TasteI’m not a fan of peanut butter. So far I have tasted only peanut butter cookies and nothing else baked using it. So I was not sure if I would like these peanut butter muffins. Surprisingly enough the flavor of peanut butter was not dominating. It had the perfect blend of chocolate and peanut butter. The sweetness was right for us not as sweet as the store bought muffins. So If you prefer it sweeter add some chocolate chips or increase the quantity of sugar to 1 cup. Since I was making a vegan version I did not add chocolate chips but I don’t regret it at all.

My Notes1 Use dairy/non dairy milk of your choice.

2 As mentioned in the Procedure, either adjust the oven temperature or the baking time to get perfect muffins.

Procedure1 Preheat the oven to 350F. Butter two cookie sheets. I used one extra large cookie sheet I recently purchased from Walmart. It was a dark coated non stick pan. Usually cookies baked on such dark coated sheets turn brown very quickly, so I lined it with parchment paper and then greased it with cooking spray.

2 In a large bowl sift together the flour, baking soda and salt. Stir in the coconut and oats.

3 Melt the butter with the sugar and honey in a small saucepan over medium heat. Remove it from the stove and let it cool for 2 minutes.

4 Pour the melted butter mixture to the dry ingredients and mix well with a spatula.

5 Roll into balls the size of walnuts and place 1 inch apart on the baking sheet and flatten it slightly with a fork.

6 Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until golden brown. If using 2 cookie sheets, shift racks halfway through the baking to ensure even browning. Mine turned golden brown after 13 minutes itself. I think it’s because of the dark coated cookie sheet.

7 Let the cookies cool on the sheets until they firm slightly. Then using a spatula carefully lift the cookies and transfer it to a cooling rack to cool completely.

Taste These coconut cookies were very sweet. Initially it was crisp around the edges and chewy in the center. After 2-3 days, it started getting soft around the edges too. It also smells very buttery when consumed immediately. We did like the taste and I will make it again but will definitely do something to reduce the sweetness. My son liked it very much, but my husband did not like it in the beginning. He started liking it after 4 days when it was more chewy.

My Notes1 The recipe did not mention whether to use sweetened or unsweetened coconut. I had the sweetened one, so I used it. I think if I had used the unsweetened variety the sweetness of the cookies would have been perfect for us.

2 Light corn syrup was mentioned in the recipe. I had that in hand, but I anticipated that some of you might ask what can be substituted for it. So I used honey. I think either omitting this or reducing the quantity of sugar to 1/2 cup will also work if you want less sweeter cookies.

3 These coconut cookies spread a lot, so be sure to leave enough space while placing the dough on the baking sheets.

Procedure1 In a large mixing bowl sift all the dry ingredients except oats and sugar. Stir in the oats.

2 Take out the butter from the refrigerator, cut up into small pieces and add it to the flour mixture. Using a pastry blender further cut the butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. If you don’t have a pastry blender you can do this with your fingers or fork too, but it’s more work.

3 Stir in the sugar and add milk little by little to form a soft dough. Knead until smooth.

4 Press the dough into disk, wrap in plastic wrap and leave it in the fridge for 30 minutes. Set the kitchen timer for 15 minutes. When the timer goes off start preheating the oven at 375F for 15 minutes. So by the time the oven preheats it will be 30 minutes and you can start working on the cookie dough. Also butter 2 cookie sheets.

5 Lightly flour the surface. Roll out the dough into 1/4 inch thickness. Use a cookie cutter to cut out the cookies. Gather the dough scraps, re-roll and continue the same procedure until all the dough is used.

6 The cookies tend to stick to the floor, so use a spatula to lift and transfer the cookies to the baking sheets. Place them 1 inch apart. Prick all over with a fork.

7 The baking time depends on the thickness of the cookies and the material of the baking sheet. Note that cookies baked on a dark colored non stick baking sheet tend to bake faster and if not alert the bottom will get burnt. My second batch cookies were thinner than the first batch. So the first batch took 13 minutes, while the second batch was done in 10 minutes. Look for golden color cookies. If baking both the batches at the same time, place each baking sheet in individual racks and shift sheets halfway through baking.

8 Leave the cookies in the baking sheet itself for 5 minutes and then transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Taste These digestive cookies taste exactly like sweet chapathi (or what we call chakkara roti in our house). I don’t if everybody makes this chapathi. First you roll out the chapathi dough, apply generous amount of ghee and sprinkle sugar all over, then fold it and apply ghee and sugar on each fold and roll it out once again and then cook it on a hot tava. So these cookies taste exactly like that. If you like the sweet chapathi you will definitely like this one too. Initially you may feel that it is very sweet but once you eat one cookie you will get addicted to the sweetness and will reach out for one more.

As for the texture, it is crispy but not “melt in your mouth” type of crispness but quite similar to a hard candy. After reading hard candy don’t assume that you cannot bite it. It’s definitely chewable and very tasty.

