a Piece of Cake...

Daring Bakers August Challenge: Dobos Torte

2009-08-27T13:07:00.006+05:30

The August 2009 Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Angela of A Spoonful
of Sugar and Lorraine of Not Quite Nigella. They chose the spectacular Dobos
Torte based on a recipe from Rick Rodgers' cookbook Kaffeehaus: Exquisite
Desserts from the Classic Caffés of Vienna, Budapest, and Prague.

This cake was a deceptive challenge. I think the biggest hurdle for me was mental, the cake looks so intimidating. But when broken down into steps, it's laborious but not overwhelming. The cake is delicious. But as much as I like caramel, I was not a fan of the little caramel cake wedges on top -- partly because they did no favors to my braces! And I am not quite sure what texture they were supposed to have turned out... chewy or crackly? Mine were a bit of both, and I felt that they made the cake hard to eat.

The recipe itself is broken into three parts... the cake, the icing and the caramel. I made the icing first, a day ahead... chocolate buttercream. It's very rich, but delicious. The cake wasn't hard, again laborious, baking six layers. Instead of a offset spatula, I used a method I've seen dosa makers use -- I used the base of a rounded cup measure I have to smooth out the batter on the rounds of parchment paper. Hooray for precut papers!
I refrigerated the layers to help with the layering and slathering of buttercream. It's pretty hot out here and the buttercream did not do well outside. the cake layers were sliding here and there. And the wedges kept sliding off. I didn't use any nuts, in the hopes that my daughters might have some.

Daring Bakers May 2009 Challenge: Raspberry strudel

2009-05-27T12:54:00.010+05:30

The May Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Linda of make life sweeter! and Courtney of Coco Cooks. They chose Apple Strudel from the recipe book Kaffeehaus: Exquisite Desserts from the Classic Cafés of Vienna, Budapest and Prague by Rick Rodgers.

I have to say that I was initially quite hesitant about attempting this challenge. Stretching dough paper thin, in fact even thinner, given my misfortunes with rolling out dough in general, seemed impossible. But my friend and fellow Daring Baker Shirley of What About Second Breakfast? tried the challenge early on. And then she made it again, and again and again. She raved about it and claimed it wasn't so hard. So I had to give it a shot. And she was right!
I would never have imagined it, but once I rolled it out about 15 inches square and began stretching the rest came easily. It practically stretched itself. I do recommend trimming any thick edges, as they tend to turn out a little tough or chewy.
I went with a simple filling of 12 oz raspberries tossed with 1/2 cup sugar. I sprinkled the dough with about 1/3 cup of almond meal, in line with the apple version, which has breadcrumbs.
And you know what, I ended up making the apple version, and a cherry cheese filling from Martha's Baking Handbook. I was planning to take them to work, but my husband pouted, so I left it home. That means I will probably make this again soon to take to work, using all those wonderful cherries California is getting now.
I think this may be in my regular repertoire now. The effort compared to the wow factor is well worth it!

My creation

Type rest of the post here

Strudel dough
from “Kaffeehaus – Exquisite Desserts from the Classic Cafés of Vienna, Budapest and Prague” by Rick Rodgers

1 1/3 cups (200 g) unbleached flour
1/8 teaspoon salt
7 tablespoons (105 ml) water, plus more if needed
2 tablespoons (30 ml) vegetable oil, plus additional for coating the dough
1/2 teaspoon cider vinegar

1. Combine the flour and salt in a stand-mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix the water, oil and vinegar in a measuring cup. Add the water/oil mixture to the flour with the mixer on low speed. You will get a soft dough. Make sure it is not too dry, add a little more water if necessary.
Take the dough out of the mixer. Change to the dough hook. Put the dough ball back in the mixer. Let the dough knead on medium until you get a soft dough ball with a somewhat rough surface.

2. Take the dough out of the mixer and continue kneading by hand on an unfloured work surface. Knead for about 2 minutes. Pick up the dough and throw it down hard onto your working surface occasionally.
Shape the dough into a ball and transfer it to a plate. Oil the top of the dough ball lightly. Cover the ball tightly with plastic wrap. Allow to stand for 30-90 minutes (longer is better).

3. It would be best if you have a work area that you can walk around on all sides like a 36 inch (90 cm) round table or a work surface of 23 x 38 inches (60 x 100 cm). Cover your working area with table cloth, dust it with flour and rub it into the fabric. Put your dough ball in the middle and roll it out as much as you can.
Pick the dough up by holding it by an edge. This way the weight of the dough and gravity can help stretching it as it hangs. Using the back of your hands to gently stretch and pull the dough. You can use your forearms to support it.

4. The dough will become too large to hold. Put it on your work surface. Leave the thicker edge of the dough to hang over the edge of the table. Place your hands underneath the dough and stretch and pull the dough thinner using the backs of your hands. Stretch and pull the dough until it's about 2 feet (60 cm) wide and 3 feet (90 cm) long, it will be tissue-thin by this time. Cut away the thick dough around the edges with scissors. The dough is now ready to be filled.

Don't forget to check out the other Daring Bakers' wonderful creations.

Daring Bakers February Challenge: Chocolate Valentino!

2009-03-01T08:12:00.017+05:30

What's challenging about chocolate cake, you say? Well this isn't any old chocolate cake, it's a flour-less chocolate cake... rich and decadent. And part of the challenge is to make your own ice cream to pair with it (believe me, as rich as this cake is, you need ice cream to help it go down!)
So, I've been off the blogging wagon for a while, but I'm hoping with this post I can get back on!
The February 2009 challenge is hosted by Wendy of WMPE's blog and Dharm of Dad ~ Baker & Chef. They've chosen a Chocolate Valentino cake by Chef Wan; a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Dharm and a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Wendy as the challenge.
Do check out other Daring Bakers amazing takes on this challenge!

Since I was determined to get back on the wagon, I made the cake, though I had no time (or equipment) for the ice cream.
I made the cake in a 6-inch round spring form and saved some of the batter and baked it in these heart-shaped foil cups (ostensibly for jello) that I had found on sale.

The recipe is super easy:

Chocolate Valentino
Preparation Time: 20 minutes 16 ounces (1 pound) (454 grams) of semisweet chocolate, roughly chopped ½ cup (1 stick) plus 2 tablespoons (146 grams total) of unsalted butter 5 large eggs separated 1. Put chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl and set over a pan of simmering water (the bottom of the bowl should not touch the water) and melt, stirring often. 2. While your chocolate butter mixture is cooling. Butter your pan and line with a parchment circle then butter the parchment. 3. Separate the egg yolks from the egg whites and put into two medium/large bowls. 4. Whip the egg whites in a medium/large grease free bowl until stiff peaks are formed (do not over-whip or the cake will be dry). 5. With the same beater beat the egg yolks together. 6. Add the egg yolks to the cooled chocolate. 7. Fold in 1/3 of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture and follow with remaining 2/3rds. Fold until no white remains without deflating the batter. {link of folding demonstration} 8. Pour batter into prepared pan, the batter should fill the pan 3/4 of the way full, and bake at 375F/190C 9. Bake for 25 minutes until an instant read thermometer reads 140F/60C. Note – If you do not have an instant read thermometer, the top of the cake will look similar to a brownie and a cake tester will appear wet. 10. Cool cake on a rack for 10 minutes then unmold.

If you are so inclined, here is one of the ice cream recipes:

Dharm's Classic Vanilla Ice Cream
Preparation Time: 30 minutes

Recipe comes from the Ice Cream Book by Joanna Farrow and Sara Lewis (tested modifications and notes in parentheses by Dharm)

Ingredients
1 Vanilla Pod (or substitute with vanilla extract)
300ml / ½ pint / 1 ¼ cups Semi Skimmed Milk – in the U.S. this is 2% fat (or use fresh full fat milk that is pasteurised and homogenised {as opposed to canned or powdered}). Dharm used whole milk.
4 large egg yolks
75g / 3oz / 6 tbsp caster sugar {superfine sugar can be achieved in a food processor or use regular granulated sugar}
5ml / 1 tsp corn flour {cornstarch}
300ml / ½ pint / 1 ¼ cups Double Cream (48% butter fat) {in the U.S. heavy cream is 37% fat)

1. Using a small knife slit the vanilla pod lengthways. Pour the milk into a heavy based saucepan, add the vanilla pod and bring to the boil. Remove from heat and leave for 15 minutes to allow the flavours to infuse
Lift the vanilla pod up. Holding it over the pan, scrape the black seeds out of the pod with a small knife so that they fall back into the milk. SET the vanilla pod aside and bring the milk back to the boil.
2. Whisk the egg yolks, sugar and corn-flour in a bowl until the mixture is thick and foamy. 3. Gradually pour in the hot milk, whisking constantly. Return the mixture to the pan and cook over a gentle hear, stirring all the time
4. When the custard thickens and is smooth, pour it back into the bowl. Cool it then chill.
5. By Hand: Whip the cream until it has thickened but still falls from a spoon. Fold it into the custard and pour into a plastic tub or similar freeze-proof container. Freeze for 6 hours or until firm enough to scoop, beating it twice (during the freezing process – to get smoother ice cream or else the ice cream will be icy and coarse)
By Using and Ice Cream Maker: Stir the cream into the custard and churn the mixture until thick (follow instructions on your ice cream maker)

Dubbu's Paneer

2009-01-04T15:44:00.004+05:30

I'm back! And I seem to have forgotten the b of blogging so I will be glad when am through with this post! This rich gravy with paneer pieces floating (also tomatoe pieces because we don't have mixer-grinder) is one of few things which I can still make coz it doesn't need a Kitchenaid, oven, beaters, etc etc, none of which I have in my new place :(. Anyway I 'm learning to live.

People have often asked what this paneer is 'Butter Paneer?, Shahi PAneer?, etc' and our answer is Dubbu's Paneer, coz we got this recipe from a close family friend (more family than friend) Dubbu, which is what my now three-year-old nephew calls her!

Its a foolproof damn easy recipe. And what set its apart from the usual indian dishes is that it doesn't have the usual tumeric and red chilli powder and still when you eat it you don't miss anything.

Dubbu's Paneer (enough to feed ten tummies)

400gms Paneer (Indian Cheese)

8-9 Juicy Tomatoes

1 medium Onion (finely chopped)

1tsp Zeera (Cumin seeds)

0.5tsp Kalaunji(Black Caraway/Nigella)

1tsp Oil

2tsp Ground Kali Mirch (Black Pepper)

1tsp Adrak-Lehsan (Ginger-Garlic) paste

1 Tez Patta (Bay leaf)

1tbsp Kasuri Methi (a kind of dried fenugreek leaves)

4tbsp Butter

1.5 cup Cream

Salt

1. Skin the tomotoes (I do it by dipping them for a few seconds in boiling water) and make puree, or chop them up fine.

2. Heat the oil in a saucepan and add the Zeera and the Kalauji, immediately add the onion. Fry the onions the best you can in that little oil.

3. Add the tomatoes and cook for 5-10 minutes till the tomatoes look cooked and are simmering gently.

4. Add the Paneer, and all the remaining spices. Keep an eye on the salt if you intend to use salted butter.

5. Add the butter and the cream. Cook till the whole thing starts simmering.

6. Its done!

Note: I mentioned juicy tomatoes. I usually use the ones my mother calls the desi ones. These are usually round rather than oblong, and have more juice than flesh. These have a more tangy taste.

You can easily increase decrease the ingredients according to your taste without affecting the recipe much. Specially the tomatoes depending how much gravy you want.

I like it best with rice.

Daring Bakers October Challenge: Basic Pizza dough

2008-12-18T05:42:00.006+05:30

Better late than never, as they say! The October challenge was hosted by the lovely Rosa, who gave us a recipe from Peter Reinhart's "The Bread Baker's Apprentice." I used roasted veggies, eggplant, mushrooms, tomatoes and onions. And I swear I did toss the dough, though not with great results!

Some more pics and the recipe after the jump.

BASIC PIZZA DOUGH ~
Original recipe taken from “The Bread Baker’s Apprentice” by Peter Reinhart.

Makes 6 pizza crusts (about 9-12 inches/23-30 cm in diameter).

