Eggless Almond Cardamom Cookies Recipe

Here's a riddle: I am sleepy but can't sleep. Once I manage to sleep, I can't bring myself to get up. What is happening to you if this is how you feel?

While you think about that, here's a super delicious, ridiculously simple and eggless cookie recipe. The cardamom lends an amazing flavour and the family I baked this for loved it! Might good choice by the Sweet Punch team this month I should say.

Eggless Almond Cardamom Cookies Recipe
Makes 30 medium-sized cookies
Adapted from: Manjula's Kitchen

Ingredients:
1.5 cups whole wheat flour / atta
3/4 cup sugar (powder coarsely if using regular white sugar)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup sliced almonds
3/4 tsp green cardamom seed coarsely powdered
3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
About 2-3 tablespoons of milk (only if you need it)

How I Made It:

1. Pre-heat oven to 360F / 180C

2. In a bowl, mix the flour, sugar, salt, sliced almonds and cardamom powder well.

3. Next add soft butter (and milk if needed) to the flour mixture to make dough. Dough should be very soft.

4. Divide the dough into about 32 equal parts and make them into balls. Press each ball between your palms lightly; every piece should be about 1/2” in thickness. Place the dough balls on an ungreased cookie sheet or parchment paper about an inch apart.

5. Bake the cookies for about 18 minutes or until cookies are lightly gold brown. After they become lightly golden brown remove the cookie sheet from the oven. Let the cookies cool down for two to three minutes before taking them off the cookie sheet.

Notes:

- make sure that the butter is completely soft and at room temperature, otherwise you will get crumbly dough when you mix and end up adding more milk than necessary, which will make the baked cookies more crackly and hard.

- I made 1.5 times the original recipe and got only 30 medium-sized cookies, as opposed to 36 - the number mentioned in Manjula's post.

- You can lessen the amount of sugar a bit if you'd like, they will still turn out sweet enough I feel. That will make them perfect with coffee/tea.

The flavour of the cardamom is amazing so don't hold back on them

These are absolutely delicious and the flavour of cardamom makes it extra special. Do yourself a favour and bake thee asap!

Butterscotch Chip Cookies Recipe

Although I have made chocolate chip cookies a few times, its intereting that they've never shown up on the site before. But these butterscotch chip cookies were too good not to share. 

Chunky, fudgy, gooey, yum!

Nestle butterscotch chips are not always available in Singapore. I once saw a bag in Cold Storage in Bugis but it was overpriced and the expiry date was in another month so I didn't get it. Then, Sala sent me an awesome goodie bag and there were butterscotch chips in that!

The cookie dough comes together in a jiffy and this is really a no-fail, easy recipe. 

Butterscotch Chip Cookies

Adapted from Cooks.com

Makes ~16 cookies

Ingredients:

1/4 cup regular white sugar (see note below)
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup butter at room temp
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg
1.5 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
A generous pinch of salt (if using unsalted butter)
3/4 cup butterscotch chips

How I Made It:

1. Preheat oven to 350F/180C. 

2. In a bowl, combine sugars with the softened butter until smooth and creamy. Add vanilla and the egg and beat well until well combined.

3. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking soda and salt well with a fork. Add this to the wet mixture and combine well. Then add the butterscotch chips. The dough will be thick. Make sure you distribute the chips as well as possible.

4. Line a baking tray with parchment paper or a baking sheet. Use an ice cream scoop to drop the cookie dough on the baking tray. If you don't have an ice cream scoop, use 2 spoons, one to scoop up the dough and the other to smoothen it a bit and lower it on to the baking tray.

5. Bake for about 15 minutes until the top turns a light golden brown.

Note: Even though I reduced the amount of sugar and chips from the original recipe drastically, the cookies we still quite sweet. We couldn't have more than one at a time and that's just not done. So you can reduce the amount of sugar if you want it to accompany coffee/tea/milk. 

