Tag: wholewheatflour

Peach Banana Breakfast Cake ~ Eggfree & Whole Wheat

Peach Banana Breakfast Cake-1

Peach season has almost ended around here but if you are still able to get your hands on some fresh or even canned peach for that matter, that could turn your breakfast into major awesomeness. Yes! This banana breakfast cake could be made with either fresh or canned peach. I have used the fresh ones here but I would use canned variety in a heartbeat if need be.

I first made this cake with strawberries back in the strawberry season days in February but didn’t get a chance to blog hence I decided to bake it again using peach this time so that you all could try it during stone-fruit season but alas, I am late again. Surely you guys have come to expect this erratic behaviour from me by now and I don’t even have any silly excuse to back me up here anymore. ?

Peach Banana Breakfast Cake-2

Coming back to the cake, as the title suggests, this cake here is eggfree and the batter is made using whole wheat flour, smidgen of oil and little cane sugar. You could replace cane sugar with powdered jaggery to make it refined sugar-free. Totally wholesome breakfast material. But there’s more. You could also make it vegan by using a vegan variety of yogurt or buttermilk. Win-win for everyone!

This recipe has lots of cinnamon which is my most favourite flavour to bake with after vanilla. Also, in my book, banana, peach and cinnamon go hand in hand and I love whole teaspoon of ground cinnamon here to enhance the banana flavour but if you don’t like then skimp down on cinnamon by adding half a teaspoon and a pinch of nutmeg if that’s your thing. If plums or apricots are available to you, use them on top in place of peach. Apart from strawberries, I have tried the plum version as well and it works beautifully. Basically, switch things up as you fancy and still the end product would be this gorgeous looking CAKE you’d want to devour in seconds.

Topping the cake batter with fruit instead of layering the fruit at the bottom makes demoulding this cake a breeze, definitely not as tricky as an upside-down cake. It also eliminates the chance that part/s of fruit would get stuck to the bottom of the cake pan. Topping it with granulated sugar before baking makes peach reach jam-like consistency while cooking in the oven. This in turn enhances the sweetness of peaches and helps in keeping the total added sugar to the minimum. Make this cake ASAP as it is just what your breakfast table needs alongside a cup of coffee.

Have a lovely rest of the week folks!

PS : If you’re in Mumbai, stay safe!

Peach Banana Breakfast Cake-3

Print Recipe
Peach Banana Breakfast Cake
Cuisine American
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Servings
slices
Ingredients
Cuisine American
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Servings
slices
Ingredients
Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven at 180ºC/350ºF. Grease an 8-inch round cake pan with oil and set aside.
  2. In a small bowl, whisk together all-purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt.
  3. In another medium-sized mixing bowl, whisk together oil, mashed banana, cane sugar/powdered jaggery, vanilla and buttermilk.
  4. Gently fold in dry ingredients into wet ingredients. Be careful not to overmix. Transfer the batter to the prepared cake pan. Top with the peach slices (as shown in the image) and granulated white sugar. Bake in the preheated oven for 25-30 minutes. Stays fresh for 3 days stored in an airtight container in refrigerator.

Shop the recipe:

Here are some items I used to make today’s recipe.

                                

 

Some of the links above are affiliate links, which pay me a small commission for my referral at no extra cost to you! Thank you for supporting Cook By Book.

Share this recipe:

‘Light & Healthy’ ~ Whole Wheat Thin Crust Pizza Dough

Whole Wheat Thin Crust Pizza Dough2

You all remember, we had so much fun swapping cookies during the food blogger cookie swap last year(that was last year??! Humpph..). So, this new year my dear friend Roshni from The Vanilla Bean and I wanted to start something new on our blogs.

After exchanging multiple e-mails, Cook-Along sessions sounded like a brilliant idea to both of us! Yes, we stay in different cities so how exactly do we plan on doing this? Lemme explain. Every month we’ll select a theme and plan a lunch/dinner-dessert menu based on it. After selecting who cooks what cooking will happen in our respective kitchens and on 15th of every month we both will post the recipes and link them. This way you get to enjoy 2 recipes! Total win-win 🙂

Going with the season of new-year resolutions, this month’s theme was a no-brainer. ‘Light & Healthy’ it is! I chose to make lunch/dinner so Roshni chose to prepare a dessert. So get ready as it’s show-time! 🙂

I have a pizza dough recipe for you today. And trust me when I say this, you NEED this recipe in your life. I conquered my fear of working with yeast last year and made these amazing Strawberry Sweet Rolls. The next thing I on my list was making pizza dough using whole wheat flour. It had to be a thin-crust pizza as I love my pizza that way. I started looking for the recipes which did not use sugar and hit jackpot with this fool-proof recipe! I doubled the recipe and did little adjustments. The results were stellar!

