Spiced Mini Apple Pies

It is the beginning of fall here and the weather is absolutely lovely. Warm days compliment cooler nights. Happiness compliments the rash of colours in the nature around us. But the icing on the cake is that Deepavali compliments Halloween! Indian houses here in the US are beautifully decorated with fall adornments and halloween spooks and the entranceways are bathed perfectly in the light emanating from Deepavali diyas.
Such joy to share the festival of lights with all the pumpkins and "Mohabbatein" leaves!
Most of all, this is the first Deepavali for our two month old sonny boy. I simply could not allow the festival to roll by without celebrating to the maximum extent possible amidst all the newborn chores and chaos.

My dear family esp the hubby abhors sweet food in any form. Except for the occasional Mysore Pak. The darling dotzy has only now begun to relish sweets but mostly prefers baked goods to the traditional Indian fare. Hence I decided to kick start the Deepavali food fest with the Apple pie. It falls easy on the pallette and is so warm that it automatically fills you with love. Adding a twist to the classic and making it less sweet suits our tastes. Baking a pie is like an experience. The whole house is awash with the wonderful smell, the taste buds thank us and is appetizing to look at. I love the crusty flaky exterior of a pie so much that I could eat just the crust and be very happy. Given a choice of a 9 inch pie/cake or muffin sized portions I always tend to choose the latter since its easier to store and gets consumed real fast. Size is inversely proportional to the want in our house. That is how we ended up with mini spiced apple pies!

The pie dough recipe in this post is a keeper. It is extremely flaky and has a nice crust without being hard. It can be used as the go-to dough for all kinds of filling- spicy,veggie, sweet, salty. The recipe makes enough for a 9 inch pie base and the pie topper. Alternately it makes enough for 12 mini pie bases and their tops.

Spiced Mini Apple Pies

Servings: 12 mini pies (standard muffin size)
Prep Time: 45 mins (including cooling time)  Cook Time: 35 mins

Ingredients

For the Pie Dough

2 cups All Purpose Flour (or substitute half Whole Wheat flour, I have done this and it remains delicious)
1/4 tsp Baking Powder
1/8 tsp Baking Soda
1/4 cup Chilled Yogurt (replaces 1 egg)
3/4 cup Chilled butter cut into cubes (can be reduced to 1/2 cup if desired)
2 tbsp Sugar (increase to 5 tbsp if a sweet crust beckons)
2 tbsp Chilled Water
Pinch of Salt

For the Apple Pie filling

2 Gala Apples (the apple really held up well and did not get mushy when baked for 35 mins)
3-4 tsp Lemon Juice
1/4 tsp Cinnamon powder
1/4 tsp Nutmeg powder
1/3 cup Sugar

Instructions

For the Pie Dough

1. Mix together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and sugar
2. Drop in the chilled butter cubes and lightly mix it into the flour till the mixture is crumbly. I used my fingers for this and it took around 5 minutes. 
3. Add in the chilled yogurt and mix. The dough should start coming around.
4. If required mix in the chilled water one tbsp at a time till a ball of dough is formed. 
5. Do not knead the mix. Merely collect the dough to form a ball. 
6. Cling wrap the dough and refrigerate for 30 mins.
7. If refrigerated for more time the dough becomes harder. Allow dough to rest on the counter till it is pliable before using.

For the Apple pie filling

1. Toss all the ingredients for the filling together.
2. Do not mix it a lot in advance since the juice from the apples oozes out which could make the pie soggy. 

Making the Pie

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F and grease a muffin tray lightly.
2. I use a trick to make it easier to get the pies out after they are done - Place strips of foil in the muffin cup with ends hanging out. The pies can later be pulled out using the over hanging tabs. 
3. Roll out the pie dough between two sheets of parchment (to make cleaning simpler) to a thin sheet. I kept it at 1/5 inch thick but it could be made thicker upto 1/4 inch. 
4. To make mini pies, cut out rounds from the dough sheet around an inch bigger than the size of the muffin cup.
5. Insert it into the muffin cup and lightly press against the walls of the cup to make a pie base. (It is easier to close the pie if the pie base juts out of the muffin cup.)
6. Put in one and half tbsp of the filling into the pie base
7. Cut out another round of dough which is slightly smaller than the first one.
8. Cover the pie with this and press all around to seal the pie. 
9. At the point you could make the edges fluted or press all around the edge using a fork.
10. With a knife make small slits on the pie top to help bake the filling nicely. 
11. Brush the top with some milk to prevent dryness while baking
12. Bake at 350 F for 30 - 35 minutes till the top has browned and  you can see the filling bubbling inside. Mostly you could go by the heavenly smell and know its done!
13. Serve warm or cold. We like both ways. 

Vegan Banana Nut Bread

In the recent weeks there hasnt been a situation of over ripe bananas in our house. But last week we went on a camping trip to Arkansas where I had carried a bunch of bananas but half a dozen remained uneaten given the variety of food we had there. We were an enthusiastic group making upma and bhelpuri among other delectables, at the camp. It was a lovely time beside the river. The river itself was shallow at the camp site and there were innumerable small size fishes swimming around our legs. The whole gang enjoyed playing in the water and swimming with the fishes.

