
Preheat the oven to 350 F. Line a 12 cup muffin pan with paper liners or grease the cups. In a bowl, whisk together flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda. In another bowl, whisk together eggs, oil, both the sugars. Stir in vanilla. Start adding the dry mixture to wet alternating with milk starting and ending with dry mixture. This batter is very very thick.  Divide between the cups and bake for 20 - 22 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. These muffins almost look dry on the top but are very moist. Cool on the wire rack.

Enjoy.

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Buttermilk Brownie Muffins

Just because a recipe comes out of a published cookbook/baking book doesn't mean it will make what it advertises for. I had such an experience with this recipe. I won't mention the book name just because I have baked few things from that book and they turned out great every time. So, I will give it a benefit of doubt that it was a mistake in printing.

I have been baking for 15 years now. Very actively after I had kids, about 7+ years. I might not be an expert in baking but very very rarely things don't turn out the way they should when I bake. Because of this vast experience in 'baking', I can make out if something is not correct before it goes into the oven. When I mixed the batter for these muffins, I knew instantly that it will not work. I added more flour to fix it and it turned out perfect. If, I had baked as suggested in the recipe, it would've been a disaster. These are a bit sweeter than regular muffins but the name itself suggests that and I was alright using that much sugar. You can cut it down to 3/4 cup if you don't want a sweeter muffin.

One Year Back - Vegan Navaratna Kurma
Two Years Back - Sweet Couscous and Apple Salad
Three Years Back - Sweet Milk Rolls/Buns

Ingredients: 
Oil - 1/3 cup
Water - 2/3 cup
Buttermilk - 2/3 cup
Unsweetened Cocoa - 1/4 cup
All purpose flour - 2 1/3 cups
Sugar - 1 1/3 cups
Baking Soda - 3/4 tsp
Salt - 1/2 tsp
Egg - 1 large
Vanilla - 1 tsp

Method:
Preheat the oven to 375 F. Line muffin cups with paper liners. This recipe should give 14 regular sized muffins. In a bowl, whisk together salt, baking soda, all purpose flour. Set aside. In another bowl, whisk together oil, sugar, cocoa, egg until cocoa is mixed well with egg and oil. Add water and buttermilk to it and mix. Stir in vanilla. Dump the dry ingredients to this and whisk gently to mix. Pour into the prepared pan. It gets filled more than 3/4 th of the muffin cup. Bake for 18 - 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool on the wire rack for 5 minutes in the pan and then remove to cool completely on the wire rack.

Enjoy.

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Pineapple Muffins

No, I am not having a muffin mania on this blog. I have been making some muffins for the kids' snack and this one was one of them. It doesn't have a lot of fat, but has lots of fruit in it. Very moist and tender. One of my kid loved it whereas the other complained about too much pineapple. Depends on if you like lot of fruit in the muffin or not.

One Year Back - Banana Sourcream Cake (Low Fat)
Two Years Back - Sweet Corn Raisin Bread, Vegan Tomato Soup
Three Years Back - Cranberry Rice Orange Muffins, Multigrain Brown Bread
Ingredients: (makes 12 standard sized muffins)
All purpose flour -  3/4 cups
Whole Wheat flour - 1 cup 
Salt - 1/4 tsp
Baking powder - 1 TBSP
Crushed pineapple in its juice - 1 1/2 cups (don't drain it. Measure it in liquid measuring cup)
Oil - 1/4 cup
Sugar - 2/3 cup
Egg - 1 large
Vanilla - 1 tsp

Method:
Preheat the oven to 375 F. Line a 12 cup muffin pan with liners or grease with vegetable oil spray. In a bowl, whisk together flours, baking powder, salt. In another bowl, whisk together pineapple and its juice, oil, sugar and egg. Mix till egg is broken and the mixture is uniform. Add vanilla and stir. Now dump the whole dry ingredients and stir to combine. Divide between the 12 cups and bake for 20 - 22 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 5 minutes and then turn it on to the wire rack to cool completely.

Enjoy.

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Orange Chocolate Chip Muffins

For some reason, no one is interested in eating oranges at our place. Clementines work, but not oranges. The main reason being it is hard to peel compared to clementines. I had quite a few oranges that people gave as part of the gift bag. I had to use it up somehow and I made these muffins. They were not too sweet, citrusy and light and perfect for kids' lunch box snack.