You must be thinking why am I putting the pizza in a healthy and light category? When topped with fresh vegetables and minimal quantity of cheese or the toppings coated with low-fat cream cheese can definitely turn it into a more well-rounded and nutritious meal. This version is anytime lighter than the ordered stuff!

So wait no more and make the pizza your way at home! 🙂

Whole Wheat Thin Crust Pizza Dough1

Whole Wheat Thin Crust Pizza Dough3
Topping of Jalapeno & Cheese
Whole Wheat Thin Crust Pizza Dough4
Topped with cherry tomatoes, onions and cheese

Whole Wheat Thin Crust Pizza Dough

Makes: 2 12-inches or 4 6-inches crusts | Prep time: 15 minutes | Resting: 1-2 hours

Recipe adapted from sugarfreemom.com

Ingredients:

  • 3 cups whole wheat flour, plus more for dusting
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 4 tsp instant dry yeast (I’ve used Gloripan)
  • 4 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 cup warm water (around 55ºC/110ºF)
  • 2 Tbsp honey

Directions:

  1. Fit the dough hook attachment to your stand mixer. In the stand mixer bowl, combine flour and salt. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients.
  2. In a separate small bowl mix oil, honey, warm water. Add yeast and stir gently with a spoon, tillyeast dissolves. Let it sit for about 7-8 minutes until you see some foam form from the yeast.
  3. Pour the wet mixture into the dry ingredients and mix until well combined at setting 2 for about 2-3 minutes.
  4. Once combined change to your dough hook and keep setting at 2 and let the machine go for about 8 minutes or knead by hand for 10 minutes.
  5. Remove your dough and place into a bowl greased with oil. Cover with a towel and let rise for at least one hour.
  6. Once risen, knead by hand for a minute or so and spread dough by hand onto a baking sheet sprayed with oil and dusted with flour or use a rolling pin.
  7. Add your choice of toppings and bake in a 400ºF/200ºC preheated oven for 15-20 minutes until crust is golden brown.
*If you don’t own a stand mixer, you may knead the dough by hand.
Now hop on to Roshni’s blog for a fabulous Zabaglione recipe!
Share this recipe:

Inside-Out Double Chocolate Chip M&M Cookies ~ Whole Wheat & Eggfree!

Inside-Out Double Chocolate Chip M&M Cookies2

 

Hope the new year started on a wonderful note for you all! I am still trying to recover from the indulgent last week we had. But don’t worry, I am not here to talk about my new year resolutions or boring stuff like that 😉 I love how each new year allows us to have a clean, fresh slate giving us time to reflect upon the past and visualize the future.

I simply don’t believe in dieting. Too much of good things can’t ever be bad now, can it! Plus, I always feel that being fit is certainly not about following a restrictive diet but making a lifestyle choice. And I certainly believe in eating healthy which goes without saying as my blog-post titles almost always include healthy, skinny or light, more than you would like to see may be!

So this year is going to be all about being happy! (You can track my progress on my Instagram) Taking each day as it comes. You all know I am not much of a planner so this is all I am looking forward to this year. Umm, may be a bit more of travelling! 😉

 

Inside-Out Double Chocolate Chip M&M Cookies1

 

These cookies were developed in 2013 and I never got a chance to share them at that time. I knooow it’s a crime and hence I don’t want to keep this fabulous recipe from you anymore. So I am choosing to showcase these unbelievably soft and chewy chocolate cookies laced with chocolate chips and M&Ms as a first recipe post of 2014! They are perfectly thick and so puffy. With a pop of color too!

I have kept those of you in mind who are resolute to eat healthy this year. These cookies use whole wheat flour, brown sugar and date syrup. Of course, without compromising on taste. Oh, they are eggfree too! To make them vegan, you may replace butter with olive oil and replace regular milk with soy/almond milk. Best of all world indeed! You may use any or combination of your favorite chocolate chips. I would love to use white chocolate chips the next time around because of the brilliant visual effect it will create!

