Vanilla Muffins

This is one of those recipes which can be tweaked into different flavors by changing the additives. I was planning to make it a mango muffin but when I went to chop the mangoes, I found it was spoiled from inside and I had to throw it out. This made good snack for the kids and is pretty easy to make too. Pictures are really bad since it has been raining like crazy for the past 2 days here with no sun light whatsoever.

One Year Back - Honey Rolls / Buns
Two Years Back - Lemon Coconut Bread, Vanilla Cake using Homemade mix
Three Years Back - Dry Fruit Yeast Bread/Cake
Four Years Back - Coconut Almond Cookies
Ingredients:
All purpose flour - 2 3/4 cups
Baking Powder - 1 TBSP
Baking Soda - 1/4 tsp
Sugar - 1/2 cup
Brown Sugar - 1/3 cup
Salt - 1/2 tsp
Oil - 1/3 cup
Eggs - 2 large
Milk - 3/4 cup
Vanilla - 1 TBSP
Optional - 1 cup of dried fruits or chopped fresh fruit or chocolate chips or nuts.

Method:
Preheat the oven to 350 F. Line a 12 cup muffin pan with paper liners or grease the cups. In a bowl, whisk together flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda. In another bowl, whisk together eggs, oil, both the sugars. Stir in vanilla. Start adding the dry mixture to wet alternating with milk starting and ending with dry mixture. This batter is very very thick.  Divide between the cups and bake for 20 - 22 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. These muffins almost look dry on the top but are very moist. Cool on the wire rack.

Enjoy.

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Apple Pie Bread

I have made apple pie only once in my life. I do know how to make it but never make it since I am not fond of it. Do you know the reason for me not liking it? It is because almost all the time, filling separates from the crust while eating and for some reason, I don't like the feel of just the filling or just the crust. So, I incorporated the apple pie filling into the applesauce bread and called it Apple Pie Bread. Cool right?

One Year Back - Pumpkin Pecan Bread
Two Years Back - Sweet and Spicy Almonds, Lemon Coconut Bread
Three Years Back - Holiday Gift Ideas
Four Years Back - Eggless Pecan Pie Bars
Adapted from a banana bread recipe from the book - The Sweet Melissa Baking Book 
Ingredients: Makes one 9 X 5 loaf or 4 mini loaves
For the apple pieces:
Unsalted butter - 2 TBSP
Brown Sugar - 3 TBSP packed
Granny Smith or baking apples - 2 cored and chopped into 1/2 - 3/4 inch cubes
Cinnamon - 1/2 tsp

For the bread batter:
All purpose flour - 2 cups
Baking Soda - 1 tsp
Ground Cinnamon - 1/2 tsp
Ginger - 1/4 tsp
Cloves - 1/4 tsp
Nutmeg - a pinch
All Spice - a pinch
Salt - 1/2 tsp
Oil - 1/3 cup
Eggs - 2 large
Sugar - 1 cup
Orange juice or water or milk - 1/4 cup
Applesauce - 1 1/2 cups

Method:
Apples:
Heat butter in a skillet. Add chopped apple pieces, brown sugar, cinnamon and stir. Let them cook for about 5 minutes or bit soft. Turn off the heat and let it cool to room temperature.

Making the bread:
Preheat the oven to 350 F. Line a loaf pan with parchment paper (recommended) or grease and flour. In a bowl, whisk together flour, spices, salt. In another bowl, whisk together eggs, oil, sugar till eggs are beaten and have mixed well with sugar and oil. Stir in applesauce. Now add the dry mixture alternating with orange juice or milk. When no streaks of flour can be found, add the cooked apple mixture. Stir. This is quite a wet batter. Pour into the prepared pan and bake for 60 minutes or till done in case of a large loaf pan or 40 - 45 minutes in case of mini loaf pans. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes and then turn on to the wire rack very carefully to cool completely.  I baked them into mini loaves.

Enjoy.

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Bread Machine White Bread - Version 3 (with egg)

Bread is a staple once the school starts. It saves lot of time in the morning in getting lunch ready and it is their favorite anyway. Most of the time my kids take sandwich for lunch and that means I need a good loaf of bread for the week. Here is another version of a white bread that I baked. I baked it in a pull man loaf and that is why the shape is different. Not everyone has a pull man loaf pan so I have given instructions for baking in a regular pan.

One Year Back - Vegan Navratna Kurma
Two Years Back - Sweet Couscous and Apple Salad
Three Years Back - Sweet Milk Rolls/Buns
Ingredients: Makes Two 8 X 4 loaves.
All purpose flour or bread flour - 5 - 5 1/2 cups (Start with 5 cups)
Warm Water - 1 3/4 cups
Egg - 1 large
Salt - 1 1/2 tsp
Dry milk powder - 1/4 cup
Oil - 6 TBSP
Sugar - 4 TBSP
Active dry yeast - 2 1/2 tsp

Method:
Place oil, salt, sugar, egg, water, milk powder, flour and yeast in this order in the pan of the breadmachine and start on dough setting. When the bread machine has been running for about 10 minutes, see if the dough is nice and smooth. It should be a bit tacky (when you press the dough, it should stick to the finger but peel off neatly) but not sticky. If it is sticky, add more flour a TBSP at a time until you get a nice and pliable dough. Once the first kneading cycle finishes (most machines beep), remove the dough to an oiled bowl. Cover and let rise till double, about an hour. Punch down and shape into two loaves. Place in greased 8 X 4 pan and cover and let rise for the final time, about 35 - 40 minutes. Towards the end of the wait time, preheat the oven to 350 F. If desired, you can give an egg wash to get a dark crust or brush with milk. I did neither since I was using a pull man loaf pan. Bake for 35 - 40 minutes or until golden on the top and sounds hollow when the bottom is tapped. Cool on the rack and slice when completely cool. Brush the loaf with melted butter or oil after taking out of the pan.

