Low Fat Chocolate And Banana Bread ~ Vegan And Refined Sugar Free

Call it a bread or a cake, but this is the ultimate healthy thing I have ever baked. All purpose flour has been replaced with whole wheat flour and refined sugar with jaggery. Indians and Sri Lankans widely use jaggery in many of their desserts, jaggery is wholesome unrefined sugar, it is made from concentrated sugarcane juice and processed in a natural way and no chemicals are added at any stage of its processing. It has got high protein, vitamin, iron and it has 50 times the mineral content of refined sugar.

Jaggery has got lot of health and healing benefits and moreover it tastes great. It's rich caramel kind of aroma is heavenly. There are many varieties of jaggery and all have distinct tastes, some are more salty and lighter in colour while some are darker with less salt and more sweetness. Jaggery is great for nibbling too, I have seen many people eat chana and gur together to kill boredom. 

My dad used to go on his official tours to these small villages where they made this jaggery, and while returning he used to bring big blocks of dark coloured disc shaped jaggery. Mom used all her strength and might and with a hammer she used to break the disc and we nibbled on the small pieces.

For another interesting jaggery recipe, check this previous guest post by my dear friend Farwin of Love And Other Spices where she shared her famous Sril Lankan "Aggala" recipe.

Ingredients:

Whole Wheat Flour- 1 Cup
Banana- 1 Large
Jaggery- 1/3 Cup ( Adjust little more or less depending on the sweetness of the jaggery)
Chocolate Chips- 1/4 Cup
Canola Oil- 2 Tbsp
Cinnamon Powder- 1/2 Tsp
Baking Powder- 1/2 Tsp
Baking Soda- 1/4 Tsp
Almond Milk- 3/4 Cup
Walnuts (Roughly Chopped)- 2 Tbsp
Salt- 1/4 Tsp ( if the jaggery has got salt then omit this)


Procedure:

1. Preheat the oven at 180 Degrees C.

2. Take a banana, peel and cut it in small discs.

3. With the help of a fork mash the bananas and add cinnamon powder, oil and chocolate chips in that, mix and keep aside.

4. In another bowl take whole wheat flour and add salt, baking powder, baking soda and chopped walnuts.

5. Powder the jaggery in a mixer and add it in the flour. Now add the banana mixture in the flour and with the help of almond milk, fold everything together gently.

6. Grease a loaf pan or a small cake tin...choose a tin so that the mixture is atleast 3/4th of the tin. Now pour the bread batter in the prepared tin and keep it for baking in the pre heated oven for 35-40 minutes or till a skewer inserted in the centre of the bread comes out clean.

7. Take out the bread from the oven and let it cool completely before inverting it out of the tin.

8. Now invert the bread in a plate and cut in wedges or slices.

My kiddo enjoyed this bread with a glass of juice. 

Sweet Milk Bread

Most of the kids develop special liking to a particular food and then it gets very difficult to wean them off from it. My kiddo is very fond of this specific brand of milk bread, and she is so used to it that she finds other breads almost inedible. The advantage of living here in Dubai is that we get so many varieties of almost everything. Big supermarkets have their own bakeries and they produce dozens of kinds of breads, you name the type of bread and you are sure to get it fresh. 

So why am I baking bread when it's so readily available for under 5 Dhs for a large packet.........

It's my kiddos love for milk bread which tempted me to make it for her, and I was really happy with the result. The bread turned out to be very soft and mildly sweet with subtle flavours of cardamom and saffron. And my stubborn kid who always wants her bread toasted loved this bread to the core...she smothered the bread with nutella and enjoyed it warm straight out of the oven.

Ingredients:

All Purpose Flour- 3 Cups

Active Dry Yeast- 1.5 Tsp

Saffron- A big pinch 

Milk- 2 Tbsp

Condensed Milk- 1/4 Cup (See notes at the bottom of the post)

Salt- 1 Tsp

Butter- 2 Tbsp

Cardamom Powder- 1/4 Tsp

Luke Warm Water- 1 1/2 Cup Approximately

Procedure:

 Soak saffron in 2 tbsp of warm milk.