Moist Carrot Cake Recipe

I never really gave carrot cakes much thought until I came to Singapore. Cedele kind of opened my eyes to them with their really good carrot cakes with tons of walnuts in them. For the longest time, I really believed that they had the best carrot cake in Singapore!

Until one day I saw this box in our office pantry labeled "Sample for Google Employees". Inside was an 8" carrot cake with cream cheese frosting that was still cold from the fridge. I took half a slice, brought it back to my desk and forgot about it for the next couple of hours. Big mistake! 

Eventually, when I did end up taking a bite, it was a virtual explosion of taste and texture in my mouth. That is hands down the best carrot cake I have ever tasted! If you are in Singapore and you wouldn't mind a carrot cake changing your life forever, order one from Calendar's. 

Anyway, all this carrot cake overload made me want to bake my own and I was aiming for a moist, dense, yet soft one like they baked at Calendar's. The following recipe worked great!

Moist Carrot Cake Recipe a la Calendar's Carrot Cake Recipe

Adapted from Recipe Trezor

Ingredients

1 cup all purpose flour / maida

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp ground cinnamon (not optional)

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon ground allspice (optional but really adds flavour)

2 eggs

1/2 cup + 2 tbsp vegetable oil (I used veg oil with carotene which explains the deep orange colour of my carrot cake)

1/2 cup sugar

2/3 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup milk or buttermilk (I used milk)

1.5 cups peeled, shredded carrots

1/2 cup coarsely chopped walnuts

How I Made It:

1. Preheat oven to 350F / 180C

2. Butter and flour a cake pan of choice. I used my 8" square baking pan.

2. In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, salt and allspice. Set aside.

3. In a large bowl or using your stand-mixer, whish the eggs, oil, both sugars and milk (or buttermilk) until blended. Stir the flour mixture into the egg mixture just until combined. Fold in carrots and walnuts.

4. Transfer to your greased and floured baking tin. Bake about 40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Let it cool in the pan for 15 minutes, then invert onto a rack and let cook completely.

Cream Cheese Frosting

I always use my own eye-balled measurement for frosting. Most of the frosting recipes I come across have too much sugar and since I don't ever pipe on icing to cakes (I prefer the slathering technique), I just follow what I want to put together frosting, tasting as I go.

Ingredients:

Half a block of Philadelphia Cream Cheese (about 125gm) - at room temperature

4 tbsp unsalted butter - at room temperature

1/2 to 3/4 cup icing sugar (taste as you go and stop when its sweet enough)

1 tsp vanilla extract

How I Made It:

In a large bowl, mix cream cheese and butter until smooth. Then add the sugar and vanilla and beat until blended. You can do this by hand or using an electric beater. Spread evenly over the cooled carrot cake and serve immediately. I prefer a thin layer but go with what your heart says!

Refrigerate remaining cake for up to 4 days but make sure you bring to room temperature before serving. 

Chocolate Fudge Cake Recipe

Sometimes, you just want a chocolate cake that's dense and rich. Maybe because you want to warm it up a bit and serve it with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Or chocolate ice cream if you are evil!



Sometimes you want to bake up something in your small ring cake mould that can only hold 1.5 cups of batter, so that you get cute pieces like these. And sometimes you want to pack them up for guests when they leave - an extra treat for taking the trouble to visit you.

This cake has lesser amount of flour and more of chocolate goodness, so it bakes up rich and dense and fudgy. You can also bake the batter into cute little gooey chocolate hearts for Valentines Day.

Chocolate Fudge Cake
Makes 15 small pieces

Ingredients:
All purpose flour / maida - 1/2 cup
Bittersweet chocolate, chopped - 125 gms / 4.5 oz
Cocoa powder - 1 heaping tbsp
Powdered sugar - 75 gms or 6 tbsp
Unsalted butter - 135 gms / 1/2 cup and a bit more
Eggs - 4 large ( I used 3 eggs and 2 tbsp yogurt)
Baking powder - 1/2 tsp
A pinch of salt
Butter - to grease
Icing sugar - to dust


How I Made It:

1. Sieve together cocoa powder, flour, salt and the baking powder. I did it about thrice so that the three are blended well. You can also add them to a bowl and mix well with a fork, if are feeling lazy.

