How To Make Applesauce

If you want to make healthy low fat yet tasty cakes/cookies/breads/muffins a part of your recipe repertoire, one essential ingredient, in my opinion, is 'homemade applesauce'.  As some of you may be aware, applesauce can be used in place of oil/butter/shortening to make your recipe low fat.  Applesauce can also be used to substitute for eggs in a recipe as I have done here.  It is highly popular as a low fat substitute because it doesn't have any defining taste of its own and hence, does not change the taste of the recipe significantly.

For those of you who are familiar with using applesauce in baked goodies, I'd urge you to use home made fresh applesauce which is easy to make and can be stored in refrigerator for at least three weeks (I have always finished it by that time!).  Please DO NOT give in the urge to buy 'ready made applesauce' because it is full of 'high-fructose corn syrup' which is not good at all if you are on the journey of eating NATURALLY healthy and low fat food products.

Here's a simple recipe for making applesauce at home, which I use all the time:

Makes 2 cups of applesauce

Apple Sauce Home Made

Ingredients:
4-5 medium/big size red skin apples (you can use any variety of red apples, just DO NOT use granny smith apples/any green ones.  Why?  Because they are sour and you would have to put extra sugar to compensate for their sourness in the recipe.)
1 tsp cinnamon powder
water as needed

Method:

1.  Wash, peel and core the apples.  Chop them into bite size pieces, not too small!

2.  Dump the chopped apples in a thick bottom steel pan and pour water as to cover about an inch of pan's bottom.

3.  Bring to a boil, add cinnamon powder and cover and simmer for about 15 minutes or till the apples are disintegrating (which shouldn't take too long since they are 99% water anyways!).

4.  Cool slightly, blend to a smooth puree in a blender.....and that's about it!

You have homemade, without preservatives/chemicals, applesauce which you should keep in an airtight jar in the fridge (I keep mine refrigerated in a closed lid pyrex bowl) and which should last you about two to three weeks.

MOIST ORANGE AND ALMOND CAKE

Being perpetually obsessed with "Healthy Low fat" food recipes BUT without artificial substitutes, AND with little compromise on taste, leave me frustrated many a times.  Especially when it comes to baking cakes.  And I, these days, am possessed with some 'baking spirit', which forces me to look for new recipes to bake - almost everyday!

Now, coming back to finding cake recipes, which are healthy, low fat yet yummy to eat, well, they are a little hard to find.  So, whenever, I come across a cake recipe which does not call for butter/oil, or other usual suspects which you expect in a 'tasty' cake, I want to yell in happiness - 'Eureka'!   And I did exactly that, when I happened to chance upon this wonderful 'Orange and Almond Cake' in this book called 'Low-fat no-fat mediterranean'.

The only changes that I did were related to eggs.  I made this cake with 1 egg instead of 3 as directed in the original recipe.  I used home made applesauce as the major egg substitute, and made some other adjustments to the ingredients to compensate for the 'loss' of 2 eggs.

Here's the recipe as I made it:

Makes one 8 inch cake

Ingredients:
1 large orange *(see my note below)
1 egg
2/3 cup homemade applesauce
1 1/4 cup caster/icing/powdered sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 scant tbsp lime/lemon juice
2 cups ground almonds
1/4 cup plain (all purpose) flour
icing sugar for dusting (I didn't use it)
low-fat greek yogurt to serve(optional - in my opinion doesn't need anything else - tasty enough on its own!)

Method :
1.  Wash the orange and pierce it with a skewer.  Put it in a deep pan and pour over water to cover completely.  Bring to the boil and then reduce the heat, cover and simmer for an hour, or until the skin of the orange is very soft.  Alternatively, you can pressure cook the orange to give one whistle and let it simmer in cooker for about 20-30 minutes.  Drain and cool.

2.  Preheat the oven to 180 degree C/350 degree F.  Grease a 8-inch round cake pan and line it with parchment paper, or just dust with a little flour.

3.  Cut the orange in half and discard the pips (seeds), if any.  Place the orange with skin in a blender and process till smooth.

