Spinach Feta Muffins - Savory Muffin Recipe (Eggless Option Included)

Muffins are a personal favourite and while a frosted cupcake is a welcome treat, a muffin is more a regular thing for me and I often bake a batch for snack time at work. However, they have always been of the sweet kind like these blueberry muffins or lemon poppy seed muffins (one of my favourites). I baked these savory muffins a couple of months ago and really wondered why it never occurred to me. If you can mix things together in a bowl and have an oven, you can bake a batch of these, that's how easy they are to make.

With a healthy dose of spinach, tomatoes, and cheese, you can choose to make this recipe eggless or keep the one egg in. After all, the egg gets divided between almost 8 large muffins. If you prefer to make eggless spinach feta muffins, just replace the egg with 2 tbsp plain curd. I haven't tried this but I don't see much reason why this wouldn't work.

The ingredients in this muffin recipe are super simple and (almost) all are healthy too. It's not often that I bake up something like this so I am totally savoring this moment. Check notes below for some easy substitution ideas. Baking up a batch of this and taking one to work every day for evening snack was probably my best food-related idea in recent times. Too bad I am lazy to follow this through plan every weekend. It only happened about 2-3 times so far. But don't be like me, ok?

Sidenote: today is Vishu and I am posting a muffin recipe but well, that's reality. I am at work and not really in any position to make a sadya so I thought I should share the recipe for these delicious savory muffins I baked and loved. That's fair no?

In case you do need some sadya recipes, check out my list of Vishu sadya recipes.

SPINACH FETA MUFFIN RECIPE

Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 20 minutes
Makes ~ 10 large muffins
Adapted from: Taste.com.au

INGREDIENTS:
2.5 cups of plain flour
2 tsp of baking powder
1 tsp of salt
2 cups of packed, spinach leaves (see notes)
3/4 cup of crumbled feta cheese
3/4 cup of cubed tomatoes
4 tbsp of grated parmesan or mozzarella
1 1/3 cups of milk
90 gm (6.5 tbsp) of butter
1 egg (or 2 tbsp plain curd)

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Pre-heat oven to 200C. Line a muffin tray with liners and spray or grease with butter or oil. Set aside.

2. Wash, drain, and finely chop the spinach leaves (I used my food processor for this). Add 2 cups spinach leaves, 2.5 cups flour, 2 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp salt, 3/4 cup tomatoes, 3/4 cup feta, and 2 tbsp of parmesan to a bowl.

3. Mix well until all ingredients are combined well.

4. Melt the 90gm butter in the microwave or stove top (don't boil, just warm so the butter melts) and add the egg and 1 1/3 cups milk to this. Whisk to combine.

5. Add this to the previous mixture and stir well to combine.

Your muffin batter is ready! How easy is that eh?

6. Pour into the lined muffin tray until the holes are 3/4 filled. Add the remaining 2 tbsp grated parmesan (or mozzarella) on top.

7. Bake in the pre-heated oven for roughly 20 mins or the top turns a golden brown. Use a skewer to poke the muffin all the way through and make sure there's no unbaked dough remaining. Remove from tray and cool on wiring racks.

These muffins taste great on the day they are made but can be kept refrigerated for 3-4 days. Warm slightly in the oven or microwave before serving. If you re-heat in the microwave, don't let it sit for long since that'll turn the muffin rubbery. I won't judge if you pat some butter on the warmed up muffin, so go for it!

NOTES:
1. I used baby spinach leaves (the kind you use in salads) for these. You can use any spinach, just note that the flavour will change accordingly
2. You can substitute fresh tomatoes with semi-dried or sun dried tomatoes. Just use lesser quantities (eyeball it) since they tend to be more intense
3. The salt in these muffins is regulated by the type of cheeses you use and the extra salt you add. So be mindful of that and add less to err on the right side of saltiness
4. If you want a spice kick, add 1/2 tsp of freshly ground green chillies or some chilli flakes, I tried it in a batch and loved it!
5. You can add some bacon if you are not vegetarian. Great breakfast muffins then, eh?
6. If you don't get feta where you live or it's crazy expensive, try adding paneer instead. I am not sure how it'll bake up but definitely worth a shot
7. These muffins are not airy and spongy, but rather dense and filling. Just putting it out there lest you guys find it disappointing with different expectations
8. You can try replacing plain flour with whole wheat flour or do a 50-50 thing. I haven't tried this though

As you can see, these spinach feta muffins can be customized many many different ways. So unleash your creativity and go for it!

