Beet and Chocolate Brownies

Remember the Groovy Gourmets I told you about a couple of months back ? Every month, we make something based on the selected theme. Made the grape focaccia, vegan coffee panna cotta for this earlier. Well, I missed out the last two months of posting, but am back now. This week's theme was brownies, with a twist, not just the regular chocolate ones.



I've read a lot about beet and chocolate cakes and though I was a bit apprehensive, I wanted to try brownies with beet puree. We love beets at home and cook quite a bit with it, but beets in something sweet was really something new.
The colour was a pretty dark pink and the taste was really good. I added a bit of butterscotch chips and some almond flour and this gave it a really nice texture.

If you like the idea of sneaking in some veggies in your brownies, give this a try. It isn't easy to figure out the beet in this, lesser calories than a regular brownie and tastes yum !

Beet and Chocolate Brownies

What you need -

3/4 cup APF / maida
2 tsps ground almond flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
2 cooked beets
1/2 cup grated dark chocolate
2 tbsp butter (at room temperature)
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup butterscotch chips
a pinch of salt

What you do with it -

Line an 8" square pan with baking sheet / butter paper. Allow the sides of the paper to fall over the edges, makes it easier to remove the brownies later
Grease the baking sheet / butter paper
Pre heat the oven at 180 C
Sift the flour, salt and baking powder. Add the almond flour to this and keep aside
Heat the grated chocolate in microwave safe bowl, in 15 second intervals
Peel the cooked beets and make a puree
To this puree, add the butter, melted chocolate and sugar and whisk till the sugar is dissolved completely
Add the butterscotch chips to the flour and then add the flour to the beet puree
Add the batter to the pan and bake for about 35 mins
Cool, pull the paper up from the edges
Cut into 1.5" squares
Sprinkle with icing sugar if you like

Corn stuffed bread rolls

Ever since I saw this stuffed bread roll on Sara's Bake tales, I was itching to bake it. The recipe looked simple enough and I decided that a simple filling of corn, tomatoes and capsicum would work really well with this



Since it was really hot in Ahmedabad, it hardly took any time for the dough to rise. I had left it by the light that streaked into through the glass windows of my balcony. When I went back to check on this, there were ants all over the bowl. Summer is a difficult time, dealing with the heat and these ants. They had gone right through the dough. Its just so frustrating when you are waiting to try something out and then something as silly as this happens !



I just had to bake this and eat it that day, so I dumped the entire dough in the bin and started all over again. Since it was close to 5 in the evening, I was a little worried about the dough rising again, but it all worked out fine. I made two 8" size rolls with this dough and really enjoyed it

Sending this to Susan's Yeastspotting

Corn stuffed bread rolls
Adapted from Sara's Baketales

What you need -

For the dough

1 cup (250gm) flour / maida
1.5 tsp instant yeast
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
2 teaspoons sugar
2 tbsp olive oil
1/2 -3/4 cup lukewarm water
1 tbsp butter for brushing over the loaf

For the filling

1 cup corn kernels
1/2 cup chopped capsicum
1 medium sized tomato
1 small onion
3 tbsp grated cheese
1/2 tsp crushed pepper
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp oregano / Italian seasoning
1/4 tsp chilli flakes
2 tbsp olive oil

What you do with it -

Take the flour in a large bowl
In a bowl of water water (1/2 cup), sprinkle the yeast, salt, sugar and a spoon of olive oil
If using dry yeast granules, wait for it to froth up a little and then pour over the flour
With instant yeast, you can add it to the flour immediately
Knead the dough, adding little more water, only if required
Make the dough in a large ball and add the remaining olive oil
Place in a greased bowl and cover with cling film or a thin cloth
Keep aside for about 456 to 2 hours depending on how warm it is
Get the filling ready while the dough is rising
Heat a tsp of olive oil in a pan
Add the onions and capsicum pieces
Stir on high heat for 2-3 mins and then add the corn kernels
Once the corn is slightly cooked, add the tomatoes and all the seasoning, salt and pepper
Keep aside and allow it to cool
Once the dough has doubled in size, punch it down and knead for 2-3 mions on a floor dusted area
Roll into a 10"x 8" rectangle, sprinkle a little olive oil over it
Sprinkle the filling evenly over the top, about an inch away from the sides and then roll it up gently, using both your hands
Fold in the edges under the roll and roll it on the surface to smoothen out the edges, as evenly as possible
Make a few narrow gashes on the roll with a sharp knife
Place it on a greased baking sheet and allow it to rise for another 15-20 mins
Pre heat the oven at 180 C for about 10 mins
Bake at 180 C for 15-20 mins
Once its done, brush with a little butter and wait for it to cool slightly before you cut it

