White Chocolate Pomegranate Cupcakes

I may have said this in this past but this time I really really mean it. These are hands down the best cupcakes I've baked. Free Spirit Bloggers are into their 4th month together (already!) and Lataji chose this month's theme. She gave us all a choice to pick a number between 1-12 and revealed secret ingredients to work with. Mine were white chocolate and pomegranates.

The timing couldn't be more perfect because I had this bar of white chocolate I had bought from Tokyo a year back and since I was in India, I could buy a pomegranate and bring it back with me! Things fell in place beautifully and one Saturday evening, these cupcakes were born.

I searched a lot for a good white chocolate cupcake recipe and although there were quite a few that came up, I finally nailed one from Epicurious. Although a lot of the reviews said the cupcake sank in the middle, got ruined, etc, I had a nice feeling about it. I used a lower baking temperature and they came out ridiculously well. The coconut milk in the batter was intriguing too, and its my first time baking cupcakes with coconut milk in the batter!

The pomegranates gave a nice crunch to the texture and added to the appeal of the otherwise dull-looking cupcakes. One word of caution here. I only had brown sugar in hand so my cupcakes are beige in colour. If you use regular white sugar like you are supposed to, the cupcakes will be white and gorgeous like white chocolate cupcakes are supposed to look.

White Chocolate Cupcakes with Pomegranates
Makes 20 cupcakes
Loosely adapted from Epicurious

Ingredients:
8 oz / 240 gm white chocolate
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup regular white sugar
3 egg whites
3/4 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup canned unsweetened coconut milk
1/4 cup fresh pomegranate seeds

*Optional Mascarpone frosting recipe below. 

How I Made It:

1. Preheat oven to 320F / 180 C. Line cupcake pans with liners and set aside.

2. Melt white chocolate by placing it in a bowl over another bowl of boiling water and stirring frequently, or in a microwave at low heat until just melted and smooth.

3. Whisk flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl. Using an electric mixer, beat sugar, butter, and vanilla in large bowl until blended. Add hot white chocolate to sugar mixture; stir to combine. Add flour mixture in 3 additions alternately with coconut milk in 2 additions, beating batter just to combine between additions.

4. Using clean dry beaters, beat egg whites in a bowl until soft peaks form. Be careful not to overbeat. To check done-ness, I lift the whisk and see if a soft peak forms and gently collapses back into the mixture. Gently fold egg white mixture into batter in 3 additions.

5. Pour batter into the lined cupcake pans until 3/4 filled. Bake in preheated oven for about 25 mins or until the cupcakes don't stick to a skewer passed through their middle.

6. Cool completely and frost if desired. I thought the cupcakes were a bit too plain so decided to whip up a very simple frosting with some mascarpone cheese I had in hand.

Mascarpone Frosting Recipe

Whisk together 6 tbsp mascarpone cheese, 4 tbsp milk, and 14 tbsp icing sugar. Adjust each of the ingredients until the frosting is of pouring consistency yet not too watery. Pour over completely cooled cupcakes and place some pomegranate seeds over the frosting before serving.

The cupcakes lasted me four days, refrigerated. 

A 'meaty' recipe idea for vegetarians

Last month, DK chose the theme for the Free Spirit Bloggers. She wanted us to come up with vegetarian dishes that have ingredients that resemble meat, fish, etc. The idea was immensely challenging and the creative options are endless.

However, last month was a vacation one for me and my brain doesn't work for the blog when I am home in Kerala.

I couldn't let the theme go though so here's more of a recipe idea if you are cooking up brunch for a few friends and you have vegetarians in the pack. Here's a disclaimer, this will only work if you have access to Trader Joe's in your neighbourhood (sorry, non-US folks!)

When I was in the US in March, I met up with some friends for brunch at Joann's place. Since one of us was vegetarian, her menu was eggetarian-friendly. She had a pack of these Soy Chorizos from Trader Joe's. I loved it so much that I smuggled a pack back for TH and I.

All we did was to chop up some onions finely, add 1 tsp oil to a pan and fry them until transparent, add the chorizo to the onion, heat through, and serve! Its an amazing alternative for vegetarians and protein-packed to boot. Doesn't it look exactly like minced meat? I can think of some creative uses for it too, like topping for pizza, wrapped in a chapati, baked up in some pastry sheets like puffs, etc.

Try it!

This goes to Dhivs as my entry to her FSB theme for June! Check out her space to see what others contributed.

Falafel with Tahini Lemon Sauce Recipe

Remember the free spirit bloggers who baked with all sorts of egg substitutes last month? Well this month, I got to pick the theme and I went with savory party appetizers that can be cooked up in bulk.



Of course I picked the theme fully intending to deep-fry, why do you ask? My initial idea was to go with cocktail samosas but had to ditch it for falafel because the shaping and filling of cocktail samosas is not exactly quick and this had to be a recipe that can easily be multiplied, leaving you time to make an effort to look good for your party.



The Egyptian version of falafel is flatter,bigger, and greener because of the use of Lima beans. I know because I had that in Egypt. Sorry for showing off.



My version however, is the kind you would get in your local Middle Eastern restaurant. Its flavourful, easy to make, and absolutely delicious, not to mention photogenic.