One Year Back - Sweet potato Chili
Two Years Back - Vegan Mango Cake
Three Years Back  - Butternut squash Pasta, Eggless Blueberry Coffee cake, Chewy Granola Bars
Ingredients:
All purpose flour - 1 3/4 cups
Sugar - 2/3 cup
Oil - 1/2 cup
Orange juice - 2/3 cup (I used freshly squeezed juice)
Egg - 1 large
Baking powder - 1 TBSP
Salt - 1/4 tsp
Orange Zest - 1 TBSP
Vanilla - 1 tsp
Mini chocolate chips - 3/4 cups (See Notes)

Method:
Preheat the oven to 375 F. Line 12 cup muffin tray with paper liners or spray with vegetable oil spray. In a bowl, whisk together all purpose flour, salt, sugar and baking powder.  In another bowl, beat orange juice, oil and egg until nicely combined. Add vanilla, orange zest and mix. Dump the dry ingredients to wet and slowly stir with a spatula or a wooden spoon. Stir in chocolate chips. Do not over mix. Divide between 12 muffin cups. Ice cream scoop works best to divide them uniformly. Bake for 22 - 24 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 5 minutes and then turn it on to the wire rack to cool completely.

Notes:
Try not to use the regular sized chocolate chips. This batter is a little thin and the chocolate chips might sink into the bottom.

Enjoy.

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No Knead Chocolate rolls/muffins (Vegan)

I love baking with yeast even when it takes more time to get the finished product. Main reason is the flexibility of using less sugar and fat. I needed something to send in as snack and this was something that I could make without too much hands on time and at the same time not using too much sugar or fat. One of my kid felt it was too intense in chocolate flavor because I had used dutch processed cocoa. You can actually reduce the cocoa to just 1/4 cup and increase the all purpose flour to 2 1/4 cup if you want mildly chocolate muffins. You could use natural cocoa and in that case the muffins would be darker instead of having a reddish brown color.

One Year Back - Vegan Carrot Oat Bars, Julekage
Two Years Back - Dry Fruit Bread/Cake (With yeast)
Three Years Back - Green Mango Apple Gojju
Ingredients:
All purpose flour - 2 cups
Cocoa - 1/2 cup
Salt - 1/2 tsp
Warm Water - 1 1/4 cup
Sugar - 1/4 cup
Active dry yeast - 2 1/4 tsp
Oil - 3 TBSP

Method:
In a bowl take warm water. Add sugar, salt, oil to it. Add cocoa and stir. Sprinkle yeast and let it froth (about 5 minutes). Slowly start adding flour and stir with a strong wooden spoon. When the batter is uniformly mixed, cover and let rise till bubbly, about 45 minutes. Stir down the batter. Grease a muffin cup very well. Scoop out the batter into the cups to get 12 muffins. Cover with a well oiled plastic wrap and let rise for 30 - 40 minutes. The batter will rise and almost touch the plastic wrap. Preheat the oven to 400 F. Bake for 15 - 20 minutes. Cool in the pan for 5 minutes and remove to cool completely on the wire rack. This is not very sweet at all. You can either serve with some buttery spread and milk or with some fruit spread.

Notes:
Do not use the cupcake/muffin liner. Since this is a batter and it is made to sit for 40 minutes or so, the paper will get soggy and stick to the muffin horribly. Don't ask me how I know. 

Check out what my friends are baking for this bake-a-thon :  Preethi, Veena, Priya, Srivalli,  Sumana and Jayasri. 

Enjoy.

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Coconut Muffins

Muffins are kind of cute to look at. Don't you think? And if you have kids, it will be a big hit since they go by the looks. They are portable to pack in lunch boxes too. With so many muffins that I have already baked, I thought of using up those ingredients which needed to be used up. An opened pack of sweetened coconut flakes.

One Year Back - Whole Wheat Jalapeno Focaccia
Two Years Back - Sourdough Chocolate Chip Muffins
Ingredients: (Makes 10)
All purpose flour - 1 cup
Whole Wheat flour - 1/2 cup
Salt - 1/2 tsp
Baking Powder - 2 tsp
Egg - 1 large
Milk - 1/2 cup
Honey - 1/2 cup
Canola oil - 1/4 cup
Sweetened Coconut flakes - 3/4 cup
Vanilla - 1 tsp

Method:
Preheat the oven to 375 F. Grease 12 muffin cups with vegetable oil spray or line with baking liners. In a bowl, whisk together flours, salt, baking powder. Stir in the coconut flakes. Set aside. In another bowl, whisk together egg, milk, honey and oil. Stir in vanilla. Add dry ingredients to the wet and stir just until combined. Divide among 10 muffin cups. Bake for 20 minutes or till a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 5 minutes and then turn it on to the wire rack to cool completely.

This is my entry to Blogging Marathon's Day 2.

