I missed DK’s earlier 2 events, so this time I wanted to send at least one entry as early as possible.  This month’s theme being Italian and since I’m into eggless baking, I searched for Italian cookies and found this.  Lot of versions of these cookies are available throughout the net, but I found this one to be the easiest.  These are eggless whole wheat flour cookies, with a lot of almonds and raisins.

Ingredients

Margarine – 1/2 cup (I used 1 stick Smart Balance 50/50 Unsalted Butter Blend, more details in My Notes)

Cocoa, unsweetened – 2/3 cup (I used Droste, dutch processed cocoa powder. 2/3 cup = 1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons + 2 teaspoons)

Light brown sugar – 2 cups

Water – 1/2 cup

Whole wheat flour – 2 1/2 cups

Baking powder – 1 1/2 teaspoons

Cinnamon – 2 teaspoons (I used vanilla essence instead of these spices)

Cloves or allspice – 1 teaspoon

Almonds, finely chopped – 1 cup

Raisins – 1 cup

Yield: 53 small cookies

Step-By-Step Procedure(Click on the thumbnails for a bigger view)
1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. Combine first four ingredients in a saucepan.

3. Heat slowly, stirring till the mixture resembles a syrup. Let cool to room temperature.
4. Combine flour with baking powder and spices (if using).
5. Pour in chocolate syrup and work into a stiff batter. (See My Notes)

6. Add almonds and raisins. Raisins generally stick together, so take little flour and mix it with the raisins and separate them with your fingers, so the raisins will be spread uniformly throughout the batter.

7. I scooped out the dough using half tablespoon (see My Notes) and dropped it on the cookie sheet. The cookie does not spread, so leaving 1/2 inch space in between is sufficient. I was able to arrange 24 cookies in a large baking sheet.

8. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes.
9. Remove it from the oven and let it cool in the baking sheet for 5 minutes.
10. Then transfer it to a wire rack to cool completely.

The cookies tasted more like chewy brownies with the perfect amount of sweetness from the combination of brown sugar and raisins.

Yes, it was totally worth every penny, when I saw my son having fun trying to carry the box (or rather dragging it) all by himself, picking the berries and correctly putting it in the carton, with a sense of pride! 

As always I found this amazingly simple and healthy recipe in the July 08 issue of Parents magazine.  I reduced the quantity of ingredients because it was my first try.  But the end product was so good, I wish I had followed the original recipe!

Note: There is a print link embedded within this post, please visit this post to print it.

I had 4 very ripe bananas at home.  Usually I make carrot cake with it, but this time I wanted to try something new.  Then only I remembered watching an episode of Good Eats in Food TV, where Alton Brown prepared banana ice cream without eggs.  So immediately went to the site to get the recipe.  Interestingly I had all the ingredients at hand.  But the only thing was the bananas had to be frozen overnight and thawed, before making the ice cream.  I have wanted to try this for a long time now, so did not have the patience to do it the next day and also the bananas were very ripe.  So proceeded to make the ice cream and it did come out very well.  Maybe I’ll try the freezing method next time.  So check here for the original recipe. 

Ingredients:
Bananas – 4
Lemon Juice – little (may be a teaspoon)
Light corn syrup – 1/2 cup
Vanilla essence – 1 teaspoon
Heavy cream – 1 cup

 Procedure:
1.  Peel the bananas and place it in a blender.

2.  Blend it alongwith the lemon juice. 

3.  Add corn syrup and vanilla essence and blend it once again.

 4.  Add the cream and blend it until smooth.

5.  Transfer the mixture to a container and chill it in the refrigerator until it reaches 40 degrees.  (I forgot this step)

If you don’t have an ice cream maker:  (check here for detailed instructions)
6.  Even before starting the process of making the ice cream, put a stainless steel container or any other freezer safe container in the freezer until the ice cream mixture is ready. 

 7.  Once the mixture is ready transfer it to the freezed container and close it with a lid.

8.  After 45 minutes, open the door and check it.  As it starts to freeze near the edges beat it up either using a spatula, whisk or stick blender to break any frozen sections.  Return to freezer.

