Eggless Banana, Date and Walnut Loaf

My baking escapades scores  more in number than the sweets I have been making. I don't miss celebrating any festival and all our festivals are associated with some kind of sweet. And it gets done as part of it. So I go for baking to satisfy the sweet cravings. During our Palakkad trip, we had various sweets and savories. That's another reason which pushed me to bake, yesterday. I had a bottle of  dates syrup and wanted to use in baking. I googled for a date loaf and found  a suitable recipe at JoyOfBaking. I tweaked the original recipe a lot that my recipe may look entirely different from the original one. Anyways, I started with that recipe as the base and modified to suit the ingredients at hand and to make it egg less. Hence this Banana, Date and walnut loaf. 

I replaced the nutmeg with cardamom to give an Indian flavor. Believe me the combo of banana, date and cardamom was outstanding. The aroma while it was baking filled the entire house. I couldn't wait to cool and slice. Before I was done with the slicing, I polished off two slices. It was so tempting that I was afraid I might finish off the whole loaf  before my husband is back from office. My loaf tin is small, so I halved the original recipe. I felt the date syrup and banana would have been enough for the sweetness. The 1/4 cup of sugar did make it more sweet but not the cloyingly sweet kind.  I liked it.  But if you intend to serve along your evening tea/coffee, you may omit the sugar altogether or reduce it. In case you are using the dates, then the amount of sugar is required.

You need


Whole wheat flour -1 cup
Baking soda - 1/2 tspn
Baking powder - 1/2 tspn
Salt - a pinch
Cardamom powder - 1/4 tspn
Walnuts - 1/4 cup, toasted and chopped
Banana - 1, small
Date syrup - 1/2 cup
Sugar - 1/4 cup
Oil - 1/4 cup

Method

Mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, cardamom powder and salt. Add the toasted and chopped walnuts. In a blender jar, take chopped  bananas, sugar, and oil. Blend to make a homogeneous paste. Fold in the flour mixture into the wet mix. Stir to mix it completely. Transfer to a greased and dusted loaf tin and bake in a preheated oven at 180 C for 55 minutes or till  tooth pick inserted comes out clean.

 

Kerala Style Eggless Plum/Fruit Cake

Wishing you all a very happy and prosperous year ahead. Come December, all the bakeries in Kerala will have piled up the plum cakes. Though those plum cakes are available through out the year, the ones that arrive during the Christmas, is something special. We never miss to buy them during the season. I have been on the look out for the recipe and Aparna posted a Kerala style fruit cake. Now she did quite a research on the variants of the fruit cake and finally zeroed in on Ammini Ramachandran's recipe.

I decided to follow Aparna's since she said that recipe is close to what she had in mind and  her recipe has only two egg whites. As per her recipe, it was for two cakes. I wanted only one cake. So scaling down the recipe will mean only one egg white, which I decided to replace with milk. I agree the texture is not the same, but I got a decent cake and taste was close to what we got back in Kerala. 

Here is my version

You need

Dry fruits for soaking

• Raisins - 1/2 cup (I used a mix of black and brown ones)
• Dates - 1/2 cup
• Tutti fruity - 1/4 cup
• Candied orange peel - 2 tblspn
• Candied ginger - 2 tblspn
• Nuts - 1/2 cup
• Orange juice - 1/4 cup

For Caramel Sauce

• Sugar - 3 tblspn
• Boiling water - 1/4 cup

For the cake

• Maida - 1 cup
• Butter - 100 gms/ 1/2 cup
• Powdered brown sugar - 3/4 cup

• Baking powder - 1/2 tspn
• Baking soda - 1/4 tspn
• Milk - 2 tblspn

• Spice powder - 1/2 tspn (Combo of clove+cinnamon+nutmeg powdered together)
• Ginger powder - 1/4 tspn
• Shahjeera- 1/2 tspn
• Vanilla essence - 1/2 tspn

Method.

Take the dry fruit mix in a bowl. Add orange juice. The more it is soaked, better it tastes. I soaked for two days under refrigeration. On the day of baking, bring it to room temperature. Microwave it for 2 minutes or cook it on stove top till the fruits soften and the liquid dries up. Leave it to cool

To prepare the caramel, take sugar in a kadai and heat it. Let the sugar melt. Let the melted sugar take a dark brown color. Keep stirring it. Keep 1/4 cup of boiling water ready. When it reaches the brown color, slowly add the boiling water. Take care not to splash the hot liquid on your hand. Mix well. Remove from fire. Let it cool.

