As someone who loves a good meal, cooking one, came to me as a natural passion. I belong to a family where meal times consisted of not just food, but also noisy conversation centered around the events of the day and discussing the menu for the next. (ah yes, we are a greedy lot! )

For the most part of my life so far, my contribution in the kitchen was assisting mom and my duties were limited, to chopping veggies and laying the table. Then along came the great Indian wedding, and I was suddenly the queen of my very own kingdom. My curiosity about this magical world, coupled with an enthusiastic sous-chef (my husband, Vineet), led me to take on the challenge of preparing meals on a daily basis, and not succumbing to the convenience of hiring a cook.

This blog is a product of my experiments with food (not all are life threatening :D) for my fellow culinary enthusiasts - especially the newly weds and hungry bachelors and is dedicated to the women who've inspired me in the kitchen;
Aji (s),Ma and Nigella Lawson.

Sunday, October 24, 2010

Guilt-free Carrot-Cranberry muffins

Sunday morning, and I was up long before Vineet realised he'd slept through half of the day. I walked around the house rather aimlessly, wondering what we'd have for lunch when I found a bunch of carrots stashed on the bottom rack of the refrigerator, and I thought of making Carrot bread which would make for a good breakfast in the coming week... I then remembered the packet of dried cranberries, that I had picked up a few weeks ago, and instantly knew I wanted to finally use those.
So I changed my bread-making plan into a muffin making one, and substituted a couple of ingredients from my mum's carrot cake recipe and voila! a batch of guilt-free carrot-cranberry muffins was born!
And oh yea, we had left over palak-paneer and rajma for lunch ;)

So here goes my experiment with muffins - No maida. No butter. and if you feel up to it, No sugar either!



Dry Ingredients:
1 cup Whole wheat flour(atta)
1 cup Brown bread crumbs
2/3rd cup Brown sugar*
1 tbsp ground Cinnamon
1 tbsp ground Nutmeg
1/2 tbsp Baking powder
1/2 tbsp Baking soda
1/2 tbsp grated Orange zest
2 cups grated Carrots
1 cup dried Cranberries*


* Substitute the 2/3 cup brown sugar with 1/2 cup honey & use Raisins incase you don't find dried cranberries.

Wet Ingredients:
1 Egg + 1/4 tbsp Vanilla extract + 1/2 cup Milk
1/2 cup Orange Juice

Kitchen Essentials:
Large mixing bowl | Hand-held blender | muffin tray | paper-muffin cups (optional) | Oven preheated to 190 dec C

Method:
1.  Mix together all the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Set aside

2. Crack the egg into the dry mixing and beat on slow. Add the Milk, Vanilla essence and Orange juice and beat slowly till nicely blended.

3.  Line the muffin tray with the paper cups. Alternatively, grease the inside of the muffin tray with a little butter, and dust with a little Maida (all purpose flour).

4.  Scoop the batter into the muffin cups and bake at 190deg C for about 20 mins. To check if done, gently insert a knife/fork /toothpick and see if it comes out clean.

5.  Cool on a wire rack and Enjoy!

1 comment: