Carrot spice muffins - Muffin Monday

Hi I am back, so soon don't wonder, I had to put up this post today morning, but never happened for n number of reasons, mainly I misread shall I say as always read between lines and been sick from past few days, slowly recovering.

CARROT SPICE MUFFINS FOR MUFFIN MONDAYS

I met this lady when I was Googling something which I totally forgot what it was anyways I  got hooked looking at her blog, she has such a beautiful blog not cluttered with lots of things like mine!, when I looking through her blog I found out that she has a small club baking muffins and is called Muffin Mondays, I love baking Muffins rather than cup cakes so I don't have to decorate them :), so that's it, mailed her immediately and here I am with my first Muffin Monday, it is an initiative by Baker Street, A culinary journey of sharing a wickedly delicious muffin recipe every week, If you want to join her drop in a quick line to her and on her journey to make the world smile and beat glum Monday Mornings week after week.

I love baking muffins and my kids enjoy it too, I try my best to bake healthy ones too..., As Anuradha gives a free hand in baking these muffins I was looking at it and thinking as an Indian!, Carrot and spices, Hmm.., well that got me into a new world so I baked two different muffins and changed somethings from the original recipe.
This recipe is basically adapted from Whole foods for the whole family by Laleche League international cookbook.
Coming back to the recipe, I have halved the recipe for two different types of Muffins, If you are after the Original recipe I will give it you in italics.

CARROT SPICE SWEET MUFFINS

INGREDIENTS:
3/4th cup Whole wheat flour (Original Recipe calls for 1 and 1/2 cup Whole wheat Flour)
1/4 Cup Plain flour (I added)
1 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Baking soda
1/4 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp Cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/8th tsp all spice
1/8th tsp of Ground Ginger
1/3 Cup Brown Sugar (Original recipe calls for 1/2 cup Brown sugar/honey, I used both!)
1/4 Cup Honey
1 Egg
1/4 Cup Buttermilk/Yogurt
1/4 Cup Butter ( Original recipe calls for 1/3 cup oil/butter/apple sauce)
1/2 tsp Vanilla essence
Pinch of Cardamom powder
3/4th Cup Grated Carrot ( Original recipe calls for 1 and 1/2 cup carrot)
1/4 Cup Sweetened dessicated Coconut (I added)
1/4 cup Raisins
1/4 Cup chopped Cashewnuts ( original recipe just says chopped nuts)
Used some Fudge Chunks to top it.


METHOD:
Preheat the oven to 400 dF/ Gas Mark 6/
Take all the Dry ingredients together in a bowl flour, soda, powder , salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and all spice, cardamom together and sieve.
In another bowl, mix together wet ingredients honey, brown sugar, buttermilk, Egg, vanilla essence, butter,  carrots, raisins, coconut and cashew nuts together.
Now Gently fold in the dry Ingredients with the wet Ingredients together until well incorporated.
Then fill up the muffin cases and bake for about 15 to 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean.

CARROT SPICE SAVOURY MUFFINS


INGREDIENTS:
1 Cup Whole wheat flour
1 tsp Baking soda
1tsp Baking powder
1 Egg
1 and 1/2 tsp Salt (Adjust salt according to your taste)
1/4 tsp sugar
1/8th tsp Ground Ginger
1/4 cup Buttermilk or Yogurt
2 and 1/2 tbsp Oil/butter/apple sauce (I used Oil)
1/2 tsp Lemon Juice
1/2 Cup Grated Carrot
2 Green chillies
1/4 cup Onion chopped finely
1 tbsp Coriander leaves
1/4 tsp cumin powder
1/4 tsp Coriander powder


METHOD:
Preheat the oven to 400 degree F/Gas mark 6/
In a large bowl take the flour, spices, salt (adjust salt to taste as this is going to be a spicy muffin), Baking soda, Baking powder Mix everything well together and keep aside
In an other bowl, take all the wet ingredients together Buttermilk/yogurt, oil/butter/apple sauce, lemon juice, Egg then add grated carrots, onion and coriander leaves, combine well together.
To this above mixture gently incorporate the dry ingredients until just moistened
Bake for about 20 minutes or until a tooth pick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean.
That's it done
Enjoy this wonderful Indian spiced muffins as a breakfast or as an evening snack, My kids took one of each to school!.

