Baking Eggless - Jam Swirled Muffins

I bake muffins pretty frequently. The batter usually comes together fairly quickly, baking times are less and the final product can have infinite combinations! Muffins are very easy to adapt as eggless too. A lot of the recipes that I try are the ones that originally need eggs and I have had more successes than failures in terms of egg replacement :) So when I saw this month's Baking Eggless challenge hosted by Gayathri of Gayathri's Cookspot, I was excited and at the same time relieved because I was quite confident of being able to successfully adapt the Jam swirled muffin recipe. This recipe was suggested by Priya of Priya's versatile recipes and the original recipe is from Technicolor Kitchen.
I usually prefer to bake my muffins in the mini muffin pan because that is built in portion control :)
You get to savor your creation without adding too much to your waistline !! But this time I decided to stick to the recipe's instructions and use the regular sized muffin pan.



Ingredients:
⅔ C sugar
1 C unbleached A.P flour
1 C whole wheat flour
2½ teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
¾ cup plain yogurt or sour cream
2 flax eggs
1 tsp pineapple essence
1 stick unsalted butter, melted and cooled
⅔ cup jam of your choice – if too thick, thin it with a little lemon juice
⅓ C soy milk or milk of your choice

Flax Egg:
I have used a flax egg quite successfully to replace an egg in various baked goods. Muffins, cookies and even quick breads have turned out very well with this replacement. To make a flax egg, use 1 Tbsp ground flax seeds with 3 Tbsp of room temperature water for every egg that is used in the recipe. Mix the flax seeds and the water well and let rest until you assemble the rest of the ingredients.

Method:
1. Preheat your oven to 400°F / 200°c. Spray your muffin tin with cooking spray or line it with muffin liners.
2. Melt the butter and cool it.
3. Sift the flours, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a bowl. Add the sugar and mix thoroughly.
4. Add yogurt, flax eggs and essence to the cooled butter and mix well.
5. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients in batches and mix gently until no dry spots remain.
6. My batter looked very thick and I added a little soy milk just to get the right dropping consistency.
7. Add the jam in the batter and swirl gently.
8. Divide the batter into prepared muffin tray and bake for 18 - 20 mins.



Verdict:
The muffins turned out pretty well. The lightly browned treats had flecks of jam. The muffins were not too sweet, just right for an evening or an anytime snack ! I used Private Selection's Red Tart Cherry preserves and they provided just the right bite - a little sweet , a little tart , a whole lot delicious !! My entire family polished off half the muffins within an hour !
A must try really !

Notes:
The next time I bake these, I will use whole wheat pastry flour instead of just whole wheat flour for a lighter end product.
I got 14 medium sized muffins with this batch.