2. Preheat oven to 180C.

3. Place the chopped chocolate and butter in a bowl. Get another bowl that's about double the size of the first one, fill 1/4 of the way with water and bring to boil. Once the water boils, lower fire, set the first bowl in the water without touching the sides and keep stirring the choc-butter mixture until it melts.

If all of that was just too much, place the butter and chocolate in a microwave-able bowl and give it 30 second turns in the microwave, stirring well after each 30 seconds. Set aside.

4. Beat the eggs lightly with the yogurt (if you are opting for 3 eggs + yogurt) and then add the powdered sugar. Mix well until well incorporated. I used my wooden spoon for this.

5. Next, add the cooled chocolate-butter mixture and stir well to incorporate. Again, no need to beat, just mix in well.

6. Bring out the flour mixture now. Gently fold into the above mixture and mix in just enough to remove to any lumps and until you get a smooth batter.

7. Grease your cake tin or the pan that you intend to use. I used a small ring mould.

8. Bake in the pre-heated oven for about 20 mins. Do the skewer test to see if the cake is done, mine took about 20-22 minutes.



Dust with some icing sugar to make it look pretty! Serve warm with ice cream if you are into that sort of thing.

The Best Banana Cake Recipe Ever! (With Cream Cheese Frosting)

I tasted this banana cake for the first time when I was in Sydney. I have a colleague there who loves baking almost as much as I do and she bakes cakes for people in her team very often. She brought this banana cake and a flourless chocolate cake the day I landed. They were both divine.

Australians love their banana bread. Its a staple in all coffee shops - thick slabs of banana bread often served toasted with butter. Ah, bliss.



The moment I had my first taste of this cake, I decided I not only want the recipe, but I want the book it came in as well. I asked her to bring it in the next day and ordered it online the same day. It reached home to Singapore before I did.



I made it exactly the same way mentioned in the book the first time. It tasted wonderful - quite dense, sweet, deliciously banana-ey. The cream cheese frosting was the perfect indulgence along with the humble banana backing. The beauty of this cake is, it can be entirely made in a food processor, if you have one. I have an immersion hand blender that has a processor/chopper which worked perfectly. If not, you can just use your hand-help whisk or electric beater to bring the batter together. If I had a blender, I would have tried mixing this cake in it.

The second time around, I decided to make it less sweet with no frosting, perfect for breakfast or to carry in a tiffin box to school, work, or a picnic.

The Most Fabulous Banana Cake Recipe
Adapted from: Mix and Bake by Belinda Jeffery 
Makes 12 large pieces

Ingredients:
3/4 cup (110gm) plain flour
1.5 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 very ripe large banana (about 1/2 to 3/4 cups when mashed)
3/4 cup granulated sugar (regular white sugar)
1 egg
1/4 cup (4 tbsp) butter, at room temperature
50ml sour cream (or buttermilk as in original recipe)
1 tsp vanilla extract

For Frosting (optional - you can just dust with icing sugar too):

125gm cream cheese, cut into chunks, at room temperature
1/4 cup (4 tbsp butter), cut into chunks, at room temperature
3/4 cup (150gm) icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract

How I Made It:

1. Preheat oven to 350F / 180C. Grease a 9" cake pan or a brownie pan like I used. This size is actually for the recipe which I have halved here so you can only make a thin single layered cake if you use a 9" pan. Try a smaller pan if you want to frost the cake in layers.

2. Put the flour, baking powder, salt, and soda into the food processor and whiz them together for about 15-20 seconds. Tip into a bowl and set aside. If mixing by hand, just put everything into a bowl and blend together using a whisk or a fork.

