Dairy-Free Brownie

I love naughty desserts and simply feel good to eat something sweet after every dinner which I've no idea why. However, I really concern about the contents especially after I know about baking these years. I read through and experiment many healthy dessert recipes but I don't think my friends or guests would like it although it's healthy. I must admit naughty desserts always win over the healthy desserts. What about you? Well, I would normally serve my family and myself the healthy desserts whereas those naughty desserts would be give away or served during my guests visit then I can have a small bite unless my guests request for a healthy version.
Well, if you're looking for a healthy version and don't mind it's not the real yummy dessert, these dairy free brownie just right for you. It contains no eggs, no butter, using maple syrup and raw sugarcane instead of conventionally refined white sugar, using more whole wheat pasty flour and dried fruits to get a guilt-free of dessert.
You would find the difference of this brownie compare to those classic brownie as the ingredient used are totally different. The special ingredients here is the prune puree replaces most of the fat and add a healthy dose of fiber. However, you would still able to get the fudgy, dense a little gooey and deeply chocolate low fat brownies. Furthermore, the chocolate peanut frosting really boost up the texture which contains with no butter too! Try it and tell me what you think about it, OK!

For the Chocolate Peanut Frosting:

5 tbsp maple syrup

3 tbsp brown rice syrup

1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar

1/4 cup cocoa powder

Dash salt

1/3 cup peanut paste (roast some peanut, take off the skin and blend until a smooth paste)

1 tbsp vanilla extract

For the Super Fudge Low Fat Brownies:

3/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour

1/2 cup plain flour

1 tbsp cornflour

1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1/4 cup light natural cane sugar

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp sea salt

3 tbsp canola oil

1 cup maple syrup

1/3 cup prune puree (Soak with some hot water for 30 minutes and blend to a puree)

2 tbsp water

2 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup dark chocolate chips (optional)

1/3 cup walnuts, toasted, cooled and coarsely chopped (optional)

How I made it:

1. For the frosting, combine the maple syrup and rice syrup in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil over low heat, stirring a few times. Add the vinegar and simmer 1 minutes.
2. Whisk the cocoa powder slowly into the simmering syrup. Simmer for 2 minutes, whisking frequently until the cocoa is dissolved.
3. Remove the saucepan from the heat, add the salt, peanut paste and vanilla extract, stirring until smooth. If you find the mixture is too thick to mix. Blend the mixture in a blender or food processor, adding some water (tablespoon at a time) and blend until you get thick and smooth consistency. If the frosting is too thin, refrigerate it until thickened.
4. For the brownie, place the baking paper into a square baking pan. Preheat the oven to 180'C.
5. Shift the whole wheat flour, plain flour, cornflour, cocoa powder, cane sugar, baking powder, baking soda and sea salt.
6. Whisk oil, maple syrup, prune puree, water and vanilla in a separate bowl until no lumps of prune puree remain and the mixture is well blended. The batter will be thick.
7. Pour into the dry ingredients and stir until smooth. Stir the chips and walnut, if using, into the batter.
8. Spread the batter into the prepare pan evenly. Bake for 17 minute, don't over cook it! A tester inserted into the center will be coated with very moist cake. The brownies will firm as they cool.
9. Place the pan on a rack and cool to room temperature. Frost the brownies while they are warm with chocolate peanut frosting. Enjoy a big portion of this guilt-free brownie!

Reference: More great good dairy-free desserts from Fran Costigan

Eggless French Toast

I tried eggless french toast recipe from Trupti's blog sometime back and was very impressed with the results. I have made this snack several times in the last few weeks. I would like you to try it as well.

