Oatmeal Buttermilk Wheat Bread

We eat a lot of bread at home and by we I mean Latif (hehe). Actually that's what sustains him from morning till evening when I am at work if there are no leftovers for lunch. So it was only natural that I try my hand at baking a loaf of bread. We mostly eat wholemeal bread (I even managed to convert a white bread lover to this - yes it is Latif only) and so I wanted to try a wholemeal bread itself. There are many many recipes out there but most of them call for bread flour and I didn't want to buy a bag before experimenting with something at home.

This recipe is from Annie's Eats and is very simple and easy. It calls for rolled oats which I had never seen before (Thank you instant oats for keeping me ignorant) and so I had to search for it and found it in the organic section of the store. I halved the recipe because I only had a 8 inch loaf pan (brand new, mind you) and the original recipe yielded one very large loaf. Even with half of the recipe I got a good sized loaf perfect for the two of us. Because of central air condtioning at home it was tough to find a humid spot for the yeast to rise. I heated my oven a little and placed the bowl there. It took me 3 hours for the first rise and one hour for the second.The bread is great with a very soft center. I slightly over baked mine not knowing when to remove it exactly. Now that I have baked my first loaf I will surely try different types of bread like rolls (garlic knots anyone?) Also, how great are those bread machines which give you ready bread at the touch of a button. Would love to get one as a gift (hint hint)!

Recipe Source - Given as is from Annie's Eats, with my notes in red.

Ingredients

11/2 Cups Rolled Oats, Divided

1 Cup Boiling Water

1/4 Cup Room Temperature Water

2 Tbsp + 1 Tsp Agave Nectar (Or Honey), Divided - I Used Honey

2 Tsp Instant Yeast

11/2 Cups Buttermilk, At Room Temperature - I used the Milk And Vinegar Substitute

1/2 Cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil

2 1/2 Cups Whole Wheat Flour

2 1/2 Cups All-Purpose Flour

2 Tsp Salt

1. Set aside ¼ cup of the rolled oats. Place the remaining oats in a medium bowl. Cover with the boiling water, mix well, and let sit uncovered for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

2. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the soaked oats, room temperature water, 2 tablespoons of agave, yeast, buttermilk, olive oil, 2 cups of each flour, and salt. Mix briefly on low speed until ingredients are combined. Mix in the remaining ½ cup of each flour. Switch to the dough hook and knead on low speed for about 10 minutes. The dough will be wet, cling to the hook, and have a satiny finish.

3. Place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl, turning once to coat. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap, and let the dough rise in a warm place for 1 hour or until doubled in bulk.

4. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface, flattening it with your hands to release the excess air bubbles. Form the dough into a 12 x 6-inch rectangle and position it so the long side is facing you. Fold the two shorter ends onto the top so that they meet in the middle. Starting with the closest end, roll the dough away from you tightly into a log. Pinch the seam closed. (Do this well, I closed mine and it still opened up leaving a gaping slit on the top). Transfer the loaf to an oiled loaf pan, pressing it so that it reaches all the corners.

5. Mix the remaining agave nectar with ½ a teaspoon of very hot water. Brush over the top of the loaf, and

sprinkle with the reserved oats. Let rise for about 30 minutes, just until the loaf rises over the top of the pan.

6. Preheat the oven to 375 Degrees F  F. Bake the loaf for 1 hour. Remove from the oven, transfer to a wire rack and allow to cool completely before slicing.

P.S - My sister, niece and parents are planning to come to Dubai pretty soon and I can't wait to try out so many new recipes as they are complete foodies like me! Lot's more baking for me!

Happy Eating!!

My First Decorated Cake - Hello T-Rex!

It is one my life long dreams to throw a theme party for a child. I long to plan a princess party for a cute little girl or a pirate party for a naughty little boy. Not having kids of my own I often ask my relatives if they want to celebrate the birthdays of their kiddos. Sadly for me, no one wants to do that and I am left with even more longing. Well, maybe I'll just throw one for Latif and pretend he is a little boy (which he is in many ways!)

One of the things that I would love to do is theme cakes. It only takes a beautiful design to bring that look of pure delight on a child's face. I still remember the look of joy on a colleagues 6 year old daughter when she saw her barbie cake. I wanted to do something similar for my nephew on his birthday just because I knew I would not get this chance again. So I just took it on myself to bake him a cake and have some fun of our own.

