Baked Almond Poornam cups- plant based, oil free
A healthier take on the Pongal festive traditional food, made without oil and with utmost care to the flavor and texture
Equipment
- Oven
Ingredients
Stuffing
- 1 1/4 cup Blanched Almond flour
- 1/2 cup Quick cook oats
- 1/4 cup jaggery or can use a combination of dates/ jaggery, or coconut sugar or date sugar I used jaggery
- 1 tsp salt
- 1.5 tsp cardamom powder
- 1 1/2 cup water
Outer shell
- 1/2 cup chick pea flour ( which is slightly different from besan) seen notes
- 1/2 cup brown rice flour
- 1/4 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp apple cider vinegar
- pinch of salt
Instructions
Making the stuffing
- In a heavy bottom pan, add the oats and toast for 3 min on medium heat. Then add the jaggery powder. You will see the jaggery start melting. At this point, add the water and mix well. About 3 min later add the cardamom powder, salt. The mixture should start to come together, although a bit gooey.
- Then add the almond flour. Mix well into a dough. Put it in the fridge for 30 min. Then make even sized balls with your hand. Roll between hands till the contour is smooth. Save them in a bowl.At this stage preheat the oven to 375 F.
Making the outer coat
- Tae a deep bowl. Add the chickpea flour and rice flour. Add the baking powder, salt, apple cider vinegar, then water. Mix with a spoon to have a batter that has consistency of slightly thicker dosa batter, or usual pancake batter.
Baking the Cup Poornams
- Take a mini cup cake tray and using very little oil by hand, coat the cupcake wells. Dip the already made sweet oat/ almond balls in the batter made , and place them gently in the cupcake molds. If you see any spot where the batter is missing, use a spoon to cover the spot with extra batter. Press a sliced almond on the top of each ball once in the cupcake mold.Bake at 375 F for 20 min. Then take the tray out and use a sharp knife or skewer to flip the poornams , so that the flat bottom is up. This is to facilitate even cooking all over. Then bake for additional 10 minutes. Once out of the oven, let them cool for 10 min, before removing from the tray and enjoy them warm.The slight cracks that add character to these cute cups, you will notice are normal, because we are baking and not deep frying, which is extremely unhealthy.
Notes
Besan is made from spilt bengal gram or channa dal( still chickpea family , but not the same ). So, Besan is a product after peeling, splitting bengal gram and grinding it. There is some processing involved.
Chickpea flour is made from just grinding garbanzo or white chickpeas.(less processing )
1/2 cup Chick pea flour contains 11 grams of protein, 5 grams of fiber, and vital nutrients like folate, iron, magnesium and zinc.
If you were to use besan instead of chick pea flour, watch the water content, as you might need a little bit more.
Also, you can try this recipe, using dosa batter for the outer coating prior to baking. I have not tried it yet , but will update once I do.