Baked Mini Chocolate Donuts

Ever since I discovered the wonderful world of food blogging and the many awesome home-cooks out there, my favorite thing to say is “I CAN make these at home!!” That’s also my favorite line to say to my husband who drools at all the baked goods at the grocery stores. Sometimes I say it to get him away from that section and sometimes I’ve already seen those being baked at one of the talented blogger site.

So in the pre-blogging days, if you had told me to make a donut at home, I would have said No way—José. But now, I’m a changed person—anything and everything can be made at home—ask those uber talented Daring Bakers group. I can never in my life muster courage to sign up for one of those.

Well coming back to the donut recipe on hand: I non-veganized a vegan recipe since I didn’t have non-hydrogenated vegan margarine (which is on my shopping list and I’m definitely going to buy very soon) and egg replacer (I tried to order this online, but I thought it was a pretty expensive investment when I can buy real eggs instead).

Recipe is from Vegetarian times by Lauren Uhm @ Vegan Yumyum. I bought the mini-donut pan from Amazon.

Recipe adapted from Vegetarian Times
Ingredients:
All-purpose flour – 1 cup
Sugar – ½ cup
Unsweetened Cocoa Powder – ¼ cup
Baking Powder – 1½ tsp
Salt – ¼tsp
Soy milk – ½ cup
Unsweetened Chocolate chips – 1/3 cup
Non-hydrogenated vegan margarine – 4tbsp (I used unsalted butter, pls see my notes above)
Egg – 1 (or use 1½ tsp egg-replacer mixed with 2tsp water)
Vanilla extract – 1tsp

Method:

• Preheat oven to 350ºF. Coat the mini-donut pan with non-stick cooking spray.
  
• Whisk flour, sugar, baking powder & salt in a large mixing bowl.
  
• Add soymilk, chocolate chips and margarine to a sauce pan and heat the mixture just until margarine and choc. chips melt. Let cool. Whisk in egg (or egg replacer mixture) and vanilla.
  
• Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and mix well to incorporate.
  
• Fill the greased pan half full, bake for 12 minutes or until the cake tester comes out clean. Remove on to a cooling rack and repeat with remaining batter.

This made 24 mini-donuts for me. My son snacked on a couple before glazing and during glazing (as you can see in the picture). I halved the recipe for glaze and still had plenty left over, so the next time I would may be just make ¼ of the recipe.

Here’s the recipe form V-times.
For the glaze:
Confectioners Sugar – 2 cups
Soymilk – 2tbsp
Vanilla extract – ½tsp

Method:

• Add soymilk to confectioners sugar in a small saucepan; bring the mixture to a simmer while constantly stirring. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla. Let cool for 5-10 minutes or until slightly thickened.
  
• Dip the tops of the donut in the glaze, twirl and let cool on cooling rack.

Enjoy these cute mini delights with your morning cup of joe or just snack on them, but I’m sure you won’t stop with just one.

Creamy Broccoli Soup in Bread Bowl

This recipe is adapted from Nupur’s Broccoli soup, my only addition is the extra carrot. Nupur’s original recipe here.

Ingredients:
Broccoli florets – 3 cups (from a medium size head)
Carrot – 1 medium, peeled and chopped
Onion – 1 medium, chopped
Garlic – 2 cloves, minced
Butter – 2tbsp
Flour – 2tsp
Vegetable broth – 2 cups
Milk – 2 cups (I used 1%)
Sharp cheddar cheese – 1 cup grated
Nutmeg – ¼tsp freshly grated
Salt & Pepper – to taste

Method:

• Microwave broccoli & carrot with ¼ cup water for 5-6 minutes or until the veggies are almost tender.
  
• Heat butter in a medium size sauce pan; add onions and garlic; sauté until onions turn translucent.
  
• Sprinkle flour on the onions and cook for 2-3 minutes on medium-low flame until the flour doesn’t smell raw anymore.
  
• Whisk in broth & milk; bring the mixture to a low simmer whisking occasionally.
  
• Next add the par-cooked veggies and bring the mixture to a boil. Season with nutmeg, salt & pepper. Turn off the heat.
  
• Blend the mixture to a smooth consistency either using an immersion blender or in a blender.
  
• Return soup to the saucepan; stir in grated cheese. Serve hot.
  

I served mine in a sour dough bread bowl. I scooped the inside out of the bread, poured soup in, topped it with some cheese and broiled for couple of minutes so that the bread is toasted and cheese is melted and bubbly.

