Eggless Multigrain Banana and Mixed Nuts Cake

Adapted From:

My Culinary Experiments

Ingredients:

Ripe or Over Ripe Bananas - 4 medium sized (300 gm)

Granulated Sugar - 3/4 cups

Vanilla Extract - 1 tsp

Vegetable Oil - 1/2 cup plus 2 tbsp

Multigrain Atta - 1 cup

All Purpose Flour - 1/2 cup

Cornflour - 1/2 tbsp

Salt - 1 pinch

Baking Powder - 1 tsp

Milk - 2 tbsp

Baking Soda - 1/2 tsp

Vinegar - 1 tbsp

Mixed chopped Nuts (pista, badam, walnuts, cashews) - 1/4 cup

Dark Chocolate Chips - A handful

Method:

1.  Preheat oven to 180 degrees C for 10 minutes.

2.  Grease an 8 inch baking pan on the bottom and all sides with butter and line the base with a disc of butter paper or parchment paper.

3.  Peel skin of bananas and mash nicely without any lumps.

4.  Sieve together the flours, baking powder, corn flour, and salt, preferably 2 to 3 times to make the cake fluffier and aerated.  Keep aside.

5.  In a mixing bowl, add mashed bananas and the oil.  Whisk well together.

6.  Add the sugar and vanilla extract.  Whisk until the sugar is dissolved and well combined.

7.  Add the sifted flour little by little and fold the mixture gently.  Do not whip or vigorously mix.

8.  Pour the milk and fold gently.

9.  Add the chopped nuts and fold gently.

10.  Mix baking soda and vinegar in a small bowl and allow it to foam.  Add this quickly to the cake batter and fold into the cake batter.  The batter will be thick.  Sprinkle the nuts and chocolate chips over it and press slightly with the spatula.

11.  Pour the cake batter into the greased cake tin and spread evenly with a spatula working very gently.  Also, give a gentle tap to release air bubbles if any.  Bake at 180 degrees C for 30 to 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.

12.  Allow the cake to cool in the tin for 5 to 10 minutes.  Carefully remove from the tin and flip onto a wire rack.  Peel off the parchment paper and allow the cake to cool down completely and then store in an airtight container.

The cake when done was really soft and sweet with the good flavor of the bananas.  I used ripe robusta bananas for this cake.  I cut the cake into small bite sized pieces for easy use.


Notes:

Cracks may appear on the top of this cake which is quite common, not to panic.  If the cake is becoming very dark, cover the top with aluminium foil.  The baking time and temperature may vary from oven to oven.

Nuts Millets Laddoo

Source:

Mrs. Lakshmi Nathan


Ingredients:

Millets (Varagu/Saamai/Thinai/Kuthiraivaali) - 1 cup

Mixed Nuts (Cashew, Badam, Pista, Walnuts, Peanuts) - 1 cup

Powdered Sugar - 1 cup

Ghee - 1 to 2 tbsp


Method: 

1.  Wash millets thoroughly and strain all of the excess water.

2.  Dry fry the wet millet in a iron kadai on medium flame for around 5 to 10 minutes until it dries up completely and puffs and pops up like pori.

3.  Dry roast the desired nuts separately in a pan and allow to cool.

4.  In a mixer, powder the puffed up millets.  Keep separately.

5.  Again in the same mixer, powder the roasted nuts.

6.  Mix this nut powder to the millet powder and also the powdered sugar and warm ghee.  Mix well with your fingertips until well combined.

7.  Run little by little in a mixer jar this mixture until the ghee oozes out and makes the mixture slightly wet and greasy and until all the powder mix is used up.  Transfer to a plate or a large bowl.

8.  Take around a tablespoonful of this mixture in your hand and press slightly to make laddoos.

Here goes the healthy, nutritious, and yummy nuts millet laddoos.  Store these laddoos in an airtight container.  The shelf life for these laddoos would be around 10 days but I have never had these last till then.  They vanish off faster.  An apt treat for your kids snack box.


Notes:

Use can replace sugar with jaggery or palm sugar (karupatti) or powdered panam kalkandu.

Snowball Cookies

Source:

Let's Bake by Mrs. Roshini Mathan


Ingredients:

Butter - 1/2 cup

Flour - 1-1/4 cup

Vanilla Essence - 1/2 tsp

Powdered Sugar - 1/4 cup (plus 1/4 cup for rolling)

Chopped Nuts - 1/4 cup

Salt - 1 pinch (if using unsalted butter)


Method:

1.  Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.

2.  Cream the butter and sugar till light and fluffy.

3.  Add salt and gradually add flour and mix well.

4.  Add finely chopped nuts and vanilla essence and firm into small round and place on a greased pan.

5.  Bake at 180 degrees for 10-12 minutes till the edges are light brown.

6.  Remove when baked and roll the cookies in powdered sugar when they are still hot and allow it to cool.