Spiced Mini Apple Pies

It is the beginning of fall here and the weather is absolutely lovely. Warm days compliment cooler nights. Happiness compliments the rash of colours in the nature around us. But the icing on the cake is that Deepavali compliments Halloween! Indian houses here in the US are beautifully decorated with fall adornments and halloween spooks and the entranceways are bathed perfectly in the light emanating from Deepavali diyas.
Such joy to share the festival of lights with all the pumpkins and "Mohabbatein" leaves!
Most of all, this is the first Deepavali for our two month old sonny boy. I simply could not allow the festival to roll by without celebrating to the maximum extent possible amidst all the newborn chores and chaos.

My dear family esp the hubby abhors sweet food in any form. Except for the occasional Mysore Pak. The darling dotzy has only now begun to relish sweets but mostly prefers baked goods to the traditional Indian fare. Hence I decided to kick start the Deepavali food fest with the Apple pie. It falls easy on the pallette and is so warm that it automatically fills you with love. Adding a twist to the classic and making it less sweet suits our tastes. Baking a pie is like an experience. The whole house is awash with the wonderful smell, the taste buds thank us and is appetizing to look at. I love the crusty flaky exterior of a pie so much that I could eat just the crust and be very happy. Given a choice of a 9 inch pie/cake or muffin sized portions I always tend to choose the latter since its easier to store and gets consumed real fast. Size is inversely proportional to the want in our house. That is how we ended up with mini spiced apple pies!

The pie dough recipe in this post is a keeper. It is extremely flaky and has a nice crust without being hard. It can be used as the go-to dough for all kinds of filling- spicy,veggie, sweet, salty. The recipe makes enough for a 9 inch pie base and the pie topper. Alternately it makes enough for 12 mini pie bases and their tops.

Spiced Mini Apple Pies

Servings: 12 mini pies (standard muffin size)
Prep Time: 45 mins (including cooling time)  Cook Time: 35 mins

Ingredients

For the Pie Dough

2 cups All Purpose Flour (or substitute half Whole Wheat flour, I have done this and it remains delicious)
1/4 tsp Baking Powder
1/8 tsp Baking Soda
1/4 cup Chilled Yogurt (replaces 1 egg)
3/4 cup Chilled butter cut into cubes (can be reduced to 1/2 cup if desired)
2 tbsp Sugar (increase to 5 tbsp if a sweet crust beckons)
2 tbsp Chilled Water
Pinch of Salt

For the Apple Pie filling

2 Gala Apples (the apple really held up well and did not get mushy when baked for 35 mins)
3-4 tsp Lemon Juice
1/4 tsp Cinnamon powder
1/4 tsp Nutmeg powder
1/3 cup Sugar

Instructions

For the Pie Dough

1. Mix together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and sugar
2. Drop in the chilled butter cubes and lightly mix it into the flour till the mixture is crumbly. I used my fingers for this and it took around 5 minutes. 
3. Add in the chilled yogurt and mix. The dough should start coming around.
4. If required mix in the chilled water one tbsp at a time till a ball of dough is formed. 
5. Do not knead the mix. Merely collect the dough to form a ball. 
6. Cling wrap the dough and refrigerate for 30 mins.
7. If refrigerated for more time the dough becomes harder. Allow dough to rest on the counter till it is pliable before using.

For the Apple pie filling

1. Toss all the ingredients for the filling together.
2. Do not mix it a lot in advance since the juice from the apples oozes out which could make the pie soggy. 

Making the Pie

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F and grease a muffin tray lightly.
2. I use a trick to make it easier to get the pies out after they are done - Place strips of foil in the muffin cup with ends hanging out. The pies can later be pulled out using the over hanging tabs. 
3. Roll out the pie dough between two sheets of parchment (to make cleaning simpler) to a thin sheet. I kept it at 1/5 inch thick but it could be made thicker upto 1/4 inch. 
4. To make mini pies, cut out rounds from the dough sheet around an inch bigger than the size of the muffin cup.
5. Insert it into the muffin cup and lightly press against the walls of the cup to make a pie base. (It is easier to close the pie if the pie base juts out of the muffin cup.)
6. Put in one and half tbsp of the filling into the pie base
7. Cut out another round of dough which is slightly smaller than the first one.
8. Cover the pie with this and press all around to seal the pie. 
9. At the point you could make the edges fluted or press all around the edge using a fork.
10. With a knife make small slits on the pie top to help bake the filling nicely. 
11. Brush the top with some milk to prevent dryness while baking
12. Bake at 350 F for 30 - 35 minutes till the top has browned and  you can see the filling bubbling inside. Mostly you could go by the heavenly smell and know its done!
13. Serve warm or cold. We like both ways. 

Vegan Banana Nut Bread

In the recent weeks there hasnt been a situation of over ripe bananas in our house. But last week we went on a camping trip to Arkansas where I had carried a bunch of bananas but half a dozen remained uneaten given the variety of food we had there. We were an enthusiastic group making upma and bhelpuri among other delectables, at the camp. It was a lovely time beside the river. The river itself was shallow at the camp site and there were innumerable small size fishes swimming around our legs. The whole gang enjoyed playing in the water and swimming with the fishes.

By the time we came back home, due to the heat, the bananas were all over ripe and I had to find a way to use them without throwing out the whole lot. I mentioned banana bread and to my surprise my daughter was overjoyed. I have no idea what caused the change of heart in the non-sweet eater but I wasnt going to let this chance get away. I baked the bread that very night and as is always the case with banana baked goods, it came out very well. We all enjoyed a healthy dessert that night and it lasted well for the next four days with refreidgeration.

