Mereja

Author: Madhuram

  • Vegan Barley Flour Brownies

    Vegan Barley Flour Brownies

    Hello friends, I’m very thrilled to inform you all that EgglessCooking.com has been nominated for the Best Food Indiblog of the year 2008 by Indibloggies. Take a look at the other Indian food blogs nominated and if you like mine the most, vote for me here.



    After trying the barley flour chocolate cake I was confident that barley flour would be good in brownies too. I decided to use barley flour in the oat flour-beet brownies recipe which I had tried earlier. This time I wanted to make it vegan too, so I used unsweetened chocolate instead of semi-sweet chocolate and increased the quantity of sugar. If you don’t want to make it vegan simply follow that recipe but use barley flour instead of oat flour and pumpkin puree instead of beet puree or use beet puree itself.

    Ingredients & Procedure

    Unsweetened Chocolate 3 ounces

    Soft Tub Margarine Spread (I used Becel) 2 tablespoons

    Pumpkin Puree (I used homemade) 1/2 cup

    Light Brown Sugar, firmly packed 1/2 cup

    Granulated Sugar 1/2 cup

    Unsweetened Cocoa Powder 1/4 cup

    Vanilla Extract 2 teaspoons

    Unsweetened Applesauce 3/4 cup

    Water 1/4 cup

    Whole Barley Flour 3/4 cup

    Baking Powder 3/4 teaspoon

    Pecans, chopped (optional) 1/2 cup

    Salt 1/2 teaspoon

    Yield: 16 pieces

    1 Preheat the oven to 350F. Coat and 8 inch square pan with cooking spray or line it with aluminum foil like me leaving enough foil hanging on both the sides so that lifting the brownies with the foil is easy and so is cutting the brownies too.

    2 Melt the chocolate and margarine in the microwave oven, in a large bowl. Take care while doing so or else the chocolate will get burnt. So increase the time little by little. Stir it well, it should be smooth.

    3 In the same bowl, combine the pumpkin puree, sugar, cocoa powder, vanilla and unsweetened applesauce and whisk it well. This mixture should be smooth and creamy. I found that this mixture was very stiff, so added 1/4 cup of water (pumpkin cooked water) too.

    4 Sift the barley flour over the liquid ingredients directly. Then stir the baking powder, chopped pecans and salt with a wooden spoon.

    5 Pour the batter into the prepared pan, smooth it out with a spatula and bake it for about 35-40 minutes. Mine was done after 38 minutes. Brownies should spring back when touched or simply do the toothpick test.

    6 Cool completely in the pan on a wire rack. Since I lined the pan with aluminum foil I lifted it after an hour and I cooled it on a wire rack. After another 2 hours I was able to cut them into neat squares without any trouble. If baking it directly in the pan, it will take some more (actually a lot more) time for the brownies to cool completely and getting neat pieces will also be difficult.

    Taste The barley flour brownies tasted awesome. It was mildly sour which I think is because of the applesauce. See My Notes section for more details. Like the oat flour brownies I felt a slight difference in the texture but it’s not a big deal. Once refrigerated you hardly realize any difference at all.

    My Notes1 I wanted to use only pumpkin puree for these brownies but I had only 1/2 cup of homemade puree left. So I had to use unsweetened applesauce for the rest. I think the brownies were mildly sour (others did not feel this though) because of this. So you can either increase the quantity of sugar by 1/4 cup or use more of pumpkin puree/beet puree than applesauce. For the oat flour and beet brownies I had used 1 cup of beet puree and just 1/4 cup of applesauce and did not find it sour. You could follow the same measurement for these barley flour brownies too.

    2 You can use all purpose flour too instead of barley flour.

    3 You could use store bought canned pumpkin too. I think in that case you would have to add additional water because the canned puree is very stiff. I always cook the puree at home. Actually I prepare three vegetable purees at the same time and freeze it. It’s carrots, pumpkin and beets. I use a big pressure cooker for this. Clean, peel and chop the vegetables into bite size pieces. Take 3 utensils which will fit the cooker and add each vegetable to one utensil each and add enough water to cover them and leave the cooker for 1 whistle. Once it is cool enough drain the vegetables and use a blender to get a smooth puree or puree it while it’s still hot with an immersion blender. Save the vegetable cooked water and use it while preparing soups. Transfer the puree into 1/2 cup size containers and freeze it and use it whenever needed. Thaw it overnight in the fridge if you want to use it the next day.

