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Almost Vegan Cornmeal Snack Cake

Madhuram — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 13:22:50 +0000

I was looking for some cornmeal recipes for the Corn event and remembered that I had bookmarked one healthy snack cake recipe from my friend Viji’s blog. Her blog has an amazing collection of traditional and innovative recipes. I have made a couple of changes to the original recipe keeping the measurement same. Since her blog is private, I’m reproducing her recipe (along with changes made by me) here with her permission.

To make it vegan friendly, I used brown rice milk instead of dairy milk, canola oil and unsweetened applesauce instead of butter in the original recipe. If you are able to find vegan chocolate chips or use carob chips this snack cake recipe will be 100% vegan. Even after all these changes the cake tasted very good.

Speaking of which, brown rice milk is a new addition in our diet. Earlier I have baked with regular rice milk and almond milk, but this is the first time I have used brown rice milk. I prefer rice milk to soy milk, especially while baking. I feel that some brands of soy milk leaves an unpleasant odor in baked goods. I have tried a couple of vegan cake recipes with soy milk and felt that the texture was not good too, very sticky. So I usually go with rice milk or almond milk. Now brown rice milk is my favorite too. It tastes good by itself too. My son has it with his cereal. So if a 4 year old likes it, then it should be definitely good, right?

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Almost Vegan Cornmeal Snack Cake Recipe

Dry Ingredients:

Whole Wheat Pastry Flour 1 cup

Whole Cornmeal (use only fine grind) 1 cup

Quick Cooking oats 1 cup

Almond Meal 1 cup

Walnut Meal 1 cup

Raisins 1 cup

Pistachios, coarsely chopped 1 cup

Dried Cranberries 1/2 cup

Flax Seed Meal 1/2 cup

Brown Sugar 1/2 cup

Mini Chocolate Chips 1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon

Baking Powder 3/4 teaspoon

Baking Soda 1/2 teaspoon

Cardamom Powder 1/2 teaspoon

Wet Ingredients:

Canola Oil 1/3 cup

Unsweetened Applesauce 2/3 cup

Bananas, mashed/pureed with little water 1 and 1/4 cups

Brown Rice Milk 1 cup

Water/Milk as needed

Yield: 16 pieces (I used a 9×13 inch pan)

Procedure:

1. Preheat the oven for 15 minutes at 175C/350F. Grease a 9×13 inch baking pan with butter/non stick cooking spray. I lined it with parchment paper and then greased it also with cooking spray.

2. In a large bowl combine together all the dry ingredients reserving the 1 tablespoon of chocolate chips.

3. Mash 1 large ripe banana with a fork. I chopped the banana and used some of the milk to grind it into a creamy paste. Mix together all the wet ingredients together and stir it well.

4. Pour the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and combine it well without any lumps. I used another 1/4 cup of water to get the required consistency.

5. Spread the batter in the prepared pan. Smooth it out with a spatula dipped in hot water and top it with the reserved chocolate chips.

6. Bake it for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean. Mine was done in 22 minutes.

7. Transfer the pan to a wire rack and let it cool completely before you can remove the cake from the pan. After it is completely cooled, invert the cake pan to remove the cake and cut it into pieces.

My Notes:

1. I have included a couple of healthy substitutes to the already healthy snack cake. Instead of 1 cup of regular size butterscotch chips, I have used 1/2 cup of mini chocolate chips. Instead of 1 cup of melted butter I have used 1/3 cup of oil, 2/3 cup of unsweetened applesauce and increased the quantity of mashed bananas from 1 cup to 1 and 1/4 cups.

2. I have also used brown rice milk instead of dairy milk. The original recipe used whole wheat flour and regular cornmeal, which I have substituted with whole wheat pastry flour and whole cornmeal.

3. Where I live I was able to fine almond meal and walnut meal ready made. If you are not able to find it readily, process nuts of your choice in a food processor until its finely powdered.

4. The sweetness was just right for us. Viji had used 1 cup of dates, which I replaced with 1/2 cup of dried cranberries and also included 1 cup of chopped pistachios. Maybe that’s the reason my cake was not very sweet. I think if I had used the dates the cake would have been very sweet.

5. With so many ingredients in the cake, we couldn’t feel the presence of cardamom. So if you are a spice fan increase the quantity to 1 teaspoon instead of 1/2 teaspoon.

6. I was on a tight schedule on the day I was going to bake this cake. So I prepared the dry ingredients the previous night itself. So it was just mixing in the wet ingredients and baking the next day.

This cornmeal snack cake goes to my Whole Grain Baking Event – Corn.

Wholesome Oatmeal Breakfast Cookies

Madhuram — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 12:22:18 +0000

I found this recipe for wholesome breakfast cookies in the book One Smart Cookie by Julie Van Rosendaal. I have made a couple of changes to make it even more healthy and was floored by the taste. I really can’t believe that healthy can taste so good. So if you have kids who drive you crazy without having breakfast, then this recipe is for you. These breakfast cookies are packed with proteins, fiber, vitamins and minerals and low in fat too. What better way to start a day than this? With a glass of milk or orange juice it’s sure to fill up even adults.

