So the muffin pan emerged from several years of hibernation, as you saw in the previous post on Wholegrain Carrot Muffins and once something is in front of my eyes and not out of sight, then that item tends to get some extra attention and love from me … until the next one comes along 😎
And with muffins as you may know, the sky is the limit when it comes to trying out variations, so the incentive to keep playing is quite high.
The mango season has been upon us for a while now and though I got my fix late due to the Corona lockdown, I suddenly received a bounty last week, as if in retribution for the earlier mango famine. Some of the fruit were semi ripe and some were raw. The raw ones found themselves in a ‘fine pickle’ and the semi ripe said – “Psst why don’t you make muffins out of us” … and when mangoes talk to you, you better listen.
My coastal blood also sensed the bowl of freshly grated coconut lolling in the fridge and a new muffin took shape in my head. Of course I wanted it to be quite different from the previous recipe so I decided to have semolina/rava also in the fray.
So let us move on to our Semi ripe mango, fresh coconut, semolina, whole wheat, semolina muffins and see how they turned out.
Muffins –
As I mentioned in the previous recipe, muffins can be of infinite varieties and are mostly created in cup cake moulds to resemble their decadent lookalike cousins. So we can munch on something more nutritious while pretending that we are holding something else, if that is what it takes for some of us to eat healthier 😀 In my house however, we have no such trouble and we gladly devour anything that promises us less calories.
Another great thing about muffins is that unlike with most cakes where a careful adherence to the process is important to get the right texture, here the ingredients are dumped together and lightly mixed manually and thus simple enough even for beginners to bake with success.
Wholegrain Mango Coconut Muffins –
Muffins usually follow a basic recipe which is quite generic and this recipe that I have put together, is the result of tweaking my earlier recipe and just putting together ingredients that I thought would work well.
Ingredients –
1. Whole Wheat Flour (WWF) – 175 gm
2. Semolina/rava (medium coarse, also called upma rava) – 80 gm
3. Salt – 1/2 teaspoon
4. Baking powder – 2 teaspoon
5. Baking Soda – 1 teaspoon
6. Turmeric powder (optional) – 1 teaspoon
7. Coconut, freshly grated – 100 gm
8. Semi ripe mango, diced into small cubes – 150 gm (around 1 cup)
9. Rum soaked Christmas cake fruit – 100 gm (this is optional or you can use any other dry fruit)
10. Organic sugar – 1/2 cup (or any sugar)
11. Oil – 1/2 cup
12. Curds – 1/2 cup
13. Eggs – 2
14. Vanilla extract or essence – 1 teaspoon
Equipment needed –
A 12 muffin pan
12 cup cake liners
Method –
Prepare your pan for baking by lining the depressions with muffin liners. I do not grease my liners or my pan.
The dry ingredients 1 – 6, are to be sifted thrice and kept aside.
In a large bowl add ingredients 9 – 13 and mix well with a whisk. I usually just do it with my Silicon spatula.
Toss the raw mango, coconut and Christmas fruit into the sifted flour and lightly mix to coat everything. This is done to enable an even distribution of the vegetable and fruit through the muffins and to prevent them from sinking to the base while baking.
Add the flour mix in 2 -3 batches and gently mix everything with the spatula until just combined. Just make sure that the dry and wet ingredients have mixed and there are no dry parts. Overmixing will lead to gluten development and tougher muffins.
If you feel that the mix is too dry, then you can add curds as required but be careful to add only a little at a time, mix and then decide if you need more. The batter should be of thick dropping consistency.
Pre heat the oven to 180 deg c. (Time and temperature depends on individual ovens).
With the use of a spoon which is smaller than the mouth of the muffin liner, quickly drop the batter equally into the 12 cups. You can also use an ice cream scoop to drop the batter.
If you are very particular, you can weigh the batter and divide it by 12 and fill in an equal weight into each cup. This is best done by placing the pan on a weighing scale and adding equal weights of batter into each cup.
Some people even prefer piping the muffins into the liners using large nozzles.
Gently tap the loaded pan. Be careful that the liners do not tilt or slip.
Place the pan in the oven and bake for 30 minutes or until a toothpick or knife inserted through the muffin, comes out clean.
Remove the muffins and cool them on a wire rack. You can store them with the liners or without.
They can be kept in an airtight box at room temperature for a couple of days or as per the climate of your location. You can likewise refrigerate for upto a week or even freeze for much longer. Just microwave or toast them before eating. I actually like my muffins frozen but then I am different 😀
I hope you will successfully try this recipe and I would really appreciate if you leave your feedback in the Blog comments.
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