Ingredients:
4 1/2 Cups (20 1/4 ounces/607.5 g) Unbleached high-gluten (%14) bread flour or all purpose flour, chilled
1 3/4 Tsp Salt
1 Tsp Instant yeast
1/4 Cup (2 ounces/60g) Olive oil or vegetable oil (both optional, but it’s better with)
1 3/4 Cups (14 ounces/420g or 420ml) Water, ice cold (40° F/4.5° C)
1 Tb sugar - FOR GF use agave syrup
Semolina/durum flour or cornmeal for dusting

DAY ONE

Method:
1. Mix together the flour, salt and instant yeast in a big bowl (or in the bowl of your stand mixer).
2. Add the oil, sugar and cold water and mix well (with the help of a large wooden spoon or with the paddle attachment, on low speed) in order to form a sticky ball of dough. On a clean surface, knead for about 5-7 minutes, until the dough is smooth and the ingredients are homogeneously distributed. If it is too wet, add a little flour (not too much, though) and if it is too dry add 1 or 2 teaspoons extra water.
3. Flour a work surface or counter. Line a jelly pan with baking paper/parchment. Lightly oil the paper.
4. With the help of a metal or plastic dough scraper, cut the dough into 6 equal pieces (or larger if you want to make larger pizzas).
NOTE: To avoid the dough from sticking to the scraper, dip the scraper into water between cuts.
5. Sprinkle some flour over the dough. Make sure your hands are dry and then flour them. Gently round each piece into a ball.
NOTE: If the dough sticks to your hands, then dip your hands into the flour again.
6. Transfer the dough balls to the lined jelly pan and mist them generously with spray oil. Slip the pan into plastic bag or enclose in plastic food wrap.
7. Put the pan into the refrigerator and let the dough rest overnight or for up to thee days.
DAY TWO

8. On the day you plan to eat pizza, exactly 2 hours before you make it, remove the desired number of dough balls from the refrigerator. Dust the counter with flour and spray lightly with oil. Place the dough balls on a floured surface and sprinkle them with flour. Dust your hands with flour and delicately press the dough into disks about 1/2 inch/1.3 cm thick and 5 inches/12.7 cm in diameter. Sprinkle with flour and mist with oil. Loosely cover the dough rounds with plastic wrap and then allow to rest for 2 hours.
9. At least 45 minutes before making the pizza, place a baking stone on the lower third of the oven. Preheat the oven as hot as possible (500° F/260° C).
NOTE: If you do not have a baking stone, then use the back of a jelly pan. Do not preheat the pan.
10. Generously sprinkle the back of a jelly pan with semolina/durum flour or cornmeal. Flour your hands (palms, backs and knuckles). Take 1 piece of dough by lifting it with a pastry scraper. Lay the dough across your fists in a very delicate way and carefully stretch it by bouncing it in a circular motion on your hands, and by giving it a little stretch with each bounce. Once the dough has expanded outward, move to a full toss.
11. When the dough has the shape you want (about 9-12 inches/23-30 cm in diameter - for a 6 ounces/180g piece of dough), place it on the back of the jelly pan, making sure there is enough semolina/durum flour or cornmeal to allow it to slide and not stick to the pan.
12. Lightly top it with sweet or savory toppings of your choice.
NOTE: Remember that the best pizzas are topped not too generously. No more than 3 or 4 toppings (including sauce and cheese) are sufficient.
13. Slide the garnished pizza onto the stone in the oven or bake directly on the jelly pan. Close the door and bake for abour 5-8 minutes.
NOTE: After 2 minutes baking, take a peek. For an even baking, rotate 180°.
If the top gets done before the bottom, you will need to move the stone or jelly pane to a lower shelf before the next round. On the contrary, if the bottom crisps before the cheese caramelizes, then you will need to raise the stone or jelly.
14. Take the pizza out of the oven and transfer it to a cutting board or your plate. In order to allow the cheese to set a little, wait 3-5 minutes before slicing or serving.

Catching up

2008-12-06T02:01:00.007+05:30

It's been a long time since either Aamena or I posted. She has a good excuse... no oven in her new digs. I don't, since I have been baking and cooking, and even taking photos... but have just been too *busy* to post. Now I hope to make up that shortfall.
Let's begin with my first try at red velvet cake, inspired by Shirley's luscious cupcakes. I should have known better than to try a different recipe, but I didn't, and went with this one from Bon Apetit, sans the berries. It tasted great, but the red velvet cake was more a ruddy brown.

Red Velvet Cake
For the cake
2 1/4 cups sifted cake flour (sifted, then measured)
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup buttermilk
1 tablespoon red food coloring (i used 1 tsp gel coloring, which is more concentrated)
1 teaspoon distilled white vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
2 large eggs

Frosting
2 8-ounce packages cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar

For cake:
Preheat oven to 350°F. I used a 9x15 cake pan, but the recipe calls for 2 9-inch round pans. Butter and flour pan(s). Sift flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into a bowl. Beat buttermilk, coloring, vinegar, and vanilla in small bowl to blend. Using an electric mixer, beat sugar and butter in large bowl until well blended. Add eggs one at a time, beating until well blended. Beat in dry ingredients in 4 additions alternately with buttermilk mixture in 3 additions.

Divide batter between prepared pans, or pour into single sheet pan. Bake cakes until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 27 minutes. Cool in pans on racks 10 minutes. Turn cakes out onto racks; cool completely.

For frosting:
Beat cream cheese and butter in large bowl until smooth. Beat in vanilla. Add powdered sugar and beat until smooth.

Place 1 cake layer, flat side up, on platter. Spread 1 cup frosting over top of cake. Top with second layer, flat side down. Spread remaining frosting over top and sides of cake. (Can be made a day ahead; cover and refrigerate. Let stand at room temperature for an hour before serving.)

Daring Bakers August Challenge: Chocolate Eclairs

2008-08-31T01:04:00.010+05:30

I've sat out the last few challenges, but this month's -- Chocolate Eclairs -- was absolutely irresistable. Thank you Meeta and Tony for the great selection, and the delectable recipe from Chocolate Desserts by Pierre Hermé.
The challenge was perfect because I love eclairs, but my one attempt to make them was a bit of a flop and I'd shied away from pate choux since. Well now was time to conquer my fears. After reading through other Daring Bakers' experiences and plenty of tips, I finally hit the kitchen this past week. I decided to go the whole chocolate hog, making the chocolate pastry cream and the chocolate glaze.
And I'm proud to say the results were great, even if I do say so myself. Well actually, a bunch of my colleagues said so too! Truthfully I could have eaten all those eclairs by myself but I thought the better of it and took more than a dozen to work. (I made the eclairs just before I headed to work -- I start in the afternoon. So while I was able to bring in the eclairs while they were still fresh, I did have to rush to get to work on time. Hence I didn't get a chance to review my photos, otherwise I would have caught those awful fingerprints in the glaze. Oh well.)
Oh, and my super picky 4-year-old ate two. That's a success in my book!
The leftover pastry cream, glaze, not to mention sauce, means I'll be making the eclairs again sometime very soon.
Do check out other Daring Bakers' creations!

The only real issues I had were while making the pastry cream, even after straining the yolk mixture, I found some scrambled yolks at the bottom, and I ended up straining it again. And it seemed a little runny, but a few hours in the refrigerator helped it firm up. I did feel like I could taste the egg in the final cream, but I think I'm a bit oversensitive. Nobody else complained.
The other was with the actual baking. I didn't have the common deflation problem. But the eclairs seemed a bit soft, so I stuck them in the oven again for a while.
And I know lots of people commented on the number of pots and bowls needed. I was able to cut back on that slightly by using one pot to make the sauce, emptying it and making the glaze in it, and you guessed it, emptying it and making the cream in it (thought at this point I did have to rope in one more pot).

Anyway, I highly recommend this.
Here's the recipe
Pierre Hermé’s Chocolate Éclairs
Recipe from Chocolate Desserts by Pierre Hermé
(makes 20-24 Éclairs)

• Cream Puff Dough (see below for recipe), fresh and still warm

1) Preheat your oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Divide the oven into thirds by positioning the racks in the upper and lower half of the oven. Line two baking sheets with waxed or parchment paper.

2) Fill a large pastry bag fitted with a 2/3 (2cm) plain tip nozzle with the warm cream puff dough.
Pipe the dough onto the baking sheets in long, 4 to 41/2 inches (about 11 cm) chubby fingers.
Leave about 2 inches (5 cm) space in between each dough strip to allow them room to puff. The dough should give you enough to pipe 20-24 éclairs.

3) Slide both the baking sheets into the oven and bake for 7 minutes. After the 7 minutes, slip the handle of a wooden spoon into the door to keep in ajar. When the éclairs have been in the oven for a total of 12 minutes, rotate the sheets top to bottom and front to back. Continue baking for a further 8 minutes or until the éclairs are puffed, golden and firm. The total baking time should be approximately 20 minutes.

Notes:
1) The éclairs can be kept in a cool, dry place for several hours before filling.

Assembling the éclairs:

• Chocolate glaze (see below for recipe)
• Chocolate pastry cream (see below for recipe)

1) Slice the éclairs horizontally, using a serrated knife and a gently sawing motion. Set aside the bottoms and place the tops on a rack over a piece of parchment paper.

2) The glaze should be barely warm to the touch (between 95 – 104 degrees F or 35 – 40 degrees C, as measured on an instant read thermometer). Spread the glaze over the tops of the éclairs using a metal icing spatula. Allow the tops to set and in the meantime fill the bottoms with the pastry cream.

3) Pipe or spoon the pastry cream into the bottoms of the éclairs. Make sure you fill the bottoms with enough cream to mound above the pastry. Place the glazed tops onto the pastry cream and wriggle gently to settle them.

Notes:
1) If you have chilled your chocolate glaze, reheat by placing it in a bowl over simmering water, stirring it gently with a wooden spoon. Do not stir too vigorously as you do not want to create bubbles.

2) The éclairs should be served as soon as they have been filled.

Cream Puff Dough
(makes 20-24 Éclairs)
• ½ cup (125g) whole milk
• ½ cup (125g) water
• 1 stick (4 ounces; 115g) unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces
• ¼ teaspoon sugar
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (140g) all-purpose flour
• 5 large eggs, at room temperature

1) In a heavy bottomed medium saucepan, bring the milk, water, butter, sugar and salt to the boil.

2) Once the mixture is at a rolling boil, add all of the flour at once, reduce the heat to medium and start to stir the mixture vigorously with a wooden spoon. The dough comes together very quickly. Do not worry if a slight crust forms at the bottom of the pan, it’s supposed to. You need to carry on stirring for a further 2-3 minutes to dry the dough. After this time the dough will be very soft and smooth.

3) Transfer the dough into a bowl of a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or using your handmixer or if you still have the energy, continue by hand. Add the eggs one at a time, beating after each egg has been added to incorporate it into the dough.
You will notice that after you have added the first egg, the dough will separate, once again do not worry. As you keep working the dough, it will come back all together again by the time you have added the third egg. In the end the dough should be thick and shiny and when lifted it should fall back into the bowl in a ribbon.

4) The dough should be still warm. It is now ready to be used for the éclairs as directed above.

Notes:
1) Once the dough is made you need to shape it immediately.

2) You can pipe the dough and the freeze it. Simply pipe the dough onto parchment-lined baking sheets and slide the sheets into the freezer. Once the dough is completely frozen, transfer the piped shapes into freezer bags. They can be kept in the freezer for up to a month.

Chocolate Pastry Cream
• 2 cups (500g) whole milk
• 4 large egg yolks
• 6 tbsp (75g) sugar
• 3 tablespoons cornstarch, sifted
• 7 oz (200g) bittersweet chocolate, preferably Velrhona Guanaja, melted
• 2½ tbsp (1¼ oz: 40g) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1) In a small saucepan, bring the milk to a boil. In the meantime, combine the yolks, sugar and cornstarch together and whisk in a heavy‐bottomed saucepan.

2) Once the milk has reached a boil, temper the yolks by whisking a couple spoonfuls of the hot milk into the yolk mixture. Continue whisking and slowly pour the rest of the milk into the tempered yolk mixture.

3) Strain the mixture back into the saucepan to remove any egg that may have scrambled. Place the pan over medium heat and whisk vigorously (without stop) until the mixture returns to a boil. Keep whisking vigorously for 1 to 2 more minutes (still over medium heat).Stir in the melted chocolate and then remove the pan from the heat.

4) Scrape the pastry cream into a small bowl and set it in an ice‐water bath to stop the cooking process. Make sure to continue stirring the mixture at this point so that it remains smooth.

5) Once the cream has reached a temperature of 140 F remove from the ice‐water bath and stir in the butter in three or four installments. Return the cream to the ice‐water bath to continue cooling, stirring occasionally, until it has completely cooled. The cream is now ready to use or store in the fridge.

Notes:
1) The pastry cream can be made 2‐3 days in advance and stored in the refrigerator.
2) In order to avoid a skin forming on the pastry cream, cover with plastic wrap pressed onto the cream.
3) Tempering the eggs raises the temperature of the eggs slowly so that they do not scramble.

Chocolate Glaze
(makes 1 cup or 300g)
• 1/3 cup (80g) heavy cream
• 3½ oz (100g) bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
• 4 tsp (20 g) unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces, at room temperature
• 7 tbsp (110 g) Chocolate Sauce (recipe below), warm or at room temperature

1) In a small saucepan, bring the heavy cream to a boil. Remove from the heat and slowly begin to add the chocolate, stirring with a wooden spoon or spatula.

2) Stirring gently, stir in the butter, piece by piece followed by the chocolate sauce.

Notes:
1) If the chocolate glaze is too cool (i.e. not liquid enough) you may heat it briefly  in the microwave or over a double boiler. A double boiler is basically a bowl sitting over (not touching) simmering water.

2) It is best to glaze the eclairs after the glaze is made, but if you are pressed for time, you can make the glaze a couple days ahead of time, store it in the fridge and bring it up to the proper temperature (95 to 104 F) when ready to glaze.

Chocolate Sauce
(makes 1½ cups or 525 g)
• 4½ oz (130 g) bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
• 1 cup (250 g) water
• ½ cup (125 g) crème fraîche, or heavy cream
• 1/3 cup (70 g) sugar

1) Place all the ingredients into a heavy‐bottomed saucepan and bring to a boil, making sure to stir constantly. Then reduce the heat to low and continue stirring with a wooden spoon until the sauce thickens.

2) It may take 10‐15 minutes for the sauce to thicken, but you will know when it is done when it coats the back of your spoon.

Notes:
1) You can make this sauce ahead of time and store it in the refrigerator for two weeks. Reheat the sauce in a microwave oven or a double boiler before using.
2) This sauce is also great for cakes, ice-cream and tarts.