Ingredients

Quick Cooking Oats 2 cups

Whole Wheat Pastry Flour 1 cup

Baking Powder 1 teaspoon

Baking Soda 1 teaspoon

Cinnamon (optional) a pinch

Salt a pinch

Navy Beans, rinsed and drained 1 can (19oz/540ml)

Soft Tub Margarine 4 tablespoons

Brown Sugar, packed (I used light) 1 cup

Unsweetened Applesauce, measured in a dry measuring cup 1/4 cup

Vanilla Extract 2 teaspoons

Peanut Butter Chips 1/2 cup

Dried Cranberries 1/2 cup

Walnuts, chopped 1/2 cup

Flax Seed Meal 2 tablespoons

Yield: 24 cookies

Procedure1 Preheat the oven to 350F. Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper.

1 Pulse the oats in a food processor until it resembles coarse flour. To this also add the whole wheat flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt and process until combined. Transfer this mix to a large mixing bowl.

2 Put the drained and rinsed beans in the food processor and pulse until smoothly pureed. You may add 2-3 tablespoons of water to make it easier. Add the butter/margarine and process until well blended.

3 Now add the brown sugar, applesauce and vanilla and pulse until smooth, scraping down the sides of the bowl.

4 Pour the bean mixture into the oat mixture and stir using a spatula. Add the peanut butter chips/chocolate chips, raisins/dried cranberries, nuts and flax seed meal and stir until blended.

5 Drop by large spoonfuls of dough onto the prepared cookie sheets. Flatten each one a little with your hand. Have a bowl of water nearby to dampen your palms, so that flattening the cookies will be easy.

6 Bake for 14-16 minutes, until pale around the edges but still soft in the middle. The cookies baked in a dark coated cookie sheet started browning after 14 minutes itself but the pale coated cookie sheet was done after 16 minutes.

7 Place the the cookie sheets on individual wire racks. Let it cool for 5 minutes. Transfer the cookies to the cooling rack after that.

Taste These cookies tasted very much like the Fiber One Cereal breakfast cookies I have baked earlier. These are very soft cookies, more like a muffin. The presence of whole grain flours like whole wheat pastry flour and oat flour did not affect the taste at all. You cannot detect the navy beans too. It’s not very sweet also. If “healthy” tastes so good, I’m ready to eat healthy always. My son takes it to school as a treat after having his lunch and he likes it so much.

My Notes1 You can use all purpose flour instead of whole wheat pastry flour, white beans instead of navy beans, butter or margarine, chocolate chips instead of peanut butter chips, raisins, pecans instead of walnuts.

2 For chocolate flavored cookies use 1/2 cup of unsweetened cocoa powder instead of the flour.

3 Updated: I stored these cookies in a cookie jar over the counter and it became very soft. This is okay if you are going to consume it within 2-3 days. The longer it stays on the counter the softer it gets. Recently I borrowed Moosewood Restaurant Low Fat Favorites from the library and found a tip for storing low-fat cookies. It says that the best way to store low-fat cookies is in layers separated by wax paper or plastic wrap in an airtight container in the freezer. Defrost at room temperature for about 20 minutes before serving. But I think storing in the refrigerator should be fine because it gives instant gratification

These breakfast cookies go to my Wholegrain Baking Event – Oats hosted by me.

Vegan Chocolate, Oatmeal and Peanut Butter Muffins

Madhuram — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 11:03:45 +0000

I have a big jar of peanut butter at home and wanted to finish it before it expires in a couple of months. We are not a “peanut-butter-family” but for my son who likes it on breads and rotis. I have never baked with peanut butter so far, so I thought I will give it a try. I came across a lot of baking recipes using peanut butter in Esther Brody’s “1500 Best Bars, Cakes, Cookies, Muffins and More”. The following recipe for oatmeal peanut butter muffins is inspired from 3 recipes in that book.

Ingredients

All Purpose Flour 1 cup

Quick Cooking Oats) 2/3 cup

Cocoa Powder 1/3 cup

Sugar 3/4 cup

Baking Powder 1 tablespoon

Peanut Butter (I used creamy) 1/2 cup

Rice Milk 1 cup

Yield: 9 regular size muffins

Procedure1 Preheat the oven at 400F/200C for 15 minutes. Grease with little
cooking spray or line the muffin tins with paper liners and set aside.

2 In a large bowl combine together the flour, oatmeal, cocoa powder, sugar and baking powder.

3 In a small sauce pan, over low heat, melt peanut butter in milk, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and set aside to cool slightly.

4 Once the peanut butter mixture is cool, incorporate it into the dry ingredients and stir until just combined.

5 Spoon the batter into the prepared pan filling it to the top of each cup.

6 The above batter was enough for 9 muffins. So I filled the remaining 3 cups with water to ensure even baking of the muffins. I took out mine from the oven after 16 minutes, but I think 13-15 minutes should be perfect. I felt that in this recipe the smell of the muffins is an indicator of the doneness in addition to the toothpick test. I started smelling a burnt cocoa smell and that’s when I removed the muffins. So the tops were a bit crusty and it had turned slightly back. Either have a close watch or reduce the oven temperature to 350F and bake it accordingly.

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.

