Healthy streusel cupcakes

I guess before I begin I have to mention this.. Yes, I have been baking almost weekly now..and no I dont gobble everything.. in fact this time I have made enough to share.. ;)
Baking has surely become my stress buster.. at the end of a grueling week, my mind starts wandering around to find something yummy to bake! Last friday, I found just about the right thing to make!

After baking for the past few months, I felt pretty confident to experiment and found out that Abby Dodge had posted the October #baketogether challenge. I have been trying to participate in this monthly event for past few months and finally this month I got the perfect recipe.



I love coffee cakes! I am a coffee person and everything that goes well with coffee becomes my favorite too. I love the streusel and I dont spare even a tiny crumb of it. But this cake was going to be something else. I was dying to make a healthy version especially since I am trying to cut down big time! I love the fact that Abby encourages everyone to create their own version and instead of making a cake I preferred to make cupcakes and so here goes:

Streusel cupcakes

For the streusel:
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1/3 cup all purpose flour
1/3 cup oats
1/4 cup walnuts
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
3 tbsp unsalted butter, melted and cooled

For the cake:
1 cups all purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour

1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon table salt
6 tablespoons olive oil
1 1/4 cup light brown sugar (I used less than a cup and add about 2 tbsp honey)
1.5 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 large egg & 1 egg white at room temperature

1 cup yogurt, at room temperature

• To make the streusel: In a small bowl, combine the brown sugar, flour and cinnamon. Drizzle over the melted butter and, using a fork (or use your fingers), mix the ingredients are well blended and form small crumbs. Pop in the fridge while you make the batter.
• To make the cake: Position an oven rack in the center of the oven. Heat oven to 350°F. Lightly grease and flour the sides and bottom of a 9 x 2-inch square baking pan or a cupcake pan.
• In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt and cloves. Whisk until well blended. In a large bowl, beat together the oil, sugar and vanilla until well blended, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add about half of the flour mixture and mix just until blended. Add the yogurt and continue mixing just until blended. Using a rubber spatula, fold in the remaining flour mixture.
• Spoon about a tablespoon of the batter into each of the prepared molds and spread evenly. Evenly scatter half of the streusel mixture over the batter. Spoon the remaining batter evenly over the streusel and spread evenly. Scatter the remaining streusel evenly over the top.
• Bake until the top is browned and a pick inserted in the center of the cupcake comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes. Cool on a wire rack until warm or room temperature.

I was so anxious that the moment I got them out I had a bite..and got discouraged. :( The sugar in the cupcakes has not settled. The cupcakes looked so pretty, I was feeling really sad. But today when I tried one again, it tasted almost perfect. I know a little more sugar would do, but today I didn't really miss it. The streusel had just the right amount of sweetness and balanced the whole flavor well.

These will be perfect for breakfast, lunch or even as a snack! Enjoy!

A sweet treat for a sweet return

Time is truly flying by..Just when I thought it was still September we have already entered the next month. My work has been taking most of time and it has turned out to be a favorable distraction especially since the better half was away for the past week. But with his return I of course had a reason to celebrate and but of course it had to be something that was healthy yet delicious.

After a little bit of research, I had it narrowed down to two recipes and finally decided to make this lovely banana nut bread. I got the original recipe from Joy of Baking.com and can be found here.I didn't really fiddle with it too much, I just halved it because I prefer to make bread in smaller quantities. It makes sure that it gets consumed before you get bored by it!

With some minor changes and some nuts, my first bread turned out really great! I haven't even spared a crumb of it! yum.. :)
Here's the recipe:

Low-fat Banana Walnut Bread

Ingredients: (Double the recipe to have a standard size loaf)

1 ripe banana (mashed) 
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 cup low-fat plain yogurt
2 tbsp canola, vegetable, or corn oil
6 tbsp light brown sugar
1 egg white
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/3 cup + 1 tbsp all-purpose flour
1/3 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup walnuts coarsely chopped
pinch of ground cinnamon (optional)
1/2 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C) and place the rack in the center of the oven. Spray an 5 x 2.5 inch(mini) loaf pan with a nonstick vegetable cooking spray.
• In a large bowl, mix the mashed bananas with the baking soda and yogurt. Allow to sit while you prepare the rest of the batter.
• Meanwhile, in a separate bowl, whisk together the oil, sugar, egg or egg whites, and vanilla. 
• In another large bowl, whisk together the flours, baking powder, ground cinnamon and salt. 
• Then combine the banana mixture with the oil mixture and then add to the flour mixture. Stir just until all the ingredients are moistened. Pour into the prepared pan and smooth the top. Bake for about 45 - 55 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the loaf comes out clean. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool.