Another chiffon cake

2008-08-27T22:35:00.001+05:30

Can you tell I've become a convert to the religion of chiffon! What amazing results and taste with such little heartache. After my first attempt convinced me it wasn't hard, I thought I'd give it another go, for dinner
with friends. I knew the kids for sure would be happy. The only problem was our water being cut off from 10 am to 4 pm... yes six whole hours while the plumbing system is overhauled in our apt complex. This is the third day it happened. What sucks is that you don't know when it might happen. You have a few days of no problems, you're complacent and the next day they hit you. Only another four weeks. *crossing fingers*
So as you might guess, I started at 4 pm. Wrong. Due to various other emergencies (DH+work) I didn't start till 6.
At which point I also got started on a chicken curry I had promised to bring to the dinner. *Sigh*. I was using a bigger, 9x15 pan, so instead of Aamena's adaption, I went with Orangette's version. I managed to get the cake into the oven within 20 minutes... Waiting for it to bake were the longest 35 minutes ever!. And then cool.

I had no patience. Instead of letting cool all the way down, I pried it out of the pan. Then I halved it down the middle since I planned to do one side with cream and strawberries and the other with cream and chocolate sauce. Then I thought if I halve the two pieces horizontally, they'd cool faster. I was right, but a thin layer got stuck to the rack. I was able to cover it with cream, and it tasted great anyway. Phew!
Oh, here's the chicken curry:

Mango chiffon cake

2008-08-21T12:00:00.015+05:30

So I recently made this yummy Mango chiffon cake. For a few weeks now, what with California flooded with mangoes, I'd been day-dreaming about mango cake, one that incorporates mangoes in the batter, not just as garnish or mousse, which I'd already tried. At last I put thought to action and using my Google muscles, found that those clever folks in Southeast Asia had already been there, done that. So I used this apparently tried and tested recipe that I found at Cook Bake Legacy.

I liked the result, though I think my oven was acting up and it didn't rise as well or cook through as much as it should have. But I will be making this again. I also plan to try using mango puree in place of buttermilk in a regular cake. I think the mango should provide enough acidity to replace the buttermilk and should be about the same consistency. Watch this space for updates!

Recipe and more photos after the jump.

Mango Chiffon Cake
Ingredients:
4 large eggs
1 tsp Mango essence
1/3 cup (80 ml) vegetable oil
1/3 cup (80 ml) Whole milk
1/2 cup mango puree
1 cup sifted cake flour (110 g)
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup (100 gm) sugar
1/2 tsp Cream of tartar
Method: Set oven at 350 degrees F (180 degree C)
Separate egg yolks from whites. In a bowl, beat yolks with the mango essence (I didn't have any and used vanilla)
In another bowl, mix the oil, milk and mango puree. Sift the flour and baking powder together.
In the bowl of a mixer, whip the egg whites, sugar and cream of tartar until stiff peak forms. Now add the yolk mixture and beat well, then add in the oil/ puree blend and and also stir well. Fold in the flour mix gently till well blended. Pour batter into a 20 cm. chiffon cake pan. Bang the pan on a hard surface to release the bubbles. ( a step I forgot, which may have contributed to the results)
Bake for 35-40 mins. When the cake is ready, remove from the oven and give it a bang on a hard surface.Then invert the pan and cool the cake.When the cake is completely cool, remove cake from the pan.
Well here are a few pictures of how I cut the mangoes.

The cake after taking it out. It seemed kind of OK to me, then I realized it was underdone and put it back in the oven, but evidently not long enough.

Bet it's a record!

2008-07-30T20:26:00.002+05:30

So how much time did you take to make your Filbert Gateau?

I made it in a record time of four hours! (Confession: I ignored the sugar syrup and the apricot glaze).

Soon after Chris of Mele Cotte announced the challenge, I, like hundreds of other Daring Bakers took a print out. I had been planning to try the recipe for my sister's birthday, which is in mid-July. But that day we went shopping, came back after 5 p.m. and I was too tired, so I asked my brother to buy a cake. But my sis' long face at this made me change my mind, and I rolled up my sleeves.

So sometime after 6 (after having tea, I have a mental thing about tea) I started. Of course the b'day girl helped me a lot, and we somehow managed this feat!

And you can understand why I skipped the sugar syrup and glaze... I was too tired! Well, what after the praline, swiss buttercream, whipped cream, ganache, and of course the cake!

But the cake was amazing, it was air! And the whole combo, though very rich, was well worth the crazy four hours! One other change I made was that I used almonds; for two reasons: first, that's what I had at home, and second, buying hazelnuts, if available, would have meant a huge hole in my pocket.

And though I love decorating, I was running out of time, so I just spread some of the praline buttercream and sprinkled some nougat on top! I think it looked pretty.

And another thing, I just LOVE swiss meringue buttercream, it was amazing the way it incorporated the praline paste!

Plums galore!

2008-07-18T23:55:00.008+05:30

There is so much lovely summer fruit to choose from these days. The other day I bought several pounds of plums and thought I should use them up before they got too soft. So I made this easy peasy plum tart from the Contessa herself. Her recipe called for a lot of plums, and I found I didn't have enough to get a tightly packed tart, so I added some apricots I had on hand.

Then I got my hands on some Italian prune plums, which the Contessa's recipe had called for, and I thought I should take a shot at clafouti.

Clafouti had always seemed something mysterious and unattainable for some reason. And then I read about it again recently at the LA TImes food blog. And after reading that plums are often used in clafouti, second only to cherries, I was sold. The Italian prune plums are really juicy and the flesh is a delicate green color, they reminded me of damsons that I had long long ago. IN fact they were so tasty, that by the time I got to making it the next day, I found my husband had scarfed down a pound or more. So I had to supplement the scarce fruit with strawberries.

I used this recipe from Orangette for the clafouti. It was really good, but I couldn't get my fussy 4-year-old to try any.

Very berry cake

2008-07-11T12:46:00.005+05:30

I made this cake a few weeks ago, but never got around to posting about it. I used a victoria sponge recipe and topped it with a little leftover white chocolate ganache and lots and lots of raspberries and blackberries, to cut the cloying sweetness of the white chocolate. I always get excited when I see blackberries -- partly because the sightings are so rare and I love the fruit. But also it brings back childhood memories of a hardy little blackberry bush we had in a house we stayed in for a few years. I loved eating them half-ripe -- so tart and sweet at the same time. hmm.

My mother used to make victoria sponges every now and then, along with her staple madeiras, when we lived in England. But I hadn't made or had one in years.
Looking around for recipes, I learned that basically a victoria sponge, named for Queen Victoria, consists of equal weights of flour, eggs, sugar and butter, with eggs counting for about 2 oz each and of course baking powder as leavening. I found this recipe on the BBC, but because I was using larger tins, i went up to 6 oz of AP flour, butter and sugar, plus 2 tsp baking powder and 3 eggs. I used the creaming method, and added the eggs one at a time. And I used strawberry jam to sandwich the layers.
I liked the result, but I'm not a fan of white chocolate, and next time I'll make the classic, sandwiched with jam and dusted with confectioner's sugar.

Chiffon cake - two halves make it whole

2008-07-10T06:16:00.005+05:30

This is my first attempt at Chiffon cake -- I had shied away from it so far because I hate making things that require separating the egg whites and yolks, and I especially hate it if I have leftover yolks. But I finally bit the bullet, and I must say it was easy-peasy and so delicious! I am mentally kicking myself for not trying it sooner. I divvied up the cake to make two variations -- one the classic strawberries and cream, and the other with mango mousse, using a delicious ataulfo mango a friend at work brought in for me.

Some more photos after the jump.

Thrice as nice!

2008-07-08T14:45:00.009+05:30

I missed my niece's first birthday coz of my darn exams... and it's not like I am going to do very well because I was good and studied... I didn't. But I just couldn't bake a cake because that was like admitting that I'm not going to study.. so I just sat and didn't bake a cake and didn't study... But you see I did not want to give myself the opportunity to say that I didn't study because I was baking! But then I scraped thru my exams somehow and I'm enjoying my holidays (:D) now and i felt it was time I put things right.

I was first planning to make a huge four-layer cake, two layers of vanilla cake and two layers of madeira. but then instead of making one huge cake that I wasn't sure what it would taste like, I changed my mind at the last moment and made two two-layer cakes hoping that at least one would taste good.

The reason behind this last-minute decision was that the vanilla cake was pretty flat. I had chosen recipe because How to Eat a Cupcake had paired her Vanilla Cupcakes with swiss meringue buttercream and I really wanted to make some swiss meringue buttercream (hehehe) -- because then I get a chance to use homemade white butter, yeah!

The recipe was a bit strange, calling for the dry ingredients and the butter to be mixed and then later incorporating the wet ones. the cake did rise, but it was dense. A lot denser than my madeira. At that time i panicked. looking back now I guess that the madeira batter gains a lot of volume during the creaming stage and also while adding the eggs. The only rise the vanilla cake got was in the oven.

Anyway at that time i was panicking, right? So I split the madeira in half, layered it with the buttercream and topped it with some milk chocolate ganache I had in the fridge (I always have some ganache in the fridge). What you see at the top is what it looked like.

Then I split the vanilla cake in half, layered it with buttercream and covered with the same and then spent sometime making it look horribly pinky and purply... well guess what, it tasted good.

And the cupcakes? I got them from the leftover madeira batter... topped them with leftover buttercream and the leftover ganache...

not quite danish...

2008-06-29T20:11:00.010+05:30

Of all the crazy things I have done, this has to be the craziest. Trying my luck at danish pastry in the middle of Indian summer (did I say trying, oops, i meant pushing!). But then that's what the Daring Baker's are all about. Making you do things you won't normally even think of. I do make croissants sometimes, but never never in summer. I also happen to have bad case of hot hands. And man, did this challenge drive me up the wall or what! If the heat and humidity don't kill you, they sure can finish off your Danish.

Ok, I guess am exaggerating, but the result wasn't anywhere near perfect. But it was good. And it did fill my kitchen with a nice aroma! I used peaches instead of apples.

As soon as I braided it up, the juices started leaking, so the poor braid was in a pool of its juices, which later got burnt black in the oven.

I managed to roll up some extra pastry croissant style. Just for fun.

Thanks to Kelly of Sass & Veracity, and Ben of What’s Cookin’? for a fun and challenging challenge.

Zebra cake

2008-06-21T01:17:00.005+05:30

Zebra cake

So finally, here is the photo of the zebra cake I made using Farida's recipe and technique. My ladle wasn't big enough, hence the thin whispery "stripes" -- really more like veins. I will definitely be making this again soon.

a Birthday and an Anniversary...

2008-06-03T16:33:00.008+05:30

My sister's anniversary and my brother's birthday fall on consecutive days in May, so I decided to make some cupcakes for my sis (as she has a small family) and a regular cake for my brother, from the same batter of Martha's One Bowl Choc Cupcakes recipe.

As you can see the cake was rather tall, because I used slighter smaller round tins, as I wanted to make the cupcakes as well. And thats Swiss Meringue Buttercream, I think am getting rather good at it, thanks to the Daring Bakers, I don't think I would have ever tried it again after my two flops.

Daring Bakers May Challenge: Opera Cake

2008-05-29T08:43:00.012+05:30

When I read what the Daring Bakers challenge was for this month was, I mentally said "yeah, right" and thought I'd be sitting this one out, leaving Aamena to do her creative work. But she's tied up in final exams so it fell to me.
The challenge was chosen by lovely hosts Ivonne and Lis, along with co-hosts Fran of Apples Peaches Pumpkin Pie and Shea of Whiskful.

An Opera Cake consists of the joconde - an almond sponge; the syrup, to wet the cake, buttercream, ganache (optional) and a final glaze. I'm not good at complicated things, so I read the recipe about five times, but I only made it today because I was away for a week visiting in-laws. I only got back yesterday, and I was too tired to even think about making even the base. So I had to do everything today. A recipe for disaster, or at least some last minute problems. Like the store being out of blanched almond meal, so you end up using unblanched. And not finding the right size jelly roll tins and not having any two of the same size at home.

A Taste of Light: Opera Cake

Adapted from Dorie Greenspan’s Paris Sweets and Tish Boyle and Timothy Moriarty’s Chocolate Passion.

Joconde
(Note: The joconde can be made up to 1 day in advance and kept wrapped at room temperate)
Ingredients:
6 large egg whites, at room temperature
2 tbsp. (30 grams) granulated sugar
2 cups (225 grams) blanched almond meal
2 cups icing sugar, sifted (220 gm)
6 large eggs
½ cup (70 grams) all-purpose flour
3 tbsp. (1½ ounces; 45 grams) unsalted butter, melted and cooled

1. Divide the oven into thirds by positioning a rack in the upper third of the oven and the lower third of the oven.
2. Preheat the oven to 425◦F. (220◦C).
3. Line two 12½ x 15½- inch (31 x 39-cm) jelly-roll pans with parchment paper and brush with melted butter.
4. Beat the egg whites until they form soft peaks. Add the granulated sugar and beat until stiff and glossy. Set aside.
5. In another bowl, beat the almonds, icing sugar and eggs on medium speed until light and voluminous, about 3 minutes.
6. Add the flour and beat until just combined (do not overmix).
7. Using a rubber spatula, fold the egg white into the almond mixture and then fold in the melted butter. Divide the batter between the pans and spread it evenly.
8. Bake until light brown and springy to the touch, 5 to 9 minutes.
9. Run a sharp knife along the edges of the cakes to loosen. Cover each with a sheet of parchment or wax paper, turn the pans over, and unmold.
10. Peel off the parchment, then turn the paper over and use it to cover the cakes. Let the cakes cool to room temperature.

Syrup
Ingredients:
½ cup (125 grams) water
⅓ cup (65 grams) granulated sugar
1 to 2 tbsp. of a flavoring of your choice (I used lemon zest)

1. Stir all the syrup ingredients together in the saucepan and bring to a boil.
2. Remove from the heat and let cool to room temperature.

