butterless coconut cupcakes

I have not been posting for awhile.. main reason was that I was trying to refrain from baking since I was trying to cut down my calories to lose those 'baby fat' from pregnancy. My son turned one last month and I still have 8 kg to go to pre-pregnancy weight. It's already hard enough to control one's diet, I didn't want to make it worse by having oven fresh homemade treats and not getting to eat them.

These coconut cupcakes are really easy to make but what prompted me to do was the fact that it is butterless, and only needs 4 ingredients, which I have ready at home.

I made a big modification on the milk amount, the original called for 1 1/2 cups but when I started mixing, the batter was really runny at the point of 3/4 cup so I decided to stop and try out. It turned out fine.

Coconut cupcakes

1 cup desiccated coconut
1 cup self raising flour
3/4 cup castor sugar (cut down from 1 cup)
3/4 milk

1. Preheat oven at 175 degree C
2. Toast the coconut in a shallow pan until slightly brown to bring out the aroma
3. Mix together the coconut, flour and sugar. Slowly pour in the milk while mixing and mix til all combined.
3. Bake for 40 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.

recipe adapted from allrecipe.com

I used some chocolate chips as decoration for some of the cupcakes but it is totally fine to skip this step as I don't think the chocolate chips complimented the coconut taste that well.

The texture of the cake is dense, flavourful and kind of reminds me of the traditional 'kueh', esp at the centre of mine which was very slightly under-baked. One thing to note, the fact that it is butterless means it will stick to the mold VERY MUCH. So unless you don't mind heavy cleaning, remember to grease or use liners.

I was very impatient to try one while the cupcake was still warm, so quite a bit of the batter actually sticked to the liner as you can see from the photo above. However, for those that I waited until they really cooled off came out clean with hardly anything sticking to the paper liner at all.

Though I am quite happy with the result, I am really curious how it will turn out if I would have sticked to 1 1/2 cups of milk instead. Maybe I will try again... but if there is anyone out there game to try, be sure to let me know the result, k? Oh, if I am to make these again, I will try adding a dash of salt to see whether it will bring out the sweetness more.

low fat banana chocolate chip quick bread

I simply just looove this recipe.. it is so easy to put together, smells so aromatic while baking, tastes so yummilicious and best of all, absolutely healthy for a sweet treat... all the qualities I look for for a home-baked recipe :)

Low Fat Banana Chocolate Chip Quick Bread

1 large very ripe banana (mashed)

85 ml honey (I used clover honey)

3 tbsp olive oil

1 cup plain flour

1/2 cup wholemeal flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cinnamon powder

1/4 cup flaxseed (optional)

1/4 cup chocolate chips (optional)

1. Preheat oven at 180 degree C.

2. In a bowl, whisk together banana, honey and olive oil.

3. In another bowl, sift all dry ingredients.

4. Gently whisk in the flour mixture into the banana mix, until just combined.

5. Pour into a greased loaf tin and bake for approx 30 mins or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.

6. Cool in the baking tin for 10 mins, then turn out onto wire rack to cool completely.

This recipe is adapted from the food coach.

This quick bread is really moist and soft, without being too dense (like those commercial banana bread or cake) and the flaxseeds add a nice contrasting crunch to it. It is definitely a good option for breakfast over a cup of nice coffee.. or to have with tea in the afternoon. Add a scope of vanilla ice cream, and you have a fabulous dessert ready instantly. Now, that's versatile for me :)

low fat double chocolate cookies

As part of my continual search for healthier bakes, I made some low fat double chocolate cookies with olive oil a few weeks ago. Only now that I found some time to load them up.

These cookies are soft, almost cake-like, with a very slight crunch on the edges. They may not be your cup of tea if you prefer chewy or hard cookies. But I find them quite pleasing to my palate, though I kinda expected them to be harder. They are definitely tasty.. and a great choice to satisfy the my choco craving without feeling too guilty... *grin*...

Low Fat Double Chocolate Cookies

1/4 cup olive oil

1/2 cup sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla essence

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 cocoa powder

1/2 cup chocolate chips

1. In a large bowl, beat olive oil and sugar until well done. Add egg and vanilla and mix until well blended.

2. In another bowl, combine flour, baking soda, salt and cocoa powder. Gradually add dry ingredients to the wet mixture.

3. Stir in the chocolate chips.

4. Drop cookie dough by spoon onto baking tray lined with parchment paper, spacing them with enough distance for spreading.

5. Bake in preheated oven at 190 degree C for 8-10 mins. Let cool on the sheet for 1 min, then transfer to wire rack to cool completely.

This recipe is adapted from lowfatcooking.about.com.

low fat cupcakes with homemade applesauce

I like the concept of Aspiring Bakers.. it gives me an avenue and reason to venture out from my usual 'baking comfort zone', which involves mainly cookies & muffins & some occasional simple cakes. Without AB, I don't think I would have tried my hands at making mooncakes, for example :)

When I saw that the theme for Nov 2011 is Enjoy Cupcakes!, those little daintily decorated, calorie loaded sinful treats sprang to mind. Though I always enjoy baked goods, I must admit I have yet to try one of those pretty little thing. Main reason being that I love bake goods with some textures (wholemeal or with nuts maybe) and of natural sweetness (with real fruits maybe).... Also, with 8 kg to shed in order to get back to my pre-pregnancy weight now, I think I better stay clear of those.