By the time we came back home, due to the heat, the bananas were all over ripe and I had to find a way to use them without throwing out the whole lot. I mentioned banana bread and to my surprise my daughter was overjoyed. I have no idea what caused the change of heart in the non-sweet eater but I wasnt going to let this chance get away. I baked the bread that very night and as is always the case with banana baked goods, it came out very well. We all enjoyed a healthy dessert that night and it lasted well for the next four days with refreidgeration.

Vegan Banana Nut Bread

Servings: One 4*8 loaf
Prep Time: 10 mins Cook Time: 35 - 45 mins

Ingredients

4 very ripe bananas
1 cup Whole wheat pastry flour
1 cup All purpose flour
1/2 cup Vegetable oil
1/2 cup Sugar
1 tsp Vanilla essence
1 1/2 tsp Baking powder
1/2 tsp Baking soda
a pinch of salt
1/2 cup nuts (walnuts, almonds)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 F
2. Grease a 4*8 loaf tin with a little oil or line it with parchment paper
3. Mash the bananas to fine and add in oil and sugar and mix well. Add in the vanilla extract and mix well.
4. Sieve the flours, baking soda and baking powder and mix well and keep aside
5. Add salt to the flour and mix well
6. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix till it comes together. Do not overmix.
7. Fold in the nuts
8. Pour the mix into the prepared loaf tin and bake for 35 - 45 mins till a skewer inserted into the center of the bread comes out clean. (My oven took 45 mins)
9. Slice it up and serve warm.
10. It also tastes good as a base to a trifle or with ice-cream.

Eggless Pinwheel Cookies

My darling dotzy turned five last weekend and we had an amazing party at the park. Among the fun and frolic was great food including snacks made at home. I made Blueberry Vanilla Cupcakes, Chocolate cupcakes, pinwheel cookies, Nipattu and Pakoda all of which were well recieved and the boxes were nearly empty by the time we came back home. Its always very gratifying to have super success with your food!
Pinwheel cookies was part of  the Home Bakers Challenge for June, a group which I have joined on FB. I had already made the Peanut Butter Cookies and now found the perfect opportunity to bake cookies in a house where the folks dont eat anything sweet!

One thing I must say about these cookies - they taste best till the next day once done. They get a cardboard-y taste after 2 days. So eating them fresh is the way to go according to me.
This recipe has been adapted from The Heritage Cook and adapted to make it eggless. It requires making two varieties of dough, one chocolate and one vanilla, and rolling it together.

Tips for making the process easier

1) The easiest way to handle this dough is to keep it cold. I refridgerated the dough quite a few times to be able to make it easily. After I kneaded it wrapped in cling wrap and also after I rolled it out and wedged between parchment paper, for 30 mins each time.
2) Flatten the dough  in between layers of parchment paper to make it easier to roll out. Else it sticks to the rolling pin. Also cleaning up becomes a breeze!
3) It might be easier to press down on the dough with a heavy wooden spoon or rolling pin and push it outwards to flatten it rather than rolling on it using a pin.
4) While rolling the dough into a log, roll using the parchment halfway and then pull back the paper. Do this for every roll
5) Refridgerate dough log for atleast an hour before cutting it into cookies. This ensures the dough log is stiff and cutting it into cookie rounds makes it easier without the dough losing shape.
6) Last but not the least, dont get intimated by the length of the instructions. Its easier done than explained.

Eggless Pinwheel Cookies

Servings: 32 cookies
Prep Time: 2 hrs Cook Time: 30 mins

Ingredients

All purpose flour – 1 ½ Cup
Baking powder – ½ Tsp
Salt – ¼ Tsp
Unsalted softened butter – ½ Cup
Granulated sugar – ¾ Cup
3/4 tbsp EnerG Egg Replacer
1 1/2 tbsp Warm water
Vanilla extract – 1 Tsp
Unsweetened cocoa powder – 2 Tbsp
Semi sweet chocolate chips – ¼ Cup
2 tsp Milk

Instructions

Vanilla Dough

1. Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
2. Whip the egg-replacer with warm water until it is gooey and set aside
3. In a mixing bowl beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg replacer and vanilla extract and beat again until blended.
4. Add the flour mixture slowly, beating just until combined.
5. Divide the dough into two parts
6. Refrigerate one part wrapped in cling wrap for 30 mins. That will be the vanilla dough.

Chocolate Dough

1. Melt the chocolate chips along with the milk in a microwave by heating it for 10 secs. Set aside to cool.
2. Add the cocoa and the cooled melted chocolate to the second half of the dough and mix till well incorporated.
3. Refrigerate this chocolate dough wrapped in cling wrap for 30 mins.