 

Inside-Out Double Chocolate Chip M&M Cookies3

 

Inside-Out Double Chocolate Chip M&M Cookies ~ Whole Wheat & Eggfree

Yields: Around 30 cookies | Prep time: 15 minutes | Chill time: 30-60 minutes | Bake time: 13 minutes

Ingredients:

  • 3 Tbsp flax seed powder + 4 Tbsp water + 5 Tbsp milk
  • 1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 1/4 cup date syrup
  • 2 Tbsp vanilla extract
  • 2 cups whole wheat flour
  • 1/2 cup + 2 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 3 Tbsp milk
  • 1/2 cup milk chocolate chips
  • 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips
  • lots n lots of M&Ms

Directions:

  1. In a small bowl, mix together flax seed powder, water and milk. Set aside for 10 minutes.
  2. In a medium bowl, sift together whole wheat flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
  3. In a large mixing bowl, with the help of your electric mixer, beat the butter until soft. Add sugar and beat until light and fluffy on a medium speed for about 1-2 minute. Beat in date syrup, vanilla extract and flax seed mixture.
  4. Fold in dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. Add 3 Tbsp of milk to form the dough. Fold in chocolate chips. Chill the dough in refrigerator for about 30 minutes to 1 hour.
  5. Preheat the oven to 160ºC/325ºF. Line the baking sheet with parchment paper. Take about 2 Tbsp of dough, form it into a ball between your palms and flatten them. The cookies won’t spread much while baking so flatten how much ever thickness you like. Press M&Ms on the cookie dough. Bake them for 13 minutes. Let them cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring them on cooling rack to cool completely. The cookies will stay fresh for 1 week at room temperature in an airtight container.

*For vegan version : Replace butter with olive oil and replace regular milk with soy/almond milk.

Inside-Out Double Chocolate Chip M&M Cookies4

Share this recipe:

Vanilla Buttermilk Eggless Sponge Cake

Vanilla Buttermilk Eggless Sponge-2

After the last post of SugarPlum Cinnamon Buttermilk Cake, many people wanted an eggless sponge cake. I knew I had to bake one immediately… hence this post.

This recipe is from my initial baking days… very simple and easy to make even for beginners… so naturally it never got posted on the blog. Not bragging but I thought it to be too simple to be posted here. But trust me, it is every bit delicious! This is my go-to recipe while baking for non egg-eaters and it has turned out perfect every single time so it is tried, tested and tasted recipe in a true sense!

Use this as your basic cake recipe and add any other ingredients you like to it. Cinnamon, chocolate, lemon… anything! Sky is truly a limit. Use any other fruit you like or even better, make it tropical (pineapple and coconut, anyone?) style! Getting ideas?! ?

This eggless sponge is moist, has tight crumb and relatively flat top which makes it perfect for a multi-layer cake for birthdays or for any other occasion. In past, I have successfully doubled and tripled this eggless sponge recipe to make a 2 or 3-layer celebratory cake. For frosting ideas and recipes, read the recipe notes at the end of this post.

Vanilla Buttermilk Eggless Sponge Cake-1

Previously I have always used fresh strawberries for this eggless sponge as seen in the picture above. This time I had Kiwi fruit on hand so I decided it was time for a change. I am not a fan of baked Kiwi fruit so I refrained from adding fruit pieces to the batter which I sometimes do with strawberries but if you have no such qualms then go ahead.

It is perfect for eating any time of the day!

Yup, even for breakfast!

It has yogurt and fruit! Totally acceptable, right?! 😉

Kiwi Buttermilk Cake - Eggless1

 

Recipe adapted from here

Print Recipe
Vanilla Buttermilk Sponge Cake ~ Eggless
Cuisine American
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Servings
slices
Ingredients
Topping
Cuisine American
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Servings
slices
Ingredients
Topping
Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F. Spray a 6 or 8-inch baking dish with vegetable oil and line the bottom with parchment paper.
  2. Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a bowl.
  3. In a separate bowl, cream together butter, oil and sugar with electric mixer or hand whisk. Whisk in vanilla extract.
  4. Using rubber spatula, gently stir in dry ingredients to the wet ingredients in 2-parts alternating with yogurt/buttermilk, ending with dry ingredients. Do not over-mix the batter.
  5. Spoon the batter in a baking dish and smooth out the surface with the back of spoon. Top with Kiwi/strawberry slices and sprinkle with sugar. Bake for 25-30 minutes or till the toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Recipe Notes

*Stays fresh for 3-4 days if refrigerated in an airtight container.
*Want to add fruit within the cake batter instead on top? Mix together about 1/2 generous cup of chopped fruit and 1 Tbsp flour, fold into the cake batter.
*You may double/triple/quadruple the recipe to make layers for a multi-layered cake. Use vanilla bean buttercream, fresh strawberry cream cheese frosting, lemon cream cheese frosting or coconut buttercream frosting recipe to decorate.

Share this recipe: