PEAR COBBLER

 

28.10.2020: Shugu sent me a bag full of juicy pears and I immediately set about looking for some pear recipes. After a few minutes of scrolling and not having found anything to my liking, I googled peach cobbler and came across this recipe by Preppy Kitchen. I replaced pears with peaches.

The recipe calls for using a 9*13 inch dish. While I flitted about in the kitchen waiting for the butter to melt in the dish, I realised that the flour batter wouldn’t be enough for a dish this large and I didn’t want to eat a flimsy, thin slice of cobbler. I transferred the melted butter into an 8 inch baking dish and poured the flour batter into it only to then realise that I had chopped too many pears. I set aside a quarter of the pears. I will soon be posting the recipe for a Pear Crisp. Be sure to follow me on Facebook and Instagram @lucidlucent. This crisp calls for something different from the regular recipes for a Fruit Crisp. I also have the  recipe for an Apple Crisp on my blog.

Doesn’t this Cobbler look so pretty with its uneven, bumpy surface? The top feels like a springy cake and base has sweetened, sticky pears. I wanted to have it with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, but the thought itself of walking 100 metres to the store close by tired me out. 

You may have it plain or have it warm with ice cream, either way it tastes delicious.  

 PEAR COBBLER  

Ingredients:

For the pears:

Pears – 4 yellow ripe ones

Granulated sugar – ¼ cup (50 gms)

Brown sugar – ½ cup (50 gms)

For the cobbler:

Butter – 7 tbsp

All-purpose flour (maida) – 1 cup

Granulated sugar – ¾ cup

Baking powder – 2 tsp

Salt – ¼ tsp

Milk – ¾ cup

Cinnamon – ½ tsp

Method:

1.     Preheat the oven to 180C.

2.  Chop the pears into bite sized pieces (or smaller) and transfer to a pan. Add the granulated and brown sugar to it. Mix well. Heat on medium flame for about 5 minutes until the sugars dissolve and the pears are partially cooked in the sugar syrup. Set aside.

3.     Place the butter in the baking dish and pop it into the oven. In the ‘warm’ mode let the butter melt. Set aside.

4.     In a mixing bowl, mix the flour, sugar, salt, baking powder and cinnamon. Pour in the milk and mix till no lumps are visible.

5.   Transfer this batter to the baking dish with butter. Do not mix but spread the batter to cover the edges.

6.  Transfer the pears along with the liquid onto this batter. Again, do not mix but spread it evenly making sure to leave some gaps between the pear bits.

7.     Bake at 180C for about 40 mins or until done.

8.     Done.

 

       Recipe Notes:

·       If you don’t have cinnamon, you may use cardamom powder or vanilla essence.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

EGGLESS WHITE CHOCOLATE BLONDIE

 

11.10.2020: I have never liked white chocolate. Even as a child when I was of the age when anything sugary that had the word chocolate in it was a source of immense pleasure, I stayed away from Milkybar (give me the power!).

I accidently bought a bar of white chocolate instead of dark chocolate. When I enter a departmental store, I’m like a kid in a candy store. I love walking up and down the aisles, checking out all the jams and sauces and preservatives and snacks and biscuits and during this period, I oft confuse brands and products and realise my mistake only after I return home.

The bar was lying in the fridge, having used only a quarter of it for decorating desserts. I decided to make Blondies with it. I was always under the impression that a Brownie with white chocolate was called a Blondie, I have however come across recipes for Blondies with ‘brown’ chocolate too. If someone would like to clarify this, please drop a comment in the comment section below.

This recipe is adapted from ‘From Noopur’s Kitchen’ and its eggless !

I have always loved chewy desserts. I may have over baked the Blondie by 5 minutes and its edges got a bit crunchy but then I love crunchy edges. The white chocolate lends a wonderful flavour and the walnuts a lovely crunch. If you are planning to store this in the fridge, please let it come to room temperature before you eat it. Let the Blondie cool completely before you cut it into squares else it will crumble.

EGGLESS WHITE CHOCOLATE BLONDIE

Ingredients:

All purpose flour (Maida) – 120 gms ( 1 cup plus 2 tbsps)

Cornflour – about 25 gms (2.5 tbsp)

Butter -  56 gms ( ¼ cups)

Light brown sugar – 4 tbsp

Condensed milk – 150 ml

Baking powder – 1 tsp

Baking soda – ½ tsp

Vanilla essence – 1 tsp

Milk -1/2 cup

Vinegar – 1 tbsp

White chocolate chips/chunks – 75 gms

Walnuts (chopped) – about 20

Caramel sauce (optional)

Sea salt (optional)

Method:

1.     Preheat the oven to 180C and grease an 8-inch baking dish.

2.     Melt the butter and let it cool slightly.

3.    Sieve the dry ingredients ( flour, cornflour, baking powder, baking soda) at least 5 times.

4.   Chop the white chocolate and walnut and add about 2 tbsps of the above flour mixture to this, mix well and set aside.