Buttercream
Ingredients:
1 cup (100 grams) granulated sugar
¼ cup (60 grams) water
seeds of one vanilla bean or 1 tbsp. pure vanilla extract (I used a vanilla bean paste I found at Surfas)
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1¾ sticks (7 ounces; 200 grams) unsalted butter, at room temperature
Flavoring of your choice (I used lemon zest)

1. Combine the sugar, water and vanilla in a small saucepan and warm over medium heat just until the sugar dissolves.
2. Continue to cook, without stirring, until the syrup reaches 225◦F (107◦C) Remove the syrup from the heat.
3. While the syrup is heating, whisk the egg and egg yolk at high speed until pale and foamy.
4. Reduce the mixer speed to low speed and begin very slowly pouring the syrup down the side of the bowl being very careful not to splatter the syrup into the path of the whisk attachment.
5. Raise the speed to medium-high and continue beating until the eggs are thick and satiny and the mixture is cool to the touch (about 5 minutes or so).
6. In a bowl, mash the softened butter in a bowl with a spatula.
7. Add the butter in 2-tablespoon chunks. When all the butter has been added, raise the mixer speed to high and beat until the buttercream is thick and shiny.
8. Add flavouring and beat for an additional minute or so.
9. Refrigerate the buttercream, stirring it often, until it’s set enough (firm enough) to spread when topped with a layer of cake (about 20 minutes).

White chocolate ganache/mousse (this step is optional – I skipped it)
Ingredients:
7 ounces white chocolate
1 cup plus 3 tbsp. heavy cream (35% cream)
1 tbsp. liqueur of your choice (Bailey’s, Amaretto, etc.)

1. Melt the white chocolate and the 3 tbsp. of heavy cream in a small saucepan.
2. Stir and add the tablespoon of liqueur to the chocolate and stir. Set aside to cool completely.
3. In the bowl of a stand mixer, whip the remaining 1 cup of heavy cream until soft peaks form.
4. Gently fold the whipped cream into the cooled chocolate to form a mousse.
5. If it’s too thin, refrigerate it for a bit until it’s spreadable and you're ready to use it.
6. If you’re not going to use it right away, refrigerate until you’re ready to use.

The glaze
(Note: It’s best to make the glaze right when you’re ready to finish the cake.)
Ingredients:
14 ounces white chocolate, coarsely chopped
½ cup heavy cream (35% cream)

1.Melt the white chocolate with the heavy cream. Whisk the mixture gently until smooth.
2.Let cool for 10 minutes and then pour over the chilled cake. Using a long metal cake spatula, smooth out into an even layer.
3.Place the cake into the refrigerator for 30 minutes to set.

Assembling
(Note: The finished cake should be served slightly chilled. It can be kept in the refrigerator for up to 1 day).

Line a baking sheet with parchment or wax paper.

Working with one sheet of cake at a time, cut and trim each sheet so that you have two pieces (from each cake so you’ll have four pieces in total): one 10-inch (25-cm) square and one 10 x 5-inch (25 x 12½-cm) rectangle.
Obviously, I didn't need to to do this, since I used 9-inch round tins.
Step A (if using buttercream only and not making the ganache/mousse):

Moisten a layer of the cake with the flavoured syrup.

Spread about one-third of the buttercream over this layer.

Top with the two rectangular pieces of cake, placing them side by side to form a square, or whatever shape. Moisten these pieces with the flavoured syrup.

Spread another third of the buttercream on the cake and then top with the third square of joconde. Use the remaining syrup to wet the joconde. Spread the remaining buttercream on top of the final layer of joconde and then refrigerate until very firm (at least half an hour).

Make the glaze and after it has cooled, pour/spread it over the top of the chilled cake. Refrigerate the cake again to set the glaze.

Serve the cake slightly chilled. This recipe will yield approximately 20 servings.

As is clear from the long instructions, this is was quite a challenge. But truthfully each step went quite smoothly. My only problem was was that the buttercream was a bit runny, after I put on the glaze, the top layer of buttercream started to slip a bit. And the layers of joconde are a bit thick, I wish i had had a fourth 9 inch tin to make thinner layers.

Lemon tea cakes

2008-05-18T12:14:00.009+05:30

Lemon tea cakes, originally uploaded by khangengis.

A friend at work brought on little lemon tea cakes a few weeks ago, and I thought immediately that they'd be great for my daughter's preschool bake sale. She brought in the recipe, and kindly lent me her tea cake pan too. The only change I made was to add baking powder, because I wanted a lighter texture. These little beauties are addictive! My daughters chowed them down like grapes, so though the recipe made 108, yes, that's right 108 cakes, they're really not that much! But I've pared it down by 1/3, to keep it manageable. If you'd like, you can find the original recipe here.

Lemon tea cakes, originally uploaded by khangengis.

Lemon Tea Cakes
from Taste of Home magazine Feb-March 2002,
a recipe from Charlene Crump of Montgomery, Alabama

Makes six dozen

1 cup butter, softened

5 1/2 oz cream cheese

1 1/2 cups sugar

4 eggs

2 tbsp lemon juice

11/2 tsp lemon extract

1 tsp lemon zest

2 cups flour (10 oz)

2 tsp baking powder

Preheat oven at 325 degrees, and prepare all the mini muffin tins or tea cake pans you have! I used baking spray with flour. And I only had two 12-cup mini muffin pans and the tea cake mold which makes 30. So I made it in batches, without any problem.

Sift the flour with the baking powder. Cream the butter, cream cheese and sugar until fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each one. Add the lemon juice, lemon and vanilla extracts and lemon zest. Fold in the flour (I found it easier to do a third at a time) until just combined.

Fill mini-muffin tins about two-thirds full (about 1 heaping teaspoon). Bake at 325° for 10-15 minutes or so. Cool for 5 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks.

Meanwhile prepare a glaze: 3 cups confectioner's sugar, 1/4 milk, 2 tsp lemon extract.

When the cakes are cool, dip the tops in the glaze, and let it set for five minutes or so.

Pandan butter cake

2008-05-16T23:23:00.015+05:30

I've been wanting to try pandan, sight unseen, ever since I saw this gorgeous jelly dessert a few years ago. All I knew about pandan was that it was related to the delicious kewra essence that is used in north Indian cooking to add a heady, complex aroma to curries or a rose-like flavor to desserts. Kewra is extracted from the flowers of a different screwpine species, whereas pandan uses the leaves.

So I was quite excited to see some pandan extract at a Thai grocery not far from my house, Bangkok Market. I looked for pandan essence too, but unfortunately it was artificial.
Anyway, in the meanwhile I had seen all kinds of complex Malaysian and Indonesian cakes flavored with pandan at various blogs, especially Aunty Yochana's. So I decided my first foray into pandan territory would be a cake. But I didn't want to make the traditional kind that pairs pandan with coconut milk, because i really wanted to taste the pandan. So after some googling, I decided on this recipe from Angie of My Kitchen: My Laboratory.

Pandan Butter Cake

adapted from My Kitchen:My Laboratory

2 scant cups cake flour (8oz or 225g)
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
6 tbsp butter, softened (3 oz or 85g)
3/4 cup sugar (180g)
2 large eggs, beaten
1 cup nonfat plain yogurt ((240ml) (I used regular)
2 tbsp pandan extract (juice)
¼ tsp pandan essence (lacking this, I added an extra 3tbsp of juice)

Preheat oven to 350 degree farenheit (180C) and butter a bundt pan or 8”x4” loaf tin. Sift together cake flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. I didn't have any cake flour on hand, or regular AP, so I microwaved King Arthur unbleached ala the ingenious Kate of A Merrier World. However, I didn't follow the procedure precisely, just did two batches of flour and then weighed the results and substituted a scant 4 tbsp flour with cornstarch.
Combine the yogurt, pandan juice and pandan essence if you're using.
Cream the butter with the sugar and until light. Add the eggs in a slow stream, beating constantly for about 2 mins. Now fold in one-third of the flour mix, beat in half the yogurt and then repeat, ending with the last third of flour.
Bake for about 35 minutes or until a tester comes out clean. Cool in pan for 5 mins. Unmold and cool completely.

Pandan butter cake

So, how did it taste? Well at first when I opened the can, the liquid smelled very grassy and musky and I was shocked that it had barely any resemblance to Kewra. A few tablespoons appeared to do nothing for the batter, and because I didn't have the essence, I added 3 more. The color of the batter barely changed, but I could smell the grassiness and I was getting really nervous!. When it came out, I could barely smell or taste it... I think I was already enveloped in the aroma and unable to distinguish it in the cake. Panicking, I took another 2 tbsp of juice and mixed it with some confectioner's sugar to make about 1/4 cup syrup which I dribbled over the cake, which actually gave it a slightly greener hue.

A few hours later (at work!) I began to feel the flavor coat my mouth and throat, almost as if I'd swallowed a bottle of perfume. It was very unusual, floral, musky, sweet without being heady. When i tried a slice later that night, I was able to appreciate the taste. Though over the next few days I felt that the taste became more muted.
So while it wasn't what I expected, it was delicious, and I plan to try it again soon!

Almond mini cakes

2008-05-10T23:21:00.013+05:30

I wanted to bring in something nice to work, using the pretty tea cake pan my friend had lent me. And I also wanted to try the almond paste I had picked up at Surfas a while back. So a little poking around on the web, and I came upon this recipe from Gourmet. It looked easy and delicious. And boy was it. Even my picky daughter loved it.

The recipe is for 12 mini cakes, so I quadrupled it. I got enough for the 30 mini cakes in the mini bundt pan, and 2 mini muffin tins, plus about 4 more (because the mini tea cakes are little smaller than regular mini muffins).

Almond Cakes

Adapted from Gourmet

12 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened, plus 1/2 tablespoon, melted

3/4 cup all-purpose flour plus additional for dusting molds

1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup granulated sugar
8 tablespoons almond paste (not marzipan; 4 oz)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
4 large eggs

Confectioners sugar for dusting

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees (180c). Butter and flour the pans (I used baking spray).

Sift the flour and salt together.

Place the butter in a large bowl and cream with the sugar with electric mixer until light and creamy. Beat in the almond paste. I'd recommend crumbling it in with your fingers to prevent lumps). Add the vanilla, and then one egg at a time. Finally add the flour and beat until just combined.

Spoon in to the pans (about 1 tbsp each) and bake for about 15 minutes, until golden at the edges. Transfer to a cooling rack. And dust with confectioner's sugar before serving.

These taste better after an hour or so (or after you've given your nose a break from the almond smell) otherwise they somehow don't taste as almondy. Not that the taste is overpowering. I'd say it's perfect.

Dundee Cake

2008-05-09T00:31:00.005+05:30

If you feel like a nutty delight.

Dundee Cake
Adapted from McDougall's Better Baking Handbook

150g butter
150g granulated or soft brown sugar
100g self raising flour
100g plain flour
pinch of salt
1 tsp mixed spice (I use cinnamon and nutmeg)
3 eggs
1 tbsp milk (increase it if the batter seems too dry)
around 2 cups of dark chocolate drops and chopped nuts of your choice,
(I use almonds, currants and walnuts, and chocolate is optional)

1. Grease and line an 18cm round tin. And prepare by creaming method.
2. Place the batter in tin and smooth level it.

3. Bake at 180C for half an hour, then lower it to 150C, bake for a further 10-15 minutes before checking with a toothpick. Take it out when your comes out clean.

I doubled the recipe and the yield was two round cake tins, one big cupcake and one small loaf! Also the original recipe calls for 350g of chopped nuts (no chocolate) and a further 50g of almonds for decor. I don't follow, I just throw in handfuls till I feel the batter looks sufficiently lumpy. Also the original recipe calls for a total of 2 hours and 15 minutes of baking (first 1 hour at 180C and the rest at 150C). Maybe its supposed to be a very dry cake but I could never, for the life of me, do it.

A little spice

2008-05-03T12:25:00.008+05:30

So, for some strange reason, I suddenly began craving Delhi-style choley -- aka chickpeas or garbanzo beans -- with kulchas a leavened flatbread.

Luckily I had a large can of beans in my pantry and made the choley in no time, it was waiting for the kulcha dough to rise a bit that was harder. Nonetheless the wait was worth it. And the best thing, both DDs loved it. Phew.

Spicy choley

1 28 oz can garbanzo beans (drained and rinsed)

1 cup plus 1 tbsp yellow or white onion chopped finely

2 green chile such as a jalapeno or serrano, deseeded and sliced thinly

5 tbsp lemon juice

1 tbsp grated ginger

2 tbsp vegetable oil (such as Canola)

1 1/2 cup chopped tomatoes

1/4 tsp turmeric (optional)

1/2 tsp or less cayenne powder

1 tbsp coriander powder

3/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp amchur (mango powder) optional

1/2 to 1 tsp garam masala (available in indian stores, substitute below)

3 tbsp cilantro chopped

First, combine 1 tbsp of the chopped onions, 3 tbsp lemon juice, 1 chopped green chile and 1/2 the ginger and 1/4 tsp salt in a small bowl. the mixture will likely turn pink. That's OK! This will give an added layer of flavor to the beans, a trick I picked up from Madhur Jaffrey's Indian Cooking.

In a saucepan or saute pan, heat the oil and add the chile, shake a bit and add the onions, cook on medium-low heat until soft and brown on the edges. Add the tomatoes and remaining ginger cook for about 5 minutes, until the tomatoes are mushy, add the turmeric, coriander and cayenne and cook for another 3 minutes, then add the drained garbanzo beans and 1/ cup water and 1/2 tsp salt. Bring to a simmer, cover and cook for about five minutes. Now add the amchur if using and the garam masala and lemon juice. Let the flavors meld for a minute or so, check and adjust seasoning to taste and then stir in half the cilantro and half the onion relish. Remove to a serving dish and garnish with the remaining cilantro and relish. Serve hot. You can eat it plain, with rice or any bread. Truly versatile. And it tastes even better the next day.