NOTE: If you want it Eggless Just omit the eggs in the recipe and Lo! you get Eggless Sweet and Savoury Carrot Spice Muffins!
C u soon with an other recipe tomorrow..., 

Eggless Apple, cinnamon and Oatmeal cookies

EGGLESS APPLE, CINNAMON AND OATMEAL COOKIES

Hi everybody, how have you all been doing ?, I was down with fever, cough and cold just like the English weather, Drastically weather here has changed to a wet, cold days already, I feel so uncomfortable thinking of all those cold days ahead, but never thought so soon!. My plants do not know how to cope with this silly weather which keeps changing just makes me miserable.

This recipe I made is a last minute decision, I was still looking through her blog wondering what shall i bake, I loved her site and her writing, The first thing I thought about her was hats of to her, with three boys Oh! my God!, how does she manage, I have one son and he is so naughty, these boys don't seem to know how to sit quietly for just a minute. what else do you want to know about her ?, Her hubby is a Chef and they have a resturant which is already a talk of the town!, maybe someday I might visit them!, check it out here for full details and you would really enjoy, The couples are a gorgeous pair.

Bloggers of course you would definitely want to visit her, she has got lot of giveaways and lot of things happening in her little corner as she calls it.
I told lot of things about her, let me introduce you to her she is Cara from Boys made me do it  , you must be wondering what is all this about, well, it is this Monday! SRC Reveal day, Oh! yes it's already a month!, Angela who is co-hostess of The secret Recipe Club assigned me to this blog. Amanda, the fabulous women started this club which has grown like a wild fire is not able to manage on her own has now got co-hosts to help her with this project, She is such a sweet heart, is ready for any help needed, I want to thank both of them to have allowed  me to enjoy this lovely theme with them.

Coming back to the recipe, I chose this as my kids love cookies, and this was a healthy version except for the butter, and I love oatmeal, My kids wanted me to try this so here I am with this recipe...
I have halved the recipe, If you want to check the original recipe is here.
She adapted this cookies recipe from her friend Krystal who in turn adapted from Joy the Baker.

APPLE CINNAMON OATMEAL COOKIES EGGLESS

INGREDIENTS:
1 Cup Oats ( old fashioned quick cooking oats)
1/2 cup
2 tbsp Wheat Germ
1 Apple (I used Royal Gala)

1/2 Cup Brown sugar
1 tsp Vanilla essence
1/2 tsp Baking soda
1/2 tsp Baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp Ground cinnamon
a generous pinch of nutmeg
10 gms Walnuts
20 gms Chocolate chips
1 tbsp Lemon Juice
1/4 cup Butter
1 Egg ( I just omitted it)


METHOD:
preheat oven to 350 degrees/Gas mark 6
In a large take all the dry ingredients, baking powder, baking soda, salt, two flours, cinnamon, and nutmeg and mix well together.
In an other bowl, beat sugar and butter until fluffy and creamy,( If you are using egg add at this point and beat well together to light and fluffy and do not add lemon juice and apples at this stage add them at the end with nuts and chips but do not forget to add lemon juice to apple and set it aside until use),  then add lemon juice and finely chopped 1 apple mix well together, this is important chop the apples and mix immediately so the apples don't loose colour!
Then to this mix add chopped walnuts and chocolate chips.
Line two baking sheets with butter paper and with a spoon spread the dough on to the sheet with space apart,
and bake them for 15 to 20 minutes I baked mine to 20 minutes as I wanted it to be bit on the crispy side. Even then it wasn't too crispy but tasted great.