Vegan Banana Nut Bread

Servings: One 4*8 loaf
Prep Time: 10 mins Cook Time: 35 - 45 mins

Ingredients

4 very ripe bananas
1 cup Whole wheat pastry flour
1 cup All purpose flour
1/2 cup Vegetable oil
1/2 cup Sugar
1 tsp Vanilla essence
1 1/2 tsp Baking powder
1/2 tsp Baking soda
a pinch of salt
1/2 cup nuts (walnuts, almonds)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 F
2. Grease a 4*8 loaf tin with a little oil or line it with parchment paper
3. Mash the bananas to fine and add in oil and sugar and mix well. Add in the vanilla extract and mix well.
4. Sieve the flours, baking soda and baking powder and mix well and keep aside
5. Add salt to the flour and mix well
6. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix till it comes together. Do not overmix.
7. Fold in the nuts
8. Pour the mix into the prepared loaf tin and bake for 35 - 45 mins till a skewer inserted into the center of the bread comes out clean. (My oven took 45 mins)
9. Slice it up and serve warm.
10. It also tastes good as a base to a trifle or with ice-cream.

Spiced Whoopie Pies

It is with absolute pleasure that I write this post. I am hosting the Feb '14 episode of the Home Bakers Challenge, another brain child of the ever so creative Priya Suresh.
In keeping with the occurence of Valentine's day I presented a variety of "to-bake" items to all those who were willing to participate. The underlying theme was to bake stuff which were different from the regular V-day fare including
1) French Macaroons
2)  Whoopie Pies
3) Neapolitan Cakes
4) Cheesecake Cupcakes
The main reason for choosing the list above were because I wanted to try out eggless versions of all of these. For various reasons my baking has become few and far between, therefore I managed to concoct only one bake. I had to choose the easiest recipe, for reasons strong, and since I cannot eat cheese at the moment I chose Whoopie Pies!

Before I ventured out to make a red velvet whoopie pie or any other sweet whoopie pie, I took a vote and my family unanimously chose a spicy fare. So I twisted the ingredients around to get a spicy cookie halves and even used onion-chive cream cheese filling for one. It turned out delicious. This was really a rare case of having only a few minutes before all the cookies and whoopie pies were cleaned off the plate! My joy knew no bounds! The aroma of ginger, cinnamon and nutmeg is exactly what you need in your house on a cold winter's day and mine was snowing to boot.

Spiced Whoopie Pies

Servings: 20 cookies or 10 Whoopie pies
Prep Time: 10 mins Cook Time: 12 mins

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups All purpose flour
3/4 cup Cane Sugar  (Or 1/2 cup Cane Sugar and 1/2 cup dark molasses)
3 tsp grated fresh Ginger (or 2 tsp Ground ginger)
1 tsp ground Cinnamon
1/4 tsp Nutmeg
1 1/4 tsp Baking Soda
3/4 tsp Salt
1/3 cup Vegetable Oil
1/4 cup Yogurt
1/3 cup Boiling water

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 deg F.
2. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper
3. Combine flour, sugar, (molasses if used), ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, baking soda in a bowl
4. Mix in oil, yogurt until well combined
5. Pour in boiling water and mix until smooth
6. Drop dough in balls on prepared cookie sheet with 1 inch space between each
7. Bake in oven for about 12 mins untill slightly puffy and golden
8. The cookies will be soft when removed from the oven and will continue to harden a bit. 
9. Cool on the cookie sheet for 5-7 mins before cooling completely on a rack
10. Once the cookies have cooled completely apply filling on the bottom of a cookie and place another similar sized cookie on top of the filling. 
11. Chill it for 10 mins in the fridge if its gets a little runny or is a warm day
12. I used store bought cream cheese and Nutella for the filling. The sweet of the chocolate and then tang of the cream cheese blended perfectly with the spiced cookies!

Vegan Jewish Apple Cake

Home Bakers Challenge presented a very interesting recipe of apple cake and it was to be Jewish. At the outset, the recipe did not present anything "different" to classify it as Jewish and I was intrigued. After going through a lot of forums, I gleaned that one of the rules of Kashrut (Jewish Dietary law) upon which Kosher foods are based, is that Meat and Dairy should not be mixed at a meal. This might explain why this cake is called so because it uses oil instead of butter and does not use any milk in it.

In my drive to make it Egg free, I have substituted the eggs simply with Ener-G replacer.
I have also substituted half the fat with applesauce making this a very healthy recipe. The cake keeps well in the refridgerator, in an air tight container, for atleast a week from personal experience.
I was overstocked with apples left over from a fruit salad made for a pot-luck, languishing in the fridge till this challenge came along to rescue them!

Vegan Jewish Apple Cake

Servings: 1 9-inch cake
Prep Time: 10 mins Cook Time:

Ingredients

3-4 Medium sized Apples (I used Jonathan but granny smith or honey crisp should work very well too)
3 cups All Purpose Flour
2 tbsp Ener-G replacer + 8 tbs Warm Water (replaces 4 eggs)
1 1/2 cup Sugar (I used 1 cup since the apples were sweet)
2 1/2 tsp Baking Powder (If double acting baking powder use half the quantity)
1/4 tsp Salt
1/2 Cup Oil
1/2 Cup Applesauce
1/4 tsp Cup Orange Juice (Tropicana works fine)
2 tsp Vanilla Essence

2 tsp Cinnamon
3 tbsp Confectioner's (Fine) Sugar

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F
2. Line a 9-inch round cake pan with parchment
3. Combine 2 tsp cinnamon and 3 tbsp of fine Sugar and keep aside
4. Peel, core and cut the apples into 1-inch pieces. I made the pieces smaller because my family wouldnt enjoy biting into soft big pieces of apple. 
5. If cutting the apple before hand, drizzle 2 tsp of Lemon juice on coat the pieces with it. This will prevent browning.
6. Prepare the egg replacer as per instructions on the product. If using Ener-G then pour the powder in the warm water and stir till well combined. It should become creamy after mixing. Keep aside
7. 
   