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Cardamom Scented Ricotta Muffins

I have a bad habit. When I am stressed out, I bake and a lot of times eat too much too. But, when I am stressed out too much to think about anything, I start reorganizing the kitchen cupboards, refrigerator, pantry and what not. It was one such day and I saw I have too many single serving applesauce cups, on tub of ricotta cheese that will expire next week. Suddenly, I was less stressed enough to bake. I made some fat free, vegan applesauce bread that are not great looking but are pretty good. And then, I had to make something out of ricotta cheese, so here is a muffin using that. I used cardamom to flavor it, but you could anything you prefer. This is adapted from the book 'Good House Keeping Baking', which by the way is a great book that covers almost everything in baking. This is a very mildly sweet muffin that pairs well with a cup of coffee or tea, or some fruit spread.

One year back - Drying herbs in microwave, Vegetable Vindaloo
Two years back - Cake Decorating Basics Part - 5
Ingredients: (Makes 6 regular sized muffins)
All purpose flour - 1 cup
Sugar - 1/4 cup
Baking powder - 1 1/4 tsp
Salt - 1/4 tsp
Oil or melted butter - 3 TBSP
Milk - 1/4 cup
Ricotta cheese - 1/2 cup (measured in dry measuring cup)
Egg - 1 large
Cardamom - 3 pods powdered or 1/4 tsp powder

Method:
Preheat the oven to 400 F. Line 6 cups of muffin pan with liners or grease them with vegetable oil spray. Set aside. In a bowl, whisk together flour, powdered cardamom, salt, baking powder, baking soda. In another bowl, whisk together egg, milk, oil or melted butter, ricotta cheese till well blended. Make sure you beat it well so that there are no lumps from ricotta and the whole mixture is smooth. Add the dry mixture and stir to combine. Divide among 6 muffin cups and bake for 20 - 22 minutes or until the top is golden and you can see few cracks and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool on the wire rack in the pan for 10 minutes. Turn it on to the wire rack to cool completely.

Don't be confused by the dark color on the top. It is so moist inside that you will wonder if you used a whole stick of butter or just 3 TBSP.  Another point to note is this batter is thick that it doesn't spread and make a nice shape on the top. You will have to be careful while filling the cups. Wherever I added extra to even out, came out bumpy.

Enjoy.

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Tutti Fruity Muffins

When I posted the Basic Muffin recipe which makes the mix and can be varied as per the taste, I got some positive feedback from readers who tried it. But, I had not posted the picture of the muffin baked using the same recipe. Here it is. I have used 1 cup of tutti fruity to make these muffins.

One year back - Cake decorating Basics - Part 9
Two years back - Cake decorating Basics - Part 3

Ingredients to be mixed in the jar:
All purpose flour - 1 3/4 cups
Sugar - 1/4 cup
Baking Powder - 2 1/2 tsp
Salt - 1/2 tsp

To mix before baking:
Egg -1 (Or equivalent egg replacer like flax egg or ener-G replacer)
Milk - 3/4 cup (Or any fruit juice to flavor the muffin)
Oil - 1/3 cup

Additions:
1 cup of tutti fruity or chopped dried fruits, nuts or a combination.

Method:
Preheat the oven to 400 F. Line 9 - 10 muffin cups with liners or grease them with vegetable oil spray. Whisk together the dry ingredients. In another bowl, whisk together the oil, milk, egg beating to mix them well. Add wet to dry and mix gently. Add the tutti fruity or dried fruit bits and fold. Pour into the muffin pan and bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool on the wire rack in the pan for 10 minutes and then remove from the pan to cool completely. Serve warm or at room temperature.

I am posting this as the post for bake-a-thon's day 26. My fellow bloggers doing it with me are - Preethi, Veena, Priya. 

Enjoy.

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Savory Tomato Muffin

Are you tired of eating cookies, cakes, sweet pastries this holiday season? Then, you might want to read this.
It is quick, it is not overly fattening and you can have it for a snack or breakfast or as a side for the main meal. It reminds of the pizza taste without the cheese. You could fold in cheese to get it more like a pizza muffin if you want. This can be very easily veganized by using ener-G replacer. I didn't have any on hand.

One year back - Eggless Peanut butter swirled chocolate cake
Two years back - Cake Decorating Basics Part - 3
Ingredients:
All purpose flour - 3/4 cup
Sugar - 2 TBSP (See Notes)
Tomato juice - 1/3 cup (See Notes)
Baking powder - 1/2 tsp
Salt - 1/2 tsp
Dried basil - 1/2 tsp
Dried oregano - 1/2 tsp
Red chilli flakes - heaped 1 tsp (or to taste - optional)
Garlic powder - 1/4 tsp
Olive oil - 3 TBSP
Egg - 1 large

Method:
Preheat the oven to 375 F. Lightly grease 6 muffin cups or use liners. I was baking in mini bundt pans and I could fill only 4 of them. In a bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, chilli flakes if using, herbs, garlic powder. Set aside. In another bowl, whisk together tomato juice, egg and oil. Pour the wet over dry ingredients and gently mix until combined. Do not over mix. Pour into the prepared pan and bake. Muffins would be done between 23 and 26 minutes and my mini bundt pans took about
24 minutes.

