Eggless – The Secret Ingredient

ChocolateCraving

No Bake Foxnut and Puffed Amaranth Granola Bars

By anshu March 23, 2020

Ladies and Gentleman I am back and I am back with a lot to share. This Corona lock down has made me write all over again on my blog. The reason for disappearance was pure laziness (proud to be a lazy bum :P). Although I had been baking and cooking and posting on my Instagram handle. I hope you are following my feed. I bring you today my go to recipe of No Bake Foxnut and Puffed amaranth granola bars. The reason I chose this recipe is because we all are home these days. The situation is bad and scary out there. But at the end of the day precaution can save us which means staying home without cribbing,finding reasons to cook together, enjoy with your loved ones. Rather than sulking we can transform this worry into hope. Just keep your mind and body occupied constructively.

These granola bars are so easy to make. You can engage your kids to make this like a DIY project and you can supervise. It requires no baking and no major cooking. It has goodness of foxnuts or makhana , amaranth and almonds and taste nutty and chocolaty. Requires handful of ingredients and little of your time. I wont yap more and will jump directly to the recipe. Do write to me how are you dealing with lockdown and this scare. Sometime venting helps. It may not solve your problem but lightens your burden. If you wish to check out more energy bar recipes you can try Oats & Almond Energy Bars and No Bake Amaranth Granola Bars.

Directions:

1. In a wok add some oil and salt

2. Add foxnuts. Roast them on a medium heat till they become crunchy and acquire some colour. This should take less than five minutes. Keep tossing the nuts constantly. You don’t want them to burn down. Remove on a plate and set aside.

3. In a food processor add seedless dates, roasted foxnuts and puffed amaranth.

4. Also add peanut butter, cocoa powder and almonds.

5. Blitz everything till you get a sand like mixture.

6. Line a baking pan with 90 degree angles with parchment paper, so that nothing sticks. I have used 8 x 5.5 inch pan.

7. Dump the mixture into the baking pan and try to spread evenly and press with the help of a flat bowl so that everything gets settled and sticks together, If you do not use force you may come up with a crumbly bar.

8. Refrigerate for at least an hour to set properly. Flip it upside down on a chopping board and cut into desired bars with a sharp knife.

9. You can cover them individually in food wrapping paper and refrigerate. It has a good shelf life. Lasts upto two weeks or so.

Other gluten Free recipes you can try are: Foxnut Milk pudding, Persimmon Buckwheat Gluten Free Cake, Vintage Honey Figs and Date Cake Squares Recipe with Gluten Free Flour,Amaranth Herbed Crackers,Gluten Free Chocolate Ragi Brownies,Besan & Corn Flakes Cookies,No Bake Amaranth Granola Bars, Apple Crisp

No Bake Foxnut and Puffed Amaranth Granola Bar

Recipe Type: SNACK

Cuisine: CONTINENTAL

Author: Anshu Wadhwa

Prep time: 15 mins

Cook time: 5 mins

Total time: 20 mins

Serves: 12 bars

No Bake Fox nut and Puffed Amaranth Granola Bars are healthy and delicious energy food with goodness of fox nuts, amaranth and almonds.Its a gluten free treat.

Ingredients

3 cup Pitted dates
1 cup roasted Almonds
3/4 cup fox nuts
3/4 cup peanut butter
3 tbsp cocoa powder
3/4 cup puffed amaranth

Instructions

In a wok add some oil and salt.
Add foxnuts. Roast them on a medium heat till they become crunchy and acquire some colour.This should take less than five minutes. Keep tossing the nuts constantly. You don’t want them to burn down. Remove on a plate and set aside.
In a food processor add seedless dates, roasted foxnuts and puffed amaranth.
Also add peanut butter, cocoa powder and almonds.
Blitz everything till you get a sand like mixture.
Line a baking pan with 90 degree angles with parchment paper, so that nothing sticks. I have used 8 x 5.5 inch pan.
Dump the mixture into the baking pan and try to spread evenly and press with the help of a flat bowl so that everything gets settled and sticks together, If you do not use force you may come up with a crumbly bar.
Refrigerate for at least an hour to set properly. Flip it upside down on a chopping board and cut into desired bars with a sharp knife.
You can cover them individually in food wrapping paper and refrigerate. It has a good shelf life. Lasts upto two weeks or so.