Orange and Banana muffins (no eggs)

Generally when I am cooking our daily meals, I don't really think too much and almost work on auto-pilot. The vegetables from the fridge, the onions and potatoes from the baskets, the masala powders and the indispensable set of spices. Thanks to my son's early morning school, I can now make rotis at 5.30am, when I am barely even awake.
But when it comes to baking, I am a little more careful, after the few disasters I've had. I prefer to follow a recipe, at least for the measurements, though I still don't have kitchen scales.



This time around, I decided to make these muffins with the oranges and the lone banana lying around in the fruit bowl. I like the idea of adding fruit purées and juices in cakes and muffins. They add a lot to the flavour and softness and its fun to try these with different seasonal fruits. Puréed banana with a little baking soda works as a perfect substitute for eggs in muffins



My friend and her kids were to come over and I had half an hour on hand, so I just grabbed the ingredients and made these real quick, without really referring to any recipe this time. Was really happy with the way they turned out. I guess I have finally the hang of baking without reading thru each line of the recipe every time !
Co-incidentally my friend brought along orange muffins too, hers had some ginger and chocolate grated into it, which was a delicious combination

Egg-free Orange and Banana muffins

What you need-

3/4 cup wheat flour
3/4 cup APF / maida
1/2 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
1 banana
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup sugar (I used powdered sugar this time)
5-6 almonds cut into pieces
1/2 cup butter (Can use oil instead)
1/4 cup milk

What you do with it -

Pre-heat the oven to about 180 C (convection microwave) or 160 C (OTG)
Mix the flours, baking powder and baking soda in a bowl
The butter should be soft enough. Add this to the sugar and beat till the sugar has completely mixed in
Run the banana and about 2 tbsp of milk thru a blender / mixie
Add the orange juice and the pureed banana to the butter
Beat well and combine the dry ingredients into the this, mixing it in gently(a wooden or silicone spatula works best)
Add more milk if the batter is too dry
Line the muffin tray with paper holders
Spoon in the batter upto 3/4th level of the holder
Top it with some chopped almonds
Bake for 10-12 mins (May take upto 15 mins in the microwave convection mode)
Allow it to cool and then remove the muffins from the tray

Vegan banana bread

Vegan baking is something I discovered only after I started this blog. I knew what being vegan was all about and I knew that with Indian food, especially South Indian cooking, its easy to be vegan - we really don't use so much dairy in everyday cooking, but I really felt that people who turned vegan missed out a whole lot on baked goodies. Can't believe how wrong I was ! Vaishali's Holy cow has a whole lot for those of you interested in vegan baking.
I am not vegan and this bread happens to be vegan only because I ran out of butter.



In India, where you don't really get egg replacers or the various other options for dairy replacements, I really didn't imagine baking without it. Its just that if we open our minds a bit, and make a few conscious decisions, we can actually allow change. Not that I see myself turning vegan, but I am happy that I actually have baked cakes, brownies and cookies without eggs, which again is something I had never imagined. This happened after I moved here and found that most people I know do not eat eggs because of their religious beliefs and that opened out a whole new world of egg free baking, using various substitutes
This is also my first time using flax seeds as an egg substitute

The bread was a bit dense with the wheat and oatmeal, but it felt so healthy and made for a great breakfast. I didn't want it too sweet either, I like the natural sweetness from the bananas. My son enjoyed it with milk after his swimming classes.

What you need -

1/2 cup wheat flour
1/2 cup powdered oats
1 cup APF / maida
1/4 cup oil
1/2 cup sugar
a pinch of salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon powder
1 tablespoon flax seed powder + 3 tablespoons water
3 ripe / over ripe bananas
1/2 cup raisins
1 tbsp flax seeds
1 tbsp sunflower seeds
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda

What you do with it -

Mix the wheat flour, powdered oats, maida, cinnamon and salt in a large bowl. Add the baking soda and baking powder and stir well
Grind the bananas and sugar to form a banana puree
Blend the flaxseed powder along with water till it feels creamy. Add the mashed bananas and oil to this
Add the flour to this, stirring to incorporate all the flour. The batter will be thick, but if it is too dry, add 2-3 tbsp of warm water
Add the raisins and flax seeds
Pre-heat an oven to 170 C
Grease a loaf pan and pour in the batter. Sprinkle sunflower seeds over the batter
Bake for about 50 mins and check by inserting a toothpick in the centre of the loaf. If it comes out clean, your loaf is done
Cool on a rack for about 10 minutes and then unmould carefully from the loaf pan. Cut into thick slices. Tastes wonderful when its warm

