Fatless Vegan Strawberry Banana Muffins

Ingredients

* Whole Wheat flour – 1 1/2 cups
* Oats (quick-cooking variety) – 1 cup
* Mashed ripe banana – 1 cup (from 2 big bananas)
* Strawberry crush/Fresh strawberry puree – 1/2 cup
* Sugar – 1/4 cup (I like my muffins just about mildly sweet; if you like your’s sweeter, use 1/3 cup)
* Baking powder – 1 tsp
* Baking soda – 1 tsp
* Salt – a pinch
* Flax seed powder (dry-roasted and finely ground) – 3 tsps mixed in 3/4th cup warm water (substituting 3 eggs)
* Vanilla extract – 1 tsp (I used 1 tsp ground Vanilla bean)
Are you still keeping count of my various on-going affairs with different foods and flavours? B’cos if you are, then please add Strawberries to that list…like right NOW! My affair with this one began when I was probably about 7; I’d been to our neighbour girl’s B’day party, and her B’day parties were known for the wonderful themes they were based on, un-paralleled in the way they were impeccably done to the T. Those were the days when a return gift was mighty rare, and this girl would give out a whole goodie-bag full. Woot! I would sometimes wish that it was the girl’s B’day every day!! I’d been to 2-3 of her b’day parties already – Rainbow B’day party, Barbie B’day party, and another one I cannot seem to remember right now. That year, (no prizes for guessing), it was a Strawberry themed B’day party, and you bet that that party was berry nice! Everything from the customary B’day cake, to her frock, to the streamers, to the balloons, to the return gift bag, and everything else either had strawberries on them, or were daintily shaped like one! And THAT is how the berry-affair began…from a berry high overdose!
Picture lush, juicy, plump, bright-red strawberries, and you bite into one of them…the flavour explodes in your mouth, and teases you; it’s a typical food porn moment, atleast for me. I don’t know why I talk food porn when I talk muffins, maybe they’re the epitome of food porn? Whatever it is, muffins sure are a part of my favourite foods. Talking of favourite foods, what are yours? Go on, leave me a comment/drop me a line and tell me what your favourites are. That way, when I’m the mood to tickle your taste-buds, I have a fool-proof list to fall back on Till then, allow me to tease you with this one…
Note: If using fresh strawberry puree, use 1/3 cup sugar since the berries can be a tad too tart sometimes.

This proportion makes 12-14 standard-sized muffins.
Procedure:

* Pre-heat oven to 180C/350F. Line a muffin tray with paper muffin liners and set aside.
* Start by mixing the flax seed powder in warm water. Set aside till it develops a gelatinous texture.
* Cream the mashed bananas and sugar together.
* Add the flaxseed-warm water mixture, vanilla and stir well.
* In another bowl, mix all the dry ingredients together with a balloon whisk – whole wheat flour, oats, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
* Slowly add the dry mixture to the wet mixture and fold. Do not overmix.
* Lastly, fold in the strawberry crush (do not stir uniformly, this gives a wonderful marble effect once baked).
* Spoon equal amounts of batter into readied muffin moulds 3/4th full. You will need to work with two spoons here, to scoop the batter into the muffin moulds.
* Bake for 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean.
* Cool on a wire-rack turned upside down, and enjoy your guilt-free berry-treat!