Eggless Chocolate Cookies; Meatless Monday

Almost everyone from a toddler to adults love cookies! My mother is one of them. There is a problem however: she is vegetarian, which means that she does not even eat eggs or anything that has egg in it. Most cookies are made with eggs and therefore she won't eat them. For this reason, I was very happy when I came across these very pretty looking cookies on a Facebook group that I belong to. Facebook is such a wonderful platform that brings so many of us together and helps us learn from each other. I looked at her recipe and thought that with a few improvisations to the recipe, it should come out well. I have made eggless cookies before : crinkle cookies, tutti-frutti-cookies , but I think I like this one the best! They are super easy to make, melt-in-the-mouth type! The testimony for this fact is that they were gone within 15 mins of being left out to cool down!! Do try it, I bet you will like it. These are perfect for the sudden guests that come without much notice!

Servings: makes around 18-20 medium sized cookies.

Ingredients:

Flour: 3/4 cup ( I used unbleached all purpose flour)
Corn flour: 3 tbsp
Baking powder: 1/2 tsp
Chocolate powder: 2 tbsp
Salt: a pinch
Butter: 3/4 cup ( at room temperature)
Sugar: 2/3 cup
Vanilla essence: 3/4 tsp
Milk: 2 tbsp

Method:

Beat together butter, sugar and vanilla essence until creamy.

In a different bowl, sift together flour, cornflour, salt, baking powder, chocolate powder.

Add the flour mixture  little at a time to the sugar-butter mixture and mix well. Add the milk and mix well.

Put this mixture in a piping bag with a Wilton 2D tip. Place the bag in the freezer for atleast 20 mins.

Preheat the oven to 350 deg F.

Take the bag out and pipe out medium sized cookies on an ungreased parchment paper lined cookie-sheet. Keep them atleast 1 inch apart.

Place the cookie sheet on the center rack and bake for 10 mins or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the center of the cookie.

Take the baking sheet out and let the cookies cool down on it before taking them out to cool down completely on a cooling rack.Decorate it with sugar pearls in the center.

Makes for a great accompaniment for tea/coffee.

Store in an airtight container. I am bringing this to Throwback Thursday, Fiesta Friday #99 and Saucy Saturday! Caroline @ Caroline’s Cooking and Linda @ La Petite Paniere are co-hosting Angie's Fiesta Friday this week.

Cooking made easy:

Using the parchment paper for lining the cookie sheet helps prevent the cookies from sticking to the sheet and also helps with easy clean-up.

If you don't have parchment paper, you could use the cookie sheet alone.

Tip for healthy living:

While making cookies at home is definitely much healthier than store-bought ones, you can make them even more healthier by reducing the amount of sugar than what is called-for in the recipe. Also, when possible, use unprocessed sugar as opposed to white sugar.

Food for thought:

Are right and wrong convertible terms, dependent upon popular opinion? William Lloyd Garrison

Very Chocolatey Banana Muffins; Meatless Monday.

The holy month of Ramadan is going on for all Muslims worldwide. During "Iftar", when it is time for them to break their fast, they usually have some family or friends around and it is a small celebration of kinds each day. This recipe comes in handy for Iftar as there is not much to be done in the actual process of prepping and cooking.

Everyone in my home and at work love my banana bread.I make the eggless oatmeal flaxmeal banana raisin bread and the gluten free banana walnut cranberry bread, both of which are much liked by everyone.But there is one little problem. My kids do not like it with nuts!!! So I make them as muffins for them. My daughter will gladly eat them for lunch and it makes for a perfect "grab and go" breakfast for me. However, neither me nor my kids eat big portions. I therefore do not like humongous muffins. I like my muffins the size of a regular cupcake. My kids like them even smaller. So, I make mini-muffins for them and they are happy little campers!! I like to add the chocolate chips into these muggins as they look pretty and enticing . Then again who doesn't like chocolate?? Recently a friend of mine had an informal birthday party for one of her daughters. I had made these mini-muffins then. They were gone before we knew it. So here is an easy recipe that can be had for breakfast, snack or as dessert!

Servings: makes around 2 dozen mini-muffins and one dozen muffins.

Ingredients :

 Whole wheat flour: 2 cups + 1 tbsp ( for Gluten-free,use oat flour)
 Baking soda: 1 tsp
 Salt:1/4 tsp
 Ground cinnamon: ½ tsp
 Ground nutmeg: ¼ tsp
 Vanilla extract:1 tsp
 Butter:1/2 cup
 Brown sugar:3/4 cup
 Eggs: 3 beaten ( For eggless version, use 3 tbsp flaxmeal mixed in 9 tbsp water).
 Overripe bananas: 2 cups(3-4 bananas),mashed
 Dark Chocolate chips  :1/2 cup +1/2 cup,chopped.

Method:

Preheat oven to 350 F degrees. Line the muffin and mini-muffin pans with cupcake liners and keep ready.

