Raspberry Almond tea bread

Berries are abundantly available this time of the year, and I love to pack some in my weekly grocery shopping. The only downside is that they go bad so quickly, it breaks my heart having to throw away a couple of them. I had picked up different berries in the hope to make a terrine. But I ended up using them in different breads/cakes/pancakes etc. Here is the tea bread - it is actually more like a cake - just not as delicate. This is a wonderful raspberry studded quick bread with some almonds thrown in. We enjoyed it with some whipped cream, although it is good as is.

While using these delicate berries in cake batter, I much prefer to use frozen berries that are not thawed. With fresh ones, I invariably end up crushing a few no matter how gentle I am. And when you cut into a slice - it presents a gooey hot pink blob in the cake. Or with blueberries - the purple colour it lends is usually enough to ward off any unsuspecting guinea pigs!

In this recipe, I used fresh ones raspberries. And managed to find a couple of slices that were quite presentable.

INGREDIENTS

1 cup sugar

1/4 cup butter

1 egg

2/3 cup milk

1-1/2 cups flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 cup chopped almonds

1 cup raspberries (fresh or frozen, unthawed)

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F, and grease a loaf pan.

2. In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar

3. Add in the liquids - the egg, milk and whip them togethe

4. In a seperate bowl, tip in the flour, baking powder and cinnamon and mix it up

5. Add the dry ingredients into the wet and gently mix until combined

6. Add in the rasperries and almonds and gently mix them into the batter

7. Pour it into the loaf pan and bake for about 60 to 70 minutes

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Sunday breakfast With Apple Streusel muffins

So after my doubts on the cupcake vs muffin debate, I decide to make some good ole hearty and nutritous muffins. These are healthy, breakfast muffins with a wonderful texture.

I sometimes carry some muesli bars (granola bars for the Americans) to work for those hunger pangs in the evenings. These muffins are a wonderful, light and delicious replacement for them I must say. Of course I should mention that I made only half a dozen as part of our

Sunday breakfast. But as they were finished in almost no time, I actually made another batch the very next day! I think I could add even more apples to this batter because the moist apples along with all the cake is such a wonderful combination.

Apple Streusel Muffins

1-1/3 cups whole wheat flour

1/2 cup rolled oats ground to a powder

1/3 cup sugar

1 Tbsp baking powder

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 teaspoon nutmeg

1/4 tsp salt

1-1/3 cups chopped peeled apples

1 egg

1 cup milk

1/4 cup vegetable oil

For the Topping:

2 Tbsp brown sugar

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp nutmeg

In a food processor, add 1/2 a cup of rolled oats, and blitz them so they become a powder. You could use oat bran if you can find it. Or, use the Quaker Oats quick cooking variety if it is available in your country.

Sift together the dry ingredients into a large bowl. In a seperate bowl, whisk together the egg, oil and milk. Pour over the wet ingredients into the dry, and quickly mix to combine. As always, do not overmix - it should be just enough so it all moistened.

The topping is a wonderful addition to these muffins. They give it a wonderful texture and bite. Try not to miss it. We liked it so much that I even used the same topping for a banana bread I made the other day.
Bake it at 400 degrees F for 25 minutes or so.

This makes for a wonderful snack and also for a breakfast on the go. Try it, and let me know how you find it :-)

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Orange, Almond and Fennel cookies

Our vacation was almost 2 weeks ago, and I am already hoping we had another one! You know the first thing I did the day I returned to work? There were some 1500 e-mails staring at me, and my colleagues had already given me a low down on the umpteen number of items waiting for my attention! I looked for the holiday calender, and counted the number of days to the next long weekend! :-)
We were spoilt my our moms and grandmoms! I was off my usual "Eat healthy" ramble, and made sure I ate everything that is deep-fried, unhealthy and fatty. As long it tasted great, I was fine!

So coming home was a bit of a wake-up. These cookies are a healthy version - it uses whole wheat flour, and some oil. Here is the recipe - inspired from Sunita's post



2 cups whole wheat flour
3 tblsp of ground almonds
1 tsp of ground fennel seeds
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
2 tblsp of orange zest
5 tblsp of sunflower or vegetable oil
5 tblsp of icing sugar
1/2 C of milk

Some slivered almonds, and fennel seeds for topping.
Mix together the flour, soda, almonds, icing sugar, orange zest, powdered fennel with your fingers until they resemble fine crumbs.
Mix together the milk and oil. Make a well in the centre of the flour mixture and tip in the milk mixture.
Fold in quickly, with a rubber spatula or fingertips, till just mixed.
Cover the bowl with a plastic wrap and chill for at least 30 minutes.
Pre-heat the oven at 180 deg c and line a baking tray.
With slightly damp hands, make 25 balls of the dough and arrange them on the tray, a little apart from each other. Flatten the balls a little with the fingertips and press an almond sliver on top. I placed fennel seeds as well - to kind of make a face, but a lot of them fell off :-(
Place the tray in the centre of the pre heated oven and bake for about 22-25 minutes or till the tops are light golden.
Cool on the tray for a couple of seconds and transfer to a rack to cool completely.

