Banana Cherry Muffins

Banana Cherry Muffins are one of the easiest guilt-free vegan fruit bakes you can make this Summer. Firm from outside and moist from within, these delicious muffins are loaded with healthy goodness of banana and fresh cherries and do not have any artificial flavoring. Made from whole wheat flour, these sweet treats are egg-less, butter-less and refined sugar-free.

The best part is that the recipe is fuss-free and you have just one blender jar to wash as the whole whipping part is done using a blender or food processor. What else can you expect from one recipe? If you are not yet tempted, the gorgeous rose shape of these banana cherry muffins is appealing enough that even the fussiest eaters would not resist a bite of these healthy bakes. And let me warn you that these cuties are super addictive. You can serve them as a healthy breakfast with milk or pack them in your kids' snack box, these muffins will make any occasion special and that's for sure.

These banana cherry muffins are one more addition to my healthy egg-less, butter-less bakes. The recipe calls for use of ripe banana which acts as an egg substitute. The muffins are studded with fresh pitted cherries which not only flavor the muffins but make the muffins moist with their juices. Use of whole wheat flour and jaggery powder make these bakes a guilt-free affair. I have not done any frosting as the muffins tasted great on their own but you may do a cherry frosting if you wish to.

The muffins turned out very moist and flavorful yet firm. You can use the same recipe to make a cake instead of muffins if you wish. Cherries may be replaced with raisins, nuts or any berries of your choice. Next time I am going to try these muffins using oatmeal instead of whole wheat flour for a gluten-free version. These banana cherry muffins are made with just 6 ingredients, whole wheat flour, ripe bananas, fresh cherries, baking powder, oil, and baking powder.

It is Summertime and markets here in Mohali are flooded with stone fruits like mangoes, cherries, plums, and peaches. As I had bought a box full of these juicy sweet cherries, I could not resist photographing them and wanted to use them in some recipe.

Cherries are one of the healthiest foods you can eat. One cup or about 21 cherries contain less than 100 calories and 15 % of daily Vitamin C needs. Cherries contain Vitamin A, Vitamin B and minerals like calcium and phosphorous. Cherries are a powerhouse of antioxidants and offer many health benefits, including help with insomnia, joint pain and lowering the blood sugar level in Diabetic people. Cherries contain anthocyanins which are good in maintaining a healthy body. They act as an anti-inflammatory agent and helps the body to fight against cancer, aging, and headaches. Source

Recently I bought this beautiful rose shaped silicon muffin tray from Amazon. The silicone tray has 6 rose shaped cavities which give the muffins a characteristic rose shape. The silicon mold tray is wobbly but very easy to use and the muffins come out clean easily on baking.

Today is Monday and as usual, it is the time for my #FoodieMondayBlogHop post. But this is not a usual post, it is a special one as today, we are celebrating #200NotOut theme on this group. Yes, it is the 200th post on the group and my 100th post here. I joined this beautiful group 2 years back when it celebrated its 100th blog hop and I am very proud to share with all of you that I have managed to post on this group each week on Monday from last 2 years without missing even a single blog hop event. For my new readers, Foodie Monday Blog Hop is a Facebook group of talented bloggers who share their delicious food recipes based on a particular theme every Monday. The group was founded by the talented food blogger Waagmi Soni. Members of this group take chances in choosing the theme. Each member gives out 2-3 themes and other members vote for any one of those themes. the theme which gets maximum votes is the theme for the week. At present, there are 13 members in this group. 

I owe many things to this beautiful Foodie Monday Blog Hop group. This blog hop group gave me a chance to learn and grow as a blogger and challenge myself to think out of the box and try and experiment on food based on a new theme each week. If it was not for this group and its innovative themes, I would not have tried cooking dishes from so many cuisines around the world. On this group, we celebrate all festivals together irrespective of our religion by cooking food dishes associated with that festival. Many bloggers joined the group, many left due to their professional and personal commitments but one thing remained constant, the enthusiasm of the members of the group. I feel blessed to share my space with such talented and down to earth bloggers who believe in sharing their knowledge and passion for food with fellow bloggers. I made many new friends on this journey and I wish to meet them in person someday.  Today Foodie Monday Blog Hop has become an important part of my life as a blogger. 

