Leopard Patch Bread |We Knead to Bake #37

My daughter learned about aestivation last year. Aestivation is the hibernation during summer months.Come April May or the Indian Summer I aestivate.. now I can give a name to my condition.Its tough to blog when exams come, school finally closes and travel plans being made.But my aestivation extends usually more than two months.. I enjoy the process sooooo much that I don't feel like coming back.. Posts line up, deadline for events come and go but I am me.. 

Its good to be back though once that starting trouble is over.This post was supposed to be up in April, but as usual I baked and then put it on backburner.. Blogging is something which always gets the back seat in the journey of life. We know its there but yup its the last in the list.. 

Anyways todays post is the leopard patch bread which I baked in between trips.This was the chosen one by Aparna for We Knead to Bake #37and is inspired by Partricia Nascimentos Pao de leite leopardo. 

Ingredients:

All purpose flour: 2 cups
Whole wheat flour: 1 cup
Warm milk: 2/3 up
Warm water: 1/2 cup
Melted butter: 4 tbsp or 50 gms
Sugar: 4 tbsp
Salt: 1 tsp
Instant yeast: 2 tsp

Dark Brown Dough:
Cocoa Powder: 3 tbsp
Milk: 1 tbsp

Lighter brown dough:
Cocoa Powder: 1.5 tsp
Milk: 1 tbsp

Preparation:

Combine all dough ingredients into a bowl and stir until it starts leaving the sides of the bowl. 

Transfer to a lightly greased surface and with oiled hands knead it for 6-8 minutes till its smooth and supple. 

Divide it into 2 halves.Shape one half into a ball and place it in a greased bowl and let it rise until double for about 2 hours covered loosely.

Take the other half and divid it into 2 equal portions. To one portion add the lighter cocoa milk and knead well in a processor to get a ligter cocolour dough for the leopard patches.

Repeat the same process with the other portion and darker milk to get a dark brown dough. 

Shape each into a ball and let it rise until double.

Gently deflate each of the dough and divide each into 6-8 equal portions.

Roll each light brown dough piece into long ropes of 8.5 " long.

Roll each dark brown dough piece into ropes of similar length. Flatten the dark rope and place the light brown ropes within them.  These need not be perfectly enclosed as imperfections create the unevenness that show up as beautiful leopard patches.

Roll out the white dough pieces into the same length, roll these to flatten them out and enclose the brown ropes cwith the white piece completely.

Gently roll the enclosed ropes gently increasing their length to about 17". Cut each rope into half to get around 14 ropes of 8.5" long

Arrange these a little unevenly in a greased loaf pan, cover and let it rise for an hour of so until doubled in volume. 

Brush the top with milk.

Bake the bread at 180C for 30-35 minutes, until light golden and done. Remove from the oven and cool it on a rack before slicing. 

The bread is not as sweet as you would want. It will be with a dollop  of nutella or peanut butter or whatever spread you like. You can also go for savoury spread but I prefer chocolate with sweet so never tried. The loaf or remaining slices can be frozen till three months. 

Broa de Milho - Portuguese Corn Bread | We Knead to Bake #36

Broa de Milho is a slightly sweet crusty Portuguese bread made from a mix of rye, wheat or corn. It is a dense bread which goes well with soups and stews. The method of cooking is slightly different with the corn or maize flour paste being made with hot water and then added to other ingredients.

I had tried out Aparna's version of broa adapted from KAF site last month itself for We Knead to Bake. I had used Makai ka aatta / Maize Flour available in India. But thanks to exams, couldn't post it till today. I am forcing myself to post it today when I took a break from exam and mommy duties else I will forget my blog itself.. As usual I have halved the recipe and baked a beautiful bread.

Ingredients:

Maize Flour/ Makai ka aatta: 1/2 cup

Boiling hot water: 6 tbsp

Warm milk: 4-6 tbsp

Instant Yeast: 1 tsp

All Purpose Flour: 1.1/4 cup + more for dusting 

Salt: 1/2 tsp

Honey: 1 1/2 tsp

Olive Oil: 1 1/2 tsp

Preparation:

Put cornmeal in a bowl and add hot water to it.Mix together with a fork and then add 4 tbsp of milk. Mix everything to get a paste adding more milk if needed. Let it sit until it cools a bit.

To this add the remaining ingredients and knead together to form a smooth and slightly sticky dough. Mine was not sticky -- just very lightly sticky..

Place the dough in an oiled bowl, turning it once to coat well. Cover loosely and let it sit until it turns puffy and risen for abut 1-1.5 hrs.

Turn out the dough onto a dustled counter and shape it into a round ball after kneading it lightly for few times. 

Place the ball onto a lined/greased baking sheet and let it sit under a loose plastic wrap or kitchen towel for an hour or so until it becomes more puffy.

Just before baking, you can optionally make 3-4  slashes about 1/4" deep on the top of the dough. Spritz the top lightly with water and bake in a preheated oven at 230C/ 450F for about 10 minutes. After which reduce the temperature to 200C/400F and continue baking for another 15-20 minutes until the top is golden brown.

Take out. Cool. slice and serve with soups preferably..

A healthy bread which is yellow in colour thanks to the corn flour /maize flour. You can replace half of the all purpose flour with wheat flour which will make it more denser or heavy.

Lets see how Aparna did her broa.

Vánocka - Czech Christmas Bread | Baking Partners Dec'15

Now that Christmas is just a few days away it makes sense to post the festive bakes one by one. Especially the christmas festive bread. This time Swathi has chosen a Christmas bread from Czech Republic- Vánocka (va-nawtch-kah) for Baking Partners A Simple sugary brioche type bread but rich with eggs. Now thats where my adaption skills work. I had earlier trid brioche without eggs and it had come out fine. So here too I replaced the egg yolks in the recipe with EnerG egg replacer. Now as per Swathi its like a " curry without salt" but still the bread turned out perfect. As usual I halved the recipe and read it below..

