Coconut Oats Muffins

I am on a muffin making spree. It's the perfect dessert and I wish I had discovered them sooner. I love their size; it is the perfect serving size for 1 person. Its completely another matter than I can't just stop eating them!  Perhaps that's why I waited so long before dabbling in baking. It was pure self preservation. Oh well, you can't stop things which are meant to be. 

I think it also had to with her beautiful blog. Joy makes baking so irresistible and simple. A lot of blogs make baking sound tedious; careful measurements and taking temperatures. Not Joy. With her, its just a matter of mixing, beating and popping in the hot oven and voila! 

I am also totally loving my convection microwave. It takes much lesser time to heat up and get cracking. Baking times are shorter too. So unlike the monstrosity that came fitted with the apartment in Seattle.

I never experimented with coconut flakes or coconut oil till now and this recipe seemed like just the thing to get started. Mine actually puffed up as you can see in the photographs. Maybe because I used quick cooking oat meal rather than traditional oats. I also made a batch with mangoes, but I much preferred the ones without mangoes. Mangoes tend to get super mushy when baked and don't keep well till the next day.

Coconut Oats Muffins
Adapted from The Kitchn.
Makes about 12 muffins

Ingredients
1/2 cup coconut oil (I used Parachute cooking oil)
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup oat flour (I processed the quick cooking oats into the flour)
1/2 cup oats (I used quick cooking oats since that's the only one available here)
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup fresh coconut - grated
1 cup yogurt - I used home made
1/3 cup granulated sugar + 2 tbsp sugar for sweetened coconut
1 large egg, room temperature 
Vanilla essence - 3-4 drops
1/4 cup sweetened shredded coconut, for top

Directions


For making sweetened coconut, add 1-2 tbsp coconut water and 2 tbsp sugar to grated coconut. Microwave on high in 30 second bursts till the sugar melts, taking care the coconut or sugar doesn't burn.


Preheat the oven to 150 degree Celsius.

Sift together all the dry ingredients. Add coconut flakes to the dry ingredients. 

In a separate bowl, stir together all the wet ingredients along with the egg till mixed well. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix till well combined.

Line cupcake pan with cupcake wrappers. Pour batter into the cupcake wrappers till the top and top it with sweetened coconut. Bake for 20 - 30 minutes till the toothpick comes out clean. 

Vegetarian Chocolate Muffins

Some days are bad. Then there are days which only chocolate muffins and Adele can salvage. And on some days, those chocolate muffins are also dinner. Stop staring open-mouthed at me. What? I am just human. I will get to that Yoga class on Monday. Promise.

Now, back to those muffins. Baking without eggs has always kind of confounded me. I have tried to tackle this monster many times but I always ended up with a flat, fudgey mess. 

But, today, the urge to make chocolate muffins was too strong. I picked up the first chocolate muffin recipe Google offered and replaced eggs with flax seed concoction. With some other alterations of course! Mostly around removing some of the items from the original recipe. 

And I was rewarded with glossy, perfect muffins. My first victory of the day! 

Only later did I take time to read the rest of this. Life works in strange, mysterious ways to soothe you when everything seems lost. :) 

Vegetarian Chocolate Muffins

Inspired by one of those days. Adapted from Orangette's cake.

Makes about 12 muffins


Ingredients

1/2 cup hot brewed coffee
1 cup powdered sugar
1 & 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cups unsweetened cocoa powder (I used low fat)
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
3 tsp ground flaxseed mixed with 8 tbsp warm water

1/2 cup sunflower oil (Can be reduced to 1/3. I added extra to make up for egg yolks)
1/2 cup well-shaken buttermilk

Directions
Sift together all the dry ingredients. Slowly add the liquids while making sure no lumps are formed.

Preheat the oven to 150 degree Celsius. Grease and dust the cupcake pan with flour. Pour batter into the cupcake till the top. Bake for 20 - 30 minutes till the toothpick comes out clean.


Make sure the pans are cooled somewhat before removing the muffins. Try to remove them when they are semi-warm, otherwise the bottoms tend to get soggy because of condensed moisture. You can also use cute muffin wrappers. That should help with the sogginess.