HEALTHY WHOLEWHEAT CARROT & CHINESE FIVE SPICE LOAF

I must say, this recipe for sure is pertinent to the prevailing times. Lets face it: Locked up at home our routine includes: eat, sleep, fornicate ( if you are not single), repeat. For many, who happens to be happily single the pleasure of fornication is substituted by reading, sleeping more, cleaning, social media stalking, binge watching web-series and the likes. Now-now, before you point out my dirty mind, guys lets behave like adults : Why else do you think there is shortage of rubber with all the pharmaceutical stores!! People might be excited to try out newer things, but I presume not dumb enough to blow balloons out of the slimy danglers to celebrate their anniversaries or birthday's. Do take the liberty to correct me if I am wrong!!

Getting back to the track: Eating is a necessity not always a luxury. Eating healthy and right is the buzzword considering our mostly sedentary lifestyle. Lock-down ensured us to have enough rest, lets not turn that into a cellulite generating activity. Recipes of these sort once baked and kept in the fridge can be a healthy snack for all your family members, until & unless you have problem with glutten. Now that you have heard all that I had to say, let's quickly look at what all we need for it &  get into the no fuss recipe:

Ingredients:

•  1.5 cup grated carrot
•  0.5 cup olive oil
•  3 tbsp honey + 3 tbsp golden syrup
•  2 eggs at RT, beaten
•  1 tsp vanilla extract
•  1.5 cups wholewheat flour
•  0.5 tsp baking soda
•  0.5 tsp baking powder
•  0.5 tsp salt
•  2 tsp Chinese five spice powder
•  0.5 cup chopped walnuts
•  Handful of dry cranberries
•  Handful of pumpkin seeds for sprinkling on top

Here's how we will make it:

1. As always we start with pre-heating oven to 175 C. Along side grease your loaf pan and keep aside.
2. In a bowl mix the dry ingredients: Flour + baking powder+ baking soda + salt + chines five spice powder. mix and keep aside.
3. In another mixing bowl ( bigger in size please), add in the honey + golden syrup + oil and whisk till well combined, which is a matter of few minutes per say.

4. Now add in the beaten egg + vanilla essence & the grated carrots to the oil mix and whisk again till well combined. Be careful to incorporate as much as air possible, but do not over whisk.

5. Sieve in the dry ingredients in the wet and fold in well, getting rid of lumps if any.

6. Time to add in the chopped walnuts & cranberries and  fold in lightly. Pour this into the prepared loaf tin. Smooth ans spread it evenly into the tin & sprinkle the pumpkin seeds on top of the batter.

7. Place it in the preheated oven and bake for about 65 mins or till the skewer comes out clean.

8. Cool it for 15 mins in the loaf tin itself. Post that for 30 mins at least before slicing it, as for me, I always bake it the night before.

9. Serve it with a generous slathering of salted or unsalted butter, topped with some more pumpkin seeds.

I enjoyed it as en evening snack, a late afternoon snack ( on occasions when the lunch menu was blah or it was a family vegetarian day). This works well, because the amount of weakness is just right, it's more like a white bread guys!! So,in case if you intend to have fuss free breakfast, to accommodate your WFH schedule this can be your go-to recipe. Remember the concept of edible gifts? Trust me you are going to be the star at any party if you carry this for the host, just use a paper loaf tin in that case!! Listed below are some of my observations and noting from the recipe trial:

a. There is absolutely no need to rush to the store to buy golden syrup, replace it wit honey or vice-versa.
b. In case if olive oil is out of stock, use flavor-less vegetable oil. That serves the purpose very well. I know this doesn't need to be mentioned, but still I like to help.
c. Chinese five spice powder can easily replaced by 1 tsp of cinnamon powder or fruit cake mix (in powder form) of even ginger powder.. So nothing to panic now, right?
d. On can also replace dried cranberries with rum soaked raisins, in case like me if you are missing your weekly dose of tipple.
e. For people baking it at 180 C, bake for 45 mins.
f. I prefer to cover the tin with aluminium foil for the first 35 mins to prevent excessive browning. You can follow that or can give that step a miss.
g. In case its your sweet tooth that compels you to make things of this sort ( read you are a hunker for sweetness), increase the honey and golden syrup by 1 tbsp of each.

Easy enough, as I promised right? Also the process of substitution stands important, and that has also been cleared. So all that's left for you to do, is bake this and gift your family a healthy tomorrow. And in case if you do not own a loaf tin, use your baking tin. It's all good!!

Do drop in a message and let me know how it turned out to be. Stay safe. Keep smiling amigoes!!