Ingredients:
All Purpose Flour: 2 cups
Salt: 1/8 tsp
Sugar: 3.25 tbsp
Instant Yeast: 2 tsp
Lemon zest: 1/2 a lemon
Grated Nutmeg: 1/2 tsp

Vanilla :1/2 tsp
Lukewarm milk: 1/2 cup (100ml)
Butter: 4 tbsp melted
Egg Yolk: 1 (1.5 pkd tsp of Ener G + 1 tbsp of water)

Raisins: 1/4 cup
Peeled almonds: 8 tsp

Egg wash: 1 egg + 1 tbsp of water

Preparation: 

In a big bowl, mix together flour,salt,sugar, yeast, nutmeg and lemon zest. Add in the vanilla, butter, milk and egg yolk in the well in the middle and start stirring with a spoon mixing into the surrounding flour. Once the dough becomes too stiff for a spoon, begin t knead it with onehand trying to incorporate tje remaining flour. If the dough is too dry/crumbly, add in 2-3  tbsps of milk.

Turn the dough into to a counter and knead for another 10 minutes prying apart the dough with the  lower part of your palms, fold in half and twist and repeat this till you get a smooth soft dough.

Transfer the dough to a lightly greased pan and let it sit in a warm place until it doubles in volume. Meanwhile heat water in a bowl and add raisins. Let it boil until  it plumps up. Drain on a kitchen towel and set aside.

Transfer the dough on to a lightly dusted surface and place the raisins on top if it. Try to incorporate the raisins into the dough while kneading.

Divide the dough into 9 equal parts and roll out each about 15cm long cylinder.Take the first 4 cylinders and lay them next to each other .

Join at one end and then bring the first one at extreme left over the third one. And bring the fourth one at extreme right over the top of second one. Now the earlier frst one has become 4th and the previous 4th has become 1st. Repeat the steps 1 over 3 and 4 over 2 and join the ends to get a beautiful 4 stranded braid, Keep it aside.

Take the next 3 strands and make a three braided dough and keep it aside.

Make a 2 stranded braid with the remaining two.

Place the 4 braided piece on a lined baking sheet and bake a slight depression in the middle so it can hold the other two braids. Place the three braid bread ontop of this followed by the two braided. If there are loose ends try to tuck underneath the entire bread.

Stick almonds on the sides -either sliced or whole peeled. Then stick toothpicks in between so that it doesn't flip during baking.

Preheat the oven to 350F /175C while the dough is resting - which should not be more than 30 mnts. Brush the bread with egg wash  or milk/butter  and bake for about 38-42 minutes making sure the top doesn't brown too much.. in which case cover it with a foil.
 After removing from the oven sprinkle with powdered sugar /glaze and let it cool completely.Slice into pieces and serves.


An excellent raisin bread. The aroma of sugar and raisin definitley gives a festive feel.The original recipe adapted from here and which came from Swathi sugested baking time of 38 minutes, but my eggless version definitely took few extra minutes as I have seen in some of the egg replacer preparations. I suppose this is because the egg replacer powder is made up of different plant based startces which take longer time to cook.

Lets see who all baked Vánocka for Christmas. Hope over to Swathi's

Healthy Cooking with Canola Oil | Healthy New Year 2016

These days people are becoming aware of more and more about eating healthy and eating right. But are you sure you are actually eating right? Ofcourse you are substituting butter ,ghee and shortening with oil but is the oil right? 

How about reusing oil?You have also heard conflicting opinions about the reuse of frying oil.. Some say you can't reuse the oil used for frying? But others say you can? Whos is right? And Why? 

What is smoking point and how is it different for different oil and how it affects health?

If you have all these doubts then please read on..

I had the opportunity to attend a cook off event by Canola council of Canada. The event conducted to create an awareness of canola oil  showcased culinary delights from Chef Surjan Singh (a.k.a Chef Jolly), director F&B, Marriott Hotels at Spice Terrace, JW Marriott, Bengaluru on December 3,2015.

Canola oil is one of the friendliest and versatile cooking oils which can be used for all types of cooking.This can be vouched by yours truly who has used it while in US. Its the commonly used cooking medium in US and Canada from where it originated.

Bruce Jowett, VP, Market Development of Canola Council of Canada spoke about the origin of the oil, how it got its name and the intention to create a world wide awareness on Canola oil. 

Canola oil comes from canola seeds , a variation of rapeseed. Rape seeds contain around 45% of erucic acid whereas as per standards lesser percentage is needed in food or cooking oil. So in short the rape seeds are modified to obtain the canola seeds from which the canola oil (Canada Oil Less Acid) is obtained.The canola oil so obtained has just under 2% acid and gives 45% of oil per seed. 

So roughly 1kg canola seeds gives approx 450mls of oil which is quite good..

As for flavour, the oil is neutral in taste and blends into the dish without giving a distinct taste or flavour unlike certain oils. It is an excellent supporting actor especially when you want to showcase the ingredients you cook with and not the medium. This can be vouched for by me as I have used canola while baking and even regular routine Indian cooking.

That means you can use it in cooking , baking and deep frying as well. Wait did you hear deep fry? 

YES!
What about the smoking point? Can we reuse the oil after frying? Read on...

Smoking point is the temperature at which the oil gets separated into fats and other contents and usually oils like rice bran, soybean, coconut oil etc reach this point/temperature very quickly. We can see this when smoke starts coming out of the oil pan. They simply get separated into several compounds which do not take heat well and some are not needed in food at all. We commonly say that they have low smoking point.Such oils are not suitable for deep frying.

The smoking point of canola is 242Deg Celsius and deepfrying temperature is 190°C. So the oil never reaches its smoking point and can be reused later for whatever dish you want. 

