Eggless Whole Wheat Banana Muffins...goodness at its best!!!

Those were the days when I used to feel baking cakes or muffins is something suitable only for special occasions but now,not any more.But our blogger friends have made my assumption completely wrong by coming up with their innovative ways of making low fat versions and using healthier ingredients which suits our regular diet.I have come across many low fat recipes and this is one of them,When I saw Madhuri's Fatless strawberry banana muffins I liked the recipe instantly and ended up making it the very next day.The only thing I changed in the recipe was I added some extra sugar to suit my taste buds and I liked them a lot as they were absolutely guilt free.Recently during my blog hopping I hooked upon Usha's Cardamom flavored whole wheat banana bread which I liked again and then I made my own version of Banana bread taking some pointers from both the recipes.The result was just outstanding and I must say that this has become my own favorite recipe for eggless banana muffins.This is really a healthy treat for all the muffin lovers as it has all the healthy ingredients like oats,wheat flour, flax seeds,walnuts,dates and especially no eggs,no butter and no white flour.Walnuts,raisins and chocolate chips adds up the extra taste during each and every bite of muffin.However usage of oil is upto you and optional but it makes the muffins bit moist.This has taken a place in my regular breakfast menu now and I hope it will find its place in ur menu too..

Ingredients:
1 cup whole wheat flour,and 1 tsp wheat flour for dusting
1 cup quick cooking porridge oats
3 ripen banana's
1/2 cup milk
12-15 soft dates
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup oil,optional but I recommend to use it
1 tsp vanilla essence
3 tsp flax seeds
1/4 cup water
a generous pinch of salt
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 cup chopped walnuts
1/4 cup raisins
1/4 cup chocolate chips


Method:

• Preheat the oven at 180 degrees for 10 mins.
• Grind Oats to a fine powder in the mixer.
• Dry roast flax seeds on a tawa/pan for few seconds and grind into a fine powder.Add this powder to 1/4 cup warm water and let it sit for 8-10 mins.
• In a big bowl,mash banana's properly until they form smooth pulp.
• Grind dates with 1/2 cup of milk and 1/3 cup of sugar to a fine puree.Mix in this puree into the smashed banana pulp.
• Add oil,vanilla essence to the above mixture and mix well with a balloon whisk.Add the settled glutinous flax seed mixture to it and mix well.
• Take another bowl and add wheat flour to it and add oats flour,baking soda,salt to it and mix them roughly.
• Fold in the dry ingredients to the banana mixture and mix well.
• Take a small bowl and add chopped walnuts,raisins and chocolate chips to it and dust it with 1 tsp of wheat flour.
• Add the nuts mix to the batter and mix gently with a spatula.
• Scoop out the mixture into the well greased paper lined muffin moulds and place it in preheated oven for 20 mins at 160 degrees.
• This mixture will yield approximately 12 muffins.I made 6 muffins and the rest of the batter I pour into a loaf pan and made banana bread.Bread needs bit longer time to bake,approximately 30 mins.
  
• Check the muffins/bread are done or not by piercing a tooth pick in the center and check whether it comes out clean.
• Cool them on the wire rack and store it in air-tight containers.they stay good outside for 2 days.If you want to store them for longer time keep them in refrigerator.

While serving just pop them into the microwave and microwave for 20-30 seconds and serve it warm.You can even enjoy this as dessert by serving it with ice cream of your choice.