Orange Marmalade Cupcakes

I wasn't sure if I should title this post as Cupcakes or Muffins. When I was a little kid, I only knew of cupcakes - we got these cupcakes in a pack of six, in our local bakeries and I don't think even they had heard the term muffins. When I read Enid Blyton's books, they always had a grandma making scones, cupcakes and tea...

It was only when the more fancy looking cafes and bakeries opened in Bangalore, that I heard of, saw and tasted muffins. They looked like oversized and slightly dense cupcakes. I liked them and didn't worry so much about what it was called.
Today, I tried looking up for differences between cupcakes and muffins, and saw some informational and some funny comments on this post here on the Cupcake Project Check it out...



There was this one comment that said "If you throw a cupcake against a wall it will make a 'POOF' sound. However, if you did the same with a muffin it would make more of a 'THUD' sound"
There was no way I was going to throw mine against a wall, but I am pretty sure, going by how soft these were, there would be no 'THUD' ! So, here are my orange marmalade cupcakes...



I had this bottle of locally made orange marmalade sitting in my fridge, for a couple of months now, the sugar in it had crystallized and it just didn't look that appetizing any more. There was no way I would let it go waste and decided to use it in cupcakes

When I bake, I am still very apprehensive about experimenting, I always stick to a recipe. This time around I read a lot of recipes, but wanted to keep these eggless, so did my substitutions of banana, baking soda and curds and it turned out really soft and 'poofy'. They had a beautiful flavour of the marmalade and the banana wasn't overpowering it. If you don't like bananas, you can use apple instead, actually any fruit puree should work...

"When your wife is younger, you called her cupcake. When she is older with a double chin, you call her muffin"

Orange Marmalade Cupcakes
This makes 12 cupcakes

What you need -

1.5 cups APF / maida
3-4 tbsp orange marmalade
1 banana
3/4 cup plain yoghurt / curd
1.5 tbsp sugar
3 tbsp oil (I used safflower)
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda

What you do with it -

In a bowl, mix the maida, baking powder and baking soda and set aside
Blend the banana with the curd to a smooth paste and transfer to a large bowl
Add the oil and milk to the banana mixture
Add the marmalade to this and mix well
Stir the maida into the large bowl and mix
Check to taste the sweetness. Mine needed a slight sweetness, so I added 1.5 tbsp sugar. You may need more or less depending on how sweet you like it
Pre-heat the oven to 180 deg C
Line a muffin pan with the paper cups and grease the paper cups
Pour in the batter to 3/4th of the level
Bake at 180 deg C for 20 mins or till done
Cool for 5 mins and then enjoy the cupcakes with a cup of tea

Eggless Oat Wheat Strawberry Loaf

I love the idea of baking bread at home and have baked a few times, though not as often as I'd like to. My friend would, co-incidentally, always come over the day I had baked bread and she thought I did this on a daily basis !
Ever since she had this multigrain bread at my place, she's been insisting that I show her how to bake bread with yeast, since she was nervous to do it on her own.

Our bread baking plans went kaput a few times and then finally last week, we actually got down to it. While the dough was rising beautifully, we decided not to waste time and baked a strawberry loaf meanwhile !



I checked for a few recipes and then zeroed in on this one from Priya's blog It turned out really soft and had a wonderful flavour of the strawberries

We did bake the bread too, a garlic and herb focaccia, which was really good. We gobbled it down before I could get down to taking any pictures !

I made this strawberry loaf again when a friend from Delhi was visiting, and this time I used oats and wheat flour. It wasn't as soft as the one with APF, but it wasn't dense either. It tasted really nice with the strawberry puree and the little bits of strawberry in the loaf, that burst with flavour...