    4 Home made pumpkin puree is not as stiff as the canned one. After thawing I found that it had way
    too much water. So I had to strain the puree in a fine meshed sieve to separate the water.

    These vegan barley flour brownies go to my Whole Grain (Eggless) Baking Event – Barley.

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  • Vegan Barley Flour Chocolate Cake & Royal Icing Decorations

    Vegan Chocolate Cake

    Happy Thanksgiving to all of you! Course 2 of Wilton’s Cake Decorating series concentrates more on flowers and especially flowers made with royal icing. What is different about royal icing? Royal icing does not use any fat (butter/shortening). It’s just a combination of confectioner’s sugar, meringue powder and water. Unlike buttercream icing, royal icing creates hard-drying and long lasting decorations. This means you can make these decorations ahead of time (even months ahead) and simply place them on your cake. Another interesting feature of royal icing decorations is that it will not soften or crumble when stored properly. It should not be kept in bright light, as colors can fade. Just like buttercream icing, consistency of royal icing is very important. Another item used in royal icing decorations is the Color Flow mix. This again has egg whites posing a problem to vegetarians and vegans.



    I was searching the net for egg free royal icing recipes and spotted few but was not sure how it would work. One of my classmates mentioned that her vegetarian friend used cream of tartar to replace the meringue powder. I couldn’t decide which one to choose. Luckily I found a vegan royal icing mix in the store (Bulk Barn) I take the course. It’s just icing sugar and soy protein and I had to simply add a 1/4 cup of water and beat it well. It’s from a company called Liberty Sugar Decorations Inc. You can find such mixes online too. I have not tried this brand. The brand of royal icing mix I bought worked very well. The roses I made were as good as the ones made by others. I also omitted the Color Flow mix while filling few decorations and that turned out good too.

    Vegan Chocolate Cake Roses

    Is royal icing better or buttercream icing? Since royal icing hardens it cannot be used to frost on cakes, even though it is edible. It is used as a glue while making gingerbread houses, decorated on cookies and for other long lasting decorations. Taste-wise buttercream icing gets my vote, but if you want to have a spectacular visual presentation royal icing is good. I didn’t like the taste of the flowers I made, it is just hardened sugar. Of course children can’t get enough of this. Another important thing to note is royal icing is high maintenance. The tips, decorating bags, the bowl in which you prepare the icing, the mixers and anything that comes in contact with royal icing has to be very clean and grease free. There is no excuse for this at all, because even the slightest amount of grease will affect the texture of the royal icing and you won’t be successful. So it is advised to have separate set of tips, containers etc for preparing royal icing. If you use the same stuff you use for buttercream icing and don’t clean it well the fat from this icing will affect the royal icing. So use a dishwasher and my instructor also suggested cleaning the tips, etc with vinegar before using it with royal icing.

    We learned a lot of cool floral decorations in Course 2 but I did not get everything right. It requires a lot of practice. The following is the list of things we covered:

    Using Buttercream:

    Using Royal Icing:

    Royal Icing

    Vegan Chocolate Cake Roses

    Ingredients

    Whole Barley flour 1 and 1/2 cups

    Sugar 3/4 cup

    Salt 1/2 teaspoon

    Baking Soda 1 teaspoon

    Unsweetened Cocoa Powder 1/4 cup

    Vanilla Extract 1 and 1/2 teaspoons

    Canola Oil 1/3 cup

    Apple Cider Vinegar 1 tablespoon

    Cold Water 1 cup

    Yield: One 8 inch cake.

    Procedure 1 Preheat the oven at 350F/180C for 15 minutes. Grease the pan lightly with non-stick cooking spray and line the bottom and sides of the pan with parchment paper.

