Eggless Date n Walnut Cake

I am so happy that my blog has initiated my cousin into the beautiful world of baking :) Baking is something that can be addictive, for me it is the most personal way to share some great food moments..an evening of tea with close buddies and a freshly baked tea cake is an evening well spent :) Of late I have been trying to do more and more of eggless baking as I don't have to worry then of who to feed the goodies to :)) And yes , the idea to try this cake came from a recent trip to the mall where a very smart sales lady tried to sell me a face cream made from dates but priced soooooooo steep that I thought.. I might as well find ways to eat more dates :)))

Ingredients (makes 8-10 pieces)

1/2 tin (200 gms ) condensed milk
50 gms butter, room temperature
50 ml milk
3/4 cup flour
1 tablespoon cocoa powder

1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup dates ,pitted

1/2 cup walnuts
1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence

1. Soak the dates in one cup of lukewarm water for half hour.
2. Pre-heat oven to 250 degrees (actual baking temperature will be 175 degrees)
3.With an electrical mixer, beat the condensed milk and the butter for 3-4 minutes till creamy in texture
4.At speed 1 of the beater, mix in the milk and the vanilla essence.
5.Sieve the flour,cocoa,baking powder and baking soda all together.
6.Beat in the flour mixture,adding little bit at a time . Continue beating for 3-4 minutes.
7.Drain off most of the water the dates are soaked in and grind the dates into a pulp.
8.Fold in this pulp into the cake batter and stir in the walnuts as well.
9. Pour the batter into a greased tin (I used a 5X7 rectangular inches tray) and bake at 175degrees in the center rack for around 40 minutes  or till a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
10.Serve warm freshly baked..

 

Instant Khandvi

I am a big fan of Gujarati snacks,especially khandvi and dhokla but sadly lack the expertise in making them taste as authentic..I have made khandvi once before and although the end product was not bad, the whole task of constantly stirring the batter in the kadhai till my wrist hurt ,followed by the stress of plating it so quickly left me with no desire for a repeat performance! Till I came across this variation in the method which involves no stirring :))) yes you still have to be quick with spreading the mixture on the plate..but practise will make perfect!

Ingredients

For the batter
1/2 cup heaped besan
 2 tablespoons curd whisked into 150 ml water
1 teaspoon ginger-green chilli paste
1 teaspoon salt
pinch heeng
1/2 teaspoon haldi
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon lemon juice

For the tempering
1 tablespoon oil
1 green chilli finely chopped
1 teaspoon rai seeds
3-4 curry patta leaves, chopped
Coriander to garnish
2 tablespoons water

1. Mix all the ingredients of the batter well, removing all lumps.
2. Pour 1 cup of water in the pressure cooker and place the vessel with the batter in the cooker. Cover the lid and turn the flame on high.
3. Give 7 whistles , keeping the flame high throughout..pay attention to the counting :)) Turn off the gas
4. Keep 2 greased thalis ready (grease the back of the thali with very little oil,too much oil will not let the batter spread easily) ..I used two thalis of 10 inch diameter
5. Once the steam is released from the whistle,open the cooker and take out the vessel. Whisk the batter once again quickly with a whisk. Then drop half the batter on one thaali and spread into a very thin layer with a spatula. The layer should be as thin as possible. Repeat the process with the second thaali..speed is they key as the batter thickens very quickly!
6. When the spread batter has cooled, cut into strips with a knife and roll each strip with gentle hands.
 Place all the rolls on a plate.
7. For the tempering, heat the oil. Add the rai, when the rai splutters, add the curry patta leaves and the green chilli. Fry for few seconds , turn off the gas. When this cools add the water and pour the tempering uniformly over the khandvi.
8. Serve fresh garnished with coriander leaves