Beetroot Archives - Cook By Book

Tag: Beetroot

20
Nov
2013

Healthy Chocolate Beetroot Bundt Cake

categories: Baking, Cake, Cakes, Desserts, Fall

I baked 3 batches of cookies this Monday to be sent for the cookie swap I am participating in. I wanted to do this precisely on a weekday so that I can courier the cookies on the same evening and they reach their destination in another 2 days, when they can be still considered FRESH! Good news is that one shipment was delivered yesterday and the other 2 were out for delivery today morning… Success! The bad news is I can’t share those cookie recipes with you… Not yet 🙁

So to celebrate, I am sharing this awesome chocolate bundt with you all today. And as you must have guessed already, it is undoubtedly a healthy recipe! This time I have experimented with beetroot purée and liquid jaggery. I was feeling quite proud of myself while presenting this cake in front of Mr and some guests as the experiment turned out a total success! Nobody could guess/taste the secret ingredients… Even the kids!! 😀

This cake is supremely moist because of puréed beetroot and olive oil. Liquid jaggery lends most of the sweetness and the brown sugar with chocolate lends works beautifully with chocolate. The taste is rich and exceptionally chocolaty. A top performer in my opinion!

The batter is a simple 1-bowl creation which comes together easily and can be prepared even without electric mixer. It bakes fairly quickly compared to any other bundt cakes. After the cake cools completely, simply pour ganache over it and serve a giant, thick slice of your masterpiece!

If you fear the bundt pan, let me give you a tip on ‘How-To’. Generously grease the pan with butter and lightly dust it with flour. This is a foolproof way and the cake will not stick to the pan or break in pieces when you invert it on a cooling rack. So spend some time on this step before you start with the cake batter. After the cake bakes, let it cool in pan for 15-20 minutes before trying to release it from the pan. Perfection! So let go of your fear of bundt pan and whip up this decadent deliciousness NOW!

Healthy Chocolate Beetroot Bundt Cake with Dark Chocolate Ganache

Serves: 12 | Prep time: 20 minutes | Bake time: 35 minutes approximately

Ingredients:

Dry ingredients:

2 cups whole wheat flour
3/4 cup +1 Tbsp Hershey’s unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp cinnamon powder
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt

Wet ingredients:

1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup liquid jaggery
3 large eggs
1/3 cup plain yogurt
1 + 2/3 cup beetroot purée, (around 4 medium beetroots boiled, peeled and puréed)
1 Tbsp vanilla extract

Ganache:

2 Tbsp medium fat cream/milk
3 oz dark chocolate, roughly chopped

Directions:

Preheat the oven at 190 C/375 F. Grease a bundt pan nicely with butter and dust it with flour.
In a medium bowl, sift together all the dry ingredients.
In a bowl of your electric mixer, fitted with paddle attachment, add olive oil and brown sugar and beat on a low speed. Add liquid jaggery and continue to beat.
Increase the speed to medium-high, add one egg at a time and beat for 2 minutes after each addition. Beat in yogurt.
Slowly add beetroot purée and dry ingredients in 2 additions, ending with dry ingredients. Scrape the sides of the bowl with spatula and beat until just combined. Do not over-mix the batter.
Pour the batter to the prepared bundt pan and bake for 33-35 minutes. Toothpick inserted near the centre of the pan should come out clean or just with few moist crumbs. Let the cake cool in a pan for 15-20 minutes before inverting on a wire rack.
Heat a small sauce pan and add cream/milk to it. Once the cream/milk is hot(not bubbling), remove it from heat. Add chocolate to it and stir continuously until chocolate has melted completely. Pour the ganache over the cake. Cut a thick slice and serve.

*Store the cake in an airtight container. Stays fresh on a counter for 1 day and in refrigerator for 5-6 days.
*The cake is enough sweet for me but in case you like your baked products quite sweet then increase the quantity of brown sugar in the batter as per your taste. Lick, taste and then proceed! 😉

Still scared of a bundt? Try these delicious cupcakes!
Happy Baking! xx

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08
Jul
2013

Skinny Beetroot Hummus

categories: Appetizers, Dips

I’m a huge fan of hummus and can’t get enough! I can have it for all three meals of my day. Oh-yeah! 🙂

A quick, low-fat, protein-packed and super-easy home-made hummus! A pink hummus! As a dear friend quoted ‘If I could I would cover my life in pink!’ I would too!

