Saturday, June 2, 2012

Cardamom & Cinnamon Swirl bread...

The ambience was perfect for baking. I had the whole house to myself & I had all the ingredients in my kitchen cabinet. My buddy, the radio was belting out good songs. I am on a baking spree these days and I can’t complaint. This bread is special because, it includes my two favorite C’s- Cardamom and Cinnamon. Oh boy, the smell that wafts all around the house, just spikes up your spirit! This one is a winner :)





Phew, preparation time is long. And you have to be patient while the yeast does the trick. If you are an impatient soul like me, it becomes tough. Trust me, all the patience is rewarded with a sensational and aromatic bread :)


Ingredients
  • 1 cup Milk
  • 6 Tablespoons Butter
  • 2-1/2 teaspoons Active Dry Yeast
  • 2 whole Eggs
  • 1/3 cup Sugar
  • 3-1/2 cups All-purpose Flour
  • 1/3 cup Sugar
  • 11/2 Tablespoons Cinnamon
  • 1/2 Tablespoon Cardamom
  • Egg And Milk, Mixed Together, For Brushing
  • Softened Butter, For Smearing And Greasing

Instructions
  1. Step 1 will be to awaken your sleeping yeast. Mix yeast and 1/4 tsp of sugar in a bowl with 2-3 tbsp of warm water. Set it aside for five minutes for the yeast to froth.
  2. Melt butter with milk. Heat until very warm, but don’t boil. Allow to cool until still warm to the touch, but not hot.
  3. Since I used salted butter, I haven’t used any salt separately for the dough.
  4. In a bowl beat sugar and eggs until combined. Pour in milk/butter/yeast mixture and stir to combine. Add the flour, bit by bit and knead until combined.
  5. If dough is very sticky, add 1/4 cup flour and knead for 5 minutes.
  6. Once the dough is done, place it in a bowl and set it in a warm, hospitable place for an hour.
  7. The dough should double in volume after an hour.
  8. Once the dough is doubled, punch out the air and gently knead it on a work surface.
  9. with the help of a rolling pin, roll the dough in a rectangle (ensure it is not too wide to put in the baking pan).
  10. Spread some butter on the dough.
  11. Mix sugar, cardamom and cinnamon together, then sprinkle evenly over the butter-smeared dough. Starting at the far end, roll dough toward you, keeping it tight and contained. Pinch seam to seal.
  12. Spread the baking pan with softened butter. Place dough, seam down, in the pan. Cover with plastic wrap and allow to rise for 45 minutes.
  13. Preheat oven to 180 degree celsius.
  14. Mix a little egg with milk, and brush over the top. Bake for 30-35 minutes on a middle/lower rack in the oven.
  15. Remove from the pan and allow bread to cool. Slice and serve with a cuppa steaming coffee- bliss!


Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Chocolate Coconut Cake Recipe

There is something dark and mysterious about this cake, and the coconut blends perfectly to create a symphony of taste.




There is something dark and mysterious about this cake and the coconut just blends so well to create a perfect symphony of taste. Remember the ratatouille movie rat and the way they show the flavors just mixing and creating a beautiful medley- well that’s exactly what was happening the moment I took a bite and savored the coconut and chocolate flavors that were oozing out of the cake. Now, making it ain’t gonna be a rocket scientist job- Considering, a novice like me can whip up this cake…Some people can just bake a cake  at the spur of a moment. For me, it’s a big deal. I decide on a day (usually sundays), read through the recipe atleast 10 times and shop for the ingredients on saturday. phew…I make it so complicated. but the results have always been good, so I think it is worth the effort.  It’s a moist cake and you can’t simply stop eating it- oops, here goes another bite in my mouth!







Chocolate coconut cake
perfect symphony of coconut and chocolate in a moist cake!


Ingredients
  • 150 grams all purpose flour
  • 1 tbsp baking powder
  • 175 grams butter
  • 175 grams caster sugar
  • 3 eggs
  • 2 tbsp cocoa powder
  • Icing-
  • 50 gram plain chocolate broken in pieces
  • 5 tbsp milk
  • 1 tsp butter
  • 85 grams icing sugar
  • about 5-8 tsp desiccated coconut to decorate
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 180 degree celsius-
  2. Sift flour, baking powder and cocoa powder together and keep aside.
  3. In a bowl, beat the butter and caster sugar together until light and fluffy.
  4. Gradually add the eggs, beating well after each addition.
  5. Fold the flour into this mixture and blend well.
  6. Pour the mixture into a greased tin.
  7. Bake in the oven for around 35-40 minutes-
  8. Once baked leave it to cool on a wire rack.
  9. To make the icing, place the chocolate, milk and butter in a heatproof bowl and set it over a saucepan of simmering water.
  10. stir until the chocolate melts and blend in the icing sugar and beat till smooth.
  11. Leave the icing to cool until it’s thick to spread.
  12. Spread the icing on the cake and sprinkle the desiccated coconut on top.
Notes
Lightly toast the coconut in a pan for few minutes before topping the cake. Don’t let it burn.

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Roasted Raw Bananas

Potatoes, please step aside- Now, the stage is taken by something that's more delicious and a healthier option. The contender in question is very low in Saturated Fat, Cholesterol and Sodium. It is also a good source of Dietary Fiber, Vitamin C, Potassium, Manganese, and a very good source of Vitamin B6.

What am I talking about? Raw Bananas... I love them. I always steam them and use the inner pulp to make a stir fry. This time around I tried something different. I cooked the raw bananas on a gas flame and roasted the inner pulp with a touch of coriander seeds and notched the heat with red chillies. Makes a wonderful starter with hot chilli sauce.