If you want to make it by hand, refer to this post for the method: Basic White Bread.
 

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Pumpkin Challah Bread

I don't know what my obsession with bread baking is. I never get tired of baking yeast breads. If I can find more people to eat the bread I bake, I probably will bake more often. Here is an experiment of pumpkin challah. I tried one of the challah recipes and incorporated pumpkin puree into it. If you are an orange lover, add a TBSP of zest, use orange juice instead of water to make it a perfect autumn bread.

One Year Back - Pumpkin Chocolate chip bread
Two Years Back - Vegan Sourdough Chocolate Cake with peanut butter glaze
Three Years Back - Sourdough Pumpkin Spice Cake
Ingredients:  Makes two 8 X 4 loaves or two braids.
All purpose flour - 5 cups
Salt - 1 1/2 tsp
Active dry yeast - 2 1/2 tsp
Sugar - 1/2 cup
Oil - 1/3 cup
Eggs - 2 large
Pumpkin puree - 1/2 cup (measured in dry measuring cup)
Warm Water - 1/2 cup
Sweetened dried cranberries - 1 cup (optional)

Egg Wash:
1 egg mixed with 1 TBSP of water. (You will have left over egg wash)

Method:
Place oil, salt, sugar, water, eggs, pumpkin puree,flour and yeast in this order in the pan of the breadmachine and start on dough setting. When the machine beeps, add the dried cranberries if using. Let it complete the dough cycle. This dough doesn't rise much. When the dough cycle is complete, punch down the dough and divide into two parts. Either make braids dividing each part into three and braiding or shape into a loaf. Place in greased 8 X 4 pan if baking as loaves. You can keep the braids on a parchment lined cookie sheet. Cover and let rise for 45 minutes. It will not become double in size. Take care not to let it rise too much. If that happens, it will collapse after baking in the oven. Preheat the oven to 350 F. Before placing the loaves in the oven, brush with egg wash. Bake for 25 minutes and then reduce the oven temperature to 325. Continue to bake for 20 - 25 minutes or until golden brown on the top and the bottom sounds hollow when tapped. Brush the loaf with melted butter or oil after taking out of the pan if desired. Cool completely before slicing.
If you want to make it by hand, refer to this post for the method for making the dough: Basic White Bread. 

This post is written for weekend cooking post that I write with Srivalli  and  Vaishali.     

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Honey Whole Wheat Bread (Bread Machine recipe)

Sunday morning, after we got done with breakfast, my kids asked me if I had time to take them shopping. Their shopping is mostly for junk that I try to postpone till the end or try to talk them out of buying it. Obviously the answer was "No" and my younger one asked why I didn't have any time for going to Wal-mart for buying fake baby food for her doll. I went on giving the list of chores I had to do that day and one of them was bake bread for sandwiches for the week. She immediately said "Mommy, you can take that out of the list of chores. We can buy bread when we go shopping". Smart, isn't she? But she is stuck with a stubborn mommy who wants to bake bread herself. Whose mistake is that?

One Year Back - Pumpkin Chocolate Bread
Two Years Back - Vegan Sourdough Chocolate Cake with peanut butter glaze
Three Years Back - Sourdough Pumpkin Spice Cake
Ingredients: (Adapted from Breadman Pro Breadmachine manual)
Whole Wheat flour - 3 3/4 cups
Vital Wheat gluten - 1/4 cup
Salt - 2 tsp
Baking Soda - 3/4 tsp
Active dry yeast - 2 1/4 tsp
Oil - 1/4 cup
Honey - 1/4 cup
Warm Buttermilk - 1 1/2 cup (1/2 cup yogurt topped with water to get 1 1/2 cups works too)

Method:
Place oil, salt, honey, buttermilk, whole wheat flour, vital wheat gluten, baking soda and yeast in this order in the pan of the breadmachine and start on dough setting. If you want to bake it in the bread machine, select whole wheat cycle. If using the dough setting, remove from the machine after the cycle completes, shape into a loaf and place in a greased 9 X 5 pan. Let it rise for 45 minutes to an hour. Preheat the oven to 375 F and bake for 40 - 50 minutes or until brown on the top and sounds hollow when tapped at the bottom. Brush with melted butter or oil on the top after baking. Cool completely on the rack before slicing.

If you want to make it by hand, refer to this post for the method: Basic White Bread.
This post is written for weekend cooking post that I write with Srivalli  and  Vaishali.    