VERDICT:
My kids loved it and I felt happy as they were healthy and I had used fresh fruit in it, What else do you need in it :)

Eggless One Bowl Coconut Cake

Do you like Coconut then this is for you, the coconut just gives you such lovely taste, you wouldn't go without an other piece, This cake is basically made with Eggs, I just turned it into an Eggless version, I come from south of India, from Karnataka State, Like keralites, People in Karnataka also tend to use lot of coconut in their cooking. Born and brought up,  like any other Kannadiga, I use coconut in my cooking a lot, which is minimised now a days  :(.

Well. It's already wednesday, that means an other Blog Hop already, I was assigned by Radhika of Tickling Palates with Shireen of Ruchik Randhap, and guess what she is from my state - but comes from Mangalore, I have been to mangalore many a times, Mangaloreans use coconut a lot in their cooking and cashews,  I still remember when I went there the first time I was in a school trip from seva dal  stayed near Mangala Stadium, where we had all our programmes and activities,  Mmm.., that's what I remember and bought Cashewnuts!. Now of course I have lot of friends and I love their cooking style too., so going through her blog was lovely, remembering my friends and the Mangalorean food!, she has such a lovely space, she talks about the place she comes from and writes a little story in every one of her delightful reicpes.., In her blog she has photos of some of the veggies and fruits which makes me think of home, and its been quite a long time I tasted them.   I tried two of her dishes, this is one of them, the other one I will post when I post one of own recipes.
Bascially, when I go to a blog I look for original recipes, so I had to try out the other recipe first and then this one!, she has tried out this recipe from NZ's Favourite Recipe. Check out her space for this recipe, it's a real beauty, the clicks are  so beautiful, unlike mine, you feel like picking it up.
I tweeked the recipe little bit as I was making this eggless and the recipe calls for 3 Eggs, so I had to change it a little bit to replace three eggs

EGGLESS ONE BOWL COCONUT CAKE

INGREDIENTS:
1 cup of Plain flour
1/2 cup Fine Corn meal
1/2 cup Dessicated Coconut
3/4 th cup Granulated sugar
1/4 cup Condensed milk
1/4 cup Milk
1/4 cup (+2tbsp) curds
1/4 cup Tutti-fruti
1 1/2 tsp Baking powder
1 tsp Baking soda
1/4 cup Coconut Oil
1 tsp Cardamom  flavour
1/4 tsp salt

METHOD:



Preheat the oven 10 minutes before at 180 degrees/Gas Mark 5
Line an 9'' round cake tin
In a large bowl take both the flours, baking powder, baking soda and salt mix well combined, then sift together twice and keep aside
In an other bowl mix all the wet Ingredients, condensed milk, milk, curds, cardamom flavour and sugar, mix well combined until the sugar is well dissolved then add the dessicated coconut and Tutti-fruti, to this add the sieved dry Ingredients until well incorporated into it in a nice circular motion, don't mix in too much, the air bubbles created will fall through other wise.



I added extra 2 tbsp of buttermilk to make it little more wet and to a dropping consistency, just have an extra 1/4 cup curds, use it according to your flour.

I took a 1/2 tbsp of cocoa powder and mixed with 2 tbsp of hot water then poured it on top of the cake and swirled it around the cake

Fold this wet batter into the cake pan and stick it in the oven for around 40 - 45 minutes or until the skewer comes out clean.

I had some friends over at dinner and they don't like to eat eggs, so this was perfect for the dessert, they loved it very much, well I couldn't keep my hands off it, I kept eating it, It was so lovely and delicious, thanks shireen for this lovely reicpe. you can see from the close up, how well it turned outl

This is my submission for Blop Hop wednesday you too make it and enjoy it..., as we all did...

Check out this link to see what others have been doing.... here

Chocolate Almond Biscotti - Healthy way !

