How to make Chai-Spiced Banana Bread - Are you a big fan of Chai or Tea or Masala Tea like me, then this cake is perfect for your taste buds. Chai Spiced Banana bread is a yummy twist on a classic recipe. Cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and all spices elevate on all time favourite snack. Perfect for a breakfast! 

The weather in Bangalore is turning brutal day by day sometimes rain or sometimes hot or when it’s raining, it continuously raining whole day, the weather automatically changed and festivals time is in the air.

To celebrate the festival and Holiday season right, I made Banana Chai Cake. 

What is Banana Chai Cake?

Chai is the actual word for TEA in many countries but when we say CHAI in India, we’re usually referring to Ginger chai, masala chai which is a smooth and calming beverage made of black tea, milk, sugar and fragrant Indian spices. 

The warm and comforting spices of the Chai Mix, mashed bananas and nutty walnuts so well in the cake.

The flavours of chai goes beautifully with banana bread, so I’ve taken one of my favorite banana bread recipes and subtly infused it with warm chai spices like cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg. 

Chai and spices along with banana takes this cake to a aromatic & flavourful level. This Banana bread is perfect for breakfast, evening snacking or just when you feel like it! 

Many of us don’t like to eat overripe banana, so if you have any leftover bananas which you don’t want to eat, you can use them for this recipe. This is a perfect way to use overripe banana, which would come out so moist. This banana chai cake would even tastes great next day!!

This is our Recipe Swap Challenge month, where we choose recipes from our partner's blog, this month my partner. I was paired up with Ashima of My Weekend Kitchen and while seeing her blog, I saw the recipe of winter spiced banana bread, I had a ripe bananas in my fridge and I know that no one will eat it. So I used it and bake this yummy cake! 

I have just minor changes into recipe, as I am a big fan of ginger tea. So I used a mix of ginger powder, fresh and grated nutmeg powder and cinnamon powder. The actual recipe used cloves and green cardamom powder, so you can use it according to your taste-buds.

Let's check out the recipe of banana chai cake recipe with step by step photos method 

Prep time : 20 minutes
Cook time : 1 hour
Total time : 1 hour 20 minutes
Course : Breakfast
Cuisine :  American
Serves : 8 to 10 serves
Author : Jolly Makkar

Ingredients (1 cup = 240ml; 1 tbsp = 15ml; 1tsp = 5ml)

Salted butter softened - 1/2 cup (I used Amul one)
Castor sugar - 3/4 cup
Eggs at room temperature - 3 medium 
All-purpose flour - 1½ cup 
Baking soda - 1 tsp
All-spice mix - 1 tsp (I used a mix of nutmeg, cinnamon, and ginger powder)
Mashed bananas the more ripe they are, the better it is - 1 cup 
Vanilla extract/essence - 1 tsp 
Yogurt/Dahi - 1/2 cup 
Roughly chopped walnuts  - 1/3 cup + 1 tbsp (sprinkle on top)

Preparation Method :

1. Preheat oven to 180ºC (350ºF) and meanwhile lay butter paper inside the tin(only for the bottom). Grease it with butter.

2. In a mixing bowl, creaming the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. 

3. Add the eggs one at a time. Incorporating well after each addition.

4. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking soda and spices.

5. Add the dry mixture little-little to the butter mixture and Whisk well.

6. Mix to blend.

7. Add the mashed bananas, curd and vanilla extract, mix well. 

8. Beat on low speed. Gently add in the walnuts.

9. Transfer the batter to a greased 9 x 5 x 3-inch loaf pan.

10. Tap the cake tin two times, if bubbles are there it will sit down and sprinkle chopped walnuts on top.

11. Bake for 55 minutes and about an hour until a skewer inserted comes out clean.

12. Take out of the oven and then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely. Enjoy!

Check out more awesome cake recipes for festivals and holidays season , check out these :

eggless coconut cakeeggless carrot cake
vegan jaggery cake
whole wheat eggless chocolate cake
orange chiffon cake
rainbow swirl cake
eggless funfetti mug cake

Rava Kesari Bath Recipe with step by step photos. It is a popular South-Indian sweet dish made from semolina or sooji or rava is mainly prepared for breakfast or during festival times. 

It is a simple sweet recipe prepared with basic ingredients like rava, sugar, water, ghee and saffron or yellow food colour. 

I have used both a pinch of food colour and saffron to give natural kesari(yellowish color tone) to the pudding. 

