Easy Eggless Banana Walnut Bread

Every time I go to a bakery, one thing that attracts me is Banana Walnut Bread and I always give in to the craving. A good book, a mug of coffee and a slice of Banana Walnut bread is all you need on a lazy evening. 

Thanks to motherhood, I am confined to the house these days. Few days ago, as the children went off to sleep late afternoon, I craved for that book-coffee-banana walnut bread moment. And so, the hunt began for the easy eggless recipe. 

Since I baked this bread late at night, I got to enjoy it only the next morning. I then realised that it makes for an excellent breakfast on the go. Unlike the original recipe, I used 100% wholewheat flour and was very impressed by the outcome. Also, I suggest vanilla essence if you don't like the aroma of ripe eggs (Mr. Hubby doesn't!)

The bread lasts 2-3 days if stored in an airtight container, but I can assure you it turns out to be so yum that it will get finished in a day!

Ingredients

Ripe Banana - 2 No.

Walnuts - 1/4 Cup, chopped

Castor Sugar - 5 tbsp

Melted Butter (I used salted) - 1/4 Cup

Vanilla Essence - 1 tsp (optional)

Wholewheat Flour/Atta - 3/4 Cup

Baking Soda - 3/4 tsp

Warm milk - 1/4 Cup or as required

Method

1. In a blender jar, take the banana pieces and castor sugar and blend together into a fine paste.

2. In a mixing bowl, take the melted butter. Add the mashed banana-sugar mixture, vanilla essence and beat well into a smooth and light mixture. Wet ingredients are ready.

3. Sieve together the wholewheat flour and baking soda. Dry ingredients are ready.

4. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and fold gently to mix the ingredients. Do not over mix.

5. Add the chopped walnuts and fold slightly.

6. Transfer the batter to a greased and dusted loaf tin and tap the tin once or twice to let the batter spread evenly.

7. Bake in a pre-heated oven at 180 degree centigrade for 35 minutes or until a knife comes out clean.

8. Cool for 5-10 minutes. Then loosen the sides using a knife and demould.

9. Let the bread cool for 10-15 minutes. Then, slice and serve at breakfast or tea time.

Look how soft it is...

Bon Appetit!

Easy Eggless Mango Tea Cake

After my last attempt with Eggless Mango Cake received much appreciation, I was motivated to experiment again with Mango. However, I wanted to try something different this time, preferably without condensed milk. So when I discovered this recipe, I was super excited to try it out! Made few variations and to my utter delight, it came out awesome!

I served this at tea time and it became an instant hit! A slightly dense cake, the Semolina gives it a wonderful texture, while the Cardamom flavour is just heavenly! The best part was that the cake tasted even tastier the next day!

Ingredients

Wholewheat flour/Atta - 1 Cup

Semolina/Rava - 1/2 Cup (The original recipe mentioned thin rava however, I had the thick one available so I used that and the cake came out equally good)

Baking Soda - 1/2 tsp

Baking Powder - 1 tsp

Salt - a pinch

Mangoes - 1-2 No., chopped

Mango emulsion/mango essence - 1 tsp

Grain Sugar - 3/4 Cup

Green Cardamom/Elaichi - 3-4 No.

Curd - 1/4 Cup

Refined Oil - 2tbsp

Warm Milk - 2tbsp

Walnuts - 1/2 Cup, chopped

Method 

1. In a blender jar, take the chopped Mango, sugar and green cardamom and blend into a smooth paste.

2. Transfer the Mango-Sugar-Cardamom mixture to a mixing bowl.

3. Add the curd, mango emulsion and oil. Mix well using a whisk. The wet mixture is ready. 

4. Sieve together the wholewheat flour, rava, baking soda and baking powder. The dry mixture is ready. 

5. Add the sieved dry mixture to the wet mixture and gently fold. If the mixture is too thick, add 1 tsp warm milk at a time and adjust the consistency to a smooth batter neither too thick, nor runny.x

6. Add the chopped walnuts and mix slightly.

7. Transfer the batter to a greased loaf tin. Tap lightly to even the batter.

8. Bake in a preheated oven at 190 degree celsius for around 35 minutes or till a knife comes out clean when pricked in the cake. 

9. Demould and cool on a wire rack for 15-20 minutes. Enjoy the cake with tea or as a dessert. 

The softness test...

Pahadi Style Urad Dal Khichdi

Few days ago, my MIL was remembering her days in Kullu. My FIL was posted there for a few years and lived in a cute little house on the banks of Beas river. She was telling me about the warmth of the neighbours and how they used to exchange dishes they prepared everyday. Since I am a big foodie, any mention of food gets my antennae active. So, I requested her to prepare one of the special dishes she had there. MIL went inside the kitchen and while I made the little one eat and sleep, she came up with the one of most delicious versions of the Khichdi I ever had! I was so hooked on to the Khichdi that I requested her to prepare one more time so that I can post the recipe on my blog. 

Sharing the recipe of Pahadi style Urad Dal Khichdi. This is an easier version by my MIL as she knows I am a lazy chef and a complicated recipe will scare me out!

Ingredients

Khichdi Rice (we used Basmati tukda that we generally use for baby food) - 1 Cup soaked for an hour

Urad Dal with skin - 1/2 Cup, soaked for an hour

Desi Ghee - 2 tbsp

Curry leaves - 4-5

Black peppercorns - 3-4 no.