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Hawaiian Sweet Bread

I probably own about 10 books that are exclusively on Bread Baking. That combined with numerous baking books which have a section dedicated for bread baking makes me have more recipes than what I can bake in my life. Very rarely I follow any recipe and this one is no exception. The book that it is adapted from talks about short cuts to getting the yeast bread made in half time. Since I was not looking to rise the dough in half time, I made modifications to the recipe and the method. Original recipe also bakes it as a round loaf in a pie plate. But, I was looking for a bread to make sandwich for the kids' lunch and hence baked it in a regular pan. Result was a very rich and fluffy bread that my kids loved with Nutella and as a grilled cheese sandwich.

One Year Back - Whole Wheat Bread with vital wheat gluten
Two Years Back - Easy Marinara Sauce
Three Years Back - Strawberry Chocolate Chip Muffins
Adapted from Bread in Half the Time by Linda West Eckhardt and Diana Collingwood Butts
Ingredients:
All purpose flour or Bread flour - 3 cups
Active dry yeast - 2 1/4 tsp
Salt - 1 1/2 tsp
Vanilla extract - 1 tsp
Sugar - 3 TBSP
Non fat dry milk - 1/4 cup
Oil or melted butter - 1/4 cup
Warm water - 1/2 cup
Eggs - 2 large (Or thick yogurt 1/2 cup)
Butter to brush the loaf after baking - optional, I didn't use it.

Method:
Bread Machine Method: (Warning: Do not bake this in the bread machine, just use it to make the dough)
Place all the ingredients in the pan of the bread machine and set it for dough cycle for 1 1/2 lb loaf. When the cycle completes, take out the dough and shape and bake as explained below.

To make this by hand:
Take water in a bowl. Add sugar and sprinkle yeast on it. Let it froth ( 5 - 10 minutes). To this, add the oil, salt, eggs, vanilla and beat to break the eggs. Slowly add the dry milk powder and start adding the flour. When you can no longer turn the spatula, start kneading by hand to get a smooth dough. It will take about 10 - 15 minutes to get a smooth dough. Dough will not be sticky and will be smooth and silky. Cover and let rise till puffy. It need not double in bulk. It takes between an hour to hour and a half for this. Gently deflate and shape into a loaf. Grease a 9 X 5 pan and place the shaped dough in the pan. Cover and let rise till it reaches the rim of the pan, about 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 375 F and bake for 35 - 40 minutes or until dark brown and sounds hollow when tapped. This rises very well in the oven.
Cool on the rack and brush with butter if desired once out of the oven.

Enjoy.

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Cream Cheese Sandwich Bread

No, this blog has not been converted into an exclusive bread baking blog. I have been busy with stuff and the only thing that I have been baking is bread along with regular cooking. Here is another sandwich bread recipe that is adapted from another cream cheese sweet bread on this blog. I cut down the cream cheese amount to make it more of a regular bread that is not too rich.

One Year Back - Anise Biscotti
Two Years Back -  Healthiest Pie Crust
Three Years Back - Yam Zucchini Curry
Ingredients:
1/3 fat Cream cheese - 4 Oz (1/2 of the 8 Oz block)
Sugar - 2 TBSP
Warm Water - 3/4 Cup
All Purpose Flour - 3 Cups
Salt - 1 tsp
Active dry yeast - 2  tsp

Method:
To make the dough by hand: Mix the warm water, sugar, yeast. Let it froth for 5 - 10 minutes. Start mixing the cream cheese, salt and the flour to the yeast mixture and knead it for about 5 - 8 minutes. Coat with a bit of oil and cover and let rise till double about one hour. When the dough has doubled in volume, punch down and deflate and proceed with shaping the dough and baking as described below.

To make the dough in a bread machine: Place all the ingredients except milk in the bread machine pan in this order. Water, cream cheese, salt, sugar, flour and yeast. Set the machine on dough setting and start. When the cycle is complete, take the dough out, deflate it and shape into a loaf.

To Shape and Bake:
Grease a 9 X 5 pan with vegetable oil spray and place the shaped dough in it. Cover loosely with an oiled aluminum foil and let rise till double - about 30 - 45 minutes. When the dough has doubled, preheat the oven to 375 F. Brush the loaf with milk. Bake for 20 minutes. Turn down the oven to 325 F and bake for another 20 minutes or till done. When done, the loaf will have beautiful golden brown and will sound hollow when the bottom is tapped. If the loaf is browning too fast, tent with aluminum foil. Let cool in pan for about 5 minutes. Remove to the wire rack to cool completely. Slice when completely cool.
This post is written for weekend cooking post that I write with Srivalli  and  Vaishali.     

Enjoy.

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Breadmachine Oatmeal Bread

Here comes another bread machine bread recipe that can be converted into a mix for convenience. I have other oatmeal bread recipes on the blog if you prefer to make them by hand.

One Year Back - Radish Curry in peanut sauce
Two Years Back - Summer Salad with asian dressing
Three Years Back - Chocolate Loves Vanilla Bread
Ingredients:
Warm Water - 1/2 cup
Buttermilk - 1 cup (warm)
Active dry yeast - 1 TBSP
Sugar - 1/4 cup
Oil - 1/4 cup
All purpose flour - 2 cups
Whole Wheat flour - 2 cups
Rolled oats - 1/2 cup
Salt - 2 tsp

Method:
Place oil, salt, sugar, water, buttermilk, flours, oats and yeast in this order in the pan of the breadmachine and start on white bread setting. My breadmachine pan is kind of odd shaped and yields a very wide loaf. So, I took out the dough after final mixing and second rise and plopped the dough into an oiled 9 X 5 pan and let rise there for the final time. Baked it at 375 F for 30 minutes and then turn it down to 350 F for 15 minutes or till golden. Brush the loaf with melted butter or oil after taking out of the pan.

