LIVE TO COOK

Well! I am Back!!

After a long break though!!! (Pretty long. I admit).

There are lots of things going on in my life. Changes…All at once….(When it rains, it Pours!! Ha! Ha!)

We moved to our new home…I changed Job…My In-Laws returned to India…The nasty Winter……and now its Spring………

Things are settling down a little bit, So, I thought it’s time to restart my travel on blog world and knock on my friends’ doors with homemade goodies!

Here we go…

Knock! Knock! me Again!!!!

Hi! I have brought Orange-Poppy seeds Muffins for you!!!!

This recipe is one among those that I wrote down while I was browsing the internet. Most of the baking recipes will be adjusted by me to suit my lifestyle. The major adjustment is replacing the eggs called for. If the recipe contains only one egg, I will skip the egg altogether and add couple of table spoons of unsweetened apple sauce. If the recipe calls for more than one egg, I will replace the eggs with Ground Flax seeds and water mixture.

Before we talk about the recipe, let me mention couple of things about flax seeds. Flax seeds are tiny seeds either brown or golden in color. They also have the name Linseeds. Next to seafoods, flax seeds has the most necessary Omega-3 fatty acids. If you have oriental super markets near by, look for these seeds under the name “Alsi seeds”. 1 tablespoon of ground flax seeds and 3 tablespoons of water mixture replaces one egg in a recipe. While grinding the seeds, do not grind along with the water. The seeds won’t grind properly. It is hard to grind a table spoon or two in a blender or spice grinder. So, powder 1/4 cup of flax seeds in a spice grinder, store it in an air tight container and refrigerate. When needed, take only the necessary amount of flax powder in a small mixing bowl. Use hot water to mix with the flax powder. whisk both until lump free and let it stand for 5 minutes or until you set up other ingredients. This resting time helps the oils in the flax seed to mix well with the water and provide a texture like glue.

The recipe with my adjustments is:

1 1/2 cups Whole wheat flour
1 cup Unbleached all purpose flour
1/3 cup Sugar (The original recipe called for 1/4 cup brown sugar. But they used Frozen orange juice concentrate which will compensate for sweetness. So I increased the amount of sugar little bit)
1/4 cup Canola oil
1/4 cup unsweetened apple sauce
1/4 cup Fresh orange juice (Recipe called for Frozen orange juice concentrate)
2/3 cup non fat yogurt (I used homemade yogurt made with skim milk)
3 Tbsp Food Grade Poppy seeds ( I used the Indian white variety)
2 Tbsp Ground flax seeds (Recipe called for 2 eggs)
6 Tbsp Hot water
1 Tbsp orange zest (I zested an orange and ground the orange for the 1/4 cup juice above)
2 tsp Baking powder
2 tsp Maple syrup (optional)
1 tsp Vanilla extract

The Preparation is quite simple.

1. Grease a 12 cup Muffin Tray.
2. Mix Flours, Sugar, Poppy Seeds, baking powder in a large mixing bowl. Make a well in the center.
3. Whisk together all the wet ingredients in a mixing bowl and add to the well in the Flour mixture.
4. Fold in the flour to the wet ingredients until moistened.
5. Bake in a 350 Degrees preheated oven for 20-22 minutes.
6. Leave in pan for five minutes and remove from pan. Cool before storing.

Since there is tiny bit of citrus in there and I increased the amount of sugar, the recipe goes for the SHF Event hosted by Tartelette . she has chosen Citrus as this month’s theme.

No..No! I am not certifying any plant. It is the name of a plant. It is widely known as “Arrow root”. Manufacturers use the rhizome of obedience plant to prepare Arrow Root Powder.

Why it gained a place in my pantry? Keep Reading…

In our household, eggs are never an ingredient. Hence, It is my practice to look for egg free recipes or convert recipes with eggs to egg free. I tried a few recipes and understood it is very difficult to get the texture and look of the recipe with eggs.

French Crepes are one among those. The batter has nothing but flour, eggs, salt and milk . I tried to replace the eggs in different ways. But the end result didn’t resemble the ones in cook books.

one day, an unusual ingredient that I added to the batter, gave the texture I was looking for. And that ingredient was Arrow root powder.

Arrow root powder is not a common item in a pantry. I bought the powder when my son got diarrhea. In my home town,
it is considered that arrow root powder helps in controlling diarrhea. (we can find arrow root powder in any Indian/Asian grocery).

Arrow root powder was used in the batter and the recipe I followed is:

1 Cup All Purpose Flour
1 Cup Arrow Root Powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 pinch Nutmeg powder
1 cup milk.

Mix all the ingredients into a smooth batter without lumps. Spread the batter in a hot griddle and cook the side till golden brown. Flip and cook the other side also.

Normally, they tilt the pan to spread the batter. But the arrow root powder cooks so fast that we are unable to spread the batter. It is easier to spread it like Indian dosa.

The recipe was intended for later posts. But the starting alphabet of this post got me to post it now. Yup! This is my another entry for “O of Vegetables”. Though We are not talking about the recipe of India in this post, I think the recipe has all the features to be named as “Instant Maida Dosa”.