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Baking

Amaranth Herbed Crackers | Gluten Free Amaranth Flour Savoury Crackers | Rajgira Namkeen Biscuit

By anshu February 26, 2017

I have been receiving numerous requests from friends, followers to post more Gluten Free Recipes on my blog. Some of them have celiac issues and some want to include gluten free flours in their diet.. Earlier I had posted recipe of Gluten Free Brownies with Ragi Flour, No Bake Amaranth Granola Bars which received great reviews from you all. If you try any of my recipes, please send me the feedback with a picture. I would love to showcase them on my facebook page. Such feedbacks keep me motivated.

This time when I had organic Amaranth Flour from SOS organics I knew I will be trying out something different with it. The Amaranth Flour has a slight nutty flavour. And then I came across this recipe which was not only Gluten Free but also Vegan and Diabetic Friendly. These Savoury Herbed Crackers are loaded with herbs and has a subtle flavour of garlic. They are so easy to put together and loved by all. You must try them at least once.

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 180 degree Celsius (Learn more about Oven Temperatures and Conversions). In a bowl add the Amaranth Flour and Baking Powder.

2. Also add chopped garlic and salt to the flour.

3. Add dried or fresh herbs to the bowl and combine. You can use any herb or combination of herbs to your liking.

4. Add water and Olive oil.

5. Combine everything using your hands or you can do the same in a food processor. Mix this till everything comes together like a dough. Don’t add more water or oil. Its a gluten free flour so it will take some time for it to come together.

6. Place the dough on a sheet of Parchment Paper and roll it thin using a roller pin. It should be about 1/5th of an inch in thickness.

7. Use a cookie cutter and cut them into desired shapes. Place them on a baking sheet lined with Parchment Paper. You can use a spatula to lift the cracker dough for it is very fragile.

8. Use a fork to prick the crackers all over. Bake the crackers in preheated oven for 12-13 minutes. Keep a close eye not to over bake them. Let them crisp up a little before biting into them.

Other cookies and crackers you can try here are: Traditional Australian – New Zealand Anzac Biscuits, Subway Copycat Oatmeal Raisin Cookies, Chickpea Flour & Corn Flakes Eggless Cookies, Chyawanprash Cookies, Strawberry Cookies, Gingerbread Man Cookies, Greek Traditional Christmas Cookies, Italian Almond Biscotti, Peanut Butter Cookies with Chocolate Chips, Chocolate Coconut Cookies, White Chocolate Chip Cookies, Ragi & Whole Wheat Biscuits.

[whohit]AmaranthCrackers[/whohit]

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Baking

μελομακάρονα | Melomakarona | Greek Traditional Christmas Cookies

By anshu November 28, 2015

Its November end and Thanksgiving is over. I can feel the chill in the air and my nose turns red when I take my daily walk in the hills. I have soaked the dry fruits in Rum for the Christmas Cake, which officially means that Christmas has begun. Hurray!! now who can stop me from baking delicious cakes and cookies.

Incidentally, this months Spatula Force Theme Challenge was Greek Cuisine hosted by my Friend and Food Blogger Bhawna Pandey from Salt and Pepper . This motivated me to try the Greek Traditional Christmas Cookies Melomakarona. They are delicious, melt in mouth, egg shaped cookies with goodness of Olive Oil and Honey. They are Spiced with Cloves, Cinnamon and Orange Zest. Doesn’t that sound very festive and christmasy?

The baked cookies are dipped in Sugar Honey Spiced Syrup and finally glazed with Honey and chopped Walnuts. Ohh!! The taste is absolutely mindblowing and scintillating. You must try these to believe me 🙂 I loved to photograph these cookies and creating a little Christmas like ambience. Thanks to my friend Lily for the beautiful platter she gifted me on her visit. Doesn’t that look amazing!