In a large bowl take all purpose flour and add salt, cardamom powder and yeast.

Melt the butter and let it cool, once cool add it in the flour mixture.

  Now add in milk infused with saffron and condensed milk.

Add water little by little and make a soft dough by kneading for atleast 5-6 minutes. The dough will be little sticky. Transfer the dough in an oiled bowl and cover with a cling film or damp kitchen towel. Keep the bowl in a warm place and allow it to rise so that it doubles in sizes, this will take around 45 minutes to 1 hour. We have very hot and humid weather here and my dough took around 35-40 minutes to double in size.

Once the dough has risen, punch it back and knead again for another minute or so. Place the dough in a greased loaf pan and cover it. Let it again rest for another 45 minutes.

Brush the top of the dough with little melted butter and keep the risen dough in pre heated oven at 180 Degrees C and bake it for 35-40 minutes or till the crust turns golden brown in colour. Keep an eye during the last few minutes as I did not and  my loaf's crust turned dark brown. When tapped the bread should sound hollow. Invert the bread onto a cooling rack and when it gets little cool, cut it into pieces. 

Notes:  My loaf turned out to be mildly sweet, but for a sweeter version instead of 1/4 cup add in about 1/2 cup of condensed milk and reduce the amount of water proportionately.

Daal Baati ( Hard Wheat Flour Bread With Spiced Five Lentils Daal)

There are some dishes which you enjoy eating but do not dare to make, one of such dish for me was baati. I have eaten it few times...in a tiny village in Rajasthan, at my neighbours house and most recently in a authentic Rajasthani restaurant in Dubai. Thanks to Arva ( the talented blogger behind I live in a frying pan  ) who introduced this restaurant in one of her unique foodie tour. I really liked their daal and kept on boasting about it to my hubby. And from that day onwards, on every weekend he used to propose to go there for dinner, but somehow the visit kept on getting delayed. But finally last weekend we went there and enjoyed the daal, baati and the heavenly choorma.. Choorma was mildly sweet with heavy fragrance of ghee. 

Our tummy's sagged by the weight of baati but our desire remained, so I decided to finally try my hands in making these. Today I will share about daal and baati..the choorma recipe will be shared sometime in the near future :)

Ingredients: (For Baati)- (Makes 12-13 Baatis)

Whole Wheat Flour- 3 Cups
Semolina- 3/4 Cups
Clarified Butter Melted ( Ghee)- 1/2 Cup
Carom Seeds (Ajwain)- 1 generous Tsp
Salt -As per taste

More ghee to dunk in the baatis.

Procedure:

• Preheat the oven at 220 Degrees C.
• Mix all the above ingredients in a big bowl and using warm water knead into a firm dough.
• Pinch small balls out of the dough and roll them into smooth balls then make an indentation in the centre using thumb ( mine were like holes as my kiddo wanted to make them like doughnuts )
• Dunk the baatis in ghee and place them on a baking sheet.
• Bake them in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes or till they turn brownish in colour. 
• Now broil them for 3-4 minutes to get even nice dark brown colour.
• Take the baatis out of the oven. Again dunk them in ghee before serving.

Ingredients: ( For Panchmel Daal- Daal made with five lentils)

Toor Daal (Pigeon Peas)- 1/4 Cup
Yellow Moong Daal ( Split Green Gram)- 1/4 Cup
Urad Daal (Split Black Gram)- 1/4 Cup
Chana Daal (Split Bengal Gram)- 1/4 Cup
Masoor Daal (Split Red Lentil)- 1/4 Cup
Ghee- 2 Tbsp
Mustard- 1Tsp
Cumin Seeds- 1 Tsp
Tomatoes- 2
Green Chillies- 2 or 3
Ginger- 2 Inch Piece
Asafoetida- A Pich
Turmeric Powder- 1/2 Tsp
Red Chilli Powder- 1/2 Tsp
Coriander Powder- 1 Tsp
Salt- To Taste
Coriander Leaves- To Garnish

