Eggless Banana Walnut Muffins

When we were young school going girls, our mother would buy cake from the local bakery and we would have it in the evening. It was a treat for us. Our mother would never return empty handed after her shopping. It would be either samosas, kachoris or cakes or mithais. We knew that if mom has gone out then some treat would be there after she returns. We had a bakery near our house where we used to get freshly baked bread, cakes, khari puffs, veg. puffs and so many other things. As the place where we lived was mostly populated by Jains, we would even get eggless cakes on order. I would wonder how these eggless cakes were also so soft and fluffy as the ones with eggs. As we are pure vegetarians, buying egg at home was not allowed even though we would buy cakes with eggs and eat them ( except for my parents and grandmother). After my (Sucharitha) marriage, my inlaws were and are very orthodox and they dont even eat certain vegetables on certain days. It was very difficult for me to think and cook only vegetables that are allowed leave alone the eggs. I had always heard about Tarla Dalal in the 90's and she inspired me a lot. I joined her website and downloaded a lot of recipes including the Jain recipes which I had to make i.e. the ones without onions and garlics. I came upon this cake recipe and gave it a try. I was so proud of the results and it was a hit with my in-laws and relatives. I couldn't believe that an eggless cake would be so soft and tasty. From then on, I vowed not to think about the cakes with eggs when the eggless ones were more tastier and softer than those. Here is the recipe for Eggless Banana Walnut muffins.
"Eggless Banana Walnut muffins"




Ingredients :

2 bananas smashed
1/4 cup walnuts coarsely chopped
1 cup all purpose flour 3/4 cup butter ( at room temperature ) { original recipe calls for 1 cup } 3/4 cup sugar ( powdered ) { original recipe calls for 1 cup }
1/2 tsp. vanilla essence
3 - 4 tbs. milk
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. baking soda

Method :

Note : All the ingredients should be a room temperature. Keep all the ingredients ready or out of fridge before starting.

1. Pre heat the oven to 400 degrees F.
2. Beat butter and sugar together with a wooden spoon till fulffy or until the sugar is completely is mixed with the butter.
3. Seive all purpose flour, baking powder and baking soda together.
4. Mix in the flour with the butter mixture little by little, add essence, banana, milk and mix gently. ( Do not mix the batter too much. Just mix so that the ingredients become one).

5. Add the walnuts, stir and pour into muffin moulds till half of the mould and bake for 20 mins. or till a knife inserted in the centre of the muffin comes out clean.
Remove from oven and allow to cool for about 10 - 15 mins. and then dig in.

You can also pour the batter into a cake pan and bake into a cake. My experience is that the muffin recipes come out soft when they are made into muffins than like a cake. This batter makes about 10 - 12 muffins.