Daring Bakers July 2012 - Baked Puris or Crackers

Ramadan has started and it has already been a week of fasting. This year I am actually trying to avoid unhealthy fried food that is on the menu at every iftaar. On my quest to eat healthy we make Fruit Chat every day along with one other snack that is not fried. So far I have made Chicken Cutlets, Aloo chana chaat and dhokla, all easy and relatively healthier.

Blog Checking Lines: Our July 2012 Daring Bakers’ Host was Dana McFarland and she challenged us to make homemade crackers! Dana showed us some techniques for making crackers and encouraged to use our creativity to make each cracker our own by using ingredients we love.

When I made the chat I was supposed to buy puris from the market to use in it. But then inspiration struck and I thought why not make a cracker from the challenge and use it instead? The crackers are extremely easy to make and hardly took any time. Moreover since they are not deep fried I can easily snack on them!

Recipe Source - Tarla Dalal

Ingredients - Makes 25 Puris (crackers)

100 Gms Whole Wheat Flour
1 Tsp Vegetable Oil
A Pinch of Salt
1/2 Tsp Red Chilli Powder
1/2 Tsp Roasted Cumin Seeds
A pinch of Aamchoor Powder (Dry Mango Powder - Optional)
Water To Knead The Dough - As required

1. Mix all the ingredients in a bowl except the water and stir well.

2. Add water a little at a time until the dough comes together. Do not add too much water as the dough should be stiff. Knead well and keep aside for 10 minutes.

3. Grease a baking tray slightly and pre heat the oven to 200 Degree C/ 400 Degree F.

4. Take a little dough at a time and roll it out as thin as possible. Using a round cookie cutter, cut out circles and prick them with a fork Place on the baking tray.

5. Continue till all the dough is used up.

6. Bake for 10 minutes. Cool and store in an air tight container.

Happy Eating!!

Pumpkin Roll

This was the first time I ever attempted a roll and I got a lot of Aah's and Ooh's when my cousins saw it. The recipe could not be any easier with very few ingredients and simple steps. It's the after baking process that is nerve wracking. I was out of parchment paper and had to make do with wax paper. Luckily since all the paper was covered with the batter there was no smoking. I prepped everything before hand as you have to really work fast once the cake comes out. Luckily the cake didn't crack on me and I had a nice yummy roll to take to my cousins place.

The only thing I would change in the recipe would be the filling. I think the Whipped cream cheese frosting from my birthday Pumpkin cake would taste outstanding with this. As I still have half a can of puree left guess whats coming next?

Recipe Source - Given as is from My Baking Addiction with my changes in red.

Ingredients - Makes one 10 inch roll - serves 10

For the Cake

1/4 Cup Powdered Sugar (to sprinkle on towel)
3/4 Cup All Purpose Flour
1/2 Tsp Baking Powder
1/2 Tsp Baking Soda
1 Tbsp Pumpkin Pie Spice ( I used 1/2 Tsp Cinnamon Powder and 1/2 Tsp Nutmeg Powder instead)
1/4 Tsp Salt
3 Large Eggs
1 Tsp Pure Vanilla Extract (I used vanilla essence)
1 Cup Granulated Sugar
2/3 Cup Pure Pumpkin Puree
For The Filling
1 (8 ounce) Package Cream Cheese, Softened
1 Cup Powdered Sugar, sifted
6 Tbsp Unsalted Butter, softened
1 Tsp Vanilla Essence
1/4 cup powdered sugar (optional)

Make The Cake

1.  Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line a 15 x 10-inch jelly-roll pan with parchment paper and spray with non-stick cooking spray. Sprinkle a clean tea towel with powdered sugar. Set pan and towel aside.

2. In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, pumpkin pie spice (cinnamon and nutmeg) and salt. In a large bowl with an electric mixer, beat eggs, vanilla and sugar until thick. Add in pumpkin and mix to combine. Stir in flour mixture. Spread batter evenly into prepared pan.

3. Bake for 13 to 15 minutes or until top of cake springs back when touched. Immediately loosen and turn cake onto prepared towel. Carefully peel off paper. Roll up cake and towel together, starting with narrow end. Cool on wire rack.

Make The Frosting
In a medium bowl, beat cream cheese, powdered sugar, butter and vanilla extract until smooth.

Assemble The Roll

Carefully unroll cake; remove towel. Spread cream cheese mixture over cake. Reroll cake. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least one hour.

Happy Baking!!

Daring Bakers June 2012 - Battenberg Cake

Do you know the story about the Battle of Battenberg?

 The one where I was defeated by the evil marzipan?

Well, I had great dreams for my battenberg and everything was going smoothly until it was time to cover it with marzipan. You see, I was a little over ambitious and tried to make a cube with a zillion little pieces instead of the usual four. Needless to say I fell flat on my face (or rather the Battenberg fell) and all was lost. In the end I just took a quick pic with my iphone and proceeded to enjoy the spoils of war. Coz even though I lost the battle I got to eat my tasty oponent. Win Win!

Oh and I finally got my hands on some vanilla beans which were so cheap (0.80 paise) from India!!!! I used them in the cake and loved to see the little flecks of vanilla throughout the delicious cake.