Cloves - 2-3 no.

Cumin Seeds - 1 tsp

Bayleaf - 1 no.

Asafoetida - 1 tsp

Green Chillies - 2-3 no. 

Ginger - a small piece

Garlic - 4-5 pods

Onion - 1 small

Salt - to taste

Turmeric Powder - 1/2 tsp

Water - 2 Cups

Method

1. Grind together the onion, ginger, garlic, curry leaves and green chillies. The mixture should be chopped, not blended. I used my electric chopper. Remember, we do not want a paste.

2. Heat 2 tbsp ghee in a pressure handi.

3. Add the bayleaf, asafoetida, cumin seeds, black peppercorns and cloves.

4. When they begin to splutter, add the chopped onion - garlic - ginger - curry leaves - green chillies mixture.

5. Saute on medium flame for 3-4 minutes. 

6. Add the soaked dal and rice and saute on medium flame for another 2-3 minutes.

7. Add turmeric powder and salt and mix well.

8. Add enough water to cover the mixture 1/2" above. Mix well.

9. Cover and cook for one whistle. Let the steam escape on its own from the pressure handi.

Serve piping hot with salad.

Easy Eggless Flower Bread

This flower bread happened by chance! I was desperate to bake my own bread. However, I had not yet purchased a loaf tin, nor did I have a big baking tray (haven't yet found a round one for my microwave). But, when there is a will there is a way. So, we baked it in our flower shaped aluminium cake tin!

With this bread, I resumed baking after 14 years. Read more about it here.

This bread is ideal for tea time. Blame it on our excitement, we enjoyed it with a generous layer of butter and it vanished from the table in few minutes! Despite all the hard work, all I got of the bread was one petal. But that also proves the bread was indeed yum.

Well, without anymore bak bak, let me get onto the recipe.

Ingredients (Made a six petal flower bread)

All purpose flour/Maida - 1 Cup 

Instant Dry Yeast - 1 tsp

Sugar - 1 tsp

Salt - 3/4 tsp

Lukewarm milk - 1/2 Cup

Lukewarm water - 1/2 Cup

Clarified butter/Desi Ghee - 1 tbsp + 1/2 tbsp for brushing

Milk - 2 tbsp, for milkwash

Method 

1. In a bowl, take sugar, yeast and add lukewarm water. Cover and rest for 10 minutes for the yeast to activate. Do not move or uncover the bowl while resting. Also, the water should be lukewarm. Too hot or cold water won't activate the yeast and the bread won't rise.

After 10 minutes, the yeast rose and looked like this. 

2. In a separate vessel (since I don't have a big working board, my humble Paraat which I used to knead the chapati dough came handy) take the maida.

3. Add the salt and mix well.

4. Knead a soft dough using lukewarm milk. Preparing the dough is an important step and thankfully, my MIL volunteers for the job and completes it to perfection. She knead the dough for a good 7-8 minutes. The dough started sticking but she continued to knead and we eventually got a soft dough.

5. Add 1 tbsp desi ghee and knead the dough well so that the ghee gets absorbed. This gives a very soft texture to the bread. In fact, we do this even with our chapati dough. Make the dough into a ball. 

6. Cover the dough with a moist cloth and keep in a warm place undisturbed for 2 hours to prove. 

Our dough doubled beautifully after 2 hours.

7. Take the dough in the Paraat and knock off the excess air. 

8. Grease the tin.

9. Put the dough in the greased tin and make small cuts with scissors to give the shape of petals. 

10. Cover with a damp cloth and keep for proving for another 30 minutes.

11. Give milk wash.

12. Bake in a preheated oven at 200 degrees Celsius for 20 minutes.

13. Loosen the sides with a knife and smear ghee while the bread is still hot.

14. Cool for 15 minutes. Cut into petals and enjoy with butter!

My second innings in baking

No matter how awesome breads I may bake in the future, this bread will always be the closest to my heart! Because with this bread, I resumed baking after 14 long years. Curious? 

Well, let me kill the curiosity..

I am a Hotel Management graduate. Obviously, as part of the curriculum, I learnt to bake so many cakes, breads and cookies. However, it was total "egg" cooking. Those days we were so much obsessed with having a good career that we just focussed on the destination, not the journey. As a result baking was a very procedural thing to get the right grades. Of course, those who wanted to be professional chefs did have a different approach towards the classes. But since those days I was more keen on pursuing MBA after college and wanted to make a career in marketing and communication, baking was a mere task for me which I had to complete perfectly just to get good grades. How foolish of me na! Yes, after 14 years even I think so. But there is a saying that experience is like a comb that life gives when you go bald! So no point hind sighting.

So, what is it that has suddenly transformed me into a crazy baker? 

Well, motherhood is the answer. I once wrote a post on the things motherhood taught me that nothing else did and today I proudly add baking to that list. I wanted to introduce breads to my toddler son. However, I was skeptical about the ingredients used in the commercially available bread. Finally, my chef apron and the baking journals came to my rescue! The Microwave is all smiles as it is finally getting the attention it has deserved all these years. 

Since I have long stopped eating eggs, this second innings in baking is going to be completely eggless! Therefore, I feel like a First year student again, as I research on the ways to get the best results without using eggs.

Sometimes, small initiatives give us so much joy that even money can't buy! The joy of seeing my little one cherish the breads/cakes baked by me is something words cannot explain. 

Such is the magic of motherhood!