8. Mix together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a container.
9. Mix together the oil, applesauce. orange juice, egg replacer mix and vanilla essence.
10. Add the wet mixture to the dry and mix till just combined. 
11. Pour half the batter into the prepared cake pan. Top with 1/2 the apple pieces and sprinkle half the cinnamon-sugar mixture on it.
12. Pour the rest of the batter into the pan and top with the remaining apple pieces and sprinkle the remaining cinnamon-sugar mixture on it.
13. Bake at 350 F for 60-80 minutes.

Spiced Eggless Pumpkin Quick Bread

Pumpkin bread is the kind of food that you want to take with you when your mind wanders into nostalgia. It evokes a lot of emotions, most of all happiness. Done with the right spices, this wonder food, which is a big source of Vitamin A, can be relished as a snack any time of the day.

With my resolve to post a pumpkin recipe everyday of this week leading to Thanksgiving day, I made a list of all the dishes I wanted to prepare and this bread topped the list. It is an extremely simple quick bread which means there is no wait time required between making the batter and baking.

The pumpkin bread is symbolic of warmth. The recipe below does not make an overtly sweet bread. Its a sure-fire crowd pleaser and I am very happy to report that the two food critics in my house absolutely loved it! I recommend it as a kid friendly recipe and it can easily make its way into the school snack box.

Spiced Eggless Pumpkin Quick Bread 

Recipe adapted from Gayathri's cookspot
Servings: 1 9-inch loaf
Prep Time: 10 mins Cook Time: 60 mins

Ingredients 

1 cup All purpose Flour
3/4 cup Whole Wheat Pastry flour
1 cup granulated Sugar
3/4 tsp Baking Soda
1/4 tsp Double acting Baking powder
1/2 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp Nutmeg
1/2 tsp Cinnamon
2-3 Cloves (If using powder then 1/2 tsp)
1 cup Pumpkin Puree
1/2 cup Oil
3 tbsp Honey
3 tbsp Water
Chopped walnuts (handful to 1/2 cup)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 deg F. Line a 9 inch loaf tin with parchment paper or grease with oil.
2. Sift together all purpose flour, whole wheat pastry flour. sugar, salt, nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves together in a bowl.
3. In another bowl mix together pumpkin puree, oil, water, honey
4. Add the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients to form a thick batter. Mix only till well combined, do not overmix.
5. Fold in the walnuts
6. Fill the loaf tin with the thick batter and lightly spread to be even topped
7. Bake at 350 deg F for 60 minutes till a skewer inserted comes out clean with no batter sticking to it. Check from 55 mins to see if it is done
8.  Remove from oven and cool in the loaf tin for 5 minutes. Continue to cool on a wire rack.

Spooky Witches Fingers (Eggless)

Its that time of the year where scary and spooky are mainstream. Halloween brings with it a carnival kind of atmosphere where everyone wants to pretend to be someone else. Going by the number of Halloween Express shops that open up in October, its a mad rush to get out of the skin of one's own life. Before my blog goes all philosophical and analytical on this top I will turn the focus back to food. Pumpkins are everywhere for halloween but not really as a dish. Jack-o-Lanterns adorn many lawns and door steps. Wildly imaginative cookies and cupcakes are also the norm.

I decided to bake the spooky witches fingers to celebrate the Halloween mood early and also as part of the Home Bakers Challenge. The recipe here is a keeper and gives consistent good results. My biggest tip while baking cookies is to chill the shaped dough for atleast 5 minutes before popping it into the oven. This slows down the spread and ensures you dont have to get it off the tray with a spatula.
My daughter refused to even come close to them in the beginning but enjoyed eating it after we demonstrated that they were really harmless. But the whole episode made me gloat with pride at such a life like creation! The hubby who, as my blog readers will know, hates sweets also devoured many many of these fingers.

Spooky Witches Fingers (Eggless)

Recipe Adapted from here
Servings: 30 pieces
Prep Time: 30 mins Cook Time: 25 mins per batch

Ingredients 

1 1/3 cup All Purpose Flour
1/2 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Salt
1/2 cup Butter (softened)
1/2 cup Sugar
Ener-G Egg Replacer equivalent of 1/2 egg
1/2 tsp Vanilla essence
30 Whole Almonds with skin

Instructions

1. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt. Sieve and set aside.
2. Whisk the sugar and butter till well combined (whitish and fluffy). This took me around 3-4 minutes.
3. To this add the egg replacer and vanilla essence and whisk for another couple of minutes.
4. Add the dry mixture in parts to the wet mixture and mix till combined.
5. The whole thing comes together as a soft dough. Cover and refridgerate for 20 minutes.
6. Meanwhile preheat the oven to 325 F.
7. Remove small portion of the dough at a time from the fridge, shape into desired form and place an inch apart on a cookie tray.
8. Refridgerate the cookie tray for atleast 5 minutes and then bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes. Remove when base is lightly browned. 
9. Leave the cookies to cool on the tray for 5 minutes and then cook on a wire rack. 

To shape like a finger

1. Pinch of a small ball of dough and place on parchment paper.
2. Working quickly press and elongate to a log of around 4 inches long and 1/4 inch diameter. 
3. Pinch the edge on one side to give a tapered look. That's the nail side
4. Pinch in the log along the length
5. Using a blunt knife (butter knife) make indentations cross-wise on the log to give it a natural look
6. Press a whole almond on the tapered edge

Vegetable Au Gratin

We had a French inspired dinner last Sunday with Croissants (store bought) and Vegetable Au Gratin on the side. A table laid outdoors, bare with no distractions of threads and cutlery, completed the experience. Soaking in the setting sun with a wonderfully tasty spread is something we all can never have enough of.
The french expression "au gratin" refers to anything grated on top of the dish. Very commonly cheese.
Although this dish looks very sophisticated and prim, its one of the easiest things to prepare. And guaranteed to turn heads at a luncheon or pot luck.

Again, its a great way to get those vegetables into kids' tummies. The recipe I have used is inspired from here. I used beans, carrots, kohlrabi, spinach(a lot) and potatoes for veggies but the options are limitless. Am sure shallow-fried onion would add a dash of intense flavour to the dish.

