Red Velvet Cake Donuts ~ Valentine’s Special

After being on a month long health-kick, I think it is time to introduce a little indulgence. After all, it is last day of January.Valentine’s day is just round the corner so today’s post was definitely called for. I’m giving you a gorgeous sweet something for the occasion.

I have already professed my love for donut pan to you before. Ooh, how much I adore it. I want to bake everything into donut now, yes, obsessed is the word! But come on, how cute are these baked donuts?! You’re definitely going to have hard time deciding, eat them for breakfast or dessert! Or may be have them for both 😉

These baked donuts are smothered with cream cheese frosting. Purr..fection! They are soft, tender and fluffy. They come together quickly and uses just a bowl. Baking is done in 8 minutes flat! Takes about 20-25 minutes start to finish. Of course, you will need to wait for donuts to cool completely before applying the frosting. I know which is quite difficult! So you may make them a day in advance, frost them and sprinkle sanding sugar just before serving. No more waiting, problem solved!

I made a small batch of 6 which is perfect if you’re still dieting. They are not obnoxiously fattening. I counted calories to be sure and each donut has 210 calories with frosting. Not so bad, right? Perfect for a cheat day with minimal cheating which means, yes, go ahead and have two!

So make them for Valentine’s or make them now. Bake them as donuts or as cupcakes. Just make them! 🙂

Red Velvet Cake Donuts

Yields: 6 | Prep time: 15 minutes | Bake time: 8 minutes | Total time: About 25 minutes

Ingredients:

For donuts:

• 2/3 cup + 2 Tbsp all purpose flour
• 1 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 large egg
• 1/4 cup white granulated sugar
• 3 Tbsp oil
• 5 Tbsp yogurt/buttermilk
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• Red food coloring
• 1/4 tsp apple cider vinegar

For cream cheese frosting:

• 3 Tbsp plain cream cheese, at room temperature (I used plain spreadable cream cheese)
• 3 Tbsp icing sugar, sifted
• 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
• Splash of milk, only if needed
• Red sanding sugar, to decorate

Directions:

1. For donuts: Preheat oven at 180ºC / 350ºF. Spray the 6-count donut pan with oil. Set aside.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
3. In a another mixing bowl, whisk together egg and sugar till nicely incorporated. Whisk in oil, yogurt/buttermilk and vanilla extract. Slowly mix in dry ingredients to wet ingredients with the help on spoon or rubber spatula. Mix until just combined. Do not over-mix.
4. Add red food coloring as required stirring minimally. Finish with whisking in vinegar to the batter. Divide the batter equally and fill the mold no more than 3/4th. Bake for 8 minutes. Cool in pan on a cooling rack for 5 minutes. Then carefully turn out doughnuts directly onto rack to cool.
5. Cream cheese frosting: In a small mixing bowl, whisk together cream cheese, sifted icing sugar and vanilla extract until smooth. If the consistency is too thick, add a dash of milk. Spread the frosting on completely cooled donuts. Sprinkle with red sanding sugar just before serving as the colors will bleed. Doughnuts will keep in an airtight container for 2-3 days stored in a refrigerator.

Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookies ~ Eggfree & Vegan

 

A classic chocolate chip cookies with a glass of milk! Match indeed made in heaven!

Imagine to be able to have a healthier version of the buttery classic. After receiving rave reviews about Inside Out Chocolate Chip M&M Cookies(Thank you all!), I decided to recreate them into a classic chocolate chip version. I used olive oil instead of butter this time around and skipped milk completely. The result was amazing. I am not claiming these cookies to be skinny or low-fat. They are still 120 calorie each(assuming you get exactly 30 cookies) but you won’t miss the evil fat here, trust me! (Come on, olive oil is a good fat!)