Procedure:

• Soak all the lentils in water for about 2 hours.
• Pressure cook them with turmeric powder and little salt for 3-4 whistles.
• Grind tomatoes, green chillies and ginger together and keep aside.
• Heat ghee in a deep pan or kadhai, once ghee turns hot add in asafoetida and mustard . Once mustard splutters add in cumin.
• After cumin crackle add in the tomato paste. Stir to mix.
• Now add in salt, red chilli powder and coriander powder. Keep on stirring and cooking this mixture, till the raw smell of spices goes away. 
• Now add in the cooked daals and required water and cook in medium flame till the daal starts boiling. Once boil comes simmer the gas and keep on cooking for another 5-7 minutes.
• Garnish with coriander leaves.

To eat daal and baati, take a baati and break it in 4-5 pieces. Dunk them in a bowl of daal, if required a tsp of ghee can be added. Enjoy the daal baati hot accompanied with the choorma.

Onion And Garlic Focaccia

" This is the best thing you ever made ".......... this is what my husband said after having this Focaccia bread. And I said , then what about all those dishes which I made during past 8 years of married life ? He did not answer this, and I too left the conversation at that point. Some times, some things are better left unspoken...right? 

And now coming to the bone of contention I.e the Focaccia, I got the basic olive oil dough recipe from the book Artisan Bread In Five Minutes A Day. This is the first recipe I tried from this book and enjoyed a lot. There is no kneading required and the result is one delicious bread. Serve it for breakfast or stir up some soup and enjoy your dinner.

Ingredients: 

Basic Olive Oil Dough Recipe: ( This is the original proportion for the dough but I have halved the ingredients while making the recipe) :

Lukewarm Water- 2 3/4 Cup

Instant Yeast- 1 1/2 Tablespoon

Salt- 1 1/2 Tablespoon

Sugar- 1 Tablespoon

Olive Oil- 1/4 Cup

All Purpose Flour- 6 1/2 Cups

Other Ingredients which I added in the dough: 

Chopped Spring Onions- 3 Tablespoons

Garlic- 3 Cloves (Pounded)

Green Chillies- 2 or 3 (Crushed)

For Topping: 

Olive Oil- 2 Tablespoon + 1 Tablespoon for greasing

Red Onions- 1/4th of small onion ( Thinly Sliced)

Italian Seasoning- 1 Teaspoon

Coarse Sea Salt- For Sprinkling On Top

Procedure:

• In a food container which has lid add in luke warm water, yeast, salt, sugar, spring onions, garlic, green chillies and olive oil together so that everything is mixed well.
• Then in that mix in the flour without kneading, using a spoon. If the dough is too sticky, use wet hands to incorporate the last bit of flour.
• Cover (not airtight), and allow to rest at room temperature until dough rises and collapses (or flattens on top) approximately 2 hours.
• The dough can be used immediately after the initial rise but I refrigerated the dough overnight as it is easier to handle cold dough.
• Twenty minutes before baking pre heat the oven to 425 Degrees F with an empty broiler tray on any shelf.
• Grease the baking tray with 1 tablespoon of olive oil and set aside. 
• Take out the dough from the refrigerator and with the help of little flour shape it into a ball. Now place the ball in the prepared baking tray and with the help of hands press the dough from all sides, flatten it as thin as required. Keep it covered with a damp cloth for resting for about half an hour.
• Meanwhile heat 2 Tablespoon of olive oil in a small pan. Add in onions and sauté until softened but not browned. Keep it aside.
• Now after the dough has rested make some indentations with thumb in the dough. Sprinkle the sautéed onions along with its oil sparingly over the surface of the dough. Do not add lot of onions else the surface may not brown attractively. 
• Sprinkle Italian seasoning, coarse sea salt on top of the dough.
• Now before keeping the tray inside the oven, pour 1 cup of hot water in the empty broiler tray which is already inside the oven. Place the baking tray inside the oven and quickly shut the oven door. 
• Bake for about 25- 30 minutes or till the crust if golden brown in colour. Baking time may vary according to the thickness of the focaccia.