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Italian Almond biscotti

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On a good day if you ask me what would I like with my coffee - it would probably be a healthy little cookie like an oatmeal and whole wheat kind, or one with arrowroot, maybe a macaron, or a biscotti. But of course there are days when I sit eating up an entire package of a peanut butter or chocolate chip cookie and not offer it to anyone..lol!
Of all these healthy variety, I have to say - macarons and biscotti are my favourite. Simply because you can play around so much with the flavours and colours and it just tastes great!
These cookies are from Italy and 'biscotti' just means cookie in Italian. These are baked twice giving them a long shelf life. Usually the Italians would dunk it in their dessert wine and eat, but of course, coffee and tea are also its wonderful companions! Here is how I made it.

2 cups all-purpose flour
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup granulated white sugar. I know some people add 1 cup, but I think 3/4 gives just the right sweetness for me.
1 cup almonds, toasted in the oven for about 8-10 minutes at 350 F
1 teaspoon vanilla extract ( I use vanilla sugar coz we don't get vanilla extract here easily!)
1/2 teaspoon pure almond extract. This is what gives the biscotti their signature almond-y smell..love it!


Coarsely chop the toasted almonds. Snack on a couple maybe - they taste so good!
Combine the dry ingredients. In a seperate bowl, combine the eggs, vanilla and almond extracts. Add in this mixture to the dry ingredients slowly and stir. You could use your electric mixture for this. Add in the chopped almonds and the remaining egg mixture so that you get it to form a dough. Shape the dough into 2 logs about 10x2". Bake it on a 350 oven for about 40 minutes. Then take it out of the oven, let it cool so you can work with it- about 8-10 minutes, and cut them at a diagonal so that you get that classic biscotti shape. Lay these biscuits flat and bake for about 10 minutes again per side, or if you can make it to stand, then just once would be fine.
Allow it to cool a bit before you pop it into your mouth :)

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Beetroot halwa

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So who wants a dessert that is healthy too? And has more nutrients than you can count. Don't think too hard - I'll answer it for you - it is my latest favourite dessert - Beetroot halwa. A quick search on the holistic benefits of beetroot will enlighten you on how good it is for you, but I had been eyeing on turning this vegetable into something that I can fall in love with. I don't like it raw, I don't like it in salads, not in a vegetable curry, not in a soup..yeah I am quite choosy that way. But I need my iron. I will not turn this into a health bulletin but all you folks who don't eat red meat - you need your iron - which you'll find aplenty in this veggie.

So last weekend i tried turning it into a dessert - a halwa. Traditionally a halwa uses copious amounts of ghee(clarified butter), but since it is not so easily available in stores(except Indian and health food stores) I replaced it with a can of condensed milk. And it was ready in minutes. Of course after 30 mins of my work out in grating it very fine. So here is how I made it.



- 1 large beetroot washed, peeled and finely grated
- 1/2 can of sweetened condensed milk
- 2 and 1/2 tablespoons ghee/butter
- 4-5 cardamom pods or 1 teaspoon of cardamom powder
- 1 tablespoonful of cashews/pistachios/almonds
- 1 tablespoon raisins

Heat 1 and 1/2 tablespoon ghee or butter in a heavy bottomed pan. Add in the beetroot and fry it on medium heat for about 10 mins. Add in the cardamom. Then add the condensed milk and reduce the heat. Keep stirring for 20-25 mins. In a seperate pan, add in the remaining 1 tablespoon of ghee and then the nuts and raisins. Once the nuts get a light brown colour and the raisins puff up, add them to the halwa.
Add some more nuts for garnish while serving.

