Poached Apple Cinnamon Cake (Eggless and Whole Wheat)

After a long hiatus, I baked again and I baked a lot. I wanted to share an awesome new recipe that I tried out – Poached Apple Cinnamon Cake. This cake apparently is the best cake I have ever made.

I modified the recipe for Spiced Pear Cake from Passionate About Baking, who is in turn had gotten the recipe from Food Network Canada.

There are two parts to this cake – the poached apples and cake itself. You can place whole poached apples into the cake, but I cut mine up into quarter slices and spread them around. Next time, I cut an apple into 4 quarters and further slice each quarter into 2 to 3 pieces so that you can get pieces of apple in each bite.

As I am writing this up, I realized that I used WAY less water than was stated in the original recipe for poaching, but it worked out fine!

Next time I am going to try making this without sugar (using honey instead) to make it a sugar-free, vegetarian dessert!

Here is my eggless version:

Poached Apple Cinnamon Cake
Makes 2 – 4 X 8 inch cakes make in a loaf pan

Ingredients

Poached Apples

• 2 medium apples (cut into quarter slices, cut further after poaching)
• Juice of 1 small lemon (mine was a circular lemon about 1.5 inches in diameter)
• 1 cup water (original recipe says 4 cups of water)
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cinnamon stick

Cinnamon Cake

• 3/4 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup ground almonds / walnuts
• 3/4 tsp baking powder
• 3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 pinch salt
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 apple puree

Directions:

Poached Apples

1. Peel the apples and slice into quarters.
2. Place the apples in a bowl and sprinkle with lemon juice. Set aside.
3. Place the water, sugar and cinnamon in a saucepan and bring to a boil.
4. Add the apples and the remaining lemon juice.
5. With the syrup barely simmering, poach the apples until tender, 10 to 15 minutes.
6. Transfer to a plate and let cool to room temperature.
7. Return apples to cooled poaching liquid.

Cinnamon Cake

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C. Lightly grease and flour pan.
2. In a bowl, combine the flour, ground almonds, baking powder, spices and salt. Set aside.
3. In another bowl, cream the butter with the brown sugar. Add apple puree and mix until smooth.
4. Measure out 1/4 cup of the poaching liquid.
5. Add the dry ingredients, alternating with the poaching liquid.
6. Pour the batter into the pan. Place poached apple pieces in the batter.
7. Bake for 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the cake between 2 apples comes out clean.
8. Let cool on a rack and unmould gently.

Vegan Mini Whole Wheat Chocolate Heart Cake with Strawberry Topping

Through some random clicking through links on my list of food blogs, I came across Red Chillies' Vegan Chocolate Cake, which is originally from Allrecipes and was submitted to Madhuram's eggless baking with vinegar event.

I wanted to make some easy and quick cake to take for some friends I was meeting after a long time and decided to give it a try. Unlike Red Chillies' experience, I found this cake to be quite moist. I made it in my bundt cake pan and perhaps did not grease it properly so ended up with lots of cake with no shape. I've made vinegar chocolate cake before and my opinion is that they are more like brownies than cake (that might also be because I used whole wheat flour, so they are denser..)

BUT since it was moist, it was very easy to shape with my hands without the addition of frosting or anything else. Inspired by Priya's Hearts for Valentine's Day event, I came up with these heart shaped mini cakes. These of course are being submitted to the event and is my first submission to a food blogging event =)

So I made 1cm thick circles and used a heart shaped cookie cutter to cut out hearts. Layered two hearts together with some frosting (not too much as generally people find its addition to be too sweet here) and topped with strawberry topping I made a day ago. It's the perfect size for a dessert without being too much or too little. I would perhaps next time also cover with a chocolate ganache.

Great thing about this recipe is that you can make it all in one flour or even the pan (if using a cake pan)

Note: I predominantly use whole wheat instead of all-purpose flour (or maida in India). Everything tastes delicious though it may be denser. This was no exception. I would recommend the switch. It's healthier =)

Mini Whole Wheat Chocolate Heart Cake

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
  
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1/4 cup cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon distilled white vinegar
• 1 cup water
• (vegan) frosting as needed
  

Directions

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C). Take a loaf pan and grease it thoroughly.
• Sift together the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda and salt.
• Now add the oil, vanilla, vinegar and water. Mix together until smooth.
• Pour into prepared pan and bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 35 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool.
• Remove from tray and crumble together. Make 1 cm thick rounds that are larger than cookie cutter. Cut out hearts, using excess from the side to make more.
• Top one heart with frosting and place another heart on top of it.
• Serve with strawberry or any fruit topping.