Serve warm.

Linking this to Vardhini's Bake Fest hosted at Tomato Blues.

Oats And Honey Bread

After devouring all the Diwali sweets and snacks I have developed an aversion to sweets....but I know it's going to be temporary and soon I will again enjoy sweet treats. 

So for a change I baked this bread and I was really impressed by it. It has got beautiful crust and soft insides and tastes excellent with either honey or even butter. My kiddo enjoyed this with spoonfuls of honey and has ordered me to make this more frequently. I was quite surprised at her request since the only bread she eats is white milk bread. And this bread is now going to feature regularly in my kitchen.

Recipe Source: Allrecipes

Ingredients: 

All Purpose Flour- 3 Cups

Rolled Oats- 1/2 Cup + little more for sprinkling on top

Honey- 3 tbsp

Unsalted Butter- 2 tbsp (at room temperature)

Salt- 1 tsp

Active Dry Yeast- 1 1/2 tsp

Warm Water- 1 1/4 Cup

Milk- For brushing the top

Dried Melon Seeds, Sunflower Seeds- little for sprinkling (optional)

Procedure:

• Combine flour, oats and salt in a large bowl and keep aside.
• In the warm water add in butter, honey and yeast. Mix till dissolved and leave aside for a couple of minutes till the yeast turns frothy.
• Add the yeast mixture to the bowl containing the dry ingredients and mix.
• Knead the dough for 10-15 minutes till the dough turns smooth and elastic. Transfer the dough to another bowl and cover the bowl with a greased cling film. Leave the dough to rise for about an hour.
• Punch back the dough and knead for a couple of minutes.
• Divide the dough into 12 equal parts and roll each piece in a ball. Arrange the balls in a greased baking dish and cover again with cling film. Leave it to rise for another 45 minutes.
• Remove the cling film and brush the top with milk and sprinkle oats and seeds on top.
• Preheat the oven at 180 degrees C for 10 minutes. Bake the bread for 35-40 minutes or till the crust turns golden brown.

Serve the bread warm with honey....it tastes divine.

Sending these to Radhika's Winter Carnival and Vardhini's Bake Fest#1

Monkey Bread

Ever wondered how Monkey Bread got it's name... well...there are some theories to that...one being that the act of several people pulling at this bread is reminiscent of monkey behaviour....quite interesting isn't it :)

And we did liked pulling the bread apart behaving like some bunch of uncivilized monkeys. This sticky, gooey bread is usually served for breakfast but we enjoyed this even in the evening with our cuppa.

The bread tastes best when warm so it can be stored in the refrigerator and warmed up in the microwave before being devoured.



(Recipe Source- Brown Eyed Baker)
Ingredients:


For The Dough:


All Purpose Flour- 3 1/4 Cup + Little extra for work surface
Unsalted Butter- 2 tbsp Melted
Warm Milk- 1 Cup
Warm Water- 1/3 Cup
Granulated Sugar- 1/4 Cup
Salt- 2 tsp
Instant Yeast- 1 Package


For Brown Sugar Coating:


Light Brown Sugar- 1 Cup
Cinnamon Powder- 2 tsp
Unsalted Butter- 8 tbsp ( 1 Stick) melted

For the Glaze:


Confectioner's Sugar- 1 Cup
Milk- 2 tbsp


For Smearing in the Bundt Pan:


Unsalted Butter- 2 tbsp Softened


Procedure:

• Smear the bundt pan with the softened butter and keep aside.


• In a large measuring cup mix together milk, water, melted butter, sugar and yeast.


• Mix together flour and salt in a big bowl.


• If you have a standing mixer or even hand mixer with dough attachment then turn on the machine at low and start pouring the milk mixture in the flour mix slowly. After everything is incorporated then increase the speed of the machine and keep kneading for further 5-6 minutes or until the dough is shiny and smooth.