All these facts was demoed by Chef Jolly who served a simple spinach stirfry on top of  mini missi roti rounds as excellent canapes. The stirfry was very simple with no masalas for taste giving but was perfect as a starter.

Also demoed were the pickled dal stuffed into bhavnagari chillies which were deep fried to perfection and this also verified the facts on smoking point of canola. The oil blends in perfectly with any of the ingredients making sure the ingredient is star in whole. 

This was asserted by Chef Jolly's new signature dish Phool Tikki - broccoli florets marinated in spices, canola and little cheese and grilled to perfection. The taste of star broccoli brought to front by the supporting actor canola which  literally made us all stop talking and simply eat ,eat and eat....

Other facts that make Canola a star performer

• Its high in mono and poly unsaturated fats

• High in plant based Omega 3 fat

• Lowest in saturated fats 7% - which is less than that of ricebran oil  (25%), Sunflower Oil (12%), ground nut (19%) and olive and even soybean (12% each) oils

• Its free of transfats

• Reduces the risk of heart diseases when used in place of butter.. 1.5 Tbsp a day keeps the cardiologist at bay

As of now..

I have rarely seen canola in the local supermarkets. It is available only in certain upscale supermarkets and shops. Its perfectly suitable for Indian cooking and also makes them heart healthy. It is economically priced and will fit any budget too. 1 Litre of canola is roughly priced around Rs.130/- 

Hope this post helps you to start thinking about canola and its advantages. Please visit the website here for more information.

More awareness about the oil helps to ensure its available even in local shops or kirana stores and helps take you the first step towards a healthy life this coming year 2016.

Spiced Pumpkin Rolls for Thanksgiving | We Knead to Bake # 33

Its autumn and season of apples and pumpkins. Thanksgiving which is celebrated on 26th November every year in the US makes full use of autumn produce - pumpkins, orange sweet potatoes, apples, cranberries etc. So its only apt that we decided to bake spiced pumpkin bread rolls to ring in autumn for We Knead to Bake by Aparna. Of course though pumpkin is available year round in India but still its the season of pumpkin and Jack O lanterns.The recipe adapted from BeyondKimchee is super simple and the bread made with and shaped like a pumpkin makes it gourmet.  This makes it real special.

Ingredients:

Warm Milk: 1/3 cup

Honey : 2 tbsp

Instant Yeast: 2 tsp

Pureed pumpkin: 8 tbsp

Melted Butter: 1.5 tbsp

Egg: 1 OR Ener G egg : 1.5 pkd tsp + 3 tbsp of Water

All Purpose Flour: 1.5 cups + 4 tbsp more

Cinnamon: 1/2 tsp

Ground Dry Ginger: 1 tsp

Allspice Powdered : 1/2 tsp

Salt: 1 tsp

Preparation:

In a bowl, add in warm milk. Add honey and yeast and mix well and leave aside for 5 minutes until it froths. 

In a processor bowl, add in flour, salt and spice powders and blend well. Add in the yeast mix, pumpkin puree , melted butter and egg.

Knead well until you have asmooth elastic dough thats sticky but which pull away from the side of the bowl. You can add more flour if needed.

Turn it out onto a counter dusted with flour and knead with hand for another minute. Shape it into a big ball and place it in a greased bowl, turning around to coat well. 

Loosely cover and let the dough rise for an hour or so until double in volume.

Gently deflate the dough on a dusted counter and divide it into 8-10 small but equal sized pieces. Shape each piece into a round ball. Flatten it slightly and then using sharp scissors make 8 cuts at equal distances from each other from the edge of the ball to the centre, leaving the centre uncut to resemble a flower.

Place these flowers on a lined/greased baking sheet and let these rise or puff up a bit for about 45 minutes or so.Poke a deep hole in the centre of the flowers to insert a "stem". Brush the flowers with milk or egg wash. Bake in a preheated oven at 180C for 15-20 minutes until golden brown. 

Take out the rolls and brush with melted butter  or honey for more shine. Cool and insert halved pecans into the hole for "stem". You can also use cloves, spring onion greens or celery stalks instead of pecans as stems.

A simple spiced healthy bread shaped like autumnal pumpkin. Firm crust and soft crumb.  A regular sandwich bread which is made gourmet. The breads turns soft the next day. You can actually make it more spicier or more sweeter by altering the spices and adding more honey or sweetness.

Chilli Cheese Corn Bread | Baking Partners October '15

Diwali came and went in between rains. It was almost a wet Diwali  but it was nice to simply sit and chat doing nothing. Though I made regular sweets I didn't touch my computer or look at my blog those days. Now that one festival is over, we can slowly think of cooking clicking and posting about another festival which we don not celebrate much ieThanksgiving. 

I am more interested in experimenting with various festive dishes from other cuisines. This time  Southern style corn bread was suggested by Suja of KitchenCorner for Baking Partners by Swathi. The recipe is adapted from Weight Watchers CookBook and 1001 Great recipes around the world, Culinary Institute New York. As usual I tried the eggless  version replacing eggs with Ener G egg replacer and it came out right on time pretty good but  read on...

Ingredients:

Makai ka Aatta / Yellow Cornflour: 1.5 cups

All Purpose Flour: 1 cup

Baking Powder: 2 tsp

Salt: 1/4 tsp

Brown Sugar: 2 tbsp

Egg: 2 OR Ener G Egg: 1 tbsp pkd Powder whipped with 4-5 tbsp of water

Vegetable Oil: 4 tbsp

Buttermilk: 1 cup

Milk: 1/2 cup

Carrot grated/shredded: 1/3 cup (optional)

Green chillies : 1-2 minced

Corn: 1/2 cup

Cheddar cheese : 1 cup/shredded

Preparation: 

Mix cornmeal, flour, baking powder, salt and sugar and set aside.