Directions:

1. Wash and dry a firm Orange and take out its zest, only the orange part using a microplane or zester.

2. In a saucepan add some water and add to it lemon zest and orange juice.

3. Add sugar to the saucepan along with cinnamon and Cloves.

4. Bring the syrup to a boil and then simmer for two minutes. Turn the heat off and add honey and mix well till it is dissolved. Keep aside.

5. In a mixing bowl add Vegetable Oil, Olive oil and Orange juice.

6. Add to bowl baking soda and whisk together with the juice and oils. Let the soda react with the juice.

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7. Add ground Cloves and Cinnamon and combine

8. Add caster sugar or icing sugar to the oil juice mixture and mix well along with orange zest. Add semolina and combine using a whisk.

9. Now add All purpose flour little by little and combine to make a smooth dough. Do not over work the dough.

10. Divide the dough into walnut size elliptical or oval shape balls and press them against a grater to get the pattern. Other wise you can use a fork to make pattern of your choice.

11. Place them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or silicon mat, with amble space between each cookie* and bake for 25-30 minutes on 200 degree Celsius in middle rack. Keep an eye after 25 minutes, for it shouldn’t get over baked.

12. Immediately as they come out of the oven dip them in the syrup we prepared before for 20 seconds. You can use slotted spoon to take them out.

13. Let them drain and rest on a wire wrack. When they cool down drizzle them with Honey and sprinkle on top some coarsely ground walnuts.

14. You are ready to dig into them and make this Christmas more special and Joyous.

Other Cookies you can try on The Secret Ingredient are: White Chocolate Chip Cookies , Ragi & Whole Wheat Biscuits, Coconut Chocolate Cookies, Peanut Butter Cookies with Chocolate Chips and Italian Almond Biscotti.

If you are looking for Delicious Cakes and Sweet Breads: Apple Raisins Streusel Bread , Chocolate Vanilla Marble Cake, Eggless Almond Vanilla Cake, Eggless Orange Cake with Candied Orange Peel Filling, Lemon Cake with Lemon Glaze, Persimmon Rum Cake, Pumpkin Cake Rolls , Vegan Chocolate Banana Cake, Wacky Vegan Chocolate Cake , Whole Wheat Vegan Banana Bread with Melon Seeds.

Other Greek Cuisines from my fellow Bloggers participating in this challenge are: Spanakopita Triangles or Greek Spinach Pie by Binjal Pandya from Binjal’s Veg Kitchen, Baklava by Pooja Khanna from 2Bliss Of Baking.

[whohit]Melomakarona[/whohit]

[yumprint-recipe id=’182′]

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Apples

Vegan Yellow Zucchini Chocolate Brownies | No Oil No Butter No Added Sugar Chocolate Brownies

By anshu September 11, 2015

Its been a month me and my husband have been clean. No No its not what you are thinking 😉 We are not on DRUGS!!! We are eating healthy and exercising to burn those extra kilos we have gathered as a result of food blogging 😛 We are trying hard to keep our meals simple, clean and avoiding sugar as much as we can. I know its a painstaking task. But you see every Christ has to carry one’s own cross 😉

This gave me an opportunity to look into healthier and nutritious dishes. I recently made Couscous Chickpea Salad, Mexican Black Bean Mango Salad. But nevertheless the craving for sweet things gets in more too often. I tried to indulge in a dessert which is gultfree. I know Dessert and Guiltree are like the North and the South Pole. But trust me these Chocolate brownies are without any eggs, oil or butter and no extra sugar is added to it. Its sweetened with apple sauce, chocolate and maple syrup and above all it has goodness of Yellow Zucchini. Another fabulous idea to hide in Zucchini in your kiddos food without letting them know 😉

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 180 degree Celsius for ten minutes. Wash, peel and core apple. Cut into small pieces and make a smooth puree in a blender. Set aside.

2. Wash, peel and grate a zucchini. You can use yellow or green. Both will serve the purpose.

3. Place the grated Zucchini in a cheese cloth and squeeze out all the water. Set aside. You can use this water to make roti dough.

