Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Coconut-Blueberry Muffins

It is after coming to Germany, that I absolutely developed an interest towards baking. There are many reasons behind how and why I developed this interest. But, the main one is my own self-pity. Do you want to know why?? Here is my sad story. Those who do not want to read through, just skip the next two paragraphs.

Tortoise coil rolls!! Flashback.

When I was a child, I was fond of eggs. I used to enjoy this healthy food in every form - as omelette, boiled eggs, bull's eye, scrambled eggs, egg curry, cakes, macarons, etc, etc.... As I grew up, sometimes, after meals, I had a strange kind of stomach pain. After about one and half years of treatment for ulcers, etc. it didn't subside and I opted for my own judgement. Based on trial and error, I finally found out that I had developed an allergy to eggs!! It is still a mystery to me, how I got this allergy. But then, after all, I lived in India and I absolutely had no worries. I had a thousand options other than eggs and this allergy was never a pressing problem for me.

Tortoise coil rolls again!! Flashback ends.

It is me now, landed in Germany. I was safe for some days, as long as I remained at home. When I went out and had to eat in restaurants or in office canteen, only then, I realised - it is not just a problem, but a curse :-( When I eat out, mostly I opt for vegetarian food, and you know what? Every pasta has egg, Gnocchi has eggs, fried cheese(like cutlets) has eggs... Ooopss.. I was frustrated!! In office canteen, only salad!! Apart from that, as I go shopping, I see an array of cakes, sweets, struedel and lots of other inviting items, which I never saw in India. I could only drool on seeing them and taste them in my imagination. I realised, before I get into any kind of depression, I must take some initiative.

This is how I started searching in the internet for cakes, that could be made without eggs. I must admit, I was astonished to find a lot of good recipes. I had a good working oven, and thus started trying my hands. Of course, I get some bad results now and then, but they dont stop me from trying further. After all, my husband gladly agrees to be subjected to my experiments :-) I've made a few cakes from Madhuram's egglesscooking and there, she provides a lot of tips for suitable egg substitutes in cakes and muffins.

I'm going to present here, one muffin recipe, which I adapted from Women's Weekly - Cooking Class Cakes. It was quite simple and called for just one egg. So, I replaced the egg with Flax Seed powder. I had no raspberries, so used blueberries instead. The result was pretty good and we were satisfied. Here it goes...



Ingredients:
Self raising flour - 2 1/2 cups
Butter - 90 g
Sugar - 1 cup
Buttermilk - 1 1/4 cups
Dessicated coconut - 1/3 cup
Frozen blueberries - 150g
Flax seed powder - 1 tsp

Method:
Take the flour in a large bowl. Chop the butter and gently fold into the flour. Add sugar, buttermilk and dessicated coconut to the flour.

Whisk the flax seed with about 1/4 cup of water and add to the flour mix. Now, add the blueberries and gently fold until just combined.

Preheat the oven to about 180C. Grease a 12 hole muffin tray with butter and arrange the muffin cups on them. Divide the mixture into the cups. Bake for about 20 minutes. Check if it is done. Stand for a few minutes and turn on a wire rack to cool.

It makes about 12 muffins. For flax seed powder ratio, please refer EgglessCooking - Egg substitutes. I followed exactly how it was mentioned there.
I'm sending this post as an entry to Priya's Now Serving : BEST ‘WESTERN’ DESSERT EVENT and to US Masala's Bookmarked Recipes event
 

21 comments :

  1. Wow I just love coconut in muffins- They looks Delectable - thanks for add this to my event - Lovely post!

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  2. Du hast Recht, lernen ist ganz anders als Sprechen. Als ich Deutsch gelernt hat ,wusste ich viele what is the word for phrases, right now I want to say poor thing in German, but have forgotten what is it. Ich muss my German brush up. Anyway I can understand your plight egg allergy is painful. All the same intersting and nutritious recipe as flaxseed is extremely nutritious.

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  3. aww poor u...i have a cousin whos allergic to eggs..i was so scared to cook fr him while he was visiting us...
    but u seem to have done a great job without using egg..kudos

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  4. Hi.
    Pardon my saying this but an egg allergy is actually a blessing in disguise as it has motivated you to try many new things and new substitutes.
    The muffin looks perfect.

    FOODELICIOUS

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  5. I know its difficult to stay from desserts containing eggs...I also have to now. though i was fond of them earlier..:( But atleast u can be innovative & keep trying out new recipes without the eggs..These muffins look fantastic..;)
    Prathima Rao
    Prats Corner

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  6. lovely combo- coconuts & blueberries- i am just imagining the taste and regarding ur allergy for eggs- my sister has the same thing; she used to enjoy eggs so much as a kid and almost as a mystery she developed stomach pains when she had eggs; so now she is also off-eggs, will pass the recipe to her

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  7. OMG absolutely delicious! Lovely picture

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  8. The muffin is looking so delicious...this is my first time at your place and you have a wonderful blog.

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  9. coconut in muffins just make me think of warm places and feel cold, unliek where i am cold cold Scotland.

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  10. Guess allergy to eggs is a very common problem... I have seen quite a few people that cannot deal with eggs... I on the other hand am not allergic but I just do not like their 'eggy' taste... fortunately though usually they can be substituted quite easily in baked goodies as you have clearly shown here... the muffins came out perfect.

    Thanks a lot for linking this to bookmark event :)

    US Masala

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  11. First time here.. got in here through your muffin entry in Aipi's event. Glad to know about you.. sorry to hear about egg allergy! Trust me, its nothing compared to dust allergy.. spring is here and I have kept my mask ready! :D
    Keep writing about travel too.. and so glad to follow you!

    ammaandbaby.blogspot.com/

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  12. I think your allergy have made you try these eggless wonders and I'm sure that in future you'll come up with your own delicious desserts without eggs. Anyway the muffins looks great, anything with coconut flavour is just amazing.

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  13. First time here and thoroughly enjoyed ur space. Loved the unique combo of coconut and blueberries, glad to follow u :)

    Chitchat

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  14. Thank you all you guys for your lovely, consoling and encouraging words... I hope to try out more eggless recipes and when possible, present it here :-)

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  15. fantastic muffins..you have got nice space..happy to follow you..

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  16. HiI have something for you to pick up on my blog - please collect and congratulations :)

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  17. Perfect muffins' very fulfilling and comforting.

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  18. So bald habe ich geschrieben, errinere ich mich dass poor thing Armes Ding ist aber ich wusste nicht armer Wicht. Vielen Dank fuer the link. Ja das Ber Chutney ist ein Bengali Rezept. Ja wohne ich in Mumbai. Eigentlich war ich in Mumbai geboren und aufgebracht, weisst du? Ich bin Bengali aber ich bin nur zwei mal nach Kolkata(Calcutta)gegangen. Ich gerne mein Deutsch zu ueben, mache ich Fehler trotzdem..Danke fuer deine Geduld.

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