5.   To the melted and cooled butter, add condensed milk and mix it well. To this add milk, vanilla extract and vinegar. Add the brown sugar and milk well.

6.   Add the dry ingredients( from Step 3) to the wet and mix until there are no lumps. Do not overmix.

7.     Add the chocolate and walnuts from Step 4.

8.   Pour into the greased tin. You may also scatter some white chocolate on top or drizzle caramel sauce on the batter and sprinkle a little sea salt.

9.     Bake for about 30-35 minutes or until the skewer inserted comes out clean.

10. Done.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

EGGLESS DATE AND WALNUT CAKE

 

 07.10.2020: The past few years I’ve had many requests for eggless cakes but I’ve always avoided making eggless bakes under the (false) presumption that cakes with eggs would be fluffier and lighter. The Eggless Banana Bread with Walnut Streusel put an end to these preconceived notions and while I still don’t specifically go about looking for eggless recipes, I’ve been more open to trying these eggless cakes if I happen to come across them.

My mother used to bake a scrumptious, sticky Date Cake which was rich and decadent and had the strong caramel taste of dates. Though she has sent me the recipe for it thrice already, I keep inadvertently deleting the message (If you are reading this, please send it again).

I always have a box of dates lying about in the house. For some reason, my father in law and my mother think that Skip loves dates and send me a box once in a while. Even though I know Skip hates dates and I have cause to believe that my skin breaks out when I eat them, I buy a box because I like to stock up on healthy food ( It’s not just Haldirams and Laxmi Narayans 😉).

I had two boxes of dates in the house and was looking for recipes with Dates when I came across this recipe on lovenadflourbyPooja. I follow her on Instagram as she has some amazing recipes. You may check out the Eggless Lemon Loaf that I baked following her recipe.

I also have a recipe for Bliss Balls saved which I plan to make soon. Please do follow me on Facebook and Instagram @lucidlucent and you’d be notified when that post goes up.

This cake is definitely one of the best cakes I’ve baked. It is moist, has a wonderful (but not too strong) flavour of dates. Skip loved it too, even after I told him it had dates. At times, I skip adding nuts to cakes, but I would highly recommend adding walnuts as it tastes wonderful with dates.

EGGLESS DATE AND WALNUT CAKE

Ingredients:

Chopped and Pitted dates- 1 cup

Milk – 1 cup

Sugar – 3 tbsp

Oil – 1/3 cup

Flour – 1 cup

Baking powder- ½ tsp

Baking powder – ½ tsp

Walnuts – ½ cup

 

Method:

1.     Preheat the oven to 180C and grease a 6 or 7 inch baking dish.

2.     Soak ½ cup of the dates in half a cup of hot milk for at least an hour and then grind it into a smooth paste.

3. To the above date paste, add oil, sugar and remaining milk and mix well with a whisk.

4.  In a separate bowl, sieve flour, baking powder and baking soda. To this, add the remaining dates and walnuts and mix well until the dates and walnuts are covered in the flour mixture.

5. Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients and mix until streaks of flour disappear.

6.     Transfer to the baking dish and bake for about 35-40 mins or until done.

7.     Done.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

EGGLESS LEMON LOAF

21.09.2020: I have been spending more time on trying to click better pictures for the blog and have painstakingly been segregating items of clothing, showpieces, utensils for these pictures. As I go through other blogs, scrutinising their pictures, I make a mental note to purchase dried rose petals, bits of jute with frayed ends, black serving dishes, wooden slabs, bark coasters…. Pheew! While these items continue to remain on my Amazon  wishlist, I continue using random sweaters and leaves for my photography.

As I scrolled through my gallery looking for appealing food pictures to post on the blog, I realised the old ones did not match up to the current ‘pretty’ ones. The next morning, I took the butter out of the freezer and placed it on the kitchen slab. When Skip spotted it, he jumped with joy saying “cake, cake”. I told him I was not to be disturbed as I wanted to bake this soon and get back to my office work.

I have gotten quite adventurous during this period of work from home. Yes! Eggless baking is me being experimental. :D I came across this wonderful recipe for the eggless Lemon Loaf on Love and Flour by Pooja.