Making pinwheel Shape

1. Place the vanilla dough in between parchment sheets measuring 12 inches * 12 inches. 
2. Flatten the dough in between the sheets to the dimension of the paper. 
3. Repeat for the chocolate dough (use another set of parchment paper of size 12 inches * 12 inches)
4. Optionally refrigerate the two dough discs along with the parchment paper for 30 mins. This step is necessary if the weather is really hot and humid.
5. Set the vanilla disc on a counter and peel away the top paper. Do the same for the chocolate disc.
6. Now flip the chocolate disc and stack on top of the vanilla disc ensuring that the discs are again sandwiched between the remaining parchment paper. (Bottom parchment of Chocolate disc now becomes top parchment of the sandwich)
7. Roll lightly over the layers so that the dough adhere.
8. Remove the parchment paper on top.
9. Starting from one side, roll up the dough into one big log 12 inches long. Since the first couple of rolls will form the center of the cookie late ensure its firmly packed in. (I did falter here a bit and rolled it loose and you can see from the pics that the pinwheel shape at the center is not perfect)
10. Wrap the log in parchment and refrigerate it for upto an hour. 

Making the cookies

1. In the meantime preheat the oven to 350 F
2. Carefully slice the log into ¼ inch thick cookies and place on a baking sheet 1 inch apart. 
3. Bake it for 10-12 minutes. The cookies are done when you see the edges turning golden brown. They also harden on the cooling rack. 
4. Cool it on wire rack.

Eggless Peanut Butter Cookies

I joined the Home Bakers Challenge a month ago and have tried to keep up with the enthusiasm and expertise since. Owing to a lack of sweet tooth at home I have to usually think through any sweet preparation which includes my favorite pastime, baking. I made this with the fond hope of taking it along on the weekend getaway that we had planned but they turned out crumbly enough to not withstand travel in a box. Nevertheless, they came out tasting awesome and they store well in the fridge for upto a week. The recipe also presented me with an opportunity to use my new electric beater which I thought was an super must have a month and a half ago and hadn't baked anything since. My dotzy had a fun time running away every time I switched it on in the mixing bowl and things spattered out till I got a hang of it!

I made the peanut butter at home and in the process discovered what I have missed all these days. Its extremely easy to make and all it requires are peanuts and an electric food processor or mixer.

I made the cookies with whole wheat pastry flour and the next time I make it I will definitely add another 1/4 cup more of the flour so that it holds the consistency without becoming overtly crumbly. The other thing that I will do differently is increasing the refrigeration time of the dough. I kept it in the fridge for an hour before popping it into the oven but I think I would easily increase it by another hour or two so the butter doesn't start melting the minute I start patting out the cookies on the sheet before popping it into the oven. It was a pretty hot day to boot.
These cookies are currently my daily dose of "that sweet something".

Eggless Peanut Butter Cookies

Source : Simply Recipes
Servings: 10 2-inch cookies
Prep Time: 15 mins Cook Time: 15 mins

Ingredients 

1 1/4 cup Whole Wheat pastry flour
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup Oil
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

Instructions 

1. Mix together the dry ingredients 
2. Mix the flour, salt, baking soda and baking powder and keep aside.
3. After the butter becomes soft to the touch on the counter top, beat it for a couple of minutes and then add the sugar and continue to beat for another two minutes. I used the electric beater to mix the dough but can be easily done by hand.
4. Mix in the oil and the peanut butter.
5. Add in the dry ingredient mix and mix till combined to form dough
6. Wrap the dough in cling wrap or put it in a covered bowl and refridgerate for an hour or more.
7. Preheat the oven to 375 F 
8. Pinch off 1 inch dough balls and flatten slightly on the cookie sheet using the prongs of a fork
9. Place cookies atleast 2 inches apart (yes they spread a lot) and bake at 375 F for 10 minutes.
10. Remove from oven and cool on the sheet for a minute and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. 
11. Spreading a newspaper below the wire rack catches all the falling crumbs while cooling making cleaning easier. 

Eggless Doughnuts dipped in Cinnamon Sugar or Chocolate glaze

Doughnuts are my father-in-law's absolute favourite junk food of the West. When we came to the US a few years back on a holiday, he used to steer his gang of friends many times towards the Dunkin Donuts close to our apartment and enjoy the donuts there. My mother-in-law always refused even a single bite for the reason that she doesn't enjoy eating sweets. In hindsight I am glad that she did not eat them. What we did not know back then was they contain eggs which is a strict no for her.

Cinnamon sugar dipped doughnuts were what we ate at the fall festival last year with my parents and they are what saved the day at the Fisherman's Wharf during our visit to SFO a month back. V was starving and I was all out of snacks and we did not find anything there that looked "less fishy". We bought a bag of fresh mini doughnuts and the darling wolfed it down as if they were her favourite savoury snack.
With all the memories gushing, I decide to try my hand at making them at home and without eggs. They turned out amazingly tasty. Making it at home also meant that I could control the amount of sugar that goes into it. This confectionery is deep fried and packs some sugar so even though it is easy to make, it may not be something to eat while on a diet. But for those cravings, give it a try!

