Tag: amaranth

Dark Chocolate Wholegrain Brown Sugar Cake … wholesome and delicious

“Always keep a smile on your face, a rainbow in your heart, and some dark chocolate on hand!”

Dark Chocolate Wholegrain Brown Sugar Cake

Dark Chocolate Wholegrain Brown Sugar Cake … seems like a load of dark chocolate and wholegrain happening on PAB of late. That’s where my heart lies. Whether it’s brownies, cookies or biscotti or then cake, wholegrain is the preferred choice, and often dark chocolate the perfect partner in crime!

I must confess that I begin with ‘no chocolate‘ in my intentions, but somewhere along the way cocoa and chocolate find their way into the mix or batter. It’s happened umpteen times, and now I wonder if I function on ‘auto chocolate’?

So this Dark Chocolate Wholegrain Brown Sugar Cake is inspired by the Muscavado Sugar Cake in a brilliant book ‘Good To The Grain‘. I bought the book a few years ago, and it continues to hold pride o f place on my book shelf. I might not bake out of it often, but its a constant source of inspiration alright. Just leafing through the pages gets my creativity going!

Talk about inspiration. So while I was making the cake, unsure of course whether it would work out fine or not, I thought I’d experiment with the styling.  I sometimes find chocolate challenging to shoot so figured I would experiment a little. You see I am headed off to the IFBM in Bangalore to host a food styling workshop. With just a clutch of days to go, the butterflies in my stomach flutter non stop.

It’s just an hours workshop and my first dedicated food styling one. I am super excited and want to cram everything I know into that one precious hour. That’s not going to happen of course, but I am trying. Food styling is so personal, it reflects a bit of you, yet it is so infinite.

That’s the thing about food photography. Just keep experimenting with different, styles, different porps, changing light… it’s this practice that helps you grow. The possibilities are infinite. Much like the pleasure you get from seeing the results! So while the recipe is to feed the blog, the few different snapshots head off to the IFBM!

I enjoy using wholegrains in my recipes, and this one is a hearty and delicious one. Getting amaranth in there made it even better. You can experiment with different combinations, even skip the cocoa like in the original recipe from the book. Oh yes, and try and use unrefined mineral sugars. Make it a habit. I have!

 

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Recipe: Dark Chocolate Wholegrain Brown Sugar Cake

Summary: Dark, moist and divinely chocolaty, this Dark Chocolate Wholegrain Brown Sugar Cake is sure to be a crowd pleaser. A great tea tray bake, a picnic cake or a tiffin filler, this is sure to become a favourite soon.

Prep Time: 15 minutes
Total Time: 40 minutes
Ingredients:

  • 45g amaranth flour
  • 80g wholewheat flour
  • 25g cocoa
  • 20g almond m
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • pinch salt
  • 100g butter, chilled, cubed
  • 3 eggs, separated
  • 175g brown sugar
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 50g dark chocolate chips {optional}

Method:

  1. Preheat the oven to 180C. Line an 8 X 8″ square baking tin.
  2. In the jar of the food processor, place the amaranth, whole wheat, almond meal, cocoa, baking powder and salt. Pulse briefly to mix and lighten.
  3. Add the chilled butter and pulse briefly to get a breadcrumb like mix. Reserve.
  4. Beat the egg whites to soft peaks. Add 75g brown sugar and beat again until stiff. Place about a 1/4 cup in a piping bag {for marbling on top if desired}. Reserve rest
  5. Beat the egg yolks with remaining sugar in a large bowl until light and moussey, almost 5-7 minutes. Add vanilla an d beat again.
  6. Gently fold in dry mix, followed by the beaten egg whites. Fold lightly but uniformly. Add chocolate chips if using and gently mix again.
  7. Turn into prepared tin, pipe squiggles of reserved beaten egg white if desired.
  8. Bake for abut 25-30 minutes or until a tester comes out with a few moist crumbs on it.
  9. Cool on rack for about 30 minutes. Serve warm, at room temperature or chilled.

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Baking | Wholegrain GF Amaranth Brownie Biscotti … #bloggerstuesday #hbg #glutenfree #cookie

“Bake with love…”
Manuela Kjeilen

Wholegrain GF Amaranth Brownie Biscotti. Today I have one of my favourite recipes for you. I developed this for my better half who is trying to stay gluten free and loves biscotti. I shot it in a hurry as he was leaving for HKG and loves to carry ‘the taste of home’ with him.