The Little Birthday Boy

I came across the oh-so-easy tutorials on BettyCrocker for fun birthday cakes and found the dino design. They have wonderful designs with videos showing exactly what needs to be done. Moreover, they even provide the template for the designs so there is no guessing or free hand cutting. Just print and cut according to the directions and decorate as shown. Voila!

Getting ready to cut the cake

A quick trip to the supermarket and I had all my stuff ready. Cadbury has these cute chocolate buttons in milk and white chocolate which can be used for animal eyes and ears. I also found lovely rock candy that looks just like stones! For the background I printed a jungle theme picture from the internet and stuck it on cardboard. In order to prevent it from spoiling due to the icing I wrapped a layer of cling wrap to it.  For my cake I used the Hershey's "Perfectly Chocolate" Chocolate Cake which held well to the shaping but the frosting was very difficult for me. The cake is so moist that the sticky frosting was pulling the cake to it instead of sticking to it. This was even after I had chilled the cakes. Next time I will use home made butter cream and not the supermarket stuff that tastes like ---, umm nothing!

Say Cheese!

I guess with a little imagination and creativity one can make any type of cake. I would love to do a barbie cake next. Any birthday girl requests?

Things you will need

Two 9 inch round cake layers - Any flavour- I used Hershey's Perfectly Chocolate Cake

Two tubs Ready made Vanilla Frosting Or home made butter cream frosting - I used Betty Crocker Vanilla

Hershey's Kisses

Cadbury Buttons or similar flat candies

Chocolate Chips
Food Colour for the dinosaur (You can use any colour for the dinosaur)

Plain Craft paper/tray/cake board for background (12X16) inch
Sweetened Shredded Coconut (Optional)

Stone Candy (Optional)
Dinosaur Template (Link given below)

1. Bake your cakes and cool completely. Place in the fridge for an hour to chill. Once chilled, remove and trim the tops of the cakes to level them. Place the templates onto the cakes and cut out the shapes using a serrated knife. Keep the knife perpendicular and cut in a straight motion. Arrange the pieces as shown in the diagram on a tray or large piece of cardboard.
2. Tint the vanilla frosting with the desired colour for dinosaur (yellow, green or orange) and crumb coat the cakes. Place in fridge for half an hour to firm up the frosting. Remove and frost completely using an offset spatula. If the frosting sticks too much to the spatula dip in hot water and wipe with a clean cloth before proceeding.
3. Once the dinosaur is completely frosted, unwrap the hersheys kisses and place all along the dinosaur back. Decorate the body using different candies as desired. Pipe the mouth with a little vanilla frosting.
4. If you do not have a background, try using shredded coconut as grass. Colour the shredded coconut using green food colour. Pipe a litlle vanilla frosting on the bottom edge of the paper or tray and stick the rock candies in a row. Sprinkle the coconut in a layer above the candies to look like grass.

Click here to download the template for the dinosaur - Betty Crocker.com

Happy Eating!!

Hershey's "Perfectly Chocolate" Chocolate Cake

I just wanted to share this fun design I made. It is actually supposed to be a train engine with little bogies trailing behind but to me it looked more like a truck so that's what I am calling it :) Anyways, I baked the Hershey's cake for my nephews birthday (coming soon) and I had some leftover cake to use. I was really jobless so I just cut it up and decorated it with whatever I could find in my kitchen. that is why it is not covered properly in frosting. I just had some chocolate ganache with me which I used for the top. With the right frosting and candies this can be made to look much better.



Say Hello To My Driver!!

Talking about the taste of the cake. When I ate it plain I liked it but did not love it. It was missing that chocolate taste which I love in my desserts. Perhaps it is meant to be had with the frosting and not on its own. With the ganache it tasted really good as did the cupcake pops which were also made from this cake. The best thing about this recipe is that you need only one bowl and a whisk to make it. Everything goes directly in the bowl and you just have to mix it till you get a smooth batter. Did someone say easy clean up?

Recipe Source - Hershey's "Perfectly Chocolate" Chocolate Cake

Ingredients - 10 to 12 servings.