Honey (Whole) Wheat Bread

Armed with the success of my first yeast product - the onion and cheddar pretzel, I wanted to find a easy whole wheat bread that I can make regularly for breakfast, etc. Allrecipes had a really positively reviewed recipe for a simple whole wheat bread that I decided to try out.

I made some small changes, make 1 loaf instead of 3 and all whole wheat flour, no bread flour and a little more honey. One glitch was that my yeast was not activated properly so it did not rise well, so I ended up with quite dense bread. Its a great with peanut or jam.

Ingredients

• 1 cup warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
• 2 teaspoons dry active yeast
  
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 3 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 tablespoon olive oil or butter
  
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons olive oil or melted butter
  

Directions

1. In a large bowl, mix warm water, yeast, and 2 tablespoons honey. Add 2 cups whole wheat flour, and stir to combine. Let set for 30 minutes, or until big and bubbly.
2. Mix in 1 tablespoon olive oil, 2 tablespoons honey, and salt. Stir in 1 cups whole wheat flour. Flour a flat surface and knead with whole wheat flour until not real sticky - just pulling away from the counter, but still sticky to touch. Place in a greased bowl, turning once to coat the surface of the dough. Cover with a dishtowel. Let rise in a warm place until doubled.
3. Punch down. Place in greased 9 x 5 inch loaf pan, and allow to rise until dough has topped the pans by one inch.
4. Bake at 180 degrees C for 25 to 30 minutes; do not overbake. Lightly brush the tops of loaves with melted butter or olive oil when done to prevent crust from getting hard. Cool completely

Onion Cheddar Pretzel

Aparna from My Diverse Kitchen has this fantastic onion and cheddar pretzel recipe that I had to try. When I finally got some good yeast and decided to attempt my first fermented bread, this looked so appealing that I gave this a shot (plus I had medium cheddar cheese in my fridge courtesy of international visitors). Plus it was a chance to try out the kneading function on my food processor. Note: this makes bread making SOOO easy. I was considering getting a bread maker from abroad, but with the food processor, its easy enough that I can do without one.

I made some changes. As usual, I used more whole wheat than the recipe calls for. Instead of topping with sesame seeds, I used 1/4 cup less cheese in the dough and sprinkled it on top and I left out the black pepper, though I would use it next time. She strongly recommends using sharp cheddar cheese, I only had medium, but it still came out great.

I can definitely get used to the smell of fresh bread in my home. It lingered for hours and smelled oh so good. =)

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup finely chopped onion
• 1 1/2 tsp olive oil
  
• 2 tsp dry active yeast
• 1 1/2 tsp sugar
• 3/4 cup warm water
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 cup grated cheddar cheese
• 1 tsp dried Italian herbs, crushed
• 1/2 tsp
  

Directions

1. In a pan, sauté the onions in butter till soft but not brown. Keep aside to cool a bit.
2. Set aside 1/4 cup grated cheese.
   
3. Add the sugar and yeast to the warm water, stir and allow to prove. In a mixing bowl (or processor bowl), put the sautéed onion, 3/4 cup cheese, flours, Italian herbs and salt. Mix (or pulse) a couple of times and add the yeast mixture.
4. Knead very well, adding more water if necessary, till a moderately stiff dough which is smooth and elastic is obtained.
5. Shape into a ball and place in a greased bowl, coating the ball with oil by turning it round in the bowl. Cover and allow the dough to double in volume (about an hour or so).
6. Deflate the dough and turn it out onto a lightly floured surface, letting it rest for 10 minutes. Roll the dough out into a 24" long smooth rope. Place it on a greased baking sheet and shape into a large pretzel shape. Moisten the ends of the pretzel and tuck them underneath to seal.
7. Cover and allow to rise till almost double (about half an hour). Sprinkle top with remaining cheddar cheese.
8. Bake at 190C for about 40 minutes till golden brown and the bread sounds hollow when tapped. If the bread is browning too much, cover it loosely with aluminium foil during the last 20 minutes in the oven. Cool completely on a rack.
   