And errr... Happy Vishu to whose who celebrate! :)

Eggless Cake Recipes~Eggless Cupcake Recipes~Eggless Baking Recipes

I get a lot of comments and emails asking for specific eggless cakes and cupcake recipes. I have quite a few eggless cake recipes posted in the past but realised there's no one place that I have compiled everything. So here it is.

I will keep updating this page as I post more eggless cakes and eggless cupcakes. Note that most eggless cakes can be baked as eggless cupcakes (and vice-versa), it's really up to you.

Eggless Cakes | Eggless Cupcakes

1. Eggless Vanilla Cake (Basic Eggless Sponge Cake)

2. Eggless Lemon Cake

3. Eggless Mango Cake (Vegan)

4. Eggless Lemon Poppy Seed Cupcakes

5. Eggless Plum Cake (Fruit Cake)

Eggless Chocolate Cakes | Eggless Chocolate Cupcakes

1. Eggless Chocolate Avocado Cake / Cupcake (Vegan)
2. Eggless Moist Chocolate Sponge Cake
3. Eggless Chocolate Yogurt Cake
4. Eggless Chocolate Mug Cake
5. Eggless Chocolate Banana Cake
6. Eggless No-Butter Chocolate Cupcake

Eggless Cheesecake Recipes

1. Eggless No-Bake Mango Cheesecake

2. Eggless No-Bake Oreo Cheesecake (no gelatine)

I will keep updating the list with more eggless cakes and cupcake recipes as I bake and post them. Happy eggless baking! 

Vegan Chocolate Avocado Cupcakes-Eggless Cake Recipes

Eggless Recipes (especially cakes) have become more of a hobby to me now. Back in the day, I didn't care much whether a cake I baked was eggless or not, but as I was telling a friend recently, a LOT of you bake eggless and each time I post a cake recipe, I immediately get the question "how can I make this cake eggless?" so I started making both versions, and soon, exclusively looking for eggless cake recipes.

There are various methods of making a cake (or cupcake) eggless and I have tried quite a few of them already.

Vegan mango cake
Eggless chocolate cake using bananas
Chocolate sponge cake using vinegar
Eggless vanilla sponge cake using yogurt
Vegan chocolate muffins

There are a few more but the ones above are probably the most successful ones.

So anyway, coming back to using avocados in a chocolate cake. Let me be honest. The idea didn't appeal to me one bit. Although I knew avocados have a pretty neutral flavour and they are beautifully buttery, I still couldn't quite bring myself to do it for a while. Then I bought 2 avocados from the market (at a ridiculously high price, I must add) and forgot about them. They ripened to a mush and I panicked. Guacamole was the obvious answer but I decided to take the plunge and make this vegan chocolate cake recipe from Joy the Baker, but make them into cupcakes.

Vegan Chocolate Avocado Cupcakes

Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 30 minutes
Makes 10 cupcakes
Adapted from: Joy the Baker

Ingredients:
1.5 cups of all-purpose flour (maida)
3 tbsp of cocoa powder
1/4 tsp of salt
1 tsp of baking powder
1 tsp of baking soda
1 cup of sugar
2 tbsp of vegetable oil
1/4 cup of chopped avocado (I used one small avocado which was a bit more than 1/4 cup)
1 cup of water
1 tbsp of white vinegar
1 tsp of vanilla extract

How to Make Chocolate Avocado Cupcakes:

0. Pre-heat oven to 350F / 180 C. Line or grease a cupcake tray and set aside.

1. Chop up the avocado and add to a blender or food processor.

Top off with the oil, water, vanilla, vinegar, and the sugar.

2. Blend well until the avocados get pureed completely.

3. Mix the flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt together in a bowl. Well, ideally you should sift them together so please do that and don't be like me.

4. Tip the wet ingredients into the dry.

5. Gently whisk together until you see no traces of the dry mixture in the batter.

6. Pour into the lined cupcake tray about 3/4 of the way.

7. Bake in the pre-heated oven for about 30 mins or until a toothpick inserted into the centre of a cupcake comes out with dry crumbs. The top may crack a bit, that's totally fine.

I felt like the cupcakes weren't too sweet on their own so I whipped up some lemon-flavoured buttercream to frost the chocolate avocado cupcakes. The m measurements are rough since I don't follow a standard recipe for frosting.

