Eggless Date and Walnut muffins made with Whole Wheat Flour, Coconut sugar are healthy, nutritious and kids friendly. Loaded with the goodness of date(khajoor), walnuts and chia seeds(chia seed gel as an egg-replacer), these muffins are soft and moist and have a nice crumb. It's a healthy snack that can be packed in kids lunchbox for snack time. or make a healthy and nutritious breakfast with a glass of milk.
Healthy Snacks for Kids..
Moms always are always on lookout for healthy and nutritious options for kids that can be packed for lunch, snacks or given to kids for a quick breakfast. With an 8 yr old 🙂 and a teenager in the house, I also keep ready healthy and nutritious snacks like ladoos(Ragi Whole Wheat and Edible gum ladoos), healthy muffins and cakes (Double Berry Breakfast muffins, Zucchini , Carrot and Nut bread, Double Chocolate Banana Bread), Poha Chivda or Makhana Namkeen ready in rotation so that the kids don't get bored with the same snack or treats.
Whenever we travel, I pack few snacks that stay fresh for at least 4-5 days, are filling and healthy. While travelling in US, being a vegetarian we have very few options for eating out. With long travels kids need something healthy and filling and something which they can have easily while travelling. These healthy treats also come in handy whenever we are travelling either for a day or two or on long travels.Methi Dal Poori, Methi Paranthas or Thepla or Palak Paneer parantha are other food items that can packed conveniently while travelling.
Coming back to these healthy and nutritious date and walnut muffins with whole wheat flour, these stay good for 4-5 days
Health benefits of the ingredients of these muffins...
- With dates and walnuts, these muffins are packed with antioxidants, omega-3 saturated fats, fibres , good fats and energy boosters.
- Chia seeds are the new super food that are also rich source of antioxidants, omega-3 saturated fats and are excellent source of proteins. Chia seeds gel is an excellent egg-replacer, that makes muffins and cakes moist and spongy.
- For sweetener I have used Coconut sugar in place of castor sugar and brown sugar. Though coconut sugar is high in calories but it is a raw form of sugar, straight from nature, low in fructose and with a low glycemic index.
To make the these muffins egg free I have used Chia seeds gel and buttermilk(milk+vinegar). the muffins come out moist, fluffy and spongy.
Let's see how I made these Eggless, Healthy Date and Nut muffins..
Date and Walnut Muffins
Ingredients
- 1 and 3/4 Cups Whole Wheat Flour
- 1 tsp Baking Powder
- 1/2 tsp Baking Soda
- 1/4 tsp Salt
- 1 Cup Coconut Sugar
- 1/2 Cup Dates(Finely Chopped)
- 1/2 Cup Finely Chopped Walnuts
- 1 tbsp Vanilla Essence
- 1 Cup Milk(Plant/Dairy)
- 1 tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar
- 1/2 Cup Oil
For Chia Gel
- 1 tbsp Chia Seeds
- 1/4 Cup Water
Instructions
- Heat 1/2 cup milk just warm enough to touch and soak finely chopped dates in it.
Make Buttermilk
- Add vinegar in milk, and let it rest for 5-10 minutes.
Make Chia Gel
- Mix seeds with water and let it sit for 10-15 minutes.
Prepare batter
- Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
- In a mixing bowl, add oil and sugar and beat till the sugar mixes.Add vanilla essence and mix.
- Add dates, flour and Chia gel. Fold the batter.
- Add buttermilk as required. The batter should be lumpy. Add just enough milk to make the batter lumpy. We don't want a ribbon consistency batter( like for cakes).
- Fold in walnuts and transfer the batter to muffin tray.
- Bake in preheated oven at 375 F or 190C, for 25-30 minutes.
- Check for doneness by inserting a toothpick in one of the muffins.
- Once done, take out the muffins from the tray and cool on wire rack.
- Store in an airtight container when completely cools down.
Notes
- You can bake the batter in a loaf pan(7"X3") or a round cake pan for 40-50 minutes.
- You can also use All Purpose Flour(APF) only or a mix of APF and whole wheat flour.
- When using a100% Wheat flour, the cake texture will be denser than with APF .
- Almond Flour,Coconut Nut flour or any gluten-free flour can also be used if you want to make a gluten-free cake. Adjust the amount of liquid ingredients.The texture of the muffins/loaf will be different(denser and drier), it won't rise much as with Wheat Flour or with APF.
- Brown Sugar can be used in place of coconut sugar.
- Adjust the amount of sugar as per your taste as dates are also sweet(have natural sugar).
- When baking in loaf pan or cake pan, check after 35 minutes, if the cake starts to brown from top, and is uncooked from inside(tooth-pick taste), cover it with aluminium foil and bake for another 10-15 minutes.
Few of the pics are missing will soon update..
So make these healthy muffins for kids lunch pack, snack time or pack some while travelling. These take care of the hunger pangs and are yummy too. You can add some choco-chips or cranberries as per your kid's liking. These are good not only for kids but adults too. I like the have these with a coffee or even chai.
Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing this BM#98.
My other posts for the event were.. Makhana Namkeen and Methi Thepla.
I am sure you and your kids will love these muffins.
Also, whenever you try the recipe, I will love to hear/share your feedback or any queries in the comment section below. I will try to answer your queries as soon as possible.
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Swati
Mrigaya Jadhav
What can be a substitute for apple cider vinegar? Curd?
Swati
You can use regular vinegar or curd.Take curd equal to the amount of milk in the recipe.
Renu Agrawal Dongre
Healthy and delicious muffins they are. Love to bake with dates as it adds a lovely texture and its own sweetness. A great travel food indeed.
Megala
Delicious & nutritious muffins! I like your choice of ingredients used for baking these muffins.
Swati
Thanks Megala!!
Samira's Recipe Diary
Healthy and yummy muffins. Loved your detailing about each and every aspect.
harini
Wow! Such healthy ingredients. I am sure the kids will love the flavors in there.
gayathriraani
These muffins sound fantastic. With whole lot of healthy ingredients this one is such an amazing guilt free snack for kids.
Swati
Thanks Gayatri!!