Vegetarian Mexican Lasagna (Eggless)

My first attempt at lasagna was a huge success and considering how easy it was, its not surprise that I was looking forward to making it again. This time, I decided to mix it up a little and make mexican lasagna (with lasagna noodles not tortillas) and it was another big hit =)

But unfortunately I didnt get a chance to take any pictures before it was eaten up. I decreased the cheese this time and you couldn't tell the difference.

Hearty Healthy Vegetable Lasagna
makes 2 square 1.6L dishes, which is enough for atleast 8 people.

Ingredients

• 12 lasagna noodles (I used no-bake noodles)
  
• 1.5 green bell peppers, chopped (or 1 cup chopped)
  
• 1 large carrot, chopped (or 1 cup chopped)
• 3/4 cup onions
• 3/4 cup corn
  
• 1/2 cup sliced black olives (increase or decrease per preference)
  
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
  
• 400 grams paneer, crumbled (or ricotta cheese)
• 200 grams shredded cheddar cheese
• 2.5 cups of salsa, pureed

Directions

1. If using lasagna noodles that need to be cooked, cook the lasagna noodles in a large pot of boiling water until al dente. Rinse with cold water, and drain.
2. In a large saucepan, cook green peppers, onions, carrots and corn in oil. Stir in 1.5 cups of of pureed salsa and remove from heat. This is our vegetable salsa "sauce".
3. Crumble paneer and mix with olives.
   
4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Cover bottom of baking dish with pureed salsa (without vegetables) . Place 2 lasagna noodles on bottom, layer with 1/4 each of vegetable salsa sauce and paneer mix. Top with pureed salsa. Repeat lasagna noodle, vegetable salsa sauce, paneer mix and pureed salsa layers. Cover with 2 lasagna noodles. Top with pureed salsa and 1/4 of cheddar cheese. Garnish with sliced olives. Repeat with second tray.
   
5. Cover tray with foil and bake for 30 minutes. Remove foil and bake for 10 more minutes. Let stand 15 minutes before serving.

Pineapple Free Vegan Carrot Cake (Eggless)

It's carrot season in India so we have these wonderfully sweet carrots readily available. For a long time I have been thinking to bake my a carrot cake and today, I had a lot of carrots that needed to be used up so thought why not. Unfortunately all the recipes I came across needed eggs and/or pineapple juice and I had neither. So I looked around some more, mixed and matched to come up with this Pineapple Free - Vegan - Eggless Carrot Cake made in typical fashion with whole wheat flour. It was so moist and delicious to eat. You could see the pieces of carrots. Did not need any frosting. Definitely a keeper.

(Pineapple free) Vegan Carrot Cake
makes 1 - 9in bundt cake + 6 cupcakes

Ingredients

• 1 cup whole wheat flour (can used all purpose)
  
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp cinnamon powder
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup + 2 tbsp applesauce (unsweetened)
  
• 1/4 cup oil (used saffrola)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
  
• 1 1/2 cups grated carrots
  

Directions

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C). Butter and flour bundt pan thoroughly.
  
• Sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon and salt.
• Add the sugars to applesauce, vanilla and oil. Blend well.
• Mix in the flour mixture. [It may seem a bit dry here, but don't worry] Stir in carrots and mix well.
  
• Bake in the preheated oven for 40 to 50 minutes, or until surface of cake bounces back upon touch. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely.

Vegetable Lasagna (without riccotta and eggless)

A good vegetarian lasagna is hard to come by, even in restaurants, unless they are the family owned Italian restaurants - but they often don't have vegetarian lasagnas. In Ahmedabad, its even more difficult.

My fridge was stocked with vegetables and the inspiration struck to attempt my first homemade lasagna and the results were quite tasty. I read a bunch of recipes and came up with this. You can make it healthy by reducing the cheese in half (which I would do next time). And don't worry, the paneer turned out to be a really good substitute for ricotta (which is not available in India).

Note: I did get some ingredients from our local import store, namely the lasagna noodles, pasta sauce and canned artichoke hearts. You can use whatever pasta sauce you like, it plays a large role in taste, so select well. If fresh artichokes are available, I would recommend it. The artichokes really thickened the vegetable filling.



Hearty Healthy Vegetable Lasagna
makes 2 square 1.6L dishes, which is enough for atleast 8 people.

