Banana Muffins (Eggless)

 Ingredients 

Muffins 

         Wet Ingredients

• 3 very ripe bananas (180 gr approx.), mashed
• 3/4 cup (132 gr) brown sugar
• 1/2 cup (120 ml) light tasting oil (I use vegetable oil)
• ¼ cup plain yogurt (I added a bit more)
  
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  
  Dry Ingredients
  
• 1 1/2 cups (210 gr) all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 pinch salt

Glaze (optional) - I did not do this

• 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 -2 teaspoon milk

 

Recipe from here - https://mommyshomecooking.com/easy-eggless-banana-bread-muffins/ 

Preheat oven to 400 Deg F. Place muffin tin in oven and immediately reduce the oven temperature to 350º F. Recommended baking time 20 mins, I baked for 17 mins in my over, turned out great!

 

Pear Almond Cardomom Cake (Vegan)

Recipe from here.

Background
When we were traveling in Scotland, we came across a pear cardomom cake in a coffee shop that we all just loved. It was a unique taste and had never tasted this combination. Since then have been wanting to try it out at home. It so happened to be my hubby's Bday and I decided to make it. However I wanted an eggless cake, so I found this Vegan Pear Almond cake recipe. I decided to keep the almond element in and added cardamom. The original one also had icing in between 2 layers of cake and on top, I skipped the icing part.

My Comments

• I didnt have white sugar, so added only brown sugar. 
• I didnt dust with icing sugar on top (coz of above reason)
• I added cow's milk since I didn't have a vegan milk at home. 
• I baked for 60 mins in my largest springfoam baking pan (size to be updated), but I think I would re-do this with my mid-size and bake for longer. The cake was done on the outside and any longer would have burnt the bottom and sides, however the insides were a little mushy. 
• I added about 80g more pear, which prob I shouldn't have to reduce the mushiness? Add exact amount as directed next time. 
• I also cut 1 pear into slices and decorated on top. Could have done with a few more slices. Also decorated with sliced almonds on top.
• I used blanched almond flour (from Costco) instead of ground almonds.
• I found the cake too sweet (even without the icing sugar dusting on top), so can reduce sugar next time. 
• I added 2 teaspoons of cardamom powder (not in the recipe). 1.5 tsp should be enough, was a tad bit heavy.

Ingredients

• 320 g pear, chopped into roughly 1cm pieces
• 3 tbsp ground golden flaxseed
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 120 ml soya (or other non-dairy) milk
• 60 ml light olive (or other mild tasting) oil
• 1/2 tsp almond extract
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 200 g sugar (white or a mix of white and brown/light muscovado)
• 100 g ground almonds
• 230 g plain flour
• 2.5 tsp baking powder
• handful of flaked almonds (optional)
• icing sugar to sprinkle (optional)

Method

1. Stir 6 tbsp of water into the ground flaxseed and set aside.
2. Set the oven to 180°C/360°F and lightly oil and line the base of a large cake tin or deep flan dish – 10″/26cm is ideal.
3. If the pear is very firm, soften the pieces a little first by cooking them in a pan for a few minutes with a tablespoon or two of water and the lemon juice. Otherwise, simply sprinkle the lemon juice over the pear pieces and set aside. They should ideally be quite firm but not turnip-like.
4. In a large bowl, whisk together the flaxseed mixture, oil, soya milk, and almond and vanilla extracts.
5. Add the sugar and whisk until well combined.
6. In a separate bowl, sift the flour and baking powder together before adding the flour, with the ground almonds, to the liquid mixture. Stir to combine.
7. Lastly, stir through the chopped pear. It will look as if there is more pear than cake mix at this stage – it’s supposed to!
8. Transfer the mixture to the baking tin and level it a little. If you are using flaked almonds, sprinkle these across the top.
9. Bake for around 45 minutes. The cake should have a deep golden crust with little bumps or gaps where the chunks of pear show through.
10. Leave to cool before removing from the tin and sprinkling liberally with icing sugar, if using.

Vegan Apple Cake

Recipe from here.

My Comments

• I didn't do the glaze 
• I baked this cake for much longer - 1.5 hours almost (turned out great)
• I didnt add flaxmeal since I didnt have it. 
• I used 3 apples cut into large pieces to put in batter + 1-1.5 apples sliced to place on top of the cake and decorate it. 
• I used my mid-size (will update the size in inches later) spring foam baking pan for this.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups whole-wheat pastry flour (sub with half regular whole-wheat and half all-purpose if you can't find whole-wheat pastry flour)
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 2 tsp cinnamon (I sometimes use a mix of cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg)
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup sugar (if you want to cut down on this, substitute a quarter of the sugar with an equal amount of applesauce)
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 2 tbsp flaxmeal (whisked with 6 tbsp of water to make two flax "eggs")
• 1 cup walnuts , toasted lightly and chopped
• 2 1/2 cups apples (About 1 1/2 apples, finely chopped. I use Pink Lady or Granny Smith, but most apples would work)

