Walnut Date Muffin

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  Who knew even chopping walnuts for this muffin could bring out quite the drama.  My son Milan (LM) loves walnuts.  Foreseeing I will not be able to chop up the walnuts, I need for the recipe, without appeasing him first, I counted out a few into his palms, tilted his face to make eye contact, and lovingly but certainly said “No more for today!” 
 


It was about his lunch time, and if I am not stern enough, walnuts will be his lunch.  He seemed to be taking it well.  Ate what I gave him, pulled up a chair, and stationed next to me.  Peering curiously onto the cutting board, while I chopped the walnuts, he asked:

LM:  "Amme, What is this?" (Pointing at the walnuts)
Aaah! All sweetness!  My mommy guard was up.  I knew where this question was going.  I did not answer that question directly for obvious reasons. 
Me: LM, it's your lunch time. I'll soon give you rice, so you cannot have any more walnuts!
He seemed unaffected and continued to stare at the cutting board.
LM: Ooook! (With his dragging ‘o,’ the accent he picked up from his sister.)
 Me: Don’t stand so close to the board kunje (endearment), what if the knife hurts you?
LM: Amme, what is this? (Now, pointing out to dates I was chopping)
Me: These are chopped dates. I am going to try and make some yummy muffins with walnuts and dates. 
LM: Oh, Muffan! (No accent anymore it comes out with a rounded ‘an’ at the end and resonant.  It’s quite cute the way he says it, if I may say so myself!)
Me: Right.
LM: Amme, can I have more walnuts?
Me: I already told you. That's it! (Mildly amused and exasperated, thinking how tenacious children can be, I handed him one more)  “This is the "last-last" one. 
He coined last-last, which essentially means my "last" is not his "last") You figure!
LM: Ooook! (Dragging himself off the chair.)



Having reached an agreement with my son, I continued chopping the rest of the walnuts.  Mostly in a hurry, thinking about getting his lunch ready.    
I turned around to check on him and he was out of sight.  Being a mother, looking instinctively at unlikely places for my children is second nature to me.  Within seconds my eyes caught his shirt behind the counter.  I bent down to see what he was up to.  LM looked back with eyes filled with guilt. I searched him with my eyes:

LM: Here we go! Pushed his hand in front of me, opened his palms and counted out a couple of walnuts into my hands. 

Children!  I have no idea how he nicked those from under my nose.

His middle name is the synonym for Krishna.  If Lord Krishna stole butter from his mother my LM steals walnuts and every thing else that is forbidden.  The proverbial joy of eating the forbidden fruit!

As for the muffins, they are far from forbidden.  Make a whole batch and enjoy them to your heart’s content.   



Ingredients:

Whole Wheat Flour- 3/4 cup
All purpose flour- 3/4 cup
Brown sugar- 1/3 cup
Baking soda- 1 tsp
Nutmeg powder- 1/8 tsp
Cloves powdered- 1/4 tsp
Cinnamon powdered- 1 1/2 tsp
Salt- 1/4 tsp
Milk- 1/2 cup
Unsulphured Molasses- 1/3 cup
Olive oil- 6Tbsp
Eggs- 2 large
Walnuts chopped- 1 1/4 cup
Dates pitted and chopped- 1 cup

Method:

1.Preheat oven to 400 degree F. Line muffin pan with paper liners and grease them.
2.Whisk together the flours,salt,spice powders and baking soda.
3.In another bowl mix molasses, milk,sugar,oil and eggs.
4.Mix the wet mixture into the dry mixture along with the chopped walnuts and dates, only until combined.Do not over mix.
5.Spoon into the muffin pan , till it is 3/4th full and bake for 15-16 minutes or until done.

Notes:

1.As the original recipe suggests you could use pumpkin pie spice mix instead of all the spices.
2.I got 18 medium sized muffins.


Contributor: Namitha
Recipe adapted from :here