Kulchas

1 cup chapati flour (sold as Aata, durum wheat in indian stores, or substitute white wholewheat)

1 cup unbleached AP flour

1/2 tsp active yeast

1/4 cup warm water

1 tsp sugar

1/3 cup yogurt

2 tbsp soft butter for brushing

Stir in the sugar and yeast into the warm water in a large bowl and let it rest 5 minutes. When bubbling add the flours and then stir in the yogurt. The flour should come together in a rough dough, add a little water to get a soft pliable dough, knead five or six times. Cover with plastic wrap and let it rise for 2 hours, till it increases by half. Knead the dough and divide it into about 10-12 balls. Heat a frying pan or flat griddle, cast iron is great. Keep it on medium heat. Working one by one, roll out a ball to about 6 inch diameter and place on the hot griddle.

Flip within 30 seconds (as soon as you see the color change), when you start seeing bubbles of air, flip it again and use a small dishcloth to push on the kulcha to make it puff up. Brush both sides with butter and remove to a plate or other container. repeat 11 times!

I'm no expert, but I do try to roll out another kulcha after doing the first flip on the preceding kulcha. But be careful, you don't want them to burn.

Once you're done, wrap it in foil or place in an insulated dish to keep warm. You can freeze them while still warm and just heat on a griddle.

Cheesecake cupcakes

2008-05-03T12:22:00.002+05:30

cheesecake cupcakes

Well out of my cheesecake pop near-debacle have emerged these cute cheesecake cupcakes, inspired by the good folks at Cooking for Engineers. If you may recall, I was left with a liquidy center, which I saved, added one egg and some leftover white chocolate frosting (!) and baked. They were a huge success, even though I wish I had taken them out maybe 15 minutes earlier.

Daring Bakers April Challenge: Cheesecake pops

2008-04-28T04:52:00.018+05:30

I was excited by this month's challenge, chosen by our lovely hosts, Deborah of Taste and Tell and Elle of FME, especially because my husband loves NY style cheesecake. But I've only made cheesecake three or four times in the last seven years, it's always seemed a little complicated and time-consuming!

Well, I actually started on the challenge yesterday. Things got off to a great start, the batter looked, and tasted, divine. I took the recipe down by 1/5th as I happened to only have 32 oz of cream cheese. I still got a lot of batter! I filled one 7-inch springform tin almost full, and had more than enough for a mini 4-inch cake with crust for hubby dear.

The white center should have been clue no. 1

The cake appeared done in about an hour, it wasn't jiggling and I let it cool for a while, but i think here is where I made mistake No. 1, I popped it into the fridge while still warm before I headed to work, because I didn't trust the other adult in the house to remember to. Anyway, I come home about 9 hours later, ready to scoop out, and I found that the top and sides were fine, but the center was liquidy! Panic set in. I managed to scoop out the liquidy bit and then make about 12 with the firm parts. I plan to use the liquid part to make individual cakes as shown here. I'm not sure whether this is because I overfilled the pan, whether the water bath somehow retarded the cooking (the parts done were mostly the ones above the water) and of course the genius of refrigerating the cake while still warm.

The scooping needless to say was not easy. As you can see they weren't so smooth!

Anyway, this afternoon I took them out of the freezer and finished them up. My husband needless to say loved it. My 4-year-old liked the chocolate and sprinkles, but wasn't too keen on the cheesecake... she's very fussy.

Well, I think I might try this again, when I have a larger freezer, and my husband has more self-control!

Be sure to check out the really creative and beautiful pops from other, more Daring Bakers!

Amateurish artwork

2008-04-23T02:48:00.015+05:30

One of my friends is leaving town, and as a farewell present I decided to make her some aonla, or amla, achaar (indian gooseberry pickle). The question was what to give it in.

After some searches online, I was torn between these sweet little jars at Crate and Barrel and some canning jars at Sur La Table. Luckily, the nearest locations for both are almost adjacent. After comparing, I settled on the ones above from C&B, because I had concerns about the metallic lids (achar can be very corrosive). And though the C&B jars a tad on the small side, about 4.5 oz, they're so cute!

Then I picked up some metallic pens in gold and silver from Dick Blick, and drew on some Indian block-print style designs. Two of the jars have achaar, and of the other two, one has my mom's guava jelly (to die for!) and some sweet pickled mango.

Shortbread

2008-04-19T04:31:00.004+05:30

I think there can be no one who doesn't like shortbread, so if you feel like indulging... This was just perfect all around. The recipe is damn simple and tastes damn good.

This recipe comes from McDougalls Better Baking Handbook, you will never bake a simpler cookie.

Shortbread

150g (6 oz) plain flour

pinch of salt

50g (2 oz) caster sugar

100g (4 oz) butter

1. Mix the flour, salt and sugar, rub in the butter (I used half part salted and half part unsalted).

Work the mixture to a smooth pliable dough.

2. Divide the dough into two and roll each piece to a 15 cm round and place on a baking sheet. (I used a pizza/pastry roller and directly rolled them out on the baking sheet).

3. Prick all over with a fork.

4. Bake for 35-40 minutes at 160C, 325F.

5. Sprinkle with some extra caster sugar and cut into pieces while still warm.

Mulberries...

2008-04-10T15:37:00.004+05:30

Our mulberry tree is bearing fruit these days :)

Hey if you know any recipe in which I can use 'em, lemme know.

Took these pics with my phone, am more in love with it's camera each day :)

I Heart Buttercream!

2008-03-30T01:53:00.011+05:30

Yeah! That too Swiss Meringue Buttercream!
OK, I'm sure I don't need to make it plainer that I got the coolest, lightest buttercream! It was fab :) When I saw this month's challenge by Morven, I thought "oh wow! the buttercream has come back to haunt me again," which was followed by a frantic mail to the very helpful Helen. Apart from other questions that I bugged her with, I wanted to know if you can make this particular buttercream with churned butter, because that's the only kind of unsalted butter I have access to. Helen had a simple answer, "you will have to try!" And try I did, once again. I have made this one twice earlier, but both the times I had been too nervous, too sure of failure, too sure that churned butter just wasn't the right kind of butter! The moment it started looking curdly or runny I would start trying all sorts of fixes to get it right. But this time I just kept a cool head, didn't even keep looking at the recipe, when I started adding the butter by spoonfuls to the super shiny white marshmallow cream, it did look slightly curdly and runny, but I just kept beating it with the paddle attachment, and suddenly it all came together in the lightest mass possible, I was on cloud nine!

This was followed by another quick mail to Helen! This time with the picture of the success, to which she said a very apt thing: 'Recipes are like animals, they know when you are nervous.'

I haven't even talked about the cake! What can I say... My mom said that we'd never need to buy a cake anymore, to which my Dad said, 'Even if we do, where will we get one as good as this!' That about sums it up! Though the cake was slightly on the sweeter side, I guess that was because I didn't have preserves and used some homemade guava jelly. Oh by the way, during the cooling I mishandled it and managed to break one of them, but you cant see it in the finished product!

The super shiny marshmallow cream.

The super fluffy buttercream! yeah!

The recipe and the yield.

That looks lopsided... (well it was actually) :)

No coconut. :( That's because I had been oh so sure that there was some desicated coconut in the fridge. As you can see, it just wasn't there.

Do check out the host Morven's blog for the recipe (it might not be up yet though) and the other Daring Bakers for more Perfect Party cakes!

Note: Since I didn't have cake flour, I used the microwave plus cornflour technique.

on my way back...

2008-03-26T00:28:00.004+05:30

...from college yesterday.
I swear I didn't do anything, it turned pink on its own!

Tadaaaa!!

Quick Birthday Card

2008-03-23T02:57:00.003+05:30

Quick if you have a habit of storing dried flowers the way I do! This is a card I made for my sister for her favouritist teacher. Its very simple really, its just three pieces of paper, a dried flower, some ribbon and some adhesive!

Chiffon Shortcake with fruits and cream...

2008-03-15T22:22:00.011+05:30

We had this for my mother's birthday last month, yeah am very very behind time. Will just make a quick post of it, it was a Chiffon Shortcake, the same recipe which I posted sometime back. This cake is always quite a hit. Its fab with cream and chocolate/fruit. I sliced the cake into three and loaded it with fruits and cream. Yeah I know that looks like a hell lot of cream, but I swear it really wasn't that much, I think while spreading it I pushed it out to the sides. And for the fruits I used whatever I could get my hands on, it had pomegranates, grapes (black and green), kiwis and strawberries. I wanted it to have tonnes of fruits, it gave me a kind of nice feeling :) I added the pomegranates because I love the colour, but they tasted good too. I dunno why I have never seen pomegranates on cakes or even fruit tarts.

Later on I drizzled some blackcurrant syrup on the cake..mmm... :P

See! I told you it didn't have that much cream. And yeah I know all three pictures look so different from one another.. And I swear I took all of them on the same setting.. My skills... argh!

My mother's carnations..

2008-03-06T17:48:00.005+05:30

My mother loves flowers and plants in general, she's got loads and loads of potted ones. Her carnations are in bloom nowadays and I took a few pictures some days back.

I have posted a few more pictures here.

DB February Challenge: French Bread

2008-02-29T23:06:00.027+05:30

This month's challenge, hosted by Mary and Sara, was French Bread. This wasn't like my first bread or anything, and yeast is a friend too :P but it had been ages that I had baked a bread. I remember a funny incident from years and years back, I was baking those braided loaves, I had seen a recipe on TV, and had wanted to try immediately. I remember the chef lovingly calling them his pregnant ladies, as the braids were filled with nuts! Anyway the recipe yielded three loaves, and as I was at third, I couldn't, for the life of me, make that braid! The more I tried, the more the strands kept getting longer! Finally I had to ask my brother and he did it for me!

Anyway that's neither here nor there! Am finally through with my challenge, and thanks to Mary and Sara for kindling some old memories. As I said baking a bread wasn't a first for me, but what was a first was reading and re-reading and re-reading... n times, a recipe this long! Well, that's the fun of being a Daring Baker, doing something you wouldn't otherwise do!

Here's my dough after the preliminary stages.

It wasn't sticky, it wasn't dry, yet I felt it needed some water, so I added a few tablespoons but that didn't make much of a difference I think.

After the first rise, I was kinda pleased with it :P

After the second rise.

Inverted onto a kneading surface...

I decided to make small rolls, the only reason being that I really couldn't make out how I was to transfer the dough from the canvas to the baking tray using a cardboard without completely flattening it. For the small buns (petit pains) it said you had to carefully pick them up and place them on the tray, and that sounded infinitely easier. Here's one of the balls. I don't think they quite tripled, and also I managed to deflate them considerably during slashing.

And yeah that isn't a piece of canvas or linen towel. When it comes to cloth and their types, I am dumb. I was going to ask my mother for the cloth and when I needed it (trust me not to have asked for it before hand) she was taking her afternoon nap, so I waited, waited some more, and then dusted a piece of parchment paper generously with flour.

In the oven.

I think I should have taken these out earlier, it looks a bit over done. And that white flaky thing on top is the flour which got stuck to the bottoms during the final rise!

I found it difficult to slice the bread because of its crust, and found it chewy to eat.

I think this isn't something I'd be making again, but I definitely enjoyed this challenge!

To find out how the rest of the DBer's tackled this challenge visit the blogroll.

Update: I just had one, slicing it in half and toasting it slightly, buttering it generously, finishing with some jam, yum! Also the crust is no longer hard.

Chocolate Chocolate Cake

2008-02-20T21:23:00.015+05:30

Yet again, Martha Stewart's One Bowl Chocolate Cupcakes take the cake. It was a family birthday, and for special occasions I stick to tried and tested recipes, and since this was pretty much tried and tested, I again went for it.

I made two round cakes and sliced both into two (three if you count removing the dome) and got a four layered cake, layered with chocolate ganache and nougat. For the nougat I made caramel from two cups of sugar and tossed into it around a cupful of toasted almonds and walnuts. My family loves nougat, whether its with vanilla ice cream (with chocolate sauce if you are feeling particularly indulgent) or just like that, yeah, I mean just popping them into your mouth like popcorn!

Ok, here's an interesting bit. Did you realise you were looking at chocolate ganache of three different colours. Here's how that happened. After I had the cake covered in ganache, I wanted to do to feather icing, so I added some cocoa to the leftover ganache thinking it will get darker in colour, but no! it got lighter. Thinking my eyes were playing tricks, I added some more, and it got still lighter! So then I made the rings with this lighter ganache, and then made the second one with some little-old-much-darker-than-both ganache I had! Am sorry, this all is soo confusing I know!

After making the caramel and before adding the nuts to it, I made some caramel sticks with which I crowned the cake, though I agree it does look like a crown of thorns! Now I feel it really wasn't required and would have looked much prettier on a cake covered with whipped cream. (Try sponge cake with whipped cream and nougat if you havent yet!) For the layers I used the finer nougat and used the bigger pieces to cover the sides. And as always I was behind time so couldn't really wait for the ganache to cool down completely and thicken, therefore the nougat didn't stick properly, creating a ring of yummy debri around the cake!

'Someone's been in my kitchen!', cried the mumma bear. Who could it be, I wonder.

The leftovers. Stuffed. "How ruuude!"

Note: The propotions given on the site are somewhat different from those of the book, and I used the book.