Vegetable Au Gratin

Servings: 2
Prep Time: 10 mins Cook Time: 20-25 mins

Ingredients 

1 cup Boiled Vegetables
1 cup Spinach cut washed and cooked
1 cup White Sauce
1 tbsp Cream Cheese (optional)
1/2 cup (or lesser) cheese (I used Mozzarella)
1 tsp Garlic powder (optional)
1 tsp Cumin powder (optional)
1 tsp Coriander powder (optional)
1 tsp Black pepper powder
Salt to taste

For 1 cup White Sauce

1 tbsp Butter
1 tsp All purpose Flour
3/4 cup Milk
1 tsp Black pepper powder
Salt to taste

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 400 F
2. Keep a shallow baking dish (3 inches * 5 inches * 1 inch) ready
3. Mix cream cheese and 1 tbsp of mozzarella cheese to the white sauce.
4. Add in the spices, garlic powder and salt and mix well
5. Fold in the boiled vegetables and spinach
6. Pour this mixture into the baking dish, sprinkle the remaining mozzarella cheese on top
7. Bake at 400 F for 20-25 mins till the top has become golden brown.
8. Leave it in the oven with the door open for another few minutes (optional)
9. Remove from oven and allow to cool

How to make White Sauce

1. Heat butter in a heavy bottomed vessel, add all purpose flour and mix till it becomes frothy on low-medium heat
2. Add 3/4 cup Milk and stir continuously till the sauce thickens. Around 5 mins
3. Add in black pepper powder and salt to taste

Eggless Blueberry Coffee Cake

At the outset let me share with you that I dint expect this to be a hit. But thats exactly what it turned out to be  and more with my daughter lapping up every bit of it with gusto. This cake is a very simple preparation and I made it on a Saturday night while chatting with a friend which made it all the more enjoyable.
Coffee cakes are usually moist and tender and come out of the oven ready to eat. No frosting required. Although having a streusel on top or glaze or chocolate syrup drizzle are standard dress-ups for it, it can nevertheless be enjoyed without any of those.

I chose to not top it with anything and also chose to make it low calorie by substituting apple sauce for a lot of the butter. The taste of apple is hardly noticeable especially if its a fine paste. What I forgot to add in was nuts and I am going to do it the next time. Almonds would complement the blueberries very well, especially the shavings.

Its an easy way to get kids to eat fruits and nuts, trust me!

Eggless Blueberry Coffee Cake

Servings: 1 9-inch cake
Prep Time: 15 mins Cook Time: 40 - 50 mins

Ingredients 

2 cups All Purpose Flour
1 cup Blueberries (if frozen do not thaw)
1/3 cup Butter
1/2 cup Applesauce
3/4 cup Sugar
1 tsp Baking Powder (I used 1/2 tsp Double acting)
1 tsp Baking Soda
1/4 tsp Salt
1 cup Yogurt
1 tsp Vanilla extract (I accidentally put in nearly 2.5 tsp of extract and it was still very yummy)

Instructions 

1. Line a 9-inch cake tin with parchment paper or grease it and keep aside
2. Preheat oven to 350 F
3. Mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt in a bowl and set aside
4. Cream butter and sugar by hand or with a beater.
5. Add the applesauce and vanilla essence and continue to beat
6. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients alternating with yogurt.
7. Combine well using a whisk but refrain from mixing too much. 
8. Add in the blueberries and fold in. Be gentle since they pop easily. 
9. Pour the batter into the prepared cake tin and bake it at 350 for 40-50 mins till a skewer inserted in comes out clean. 
10. Remove from oven and cool it in the tin for 5 mins and then continue to cool it on a wire rack. 

How to make Applesauce at home

1. Peel and core 2 medium sized apples, cut them into cubes and boil the pieces in 1/2 cup water till soft and mushy. About 10 mins.
2. Once cooled, grind the softened pieces into a paste or mash with a fork to get 1 cup Applesauce

Pumpkin Spiced Buttermilk Scones (Eggless)

It was a lazy weekend afternoon at our house and I was getting ready for a late afternoon snooze when the baker in me dragged me up and admonished me about wasting away a full day. I gave in and decided to bake something quick. Scones have been at the back of my mind for some time now. Today was the perfect occasion. I had a sliver of pumpkin left over from making Pumpkin Erissery. I had wanted to use it for baking and it provided me with an opportunity to make a savoury bake. I adapted the recipe from here adjusting it to suit our palate.

Its a great recipe and my scones turned out perfect. I cannot even begin to explain the sheer pleasure one derives upon a successful first-time bake!
The scones were a big hit with everyone going for seconds and the hubby even grabbing one right off my photograph!

Pumpkin Spiced Buttermilk Scones (Eggless)

Serrvings: 8 Scones
Prep Time: 30 mins Cook Time: 20 mins

Ingredients

2 cups All purpose Flour + 1/4 cup as required while kneading the dough
1/3 cup white granulated sugar
1/2 tsp Baking Soda
1 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Cinammon powder
1/2 tsp Ginger (dry powder or fresh grated)
3/4 tsp Salt
1/2 cup Unsalted Butter (cold cubes)
1/3 cup Buttermilk
1/2 cup Pumpkin Puree (fresh or canned)
1 tsp Vanilla essence

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 400 deg F and line a baking tray with parchment paper
2. Whisk together the flour, salt, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, cinammon and ginger and set aside
3. Cut the cold butter into the flour using a knife and fork or two knives till a crumbly mixture is formed. It is alright to have a few big chunks of butter in the mixture.
4. If its
5. In another bowl whisk together the pumpkin puree, buttermilk and vanilla essence.
6. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix until the dough just comes together. Do not overmix as this can cause the scones to lose their airy composition
7. Transfer to a lightly floured surface and knead lightly to form a lump. At this point sprinkle some flour on the dough to get it all together if required
8. Pat the dough into a circle of roughly 6-7 inches and about 1 1/2 inches thick
9. Cut this circle into 8 even sized pie shaped wedges using a knife (floured)
10. Carefully lift each wedge and place it on the baking sheet.
11. Lightly dab the butter wrapper on top of each scone to get a golden color once baked
12. I used a rectangular cake tin inverted as the "baking sheet" and hence did not fear the scones getting burnt at the bottom. But Stephanie does suggest placing the thin baking sheet inside another one to prevent burning.
13. Bake for about 20 mins till the scones are golden brown and a skewer inserted comes out clean.
14. Allow it to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. Enjoy it warm with your favourite cup of coffee, tea or milk!

