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 Preheat the oven to 350F. Coat and 8 inch square pan with cooking spray. For brownies I line the pan with aluminum foil and grease it with cooking spray, so cutting it is easy and also we can get perfect squares.

2 Melt the chocolate in a double boiler or over a very low flame. I melted the chocolate in the microwave oven, in a medium size bowl. Take care while doing so or else the chocolate will get burnt. So increase the time little by little. Stir it well, it should be smooth.

3 In the same bowl, combine the beet puree, sugar, cocoa powder, margarine, vanilla and unsweetened applesauce and whisk it well. This mixture should be smooth and creamy.

4 Stir in the oat flour, baking powder, chopped walnuts and salt with a wooden spoon.

5 Pour the batter into the prepared pan and baked 35-40 minutes. I checked it after 35 minutes and felt that it was not done. Brownies should spring back when touched, but it did not. So baked it for another 5 minutes.

6 Cool completely in the pan on a wire rack. Since I lined the pan with aluminum foil I lifted it after an hour and I cooled it on a wire rack. After another 2 hours I was able to cut them into neat squares without any trouble. If baking it directly in the pan, it will take some more (actually a lot more) time for the brownies to cool completely and getting neat pieces will also be difficult.

Taste The taste was simply superb. The oat flour or the beet puree did not affect the taste at all. It tasted like any other regular brownie. The only difference I felt was in the texture, but it was nothing huge. The brownies were chewy and also pudding(y) in the middle. I don’t mean that it was in a semi-solid state, it had set properly, but the texture was a bit different than the usual brownies, which I think is because of the beet puree. Also the brownies are more reddish than brown. This did not stop my son or the rest of us from finishing it off.

My Notes1 I have used 1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce instead of 2 egg whites mentioned in the original recipe. If you have extra beet puree you can use 1/4 cup of that itself. I had only 1 cup of beet puree so I used applesauce.

2 Oat flour is readily available in stores. I didn’t have that in hand, so I powdered quick cooking oats in a blender. Be sure to powder it finely, sieve it a couple times.

3 You can use all purpose flour too instead of oat flour.

4 To prepare beet puree you can either buy canned beets and blend it smoothly in a blender or do like what I did. I peeled and cooked the beets in a pressure cooker. Cut into small pieces once cooled and then blend it. I had prepared this a month back. So I put it in cup, covered with plastic wrap and froze it. To use the puree, thaw it in the fridge overnight and by the following afternoon it should be alright.

Procedure1 Peel a piece of pumpkin (like the ones you can get in Indian grocery stores) and chop it into cubes. Cook it using a pressure cooker (add water just enough to cover the pumpkin pieces and leave it for 1 whistle or in a microwave oven. Drain the water and blend the cooked pieces into a smooth puree when it is cool enough. Measure 1 and 1/2 cups of this puree. (Check My Notes for store bought pumpkin puree).

2 Empty the entire tin of evaporated milk in a medium size sauce pan. Heat it on low-medium. Once the skin starts forming in the milk; add the pumpkin puree and mix it well. Heat this mixture for another 7-8 minutes. Do not be tempted to increase the heat because chances are that the milk will get burnt and will stick to the bottom of the vessel giving an unpleasant taste later.

3 Add a tin of condensed milk and the MTR powder to the above and let this mixture remain on stove for another 5 minutes. This should also be done on low heat. Remove the pan from heat.

4 In a small cup add the saffron strands and couple drops of the hot milk; leave it for a while. After 2-3 minutes, dissolve the saffron in the milk with the tip of your fingers. Add this to the pumpkin mixture.

5 Now add the cardamom powder, salt and nuts and mix well; let it cool completely. You can drink this as kheer/payasam or you can freeze it as kulfis. If you decide to drink it, I would suggest adding some more milk because the kheer will be very sweet.

6 Once it is cold, pour the mixture in the molds and freeze it. I froze it overnight but 7-8 hours should be enough I guess.

7 To serve it you can either dip it in hot water for just a few seconds so unmolding will be easy. (I got this idea from Jyoti). If you prefer eating straight from the cup, then remove the cup from the freezer and put it in the fridge 10-12 minutes before serving and it reaches the perfect ice cream texture.

Taste The taste is unbelievably good and nobody can guess that it has generous quantity of pumpkin in it. Just make sure that you leave it at room temperature or in the fridge 10 minutes before serving so that it has the right texture; neither hard nor too soft. I think I will reduce the quantity of condensed milk the next time around. 3/4th of the tin instead of the entire tin. If you have a very sweet tooth then go ahead and use it fully.

My Notes1 I tried to make the pumpkin kheer using canned pumpkin puree, but the milk curdled once I added the puree to the hot milk. So I tried this kulfi recipe without heating the milk; but somehow it did not taste good or may be I did not like it. I feel that the store bought puree has an unpleasant odor. The pumpkin puree prepared at home does not have this smell, moreover we cook it the second time in the milk to ward off any raw smell. So try your luck with the canned pumpkin and let me know how it goes.

2 Instead of evaporated milk you can use about 3 cups of regular milk but boil it until it reduces to about 1 and 1/2 cups.