Blog Checking Lines - Mandy of What The Fruitcake?! came to our rescue last minute to present us with the Battenberg Cake challenge! She highlighted Mary Berry’s techniques and recipes to allow us to create this unique little cake with ease.

Recipe - Makes one cake to serve 8.

Ingredients

3/4 Cup (1½ Sticks) 175gm / 6 oz Unsalted Butter, softened & cut in cubes
3/4 Cup / 175gm / 6 oz Caster Sugar
1 1/4 Cups / 175gm / 6 oz Self-Raising Flour (1 Cup All Purpose Flour + 11/2 Tsp Baking Powder + 1/4 Tsp Salt)
3 Large Eggs, room temp
1/2 Cup / 65gm/ 2 1/3 oz Ground Almonds (Can be substituted with ground rice)
3/4 Tsp Baking Powder
1 Vanilla Bean
Red Food Colouring, paste, liquid or gel

To Finish
1/3 Cup (80 ml) 100gm /3 ½ oz Mixed Fruit Jam
1 cup / 225gm / 8 oz Marzipan, Natural

This is how I made the cake because I didnt have square pans, for the other method please check the Daring Bakers Website.

1. Preheat oven to moderate 350°F/180°C/160°C Fan Assisted/Gas Mark 4
2. Grease two small loaf pans with butter.
3. Place the flour, sugar, ground almonds and baking powder in a bowl. Split the vanilla bean lengthwise and remove the seeds by runnning the knife along the bean.

4. Add the vanilla, butter and eggs. Beat together just until the ingredients are combined and the batter is smooth
5. Divide the batter equally (I used my new digital weighing scale!!) and add a few drops of red color to one half to color it pink.
6. Spoon the pink batter into one loaf pan and the other half to the other pan.
7. Smooth the surface of the batter with a spatula, making sure batter is in each corner.
8. Bake for 25-30 minutes until the cake is well risen, springs back when lightly touched and a toothpick comes out clean (it should shrink away from the sides of the pan)
9. Leave to cool in the tin for a few minutes before turning out to cool thoroughly on a wire rack
10. Once completely cool, trim the edges of the cake with a long serrated knife
11. Cut each coloured sponge in half lengthways so that you are left with four long strips of sponge

 Neaten the strips and trim as necessary so that your checkered pattern is as neat and even as possible
12. Gently heat the jam and pass through a small sieve

Brush warmed jam onto the strips of cake to stick the cake together in a checkered pattern (one yellow next to one pink. On top of that, one pink next to one yellow)
13. Dust a large flat surface with icing sugar then roll the marzipan in an oblong shape that is wide enough to cover the length of the cake and long enough to completely wrap the cake
14. Brush the top of the cake with apricot jam
15. Place the cake on the marzipan, jam side down
- Tip: Either in the middle or to the one side of the marzipan
16. Brush the remaining three sides with jam
17. Press the marzipan around the cake, making sure the join is either neatly in the one corner, or will be underneath the cake once turned over
- Tip: If you put the sponge to the one side of the marzipan, I found it easiest to "roll" the sponge over and over onto the marzipan instead of lifting the marzipan up onto the sponge
18. Carefully flip the cake over so that the seam is under the cake and score the top of the cake with a knife, you can also crimp the top corners with your fingers to decorate
19. Neaten the ends of the cake and remove excess marzipan by trimming off a small bit of cake on both ends to reveal the pattern.

Happy Eating!!

Daring Bakers April 2012 Armenian Nutmeg Cake

Armenian Nutmeg Cake.. sounds fancy right? This cake is a twist on the traditional coffee cake with the addition of fresh nutmeg which gives it an interesting flavor. It is simply wonderful and I have already made it twice this month.

Blog Checking Lines - The Daring Bakers' April 2012 challenge, hosted by Jason at Daily Candor, were two Armenian standards: nazook and nutmeg cake. Nazook is a layered yeasted dough pastry  with a sweet filling, and nutmeg cake is a nutty, fragrant coffee style cake.

While I didn't make the nazook this month I did make the cake twice and it was quickly gobbled up both the times. The pictured cake is a 6 inch one as I halved the recipe when I made it the second time. Latif polished off four slices coz he couldn't wait for dinner anymore!

Recipe Source - Adapted from The Commonsense Cookery Book

Ingredients - Makes one 9 inch cake

1 Cup (240 ml) Milk
1 Tsp Baking Soda
2 Cups All Purpose Flour
2 Tsps Baking Powder
2 Cups Brown Sugar (Firmly Packed)
1 1/2 Sticks (180 ml) (170 gm/6 oz) Unsalted Butter (cubed)
1/2 Cup Walnut pieces (I also used pistachios and almonds)
1/2 Tsp Freshly Grated Nutmeg
1/2 Tsp Cinnamon Powder
1 Egg

1. Pre heat the oven to 175 Degrees C (350 Degree F). Have ready a 9 inch round pan.

2. Place the flour, baking powder and brown sugar in a bowl and whisk to mix evenly. Toss in the butter cubes and crumble the mixture with your fingers. It should resemble coarse breadcrumbs.