How to Puree Pumpkin

Wash and peel the tough skin off the pumpkin
Cut into even sized pieces
Boil in water for around 15-20 mins till soft
Let cool, drain the water and puree in a blender

How to make Buttermilk

Add 1 tbsp vinegar to 1 cup of Milk and let sit for 10 minutes.
The milk curdles to form buttermilk.

Eggless Pinwheel Cookies

My darling dotzy turned five last weekend and we had an amazing party at the park. Among the fun and frolic was great food including snacks made at home. I made Blueberry Vanilla Cupcakes, Chocolate cupcakes, pinwheel cookies, Nipattu and Pakoda all of which were well recieved and the boxes were nearly empty by the time we came back home. Its always very gratifying to have super success with your food!
Pinwheel cookies was part of  the Home Bakers Challenge for June, a group which I have joined on FB. I had already made the Peanut Butter Cookies and now found the perfect opportunity to bake cookies in a house where the folks dont eat anything sweet!

One thing I must say about these cookies - they taste best till the next day once done. They get a cardboard-y taste after 2 days. So eating them fresh is the way to go according to me.
This recipe has been adapted from The Heritage Cook and adapted to make it eggless. It requires making two varieties of dough, one chocolate and one vanilla, and rolling it together.

Tips for making the process easier

1) The easiest way to handle this dough is to keep it cold. I refridgerated the dough quite a few times to be able to make it easily. After I kneaded it wrapped in cling wrap and also after I rolled it out and wedged between parchment paper, for 30 mins each time.
2) Flatten the dough  in between layers of parchment paper to make it easier to roll out. Else it sticks to the rolling pin. Also cleaning up becomes a breeze!
3) It might be easier to press down on the dough with a heavy wooden spoon or rolling pin and push it outwards to flatten it rather than rolling on it using a pin.
4) While rolling the dough into a log, roll using the parchment halfway and then pull back the paper. Do this for every roll
5) Refridgerate dough log for atleast an hour before cutting it into cookies. This ensures the dough log is stiff and cutting it into cookie rounds makes it easier without the dough losing shape.
6) Last but not the least, dont get intimated by the length of the instructions. Its easier done than explained.

Eggless Pinwheel Cookies

Servings: 32 cookies
Prep Time: 2 hrs Cook Time: 30 mins

Ingredients

All purpose flour – 1 ½ Cup
Baking powder – ½ Tsp
Salt – ¼ Tsp
Unsalted softened butter – ½ Cup
Granulated sugar – ¾ Cup
3/4 tbsp EnerG Egg Replacer
1 1/2 tbsp Warm water
Vanilla extract – 1 Tsp
Unsweetened cocoa powder – 2 Tbsp
Semi sweet chocolate chips – ¼ Cup
2 tsp Milk

Instructions

Vanilla Dough

1. Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
2. Whip the egg-replacer with warm water until it is gooey and set aside
3. In a mixing bowl beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg replacer and vanilla extract and beat again until blended.
4. Add the flour mixture slowly, beating just until combined.
5. Divide the dough into two parts
6. Refrigerate one part wrapped in cling wrap for 30 mins. That will be the vanilla dough.

Chocolate Dough

1. Melt the chocolate chips along with the milk in a microwave by heating it for 10 secs. Set aside to cool.
2. Add the cocoa and the cooled melted chocolate to the second half of the dough and mix till well incorporated.
3. Refrigerate this chocolate dough wrapped in cling wrap for 30 mins.

Making pinwheel Shape

1. Place the vanilla dough in between parchment sheets measuring 12 inches * 12 inches. 
2. Flatten the dough in between the sheets to the dimension of the paper. 
3. Repeat for the chocolate dough (use another set of parchment paper of size 12 inches * 12 inches)
4. Optionally refrigerate the two dough discs along with the parchment paper for 30 mins. This step is necessary if the weather is really hot and humid.
5. Set the vanilla disc on a counter and peel away the top paper. Do the same for the chocolate disc.
6. Now flip the chocolate disc and stack on top of the vanilla disc ensuring that the discs are again sandwiched between the remaining parchment paper. (Bottom parchment of Chocolate disc now becomes top parchment of the sandwich)
7. Roll lightly over the layers so that the dough adhere.
8. Remove the parchment paper on top.
9. Starting from one side, roll up the dough into one big log 12 inches long. Since the first couple of rolls will form the center of the cookie late ensure its firmly packed in. (I did falter here a bit and rolled it loose and you can see from the pics that the pinwheel shape at the center is not perfect)
10. Wrap the log in parchment and refrigerate it for upto an hour. 

Making the cookies

1. In the meantime preheat the oven to 350 F
2. Carefully slice the log into ¼ inch thick cookies and place on a baking sheet 1 inch apart. 
3. Bake it for 10-12 minutes. The cookies are done when you see the edges turning golden brown. They also harden on the cooling rack. 
4. Cool it on wire rack.

Healthy Vegan Vegetable Mini Pie

I have become a part of the Eggless Baking Challenge Group where we are given challenges every month to convert a egg filled delicacy to eggless. July's challenge was one of my favourites because not only was it something I wanted to try from a long time but the twist was that it was savoury. A welcome relief from all the sweet bakes that I have been doing.

