Eggless Baking : What's for Breakfast ? Milk & Cookies....

Note to myself : I should write a blog post today.

With kids at home b'coz of snow day here in north east, I didn't expected myself to write this post. But after a relaxing day of not cooking much & simply watching kids play in the snow, now when kids are tucked into their beds I'm here. First thing first "Happy 2014 to everyone out there".

As a first post of new year I'm gonna share something sweet today. It's not any traditional Indian sweet but I'm talking about cookies. To be exact healthy cookies. YES, they are so healthy that I don't mind calling them Breakfast cookies, you see all that stuff peeking from the cookies that's good for u stuff. They have all the goodness of oats, almonds, flaxseeds, whole wheat and as most of my baking in this blog these are eggless too. Before we move to the recipe, please read the Notes.

Notes :
1) To reduce the quantity of butter I'm using homemade applesauce, one can use equal quantity of mashed banana also or if U like simply use butter only instead of fruit sauce.

2) If you are grinding your own flaxseeds, go slow I prefer pulse mode. Over grinding can get all the oils out from flaxseeds, to avoid that u can also add 1 tsp. of sugar(from the recipe) to the seeds while grinding them.

3) If U decide to use plain white sugar instead of Agave, which is liquid sugar in that case reduce the amount of flour by 1 Tbsp.

4) These are drop cookies but they won't spread like regular oatmeal & choc. chip cookies. So, for that reason after dropping the dough onto the cookie sheet I use my fingers or back of fork to gently press them down a little bit. It'll be sticky but make sure u keep cleaning the back of fork.

5) Following recipe gave me around 30-32 cookies of 2" diameter. Which I think is perfect size when u have my kind of habbit.....to test every single batch/tray coming out of the oven. which means by the time I'm done baking cookies I have already eaten 3-4 cookies not to mention what happen while they are cooling :)

6) This one is more of a tip. You can reuse the parchment sheets.

What I used :

1. 1/2 cup Quick cooking Oats
2. 1/4 cup White Whole Wheat flour(atta can be used here)
3. 1/4 cup Almond meal/powder
4. 1/4 cup Flaxmeal/ Powdered flax seeds *(see notes)
5. 1/4 cup + 2 Tbsp. Unbleached all purpose flour
6. 1/4 tsp. Cinnamon
7. 1/4 tsp. Salt
8. 1/2 tsp. Baking Soda
9. 4 Tbsp. Unsalted Butter
10. 2 Tbsp. Unsweetened Apple Sauce (can use butter instead)
11. 6 Tbsp. Dark Brown Sugar
12. 2 Tbsp. Agave Nectar (can be replaced by regular white sugar u might have to reduce flour by 1Tbsp. in that case)
13. 1/2 tsp. Vanilla
14. 1 Tbsp. Flax meal + 3 Tbsp. Warm Water mixed together (acts as egg substitute for 1 egg, also called flaxegg).
15. 1/2 cup Mini Choco. chips

What I did :

1)Turn the oven to 350 degree. Mix all the dry ingredients from no. 1 to 8. Mix them nicely using a whisk, keep it aside.
 

2) Beat : Butter + Applesauce + Dark Brown Sugar + Agave Nectar using a handheld or stand mixer for 3-4 minutes on med. speed, till it start looking smooth & fluffy.
 

3) Add flaxegg (flax meal mixed with water) and vanilla to the butter mix. Mix evenly.
 

4) Turn the mixer to slow, and slowly add dry mix to the wet mixture till all the flour is mixed evenly. DO NOT OVER MIX.
 

5) Gently fold the Choc. Chips into the batter. Reserve couple of Tbsp. of Choco. chips if U like to have them on top of your cookies(clearly visible).

 

6) Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Using a spoon drop around walnut size dough balls on

to the parchment lined cookies sheet keeping them around 2" apart.

7) Using a fork press these dough balls(*see Notes) to give them little flat look(see the above picture) & top them with 3-4 chocolate chips.

8) Bake them for around 13-15 minutes. I'll suggest checking them at 12 min. and after that keep an eye. Mine took little extra time they were done in 16 minutes.