Eggless Donuts dipped in Cinnamon Sugar or Chocolate glaze

Servings: 10 regular sized donuts (I made 6 regular donuts and 6 doughnut holes)
Prep Time: 2 hrs (including 1.5 hrs rise time) Cook Time: 20 mins

Ingredients

1 1/4 cups of All Purpose Flour
3 tbsp Fine powdered sugar
1/4 cup Milk
1 tbsp Butter
Pinch of salt
1 1/2 tsp yeast
1/4 cup water
1/2 tsp Vanilla essence

For the Cinnamon Sugar topping

2 tbsp of Fine powdered sugar
1/2 tsp Cinnamon powder

For the Chocolate Glaze

4 tbsp Fine powdered Sugar
2 tbsp Cocoa powder
2 1/2 tsp Milk
1/4 tsp Vanilla essence

Instructions

1. Proof* the yeast in a container. (Heat the water till warm, 20 secs in microwave, to it add a tsp of sugar and the yeast. Stir well and let it sit for 10 mins till it froths up)
2. Mix the flour, sugar, salt in another container.
3. To that add milk, melted (room temperature) butter and the yeast mix and mix well
4. Knead with hand till dough consistency. At this point if it is too sticky use a couple of tbsp of flour but putting in a little at a time.
5. Place the dough in a container, cover it with a cling wrap and let it rest in a wam place (above the fridge) for an hour.  Allow it to double in size.
6. Now knead the dough softly on a lightly floured surface and flatten it with hands to form a disc of 1/4 inch thickness
7. Use a cutter to cut out the round shape of a doughnut. I used a steel cup which was 2.5 inches wide.
8. Use a bottle cap to cut out and remove the center forming a hole.
9. Place the ring doughnut onto a lightly floured plate/tray.
10. Continue with the rest of the dough till complete.
11. To make doughnut holes - simply pull off a small amount of dough and shape delicately into a ball. Place on floured tray.
12. Cover the tray with cling wrap and let it rest in a warm place.
13. In the meantime, heat the oil till it is hot enough to fry.
14. Also prepare the dips as outlined below.
15. Fry the doughnuts till golden brown. Remove from oil after excess oil drips off.
16. Place on a try lined with paper tissue to soak in excess oil.
17. Doughnuts are best eaten warm. Serve them with coffee or hot chocolate to make it a delicious snack.

For Cinnamon Sugar Dip

1. Mix the sugar and cinammon powder in a vessel.
2. Roll the doughnut in the mixture till it is nicely coated with the mixture
3. Remove and place on a wire rack to set

For Chocolate Glaze

1. Mix the milk, sugar, cocoa powder and vanilla essence and stir till there are no lumps.
2. Place the doughnut in the mixture, flat side down and get the glaze on one side.
3. Remove and place on a wire rack to set with the non glaze side down. (Place some paper under the wire rack to soak up any drippings to help ease cleanup)

*I have been using Red Star Active Dry Yeast and it proofs up like a dream.

6 cups Barfi (7 cups Barfi modified) or the Golden Jubilee

One of the few things I have been unable to conquer in the kitchen apart from yeast is the irresistable Indian Mithai or Barfi. This sweet square piece of heaven has eluded me for some years now to the point that I had stopped  considering making it for any occasion. I have tried unsuccessfully to make mithai with groundnuts and jaggery, milk and sugar. I grew up in a house where sweets were made first and the occasions would follow after. Am an incurable addict of all the indian sweets whether in solid, liquid or semi-solid form. To my consternation, I got married into a house where sweets are abhorred. Here, the very thought of mutilating one's taste buds with a sweet something is enough to trigger a huge craving for spicy food. So here I was with a book full of sweet recipes and no consumers. Not having much chance to practice is a problem especially while learning to make something like a mithai because its like a visual memory. You have to know the exact moment when it is ready to turn into a solid from the gooey mass. And that can only come from practice.
A couple of months ago, we invited some of our friends over for lunch and it blossomed into a perfect occasion to give mithai making a try since I already had the comfort of having another dessert dish ready. I wanted to start afresh with the simplest kind. I chose the 7-cups barfi for this reason and also because I felt somewhat confident that having a flour among the list of ingredients might help. In my house this is called the Golden Jubilee. But I dont think any of us have any idea as to what 50th year celebrations led to the creation of this mouth watering thing. The recipe for this barfi is also easy to remember since everything that goes in is measured as a cup and the cup could be of any size. Also I dint want to make it extra sweet because I wanted to give the hubby a chance to eat it without mangling his taste buds. So I reduced the quantity of sugar by 1 cup, thus making it a 6 cup barfi recipe. I realise now while writing about it, how easy it would have been to explain the process with pictures instead of words. I will update the post the next time I make it again.
Making a mithai is a test of one's patience so enjoy the process and the results!