If you want to make it by hand, refer to this post for the method: Basic White Bread.

To make the mix:
Take all purpose flour, whole wheat flour, salt, sugar and cut in 4 TBSP of butter into it. Add yeast and oats and place them in a ziploc bag in the refrigerator. When time to make it, just measure water and buttermilk and dump the contents of the bag into the bread machine pan and start the machine.

Notes:
Depending on how you measure the flour, you might need a couple of TBSP extra flour or water. Test once and then adjust as per your measuring habits.
This post is written for weekend cooking post that I write with Srivalli  and  Vaishali.    
Enjoy.

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Breadmachine White Bread

School will start in about 2 weeks from now and I will need to have bread on hand since kids take sandwiches most of the days. Even though I had started buying the bread last year for this purpose, I got bored with it. So, I am going to experiment with a lot of breadmachine recipes for which, I will make the mix and keep them in seperate bags. Throw the contents of the bag with the measured liquid and start the machine. Even though I am not a fan of the shape of loaf when it comes out of my bread machine, that is something I have to compromise on if I am too busy to bake the bread in the oven with a nice shape. Here is a no fail white bread recipe. I was impressed by it since it had less yeast than most other recipes and hence had a nice and slow rise.

One Year Back - Brownie Biscotti
Two Years Back -  Poppy seed drink / Gasagase Payasa
Three Years Back -  Craisins and White chocolate chip biscotti
Adapted from - King Arthur Flour
Ingredients: 
All purpose flour - 3 3/4 cups (See Notes)
Warm water - 1 cup
Warm milk - 1/3 cup
Salt - 1 1/2 tsp
Oil - 3 TBSP (or butter)
Sugar - 2 TBSP
Active dry yeast - 1 1/2 tsp

Method:
Place oil, salt, sugar, water, milk flour and yeast in this order in the pan of the breadmachine and start on white bread setting. Gives the best white bread that is light and spongy. My breadmachine pan is kind of odd shaped and yields a very wide loaf. So, I took out the dough after final mixing and second rise and plopped the dough into an oiled 9 X 5 pan and let rise there for the final time. Baked it at 350 F for 45 minutes. Brush the loaf with melted butter or oil after taking out of the pan.

If you want to make it by hand, refer to this post for the method: Basic White Bread.

To make the mix:
Take flour, salt, sugar and cut in 3 TBSP of butter into it. Add yeast and place them in a ziploc bag in the refrigerator. When time to make it, just measure water and milk and dump the contents of the bag into the bread machine pan and start the machine.

Notes:
Depending on how you measure the flour, you might need a couple of TBSP extra flour or water. Test once and then adjust as per your measuring habits.
This post is written for weekend cooking post that I write with Srivalli  and  Vaishali.   

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Chocolate Squash Muffins - Vegan, low fat, low sugar

You have a bag of yellow squash from the produce junction. And by mistake, your 8 year old dumps the bag of bananas in the freezer (in the name of helping mommy after the grocery store trip). What would you do with these two? Make these muffins. These are really good and not high in fat or sugar and can be eaten as breakfast or as a snack. I changed the original recipe quite a bit by using whole wheat flour, flax eggs and using banana instead of applesauce.

One Year Back - Shahi Pulav
Two Years Back - North Indian Cucumber salad - Chucumber
Three Years Back - Homemade vegetable broth
Adapted from cooking light website.
Ingredients:  Makes 1 9 X 5 loaf or 15 regular sized muffins.
Sugar - 1/2 cup (See Notes)
Oil - 3 TBSP
Flax eggs - 2 TBSP flax meal mixed with 6 TBSP of warm water (or use 2 large eggs for a non vegan version)
Mashed banana - 1 cup (See Notes)
Whole Wheat flour - 1 cup
All purpose flour - 1 cup
Cocoa - 2 TBSP
Baking Soda - 1 1/4 tsp
Salt - 1/4 tsp
Vanilla - 1 tsp
Yellow Squash - Peeled and grated 1 1/2 cups (One medium)
Chocolate chips - 1/2 cup 

Method:
Preheat the oven to 350 F. Line cupcake pan with liners or spray with vegetable oil spray. If baking in the loaf pan, spray and lightly flour the pan. In a bowl, combine both flours, salt, cocoa, baking soda. Whisk and set aside. In another bowl, whisk together the mashed banana, sugar, oil. Whisk in the flax meal and water mixture, stir in vanilla. Add the grated squash to it and mix as uniformly as you can. Dump the dry ingredients to it and stir to combine. It will look a bit dry but within few seconds, it will mix well and make a thick muffin batter. Stir in the chocolate chips. Pour into the prepared pan and bake. For muffins, it will take about 24 - 26 minutes and for the loaf, it will take about 55 - 60 minutes. Test with the toothpick. Cool in the pan for 5 minutes and then turn it on to the cooling rack to cool completely.

Notes:
Original recipe calls for applesauce and not bananas. Since banana puree is much more sweeter than natural applesauce, I reduced the sugar to 1/2 cup from 3/4 cup mentioned in the original recipe. It was sweet enough and chocolate chips add to the sugar too. If you are using applesauce, you might want to increase the sugar to 3/4 cup.