Notes:
If you are using freshly pressed tomato juice, you will have to adjust the salt. The tomato juice from the bottle/can is thicker than what we can make at home, so I do not know if this recipe will work without tweaking for that. You could fold in about 1/2 cup of grated cheese into the batter. I didn't have any, so did not use it. Since I was experimenting, by mistake I used 1/4 cup of sugar. My intention was to use just 2 TBSP. That made these muffins kind of sweet and savory.

23 days of the Bake-A-Thon are done. 8 more to go.  My fellow bloggers doing this are - Preethi, Veena, Priya. 
Enjoy.

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Cranberry Corn Muffin

Today is the beginning of the last month of 2011. December means two things generally - holidays and baked goods. Perfect for a baking enthusiast like me. When I announced 'Bake-A-Thon' for the entire month of December, I wasn't sure that anyone would join me since it is crazy to bake every day and blog about it for a month. But, I did have 4 other bloggers join me in this adventure. So, together we will all bake and blog about it every day for the entire month. Towards the end, we probably will have covered almost every category of baking.
Joining me in this month long 'Bake-A-Thon' are:
Susan of The WellSeasoned Cook,
Preethi of IsingCakes,
Veena Krishna Kumar of VeenasVegnation,
Priya Suresh of Priya's Easy N Tasty Recipes.

These Cranberry Corn Muffin recipe is adapted from an old recipe for Blueberry Corn Muffin recipe. Addition of cranberries gives it an unusual tang which, people will like it if and only if they like the tang taste. If you are not a big fan of fresh cranberries, use sweetened dried cranberries in its place.

One year back - Holiday Gift Ideas, Peanut Butter Blondies
Two years back - Cake Decorating Basics - 1
Ingredients:
All purpose flour - 1 cup
Fine ground corn meal - 1 cup (I used yellow cornmeal)
Sugar - 1/2 cup
Baking powder - 2 tsp
Baking soda - 1 tsp
Salt - 1/2 tsp
Oil - 1/4 cup
Egg - 1 Large
Vanilla - 1 tsp
Buttermilk - 1 cup
Cranberries - 1 - 1 1/2 cups (fresh rinsed and pat dry)

Method:
Preheat the oven to 375 F. Line a 12 cup muffin pan with paper liners or grease. In a bowl, whisk together flour, cornmeal, baking soda, baking powder, salt and sugar. In another bowl, whisk together buttermilk, oil, egg, vanilla. Pour the wet mixture to dry mixture and stir to combine. Do not over mix. Stir in the cranberries. Fill the muffin cups to almost full. This batter makes 12 standard sized muffins. Bake for 25 - 28 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool on the rack in the pan for 10 minutes and then remove to cool on the rack completely. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Enjoy.

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Vegan Applesauce Corn Muffins

I motivated one of my friends to bake. She went and bought a lot of stuff and after few months of not making anything, brought them into my place and asked if I could make use of them since she won't be using it. She gave me a big box of cornmeal. Good enough cornmeal for a pizza place if you ask me. So, you will see a lot of recipes which use cornmeal unless I lose interest in using this ingredient. I have made quite a few cornbreads. But this one which has very less fat and no eggs is the one that wins for moistness. I used the whole wheat flour which was a bit dark. If you use all purpose flour, you will get lighter color.

One year back - Cake decorating Basics - 7, Cake Decorating Basics - 8
Adapted from - allrecipes.com
Ingredients: (Makes 12 regular sized muffins)
Whole Wheat Flour - 1 cup
Stone ground cornmeal - 1 cup (I used yellow)
Salt - 3/4 tsp
Baking Soda - 1 tsp
Applesauce - 1 cup (I used regular not natural)
Agave nectar - 1/2 cup (or maple syrup or honey for a non-vegan version - See Notes)
Pineapple juice - 1/2 cup (Or any other fruit juice or milk)
Water - 1/2 cup
Canola Oil - 1/4 cup (Or more applesauce)

Method:
Preheat the oven to 350 F. Lightly grease a 12 cup muffin pan with vegetable oil spray or line with paper liners. In a bowl, whisk together cornmeal, whole wheat flour, salt and baking soda. Set aside. In another bowl, whisk together applesauce, fruit juice or milk, water, oil, agave nectar.  Dump the wet ingredients into dry and stir to combine. This muffin batter is quite thin, but that is the secret behind moist muffins that do not have much fat at all. Divide the batter between the 12 cups. It will be 3/4 full. Bake for 23 - 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. These are not very high rising muffins, but are very moist and flavorful. Cool in the pan on the wire rack for 10 minutes. Remove from the cups and cool on the wire rack completely. You can serve this warm or at room temperature. Serve with coffee, tea or milk for breakfast or as a snack.