Mix 1/2 cup chocolate chips with 1 tbsp flour and keep aside.

Beat together the butter, sugar, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg  in a medium bowl until smooth. Add the banana, and eggs, beating until smooth.
 Add the flour stirring until smooth. Mix in 1/2 cup chocolate chips.Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin pan until each liner is 3/4 full. Drop 3-4 chocolate chip on top of each muffin 2-3 on each mini-muffin.

Place the pan on the middle rack of the  oven and bake for 15 mins for the muffin pan and 6-8 mins for the mini-muffin pan. Do check if done by inserting a toothpick into the center of the muffin. It should come out clean.

Remove the pan from the oven and allow it to cool for 10 minutes before removing the muffins out of the pan onto a rack to cool completely.

Serve warm or at room temperature.

Enjoy with a nice cup of coffee or tea.

Cooking made easy:

Cupcake  liners are easy to use in muffin pans as it makes cleaning the pans a breeze. Also packing, serving and eating the muffin when a liner is used is easier and more hygienic. Iy looks pretty too..However, if you run out of liners, you can grease the muffin pan and make pour the batter directly into the pan .

Tip for healthy living:

Using whole wheat flour in cakes and muffins makes desserts a tiny bit more healthier as whole wheat flour has more nutrients and is less processed than all purpose flour or maida.

Food for thought:

To read without reflecting is like eating without digesting. Edmund Burke

My First Eggless Orange Loaf Cake

I have been wanting to make eggless cake for the longest time now.The impetus for this cake came from my Daughter's recent birthday celebration. I wanted to make cake-pops for her birthday. I also wanted to have vegetarian options for my vegetarian friends. I hate it when I go to a party and there is nothing for me to eat! I therefore make sure that I check the food preferences, allergies of all my guests and ensure that each one of my guests has adequate options in food.

Coming back to this cake, I came across this again on CAL, a group I sooo love! The recipe was posted by Kavita Balajee. You can find the original recipe here.The original recipe called for a 9 inch cake pan. I didn't have one. So I decided to try it in my loaf pan.I figured that if it didn't come out moist and tasty, I was going to destroy and use it to make cake pops hence had nothing to worry  about!

I could not have been more wrong! The cake came out so moist, pretty an tasty that I didn't have the heart to destroy it. In fact, a pregnant friend of mine, Rene, was visiting me with her family that weekend and I gave her a piece. She liked it so much that the others ate it and I gave her some to take home. The cake was gone! I had to bake another one for my cake pops! I will soon put up the recipe for cake pops.

The recipe is very easy and does not take much time to make. I would strongly urge you to definitely try it out. If you do, please let me know how it turned out. You can even send me pictures and I will put it up on this blog.

Servings: 6

Ingredients:

All purpose flour: 1 cup + 2 tbsp
Corn flour: 3 tbsp
Baking powder: 1/4 tsp
Baking soda: 1 tsp
Brown sugar: 1/2 cup
Oil: 1/3 cup ( any cooking oil, I used olive oil)
Orange juice: 1 cup
Orange zest: from 1 medium orange
Vanilla essence: 1 tsp
Vinegar: 1 tbsp
Salt: a pinch

Method:

Preheat the oven to 350 degree F.

Prepare the loaf pan by greasing it with butter and then sprinkling flour on it. Invert the pan and shake the excess flour off the pan. Keep it aside.

Mix all purpose flour, corn flour, baking powder, baking soda, brown sugar and salt together in a bowl. Mix it well and keep aside.

In another bowl whisk together the orange juice, orange zest, oil, vinegar and vanilla extract. Whisk well. Now slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix slowly to produce a smooth batter. Ensure that you do not over mix. This is important as over mixing can result in a flat cake!

Pour the above batter into the prepared loaf pan. Tap the pan gently on the counter to remove air bubbles.Place it on the middle rack of the oven and bake for 25-30 minutes. Check towards the end to see if the cake is done using a toothpick. Insert a toothpick into the center of the cake. The toothpick should come out clean!

Take it outside the oven and let it cool for 10 mins before removing from the pan. Cut it into slices and serve.

Enjoy!

Cooking made easy:

The kitchen timer is my best friend in the kitchen.I use the timer a lot. This lets me do other things and not forget what's in the oven or on top of the stove.

Tip for healthy living:

A homemade face pack can help rejuvenate the skin of your face.

In a small bowl, mix together 1 tbsp besan( chick-pea flour) , 1/4 tsp turmeric powder, 1/4 tsp honey and 2 tbsp milk to make a smooth paste. Apply this to your face avoiding the skin around the eyes. Leave it on for 10-15 mins and then rinse your face with cold water. Chick-pea flour helps clean the skin, turmeric is an antiseptic that helps prevent pimples, honey acts as a natural bleach and milk moisturizes the skin.

Food for thought:

If you have nothing good to say, say nothing at all. ( Unknown).