Ingredients:
Bread-4 slices(each cut into 2 pieces)

Mix the following and make a thick batter:
Rava/Sooji/Semolina-1/2 cup
Yogurt-1/2 cup
Onions chopped-a handful
1/2 Tomato chopped finely
Green chilli chopped
Coriander leaves chopped-1 tbsp
Salt
Turmeric powder-a pinch

Method:
Dip each piece of bread in the batter and coat both the sides. As the batter is thick, you might have to use your hand to place some veggie-yogurt mixture on the bread.
Heat a flat non stick pan. Add 1/2 tsp oil. Place the bread slice gently. Add few drops of oil along the edges. Cook on medium flame for about 3 minutes. Flip the bread and toast the other side for few more minutes until golden brown.
Serve with ketchup.

Note:Do not add water to the batter. The batter should be very thick.

Here are a few pictures taken during our Las Vegas trip.

This is the Strip



Hotel Bellagio and fountain show



Bellagio Lobby



Reminder:Rama Navami on April 3rd, 2009.

Thenkuzhal and Manoharam ~ 2-in-1 Crunchies

Thenkuzhal is a savory crunchy where as Manoharam are sweet crunchies. Both the dishes use the same basic ingredients and are deep fried in oil. Rice flour is the major ingredient. Traditionally, raw rice is soaked in water for half an hour. Its then drained, shadow dried and powdered. Shop bought rice flour can also be used, though you have to compromise a bit on the texture. I usually prepare the rice flour from scratch. But this time I followed a different method, told by my friend,S. She gets the raw rice and roasted urad dal, powdered together at the flour mill. The bonus is that the flour mix will stay good for many days. So with the mix ready at hand, you can enjoy thenkuzhal whenever you want. For the flour mix Raw rice (Pacharisi) - 8 cups Urad dal - 1 cup Clean the rice of any dust. Don't wash with water. Dry roast urad dal till it turns pink. Powder the rice and roasted dal together. To make thenkuzhal Butter Crushed pepper and cumin seeds Salt Hing Water to prepare the dough Oil to fry If you are using the hing bar, take a piece of the bar and soak in warm water for 10 minutes. Use the water to prepare the dough. Instead, hing powder can also be used. Prepare dough in batches instead of mixing the full quantity of the flour. Else it will drink too much of oil when fried. Take 4 cups of the flour. Add 2 tablespoon of butter, salt, 1 tspn of coarsely crushed cumin and pepper, hing water. Make sure the coarse pepper is not big enough to block the openings in the mould. Mix well. Finally add water to make a soft dough. For preparing thenkuzhal, you need the press which has three or more holes in it. Heat oil in a kadai. When hot, take a ball sized dough and press it directly in the oil. Start making the formation from outside to inside. After a minute, slowly turn it over and fry till it is light brown. The size can depend on the size of your kadai. Allow it to cool and store it in airtight containers. Manoharam The initial preparation is similar to thenkuzhal, except that the spices and hing is not added. Salt is also added very minimally. Take the flour mix, add butter and very little salt. Make a soft dough using water. Prepare the thenkuzal out of the dough. Break them into one inch long pieces. These pieces are to be coated in jaggery syrup. For one measure of thenkuzhal pieces, use 1/2 cup of jaggery. If you want to be very sweet, you can use 3/4 cup of jaggery too. For jaggery syrup Jaggery - 1/2 cup Water- 1/4 cup Bite sized coconut pieces (optional) Cardamom powder. Melt jaggery in water. Strain to remove any impurities. Heat the syrup in a wide mouthed kadai. Add coconut pieces. Make a thick syrup. To test, add a drop of syrup in a glass of water. If it can be rolled and is firm, the syrup has reached the consistency. Switch off the stove. Add cardamom powder. Stir in the broken thenkuzhal to the syrup. Mix with a ladle so that all the pieces are well coated with jaggery, taking care not break the pieces further on mixing. At the same time, you need to be quick with the mixing, since jaggery will solidify on cooling. Before that it has to coat all the pieces. If the syrup does not reach the right consistency, thenkuzhal will turn soggy. It should remain crisp even after adding to the syrup. Enjoy the salt and sweet, melt in the mouth, crunchies. I am sending these crunchies to Cooking for Kids:Rice event , guest hosted by Trupti, started by Sharmi.