I know it’s been long since I posted my last recipe. Somehow, was not able to concentrate to compile this post! This time, what I am sharing with you was a super hit at home and specially with kids! So coming late but coming with a bang is Whole wheat, Prune and Walnut muffin with ground Flax seeds. Huh! Can you ask for more nutrition and taste packaged together in a single recipe?! It was so satisfying to see my 6 year old niece and my 20 month old daughter hog on it (smiles)!

This recipe was a joint effort by me and my niece Parinita (Pari). Oh, I just can’t explain how enthusiastic a kid she is! Curious is the word for her and cooking is something she enjoys from core of her heart! Even at 6 she just loves it and is so much interested in it that I could not stop myself from planning a recipe with her! A few days back she was here to spend her day and we both had gala time preparing these muffins! Love you Pari and thanks for being a guest cook for my blog!  We took almost 40 minutes from scratch to end + 15 minutes to finish off the muffins!

My little one is so fascinated about Birthdays these days that she keeps singing the “Happy Birthday” song for everyone in the family. Whenever she sees photograph of a cake, she wishes to cut it and celebrate a birthday! So these muffins came really handy to give her the joy of cutting cake. Whenever she wishes to cut a cake, I get a muffin and she fulfils her desire and eats it as well. What else will I want!

If you are traveling with kids, it will be a saviour, if your kids like it (which they should as per my experience)! For my daughter, one muffin would make up for a meal! The best part about this recipe is the ingredients and the preparation time (35-40 minutes). Also depending on taste of family members, we can keep some without dry fruits (especially for kids), add some extra chocolates to a few…I feel this flexibility is the best part about muffins! In fact, we did this, since Pari doesn’t like dry fruits, we kept a couple of muffins without them and added some extra chocolate to that batter.

The recipe is inspired by Vegan Whole Wheat Blueberry Muffins@Eggless Cooking.

Ingredients

(will make 10 muffins)

• 3/4 cup All Purpose Flour (APF)
• 1 Cup Whole Wheat Flour
• 1/4 cup ground Flax Seeds
• 1 1/2 tea spoon Lemon Zest (approx. use two lemons)
• 3/4 Cup vegetable oil (I used canola oil once and homemade clarified butter the other time)
• 1 tea spoon Apple cider vinegar (or any vinegar of your choice should do)
• 3/4 Cup Sugar (Use palm sugar as a healthier option)
• 1/2 tea spoon Salt
• 1 1/4 cup Milk
• 1/2 tea spoon Baking Powder
• 1 1/2  tea spoon Baking Soda
• 3/4 tea spoon cinnamon
• 8-10 pieces of walnut (cut into small pieces)
• 5-6 Pitted Prunes (cut into halves)

Preparation Steps

1. Mix together the oil, vinegar, sugar and milk in a bowl.
2. Mix whole wheat and all purpose flour, baking powder and soda and sieve.
3. Add salt, cinnamon and lemon zest
4. Add the milk mixture to these dry ingredients slowly and keep mixing with a spatula to avoid lumps.
5. One the entire milk mixture is added, mix the batter with a spatula for 2-3 minutes.
6. Add the dry fruits and fold them in the batter. (You can keep some batter aside if for a couple of muffins without dry fruits if our kids don’t like them.)
7. Keep the oven pre heated at 180 C.
8. Grease the muffin tray and add the batter. Each cup should have batter till the top level
9. Bake in oven at 180 C from 17 to 20 minutes. Insert a tooth pick to check if the muffins have baked. The tooth pick should come out clean.
10. Once done, let the muffins cool down in tray for 5 minutes( if you can wait for that long it will be worth it (wink)!). Do not keep the tray under fan. It may make the muffins less spongy.

Wasn’t that fast and easy! Working women, this one is a quicker and your kids and family would love it! What are you waiting for; just add it to your weekend menu (smiles).

Do share your recipes if you have tried some muffins recently.

Take Care and have a Happy and Healthy life!