Beat in eggs and blend in oil,milk and buttermilk. Add in the dry flour mix and fold in the carrot,chillies, corn and cheese.

Pour in a greased 8" pan and bake in a preheated oven at 400F/ 200C for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. The bread will be light brown and crispy in the edges.If you have a skillet, heat in butter in it on a stovetop. And bake the bread in same skillet. 

The bread looked perfect from outside. Its taste was yum but texture was something I was not happy with. It was not light fluffy texture. But slightly heavier/thicker I  felt. Taste was excellent what with corn and carrot and chillies. But may be these made it thicker or pastier I felt. It was cooked perfectly, the tester in the middle had come out clean. 

Normally when I replace eggs some baked dishes take more time. This time also I had anticipated it , but the bread was done in exactly 30 minutes and top started browning a bit more that I wanted and hence I had pulled it out. But I let it cool completely in the pan and before cutting it.Next time definitely I will be playing around with the temperature and different ingredients and spices. 

Google & Life | Life @ GoogleHouse

These days I find that I am using my laptop less and mobile phone more. Thanks to andriod /smart phones life has become a lot easier as you are accessible to your near and dears all the time and  in not just one way but several. Tech innovations can definitely help you in several areas of life including kitchen.. yes of course

I had the opportunity to visit #Googlehouse on Aug 18,2015 where Google showcased a variety of product innovations for India's 'mobile first' world. The event featured demos on Google Search, Photos, Translate and Youtube Offline and included appearances by celebrities like chef Kunal Kapur, fashion photographer Dabboo Ratnani, stand up comedian Kanan Gill, and  VJ-Designer-Photographer Anushka Menon.

Sandeep Menon, Country Head Marketing Director explained the latest trends and their vision for online future. He mentioned the millions of people currently only thanks to mobile devices and the increasing percentage of online indians and how Google is targetting these by providing customized apps and software like Google translate which has been customised and working at present in Hindi and in other Indian languages in near future. 

Along with Suren Ruhela, Google HQ,California and  Anushka Menon, VJ-Model-Photographer,Sandeep Menon talked on how Google Assistant can help you in your day to life right from taking care of booking cabs, meeting reminders, keeping ready soft copy of flight tickets along with specifying the climatic conditions at the destination and also important places you would like to visit. In short it is your digit personal assistant or adc ,whatever you call it.

Did you know that you can now take a virtual walk through important cultural places without exactly having to visit these places. Try it out..


Not just that Google lets you search your choice of restaurant, ushers you in virtually and lets you reserve a table of your choice. Ofourse you can even preorder from online menus if available and simply enjoy the food of your choice with your near and dear ones.

If Google search enables you to search through zillions of recipes and cuisines then the latest version of search enables you to even compare between two different kinds of foods.. say Dhokla & idly. Try it out...

Btw, not just calorie chart, Google Translate has features that gives you calories and names in your choice of language say Hindi other than English.. This fact was even stressed by Sandeep Menon along with MasterChef Kunal Kapur .

Did you know a virtual tour will also help you in deciding interiors  Try out .....

We cannot end the post without talking about the unlimited storage of new Google Photos. We can organize the photos in several ways, pick and choose and share partially to specific people, whew... it a lot... pls try it out ..

This massive feature was shown by Bollywood Photographer Dabboo Ratnani who has been clicking stars for the past 15-20 years..

And if you are a person who hates the buffering that Youtube takes, then here's the good news. YouTube Offline lets people download videos to mobile devices and tables and watch these at leisure even when coonectivity is not so strong.. A fact mentioned by stand p comedian Kanan Gill who had everybody in splits right from the moment he walked in.

What are you waiting for, download the Google Apps and make you life easy...

  (LtoR)Sandeep Menon,  Dabboo Ratnani, Anushka Menon, Kanan Gill, Suren Ruhela, Kunal Kapur

Salted Caramel Pots de Crème | Baking Partners June '15

A break when extended for too long will make you rusty. Thats exactly what has happened to me. The rusty lazy holiday feeling aggravated thanks to the lazy weather in Bengaluru. But nothing could stop me from trying out the salted caramel pots de crème suggested by Tamy of SavoryKitchen Table  which was this months challenge for Baking Partners by  Swathi . 

Pots De Crème is the French name for Custard. And custard is something which is simple yet can go wrong . But with custard powder its hard to fail. Custard powder makes it all the more easy and thats exactly what the doctor ordered. Though two choices were there I chose the salted caramel version. Since my family is not very big on caramel though I am, I decided to experiment the recipe and also use the custard powder instead of using the eggs. Still the below given measurements are guestimates as I improvised at some steps.

Ingredients:

Sugar: 8 tbsp + more for custard

Water: 2 tbsp

Sea Salt: a big pinch

Whipping Cream: 1 1/4 cup

Custard Powder : 3 tbsp  

Milk: 3/4 cup

salt: 1/2 tsp (For garnish)

Preparation:

Preheat the oven to 160 C/ 325F. Adjust racks of the oven and prepare ramekins on a baking dish. Add enough water in the baking dish to go go halfway up the sides of the ramekins.

In a saucepan add sugar, salt and water. Heat until sugar completely dissolves, stirring. Increase heat and bring the mixture to a rolling boil.

Boil for 8 minutes until you get a deep amber color. 

At the same time in another saucepan heat about 1/2 cup of milk adding around 3-4 tbsp of sugar and cook stirring until the sugar dissolves and it comes to a boil. 

In a separate bowl, whisk together the remaining milk and custard powder into a paste. When the milk +sugar mix boil, reduce the heat and stir in the custard paste. Continue cooking till the sauce thickens. And then remove from heat and let it cool for a while. 

Meanwhile whip the cream with powdered sugar till soft peaks form. Once the custard mix is cooled a bit, fold in the cream to this.

