Story of the puree… ;-)

I know I haven't been blogging, but then, I've been busy. Busy holidaying, falling sick and having family over. And when family is around, I make sure that I do not even enter the kitchen. Only that way will delicious food enter our stomachs.
Last week, Mom and my Maami (Aunt) were visiting, and I wanted to showcase some of my baking to them both. Also, after the stuff I've been binging on from the start of the month, I wanted to make something healthy for us all, something that even I can eat without making a face or feeling guilty.

Now, I haven't cooked/baked with pumpkins or pumpkin puree before, but have always wanted. So when I chanced upon some ripe pumpkins during my weekly grocery trip to Godrej Nature's Basket, I immediately got myself a huge piece (yeah, they cut as much as you want and neatly pack it for you. I love that store!). I boiled it and pureed them into a paste and stored in the fridge just before I left for my holiday. And when I was back wanting to make something healthy, holiday-ey and yummy, there it was, the luscious puree sitting in my fridge.

The idea was the make something with wheat flour and pumpkin puree and all the festive spices. You can change the quantities of the spices per your taste, and replace the wheat flour with AP flour. Also, if you want a version with eggs, you can check out the original recipe, from which I had adapted this one. And if you do not have the watermelon seeds at hand, you can use chopped walnuts or almonds also.

True to my expectation , these muffins were very moist, and stayed that way for up to a week. Also, because of the usage of multi-grain wheat flour (I used Ashirwaad ata), the muffins were also heavy.
They were tasty, sweet (thanks to the sweet puree) and were very filling... I had them as a snack everyday for upto a week... :)

Recipe Inspired from - Smitten Kitchen

Healthy Pumpkin Muffins
Level - Easy
Preparation time - 15 min
Baking time - 30 min

Ingredients [Makes 12 Muffins]
Pumpkin puree - 1.5 C
Sugar - 1.25 C
Wheat Flour - 1.5 C
Almond extract - 1/2 Tsp
Cardamom powder - 1/2 Tsp
Nutmeg powder - 1/2 Tsp
Cinnamon powder - 1/4 Tsp
Vegetable oil - 1/4 C
Baking powder - 1 Tsp
Baking soda - 1/2 Tsp
Salt - 1/4 Tsp
Watermelon seeds - 1 C

Instructions
Sieve the wheat flour with the baking powder, soda and salt. Mix in the spices.
Whisk together the puree, sugar, almond extract and oil.
Add the dry ingredients into the bowl with the wet ones, and gently fold.
Reserve 1/4 C of the watermelon seeds and fold in the rest along with the batter.
Pour a scoopful of this batter into each of the muffin cups.
Sprinkle the remaining seeds on the batter and bake them for 30 min at 185C or till the tester is clean.
Store in the fridge in an airtight container for up to a week.