Wondering what happened to the domes? Three days later they made a very good two layer cake by themselves, covered and sandwiched with leftover ganache and nougat.

2008-02-14T15:27:00.004+05:30

A card I made using an embossing sheet. Its just two pieces of paper tied with a ribbon. Not your regular Valentine Day stuff (maybe I oughta have chosen pink), but somewhere close I guess :P And thats not my normal handwriting! Dunno, I just wanted to write that in the curliest silliest writing possible.

Some punishment for your Valentine?

2008-02-10T20:55:00.002+05:30

Here is a quick post, my entry for Zorra's 'A heart for your Valentine' event. These cookies, called Punitions, which apparently means 'punishment' in French leave you wondering who named 'em! For the recipe you can check out this link, from Dorie Greenspan's website. Not only does it have the recipe, it'll also help you understand your butter better. As you can see I rolled the dough out thin directly on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper, made the shapes, and then baked it just like that! And later on picked out the hearts! I will definitely be posting more about them soon, just that I am in a bit of hurry right now!

Scrumptious scones

2008-02-09T01:16:00.002+05:30

I'm a tea-aholic... Not the weird tasting "chai tea" abominations (hello, chai means tea in half a dozen languages!) sold in places that shall remain unnamed, but strong brewed Indian tea, preferably long-leaf Darjeeling, with cream and sugar. Heaven. And the best thing to go with tea? Scones... So I made a batch of Cranberry cream scones, from Tartlette's tasty take on a Dorie Greenspan recipe. Also because I wanted to use up some heavy cream dangerously on the verge of spoiling. The result was fabulous.... practically melted in my mouth. And I didn't even need any jam, clotted cream or butter!

Comfort food

2008-02-08T03:18:00.004+05:30

MASOOR DAL (Red lentil soup)

A friend recently asked for a recipe using red lentils, so I made some dal, which is kind of like soup, so I could note the ingredients and proportions. Yummy!

This recipe, though not one of our family traditionals, has become one. It's adapted from Madhur Jaffrey's Red lentil soup recipe in Indian Cooking.

I love this book, and I've made almost half the recipes. I began with my mom's copy, as a 14-year-old learning how to cook (mom refused to "teach"... her advice was just watch... something i didn't have the patience for as a teen). This book gave me the skills and understanding to be able to watch my mom and understand her truncated instructions. And many years later, in NYC, I got to meet Madhur Jaffrey in person, well actually shake her hand and tell her how much I love her work! It was after a reading from Shashi Tharoor's Riot. Madhur was first an actress, before her cooking eclipsed her other talent!

Masoor Dal

Ingredients (serves 2-4)

¾ cup red lentils
2.5 cups water
½ tsp salt
2 thin slices ginger
½ tsp turmeric (scant)
1-2 tbsp butter
½ tsp cumin seeds
1 tbsp thinly sliced onion
¼ tsp coriander powder
¼ tsp cayenne (or less)
1 mild green chile, (I use a deseeded jalapeno)
2-3 tbsp cilantro, chopped

Wash the lentils (I put them in a medium bowl, fill with water, rub with my fingers and then drain, and repeat 4-5 times until water is somewhat clear), and then fill with water again and let the lentils soak for about 30 minutes.

In a 2 qt or so pot, add the lentils, water, salt, ginger and turmeric. Bring to boil and then simmer on a low flame until done, about 15-20 minutes.

In a separate small frying pan, melt the butter, when hot add the cumin seeds, then onions, when onions are brown add chile and the coriander and cayenne powders, stir a few times, then add the cilantro, stir again a few times, and then pour this mixture over the lentils. Give it a good stir, and you’re done! I like to have this with rice and an Indian veggie dish. Also as a plain soup, with a squeeze of lemon.

My first loaf of bread

2008-02-07T00:00:00.001+05:30

I finally did it... I baked a loaf of bread. I'd been eyeing the famous no-knead bread featured in the NYT for ever and ever, but lacking a cast-iron pot, and not sure whether I should get one because of shoulder problems, I held off. Then I came across another slow-rise, no-knead recipe in the Washington Post. Using a loaf pan! Perfect.

I used King Arthur's unbleached AP flour and 1 part Indian chapati flour, which I believe is a soft wholewheat (durrum?).

The loaf was delicious, almost like a french loaf. Reading various tips, I added a bowl of water in the beginning to get a bit of a crust. My only complaint, slightly difficult to slice, but it got easier after I let it rest an hour or so.

Daring Bakers challenge

2008-01-28T16:36:00.001+05:30

Despite my misgivings (from prior bad experiences with lemon curd) I gave this month's challenge a shot. I didn't want a huge tart for my teeny family, so i reduced the recipe by 1/3 and ended up with 4 3.5 inch tarts and one free form one. I should have rolled out the pastry thinner, since I was left with a load of curd and meringue.

The meringue I used up by folding in some almond meal and making some free-style macarons. Yummy, but not picture worthy... i just piled spoonfuls on a silicon mat, instead of piping it.

Anyhow, the tart was a great hit with DH, but I found it 'eggy'... there must be a way to neutralize the yolky smell!

Daring Bakers' January Challenge: Lemon Meringue Pie

2008-01-28T15:14:00.001+05:30

This is truly one recipe I would never have tried had it not been for the Daring Bakers! A tart filled with egg yolks and topped with egg whites didn't sound like a very good idea! The host for this month was Jen, and its because of her I baked my first Lemon Meringue Pie! Though am still not not too sure how I like this, but my folks sure liked it. So I might have another go! Also the video posted by Aparna was helpful! Reading on the DB blog a few incidents of 'pools of butter' I decided to cut down the butter by one third, and it wasn't a good idea, because the crust was as far from having a shortbread like texture as could be! It was somewhat hard rather than flaky or crisp. And I also cut the lemon juice by half because I knew no one at my place would like it so tarty, and it tasted just fine. Just that I felt despite the vanilla extract and lemon juice and zest, there still remained a somewhat eggy smell :( But nobody else complained so I guess it was just me. And also, this has nothing to do with taste, but I wonder why my filling looks so pale? Otherwise it was just fine, no runny filling luckily, it set very well. Just have to be careful about the butter the next time I bake this!

Do check out the other Daring Bakers for some more Pies!

Ouch!

2008-01-26T19:19:00.000+05:30

I hope this doesn't look gross, I cut my finger today while chopping some methi (fenugreek) for aalu-saag (potatoes with dil and fenugreek), which happens to be quite a favourite thing with me (the aalu-saag, not cutting my finger, incase you were wondering).

Birthday spread - part 2

2007-12-30T02:39:00.009+05:30

Here's hoping third time's the charm! Now I see that if instead of composing in the Picasa window, I had typed it up here, good old Blogger would have been auto-saving my efforts. Ah well, you live and learn. So here are some close-ups and recipes from the birthday party.

Chocolate cupcakes
This recipe has fast become my favorite chocolate cake recipe, it's fool-proof, i.e. me-proof.

Makes about 2 and half dozen cupcakes. [The original recipe from Gourmet is for a 9 inch round layer cake. ]

Cake:
2 cups all purpose flour
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa (not dutch-process)
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 sticks butter
1 cup brown sugar (packed)
3/4 cup sugar
4 eggs
2 oz unsweetened chocolate, melted
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups buttermilk

Method:
Preheat oven to 350 deg. line 2 12-muffin trays, or 2 9-inch round pans. I had enough batter left over for a 4 inch round cake after filling the two muffin pans.
Sift the flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt into a bowl. Beat the sugars and butter in a larger bowl, or bowl of a stand mixer until light, can take several minutes with a handheld. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well each time. Add melted chocolate and vanilla until. Now alternately add the buttermilk (1/3rd at a time) and flour (1/4th a time) ending with flour. Mix until just combined and spoon into muffin cases. Bake for about 20 minutes, or 25-35 if using the round pans.

White Chocolate frosting
8 oz white chocolate, broken into large pieces
1/2 cup cream
4 oz butter
12 oz confectioner's sugar
Melt the chocolate with the butter over a pan of simmering water. remove from heat and whip in the cream and the sifted icing sugar, keeping whipping until smooth and thick. refrigerate for about thirty minutes before using. I was a little hasty in using it, with the clock ticking and all, so it was a bit soft and drippy, but i had some leftover that i used later that was perfect for piping. I divided the icing into four bowls and used Ateco gel colors -- green, blue and pink in three of them. I had ordered the colors from Amazon for Halloween, but they hadn't arrived on time, but at least I had them for the birthday.

Pipe or spoon onto the cupcakes and enjoy!

Raspberry Financiers

adapted from here

4 egg whites
Scant 1 1/4 cups powdered sugar
11 tablespoons butter (i used 9 because the almond meal has more fat than flour)
Scant 1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup almond flour (i used almond meal)
1/2 pint fresh raspberries (about 24)

Method
Mix the egg whites and sugar in a medium bowl over saucepan filled with simmering water and stir until until the whites warm slightly and the sugar dissolves. Remove from the heat and set aside.
In a small saucepan, cook the butter on medium heat until it browns and gives off a nutty aroma. Don't overcook and remove promptly from heat when you see golden sediments at the bottom (FYI, this cooked butter is the ghee used in Indian cooking).
In a large bowl whisk the egg white mixture at low speed. Gently add the flour, followed by the almond flour, and mix just enough to combine. Add in the warm butter in a thin stream, mixing at low speed. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl, and continue to mix 10 seconds so the batter is completely combined. Here is the strange part: cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour, preferably overnight (I did overnight so there would be one less thing to do the day of the party).
When ready to bake, take out the batter and heat the oven to 325 degrees. Butter 2 miniature muffin pans (it's OK if you have only one, you can do them in batches). Fill the molds two-thirds full with batter, about one generous tablespoon, and place a fresh raspberry on top of each. Bake 30 to 40 minutes, until golden. Remove and cool on a wire rack. Repeat if you have any batter remaining, or using one tray.
Each financier: 77 calories; 1 gram protein; 7 grams carbohydrates; 1 gram fiber; 5 grams fat; 3 grams saturated fat; 11 mg. cholesterol; 8 mg. sodium.

Chicken Rolls

I was inspired to make this from a recipe on Delia Smith's website... she's my mom's favorite TV cook. I decided to go with chicken, hoping it would be healthier, and because several of my guests do not eat beef. For the chicken mixture, i went with a traditional family recipe for meatballs.

2 pounds chicken, ground
2-3 green chiles (jalapeno or serrano)
1 1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp salt
1 inch ginger chopped coarsely
1 clove garlic (optional)
1 large bunch cilantro, washed and chopped
1 medium onion, (yellow or red)
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1/2 tsp or less of crushed red chile (not cayenne powder)
2 tsp vegetable oil
2 tbsp unseasoned bread crumbs
10 puff pastry sheets

Method
Pulse the green chiles, salt and cumin for a few seconds, until chiles are chopped. Add ginger and garlic, if using (it gives an Indian-restaurant style seekh kebab taste) and pulse until combined and there are no large pieces. Add the onions, then cilantro and pulse until you get a coarse mixture. Remove into a bowl and add ground chicken ((if you can't get ground chicken, you can use chicken breasts and chop them and whiz them in a processor with other ingredients), black pepper, crushed red chiles and vegetable oil. Mix well and taste, and adjust salt and pepper according to taste. If the mixture seems a little wet, add the bread crumbs.
I was too chicken to use the mixture uncooked -- I had visions of soggy pastry as the meat gave off water. So I shaped the meat into rolls the length of the pastry sheets, about 4 inches, and laid them in single layer in a heavy saute pan and let it cook on a low heat for about 30 minutes or until the water evaporates.
Next, heat the oven to 375 degrees. To assemble, place one roll on each pastry sheet (i added a slice of onion and tomato) roll up, and cut in two and place on a greased baking tray. Bake until golden brown.

Birthday spread

2007-12-30T02:25:00.001+05:30

So, with Aamena away having fun in Bombay, I'm going to try to keep the blog fires burning and catch up on some posts that I've been meaning to write. Well this picture is from my younger daughter's first birthday last month. We had a small tea-time party. The birthday girl was a bit out of it... we found out a day later at the doctor's that she had an ear infection. Given the circumstances, she was quite an angel! I made some chocolate cupcakes, chicken kebab rolls, various sandwiches, raspberry financiers and spinach quiche, and hot wings.

[cue an hour later]

OK, so today I nearly became a serial killer! I twice wrote up a separate post with recipes for the cupcakes, financiers and chicken rolls, and the first time, when i was half way through, DD2 came and touched something, and made the whole draft disappear. Then the second time, when i was about one sentence from hitting publish, DD1 came and touched the mouse, effectively hitting the "back" button. It was all i could do to control myself! Anyhow, the lesson from this is, blog only when the kiddos are sleeping or otherwise fully occupied, ie out of the house! Now that I have to go to work, that post will have to be written tomorrow, or possibly tonight. :-(

Daring Bakers December Challenge: Yule Log

2007-12-22T15:54:00.004+05:30

This was my first challenge and it was hosted by Lis and Ivonne, the founders, and the recipe chosen by 'em was for a Yule Log, which was basically genoise and swiss meringue buttercream. Anybody who remembers my first attempt at meringue buttercream would understand why I was abit nervous. My genoise was just fine. I spread chocolate ganache over it before rolling it up, and decided to tackle the buttercream the next day. It turned out that I was both, luckier and otherwise in comparison to my last time.