    2 Sift the barley flour and stir together rest of the dry ingredients (sugar to cocoa powder) and create a well in the center.

    3 To the well add all the wet ingredients one by one. Mix until just combined. Don’t over mix. It’s OK to have some lumps.

    4 Pour the batter in the prepared pan and bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into center comes out clean. Mine was done by 27 minutes. If baking cupcakes, check around 13-15th minute.

    5 Transfer the pan to a wire rack and let it cool for 15 minutes. Remove the parchment paper on the sides of the pan and slowly invert the pan on a plate and the cake comes out perfect without sticking to the pan.

    6 Cool completely before frosting.

    Taste I was crossing my fingers while the cake was baking. Though I did see a couple of recipes for chocolate cake using barley flour, I was not sure how this one will bake because I was not using eggs unlike the other recipes. I have read that barley flour is not as glutenous as all purpose flour or whole wheat flour. So I was absolutely surprised to see the cake because it had rose perfectly.

    I couldn’t wait to taste the cake. Once I tasted the cake I was literally jumping in joy because it was very good. It didn’t smell raw or it did not taste bitter or it did not have the grittiness of whole wheat flour. Of course it did not replicate the taste of all purpose flour but it was definitely good and way better than using whole wheat flour. So I think those who don’t like the taste of whole wheat flour in baked goods can start experimenting with whole barley flour instead. I felt the cake was not sweet enough when I tasted it a couple of hours after baking but from the next day onwards I did not feel that. The sweetness was just right.

    My Notes 1 I had to bake 2 layers of cake for my class. Since I was not sure if the cake would come out well using barley flour, I tried just one layer first. I simply stirred together the dry ingredients and proceeded as mentioned in the recipe. The cake rose beautifully just like the one I baked with all purpose flour. I was able to see some unprocessed husks of the barley. So while baking the next layer I sifted the barley flour. I don’t think we will be losing nutrition because of this, since the residue on the sieve was very less.

    Vegan Chocolate Cake

    This barley flour vegan chocolate cake goes to my Whole Grains Baking Event – Barley.

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  • Eggless Whole Wheat Layer Cake

    Whole Wheat Layer Cake

    Are you like me, crazy about a cookbook? If you are interested in baking, want to include whole grains while doing so and also want the baked goods to be very tasty, then you will have to check King Arthur Flour’s Whole Grain Baking book and I’m sure you will become a fan like me. It is not just a book with recipes but talks in detail about the different types of whole grain flours, their characteristics and how to use them effectively so the result is very delicious baked goods. It’s a 600 pages cookbook, so you can understand the in-depth coverage of the subject matter. You have abundant choice with recipes for breakfast, quick breads, yeast breads, cookies, cakes, desserts etc. It’s like any other baking book when it comes to the huge collection of baking recipes but what makes it the best is that all these recipes are made with a variety of whole grain flours.



    I had to bake a layer cake for for the final class of Course 1 of Wilton’s Cake Decorating series. I decided to go with one of the cake recipes in the King Arthur’s Whole Grain Baking book. Since I’m on the look out for a good egg free white cake recipe, I decided to try the butter cake recipe using whole wheat pastry flour. I made a couple of changes to that recipe to make it egg free and healthy.

    Whole Wheat Layer Cake

    Whole Wheat Layer Cake

    Is this cake really healthy? The answer is both yes and no. Yes, because I have used trans fat free non hydrogenated margarine instead of butter in the original recipe, thereby reducing the fat and eliminating cholesterol. No, because I have frosted the cake and it is made with shortening. So if you really want a healthy cake either avoid frosting or make a simple vegan frosting or a low fat frosting.

    We practiced the following in the final class:

    Roses

    Ingredients

    Whole Wheat Pastry Flour 2 and 1/4 cups

    All Purpose Flour 1 cup

    Baking Powder 2 teaspoons

    Baking Soda 1/2 teaspoon

    Soft Tub Margarine 1 cup

    Granulated Sugar 3/4 cup

    Salt 1 teaspoon

    Unsweetened Applesauce 1 cup

    Apple Cider Vinegar 1/2 tablespoon

    Vanilla Extract 2 teaspoons

    Plain Yogurt, low fat 1 cup

    Yield: Two 8-inch round layer cakes or One 9×13 inch pan.