Bring butter to room temperature. Cream butter until cream and fluffy. Add the powdered sugar to the butter and mix well. Reserve 2 tablespoons of maida. Sieve the dry ingredients- maida, baking powder, baking soda together.

Stir in the dry ingredients along with the spice powders to the butter-sugar mix. Fold in gently. Don't over mix. Add the caramel sauce and milk too. Dust the soaked fruits with the reserved maida and fold into the batter. 

Grease the cake tin and  transfer the batter. I lined the tin with a butter paper.  Bake in a preheated oven at 175 C for 1 hour 30 minutes. Please check after 1 hour and 15 minutes. My oven tends to take more time than the suggested time.

Its always said, fruit cakes taste better as it matures. So decided to leave it for two days. But I was very impatient and couldn't control myself for more than a day and had to slice it to see, how it turned out. 

I felt the cake was very sweet. Probably the dates and the candied fruits added to the sweetness. So may be next time, I will reduce 1/4 cup of sugar considering the dry fruits added to it.


Here is wishing all my readers, friends and fellow bloggers a very happy and sparkling 2011.  As a blogger, I wish we see less of  Plagiarism in the coming year.

Eggless Dates Banana Cake

During my initial baking days, I tried a banana cake using a recipe from a blog. The cake came out well in terms of texture and taste. But the flavor of banana was so overpowering that I could hardly finish a slice. Things have changed now. I have tried pairing banana with dates or chocolate powder to mask it flavor. In this cake, I have pureed the dates and added it to the batter. I used only 1/3 cup of brown sugar. The cake is mildly sweet. I did frost the cake so that took care of the lack of sweetness. In case you are not frosting and would like your cake to be sweet, increase the sugar to 1/2 cup.

You need

• Wheat flour/Atta- 1 cup
• All purpose flour/maida- 1/2 cup
• Deseeded dates - 15 to 20 nos 
• Mashed banana- 1/2 cup
• Brown sugar - 1/3 cup
• Curd - 1/3 cup
• Oil - 1/3 cup
• Baking powder -1 tspn
• Baking soda- 1 tspn

Method

Sieve together wheat flour, maida, baking soda and baking powder.

Soak seeded and chopped dates in half cup of warm water for an hour or till it turns soft. Alternatively you can microwave the dates in water for 2 minutes and it turns soft. No soaking required. Grind the dates to a smooth paste. Add in  mashed banana, curd, oil and sugar to the mixer jar. Pulse to blend.

Transfer the wet mix to a bowl. Fold the dry ingredients to the wet mix, with mixing after each addition. Pour the batter to a greased and dusted tin and bake in a preheated oven at 180 C for 30 minutes.


For icing

Powdered sugar - 1 cup
Corn flour - 2 tspn
Butter -1 tblspn.

Whisk all the ingredients till smooth and light. Cool the cake. Spread the icing on the cake. If you find it difficult to spread the frosting, add few drops of milk  to make it easier to spread. To the remaining icing, I added a teaspoon of cocoa powder and did a swirl on top of each piece.

Dates Kheer

A healthy and delicious kheer with dates. To make a sugar free dessert, you can actually do with out adding sugar too, not to forget the natural sugar in the dates. I have added sugar since I made it when I had guests at home. This is a very easy recipe. Its almost like a dates milkshake transformed into a kheer. And it sure makes a rich dessert. No soaking required if using soft dates.

Ingredients
Dates deseeded - 100 gms/20 nos
Milk - 1 litre
Sugar - 1/2 cup
Cardamom powder -1 tspn
Ghee 1 tblspn
few cashew nuts to garnish

Method
Soak the dates in a cup of hot milk (from the 1 lite) for an hour. Grind to fine paste. If you would like to bite into tiny pieces of dates, you can make a coarse paste. Boil the remaining milk. When it comes to boil, simmer for few minutes in low flame. Stir in the ground dates and simmer till it
blends well. Add sugar and continue cooking till the sugar is well dissolved and kheer thickens. Add cardamom powder and remove from fire. Roast the cashew nuts in ghee and sprinkle on the kheer. You can also roast some finely chopped dates in ghee and add as garnish in addition to nuts. Serve warm or chilled.

I am sending the bowl of kheer to Srivalli's Mithai Mela.