The optional flavorings and colorants are also added. It is topped with dry fruits like chopped cashews, almonds and some raisins which gives a nice crunchy effect to it.

What is Rava Kesari ?

The term "Rava Kesari" means sooji pudding which is flavoured with saffron and yellowish color. Since the dish is made with rava/sooji and has an orange color. 

The word "Kesari" indicates yellow color tones and in some instance also means Saffron, which is called KESAR.

Rava kesari bath is similar to Sooji Halwa. In karnataka this is called kesari bath and In Maharashtra it's called Sheera, but that one made without colour. 



Rava Kesari is a very popular breakfast in Karnataka served along with khara bath. The combination of khara bath and rava kesari is known as chow-chow bath. I had this Rava Kesari first time in Bangalore, when I came here first time after my marriage, I had this kesari halwa with khara bath & coriander coconut chutney in breakfast with my tea. 

This is one of the classic Indian dessert, easy and quick kesari halwa recipe, so you don’t need any excuse or occasion to make it. 

Rava kesari halwa is often made for an auspicious occasion or a pooja, it could also be a festive occasion like Diwali, Dussehra, Ganesha chaturthi, holi or a religious pooja offered as a prasad conducted in my home or just want to have something sweet. 

Instead of water you can also used milk also. I personally prefer water, or you can take 1:1 proportion of milk and water. Addition of milk, sweet make more heavy.

Let's begin the step by step recipe of Rava Kesari recipe with pictures.

Cuisine : Sweet dish/Prasad
Preparation Time : 5 minutes
Cook Time : 20 minutes
Total Time : 25 minutes
Serving : 4 people
Author : Jolly Makkar

Ingredients :

Fine rava/Chiroti sooji - 1 cup 
Sugar - 3/4 cup or 1 cup (adjust according to your sweetness)
Water - 3 cup
Desi ghee - 1/2 cup
Cardamom Pods /powder - 2 (skin and seeds)/ 1/2 tsp
Chopped Almonds - 4 tablespoons 
Cashews - 2 tablespoons 
A Pinch of Yellow/Orange Food Colour
A pinch of saffron

Preparation Method :

1. Heat desi ghee in a heavy bottom pan or kadai, fry cashews until golden in color.

2. In the same ghee add the rava or sooji along roast till nice aroma comes out.

3. Roast the rava (semolina) and roast till you can see the ghee getting separated from the rava and the color of the rava change its color become slightly brown. This takes approx 7-8 minutes on a low flame.

4. In meanwhile, dissolve sugar, water, food color and saffron in a another pan. Crush the cardamom pods and add it sugar syrup. Keep on flame and allow it to come to a boil. 

5. Pour the sugar-saffron solution in the ghee-rava mixture slowly with continuous stirring make sure that there no lumps are formed.

6. The rava or sooji will absorb the water and the mixture will thicken. Add finely chopped almond or roasted cashew nuts in rava kesari.

7.  Stir till the mixture starts to leave the sides of the pan. 
Switch off and then cover the pan for 5 minutes just to allow the rava kesari to steam. 

8. Serve hot or warm rava kesari as it is. You can also serve rava kesari as a side sweet dish.


Important Notes

1> Roasting rava properly to get the best texture. So, take your time, be patient and roast over medium low heat stirring constantly till you get nice aroma and slight color change. Do not burn or over roast.

2> You can also replace orange food colour with a yellow food colour. 

Variation: You can also substitute the water with same amount of milk and it also gives a rich & creamy texture. Or use half water and half milk which also gives the perfect balance of richness and creaminess.

Check the YouTube video of Rava Kesari Bath

If you are looking for more sweet recipes then do check :-

How to make Indian Cucumber Salad recipe - This is one of the easiest salad ever, and takes just a few minutes to make. It is an simple vegetarian salad recipe, that is loaded with goodness of vegetables that are chopped, tossed up with few spices & dressed with lemon juice. 

It’s also commonly known as Kachumber Salad, and is ready in just a few minutes and goes perfectly with all curries or as a dip with chips. It goes well with all lunch or dinner menus. 

I didn’t want to post this easy Kachumber Salad recipe, because it’s such an easy and basic recipe. But I’ve often found that it’s the simplest recipe which are most popular, so I thought to myself, why not?

The ingredients you need for this indian cucumber salad are tomatoes, cucumber, onions, chopped coriander and few spices which are easily available in our kitchen.. You can add green chillies also but I avoid it because of my toddler.