For optional applesauce vanilla drizzle:

• 1/2 cup applesauce
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar (sifted)
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon

 

 Instructions

• Sift together the flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder and cinnamon.
• Beat together the oil, sugar and vanilla for about a minute to aerate.
• Add the flaxmeal mixture, beat for a few more seconds to mix, and then add the flour mixture.
• Stir with a spatula to get the ingredients well-mixed. The dough will be very stiff, but don't worry -- the apples will express juices as they bake. Add the apples and the walnuts and mix well.
• Pour the batter into an 8-inch oiled and floured square pan (or use a round cake pan if that's what you have). To make the cake easier to unmold, line the pan with parchment paper or aluminum foil and then oil and flour. (The first time I baked this cake years ago, I didn't take that extra step and unmolding this cake from the pan was a small battle.)
• Bake in a preheated 350-degree oven for 40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
• Cool on a rack for at least 10 minutes. Unmold and continue cooling.

Make the applesauce drizzle:

• Whisk together all of the glaze ingredients in a bowl. Drizzle over the cake just before serving. (Adding the drizzle in advance will cause it to seep into the cake, making it more moist -- it will be totally delicious, but will get too tender.)

Instant Pot Badam/Kaju Katli (Barfi)

Recipe from here.

Prep Time 15 minutes   
Servings 4

Ingredients

    1 cup Almond Flour (can get from costco - blanched almond flour) (or) Powder cashews to get 1 cup
    1/2 cup Sugar
    4 tbsp Water
    1 tsp Ghee/oil
    few Saffron Strands Optional

Instructions

    Add sugar,ghee,water in the pot and mix it well.Let everything bind well.

    Close the lid, put in sealing mode and set for 'Manual/Pressure Cook 4 minutes'. Do a QR(Quick Release) by moving it to venting and wait until the pin drops down. Open the lid.

    Add 1 cup of almond flour to the sugar syrup and mix it well without any lumps.You got to be quicker while doing this step.

    Grease a plate with ghee/oil.pour the mix in the plate,let it cool for 5-6 minutes

    After 5-6 minutes,heat will be bearable,Roll it into a soft dough

    Grease the rolling pin with some ghee

    Roll it to a circle and shape it .Make sure no cracks in the dough.

    You almond katli/fudge is ready to serve.

Apple Cake (with Eggs)

Recipe from here.

[My Comments]:

• Was a bit too sweet. Could reduce the sugar. 
• Did not do the glaze. 
• Arranged cinnamon+ sugar dusted apple slices on top for decor, was a good idea. 
• Used 3 red apples for filling and 1 apple for decor on top. Felt like could do with more apple inside the cake. 
• Did not use bundt pan, used a springform pan. 

Ingredients

Baking spray with flour, or shortening and flour to grease the pan
For the Cake

    3 cups all-purpose flour
    1 teaspoon baking soda
    2 teaspoons cinnamon
    ½ teaspoon nutmeg
    ½ teaspoon salt
    1 ½ cups vegetable oil
    1 ½ cups granulated sugar
    ½ cup brown sugar
    3 eggs
    2 teaspoons vanilla
    3 large apples, peeled and cut into large pieced (Note: The original recipe calls for tart green apples, but we used some red Cortland apples we had on hand and it was delicious!)
    1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

For the Glaze

    3 tablespoons butter
    3 tablespoons brown sugar
    3 tablespoons granulated sugar
    3 tablespoons heavy cream
    ¼ teaspoon vanilla

Instructions

•     Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease and flour a 12-cup Bundt pan and set aside.
•     In a large bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt. Sift two additional times and set aside.
•     In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine oil and both sugars, and mix until well blended.
•     Add eggs one at a time, mixing thoroughly after each addition. Add vanilla and mix again.
•     Add the sifted dry ingredients to the batter and mix thoroughly. By hand, fold in apples and walnuts and mix until evenly combined.

•     Spoon the batter into the prepared bundt pan. Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.
•     Remove cake from the oven and allow to cool in the bundt pan for 20 minutes.
•     While the cake is cooling, prepare the glaze. In a saucepan, over medium heat, combine all of the glaze ingredients. Bring to a boil and allow the mixture to boil for 1 minute.
•     Remove the cake from the pan, onto a serving plate. Spoon the glaze over the warm cake.
•     Cool for a little longer before serving.

Mini Bite sized Lemon Orange Cheesecakes

I was having a dinner party and wanted to try a dessert I hadn't made before. I was looking in the healthy dessert (like that's possible!) section on food network website and saw a recipe for individual chocolate orange cheesecakes by Giada. The little things looked so beautiful! Coincidentally, I had just bought a mini muffin pan 2 weeks ago, so thought I should give it a try!

I am quite lazy about planning ahead for parties, my husband and I decide the menu on Thursday and we end up shopping for all the ingredients on Fri evening for a Sat party. So, it's a one stop shop and if I dont find one of the ingredients in that store, I just pick up some substitute.