I have been wanting to bake a pie from forever but the quantity of butter required and the sheer size of a pie was holding me back. When this challenge came up the first thing I did was to logon to Amazon to buy pie pans. After browsing through a lot of options, I couldnt make up my mind on the large pans vs the mini ones. I found that the mini pans were also 4.5 inches or more in diameter and felt it was a bit too big. I prefer individual portions than an overwhelming big size. And thats the same reason I prefer cupcakes to cakes. I then stumbled upon some images of pies being made in muffin pans and I had the tool I was looking for right in my kitchen.

I also found a recipe for making the pie crust without butter (which I cant seem to find again to link to) and adapted it further to incorporate whole grains into it by substituting half the all purpose flour with whole wheat flour.

My tips for a happy experience:

1) Use parchment strips/aluminium foil strips lining each cup in a way that lifting the strip would lift out the mini pie. Aluminium foils are easily pliable and can line the cups better. Ensure that both ends of the strip jut out of the muffin cavity.
2) I found it easier to flatten a ball of dough with my hand using my palm. Since the pie dough is usually hard it is tough to roll it out using a rolling pin even if sandwiched between sheets of parchment/wax paper. I flattened the dough to 1/5 inch thickness and used a round cutter to cut out the pie bottom and top.
3) Cooling the ingredients before mixing and mixing it barely ensures a flaky texture. No muscle power required.
4) If placing a top crust then brush with little oil to get a better taste before baking.

This pie crust is a keeper because its low calorie and really good.

Healthy Vegan Vegetable Mini Pie

Servings: 6 Mini Pies (2 inch wide)
Prep Time: 2 hrs   Cook Time: 30 mins

Ingredients 

For the Pie Crust

3/4 Cup All Purpose Flour
3/4 cup Whole Wheat Pastry Flour
1/4 cup Oil (I used Canola)
1/4 cup Cold water
Salt to taste

For the savoury filling

1/2 Medium onion
1 Carrot
1/2 Capsicum
1/2 cup Corn
3 tsp Oil
1 tsp Cumin powder
1 tsp Coriander powder
1 tsp Black pepper powder
Salt to taste

Instructions

To make the savoury filling

1. Heat oil in a heavy bottomed pan and saute finely cut onions till transcluscent.
2. Add in the grated carrot, finely cut capsicum and corn and saute for a couple of minutes.
3. Mix in the spice powders and salt and saute for another couple of minutes till its done. 
4. Set aside to cool.

To make Pie 

1. Line the muffin cavities with aluminium foil strips such that the two ends of the strip jut out of the cavity.
2. Lightly grease the cups
3. Mix the all purpose flour and the whole wheat pastry flour in a bowl and freeze for 30 - 45 mins
4. Freeze the oil for the same amount of time
5. Mix salt into the chilled flour, add the oil and mix lightly. 
6. The flour becomes crumbly and should remain that way with big clumps
7. Add water very little at a time to form a hard ball of dough. Do not add too much water and also ensure that the dough does not become soft and pliable. 
8. Pinch off a golf ball sized dough and flatten it to form a 1/5 inch thick disc.
9. Cut the dough to a 3 inch diameter circle using a round cutter. (I used a container cap)
10. Push the circle into a muffin cup and lightly press against the walls of the cup to form a pastry shell.
11. Optionally, leave a little bit of the dough outlining the mouth of the cup especially if its an open pie
12. Spoon in a tablespoon of the filling into the shell, topping it with cheese optionally.
13. Cut out a 2 inch dough circle and place on top of the filling. Press a fork all around the top crust so that it seals the pie. Lightly brush oil on the top to aid browning.
14. Bake at 350 F for around 30 mins. The top may not brown all that much if using whole wheat flour. It is done when the dough gets crusty.
15. Serve warm optionally topped with cream cheese. 

Khara Biscuit / Eggless Whole Wheat Savoury Cookies

The day before we have to leave for any trip, I have this last minute urge to make and take along a snack. I have made cookies in the past and some savoury bakes. I tend to make the non fried variety so that we can have guilt free indulgence. I, for one get very hungry when I step into a car for any journey greater than an hour.
Our trip to Chicago over the 4th of July weekend had a very hectic prep time because of work pressure during the week. Packing just came down to picking up a stack of ironed clothes off the cupboard and shoving it into the suitcase. I mention this especially because I am a light packer, never carrying any extras. There was a lot of prep work where food was concerned since we prefer to pack lunches for the day outings. So we packed a mini kitchen into two big bags complete with ground pulav masala!
Getting back to what I wanted to post about. Amidst all the crazy kitchen activity I made Khara Biscuit to take along for the ride. I made it with whole wheat pastry flour.

Khara biscuit conjures up memories of Butter Sponge visits when we were kids. Many of our Sundays would start with Sweet bun, Khara bun combo for breakfast and on some extra special occasions it would be accompanied by the Benne Biscuit, Khara Biscuit combo. Yummy!! For me the yard stick in judging a bakery's goods is the Benne Biscuit, Khara biscuit they make as compared to Butter Sponge Bakery in Gandhi Bazar. My attempt here was very close and even though they turned out extremely good, I cannot claim to have recreated the magic. The biscuits turned out delicious and were a huge hit. Its simple to make and easy to stow.