• In case of not having the stand mixer then the dough can be kneaded with hand as well... the dough needs to be kneaded for at least 10 minutes or till dough becomes smooth.


• Place the dough in a well greased bowl and cover the top with greased plastic wrap.


• Keep the dough aside for rising for about 50- 60 minutes.


• While the dough is rising keep the brown sugar coating ready by mixing brown sugar and cinnamon together.


• Keep the melted butter separately in one bowl.


• After the dough has raised and doubled in size then remove it from the bowl and place in a floured work surface.


• Pat the dough into a rough 8 inch square. Using a knife or bench scrapper or even a pizza cutter cut the dough into 64 pieces.


• Roll each dough into a ball.


• One at a time take each ball and dip it into the melted butter, allowing the excess butter to drip off. Then roll the ball in brown sugar mixture and keep on placing the balls in the greased bundt pan one on top of another and keep on making layers till all the balls are placed in the pan.


• If left with some extra butter and sugar mixture then pour it on top of the balls.


• Cover the pan with greased plastic wrap and keep for rising for 50 -60 minutes or until the dough balls have raised 1-2 inches from top of pan.


• In the meanwhile preheat the oven to 180 degrees C.

( Ready to go inside the oven)

• After the dough has raised then unwrap the pan and keep it to bake for around 30-40 minutes or till the top has browned and caramel starts bubbling around the edges.


• After taking out from the oven let the bread cool in the pan for about 5 minutes and after inverting in a plate let the bread cool for further 10 minutes.


• While the bread is cooling prepare the glaze by whisking together sugar and milk until there are no lumps.


• Drizzle the glaze on top of the bread letting it run over the top and down the sides of bread.

Serve the bread warm.

Linking this to Priya and Aipi's Bookmarked Recipes- Every Tuesday Event.
Srivalli's Breakfast Mela
Hearth And Soul Blog Hop Weekly Event co hosted by Kankana

Chocolatey Oats And Honey Slices

It has been quite some time since I baked any thing and this was brought to my notice by my daughter N. Suddenly after coming back from school she said "mummy it's long since you made me any muffins or cake ...why don't you make me some".

After she said this I thought of baking some thing and in the mean while I got a call from my mom. Since I started blogging ,most of the times the conversation topic between myself and my mother happens to be FOOD and when I told mom that N wants to eat some baked goodies she immediately gave me this recipe. My mom has been watching food channels lately and she had noted this recipe for me.

I was too happy as this recipe is very quick and I had all the ingredients handy. The whole process hardly takes 30 mins and I had a very happy daughter. The loaf came out very soft.

Ingredients:

All Purpose Flour- 1 Cup

Oats- 1/2 Cup ( I used quaker)

Honey- 1/2 Cup

Brown Sugar- 1/2 Cup ( Firmly packed)

Chocolate Chips- 1/4 Cup

Baking Soda- 1/4 tsp

Salt- a pinch

Vanilla Extract- 1/4 tsp

Oil- 1/2 Cup( I used Canola Oil)

Procedure:

• Pre heat the oven at 170 degree C.
• Sift together APF, Baking Soda and Salt together.
• Add in other ingredients and mix well.
• Put the mixture in a greased loaf tin and press down the mixture with hands to make it even.
• Bake in the pre heated oven for 22-25 minutes or till a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
• Cool before taking out from the tin and cut in slices.
  Notes:

• The loaf was very sweet. Sugar may be reduced to 1/4 cup.
• I baked in 2lb loaf tin so got very thin loaf. In case of using 1 lb loaf tin the loaf will be thicker but the time of baking has to be increased accordingly.

Also sharing today are some lovely awards which I got from my lovely fellow bloggers

Malar of Kitchen Tantra

Suja of Kitchen Corner

Ammu Mohan from Rasi's Veg Bites

Lots of heartfelt thanks dearies...really appreciate your friendly gesture.

.