Notes:
If you want to use honey in place of agave nectar or maple syrup, use less than 1/2 cup. About 1/3 cup should do. Honey is sweeter than other sweeteners.

Linking it to #AppleLove.

Enjoy.

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Basic Muffin Mix

I do not really know how many of you read my blog for baking recipes. But if you are one of those who do it for the baking recipes, this post might interest you.  I have a knack for simplifying things. Be it at work or at home. And I do believe in coming up with a plan for doing everything in an order. That makes it not only easy, but quick too. I started measuring and keeping the dry ingredients in a ziploc bag and mixing it with wet ingredients to bake 5 years back when I was pregnant and on bed rest. I was allowed not more than 20 - 30 minutes of standing at a time. This planning made sure my kid had something fresh to take to day care every day. I do not know if this seems like a good idea for you since you have to use the ziploc bag or container and label them. You also have to use up the mix before the baking powder or baking soda that you have used in the mix expires.

Here is the first of the basic mix that you can create to suit your busy life or to give as a gift. If you have these mixes handy in ziploc bags, it is very easy to mix and bake early in the morning to serve as breakfast.

Ingredients to be mixed in the jar:
All purpose flour - 1 3/4 cups
Sugar - 1/4 cup
Baking Powder - 2 1/2 tsp
Salt - 1/2 tsp


To mix before baking:
Egg -1 (Or equivalent egg replacer like flax egg or ener-G replacer)
Milk - 3/4 cup (Or any fruit juice to flavor the muffin)
Oil - 1/3 cup

Instructions to be written on a card to accompany the jar:
Preheat the oven to 400 F. Grease a muffin pan with vegetable oil spray or line with paper liners. In a bowl, whisk together 3/4 cup milk (or fruit juice), 1/3 cup oil and 1 large egg or egg substitute. Dump the contents of the jar into the liquid and stir to combine. Fill the muffin cups 2/3 full. Bake fro 20 - 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Makes about 8 - 10 standard sized muffins.

Variations:
Add about a cup of chocolate chips or chopped nuts or 1 cup of chopped fruits or 1 cup of dried fruits to the batter and bake. Use 1 cup APF, 1/2 cup whole wheat flour and 1/4 cup wheat germ for a part whole wheat mufifn mix. If you add chocolate chips or nuts or fruits, you will get about 12 muffins.

Enjoy.

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Vegan Mango Ginger Muffins

I had company this weekend. My brother-in-law brought his two teenage daughters to spend some time with us. It was great and now I understand the interest of lot of bloggers who have grown up kids. My kids are too young to understand the process of writing the recipe or taking pictures. They are interested only in eating what I make. But these girls were so enthusiastic about what is already on the blog, and what can be made so that they can help me with making and watch me take pictures. My previous post Kheer had one of my nieces hands in the picture. She thought it was cool to be a 'hand model' (her words, not mine). Same niece wanted me to show her how to make pineapple upside down cake. I didn't have all the supplies, so I made some other stuff for them. These muffins are not too sweet at all. Perfect for a snack or as breakfast. They all loved it. It has all whole wheat flour and if you prefer, use all purpose flour to get more tender muffins.

One year back -  Apple Chutney
Ingredients: (Makes 12 standard sized muffins)
Whole Wheat Flour - 2 1/4 Cups
Canola Oil - 1/3 cup 
Baking Powder - 2 tsp 
Salt - 1/4 tsp
Sweetened Condensed Mango Pulp - 1 cup (You can find this in Indian grocery stores)
Ginger powder -1 tsp (or 2 tsp for a stronger ginger flavor)
Applesauce - 1/2 Cup
Sugar - 1/4 cup (Or use up to 1/2 cup for a sweeter muffin)

Method:
Preheat the oven to 375 F. Line a 12 cup muffin pan with wrappers or grease. Set aside. In  a bowl, whisk together whole wheat flour, salt, ginger powder, baking powder. Set aside. In another bowl, whisk together applesauce, mango pulp and oil. Pour the liquid to dry ingredients and mix till combined. This is a thick batter. Using an icecream scoop, divide the batter between 12 muffin cups. Bake for 20 - 22 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes and then turn on to the wire rack to cool completely. Serve with butter or jam of your choice.

Enjoy.