2 Cups Sugar

1-3/4 Cups All-purpose Flour

3/4 Cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa

1-1/2 Tsp Baking Powder 

1-1/2 Tsp Baking Soda

1 Tsp Salt

2 Eggs

1 Cup Milk

1/2 Cup Vegetable Oil

2 Tsp Vanilla Extract

1 Cup Boiling Water

1 Batch of "PERFECTLY CHOCOLATE" CHOCOLATE FROSTING (Recipe Follows)

1. Heat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour two 9-inch round baking pans.

2. Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed of mixer 2 minutes. Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin). Pour batter into prepared pans.

3. Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely. Frost with "PERFECTLY CHOCOLATE" CHOCOLATE FROSTING. 

VARIATIONS:

ONE-PAN CAKE: Grease and flour 13x9x2-inch baking pan. Heat oven to 350° F. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake 35 to 40 minutes. Cool completely. Frost.

THREE LAYER CAKE: Grease and flour three 8-inch round baking pans. Heat oven to 350°F. Pour batter into prepared pans. Bake 30 to 35 minutes. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely. Frost.

BUNDT CAKE: Grease and flour 12-cup Bundt pan. Heat oven to 350°F. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake 50 to 55 minutes. Cool 15 minutes; remove from pan to wire rack. Cool completely. Frost.

CUPCAKES: Line muffin cups (2-1/2 inches in diameter) with paper bake cups. Heat oven to 350°F. Fill cups 2/3 full with batter. Bake 22 to 25 minutes. Cool completely. Frost. About 30 cupcakes.

"PERFECTLY CHOCOLATE" CHOCOLATE FROSTING

1/2 Cup (1 Stick) Butter or Margarine

2/3 Cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa

3 Cups Powdered Sugar

1/3 Cup Milk

1 Tsp Vanilla Extract

Melt butter. Stir in cocoa. Alternately add powdered sugar and milk, beating to spreading consistency. Add small amount additional milk, if needed. Stir in vanilla. About 2 cups frosting.

Happy Eating!! 

Cupcake Pops!

What are cupcake pops you ask? If you live in the blog world then you have surely heard of Bakerella. The creator of all things cute and tiny. Cake pops are nothing but cake and frosting mixed together, rolled into little balls and coated in chocolate. The result is a delicious fudgy mini treat. So, after seeing them on endless blogs I finally gave in and made these cute little buggers. I am working on a birthday cake for my nephew and had a lot of cake left after cutting the design out. I immediately thought of making these as the thought of making one big cake and crumbling the entire thing just did not go down well with me. The Hershey's cake was perfect for this as I got wonderful crumbs in the food processor. I added a dollop of the Betty Crocker vanilla frosting and I had the perfect consistency to make the balls.

A quick chill in the fridge and these were ready to shape. I couldn't find candy melts anywhere here, so I made some ganache with semi-sweet chocolate chips and dipped the bottom part in it (The ganache will not harden like the chocolate so these need to be kept in the fridge if it becomes too soft). For the top I used white chocolate thinned with vegetable oil and tinted with gel paste colours. The pops were finished with sprinkles and a mini m & m.

I packed them using small cellophane bags, tied a ribbon and 'planted' them in a small pot filled with rice. Ta da! A cute treat ready to wow everyone.

For a complete tutorial on how to make these check these links

The cupcake pops creator - Bakerella

Video on MarthaStewart.com

I am submitting these pops to Virtual Party - Chocolatey Dreams (An event hosted by From My Home Kitchen)

Happy Eating!!

Cowboy Cookies

Baking cookies is a guessing game for me. I have tried a lot of times but somehow I always end up over baking them because I never know when is the right time to pull them out of the oven. Instructions like 'Remove when edges are set and center still looks soft' is my worst nightmare coz I never seem to know when that happens. So it was no surprise to me that I over baked the first batch of these cookies. Luckily, they were so huge that only 6 of them could fit on the tray. They turned out super crispy and I couldn't even make out what they were supposed to taste like!  (I put them in the freezer to make a layer dessert or Ice Cream sandwiches some other time!) Thus, with great care I put in the next batch and sat like a hawk eying it s prey. Luckily for me the next two batches came out perfect. 

Don't go by my plain looks, I taste awesome!

I didn't make them jumbo sized as in the recipe so  I got a lot of cookies out of the dough. I divided the recipe by three because the original yield was 36 massive biscuits!! Who wants that kind of temptation lying around? Especially since these cookies contain coconut, walnuts, chocolate chips and oats! All my favorite stuff in one cookie? Win - win!