The buttercream was fine till I decided it looked runny and refrigerated it for a while (special thanks to Helene of Tartelette for all the tips for buttercream gone awry). What came out was a deflated curdled mass. Whisking it didn't help. So I tried melting 25% of it and adding it back to the lot and whisking again, it did get slightly better, but only slightly. I was tired and frustrated and was quite sure I didn't want to have another go, starting from the beginning, so I just put the curdled mass in a mixer grinder along with icing sugar and pulsed it. Viola, it got better, I added some more icing sugar and pulsed some more, and the buttercream came together! I thanked my stars! Though it wasn't light and fluffly but it was atleast spreadable!

Since I didn't get the time to take pictures while making, am posting a few of the finished thing which was liked by all! So here it is, with a few marzipan mushrooms and some cocoa.

Do check out the other Daring Bakers for some more logs!

Banoffi Pie

2007-12-19T22:35:00.001+05:30

This has become a fast favourite with my entire family. Whenever we have overripe bananas (soemtimes we let them get overripe :P) it means either Banana Bread or Banoffi Pie. More often Banoffi Pie, because it a quick no-bake thing and is absolutely delicious, never mind the calories! I think I must have made it countless times ever since we chanced upon the recipe, tried it and loved it. Posting two quick pictures, a feast for your eyes!

Banana nut loaf

2007-12-10T02:53:00.001+05:30

Aah, banana nut loaves/bread, you might think 'tried one, tried them all' -- but no, there are as many variations as there are recipes. For a while I used up overripe bananas by adding them to Nick Malgieri's Buttery Nut Cake recipe. About 2 bananas for half the recipe, with crushed walnuts. Rich and moist. A colleague brought in Tyler Florence's version with some chocolate chips. Dense and bread like. That was added to my tiny repertoire - with walnuts instead of pecans (somehow I can't stand them) and finally I think I've hit the jackpot with good ol' Martha's banana nut loaf. You judge, I've made it twice in a month (recipe yield 2 loaves!). Using vegetable oil keeps it lighter, IMO, and fresher. The coconut adds an interesting complexity to the taste, but is so subtle that unless told you might not know it's there. Very unusual.
Adapted from Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook
Ingredients
3 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
3 large eggs
2 cups sugar
11/2 cup vegetable oil
2 tbsp pure vanilla extract
1 cup unsweetened coconut
11/2 cup mashed ripe bananas (about 3-4)
1 cup (4 oz) walnuts or pecans, toasted and finely chopped
1/2 cup buttermilk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray/butter 2 9 inch loaf pans.
In a large bowl, mix the flour, baking powder and salt. In another bowl, or bowl of an electric mixer, beat the eggs and sugar and oil on low-medium speed until mixed. Beat in the dry mixture, then add the remaining ingredients until just combined. Divide batter evenly between the two tins, smooth top. Bake until tester comes out clean, about 60 minutes. do rotate and swap positions half way through.
WHen done, cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes before removing. Stores well at room temperature in an airtight container or wrapped in plastic. Can be frozen for 3 months.
Enjoy!

Pineapple and cake and cream!

2007-12-10T01:41:00.002+05:30

No, I haven't gone nuts over chiffon cakes.. Just that this cute li'l chap

had been lying around the kitchen and I had this funny desire to devour him with some cake and cream, and then I had two reasons, the first one being my kid sis, Aaliya, winning the inter school debate 'Materialism is degrading social values,' and her picture along with her partner's and the judges' appeared in a popular newspapers' student edition and she was rather sad that she looked fat but happy that her watch looked cool. Yes, she spoke for the motion! Well the second reason was that at that time I had only one more exam to go, and that was a really good reason. Oh, there was a third one as well, just came to my mind, and this one was the driving force, that my mother said it wouldn't be good for the poor pineapple if it was made to stand there another day, and as I just said, I had a craving, so I had to act.

As you can see the cream is all runny. I used my 25% cream again, but it appears I was only first time lucky, because I have used it thrice now, and for the past two times, no matter what, it just won't get stiff when I beat it. It does gain alot of volume but that's it. But it turns out I wasn't that unlucky, because I discovered that this runny thing goes very well cakes anyway, you can make the cake soak up some, so that it gets nice and moist, and isn't dry, and you can also then cover it with it, that is its not that runny, which is what I did. The was the same as my first time lucky one, just that this time no ganache, the layers had cream and pineapple between them, I used up the whole for this three layered one.

And another thing, I really don't why, but the cake had a definite sour taste to it. It wasn't pronounced enough to make the cake taste bad, but definitely there. I don't know if it was the cream, or the pineapple juice (which I got from boiling the remains with some water) I made the cake soak, you see I wanted a through and through pineapple cake! But the strange thing about the sour taste was that it got weaker with time. So that the last slice I and Aaliya shared on the third day of making the cake didn't have that sour taste at all!

happy birthday to me!

2007-11-28T23:58:00.000+05:30

coz i don't do no baking on my birthday, i got this amazing cheesecake and the yummy chocolate cake! yeah!

that same day...

2007-11-14T09:13:00.001+05:30

The same day, because I knew I always have some leftover cream (and this time ganache as well) I baked a sheet cake merging the regular sponge recipe (30:30:1) and the chiffon shortcake recipe.

The ingredients-

30*6 gm flour
30*6 gm sugar
1*6 eggs

These are the regular sponge ingredients, apart from this I also added ( going the chiffon way),

Half a tablespoon baking powder
Half a teaspoon salt
1/2 cup cold water
1/4 cup vegetable oil
Zest of half a lemon
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Incase you don't have leftovers, for the filling you'll need-

Chocolate Ganache (Bring to the boil half a cup of cream in a saucepan, remove from heat and add around a quarter pound chopped semisweet chocolate to it, swirl the pan so the cream covers the chocolate, let it rest for five minutes, then whisk till smooth. Let cool, it will firm up as it does that.

And around half a cup of whipped cream, whipped with confectioner's sugar added according to your taste (around four tablespoons should be fine)

Then I proceeded as for the chiffon shortcake (check out the post before this one), with the exception that I used all the yolks as well, so that my yolks to whites ratio was 1:1. Also I noticed that using more water yields a softer cake. I cut the cake into two layers, sandwiched the layers with the ganache and then covered them with whipped cream, and it was good!

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 325F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

2. Sift together the flour, the baking powder, salt and 150gm sugar.

3. Separate the eggs. Beat the egg yolks, vanilla essence, lemon zest, oil and water until smooth. Stir in the flour to form a smooth mass.

4. Beat the egg whites, slowly adding the remaining sugar, until stiff peaks are formed.

5. Fold in a quarter of the egg whites into the flour mixture. Fold in the rest.

6. Bake for 35-40 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean.

7. Let cool.

Assembling the cake:

Slice the cake into two layers. Sandwitch the layers with ganache. Cover with whipped cream.

Chiffon Shortcake with Chocolate Ganache and Whipped Cream

2007-11-14T03:35:00.001+05:30

A family friend, who is like family only, recently moved to a better job, so had been wanting to make a Congratulations Cake, which I did finally a few days back. Got a bit enthusiastic and tried something new with

hmm... good results.

I decided to bake a chiffon shortcake and ice it with whipped cream and to add some flavour I layered it with chocolate ganache. Oh well you could argue that chocolate makes everything good!

I adapted the recipe for Strawberry Chiffon Shortcake from the Joy of Cooking (also of course I used no strawberries).

Cake layers:
11/8 cups sifted cake flour
1/2 and 1/4 cups superfine or regular sugar, divided
Half a tablespoon baking powder
Half a teaspoon salt
1/2 cup cold water
1/4 cup vegetable oil
Zest of half a lemon
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 large egg yolks at room temperature
5 large egg whites at room temperature

Filling:
1 cup heavy cream
Half a pound semisweet chocolate, chopped.

And a cup of whipping cream for covering the cake ( though I used 25% cream, and was really happy when it stiffened up! It was very light and make the cake taste better, not at all buttery, greasy or heavy. Though am not sure if it will work everytime).

1.Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Have a 9-inch round cake pan ready, lined with parchment paper.

2. Sift the flour, 1/2 cup sugar, baking powder and salt twice together into a large bowl.

3. In a another bowl, beat the yolks, water, oil, zest and vanilla on high speed until smooth. Stir into the flour mixture until smooth. In another large bowl, beat the egg whites until soft peaks are formed. Add the remaining ¼ cup sugar, and beat on high speed until the peaks are stiff but not dry.

4. Use a rubber spatula to fold a quarter of the egg whites into the flour mixture, then gently fold in the remaining egg whites, only until the egg whites are no longer visible. Overdoing it will deflate them.

5. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and spread evenly. Bake it until the top springs back when lightly pressed and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 40 to 50 minutes.

6. Let the cake cool before taking it out of the pan and peeling off the parchment paper.

7. Make the ganache: Bring the cream to a boil in a saucepan, remove from heat and add the chocolate and swirl to cover all the chocolate. Let it rest for 5 minutes. Whisk with a hand whisk until smooth. Let cool. Whisk again.

8. Add some sugar to the whipping cream and whip it with an electric mixer till stiff.

folding in the whites...

cooling and slicing the cake...

icing...

Assembling the cake:

Split the cake into three layers or even two would be fine I don't know how I managed three! I made a ring of whipped cream before pouring in the ganache so that it wouldn't leak later. Spread the ganache and top with the other or another layer, depending upon how many you have. Cover the top and the sides with whipped cream, decorate with chocolate curls if desired, or pipe the leftover ganache.

Early on I was planning a white on white cake, but then I felt it looked too plain so I piped on some ganache and added a few chocolate curls (a firm piece of chocolate and a vegetable peeler).

Halloween goodies!

2007-11-02T23:39:00.001+05:30

Well, my 3-year-old is totally into Halloween now, so I decided to have a small dress-up party for her and her friends, since I'd be working on the actual day of Halloween. I didn't want to make anything too spooky for preschoolers... so I let the theme be pumpkins, no bloodshot eyes and severed hands.
First, I apologize for the poor photos, the one thing my husband did that day, and he messed up!

Anyway, the cake was this devil's food Halloween cake

from Gourmet magazine. The original recipe has a chocolate spider, its legs extending over the sides of the cake, a really neat idea that I want to try next time. The cake itself was yum, though I wonder if it would have been better with chocolate instead of cocoa powder. I did have another devil food's cake recipe using chocalate from Nick Maglieri's book How to Bake, but my stupid fridge had frozen the sour cream his recipe calls for. Anywho, everyone said they liked the cake, though my 3-year-old was a little freaked out by the orange and black icing. The icing was an amalgam of this quick vanilla buttercream icing I found online and the frosting in the Bon Apetit recipe. I also stuck some of Wilton's Halloween sprinkles along the edges, very unprofessionally.
The cupcakes were plain vanilla, to which I added half a cup of chocolate chips, using the same frosting. This was my first time piping anything, and while the spiders' webs weren't hard, my spiders turned out rather double-jointed and my attempt at a bat was unrecognizable!

Palak Paneer Pie... once again..

2007-10-30T05:24:00.000+05:30

Am sure most of you reading this won't know that Palak Paneer Pie was my first ever post to this blog. Since then I have often thought of the changes I would like to make to that particular post. And today I decided to make a new post with all the things which I feel should have been in that first post.

The first thing would be I think a picture of the stuffing. So here we go...

You can see the Palak (spinach), the white stuff is the paneer (indian cheese), the pomegranates, the onion and the peas.

Another thing I would like to suggest here for people who would prefer a-not-so-soft lower crust is that you may blind bake your lower crust, and use cooked spinach. Just chop the spinach, put it in a saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Within a few minutes it will have separated into a green mass and quite a lot of water, cook till all the water evaporates and then use this spinach. This is something I have done, so I know its just fine.

Another thing I have taken to is cutting out shapes from the upper crust instead of making steam vents with a tooth pick.

And here is what you can do with the left over dough, specially if you like your crust crisp. Oh I know you would think anyone likes it that way, but with Palak Paneer Pie it all tastes good. Nonetheless these cut outs are nice to eat alongwith the pie.

Banana-Toffee Pie

2007-10-21T03:53:00.005+05:30

This, according to Reader's Digest, is a slice of the world's best pie. RD happens to be where I got the recipe from, and I regret to say that I hadn't heard of it before. It's certainly worth knowing and making again and again. The recipe is simple enough, the ingredients are:

300gm Marie Biscuits (or graham crackers)
1 can of condensed milk, 400gm
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
3 bananas
A cup of whipped cream, or more if you like
Some grated chocolate, or chocolate curls

Now for the method.

The most important and time-consuming part of this recipe is the toffee making. You have to cook the unopened, yes, unopened, can of condensed milk in boiling water for 3 hours. Make sure the can is always under water, if uncovered it might explode. This is how you get the toffee. And it's worth it. [You can boil several cans at a time, which is what I did after I made this once and liked it enough to want to make it loads of times more.... The toffee keeps indefinitely in the unopened can and can be stored and used at leisure.

Put the biscuits/crackers in a plastic bag, and crush them with a rolling pin till you get what you see in the picture. Though alternately you can pulse it in a food processor/mixer. (The actual recipe calls for 250 gm of biscuit, but I prefer a thicker crust, maybe next time I might make it 400gm, not kidding)

In a saucepan over low heat mix thoroughly the biscuits and the butter, until its warm to the touch. Put this mixture in the dish you plan to make your pie in. For my first attempt, I used a baking tin lined with parchment paper.

Smooth it out. Nice job, right? Once you've done this, refrigerate it for around half an hour.

Add the banana layer.

And then the toffee. Its a bit difficult to spread it out.

Another nice job :P

Now for the whipped cream. I love these soft peaks.

And lastly, the grated chocolate. I would like to add that I've made this pie a few times more and instead of grated chocolate I used chocolate curls, it looks prettier.