Falafel Recipe
Makes 16 small-ish falafels (easily doubles or triples)

Ingredients:
1/2 cup dry chickpeas, soaked overnight or atleast 10 hours (will be about 1 cup when soaked through)
1 tsp cumin seeds / jeera
1/2 tsp coriander powder / dhania
1/2 tsp red chilli powder
1/2 tsp minced or crushed garlic (about 4-5 cloves)
One bunch fresh coriander leaves / cilantro, chopped
1 small red onion, chopped fine
1-2 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
2-3 tbsp plain flour (or crumbs from 2 slices of stale bread)
Salt to taste

Oil to deep fry

How I Made It:

1. Drain the soaked chickpeas on kitchen towels or leave them in a colander with a suspended base. Its important to drain out as much moisture as possible.

2. Transfer the chickpeas with rest of the ingredients to a food processor or mixer jar and grind until smooth and dry. You should be able to shape them easily into small discs. If the mixture is too moist or sticky at this stage, which it shouldn't be, add more flour but don't be liberal.

3. Shape into small discs and deep fry on medium heat until dark brown on both sides. Make sure you regulate the flame, otherwise the outside will get burned or cooked too soon and the inside will be raw.

4. Drain on kitchen towels and serve with tahini lemon sauce (recipe below).

Tahini Lemon Sauce Recipe

I didn't use any particular recipe or measurement for this. I thought of making hummus to go with with the falafel but didn't remember to soak enough chickpeas. I had fresh tahini that my ex-boss, brought from his home town Lebanon so it would've been a sin not to use it in some way. Thank you Charif!

Here's what I did to make the sauce:

Mix 3 tbsp of tahini, 1 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice, a pinch of paprika (or maybe pepper?), salt to taste and enough water to make a smooth paste. You can add some roasted garlic pieces to this but I didn't have the patience time patience.

Dip the falafels in and enjoy.

Special thanks to Joann for the super cute sauce bowls she gave me when I 

went brunching to her place!

Notes:

- canned and drained chickpeas should work as well but I read in many places that freshly soaked ones taste better. I have used canned chickpeas for hummus and liked it just fine so it should definitely work for falafels too

- if you plan to make this for a party, grind the ingredients and leave it in the fridge. You can take it out in advance the next day, shape up quickly (doesn't take more than 4 seconds per falafel, I timed myself) and fry up in batches.

- falafels taste just fine when gone cold too and the sauce can hold its own until a party winds down too. Just make sure you add water if the sauce thickens up on you.

Here's what the other Free Spirit Bloggers cooked up for this month's theme!

DK
Lataji
Siri
Mads
Deepti
Anu

Eggless Chocolate Banana Pound Cake Recipe

I love banana cakes. I love chocolate. So this eggless banana chocolate pound cake is love squared.

I am sorry if you are a banana-hater and can't stand the thought of it but really, you don't know what you are missing. And God help you if you are a chocolate-hater. You really shouldn't be here at all, right? But wait, I need to tell you about a new project I am on with 8 other amazing food bloggers. We are the Free Spirit Bloggers. Read on!

Mads of Cook-Curry Nook came up with this idea. Of course she did! She is super creative, that's no secret. So check out her blog to learn more about Free Spirit Bloggers and who we are. I am glad to be one of them.

This month, we were experiment in our baking labs. The idea was to use the same basic chocolate pound cake recipe and use different egg substitutes. We each worked with 2 and decided to post the one that worked better.

I chose to work with banana. To substitute one egg in the recipe, you need 1/4 cup ripe banana puree + 1/2  tsp baking powder. This is in addition to baking powder already mentioned in the recipe.

Eggless Chocolate Banana Pound Cake Recipe
Makes 36 small pieces

Ingredients:
All purpose flour or Maida – 250 gms (2 ½ cups)
Sugar – 250 gms (1 1/4 cups)
Butter – 250 gms
Cocoa powder – 50 gms (~4 tbsp or 1/4 cup)
To replace 4 eggs - 1 cup pureed ripe banana + 2 tsp baking powder
Baking Soda – 1 tsp
Baking Powder – 1/2 tsp
Salt – 1/2 tsp
Vanilla essence – 1 tsp
Milk – as required, to adjust batter to dropping consistency - max ½ cup (I used about 1/4 cup)

How I Made It:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180 deg C (350 deg F).

2. Line the base of a square pan (8″x8″) with butter paper, or grease the base with butter and dust with
flour till well coated and set aside.

3. Beat the pureed banana with the baking powder and set aside.

4. Sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Do this thrice for best results, and set aside.

5. Cream the butter and sugar well together for about 3-4 mins. Add the vanilla essence and beat well.

6. Add the beaten banana mixture to the butter-sugar mixture and beat well till it has been incorporated.

7. Now, add the sifted flour mixture to the butter-sugar-egg mixture little by little and beat well till
blended smoothly.

8. Add adequate milk to achieve a batter of dropping consistency.

9. Pour batter into the readied pan, and bake at 180 deg C for 45-50 minutes or till done.

My cake formed a nice crust and was super soft and spongy. It was a bit hard to get clean pieces because it was that soft. Throughly enjoyed making the eggless version but if you want to avoid the banana flavour, just use eggs and follow the rest of the recipe as mentioned. Do let me know if you try it!

So, what's your favourite egg replacement?