Rava(semolina) Coconut Ladoo

Ladoo is a delectable Indian dessert made with variety of flours and nuts. Some time back i visited a friend's place and was complaining about my daughter not eating her meals well, and after some time she offered her Semolina coconut ladoo's, Unbelievably she ate all of it :) the very next thing i did after coming home was made those for my daughter.

I have never made any kind of ladoos before and this is my first attempt at making these.

Rava(semolina) Coconut Ladoo
Rava / Semolina - 1 cup
Sugar - 1 cup
Ghee - 1 cup

Milk - 1/4th cup

Cardamom powder - a pinch
Raisins - a handful

Grated fresh coconut/Dry coconut - 1/2 cup

Pour ghee in a pan and raisins until till golden brown color and keep aside. Roast the semolina in the remaining ghee, Once u smell the semolina being cooked ( basically the raw smell should go)add the grated coconut also and saute for few minutes. Add sugar and the turn the heat off.

Cool it ( warm enough to mold) and make this mixture into small round balls it by pressing gently with your hand. Use milk spoon by spoon in case u cant form balls.
Keep in airtight dry container.

Milano Cookies

Milano Cookies, yes have seen them a lot in the imported food section but never tasted them as Eggs!! were mandatory. Gave it a shot for the Daring Bakers July challenge.

The July Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Nicole at Sweet Tooth. She chose Chocolate Covered Marshmallow Cookies and Milan Cookies from pastry chef Gale Gand of the Food Network.

Well .......... they are so simple to make and the same goes for the taste, very very delicate crispy,chewy and as you chew u get this awesome chocolate swirling along your mouth which is sandwiched between two crisp layers of cookies....mmm heavenly!! yes that's what i would call it. I could not attempt on the Marshmallow cookies because of the vegetarian factor. Also the vegan mallows have corn syrup which is not easily available.. but will give it a hand once i grab this syrup from some where.

I added a tinge of lemon rind as well as lemon juice just for a little zest. Ive tried chocolate and orange a lot of times now it was Mr lemons turn :) n ya lemons and chocolates go very well for sure. I almost used the recipe for Eggless Milano's from here except for a few changes.

Eggless Milano Cookies.

3/4th cup milk

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup canola oil

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 tsp lemon rind

2 cups flour

2 tablespoons cornstarch

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

Mix all the dry ingredients and gradually add the wet ones while mixing the batter well. It should form a cake like batter. Whisk well for a few minutes and fill in a piping bag.Meanwhile Pre-heat your oven at 180 deg C and also prepare your baking tray with a parchment paper. Squeeze you piping bag to make desired shape's. Well the original shape of milanos is a Elongated Oval kind... but i was all in for hearts :) and small rounds which look like macaroons :)Its fun cause once you start piping shapes you want to do so much it.. so explore your creativity. :)

Bake them for about 20 min or until golden in colour. Baking them less will give them a cakey texture so be careful not to burn them or leave them undone.

While they bake Make your chocolate filling.

Chocolate Filling.

1/2 cup heavy cream

8 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped

1 orange, zested ( i did not add)

In a small saucepan over medium flame, scald cream. Pour hot cream over chocolate in a bowl, whisk to melt chocolate, add zest and blend well. Set aside to cool (the mixture will thicken as it cools). Spread a thin amount of the filling onto the flat side of a cookie while the filling is still soft and press the flat side of a second cookie on top. Repeat with the remainder of the cookies

Whole Wheat Eggless Walnut Brownies

My hubby loves sizzling brownies, also had to think of a dessert for a lunch so gave a try to Wheat Brownies, yes they are egg less and awesome. They turned out to be pretty soft and chewy.

Every bite had crunchy walnut bumping in my mouth which made the taste more interesting.

I am slowly trying to adapt some of my recipes to make them healthier by using more of wheat flour, using less butter .. etc

And to motivate me Madhuram always has a ongoing event !! here is another one for you Madhuram for the Whole grain eggless baking event.

