Muffin or Cupcake? Well the debate always ends up without reaching any conclusion. So without getting into any argument regarding what should these little, dense, sweet bites  be named as, let’s call these as muffins, because these  deliciously flavored, banana and strawberry bites were moist and dense.

I generally make banana bread or banana cake, whenever there are some overripe bananas in the fruit basket of my kitchen. This time , I had around 5-6 strawberries, threatening to go bad, if not used immediately. So two overripe bananas and 5 strawberries were put to good use and these muffins were born 😉

Also note that me or my family prefer less sweet cakes/cupcakes, hence I have used just little more than  1/2  cup of sugar in this recipe. Slathering these with  sinful, creamy, Nutella is always an easy option, in case, someone finds it less sweet for their palate. Please increase the sugar quantity (around 3/4th cup or more) if you prefer sweet cakes.

Eggless Strawberry and Banana Muffins:

Ingredients:

Yields 10-12 Muffins

• 2 Cups All purpose flour (Maida)
• 1/2 cup melted Butter
• 1/2 cup (or bit more) * beaten curd
• 1/2 cup and little more,  Sugar
• 2 overripe Bananas
• 5-6 Strawberries
• 1/2 teaspoon Vanilla Extract (or essence)
• 1 and 1/2 tsp Baking Powder
• 1/2 tsp Baking Soda
• A pinch of salt
• A tsp of flour to coat the chopped strawberries
• Some choco chips (optional)
• Some sliced almonds/ chopped hazelnuts/walnuts for garnish (optional)

Method:

• Grease lightly, the muffin pan/tins/molds with oil,  or line  with butter paper/cupcake liners (I lined these with parchment paper).
• Rinse the strawberries with water. Place these on absorbent paper and gently tap dry the berries. Hull (remove the stalks/calyx) the berries and chop in small chunks. Dust some Maida over the berries and give it a shake so as to coat the berries with a thin layer of flour. Discard the excess of flour. The flour coating will prevent the berries from sinking in the batter.
• In a bowl, mash the peeled bananas. Add beaten curd, sugar, melted butter and mix well. Add a pinch of salt and the vanilla essence/extract and mix it.
• Preheat the oven to  180 °C .
• Now in a large bowl, sieve together, Maida, baking powder and baking soda. Gently fold in, this flour, in the wet ingredients (bananas, curd, butter mixture) so as to make a smooth batter without any lumps. Add strawberries and choco-chips (optional) and mix gently. Do not over mix the batter.
• Carefully fill the muffin tins/pans till 3/4th of its capacity, garnish with nuts (optional) and  bake in the preheated oven at 180 °C  for around 20-30 minutes. (After 20 minutes, if the surface of muffins appears to be golden brown, do a skewer test. If the tooth pick inserted in the center of muffin, comes out clean, the muffins are done, else, bake further for around 5-8 minutes or so.
• Take out the muffins from the oven and let these rest in pan/molds for 5 minutes if paper is used for lining. Or else wait for 10-15 minutes before removing from the molds.
• Cool on wire rack for some time. We relished the muffins while they were still warm but to store these, allow the muffins to cool down completely.
• These muffins do not have a long shelf life. It’s better to consume these within 2 days.

Please Note: If after mixing all the ingredients, the batter looks dry and not smooth or creamy, just add some more beaten curd.