To keep the ball rolling I am passing these to some lovely bloggers:

Seema Kamath

Anjali

Ila

Divya

Hema

Kamakshi

Kalpana

Oriyarasoi

SinFoodie

Pani Popo

I fell in love instantly when I saw this name "Pani Popo"...I knew that I have to make this. This recipe was lying in my bookmarked folder from the time I saw this in Roxana's blog. Roxana adapted this from Dionne's blog...and did some changes in the original recipe. I also did some changes in roxana's recipe and made these pani popo's ...these were hit in my house. I had halved the recipe but after seeing the buns vanish I have decided to double the recipe next time.

Check out roxana's blog for mouthwatering pictures of pani popo and many other lovely recipes. Lots of thanks to Dionne for creating the recipe and to Roxana for clicking beautiful pictures which inspired me to make them.

Ingredients:

APF- 2 Cups

Instant yeast - Half package

Full Cream Milk - 1/2 Cup (Lukewarm)

Coconut Milk - 1/4 Cup (Lukewarm)

Unsalted Butter- 1/2 tbsp + extra for brushing

Coconut Milk- 1 full can ( for pouring on the buns)

Sugar- 1/2 cup

Since my daughter has got sweet tooth I have used 1/2 cup sugar ...you can reduce according to your taste.

Procedure:

• Combine APF, Yeast, melted butter and both lukewarm milks.
• Knead into a dough for 7-10 minutes..till dough becomes soft.
• Place in a buttered bowl, and leave to double in volume, it took mine around 1 hour to double.
• Punch back the dough and form dough into little balls ...i got around 8 balls....and place them little apart in buttered baking dish.
• Leave the buns to rise again.
• Meanwhile mix coconut milk and sugar and pour it over the risen buns.
• Bake the buns in preheated oven at around 190 degrees C for about 25 to 30 mins or till they are done.

Pani popos were very delicious...with very gooey and milky and sweet bottoms.

Sending this to Champa's Bake Off

Also sending this to pari's Only- Cooking with Bread Event.

Raisins and Cornmeal Bread

I am a novice bread baker...to be more precise just in the kindergarten stages of bread baking. I had noted this recipe long time back and wanted to try it for ever... the end product turned out to be a very tasty bread liked by my biggest critics..who else..my daughter and husband... they enjoyed this in the breakfast with jam and nutella....

Ingredients:

Yellow Corn Meal - 1/2 cup
APF - 1 cup + 1/2 cup
Water - 1/4 cup
Instant Yeast- 1 tsp
Milk - 1/2 cup ( Warm)
Sugar - 1 1/2 tsp
Salt - 1 tsp

Raisins - 1/2 cup
Unsalted Butter - 1 tbsp + extra for brushing

Procedure :

• Mix Cornmeal with 1/4 cup water and let it sit for half an hour.
• In another bowl put in 1 cup of APF, yeast, sugar, salt and mix nicely.
• Add in soaked cornmeal, milk, raisins and butter. Start kneading.
• While kneading keep on adding the extra 1/2 cup of flour little by little so that the dough is not sticky and proper consistency is reached.
• In a clean working surface keep on kneading the dough for atleast 10 mins till the dough gets smooth.
• Keep the dough in an oiled bowl covered with cling film for atleast 90 mins or till double in size.
• After 90 mins take out the dough and punch it back..kneading again for 5 mins.
• Shape as desired as keep in the baking tray/ loaf pan greased with oil... let it sit for further 45 mins.
• Meanwhile pre-heat the oven to 220 degree C.
• Brush the top with some melted butter and score the loaf( make some cuts) so that it does not tear in the oven.
• Place the bread in the pre-heated oven and bake at 220 deg C for first 5 mins thereafter reducing the temperature to 180 degree C.
• It almost took 55 minutes in my oven. The outer crust should be brown and it should sound hollow when tapped.
• Allow to cool before slicing.

Sending this to Bread Baking Day ( BBD#36) hosted by girlichef.

Also sending this to Champa's Bake Off and Suma's Baking event.