Chocolate chip cookies made healthier ~ Egg free, butter free chocolate chip cookies.......and an announcement !!

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First let me share my big news. Ever since I made some jewelry for the first time a few years back, I have been hooked onto it.  Before I knew it, making jewelry became a very important part of my life and turned into a passion. Since last year I have been wanting to make this big part of my life even bigger. After months of planning, agonizing over small details and working on so many unexpected angles that were necessary, I've finally made it official.......my jewelry store Anukriti Designs is now online. If you are interested in this kind of thing and would like to take a peek, here is the link to the store. You will also see a small widget in the sidebar that will take you into the store and displays some of the items that are currently in the store. 

The day I went live with the store I decided to celebrate with a sweet treat. I've had this idea in my head for a while to try a healthier version of chocolate chip cookies and this seemed like the perfect occasion to finally try it. I used almond meal (powdered almonds) and coconut oil to make it healthier. I've used almond meal in cookies before and know it works well but this was the first time I've used coconut oil in a cookie. I was a tad worried that I might be able to taste the oil, but I needn't have worried at all. The cookies turned out delicious, crunchy and sweet with just the right amount of chocolate chips..... a perfect treat.  I've already made this a couple more times and it tastes amazing every time. If you are looking for a delicious treat for your family that is secretly healthy too, give this one a try :)

Click here for a printable view of this recipe

Ingredients and method to make egg free chocolate chip cookies 

1/2 cup unbleached all purpose flour ( maida)

1/2 cup almond meal ( powdered almonds / badam) (see notes)

1/3 cup cane sugar 

pinch of salt

1/2 tsp baking powder 

1/4 cup melted coconut oil

2 Tbsp cold milk (use dairy free milk for a vegan version)

1/3 cup semi sweet choco chips (use dairy free choco chips for a vegan version)

Pre heat oven @ 350 deg F (approx 180 deg C). Line a tray with parchment paper and keep aside. 

Powder almonds using short bursts of power in a spice grinder/ processor/ mixer and measure as needed for the recipe after powdering the almonds. Do not over grind as the nut butter will cause clumping.

In a large bowl, add all the dry ingredients ie apf, almond meal, sugar, salt , baking powder and mix well.

Add  melted coconut oil and mix slowly. Add 2 tbsp of cold milk and mix again. Finally add semi sweet choco chips and mix .  Spoon this mixture onto the parchment lined tray making sure to keep at least an inch between each cookie. I usually make each cookie with 1 heaped Tbsp of cookie mixture. Place in oven and bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until lower side is golden brown and the edges of the cookies are golden brown. Remove from oven and cool. Do not handle these cookies while they are fresh from the oven as it crumbles at that stage, once cool though these cookies are deliciously crunchy and easy to handle. Once cool store in an air tight container and enjoy anytime with a glass of milk or tea/ coffee.

Yielded 12 to 15 medium sized cookies, yield will depend on the size of cookies.

Notes:

To get this amount of almond meal, I just powdered about 1/3 cup of almonds using my spice / chutney attachment in my mixer/ processor. You can also use store bought almond meal for this recipe.

If you have coarse sugar with large crystals like the Indian variety or  turbinado,  powder the sugar before proceeding with the recipe.

If you are looking for other egg free / eggless bakes with chocolate, here are few more,

Oat Banana Brownie ~ Egg Free

Chocolate Cupcake with  Ganache

No Bake Chocolate Oatmeal Bar

2 Min Egg Free Brownie in a mug

Egg Free Avocado Brownies

Low fat Egg Free Black Bean Brownie

Read more ...

Wacky Cake ~ Vegan Chocolate Cake ~ Chocolate Cake without eggs, butter or milk

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A couple of weeks back, I wanted to bake a cake for my neighbor. When I was going through the options, I was pretty sure that chocolate cake would be a good choice, since her little boy seems to have a decided partiality to all things chocolate. And I have to admit I completely understand the partiality, since I feel the same about all things chocolate :) Since I have a lot of chocolate desserts among my pinned posts, I decided to chose one of those recipes to try. Finally I settled on wacky cake. I have come across many versions of wacky cake or crazy cake as some people refer to it. If you are wondering what is wacky cake, it a cake that is made with no eggs, butter or milk or even bowls, the cake is entirely mixed directly in the baking pan, making for an easy cleanup as well :)

After reading up on wacky cakes, I learned that this cake seems to have existed as early as World war II when there were shortages of things like butter and eggs etc.Here is an interesting article in the LA Times about this cake and its origin if you would like to read up on it. This cake was super easy to make and it turned out moist and delicious. Surprisingly the cake tasted even more delicious the next day. This one's a keeper and I cannot wait to try more variations of this kind of cake :)

Click here for a printable view of this recipe

Ingredients and Method to make Wacky cake  (adapted from this recipe)

1 and 1/2 cup all purpose flour (maida)

2 and 1/2 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder

1 cup sugar

1 tsp baking soda 

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp white vinegar 

1 tsp vanilla extract

5 Tbsp oil + a little extra for greasing the dish

1 cup water

Pre heat oven @ 350 deg F ( approx 180 deg C) 

Grease a 8 inch square baking dish and keep aside.

