Plum Muffin with Pottukadalai

This is going to be my mornings from now on.  Gau will eat a muffin before school.  I will bake muffins once or twice a week, in the morning.  Weekday morning at that.  My prep work should cover any chopping, grating, slicing, buying, gathering necessary for the muffin.   Morning work will be limited to mix pour and bake, between making breakfast and lunch for all of us.

Muffins are not breakfast per se, they are more of a pre-breakfast snack for both the kids and the hubby.  The older one has breakfast at school, the younger one around 10 at home.

My last veggie shopping trip, the little one demanded grapes.  This being off season for grapes the one I tasted made my mouth pucker.  I compromised and got him Indian Plums.  His crush on plums lasted until we got home and he bit into it. He quickly switched allegiance to the apples in the bag.

This is a riff of a BBC Recipe.  I don't like plums myself - skin a tad bitter, flesh a tad sour and not easily peeled.  But I solidered on and peeled 330 g  plums (about 8), chopped it to a half inch dice and then stewed it for 15 minutes with 2 tbspoon of honey the night before I made the muffins. The original asked for Golden Syrup, which is available usually in Nuts and Spices.  But I did the prep work at 10 pm, so no Nuts or Spices. I used self-raising flour the first time I made it and a whole cup of sugar.  too sweet.  But the kids loved it.  EVen without any chocolate! I used half coconut oil and half melted butter.  I was simply worried that my cold pressed coconut oil may overpower every other flavour in the muffin.

This recipe from the second time is a much better fit.  I also used the larger imported variety - 3 plums amounted to 300 g.

1 cup roasted gram, finely ground

1/2 cup whole wheat flour (chapathi flour)

1/2 cup all purpose flour (maida)

1  tsp ground nutmeg (finely grated)

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 cup coconut oil

1/4 cup melted butter

3/4 cup white sugar

3/4 cup yogurt

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla essence

300 g plums

2 tbspoon honey

1/3 cup chocolate chips/chopped chocolate square

Preheat Oven to 175 deg C, butter a 12 muffin pan and a 6 muffin pan. (I have a small 12 muffin pan and a medium sized 6 muffin pan.  Probably 12 large muffins otherwise)

stewing Plums

Stew the plum in honey over medium low heat until it appears soft, but, still retains its shape a bit.  Let cool to room temperature

Mix all the dry ingredients together in a bowl.

In another bowl, beat the oil/butter and sugar together until creamy.
Add yogurt and beat.
Add egg, one at a time, and beat until well incorporated.
Add vanilla essence and mix.

Pour flour mix into the wet ingredients bowl and mix until just incorporated.

Add the stewed plums and mix until just incorporated.

Add the chocolate and mix until just incorporated.

Baked Muffins

 

 

 

 

Light crumb, not dense

Garnish with a little sugar.


Distribute among the 18 muffin cups and bake 18 - 22 minutes until just done.