 

 

 

If you’re crispy cookie person then flatten the cookie dough thin as per your liking and let them bake for an extra minute or so. When baked thick and puffy, these cookies are soft and equally chocolicious. You won’t be able to stop at just one, I know you guys too well! 😉

Enjoy & have a gorgeous weekend!
Eeeep… I am off to a road trip and shall share more once I am back! 🙂

Whole wheat Chocolate Chip Cookies ~ Eggfree & Vegan

Yields: Around 30 cookies | Prep time: 15 minutes | Chill time: 30-60 minutes | Bake time: 14-15 minutes

Ingredients:

• 3 Tbsp flaxseed powder + 9 Tbsp water
• 1/2 cup olive oil (unsalted butter can be substituted)
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup date syrup
• 2 Tbsp vanilla extract
• 2 + 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1/2 Tbsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 + 1/4 cup mix of dark & milk chocolate chips

Directions:

1. In a small bowl, mix together flax seed powder and water. Set aside for 10 minutes.
2. In a medium bowl, sift together whole wheat flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
3. In a large mixing bowl, whisk olive oil and sugar together til completely incorporated. Whisk in date syrup, vanilla extract and flax seed mixture.
4. Stir in dry ingredients to the wet ingredients to form a 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 with fingers or a fork. The cookies won’t spread much while baking so flatten how much ever thickness you like. Bake them for 14-15 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 stored in an airtight container.

Strawberry Jalapeño Salsa

 

This salsa is so so good. I made it the other night when few friends came over and I knew after the first bite that I had a winner. Thankfully I had clicked few pics beforehand (food blogger problems!) so I decided to make it a post.

Actually, it is quite silly of me to be presenting this as a recipe with strict measurements because, really, you can just chop, drop and taste as you go! So consider this as a rough guideline. You may substitute orange juice in the recipe with lime or make it using pineapple instead of strawberries. Summer on your plate!

 

 

This recipe here works so perfectly and you can use it on chicken, fish, meats, tacos, bruschetta, or just scoop it up with chips! Pretty versatile. Bring it to a pot-luck or a party and I bet no one has had it before! It is sweet, tangy, spicy and has a lot going on. Strawberries are in abundance right now, so go for it!

Brighten up your Monday with this simple yet cracking dish!
Have a great week ahead! 🙂

 

 

Strawberry Jalapeño Salsa

Serves: 3-4 | Prep time: 10 minutes

Ingredients:

• 1 small onion, finely chopped
• 1 jalapeño pepper, seeds removed and finely chopped
• Zest and juice from 1 medium orange
• Around 20 fresh strawberries, chopped into small even dice
• Fresh cracked black peppers
• Handful of cilantro, rinsed and finely chopped

Directions:

In a large bowl, let onion, jalapeño, orange juice and zest steep till you prepare strawberries.
Add strawberries, pepper, cilantro and toss. Chill until ready to serve.

Note: Don’t make this much more than an hour or so before serving. Like all salsas, it will wilt and the fruit may get a little mushy. An hour is the optical amount of time for the flavors to meld and the juices to start flowing. Longer than that salsa will slowly start to lose its fresh appearance.

Skinny Strawberry Chocolate Chip Muffins ~ Eggfree

Skinny breakfast for your honey on Valentine’s day coming right up! It has lots of strawberries and just the right amount of dark chocolate… Match made in heaven! Indulgent yet skinny. Celebratory yet healthy. Befitting, don’t you think?

While posting these Skinny Muffins last week, I realized that I have few recipes posted here and wanted to set that right. Now that this sappy, lovey-dovey day is just round the corner, I had a perfect excuse to whip up this breakfast treat for the blog!

There is nothing better than a warm muffin served with a hot mug of coffee. It gets better if served in bed! This muffin is a flavor bomb! Bits of strawberries and chocolate chips in each bite is blissful. These muffins are soft, moist and surprisingly skinny. So flavorful and fluffy. No dry crumbs in sight here.

They need very few and simple ingredients. One of the most magical ingredient of them is applesauce. Unsweetened of course. Applesauce will make sure that you don’t need to use any oil or butter! I wanted to keep the refined sugar to the minimum without making them taste cardboard-like. So I used combination of brown sugar and honey to sweeten them. I’m glad to report they were perfectly sweet!