So all you do is chop everything up finely, and then add some spices with freshly squeezed lemon juice ..toss..toss..toss! or You can serves them plain also without adding spices.

I am using this kachumber salad can also be made into a cooling vegetable raita by adding some yogurt with spices like salt, cumin powder, black salt and red chilli powder. Tossing it all up. 

SERVE THIS CUCUMBER SALAD WITH

BAKED ITALIAN CHICKEN DRUMSTICKS
EASY POTATO CURRY
AWADHI STYLE CHICKEN CURRY
TANGDI KABAB
RESTAURANT STYLE DAL MAKHANI

 Course : Appetizer, Salad
 Cuisine : Indian
 Prep Time : 5 minutes
 Servings : 2

Ingredients :

Finely chopped tomato - 1 medium sized 
Finely chopped onion - 1 medium sized
Finely chopped cucumber - 1 no
Cumin powder - 1 tsp
Red chilli powder - 1/2 tsp
Salt to taste 
Chopped coriander leaves 
Freshly squeezed lemon juice

Preparation Method :

1. Chop all the ingredients finely, add all spices, lemon juice and toss together. (check notes**)

2. Top with chopped coriander leaves.

Important Notes**

a. Once you chopped the veggies keep it aside don't add spices in it, before serving  just add spices and juice, if we add earlier spices and juices in salad..sometimes it becomes bitter and soggy. 

b. You can add any veggies of your choice ooty carrots, red carrots, red and yellow bell pepper,boiled chickpeas, boiled corn anything which you like the combination most.

Did you make this recipe?

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How to make Pindi Chole Recipe - This is a traditional dish from the North India made from white chickpeas and aromatic fresh spices. Chickpeas cooked with whole spices then added into onion tomato based gravy. This dish is adapted from Rawalpindi before the segment of India and Pakistan happened, henceforth, it is called Pindi Chana.

Chana implies chickpeas and Pindi word originated from the place(rawalpindi). Pindi chana masala is completely stuffed of proteins. Pindi Chole is best presented with butter naan(homemade) or poori or simple roti or with jeera Rice also. 

This below picture is actually our lunch, served with simple chapati , kadai paneer as a side dish and guava as a salad.

I have used homemade spices for making Pindi Chana Masala made from fresh, roasted spices such as jeera, carom seeds, coriander seeds, anardana, cloves, black peppercorns, both green and black .cardamom, cinnamon, fennel seeds etc. You can use market based pindi chana masala too. (it comes in mdh or catch brand) 

But I believe if you make this authentic way to prepare homemade powder, you will enjoy the dish most rather than market based powder. 

This pindi chana masala recipe is slightly different recipe from punjabi chole masala, check the recipe

This freshly roasted and powdered homemade masala, made Pindi Chana extremely delicious. I used tea leaves while cooking the chana, the boiled chana had this lovely brown colour and its fragrance.

Once the chana got cooked up, I simply cooked onions, tomatoes and handmade masala with the chana and pindi chole prepared! To give a tartness to the gravy, I added tamarind pulp as well while chana was getting simmered with different ingredients.  

Let's start the easiest recipe of homemade Pindi Chana Masala 

Prep Time : 8 hours 
Cook Time : 30 minutes
Total Time : 8 hours 30 minutes
Servings : 4
Course : Main Course
Cuisine : NorthIndian
Author : Jolly Makkar

Ingredients :

Choley / White chickpeas - 1 cup (soaked overnight)
Tea leaves - 2 tsp
Chopped Onion - 1 cup
Chopped Tomato - 1 cup
Ginger - 1 inch piece chopped
Green chili - 2-3  slit into half
Mango Powder - 1 tsp
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
Salt to taste
Tamarind paste - 2 tbsp
Oil - 4 tbsp
Fresh coriander leaves for garnishing

For the Tea water/decoction

Water - 2 cups
Black Tea Leaves - 2 to 3 tbsp

Dry roast the below spices till fragrant and slightly black in colour and grind to make a powder

Jeera - 1 tbsp
Anardana - 1 tbsp
Fennel seeds/Saunf - 1 tsp
Carom seeds/Ajwain - 1/2 tsp
Coriander seeds - 2 tbsp
Cloves - 7-8
Black peppercorns - 12-15
Black cardamom - 2
Green Cardamom - 2
Cinnamon - 1 inch piece
Dry red chilies - 2-3 (optional)

Preparation Method :