4. In a small bowl add Flax Seed meal or Flax seed powder (Learn how to make Flax seed Powder at home) and add some water. Let it rest for ten minutes and become gelatinous.

5. In a mixing bowl add apple sauce and soya milk.*

6. Also add Maple syrup and Vanilla extract.

7. Add the gelatinous flax meal mixture to the bowl and give everything a good stir.

8. In another bowl swift and add cocoa powder and whole wheat flour.

9. Also sift and add in baking powder and combine with the dry ingredients. The purpose of sieving is to eliminate all lumps.

10. Gently fold the wet ingredients in the dry ingredients.

11. Add grated and squeezed zucchini and combine using a spatula.

12. Chop some chocolate and add to the batter. Save a little for the top garnish. You can even use chocolate chips instead.

13. Line a 8×8 baking tray with some parchment paper and grease it with little oil so that nothing sticks. Pour the batter in the greased tray.

14. Top it with reserved chopped chocolate and keep it for baking in a preheated oven for 25 – 30 minutes.

15. Remove it from the oven and let it cool down completely before you cut it into squares. You can store them up in fridge in air tight containers for a few days .

Other desserts you can try here are: Blueberry Jam Bars, Pumpkin Cake Rolls, Mascarpone Cherry Compote Cheesecake Glasses,

[whohit]ZucchiniBrownies[/whohit]

[yumprint-recipe id=’167′]

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Baking

Papaya Chocolate Muffins | Vegan Eggless Papaya Chocolate Chip Muffins

By anshu April 27, 2015

Having Ripe Bananas and unfinished Papayas can cause equal amount of stress. All we do is throw them down the bin. Few days back I came up with a solution to use overripe bananas in the form of Whole Wheat Banana Bread with Melon Seeds.

But then I had a Papaya which was huge in size and not sweet at all. So as a result no one touched it. My husband kept insisting to throw it away. I was hell bent not to waste food. Then I suddenly remembered by Friend and Fellow Blogger Priti from Indian Khana had posted a recipe of Papaya Muffins some time back. It sounded adventurous because I wasn’t sure if Papayas in muffins will taste good. But I trust Priti and her cooking. I went ahead and wola! No body could tell the muffins had papaya. It tasted great. I shared with teachers and staff in the school, they all loved it.

What a happy ending to Mr. Papaya. After trying them out I agree with what Priti says about these muffins, you do not smell papaya at all. The lemon zest covers it so well and tastefully. This recipe is going to take a permanent place in my kitchen. Thanks to Priti for this incredible idea and recipe. This one is for you dear friend 🙂

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven for 10 minutes on 180 degree C (Learn more about Oven temperatures and Conversions). Line a muffin tray with muffin cups or liners. Set aside.

2. Peel and cut the papaya in cubes. Put them in a blender and make a smooth puree. Keep aside.

3. Coarsely grind some flax seeds in a coffee or dry grinder and transfer it in a small bowl.

4. Add 4 table spoon of water in the flax powder and let it rest for ten minutes of until needed.

5. In a large bowl sieve All purpose Flour, Baking powder and Baking Soda.

6. Also add salt and cinnamon powder. Sieve the dry ingredients and throw the lumps away.

7. In the meanwhile Pour Papaya Puree in an other bowl and add sugar to it. I used brown sugar you can use white if you please or mix of both. Whisk it together until sugar melts.

8. In the same bowl add oil and flax seed mix. Combine using the whisk.

9. Add lemon zest, just the yellow green portion. mix well.

10. Mix dry and wet ingredients little by little and keep folding using a spatula. You should not beat hard just gently till the flour is all wet and moistened.

11. Add chocolate chips and fold gently. Leave a few for the topping.

12. Using an ice cream scooper put the batter in the muffin cups. Fill them only 3/4 of the cup. Leave room for it to rise.

13. Sprinkle some choco chips on top and bake it in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes. Keep an eye on them after 15 minutes. The cooking time can vary with ingredients and oven temperature. Keep checking by inserting a tooth pick, if it comes out clean its ready.