    Procedure1 Preheat the oven to 350F. Grease and flour two 8-inch round pans or line with parchment paper. Nowadays I prefer lining the pan with parchment paper in the bottom as well as on the sides. The cake comes out of the pan perfectly each and every time.

    2 Whisk together the flours, baking powder and baking soda in a medium bowl.

    3 Cream together the margarine, sugar and salt in a large mixing bowl with an electric mixer until light and fluffy.

    4 Add 1/4 cup of applesauce at a time, beating well after each addition and scrape the sides and bottom of the mixing bowl once or twice. It curdles but don’t worry.

    5 Add 1/3rd of the flour mixture, mixing until incorporated.

    6 Measure 1 cup of yogurt in a liquid measuring mug. To that add the vanilla and vinegar and whisk together well.

    7 Add half of this mixture to the large bowl, again beating until the mixture is very fluffy. Meanwhile scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl also.

    8 Then add another 1/3rd of the flour and beat well. Next add the remaining yogurt mixture, then the remaining 1/3rd cup of flour, mixing well after each addition. Stop once or twice to scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl.

    9 Pour the batter into the prepared pans. (It was not watery but more in a semi solid state). Bake the cake for about 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Mine was done in about 32 minutes. The cake was in golden brown color and started to pull from the sides of the pan. If you are baking a 9×13 inch cake the baking time will vary, so do the toothpick test to find if the cake is done.

    10 Remove from the oven and cool for 15 minutes before removing from the pan. Then pull out the parchment paper from the side of the pan and invert the pan and the cake falls without sticking to the pan. Remove the parchment paper sticking to the bottom of the cake and transfer it to a cooling rack. The cake has to cool completely before frosting.

    Taste In our house we have got used to whole wheat pastry flour in baked goods so much that we hardly notice any difference in taste or texture. It takes quite sometime to get accustomed to that taste, especially if you are using traditional whole wheat flour instead of whole wheat pastry flour. Together with the frosting the cake was awesome and we did not miss the white flour at all. It was not only us but I gave the cake to a couple of people and all of them loved it.

    My Notes1 I used Fleischman’s no salt added soft tub margarine instead of butter.

    2 If you don’t find whole wheat pastry flour then use equal portion of all purpose flour and whole wheat flour. If you are using traditional whole wheat flour add 1/4 cup of freshly squeezed orange juice to reduce the bitterness and raw smell/taste. This is the tip given in the book, which I have not tried so far.

    Whole Wheat Layer Cake

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  • Vegan White Cake

    Vegan White Cake

    I was looking for a good white cake recipe to bake for my husband’s birthday. I saw a recipe for vegan white cake in The Vegan Family Cookbook by Chef Brian P. McCarthy. Actually that book has a lot of interesting recipes, especially vegan baking recipes and I literally want to try each one of them. Wish I had the time for it. So do look for that book in your local library.



    For that week’s class I had to take 8 cupcakes. So I used the recipe to bake one 8-inch cake for my husband’s birthday and the remaining batter was exactly enough for 8 cupcakes. We practiced with tips 3, 12, 21, 67 and 2D in the 3rd class. Check the following links to see what decorations are possible with these tips.

    Vegan White Cake Roses

    Ingredients

    Cake Flour 3 cups

    Baking Powder 2 teaspoon

    Salt 1/2 teaspoon

    Egg Replacer Powder (EnerG) 2 teaspoons

    Water, lukewarm 1/4 cup

    Unsweetened Soy Milk 1 and 1/2 cups

    Margarine 1/2 cup

    Sugar 1 and 1/3 cups

    Vanilla Extract 1 tablespoon

    Yield: One 8-inch cake and 8 regular size cupcakes or two 8-inch cake rounds or one 9×13-inch cake

    Procedure1 Preheat oven to 350F. Oil and flour cake pans. I used one 8-inch round pan and baked the remaining batter in a muffin tin for cupcakes. Got 6 of them.