3. Take two cups of the mixture and press it evenly in the bottom of the cake pan to form the crust.

4. Mix the baking soda to the milk and keep aside.

5. Add the egg to the remaining cake mixture and mix well.

6. Add the milk, nutmeg and cinnamon powder. Mix well. The batter should be a little lumpy.

7. Pout the batter over the prepared crust in the pan. Scatter the nuts on top and place in the oven,

8. Bake for 35 - 40 minutes till a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean. Let it cool in the pan on a wire rack and then invert on a serving plate. Have a slice and enjoy!

Happy Eating!! 

Daring Bakers March 2012 - Dutch Crunch Bread

This month we visited the zoo to see all the wild animals like tigers, giraffes and zebras! Not really, but if you see all the wonderful results of the challenge you will surely think so too.

Blog Checking Lines : Sara and Erica of Baking JDs were our March 2012 Daring Baker hostesses! Sara & Erica challenged us to make Dutch Crunch bread, a delicious sandwich bread with a unique, crunchy topping. Sara and Erica also challenged us to create a one of a kind sandwich with our bread!

Though I did make the bread I couldn't make a sandwich as I was really pressed for time and we had them as dinner rolls. The recipe is very easy and within two hours you can have fresh baked bread out of the oven.

Recipe Source -  The recipe for the Dutch Crunch topping came from Rose Levy Beranbaum’s The Bread Bible. The recipes for the breads we’ve suggested came from The Bread Bible and an adaptation of a recipe found on Bakingbites.com

Check out the Daring Bakers website for the recipe!

Happy Eating!!

Strawberry Tiramisu or Charlotte or Whatever!!

I am not sure what to call this dessert. It is called a Tiramisu but the only similarity the two have is that they are layered. It looks like a Charlotte Ruse from the outside but that's again where the similarity ends. But as they say, Whats in a name? right? The important thing is that it tastes amazing and is very easy to make.

We had company on the weekend and I wanted to make an elaborate dessert as I never get to make it for the two of us. I had some frozen strawberries in the freezer and wanted to use them up. This recipe caught my eye on the Kraft website and it had fab reviews. I did make a few changes as I couldn't find all the ingredients (like Cool Whip, which I had seen a thousand times in the store, but when I went to buy it they had removed it from the shelves!!! Grrr) and I must say that Stabilized Whipped cream is a good substitute for Cool Whip.

Recipe Source - Adapted from the Kraft Website

Ingredients - This is a great dessert for a crowd

2 Packages (200 gms each) Ladyfinger biscuits (Saviordi)

500 Gms Fresh or Frozen Strawberries

3 Tbsp Castor Sugar

200 Gms Philadelphia Cream Cheese (I used light)

2 Packets (3.4 oz - 4 serving) Jell-o Instant Pudding - I used Cheesecake flavor as that is all that was available on the shelves, the original recipe called for vanilla flavor.

3 1/2 Cups Cold Milk

For The Stabilized Whipped Cream (You can use 3 Cups Cool whip instead)

1 1/2 Cups Heavy Cream (Chilled)

1 1/2 Tsp Gelatin

1 1/2 Tbsp Cold Water

2 Drops Red gel Food colouring

Prepare the Strawberries

Place the strawberries on a plate and sprinkle with caster sugar to release juices and sweeten them. Drain the liquid before using. 

Prepare the Stabilized Whipped Cream (You can use 3 Cups of Cool Whip instead)

1. Place the cold water in a small microwave bowl and sprinkle the gelatin on it. Wait till the gelatin absorbs all the water.

2. Heat the gelatin in the microwave for 15 seconds till it melts ( you can also do this on the stove top in a saucepan).

3. Place the cream in the bowl of your stand mixer and whip to soft peaks. Add the gelatin (if it has started to set heat in again), sugar and red colour. Whip till you get stiff peaks.

Prepare the Pudding Mixture

1. Beat cream cheese in large bowl with mixer until creamy.

2. Gradually beat in milk,  add dry pudding mixes; beat on low speed 1 min. or until well blended.

Assemble The Dessert

1. Trim 25 biscuits to the height of your springform pan (10 inches). Line them all along the sides and use the trimmings on the bottom to help them stand. Fill the bottom completely with the ladyfingers.

2. Add half the pudding mixture and whipped cream. Cover with the strawberries (do not use the liquid).

3. Repeat with a layer of ladyfingers and remaining pudding and whipped cream.

4. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.

To Serve

Remove plastic wrap and run a knife around the sides of the pan to ensure the ladyfingers are not stuck to it.

Gently open the sprinform latch and remove the mould. Tie a ribbon around the sides and decorate the top with additional berries, grated chocolate or whipped cream.

Happy Eating!!

Chocolate Marble Bread

This is the second bread I made as a part of the February Daring Bakers Challenge. The method for both the breads is exactly the same and it is a very easy recipe. However, my cake turned out a bit dry and that could be because I baked it a bit too long. I have given the link to the recipe below from Joy of Baking.

Recipe - Joy of Baking

Happy Eating!!