Eggless Ragi Banana Cake

Eggless Ragi Banana Cake

Recently, I met up with one of my very close friends(D had a great time with you) who was visiting India ( she lives in Dallas US )...and we got to discussing the various grains and cereals and what is good and healthy...and can be used in a lot of our day to day cooking, baking etc...

One of those was amaranth...and while trying to get the Indian name for it we mistakenly referred to it as ragi...then later realised that it is not so...the actual name is rajagira...which is supposed to be very good, considered a superfood.

All this bought to fore my desire to move on to new methods and ingredients in my baking in my quest for a more healthy sweet or dessert...since we have tried unsuccessfully many a time to resist the sweet temptations.

So while browsing for recipes got a few using ragi ( nachani ) flour and was very impressed with a couple of them - one was a chocolate cupcake and the other a banana cake...
The latter won the toss mainly cause I had 3 bananas on verge of going to the bin if not used immediately...but I also wanted to try an eggless version and use sweetened condensed milk which was part of the first recipe....confusing right ....nyways the end result was a combination of parts of both.

Ragi is a cereal which is very nutritious, it is rich in  calcium, has a lot of dietary fibre, has a lot of iron, is a natural relaxant, and a host of other properties...

So after reading the above recipes I was quite keen to try it out - though I was unsure how it would be received by all at home, generally I do not have much takers for my "healthy attempts" ...but this one turned out so amazing - it was soft, delish (even with the reduced sweetness) and one could not make out that it was made without the regular flours...


As I mentioned I used parts of 2 different recipes, also changed the method a bit to include a tip I had from another site regards bananas, curds(yogurt), and baking soda...

And thus a new recipe was born....and here's how I went about it...


Ingredients:

Dry:
3/4 cup ragi flour
1/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt

Wet:
3 medium - large bananas mashed
4 Tblspns(1/4 cup) yogurt (curd)
3 Tblspns  oil
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla
4 Tblspns condensed milk

Topping:
2 Tbslpns walnuts chopped
1 Tblspn brown sugar

Method:

1) Take a bowl for all the dry ingredients and whisk it together

2) Take another bowl for all the wet ingredients and whisk it together, keep aside for few minutes - the baking soda acts with the yogurt and the mixture tends to foam/rise a bit.

3) Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees C. Grease a baking dish with butter or oil.

4) Mix the wet ingredients into the dry till it is all incorporated, do not overmix, the batter is a bit moist & a bit lumpy due to the banana.

5) Put the batter in the greased baking dish ( can use 6 inches or 8 inches )....baking times will differ slightly.

6) Top with chopped walnuts, and sprinkle brown sugar on top..gives a nice crunch and sweetness while eating. This is totally optional - can omit both or add any one as per your taste.

7) Bake for about 45-50 mins in 6 inches - and 30-40 mins in the 8 inches baking dish...since ovens differ please check after 30 minutes .

Enjoy !!!

Ok now for the acid test...T had it and loved it - and he did not even realise that it had ragi, nor did any of the others...I was so thrilled with the result - it has emboldened me to try out some more variations in my baking...oh what a delight...imagine guilt-free  desserts...what a bliss !!!