Pumpkins aren’t my favourite. For one, they are called ‘bhopla’ in Marathi which is also used as slang for a dumbass. And Bhoplyachi bhaaji and bhoplyacha raita are two very boring things that I grew up eating. My mum’s mum used to make these kickass deep fried pooris for us to take on long trips. I discovered they were made of pumpkin much later… And then my mom made me Bhoplyachi kheer. That’s when I realized that Pumpkins made better dessert than a main course. Last week Mum brought home a humongous pumpkin. I refused to eat the raita and the bhaji. But I couldn’t resist baking with it. And when someone on twitter asked me if I had ever baked with a pumpkin, I went in a hyper mode. The outcome, after a few experiments, was a healthy Pumpkin Muffin.
Ingredients:
2 eggs
1 cup castor sugar
2/3 cup oil
½ cup milk
½ cup oats (I ground them to a powder)
½ cup jowar flour
½ cup whole wheat flour
A pinch of salt
1 tsp cinnamon powder
½ tsp cardamom powder
1 level tsp baking powder
½ tsp vanilla extract
1 cup grated pumpkin
Khus Khus to decorate
Method:
Preheat the oven to 180 deg C.
Traditionally a muffin is made by mixing all dry and wet ingredients separately and then combining both the mixtures to form a lumpy batter. However, as a matter of habit I just blindly whisked the eggs and sugar together (cupcake method). I’ll stick to what I did for this recipe.
Start with whisking the eggs for three minutes until they’re fluffy and light yellow. Now, add in the sugar, ½ cup at a time, until it becomes a white frothy mix. Next, add the vanilla extract and switch on the whisk again. While the whisk is on, add in the oil, in 4 parts. Now mix in the milk and whisk just a little. It’s time for the shredded pumpkin to go in at this point. Mix a little and then sieve in all the flours, salt, spices and the baking powder and then lightly stir the mix till the flour in incorporated completely in the batter. Spoon the batter into a cupcake tray lined with papers. Sprinkle some khus seeds on each muffin right before placing the tray in the oven. Inabout 20-25 minutes, your muffins should be fluffed, brown and smelling like heaven.
Mine didn’t rise much, but they were soft and moist and went down well with my afternoon tea.
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