7 cups Barfi / 6 cups Barfi / Golden Jubilee

Servings: 25 pieces

Prep Time: 10 minutes  Cook Time: 2 hours

Ingredients

1 cup Chick pea flour (Besan)
1 cup Ghee (Clarified Butter)
1 cup Freshly grated Coconut (I used Frozen Coconut, thawed)
1 cup Milk (I used 2%)
2 cup Sugar
1 tsp powdered Cardamom (Elaichi)

Instructions

1. Heat the ghee in a heavy bottomed deep pan (kadai) on low-medium heat (gas stove on sim). It is important to remember that the amount of heat should be the same through the whole process and low-medium is best since it would not burn the dough during the process. 
2. Add the flour to the ghee and sautee for a minute till it blends with the ghee and gives out an aroma. Around 5 minutes. 
3. Add the milk, sugar and coconut at this point.
4. Keep stirring with a wooden spoon continously from the beginning to the end so that the dough does not stick to the pan and get burned. 
5. Add in the cardamom powder. An easy way  to powder cardamom is to mix pods with some sugar and grinding.
6. Usually around 45 minutes into this, the dough should start to pull together. A few minutes later there should start forming a white slightly foamy trail when you scrape the dough off the sides of the pan with the spoon.
7. I was making this on an electric stove and it took 1.5 hrs before I got to the previous point. 
8. Once you start seeing the white slightly foamy trail, continue stirring for another few minutes till the dough starts to harden and becomes drier.
9. Grease a steel or brass plate with ghee on the bottom and sides. Size appropriate to the dough quantity which in turn is dependant on the cup measure used. 
10. Now you have reached the point where it is purely visual discretion. 
11. At the point where it becomes dry and hardens and you feel you cannot spread it onto a plate without patting  quite a bit - remove the pan from the heat.
12. Continue stirring it for another couple of minutes and then pour it on the greased plate. 
13. Using a a flat surface like the back of a steel cup or flat ladle pat the dough evenly around the plate.
14. Let it set for a few minutes and then using a knife or any sharp instrument draw out the vertical and horizontal lines on the dough. This would help in breaking into pieces later on. 
15. Leave it to set for around 8-10 hours. It would harden as well. 
16. On a clean surface (I used clean large paper) invert the plate and pat all around. 
17. The hardened dough would pop out cleanly as a whole onto the clean surface. 
18. With very slight pressure break the dough into pieces along the lines marked earlier.
19. Store the mithai pieces in an air tight container for upto 2 weeks.

Update on 8-Mar-2013 : This recipe won the second prize in a recipe contest hosted by Gayathri!

Mann mein (Besan) Laddu phoota

Happy New Year 2012!

The first day of the new year is always very ambitious. I like to ensure that I do all the things that I love to do since I have a superstition that what I d

o on the first day of the year is what I will do most for the rest.

(So, as you can guess, I dont clean much.)

I woke up today with a craving for sweet and like a typical housewife in the US I have not much choice but to make what I feel like eating.

Besan Laddu is not something that I would normally pick in a sweet store and thats the reason I decided to make it.

What you need to make Besan Laddu (To make 12)

• Channa dal powder / Besan / Kadle hittu - 3 cups (cup you would serve curry in a thali)
• Fine Semolina / Sooji / Sanna Rave - 1/2 cup
• Ghee - 1 cup
• Milk - 1/2 cup
• Powdered Sugar - 2 cups
• Cardamom/Elaichi/Yellakki - 2 pods, powdered (1/2 tsp)
• Cashews - 1 for each Laddu

Preparation to make Besan Laddu (Time : 2 min)

• Mix the besan and rava together
• Powder sugar and elaichi in a mixie and keep aside

Method to make Besan Laddu (Time : 45 mins)

• Place a heavy bottomed vessel or kadai on a stove on simmer(low heat)
• Heat the ghee in a kadai
• Once ghee is warm, fold in the besan rava mixture
• The besan rava ghee mixture will cook in low heat for around 30-40 mins till raw smell of besan is gone
• Keep the heat low else it may prematurely burn the mixture
• Keep stirring it once in a while so that it gets evenly cooked
• Let the dough cool for 5 mins once cooked
• Grind together the mixture, sugar, milk for a couple of seconds till well mixed
• You could also mix manually with a spatula if you do not want extra mixie cleaning chore
• Let the dough cool
• Grease hand lightly with ghee and form balls from the dough
• Stick a cashew into each laddu and voila besan laddu is ready!

My fundas

• Replace cashews with pistachio or almond pieces
• You could break cashews into small pieces and fold it into the dough. Makes the laddu crunchy.

Bread ka Meetha

Hurricane Irene left in its wake a humongous food collection in my kitchen. One major contender was the humble bread. Today happened to be Gowri festival (one part of the Gowri-Ganesha habba) so I decided to take the opportunity to reduce the inventory a little by making the prasadam using bread. I am christening it Bread ka Meetha :)

Its a sweeet dish but you can look forward to a lesser sweet variant in my fundas at the end of the recipe. Try it out and let me know how it goes!

What you need to make Bread ka Meetha

• Bread - 6 slices (Brown/White)
• Milk - 1/2 litre
• Sugar - 8 heaped tsps
• Ghee - 6 tsps
• Almonds (Badam)- few
• Cashewnuts (Kaju, Godambi)- few
• Dry Raisins (Kishmish, Vona Drakshi) - few
• Cardomon (Elaichi, Yelakki) - 1 pod (optional, I did not use it)

Preparation to make Bread ka Meetha (Time : 2 mins)

• Remove the crust from around the bread

Method to make Bread ka Meetha (Time : 20 mins)

• Boil milk in a heavy bottomed kadhai. After one boil add the sugar to it and continue simmering it till it reduces to half.
• In the meantime, deep fry the cashewnuts and almonds in ghee and keep aside
• Shallow fry the bread pieces in ghee till golden brown (in case of brown bread it would be more of a reddish hue)

Shallow frying bread with ghee was a revelation. The bread pieces soak in ghee extremely fast. So I suggest you pour a tsp of ghee around the bread after placing it on a tawa or pan. This way you would use less ghee and actually make it less caloried!