    2 In a bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder and salt.

    3 In a blender/food processor blend together the warm water and EnerG and blend it until it’s frothy. To this add the soy milk and blend it for another 30 seconds and set it aside.

    4 In another bowl beat the margarine with an electric mixer until softened. Add sugar and vanilla to the margarine and cream together thoroughly.

    5 Add 1/2 of the soy milk mixture to the margarine/sugar mixture and beat for a minute.

    6 Add 1/2 of the flour to the margarine and beat for a minute.

    7 Now add the remaining soy milk mixture and flour mixture alternately and beat together for a minute after each addition.

    8 Pour the cake batter into prepared pans.

    9 Bake 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.

    10 Cool the cake in the pan for 10 minutes. Remove from pan to wire cooling rack.

    TasteThis cake was good, but I think I felt the presence of soy milk when I ate the cake without the icing. Luckily my husband and others didn’t feel it. So next time I’ll be trying some other non-dairy milk instead. It did have a nice texture, especially the cupcakes. Together with the frosting it tasted no different than any other cake.

    My Notes1 I used sweetened soy beverage so I reduced the quantity of sugar to 1 cup and it was perfect because it also got the sweetness from the frosting.

    2 For the margarine, I used Fleischman’s No Salt Added soft tub margarine.

    3 If you don’t have cake flour it’s ok. Instead use this substitute which is widely used. Place 2 tablespoons of cornstarch in a 1 cup measuring cup and then fill the rest (until the top of the cup) with all purpose flour
    and level it off.

    Vegan White Cake

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  • Eggless Vanilla Cake and Cake Decorating Tips

    Eggless Rainbow Cake

    This is the picture of the first cake I decorated in Course 1 of Wilton’s Cake Decorating Courses. You can see that I need a lot of practice, but I’m sure that it will also give you (beginners) the confidence that it’s easy and you can definitely do it. I have been receiving a couple of mails since my earlier post on cake decoration, requesting me to update more information on how-to’s. The hardest part for me now is to give all the necessary information in an organized manner to the followers of this series. I feel that compiling this series is going to be difficult than actually taking the course and decorating the cakes.



    I would say that the easiest thing to do is to enroll for the classes if it’s nearby your place and if you have the time for it. It’s a very nice experience. If not, check www.wilton.com. They have a lot of pictures, videos and tips etc. The only drawback is it’s a lot of information to take and without direction it’s difficult to follow. So I’ll provide some links here, following the course’s pattern. So it would be like you are taking an online class.

    What happens in the first day of Course 1? A student manual is handed over to all the students. It has the recipe for Buttercream Icing, information about the tools you will be using, the designs you will be working on in the 1st course and a lot of other stuff. This book is available only for those who are attending the class. Then instructor gives general tips about baking a cake, how to level it, torte it, fill it and frost it. She brings a cake and shows you how it is done. I’m going to do a pictorial post on this topic shortly. Until then watch this video.

    Click here to view the embedded video.

    So you will not be requiring any materials for the first class, but you will be needing a whole bunch of stuff from the second class onwards. Now is the time for decision making. What are you going to buy? This purely depends on the level of interest you have. Are you going to bake and decorate just 3 cakes in a year or are you thinking of making it a career. If you fall in the first category or cannot decide which, I would suggest you to buy Wilton’s Course 1 Student Cake Decorating Kit available in Michael’s and other cake decorating supplies stores. It will have the basic tools you would be requiring to use in Course 1. If you are very serious about cake decorating then go for the 101 Piece Tool Caddy Collection. Actually I bought the set thinking that it will be having the materials for course 2 too, but it didn’t. So I had to buy Course 2 kit separately. So I think it’s advisable to get the appropriate course kit as and when you are enrolling. Empty tool caddies are available too. So later you can buy that and fill it up with materials you got with the kits.

    The Course 1 kit comes with a flower nail no.7, tip brush, standard couplers (2), decorator brush, featherweight decorating bags (2), disposable decorating bag (1), tips 3, 12, 16, 21, 104, 67 and 2D, a small straight spatula and a practice board set.