Enjoy.

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Easiest No Knead Refrigerator Bread

All we need to make bread is flour, salt, water and yeast. But yet, here were are creating numerous recipes of the same. But show me a single loaf of bread that is sold in stores that has just these 3 ingredients (if you leave out the water as one). You will not find it.
I was looking at the awesome pinterest and I found a post about ready refrigerator bread dough. The lady who writes that blog had made it a point to make this every week and leave it in the refrigerator. Whenever she needs some rolls or bread, she would take part of the dough and bake. I halved the recipe and here it is. For some reason, I cannot get that site whatever I search for. I will update the post when I get that site. It has awesome DIY mix recipes from taco seasoning to cookie mixes.

One Year Back - Chickpeas and Cucumber Salad with Mint and garlic dressing
Two Years Back - Baby Shower Cake
Three Years Back - Quinoa Chickpeas Pulav
Ingredients: 
All purpose flour - 3 1/4 cups
Salt - 1 1/2 tsp
Active dry yeast - 2 1/4 tsp
Warm water - 1 1/2 cups

Method:
In a bowl whisk together all the dry ingredients. Slowly pour the water and with a strong wooden spoon, mix everything until no dry flour is remaining. Cover loosely with a lid and let it sit at room temperature for 30 minutes. Cover the lid tightly and keep in refrigerator for 8 hours or overnight. Dough can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.

To bake:
Remove the dough from the refrigerator and let it sit at the room temperature for 30 minutes. Flour a parchment paper generously. Using flour to prevent sticking, try to make the dough into a ball (you could plop them into a pan instead too). It is hard to smooth this dough unless you add more flour which will make it a tough bread. Shape into a ball (as nicely as you can manage) and let it rise for 30 minutes covered.

Preheat the oven to 450 F. Slash the dough (I have done a very bad job of slashing here). Bake the bread for 30 - 35 minutes till brown. Cool on the wire rack completely before slicing.

Enjoy.

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Pumpkin Ricotta Bread

Last fall, I had frozen some of the pumpkin puree. That had to be used up along with soon to expire ricotta cheese. So, this recipe was created to serve the purpose. Makes a great snack for kids. I am very short of time these days, so even if I manage to post something, that has to be done with very less time. Enjoy until my next recipe.

One Year Back - Coconut Muffins
Two Years Back - Whole Wheat Jalapeno Focaccia
Three Years Back - Sourdough Chocolate Chip Muffins
Ingredients: 
Oil - 1 cup (You can substitute half applesauce)
Brown Sugar - 2 cups (I used dark brown sugar but you can even use white sugar)
Eggs - 4 large
Pumpkin puree - 1 1/2 cups measured in dry measuring cup
Ricotta cheese - 1 cup measured in dry measuring cup (Part skim was used but any will do)
Orange juice or water or milk - 2/3 cups
All purpose flour - 3 1/3 cups
Baking Powder - 1/2 tsp
Baking Soda - 2 tsp
Salt - 1 1/2 tsp
Chocolate Chips - 1 cup
Vanilla - 2 tsp

Method:
Preheat the oven to 350 F. (325 F if using dark pans) Grease two 9 X 5 loaf pans with vegetable oil spray or shortening. Dust with flour. Set aside. In a bowl, whisk together flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder. In another bowl, beat eggs, oil, brown sugar, pumpkin puree, ricotta cheese together with a hand mixer. Add vanilla and beat for a second more. Now add the flour mixture in thirds alternating with orange juice or water. That is 1/3 of flour mixture, 1/2 of water, 1/3 flour mixture , remaining 1/2 of water followed by the final 1/3 of flour mixture. Beat at slow speed or stir with a wooden spoon after every addition. Stir in chocolate chips. Divide between the loaf pans. Bake for 60 - 70 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. If the top is getting too brown, after 45 minutes, loosely tent with an aluminum foil. You could also bake this in a tube pan or a bundt pan. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes on the cooling rack and then turn it on to the wire rack to cool completely.

You see the small white specks on the sliced bread, that is what happens if a 6 year old takes control of your whisk while baking. Since my kid had stirred so much, I was afraid to mix it too much and turn it into a hard bread. Make sure you mix well but slowly to avoid that.

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Whole Wheat Applesauce Bread

Inertia - A property of matter by which it continues in its existing state of rest or uniform motion in a straight line, unless that state is...
This post is being written just to come out of my state of inertia regarding blogging. I am one of those who get saturated (read bored) with something pretty easily. I start off with something, go deep into it and after a while, I lose interest. That did happen to me with respect to blogging. Person who used to blog 4 and even 5 times a week, who used to spend time and submit pictures to these food photography sites lost interest. Reason, lack of motivation. I found something else that is interesting at the moment. Fiction reading and writing. You might ask why not stop it if you don't have any interest. I will tell you all a secret. I cannot justify having so many props and stuff that I bought for blogging. Either I have to get rid of them (which is very hard since I spent a lot of money and time on them) or keep blogging. Do you think it is a ridiculous reason for blogging, I think so too.

Let's come to this recipe. I made it as a snack for the kids. Not very fattening and not too sugary either. You can use any spice you want in place of plain cinnamon.