1. Boil the tea leaves in 2 cups of water. Strain and keep it aside.

2. Add soaked choley, black tea water, salt and some more water in a pressure cooker and cook till choley are done.

3. Add oil in a kadai/pan. When the oil is hot enough, add the chopped onions and fry till golden brown.

4. Add tomato, ginger and green chili and fry for another 2 minutes on high heat.

5. Add the grounded homemade chana masala. Add turmeric powder, mix well and little water, cook for 3 to 4 minutes. 

6. Add the cooked choley along with the water. Cook for 10-12 minutes on medium heat. Stir occasionally.

7. Adjust salt as required. Add tamarind pulp and mix well. Garnish with fresh coriander leaves.

You can end number of chickpeas recipes from my blog

punjabi style kala chana masala
chickpeas avocado salad
kabuli chana 
amritsari style chole

Did you make this recipe?

Tag #jollyhomemaderecipes or follow us for more updates on 
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Rice pudding with detailed step by step photos recipe. Rice Kheer or Chawal ki Kheer is one among the foremost and popular dessert in North India. It is a traditional Indian rice pudding which is quite long process but it's really easy to make. 

Made by simmering rice and milk in heavy pot or big vessels for a long time, this kheer has a rich, creamy taste and attractive pink colour that comes out of the natural thickening of milk. 

Krishna Janmashtami is a Hindu festival that celebrates the birth of Krishna, the eighth avatar of lord Vishnu. Krishna devotees all around the world celebrate this festival with great joy and enthusiasm. 

Various dishes are made on this day to offer to the deity. We made chawal ki kheer as a bhog (prasad). Rice Kheer or Chawal ki Kheer is a milk based sweet and this creamy dish that is offered to lord Krishna on the auspicious occasion of Janmashtami.  

This tradition is going on my mom side, so I followed the same tradition. As we all know the story goes Lord Krishna was very fond of butter and all dairy products. So dishes using milk, or milk products like dahi, white butter are included in the prasad(bhog).


What is Kheer?

Kheer is an Indian pudding where rice is cooked with milk until creamy texture. Traditionally kheer is seasoned with cardamom and saffron.

Kheer is an all time favorite Indian dessert. All of us, in fact have grown up, enjoying it with the family and for all festivities, it's a must sweet at our home. Rice Kheer also brings back many memories of my childhood. I've learn this thick & creamy texture rice ki kheer from my papa(dad). Whenever we visit to my hometown, my dad make chawal ki kheer for us(for all siblings) and that will be finished in same day only. 😜😋😋

Kheer is a rice pudding, originating from the Indian subcontinent, made by boiling rice, broken wheat, sabudana or vermicelli with milk and sugar; it is flavoured with cardamom, raisins, saffron, cashews, pistachios or almonds. 

Rice Pudding is typically served during a meal or after a meal as a dessert. It is also known in some regions as payasam, payasa, and phirni, while in Bengal the payesh is a variation of Kheer.

Let's see how to make Chawal ki Kheer recipe with step by step photos

Course : Dessert
Cuisine : Indian
Prep Time : 10 minutes
Cook Time : 1 hour
Total Time : 1 hour 10 minutes
Servings : 4 people
Author : Jolly Makkar

Ingredients : 

Full Fat Milk - 1 litre 
Rice - 3 tbsp (Washed and soaked for 30 minutes)
Saffron strands - 15-20
Cardamom Pods/powder - 4-5 / 1/2 tsp 
Chopped Almonds - 1/4 cup (Washed and soaked for 30 minutes)
Sugar - 1/4 cup 

Preparation Method :

1. Wash the rice properly and soaked it for 30 minutes.

2. Heat milk in a pan. When it comes to a boil, add drained rice. 

3. Cook on low heat till rice is cooked. Add saffron strands in between. 

4. Keep stirring in between. It will take 45 minutes to an hour for the kheer to thicken. Scrap all cream from the sides.

5. Add cardamom pods (seeds as well its skin also) that gives natural flavour to dish or you can use the cardamom powder too.

6. Add sugar and cook for another 5 minute.

7. Add chopped almonds or any dry fruits like pistachio or raisins.

8. Garnish with almonds. Serve hot or chilled.

Notes **

• Use full fat milk to make the kheer.
• You can skip adding saffron if you wish to.
• When it is cooked, checked using your finger it is easily mashed or not.
• Soaking the rice is very important so do not miss this step.
• Cook the kheer on low heat and in a heavy bottom pan.