Eggless Cucumber Muffins/ Cupcakes

I am from a place where we receive heavy rainfall from June till September. Varieties of vegetables are grown during this season, in the space available in front of every house. Cucumbers are among them. We harvest ripe yellow cucumbers during the season and store it for long period. Good quality cucumbers last for 8 – 10 months. They blend well with dishes such as dosa, idli, kadubu, curries, suttavu (Guli appa), Kheer and many more. This is a recipe for cupcakes using cucumber.


Preparation time: 10mins
Baking time – 20-25 mins
Yields – 8 - 10 medium muffins

Ingredients:
Grated cucumber – 1 cup
Whole wheat flour – ¾ cup
All-purpose flour (Maida) – 1 cup
Fine Semolina/ Small Rava – ¼ cup
Sugar – ¾ - 1 cup (as per taste)
Cocoa powder – 1tbsp (optional), I used Bournvita powder
Curds – ¼ cup
Milk – 20-30 ml, 2 tbsp
Oil/Butter/Ghee – ¼ cup
Baking soda – ½ tsp
Baking powder – ½ tsp
Cinnamon powder – ¼ tsp
Nutmeg powder – ¼ tsp
Salt – a pinch
Chopped nuts (Cashew/ Almond) – 2 spoons

Yellow cucumber looks like this:




Method:
Peel off the skin and remove the seeds of cucumber. If you don’t have yellow cucumber, then choose tender one (In this case, you need not remove seeds). Grate it. Take these gratings in a large mixing bowl. Add sugar and mix well so that it shall dissolve. Add dry ingredients – wheat flour, maida, rava, baking powder, baking soda, cocoa powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg powders. Fold well with a flat spoon once. Add oil and mix well. Add curds little by little looking at the consistency. If cucumbers are juicy, then requirement of curd quantity shall be less. If batter is looking dry, add little milk to make the batter of dropping consistency, which is little thicker than idli batter. Adjust accordingly. Add little flour if it is too watery or add little milk if it is too dry. Add chopped nuts and mix again thoroughly.
Preheat the oven to 180deg Celsius. Fill batter into each muffin mould (liner) equally. Leave little space for the muffins to rise while baking (fill only about ¾ th or little more in each liner). Bake for 20 mins or until inserted fork / toothpick comes out clean. Once done, allow to cool and serve warm.

Notes: Do not beat the mix too fast while preparing for muffins.


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