I am super inspired with whole grain baking and still can’t figure out why plain flour formed my first few years of baking. It’s never too late to shift gear though. I did, and happily so. My baking now is mostly whole grain and I am LOVING it. You will find oats, amaranth, wholewheat, nut meals in my recipes.My other love, fruit, finds a lot of place in my blog too. I have also now shifted to using raw sugar, honey and brown mineral sugar in the kitchen, and sometimes natural fruit substitutes a part of the sugar. I hope I have inspired you to shift gears a little too. Do ‘think out of the box’, push your boundaries and always stay inspired!

This post is headed for Bloggers Tuesday at Home Bakers Guild.

 

[print_this]Recipe:Wholegrain GF Amaranth Brownie Biscotti

Summary: Deep, dark, comforting … all the goodness that biscotti promises to be in this gluten free avatar. Wholegrain GF Amaranth Brownie Biscotti offers a gluten free alternative to this delicious twice baked Italian classic cookie.

Prep Time: 15 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes
Ingredients:

  • 70g amaranth flour
  • 25g rice flour
  • 40g almond meal
  • 30g cocoa powder
  • 1tsp baking powder
  • 1/4 tsp baking soda
  • pinch salt
  • 75g dark chocolate chips
  • 50g walnuts, roasted, chopped
  • 2eggs
  • 100g butter
  • 100g brown sugar
  • 1tsp vanilla extract

Method:

  1. Preheat the oven to 180C. Line a baking sheet with parchment.
  2. In a small bowl, whisk together the amaranth flour, rice flour, almond meal, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. Add the chocolate chips and nuts and toss well to mix. Reserve.
  3. In a large bowl, beat together the butter, eggs, sugar, and vanilla. Add the dry ingredients from the reserved bowl and bring together with your hands to make a firm dough.
  4. Divide the dough in half. On a lightly oiled surface, pat one half together firmly and roll into a log. Flatten gently. Repeat with the other half.
  5. Transfer the logs gently onto the baking sheet, evenly spaced apart, brush with the reserved egg white, and sprinkle with sugar.
  6. Bake for 25 minutes, until the dough feels firm to the touch. {Keep a close eye as the oven is quite hot and the chocolate can burn}
  7. Remove pan from the oven and cool 5 minutes. On a cutting board, use a serrated knife to diagonally cut the cookies into 1/2-inches slices.
  8. Reduce heat to 150C. Lay the cookies cut side down on baking sheets and return to the oven for 35 minutes {or more if you like your biscotti crisper}, turning the baking sheet midway during baking, until the cookies feel mostly firm.

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Amaranth Oat Walnut Ginger Cookies … inspiration in every crumb

“Cookies are made of butter and love.”
Norwegian Proverb

Amaranth Oat Walnut Ginger Cookies were an experiment, yet another happy one!. Strangely enough, ever since I claimed I hardly ever bake cookies, that’s just what I have been doing of late. Eggless Honey Almond Cookies … then Coffee Shortbread which still has to see light of day on my blog. We’ve got some happy cookie monsters on the prowl this end!!

Did you notice something? They’re all eggless cookies, or lacto vegetarian as they call them. Like the ‘Not Quite Anzac Cookie Pops’ below. I woke up early one morning and had fun making on Anzac Day last week. I did a Not Quite Anzac Cookie Cake too! On this eggless trail, I also recently stirred up Dark Chocolate Nutella Kumquat Pudding … sinfully addictive!  Hmmmm … maybe it’s a trend? Certainly feels like one! Then the other day Ruchira & I popped by at Sangeeta’s and were treated to these fab GF Ginger & Jaggery Energy Bars. The taste of the bars lingered on for long, flavours dancing in my head. That they were just 5 ingredient bars and had amaranth flour and oats was intriguing enough!

I had to come home and recreate ‘something‘. Her recipe inspired me. I’d do cookies. Nice plump whole grain bites. Cookies are always handy to have at home, gluten free more so for Mr PAB. I didn’t have jaggery on hand, so changes happened. Many changes.

Eventually ended up with these and they packed a nice punch. The subtle undertones on ginger and honey teased the palette. The walnut taste didn’t come through, but upped the ante on the ‘healthy nuts’ factor. I ran the Amaranth Oat Walnut Ginger Cookies past the ‘inspirer‘ at the Food Freak Awards Gurgaon later that evening. She gave them a huge thumbs up, so here you are.

These possibly aren’t going to be huge kiddie favourite cookies as they aren’t very sweet. Slightly crumbly, reminiscent of the quintessential Indian nan khatai that we used to bake in our childhood, I found the Amaranth Oat Walnut Ginger Cookies quite addictive. They grow on you. For eggless, gluten free cookies, they are fabulous! I shall experiment some more with the recipe, maybe crack an egg or two in the days to come. Until then, these eggless cookies might please you like they did Sangeeta and me!