3. Chop the banans into the food processor next and whiz into a pulp. Make sure the banana is really really ripe. Again, you can do this by hand using a fork or potato masher, in a separate bowl.



4. Add the sugar and egg to the mashed banana and whiz for another minute. Then add the butter and whiz for another minute until the mixture is thick and creamy. (Cream together for about 5 mins if doing by hand).



5. Next, add the sour cream (or buttermilk) and vanilla extract and whiz in quick pulses until just blended. Fold together if doing by hand.



6. At this stage, you can either tip the flour mixture into the food processor or fold together in a separate bowl. My chopper bowl is not that big so I did this in a bowl. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ones and fold until just blended. Don't overdo the mixing part.



7. Scoop into greased tray and smooth out the top layer evenly.



8. Bake for about 40 mins or until the top turns golden brown and the cake passes the skewer test. Remove and let cool completely before frosting.



For Frosting:

Whiz together all ingredients in the food processor for about a minute until well blended. Chill until needed to frost. You can mix by hand too, just make sure the butter and cream cheese are softened to room temperature so that they blend well when mixing with hand.

Frosting from the first time I made the cake

When the cake is cool, layer on the frosting on all sides. Cut and serve. With sour cream, the cake turns out much much softer so try and use it instead of buttermilk, if you can. Yum.

The first time I made this cake. Came out denser, but equally yummy.

Eggless Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins Recipe

Its strange how this lemon poppy seed muffins got into my head. Strange because I don't like citrus-y or lemon-y desserts. I am more of a chocolate person, or if not, I pick a Creme Brulee or a custard from the choices. Also strange because poppy seeds are not available in Singapore and I haven't seen the black ones in India either (let me know if you know where to find them in India).

I did manage to pick up two packets of black poppy seeds from Sydney and then the muffins started to haunt me until I baked them recently. I am still not a fan of lemon-y desserts or sweets but these were definitely tasty.

I realised I didn't have eggs when I reached the stage in the recipe where I was supposed to add eggs! So I just used yogurt as a substitute and hoped for the best. The muffins turned out super soft and yum, so here's an unintentional eggless adaptation of the classic lemom poppy seeds muffin recipe.

Eggless Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins
Adapted from: Baking from my Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan
Makes: 6

Ingredients:
1/3 cup regular white sugar
zest and juice of 1/2 a lemon (use lesser if using Indian lime)
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
A pinch of baking soda
A pinch of salt
1/2 cup buttermilk or sour cream (I used sour cream)
2 heaping tbsp of yogurt (or use one egg)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup (4 tbsp) butter
2 tbsp poppy seeds

For Glaze:
1/2 cup powdered sugar mixed with 2 tbsp of lemon juice

How I Made It:

1. Preheat oven to 375F / 190C. Mould or grease a muffin tin and set aside.

2. In a bowl, rub the white sugar with the lemon zest until the sugar is lightly colored and scented with lemon. In another bowl, whisk in the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In a third, whisk together the yogurt (or eggs), buttermilk (or sour cream) vanilla extract, melted butter, the lemon infused sugar, and lemon juice.



3. Add the wet ingredients to the whisked flour mixture and fold together (the specks you see in this pic are not the poppy seeds - which are added at a later stage - its the vanilla powder I used instead of extract)



4. When almost thoroughly mixed, add the poppy seeds. Divide batter between muffin cups.



5. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until the tops are golden and a skewer inserted in the center of the muffin comes out clean.



6. Let cool in the pan for 5 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before glazing. I didn't add lemon juice to the glazing, just a few drops of milk, since I didn't want an overpowering flavour of lemon in my muffins.

Note: my muffins turned out a tad under-baked. The baking time mentioned in the book was 15-20 mins and they passed the skewer test at that time but the top didn't turn a golden brown. I have adjusted baking time in the recipe mentioned here but look out for a golden top and you should be fine.

