Banana Apple Muffins

I'm always looking for fun and healthy food to bake with my daughter. When I came across Divya's post in her blog, Easy Cooking, on Eggless Apple Banana Muffins, they sounded perfect. I was fine with using eggs, but decided to just follow her recipe. I made a couple of changes though, I added some chopped walnuts, and a small fistful of chocolate chips.

Banana Apple Muffins (without eggs)

(from Easy Cooking blog)

3 ripe Bananas, chopped (OR 1 egg + 2 Bananas)

1 cup Apple, peeled and chopped

1/4 cup Butter, melted and cooled

1 tsp Vanilla Essence

1 1/8 cup All-Purpose Flour

1/3 cup + 1 tbsp Brown Sugar

3/4 tsp Baking Powder

1/4 tsp Baking Soda

1/2 tsp Cinnamon Powder

1/4 tsp Salt

1/8 cup Walnuts, chopped

1/8 cup Chocolate Chips

Preheat oven to 180 deg C.

Mix together the mashed bananas, sugar and vanilla until the sugar is well blended. Whisk in the melted and cooled butter.

Mix together the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, apple and salt). Fold in the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients. Spoon the batter into a greased and lined muffin pan. Bake for 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

The muffins are absolutely delicious. And both my daughters ate them as they came out of the oven!

Thanks for a great recipe, Divya. And I'm excited this is my first eggless muffin recipe, and it's already a keeper.

Lemon Curd Muffins

Sigh. I have a feeling that the bakes from Sweet and Simple Bakes is going to make me gain 10 pounds!

I think this has got to be one of my most favorite bakes so far. Not only were we to make muffins with a to-die-for lemon curd filling, I also got to make my own lemon curd. And I must say, the lemon curd was just... UNBELIEVABLE!! I couldn't stop tasting it and was seriously considering making a second batch!

Lemon Curd
(recipe from S & SB)

55 g/ 22 oz Butter
8 oz Sugar
2 Lemons
2 Eggs, lightly beaten

Grate the rinds of the lemon and squeeze out the juice.

Set up a double boiler with a glass bowl over a pan of boiling water. Add the butter and sugar to the glass bowl. Keep stirring until the butter is melted.

Add the rind and the juice and continue stirring for a minute. Now stir in the eggs and stir constantly for 30 minutes, until a spoon drawn through the lemon curd lets you see the bottom of the glass bowl.

Pour into a sterilized jar. It will keep up to a month (sadly I don't have any left!).

Now onto the luscious muffins :)


Lemon Curd Muffins
(Recipe from S & SB)

7 oz Self-Raising Flour
3 1/2 oz Golden Caster Sugar (I used regular caster sugar)
1 large Egg
3 fl oz Oil
5 fl oz Milk
1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract
12 tsp Lemon Curd

For the Glaze/ Coating:
4 tbsp Lemon Curd
2 oz Caster Sugar

Preheat the oven to 190 deg C.

For the muffins, mix together all the dry ingredients (flour, sugar) in one bowl and the wet ingredients (except the lemon curd) in another. Slowly add the wet to the dry ingredients until combined.

Line a muffin pan. Put a teaspoon of the batter into the lined muffin pan. Top with one teaspoon of lemon curd. Now add the rest of the batter.

Bake for 15-20 minutes.

While it is baking, melt the lemon curd for the glaze over the stove top or in the microwave. Spread on the muffins when they come out of the oven and sprinkle with the caster sugar.

Oh goodness they were so delicious!!! And the inside was gooey and just perfect - a lovely combination of tart and sweet!


Thanks, Maria and Rosie for another amazing bake! And for sharing your treasured recipes with us!

Double Chocolate Chip Muffins

Or... Mud Muffins. They truly look like mounds of mud. But they are oh-so-delicious. And completely easy to put together. They are great to serve as dessert with ice cream when you need a quick fix.

And they don't have eggs, so you get to lick the spoon after mixing the batter!


Chocolate Muffins
(makes 6 muffins)

1 cup Flour
3/4 cup Sugar
scant 1/4 cup Cocoa
1/2 tsp Cinnamon Powder
3/4 tsp Baking Soda
1/4 tsp Salt
3/4 cup Buttermilk
1/8 cup Oil
1 tsp Vanilla
1 cup Chocolate Chips (or a mix of Chocolate Chips and Nuts to equal 1 cup)

Preheat oven to 200 deg C.

Combine all the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, cocoa, cinnamon, baking soda and salt). Add the buttermilk, oil and vanilla and stir till combined. Stir in the chocolate chips and/or nuts.