Recipe Source - Brown Eyed Baker, originally from Laura Bush

Ingredients - Makes 12 Large cookies (Scaled Recipe Below)

1 Cup All Purpose Flour
1 Tsp Baking Powder
1 Tsp Baking Soda

1 Tsp Ground Cinnamon
A Pinch of Salt
½ Cup (1 Stick/100 Gms) Unsalted Butter, At Room Temperature
½ Cups Granulated Sugar
½ Cups Packed Light Brown Sugar
1 Large Egg
1/2 Tsp Vanilla

1 Cup Semisweet Chocolate Chips
1 Cup Old-Fashioned Rolled Oats
2/3 Cup Sweetened, Flaked Coconut
2/3 Cup Chopped Pecans (I Used Walnuts)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper or line with a silicone baking mat.

2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt; set aside.

3. In a large mixing bowl, beat the butter on medium speed until smooth and creamy, about 2 minutes. Gradually beat in the sugars and continue to beat until light and fluffy, scraping the bowl as necessary, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the vanilla extract. Reduce the mixer speed to low and gradually add the flour mixture, mixing until just combined. With a wooden spoon or large rubber spatula stir in the chocolate chips, oats, coconut and pecans.

4. For each cookie, drop ¼ cup dough onto the baking sheets, spacing them about 3 inches apart. Bake until the edges are set but the middles still look light and puffy, about 12-15 minutes, rotating the sheets halfway through. Cool cookies on the baking sheets.

Happy Eating!!

An Epic Fail - Strawberry Mirror Cake, The Mock Version

The first time I ever laid eyes on this cake was on Annie's Eats. It was love at first sight. That is also when I first read about the Daring Bakers. Wow! I thought to myself. This looks so good and must be super complicated to make. This was when I had just started baking and did not have enough confidence to pull off something like this. But then as time went by, and I started baking more and more, I realized that the recipe was very simple. I would always go back to it and read it and also read many other blogs who had posted the same recipe, just to get an idea of the problems they faced or get any helpful hints. However, I never had the opportunity to make such a lavish dessert and it was soon lost in my binder.

Then, I was asked to make dessert for Eid and almost at once this cake came to mind. It would be the perfect end to a scrumptious meal. A show stopping dessert. Three weeks prior to the date, I started planning on how I would go about it. Shop on Tuesday, bake the cake on Wednesday, make the juice and puree on Thursday. Everything was planned and I could not wait to get started. Tuesday evening I rushed to the store to buy everything I needed and that’s when the first blow struck. They were out of gelatin. What? How can you be out of gelatin? A bit dejected, I returned home with the rest of the ingredients and decided to send the hubby to look for it the next day. Wednesday afternoon I started baking and made the strawberry juice and the puree. I waited impatiently for hubby to come back with the gelatin. Two hours later he walked into the house. “Sorry, they are out of stock everywhere”.  Panic set in. How could this happen to me? Why God Why? Suddenly I remembered something. I had seen a similar dessert during one of the event round ups and I quickly logged on to search for it. Hmm, a mock Bavarian cream. This should work fine I thought. After all it is ice cream and jelly. Hubby was sent once again to the supermarket to bring the new ingredients. Once he got back I quickly got to making the mock Bavarian cream and poured it onto the cakes. Then I made the mirror and it went on the cream. I was so happy with my dessert.

Bad Pictures I know, but my heart was just not in it :(

It set up extremely well and the next day when I un-molded it everyone exclaimed ooohs and aahs. The mirror had set up perfectly and tasted just like the store bought jelly. I cut up a big slice and had the first taste. Something was wrong. Very, very wrong. This does not taste like cream at all. There was too much of a jelly consistency in the cream and I was really disappointed. After all the hard work I put in I was expecting so much more. Guess it’s my fault for going the mock way. However, there were a few people who really enjoyed this dessert. My take is that if you love jello you will love this dessert. I for one am not a big fan of jello, so it was a no go for me. Better luck next time! (Yes, there will be one).

If you want to try this dessert get the recipe at Culinary Concoctions by Peabody.

Happy Eating!!

Sugar Cookies - My First Daring Bakers Challenge!

My Eid themed cookies!

Blog checking lines - The September 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Mandy of “What the Fruitcake?!” Mandy challenged everyone to make Decorated Sugar Cookies based on recipes from Peggy Porschen and The Joy of Baking. 