Whole Wheat Eggless walnut Brownies

2 cups whole wheat flour

1 cup water

1/3rd cup butter

21/2 Tbs coco powder

2cups sugar

2 tsp vanilla essence

2tsp baking pwd

3/4th cup w walnuts

1/4th tsp salt.

Mix water with 1/3rd cup flour and heat in a nonstick n low heat until a smooth paste.

Let the mix cool. Along side mix butter with coco pwd and heat to a smooth paste on low low flame.

Add sugar to the cooled flour-water mix and add rest of the flour, vanilla essence , salt, baking powder,Mix it along with butter and coco mix. Blend all of in a blender until smooth.

Mix in your nuts and pour into a greased tin. Bake at 180deg for about 30 min.

You can make variations by adding almonds, choco-chips etc etc :)Server hot along with cold ice-cream!!

Eggless Wheat-Choco Muffins

Happy Birthday Maaaaaaaa :)Wish u all the love and luck in the world and Thanks a lot for everything! u all mean the word to me :)
This post is dedicated to my Maa :) i got late today to wish her :( sorry for that :) here's a small lil way we enjoyed your day!! With some Low fat Wheat-Choco Muffins!! Hope u had a great day today!!
I am also forwarding this post to Madhuram;s Event for this month!! Shes hosting this wonderful event to use Whole Grains as ur main ingredient! i m absolutely going to try hard and post as many recipes as i can :)
Here is the recipe for

Eggless Wheat Muffins.

1Cup Whole Wheat Flour
1/2 Sugar
1/4th cup Coco-pwd
1/4th cup Oil
1/2 cup water
1/4th cup Milk
1/2tbs Baking Pwd
1tbs Vanilla essence
2tbs Honey

Mix all the above ingredients and blend well until smooth. Pour in your muffin moulds and bake at 180 deg for about 30 min.
Garnish with M&Ms :) and loads of love!

Happy Birthday Nani! :) from Kaira and her friend Kishi :)!!!

Malpua/WHole wheat pancakes.

These sweet wheat pancakes are my favourite. I had not made or u can say had them in ages, So yesterday was one occasion i thought was perfect to make them on. It was Guru purnima, and had to make some prasad and the first thing in the morning when i woke up was MALPUA :) so it had to be it ! :)

I made a very instant version of it just mixing the batter and frying them. Its pretty instant so ya u don't have to wait too long to eat this yummy treat :) which u have to otherwise until u make ur sugar syrup. Traditionally they are deep fried and dipped in sugar syrup to sweeten them.

SO here's my instant recipe for :

Malpua's/Whole wheat pancakes.

1 cup whole wheat

½ cup sugar

1 tsp fennel crushed.

¼ cup curd

½ cup milk

Pinch of cardamon pwd.

Ghee

Nuts to garnish

Mix all the ingredients except the nuts and ghee, blend well in a blender or mix well until smooth. Let it stand for 10 min or more, In the mean time heat some ghee in a pan on medium low heat. Pour a tablespoon worth of batter in the pan and let it cook, Flip on the other side to cook evenly until golden brown. Remove on a kitchen paper and plate them, while garnishing with ur choice of nuts :)

Thats the pic of my daughter while her mouth is stuffed with malpua;s 2 at a time :)

The best option is to serve it with chilled RABDI :) (Indian sweet made with milk)

BakeWell Tarts

Well ive been wanting to live in London...the UK ... since i was a kid, and still dream to be settled there . :) But guess ive not done my research well enough, well i did it now :) The Bakewell tart is a traditional English baked cake native to the town of Bakwell. The tart consists of a shortcrust pastry shell, covered in jam and covered with a sponge style filling enriched with ground almonds. This is known as Frangipane. Traditionally the cakes are also covered with nuts such as almonds and peanuts. Normally eggs are a must have in this recipe but chucking them out from recipe's is my mission :) So here is another month of challenge from the Daring Bakers for me! BAKE WELL TARTS :)

The June Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Jasmine of Confessions of a Cardamom Addict and Annemarie of Ambrosia and Nectar. They chose a Traditional (UK) Bakewell Tart... er... pudding that was inspired by a rich baking history dating back to the 1800's in England