    Now that you have decided what to buy, you would have to bake a cake, torte it, fill it and frost it and take it to the 2nd class. Recipe for eggless buttercream icing. You would be practicing with tips 16, 3 and 2010. Tip 2010 is not included in the kit, so you would have to buy it. In this rainbow cake I have used only tip 16 for the stars (in the rainbow) as well as the clouds.

    Check this video to know how to fill a decorating bag

    Click here to view the embedded video.

    Watch the following video to see how to work with tip 16 to make stars

    Click here to view the embedded video.

    Check here to see how to use tip 16 to make clouds.

    Check here to see how to transfer the rainbow pattern on the cake.

    Medium consistency icing is used for both the stars and clouds. If you decide to get the tips alone, practice on a vegetable cutting board or plastic sheet or an inverted cake pan. Tips 3 and 12 are also used apart from tip 16 in the first class. Check the following links to start using those tips.

    Dots
    Outline
    Print Writing
    Script Writing
    Rose Base

    Now shall we go to the recipe for eggless vanilla cake I have used here? I think that I have found 2 perfect eggless chocolate cake recipes. One is the eggless chocolate cake with silken tofu and the other one is the vegan chocolate cake using vinegar. I hadn’t tried my hands on egg free vanilla/white cake. Now I’m in the search of a perfect recipe for that too. (So if anyone has such a recipe please let me know). Since I was short on time, I decided to bake a vanilla cake using cake mix. I bought an organic cake mix because we can definitely identify all the ingredients in the list unlike the other cake mixes which has a lot of unidentifiable chemical names and sometimes animal fat too. I had a lot of sour yogurt in the fridge, so I used it as egg substitute. I used 3/4th cup of yogurt in place of 3 large eggs.

    Ingredients

    Organic Vanilla Cake Mix 1 pack (I used Organics Biologique 460g

    Milk 1/2 cup

    Yogurt 3/4 cup

    Vegetable Oil 2/3 cup

    Vanilla Extract 1 teaspoon

    Yield: One 8-inch cake and 6 regular size cupcakes.

    Procedure1 Preheat oven to 350F/180C for metal pans and 325F for dark non-stick pans. Line an 8-inch cake pan and a muffin tin with parchment paper and paper liners.

    2 In a large bowl blend cake mix, yogurt, milk and oil at low speed until moistened.

    3 Beat at medium-high speed for 2 minutes. Scrape bottom and sides of bowl. Continue beating at medium-high speed for 2 minutes. Pour batter into the prepared pans.

    4 Bake according to the instructions give in the pack. Mine was done in 25 minutes. The cupcakes even sooner. Cake is one when toothpick inserted in centre comes out clean.

    5 Cool in pans on rack for 10 minutes. Remove from pans and cool completely before frosting.

    Taste The cake came out very good but I felt that it was very sweet. It had a nice airy texture. Since the cake was very sweet, I reduced the quantity of sugar while preparing the buttercream icing. The cake was perfect together with the icing.

    Has my search ended for the best egg free vanilla cake? No. This cake was good, especially very easy to put together and simple procedure. Still, I’m going to keep looking.

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  • Vegan Barley Flour Cookies

    Barley Flour Cookies

    Barley flour is quite a new addition in my kitchen pantry. This cookie recipe is my first experiment with barley flour and I’m happy to tell that it’s a huge success. Unlike whole wheat, barley flour did not impart a raw smell and taste in the cookies. It’s finely ground so there is no grittiness too. I found Bob’s Red Mill Whole Barley flour in the organic aisle of the grocery store. Like any other whole grain flour, barley flour too should be stored in the freezer. Be sure to bring it to room temperature before baking. Barley flour is less glutenous, so if you want to experiment with it start with cookie recipes first. Since cookies need very less or no rising at all, substituting upto half the quantity of all purpose flour in a cookie recipe should be fine.



    The following cookie recipe uses only barley flour and we couldn’t tell it at all. Be sure to use whole grain barley flour. Some grocery stores carry a pure white color flour under the name barley flour but it’s not whole grain. It’s made from pearled barley.

