Banana - Blueberry muffins

Dear foodies,

Every now and then I feel like having a nice rich piece of cake inspite of being a person with out a pronounced sweet tooth. In India all the local bakeries would conveniently sell pastries that were just right for such cravings. You did not have to buy full cakes and deal with the trouble of finishing them. If you had a small impromptu party you could buy as many flavors as there were friends and everyone is happy. The flavors were great too, my favorites are the black forest and pineapple pastries. Over here, I find the cakes laden with butter and calories, and the ones in the chain stores use ingredients that increase the product's shelf life, reducing yours! So when I get the cravings I experiment at home and make small portions that are easy to handle. The maple cake was one such experiment and the other time is was these decadent chocolate cupcakes.

When I've had banana's sitting on the counter getting close to the blackening stage I have them with some milk and sugar, or as a smoothie, sometimes even a banana bread if I have the time. A few months back I saw this recipe for vegan blueberry muffins. It was the berry season and I also had some fresh blueberries at home.

I followed the method given in the recipe, but cut down the amount of oil and added some ground flax seeds instead. (Microwave 1 tsp of flax seeds in 1 1/2 tbsp of water in spurts of 30secs, beating it vigorously in between to get a thick viscous mixture, cool and add to batter). I used lesser sugar too since the banana's I had were sweet enough by themselves and the blueberries too were tart and juicy. You can see that my muffins are not as crumbly as the ones in the original recipe, may be due to the flax seeds giving it a good support structure. I halved the recipe and got 6 muffins out of it. These muffins were not as sturdy as regular store bought one's and yielded under your touch, but they were super delicious, and were gone in a couple of hours.

I made these when my parents were here and they loved it since it tasted a lot like banana appam (pazham pori). It is essentially the same ingredients in a different package, banana's, flour, sugar and oil, but this one is baked and has fewer calories. So the next time you have banana's to use up, you know what to do ! 5 more days to go, yay!