Ingredients

• 12 lasagna noodles (I used no-bake noodles)
  
• 1.5 green bell peppers, chopped (or 1 cup chopped)
  
• 1 large carrot, chopped (or 1 cup chopped)
• 4 drained artichoke hearts, chopped
  
• 3/4 cup onions, chopped
  
• 1 3/4 cup spinach, chopped
• 1 tablespoon garlic paste (or 3-4 garlic cloves, minced)
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper (optional)
  
• 1 teaspoon red chili powder (optional)
  
• 500 grams paneer (or ricotta cheese)
• 350 grams shredded mozzarella cheese* (i used "cheeza")
  
• 2 10 oz jars of pasta sauce**

* If you want to make it healthier, you can use less than 200 grams of cheese. Just use enough to cover the very top and do not use in the layers. Paneer is quite sufficient within the lasagna to give cheesy taste.
** Feel free to make your own pasta sauce. If you have wine, I would recommend the sauce from this chicken parmigiana recipe (no, you don't need chicken for the sauce) from Pioneer Woman.

Directions

1. If using lasagna noodles that need to be cooked, cook the lasagna noodles in a large pot of boiling water until al dente. Rinse with cold water, and drain.
2. In a large saucepan, cook green peppers, carrots, onion, and garlic in oil. Add artichokes when almost cooked. Stir in 1 jar of pasta sauce. Add pepper and chili powder and stir well. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer 15 minutes. This is our vegetable sauce.
   
3. Crumble paneer and mix in spinach.
4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Cover bottom of baking dish with pasta sauce from jar. Place 2 lasagna noodles on bottom, layer with 1/4 each of vegetable sauce and paneer mix. Top with 1/8 mozzarella cheese and some pasta sauce from jar. Repeat lasagna noodle, vegetable sauce, paneer mix, mozzarella and pasta sauce layers. Cover with 2 lasagna noodles. Top with pasta sauce from jar and 1/4 of mozzarella cheese. Repeat with second tray.
   
5. Cover tray with foil and bake for 30 minutes. Remove foil and bake for 10 more minutes. Let stand 15 minutes before serving.

Healthy Eggless Sugarfree Oatmeal Almond Peanut Butter Cookies

I had a bunch of oatmeal that needed to be used and peanut butter around. I had once made these oatmeal cookies with honey and olive oil, but could not find the recipe. I found this recipe, did a bunch of modifications and came up with this healthy oatmeal cookie that is sugarfree, eggfree and butterless. I also added almonds to it, but you can add raisins, peanuts, walnut, chocolate chips... whatever tickles your fancy.

Note: According to my dietician friend, honey is not good for very young children, so this would not be for them.

Warning: its quite the hearty cookie.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups old fashioned oats
• 1 cup whole wheat flour (or all-purpose flour)
• 3/4 teaspoon + a pinch baking soda
• 1/3 cup creamy natural peanut butter
• 1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon honey
• 2 teaspoons olive oil
  
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup coarsely chopped almonds (peanuts/raisins/chocolate chips)
• 1/2 cup
  

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees C.
2. Scatter oats on a large sheet pan and bake for 10-12 minutes, or until light golden brown; remove from sheet pan. Grease sheet.
   
3. In a medium sized mixing bowl, sift together flour and baking soda.
4. In a large mixing bowl, combine peanut butter, olive oil and honey, until creamy. Add vanilla and mix until well combined.
   
5. Beat in flour mixture until combined. Beat in toasted oats, peanuts until combined.
6. Shape the dough into balls, using about 1/4 cup of batter per ball; place on sheet pan and flatten slightly.
7. Bake at 190 degrees C, for 10-12 minutes, or until light golden brown. Cool 2 minutes on pan before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.

Carrot Souffle

I bake when I am in the mood to bake (which generally happens around 10 or 11pm) or if its someone's birthday or special occasion. I try to pick stuff that doesn't take hours otherwise I would be more consumed with the baking than practice or other work and of course, practice takes priority.

I had an itch to bake or cook over the last two days, but was warned against it, given the hours that were spent on the birthday cake(s) the previous week. I was going back and forth about whether or not to bake and one big con was that I didn't have much saltfree butter, no milk and not much flour - yep that really limited what I could do and I didn't have the time to go get stuff. BUT I did have a bunch of carrots. While searching for a carrot soup recipe, I found a carrot souffle recipe. Modifying looking at other recipes, here is what I did. It turned out to be a great dessert, not too sweet and great with ice cream. It was a great dessert for new year's eve dinner.

Great thing about this is that you can do the main stuff in the morning or night before. An hour or two before dinner, add the flour, eggs and baking powder and bake it for an hour. I boiled and pureed in the afternoon and kept it in the fridge for about 3 hours. You can keep it in the fridge overnight.

