Mango Brownie CupCakes

This is a simple experimental cake recipe that I tried inspired by the vegan brownies I found while googling and also taking a cue from Madhuram ie replacing fat (butter/oil) with fruit puree -mango puree to be exact and also inserted simple mango cashew paste within this. The result was simply delicious though few faults were there.

Ingredients:

Dry Mix:
AllPurpose Flour: 1 cup
Cocoa Powder: unsweetened: 2-4 tbsp (I used 2)
Sugar: 1 cup (I used only 3/4 cup)
Baking Powder: 1/2 tsp
Salt: 1/2 tsp

Wet Mix:
Mango Puree: 1/2 cup
(Can also use Veg Oil)
Water: 1/2 cup

Filling: (optional)

Mango Cashew Paste: few tbsps
Blended together finely hopped mango pieces and handful of cashew soaked in warm water to obtain a paste.This is completely optional

Preparation:

In a big bowl,whisk together flour,baking powder,cocoa,sugar and salt.Add in mango puree to the flour mix and then add half cup of water.Whisk into a well blended. Do not over beat it.

Pour a spoonful of batter into each of the muffin cups,spoon the mango cashew paste over this batter and if posssible thinly and gently spread this over the cake batter,without mixing together.Then,add spoonfuls of the cake batter till the muffin cup is three quarters full.You can also alternate the layers as well.If not interested you can avoid the filling layer as well.

It looks like..

Bake in a preheated oven at 375F for 22-25 minutes or till a tester comes (almost)clean.Mine took 23 minutes.The mango layer if added will be moist only and the tester may contain traces of the layer.If filling is avoided then the tester comes clean.The recipe gives 9+ cupcakes.

Alternately you can use a petit loaf tin and bake for 20+ minutes.You can spread choco chips on top if interested.Also instead of cocoa melted chocolate can also be use,but for making lowfat/vegan brownies,cocoa powder is preferred. The sugar used in the original recipe is 1 cup (I halved the recipe which can be found here).I reduced the sugar to 3/4 cup as I used very sweet Badami mangoes.I also reduced the cocoa powder to 2 tbsp rather than the required 6 tbsp as I did not want the bitter cocoa aftertaste in them.

After these adaptations,comes the bad news - the brownies turned out to be little denser,slightly peaked and one or two look slightly cracked. The denseness can be attributed to the presence of cocoa powder as cocoa cakes are supposed to be denser (as far as I know).Otherwise the reason behind these is overbeating the batter. In my enthusiasm,I overbeat the batter.So the cupcakes look slightly peaked.Why & How: overbeating the flour leads to gluten development which makes the product rise as baking powder is also added.The cracks are usually due to high oven temperature and need of extra baking time or too much sugar or baking powder. am not sure why only one or two cracked while others came out almost perfect.Sugar is the only reason that I can think of.

But the good point is the taste was amazing and I never expected the mango chocolate combo to be this delish.I started using mango in baked items after I enjoyed the mango muffins.This combo is very very delicious.

The cupcakes are on their way to Madhuram's Lowfat Baking Event along with Soya Dates Cookies.The cupcakes since mango based are also visiting Srivalli's Mango Mela where amazing mango dishes can be seen.

Soya Dates Cookies

These are simple cakey cookies I had found in Tarla Dala cookbook.The recipe is super simple yet full of fibre.Soya flour together with wheat flour make it superhealthy and dates act a substite to sugar thus reducing it and also supplementing iron.

Ingredients:
Dates Puree :
1/4 cup dates desseeded + 1/2 cup water.

Cookies:
Soya flour: 1/4 cup
Whole Wheat flour:1/4 cup
Apple sauce or low fat butter:4 tbsp
Sugar: 2 tbsp


Preparation:
Puree:

Chop the dates into small pieces and add 1/4 cup - 1/2 cup of water.Bring to a boil in non stick pan and then reduce heat and let it simmer for 10-12 minutes till the dates are cmplpetely mashed into the puree.Cool down and keep aside.This gives to almost 4-6 tbsp.

Cookies:

In a big bowl mix together both the flours and the sugar.Add in 1/4 cup of apple sauce and mix together till the dough starts forming or the entire mix resemble coarse breadcrumbs.You can also use lowfat butter or oil instead of this.Since oil/butter is used for moisture,it can be replaced by fruit purees like applesauce and thus reduce the unwanted fat given by oil/butter.

To the crumbly mass, add in spoonfuls of date puree till a sticky dough forms.Wrap the dough in a plastic wrap,try shaping it into a log and refrigerate it for atleast half and hour.

I actually kept it in the freezer for 30 minutes,but it showed no signs of firming.And it is not because of applesauce as I experimented the second time with lowfat butter and third time with a mix of butter and applesauce(2tbsp each) and also reduced the date puree.Still the results were same.So my assumption is the addition of dates could have caused it.

Take the dough out of the fridge and if firm roll it out into a thin sheet and cut into shapes using your choice of cookie cutters.Else simply cut the log shaped dough into thin or thick cookies.I found both impossible so I simply tore up pieces of dough,formed into small rounds and then flattened it and placed it in a lined baking sheet.

Bake in a preheated oven at 360F/180C for 22-25 minutes or till they are golden brown.

The cookies are very soft or cakey.More date puree you add the more cakier it will become.But the cookies are terribly delicious.The aroma of baked dates from the oven is terrific.The cookies which were only 12 (as minimum amount of flours were used) where polished off within half an hour.

The cakey yet low fat cookies are on way to Low Fat Baking Event by Madhuram of EgglessCooking