What you need -

2 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup oat meal (quick cooking oats powdered in the blender)
(Or use 1.5 cups whole wheat flour and 1.5 cups APF/maida)
1 cup granulated sugar
a pinch of salt
1/2 cup oil (I used safflower)
3 tbsp plain yoghurt
10-12 strawberries
1 ripe banana
1 tsp baking soda
1 tbsp vinegar


What you do with it -

Remove stalks and wash the strawberries. Cut 4-5 strawberries into small pieces and keep aside
Purée the remaining strawberries with the banana and half cup sugar
In a bowl, add the wheat flour, oatmeal, salt, remaining sugar and baking soda
Preheat the oven to 180 deg C
Grease a loaf pan and line it with a baking sheet. I generally use the baking sheet so that its maintains the shape, comes out easily and lesser cleaning !
Add the oil and yoghurt to the purée. Stir well and then add the vinegar
Add this to the flour in the large bowl and stir gently 4-5 times, till it all comes together
Add the strawberry pieces and stir one more time
Bake for 25-30 mins. Allow to cool slightly before you cut into it
Enjoy it with a cup of tea or coffee

Eggless Butterless Chocolate Cupcakes

My little boy turned six last week and on Saturday, we had a party for him at home. Called about 16 kids, all 6 year olds, mostly boys, some totally destructive ones, others plain naughty !! You can just imagine what my house looked like after that !!



My cousin and another friend were here to help around with the cooking, we decided on making everything at home, including the cake ! My son is a huge fan of Chhota Bheem, an animation TV serial hero, who is 9 years old and super strong !!
We decided on a Chhota Bheem cake, the recipe used for the eggless chocolate cake, is from my previous post and my creative cousin did all the icing to make it really look like Chhota Bheem ! We used chocolate shavings, icing sugar, butter and some almond meal (when we needed to thicken it, for the eyes). Its not a smooth complexion and he looks slightly tanned, but my son loved it, and that's all mattered :)



We also had fries, macaroni in cheese sauce, frooti, sandwiches, steamed and buttered corn and these mini chocolate cupcakes...



I searched around that morning for the recipe and found this here, its a brilliant recipe and came about so easily !

I slathered on some homemade buttercream icing on the cupcakes and then decorated with little sugar animals and some sprinkles...I would have loved to do some really pretty icing, but this was my first attempt with icing, and with kids, I knew I wouldn't be judged on the way the icing looked !!
The cupcakes were really soft and moist, and all this without butter !!

I followed the recipe exactly as she says, so I am not rewriting it here. Please take a look at this link for the cupcake recipe
Thank you so much !!

Eggless Chocolate Cake with Ganache

It felt quite funny to put up this recipe just after an egg curry !! I mean, why would I make an egg curry and then an eggless cake ? Honestly, I really never bothered with making eggless cakes, not till I moved to Ahmedabad. Most people here do not eggs for religious reasons and really, its no fun to make muffins and cakes and not share them, right ?

I got this recipe from my friend here, when I needed to bake an eggless cake for my son's class party at school. If you've always wanted to, but never tried an eggless cake, you should try this, you will not miss the eggs at all...Its really soft, and keeps well for 2-3 days, without refrigeration. I have made this many times now, and this particular one was for my son's friend, for his birthday last week. My son was all excited about decorating it. So I made the ganache and he did all the decorating...



This friend who gave me the recipe is a great cook and comes up with interesting dishes. She has started her own food blog, which I hope will be updated more often !

This is a really simple cake and it tastes awesome...add the ganache and it takes it to another level altogether !!

What you need -

For the cake -

1.5 cups maida / APF
3 tbsp cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup powdered sugar (you can cut down to 3/4 of a cup, if you are using a ganache)
3/4 cup curd / yoghurt
3/4 to 1 cup milk
vanilla essence / extract
6 tbsp melted butter

For the ganache -

6 tbsp cream
10 tbsp grated chocolate (I used Morde dark chocolate)

What you do with it -

Sift the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a bowl and keep aside
Pre-heat the oven to 180 deg C
Beat the butter with the sugar. Add the curd and the vanilla essence and mix well
Then add the dry ingredients, 1/2 cup at a time and the milk and beat till you use up all the flour mix and milk
Grease a baking tin with butter and dust with some flour
Pour the batter into the tin and bake for 30-35 mins at 180 deg C
Once its done, allow it to cool
Heat water in a large pan. In a smaller bowl, add the cream and the chocolate and hold it above the pan, so the small bowl is just immersed in the hot water. Mix the chocolate and cream with a spatula, till it turns to a thick smooth sauce
Once the cake is cooled completely, pour the ganache / chocolate cream sauce over it and ensure it covers the entire cake
Allow it to cool - you can refrigerate for an hour or so
Add decorations or eat as is :)

Eggless Banana Bread

I buy bananas almost every other week, mainly for my son - its a big energy boost and that sees him thru his non-stop activities thru the day
Unfortunately, I always land up with one or two overripe ones and nobody in the house will touch these bananas if they have more than a few black specks showing up, so I am always on the lookout for some interesting recipes using bananas
Have tried the muffins many times over, so this time went in for the banana bread that I saw on the RedChillies blog...