In the same baking dish, add the first five dry ingredients and mix well. Make three depressions in the dry mix, two small and one larger one.

Add vinegar and vanilla extract separately to the two smaller depressions and oil to the larger depression. 

Add water and mix everything together gently, make sure to scrape the corners in order to include any flour in the corners.

Place the dish in the middle rack and bake for 32 to 35 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Remove, cool a little, glaze the cake or top with a little powdered sugar , slice and enjoy. 

I used glaze this time, the recipe for the glaze is given below

For the glaze

1 cup powdered sugar / confectioners sugar

2 and 1/2 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder ( see notes)

2 Tbsp milk

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Mix all the ingredients together in a small bowl , drizzle on top of the cake when it cools a little and spread evenly.  Slice and enjoy. This quantity was just right to cover this entire cake.

Notes: 

With 2 and 1/2 Tbsp of cocoa powder the glaze tasted slightly chocolatey, if you want a more pronounced chocolate taste increase the cocoa powder to 3 Tbsp or even 3 and 1/2 Tbsp of cocoa powder or to taste. 

If you are not comfortable with mixing ingredients directly in the baking pan, mix everything in another bowl and pour into pre greased baking pan.

If you are looking for other egg free / eggless bakes with chocolate, here are few more,

Oat Banana Brownie ~ Egg Free

Chocolate Cupcake with  Ganache

No Bake Chocolate Oatmeal Bar

2 Min Egg Free Brownie in a mug

Egg Free Avocado Brownies

Low fat Egg Free Black Bean Brownie

Read more ...

Oat Banana Brownie ~ Egg Free

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The temperatures in our neck of the woods have plunged considerably in the last few weeks. In addition to the cold, some days are cold and wet. A combination that always makes me want to switch on the oven and start baking. On one such cold and wet day, I had a sudden craving to make brownies and ended up making this oat banana brownie. I first started trying out oat brownies when I was working on this 2 min brownie  in a mug. But since then, throughout summer, I've hardly baked and even when I did, I ended up making muffins and such, not brownies.

Once the cold got here and I developed a serious craving for brownies, I decided to not wait any longer and got baking. Only this time I tweaked my earlier oat brownie recipe and added bananas to it. Bananas, I think was just what the brownie needed and it added a wonderful texture to the brownie. In addition, I always love bakes with a combination of chocolate and banana, so this brownie was definitely a winner in my book. This is also very quick to put together and requires a minimum of ingredients making it easy to make on the spur of the moment. If you like the banana choco chip combination too, give this easy brownie a try and enjoy it just on its own or with a scoop of vanilla ice cream :)

Click here for a printable view of this recipe

Ingredients and Method to make Oat Banana Brownie

1 cup oat flour ( see notes)

2 Tbsp cocoa powder

1 tsp baking powder

1/3 cup sugar ( see notes)

1/2 cup mashed banana ( approx 1 large banana)

1/2 cup milk (use dairy free milk for a vegan version)

2 Tbsp oil + a few extra drops to grease the brownie pan.

3 Tbsp semi sweet mini chocolate chips (use vegan chocolate chips for a vegan version)

Pre heat oven to 350 deg F ( approx 180 deg C ). Grease an 8 inch square pan and keep aside. 

Add oat flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and sugar and mix well. 

Mix mashed banana, milk and oil in another small bowl and add to the dry ingredients and mix gently until all the ingredients are mixed well. Add chocolate chips and mix into the mixture.

Pour the entire mixture into pre greased brownie pan, place in the oven and bake for 22 to 25 minutes or until toothpick/ cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean.

Remove from oven, cool, slice and enjoy:)

Notes :

I just powder my quick oats in my spice grinder until it turns into a fine powder, then measure and use in this recipe. You can use store bought oat flour too here.

With this quantity of sugar the brownie is mildly sweet, if you like a more pronounced sweetness, increase the quantity of sugar to 1/2 cup. Also if your sugar is more granular like Indian sugar/ turbinado sugar, powder it in a mixer/ blender 

If you are looking for brownie recipes, here are a few more

2 Min Egg Free Brownie in a mug

Egg Free Avocado Brownies

Low fat Egg Free Black Bean Brownie

Read more ...

Chocolate Cupcake with chocolate ganache ~ Egg Free

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Its been a long while since I baked any kind of cake. These days, whenever I bake, I usually bake muffins and quick breads. But the other day I was browsing the net and I came across a few cakes that gave me serious cake cravings.  So I decided to bake one.  After browsing some more, I narrowed down on a couple of recipes that I wanted to try, one a carrot cake that I have been wanting to try for a long while, the other a chocolate cake that also looked equally delicious. Finally my chocoholic side won out and I decided to bake chocolate cake.