Recipe for Basic Buttercream Frosting (Not Vegan): Beat together - 1 cup of icing sugar + 1/4 cup of softened butter + 1/2 tsp vanilla + 1 tsp lemon zest until stiff. If the frosting is too dry, add some milk (by the drops) or butter and if it's too runny, add more icing sugar.

Pipe on to the cupcakes once they are completely cooled. I also added some finely grated chocolate over it to make it look prettier :)

These cupcakes are a bit on the dense and spongy side but absolutely delicious, especially when paired with the frosting. See what I mean?



You can also make this into a cake in which case this quantity will give you one 8" cake.

Note: I use Valrhona Cocoa Powder for all my baking, which explains the deep colour of my cupcakes. Use any cocoa powder you have in hand, but you may not get the deep brown colour you see here.

Blueberry Muffins with Yogurt | Guest Post

I have a sister and a brother. I know many people do and it's not a huge deal but I like to believe my situation is a bit different. It is, actually. They are both more than 9 years older than me. So there's my brother and sister who are 1.5 years apart and then there's me, much younger than the two of them. This led to some interesting childhood events. I was bullied quite mercilessly, needless to say. But as we grew up a bit, my siblings were my almost-parents. My brother taught me how to brush my teeth and my sister and I have a TON of pictures together when she has made me up so much that I look unrecognisable. She also used to sing to me a lot and force me to scrub my face hard while bathing. Random, I know.

Anyway, this post is not so much about all that, it's more about my sister, her blog, and her lovely Blueberry Muffins. I have been especially caught up in other stuff over the past couple weeks (a work trip followed by a vacation followed by marketing classes at INSEAD for those of you who are curious) and was lamenting to the sis how I am just not able to post something in here. She immediately offered to help me out by sharing her gorgeous pics and recipe for blueberry muffins.

PS: I am Bindya to my old friends and family. You really didn't think my parents call me Nags, did you?

Over to her!

Hi, I am Bharathy of Spicy Chilly. Many of you already know that we are sisters (rocking in our own ways..as many of you had mentioned a lot of times.. ahem ;)) with our own food blogs for the past five years.
Well, after reading her 5th year post I was pleasantly surprised when I realised the hard work she'd put in and the fruits she plucked; though we started blogging at the same time she has 16 times the viewership and earnings than mine!! This definitely isn't a simple thing for anyone who works, travels, socialises, maintains home, friends, and cooks too! The word A.W.E.S.O.M.E would be an understatement here!

As already said, she was the one who introduced me to this world of blogging and when she too joined within a month or so, both of us should admit the fact that we loved every moment being here with lots of food, friends, pictures, gossips ;) and more, ever since.

I have a few out there who (still) mail me or message me amazed at our relationship, the warmth and concern we always share. Honestly, let me tell you, we are like any other sisters...we yell at each other, we fight, we cry (mostly one of us) we pour out, we compromise blowing peace pipes dancing around the fire and see to it that ultimately nothing is taken too seriously :)..or at least amma's words ring in my ears.."Bharathy aren't you ashamed to be so immature.. she's nine years (stressing on the number!) younger than you!" which has an instantaneous impact on me ;)

The cocktail is here, if you had missed out, which had been the post that stood above all my recipe posts in 2011. I'm still overwhelmed by the love you all had showered on us!

I had never really thought of doing a guest post but recently have been wanting to do some so badly for her.

Bindya, this is for you...

Blueberry Muffins were the ones I wanted to lay my hands upon when my sister in law got me a small can of preserved berries. I was soon in search of a good recipe for moist and soft muffins. As always the recipe from Joy of Baking didn't let me down. I wondered how quickly these Blueberry Muffins can be put together as they had suggested! The key ingredient in these blueberry muffins is yogurt. It adds a lot of moisture and gives it a bread-like texture without adding much complexity or calories.

Blueberry Muffins with Yogurt
Source - Joy of Baking
Makes 12 muffins

Ingredients:
1 cup (240 ml) plain yogurt (regular or low fat)
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1/4 cup (60 ml) canola or corn oil
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 cups (260 grams) all-purpose flour
1/2 cup (100 grams) granulated white sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups (100 grams) fresh or frozen blueberries (I used canned blueberries)

How to make Yogurt Blueberry Muffins:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Position rack in center of oven. Butter or line 12 muffin cups with paper liners.

