It is Mango season in India. We too have had a few Badami, Alphonse and Kesar mangoes. As it is pricy and also so few available, I avoid cooking with the fruit. Prefer consuming it fresh. We get tinned mango pulp all year around. Being Ramadan time, got a few tins, for a good price too.
Ingredients
- 1 ⅓ cup semolina
- 2 cups mango pulp
- ½ cup oil
- ¼ cup yogurt
- ½ cup honey
- ¼ cup dessicated coconut
- 2 tbsp Amaranth seeds (optional)
- ½ tsp cardamom powder
- ¾ tsp. baking powder
- Handful of chopped Nuts (optional)
Preparation
- Grease and flour the baking tin.
- Dry roast the rava / semolina for few minutes until a nice aroma comes.
- If using nuts, chop them and leave aside. The original recipe had a sprinkling of nuts… I avoided nuts and increased the amaranth seed quantity for the crunch.
- If using fresh mangoes - peel and scoop the flesh alone. Grind in mixie to a smooth puree.
- Measure all ingredients and keep them ready.
Method
- In a mixing bowl mix the mango pulp, honey, yoghurt, and oil in that order one after other. Mix until the oil emulsifies with the rest of the liquids.
- In another bowl mix together the roasted semolina, dessicated coconut, amaranth seeds and baking powder together.
- Add the mixed dry ingredients to the wet mango mix. Whisk it into a lump free batter. Initially it will be quite loose and pourable.
- Preheat oven at 170 degree celcius.
- Rest the mixed batter for 15 minutes. Now the rava would have absorbed the moisture and the batter would have thickened a bit.
- Transfer to the greased cake tin, level it. Bake in the preheated oven at 170 degrees for 18- 20 minutes until a toothpick inserted comes clean.
Notes
- I have used one cup tinned and one cup fresh mango pulp. Feel free to use either.
- Initially used only 1/4 cup honey as the tinned mango pulp was sweetened. But the sweetness was not enough. So added 1/4 cup more honey again.
- Adjust honey quantity based on sweetness of mangoes. You can also substitute it with sugar. Sugar gives a bright looking cake whereas honey dulls the final finished cake colour.
- I skipped nuts as a friend for whom it was prepared is allergic to nuts, so avoided it. Feel free to garnish with a sprinkling of nuts.
- I have used two tray bake pans. My pans are very shallow… So I baked for a lesser time.
- I had to use a square and a rectangular pan. If using a deep single cake pan will have to adjust baking time accordingly.
- I cut into very small individual portions... Got approx 60 small squares.
- The recipe can be adapted easily to a nut free, vegan version too…
- To make it vegan - exclude use of yoghurt and instead use any non diary milk (almond).
- For a nut free version avoid using nuts to garnish.
- I served with a coating of sweetened mango puree and a sprinkling of dessicated coconut.
