Whole-Wheat Walnut & Raisin Biscotti - no butter :)

I just saw "Everyday Food" on PBS and I loved this breakfast biscotti recipe. I immediately tried it, and it tasted great.

"Biscotti" means "double baked". A few good things about this recipe:
- No Butter
- Only 1/3rd cup of Sugar
- Very healthy as it has walnuts and raisins
- You can make it and store for a few days
- You can also make it to take along (to work/ travels) as a snack

The best part is that you use very little sugar, and no butter.. Sounds good right.. let's get into the details now..

Oil spray for the baking sheet
Whole wheat flour - 3/4 cup
All purpose flour - 1/2 cup
Sugar (Brown or Regular) - 1/3 cup
Baking Powder - 1 teaspoon
Salt - 1/4 teaspoon
Walnut halves - 1/2 cup
Raisins - 1/4 cup (Use golden/dark raisins)
Eggs - 2
Vanilla Extract - 1 teaspoon

Optional ingredients in place of raisins:
Cranberries - 1/4 cup
Apricots - 1/4 cup
Mini sweet chocolate chips - 1/4 cup
Or anything else you like!! Just limit the quantity to 1/4 cup

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease the baking tray
2. Mix the dry ingredients
3. Beat the egg and the vanilla extract
4. Fold the dry ingredients with the egg mix
5. Make a "loaf" (1 inch thick, 2.5 inches wide and 7 inches long)
5. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes
6. Cut the loaf into 1/4 inch pieces using a serrated knife
7. Reduce the heat in the oven to 300 degrees
8. Place on the baking tray and bake (turning once after 10-12 minutes) for another 20-25 minutes
9. Store in an airtight container

The link: http://www.pbs.org/everydayfood/recipes/walnut_raisin_biscotti.html

Ani Phyo's Raw Food Kitchen

I have signed up to listen to talks from the Raw Food Summit (http://rawsummit2.com/free_access). This morning, I heard a talk by Ani Phyo - who is a chef, author, and a raw food expert. As I was inspired by her talk, I went to YouTube to look at the video of some of her easy "raw" recipes.

Here are the links to her videos:
Spanish Breakfast Scramble - This can be a wonderful side for your dinner, or can be had for breakfast. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gvrEj2H36w&feature=related

Crunchy Donut Holes - This can be a very healthy snack. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuGjDagUWNg

I also saw a video from Wholegormet:
Homemade Pizza Crust - This is a good way to use up my pound of Whole Wheat flour before I go on vacation. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAVUFnhP1ZA&feature=related

Healthy Mocha Muffins

Yes, as you realized, the first few posts will be related to Coffee, Cocoa or Chai.

I bought muffin tray last week, and was looking for a recipe to make muffins - not the ones with a lot of butter and sugar - I wanted to make healthy breakfast muffins.

So, I went to google.com and searched for a recipe with the following terms: "Chocolate Yogurt Muffins". And I found this recipe: http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,174,147169-239207,00.html

When I read the ingredients, I thought this was an almost-perfect recipe for healthy mocha muffins. I tweaked the recipe (eliminated sugar and reduced the quantity of oil) and here it is:

What you'll need:
1 1/2 cup flour
1 1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/3 cup melted semi-sweet chocolate chips (I used Nestle chips)
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 cup chopped walnuts (you can increase the quantity)
1/2 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup fresh strong brewed coffee (I think this will taste better if we use instant coffee/espresso powder)
1 cup plain yogurt (I used Stonyfield low-fat yogurt)
1/4 cup vegetable oil
Egg substitute equal to 2 eggs
1/4 cup prune puree (I bought the baby food brand - Gerber)
1/3 cup applesauce (I bought the baby food brand - Gerber)

Optional:
2 table spoons of Sugar to sprinkle on top of the muffins (Optional)
Add 1/2 cup of brown sugar if making this for dessert

Sugar: Since I eliminated sugar in the original recipe, I added prune puree, apple sauce and semi-sweet chocolate chips for sweetness

Makes 16 muffins

Preheat oven to 350 degress. Grease muffin tray (This is an important step. If using muffin cups, please grease them too. I used olive oil spray and also sprinkled whole wheat flour.) Mix dry ingredients (1 to 8) set aside. Beat the wet ingredients with a whisk. Fold in the wet mix with the flour mix - be careful not to form any lumps.

Half-fill the muffin tins, sprinkle sugar on top (optional) and bake for 20 minutes. The muffins came out very well - and tasted very good. (I had 2 muffins for breakfast this morning.) Drop me a note if this recipe worked for you.