EGGLESS FRUIT CAKE/CHRISTMAS CAKE

I tried to convert Nigella's Christmas fruit cake recipe to an eggless one.So far I have tried this 3 times and it has been great(All trials within one week :-)).No one can make out this is eggless!

Check out the post Eggless Fruit & Nut cake for a more simplified version.

Ingredients
All purpose flour: 2 cups
mashed potato:1/2 cup
Condensed milk: 1/2 cup
Almond milk:1/2 cup (can use any milk)
Nuts: 1/4 cup (Walnuts/Cashews/Almonds)
Baking soda: 1 tsp
Baking powder: 1.5 tsp


For fruit mixture
Chopped Dried fruits: 2 cups (dates, prunes, raisins,currants, cranberries, apricots,mango,apple,cherries)
Honey: 1/4 cup
Butter:1/2 cup (1 stick)
Cocoa powder: 1 tablespoon
Orange juice/pulp: 1/4 cup (Extract fresh juice from 1 orange)
Orange zest: 1 tsp
Brown sugar: 1/2 cup
Baking soda: 1/4 tsp
Water: 1/4 cup
Spice powder: 1 tsp (clove, cinnamon, nutmeg and little bit of cardomom)


For decoration
Cherries
blanched Almonds


Procedure:
Step1:
Heat a sauce pan and melt the butter. Add the chopped dried fruits, brown sugar, honey and cocoa powder and mix well

Step2:
Add orange zest, water,orange juice and spice powder and allow the mixture to boil

This resembles dry fruit halwa that we make for diwali!
Step3:
Simmer for 20 minutes and then allow to cool


Step4:
Meanwhile sift the flour along with baking soda and baking powder

Step5:
Add the mashed potatoes, condensed milk and almond milk and mix well

Step6:
Add the fruit mixture and mix well

Step7:
Add the nuts and fold in

Step8:
Prepare the cake tin by placing a parchment paper at the base and the sides as shown below

Step9:
Pour the batter and decorate with blanched almonds and cherries
Note: Add 1 tablespoon of water to the almonds and microwave it for 1 minutes. Now peel the skin


Step10:
Bake in a preheated oven of 350 F for  40 - 50 minutes until a skewer inserted at the center of the cake comes out clean. I used 9 inch round pan.

Notes:

1. Nigella's original recipe calls in for baking at 300F for 1.5 hrs. However this did not work out for me for the eggless version.I found the cake to be little dry and crumbly.The second time when i baked for 40 minutes at 350f I got the cake moist and soft.This could be due to the ingredients used
2. The orange juice and zest can be increased if required

Tomato chutney

Ingredients
Tomato - 2 large
Chopped ginger: 2 tsp
Hing: a pinch
Red chillies: 2
Oil: 2 tsp
Mustard seeds: 1/2 tsp
Urad dal: 1/2 tsp
Grated jaggery: 1.5 tsp
Salt: 1 tsp


Procedure:
Step1:
Blanch and peel the tomatoes
(Boil the tomatoes in water for 5 minutes and you can easily peel them)


Step2:
Grind the tomatoes along with ginger, chillies and jaggery.Add 1/4 cup of water if necessary.


Step3:
Heat oil in a pan and add mustard seeds. Once it starts spluttering, add urad dhal and hing.


Step4:
Add the pureed tomatoes and add salt as well

Step5:
Boil the mixture until it thickens (approx 10 min)


This goes well with idli and dosa

Karthigai Pori Urundai

Ingredients
Pori: 4 cups
Grated Jaggery: 3/4 cup
Ginger powder(Sukku podi): 1/2 tsp
Cardomom powder: 1/4 tsp
Water: 2 tablespoon
Ghee: 1 tsp (to grease the hands)


Procedure:
Step1:
Take the pori (puffed rice) in a wide vessel. Add cardomom and ginger powder it  and keep it aside

Step2:
Heat jaggery with just enough water to immerse

Step3:
Once all the jaggery is dissolved strain it to filter out any impurities


Step4:
Again heat the syrup.After a while it will start boiling


Step5:
Have a cup of water by the side and keep checking for rolling consistency
How to check rolling consitency?
Pour little bit of syrup in water. You should be able to take it and roll.
Basically the jaggery should not dissolve in water

Step6:
Quickly remove from stove and pour the syrup little by little on the puffed rice. Simultanously stir the pori with a big spoon to mix well.