Procedure1 Preheat oven to 350F for 15 minutes. Grease a 8 inch square baking dish. In a small bowl combine the almonds, brown sugar and cinnamon; set aside. The butter can be melted on stove top or microwave oven or even in the oven while it’s preheating.

2 Combine together the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and baking soda in a large bowl.

3 Measure the buttermilk in a liquid measuring cup (or any other bowl). To that add the melted butter, vinegar, extracts and applesauce. Whisk until well blended. If you add the butter while its still hot, the mixture will look curdled, but its okay.

4 Stir the wet ingredients into dry ingredients until just moistened. Fold in 2/3 cup blueberries. If using frozen blueberries, do not thaw before adding to batter, because the color will bleed.

5 Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Top with remaining blueberries. Sprinkle the almond mixture on top. Tap the pan lightly a couple times so that the topped blueberries and almonds sticks to the batter.

6 Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool the pan on a wire rack.

7 Remove the cake from the pan after 10 minutes and transfer the cake directly to the wire rack. The cake is quite light, so you will have to be very careful while tilting the pan. A couple of almonds will fall down.

Taste I have baked a lot in the past one year but this blueberry coffee cake will definitely make it to the Top 5 if I prepare such a list. I’m not exaggerating here but it was unbelievably good. So good that my husband asked for seconds and had it too! This has never happened before. I didn’t have almond extract, I think it would have tasted even better with it.

This cake doesn’t rise much, around 1/2-3/4th inch only. As for the texture, it was very lighty and fluffy, unusual for an egg less cake. I think the vinegar did the trick. The sweetness was perfect, the addition of almonds gave a nice crunch to the cake. The only thing to look for while baking this cake is that it’s very light and has to be handled very carefully while removing from the pan.

My Notes1 The original recipe had mentioned 2/3 cup buttermilk, which is what I did for the first batch and as I have mentioned earlier, the cake was so fluffy that I felt that it would fall apart while removing from the pan. I had to be very careful. So while preparing the next batch (yes we liked it so much that I baked it again the next day to share it with my new friends here) I reduced the quantity of buttermilk to 1/2 cup and this time it was quite manageable.

The cake is very light (just like a cake with eggs) when kept at room temperature. It hardens up a little when stored in the refrigerator. So I was thinking that the next time I bake it, I would cool it in the fridge itself, so that removing it from the pan will be easy.

2 If you leave the cake in the pan itself for much longer time, the bottom of the cake will become soggy from the heat and the condensation. It happened to my first batch and I had to blot it with paper towel.

3 I think this recipe without the blueberries would make a perfect eggless white cake.

Procedure1 Preheat oven to 400F. Line baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.

2 Heat oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add the bell peppers, salt and Garam Masala powder; cook until tender. Set aside.

3 In a large mixing bowl, sift together the flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt and chili powder. Add the cooked peppers.

4 Then add yogurt, milk green onions and cilantro; stir to from sticky dough.

5 Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls onto prepared baking sheet. Spray tops lightly with non stick cooking spray.

6 Place in oven and reduce heat to 375F immediately. Bake 13-15 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on wire rack.

Taste

As mentioned in the introduction I made a couple of changes to the original scone recipe to add more Indian flavors. So these scones tasted more like soft pakoras or methu pakodas to be precise because it was not crispy. My husband and I liked it but my son did not savor it. Also it tastes better when served warm.

My Notes1 The scones I prepared were quite bland. I think they would have tasted even better had I added more chili powder. So taste the batter before baking and adjust the seasonings accordingly.

Procedure1 Preheat oven to 350F. Grease and flour a 13×9 inch baking pan. Since I used a glass pan, I preheated the oven at 325F.

2 In a large bowl, combine together the flour, granulated sugar, 1/3 cup cocoa and baking powder.

3 Stir in milk and applesauce to the dry ingredients until just moistened.

4 Fold in the cherries and nuts. The cake batter is very thick at this stage.

5 Spoon into the greased pan.

6 Mix the brown sugar, hot water and 1/4 cup cocoa in the same large bowl, until smooth; pour over batter.

7 Bake for 35-40 minutes or until set (cake will have a pudding like texture). Serve warm or at room temperature.

Taste

As the name suggests, this is a pudding cake. There is pudding in the bottom and cake on top. Frankly the three of us did not like it. The chocolate cake alone was very good, especially for a fat free one it was quite tasty, but we did not like the combination of pudding and a cake. First you bite into a firm cake then follows this ooey gooey pudding. To be more specific, it’s kozha kozha (non Tamilians please excuse me. I had to use this word to be very clear at least for Tamilians.) So if you have already tasted a pudding cake and like it you can go ahead and try this low fat version.

