Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Kanel Snegle- Swedish Cinnamon Buns | We Knead to Bake #11

After few days of  being netless I thought atleast now I will post my Swedish Cinnabuns which were baked for We Knead to Bake #11. I love cinnamon rolls and never leave a chance to bake them. I have tried several versions and definitely loved the Swedish version also. As I was in a hurry I didn't attempt the different shape suggested by dear Aparna and went with the normal/common shape.

Kanel Snegle or Cinnamon Snails/Swirls or Kanelbullar Cinnamon Buns are the Swedish version of the popular cinnamon rolls. In fact it is the original version and the Swedes make it with a little twist and less sugar and its perfect as an anytime snack . October 4th every year is celebrated as Kanelbullar day in Sweden.



Ingredients:

Starter: 
Warm Milk: 1 cup
Instant Yeast: 2 tsp
All Purpose Flour: 2 cups

Dough:

All of the starter
All Purpose Flour: 2 cups
Salt: 3/4 tsp
Cardamom: 6-8 pods powdered/ around 1 tsp powdered
Lemon zest: 2 tsp or chopped up lemon peel
Caster Sugar: 1/3 cup
Salted Butter: 60 gm soft 

Filling:
Soft Unsalted Butter: 75 g
Caster Sugar: 1/3 cup
Cinnamon: 2 tsp
Powdered Almonds: 1/3 cups coarely powdered

Topping:
Milk: few tbsp for brushing
Sugar crystals: for sprinkling.

Preparation:

Mix together all the starter ingredients in a big bowl to get a more or less sticky dough. Place this in a greased bowl and chill overnight in the fridge loosely wrapped in plastic. The dough might rise a bit even though it is placed in the fridge. Mine didn't may be because I tightly wrapped it!?

The next day keep the starter bowl outside for atleast 30 minutes or until it reaches room temperature. Tear the starter dough into pieces and add to the food processor bowl along with flour, cardamom, sugar,salt and lemon zest/peel. Blend to mix well and then add in soft butter and knead well to get a smooth and elastic dough. If the dough is dry add in more milk - I did add extra 2 tbsp - or if sticky/moist add more flour to get the correct dough consistency.

Turn out the dough onto a lightly dusted surface and roll it out into a 20" x 12" rectangle . 

Cream together the filling ingredients except the almond powder with a fork/whisk/spoon to make a spreadable filling. 

Spread this filling all over the dough rectangle if you plan for the normal/common shape.Sprinkle the almond powder atop the filling. Roll the dough tightly in jelly roll style and into 20 equal pieces with a sharp knife.Place the pieces cut side down on a lightly greased baking sheet leaving space between them .

Let these rise for about 10-15 minutes till they look puffy but not swollen up. Meanwhile preheat the oven at 200C/ 400F.

Brush the swirls with milk and sprinkle with sugar crystals. Bake them for about 15 minutes till they are golden brown and sound hollow when tapped. If browning too quickly , reduce the temperature by 20C/65F and bake till done.


Take out and after 5 minutes on the baking sheet turn these onto the wire rack to cool completely. You can serve these warm or at room temperature anytime especially tea/breakfast time. You can even freeze these for later use.

Now lets see how others did their cinnamon snails . Hop over to Aparna's post.Let me finish my last one. 

Sunday, November 17, 2013

Pataqueta | Traditional Spanish Bread for Baking Partners # 17

Pataqueta is a crescent/moon shaped traditional bread from Valencia, Spain.  It is known since the seventeenth century and was originally consumed by inhabitants of valencia most fertile regions or the orchards or L' Horta when they went to work. These days it is not consumed daily but people prefer to consume the pataquetas -a diminutive form of 'pattaca' during the important festival of 'Fallas' which falls in the month of March every year.

Thanks to Marisa of Thermofan and Swathi of ZestySouthIndianKitchen we all baked pataquetas  for Baking Partners #17. I had tried to stick to the original shape and hope I have achieved it. The bread which is baked with steam has a firm crust, and soft crumb. Its perfect for the month of Thanksgiving and is vegan as well.

Ingredients:

Ferment:

Water: 100 ml / half cup
All Purpose Flour: 1/3 cup
Sugar: 1/2 tsp
Yeast: 1.5 tsp


Bread:

All the ferment

All Purpose Flour: 3 cup
Tepid water: 200 ml / 1 cup
Sea Salt: 1 and 3/4 tsp

Flour: for dusting the countertop/worksurface and bread

Preparation:

Prepare the ferment in a big bowl by adding water first and then sprinkling the yeast. Add the flour and sugar next and mix well. Cover this with a plastic wrap and let it sit in the fridge for overnight or uptil 48 hours.

Next day when yu are ready to make the bread, take this out, let it sit in room temperature for sometime and then add the water for the bread followed by flour. The salt is not to be added at this point.

Mix well and turn out the sticky mass that you get onto a dusted/floured worksurface and knead it for another 5 minutes. Then you sprinkle the salt on top of it and knead it again for another 5-10 minutes till you get a smooth and elastic dough.

Divide the dough into 150g pieces and let these rest on the dusted work surface for about 20 minutes or until it  doubles in size.At this point I freezed half of the pieces for later use.

Taking one piece at a time, flatten little with palm and making sure the shape is round, with a sharp knife cut  in from the centre along the radius and cut open towards outside to get a crescent moon shape. 