[print_this]Recipe: Amaranth Oat Walnut Ginger Cookies

Summary: For eggless, gluten free baking, these Amaranth Oat Walnut Ginger Cookies are fabulous! Slightly crumbly, reminiscent of the quintessential Indian nan khatai that we used to bake in our childhood, I found them quite addictive.

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Total Time: 40 minutes
Ingredients:

  • 100g + 50g oats
  • 50g amaranth flour
  • 50g walnuts
  • 100g butter, chilled, cubed
  • 1″ piece ginger, grated
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 50g brown sugar
  • 50g honey
  • 1-2 tbsp brown sugar for sprinkling

Method:

  1. Place 100g oats, amaranth flour, walnuts, chilled butter and ginger in bowl of food processor and blend to a fine meal.
  2. Add the baking soda, brown sugar and remaining oats and pulse al low speed to mix.
  3. With the motor running on slow, pour in the honey until mixed and the cookie dough comes together.
  4. Heat oven to 150C.
  5. Scoop out walnut sized bits of cookie dough and place on a parchment lined cookie tray. Gently press down with the tines of a fork. Sprinkle over with brown sugar.
  6. Bake for about 20-25 minutes until light golden brown and firm to touch.
  7. Cool completely on the rack.
  8. Note: For a GF diet, make sure your oats are GF.

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Multigrain Granola … breakfast o’clock!

“All happiness depends on a leisurely breakfast.”
John Gunther

Multigrain Granola … this is what flavours the mornings our end these days, and it doesn’t seem to change. I have made granola every single week for the past 4 weeks, and its gratifying to see the better half reach out for it. I had forgotten how easy granola, the ‘hippie’ food of the Sixties, was to make at home.I was born in the late Sixties of this “cultural decade” which also saw a paradigm change in the world – the Beatles, the first step on the moon, the Vietnam war, the assassination of JFK, womens liberation movements.  My Sixties saw the good old Pye tuned to BBC World Service every morning, the Hare Rama  Krishna movement gaining fame thanks to  George Harrison, blackouts during war, no television, hopscotch and hide ‘n seek…

My Sixties and Seveties also saw loads of naturally growing foodstuff  – mulberries, wild dates, jamun {Java plum}, ber {jujube/ Indian plum}, mangoes, tamarind, wild berries, wild figs. We would cram everything into our little mouths!The Sixties also saw the ‘hippie’ movement and a revival of natural, healthy foods in everyday diet, and a shunning of processed and sugary foods.My first tryst with breakfast creal began with the Gluten Free Chocolate Granola in 2011. Someway along the way, breakfast options for the dieting diva changed into smoothies, and granola got left behind. Of late, the husband has tired of ‘eggs in breakfast‘. He’s also off wheat as being gluten free makes him feel better.

That’s where granola stepped in! With the weather becoming increasingly warm, a make ahead, on the go ‘cold’ breakfast has won over egg! Topped with seasonal fruit like mulberries, fresh figs, strawberries, banana even better. Of late, my involvement with oats {and other whole grains} has been huge thanks to developing recipes and doing a TV cookshow for Saffola Oats. Suddenly anything and everything oats seems like a recipe opportunity. 

Both granola and muesli contain a mixture of grains (such as oats), nuts, dried fruit and sometimes bran and wheat germ. Muesli may contain sugar and dried-milk solids, but it can be unsweetened. Granola is typically toasted with honey and oil, resulting in a crisp texture and sweet glaze not found in muesli. Because granola contains the addition of honey and oil, it tends to have a higher sugar and fat content. As a result, granola is, on average, higher in calories than muesli. 

Click here for a range of Jordan’s cereals. Both granola and muesli offer nutritional benefits. Both have fiber from the grains, fruits and nuts. In addition, the dried fruits provide antioxidants, while the nuts offer healthy fats. Topping either muesli or granola with low-fat milk, soy milk or yogurt makes for a nutritionally balanced, filling breakfast. 

Along came a huge bowl and in went the oats, followed by popped amaranth. I use amaranth quite often these days I have plenty on hand, both flour and popped. In also went some puffed rice which is available at just about every corner store here. Nuts and raisins are always welcome. I also threw in some melon seeds, the remainder of some last used in Savoury  Hungarian Kalács & Twisted Buns.

Granola and toasted cereal is always nice to have on hand for a quick snack, to top yogurt and fruit, to make granola bars, and even to make a layered fruit dessert. In the Strawberry & Cape Gooseberry Quark Mousse above, I tossed some granola into melted chocolate, let it harden and then used it in the layered dessert!