9.  Keep checking it periodically and stirring while it freezes until the ice cream is frozen.  It will take 2-3 hours to be ready.  

10.  I started making the ice cream very late in the evening, so I was able to do the above process only twice.  I had to put the ice cream in the freezer overnight.  The next day evening when I checked the ice cream had frozen rock hard and I was not able to scoop it.  So I transferred the container from the freezer to the refrigerator.  After about 45 minutes I was able to get the perfect scoop of delicious homemade ice cream.

First scoop of homemade ice cream.

I also added some chocolate chips to the ice cream mixture.   The ice cream was so DELICIOUS!!!

If you have an ice cream maker:
1.  Chill mixture in refrigerator until it reaches 40 degrees.
2.  Transfer the mixture to an ice cream maker and process according to manufacture’s instructions.
3.  Place mixture in an airtight container and freeze it for 3 to 6 hours before serving.

Update:  A small note to both banana lovers and haters, try this ice cream with just one banana first.  The original recipe calls for 6 bananas, but I have  used only 4 bananas, even then the flavor of banana is overpowering.  The ice cream got mixed reviews.  But the happy news is my toddler liked it very much. 

JZ of Tasty Treats has passed me the “Blogging with a Purpose” award. Thank you very much JZ.

I would like to pass this to
Vaishali
Libby
Zlamushka

I’m sending this to Mike’s “You Scream, I Scream, We All Scream for Frozen Desserts!” event.

I was searching for zucchini recipes and found this one in Food Network’s site.  It’s by Paula Deen.  The original recipe yields 2 loaves, so I scaled down the ingredients to 50% to bake 1 loaf and used bananas to make it eggless. 

Ingredients:

(PART 1)
All Purpose Flour 1.5 cups
Baking Powder 1/4 tspn
Baking Soda 1/2 tspn
Cinnamon 1/4 tspn ( I used even little because I’m not a big fan of cinnamon)
Salt 1/2 tspn

(PART 2)
Zucchini peeled and grated, 1 cup (I used 1 medium zucchini, the gratings measured nearly 1.5 cups)
Semi Sweet Chocolate Chips 1/2 cup (I used mini chocolate chips)
Pecans 1/2 cup, chopped

(PART 3)
Vegetable Oil 1/2 cup
Granulated Sugar 3/4 cup
Bananas 2 medium size, mashed
Vanilla essence 1 tspn

Procedure:
1. Pre-heat the oven at 350 F.
2. Combine ingredients in Part 1 and sieve them.
3. To this add the ingredients in Part 2.
4. Combine ingredients in Part 3 in a blender/or cream it using an electric hand mixer.  I used my magic bullet blender to blend it.  Add this mixture to the above dry ingredients and mix it well.  You may add a little milk, if you feel that the mixture requires some more liquid.  I had to add a couple of tablespoons of milk because I increased the quantity of zucchini.
5. Pour it in a greased bread loaf pan.

6. Bake it at 350F for 50 min or until a skewer inserted in the middle of the loaf comes out clean.
7. Cool the bread in the pan for 30 minutes before transferring it to a wire rack.  Wait for another 30-45 minutes before slicing the bread.

The bread is very moist and tasty.  Click the images for a bigger view.

My Notes:
1. This is similar to the carrot cake recipe, but uses zucchini and chocolate chips instead.  Next time I will add both carrots and zucchinis.

2. I feel that the Magic Bullet Blender is very versatile.  I bought it 2 years back to puree steamed vegetables and fruits in small quantities for my infant son.  But it does a lot more.  The recipe booklet which comes along with the blender is also very useful.  I have made muffins and soups as mentioned in the recipe book and it has come out very well also.  Even in the above recipe I add all the ingredients in Part 3 in the blender’s big jar and gave it a few pulses and it’s ready within few minutes.  I find it more easy than using an electric hand mixer.

3. Use Vegan chocolate chips/carob chips to make this bread100% vegan.