14. After baking let them rest on a wire rack for fifteen minutes or till they become cool. Enjoy with your favourite cup or Coffee or Tea.

[yumprint-recipe id=’122′]

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Baking

Whole Wheat Vegan Banana Bread with Melon Seeds

By anshu April 7, 2015

Every once in a while we have dying, over ripe bananas and do not know what to do with them. The easiest is to throw them away but that would not be wise thing to do. These overripe bananas get sweeter as they age and become more nutritious. I combined them with whole wheat flour and hand husked melon seeds. It made a divine, delicious bread.

I made them two weeks back when my in laws and parents visited us in the hills. Since they are vegetarians I had to make this bread without eggs. Inspite of no eggs the bread came out super moist because it had these delicious over ripe bananas.

Directions:

1. Peel bananas and cut them into slices.

3. Add sugar and mash them using a potato masher or you can even use a fork.

4. The bananas should be well mashed leaving no chunks of bananas. It should be of pourable consistency.

5. Add oil and give it a good mix with spatula.

6. Add cinnamon powder and nutmeg powder for a little spiciness and aroma.

7. Add vanilla extract.

8. Add baking powder and baking soda and combine everything evenly.

9. Sift whole wheat flour using a wired mesh or sieve and add little by little. Combine till everything is moist.

10. Add melon seeds and fold gently using a spatula.

11. Brush a bread pan with oil or butter and dust with some flour. Preheat the oven to 180 degree Celsius (Learn more about Oven Temperatures and Conversions).

12. Pour the batter into the pan and gently level from top.

13. Bake in the preheated oven for 30-40 minutes in medium rack until the toothpick inserted comes out clean.

14. Cool it completely before slicing it . Serve with your favourite cup of tea or coffee.

You can even try Apple Raisins Streusel Bread, Garlic Rosemary Focaccia Bread and Dominos Style Garlic Breadsticks,

[whohit]BananaBreadWithMelon[/whohit]

[yumprint-recipe id=’115′]

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Baking

Eggless Orange Cake with Candied Orange Peel Filling

By anshu February 28, 2015

I have never been fond of Orange Flavour specially the artificial flavour in ice lollies, squashes, sweet orange candies. But when I saw the recipe of this cake it enticed me. The recipe said it is made with fresh orange juice and candied orange peels. The idea itself was so inviting that I took a plunge and decided to bake this cake.

To my surprise the cake came out delicious, fluffy and moist in spite of being eggless. The most impressive thing about this cake was the center filling with candied orange peel. It took this cake to the next level of deliciousness. Now you will understand why I chose this special cake for my 100th post on my blog 🙂 🙂

Directions:

1. Make Candied Orange Peels and keep aside. You can follow this recipe. Grease a Bundt pan or any pan of your choice. Do not forget to dust it with flour so that the cake can come out easily after baking. Preheat your oven for 10 minutes on 180 degree Celsius. Learn More about Oven temperatures and Conversions.

2. In a bowl add All purpose flour, salt and baking powder. Combine them together and keep aside.

3. In another bowl add melted butter and sugar, Whisk them together. You can even use an electric whisker,

4. Add Yogurt or curd and keep whisking together till everything is smooth and lump free.

5. Add Vanilla extract and combine.

6. Pour half of wet ingredients in dry ingredients and combine.

7. Add Orange juice and mix everything. Add rest of the flour mix and combine.

8. Add little milk to make the batter runny. Gently mix until everything is moistened. Do not over mix.

9.Pour half the batter in a greased pan and spread the candied orange peel all over the surface.

10. Now pour rest of the batter on top of the candied peels.

11.Bake in preheated oven on 180 degree Celsius for 40-50 minutes or until the toothpick inserted comes out clean. Let the cake cool down completely before you invert it on a tray. Otherwise the cake will break. Cut into slices and enjoy the delicious, moist orange cake.

You can even try our other cakes and breads like Apple Raisin Streusel Bread, Persimmon Rum Cake, Pumpkin Cake Rolls. You can learn how to make Candied Orange Peel at home.

[whohit]OrangeCake[/whohit]

[yumprint-recipe id=’102′]

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