This is my favorite homemade cookie/granola bar recipe. I have been baking them with egg substitutes for quite a long time and thought it was an appropriate recipe for Madhuram’s Egg Substitute Event-Yogurt/Buttermilk. Check out the original recipe here.

I have made the following few changes to the above recipe:

1. The recipe mentions the use of 2 eggs. I always substitute it with 1/2 a cup of fat free milk and 2 tsp of vinegar (which is actually a substitute for buttermilk as well). I am sure Vegans can use Soy Milk/Rice Milk/Almond Milk. I got to know that each egg can be substituted by ¼ th cup milk and 1 tsp of vinegar (Courtesy: Chef Niru Gupta.
2. I have tried Lime Juice as well in the same amount (after confirming from Chef Niru Gupta via emails) and it works fine. However recently I came to know that if you need to use lime juice instead of vinegar, the ratio of lime juice to vinegar must be 2:1. Hence next time I plan try this recipe with 4 tsp of lime juice instead of 2 tsp of vinegar.
3. I prefer ‘King Arthur Unbleached White Whole Wheat Flour’ for all my baking and cooking.
4. Oatmeal of Generic Brand can be used. I use old fashioned oats. I have observed that bars made with old fashioned oats become more crispy (the way my friends like it) than those made with quick oats.
5. I use 1 ¼ cup of white sugar.
6. I usually avoid salt.
7. I use ¾ th cup of vegetable (or canola) oil instead of the 1 cup of unsalted butter. (Refer here for fat substitutions) It has been mentioned that 4 parts of solid fat can be substituted by 3 parts of oil.
8. Though the recipe mentions raisins, I have tried using chopped almonds. I believe any variety of chopped nuts and/or chocolate chips can be added. They also taste really good without any nuts or dried fruits as well.
9. I prefer them to be crispy and hence I bake them on a greased cookie sheet for 25-30 minutes on the top rack in a conventional oven (please refer to the original recipe for baking time). I let them cool for 5 minutes outside the oven, cut them into small size pieces and then again let them cool completely for an hour before storing.

For the cake:
1-1/4th sticks unsalted room temperature butter
1 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon vinegar (I used white vinegar)
1/6th Cup grated lemon zest
1 ½ cups flour
¾ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
6 tablespoons yogurt (I used fresh homemade one)
½ teaspoon vanilla extract

For the syrup:
1/4th cup granulated sugar
1/4th cup freshly squeezed lemon juice

For the glaze:
1 cup confectioner’s sugar sifted
1 3/4th tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour 1 8/12 by ¼ by 2/12 inch loaf pan that could make 4 mini loaves and this recipe yielded 3 mini loaves)

For the Cake:
1. Cream the butter and sugar together with an electric mixer or by hand until it is light and fluffy. Mix the lemon zest to this and keep aside.
2. Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt together.
3. In another bowl combine the lemon juice, yogurt and vanilla.
4. Add the flour mixture from 2 and yogurt mixture from 3 above, alternatively to the creamed butter.
5. Lastly add vinegar to this and pour it in the pan and bake for about 45 minutes to an hour until a cake tester comes out clean (I had to bake mine only for about 30-33 minutes as the same amount of batter was spread over a larger surface area.)
6. Cool the cakes for about 10-15 minutes. Remove them from the pan and set them on a rack.

For the syrup:
1. Combine granulated sugar with lemon juice and cook over low heat until the sugar dissolves.
2. Pour this syrup over the cake that has cooled for about 10-15 minutes.(Remember to set your cooling rack over a plate to catch the syrup that runs down the cakes)
3. After this allow the cakes to cool completely (I cooled mine overnight).

For the glaze:
1. Combine the confectioner’s sugar and the lemon juice until smooth. Pour over the cakes and set aside (covered) until the glaze sets.

I love the taste of lemon or orange in a cake and was always looking for an eggless recipe for it. I found this recipe on food network by Ina Garten but it was for 2 big loaves. So I scaled it down to make one loaf. Also when I tried the original recipe, I only made these substitutions:
• Substituted eggs with Yogurt + 2 tablespoons vinegar
• Increased the amount of butter and baking powder to help the elimination of egg

By making these changes, the cake had a great texture and cooked perfectly. But it was too sweet and very sour (not just lemony). So then the next time, I reduced the amount of sugar, vinegar and lemon juice in the recipe (the above recipe lists the revised measurements).

A couple of other combination I would like to try are 1) to use condensed milk instead of vinegar as an egg substitute & 2) to try to bake these in a large loaf pan instead of a mini loaf pan. I am wondering whether the cake will hold the shape if cooked in a bigger pan and cook evenly like it did in the mini loaf pan. Both the times I baked these, I was going to have company and didn’t want to risk the results. Hence I baked them in the mini loaf pan. But I will try to bake it in a larger loaf next time.

This cake has the best taste an eggless lemon cake can have. It has a great texture, cuts nicely into slices and looks great.