2. In a large measuring cup or bowl whisk together the yogurt, lightly beaten egg, oil, and vanilla extract.

3. In another large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Remove 1 tablespoon of the dry ingredients and toss it with the blueberries. If using frozen blueberries, do not thaw before adding them to the batter. With a rubber spatula fold the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir only until the ingredients are combined. Gently stir in the blueberries. Do not over mix the batter or the muffins will be too tough and hard.

4. Evenly fill the muffin cups with the batter, using two spoons or an ice cream scoop. Place in the oven and bake for about 15 - 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool for about 5 minutes before removing from pan.

Bharathy's Note: In spite of the warning given in the recipe source  that "these Blueberry Muffins are always quick to disappear",  guess I'd been a little careless and had halved the recipe which yielded 6 scrumptious ones and half of them were gone in no time with my children around! The pictures are of the remaining 3.

White Chocolate Pomegranate Cupcakes

I may have said this in this past but this time I really really mean it. These white chocolate cupcakes baked up beautifully and had an amazing flavour. The pomegranates complemented the sweetness nicely with a slight sour tang. It's interesting to see how many people have now adapted this combination whereas when I baked this and did a search, I didn't see any cupcake recipes using white chocolate and pomegranates.

I had this bar of white chocolate I had bought from Tokyo a year back and since I was in India, I could buy a pomegranate and bring it back with me! Things fell in place beautifully and one Saturday evening, these cupcakes were born.

I searched a lot for a good white chocolate cupcake recipe and although there were quite a few that came up, I finally nailed one from Epicurious. Although a lot of the reviews said the cupcake sank in the middle, got ruined, etc, I had a nice feeling about it. I used a lower baking temperature and they came out ridiculously well. The coconut milk in the batter was intriguing too, and its my first time baking cupcakes with coconut milk in the batter!

The pomegranates gave a nice crunch to the texture and added to the appeal of the otherwise dull-looking cupcakes. One word of caution here. I only had brown sugar in hand so my cupcakes are beige in colour. If you use regular white sugar like you are supposed to, the cupcakes will be white and gorgeous like white chocolate cupcakes are supposed to look.

White Chocolate Cupcakes with Pomegranates
Makes 20 cupcakes
Loosely adapted from Epicurious

Ingredients:
8 oz / 240 gm white chocolate
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup regular white sugar
3 egg whites
3/4 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup canned unsweetened coconut milk
1/4 cup fresh pomegranate seeds

*Optional Mascarpone frosting recipe below. 

How to Make White Chocolate Cupcakes:

1. Preheat oven to 320F / 180 C. Line cupcake pans with liners and set aside.

2. Melt white chocolate by placing it in a bowl over another bowl of boiling water and stirring frequently, or in a microwave at low heat until just melted and smooth.

3. Whisk flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl. Using an electric mixer, beat sugar, butter, and vanilla in large bowl until blended. Add hot white chocolate to sugar mixture; stir to combine. Add flour mixture in 3 additions alternately with coconut milk in 2 additions, beating batter just to combine between additions.

4. Using clean dry beaters, beat egg whites in a bowl until soft peaks form. Be careful not to overbeat. To check done-ness, I lift the whisk and see if a soft peak forms and gently collapses back into the mixture. Gently fold egg white mixture into batter in 3 additions.

5. Pour batter into the lined cupcake pans until 3/4 filled. Bake in preheated oven for about 25 mins or until the cupcakes don't stick to a skewer passed through their middle.

6. Cool completely and frost if desired. I thought the cupcakes were a bit too plain so decided to whip up a very simple frosting with some mascarpone cheese I had in hand.

Mascarpone Frosting Recipe

Whisk together 6 tbsp mascarpone cheese, 4 tbsp milk, and 14 tbsp icing sugar. Adjust each of the ingredients until the frosting is of pouring consistency yet not too watery. Pour over completely cooled cupcakes and place some pomegranate seeds over the frosting before serving.

The cupcakes lasted me four days, refrigerated. 

Blueberry Streusel Muffin Recipe

I love the blueberry muffins they have in Starbucks so I started looking for a similar recipe online a while back. Although there were a few hits and misses, nothing really looked compelling. Then the search turned to other things and I promptly forgot about the blueberries I had bought and frozen to make muffins.

But you can't really forget about blueberry muffins for long, can you? I resumed my search for a good blueberry muffin recipe a couple of weekends back and found a recipe for something better - blueberry streusel muffins! I have been wanting to make streusel something for a while now so here it goes!