But what did we do with such a big cake, when we didn’t like it? That’s when a light bulb flashed and I put the cake (of course with the pan) in the freezer. I thought that it would taste like an ice cream cake and I was right. Yay! Freeze it for a couple of hours and remove it from the freezer and leave it on the kitchen counter for 15-25 minutes before serving, so that the pudding layer would soften up a little bit making it easy to eat (but not ooey gooey at all). Then cut them into slices and enjoy. Refreeze the rest of the cake.

My Notes1 I reduced the quantity of sugar by 1/2 cup and we felt that the sweetness was just right enough. If you have been following my recipes you know by now that we don’t eat very sweet baked stuff. So if you like it sweeter go with the original recipe by adding another 1/4 of white sugar and 1/4 of dark brown sugar.

2 While using a glass baking pan it is suggested to reduce the oven temperature by 25F or to bake 5-10 minutes less than the specified time. I have used a glass baking pan and so baked the cake at 325F. If you are using any other pan set the oven at 350F.

3 While reading the recipe I was not sure if the quantity of baking powder (3 tablespoons) was correct. I proceeded anyhow and was relieved that the cake did not have the after taste of baking powder.

4 Measure the 3 cups of boiling water in a liquid measuring mug. While pouring it over the cake batter it may look like that it’s a lot, but don’t worry the cake will turn out fine.

Procedure1 Preheat oven to 350F. Lightly grease the bread pan.

2 Wash the strawberries, hull them and cut each strawberry into 4 pieces. Place it in a bowl and sprinkle a tablespoon of sugar and mix it and leave it for at least 5 minutes.

3 In a big bowl mix together the yogurt, mango puree, vinegar, sugar, cardamom powder and saffron strands. To this add the cut strawberries.

4 In another small bowl sift together the flour, baking soda and salt. Actually I placed the sieve over the big bowl and added the dry ingredients directly into the wet mixture. Mix it until just moistened.

5 Fill the bread loaves 3/4th full and bake it for about 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Mine was done in 19 minutes.

6 Remove the pan from the oven and place it on a wire rack and cool for 5 minutes. Take out the bread from the pan after 5 minutes and let it cool on the wire rack. This is very important. I left the bread in the pan itself for more than 30 minutes and the bottom became soggy.

Taste

I can swear that it did not taste “healthy or fat free”. It tasted like any other regular quick bread, but I don’t know why my son did not like it. My husband liked that it was fat free but he did not like the saffron/cardamom combination that much. The bread was soft and spongy inside, which is because of the vinegar I think. It was not a very sweet bread, which is perfect for me. You may want to add another 1-2 tablespoons of sugar if you want it sweeter.

As for the texture, it was a bit soggy (see Procedure point no.6 and Notes point no.1). So I kept it on two sheets of paper towel and stored it covered in the fridge overnight and it was good in the morning. With minor alterations this recipe will yield perfect mango quick bread. Check my Notes for further details.

One more observation, if you are looking for a mango bread recipe with lot of mango flavor, I think it’s ideal to omit cardamom powder, saffron and use either vanilla extract or mango extract or a combination of both, or maybe use puree made from fresh mangoes. The recipe I have mentioned did not have the mango flavor. I think the cardamom overpowered the mango’s flavor. The brand of mango puree can also be a reason, I guess, because I used a brand which I have never used before. I think it’s better to use the Kesar Mango puree. And of course, using chopped mangoes instead of the strawberries I have used will also add to the mango “ness”.

My Notes1 I wanted to substitute the mango puree for the oil used in the original recipe, which is 1/4 cup, but I wanted to increase the mango flavor and added another 1/4 cup, so that’s one of the reason for sogginess. 1/2 cup is 8 tablespoons, that’s why I have reduced it to 6 tablespoons in the ingredients list.

2 Increase the quantity of sugar by 2-3 tablespoons if you go with 6 tablespoons of mango puree. Since the mango puree has sugar I had used only 1/4 cup sugar in place of the 1/2 cup mentioned in the original recipe. So if you reduce the quantity of mango puree, you may want to increase the quantity of sugar.

3 I think this measurement will yield about 8-9 regular size muffins and you will have to double the measurement to prepare a regular size quick bread. Sweatha has baked the muffins at 375F.

4 Mango lassi is a combination of mango, yogurt and sugar. So you know what to do if you have a cup of leftover mango lassi! Make this wonderful moist mango bread.

Procedure1 Preheat oven to 350F/180C. Line the muffin tins with cupcake liners.

2 In a large bowl sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. Stir in the sugar.

3 Add all the remaining ingredients and beat until you have a smooth, liquid batter.

4 Using a ladle, pour the batter 3/4ths full. Approximately 3 tablespoons of batter for large cupcakes and 1 and 1/2 tablespoon of batter for the mini cupcakes.

