10 Healthy Christmas Recipes for the Whole Family

2. Ragi Plum Cake

Ingredients:

• ½ cup whole wheat flour
• ½ cup Ragi flour
• ½ cup grated or powdered jaggery
• ¼ cup oil
• 1 cup fresh orange juice
• ¼ cup nuts like almonds, cashew nuts and walnuts, chopped
• ½ cup dry fruits like dried figs, apricots, dates and raisins, chopped
• 1 tablespoon custard powder
• ½ tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp spice mixture, made by grinding 1 clove, 1 small stick of cinnamon and ¼ piece nutmeg
• A pinch of salt
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• 10-12 blanched almonds and glace cherries for garnishing (optional)

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven at 180 degrees Celsius for 15 minutes. Grease the cake pan or line it with the help of parchment paper.
2. Sieve the whole wheat flour, ragi flour, custard powder, spice mix, baking powder and salt together a few times. 
3. In another bowl, whisk the jaggery powder, orange juice and oil until the jaggery powder dissolves completely.
4. To this mix, add the vanilla extract and stir.
5. Pour the wet mix on the dry mix and whisk well to get a lump-free batter.
6. Put the chopped nuts and dry fruits in a small bowl, and add a teaspoon of flour to it. Toss the dry fruits and nuts so they are completely coated in the flour.
7. Add the nuts and dry fruits to the cake batter. Mix well with a spatula or whisk.
8. Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan. Tap the cake pan once or twice to remove any trapped air bubbles.
9. Bake the cake at 180 degrees Celsius in a preheated oven for 30-35 minutes. Keep a check after 25 minutes as the temperature may vary from oven to oven. To know if the cake is done, insert a toothpick in the center of the cake. If the tooth pick comes out clean, the cake is done. If you find batter sticking to the toothpick, bake the cake for another 5 minutes.
10. Let the cake cool completely on a wire rack.
11. Garnish with blanched almonds or cherries and serve. 

3. Almond Coconut Cookies

Ingredients:

• 1¼ cup wheat flour
• 2 cups almond flour
• 2 tablespoons desiccated coconut
• 2 tablespoons milk
• ½ cup coconut sugar
• 1 egg
• ½ tsp vanilla
• ½ cup butter

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven at 180 degrees Celsius for 15 minutes. Grease a baking pan with butter.
2. In a large bowl, whisk the butter till smooth.
3. Add coconut sugar and whisk till creamy.
4. Add the egg and vanilla essence and mix well.
5. Sift the wheat flour and almond flour. Add in the desiccated coconut and mix well.
6. Add milk a little at a time, just enough to get a smooth dough.
7. Wrap the dough ball in parchment paper greased with butter and refrigerate for one hour.
8. Take out the chilled dough and place it between 2 sheets of parchment paper.
9. Roll out the dough between the parchment till the dough is about ¼” thick.
10. Remove the top parchment paper and cut out cookies using cookie cutters of your choice.
11. Collect the leftover cutouts of the dough and roll them again into a dough ball.
12. Repeat steps 9-11 until you use up all the dough.
13. Transfer the cookies to the greased baking pan. Bake at 175/180 degrees Celsius for 10-12 min.
14. Let the cookies cool completely before serving.