Healthyish Diwali Muffins | Whole Wheat Nut Muffins

Healthyish Diwali Muffins | Whole Wheat Nut Muffins

Celebrate Diwali in a healthy way with these amazing Diwali Muffins aka Mixed Nut Whole Wheat Muffins. With the festive flavors imparted by ground cardamom and rose syrup, along with the crunch in every bite given by chopped almonds, pistachios and cashews, these healthyish muffins, made with whole wheat flour and sweetened with coconut sugar and chopped dried cranberries, are all you need for the perfect Diwali baking recipe!

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Diwali is just around the corner, and I am already in a nostalgic mode. Reminiscing the past years, when we celebrated Diwali back in India was an experience in itself. The lights, the fun, the festivities, and most importantly, the food. It was the perfect time for gastronomic delight! The sweet and savory snacks and desserts had an extremely powerful existence the few days around Diwali.

The markets were decked up like a new bride, and sweet shops were flocked as if they will close down in a day, LOL. I am not sure about this year, due to the pandemic situation. But, nevertheless, I wanted to keep that spirit alive by sharing a recipe that reminded me of those days.

This Diwali dessert gets its flavor from two main components, ground cardamom and rose syrup (vanilla is there, of course). I have used Roohafza rose syrup here, but you can even use rose water for the flavoring. Also, feel free to increase the amount of ground cardamom.

How are these Whole Wheat Muffins healthy?

The Deepavali muffins are made healthy with whole wheat flour and organic coconut sugar. I found the texture of organic coconut sugar close to that of jaggery powder. The coconut sugar I used for this recipe is from my all time favorite store, Trader Joe’s. But feel free to replace it with any sweetener of your choice, or the one available at hand. Jaggery powder works fine, and even the regular refined sugar would work here as well. Rose Syrup is the reason I call these muffins healthyish, since even a tablespoon of rose syrup adds to the refined sugar component. But, again, in the end, it’s Diwali, so I guess whatever works!

Other great health aspect here is the inclusion of mixed nuts. We all know that nuts are extremely nutritious, and including them in your diet is very beneficial. They serve as great antioxidants and also help in lowering cholesterol and may help with diabetes, along with being high in fibre. So, that’s a win-win for us in terms of health benefits here.

I have a lot of whole wheat recipes, especially whole wheat muffins on my blog. So, if you like this recipe, then you would definitely love these Healthy Ragi Whole Wheat Chocolate Banana Muffins. And for those who want to avoid gluten, check out these super soft Gluten Free Almond Flour Pumpkin Muffins.

Diwali Muffins – How did this particular recipe come to my mind?

This recipe is inspired by one of the many gifts that were exchanged back in times during Diwali. I’m sure it still might be popular among many people. It is the good old dry fruit gift boxes that we used to get during Diwali. And not just one, but many people used to give that as a gift. As a result, post Diwali, the house was flooded with such boxes. Also, since it used to be winter time, we all used to enjoy the handful of those nuts and dried fruits everyday.

That is how I got inspired to create this recipe. These are simple whole wheat muffins which are filled with chopped nuts and dried raisins. I had dried cranberries (instead of raisins) at hand, but they serve the purpose as well.

How do you make this healthy Whole Wheat Diwali dessert?

Here is the step-by-step process to make these healthyish Muffins:

• Add all the wet ingredients in a bowl, and whisk them together till completely blended.
• To the wet ingredients, add all dry ingredients (except nuts and dried fruit), and mix again (do not over mix).
• Once the dry and wet ingredients form a smooth mixture, gently fold in the chopped nuts and dried fruit.
• Preheat oven to 350 degree F. Scoop out 2-3 tablespoons of mixture and pour into the greased muffin cups. Once the oven is pre-heated, bake the muffins in the oven for around 22-25 minutes or till the muffins are done. Remove the muffins from the oven, and allow them to cool for 5-10 minutes. The festive Diwali Muffins are ready!

Substitutions & Tips For the Nut Muffins

• Whole Wheat Flour – Feel free to replace whole wheat flour with the same quantity of all-purpose flour.
• Coconut Sugar – If Coconut Sugar is not available, you can replace it with equal amount of jaggery powder.
• Mixed Nuts – I have used chopped almonds, pistachios and cashews in this recipe. You can also use any other nuts that you may like. Also, the dried cranberries can be substituted with golden raisins. In general, feel free to mix and match any nuts and dried fruits of your choice.
• Rose Syrup – I have used Roohafza rose syrup here, but you can even use rose water for the flavoring.
• Don’t over mix the batter. Over-mixing results in formation of air pockets on top and inside of the muffins. I would advise to gently fold in the batter, till you see a uniform mixture being formed.

Also, continuing the tradition, here comes the 55th recipe under My Julie & Julia Project. For those who don’t know, I had started this project last year, under which I had planned to post 100 recipes from my kitchen by the end of the year 2019. But since I got busy with other priorities in life, I have planned to continue the tradition in 2020. So, this is the Recipe #55 for you all.

Let’s get going to the Healthy Diwali Sweets aka Whole Wheat Nut Muffins Recipe now. Happy baking everyone!!

Method (Step-by-step with pictures)

• Add all the wet ingredients in a bowl, including, the oil, eggs, sugar, milk, vanilla extract, lemon juice and rose syrup. Whisk all the ingredients till they are completely blended.

• To the wet ingredients, add whole wheat flour, baking powder, salt and ground cardamom. Mix everything together. Don’t over mix, just whisk till you see a homogeneous mixture.

• Once the dry and wet ingredients form a smooth mixture, gently fold in the chopped nuts and dried fruit (I have used blanched almonds, cashews, pistachios and dried cranberries). Remember to save a tablespoon or two of the nuts and cranberry mixture for sprinkling on top of individual muffin cups.

• Preheat oven to 350 degree F. Scoop out 2-3 tablespoons of mixture and pour into the greased muffin cups (To grease the muffin pan, rub the muffin cups with little oil and then lightly dust each individual cup with a little whole wheat flour). I was able to make 12 muffins in total. Then sprinkle some mixed nuts and dried fruits (saved from the above step).

• Once the oven is pre-heated, bake the muffins in the oven for around 22-25 minutes or till the muffins are done using the toothpick test, that is, when the inserted toothpick in the muffin comes out clean. Remove the muffins from the oven, and allow them to cool for 5-10 minutes.

The Festive Diwali Muffins are ready to be served warm, or these can be also be served as a layer in a Fusion Diwali Trifle recipe!