Put the caramel back on fire at low heat and add in the cream+ custard  mixture whisking well so that it flavours the custard properly and we get a brownish thick sauce. 

Remove from heat and sieve into a bowl. From the bowl pour into ramekins. Bake the ramekins for 35-40 minutes until the edges are set and centres become jiggly.

Cool completely on wirerack. Cover with a plastic wrap//saran and chill for atleast 4 hours before serving garnish with more salt.

Mine was a perfect pot de crème texturewise . But tastewise it was a bit more bitter than I expected. Maybe the sugar needs to be adjusted next time. 

Hopefully this will set the ball rolling for more posts.. Lets see how others did the challenge.

Sheermal- Persian Saffron Flatbread | We Knead to Bake #22

I had heard the word sheermal but was under the impression that it was something that existed only in Kashmir. Aunty Google helped me know that it exists even now as a street food in India especially in Muslim neighbourhoods and is an integral though rare  part of Lucknowi especially Awadhi,Kashmiri or Hyderabadi cuisines. Its origins can be traced to the Mughals or Persia as the name is based on the Persian word for milk 'Sheer'. 

Shirmal/Sheermal is a naanlike milk bread made with refined flour, clarified butter/ghee , along with saffron and milk. Slightly sweet in taste, it can be served with spicy kormas/gravies or even sweeter spreads.This month for We Knead to Bake Aparna gave us Sheermal and it was a joy to bake it.

Ingredients:

Instant Yeast: 1 tsp

Sugar: 2 tsp

Luke Warm Water: 4 tbsp

All Purpose Flur: 2.25 cups

Salt :3/4 tsp

Egg: 1 lightly beaten OR Ener G Egg: 1.5 tsp packed powder whipped/mixed with 4 tbsp of water 

Ghee/ Clarified Butter: 4 tbsp

Milk 4-8 tbsp (I needed only 2-3 tbsp)

Kewra Essence /Rose essence: 1 tsp

Few Saffron Strands soaked in 2 tbsp warm milk

Ghee/ Melted Butter : for brushing

Preparation:

Mix yeast & sugar with warm water and keep aside for few minutes until frothy.

In a big bowl or processor, mix together flour & salt. Add in the yeast mixture and egg and whisk/beat well. Add in the ghee in two additions and continue  whisking/beating until it resembles finee crumbs.

Add in milk tablespoons at time -it took just 2 tablespoons for me- and continue kneading until you start getting a dough. Add in the kewra/rose essence -I added rose- and more milk if needed and knead until you a soft and very lightly sticky dough.

Transfer the dough to an oiled bowl, turning once to coat, covering loosely with a plastic wrap and let it sit until doubled for an hour or two.

Meanwhile soak the saffron strands in little warm milk and keep aside. You can see it turning a happy yellow.

Once doubled, take the dough and knead again applying ghee all over. Let it rest again for another 15-20 minutes. 

Dived the dough into 4 equal pieces. Take a piece, roll it out to a circle of 4" diameter or 1/8" thickness. Transfer it to a lined/greased baking sheet. Using a fork, prick holes all over the surface of the bread. Repeat the process with the other three pieces. 

Brush the saffron milk all over the rounds so that it absorbs as much flavour as possible. 

Bake in a preheated oven at 180C/350F for about 10-15 minutes till they turn a lovely golden brown. Take out and lightly brush them with melted ghee/butter. Serve warm. If serving after sometime transfer to a wirerack.

These are perfect when they are warm. They can be enjoyed as such or with any korma/choice of sides.They are only slightly sweet and a yellowish in colour thanks to the saffron. These are usually served in Muslim households with nihari or a slow cooked beef or lamb stew.

Simit with Cheese & Olives | Baking Partners September '14

When it comes to bread baking I am definitely in. I love experimenting with the recipes adding a twist here and there, replacing this and that, etc. This also gives rise to confusion sometimes. The several options running inside my head might lead to nowhere. This time also for Baking Partners Challenge when simit was the given bread (adapted from here), I found myself imagining several options as I had already baked, loved and posted simit before. Aunty google threw open a wide window and I found adapted simit with cheese and olives  from here and went for it. I was sceptical about sesame topping about how it will taste as I was using pizza seasoning and toppings in my simit. But I am happy that I went for it as simit turned out the best. It was an enhanced and perfect simit.

Ingredients:

All Purpose Flour : 1 and 3/4 cup

Sugar: pinch

Instant yeast: 1 tsp

Salt: 1/2 tsp + 1/8 tsp

Water: 9 tbsp

Black Olives: 1/2 cup pitted stoned and chopped

Mozarella: 1/4 cup

Pizza/Italian seasoning/ choice of herbs: 1 tsp + as per taste

Molasses: 1 tbsp

Water: 4 tbsp

White sesame seeds: 1/2-1cup

Preparation:

In a bowl mix well together flour, yeast, sugar and salt. Gradually add in water to form a smooth non sticky dough kneading well for atleast 10 minutes.Cover and place it in a warm place and let it rise until double or 1.5 hrs.

Turn out the dough into a floured surface and punch down. 

Knead into the dough olives, cheese and herbs.Knead for another two minutes and then let it rest for around 15 minutes.

Divide into equal sized small-medium pieces and shape each  into long rolls.

Take two rolls, place near each other and twist them together into a rope pinching together the edges.We have to make sure that the edges are pinched together.

Dip each ring into molasses diluted with little water/ then place it on the sesame seeds.

Set aside for another 20 minutes until it becomes puffy. 

Bake in a preheated oven at 450F /220C for about 20 -25 minutes or until brown.

Serve it at teatime or anytime. The texture of  simit varies from crisp to soft. Mine was the same texture as sandwich bread -a tad soft at the crumb due to the additions with a chewy crispy crust. 