Khara Biscuit / Eggless Whole Wheat Savoury Cookies

Servings: 20 biscuits
Prep Time: 1 hr        Cook Time: 20 - 25 mins

Ingredients 

1 1/2 cups + 2 tbsp Whole Wheat Pastry Flour
1/2 cup Butter (softened on the counter)
1 tsp Baking Powder
1/4 tsp Ginger paste
2 Green Chillies finely chopped
1 tsp Coriander leaves finely chopped
1/2 tsp Curry leaves finely chopped
1 tsp Salt (or to taste)
1 tsp Sugar
1/4 cup Yoghurt

Instructions

1. Mix the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar in a bowl.
2. To this add the ginger paste, green chillies, coriander leaves, curry leaves and mix well. 
3. Add the butter to this and mix to form a stiff dough. Do not overmix. 
4. If the mix turns out crumbly add yoghurt very little at a time to get a stiff dough consistency. 
5. Put the dough into a ziplock bag and refridgerate it for 30 mins to ensure that the butter does not stop melting while rolling the dough. 
6. Preheat the oven to 350 F.
7. Remove the dough from the fridge and roll it out to a 1 inch thick circle. 
8. Cut out round shaped biscuits and place them on a baking tray lined with parchment paper. 
9. Prick the biscuit with a fork to prevent it from puffing up. These are after all biscuits. 
10. Continue to do this for the rest of the dough making sure to leave atleast 1 inch between each cookie.
11. Bake for 20 mins or till the biscuit feels a little firm. 
12. Remove from the oven and cool in tray for 5 mins and further on a wire rack. 
13. The biscuit firms a little more while cooling. 
14. This biscuit stores well in an air tight container in the fridge for 5 days. .

Eggless Peanut Butter Cookies

I joined the Home Bakers Challenge a month ago and have tried to keep up with the enthusiasm and expertise since. Owing to a lack of sweet tooth at home I have to usually think through any sweet preparation which includes my favorite pastime, baking. I made this with the fond hope of taking it along on the weekend getaway that we had planned but they turned out crumbly enough to not withstand travel in a box. Nevertheless, they came out tasting awesome and they store well in the fridge for upto a week. The recipe also presented me with an opportunity to use my new electric beater which I thought was an super must have a month and a half ago and hadn't baked anything since. My dotzy had a fun time running away every time I switched it on in the mixing bowl and things spattered out till I got a hang of it!

I made the peanut butter at home and in the process discovered what I have missed all these days. Its extremely easy to make and all it requires are peanuts and an electric food processor or mixer.

I made the cookies with whole wheat pastry flour and the next time I make it I will definitely add another 1/4 cup more of the flour so that it holds the consistency without becoming overtly crumbly. The other thing that I will do differently is increasing the refrigeration time of the dough. I kept it in the fridge for an hour before popping it into the oven but I think I would easily increase it by another hour or two so the butter doesn't start melting the minute I start patting out the cookies on the sheet before popping it into the oven. It was a pretty hot day to boot.
These cookies are currently my daily dose of "that sweet something".

Eggless Peanut Butter Cookies

Source : Simply Recipes
Servings: 10 2-inch cookies
Prep Time: 15 mins Cook Time: 15 mins

Ingredients 

1 1/4 cup Whole Wheat pastry flour
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup Oil
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

Instructions 

1. Mix together the dry ingredients 
2. Mix the flour, salt, baking soda and baking powder and keep aside.
3. After the butter becomes soft to the touch on the counter top, beat it for a couple of minutes and then add the sugar and continue to beat for another two minutes. I used the electric beater to mix the dough but can be easily done by hand.
4. Mix in the oil and the peanut butter.
5. Add in the dry ingredient mix and mix till combined to form dough
6. Wrap the dough in cling wrap or put it in a covered bowl and refridgerate for an hour or more.
7. Preheat the oven to 375 F 
8. Pinch off 1 inch dough balls and flatten slightly on the cookie sheet using the prongs of a fork
9. Place cookies atleast 2 inches apart (yes they spread a lot) and bake at 375 F for 10 minutes.
10. Remove from oven and cool on the sheet for a minute and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. 
11. Spreading a newspaper below the wire rack catches all the falling crumbs while cooling making cleaning easier. 

Rainbow Cupcakes (Eggless)

I am waiting for Spring. There is no better way to show it than these colorful cupcakes that I baked. I do not use artificial colours in the food I make and had no desire to use them in my baking. I had a basic idea of using natural foods to colour such as strawberry for red and blueberry for blue. So I scoured the internet to find a way to make more colours. I finally settled on carrots for orange, spinach for green, strawberry for red and blueberries for blue. These ingredients when juiced and added to the batter would impart the respective colours to the batter but not so much flavour as the quantity they are used in is very less. So the cake is going to taste like cake. I must tell you that the colours are not going to be neon bright when you use natural foods. They are going to be pastel shades but that is what I really like. My daughter loved the muted colour combinations as well and I had to fend her off in order to take pictures first. At this juncture I must say that she is the most encouraging person in my life and the enthusiasm is rubbing off on the hubby these days. He is open to being the guinea pig more often than not!

I used a basic vanilla cupcake recipe that I have made before. The only difference is to reduce milk by 2 tbsp so that 2 tbsp of different coloured juices can be added to the batter later.

Rainbow Cupcakes

Servings: 10 regular sized cupcakes
Prep Time:  45 mins  Cook Time: 18 mins

Ingredients 

Basic Vanilla cupcake batter (minus 2 tbsp milk)

To make coloured batter

1 cup grated Carrot
1 cup Spinach (I used Fresh)
1 cup Strawberries Fresh/Frozen (I used Fresh)
1 cup Blueberries Fresh/Frozen (I used Frozen)

Instructions 

Making the colours

Orange Colour

Juice the grated carrot with 1 tbsp of water. I used a regular Indian mixer to do this.
Strain the carrot juice to get the fibrous part out.
Keep 2 tbsp of orange juice aside.
Green Colour
Juice the spinach leaves with 1 tbsp of water
Strain the spinach juice.
Keep 2 tbsp of green juice aside.
Red/Pink Colour
Juice the strawberries with 1 tbsp of water
Keep 2 tbsp of red/pink juice aside.
Blue Colour

Place frozen blueberries in a microwave safe bowl and microwave in 30 second intervals till the blueberries burst and the juice starts oozing out. It took me 3 intervals.
Allow it to cool.

Strain the blueberries juice.
Keep 2 tbsp of blue juice aside.