Vaishali's Applesauce Cake

I wanted to make this cake as soon as I saw it on Vaishali’s blog. I had all the ingredients on hand and as Vaishali points out applesauce turns bad pretty quick even in the fridge. I usually buy a big bottle of applesauce for my son, but he being a 2 year old, has his mood swings and would not touch it for days together. I was in that rut and this cake was a savior; AND it tastes so good. It is the different spices that Vaishali adds makes it very special.

I made it non-vegan with the addition of egg instead of egg-replacer. You can find the original recipe here.

The changes I made are: Added 1 extra large egg instead of egg-replacer. Used pecans instead of walnuts.

Pasta with Broccoli and Mozzarella in Red Pepper Sauce

I like to add veggies to my pasta dishes, so it makes for a complete meal. This is one of my favorite ways to have my pasta, sautéed veggies with lots of sauce. For this dish I decided to puree store bought roasted red peppers out of the jar with some roasted peanuts and almonds for a quick weeknight dinner. I also had some cherry mozzarella in the fridge that I put in the dish to make it creamy & cheesy.

Ingredients:
Short cut pasta – 1lb. box, I used tri color rotelle pasta
Red Onion – 1 medium, chopped
Broccoli florets– 2 cups, chopped
Chickpeas - 1 16oz. can, drained & rinsed
Tomato – 1 medium, chopped
Garlic – 2 cloves, minced
Roasted red peppers – 4-5, drained
Roasted peanuts – 3tbsp
Almonds – 2tbsp
Red pepper flakes – 1tsp
Cherry size Mozzarella (Bocconcini or Ciliegine) – 8 oz. container, drained
Salt & Pepper – to taste

Method:

• Cook pasta according to package directions and set aside.
  
• In a large sauté pan, add 2tbsp oil and sauté onions for 8-10 minutes or until translucent.
  
• Add garlic and cook for another minute or until fragrant.
  
• Next add broccoli; cover and cook till they are tender.
  
• In the meantime, blend the roasted peppers, peanuts & almonds into a paste. I wanted some texture to the sauce, so I left the sauce a little coarse.
  
• When the broccoli is almost cooked add the sauce along with tomato, chickpeas, red pepper flakes, salt & pepper. Simmer for 5-7 minutes. Turn off the heat.
  
• Stir the pasta into the sauce along with mozzarella. Mix well and enjoy hot.

Paneer & Green Pepper in Creamy Sauce

When I was making this dish, I had a creamy restaurant style curry in my mind. As it turns out I didn’t have cream in the fridge, but I used the next best thing I had, mascarpone cheese. It made the dish creamy, light, mildly sweet and delicious.

Ingredients:
Paneer – ½ cup, cubed
Green peppers – 2 medium, chopped
Carrot – 1 medium, chopped
Red onion – 1 medium, chopped
Tomato puree – 1/3 cup
Kasoori Methi – 2 tsp
Ginger+Garlic paste – ½ tsp
Milk – ½ cup
Mascarpone cheese – 2tbsp
Garam masala – ½ tsp
Red chili powder – 1 tsp
Salt – to taste

Method:

• Heat 1tbsp oil in a pan, add onions and sauté till golden brown.
  
• Add g+g paste and cook for another minute. Next add the veggies, cover and cook till completely cooked.
  
• Add tomato puree, kasoori methi, red chili powder, garam masala & salt. Simmer for 3-5 minutes.
  
• Next add milk while stirring continuously (otherwise milk might curdle) along with paneer & mascarpone cheese. Simmer for another 2 minutes.

Garnish with chopped coriander and serve with roti or fried rice.

This is my entry to JFI: Paneer being hosted by Trupti @ The Spice who loved me. JFI is the brainchild of Indira @ Mahanandi.

Gulab Jamuns for Indian Cooking Challenge

When Srivalli chose gulab jamuns for this month's Indian Cooking Challenge, I was kind of excited and nervous since I have never made them from scratch before and was expecting a total failure with exploding jamuns in oil. The good news is they didn’t explode but the bad news is my jamuns got a tad bit harder after frying which I assume is because of the excess amount of flour I added to the khoya.

