Whole-wheat Rose Muffins

When I started baking in my teenage year’s resources were scarce and I had to manage with very basic appliances and bakeware. My mother and elder sister were highly encouraging of this passion of mine and that helped me better my baking skills.

I remember in those days I used to yearn for the fancy baking equipment’s and ingredients that I saw Nigella bake with. Recently when I was shopping online for basic monthly groceries I came across these super cute multi-coloured set of 6 rose shaped silicon muffin mould. Oh My God! I just cannot express how excited I was as the moulds were not very expensive too. It was in my cart in a jiffy and my brain began to work overtime to come up with flavour combinations.

My husband’s birthday was last month and as we went on a trip during that time I could not bake a cake for him. So these muffins were going to be a belated birthday surprise and they had to be special.
I have been focussing on healthy baking for some time now and my main thrust is to make the baked goodies healthy without compromising on the taste. That is a very trying task I must say.

So I decided that I will make the muffins with whole-wheat flour. Due to my egg allergy the egg replacement product in this recipe is the chia gel which is nothing but chia seeds soaked in water. Tada! Your vegetarian egg is ready to be used in your baked goodies.

These muffins have no added sugar and the sweetness is from the use of condensed milk. Recently I made some almond milk to use in my favourite papaya smoothie. The almond meal left over from that experiment was used in these muffins together with crushed walnuts to give a wonderful texture and nutty flavour. Also walnuts are famous for their health benefits and are a great source of antioxidants, super plant source of Omega 3 fats and much more. https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/benefits-of-walnuts

I mainly use good quality butter in my baking because I hate the taste of refined oil in my cakes. This imparts a delicious moistness and rich flavour to these muffins despite the absence of eggs.

I was a bit sceptical about how my new muffin moulds will be and whether the rose shape will be as good as I imagined. But believe me ths muffins turned out to be even better than I expected. They were deliciously golden on the outside and soft, moist, nutty and bursting with flavours on the inside. The added bonus is the smug satisfied feeling of superiority on creating a healthy treat which looks beautiful and is equally tasty.

Preparation time: 15 minutes*
Baking Time: 20 minutes*

Ingredients:

1. 1 cup Whole Wheat Flour (150gm)
2. 2 tsp Chia seeds(10gm)
3. 1 ½ tsp Baking powder
4. ½ tsp Baking soda
5. Softened Butter 100 gm
6. Condensed Milk 50 ml
7. Almond Meal/ Almond powder 2tbsp (20gm)
8. Walnuts 8 to 10 coarsely crushed
9. Dark Chocolate buttons(optional)
10. Mixing Bowls, mixing spoons, hand whisk/electric whisk.
11. Rose shaped Silicon Muffin mould

Method
• Baking is always easy if you start by keeping all the ingredients on your work counter and all the mixing bowls, spoons, whisk etc ready.
• Soak the chia seeds in 20 ml i.e aprox 2 tbsp water for 15 to 20 minutes before you start baking. You will see the tiny seeds will expand and form a gel which will be our egg substitute.
• Mix the flour with the baking powder and baking soda.
• Whip the softened butter with a handheld beater for 3 to 4 minutes till the colour of the butter changes and it becomes light and fluffy.
• Mix in 2 tsp of the chia gel and whip.
• Mix the condensed milk with equal parts warm water.
• Pre-heat the oven at 180C.
• Add the flour mix with the softened butter and chia gel mixture.
• Add the diluted condensed milk to form a smooth batter which is semi pourable. You can add more water if required to bring your batter to required consistency.

• Mix in the almond meal and crushed walnuts with a spatula.
• Be careful not to over mix the batter but all the ingredients should be well combined.
• With the help of a spoon put the batter into the muffin moulds. Dot the top of few of the muffins with the chocolate buttons and push them in

• Put the muffins into the preheated oven to bake for 20 minutes
• After 20 minutes check the centre of one of the muffins with a tooth pick. If it comes out clean, then the muffins are done. If not, then bake for 5 more minutes.

• Take them our from the oven and demould when cool.
• Extremely pretty, golden petalled walnut flavour healthy and tasty rose muffins are ready to be devoured.

P.S.**

All ovens are unique the timing might vary accordingly. So feel free to adjust the timing according to your ovens nature.

The quantities that I have mentioned will make around 6 muffins.

I like my desserts a bit on the less sweet side but if you feel the requirement you may add some brown sugar or jaggery according to your taste.

This recipe is actually a spin off from my earlier blueberry and white chocolate muffins where I had promised to come up with a healthier version of that recipe and here it is now!

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask me anything about this cake in the comments section.