• Break each fried bread slice into 4 pieces
• Once the milk is condensed to half the quantity, add the fried bread pieces and fried nuts to it.
• Continue to simmer till the bread softens.
• Bread ka meetha is ready :)

My fundas

• Toasting bread pieces and adding them to milk is a lower caloried way of making this dish. It would still be very tasty to eat. You could add 1-2 tsp of ghee to the boiling milk to get an equivalent rich impact.

Puri Pal (Puris in milk)

I came across WYF-Dessert/Sweet on SnackORama so decided that this would be my contribution to it.

Diwali Day 3
This is another favourite of mine. Sigh I love all sweets! This particular dish is also a favourite with my grandma. She loves it when my mom makes this at home. I dedicate this post to my grandma who we all fondly call Manni.

What you need to make Puri Pal
For the dough

• Maida - 1 cup
• Wheat flour - 1 cup
• Ghee/Butter - 2 tbsp
• Water - 1 cup

For the sweet gravy

• Milk - 6 cups
• Sugar - 1-2 cups depending on how sweet you want it, can add as you progress with dish
• Cardamom - 2
• Saffron - 4-5 strands
• Cashewnuts - 10
• Raisins - 10

Preparation to make Puri

• Mix the maida and the wheat flour together in a bowl.
• Add the ghee/butter to this (a little at a time) and knead well.
• Add water if required, and little by little, we dont want a flood in the bowl.
• At the end of the process you must have well kneaded dough ball (non sticky). Keep aside for ten minutes

Method to make Puri
There are two ways of doing this :

First (Shankarpoli)

• Flatten the dough till its a thin base. You could do this with hand (like you do pizza base, I did this for lack of a rolling pin) or with a rolling pin.
• Use a pizza cutter to cut this thin base into 1/2'*1/2' pieces.
• Get the pieces put and layout on a tray.
• Heat some oil in a heavy bottomed vessel.
• Deep fry the pieces till its golden brown. Do not make it too brown or crisp.
• Remove when fried and put it in the tray layered with the tissue paper.

Second

• Make regular palm sized puris
• When cool tear the puris into small pieces and keep aside.
• Heat some oil in a heavy bottomed vessel.
• Deep fry the puris till its golden brown. Do not make it too brown or crisp.
• Remove when fried and put it in the tray layered with the tissue paper.

Method to make Puri Pal

• Heat the milk in a heavy bottomed vessel.
• This is one of those "patience" dishes.
• You need to allow the milk to boil on simmer till it condenses to 3/4 its quantity and starts thickening.
• Add required amount of sugar to it.
• Add the puri pieces to this milk and allow it to boil for some time till the puris soften (you should be able to break the piece with least effort).
• Add the cardamom, saffron, cashewnuts and raisins and get it to a final boil.

My fundas

• In case the milk does not thicken add a handful of Rava (Semolina / cream of wheat).

Shankarpoli

Diwali Day 2
ROTFL. I spent the whole of the previous day, ok am lying, 2 hours the previous day googling for the word- Shankarpoli and I must admit I found it even if only in one food blog. I used to laugh everytime I heard that name and I somehow felt that my mom might be getting it wrong. What could a God's name be doing alongside the rhyme for "koli" (chicken in kannada)? :) As it turns out what you get down from generations is never usually wrong, I found out that many people in the party I went to actually knew the sweet ! Inspite of my wisecracks this was something I have loved as a kid. A bowl full of Shankarpoli, tv and a cloudy day...heaven!

What you need to make Shankarpoli

• Maida (all purpose flour) - 1 cup
• Wheat flour - 1 cup
• Ghee/Butter - 2 tbsp
• Water - 1 cup
• Sugar - 1/2 cup
• Oil

Preparation to make Shankarpoli

• Mix the maida and the wheat flour together in a bowl.
• Add the ghee/butter to this (a little at a time) and knead well.
• Add water if required, and little by little, we dont want a flood in the bowl.
• At the end of the process you must have well kneaded dough ball (non sticky). Keep aside for ten minutes
• Powder the sugar in a mixer

Method to make Shankarpoli

• Flatten the dough till its a thin base. You could do this with hand (like u do pizza base, I did this for lack of a rolling pin) or with a rolling pin.
• Use a pizza cutter to cut this thin base into 1/2'*1/2' pieces.
• Get the pieces put and layout on a tray.

• Heat some oil in a heavy bottomed vessel.
• Deep fry the pieces till its golden brown. Do not make it too brown or crisp.
• Remove when fried and put it in the tray layered with the tissue paper.
• Immediately sprinkle some powdered sugar on the fried pieces. This way the sugar sticks to the pieces. (If you wait for it to cool down, the sugar does not stick.)
• Your Shankarpoli is ready to be eaten. And this one is not too sweet either so spice lovers will also like the crunchy semi sweet taste.