Chill it, and its ready to be eaten. Though I felt it was easier to handle after being left in the fridge overnight. Once its thoroughly set, you can remove it from the tin to a plate, but you have to be very careful as the biscuit layer cracks easily, but what the hell, it doesn't affect the taste! Dig in or see it disappear before your eyes!

Update: I just came across this amazing site, videojug, and they have a video on how to make Banoffee Pie, and two things they did different from me was that they didn't press down the biscuit crumbs very compactly, it was rather loose, which will make it easier to slice the pie, and they boiled the condensed milk only for two hours, which means its lighter colour, softer, and
spreads much more easily, though it will be be probably less caramel-y. I think another good idea would be to melt some chocolate and make a base of that, so that the biscuit crumbs get confined!

Delicious tomato tart

2007-10-15T21:49:00.001+05:30

This tomato tart from Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook has fast become one of my favorite things to bake. Tomatoes, garlic and basil --- one of the best combos in the world. But it really isn't something to make too often -- unless you're trying to put on weight, it is very, very buttery! I made this twice in Ramadan, it was perfect for breaking the fast and I got to use up my delicious black tomatoes the second time.
The recipe is on Martha's website too, though the one in the book calls for 3 oz fontina, not 2. And one head of garlic would have someone calling the fire station, 4-5 large cloves are more than enough on a 7 inch (I can never get the pastry to fit on a 10-inch pan, and I haven't gotten around to getting 8 or 9 inchers). Actuallythe crust isn't super thick at all, and i think it would be soggy if it were any thinner.

a tottering pile of sugar..

2007-10-11T23:24:00.002+05:30

Sugar Cookies
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla
3 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Preheat oven to 350F.
Sift together the flour, salt and baking soda.
Cream sugar and butter till light and fluffy. Blend in the eggs and vanilla. Mix well. Add the flour, again mix well. Chill the dough for two hours.
Roll out the dough approx 1/8 inch thick and cut out shapes and place on a cookie sheet. Or make small balls with your palm and place them on a cookie sheet and press, which is what I did.
Bake for 5-8 minutes, or until the cookies are barely browned at the edges.

Mix together 1/2 cup sifted confectioners' sugar and 1 tablespoon milk. Spread on cookies, sprinkle with nonpareils.

Fun fact: I adapted the recipe I came across on a cookie sheet cover.

Next I plan to either add chocolate chips to them or make plain ones and sandwich then with chocolate. Whatever, I will surely post it here!

Lemon Yogurt Cake

2007-10-07T01:36:00.000+05:30

I came across this recipe from Orangette at Happy Home Baker's, and since we just got a new oven after days and days of burnt cake :( I was quite excited to try something new. And somehow I decided upon this. And it was well worth the little effort it required. Very simple indeed, the batter is pretty oily and flat but it rose remarkably well for such a batter. I was pleased! Though I didn't know I would have to turn the cake halfway through baking and therefore the huge smile, but I still like it. I love the colour, We had quite forgotten this hue with our old oven, whose temperature regulator had gone bonkers, about time too, after two and a half decades of service!

someone's been at work...

2007-10-01T01:00:00.002+05:30

And it's this little chap! And no I have no fascination for spiders as such, rather I dont like them, (creepy-crawly), but we all were fascinated with this one and his huge web!

...and he doesnt even get tired. This web is basically between the madhumalti (Quisqualis Indica) you can see dangling and the banisters of a staircase, and since there are flower pots on each step of the staircase and upstairs, the chap who waters the plants keeps removing his web, but this chap strikes back :P

and its got this really funny backside, onion shaped with two orangish eyes and a smiling face! Maybe it's to lure insects!

Strawberry cake

2007-09-28T00:42:00.001+05:30

Well, here is a cake I made for my husband's birthday last year. I followed Delia Smith's all-in-one-sponge-cake, but instead of halving the cake and doing a raspberry filling, I went with strawberries on top. It was delicious!

yummy!

2007-09-27T15:52:00.000+05:30

It's arguably the simplest dessert ever. We call it Chinia ghaans (china grass) because that's the name agar-agar goes by in Mumbai, which happens to be the only place I know of where its available here in India. Maybe because of the sea, but then India has a huge coastline. Anyway, its not to be found even here in the national capital! Lucky that my mother hails from Mumbai.

The recipe is simple enough. Your packet will probably tell you the amount of liquid, milk in this case. Cut the agar agar up fine, like this, this way it dissolves quicker. Add it to the milk. Cook on low heat, stirring occasionally till all the agar-agar disappears. Optionally you may add a bit of cardamom powder. Add the sugar, quantity will obviously depend on your taste, and bring to the boil once.

Take off the heat, pour into the dish you want to set it in. You want to sprinkle it with saffron, it looks beautiful! Once it has cooled to room temperature, carefully transfer the dish to a refrigerator, this way it firms up better. Once chilled, you may run a knife through it and cut it up in squares or diamonds, or have it just like that.

Upside down cakes

2007-09-24T23:55:00.000+05:30

Thanks for inviting me to contribute! Well here is my first post, very quick since my 3-year-old is crying for attention, two cakes I made recently, using up the fresh blackberries, cherries and pineapple I picked up at my local fruit market.

I got the recipes from trolling the web, for the pineapple upside down cake I chose this one, not because it seemed easy and didn't call for a skillet, but because I liked the idea of using ground cardamom -- the spice of choice for Indian desserts-- in this recipe, I went ahead and added about 1.5 tsp of cardamom powder, and I used cherries to add some color. I actually baked two, to use up the whole pineapple and took one to work, where it reminded nearly everyone of their mother's cakes!

The blackberry cake was from this recipe. Frankly, I was underwhelmed by it, and my 3-year-old found it too icky -- but then she finds most food so. Of course my husband was happy to polish it off!

a chunk of chocolate...

2007-09-23T21:23:00.002+05:30

I just fell in love with these. Usually I use chocolate chips when I combine Madeira and chocolate, but this time I decided to push a chunk of it in them before putting them in the oven. And I love the effect.

Like this semi-sunken effect, the chocolate's peeping and its left its traces too, sort of leaked on the surface. Inviting.

And you can see the grins on these cupcakes who have swallowed the chocolate, its as if they are unaware of their own fate!

But they have their disadvantages too, your normally 'tuptake' loving (so much so that when you try to threaten him into obedience with a 'no chocolate, no toffees for you' line, he looks imploringly at you at says, 'tuptakes?') two-year-old-nephew might just dig out the chocolate and abandon the rest with a grin to match the ones above!

Note: The Madeira recipe is the same one used for Pineapple Upside Down.

Tannu's Birthday... another reason...

2007-09-17T23:47:00.001+05:30

It was the same as Aaliya's cake, chocolate cake layered with chocolate sauce, except for that I covered it with Swiss Meringue Buttercream, which according to Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook, pairs great with chocolate cake. And topped with chocolate shavings (chocolate at room temperature and a vegetable peeler), which incidentally was the only thing the two year old birthday boy (who insisted that it was Shaun the Sheep's birthday and not his) was interested in, the 'shabings'. My buttercream sorta curdled slightly on adding the cream, gotta find out why... It gave it a not so smooth texture, but otherwise (taste wise) it was good.

Picture taken with a cellphone, my feeble reason for the quality being poorer than usual :(

Baked Doughnuts!

2007-09-08T22:08:00.001+05:30

My sister recommended this recipe she came across at 101cookbooks. She had tried it, liked it, and had even got her 3-year old to have some, which is an achievement of sorts! It indeed is good, and ofcourse healthy! Quite a match for its deep fried bro!

Adding cinnamon to the dusting sugar was a great idea, it gives them a nice taste and ofcourse a lovely aroma.

Dunno just felt like trying unconventional shapes, like these doughballs and doughbolts... :P

Pizza Flan

2007-08-31T01:47:00.000+05:30

Just felt like tyring something new, something which we (Dad, Mom and I, we are compulsive tea drinkers) could wash down with a cup of tea. Skimming through the McDougall's Better Baking handbook, I settled for this. Mostly because Dad is an (intermittent) health freak and would any day be glad to replace any flour with wheatmeal flour in anything. Well I didn't have to do that here. The recipe itself called for wheatmeal flour.

The recipe is rather simple. For the base, rub in around 100gm fat into 200gm (I prefer more, between 250-300gm since I like a thicker crust) wheatmeal flour which has a pinch of salt int it, next add water just enough to bind the mixture into a pliable dough. Roll out according to your flan tin size (preferably around 9 inches). Blind bake, 15 minutes, maybe 20, at 150C should be fine. This makes a nice crispy crust. And if you too like a thicker crust, then don't forget to increase the other ingredients proportionally.

For the topping, heat around 6 tablespoons of oil, and according the recipe fry 1kg of sliced onions until soft, add a clove of garlic, 400gm canned tomatoes and 15ml of tomato puree. Let simmer for about 20 minutes.

According to me do no such thing. I mean atleast don't follow these proportions unless you like a strong onion flavour. As you can see, it's far too much onion. In this picture below, I have used around 700gm, and still its just too much. Though it was good, the taste of the onions dominates. Next time round am going to reduce it further to maybe around 400gm, and take an equal amount of tomatoes, if not slightly more.

Next add the seasonings, pepper and salt and a pinch of herbs. Now spread it out on the blind baked crust.

Top with some cheese, 100gms should be fine. Here I used only cheddar, again, though it was good, but I'd like to try it gooey, so next time I'll take one part mozzarella and two parts cheddar. Then put it back in the oven till the cheese melts (of course cheddar doesn't melt!).

Take a bite and wash it down with a sip o' tea!

sweet disaster...

2007-08-20T20:42:00.000+05:30

Well I set out to make the Big, Fat, Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookie (though dunno why it says fat, its anything but), specially after reading the reviews here. And also on other blogs, the cookie looked just the way it was supposed to (Cooking for Engineers and Smitten Kitchen), you know how often things don't turn out the way the way recipes say they will! Anyway it wasn't to be that wimme. It was fat (unlike what the pictures say, though the name does suggest that) and chewy. These were my only two successes.

First the batter was too dark. Hmm.. I've decided to blame that on the too brown sugar. But that's the only one you get here!

Then it was too dry (dunno what to blame that on :() By the way, don't you think the choc drops are somewhat too much, two cups of drops for two cups flour... I ended up taking a little less than that...

And the cookies looked like this, they didn't spread the way they were supposed to during baking.

So I decided add a bit of milk (going against the recipe)...

And then the cookies looked like this... (bad picture)...

Well so it was a sweet disaster. And am lucky to have a family which doesn't mind such things as long as the outcome is tasty, which it was! I think I liked the dry batter cookies better. They were slightly crispy, along with being chewy. Though I found it a tad bit too sweet, so next time (if there is one) am going to cut down the sugars a bit!

spidey widey...

2007-08-15T23:25:00.000+05:30

No, this is not some picture of some fantastic specimen of arachnids floating in some preserving liquid I took by sneaking in a camera to my biology lab! And no weekend trips to the museum either. No. This is our house and that is our dish washing soap solution! What is that spider in there doing anyway... swimming around... err... floating dead... ewe!

Coffee & Walnut Ring

2007-08-05T00:30:00.000+05:30

Coffee and Walnut Ring
Whitworth's Cookery Handbook

125gm (4oz) butter or margarine
175gm (6oz) dark soft brown or dark muscovado sugar
2 eggs, beaten
45ml (3 tbsp) instant coffee powder
45ml (3 tbsp) hot water
125gm (4 oz) self raising flour, sifted
40gm (1.5 oz) chopped walnuts
75ml (3 fl oz) milk

Glace Icing
5ml (1 tsp) instant coffee powder
15ml (1 tbsp) hot water
50gm (2 oz) finest icing sugar

Lightly grease a 1.25 litre (2pt) ring mould.
Cream the butter or margarine with the sugar until light and fluffy. Gradually beat in the eggs. Mix the coffee powder and hot water and beat into the mixture.

(This is what happens to the batter when you add the hot water and coffee, it curdles big time, but doesn't lose volume)

Fold in the flour and chopped walnuts, then stir in the milk. Spoon into the prepared mould and smooth the surface.

Bake in a preheated oven at 180C/350F/Gas Mark 4 for around 40 minutes, until well risen and firm to the touch. Cool slightly before carefully turning out of the mould onto a wire rack.

To make the Glace icing, mix the coffee powder with the hot water. Add to the icing sugar, mixing well. Carefully pour over the ring, allowing some icing to trickle over the side. Decorate with walnut halves.

And as you can see, instead of glace icing I used melted chocolate. I've tried both, and though am not one of those people who believe chocolate makes everything better, but chocolate definitely does make Coffee and Walnut Ring better!

and...

2007-08-05T00:26:00.000+05:30

of course you want to keep an eye on what goes into the oven... (sorry Aapa) :(

a tip and a toast!

2007-08-01T00:08:00.000+05:30

If while creaming sugar and butter your batter appears more runny than fluffy, that is, a little like in the first picture, then, experience tells me, you should put it in the freezer for around ten minutes. After that take it out and cream as usual, the effect is quite apparent (the second picture).

Also using fresh cream, after separating the buttermilk makes a hell lot of difference to the batter, making it way lighter and giving it a lot of volume. Even after adding the eggs it remains nice and light (pictures third and fourth).

and the toast... to kenwood! Which has been in our family for the past three decades! And the only time it gave way was when Dad, curious to know what happened when you don't follow instructions, turned the knob so that it operated speed 8 when Mom was kneading dough, when the instructions clearly stated that dough should not be kneaded at a speed of more than 3! But nothing that the guys at the repairs centre couldn't fix.