Double chocolate banana muffin/ almost cake sans eggs

I imagine if I had continued to live in the states, my blogging life would be a continuation of my social life.  The women I hang out with at/outside of work would also be the ones who blog along similar interests and share commentary on the blog.  Blogging hadn't quite taken off when I was living there, here, none of the women I know through work or mommy groups blog for fun.  Whenever I come across a local blog, by local I mean in any place in India I am familiar with, I always latch on and try to engage with comments on their blogs and trying to join their blogging-related endeavour.    Gayathri's blog was one such serendipity find.  She is the only ACTIVE blogger i have found so far.

She has a egg-less  baking group I promptly signed up for, then just like at work with my research, I promptly got lost in thoughts of what to make, why is egg used etc... and didn't quite get down to baking until today.  I even planned enough to save browned bananas in the fridge (looked like a dead rat after 2 weeks, threw it out today) bought palm sugar and replenished my chocolate chips  stock (which my son decimated in his custard).  I am excellent at planning but miserable at falling through, in fact the Indian govt begged me to join their planning commission given my excellent track record, but my kids don't want to leave Chennai ;)

Egg binds.  My genius dad got a couple of bananas with him by bus from Pondicherry, I added his browned bananas to my 2 text-book correct selection for banana nut bread - yellow  with brown spots, to prove, banana can bind just as nicely.

Egg helps the cake/bread become airy and light (Cholesterol heavy egg makes cake light).  I decided a judicious combination of Baking Powder and Vinegar should do the trick, after all they make Volcanoes with the combination, so it can definitely work on my muffin.

Egg adds a richness to the cake with its fat.  I used a combination of yogurt and sunflower oil. One could use coconut milk instead of yogurt, but ready made costs 48Rs and I was not in a mood to buy coconut, break, shred and then make the milk in my excellent Morphy-Richards blender's juicer attachment.

I had discovered the benefits of blending the bananas in my mixer as opposed to using a potato masher, but I forgot to do it that way and my hubby winced when he got a small banana piece in his mouth, otherwise excellent Nosh.

This recipe is adapted from Clotilde of Chocolate and Zucchini's excellent coconut-chocolate yogurt cake. This has become my base for any Riff in the world of cakes and cupcakes/muffins.

1. 1 1/2 cups Atta
2. 1/4 cup maida (ran out of atta)
3. 2 tsp baking powder
4. 1 tsp baking soda
5. 1/4 cup cocoa (I used cadbury's)
6. 4 bananas
7. 1 cup yogurt
8. 1/3 cup oil
9. 1 tsp vanilla
10. 1 cup palm sugar
11. 1 cup fresh shredded coconut toasted
12. 1/2 cup chocolate chips

Blend items 1 to 5 together with your finger tips until the mix looks a pale brown.  Atta precludes sieving the mix together to ensuring the baking powder is mixed properly with the flour.

In another bowl, mash the bananas together, add the yogurt, oil and vanilla and mash a bit more.  Then mix in the palm sugar.  The oil is optional.  I wanted to ensure the muffin doesn't dry out before my son gets to it, so this was my insurance.

Add the dry ingredients mix to the wet and mix until just combined.

Fold in the toasted coconut and chocolate chips.

Pour into pre-greased  muffin pan (3/4th full) and bake in a preheated 175 deg oven for 20 - 25 minutes.

I got 24 muffins out of it.

This is also my entry to the cakes, cookies and Desserts event.

Eating with the eyes?

I cook chana daal with methi, onions, garlic and tomatoes; Serve it with roti and/or rice it is a blah lunch.  I cook the same chana dal, drain the water, fry the methi leaves, onion and garlic.  Mix everything together, form into patties and insert between two halves of a burger bun, it suddenly becomes irresistible?  How is that possible?  I prefer the former version, my son the latter.

Does the addition of raw veggies, mint sauce and a slice of cheese really change the taste so much?  Or is he just eating wth his eyes?  Cool modern burger as opposed to my grandmother's fare?

I usually add a potato to bind the chana and methi together and to give him some much needed carbs.  This is usually a hit in his lunch box, served with ketchup on the side and NO fries.

Perfection is overvalued

I found the perfect cookie recipe at Annie's eats.  I used Nattuchakkarai or the south Indian organic brown sugar and repeated her recipe with very little changes here.  Result?  Perfection!  I dare say, even Annie might agree, nattuchakkarai takes her excellent recipe up a notch with its fudgy gooeyness.  Also it has some chunkier bits amidst the powdery stuff and the chunky stuff hangs on to its shape stubbornly through mixing, even with a hand mixer and baking, finally giving up the ghost when you bite into the cookie. Delicious.  And to top it all, I made it with chapathi flour (whole wheat) not maida.
I used a combination of ghee (i had forgotten to switch off the gas when I was melting ghee for my son's breakfast and ended up browning it up a tad too much) and melted butter.  The butter ghee mix was truly at room temperature and I did not have any issues with the dough some of the other commentators had talked about.
I felt the size of the dough recommended per cookie was huge, I took a tablespoon of the cookie dough, broke it into two and bakes the individual halves cut side up.  Also the chocolate chip to other ingredients ratio is way too high.  Awesome, but high.  If you believe in moderation you must cut it down to one cup.

1. 2 cup flour, all purpose or whole wheat
2. 1/2 tsp baking soda
3. 1/2 tsp salt
4. 1 cup organic nattuchakkarai
5. 1/2 cup palm sugar
6. 12 tbspoon butter + ghee in equal quantities, melt the butter, ghee can be used as it is
7. 1 tsp vanilla extract
8. 1 egg + 1 yolk
9. 1 1/2 cups chocolate chips (a lot!)

• Preheat oven to 325 deg C, butter a cookie sheet
• Combine the dry items (1-3) until well blended
• Beat together the sugars and butter until soft and creamy, add extract, egg and yolk and beat together until well blended
• Add dry items and beat until well combined
• Fold in the chocolate chips
• Take 1 tbspoon dough, divide into two and place on cookie sheet, cut side up.  bake for 11 minutes
• Take out of oven and when cool enough to handle transfer to wire rack to cool completely.  Cookie hardens on cooling, deceptively soft when taking out of oven.
• Makes about 4 dozen cookies at this size!

one cookie sheets worth cookie

I kept the cookie misshapen to give crisper edges, worked, but won't win any beauty contest.

The problem with perfection? My son will have NO OTHER COOKIE!  I am sentenced to a lifetime of making this cookie and the chocolate yogurt cake (works just as well in muffin form) for the next few months or years, depending on how soon his tastes change, if I wish to kowtow to his likes!  I go from enjoying trying out new recipes, modifying old recipes to working like an automaton.  Not interesting at all. Perfection IS highly overrated.  Imperfection alone makes earth go around? (into the Earth with Stephen Hawkings)