Carrot Dates Poli

A variation to the traditional poli. I have eaten store bought dates poli once. I could find some finely chopped nuts along with the dates in the poli. When I tried making it at home, my stock of nuts had dried up and thought of adding some grated carrot along with dates. And it tasted great. The carrot and dates compliments well. These pictures have been in my drafts for a very long time. And thanks to Aparna's Sweet Celebrations , it has made it to the blog. The basic preparation of poli is same except for the filling. For the dough All Purpose flour(Maida) - 2 cups Salt a pinch Turmeric powder a pinch Oil 2 tbspn Water to knead Filling Chopped dates - 1 cup Grated carrot - 1/2 cup Sugar - 3 tbspn Milk - 1 tbspn Add the dough ingredients - maida, salt, turmeric powder and oil in a mixing bowl. Add water to make a soft dough. Finally just apply a teaspoon of oil over the dough and allow it to rest for a minimum of 2 hrs. This helps in making soft poli. Meanwhile, MW grated carrot, finely chopped dates along with milk for 4 minutes or till it turns soft. Add sugar to the cooked carrot-dates mixture and MWfor 3 minutes. It should have come together. You can do this step on stove-top too. Take a lemon sized dough. Roll into poori size. While you roll, keep the centre comparatively thicker than edges. Keep a ball of the stuffing in the center. Bring together the edges and seal well. Roll again carefully into possibly thin poli. Shallow fry on tawa till you see brown specs on the poli. Delicious, healthy poli is ready. I am sending this poli to JFI:Carrots hosted at The Cooker

Dates Cookies and a Cake (Eggless)

Dates is a regular in my pantry. Though, I just like to eat it as it is, I sometimes chop them and add to my cup of cornflakes or salads. It also is made into milkshakes. Ever since I saw Shilpa's Eggless Dates Cake, I have baked it more than once. It is not only the most popular post in her blog, I think its one of the most tried out recipe in the blogosphere too. There isn't nothing much to go wrong in this cake. Even a beginner can make an attempt without any worries.

Ingredients
Dates - 100 gms /18 nos

Milk - 3/4 cup

Sugar - 3/4 cup

Maida - 1 cup

Oil - 1/2 cup

Baking soda - 1 tspn

Chopped cashew - 1 tblspn (optional)

Method
De seed the dates. Soak the dates in warm milk for an hour. This will make the dates soft and easier to grind. Depending on the type of dates you use, the soaking time can vary. Add sugar to the soaked dates mix and grind them to a fine paste. Add oil to the ground mixture and keep it aside.
Sift maida and baking soda. Slowly stir in the flour to liquid mixture. Add nuts and mix. Transfer to a greased tin and bake in a preheated oven at 190 C for 40 minutes or till a skewer inserted comes out clean.

My next recipe is a dates cookie tried from DK's blog. It was an instant hit. Do visit her blog for the step-by-step pics.

Ingredients

Maida/All purpose flour - 2 cups

Baking powder - 1 1/2 tspn

Butter -4 tblspn

Sugar - 1/4 cup

Chopped dates - 1/3 cup

Milk- 1/3 cup
Melted butter for glaze.

Method
Sift flour, salt and baking powder. Rub in butter to the flour mixture to resemble bread crumbs.
Mix in sugar and chopped dates. Make a well in the centre add milk. Knead to a soft dough. Adjust the quantity of milk since you may not need the full amount of milk. Knead the dough on a floured surface for few seconds. Roll into 1/2 inch thickness. Cut into circles or any desired shape. Brush with butter for glaze. (I forgot this part). Bake in a preheated oven at 220 C for 20 minutes or till it rises well and turns golden brown. It was very crisp with a soft inside.

These dates goodies are making to Sunshinemom's FIC-Brown

Dates and Cashew Delight

A pudding with date balls in it. An absolutely yummy dessert, which will be favored by kids and adults alike. An ideal choice of dessert for kids party.

You need for the date balls:

Dates -200 gm
Cashew- 75 gm
Bananas – 2 Nos
Butter /Ghee- 50 gm
Sugar – 50 gm

For the custard you require

Milk – 1 cup
Custard powder – 4tspn
Sugar – 4 tbspn
Vanilla essence – ¼ tbspn

Prepare the date balls to be dropped in the custard

Finely chop dates, cashew and bananas separately.

Take a kadai, melt butter. Add dates.

Keep mixing it till it turns dark brown.

Add the chopped banana and cook till it is blended well with the dates.

Add sugar and mix till it reaches halwa consistency. Remove from fire

Allow it to cool. Make gooseberry size balls of the mixture and roll them over the chopped cashew and keep it aside.
If you want to reduce the calorie, you can skip this step of rolling over cashew. It tastes good without this also.


Now let us move on to custard preparation

Mix the custard powder with little milk. See to that no lumps are formed.

Add the mix to the remaining milk. Add sugar.

Boil the mix till it starts to thicken. Remove from fire.

Allow it to cool.
Drop the date balls into the custard.

Refrigerate and serve.