The bread was moist and tasted really good, not overly sweet and did not have the banana overpowering the taste...

Recipe Source - Redchillies.us

Followed the recipe except for a few changes, my version here...

What you need -

3/4 cup maida / APF
3/4 cup wheat flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup brown sugar
3 ripe bananas
1/3 cup milk
4 tbsp unsalted butter
1/4 tsp cinnamon powder
1/4 cup raisins
1 tbsp almond paste (6 almonds, soaked in hot water, peeled and ground to a paste)

What you do with it -

Preheat the oven to 180 deg C
Mix the maida, wheat flour, baking soda, sugar and salt in a large bowl
In a blender make a paste of bananas along with milk
Add the banana mixture and almond paste into the mixing bowl with the dry ingredients
Add the butter and the cinnamon powder and mix well
Add the raisins to this mixture
Grease a loaf pan and pour the batter into it
Bake for 45 minutes at 180 deg C
Cut into thick slices and enjoy with your coffee, tea or milk !

Eggles Oatmeal Chocolate chip Cookies

Last weekend, I was itching to bake, tried these pesto rolls from Shaheen's blog, they looked pretty, but I had messed up on the yeast and they landed up getting a bit too yeasty had to just throw those beauties :(

Disheartened, yes, but the itch to bake was still on, so made a batch of cookies from this recipe here



Refrigerated the remaining batter and then baked the next lot 2 days later
Simple recipe, crunchy cookies, with lots of chocolate chips
My son loved them and when we set up to take these pics, he came up with his story books and toys and more toys, which is when the cookies almost fell off and we took more pics of him with his toys...He loves to pose and has a special pose and smile everytime the camera is out !

Eggless Oat Chocolate chip cookies

Adapted from Allrecipes.com

What you need (For about 30 cookies)

1 cup unsalted butter
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1.5 cups APF / maida
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup boiling water
2 cups quick cooking oats (I used Quakers)
1.5 cups chocolate chips

What you do with it -

Beat the butter, sugars and vanilla until light and fluffy
Add flour and salt, mix well
Dissolve baking soda in boiling water and add to mixture
Stir in the oats and chocolate chips.
Scoop the batter with an ice-cream scoop and drop on the cookie sheet
Bake at 180degrees C for 12-15 minutes
Allow it cool before you take it off the sheet
Some turned a bit soft, so I put them back in for 2 more mins at 180 deg C
My son enjoyed it with his milk and his favourite stories

Eggless Banana Almond Muffins

What did I do with over ripe bananas before I started this blog ? I threw them away...
What do I do after I started this blog ? I make banana muffins !!

I make butter at home now and almost always make muffins when I have butter on hand, I use the butter milk (from churning out the butter) to make scones.
Starting this blog has helped me discover the use of a whole lot of new ingredients and made me appreciate what I can make with what I have on hand...



My son loves muffins and every time he sees bananas going black, he asks me if we are making muffins !
I have this icing set that I got a while back, but havent really used it...He calls it the injection for cakes and has been pestering me to use it...thats the next project on hand !

These are fairly simple ones that I have made something similar earlier, with oats. This time, I used only maida / AP flour. Add chopped almonds for the crunch and a little powdered cardamom for flavour...
Used this recipe from Nithya's beautiful blog, with a few changes...

What you need -

4 ripe bananas
1.5 cups maida / AP flour
8-10 almonds chopped
a pinch of powdered cardamom
3/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup white butter
pinch of salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

What you do with it -

Mash the bananas
Beat the butter and sugar in a bowl till they combine well
Add the vanilla extract and mashed bananas to the butter
Combine the baking powder, baking soda and powdered cardamom with the flour
Pre-heat the oven to 190 deg C
Gently fold in the wet ingredients with the dry ones
Add chopped almonds and mix once more
Grease the muffins pans or use the paper liners
Fill in the batter upto 3/4th level in the moulds or liners
Bake for about 20-25 mins
Enjoy with some hot tea

Eggless Oat Banana Walnut Muffins

I've made muffins a number of times since this first attempt of mine...Its simple, quick, tasty and a big hit with kids. I've tried various combination based on what I had on hand - with eggs, eggless, with fruits, chocolate, oats, wheat and thankfully, so far, its always turned out quite successful !