    Ingredients

    Peanut Butter 1/4 cup

    Margarine 1/4 cup

    Brown Sugar 1/3 cup

    Granulated Sugar 1/3 cup

    Vanilla Extract 1/2 teaspoon

    EnerG Egg Replacer 1 and 1/2 teaspoons

    Water, lukewarm 3 tablespoons

    Whole Barley Flour 3/4 cup

    Baking Soda 1/2 teaspoon

    Salt 1/4 teaspoon

    Rolled Oats 1/2 cup

    Rice Krispies 1/2 cup

    Walnuts 1/2 cup

    Carob Chips 1/4 cup

    Dried Cranberries 1/4 cup

    Water 1 teaspoon

    Yield: 20 cookies

    Procedure1 Preheat the oven at 375F (190C). Grease with non stick spray or line baking sheets with parchment paper.

    2 In a large mixing bowl add peanut butter, margarine and sugars. Beat together well until smooth and creamy.

    3 In a blender (I used the small jar of my Magic Bullet), blend together the egg replacer and warm water until it’s frothy.

    4 To the creamed sugar mixture add the egg replacer liquid and vanilla. Beat once again until it’s combined well.

    5 To this add the barley flour, baking soda and salt and stir well.

    6 Add remaining ingredients and mix well.

    7 Spoon the batter onto a cookie sheet and bake for 10 to 12 minutes. I took mine out after 11 minutes.

    8 Leave the cookies on the sheet for 5 minutes. Then transfer it to a cooling rack for the cookies to cool completely. Transfer the cooled cookies to an airtight container.

    Taste These barley flour cookies taste very much like chocolate chip cookies. It was qutie crisp after an hour of baking but became chewy the next day. It still gets a light crunchiness from the Rice Krispies cereal. We didn’t feel any difference in taste due to the use of barley flour. I was surprised that it tasted just like cookies made out of all purpose flour.

    I’m not a peanut butter fan, but I used it to just finish it off. So I was very happy because the presence of peanut butter was not at all felt from the 2nd day onwards.

    I bought very little amount of carob chips and used it in this recipe instead of chocolate chips to make it completely vegan. When tasted it by itself, I found that there was a slight difference in taste when compared to chocolate chips. I didn’t like it that much. But I literally couldn’t feel any difference (maybe a little or it was just psychological) when I tasted the cookies and my son didn’t find it. The original recipe had called for 1/2 cup of chocolate chips, since I was using carob chips I used only 1/4 cup of it and I used 1/4 cup of dried cranberries. However I’m not sure if I would substitute carob chips for chocolate chips in a chocolate chip cookie recipe. Maybe it would be too much. I think the better bet is to try other dairy free vegan chocolate chips instead.

    My Notes1 For the margarine I used Fleischman’s Non Hydrogenated no salt added margarine.

    2 The original recipe mentions to use cornflakes. I used Rice Krispies because I had only that in hand.

    3 Similarly you could use all nuts, or all chocolate chips or any dried fruits etc. Just be sure to keep the measurements same though.

    4 At first I thought the quantity of sugar was more in the recipe with 1/3 cup each of brown sugar and granulated sugar, but it was perfect when we tasted the cookies. Maybe it would have been even sweeter, had I used 1/2 cup of chocolate chips and raisins instead of cranberries.

    5 The cookies don’t spread like the usual chocolate chip cookies. So I think if you flatten it with a fork you may get crispier cookies but you would have to adjust the baking time. Also I overlooked the 1 teaspoon of water in the recipe. Maybe if I had added that the cookies would have spread a little bit.

    6 I have mentioned this a couple of times, but writing it once again. If using a dark coated non stick pan, stay alert and take the sheet out of the oven 2-3 minutes earlier because the bottoms burn quite quickly. The same thing happened in this recipe too. Even after being careful and lining the cookie sheet with parchment paper the bottom of the cookies went black. Maybe double lining the sheet would help. I’m going to try it the next time.