One Year Back -  Carrot Ricotta Halwa/Pudding
Two Years Back -  Apricot Orange Bread, Mango Chiffon Cake, Portuguese Sweet Bread
Three Years Back - Iyengar Bakery Toast/Indian Bruschetta
Ingredients:
Whole Wheat flour - 1  1/2 cups
Sugar - 1/4 cup
Honey - 1/4 cup
Applesauce - 1 cup (I used the sweetened one. If using unsweetened, increase sugar to 1/2 cup)
Oil - 1/4 cup
Eggs - 2 large or 2 flax eggs
Salt - 1/2 tsp
Cinnamon - 1 tsp
Baking Soda - 1 tsp
Baking powder - 1 tsp

Method:
Preheat the oven to 350 F. Spray a 9 X 5 or a 8 X 4  loaf pan with vegetable oil spray. I used 3 mini loaf pans. In a bowl, combine together flour, salt, cinnamon, baking soda and baking powder. In another bowl, beat together sugar, oil, eggs or flax eggs. When the mixture is well mixed, add applesauce, honey and stir. Dump the dry ingredients to the wet and stir gently to combine. Pour into the prepared pan and bake for 45 - 50 minutes in case of the larger pan and 30 - 35 minutes in case of mini loaves or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Cool on the wire rack and remove from the pan to cool completely after 10 minutes. Slice when completely cool.

Enjoy.

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Beet Chocolate Bread

If you ask my older daughter to name a few vegetables, her list would be peas, green beans, lima beans and carrots. They are the vegetables that she would eat in any form without fuss. If you ask my younger one to list few vegetables, her list would be tomatoes, tomatoes, tomatoes and maybe spinach. Not that I stick to only those vegetables, I do make them eat other veggies, but it is not an easy task. I had beets and I thought I would turn them into a cake or muffin. But then, I didn't want the color to make my kids not eat it, so I hid it using cocoa and made this bread. They have no clue that there is beets in it and they are eating it happily as snack.

One Year Back - Simple Edamame and Greens Rice
Two Years Back -  Yeasted Olive Oil Pear Cake, Salad with italian dressing
Three Years Back - No knead Focaccia

Ingredients: 
All purpose flour - 1  cup
Whole Wheat flour - 1 1/2 cups
Unsweetened Cocoa - 1/2 cup (I used dutch processed, but natural works too)
Sugar - 1 cup (See Notes)
Baking powder - 1/2 tsp
Baking Soda - 1 tsp
Salt - 1 tsp
Oil - 3/4 cup
Egg - 3 large
Vanilla - 2 tsp
Beet- peeled and shredded with fine grater - 2 cups (about 1 large beet)
White chocolate chips - 1 cup (optional) 

Method:
Preheat the oven to 350 F (In my case, 325 F since I was using dark pans). Grease two 8 X 4 pans with vegetable oil spray. Set aside. In a bowl, whisk together all purpose flour, whole wheat flour, cocoa,  baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside. In another bowl, whisk together oil, sugar and eggs. Stir in vanilla. Make a well in the center of dry ingredients and pour the liquid mixture. Stir slowly so that it mixes evenly. Stir in shredded beets and white chocolate chips if using. This is a very thick batter.  Scoop into the prepared pans and bake for 50 - 55 (will be less if you use 9 X 5 pans and at 350 F) minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes and then turn it on to the wire rack to cool completely.  This bread doesn't rise much, so keep that in mind when you fill the pans.


Notes:
This is not a very sweet bread at all. Perfect for snacks for kids.
 

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Pineapple Muffins

No, I am not having a muffin mania on this blog. I have been making some muffins for the kids' snack and this one was one of them. It doesn't have a lot of fat, but has lots of fruit in it. Very moist and tender. One of my kid loved it whereas the other complained about too much pineapple. Depends on if you like lot of fruit in the muffin or not.

One Year Back - Banana Sourcream Cake (Low Fat)
Two Years Back - Sweet Corn Raisin Bread, Vegan Tomato Soup
Three Years Back - Cranberry Rice Orange Muffins, Multigrain Brown Bread
Ingredients: (makes 12 standard sized muffins)
All purpose flour -  3/4 cups
Whole Wheat flour - 1 cup 
Salt - 1/4 tsp
Baking powder - 1 TBSP
Crushed pineapple in its juice - 1 1/2 cups (don't drain it. Measure it in liquid measuring cup)
Oil - 1/4 cup
Sugar - 2/3 cup
Egg - 1 large
Vanilla - 1 tsp

Method:
Preheat the oven to 375 F. Line a 12 cup muffin pan with liners or grease with vegetable oil spray. In a bowl, whisk together flours, baking powder, salt. In another bowl, whisk together pineapple and its juice, oil, sugar and egg. Mix till egg is broken and the mixture is uniform. Add vanilla and stir. Now dump the whole dry ingredients and stir to combine. Divide between the 12 cups and bake for 20 - 22 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 5 minutes and then turn it on to the wire rack to cool completely.

Enjoy.

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Orange Chocolate Chip Muffins

For some reason, no one is interested in eating oranges at our place. Clementines work, but not oranges. The main reason being it is hard to peel compared to clementines. I had quite a few oranges that people gave as part of the gift bag. I had to use it up somehow and I made these muffins. They were not too sweet, citrusy and light and perfect for kids' lunch box snack.