The hummus gets its pink color from the addition of a boiled beetroot. If you are not a big fan of beetroot, still add it as I promise you won’t be able to taste it at all! It’s sooo good!!!

I stirred in lemon zest to finished hummus and it went a notch up! It became truly Ah-mah-‘zing’ actually!!!

Cheese-lovers can add Parmesan cheese (to be added during blending) to this lovely appetizer but I wanted to keep it low-fat so I skipped it.

So let’s blend-blend!

Skinny Beetroot Hummus

Serves: 4 | Stays fresh for 3-4 days, refrigerated in airtight container

Ingredients:

1 cup chickpeas, soaked overnight, boiled and drained
1 medium beetroot, peeled, boiled and roughly chopped
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 Tbsp Tahini
3 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 Tbsp lemon juice
salt, to taste
zest from 1 lemon

Directions:

Add boiled chickpeas to the blender jar. Add garlic cloves, tahini and 2 Tbsp olive oil to jar and blend.

Add 1 Tbsp lemon juice and salt and blend again.

Add beetroot pieces and remaining lemon juice and olive oil to blender and blend till smooth and creamy.

Stir in lemon zest, transfer to a serving bowl and serve.

*Soak chickpeas overnight. If short on time, soak them in just boiled water for at least 3-4 hrs. It will take a bit long to cook but will do the job.
*I used pressure cooker for boiling chickpeas and beetroot both. I boiled them separately.

Accompaniment options: Pita bread, Nachos or Tortilla chips, My Skinny Carrot Sticks, veggie crudites or simply a spread on toast! Sky is the limit actually!! 😉

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14
May
2013

Cadbury SHOTS topped Beetroot & Chocolate Cupcakes

categories: Cupcakes & Muffins

I love Cadbury SHOTS!

Their punchline is ‘A Glass and a Half Full of Joy‘ and that is exactly what I feel and more when I pop it in!

Eating them always gets me nostalgic about my college days. It was launched about the same time as I was finishing my internship and was my favorite thing to snack on around that time of my life. That was the most memorable time when we were free from all the tensions of patients, studies and exams, never thinking of what the future holds for us and just a happy, fashionable, giggling bunch of jobless interns who were always gossiping in cafeteria (Of course we used to work when we were not on breaks!!!). Those were the days!!! 🙂

Cadbury SHOTS is available in a small pack of two which is perrrfect to share with your bestie or your sweetheart! Costs only INR 2/- each! They consist of milk chocolate balls coated in a hard sugar outer layer. But I think they are only available in my part of the world and not elsewhere. How unfortunate! 🙁

So to reminisce about that awesome time of my life I decided to top my next cupcakes with these sweeties. I wanted the cupcakes to be chocolate. How boring! So I decided to give it a twist… of Beetroots! I mean I have baked chocolate cupcakes with zucchini before so decided to pretty much replace zucchini with beetroots and it worked like a charm. I tweaked my previous recipe a bit and added melted chocolate in this one instead of chocolate chips as I was topping these with SHOTS!

The cupcakes are rich in chocolate and beetroot’s flavor is quite earthy yet not overpowering. The insides are gooey and moist! And most important of all, it’s heeaallthyy! Come on, it has whole wheat flour, dark cocoa, dark chocolate and beetroot! 😉

So hop onto the reminiscence train! There are no stations in between.. Share with us that one important nostalgic moment from your college days. We would love to know!

Cadbury SHOTS topped Beetroot and chocolate Cupcakes

Servings: Makes 6 cupcakes

Ingredients:

2 small raw beetroot bulbs, peeled and grated (about 175 gm)
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
2 Tbsp Hershey’s dark cocoa powder
1/4 tsp cinnamon powder
1/4 tsp nutmeg powder
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 egg, at room temperature
2 Tbsp butter, melted
75 gm 70-80% dark chocolate, melted and cooled
1 tsp vanilla extract
9 Cadbury SHOTS packs, for topping

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 375F/180C. Line 6-count muffin tin with paper liners and set aside.
Sift all the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Stir in the grated beetroot, egg and melted butter.
Add the melted chocolate and vanilla extract. Stir until just combined.
Spoon the batter among the prepared pans. Top each cupcake with 3 Cadbury SHOTS and bake for 21-23 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Set aside to cool completely.

*Cadbury SHOTS has not sponsored me in anyway. All the praise written above is my personal expression of love for them!

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