                                            

For the 200th celebration, we decided to do the Round Robin theme. As per this theme, the existing members of the group swap recipes from the other fellow bloggers of this group. Alphabetically, I had to cook a dish from Preethi Prasad's blog. Preethi di is a cheerful person, a mother to 2 handsome boys and a loving wife who blogs at PreethiCuisine.Com. She is a down to earth, friendly person and a full time working professional based in Singapore.  In spite of hectic schedules, she manages to continue blogging because of her passion for cooking. She started blogging in 2015 to document her recipes and her blog is a treasure trove of recipes from around the globe. Do check out her wonderful space for easy delicious recipes, mostly vegetarian. For today's celebration, I chose to bake Mini Eggless Banana Bundt Cake from her blog. As I did not have mini bundt cake pans, so I used the rose muffin molds to make these sweet treats. This is one of the easiest eggless cake recipes. I added fresh cherries to the original recipe to make the bakes more flavorful and appealing. So without further ado, let's get started.

Preparation Time: 15 minutes

Cooking Time: 25 minutes

Serves: 6 rose muffins

Ingredients:

• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup jaggery powder
• 1/2 cup fresh cherries
• 2 ripe bananas
• 2 tablespoon oil
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

Method:

1. Preheat the oven at 180 degrees Celsius for 15 minutes. Meanwhile, sift whole wheat flour and baking powder. Wash the cherries, pit them (remove the seeds) and chop. In a blender jar or a food processor jar, add peeled bananas and jaggery powder. Blend it until smooth.

2.  Add oil to the blended banana and jaggery mix. Next, add sifted flour in batches and pulse until you get a lump free batter.

3. Lastly, add the pitted chopped cherries and mix using a spatula.

4. Scoop out or spoon the batter in the greased muffin holders up to 3/4 of its capacity. Tap the muffin tray 1-2 times to remove the air bubbles and transfer it to a preheated oven. Bake for 25 minutes at 180-degree Celsius. Insert a toothpick in the middle of the muffin to check for doneness. If the inserted toothpick comes out clean, the muffins are baked well. If it is sticky, transfer the muffin tray back to the oven and bake for another 5 minutes or so.

5. Allow the muffins to cool down on a wire rack before transferring them to an airtight container. Serve the delicious rose shaped Banana Cherry Muffins with milk or tea and enjoy with your loved ones!

Recipe Notes:

• I have referred this recipe from here
• You can use the same recipe to make a cake instead of muffins if you wish. 
• You may use a regular muffin mold or mini bundt cake pans to make these muffins if you do not have rose shape muffin tray.
• Cherries may be replaced with raisins, nuts or any berries of your choice. You may even use chocolate chips or tutti frutti if you wish.
• Any neutral oil can be used in this recipe.
• Ripe bananas are a substitute for egg in this recipe.
• You may use cane sugar if you do not have jaggery powder.
• You may increase the amount of jaggery powder to 3/4 if you like your bakes on the sweeter side. We love our bakes to be mildly sweet and these were just perfect for us.
• The batter is thick yet easily spoonable. If you feel it is too thick you may add up to 1 tablespoon lemon juice to adjust the consistency. 
• Do not over beat the cake batter.
• I have used a few drops of oil to grease the muffin tray. You may use a baking spray instead or line the muffin tray with individual paper muffin holders.

If you ever try this recipe, do share your feedback with us in the comment section below.

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Check out the following for more vegan muffin recipes from this blog

• Dates and Walnut Muffins

                         

• Lemon and Raisin Muffins

                      

• Orange Muffins

                          

• Red Lentil Oats Muffins

                          

• Strawberry Muffins