Date Walnut Muffins

We love our indulgences in dates and do often to curb our hunger, almost on a daily basis. It's one of those ingredients that goes into our cereal bowl without a second thought! Known for it's health benefits and natural sugars, it pairs well in a few fabulous desserts and is healthy too.

I initially intended to bake a good Date and Walnut Bread. But having run out of good quantity of the dates at hand required to bake the bread, I settled to make these muffins instead. I was skeptical how these muffins would turn out, since it's practically my first attempt at using dates as a replacer for eggs.

To enhance flavors, I used freshly-ground-at-home cinnamon powder. I haven't come across any store selling cinnamon powder here, so I have a few cinnamon sticks ground to powder for these occasions. Though cinnamon is so commonly used in our everyday cooking, it is not my taste in desserts. Saying this however, I have found them to do pretty well with a few fruity cakes which calls for all spices. Apart from this, I haven't exploited them much in desserts.

The muffins came out to be fantastic. Just perfect. These may not require any toppings, but would do justice if opted for. I topped a few of the muffins with a good helping of chocolate-y nutella which went superb as a frost. I got 6 large muffins from these. I also added in walnuts for that added edgy crunch.

Date Walnut Muffins

INGREDIENTS

1/4 cup pitted dates, chopped
1 cup hot milk
1/4 cup oil
1 1/2 cup plain flour
1/2 cup minus 1 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tbsp heap of walnuts

Frosting:

1 tsp Hazelnut spread Nutella
1/2 tsp broken walnuts

DIRECTIONS

Place dates and hot milk in bowl and allow it to stand for 10 mins so that the dates soften. Pulse this in a mixer till the dates coarsely combine with milk. I like those few fruity pieces coming through in my muffins as I bite into them. Add the oil and vanilla. Stir well again.

Preheat oven to 180ºC. Grease 6 cups of a muffin pan.

Sieve the flour in another bowl. Add in sugar, baking powder, soda and cinnamon into it. Mix them well.

Make a well into the dry ingredients. Pour in the wet ingredients and mix till they just combine. Finally add in walnuts. Spoon mixture into muffin pan, bake for 20 minutes until done.

I topped them with a frosting of Nutella which was spread with a butter knife. They made a fantastic topping. Opt for any other alternative of your choice.

The dates have an inherent sweetness, so test the sweetness to your taste before baking. The next time I make these I would like to try them with bananas. Another alternative should be brown sugar which may go very well in these. These are just my assumptions. I will post them here when I try them.

The sweetness of dates and milk came through well. It was mild and mellowed, just went perfect for the warm weather of the day. These freshly baked warm muffins with nutella frosting is my take this week with a warm cuppa homemade almond milk.

My Russian friend blogger, Natalya from Natalya Cooking has shown a kind gesture by sharing this Sweet Friends award with me and I am glad to accept it. Natalya has some great recipes with her blog translated into 3 languages: French, English and Russian, so that it can cater all masses. Take a peep. Thanks a lot Natalya. That was kind of you. The award comes attached with rules:

List 10 things that make you happy. (I would like to keep that for my next post ;))
Pass the award onto other blogs and let them know you have done so. I would like to recognize two bloggers here. Both are fabulous and talented with great recipes to share with all. Keep up the good job guys!

Saswati
Nitya

Note: I will be editing a few of my old posts with new photographs. So do check them out and drop your feedback. You may like to visit this one for now:

Homemade Pizza Dough
Onion Chutney