[print_this]Recipe: Multigrain Granola 

Summary: Full of fibre, crisp, sweet, buttery too, this Multigrain Granola is sure to please! You can always substitute the butter for oil, and play around with different grains and nuts. Go ahead, make it into the granola you love!

Prep Time: 15 minutes
Total Time: 40 minutes
Ingredients:

  • 160g oats
  • 30g puffed rice
  • 35g popped amaranth
  • 50g melon seeds
  • 50-75g walnuts, chopped
  • 100g raisins
  • 25ml water
  • 25ml honey
  • 50g unsalted butter
  • 50g brown sugar
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla bean powder

Method:

  1. Preheat the oven to 150C. Line a cookie sheet with parchment.
  2. Place the water, honey, butter, brown sugar and vanilla bean powder in saucepan. Simmer over low heat until the butter melts. Stir well to mix. {Alternatively, place in a heat proof bowl and microwave for 1 minute}.
  3. Place all remaining ingredients except raisins in a large bowl and stir to mix.
  4. Pour the liquid mixture over the dry mix, stir well to mix uniformly.
  5. Turn onto prepared sheet and bake for about an hour until dry. Stir every 15 minutes to redistribute.
  6. Toss in the raisins, cool completely and store in an airtight box.

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Eggless Almond Honey Wholegrain Cookies … #comfortfood

“You’ll never convince me that there’s more to life than chocolate chip cookies”
Charles M. Shultz

Eggless Almond Honey Wholegrain Cookies … cookies that are meant to be shared! I haven’t posted a cookie recipe for a while on PAB. Possibly since I don’t make new variations very often, or when I do, I forget to jot the recipe down. Ones that I regularly make are all time favourites like Wholewheat & Oat Chocolate Chip Cookies & these Not Quite Anzac cookies.

That morning I was due to meet a sweet girl who was coming in to meet me from halfway across India. I knew she was a vegetarian and I wanted to bake something eggless for her. Cookies seemed a good idea for the coffee morning. I had some Strawberry & Cape Gooseberry Quark Mousse chilling in the fridge for her too.

Spring has all but given way to summer. Mornings and evenings are beautifully pleasant; the season inspires like no other. Flowers bloom, fruits spill off bazaar shelves, birds chirp, butterflies zip around. Baking is fun in this weather though baking cookies is fun any time!!

The cookies came out delicious, even better since they were packed with nutrition and whole grains. I love the idea of adding nut meal to cookies. In my case I ‘have to‘ since the daughter dislikes nuts with a vengeance. She loves cookies with nut meal though!

I baked another batch soon after as we flew into breathtakingly beautiful Srinagar for a short vacation. It’s always nice to carry a ‘taste of home’ with us. Though Srinagar is known for its little bakeries that dot the length and breadth of the city, my humble cookies were much in demand with the kids too! One look at the ingredients in the recipe and you’ll see the cookie goodness I am talking about. Almonds, whole wheat, amaranth {my latest obsession}, oats, and honey instead of  corn syrup!  Told you … these are deliciously healthy cookies. Indulgent too!

Try them. Cookies don’t get simpler than these. One bowl goodness, fun to make, get the kids involved. Do watch them towards the end of baking. Honey in baked goods tends to lead to faster browning. So do keep an eye!

Healthy, fun recipes with amaranth, whole grains, oats {read lots of oats}, unrefined sugars, honey etc have kept me busy of late. I’ve been involved in doing a project for Saffola Oats here in India.

Shot two recipe videos with the very sweet Michelin Starred Chef Vikas Khanna for Food Food Channel, India as part of the engagement. You can catch the first episode for a Bittersweet Dark Chocolate Gateau {Gluten free} which has been uploaded onto You-tube.

[print_this]Recipe: Eggless Almond Honey Wholegrain Chocolate Chip Cookies

Summary: Eggless Almond Honey Wholegrain Cookies offer deep delicious butterscotch flavour thanks to the brown sugar and butter. Almond meal adds interesting taste, and chocolate chips are thrown in to make another quintessential chocolate chip cookie, this time eggless. These whole grain cookies are nice, chewy if you underbake them a little, and crisp if you bake them longer!  Makes approx 2 dozen
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Total Time: 40 minutes
Ingredients:

  • 100g unsalted butter, room temperature
  • 100g honey
  • 1 tsp vanilla bean powder
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • pinch salt
  • 55g brown sugar
  • 100g whole almonds {or almond meal}
  • 50g amaranth flour
  • 50g whole wheat flour
  • 100gm oats
  • 50g chocolate chips {I used dark}

Method:

  1. Preheat oven to 150C
  2. Run the almonds in the processor with the wholewheat flour until you get a fine-meal.
  3. Heat butter, honey and vanilla bean powder in a pan over low heat till the butter melts. Mix well. {Can do it in the microwave too}.
  4. Add the baking soda, salt and brown sugar and whisk to mix.
  5. Add the remaining ingredients and stir to form a cookie dough. The dough will be a little stiff.
  6. Drop tbsp of dough on parchment lined cookie sheets, flatten with the tines of a fork. {I rolled the dough into balls, flattened them slightly with the palm of my hand, and then further flattened them by pressing down with a fork.}.
  7. Bake for approx 20 minutes until golden brown.
  8. Leave to cool on cookie sheets for 5 minutes {they are quite tender when they come out of the oven} , and then transfer on racks to cool completely.
  9. Thermomix Recipe:
  10. Run the almonds in the TM bowl with the wholewheat flour on speed 7 for 30 seconds to get a fine-meal. Scrape and repeat if necessary. Turn into a bowl and reserve.
  11. Place butter, honey and vanilla bean powder into TM bowl. Heat for 2 minutes at 60C on speed 2 until fully dissolved. Place bicarb into bowl and mix for 5 seconds on speed 3.
  12. Add remaining ingredients and set dial to closed position and mix for 30-35 seconds on interval speed…. then continue as above from step 5.
  13. Note: Since the dough has honey, the cookies tend to brown faster than normal cookies. I use double cookie trays. Keep an eye on them.

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Rick Bayless’s Rustic Amaranth Chocolate Cake

“When we don’t have the words chocolate can speak volumes.”
Joan Bauer

Rick Bayless’s Rustic Amaranth Chocolate Cake was divine. Earthy, fudgy, deeply chocolaty and gluten free, just perfect for to satisfy the sweet tooth in the ‘attempting to go wheat free‘ better half. He does give in to the occasional temptations … read keema stuffed naan at Purani Dilli’s Al-Karam Kebab House or then my recent addictive from scratch baklava.

Still, I continue to look for alternatives that fit in to wheat free stuff. Found the cake recipe while googling for an amaranth chocolate cake since my amaranth brownies turned out really nice. I was surprised though at the lack of baking online solely with amaranth. Amaranth offered great texture to the gluten free dark chocolate  recipe I was trying to develop.

Rick Bayless’s cake was the only simple amaranth cake I found. It was as rustic beautiful as the name suggested. Beautifully moist too. If you want to pretty it up for a birthday, you might consider topping it with mascarpone or pastry cream, some balsamic reduced fruit, maybe a chocolate lace collar like I’ve done on this Bittersweet Dark Chocolate Fallen Cake.

The fallen chocolate cake is often referred to as the ugly duckling chocolate cake, a gateau that collapses somewhat on cooling. For me, it’s what makes this cake special, the moorish appearance it takes on. Just a sifting of sugar or cocoa, or maybe a touch of grated chocolate adds oodles to it’s character!

The verdict was reason enough for me to bake it again very soon. Using good quality dark chocolate makes this cake shine. It went rather fast. Amaranth or no amaranth, the kids loved it too! You really can’t tell that it’s an amaranth cake. It slices neatly once cool, and tastes quite like a flourless chocolate cake, indulgent in every bite!

[print_this]Recipe: Rick Bayless’s Rustic Amaranth Chocolate Cake 

Summary: Gluten free, deep, earthy and divine, Rick Bayless’s Rustic Amaranth Chocolate Cake impresses. A fudgy and chocolaty cake, which serves up rustic goodness to please the chocolate lover in you. Serves 6-8.

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour
Ingredients:

  • 100g good quality dark chocolate (60-65% cacao), coarsely chopped
  • 100g butter, softened
  • 3/4 cups sugar
  • 3 large eggs
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/2 cup amaranth flour

Method:

  1. Preheat oven to 180C. Lightly grease an 8-inch springform pan.
  2. In a medium sized, microwave-safe bowl, melt together dark chocolate and butter, stirring every few seconds until mixture is smooth.
  3. Allow to cool slightly.
  4. In a large bowl, combine sugar and eggs and beat at medium-high speed until mixture is fluffy and has doubled in volume, about 3 minutes. Beat in vanilla and salt.
  5. Stir in the chocolate mixture, then sift in the amaranth flour and stir it in until no streaks of flour remain visible and batter is uniform.
  6. Pour batter into prepared pan.
  7. Bake for 40-45 minutes, until cake is set and jiggles only slightly when the pan is gently shaken. Allow to cool completely before slicing. Cake may fall as it cools.

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