 

9) Let them sit on cookie sheet for 2-3 minutes & then transfer to cooling rack.

10) Once completely cool, store them in airtight container.

Now, these are the cookies you don't mind giving to your kids when they ask for more. My Lil'one enjoyed these so much that first day she didn't let anyone else eat these...she kept saying "they are all mine, if anyone eats them they will be finished". These cookies also got approval of one good friend & her family too. She could not believe me when I told her about how less butter I have used.

Now pour yourself some milk & enjoy milk & cookies as morning breakfast or late night snack.

Update on Jan/29/2014 : These cookies can be stored at room temp. in airtight container for upto 3 weeks, though I doubt they'll have any chance of staying that long, given that u know where to reach to grab one. Also, would like to add that these got approval from India also. I send some to my parents & in-laws & they loved it. So, I guess I can add that...these cookies are travel safe too :) .

Eggless Sugar Cookies for a Sweet New Year Start

Happy New Year everyone! Hope everybody had a sweet and cheerful start to the year 2011. Today I'm posting my our first bake of the year 2011. It was a joint project between me & DD and it seems with her touch cookies came out nice & perfect and almost one third were gone before the end of the day.

I don't bake cookies very often so other day when we decided to bake sugar cookies I could not find my recipe(I still have many recipes on piece of papers). So I googled for Egg less Sugar Cookies & I found Aparna's(My Diverse Kitchen) recipe who has further adapted from Slashfood and before I looked at the recipe, the picture of her cookies convinced me that I have to make these. She has decorated them so beautifully, that cookies look like a piece of art. I'm sure many of you must have seen those already at her blog but for those who haven't here's the link. I haven't decorated mine, didn't had that much of time, but they taste good as is and good thing is she substituted 2/3 rd of the all purpose flour with whole wheat flour in this recipe. Another best part is dough doesn't need to rest in the fridge for this recipe so it's Mix, Roll, Cut & Bake. Took us around 20 minutes in total(including baking time) we used half of the recipe & baked around 22 cookies pretty generous size. Out of 22 cookies 12 were baked in the cookie pan with x'mas shapes and these were little more thick than regular rolled ones.

Though I have not changed the recipe other than using whole wheat pastry flour instead of regular whole wheat flour but I'm still going to write down the recipe as I said I halved the recipe and to avoid doing calculations again next time I think it's better to write down.

What U need :

• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 7 tablespoon unsalted butter, softened at room temperature
• 2 & 1/2 tablespoon milk(see notes)
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup whole wheat flour(I used whole wheat pastry flour)
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

What U do :

1. Sift together all the dry ingredients : flours, baking powder & salt. Keep it aside.
2. Cream butter & sugar till smooth. Add milk & vanilla combine everything together. You can use mixer for this step. I use to do this with regular whisk but this time I used stand mixer.
3. Add dry ingredients to the wet in batches & mix with hands till everything comes together as a dough. If it's crumbly & not coming together add a tsp. of milk & knead it for few seconds only(see Notes).Make 2 balls out of it.
4. Roll the dough ball into 1/4 inch thick sheet, cut out the shapes U want. Place the cookies on ungreased cookie sheet. Pick rest of the dough which is left after cut outs again make a ball of it & roll it, cut out the cookies, continue till U have no more dough left.
5. Bake for 10-12 minutes in pre heated oven at 350 degree F.Mine were done in 11 minutes, next time may be I'll take cookie pan out of the oven 1 or 2 minutes early as the bottom side got little dark(no change in the taste--it was good) I guess because pan was dark color. But the cookies in the cookie sheet came out good in 11 minutes.
6. Let the pan/sheet get little cool, invert the cookies on to the rack. Once completely cool store in the air tight container preferably in the lock if U r planning to decorate them later, as the chances are you won't find them when you need them, they are that good.....if U don't believe me check out at Aparna's blog she also baked it again for decorating. We still have some left as DD choose to take them in her lunch box as dessert, school is opening back tomorrow and I'm very much sure that's gonna be part of her "Share your story/experience from the holidays" discussion.