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Chocolate Strawberry Muffins

Muffins are good for breakfast. Particularly if you throw in some fruit into the batter. Have it with a glass of milk and it is an almost complete breakfast. Of course it is better to make it with whole grain though. This is such a simple recipe which combines two made for each other ingredients. Chocolate and Strawberries. You could make it with whole wheat flour or a combination of whole grain flours. This muffin actually tasted better the next day. And it stayed moist even on the third day of making. For those who complain about muffins being hard and dry, this is a recipe to try.

One year back -  Zucchini Kootu
Adapted from - Allrecipes.com
Ingredients:
All purpose flour - 1 1/2 cups
Unsweetened cocoa - 1/4 cup
Sugar - 1/2 cup
Oil - 1/4 cup
Milk - 1/2 cup
Egg - 1 large
Salt - 1/2 tsp
Baking Powder - 2 tsp
Strawberries - chopped 1 cup
Vanilla - 1 tsp

Method:
Preheat the oven to 375 F. Grease or line with liners. In a bowl whisk together the flour, cocoa, sugar, salt, baking powder. In a 2 cup measuring cup, measure milk. Top it with oil. Whisk together. Add the egg and whisk to mix them. Stir in vanilla. Pour the wet ingredients into dry and mix till just dry ingredients are incorporated. Stir in the strawberries. Divide into 8 muffin cups and bake for 23 - 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes and then turn on to the wire rack to cool completely.

Note:
I filled the cups a little less and filled 11 muffin cups. That is the reason for the muffin not being very tall.

Linking it up to Lisa's 'Sweet as Sugar Cookies'.

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Weight Watcher's Cheese filled Poppy Seed muffins

One of my neighbors with whom I used to share all my baked goodies went on a weight watcher's diet. I wanted to thank her for a favor and it was perfect since I had the book on weight watcher's desserts. I decided to try these Cheese filled poppy seed muffins. You see, there are lots of recipes in that book which look very good. But, I don't use artificial sweeteners and many of the recipes call for them. I picked something that I had all the ingredients for and added part whole wheat to make it even healthier.

One year back -  Eggless Mulberry Cupcakes
Adapted from the book Dessert Classics by Weight Watchers magazine
Ingredients:
All purpose flour - 1 cup
Whole wheat flour - 1/2 cup (My addition - recipe had total 1 1/2 cups of All purpose flour)
Quick cooking oats - 1 1/2 cups (not instant)
Salt - a pinch (My addition)
Raisins - 3/4 cup
Sugar - 1/4 cup
Baking Powder - 1 TBSP
Skim milk - 1 cup (room temperature)
Oil - 2 TBSP
Egg whites - 2 lightly beaten

Filling:
Part Skim ricotta cheese - 1/2 cup (See Notes)
Egg white - 1 lightly beaten
Sugar - 1 TBSP
Poppy seeds - 1 TBSP

Method:
Preheat the oven to 350 F. Line a 12 standard sized muffin cups with liners. Spray with vegetable oil spray. In a bowl, combine flours, oats, sugar, raisins, baking powder. Whisk and set aside. In another bowl whisk milk, oil and 2 egg whites. Set aside. In another small bowl, combine ricotta, 1 egg white, sugar and poppy seeds.
Slowly mix the milk and egg mixture into the dry ingredients stirring just till everything is incorporated. Place about 1 TBSP of this into each cup. Top it with about a tsp of the ricotta filling. Top that with the muffin batter dividing equally among all the cups. Bake for 15 - 20 minutes or till a toothpick inserted comes out clean. The recipe says to bake till golden, but mine never turned dark. Cool in the pan for about 10 minutes and then let it cool completely on a wire rack. You cannot really see the poppy seeds in my muffins since I used the white poppy seeds. That is what I had. If you use black poppy seeds, it will look very pretty when cut. I was told that the muffin was almost bland except when you bite into the piece with raisin in it. Then, it tasted as good as a regular muffin. I would recommend you chop the raisins so that tiny bits will be there in every bite to make it tastier.

Notes:
I felt there was too much of filling. 1/3 cup of ricotta should be enough. Recipe called for 4 1/2 Oz of quick oats. I weighed 1 1/2 cups and that was about 4.2 Oz. I stopped at that since I was using part whole wheat and whole wheat absorbs more liquid than all purpose flour.

Nutrition info: This is with complete all purpose flour.
Serving Size: 1 muffin
Calories: 195 calories, 4gm total fat, 1 gm saturated fat, 4 mg cholesterol, 161 mg sodium, 33 g Total carbohydrate, 1g Dietary fiber (this will be a bit more since I used part WWF), 6 g protein, 144 mg calcium.

There are these many muffin recipes in this book - Raisin lemon muffins, chocolate chip mini muffins, blueberry-orange muffins, blueberry corn muffins, date fruitcake mini muffins, banana bran muffins, sweet potato and raisins muffins, carrot muffins, morning glorious muffins. Which one do you think you will be interested in next?