Step7:
Now grease your hands with ghee and roll them into balls. You may want to do this step quickly as the jaggery will soon start to harden


Tips

• Do not put the puffed rice in jaggery syrup directly. Only the syrup has to be added to the pori
• Do not roll the balls too tight. It will become very hard
• As a variation, small bits of coconut and pottukadalai (fried gram) can also be added
• If you are going to make this single handed make it only with 4 cups.Otherwise by the time we roll the balls the mixture will harden
• I made another batch with around 5 cups of pori with 1 cup of jaggery  to make the cone shaped karthigai pori (paruppu thengai).For this I used aluminium foil to make the cone mould.Slightly grease the cone and put the pori jaggery mixture inside this cone and leave it for 10 minutes. After that remove the foil.You get the traditional paruppu thengai!

Eggless Coconut Pancakes

Ingredients
Wheat flour/Atta : 1 cup
All purpose flour: 1/4 cup
Sweetened shredded coconut: 1/4 cup
Brown sugar/granulated sugar: 3 tablespoon
Melted Butter: 1 tablespoon
Applesauce: 1/2 cup
Coconut Milk: 3/4 cup
Butter milk: 1/2 cup
Baking powder: 1 tsp


Procedure:
Step1:
Mix all the dry ingredients together


Step2:
Mix together all the wet ingredients


Step3:
Mix both the dry and wet ingredients together. Do not overmix.The batter will be little thick

Step4:
Heat a pan and grease with cooking spray or butter


Step5:
Pour the batter and cook until it bubbles(might take a couple of minutes)


Step6:
Flip the pancakes and cook for another couple of minutes. Do not flip the pancakes often.It will turn out hard

Step7:
Serve with shredded coconut and maple syrup

CHOW CHOW PORICHA KOOTU

A mildly spiced kootu with a dominant coconut flavor.It is very healthy too.Other than chayote, snake gourd, squash can also be used for this kootu. This can be either had as an accompaniment for sambar or just have with plain rice

UPPU SEEDAI

This is a very delicious and addictive snack prepared for Gokulashtami. Though the recipe seems simple with store bought rice flour many of them dread to prepare at home because of the risk of bursting.Though I have not yet experience myself (touch wood) so far, I have seen these seedais bursting when my mom prepared it when I was a kid.So whoever is attempting for the first please read the tips given before carefully.Usually when I fry the first batch, I drop the seedais in the oil and run away from the kitchen :-)

Ingredients

Rice flour: 1 cup

Urad dal flour: 2 tablespoon

Butter : 2 tablespoon

White sesame seeds: 1.5 tsp

Grated coconut: 3 tablespoon

Asafoetida:1/4 tsp

Salt: 3/4 tsp


Urad dhal flour:
Dry roast the urad dhal until a nice aroma comes out.It should slightly change the color but should not become deep reddish brown
Allow it to cool and powder in mixie
Sift the flour and store in air tight container.

Procedure:

Step1:

Sift the flour and dry roast for a couple of minutes until a nice aroma comes out.


Step2:

Boil  1/4 cup of water and add salt and asafoetida

Step3:

Once cooled, mix all the ingredients together.Add water little by little and knead to a pliable dough.

Add more water if required

Step4:

Make small balls out of the dough . Do not roll the balls too tightly

Step5:

Heat oil in a pan and deep fry the balls until golden brown (At this stage the sound will subside and the balls will start floating on the top)

Notes:

• Make sure you sift the flour and the sesame seed is free of stones to avoid bursting
• Dont add too much of urad dhal flour which may result in chewy seedai
• Fry in medium heat to make sure the inner part is also crispy
• If using frozen coconut, thaw it before use. Can also roast it slightly.
• Do not roll the balls too tight
• Black sesame seeds can also be used
• Using boiled water with salt will result in crispy seedai