Well, this time I couldn't find the chocolate wafers! I couldn't believe that there were no chocolate wafers in the store! So, I decided to just substitiute it with the only wafers sitting in the snack aisle, lemon wafers. Hence, the chocolate orange cheesecakes recipe turned into a lemon orange cheesecake one :)

They are really perfect for curbing calories and still enjoying some dessert at the end of a meal (well, as long as you eat just one).

RECIPE

SERVING SIZE 

12 individual bite sized cheesecakes 

INGREDIENTS

Wafers - Lemon Wafers (1/3 cup) (or can try chocolate too)
Butter - 2 tbsps
Ricotta cheese - 1/4 cup 

Cream Cheese - 2 oz
Sugar - 1/4 cup + 2 tbsps
Orange - 1 zested (keep the fruit, you can use slices of them too)

Egg - 1
Cooking Spray/Butter - for greasing

Equipments -

Mini Muffin Pan
Food Processor/Blender
Baking dish that can hold the Muffin Pan 

PROCEDURE 

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

2. Grease the mini muffin pan.

3. The wafers I bought had lemon cream in between 2 layers of wafers. I am not sure what kind of wafers the original recipe asks for. I separated the wafers from the cream (reminded me of my childhood...) and put them in a blender. I thought they might be too lemony, so I added 2 crackers as well (used Marie Digestive Biscuit from Indian store, I guess you could use Graham crackers).

4. Melt the butter and add to this mixture and mix well.

5. Take spoonfuls of the mixture and put it in the mini muffin pan. Use something like the bottom of a shot glass and press down on the mixture to pack it tightly.

6. Place this in the oven for 4 minutes. I think this makes sure your crust is done well and won't break when you pop these eventually.

7. Now prepare the cheese mixture. If you don't have a food processor, use a blender, worked fine for me. Combine the ricotta cheese, cream cheese, 1/4 cup of the sugar, half of the orange zest, and the egg.

8. Blend until smooth.

9. Pour the mixture over the lightly baked crust. Don't fill it till the top.

10. Place the mini muffin tin in a baking dish and pour enough hot water in the baking dish to come halfway up the sides of the mini muffin tin. I read reviews for this recipe and most people said this was an important thing. Since I didn't have a baking dish large enough to hold the muffin pan, I used one of the large aluminum foil dish that I had got for a party long back.

11. Bake for 30 minutes (5 mins more than original recipe).

12. Let them cool for about 30 mins and then refrigerate for 15 minutes.

13. Take them out and using a knife, gently pop the cheesecakes out of the muffin pan cups.

14. Now, its really your choice whether you want to put the garnish just before you serve or add it and put it back into the fridge. If you do the latter, the sugar garnish melts slightly and I kinda liked that better. Anyway here are the garnish details.

Garnish -  combine the remaining orange zest with the remaining 2 tablespoons of sugar (granulated). Top each individual cheesecake with about 1/4 teaspoon of the orange zest mixture. Slice very thin slices of orange fruit and place them on top of each cheesecake over the sugar mixture. If you want more colors, stick a sprig of mint on top as well!

15. Enjoy the mini delight!

Eggless Date Cake

It was my mom's birthday recently and she loves fruit cakes. My aunt made an eggless date cake for her and I heard from Mom that it was great. So, I found a recipe online for the same and tried it out.

RECIPE

INGREDIENTS 

Seedless Dates - 15-18
Milk - 3/4 cup
Sugar - 3/4 cup (I used brown sugar)
Whole Wheat flour - 1/2 cup
All purpose flour - 1/2 cup
Oil - 1/2 cup
Baking soda - 1 tsp
Nuts - a handful of chopped walnuts and cashews

Cake pan - I used a round 9 inch one
Mixing bowls

PROCEDURE 

1. Chop the dates and put it in milk. Heat this either in microwave or stove for a bit. This is mainly to soften the dates so that you can make a paste of it.

2. Preheat oven to 350F. 

3. Once this mixture has cooled, add all the sugar and grind it into a paste.  


4. Add the oil to this paste.

5. Mix all dry ingredients (2 kinds of flour, nuts, baking soda) together separately. I used half whole wheat & half all purpose flour just to make it healthier. You could try making it completely with wheat flour as well. I might try it next time.





 

6. Now, add small portions of the dry ingredients into the paste and stir it in. It's mainly to avoid any lumps.

7. Grease your cake pan well and pour in this mixture.

8. Bake for about 30-35 mins. Let it cool and then invert the cake onto a plate. ( I didn't have much success inverting them onto a plate, the sides seemed to loosen from the pan, but the bottom was well stuck)!










9. Enjoy the almost healthy cake!

Notes

1. Will try next time with less oil, seemed like 1/2 cup was a lot, the cake was quite greasy.
2. The cake I made was kinda brittle, so maybe I'll try it with Baking powder instead. The original recipe blog said this makes the cake harder. Also maybe bake it for a bit longer.
3. Will try sans the all purpose flour and make it completely with whole wheat.