Healthy and tasty muffins that’s great for breakfast or as an evening snack…
Couscous and dates gets along so well and tastes so delicious together. I’d already shared a recipe with couscous and dates, it was a simple recipe but tasted delicious as the dates imparted the sweetness to the couscous, I served that with poached eggs.
Last night, I’d made quinoa muffin and it turned out well. I had that for today’s breakfast and lunch as well. Though quinoa is gluten free, for some reason my hubby cannot have that, so I have to finish it all by myself. Since last night, the thought of making couscous and dates muffin had been running through my mind. I couldn’t resist and so tried it tonight. I really loved the couscous dates muffin than the quinoa muffins. Dates made the muffin taste sweet and rich. Usually, I add vanilla extract while making cakes, muffins etc and it has been my all time favorite extract. However, for making this couscous dates muffin, I used orange blossom water instead of vanilla extract, I am so in love with the flavor and aroma of orange blossom water. Orange blossom water is used for flavoring most of the Middle Eastern desserts and is available at most Middle Eastern stores.
Couscous Dates Muffin
Makes: 12
Note: For making 6 muffins, just half all the ingredients, you can use 1 egg instead of half egg 🙂
Ingredients
Dry ingredients:
- All purpose flour- 2 cups
- Brown sugar- 3/4 cup
- Baking powder- 1 1/2 tsp
- Salt- 1 tsp
- Cooked couscous (without adding salt)- 2 cups
- Dates, chopped small- 1/2 cup
- Raisins- 2 tbsp (optional)
Wet ingredients
- Milk, skim or whole- 3/4 cup
- Oil, light olive-oil- 1/4 cup
- Egg, large-1
- Orange blossom water- 1 tsp (or use vanilla extract, rose extract or almond extract)
Other ingredients
- Honey or Maple syrup- to drizzle on muffins while serving
Instruction
- Preheat the oven to 350 F.
- Grease the muffin pans with non-stick cooking spray and keep aside.
- In a large bowl, combine all the above mentioned “dry ingredients”.
- In another bowl, using a whisk combine all the above mentioned “wet ingredients”.
- Slowly add the combined wet ingredients to the combined dry ingredients and combine well using a whisk or wooden spoon.
- Using an ice cream scoop, scoop the muffin batter to each greased muffin cups, don’t fill to the top of the cups.
- Bake for 30 minutes, after 30 minutes of baking insert a tooth pick or fork into the center of one of the muffins, if it comes out clean it’s baked well.
- Remove the muffin pan from the oven and let cool down for a few minutes in the pan itself.
- While serving, you can drizzle honey or maple syrup over the muffin.
How to cook Couscous:
For making 2 cups couscous
- Couscous- Â 1 3/4 cups
- Water- 2 cups
Preparation
- Boil the water in a saucepan and let it come to a rolling boil.
- Add the couscous to the boiling water, combine it well, remove the pan from the heat and keep it covered for 5 minutes.
- Coucous will get cooked in just 5 minutes.
Tips
- Orange blossom water is available at most Middle Eastern stores.
- Use vanilla extract or rose water instead of orange blossom water.
Â
- All purpose flour- 2 cups
- Brown sugar- ¾ cup
- Baking powder- 1½ tsp
- Salt- 1 tsp
- Cooked couscous (without adding salt)- 2 cups
- Dates, chopped small- ½ cup
- Raisins- 2 tbsp (optional)
- Milk, skim or whole- ¾ cup
- Oil, light olive-oil- ¼ cup
- Egg, large-1
- Orange blossom water- 1 tsp (or use vanilla extract, rose extract or almond extract)
- Honey or Maple syrup- to drizzle on muffins while serving
- Preheat the oven to 350 F.
- Grease the muffin pans with non-stick cooking spray and keep aside.
- In a large bowl, combine all the above mentioned "dry ingredients".
- In another bowl, using a whisk combine all the above mentioned "wet ingredients".
- Slowly add the combined wet ingredients to the combined dry ingredients and combine well using a whisk or wooden spoon.
- Using an ice cream scoop, scoop the muffin batter to each greased muffin cups, don't fill to the top of the cups.
- Bake for 30 minutes, after 30 minutes of baking insert a tooth pick or fork into the center of one of the muffins, if it comes out clean it's baked well.
- Remove the muffin pan from the oven and let cool down for a few minutes in the pan itself.
- While serving, you can drizzle honey or maple syrup over the muffin.
- For making 2 cups couscous
- Couscous- 1¾ cups
- Water- 2 cups
- Boil the water in a saucepan and let it come to a rolling boil.
- Add the couscous to the boiling water, combine it well, remove the pan from the heat and keep it covered for 5 minutes.
- Couscous will get cooked in just 5 minutes.
Use vanilla extract or rose water instead of orange blossom water.