Oatmeal Coconut Cookies

Madhuram — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 13:00:46 +0000

Last week my husband suddenly had cravings for coconut cookies. He picked one pack from the store, but I put it back in the shelf because if he does not like it, he will not touch it and I have to finish it. Moreover I try as much as possible to avoid buying baked goods for health reasons and also I don’t want to miss a chance to bake. So as soon as I came home, dug out my Cookies book and started searching for coconut cookie recipes. That book has 1001 cookie recipes (published by Readers Digest) and there were a lot of types of coconut cookies and I narrowed down to this one because it was simple to bake, used little butter when compared to the other recipes and also it included oats. As usual my husband did not relish these cookies immediately but started liking it very much after a couple of days when it was almost over and started asking for more.

Ingredients

All Purpose Flour 1 cup

Baking Soda 1/2 teaspoon

Salt 1/8 teaspoon

Shredded Coconut (I used sweetened) 1 cup

Quick Cooking Oats (I used large flake) 1 cup

Butter 1/2 cup

Granulated Sugar 3/4 cup

Honey 2 tablespoons

Yield: 21 cookies

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.

These oatmeal coconut cookies go to my Wholegrain Baking Event – Oats.

Whole Wheat Digestive Cookies

Madhuram — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 11:19:31 +0000

Digestive cookies (or digestive biscuits) are the backbone of British baking (that’s what I read in a book). I was looking for a recipe with British origin in the Reader’s Digest Cookies book and found this one to be very simple to bake with ingredients easily available. I have not changed anything in the recipe and also don’t have anything to write in the My Notes section because it’s pretty straight forward. Just mixing dry ingredients and wet ingredients, forming a soft dough, rolling it out and cutting shapes with a cookie cutter. How difficult is this?

Ingredients

Whole Wheat Flour 1 and 1/3 cups

All Purpose Flour 1/4 cup

Baking Powder 1 teaspoon

Salt 1/2 teaspoon

Rolled oats/quick cooking oats 2 tablespoons

Butter 5 tablespoons

Sugar 1 cup

Milk (I used 2%) 1/3 cup

Yield: 45 cookies

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.

These digestive cookies is my entry for

Whole Grain Baking Event – Whole Wheat hosted by me and
Simran’s AWED – British. AWED was started by DK.

No Bake Almond Butter and Oats Cookies

Madhuram — Fri, 15 May 2009 11:28:52 +0000

Thanks a lot everybody for the anniversary wishes. We went to a temple in the evening, had dinner in a very famous South Indian vegetarian restaurant. The food was okay and I was definitely missing the restaurant we used to go regularly in US. I miss a couple of other things too here. Phone companies here don’t have the free calls to US plan (we had free calls to Canada back in US). The other day I wanted chocolate flavored graham crackers to bake something and couldn’t find it in 4 stores. Really! Finding graham crackers should not be this difficult! They had the honey flavored ones. And what’s with the mosquitoes? But I have to agree that we have access to other cool things/facilities which was not available in US. For example, doctor visits and couple other medical expenses are covered by the government itself. So no co-pay each time you visit a doctor. (But the income tax rate is very high, especially if you are single. Once you are married and have dependents the rate goes down.) Very good public transit system. People here feel that it’s not good enough but for me it’s excellent because we didn’t have that facility back in US. The most important thing I feel that people here are very warm and friendly. So I guess we can’t have it all!

I’m still not in the mood to bake/blog but my DH is constantly nagging me to start blogging regularly. So I once again went back to the Eagle brand book for a simple “no-bake” recipe. Found a recipe for peanut butter drops made with peanut butter, chopped peanuts, condensed milk and quick cooking oats. I made something similar a year back and remembered that my son did not like it. So I substituted peanuts with almonds and peanut butter and almond butter. And guess what? my son can’t stop eating them. It takes only 10-15 minutes to prepare this but it is unbelievably delicious.

Ingredients

Butter or Margarine 1/2 cup (1 stick)

Unsweetened Cocoa 1/3 cup

Quick Cooking Oats 2 and 1/2 cups

Sweetened Condensed Milk 1 can (14 oz/300 ml)

Chopped Almonds 1 cup

Almond Butter 1/2 cup

Yield: Approximately 5 dozen

Step-by-Step Procedure

1. From left: Almonds, oats, condensed milk, almond butter, cocoa and butter

2. In a medium saucepan over medium heat, melt butter.

3. Stir in cocoa powder to the melted butter.

4. Mix both cocoa powder and butter using a whisk. Bring mixture to a boil.

5. Remove from heat. Add oats.

6. Add the can of condensed milk.

7. Add the chopped almonds.

8. Add the almond butter.

9. Line 2 baking sheets with a wax paper. I sprayed a half tablespoon with non stick cooking spray, scooped out the mixture and dropped onto the baking sheets. Chill 2 hours or until set. Store loosely covered in refrigerator.

10. You can either leave it as it is or shape them into balls. After about 30 minutes in the fridge, the mixture will be in the right texture to shape it. Put it back in the refrigerator for another 2 hours or until it firms up.

My Notes Add your choice of nut butter and chopped nuts. You can also go for fat free condensed milk.