3 I used the Dole fruit cups as kulfi molds. This fits inside the muffin pan perfectly, so moving it to the freezer and handling is easier. So place one cup in each muffin tin and fill it with the kheer. Close it with another baking sheet to avoid freezer burns. If you don’t have a muffin tin, arrange the cups on a tray/baking sheet, fill it and close it with another tray.

4 MTR Badam Feast is available in Indian grocery stores. It’s nothing but a mix of powdered almonds, sugar, cardamom, saffron and milk solids. It’s added with warm/cold milk to make almond drink. This mix is available in other brands too. If you don’t get it, that’s okay. Simply add some more saffron and cardamom powder.

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 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. 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/180C for 15 minutes.

2 While the oven is preheating, in a medium bowl sift the flours and salt. Add the sesame seeds.

3 Add the oil and blend well. Add water little by little to form the dough into a ball and easy enough to roll.

4 Divide the dough into 2 balls. Roll each half to 1/8 inch thick and cut into squares or sticks. Repeat the same with the other half too. I dusted some all purpose flour on the surface to roll the dough easily.

5 Place the squares on un-greased baking sheet and bake for about 15-20 minutes or until the crackers are crisp. The baking time depends on the thickness of the squares.

6 Store in a tightly covered container up to 1 week.

Taste The cookies were golden brown in color and very crispy. The first batch squares were thick and so I made the next batch paper thin. I preferred the thick crackers and my son liked both. You don’t get the raw smell of whole wheat flour or the soy flour. Also I felt it tasted even better the next day of baking.

My Notes1 I used black sesame seeds because I didn’t have the white seeds. I think the pack I had some impurities, so while eating the crackers we were able to feel it. So go with white sesame seeds or be sure to clean the black sesame seeds before using.

2 I used sunflower oil.

3 For the first batch I didn’t know how thin to roll the dough, so the squares were little thick and it took around 23 minutes to turn crisp. I did not flip the crackers but gave a slight shake twice or thrice in between. For the next batch I rolled the dough paper thin and it turned golden brown within 10 minutes. If it’s very thin be alert or else the crackers would burn.

4 The crackers were crispy even after 4 days.

5 Adding ground pepper or chili powder will spice it up.

6 Check out here for more healthy cracker recipes.

Procedure1 Preheat the oven to 400F for 15 minutes. Line the muffin tin with paper liners or grease the tin.

2 In a medium size bowl combine together the milk, butter and buttermilk.

3 In another large bowl sift together the flour, salt and baking powder.

4 Add the sugar, chocolate chips and nuts to the flour mixture and stir well.

5 Slowly stir in the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, but do not overdo it.

6 Fold in the mashed bananas.

7 Fill each muffin cup with 3 tablespoons of batter.

8 Bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the muffin comes out clean.

My Notes1 The bananas I used were extremely ripe, so I simply mashed it with a fork. If the bananas are not that ripe you could cut into pieces add few drops of water/milk and blend it in a blender/food processor.

2 The original recipe used chocolate chunks. Since I did not have it I went with semisweet chocolate chips. If you have chocolate chunks, chop 5 ounces of semi sweet chocolate into large chunks and use it instead of the chips.

3 The sweetness was perfect for us. Not very sweet like the ones you get in stores. If you have a very sweet tooth you would have to increase the quantity of sugar or chocolate chips.

4 You could substitute vegetable/canola oil instead of butter to make it healthier. I have tried it in couple of other recipes and it works. Since I wanted to finish the butter in the refrigerator I did not do this substitution.

5 You could also substitute whole wheat flour for the all purpose flour. I didn’t do it this time because the brand of wheat flour I’m using right now is not good in banana muffins. A couple of days ago I tried a banana muffin recipe with whole wheat flour and did not like the taste. I liked it when I made something similar a year ago, but that was a different brand of wheat flour, so I went with all purpose flour itself.

Procedure 1 Wash and dry the okra. Discard the top and bottom of the okra. Cut it lengthwise. Again split each half lengthwise. So you would have 4 finger like pieces. If the okra is big cut the pieces half midway (so 8 pieces from each okra) or use it as it is.

2 Transfer the okra pieces to a bowl. Add oil (if using) or sprinkle very little water so that the seasonings would stick to the okra.

3 Then add all the other ingredients and mix it thoroughly with your hand.

4 Make sure the plate in the microwave is clean and place the seasoned okra on it directly.

5 First I set the time for 5 minutes. Stirred it and cooked it for another 2 minutes. Be careful while stirring because the plate will be hot. Microwave oven settings vary, so chose the time considering the type of oven you are using.

6 From then on I increased the time by 30 seconds each time until I got the crispy texture. Don’t forget to stir after every 30 seconds. I did like this thrice. Be alert or else it would get burnt.

7 Taste it after a standing time of 1 minute. You would be floored by the crispiness. Repeat the same for rest of the okra.

My Notes 1 First I did it with oil and then tried it with water. Both taste the same if consumed immediately, but the one with water becomes a little chewy after a while.

2 I resisted my temptation to chow down everything to see how it fares after sometime. It stays crisp at least for 2 hours but becomes chewy later.