And you can taste the batter because there are NO EGGS!

Divide the batter equally (or as equally as possible) between greased muffin cups (if you're using a non-stick pan, you don't need to grease it).

Bake for 25-30 minutes.


Mmm. Delicious!


This is off to Madhuram @ Madhuram's Eggless Cooking for the Egg Substitute Event: Yogurt/Buttermilk.

Savory Muffins

One of the first blogs I followed religiously was Jugalbandi. I'm left laughing at the jokes, wonder-struck at the photographs and in awe at their humanitarianism.

This is by far my favorite recipe of theirs. When I started to bake, Bee left a comment on my muffin post saying she was going to make a savory version. So I went to their blog to see if they had any recipes. And I found this one. Its soft and delicious and the crust was perfect. The blend of flavors is spot-on. Creamy soft goat's cheese, sweet roasted red peppers and delicious spring onions and garlic. And it leaves room for experimenting.


As does all their recipes. I love their recipe-writing because they answer almost all your unanswered questions before you even ask! For instance, in this post, I had a 12 muffin pan and had one empty spot and Bee had actually said in her post that if you have one empty spot, fill it halfway with water!! It was as close to reading my mind as I want to get!

I made no changes to the original recipe.


Thanks for a fabulous blog, Bee and Jai. This is off to Zlamushka for Tried and Tasted featuring Jugalbandi this month.

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

If you haven't checked out Sweet + Simple Bakes, it's a great new site that is being hosted by Rosie and Maria. It promotes baking for amateurs and gets us to make the most delicious, simple bakes every month. Kinda like a Daring Bakers for those who have never baked, don't bake much or those professional bakers who just want to get back to the basics.

For this month's Sweet + Simple Bakes challenge, we got to make fabulous Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins. I've made muffins before, but this was so good and so simple. The banana added a moistness to the muffins, which we loved.


Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins
(recipe from Sweet + Simple Bakes)

3 very ripe Bananas
1/2 cup vegetable Oil
2 Eggs
1 3/4 cups All-purpose Flour
3/4 cup Caster Sugar
½ tsp Baking Soda
1 tsp Baking Powder
150g (little more than 3/4 cup) Chocolate Chips

Preheat the oven to 200ºC and line a muffin tin with muffin papers.

Mash the bananas and set aside. In a separate bowl, beat the eggs in with the oil.

Put the flour, sugar, baking soda and baking powder into a large bowl and mix in the beaten-egg-and-oil mixture, followed by the mashed bananas.

Fold in the chocolate chips, then spoon equal quantities into the prepared muffin tin and bake in the oven for 20 minutes.

It was delicious. As always. Thanks again, Rosie and Maria.

Raspberry and Blueberry Muffins

I got a surprise package of dried raspberries and blueberries from a relative in the US. They knew how much I missed the berries, and sent it to me.


And it was just after I rallied to get chillies included as berries in this month's AFAM: Raspberries, hosted by Dee! So, you see, when word gets out, I might have to go into hiding, from my fellow Indian bloggers, who made chilli dishes! The only redeeming part is that I posted a recipe with chillies too!

Muffins with Raspberries and Blueberries
(adapted from a recipe by Cooking with Amy)

4 tbsp Butter
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1 cup All-Purpose Flour
1 tsp Baking Powder
1/4 tsp Salt
1/4 cup Milk
1/4 cup Buttermilk
3/4 cup dried Raspberries
1/4 cup dried Blueberries

Preheat oven to 220 deg C.

Combine the butter and sugar. Add the flour, egg, salt and baking powder. Blend till moist.


Slowly add the milk and then the buttermilk. Add the dried fruit.


Spoon the batter into greased muffin pans.


Bake for 20 minutes.


Remove from oven and cool.


This is my entry for AFAM: Raspberries, hosted by Dee.

Find out what my fellow runners are up to on Day 6 of the Recipe Marathon:
We have Valli leading with Onion Chapatis. Raaga has a delicious looking Vegetable Foccacia. We are featuring two chutneys today - Siri's Tomato Chutney and Swati's Mint Chutney. They would probably go really well with Bhags' Baked Chapati - you'll have to try it and see. Of course, you'll need some curry on the side, and here Divya comes in with her lovely Cauliflower Peas. Or you could be really healthy and just have Lakshmi's Kashayam to settle that stomach. Or you could forget this whole meal and go with Ranji's Simple Jhovan or Konkani meal!