Enjoy. Pin It

Muffin Vs. Cupcake

My father-in-law is one of the greatest foodies I have ever seen. He can not only cook, but admire good food too. When he lives with us, I cannot really experiment with different flavors in cooking. He likes his traditional South Indian, that too Iyengar style meals. However, I can bake anything and everything and he will happily eat. Reason being he doesn't know anything about baking to comment or criticize. Two weeks back, when I made banana bread, he ate a slice and said 'It is like a cake'. I tried to reason with him saying it is bread. But couldn't argue since he doesn't know anything about baking.

But if you think about this, not many people know the differences of these anyway. Some of the things they talk about when comparing these two are:
When you throw a muffin to a wall, you get a 'thud' sound. When you hit the wall with a cupcake, it just crumbles without making a sound.
Some go like 'Muffins are ugly cupcakes'.
Some go like 'Muffin is a cupcake without icing'.

I don't consider myself an expert in science of baking. But, I have been baking extensively for several years now. Muffin and Cupcakes are not the same. So is the pair of Quick breads and Cakes. I agree that with people being so creative and health conscious nowadays, they have created so many recipes that almost qualify to be called any of the two or either of the two without having much difference.

Coming to my analogy on the differences between Muffins and Cupcakes...

1. Muffin is a breakfast or snack goodie whereas a cupcake is a dessert.
2. Muffin has lower ratio of sugar to flour where as a cupcake has more sugar.
3. Muffins are not frosted. Some could have a streusel topping, some are glazed. Cupcakes could be dusted with cocoa or confectioner's sugar, glazed, dipped in ganache, frosted, decorated.
4. Muffins almost all the time have cracks on the top, unless they are fruit based. Cupcakes should not have cracks if made properly. (There are exceptions though)
5. Muffins do not call for creaming the fat and sugar. Most cupcake recipes call for creaming butter and sugar. (Nowadays there are so many recipes which use oil, this rule doesn't apply to them)
6. Leavening agent is more in muffin. It is less in a cupcake.
7. Crumb texture of a muffin is more like a honey comb. Big and irregular holes. Cupcakes are denser, spongy with even leavening. That is one of the reason they are soft too.
8. Fat ratio to flour is less in a muffin. Fat to flour ratio is more in a cupcake.
9. Muffins are usually baked at 375 F or even at 400 F.  Cupcakes should be baked at 350 F and some at 325 F.
10. Muffins dry out faster than cupcakes. It could be due to less fat in them. This doesn't apply to muffins with fruit puree.
11. Most of the muffins use oil as fat part. When butter is used, it is melted and used. Cupcakes use the method of creaming the butter with sugar to incorporate air.
12. Muffins have lower number of eggs compared to cupcakes. (I am talking about a traditional recipe, not all the ones that have been invented over years)
13. Muffins are lower in calories compared to cupcakes.

Do you think I covered them all? Do you have anything to add to this list? If yes, leave a comment and I will update the list.

Happy Friday everyone.
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No Sugar added Applesauce Muffins

Yes, you read that right. It is no sugar added applesauce muffins. But, is it free of calories? Definitely not. Sometimes sugar free stuff can have more calories than the one with sugar. You have to be very careful about those. I am not a person who likes artificial sweeteners. Low sugar is fine with me and so is no sugar but not these artificial sweeteners. It is just my opinion and yours might differ from it.

Long time back, I had borrowed a book from the library which was about sugar free baking. I couldn't get that book again, but remembered that many recipes used replacing sugar with frozen juice concentrates. So, I took the recipe of a banana bread which had eggs, all purpose flour, nuts and sugar and converted that into this whole wheat eggless, no sugar added applesauce muffins. You could use mashed banana in the place of applesauce to get the banana muffins. There was no rolled oats in that recipe. I used 1/2 cup in the place of 1 cup of nuts to reduce the calories at the same time giving some texture. Pictures do not do justice to this since I had to shoot in cloudy weather.

One Year Back - Sourdough Banana Loaf with almond butter
Ingredients:
Whole Wheat Flour - 2 cups
Rolled oats - 1/2 cup
Baking Powder - 2 tsp
Cinnamon - 1 tsp
Nutmeg - 1/4 tsp
Salt - 1/4 tsp
Applesauce - 1 cup
Canola Oil - 1/3 cup
Milk - 1/4 cup (I used 2%)
Milled flax seeds - 2 TBSP
Warm water - 3 TBSP
Frozen applejuice concentrate - thawed 3/4 cup

Method:
Preheat the oven to 350 F. Line a 12 regular sized muffin cups with paper or grease with vegetable oil spray. In a bowl, mix together the applesauce, milk, oil, frozen juice concentrate. In another bowl, whisk together the flour, oats, baking powder, spices, salt. In another bowl, whisk together milled flax seeds with warm water and let it sit for 5 minutes. Then whisk this into the wet mixture. Slowly add the dry ingredients to wet and stir. Do not over mix. Divide the batter among 12 muffin cups and bake for 28 - 30 minutes. Since there is quite a bit of liquid in this recipe, it takes time to bake up. Check with the toothpick at 25 minutes and then bake for more time if needed. Cool on the wire rack in the pan for 10 minutes. Turn it on to the wire rack to cool completely. These are extra moist muffins which were quite sweet.