An exciting and spicy simit perfect for tea. You can add your own variation and enhance it. Add a twist to your teatime or anytime snack so that you are not bored anytime. Lets hop over to Swathi's for a perfect simit party taking an olivy bite.

Pane Bianco | We Knead to Bake August '14

I love baking breads and love it especially when I have to make it savoury.All the savoury ingredients kneaded into the dough or topped onto it makes it heavenly. Its ok when you roll it out fill it and bake it as a normal rectangle or round loaf / buns. I have tried crescent rolls as well.Thats the max I could go I used to think. Shaping a filled bread always gave me goosebumps.

 But when this month Aparna gave us a theme - savoury filled and differently shaped bread - instead of a recipe I decided to conquer this fear and tried out a bookmarked bread which I used to sigh at. In the end the bread turns out nice and a perfect snack and my confidence several notches up.

I had sourced the recipe for Pane Bianco from the usual source King Arthur Flour. This is an Italian bread where Pane means bread and Bianco stands for white. Apart from this I could not source out more details about this. And as usual I halved the recipe and tried it out. Also I went for roasted tomatoes and Italian seasoning instead of the sundried ones and granulated garlic used in the recipe. You can ofcourse follow the exact recipe.

Ingredients:

All Purpose Flour: 3 cups

Instant Yeast: 2 tsp

Sugar: 2 tbsp

Salt: 1 tsp

Warm Water: 4 tbsp

Warm Milk: 1/2 cup + optional 1-2 tsp

Extra Virgin Olive Oil : 8 tsp

Egg: 1 or EnerG Egg: 1.5 pkd tsp + 3 tbsp water

Filling/ Stuffing:

Roasted Tomatoes: 2 -3 medium ones.

Italian Mixed cheeses: few tbsp -1/2 cup. I used a mix of mozzarella &parmesan

Fresh Basil: roughly 4 tbsp chiffonaded or torn

Italian seasoning: as per taste

Preparation:

Combine all ingredients - dry ones first and then add the wet ones. Mix and knead to form a smooth soft dough. 

Place in a greased bowl, turning once to coat and let it rise until doubled covered with a plastic wrap.

Meanwhile line the baking sheet with parchment/foil and optionally grease it.Keep the filling ready in separate bowls. 

Finely chop the tomatoes and keep aside. The recipe went for sundried tomatoes. I went for quick roasted tomatoes. I simply roasted quartered and deseeded tomatoes at 220C after sprikling them with salt, pepper and little sugar and  a drizzle of olive oil. This took around 20 minutes where they caramelized and the juices concetrated.

Gently deflate the dough and divide into half. Roll one piece into rectangle.I went for a thin rectangle so that there could be many layers. Spread the cheese onto the rectangle followed by seasoning, tomatoes and finally basil.

Starting with the longer side, roll the dough into a long log, pinch edges to seal.Place the log seam side down onto the lined sheet. Using shears, start 1/2" from one end and cut lengthwise down to the center about 1" deep to within 1/2" of the other end.Make sure you don't cut the bread fully.

Shape the log into an 's' shape or tuck in both the ends under/ at the sides of  the centre to form an '8'. Pinch the ends together to seal. Cover and let it rise until doubled for another 1 hour. Repeat with the remaining dough.

Bake in a preheated oven at 350F/ 175C for about 35-40 minutes , covering the bread with foil  -else the filling will burn- after 10-15 minutes.

Take out let it cool and serve sliced as a snack. You can go for mini sized versions for individual servings. 

It looks good when you bake a bread shaped with you initials , doesn't it? Enjoy the bread. Its quick and easy to make and texture similar to the loaf bread that we get her. You can play around with the flours if too much experimental and obviously the filling which you can make savoury or sweet. 

Spinach Cheese Swirls | Baking Partners August 2014

I rarely try making puff pastry at home. The ingredients are just flour, salt and butter but the work involved over a span of 2-3 days is enough to put me off. But still it was a well enjoyed challenge this month for Baking Partners when puffpastry from BBC was chosen by Sangeetha and Swathi. 

Ingredients:

All Purpose Flour:  2 cups

Salt: 3/4-1 tsp

Ice cold water: 100-150 ml

Butter: 250 gms

Preparation:

Sift flour and salt into a deep bowl and mix well. Make a well in the centre and add in water 2/3rds at a time.Knead into a firm rough dough adding more water as needed.

Transfer the dough to a lightly floured counter and knead into a smooth dough rolling it out to form a rectangle.Cover with a plastic wrap and let the rectangle rest in the fridge for atleast 20 minutes or even overnight.

Meanwhile chunk the butter and place within two parchment sheets. Roll it out into a smooth rectangle  smaller than the size of the dough and then refrigerate.

When the dough is ready, place the butter in the centre and seal it properly. Roll out the dough in one direction only to three times its width. Keep the edges straight and even.

Dont try overworking the dough. The dough  needs to be cold all the times else butter might melt and leak out . In any step of the process, feel free to chill the dough for atleast 20-30 minutes before continuing rolling out. 

Once the dough reaches the needed dimensions, fold the top portion of the dough onto the centre. Then bring the bottom third up and over that. Then give the dough a quarter turn to the left or right and roll it out again into three times width. Chill if needed before rolling out again. 

Continue this process for another 4 times and then let dough chill in the fridge before being used. The next day you can repeat the process for two more time before freezing the dough if not using.

Spinach cheese Swirls:

The recipe is adapted from here. Its pretty simple and you can go with the estimates you have in mind. 

Mozzarella : 5 tbsp shredded

Parmesan chese: 3-4 tbsp shredded.

Garlic powder: 1/4 -1/2 tsp. 

Onion: around 3-4 tbsp finely chopped.

Spinach: one small bunch, washed, drained and finely chopped.