These banana muffins turned out really awesome and I managed to take a picture before it was all devoured...

The milk we get here, from Amul, is really rich and I collect all the cream and make butter at home..I simply love the white butter with parathas and dosas and everytime I make butter, I make muffins ! This one is with oats and bananas. Turned out soft and yum !

I pretty much followed the recipes from Mytheyee's blog Paajaka, but substituted AP flour with oat flour, added some ground cinnamon and increased the quantity a wee bit
This made about 15 muffins

Here's the recipe...

What you need -

5 ripe bananas
2 cups oat flour (I used quakers oats and put it thru the blender)
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1/2 - 3/4 cup powdered sugar (depending on how sweet the bananas are)
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup walnuts

What you do with it -

Keep the butter out for at least 15 mins before you use it
Chop the walnuts into little pieces
Line a muffin pan with the cups
Mash the bananas. I used a potato masher and the bananas were ripe, so they turned into a nice puree
Add the butter and sugar to the bananas
Pre heat the oven to 200 C
In a bowl, add the oats flour, baking powder and baking soda
Add the cinnamon powder and mix with a spoon or rubber spatula
Add this four to the banana and stir in well using the spatula
Stir in half the walnuts
Top the muffins with the remaining walnuts
Bake for 20-25 mins

The muffins turn out real soft and was soft even after I kept it out for 3 days
Reheat in the oven if needed

Eggless Banana Walnut Bread

I am really not an oats person, but I do push S to have it - he needs a power breakfast, with his erratic lunch timings and with the cholesterol levels reaching the not-so-good highs, this was a good option and thankfully, he didnt complain that much !

When I saw the lovely oats dosas at Usha's blog, I knew there was a much better way to get our quota of dietery fibre !

My first attempt with oatmeal was this banana walnut oatmeal bread, which I adapted from Usha's Eggless Cardamom Flavoured Banana Oat Wheat Bread with a few modifications.
It had most of what I added in his oats - bananas, cinnamon and milk and looked way better, and S was not complaining at all !!

It turned out really moist and soft



A slice of healthy goodness...



What you need -

1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup oat flour (I used Quackers quick cooking oats and processed it in the blender)
1 tsp baking powder
a pinch of salt
1 tsp cinnamon powder
2 really ripe bananas
1 apple
1/3 cup milk
1/3 cup brown sugar
2 tbsp butter
1/2 cup walnut pieces

What you do with it -

Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl and set aside
Peel and grate the apple
Puree the bananas to a smooth paste with milk in a blender
Add the banana puree and apple to the flour mix
Add sugar and butter to this and mix well
Pre heat the oven to 200 deg C
Grease a baking dish with a little butter
Pour in the batter and bake for about 30 mins (or till done)

Eggless date cake with whole wheat flour

Its amazing how little kids can be the starting point to broaden your social life, or even begin on one, especially when you move to a new place.

Once we moved to Ahmedabad, after being in Bangalore for almost all my life, I realised how difficult it is to find people you can talk to / hang out with when you are thrown into a new place. Since I am working from home, and really dont know anyone around here, my only opportunity to really meet people is at my son's school.
Thankfully, the school my son studies at, has a lot of parent interaction and this is where I got to know this real nice person whose daughter is my son's "best friend". After a few play dates, we were invited to their place for dinner over a weekend.
Since it was all thanks to our kids, I baked a cake to take along.

My aunt who is a fabulous cook had given me this recipe long back which I had sincerely jotted down (and actually found it - this was my lucky day!)



Updated the picture and the recipe, using oil instead of butter

What you need -

15-20 dates
2 cups maida / 2 cups wheat flour / 1 cup maida (APF) and 1 cup wheat flour
1 cup milk
1 cup butter / cream or 3/4 cup oil (I used rice bran oil)
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup chopped walnuts and almonds
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
pinch of salt

What you do with it -

Remove seeds from the dates if you don't get the seedless dates and chop the dates
Warm the milk and dissolve the sugar in it
Soak the dates in this and keep for 30 mins
You could also grind the dates with milk if you like
Then add all other ingredients and mix till forms a thick batter
You can add about 2 tbsp of milk, if it gets too thick
Pre heat the oven to 180 deg C
Grease an 8" square pan or a loaf tin
Pour the batter in and bake at 180 deg C for about 25-30 mins
This may not rise too much, but it turns out nice and moist