Hi everybody, hope you are all doing well, I am quite happy too, I had a heavy rainfall just an hour back and suddenly I see sun shining in full galore now :), this is British weather !, When I came here first everybody would start talking to you with weather first!, I wondered and then I came to know why ?!, As my friend Emma said welcome to British weather, you can 4 different seasons in a day!, Oh! yes I did, yesterday it was so windy I thought I might fly off, It was such a ghastly, howling wind, when I got up in the morning it was pouring down, I was quite upset, now its replaced with sunshine and the wind. I really am talking too much about this right ?. let me stop and come to my recipe.
I had to post this 5 days back, basically I thought I will post it on the 8th which never happened, stuck with lot of things, to tell you the truth I had completely forgotten this team of bakers ''Sweet Punch'', it just happens isn't it, when your health keeps punching you often, I forget lot of things and priorities automatically change. when I saw the first post in my mail, I was very upset that I had forgotten and immediately set out to make this lovely biscotti, and decided I will post it the next day! and the next day slowly changed to 6 days!.
well, anyways here I am, I tweaked this recipe a little bit, just to make it more healthier, when ever I bake I try not to use plain flour as much as possible but not completely as because of its gluten content and use different flours as well, other wise recipe is just the same, If you have sweet tooth, I would suggest you can add more sugar, I really don't know if it works pretty well with plain flour, my kids said I could have added more sugar, but for me it was perfect.

Biscotti is an Italian cuisine : the Wiki gives you a detailed information on this....check out...

Biscotti (pronounced /bɪˈskɒti/, Italian pronunciation: [bisˈkɔtti]) more correctly known as biscotti di Prato (English: biscuits of Prato), also known as cantuccini(English: corners), are a twice-baked cake originating in the Italian city of Prato. The cakes are large almond biscuits, made dry and crunchy through cutting the loaf of dough while still hot and fresh from baking in the oven.


This is my first time with sweet punch and the september theme was ''Chocolate Almond Biscotti'' from Joy of baking, I had already made a biscotti with different flavours and eggless, I was into this as I love Joy of baking and my kids like these crunchy cakes and eat them as snacks when they come back from school. It's been quite sometime I made anything with egg, so I thought why not :)

CHOCOLATE ALMOND BISCOTTI



INGREDIENTS: 
makes about 16 pieces
110 gms (3/4th Cup)  Blanched whole  Almonds
135 gms (2/3 cup) Sugar
2 Large Eggs
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
1 tsp Baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
100 gms Plain flour
60 gms whole grain Rye flour
65 gms Oat flour ( Morn flake powdered in mixie)
100 gms Semi sweet chocolate

(Original recipe calls for 225gms/ 1 3/4th cup Plain flour)



My daughter clicked this close up from iphone!

METHOD:
As I had no ready made toasted almonds, I soaked almonds in hot water for 10 minutes, then peeled the skin off and spread it on a baking sheet set the oven to 180 degrees/Gas mark 5 and toasted it for 8-10 minutes until light golden and fragrant, and set aside. Once cool chop them into pieces
Take a baking sheet and line the parchment paper.
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees/Gas mark 5/350 d F
In a bowl I took all the flours, salt and Baking powder and combined them well together and then sieved them twice, just to make sure they are well mixed.
In a large bowl, I whisked 2 Eggs and sugar until thick fluffy, the batter from the beater should fall in ribbons, at this point beat in vanilla extract.
Now add the flours, combine well then fold in chopped almonds and chocolate.
Transfer this dough on to the parchment lined baking sheet and form into a log, about 12'' long and 3 1/2'' wide, as you can see in my photo, I just dumped on to the sheet and with wet hands I pressed them down into that shape (that's what happens when you don't plan and bake late in the night!).
You have to dampen your hands to form a log as the dough is quite sticky!!
Bake for 25 minutes or until firm to touch, then remove it from the oven and let it cool on a wire rack for about 10 minutes.