M&M Brown Butter Samoa Blondies Recipe

I have posted a recipe for butterscotch blondies before. They are super simple and usually a welcome change from chocolate brownies.

The M&M used in the recipe can be substituted with milk chocolate chips, white chocolate chips, chopped walnuts, or anything else that catches your fancy.



M&M Brown Butter Blondies Recipe
Adapted from The Recipe Girl
Makes 12 large squares

Ingredients:
1/2 cup + 2 tbsp butter (total of 10 tbsp)
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 tbsp regular white sugar
1 egg
2 tsp vanilla extract
¼ tsp salt
1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup desiccated coconut (fresh won't work)
3/4 cup M&Ms + few more to lay on top

How I Made It:

1. Preheat oven to 350F/180C. Grease a cake pan or brownie pan.

2. Heat butter in a small saucepan over medium heat until it browns and begins to smell nutty (watch it closely so it doesn’t burn - takes about 5-7 mins). Let the butter cool for a few minutes, until just barely warm.

3. In a large mixing bowl, combine the browned butter and sugars. With a wooden spoon, stir in egg, vanilla and salt. Stir in flour, coconut and M&Ms until batter is blended.

4. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top with a rubber spatula. Sprinkle a few additional M&Ms on top. Bake 25 to 30 minutes. Let the blondies cool before turning them out onto a cutting board and slicing into squares (chilling them will make that process even easier).



The brown butter gives the blondies a lovely flavour. The coconut gives a nice crunch too. I lowered the quantity of coconut a lot in my version, it really is enough without being overpowering.

Twix Candy Bar Triple Chocolate Brownies Recipe

Have you ever tasted brownies from Brownie Cottage in Hyderabad? They have an outlet in GVK mall in the movie theaters there. I tasted their After 8 Mint Brownies and fell in love with them. They also had various other candie bar brownies so here's my attempt at recreating one of them.



The caramel in the twix bars becomes more chewy and the biscuit retains in crunch. Its heavenly!



One of my favourite chocolates - Twix!

Twix Candy Bar Brownies
Adapted from: Recipe Girl
Makes 12 large pieces


Ingredients:
1 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
3 oz  / 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips or chopped semi-sweet chocolate
6 oz unsweetened chocolate, chopped
1 tsp instant coffee powder
3 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup granulated sugar (regular white sugar)
1/2 cup + 1 tbsp cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tbsp baking powder
A pinch of salt
2 twix bars (singles) chopped into 1/2" pieces (chill before cutting)

How I Made It:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F / 180C. Grease an 8" brownie / cake pan and set aside.

2. In a pan set over another pan of boiling water, melt both the chocolates and butter together until smooth and glossy. Let cool slightly.

3. In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, coffee powder, vanilla and sugar. Stir the egg mixture into the slightly cooled chocolate mixture. Cool to room temperature.

4. In a medium bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, and salt; add to batter. Stir chopped Twix bars into chocolate mixture. Then pour into prepared baking pan and smooth top with a rubber spatula. You can reserve some slices and place on top too.



5. Bake for 25 to 35 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean with a few crumbs attached; do not overbake! Let cool completely, then cover tightly and chill overnight. Chilled brownies are easier to cut and they actually taste better the next day.



These makes great gifts for a kid's birthday party or generally just bake them for friends and bask in their chocolate-y gratitude :)

Easy Basic Chocolate Brownie Recipe

I love using chocolate bars while baking and definitely feel like the taste and texture is significantly better when I do. The only thing that I don't look forward to is the melting of the chocolate, especially if it involves a double-boiler set up.

That's why these brownies are so ideal when you want a fuss-free, easy and yummy snack. The ingredients are most probably lurking in your pantry already and you need less than 20 mins to whip them up before sticking it into the oven.