One Year Back - Sweet potato Chili
Two Years Back - Vegan Mango Cake
Three Years Back  - Butternut squash Pasta, Eggless Blueberry Coffee cake, Chewy Granola Bars
Ingredients:
All purpose flour - 1 3/4 cups
Sugar - 2/3 cup
Oil - 1/2 cup
Orange juice - 2/3 cup (I used freshly squeezed juice)
Egg - 1 large
Baking powder - 1 TBSP
Salt - 1/4 tsp
Orange Zest - 1 TBSP
Vanilla - 1 tsp
Mini chocolate chips - 3/4 cups (See Notes)

Method:
Preheat the oven to 375 F. Line 12 cup muffin tray with paper liners or spray with vegetable oil spray. In a bowl, whisk together all purpose flour, salt, sugar and baking powder.  In another bowl, beat orange juice, oil and egg until nicely combined. Add vanilla, orange zest and mix. Dump the dry ingredients to wet and slowly stir with a spatula or a wooden spoon. Stir in chocolate chips. Do not over mix. Divide between 12 muffin cups. Ice cream scoop works best to divide them uniformly. Bake for 22 - 24 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 5 minutes and then turn it on to the wire rack to cool completely.

Notes:
Try not to use the regular sized chocolate chips. This batter is a little thin and the chocolate chips might sink into the bottom.

Enjoy.

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Sweet Wheat Quick Bread

When you are continuously baking, it is hard to decide what to bake next. I had that feeling today and when I started organizing pages and pages of recipes that I have collected, I found this Sweet Wheat Bread scribbled on one such page. I do not know what the source of this recipe is, but I had to change few things to make it work the way I wanted. This is probably the quickest and easiest whole wheat bread one can make. Of course, it is not suitable for sandwiches, but definitely perfect for breakfast bread with some butter or jam or a cup of milk.

One Year Back -  Banana Cranberry Quick Bread, Savory Tomato Muffin, Chickpeas Crackers
Two Years Back - Eggless peanutbutter swirled chocolate cake
Three Years Back -  Cake decorating basics part - 3
Makes one 8 X 4 or short 9 X 5 loaf
Ingredients: 
Whole Wheat flour - 2 1/2 cups
Baking Powder - 2 tsp
Baking Soda - 1 tsp
Cinnamon - 1 tsp (optional)
Salt - 1/4 tsp
Egg - 1 large (flax egg works fine)
Molasses or honey or agave nectar - 1/2 cup (I used agave nectar)
Sugar - 1/4 cup (Skip it if you don't want the bread to be sweet)
Oil - 1/4 cup
Buttermilk or yogurt - 2/3 cup (I used buttermilk)
Water - 1/4 cup

Method:
Preheat the oven to 375 F. 350 F in case of dark pan. I was using a dark pan so heated it to 350 F. Grease with shortening and flour well. In a bowl, whisk together wheat flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. In another bowl whisk together egg, oil, sugar, agave nectar or honey or molasses. Add water to the buttermilk or yogurt and set aside. To the egg mixture, add flour and the buttermilk alternating starting and ending with flour mixture. Fold gently and pour into the prepared pan. Bake for 45 - 50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes and then turn it on to the wire rack to cool completely. Slice when completely cool. I was in a hurry and sliced when still warm. It will crumble if you slice when still warm. This tastes great toasted or plain with some milk for breakfast.

Check out what my friends are baking for this bake-a-thon :  Preethi, Priya, Srivalli,  Sumana and Jayasri.    
Enjoy.

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No Knead Chocolate rolls/muffins (Vegan)

I love baking with yeast even when it takes more time to get the finished product. Main reason is the flexibility of using less sugar and fat. I needed something to send in as snack and this was something that I could make without too much hands on time and at the same time not using too much sugar or fat. One of my kid felt it was too intense in chocolate flavor because I had used dutch processed cocoa. You can actually reduce the cocoa to just 1/4 cup and increase the all purpose flour to 2 1/4 cup if you want mildly chocolate muffins. You could use natural cocoa and in that case the muffins would be darker instead of having a reddish brown color.

One Year Back - Vegan Carrot Oat Bars, Julekage
Two Years Back - Dry Fruit Bread/Cake (With yeast)
Three Years Back - Green Mango Apple Gojju
Ingredients:
All purpose flour - 2 cups
Cocoa - 1/2 cup
Salt - 1/2 tsp
Warm Water - 1 1/4 cup
Sugar - 1/4 cup
Active dry yeast - 2 1/4 tsp
Oil - 3 TBSP

Method:
In a bowl take warm water. Add sugar, salt, oil to it. Add cocoa and stir. Sprinkle yeast and let it froth (about 5 minutes). Slowly start adding flour and stir with a strong wooden spoon. When the batter is uniformly mixed, cover and let rise till bubbly, about 45 minutes. Stir down the batter. Grease a muffin cup very well. Scoop out the batter into the cups to get 12 muffins. Cover with a well oiled plastic wrap and let rise for 30 - 40 minutes. The batter will rise and almost touch the plastic wrap. Preheat the oven to 400 F. Bake for 15 - 20 minutes. Cool in the pan for 5 minutes and remove to cool completely on the wire rack. This is not very sweet at all. You can either serve with some buttery spread and milk or with some fruit spread.