Ok let me back up a little bit and tell you the whole story. I chose Alka’s recipe for my Gulab Jamuns. I started out making the khowa with 4 cups of whole milk which I boiled for 2½ hours on low simmer. The khowa was still a little wet when I took it out of the pan. I let it cool for about 2-3 hrs and then I made the dough by adding the flour & corn starch. I added a tbsp of flour in the beginning and when I saw that the dough was still wet, I added another tbsp of flour and then another and then another and so on.. Well in the end the dough looked pretty good and I was able to make tiny jamuns. I didn’t realize that they formed a crust on the top and didn’t let the jamuns soak the sugar syrup. They tasted pretty good even though we had to struggle to cut them with spoon :-). I was a little disappointed with the end result but now I think I have the tools to make gulab jamun from scratch.

Here’s Alka’s recipe verbatim:

For sugar syrup:
Ingredients:
Sugar - 500 gms (This can be reduced as per taste)
Water - 1 & 1/2 cup (bit more or less)
Cardamom - 2-3
One spoon of milk (optional)
Few threads of saffron (optional)
2-3 drops of rosewater (optional but highly recommended)

Method:

• Mix about 500 gms of white sugar in one and half cup water and keep it for boiling.
• Add a spoonful of milk to remove the impurities (impurities if any, will form a scum on surface).
• Add 2-3 green cardamoms also in syrup for strong flavor, and a tad of saffron strings (optional).
• Boil until you get just a tad sticky syrup. Gulab Jamun syrup is not very dense nor too dilute as in Rasgulla.
• Strain the syrup, add rosewater when syrup is slightly cooled.Always remember two things while using rose water, do not add it while syrup is bubbling hot or on fire, and be particular about the quantity mentioned in every recipe, since even few drops of excess rosewater could lend a bitter taste to the final product.
  

For Gulab Jamun:
Ingredients:
Unsweetened Maawa/ khowa* - 250 gms
All purpose flour - 1 & 1/2 - 2 tsp
Cornflour - 1 tsp
Green cardamom - 1-2 crushed
Oil for shallow frying

* (read my comments above on making khowa.

Method:

• Mix all the ingredients in a wide mixing bowl until soft textured dough is obtained (keep mixing until it is really soft).
• Make very small sized balls (bit larger than pebbles) as they swell up after frying and soaking in syrup.
• Make sure that the surface of dough balls is really smooth without any cracks. In case the cracks refuse to go away, slightly wet your palms with water and roll the flour till absolutely smooth.
• Now take little oil for frying in preferably flat bottomed pan, and heat the oil. But gulab jamuns are to be fried on LOW FLAME or else the surface will be browned while the core will remain uncooked. Some prefer to place an unsalted pistachio in the center of every gulab jamun while making balls, that way the core of gulab jamun is not left uncooked.
  
• Fry one or 2 gulab jamuns at a time and always remember to STIR THE OIL with slotted spoon AND NOT TO TOUCH GULABJAMUNS, which means keep swirling the oil without tossing or turning gulab jamun.
• Fry till light brown in colour, remove on tissue paper and repeat the procedure with rest of dough.
• Now soak these in COOL syrup for few hours. They will surely swell up.

These can be stored in the same syrup till consumed.

If there are cracks in the balls before frying it will burst open while frying, in that case adding a bit of cornflour will surely help.

Veganmofo III: Day 29: Soy Chorizo & Corn Stew

I like to try vegetarian/ vegan “fake meats”. I know they are processed and everything but I still want to try them at least once to see how they taste. I’ve had some that I really liked, but some that were totally disappointing and inedible.


So when I saw Soy chorizo in Trader’s Joes I had to try it and I have to say we really liked it and I’m going to buy this again. It was similar to Yves brand Veggie ground round but much spicy and garlicky.

Ingredients:
Soy Chorizo – 1 package
Corn – 3 cups (from 3 cobs)
Red Bell pepper – 1 medium, chopped
Green Onions – 1 bunch
Garlic – 2 cloves
Tomato puree – 1 cup
Cumin powder – 1tsp
Chili powder – 1tsp
Salt – to taste

Method:

• Heat 1tbsp oil in a sauté pan; crumble chorizo in the pan and cook on medium flame for about 5 minutes. Remove into a bowl and keep aside.
• In the same pan, add green onions, bell pepper & corn; sauté on medium-high flame for 12-15 minutes or until the veggies are tender.
  
• Add tomato puree, ground cumin, chili powder and salt. Mix well and cook covered for 5 minutes.
  
• Return chorizo to the pan along with a cup of water/ veggie broth. Simmer for another 10 minutes. Check for seasonings and serve hot.
  

I served the stew with some brown rice. Yummyyyyyyy.