Meanwhile Reduce your oven temperature to 165 degrees/Gas Mark 3/325 d F, Cut the baked log into 3/4'' slices on the diagonal.  Place these biscotti cut side down, on the baking sheet and bake further for about 10 minutes then turn them over again and bake for another 10 minutes or until golden brown.
Remove from oven and allow it cool and store it an air tight container



These are all the clicks my daughter took, I couldn't bin them as I told until you take photos no eating, she was so upset with me, she couldn't resist broke some pieces though, the smell was making them want to taste it :),  they had no fat at all, such a guilt free recipe.
I had made a Biscotti long back, an eggless one, I will definitely post it soon check out...

Pasta, Pizza and Noodles Event - Round-up

Hi everybody, thank you for all your entries for this lovely ‘’Only Event’’ by Pari of Food delicious, I had wonderful and colourful  entries for this event,  some have out done with their creations, A Huge thank you to all my lovely girls who sent me this lovely entries and a big hug to you all.  I am very delighted you all participated, and thanks for few of them who were kind enough to link some of their recipes to this event when I left a comment in their blog J.

FROM INDIA

1.Suvida of Suvidhas kitchen, sent me this entry with lot of veggies to tempt anybody’s taste buds

Recipe: Tomato Penne Pasta

2. Khushi from A Girl’s Diary, sent me this creamy pasta, that’s just like my kids would love.

Recipe: Pasta in White Sauce

3. Raksha Kamat of Raksha’s Kitchen, A very Desi touch to a Italian cuisine, which I should try some time

Recipe Name: Desi Pasta 

4. Raksha Kamat of Raksha’s Kitchen, also sent a quick pizza, Any time pizza time

Recipe : Quick Crustless Pizza

5.PJ of Seduceurtastebuds, A perfect Italian cuisine, which we all love

Recipe: Tomato Basil Pasta

6. Sravani of Srav’s Culinary Concepts, Have a look at this, kids will love this, with a honey comb design!

Recipe Name: Thyme Pasta Frittata with Desi Touch

7. Siri P.of Cookingwith siri, A definite peak into her kitchen which you all should definitely should do as you would know something about olive oil and a wonderful simple recipe, you wouldn’t say no J

Recipe Name: Spaghetti Aglio Olio

8.Chandrani Banerjee, this is what we wouldn’t say no if you like your spices!

Recipe Name: Chilli Garlic Noodles

9.Vidya vardan of share the treasure, A quick simple twist from the long process of Pizza 

Recipe Name Breadizza

10. Prathibha Garre of The Chef and Her Kitchen,  Yup this is what I do almost every week!,  I could have had her plate this week, with lot of veggies, A  one pot meal.

Recipe Name: Chinese veg Hakka Noodles

11.Shilpa Dubey of Yummilicious food tummy, I never thought of making it this way, check out...

Recipe Name: Easy Pan Pizza

FROM UK

12. Nupur Mehra of UK- Rasoi, A quick and simple one, which nobody would mind right ?

Recipe: Tortilla Pizza

12. Nupur Mehra of UK- Rasoi, what else you want tomato and chilli pesto Mmm..., delicious

Recipe Name: Spaghetti in Tomato Chili Sauce

13. Nupur Mehra of UK-Rasoi, love ricotta and spinach what else do you want - A healthy irony touch!

Recipe Name: Pasta in Ricotta Cheese spinach Sauce

FROM US

14. Krithika Karthikeyan of Kriti’s Kitchen, Never tried this Rotella pasta, look at it what a beautiful shape and if you are like my kid you would love it with eggplant and Red pepper

Recipe Name: Rotella Pasta with Eggplant and red Pepper Pesto

15. Krithika Karthikeyan of Krithika’s Kitchen, must be tasting great with Roasted garlic and home made Marinara

Recipe Name: Spaghetti with Roasted Garlic and Homemade Marinara

16. Krithika Karthikeyan of Krithika’s Kitchen, here is the last one with the great sauce, that everybody likes!

Recipe Name: Pasta  with White Sauce and Roasted Vegetables

17. Anu Shoj of Anuzhealthykitchen, Here is the one made from scratch, I made one and I know how it feels when you are making your own from scratch, check out.... what a colour and I need to try this too..