Notes :

Liquid for this recipe, that is milk, is suggested 1 & 1/2 to 2 & 1/2 tablespoon, I used 2 & 1/2 tablespoon and dough came out together perfectly. Every time quantity of milk used can vary, so it's better to start with minimum liquid suggested & add little bit at a time as needed.

These cookies are off to Champa for her weekly bake-off & also to Suma who's hosting a giveaway of  "The Cake Bible" by Rose Levy Beranbaum for her first blog anniversary celebration. 

Orange Biscotti almost Eggless

Biscotti - twice baked Italian cookies, to get that extra crunch so that biscotti become hard enough to be dipped into coffee, milk or sweet wine & not crumble. But they should never be so hard to crack a tooth. It was on my "to do list" from a long time or I should say it was on His list for me to do. Past sunday for Father's day brunch I decided to surprise him with home made biscotti along with fresh home made pizza(DD's request).

Now before moving to the recipe I would like to mention that source of this recipe is the book called "the Cake mix Doctor" which I got from Champa of VersatileKitchen back in the month of may. Around that time only I also bought a cake mix box for the first time in my life, thinking that I'll try a cake with that, but whenever I bake I'm so use to of all purpose flour/maida that cake mix box kept waiting in the pantry for it's turn. Finally night before father's day I sat with this book to find out some recipe for the cake but when I saw recipe for Lemon Pecan Biscotti, I decided that's it. I had Orange supreme cake mix so I used that & I was out of almonds otherwise I would have used that so  instead I used mini choc. chips. Also I decided to go eggless with this recipe so used  two frozen bananas which were left after making eggless choc. banana cake, but while making the dough I felt it was too tight so I ended up using one egg yolk(as I had no more ripe bananas & was not sure about using milk). Finally here goes the recipe :

What U need :

• parchment paper for the pan
• 1 package(18.25 oz.) orange cake mix(I used Duncan Hines)
• 8 tablespoons(1 stick) butter, melted
• 2 large ripe bananas(might need half extra banana if bananas are med. size)
• 1 egg yolk(my bananas were toward the smaller size that's why I added egg)
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup chopped nuts(I used mini choc. chips)

What U do :

1. Place a rack in the center of the oven, preheat to 350 degree F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper & set aside.
2. Place all the ingredients in a mixing bowl & blend on low speed for 3-4 minutes. Dough should come together into a ball. Transfer it to the prepared baking sheet. With lightly floured hands, shape the dough into a rectangle about 14 inches long by 4 inches wide by 1/2 inch thick. Mound the dough so it is slightly higher in the center.
3. Bake the biscotti rectangle for around 30-35 minutes, do the toothpick test(like u do it for cakes). Remove the baking sheet from the oven & let the biscotti cool for 10 minutes. Leave the oven on.
4. Using a sharp serrated knife slice the rectangle on the diagonal into 1 inch-thick slices. You should get 14 slices. Carefully turn these slices onto their sides, on the same baking sheet. Return the baking sheet to the oven.
5. Bake for another 10 minutes. Turn the oven off, and let the biscotti remain in the oven until they are crisp, 30 to 40 min. more. Remove the baking sheet from the oven, transfer the biscotti to a rack, and allow them to cool completely,.
6. Enjoy it with your fav. drink milk, tea or coffee & store leftover biscotti in an air tight container at room temp. for up to several weeks.

receipe source : the Cake mix Doctor by Anne Byrn

Notes : though I had baked them for the minimum specified time, still mine were little overdone, but still tasted good. I did checked them little before the mentioned time but they were not done at that time so I guess for next time I'll reduce the temp. from 350 degree to may be 340 degree. so that they don't get too brown from outside so quickly.

I'm happy that I tried these, not only because everybody loved it but also because it tasted quite similar to our very own Indian cake rusk, a very popular tea snack in Delhi. We love those &  I usually get those from Indian grocery store, please don't get confused with plain rusk here, as plain rusk are not sweet & they are kind of a hard toast but cake rusk are buttery & very much similar to biscotti. Now I feel no need to buy those as this was really a easy procedure & I'm surely gonna make it on a regular basis but with different flavors.

Biscotti is off to Champa  for her weekly Bake-off & also to  Suma of Veggie Platter, who's hosting this month's Baking from the book  event started by Champa.