Mix together mozzarella, shredded parmesan, garlic powder and finely chopped onion. Dry and finely chop spinach. 

Roll out the dough onto a floured surface into a rectangle. Brush with melted butter on the surface and spread the cheese mix. Sprinkle the spinach on top of this. 

Roll it up from the longer side and using a sharpe scissors, cut the dough into  smaller rounds. Place the rounds onto a lined baking sheet and brush with melted butter.

Bake the swirls for 15-20 minutes in a preheated oven at 400F till the top turns golden brown. Take out serve warm. 

Tasty rolls with the perfect filling. I felt they were a bit too buttery, but butter adds to the taste doesn't it? You can use the puff pastry to make a dish of your choice but I definitely prefer the excellent swirls.

Lets hop over to Swathi's to check out the variety of puff pastry dishes.

Gibasier -French Festive Breakfast Bread | We Knead to Bake #19

Gibasier (zee-bah-see-ay) is a French Breakfast bread especially during Christmas time. Infact it is one of 13 traditional French Christmas desserts and is served after the Midnight Mass to signify the Last Supper of Christ and his 12 apostles. 

The buttery breakfast bread was the chosen one for this month We Knead to Bake by Aparna from Baking Artisan Breads & Pastries. It can be baked as a round loaf or smaller single serve breads with snips that give it a really festive look. Made of orange blossom water and filled with candied orange peel, sprinkled with snowy powdered sugar, definitely I felt festive while baking and loved it first bite onwards.As usual I went for half the recipe and made mini portions.

Ingredients: 

Biga:

Bread Flour: 3/4 cup (i went for all purpose flour)

Milk: 1/4 cup

Instant Yeast: 1/32 tsp 

Dough:

Egg: 1 Ener G Egg: 1.5 pkd tsp of EnerG + 2tbsp water + another 2 tbsp optionally

Olive Oil: 1 tbsp

Orange Blossom Water: 1 tbsp

Warm Water/Orange Juice: 1 tbsp

All the biga from above

Bread Flour/ All Purpose Flour: 1 cup + 10 tbsp

Granulated Sugar: 4 tbsp

Salt: 3/8 tsp

Instant Yeast: 3/4 tsp + 1/8 tsp

Butter: 3 tbsp butter

Anise Seeds: 1 tsp

Candied Orange Peels: 4 tbsp

Orange Zest: 1/2 tsp 

Preparation:

Make the big the previous night by mixing all the ingredients together to get a slightly stiff but smooth dough. Add little more milk if too stiff.

Transfer to an oiled bowl and cover with a plastic wrap loosely. Let it stand overnight at room temperature for about 14-16 hours. By this time it would have risen and have a fermented look.

Bread Dough:

Put the egg(Ener G), olive oil and orange blossom water in a processor bowl and run few time to mix well. Add warm water and mix. Mix all the liquids together with Ener G Egg and olive oil and run a couple of times.

Add the chopped up biga pieces, flour,yeast, sugar and salt and blend together to get a smooth dough.

Add the chunks of butter - just soft and not too soft- to this and knead till the butter is incorporated before adding the next chunk. knead well until the dough is soft and supple.

Add the candied peel, zest and anise seeds and knead till incorporated. Shape into a round and place in a well oiled bowl turning to coat well. Cover loosely and let it sit until doubled up for about 2 hours.

When done, turn the dough into smaller equal sized portions, shape into round portions and let it rest for another 15-20 minutes.

Then take each portion and roll it into a oval or semicrircle. I went for oval (or looking similar :) ) and then halved it so as to get two semicircles. Take each semicircle and make three cuts, one in the centre and two at equal distances from the centre one on either side by pushing the scissors straight into the dough. Then using scissors, make 4 snips at equal distances along the arch.

Lift the piece, stretching it a little so that the slits spread and open and place it in a lined baking sheet . Repeat with remaining portions of the dough and let the gibassiers rise until puffy for about 30-45 minutes.

Bake in a preheated oven at 180 C for about 15-18 minutes until golden brown on top. 

Take out and while still hot, brush it with melted/clarified butter(ghee) and immediately sprinkle powdered sugar atop.

Serve as a breakfast pastry or anytime snack. Perfect with tea and definitely give a festive feel.Never before I have felt so festive or Christmassy while sprinkling the powdered sugar over the bread. 

Lets hope all thos who baked felt the same.Peep in over at Aparna's

Apple Foster Shortcakes | Baking Partners July

I love making short cakes. Or atleast I enjoyed making and consuming when I made my strawberry short (cup) cakes. I don't know much about the technicalities whether it is  perfectly turned out with this much width,diameter, height etc.The prep definitely takes less time and everything can be done under an hour or in other words you can fit these into your schedule which has a workout and badminton session and small small routine daily chores before your kid comes back from school @ 3.

So this time during the Baking Partners challenge short cakes were chosen by Reeni & Swathi I was more than happy and thought of a twist with apples which I had in hand rather than berries.The risk definitely paid off and I enjoyed the easy eggless short cakes adapted from KingArthur Flour, with caramelized apple in foster sauce. Now foster sauce is usually alcoholic and paired with bananas. But me being me went for a simpler apple version I found here.As usual I halved the recipe.

Ingredients:
All Purpose Flour: 14 tbsp
Cornstarch: 2 tbsp

Salt: 3/8 tsp = 1/4 + 1/8 tsp
Baking Powder: 1.5 tsp
Sugar: 1-2 tsp (I went for 2)

Cream: 1/2 cup - 10 tbsp

Melted Butter: 1 tbsp

Coarse Sugar: to topping

Preparation:
Sift together flours, salt, baking powder and 2 tsp of sugar. You can use 1 cup of pastry flour against the mixed flours. I used the substitute mentioned in the recipe.

Add enough heavy cream to moisten the dough. I used 25% Amul cream and it worked well.