    These vegan barley flour cookies go to my Whole Grain (Eggless) Baking Event – Barley.

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  • Announcing Whole Grain (Eggless) Baking Event – Barley

    Barley Baking Event

    In the whole grain baking series, we are going to experiment with barley this month. I request you all to extend your support you have given for the past 2 events, whole wheat and oats. Barley contains twice as much soluble fiber as oats and also is a high-protein whole grain. Whole (hulled) barley is the whole grain. Only the outer indigestible hull is removed, leaving the bran, germ and endosperm in tact. Pearled barley which is most commonly found in the supermarkets is nutritionally inferior to hulled barley because most if not all of the bran and germ layers are removed. So pearled barely is not classified as whole grain. Nevertheless, cooked peraled barley contains nearly twice the amount of fiber as the same size serving of cooked brown rice. So let us continue to include it in our diet regularly.



    The next close thing to hulled barley is pot barley. Although it isn’t quite a whole grain, it undergoes minimal amount of refining that leave some of the bran and germ intact.

    List of whole grain forms of Barley:

    • Whole (Hulled) Barley
    • Hull-less Barley (A new variety which is not widely available and supposedly even more nutritious that hulled barley)
    • Barley Grits (Bits of whole barley. Cooks in half time of whole barely.)
    • Barley Flour (Most barley flour is made from pearled barely, so read the label carefully to ensure it’s whole grain. Store it in the freezer)
    • Barley Flakes (Equivalent of oats)
    • Barley Couscous

    Baking with barley flour:
    Barley is high in protein but not as glutenous as whole wheat, so it is not suitable for building structure. So it’s better to pair it with either whole wheat flour or all purpose flour. Since cookies don’t rise much, substituting barley flour up to half the flour in a cookie recipe should not be a problem. For high-rising baked goods like muffins, quickbread and cake try substituting barley flour for one-fourth (1/4th) of the flour in the recipe. Yeasted breads too don’t rise higher if too much barley flour is used.

    Sources for the above information:
    The Complete Whole Grains Cookbook by Judith Finlayson and King Arthur Flour’s Whole Grain Baking book.

    Recipe Ideas:

    Rules of the event:

    1 Bake anything eggless using one or more of the whole grain forms of barley (hulled barley, hull-less barley, barley girts, barley flour, barley flakes, barley couscous). Even though pot barley and pearled barley is not whole grain, I will accept recipes using this because the listed whole grain forms of barley may not be accessible for everyone.

    2 Post it in your blog between Nov 6th 2009 and Dec 5th 2009. The dish can be anything sweet, salty or spicy. The recipes must be either vegetarian and eggless or vegan. If the recipe is from books/blogs/websites, please link back /mention the original source.

    3 Multiple entries are more than welcome. Recipes posted prior to the announcement of this event are also welcome provided it qualifies the above criteria and is linked back to this event. Reposting is not necessary. As always there is prize for this event too and old entries will also be considered.

    4 Email me your name, blog URL, name of the recipe, recipe URL, photo in 150w x 120h size to wholegrains(at)egglesscooking.com with Barley as the subject.

    5 Non-bloggers you can submit your entries in Eggless Cooking Forums under Share Egg Free Recipes. You have to register first and it’s free! Send me an email after updating there and I’ll include it in the round up.

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  • Wholegrains Baking Event – Oats Round Up

    Oat Bran Baking Event

    Hi friends, some of you might be wondering what happened to me? A couple of reasons kept me from updating the blog quite frequently. My initial plan was to update thrice a week and I was able to do only one post for the past 3-4 weeks. I think I’ll be able to blog more regularly hereafter. One good thing which happened in the past couple of weeks is I joined Wilton’s cake decorating course and today is the last class of the first course. So you can expect some posts on cake decorating in the following weeks. I’m planning to take the other 3 courses too.

    Now for the round up; I thank all the participants for sending in your entries for the Wholegrain Baking – Oats Event. Renu, congratulations for winning this month’s giveaway. Please send me an e-mail with your address, so that I can mail your gift.

    Winner
    Oats Recipe Event Winner

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