I love lemony desserts. The tangier it is, the more appealing I find it.

This cake is so buttery soft with the perfect hint of sweetness and citrusy flavour. The lemon frosting is tangy and the kind that gets you smacking your lips after a bite. Mmhhmm… so good.

Mamma asked me what the egg substitute was and from what I’ve read on the net, typically yoghurt, banana, condensed milk or flax seeds is used. I suppose the combination of milk and lemon (which is how I make Buttermilk at home for bakes) makes this cake so fluffy and crumbly.

Do try it out and if you enjoy it as well, you know what to do 😉.

EGGLESS LEMON LOAF

Ingredients:

All-purpose flour (maida) – 250 gms (1 ¾ cups )

Baking powder – 1.5 tsp

Baking soda – ¼ tsp

Salt – a pinch

Butter – 113 gms (1/2 cup)

Castor sugar – 200 gms( 1 ¼ cup)

Vanilla extract – 1 tsp

Milk – 100 ml (3/4 cup)

Lemon juice – 50 ml (slightly lesser than ¼ of a cup)

Lemon zest – 1 tbsp

For the glaze:

Icing sugar – ½ cup OR powdered sugar + 1 tsp cornflour

Milk – 1 tbsp

Lemon juice – 1 ½ - 2 tbsp

Method:

1.     Preheat oven to 180 C. Grease and prepare the baking dish.

2.     Sieve the flour, baking powder, soda and salt. Set aside.

3.     In a mixing bowl, beat together the sugar and butter until it is light and fluffy.

4.     Add the vanilla, lemon juice and zest to the butter mixture and mix well.

5.  To the above mixture, add the dry ingredients and milk alternately, whisking a little after each addition. Mix until streaks of flour disappear. DO NOT OVERMIX.

6.     Transfer the batter ( batter will be thick) to the dish and bake at 180 C for about 40 minutes or until done.

7.     For the icing: Add the milk to the sugar and mix well. Add the lemon juice and give it a good mix.

8.     Once the cake cools completely, drizzle the lemon frosting on it.

9.     Done.

Recipe Notes:

•      I didn’t have castor sugar at home. So, I used coarsely ground granulated sugar.
•     You can use plain powdered sugar as well for the lemon frosting.
•      I like lemony, tangy frosting and added about 2 tbsps of lemon juice to the frosting. You may adjust the quantity of the lemon juice to suit your taste.

EGGLESS CONDENSED MILK COOKIES (WITH ONLY THREE INGREDIENTS)

09.08.2020: I am so excited just typing out this post. You can bake the most marvellous, delicious cookies with just THREE INGREDIENTS – condensed milk, butter and flour. No added sugar, leavening ingredients or egg. I stumbled upon Emma’s Goodies on YouTube and have been hooked on to her recipes. Her recipes are simple to make, use minimum ingredients and most importantly turn out the way they appear on the video!

Who doesn’t love sandwich cookies, filled with jam or Nutella or condensed milk!!!

Butter-flour crumbly mixture

Ready to go into the oven

Fresh out of the oven !

These cookies are simple and quick to make. They do not spread in the oven and retain their shape.  You may have them plain if you wish to but they are slightly bland. You could also make bigger sized cookies and have them slathered with any of the spreads.  

These cookies are so good! They are soft and crumbly. I tried them with jam and Nutella filling and we all felt it tasted best with jam. Please do let me know how they taste with condensed milk filling. I stored them in an airtight container in the fridge and they remained soft and ‘melt in the mouth’. These looked so pretty and tasted so good, we finished them the same day. The next day I baked them again and used them to decorate a birthday cake. I will share those pictures soon.

You MUST try these cookies.

For more such recipes, you may follow me on Facebook and Instagram @lucidlucent. Thank you.

CONDENSED MILK COOKIES (Makes 20 Jam/Nutella filled cookies)

Ingredients:

All purpose flour (maida) – 150 gms

Cold butter – 110 gms

Condensed milk – 60 gms

For the filling – jam, Nutella or condensed milk

Method:

1.     Rub the flour with your fingers into the cold butter until the mixture resembles bread crumbs. (The butter ought to be cold but not frozen).Do not overmix.

2.     Pour the condensed milk into the mixture. Combine it till it comes together to form a ball.

3.     To make the cookies: Divide and roll the dough into even sized balls. Press it flat (¼th inch thickness) with either your palms or with the base of a tumbler. I used a crystal beer mug with a pattern on the base.