Putting it all together

1. Divide the basic Vanilla cupcake batter into 5 cups. I scooped out 4 heaped tsps per cup. 
2. To the batter in the first cup add 1 tbsp of carrot juice and mix well to get orange coloured batter.
3. To the batter in the second cup add 1 tbsp of spinach juice and mix well to get green coloured batter.
4. To the batter in the third cup add 1 tbsp of strawberry juice and mix well to get pink coloured batter.
5. To the batter in the fourth cup add 1 tbsp of blueberry juice and mix well to get blue coloured batter.
6. Keep the batter in the fifth cup uncoloured. This can be used to improve consistency in the other batters or to get a cream layer in the cupcake. 
7. Add more juice to improve colour adjusting the consistency so that it doesnt become watery. 
8. There are  many ways of making the cupcakes clourful. 
9. Preheat the oven to 350°F
10. The easiest method is to layer different coloured batters one on top of the other in the cupcake liner.
11. Alternatively place separators in the paper liner and pour different coloured batters in each section. 
12. I started out making the separators using card. I made a 4 section one and a 3 section like that. But I found it problematic because the batters bled into other sections easily.
13. Then the hubby gave an idea which turned out to be brilliant. Use crackers/biscuits as dividers. I had Parle-G gluco biscuits on hand and used them. I got 2 sections and 4 section ones using this method. 
14. Whatever the method fill the liners to 3/4 full and bake at 350°F for 18 minutes. 
15. Cool the cupcakes in the pan for 5 minutes before removing them onto a wire rack and allowing them to cool completely. 
16. Decorate with frosting or ganache as desired. The cupcakes turned out so wonderfully coloured that I did not want to cover that up at all.

Update 8th Apr 2013 - Submitted this recipe as a celebration of everything colour to a contest hosted by Manjula for creative desserts for Holi/Easter. I won! ;)

Eggless Vanilla Cupcakes with Chocolate Ganache

 

Cupcakes are an all time favourite. What could get better than them? Yes, mini cupcakes! These bite sized wonders are easy on the eye and in the mouth.

That day my whole intention of baking cupcakes was to frost them. I wanted to get it right this time after a huge flop show the previous weekend.

I had made a pineapple cake and had attempted to make frosting at home. The catch was that I was planning to make cream frosting without an electric beater. I did my youtube and google searches and found enough encouragement there to fulfil my desire to make frosting from scratch without the beater. It turned out to be a 2 hour high voltage drama. I must have given off sparks by the end of it going by the amount of focus and friction the whole act of beating by hand was producing! Although I dint lose hope by the end of the first hour when the liquid that I was beating steadfastedly remained in the same state, I threw the whisk into the sink by the end of the second one. Then I hit upon a brilliant idea of running it through my mixer and that resulted in churning the cream and butter back to nice butter. I did frost my cake with this buttery something and we did scrape it all (2 layers) off before eating the cake. Thus bringing to an end a saga that I am not about to repeat. And then I wrote to Sin-a-mon's Monika and she gave me the idea of making ganache.

Ganache has been an awesome discovery. I am going to experiment with different types of chocolate and post all about it here but my maiden attempt was with semi sweet chocolate chips and the heavy cream I had left over from my previously ghastly trial. I used the simple recipe from here.It gives a good idea on how one could use ganache to decorate cupcakes. And there are three different types - Glazing, Whipping and Piping. I did not want to Glaze since my family wouldnt like it so sweet. Whipping was out of question without an electric beater. So piping it was.This was my second time trying to pipe and the first time I did was just a whirl.


Getting back to the cupcakes on hand, this recipe is an absolute keeper. It is eggless and uses oil instead of butter. The texture of the cupcakes are dreamy soft and so delicate. It is easy to put together and with the right pictures it is easy to remember how to make them as well. I have had my share of tighter cupcakes or sunken ones, but this time I have got it right with the measurements mentioned. These cupcakes can be eaten without any frosting and would still taste great. Alternatively, a sprinkling of nuts on top or mixed inside would render a crunchy good flavour. Any kind of frosting would taste good on such a basic cupcake so its a base for creativity. I brought it with me for a party and got extremely encouraging feedback from the crowd that had gathered there. Many could not believe that it was eggless.

 

 

Eggless Vanilla Cupcakes with Chocolate Ganache

Servings: 24 Mini Cupcakes or 10-12 Cupcakes
Prep Time: 15 mins     Cook Time: 10-18 mins

Ingredients

1 1/4 cup All Purpose Flour
1 tsp Baking powder

1/4 tsp Baking soda
pinch of Salt
3/4 cup granulated Sugar
1 cup Milk
1/3 cup Oil
1 tbsp White Vinegar
1/2 tsp Vanilla extract
Nuts to garnish on top (Optional)

Basic Chocolate Ganache

12 oz Semi-sweet chocolate chips (1 bag of Nestle's)
1 cup Heavy Cream

Instructions

1. Prehaet the oven to 350.
2. Line cupcake tray with paper liners and keep aside.
3. Stir together milk and vinegar and set aside for 5 minutes. The milk should be curdled by the end of it.
4. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt and set aside.
5. Once milk is curdled, whisk oil, vanilla extract and sugar into it till well combined and runny.
6. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour the wet ingredients into it. Mix till smooth. Do not overmix. A little lumpy is fine as long as everything is mixed well.
7. Fill into cupcake liner till 3/4 full.
8. Sprinkle nuts on top if desired.
9. If making mini cupcakes, bake for 10 minutes. If regular sized cupcakes then bake for 16-18 minutes. A skewer inserted into the cupcake should come out clean and that tells you they are done.
10. Remove from oven and cool in pan for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack and allowing it to cook completely.

Decorating the cupcake with Ganache

1. Cool the ganache for atleast an hour in the fridge for it to thicken to piping consistency.
2. Fill a piping bag with the ganache and press down towards the nozzle so that air gaps are eliminated. This aids piping to flow out seamlessly.
3. I used a small round tip (not familiar with the nomenclature) and made my own twirly whirly designs by squeezing on the piping bag with my left hand and guiding the tip with my right hand.