4.  In a bowl, whisk the egg and sugar together till thick.  Add Applesauce and whisk again.  Fold in the baking powder, baking soda, almonds and flour.  Fold in the orange puree and lime/lemon juice.  Mix everything just well, don't over mix.

5.  Pour into the prepared baking pan and level the surface.  Bake in the preheated oven for 1 hour, or until the skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean.**  Cool the cake in the pan for 10 minutes, then turn out on a wire rack, peel off the lining and cool completely.  Dust the top with icing sugar, if you wish.  Serve it as a dessert with greek yogurt, if you like.

Notes:
* Orange used here is the  Australian bright yellowish-orange-colored orange.  If you are not able to get that, you can use tangerines (usually called oranges in India).  You may need to adjust the time for boiling.
** If you find (as I did) that the top gets browned faster, much before the rest of the cake has baked, you can simply cut a piece of almunium foil and cover the top of the cake to prevent it from burning while the rest of the cake is still being baked.

5-MINUTE CHOCOLATE MUG CAKE

One of the biggest challenges any mother faces is how to make her offerings attractive enough to wean the children away from unhealthy, over sugary treats available off the shelf which are full of artificial flavorings.  These sugary monsters are especially attractive to my kids (and yours too, I guess!) when they come home from school and their young bodies are craving for sugar to boost their flagging energy levels.  Try feeding them a 'healthy' snack that time and it could turn into a major power struggle!

For times like these, this healthy low fat 5-minute chocolate mug cake is indeed a life saver!  I serve this to my two sugar depleted boys with hot skim milk.  And it takes only 5 minutes (duh!).  The original recipe is from webMD.

Serves 2 hungry kids / 1 very hungry kid!!

Ingredients :
4 Tablespoons whole-wheat flour

3 tablespoons sugar (you can use light/dark brown sugar also)
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa
1 egg /2 egg whites
3 tablespoons lowfat milk
1 tablespoon canola oil
2 tablespoons fat free sour cream (I used low fat curd which I hung for 5-10 minutes to take out extra water)
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method:
1.  In microwave-safe coffee mug, combine whole-wheat flour, sugar, and cocoa.


2.  Pour egg/egg whites, lowfat milk, canola oil, hung curd/sour cream and vanilla into the mug with dry ingredients and mix well with fork.

3.  Place mug in center of microwave (preferably one that has a turn table) and cook on HIGH for 3 minutes. The cake will rise about an inch or so above the top of the mug (don’t worry it won’t drip down the sides of the mug).

4.  Let cake cool in mug for a few minutes.  Then turn mug upside down over a serving bowl (the cake should slide out fairly easily).

5.Cut cake in half for two salivating kids/ one starving kid!

Moroccan Orange, Carrot and Dates Salad

I'm forever looking for ways to include raw foods in our diet, especially fruits, since, I'm not really enthusiastic about eating fruits as they are.  One recent addition to my collection of such recipes is this wonderful cold delicious and nutritious salad (or dessert!).  So, here it is, without much further ado, straight from Morocco....

Serves 4
Ingredients :
500 gm fresh carrots, preferably orange colored, thickly grated
3-4 oranges, NOT tangerines - get Australian/NewZealand ones which are bright orange in color (orange colored oranges, duh!)
1 cup dates, pitted, sliced not very finely
1-2 tbsp rose water (optional)
lemon juice to taste (optional)
1/2 cup pistachio nuts/ toasted pine nuts/ cashew nuts - chopped in small pieces
icing (superfine) sugar, salt n pepper to taste

Method :
1.  Peel the oranges with a sharp knife, removing all the pith, then cut the flesh into segments, catching the juice in a small bowl.

2.  Stir in the juice from the oranges, together with the rose water, if using, and sharpen with lemon juice, if you like. Season with a little salt n pepper to taste.

3.  Place orange segments in the serving salad bowl.  Mix in the coarsely grated carrots.  Pour the dressing over and mix thoroughly.

4.  Sprinkle dates and nuts over salad with a little icing sugar.  Chill in the refrigerator for 1 hour.

5.  Just before serving, add a fresh sprinkle of icing sugar to the bowl n enjoy.

Note : This salad can be eaten as just that or served as a dessert minus the guilt pangs!