Transfer to a lined and dusted baking sheet and repeat the process with the rest of the pieces. Cover with a  dusted kitchen towel or plastic wrap and let it rest until doubled for another 1 hour or so. At this point also you can chill them in the fridge for baking the next day or freeze them for future use.

When you are ready for baking, preheat the oven to 200C/ 392F.
Place a tray filled with water when there is just 5-8 minutes remaining for preheat to complete. While preheating, make two cuts along the sides of the pataquetas and sprinkle/dust flour on the top of the bread.

Place the baking sheet in the preheat oven and bake for around 30 minutes. Take out and let it cool for about 5 minutes in hte baking sheet after which transfer to wire rack for cooling completely.



The bread looks very rustic and is crunchy. Its prefect for soaking up gravies and can be consumed as such also or with tea.

Lets see how others baked the pataqueta. Hope on to Baking Partners Challenge # 17


Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Tomato Murabba | Sweet, Spicy & Sour in a Jar

Murabbas refers to savoury or sour pickle or jam  or compote like dish popular in northern India and Pakistan, and even Iran as per wiki. These are spiced up preserves made using fruits and also raw mangoes or other seasonal fruits. 

I usually associate summer as the pickling season atleast here in South thats what I have observed, though ofcourse these days you can do it in winter also if the ingredients are easily available like I did with tomatoes.

I am never a pickle person ie making of it as I always felt it was a strenuous task requiring complete concentration and patience. May be pickling always reminds me of the way the mango pickles are made. I still remember my mom sitting and cleaning and wiping and cutting or sometimes leaving whole the mangoes which were to be pickled adding the right amount of spices and then sometimes waiting for days for the flavours to be mixed well, blah blah blah.....

I prefer something quick and easy and I hit the jackpot with this tomato murabba which turned awesome. I had bookmarked the recipe from goodfood magazine and tried it out with an overload of juicy tomatoes waiting to be used up in my fridge.

Ingredients:
Tomatoes: 2.5 kg
Sugar: 1.2-1.5 kg 
Black peppercorns: 8-20
Cinnamon: an inch stick
Cloves: 6
Black Cardamom:4
Green Cardamom: 8
Bay leaves: 3
Red Chilli Powder: 2 tbsp
Salt:  tbsp
Vinegar: 1 tbsp

Onion Seeds: 1 tsp

Preparation:
Add the tomatoes in boiling water for about a minute and then put them in room temperature water in another bowl.

Peel off the tomato skin and crush/ grind the tomatoes to a coarse paste. Put them in a large vessel, add in 1 kg of sugar along with peppercorns,cinnamon, cloves, cardamoms, bayleaves, red chilli powder and salt.

Bring the mix to boil and the let it simmer  for 45 minutes or until syrup like. Check whether you are ok with the sweetness of the murabba otherwise add in remaining sugar as needed to balance the sourness of the tomatoes and mix well. Add in the vinegar and cook for a minute. 

Turn off the heat and add in the onion seeds. Cool and store in sterilised glass jars and refrigerate.


An excellent spread/relish with breads or fritters or even a side with your main course.  I tried and loved it with bread and also as a dip for salted biscuits and other fried tidbits. May be its the taste but do give it a try. Its definitely helpful when you are in a hurry and trying to decide what you are going to stuff in the roti or bread slice for tiffin box. You can definitely get creative with this compote around.




Saturday, November 2, 2013

Dry Fruit Chikki | Happy Diwali

This time I wanted to do something very easy and simple for the festival. I am not a great sweet tooth person and not confident in churning out mithais or sweets for a festival that is not just a 'festival of lights' but of rich sweets as well. So I browsed through sites and made a simple dry fruit chikki from Sanjeev Kapoor. ITs not ghee laden but full of nuts and even rose petals. Simple to make and hearty and festive.

Ingredients:

Almonds: 1/2 cup chopped
Pistachios: 1/2 cup chopped
Cashew Nuts: 1/2 cup chopped

Ghee: 1.5 tbsp + more for greasing
Sugar: 3/4 -1 cup for a very sweet chikki
Saffron strands : few
Cardamom: few pinches

Dried Rose petals: 1-2 tbsp 


Preparation:

Chop all the nuts and roast them lightly in the oven or stovetop. Grease a thali/tray/counter top with ghee.Also grease a rolling pin with ghee. I actually placed  butter paper on my countertop and lightly spread ghee.

Heat 1.5 tbsp of ghee in a deep wide pan and mix in saffron strans, few pinches of cardamom power & sugar. Cook till the sugar turns into a light brown syrup. Remove from heat and then mix in the nuts.Immediately spread the mix onto the greased worktop/thali/butterpaper and sprinkle the rosepetals on top. 

With the greased rolling pin spread in out into a layer of 1 cm thickness. You can actually place it between sheets of waxed paper and roll it out. 

While slightly warm make marks with knife on the chikki. When cool cut these along the  marks into smaller pieces.

Serve along with other sweets -store bought or homemade as such.


You can also crush the pieces and use as a topping/ingredient  for icecream or even use as an ingredient in frosting.They are as good as such and also a make a healthy lunchbox or anytime snack as well. They are not ghee laden -barely 2 tbsp of ghee is used in total. 

Have a perfect, sweet healthy and yummy DIWALI

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