A search online sprang some surprises, there are plenty of recipes for low fat cupcakes! And they look really yummy too. I decided to make some simple treats for myself.

Homemade Unsweetened Applesauce (produces approx 3/4 cup of applesauce)

3 apples

2 tsp ground clove

cinnamon powder (to taste)

water

1. Core, peel and dice apples into bite size pieces

2. Add enough water to cover about half the apples

3. Add cinnamon and cloves

4. Cook on high until the apples start to mush down

5. Turn to low and let simmer until seem done (use a fork to mash down the apples if need be)

The recipe above shows the measurement I used and how I did it. I only made enough for the cupcake recipe below. The recipe is adapted from www.food.com. The original recipe uses whole cloves but I only have ground clove at home. Also I have to use fork to mash the apples after they turn soft in order to get the mushy texture. It was quite a time consuming task, on hindsight, I should have used a blender instead to get a more even texture. But the applesauce was really delicious and the sweet fragrant smell while it was cooking filled the whole kitchen nicely.

Low Fat Cupcakes

1 & 3/4 cups cake flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce

1/2 cup sugar

1 tbsp vegetable oil

1 egg

1 cup sour cream

1/2 lemon (juice & zest of)

1. Preheat oven to 165 degree C

2. Combine dry ingredients and set aside

3. Whisk together applesauce, oil and sugar.

4. Add egg and beat well, then stir in lemon zest and juice.

5. Alternately stir in flour mixture and sour cream in stages.

5. Fill in paper lines muffin mold and bake for 20-25 mins or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.

The recipe is adapted from hubpages.

I always substitute the sour cream in a recipe with plain yogurt, so I thought of doing the same this time round. I remembered clearly of seeing the yogurt in the fridge in the previous night. But when I was done with the applesauce and was getting ready for the cupcakes, I couldn't find the yogurt. Apparently my dear husband, having checked that it's expiry date just lapsed, decided to throw it away. So, I was left with no sour cream or yogurt. The closest I could find was light cream, which I reluctantly used and kept my fingers crossed.

To my relieve, the cupcakes came out quite ok. The original recipe name it Low Fat Lemon Cupcakes but when I tasted it, the applesauce totally overpowered the lemon taste. In fact, I couldn't make out the lemon taste at all, so I dropped the word 'lemon' from its title. Even without the lemon taste, the cupcakes are delicious on their own, esp if you like apple and cinnamon. The texture was definitely more moist, dense and springy than what I would have imagined to be coming from cupcakes. But again, as I mentioned, I have not tried one of those 'real' cupcakes in the market, so I can't compare.

Hubby tried one and commented it was delicious, but when I asked how was it compared to other cupcakes, I just realised that apparently he has not tried one of those too. Maybe the 2 of us should make a date to sample one of those real pretty cupcakes =)

I am submitting this to Aspiring Bakers #13 : Enjoy Cupcakes (November 2011) hosted by Min of Min's blog.

blueberry yogurt muffin 2

I was flipping through a recipe book titled The Delicious Cookbook by Matthew Drennan given to me by one of my colleague/friend and discovered a dog-earred page with raspberry muffins recipe. I must have intended to try out the recipe in the past.

I was immediately attracted to the recipe when I saw that for a total portion that will make 12 muffins, the recipe uses only 2 tablespoon of oil! Better still, the recipe also uses yogurt, which I like.

With 2 punnets of blueberries left in the fridge, I tried adapting the recipe to make blueberry muffin instead. This time round, I got slightly bolder and tried replacing some of the flour with wholemeal flour and since I am not exactly a very stick to the rules baker, I converted the metric (gram) in the original recipe into 'cup' in the recipe below that I used for these muffins.

Blueberry Yogurt Muffin

1 1/2 cups cake flour

1/2 cup wholemeal flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp cinnamon powder

1/2 cup sugar

2 tbsp oil

3/4 cup natural yogurt

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla essence

1 tbsp honey (I added this bcoz the particular brand of yogurt I bought is very sour)

1 cup blueberries

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degree C. Line muffin tray with paper cups.

2. Sift all dry ingredients in a bowl, then make a well in the middle.

3. Put all wet ingredients in another bowl and whisk until mixed, pour into the well in the flour mixture. Mix together working from the center, blending the flour into the egg mixture a little at a time. Mix well.

4. Fold in the blueberries and mix lightly.

5. Bake in the oven for 20 mins or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

The muffins came out beautifully. They were tasty, totally not oily and bcoz of the wholemeal flour, has a different texture from the blueberry yogurt muffin 1 (BYM1) that I tried few days ago. Surprising, with so little oil used, these muffins were actually quite moist, though not as moist as BYM1. BYM 1 has a very fluffy texture and is slightly more delicate in taste compared to BYM 2.

Which one do I prefer? If I have to choose, I think maybe BYM2 for breakfast and as regular bake since the recipe is definitely much more healthy and maybe BYM1 when I need a 'pamper myself' moments :).