I made this last weekend just as a test since I am known for not liking this humble vegetable, but was surprised when my husband ate up 2 cup fulls of deliciousness and demanded I make it more often. And I couldn't be happier to finally start my love affair with this vegetable so understated! Share

Blackberry cake

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When I picked up a basket of blackberries this weekend, I was thinking more on the lines of blackberry coulis drizzled over an angel food cake, pancake, or just about anything sweet. But while I was grocery shopping, I saw this new ad showing a cup of coffee and a big slice of cake with all kinds of berries in it! I would have stopped and eaten it up right there - but I was alone, and eating alone isn't much fun as we all know. Also, I managed to prove one thing to myself - the oft-repeated "Do not go grocery shopping when you are hungry". I can tell you - nothing can be more true!
Anyways, so I came home and decided to make a cake, and eat it too! A blackberry cake. This is the version I made - although I usually prefer making a simple cake - like an angel food cake and dress it up with some cream cheese and berries. Here is the recipe


1/2 cup butter
1 cup fresh blackberries - washed and completely dried
2 cups flour
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon powder
1 teaspoon nutmeg (freshly grated is lovely, although the powdered one works fine)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger powder
3/4 cup buttermilk

Preheat your oven at 350 degrees, grease your cake tin and sift the flour, and all the dry ingredients together in a bowl. Now cream the butter and sugar. Add in the eggs one at a time, and continue beating. Add the flour mix slowly and gently mix it into the butter-egg mixture. Add the buttermilk slowly else it will cause lumps to be formed. Gently fold in the blackberries. Pour into the cake tin and bake for about 55 minutes. Once done, add your choice of icing. I really couldn't wait to eat it up, so just sprinkled some powdered sugar, and chocolate gratings.

Of course, the berries never made it to a coulis :)

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Birchermüesli

Nothing can be as quintessential a swiss breakfast as a bowl of hearty Birchermüesli or simply Muesli. And those not all too familiar with the 'guttural CH' or the "gargled R" sounds of German, here is a bit of pronunciation course. Bir-kher-Mew-slee. And trust me, if you are not German, or Swiss German, you will NOT be able to pronounce it the way people here do. I was once told by a Swiss friend, that I should gargle and practice if I want to perfect it. Needless to say, I gave up right there!
For all you followers of the Quick Quaker Oats(or whatever it's called), this is my humble request to you. Just try this one out for once. It is almost as easy as getting stuff straight out of a box - just that you may need to open too many boxes :). And you need to pre-plan a bit.
This recipe was originally created by the physician Bircher-Benner, but has been now adapted to suit different tastes and lifestyles.



The kind that I made is just one variation. The traditional one uses apples - you could use whatever fruits you like or are in season. Also the choice of nuts is upto you. The important thing is to soak the oats the night before - or at least a couple of hours before serving. So here is how I made it.
- 1 cup rolled oats
- 1/2 cup orange juice
- 1/2 cup yoghurt
- Some chopped and/or flaked almonds
- handful of raisins
- 1 cup blackberries
Soak the oats in juice and yoghurt and refrigerate it overnight.
Before serving, add in a few blackberries per serving in a bowl and crush them. Mix it with the oats-yoghurt mixture until you get the colour you like. Now add in the nuts, raisins, and more blackberries if you like.
There you have a healthy, nutritious and easy breakfast.

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Healthy whole wheat and oatmeal cookies

It is only on weekends that you can have the luxury of having warm, freshly baked, straight from the oven cookies with your evening tea(or coffee). I was in the mood for some chocolate chip ones, but they usually demand such a lot of butter that sometimes just the thought of pouring that amount of butter puts me off. Surely I would happily eat it up of I were to see it with my lunch at Subway or with a Starbucks'-so-called-espresso ;)

So I made up a batch of cookies. And guess the ingredients. Let me give you some clues. Its healthy. Its light. I'd happily eat them up for breakfast. All of'em.



So heres how its made. And this is not my recipe. I took it from the Whole Grain gourmet website with a few changes(http://wholegraingourmet.com/recipes/43-cookies/75-healthy-steel-cut-oatmeal-cookies.html).

1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 cup applesauce
1 and 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup Steel cut Oats. You could add more but I didnt want it to be too oat-y.
1/4 tspn baking soda,
1 tspn baking powder
a pinch of salt, a tablespoon vanilla sugar(or vanilla essence if you have), a tablespoon cinnamon, 1/2 tablespoon cardamom powder.
a few chopped almonds. Walnuts would be better I guess, but I didnt have them on hand
Half a bar of 70% chocolate that I chopped up.

Then it is as simple as mixing it all up, and dropping my the tablespoon fulls on the cookie sheet. Bake it on 375 for 15 minutes. Share