I know my blogs have been mostly about baking..but with the wedding so close..I don't get to splurge a lot and end up making the usual.. but with the festive season coming to its peak in the next few weeks..you will surely see some traditional recipes from me..stay tuned!

Calm down o weather..calm down o me!

Alright this has turned out to be a real long one! But this is a simple effort to make up for the sporadic posts in the last few weeks.

The past week was a real mixed one for me.. I started off the week with a fiasco in making something..n I guess that trend lasted a few more days.. the weather wasn't rewarding either! I was hardly making progress at work..n to top it off we had a small tiff at home.. truly the heat got to me. So to cool things down at home as well as in me I had to come up with something light..quick n still delicious..

I had ample of arugula at home because of an earlier fiasco I mentioned and had to consume it, so I decided to make something I had eaten at an organic food truck in Del Mar. It was a arugula pesto sandwich which was really light and delicious. Usually a pesto is made with pine nuts but since arugula has a strong flavor, I decided to pair it with walnuts and it surely was a good idea.

Arugula pesto-avocado sandwich

Ingredients:

For the pesto:

2 cups packed baby arugula leaves

1 cup walnuts roasted

6 cloves garlic (roasted with skin on)

1 clove garlic peeled and chopped

4-5 tbsps extra virgin olive oil

1 lemon

For the sandwich:

2 avocados

4 slices provolone cheese

8 slices whole wheat bread

1 cup walnuts roasted

Salt and freshly ground pepper

• Brown 6 garlic cloves with their peels on in a skillet over medium high heat until the garlic is lightly browned in places, about 10 minutes. Remove the garlic from the pan, cool, and remove the skins.
• Combine the arugula, walnuts, roasted and raw garlic into a food processor. Pulse while drizzling the olive oil into the processor. Remove the mixture from the processor into a bowl. Squeeze in some lemon juice and season with salt. (NOTE:Because the pesto is so dependent on the individual ingredients, and the strength of the ingredients depends on the season or variety, test it and add more of the ingredients to taste.)
• Now to make the sandwich just spread the pesto graciously onto each slice.Place a cheese slice on half of the slices and toast them in a skillet on medium heat. Once the cheese has started to melt, place avocado slices and season with salt and pepper. Top it off with the another slice and toast the sandwich well on both sides. Serve hot with a side salad or just as it is!

Now the peacemaking process didn't just end there.. I was a depressed baker since my first try at macarons was a sheer failure and had to bake something right. Knowing that my fiance loves biscotti and on reading Deeba's blog about these lovely biscottis, I had to conjure up a version of my own and here it goes..

It was again a first time for me to bake these goodies and after some research I decided to make my version of this one. I actually loved the suggested combo.. dried cranberries..n pistachios..yum! But I decided to stick with ingredients readily available at home..n had a huge batch of almonds lying around..so had to use them.

Note: Since it was my first time, I laid easy on going too healthy..still I managed to use wheat flour for 50% of the flour requirement..and it came out really well..n no effects on texture,crunch or color (means me doing the dance around my kitchen :P) Next time I am trying 100% whole wheat flour and brown sugar.

Cranberry Almond Biscotti

Ingredients:
1 cup All-purpose flour
3/4 cup Whole wheat flour
2 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup roasted almonds, coarsely chopped
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (177 degrees C) and place the oven rack in the center of the oven. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside. I finally bought a Silpat mat for myself, at least this is going to save me all the parchment paper I use up.
• In the bowl, beat the sugar and eggs rigorously to get a thick, pale, and fluffy texture (about 5 minutes). (When you slowly raise the beater the batter will fall back into the bowl in slow ribbons.) At this point beat in the vanilla extract. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. Add to the egg mixture and beat until combined. Fold in the chopped almonds and cranberries.
• Transfer the dough to your lined baking sheet and form into a log, about 12 inches (30 cm) long and 3 1/2 inches (9 cm) wide. You may have to dampen your hands to form the log as the dough is quite sticky. Bake for 25 minutes, or until firm to the touch. Remove from oven and let cool on a wire rack for about 10 minutes.
• Reduce oven temperature to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Transfer the log to a cutting board and cut into 3/4 inch (2 cm) slices, on the diagonal. Place the biscotti, cut side down, on the baking sheet. Bake for about 10 minutes, turn slices over, and bake for another 10 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from oven and let cool. Store in an airtight container. Makes about 12-16 biscotti. Enjoy with a hot cup of coffee!

So with my week set right, my weekend had to be a good one and passed by like a flash of light.

For this week, I have a few things planned and hope its a more fulfilling week than the last one..fingers crossed!
Have a good week everyone!