I took pictures.. or so I thought. I didn't have the memory card in my dslr.. oops

Carrot Souffle

Ingredients

• 500grams carrots, peeled and chopped
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 3/4 teaspoons baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour (maida)
• 1 egg + 1 egg white (or 1.5 eggs), beaten
• 2 - 3 tablespoons butter or margarine, softened - i only had around 2.5 tbsp

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees C.
2. In a large pot of boiling water, cook the carrots until very tender. Drain and add to mixer.
3. Puree carrots with butter, vanilla extract and sugar. [Careful mixer will be hot if its a metal one like mine]. Transfer to bowl, allow to cool slightly and refrigerate.
4. Mix in the flour, eggs, and baking powder. Transfer to a 1 quart baking dish.
5. Bake 1 hour in the preheated oven, or until top is golden brown. Serve with vanilla ice cream.

[Note: this is not a picture of my souffle - mine was consumed before it could be photographed. But the texture and look was the same =)]

Eggless Pineapple Coconut Cobbler

Its birthday season in December. Time for birthday number 2.

Things to keep in mind:
- he doesn't really like sweet stuff or chocolate
- something with pineapple or coconut would work well

After some head scratching, I settled on a pineapple coconut cobbler. I modified this recipe by simply adding coconut. And as are many of my kitchen adventures, it did not go without its hiccups. I did not have a deep pan, only my 2 1-inch deep cake trays, so the first question was what to bake it. I ended up using deep metal bowl type tray that I had, which meant longer baking time as its 4-inch deep and the recipe filled the bowl to the rim. So baking took a lot longer than expected. The shredded coconut widely available here is unsweetened, so to me the cobbler was lacking in that department, but everyone was happy and I think the side of vanilla ice cream did the trick. In the future, I would probably not make this with pineapple though, unless they are canned and/or mixed with another fruit. I think peaches, pears, apples, cherries are better suited for cobblers.

The recipe itself is very easy and you can omit the coconut and replace the fruit.

Pineapple Coconut Cobbler

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup butter
• 1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 cup white sugar [can increase to 1 1/4 cup if using unsweetened coconut]
  
• 1 cup milk
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
  
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
  
• 4 cups sliced pineapple (or any other fruit)
• 1/2 cup shredded coconut, sweetened
  

Directions

1. Melt butter or margarine in a 9 x 13 inch pan. Set aside to cool.
2. Preheat oven to 180 degrees C.
   
3. Stir together flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder. Mix in milk and vanilla. Pour batter over melted butter. DO NOT MIX OR STIR. Spoon fruit with juice over the batter. [Since I used a deeper dish, I poured half the batter then added half the fruit and repeated].
   
4. Bake for 55 minutes if 9 x 13 in pan, I baked for 1 hour 20 min.
5. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream.
   

Fruit and Coconut Quick Bread

I found a recipe for pomegranate quick bread, didn't have all the ingredients, so I made some substitutions and came out with this - pineapple, apple, pomegranate coconut quick bread (aka fruit and coconut quickbread). It turned out great. A bit on the dense and moist side, but still delicious. I got to use my loaf pan for the first time =) The best part, it's def much healthy than the majority of the stuff I bake.

Fruit and Coconut Quick Bread

Ingredients:

• 2 cups sifted wheat flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup pineapple juice
• 1/2 cup shredded sweetened coconut
• 1/2 pomegranate arils
• 1/2 of cup unsweetened applesauce (I used freshly blended apples) + olive oil (I filled 3/4 of the 1/2 cup with applesauce then the rest with olive oil and ended up adding a little bit more applesauce and oil while mixing)

So the applesauce/oil portions are not exact. When mixing I thought there was not enough liquid, so added a bit more. When replacing oil with applesauce, you should keep some oil, which is what I was trying to do. Applesauce makes baked goods as does wheat flour (compared to all purpose), which would explain my denser quick bread. Also I think I might have added a bit too much applesauce/oil as my bread is a bit on the too moist side.

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 180*C. Grease loaf pan - I sprayed mine using my new PAM baking spray.

2. Combine all ingredients in large mixing bowl; blend well.

3. Pour batter into loaf pan.

4. Bake for 45 minutes until top is firm and an inserted toothpick comes out clean. I baked mine for 53 min.

5. Allow loaf to cool before serving.

Great as a snack or for breakfast!