The batter comes together quickly and so easily! No mixer required. The batter is going to be quite thick but don’t worry. You will be able to scoop it easily in the muffin pan with ice-cream scoop. Do not use muffin liners as muffins may stick to the liners. I filled the muffin moulds to the brim and got 6 large muffins but you may fill them till 3/4th mark and get about 8 regular-sized muffins. Do as you please. Just make them already as they certainly don’t need an occasion! 😉

Skinny Strawberry Chocolate Chip Muffins ~ Eggfree

Yields: 6 large or 8 regular-sized muffins | Prep time: 15 minutes | Bake time: about 20 minutes

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 2/3 cup unsweetened applesauce (I used homemade)
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup diced fresh strawberries (you may use frozen berries)
• 1/3 cup dark chocolate chips (or semi-sweet)

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven at 180ºC/350ºF. Spray 6-count muffin pan with oil*. Set aside.
2. In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together flours, baking soda and ground cinnamon. Set aside.
3. In another medium bowl, whisk together applesauce, sugar, honey and vanilla extract. Add the wet ingredients to the dry until *just* combined. Fold in the strawberries and chocolate chips.
4. Divide the batter evenly between 6 muffin cups. Bake for 16-20 minutes. Mine took exactly 18 minutes. Let them cool for about 5 minutes before releasing from pan.

*Do not use muffin liners as muffins may stick to the liners.

Note: Do not use whole wheat flour entirely as the muffins may not be turn out as soft.

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

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! 🙂

Topping of Jalapeno & Cheese

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!

Skinny Banana Blueberry Oats Muffins

In the past week, I was just rummaging around and found out that the blog has only ONE muffin recipe posted(a great recipe but with REALLY hideous photos)! Whatt??!! How did THAT even happen? I was shocked and needed to change that pronto! Okay, I did post few skinny muffins recipes on my Facebook page before I started this blog but I haven’t been able to post them here. Of course, that is not an excuse. But you can check them out here, here and here!

I was delighted when I chanced upon these muffins on my favorite baking blog. They are skinny and totally healthy, right up my ally! Of course, they don’t taste healthy or skinny… In fact they are quite soft, moist and so dang fluffy!

This recipe is a total bomb! It does not contain any oil or butter! Say what?!! YES… Mashed bananas and yogurt will do all the work here! Trust me, breakfast can not get better! I made quite a big batch for our small family of 2 and froze the extras and re-heated them in micro whenever the sugar cravings hit! They still tasted absolutely perfect. Instant gratification! 🙂

The recipe includes simple ingredients. Nothing fancy-schmancy! Plus, no mixer required! Takes just about 30 minutes start to finish! Such a phenomenal recipe I tell ya! The only change I made was throwing some oats for a bit of bite and texture. And of course, to make it healthier!

The batter will be quite thick so be gentle and do not over-mix, just until the flour pockets are gone. Over-mixing will result in hard and rubbery texture. Also, use super-ripe bananas for unbelievably sweet, moist and flavorful muffins. I could go on and on about them, but I’ll spare you now! Make them and see for yourself! 😉

Happy weekend you all!

Serve warm with a knob of butter… Totally dee-vine!! 🙂

Skinny Banana Blueberry Oats Muffins

Yields: 15 muffins | Prep time: 15 minutes | Baking time: about 20 minutes

Ingredients:

• 2 and 1/2 cup white whole wheat flour (or mix of whole wheat and all-purpose)
• 1/2 cup oats
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1/2 cup light brown sugar
• 1 cup mashed very ripe banana (2 large bananas)
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup non fat yogurt
• 1 large egg, beaten
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1 and 1/4 cup fresh or frozen blueberries

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 160ºC/325ºF. Spray 15 muffin tins with nonstick spray*. Set aside.
2. In a large bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Toss in oats. Set aside.
3. In a separate bowl, mix honey and brown sugar together into a thick paste. Stir in the mashed banana, yogurt, and beaten egg.
4. Slowly pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Gently fold it together. It will be thick. Add the milk slowly and continue to gently mix the ingredients together. Gently fold in the blueberries. Do not overmix the batter or you will get tough, dry muffins.
5. Divide the batter equally between 15 muffin tins. Fill all the way to the top. Bake for 17-19 minutes until very lightly browned on edges or a toothpick inserted in the center of the muffin comes out clean. Allow muffin to cool completely before demoulding. Muffins stay fresh stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days. Muffins freeze well, up to 3 months.

*Do not use cupcake-liners as muffins will stick to the liners.

Recipe source: Sallys Baking Addiction

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

 

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! 😉

 

 

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 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.

Happy New Year 2014!

I couldn’t help but pop in to wish you all happiest 2014!

I thank you all for every like, comment, pingback, tweet or re-pin on Cook By Book this past year. So blessed to have you all in my life, really!! Keep the love coming!

Have a sparkling 2014! 🙂

~Sent from my iPhone~