Here is its calories info..

Check out what all these ladies are up to today..
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30 Minutes Meals: Priya Suresh 
Seven days of Cakes:  Anusha

Enjoy. 
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Apricot Orange Bread

Did you see 'Sex and the City' movie? Remember how Sarah Jessica Parker gets all excited about a huge closet for her shoes? I would be double excited if somehow I get a huge closet adjacent to my kitchen where I can store all my cooking, baking gadgets and the cook books. There are so many books that I have not baked from even once. Among my huge collection of baking books is one from Nestle Tollhouse. This recipe is adapted from that book. I had a pack of apricots in the pantry, more than enough oranges needed in this recipe and the weather was perfect to turn the oven on. So, here comes this fruity, chocolaty quick bread.

Today is the first day of spring. It is so cold and gloomy here that I was wondering when is the real spring coming?

One Year Back - Egg less Orange Muffins
Ingredients:
All purpose flour - 2 Cups
Sugar - 3/4 cup
Baking powder - 1 TBSP
Baking Soda - 1/4 tsp
Salt - 1/2 tsp
Orange juice - 1/2 cup
Vegetable oil - 1/4 cup
Egg - 2 Large
Milk - 2 TBSP
Dried apricots - Chopped and measured 1 cup
Mini chocolate chips - 1/2 cup (I used semi sweet)
Optional - 1/2 cup chopped walnuts (I didn't use them)

Method:
Preheat the oven to 350 F. Grease a 9 X 5 loaf pan with vegetable oil spray. I made them into mini loaves. I greased 4 mini loaf pans. In a bowl, mix all the dry ingredients. Whisk them together. In another bowl, take the chopped apricots and chocolate chips. Take about 2 TBSP of flour mixture and toss them with the fruit and chocolate chips to coat them. In another bowl, mix orange juice, oil and 2 eggs. Whisk to incorporate the eggs into the juice and oil. Add this to the dry ingredients and stir to combine. Do not over mix. Stir in the apricots and chocolate chips. Divide the batter which will be very stiff among the mini loaf pans or the loaf pan if using a single one.

Bake for 25 - 30 minutes in case of mini loaf pan, 50 - 55 minutes if using a single 9 X 5 pan and 22 - 25 minutes if making them into 12 regular sized muffins. Cool on the rack in the pan for 10 minutes and then turn them on to the wire rack to cool completely. I sliced it when still warm and that is the reason for a bit of crumbly texture.

Enjoy. Pin It

Sourdough Pumpkin Cranberry Muffins

I probably use sourdough starter to make different things other than bread. As I said before, we are not big bread eaters. But when I make these muffins or cakes, kids eat as snacks and most of the times I give away some to neighbors or to colleagues. I had some pumpkin puree that needed to be used and it was time for feeding the starter. Here comes another sourdough recipe which is perfect for fall. It has pumpkin, it has cranberries. I used whole wheat flour which makes it a perfect breakfast.

  
Ingredients:
Whole wheat flour - 1 3/4 cup
Sourdough starter - 1 cup (room temperature, not fed)
Sugar - 3/4 cup
Baking soda - 2 tsp
Oil - 2 TBSP
Egg - 1 large
Pumpkin Puree - 1/2 cup
Milk - 1/2 cup
Vanilla - 1 tsp
Salt - 1/2 tsp
Sweetened dried cranberries - 1 cup

Method:
Preheat the oven to 400 F or 375 F if using dark non stick pan. Grease a muffin pan with vegetable oil spray or line with liners. In a bowl, whisk together flour, salt, baking soda. Set aside. In another bowl, beat pumpkin puree, milk, sourdough starter, oil and egg. Whisk in the vanilla. Slowly add dry ingredients to the wet and mix till incorporated. Stir in the cranberries. Fill the muffin cups almost full and bake in the oven for 20 - 25 minutes or till a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. I baked mine for 23 minutes and I felt I could've removed them 2 minutes early. Cool in the pan for couple of minutes and turn on to the wire rack to cool completely. It makes good sized 14 muffins.

These muffins are yeastspotted.

Counting calories..

Happy Baking!! Pin It