My fundas

1. Incase the sugar did not stick to the fried pieces, no need to fret, there is another way to make the sweet stick - Mix sugar in water and boil in a heavy bottomed vessel till syrup like consistency is reached. Spread the syrup on a bowl of the Shankarpoli pieces and eat.
2. This could also be made into a "Puris in milk" sweet which I will outline in my next post.

Carrot Halwa

Diwali Day 1
Diwali dawned this year with a flutter of excitement for me. I had spent the previous two days planning the sweets that I would make for the festival (with help from my mom ofcourse). I had come up with the final three. The first of the distinguished line up was carrot halwa. Carrot is naturally sweet which makes it a good choice, even as a vegetable, to be used in making a sweet dish be it a halwa, payasam or cake. Due to the lack of grater I had to use some innovation - used the peeler and blender combination to get thin, small flakes of carrot. Lack of some dressy ingredients dint put a dent in the taste of my halwa (but I am going to give you a complete list of what should go in). Go ahead and try this dish, you will be left with sweet satisfaction.

What you need to make Carrot Halwa

• Carrots - 4 big ones
• Milk - 2 cups, the size u would serve in a thali
• Sugar - 1 cup, more depending on the sweetness you can take
• Cardamom - 2
• Saffron - 4-5 strands
• Cashewnuts - 10, broken into small pieces
• Raisins - 10
• Ghee/Butter - 1 tbsp

Preparation to make Carrot Halwa

• Peel the skin off the carrots, cut off the edges and then Grate the carrots.
• Break the cardamom pods and get the innards out
• Break cashewnuts into small pieces. Fry till golden brown in ghee/butter.

Method to make Carrot Halwa

• Place a heavy bottomed vessel on a lighted stove. Put the ghee/butter into it and heat a little till it melts.
• Add the grated carrots to this and sautee for some time, say 5 minutes. Mix such that ghee is spread over all of the carrot.
• Add the milk to this and allow this to boil on simmer. Keep the mixture boiling till carrots become real soft.
• Now add the sugar and mix well. Continue to boil this till the sugar is well blended.
• At this point of time you must not have any milky liquid in te vessel. (If you do, my trick is to pour it out into a glass, its a tasty drink).
• Put in the cardamom, saffron, cashewnuts and raisins.
• Keep boiling (all the time keeping the stove on simmer) till all is blended well.

(This is the work-in-progress photograph of Halwa)

My fundas

• You can add condensed milk or even khoya when most of the milk has evaporated. This gives an excellent rich taste to the halwa.
• You could add roasted almonds and pistachio also the halwa for that special something.

Simple Eggless Chocolate Sponge Cake

Yesterday I tried out the queen of all baking - A Cake. I call it a queen because there is something majestic, sweet, luscious and curvy about it ;). And you put on some dressing and it oozes oomph!

P.S:- I need your help :- Anyone who knows how to make simple yet delicious ICING to decorate the cake, PLEASE TEACH ME HOW

What you need to make an Eggless Chocolate Sponge Cake

• Plain flour (Maida) - 1 cup
• Condensed milk (Nestle or Milkmaid tin) - 4/5ths of a cup
• Cocoa - 1/4 cup
• Icing Sugar - 3 tsp
• Baking Powder - 1 tsp
• Baking Soda- 1/2 tsp
• Butter - 1/4 cup
• Milk - 2/5ths of a cup
• Soda - 2/5ths of a cup (You could use Coke/Pepsi if doing a chocolate sponge cake)
• Vanilla essence (optional) - 1 tsp (I do not use this)

Preparation for making Eggless Chocolate Sponge Cake

• Mix together all the dry ingredients - flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and baking soda. Mix them well in a dry bowl. You could sieve them before mixing to get rid of lumps if any.
• Keep the butter outside the fridge for some time till it softens.
• Preheat the oven to 570 deg Farenheit (300 deg Celcius).

Preheating usually requires 15 minutes. (I don't have a beeper which goes beep when the oven reaches that temperature so I had to google and figure out for how long I need to keep it for the oven to get pre heated. Thought it would help others like me.)

Method to make Eggless Chocolate Sponge Cake

• Put the condensed milk into a large bowl. To this add the butter. Beat the mixture well till the butter blends with the condensed milk. This will need some patience since there should be no lumps and it should be a smooth paste.
• To this add the dry ingredients mixture spoon by spoon. Stir it into the condensed milk mixture constantly.
• As and when the mixture becomes too tight add some milk to ease it.

Point to be noted - Stir in one direction only. This will make the cake light and fluffy with a lot of air in it.

• Beat the entire mixture for a good five minutes.
• Now add the soda into this mixture and mix well lightly.
• Pour into the greased baking tin. Just jiggle the tin around for the mixture to evenly spread around. Do not use spoon or knife to even it out.
• Place tin inside oven and bake at 350 deg Farenheit (200 deg celcius) for 7 minutes.
• Then reduce the temperature of oven to 300 deg Farenheit (150 deg Celcius) and allow it to bake for around 40 minutes.
• Do check in once in a while to see if the cake is fluffing up.
• You can also be sure its baked when, if you stick a skewer or knife edge into the cake it comes out clean and no cake stuff sticks to it.