Roasted Raw Bananas

Ingredients
  • 2 Raw Bananas
  • Curry Leaves- a few
  • one small onion- sliced
  • Mustard seeds- 1 tsp
  • oil to fry
  • Coriander seeds -2 tbsp
  • Salt to taste
  • dash of asafoetida powder
  • Dry red chillies- 3-4 (use more to make it spicier)

Instructions
  1. Put the raw Bananas on medium flame and allow the bananas to cook. Cook the bananas till the outer skin is completely charred and the inner portion is soft.
  2. Once cooked remove them from flame and allow them to cool.
  3. Peel the skin and chop them in cubes.
  4. Dry roast the coriander seeds with red chillies on a pan till they become aromatic (don’t burn them)
  5. Coarsely grind the coriander seeds with dry red chillies.
  6. In a pan add liberal dose of oil and throw in the mustard seeds.
  7. As they begin to sputter, add dash of asafoetida powder.
  8. Fry the onions on a medium flame till they become golden brown.
  9. Add curry leaves and chopped bananas.
  10. Roast them in the pan till they start turning golden brown.
  11. Adjust salt according to taste and throw in the spice powder.
  12. Roast them for another few minutes till the bananas absorb the spices.
  13. Enjoy them with spicy sauce!



Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Cinnamon muffins!

Nothing beats a good, moist, cinnamon flavored muffin. It’s like biting into a piece of cinnamon bliss.


A hardcore fan of cinnamon, I can munch on these goodies day in and out. I sure had fun baking them and it’s pretty easy to make. The recipe came from the blog velvetlava.blogspot.in. I had pinned it long time back and never had a chance to revisit. And when I did revisit, I realised I had all the ingredients to bake them. I was delighted when it came out perfect.







Cinnamon Muffins                                          
Moist Cinnamon Muffins- who wouldn’t love it?

Ingredients
  • 1/3 c. butter, melted
  • 1/2 c. sugar
  • 1 egg (preferably room temperature)
  • 1 1/2 c. all purpose flour
  • 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp. salt
  • 1/4 tsp. nutmeg
  • 1/2 c. milk
  • Topping
  • 1/4 c. sugar
  • 1/4 c. butter, melted
  • 1 tsp. cinnamon
  • Preheat oven to 350F.
Instructions
  1. In a medium-large bowl, sift together all dry ingredients.
  2. Add wet ingredients and stir until combined, but still a bit lumpy. (Don’t overmix).
  3. Scoop batter into muffin tins or muffin cups.
  4. Using a spoon, I got 12 medium muffins out of this batter; I think you could get 8-10 large muffins by distributing the batter generously.
  5. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until they just start to turn a bit golden at the edges.
  6. For the topping, mix sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl.
  7. Place melted butter in another small bowl.
  8. Dip the warm muffins in melted butter, then dip/roll the muffin in cinnamon sugar.
  9. Enjoy with piping hot coffee :)

Thursday, April 26, 2012

Onion-Olive-Tomato Tango with Snackuits

The other day, I was delighted to hear from Priya, a fellow blogger and a wonderful human being about the event she was holding for her blog. The task sounded simple and I was upbeat about it. With a bit of imagination and good support from Priya, here I am with my recipe/review of Britannia’s snackuits. Would take this opportunity to thank Priya & Britannia for my post.


Binging, snacking whatever you want to call- I simply love it! You get the picture; I am not someone who shies away from a good snack even on a full stomach.  And every single bite I take, I have this twinge of unshakable guilt. What if you could enjoy snacking without a complete feeling of guilt? Well that’s how these snacks are positioned by Britannia- as a snacking guru, I got to taste these wonderful little flavorful snacks and here is my verdict-  I love it!


Britannia has a winner with these snacks considering the whole hoopla about health snacks in Indian market.Britannia’s effort to entice the audience with three international flavors- Italiano Pizza, Chinese hot & sweet, Swiss cheese and chilli will not go in vain. However, for me, what worked the most was the Italiano pizza flavor. I am partial to Italian food, perhaps! With a heightened sense of garlic, this snack was the most appealing of the three. And the least favorite is the Swiss cheese and chilli- Cause, this reminds me of sour cream and onion chips that’s already in the market. So, nothing special about it. Chinese hot & sweet has oriental flavor written all over it and I wouldn't mind emptying the packet in a jiffy. Would these flavors work for Indian market? Oh yes!  People may be partial to one particular flavor but these baked goodies are a hit 


So coming back to some whacky and funky ideas to gobble them up, oh I have some good suggestions-
You can dunk it in a sauce, crumble them in your salad, top them with veggies and spices of your choice or eat them plain. Flavors hit you at the right spot especially the Italiano pizza snack! 


 Since these biscuits are flavorful, they would work great in a onion-olive-tomato tango treat. Blends perfect with all the three biscuit flavors. 




Onion-Olive-Tomato Tango with Snackuits

Ingredients-
  • 1 small red onion (chopped fine)
  • ½ cucumber (chopped fine)
  • ½ firm tomato (chopped fine)
  • sliced olives (black) 1 tbsp
  • 1 green chilli (optional)
  • ¼ tsp of roasted cumin powder 
  • Olive oil to blend all the ingredients
 Procedure-

Since we are going to use tomato I would advise you to blend the biscuits towards the end. Otherwise it would get soggy and lose the essence. In a bowl, mix onion, cucumber, tomato, green chillies, olives together. Add cumin and olive oil. Before serving, add a packet of Britannia Italiano pizza biscuits, give it a good toss and watch it vanish in front of your eyes like magic!

You could be super creative and try out different things with these biscuits- Look who had fun of her own with these biscuits-















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