5 Bake until risen and firm to touch. Approximately 12-13 minutes for the mini cupcakes and 15-16 minutes for the large.

6 Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Frosting

Frosting is optional. I did not frost the entire batch. Made a very small batch of chocolate ganache using 1/4 cup mini chocolate chip cookies and 2 tablespoons milk. Heat the milk, don’t let it boil. Add the warm milk little by little until the chocolate chips melt and is very smooth. The chocolate chips did not melt enough. So I heated some water in a saucepan and place the bowl of chips on the saucepan and kept stirring it with a whisk and it melted from the heat in no time. If you add excess milk, keep the frosting in the fridge until you get the correct consistency to frost the cupcakes.

Taste

I was pleasantly surprised with the good taste of these vegan cupcakes. Earlier I have baked something similar and it was literally awful and I had to throw the cake. The other recipe used more oil, soy milk instead of water and white vinegar. The soy milk gave a sticky texture, the use of vinegar was very obvious. So I was relieved to see a recipe with just 2 tablespoons of oil and water. That’s why I went with apple cider vinegar this time. I wouldn’t say that these cupcakes taste exactly like the regular vanilla cupcakes, but it’s definitely very good for a low-fat, egg free and dairy free vegan cupcake. The next time I will probably reduce the quantity of sugar by at least 2 tablespoons, especially if I decide to frost it.

As for the texture, it is not light. At the same time it’s not dense or moist either. It’s somewhere between light and dense. It’s solid and not crumbly, so I should probably try this in a round/square cake pan to make a good layered cake with icing and stuff.

My Notes1 The original recipe mentions that the measurement yields 12 mini cupcakes, but I don’t know how I got so many. Also the time mentioned to bake the mini cupcakes is about 20 minutes, but mine was done in 14 minutes. Actually had I taken it out a minute earlier the cupcake’s texture would have been even better/lighter.

2 It was a little sweet for me even without the frosting.

3 I forgot to refrigerate the cupcakes on the first day, so I felt it was sort of sticky on the top on the second day. I think the sugar released out moisture and made it sort of sticky. The inside was good though.

4 To make vegan ganache, use vegan chocolate chips and any other non dairy milk.

Procedure1 Preheat oven to 350F. Grease the baking sheet or line it with parchment paper.

2 In a big bowl combine together the flours, bran, flax seed, baking powder, baking soda and raisins (if using) and set aside.

3 In a medium bowl, blend together butter and sugars until creamy.

4 Add applesauce and vanilla and mix until well blended. If you use an electric beater to mix the applesauce it may look curdled, but don’t worry.

5 To the wet ingredients add the dry ingredients and mix well.

6 Drop the dough by tablespoon on prepared baking sheets. Lightly spray the tablespoon with non stick spray, so that the dough will drop easily. Use a butter knife to scoop out the dough from the tablespoon.

7 The baking time mentioned in the recipe is 8-10 minutes. The cookies look very even after 9 minutes but I removed them out anyway. After it cooled we tasted it and felt that it required further baking. So baked again for another 3 minutes. This time it had a nice golden brown color. Leave it in the baking sheet itself for a minute and then transfer it to a wire rack to cool completely.

Taste The earthy smell of white whole wheat flour was predominant when the cookies were consumed fresh (on the day of baking). But they tasted very good the second day. The smell was very mild. My son is enjoying the cookies very much, so I guess he doesn’t even smell anything different.

My Notes1 I reduced the quantity of both the sugars considerably and even then felt it was quite sweet. So check the original recipe if you like your cookies very sweet. I also used 3/4th cup of raisins, which was optional in the original recipe.

2 I’m not a cinnamon fan, so I used very little of it. I think the earthy smell of the whole wheat flour can be overcome by using considerable amount of cinnamon (about 1 teaspoon).

3 If oat bran is not available, you could also use coarsely powdered quick cooking oats.

4 Using non hydrogenated margarine or any vegan butter will make these cookies even more healthy by cutting back on saturated fat and cholesterol.

5 Usually I bake the entire batch on the same day and the cookies vanish in no time. So this time I decided to freeze the dough. I baked only 20 cookies. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and drop tablespoonful of the remaining dough onto the sheet. Cover it loosely with another parchment/wax paper and freeze it for an hour or until it is firm enough. Then transfer the frozen cookie dough to a Ziploc bag and write down the name of the cookie and date when it was prepared and put it back in the freezer. I read that the dough keeps good anywhere between 1 month to 3 months. Thawing of the dough is not necessary while baking it. Just bake for additional 2-3 minutes. In this recipe it would be around 13-15 minutes.

Update: I baked the frozen cookie dough and it was even better than the fresh ones. I baked it for 16 minutes at 350F, switched off the oven but kept the baking sheet in the oven itself for another 10 minutes. The cookies had a very nice golden brown color. They were crisp on the outside and soft in the middle.