A collage of all the colourful cookies!



Hurrah! I am very happy to post my first ever Daring Bakers challenge! Now, as anyone from India will tell you, we do not make or eat sugar cookies in India. I mean, culturally it is not a part of any of our festivals or celebrations like in the U.S. So it should not come as a surprise to you that I had never baked or decorated a single cookie (sugar cookies) in my life. That's why this was truly a challenge for me as I would have never pushed myself to try something like this. I had a great time making and decorating with all the different designs. It was like playing with paint in your hands and seeing what fun stuff you can come up with.

We were supposed to decorate the cookies according to a theme, which was 'September'. This year we celebrated Eid-ul-fitr in the month of September and that's what I decided to use as my theme. Also, my niece celebrates her birthday today (Happy Birthday Heba!) and I decided to make some bright colourful cookies for her.

Cookies - I made the cookie dough and divided it into three parts and froze two of them. I wanted to do a test batch and used one part of the dough to bake and decorate. Taste wise, the cookie recipe is great. It makes a nice crispy cookie which i loved eating on its own. I am not a big fan of royal icing and thought the icing made the cookies too sweet. Next time I will just add some melted chocolate on top.

Sugar Cookie Recipe - Click here for the complete recipe and post.

Icing -  For my first batch, I used a an icing recipe from I am baker which I loved. It is a very simple solution of milk and confectioners sugar. It was so easy to work with and I didn't have any trouble at all with it. No hardening, no air bubbles and I was able to color it very easily (I used Wilton gel paste colours). When I made the second batch of cookies I decided to tackle royal icing and see what all the fuss was about. I made the icing with meringue powder and it came together easily. My only mistake was making so many different colours. I wanted to make 7 colours and because of this it took a long time to get my icing bags ready. After doing all this I later realized that I didn't have enough piping tips for all the bags. Duh! All in all I had a great time decorating them and seeing the results. I did learn a lot of lessons and next time will surely keep them in mind.

1. Read, Watch and Learn - Before I started my baking, I must have read a thousand posts on how to's and watched a similar number of videos. There are so many awesome tutorials out there that after watching them I didn't feel so intimidated by the process. The website University of Cookie is a great place for beginners and each step of the process is shown in video. If you are doing this for the first time like me please visit this site!

2. Prep, prep and more prep - I cannot emphasize the importance of this step. First, figure out exactly what type of decorations you want to do and draw out your design on a paper. Colour it using the exact colours you want to use. This will give you a clear picture of how many colours you will need, what type of cookie cutters you will use etc. I had all my designs in my mind and thought I was good to go. But when you start decorating you realize you have forgotten something.

3. Time - . If the cookies are due tomorrow and you start baking them the night before - foggetaboutit! Bake them at least three days before, make the icings and decorate two days before so that the icing has enough time to dry and you can bag them without risking spoiling them. 

4. Supplies - Make sure you have all the supplies before you start. I didn't have any decorating supplies and had to buy almost all of them. Piping bags and tips are the most important and I think one must have at least 3 - 4 each of numbers 1 - 3. Invest in some good supplies initially and these will last for a long time.

5. Relax - If you are new to this and screw up, just relax. there is no use getting frustrated because it's just a cookie! I did screw up a few but then I ate them up. No more evidence!

Find the sugar icing recipe at I Am baker

Find the Royal Icing Recipe at Annie's Eats

Given below are a few links to tutorials that helped me to understand the entire process and made my life so much easier!

http://annies-eats.com/2009/12/04/how-to-decorate-with-royal-icing
http://bakeat350.blogspot.com/2009/04/royal-icing-101work-for-me-wednesday.html
http://bakeat350.blogspot.com/2010/01/royal-icing-102-or-201-or-whatever.html
http://sweetopia.net/2009/12/how-to-do-royal-icing-flood-work-or-runouts
http://sweetopia.net/2010/04/how-to-marble-royal-icing
http://www.universityofcookie.com/2010/05/alternative-to-traditional-royal-icing.html

P.S - If you are in Dubai, you can get all baking and decorating supplies at Tavola in Mercato Mall, Jumeirah or at Lakeland in Mirdiff City Center. When I went there the first time I was like a kid in a candy shop! I bought so much stuff and still could'nt get enough. So, any of you want to buy cookies from me? I have to use up my supplies after all.

Happy Decorating!!