My fundas

• It is important to cool the cake on both the top and bottom sides. For the air to reach all over evenly you could cool the cake on a wire rack or any stand which has holes in it.
  

Kadlekayi Mithai (Groundnut Sweet)

Kadlekayi Mithai always reminds me of Gokulashtami at home. The smells in my mom's kitchen are fantabulous in those days. Many kinds of sweets and savouries are made to keep as Prasad for Lord Krishna. As kids we used to eye the Prasad plate greedily and hungrily, till my dad finished his elaborate Puja in the evening, making underhand deals about who was going to eat what out of the plate (even though there was much more in the huge boxes). Gokulashtami was always fun and tested our creativity in terms of decorating the Mandap where Krishna Idols would be placed. We have a huge age old Mandap at home and it used to be like a comedy trying to tie fruits and decorating it with flowers. Lot of family time and a lot of teasing, laughter and ofcourse huffs. I am getting nostalgic and before I start dreaming let me give you the recipe to the Mithai.

What you need to make Kadlekayi Mithai

• Kadlekayi (Groundnuts) - 1 cup
• Jaggery - 1 cup
• Dry coconut - 1/2 cup
• Water - 1/2 cup
• Elaichi (Cardamom) - 1/2 tsp

(Please use the same measure, when I say cup, for all the ingredients)

Preparation for making Kadlekayi Mithai

• Dry roast the groundnuts in a heavy bottomed vessel till a little browner.
• Spread it out on a large plate to cool down.
• Once cool, run a roller pin lightly over the groundnuts to separate the skin from the nut and also to slice the nut in half. Alternatively you could just mash them very lightly in your hands.
• Grease a plate with ghee and keep aside.

Method to make Kadlekayi Mithai

• Put water in a heavy bottomed vessel and add the jaggery to it. Keep the flame at medium low.
• Allow the jaggery to dissolve in the water.
• As it boils it reaches the consistency of a syrup (chocolate syrup).
• The way to check if its done is to take a small drop of the syrup and drop it into a cup filled with water. If the syrup doesnt spread and sticks then its done! Further, you should be able to scoop the syrup from the water as a lump.

• Once the right consistency is reached add the dry coconut and groundnuts to it.
• Allow it to boil together on a lower flame for some time.
• You know its done when the syrup becomes frothy.
• Pour the contents into the greased plate and spread it quickly before it thickens.
• After around two minutes of thickening run a knife through it to cut into squares.
• Keep it to cool.
• Once it cools you can just get the pieces of kadlekayi mithai out of the plate (use a little reverse plate banging against a spread out paper)
  

Shavige Payasa (Vermicelli sweet dish)

Being a traditional (hyuck hyuck) south Indian I want to embark on my food journey with a sweet. I choose Shavige Payasa because its my all time favourite.
Six years later I finally got around to updating the picture on this post. A well deserved one if you had seen my earlier pic. And this time around my darling dotzy helped me make it. We made it as Prasadam for Krishna Janmashtami. Her first dish and really my first too. I was this kid who did not like any South Indian snacks. Pongal, Uppit, Dosa, Idli, Chapathi would all make me want to starve than torture myself into eating them. After endless evenings of making the Shavige payasa for me as a substitute snack she found it wiser to teach me to make it. So everytime I came home from school to inedible snacks as mentioned above I would just make myself yummy Shavige payasa! Its a totally different story that my daughter does not share my sweet-tooth gene. She had to be implored to eat the prasadam! But the recipe is a keeper. Its easy to make!

What you need to prepare Shavige Payasa

1 cup Vermicelli
3 cups + 1 tbsp Milk
1 - 1 1/4 cups Sugar
10 Almonds blanched, skin removed and cut into smaller chunks (optional)
10 Pista blanched, skin removed and cut into smaller chunks (optional)
10 Cashews
10 Raisins
5-6 strands Saffron
4 tsp Oil/Ghee

Preparation

If not already broken, break the vermicelli sticks to pieces of half an inch to one inch long.
Heat the ghee in a heavy-bottomed vessel and fry the cashews in it. Remove and keep aside.
Put in the vermicelli into the vessel and saute in ghee till it roasts a little and a nice aroma emanates from it.Remove from flame and keep aside
Soak the saffron threads in a tbsp of warm milk for 10 minutes. Crush the strands in the milk

Method to make Payasa

Pour the milk imto the heavy bottomed vessel and bring it to a boil on medium flame.
Add the roasted vermicelli and allow to cook in the milk till it gets cooked and becomes soft to the touch. This  takes about 10 minutes. Alternately cook the vermicelli in 1 1/2 cups of water and then add 1 1/2 cups of milk to it.
Add the sugar and allow it to dissolve. Stir a few times.
Add the almonds,pista, cashews, saffron and dried grapes and cook together for another 5 mins.

Shavige Payasa is ready to eat.
Some like it hot , some like it cold, some like it in a biiiig cup lukewarm :)
And oh, if you dont want it too liquidy reduce the quantity of milk