Basic Chocolate Brownie Recipe with Cocoa Powder
Makes about 12 large squares
Adapted from here

Ingredients:
1/2 cup unsalted butter (doesn't have to be room temp, isn't that awesome?)
1 cup regular white sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs
1/3 cup unsweetened baking cocoa powder
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
A pinch of salt

How I Made It:

1. Preheat oven to 350F / 180. Grease a 9" square (or round, who will know) pan.

2. Heat the butter on low flame until just melted (use the microwave or stovetop works just fine too). Stir in the sugar and vanilla.

3. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the cocoa; beat well until well blended.

4. Finally, add the flour, baking powder and salt; beat well.

5. Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake for 35-40 minutes or until brownies begin to pull away from the pan sides.

There are a dozen different ways you can customize this brownie, that's why this is the basic brownie recipe. Add orange zest, white chocolate chips, chopped walnuts, let your imagination go wild!

This basic brownie recipe is heading to The Chocolate Fest over at Cook Curry Nook.

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On an unrelated note, a good friend who introduced me to the world of Yoga is now celebrating 10k hits to her blog - Back to Basics. She has some cool things to giveaway so go ahead and check them out before time runs out!

Sanjeev Kapoor's Pineapple Upside Down Cake Recipe

Machine-cut pineapples drenched in sugar syrup, how pretty and perfect! I used these babies in a pretty nice pineapple upside down cake recipe. I often end up baking with chocolate whenever I do bake and when I was asked to bring dessert for a potluck a few weeks back, I resolved not to let chocolate anywhere near the dish.

I had just received Sanjeev Kapoor's Cakes and Bakes, so decided to flip through it. I have to admit at this point that the first time I baked this cake, it didn't turn out well. I under-estimated the bake time, and when I turned the cake upside down, it was still squiggly in the middle. That turned into something of a disaster but I salvaged it and called it pudding in a way that would have made my mom proud. 

This recipe is slightly fansy-pansy. It calls for demerara sugar. I bought it just for this purpose, just so that I won't screw up a second time.

Sidenote: Is demarara sugar available in India? If you know if a place, do leave a comment. Thanks!

Pineapple Upside Down Cake
Makes one 9" cake
Adapted from Sanjeev Kapoor's Cakes and Bakes
(Amazon | FlipKart)

Ingredients:
1 cup regular all purpose flour or maida
8 slices canned pineapple, drained
150gm / 3/4 cup butter at room temperature
3/4 cup demerara sugar
1 tsp baking powder
3 eggs, separated
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup powdered sugar, sifted
1/2 cup milk (low fat works too)

How I Made It:

1. Preheat the oven to 190C / 275 F

2. Mix 1/4 cup butter with the demerara sugar and spread it at the bottom of a greased 9" cake pan.



3. Arrange a layer of pineapple slices over it, slicing them to adjust and fill the gaps.



4. Sift the flour and baking powder. Keep aside.

5. Beat the egg yolks in a small bowl and add in the rest of the butter (1/2 cup) and the vanilla essence. Combine until smooth.

6. Whisk the egg whites until soft peaks form. Don't overdo this otherwise the egg whites will turn dry.



7. Fold in the sifted sugar, one tablespoon at a time. Then fold in the egg yolk mixture.



8. And finally the flour mixture, 1/4 cup at a time. Be gentle and only mix until the flour disappears into the batter. Don't over-mix.



9. Pour the batter over the pineapple slices and bake for about 30-40 mins.



10. Make sure that you test the cake and not go by time because the first time I did that, I ended up under-baking the cake by about 10 mins or so. This one below is done perfectly!



The butter-sugar mixture will caramelize and come up a bit at the sides. Its yum!



Unfortunately, I don't have a great final picture of the finished cake. I had to pack this in foil and take it for a party so no pics of slices.



Its definitely tasty but I am not satisfied with it. I think pineapple, butter, sugar and flour can make something better - so the search is still on. Leave a comment if you have a great pineapple upside down cake recipe on your site!