Notes:
Do not use the cupcake/muffin liner. Since this is a batter and it is made to sit for 40 minutes or so, the paper will get soggy and stick to the muffin horribly. Don't ask me how I know. 

Check out what my friends are baking for this bake-a-thon :  Preethi, Veena, Priya, Srivalli,  Sumana and Jayasri. 

Enjoy.

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Honey Rolls/Buns

When someone is baking 3 times a week for the main purpose of blogging, it becomes hard to choose what to bake. I cannot keep on baking cakes or cookies just because  I don't want too much sugary, fatty things sitting on the counter. I have baked a lot to just give it away in the past. But I feel guilty for giving all these high calorific food in case they are trying to watch what they are eating. So, here is something that serves the purpose of baking and blogging for me and which can be made as a part of regular meal so everyone is happy. My kids loved these for breakfast and they made me slice these in half and spread nutella to make nutella sandwich.

One Year Back - Lemon Coconut Bread, Vanilla Cake using Homemade mix
Two Years Back - Dry Fruit Yeast Bread/Cake
Three Years Back - Coconut Almond Cookies
Ingredients:
All purpose flour - 4 cups
Active dry yeast - 2 1/2 tsp
Warm water - 1 cup
Yogurt - 1/4 cup (measured in dry measuring cup in place of 1 large egg)
Honey - 1/4 cup
Oil - 3 TBSP
Salt - 1 1/4 tsp

To brush before baking:
Honey - 1 TBSP
Milk - 1 TBSP

To brush after baking:
Less than 1 TBSP of butter

Method:
Bread Machine Method:
Place water, oil, yogurt, honey, salt, all purpose flour, yeast in this order in the bread machine pan. Select dough cycle (for a 2 lb loaf) and press start. (Usually the order is oil or butter, water, salt, sugar, flour and then yeast) When the machine beeps, check the dough. Make sure the dough is nice and smooth and not sticky. Adjust the flour or water if needed by 1 TBSP at a time. I didn't need any. Let the dough rise for 45 minutes and then gently deflate it. Transfer onto a greased area (I use a chopping board sprayed with vegetable oil spray) and divide the dough into 12 pieces.  Roll into balls and place in a 9 X 13 pan. Cover with a greased aluminum foil and let it rise for 45 minutes or till almost double in size. By this time, they'll have bulked up and touching each other.

Towards the end of rise time, preheat the oven to 400 F. Brush the rolls with honey and milk mixture. Bake in the preheated oven for 15 - 20 minutes. Mine were golden at 20 minutes. Let it stand in  the pan for 5 - 10 minutes. Brush with melted butter if desired.

Manual Method:
In a large bowl, take the warm water, honey and dry yeast. Let it stand for about 10 minutes or till frothy. Slowly start adding the flours, yogurt, oil, salt. Knead for about 10 - 15 minutes. Let it rest for about 45 minutes. Deflate the dough and divide them into 12 pieces. Roll them into the ball and proceed as given in the 'Bread Machine Method' section.

Check out what my friends are baking for this bake-a-thon :  Preethi, Veena, Priya, Srivalli,  Sumana and Jayasri.

Enjoy.

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Pumpkin Pecan Bread

My kids never liked nuts in baked goods. But, that was in the past. They have started enjoying nuts in the bread and cake that makes it good for me to add few nuts here and there while baking. This is another version of the Pumpkin Chocolate Chip bread that I had posted sometime back. I made these into Pumpkin Pecan Bread since pumpkin and pecans go very well together.

One Year Back - Sweet and Spicy Almonds, Lemon Coconut Bread

Two Years Back -Holiday Gift Ideas

Three Years Back - Eggless Pecan Pie Bars
Ingredients:

Oil - 1/2 cup
Brown Sugar - 1 cup packed
Eggs - 2 large
Pumpkin puree - 1 cup
Water - 1/3 cup
All purpose flour - 1 2/3 cups
Baking Powder - 1/4 tsp
Baking Soda - 1 tsp
Salt - 1/2 tsp
Pecans - 1  cup chopped
Vanilla - 1 tsp

Method:
Preheat the oven to 350 F. (325 F if using dark pans) Grease one 9 X 5 or 8 X 4 loaf pan with vegetable oil spray or shortening. I made 4 mini loaves. Dust with flour. Set aside. In a bowl, whisk together flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder. In another bowl, beat eggs, oil, brown sugar, pumpkin puree together with a hand mixer. Add vanilla and beat for a second more. Now add the flour mixture in thirds alternating with water. That is 1/3 of flour mixture, 1/2 of water, 1/3 flour mixture , remaining 1/2 of water followed by the final 1/3 of flour mixture. Beat at slow speed or stir with a wooden spoon after every addition. Stir in chopped pecans. Divide between the loaf pans. Bake for 35 - 40 minutes in case of  mini loaf pans and 50 - 60 minutes in case of a large loaf pan or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  Cool in the pan for 10 minutes on the cooling rack and then turn it on to the wire rack to cool completely.
Check out what my friends are baking -  Preethi, Veena, Priya, Srivalli,  Sumana and Jayasri.

Notes:
If you make 3 mini loaves instead of 4 with this recipe, you will get tall, chubbier loaves. You might have to bake for 5 more minutes in that case.

Enjoy.

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