Turn the dough into a lightly floured surface and pat it into a 4" circle about 3/4" thick.Using a 2.5" biscuit cuter cut into rounds. Combine the scraps and roll out again until you get 5 rounds.

Dip these into melted butter and place them on a parchment lined baking sheet. Sprinkle generously with coarse sugar.

Bake in a preheated oven at 210 C or 425F for 15-20 minutes or until puffy and golden brown. Take out and cool for a bit while you make the foster sauce.

Apple Foster:
Apples: 1 atleast Peeled and sliced.

Unsalted Butter: 2 tbsp

Demerara/ Brown Sugar: 2-4 tbsp based on sweetness preferred
Cinnamon: 1/4 tsp
Salt: very small pinch (Omit if using salted butter)

Cornstarch: 1/4 tsp heaped
Water Or Apple juice: 4 tbsp

Melt Butter in a pan and saute apple slices in it. Cook until fork tender for a few minutes. Add the sugar,cinnamon  and salt and cook until the sugar starts melting for another minute. Mix together water/juice with corn starch and add into this. Cook stirring until thickened for few more minutes. Take off heat and cool which might thicken it more.

Apple Short Cake:

Split each shortcake horizontally. Place  one half / bottom on the serving plate. Top with apple slices and little liquid/sauce onto the cake. Top with the other half and serve topped with whipped cream/ icecream. Drizzle sauce atop the cream before serving.

Delicious and yummy Apple Foster Short cake is ready to serve. Dig on.. BTW Lets see who all enjoyed their yummy shortcake challenge

Komaj- Persian Date & Cumin Bread | We Knead to Bake #18

I am not a great fan of dates. In shakes as syrups, I am ok but won't miss it if not there. Else ofcourse my mother turns it into a sweet snack, which I have no qualms eating but don't ask me to make it. 

Note to  Self: I am making it one day.... umm it will come soon....)

So when Aparna gave a cumin and date bread from Iran I was happy to go with it. After all its tough seeing the date packet peeping out whenever I open the fridge. I know.. 

Anyways the only catch here was will my daughter give a thumbs up? The bread also had spice ingredients like turmeric and cumin seeds along with dates and will the combo be a hit?

I actually couldn't wait to taste the bread and was biting my nails when finally I got a thumbs up sign from her. Whew.. 

Not much can't be found about this bread on googling and this recipe from Aparna for We Knead to Bake #18 is from the Greg & Lucy Malouf's book - Saraban-The Chefs' Journey through Persia.As usual I halved the recipe and replaced egg or rather half of it with cornstarch.Also I replaced almost half of the all purpose flour with whole wheat flour.

Ingredients:

Instant Yeast: 1/2 tsp
Warm Water: 1 tbsp + few more tbsp

All Purpose Flour: 1cup
Whole Wheat Flour : 14 tbsp
Cumin seeds: 1.25 -1.5 tsp toasted & coarsely crushed
Sugar: 2 tbsp
Turmeric Powder: 1/4 tsp
Salt: 1/4 tsp+ optional  1/8 tsp

Egg: 1/2 or optional (replaced with 1 tbsp cornstarch + 1.5 tsp water mixed as a paste)

Warm milk: 1/3 cup + 2-3 tbsp
Olive Oil: 2.1/4 tsp olive oil

Filling:

Dried dates: 8-10 pitted and chopped

Unsalted butter: soft 2 tsp

Cardamom powder: 1/4 tsp

Milk: Brushing on top

Preparation:

Dissolve yeast in water and keep aside for 10 minutes and let it bubble up a bit.

Add in the flours, crushed cumin (1.25 tsp) , sugar, turmeric and salt to a  bowl and mix well. Add the yeast mix and optional egg and mix till it is incorporated. I used 1tbsp cornstarch mixed into a paste with 1.5 tsp of water to replace half an egg.

Add milk and oil and knead to have a smooth pliable dough thats not sticky. I needed more liquid to get a pliable dough. So I added around 2-3 tbsp of milk and water each and kneaded till I got a dough. It was pliable and yellow in colour and moist, but not sticky. It didn't look smooth was  okay. 

Shape into a ball and place in a greased  bowl, turning once to coat. Cover loosely with a plastic wrap and let it rise until doubled for an hour atleast. I went for almost 2 hours.

When risen deflate it , shape into a round and put back for a second rise for an hour or so.

Prepare the filling by mixing the filling ingredients together in a bowl.

Divide the dough into 2 portions and each portion into 2 giving 4 portions. Working with one portion at a time, roll out the portion into a 1/4" -1/8" thick rectangle.

Choose a cookie cutter that is 8cm widest, press it down lightly on one half of the rectangle. You can see the outline/marks on the dough. 

Place 1 tsp of filling at the approximate centre of this mark/outline, fold over the other half of the rectangle over the filling and now it looks like a covered square or circle based on the cookie cutter you have chosen.

With the same cookie cutter, cut the portion with the filling in the centre and in such a way that the sides are neat and well sealed.

Repeat with the remaining portions and reroll the scraps and repeat the process to get 2-3 pieces based on size. I got a total of 6 pieces and 1 smaller piece.

Place the komaj on a lightly greased or lined  baking sheet leaving some space between them as they puff up on baking. Let them sit for 15-20 minutes.

Brush them with milk and sprinkle remaining cumin seeds on top pressing lightly.

Bake in a preheated oven at 200C for 8-10 minutes . Take out and serve warm optionally dusting with powdered sugar.

Yum one as I had mentioned earlier. The dates make it sweet and the cumin adds a bite. umm.
 Let me munch on.. while you take a look at komaj baked by others at Aparna's. 

Psst.. She also had a packet of dates peeping out of fridge.. anyway we can say thanks to komaj, dates ke acche din aaye hain!