Recipe Name: Carrot Pasta with Carrot Ribbons

18. Anu Shoj of Anuzhealthykitchen, she got very carried away, now I have to make this too J, as it has Chocolate and Strawberry, what else do you want J J

Recipe Name: Eggless chocolate pasta with strawberry cream cheese and chocolate syrupJ

19. Anu Shoj of Anuzhealthykitchen, look at that lovely shapes!!

Recipe Name: Kids pasta car-train-bike-plain J

20.Anu Shoj of Anuzhealthykitchen, this is what I love, my favourite veggies, look at that so colourful and enchanting...

Recipe Name: Broccoli-green peas pizza

21. Denny  D Nathan, of Ohtastensee , seems to going better and better, sun dried and almond!, that’s something I haven’t given a thought !

Recipe Name: Cappelletti with sundried tomatoes and Almond Pesto

22. Denny D.Nathan, of ohtastensee, look at that so beautiful, that is a must try, a very healthy one with sunflower seeds, this is on my Book Marked recipes as well J

Recipe Name: Pepita Pesto Pasta

23. Reva Madan of Kaarasaaram, I always loved her clicks, and of course the pasta she sent to, as one of my favourite veggie is Capsicum ( Peppers), the click has a rustic look ( the minute I saw I thought of all these chefs who come on TV - Jamie oliver/River bites etc..,, who cook in natures best place, out in the open air, on stones and in the midst of a forest or some lovely farm with Nature's reserves and the last shot would have been like this one right ? 

Recipe Name: Pasta Capsicum Pockets

24. Vardhini Koushik of Vardhiniskitchen , an other eggplant with basil !!,  try it out!

Recipe Name: Basil-pesto Egg plant pasta

25. Akhila from akilaskitchen, has completely given a new look to the Italian cuisine !!!!

Recipe Name: Pasta kheer

FROM SINGAPORE

26. Indrani of Recipe Junction, sent me one, two, three well no four Cheeses and baked veggies, My kids would be over the moon!

Recipe Name : Four cheese baked  veg Pasta

27. Pari of Food delicious, sent me this healthy fusilli with two different sauces, as always she goes deep into  her creations.

Recipe Name: Baked Fusilli in Marinara  and Healthy Spinachy Bechamel sauce,
 

28. Pari of Food delicious sent me this cheesy yummy macaroni pasta, approved and stamped by her son, don’t we all go and stretch ourselves too much to please our kids and try our best to make them eat healthy food, so every food needs to be Tasted, approved by our kind hearted little Judges! and then blogged
Recipe Name: Restaurant style Cheese Macaroni  J

Last by me, don't wonder if I made only one pasta dish for the whole month, life has been too good for me these days, By the time with everyday chores and by the end of the day, I always end of very tired, with health is on a roller coaster ride sometimes, I sometimes wonder what's happening, sometimes blogging takes a back stage and other things take priorities, totally my posting anything on the blog goes on as defintely one tomorrow to come some day.... so from tuesday the tomorrow ended to Saturday!.

Recipe Name: Peppers and onions with creamy Pasta

Thanks to Pari who gave me this lovely opportunity to guest host her event and I like to appreciate the will power of that lady,  who has been very very busy, but still does stick to her commitments been very patient to me in her busy time she wrote to me about what I have done with my round up! :) (unlike me) is waiting for me to post my round-up so she can announce the winner of this event.

And a very many thanks to all  my participants, meeting new friends along the way, and  my best of luck to all of you, as pari will be announcing who has one the event giveaway.

Cheers and thanks, take care

Jayasri.