4.     Use a tiny lid and cut out the centre of half the number of cookies. These will form the top of the sandwich cookie. Refer to pictures above.

5.     Place the cookies on a greased tray and bake in a pre-heated oven at 160C for 10 minutes. (Check the base of the cookie, if it has turned a light golden-brown, it is done). Do not over-bake. The cookies will harden on cooling.

6.     Once the cookies have fully cooled, add a tiny dollop of jam, Nutella or condensed milk on the base cookie. Place the cookie with the hole on top and  gently press it down.

7.     Done.

Recipe Notes:

·       The original recipe calls for rolling out the dough and then using a cookie cutter to cut out the cookies. You may refrigerate the dough before rolling it out. My kitchen was too warm for the dough and despite refrigeration, the dough kept sticking to the rolling pin when I was trying to roll it out.  

·       If you find the dough to be too sticky, add a teaspoon more of flour.

EGGLESS, WHOLE-WHEAT BANANA BREAD WITH WALNUT STREUSEL

24.06.2020:  I have had requests for eggless cake recipes that have always been met with a response stating that I do not bake eggless ones. Since I don’t bake cakes that often, I have always been under the impression that for a cake to taste its best, it needs to be baked with eggs and maida (all-purpose flour). My last attempt to bake an eggless, whole-wheat flour banana upside down brownie (which also happened to be my first attempt) was a disappointing one. I have mentioned it in my post on Banana Fritters.

Ready to go into the oven.

I have had my eye on Kamna’s (Kreative Kitchen) recipe for Eggless Banana Bread for some time now and the streusel made it all the more tempting. I finally decided to bake it. Mamma has always asked me to have a positive frame of mind while cooking but I cannot help being a jittery cook when I’m trying something for the first time. Though I kept wheat flour out, I kept telling Skip that I should probably just switch to maida (AP flour) as atta (wheat flour) would result in a dense cake and all that lovely streusel would be wasted on a tasteless cake. Skip kept chanting ‘Wheat cake, Wheat cake’ and even as I fretted about, constantly looking through the oven door wondering how the cake would turn out, the ever-optimistic Skip said anything with that much mashed banana and walnuts couldn’t taste bad.

The entire kitchen smelled heavenly and as I got the wonderfully browned and streusled cake out of the oven, Skip grinned at me and said “You should listen to me more often”.

Can you describe a cake as gorgeous? Time to throw those preconceived notions out. The cake is moist, soft, spongy and not the least bit dense. In fact, the wheat-flour gives the cake a wonderful nutty taste. Making the streusel is optional but I would most definitely recommend you make it. The crunchy, walnut topping goes well with the spongy, banana flavoured cake. The next day, we added a scoop of ice-cream on the cake and drizzled some caramel sauce and enjoyed our Banana-walnut cake sundae.  If you like cakes with toppings, you may also check out this cake with coconut topping. We also have the recipe for a banana walnut cake with eggs which is equally divine in taste. 

Skip has asked me to use jaggery the next time I bake this cake so I can title my post as a healthy cake. If any of you try it with jaggery, please let us know how it tastes.

EGGLESS BANANA CAKE WITH WALNUT STREUSEL

Ingredients:

For the Streusel (Optional)

Flour – 3 tbsp

Brown sugar – ¼ cup

Cinnamon – ¼ tsp

Unsalted cold butter – 2 tbsp

Chopped walnuts – ¼ cup

Oats – 2 tbsp (optional)

For the cake

Mashed banana – 300 gms (Roughly 9 small sized bananas)

Whole wheat-flour (Atta)- 180 gms

Oil- 125 ml

Brown sugar – ½ cup

Vanilla extract – 1 tsp

Cinnamon powder – ¼ tsp

Baking powder – 1.5 tsp

Baking soda – 0.5 tsp

Pinch of salt

Method:

1.  For the streusel: Add all ingredients into a bowl and rub the butter in until the mixture resembles bread crumbs. Set it aside in the fridge.
2.  For the cake: Mash the bananas well.
3.  To the mashed bananas, add oil, sugar and vanilla extract and mix the ingredients well.
4.  Sieve the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and mix it until well combined.
5.  Pour the batter into a greased tin (8-9 inch tin). Sprinkle the streusel on the batter. 
6.  Bake at 180C for about 45 mins.
7.  Done. 

Recipe Notes:

·  I used all-purpose flour for the streusel, but wheat-flour can be used as well.

·    I didn’t have brown sugar at home, so I have substituted it with white granulated sugar. You may also use jaggery.

·       You may add nuts/choco chips into the batter as well.