3 Major elements of a Bake well tart are- Tart, Jam & Frangipane.

Tart Crust(short crust pastry):
2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
3 tablespoons sugar
¼ teaspoon salt
¾ cup unsalted butter, cold and cut into small chunks
2 tablespoons ice water, plus more if needed
To make the pastry: combine the flour, sugar, and salt in a large bowl. Add the butter and mix with hands until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Make a well in the middle of the pastry. Pour ice water into the well and work it in to bind the dough until it holds together without being too wet or sticky. Form the dough into a disk and wrap in plastic wrap; refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. Roll out the pastry on a lightly floured surface. .Press the dough into the pan so it fits tightly; press the edges into the sides of the pan. Shave off the excess hanging dough with a knife. Put the tart in the refrigerator for 15 minutes to relax. Preheat the oven to 180 C .Line the tart with aluminum foil and add pie weights or dried beans to keep the sides of the tart from buckling. Bake for 30 minutes, and then remove the foil and weights.Remember the tart will be cooked again with the filling.,so it should be baked until lightly golden. the second bake. Set aside to cool

For the Jam i used a store bought Strawberry Jam.

Frangipane: This vegetarian recipe is inspired from here.
1/2 cup Butter
1/2 cup Sugar (you could add more if u like it more sweet)
1 cup strawberry puree (just crush fresh strawberries in ur blender)
2 tbs Cornflour
1/2cup all purpose flour
1/4th cup almond flakes
Few drops of lemon juice
Few drops vanilla essence
Mix butter and sugar until smooth and fluffy. Mix in the strawberry puree and mix well, add rest of the ingredients except flour and almonds, and mix till smooth. Add the flour and blend till mixed well, lastly add the almond flakes and mix it gradually. Pour in the filling in your jam spread ed tart base and bake for about and hour in a pre-heated oven at 180deg.
This might feel like a little shaky even after baking for an hour. But will set after its cool. The best way to know is inserting a knife/toothpick and check if it comes out clean or not.

My Verdict to this months challenge is... shown in the pics below... my 2 yr old daughter 'Kaira' could not wait until the pics were being clicked... she literally had her mouth open as i was clicking... so if the pics dint turn out well.. its cuz she could not resist eating it :)

My next variation for Bakewell Tart is going to be with Nutella filling :0 Flaky pastry crust + Cream Nutellla chocolate +Crumbly soft cake like Fragipane . YUMMMMM!!

Cream Crackers

I love this low fat snack. Well surely its not low fat if you eat a whole pack of it, which i normally tend to. We get a good variety of black pepper, sesame, plain, veggie ..etc Cream crackers here. So i thought to give it a shot at home once and ya they are super duper easy and the best about baking them at home is keeping them as low in fat as you want.

I made a small batch this time as i was experimenting with my own recipe, next time its sure going to be a big ... big batch with all kinds of sprinklings on it :)

Also Madhuram has announced her Low fat Eggless baking Event. So this recipe goes to her. I am eagerly waiting for the round up, to try some awesome low cal, vegetarian recipes :)

I made basic sea salt-pepper (red and black) seasonings this time.
You can make them rich by adding a good scoop of butter or olive oil in it. I have skipped all the fat content in it. They were a little dry but well that made it taste more crisp. :)

So here;s the recipe for
Cream Crackers:
1cup All purpose flour
Salt to taste
1/2 cup milk
Few drops of oil (just to grease it while rolling)
Mix all the above ingredients to make a smooth dough. Cover with a damp cloth and let it rest for about 15 min.
In the mean time pre-heat your oven at 170 C
After your dough has rested roll them into sheets and using a pizza cutter cut them into squares or your desired shape. Sprinkle some sea salt/black pepper/red pepper or any seasoning of your choice.
I made small roses out of it. which looked adorable. Bake them on a parchment paper until they get a light golden glow on them, that would take about 15-20 min max.
Cool them on a wire rack and store in a air tight jar :)