Usually most cake recipes I come across tend to have both butter and eggs. But this one did not have either, making it easy for me to adapt the recipe. I did not have to figure out which egg substitute would work best, etc:)  Also since I don't do this often, I decided to go all out and make a ganache to frost the cake as well. The cake turned out very well, with a nice chocolatey taste that we enjoyed. I made these in a mini muffin tray, just so that it would be easier to do portion control, plus I wanted to share some with my friends. But you could just as easily bake these in a regular muffin pan for regular cup cakes:)

Click here for a printable view of this recipe

Ingredients and method to make chocolate cupcakes with ganache (Cake adapted from this recipe)

For the cake

Dry ingredients

I cup unbleached all purpose flour ( maida)

1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

A pinch of salt

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

Wet ingredients

3/4 cup sugar

1/3 cup oil

1/2 cup plain yogurt + 1/2 cup water whisked together or 1 cup buttermilk

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup semi sweet chocolate chips 

For the chocolate ganache ( see notes, ganache adapted from this recipe)

1/2 cup heavy cream

1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips

Pre heat oven @ 350 deg F. Pre line a muffin pans with muffin liners and keep aside. 

In a large bowl,  sift all the dry ingredients twice. Make a well in the center and keep aside.

It you are using yogurt, whisk together yogurt and water and keep aside. 

Whisk together sugar and oil. Then add buttermilk to it and mix well. 

Pour this mixture in well in the center of the dry ingredients and mix slowly until the wet and dry and fully mixed.  Add vanilla extract and semi sweet chocolate chips and mix gently. 

Spoon the mixture into muffin pans until 3/4th full. Place in the oven and bake for 15 to 17 minutes or until toothpick / cake tester inserted in center comes out clean. I made it as mini cupcakes, if you make these as regular sized cupcakes it might take a min or two more, do check if done from around the 15th minute. I used a mini muffin tray and it yielded me about 24 mini cup cakes + 1 regular sized one, you could easily make this in a regular muffin tray as well.

For the ganache

Heat cream on the stove top or the microwave until it is scalding hot. Place the semi sweet chocolate chips in a small bowl. Add chocolate chips to this cream and mix well until well blended.  Allow the ganache to cool and firm, and frost the cake as desired.

Notes:

I did not want to frost all the cupcakes so did not make too much ganache. With this quantity I was able to frost half the cupcakes. If you want to make enough frosting for all the cakes, you might need double the quantity of ganache.

If you are looking egg free bakes, here are a few more

Mocha Choco Chip Muffins

Apple Wheat Muffins

Apple Banana Choco Chip Muffin

Read more ...

No Bake Chocolate Oat Bars ~ With Stepwise pictures

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I have an admission to make......I have a thing for oats :) If you are a regular visitor to this space, this admission of mine probably comes as no surprise to you. After all you might have already noticed that my header actually has a link to all the oat recipes in this space :)  It is just that I never seem to tire of trying different recipes with oats. I've tried a lot of savory recipes with oats, but my more recent experiments have been a perfect way to indulge my sweet tooth:)

This no bake oat bar is one of the things that I have been making quite often recently. This oat bar has just five ingredients, is super fast and easy to put together. It hardly takes a few minutes, just melt,mix, spread and allow to set for a few minutes. I added in some rice krispies to give the oat bar a little bit of crunch, and I feel like it definitely adds a very interesting texture to this bar.  And even though this bar has oats and nut butter, with good dose of nutrition and fiber, it has a very dessert like feel to it. You would never guess it has something as healthy as oats in it :)

Click here for a printable view of this recipe

Ingredients and Method to make no bake chocolate oat bars

1 cup quick oats

1/2 cup Rice Krispies 

1/2 cup semi sweet chocolate chips

1/2 cup peanut butter or almond butter (see notes)

1/3 cup sugar

Pre line a square deep dish with parchment paper and keep aside.  I used a 8X8 inch dish for this.

In a microwave safe glass bowl, mix together chocolate chips, sugar and almond/peanut butter. Place in microwave and heat for 1 min + 30 seconds ( see notes). At this point the mixture is melted and gooey. Mix this well to make sure the chocolates and butter are all mixed well.

 Add oatmeal to this and mix well. Then add Rice Krispies and mix gently.  Spoon this mixture into the pre lined tray/ dish and gently press with a back of a spatula to spread this mixture evenly. I got about 1 cm thick bar with this sized dish, if you use a smaller dish you will get a thicker bar. So select your dish depending on if you want a thicker or thinner bar.You can even use a circular dish and cut into wedges if you want.

Cover and stick the dish in the freezer for about 10 to 15 minutes so that it sets. Remove, cut into desired shapes  and enjoy:) 

This does not require refrigeration and can be stored in the pantry/ shelf in an air tight container for a week or so, if it lasts that long :)

Notes:
My microwave strength is 1000 watts, so if yours is more powerful you will need to microwave it for lesser time and if yours has less strength it will take a little more time. Ideally cook the choco chips + nut butter mixture in 30 sec intervals so it does not over heat.

I have made this bar in the past with peanut butter and more recently I have started using almond butter. For both the proportion remains the same. With peanut butter, you get the peanut-y taste along with the chocolate taste, with the almond butter, the taste of the chocolate is more pronounced and the nut butter is not very discernible. 

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