Mango Chocolate Oatmeal Chewy Drop Cookies (No added sugar or fat)

I have been trying out these 'fruit-infused' cookie things for a while. I am usually not very happy with the cookies that are dished out by the standard coffee shops (stale, dry, overpoweringly sugary), or even Subway outlets (limp after being baked a while back and with a greasy aftertaste...).


With the mangoes fast disappearing at the end of the season, I just wanted to bake something with the fruit. And not the standard muck that they give at every confectionery (orange in colour, tasteless, and usually called Alphonso when it is not...).


So I started by trying out a cookie sans all these irritating things. Which did turn out better that I really expected ... But the Sugar, Egg, and Flour-less Cookies were another trip altogether...


 Anyways.... Now that the ranting bit is done....


Guru dropped in for the second last time before he goes away for good to Singapore. So I thought that this was a good time to bake something for him and Shubha.
  
By the time all 'imagin-ing-about-the-food' had stopped swirling in my brain, time had flown and Guru was calling me, irritatedly, asking me when I would land up at his place. <rolling eyes>...


I did not want the standard compound chocolate in the cookies, so I got our some chocolate that some cocoa mass and cocoa butter instead of the hydrogenated fat. I also got out some orange peel.

This had to be done rapidly so I got out some Chitalebandhu Aamras (mango pulp) and squelched out a couple of bowls of the pulp.

Next a couple of cups of oat meal got dumped into my trusty old mixing bowl. (I made a mental note to ask someone to get me some nice steel bowls when they fly in :) )

The chocolate slab got chop-chopped ...

Then the walnut bits also joined the rest in the mixture...

Now, it was time to chop the candied orange peel....

I added a nub of ginger to add a delightful little zing in the cookie just when you were not expecting it... to offset the sweetish richness of the chocolate...

I chopped the ginger in to little bits...

... and then all of this went straight into the bowl.  

I added a teaspoon of baking powder (but you can really bake these cookies without it...)

After a good stir, I added a cup of आटा/ataa (aka whole wheat flour) to add some more 'body' to the cookies...

Once the flour was incorporated into the mixture I poured in the mango pulp. This was meant to have a three fold effect--bind the mixture, add some sweetness and to add that little interesting flavour when you bite into the cookie...

After a good mix....

... I rolled out some baking parchment onto the racks and dropped lumps of the mixture.

Tada! All ready to bake in my preheated oven while I cleaned things up and got ready to get out of the house with the cookies...

And this if how the cookies looked straight out of the oven... Notice how the chocolate looks all gooey... The trick with chocolate (as opposed to compound chocolate) is that the chocolate stays gooey-ish even after the cookie is cooled since the chocolate is not actually tempered. Next I shall try making a nice batch of giant muffins with chocolate sunk into the centre. Should be interesting :)

 

Whole Wheat (आटा) Crusty Bread

Usually the first attempt at baking something 'simple' turns out be anything but that... So when I thought of baking bread, I was sure that something or the other would go boink... This one though, worked like a charm... 

One of the advantages of staying in the 'not-so-affluent' part of the Mahim is the proximity of humbler things like an aata chakki (आटा चक्की). On a lazy Saturday, I started thinking of bread as I dozed off on Friday and finally moved/willed myself to the aata guy late in the morning. I realized that he was scalloping the grinding stones of his mill and would not make flour till an hour later. The laziness took over and suddenly it was evening! I woke up with a start and got myself the flour. It was warm and smelt heavenly.


I came back and got the yeast block out of the fridge...

... I sliced off a bit of the yeast and this weighed in at around 52gm...

... I took about half of this (25gm) and about 10gm of sugar and mixed this with some warm water...

Soon the yeast activated and was ready to mix with the dough...

I measured about 3 and a quarter cups of flour to get 501gm and added some salt to it 

Then a quick knead later it put it in a bowl and covered it with a moist face towel.

This I put in the microwave to give dough some privacy while the Mumbai monsoon moist warmth worked its charm. An hour later the dough had doubled in volume and was airy and sticky.

I kneaded this a little more and oiled the tins...

The dough went into the tins and then I poke them with a fork and started preheating the oven. 

The dough went back into the microwave and before I could pop them into the oven, the dough had risen some more...

After about 35min in the oven my bread came out and tasted awesome... 

I carried some for Titin en route to meeting Chandu... :) 

Chocolate Cakey Brownie Cupcakes

The Mumbai rains have started the steady staccato beats across the senses. Guru and Subha just had a son and the weekend expected that I go an meet the trio. 

I was contemplating what to make and take along when Harini chattered over the phone demanding a birthday cake. This combination sparked the idea of either a cheese cake of some sort of a brownie. The latter was a known devil, so after procrastinating the weekend away I decided that a twist to a know devil would do that trick. 

I pulled out a the bake stuff and took a cup of atta (whole wheat), half a teaspoon of baking powder, and less than a cup of sugar. I also got a couple of sachets of instant coffee to substitute the standard spices.

I cracked three 50gm eggs and ...

...dunked the sugar...

...and the coffee into the mixing bowl...

I washed and got the silicone muffins moulds washed and ready before starting work.

I took about 180gm of butter and 160gm of dark compound chocolate out. (Don't worry about the arbit grammage I just made sure I got almost equal quantities of everything and then weighed them to reassure myself that "all is well" :) )

While the oven pre-heated, I whisked the eggs and the sugar...

... and the butter and chocolate melted in the microwave...

... I stirred the chocolate mix to get rid of any lumps and added it to the eggs and sugar...

... and mixed it in with the atta...

Then I quickly poured the heavenly mix into the moulds and in they went into the oven.

I pulled them out when all of them were a little plump (turning them around once) and soon had Harini calling me to hurry up and get to the car...