Blueberry Streusel Muffins Recipe
Makes 8 large muffins
Adapted from All Recipes

Ingredients

For Muffins:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour or maida
3/4 cup white sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
1/3 cup vegetable oil (I used rice bran oil)
1 egg
1/3 cup milk, approx
3/4 cup fresh or frozen blueberries

For Streusel Topping:
1/2 cup white sugar
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup butter, cubed
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

How I Made It:

1. Preheat oven to 400F / 200C). Grease muffin cups or line with muffin liners and set aside.

2. For muffin batter - combine 1 1/2 cups flour, 3/4 cup sugar, salt and baking powder in a bowl with a whisk or fork

3. Place vegetable oil in a 1 cup measuring cup, add the egg and enough milk to fill the cup. Mix this with flour mixture gently until no traces of the flour mixture remain.

4. Fold in the blueberries without breaking them. Its helps to refrigerate or freeze them for a bit before this step. If the blueberries break, they will bleed all over the batter, making your cupcakes purple. Unless that's the colour you want to end up with, freeze the blueberries and harden them a bit. Either ways, taste is not affected.

5. Fill muffin cups almost to the top. This gives a more domed muffins as you get in malls and bakeries. The streusel topping will make sure the batter doesn't spill over while baking.

6. To Make Streusel Topping: Combine the ingredients with your fingertips until they resemble bread crumbs (the mixture will be more moist than bread crumbs though). Sprinkle over the muffin batter and cover as completely as possible.

7. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the muffins pass the skewer test (insert skewer or toothpick into the muffin and if they come out with some dry crumbs at the end, you are done).

The muffins were airy, large, domed, and delicious. I also added some almond extract to the second batch but the ones without that were nicer so omit any flavouring that you feel tempted to add, like vanilla or almond.

I promised I will give an option to make these eggless so to make eggless blueberry streusel muffins, replace the egg with 1/2 cup yogurt or add 2 tbsp flax seed meal mixed in with 1/4 cup warm water. I haven't tried these egg substitutes for this recipe but have tried them in other muffin recipes and they work like a charm!

Eggless Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins Recipe

Its strange how this lemon poppy seed muffins got into my head. Strange because I don't like citrus-y or lemon-y desserts. I am more of a chocolate person, or if not, I pick a Creme Brulee or a custard from the choices. Also strange because poppy seeds are not available in Singapore and I haven't seen the black ones in India either (let me know if you know where to find them in India).

I did manage to pick up two packets of black poppy seeds from Sydney and then the muffins started to haunt me until I baked them recently. I am still not a fan of lemon-y desserts or sweets but these were definitely tasty.

I realised I didn't have eggs when I reached the stage in the recipe where I was supposed to add eggs! So I just used yogurt as a substitute and hoped for the best. The muffins turned out super soft and yum, so here's an unintentional eggless adaptation of the classic lemom poppy seeds muffin recipe.

Eggless Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins
Adapted from: Baking from my Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan
Makes: 6

Ingredients:
1/3 cup regular white sugar
zest and juice of 1/2 a lemon (use lesser if using Indian lime)
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
A pinch of baking soda
A pinch of salt
1/2 cup buttermilk or sour cream (I used sour cream)
2 heaping tbsp of yogurt (or use one egg)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup (4 tbsp) butter
2 tbsp poppy seeds

For Glaze:
1/2 cup powdered sugar mixed with 2 tbsp of lemon juice

How I Made It:

1. Preheat oven to 375F / 190C. Mould or grease a muffin tin and set aside.

2. In a bowl, rub the white sugar with the lemon zest until the sugar is lightly colored and scented with lemon. In another bowl, whisk in the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In a third, whisk together the yogurt (or eggs), buttermilk (or sour cream) vanilla extract, melted butter, the lemon infused sugar, and lemon juice.



3. Add the wet ingredients to the whisked flour mixture and fold together (the specks you see in this pic are not the poppy seeds - which are added at a later stage - its the vanilla powder I used instead of extract)



4. When almost thoroughly mixed, add the poppy seeds. Divide batter between muffin cups.



5. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until the tops are golden and a skewer inserted in the center of the muffin comes out clean.



6. Let cool in the pan for 5 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before glazing. I didn't add lemon juice to the glazing, just a few drops of milk, since I didn't want an overpowering flavour of lemon in my muffins.

Note: my muffins turned out a tad under-baked. The baking time mentioned in the book was 15-20 mins and they passed the skewer test at that time but the top didn't turn a golden brown. I have adjusted baking time in the recipe mentioned here but look out for a golden top and you should be fine.