Whole wheat Breadsticks

I just can't stop talking about the weather here. It was snowing non stop last week and the temperature was so low the actual feel plummeted down to -21C. Well actually its better than yesterday. With the weather so cold, I had to take a a day off for pappu. I had to calm him down with some activity and so finally we ended up making straw necklaces. It was a great passtime and it really helped in hand and eye co-ordination for the kid.

Now lets talk winter food. We have been making a lot of soups lately and I make some sort of homemade whole wheat buns to go with it. I made these breadsticks for a change and it was a winner. Pappu totally loved it, he simply soaked it in some garlic butter and devoured it.

~*What U Need*~ Warm water - 1/2 cup + 2 tbsp Olive oil - 1 tbsp Parmesan cheese - 2 tbsp Sugar - 1 tsp Garlic powder - 1 1/2 tsp Salt - 3/4 tsp Dried basil - 1/4 tsp Bread flour - 1/2 cup Whole wheat flour - 1 cup Vital wheat gluten - 1 tbsp Instant yeast - 1 tsp Butter - to brush the sticks How I Made it: Sprinkle the yeast and sugar on the water and allow to activate for 10 mins. Take the flour, cheese, garlic powder, salt, basil and olive oil in a bowl, add the yeast water and knead or 10 mins. Cover and let rise for 45 mins to 1 hour. Once doubled, divide into 8-10 portions. Shape each into a ball; roll into a rope. Place on greased baking sheets. Cover and let rise in a warm place for 40 minutes or until doubled. Bake at 350° for 18-22 minutes or until golden brown. Remove to wire racks to cool. Brush warm breadsticks with butter.

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Tres Leches Cake

Hi friends, how was your New year celebrations? Ours was good, we ate, we drank to the new year and then we had a potluck with friends. All together it looks like a pretty good start. But on the weather front, the temperatures have started plunging head first and we had a terrible snow storm two days back. And the temperatures are still dropping. So its been garam garam pakodas and bhajjis with cardamom chai for the past few days.

Coming to this recipe, I made this some time back when we met a friend for dinner. I wanted to try my hands on something new and this tres leches cake has been in my bucket list for a long time. We loved the cake so much that this has been fixed to be part of pappu's birthday party after his approval.

Prep Time: 45 min; Cook Time: 1 Hour; Serves: 12 ~*What U Need*~ All purpose flour - 1 cup Baking powder - 1 1/2 tsp Salt - 1/4 tsp Whole eggs - 5 Sugar - 1 cup, divided Vanilla - 1 tsp Whole milk - 1/3 cup Evaporated milk - 1 can Sweetened condensed milk - 1 can Whole milk - 1/4 cup For the frosting Heavy cream - 1 pint Sugar - 3 tbsp Fruit cocktail - 1 can drained Mandarins - 1 can, drained Maraschino cherries - 8-10, cut into halves How I Made it: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9 x 13 inch pan. Separate eggs. Beat egg yolks with 3/4 cup sugar on high speed until yolks are pale yellow. Stir in milk and vanilla. Combine flour, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl. Pour egg yolk mixture over the flour mixture and stir very gently until combined.Beat egg whites on high speed until soft peaks form. With the mixer on, pour in remaining 1/4 cup sugar and beat until egg whites are stiff but not dry. Fold egg white mixture into the batter very gently until just combined. Pour into prepared pan and spread to even out the surface. Bake for 35 to 45 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Turn cake out onto a rimmed platter and allow to cool. Combine condensed milk, evaporated milk, and heavy cream in a small pitcher. When cake is cool, pierce the surface with a fork several times. Slowly drizzle all the milk mixture—try to get as much around the edges of the cake as you can. Allow the cake to absorb the milk mixture for 30 minutes. To ice the cake, whip 1 pint heavy cream with 3 tablespoons of sugar until thick and spreadable. Spread over the surface of the cake. Decorate cake with fruits and cherries. Cut into squares and serve.

Serve chilled!!!

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ABC Cake | Apple Banana Carrot Cake | Breakfast Cake

Well if you are looking for a bake which incorporates fruits, veggies, nuts and very little fat, then look no more, for I have a very simple breakfast cake for you today. Its filled with carrots, apple, banana and uses only quarter cup of sugar. Slice them up, toast 'em with some butter and serve it with some freshly squeezed orange juice or freshly brewed coffee and you have a delicious, kid-friendly breakfast to serve. So lets move on to the recipe.

~*What U Need*~ Whole wheat flour - 1 cup All purpose flour - 1/2 cup Brown sugar - 1/4 cup, packed Baking soda - 1/2 tsp Baking powder - 1/2 tsp Salt - 1/2 tsp Cinnamon - 1 tsp Canola oil - 2 tbsp Egg - 1 Honey - 2 tbsp Sour cream - 2 tbsp Whole milk - 1/4 cup Vanilla - 1 tsp Carrots - 1 cup, shredded Apple - 1, shredded Bananas - 2, mashed Walnuts - 1/2 cup Cranberries - 1/4 cup, dried How I Made it: Preheat oven to 350°. In a medium bowl, combine carrot, apple, sour cream, oil, egg, milk and vanilla; stir well. Add the mashed bananas and mix gently. Add honey and mix well. In a large bowl, combine all purpose and whole wheat flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon; stir well with a whisk. Add the cranberries and walnuts and mix. Fold wet ingredients with the dry ingredients. Spoon batter into a bundt pan coated with cooking spray. Bake at 350° for about 40-50 minutes, or until a wooden toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool cake completely on a wire rack.

Slice and serve!!!

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French Macarons ~ My first OK attempt!!!

Yeah, you heard me right. I got them right, well not perfect right but OK right. Atleast I got what makes a macaron, a macaron stuff right. I got the feet, I got the rise and I got them out of the parchment paper intact. So yeah, I made my first OK macarons. This is not my first time but gladly this is not my nth time too. The first time I made it, I didn't grind my almonds fine enough and so the second time I resorted to store bought ground almonds. And these macarons happened.

So if you are here for macaron advice, my first one would be to get a kitchen scale. Macarons are all about precision and cup measurements would never work out. Next grind your almonds fine but donot overwork it that the almonds start releasing their oils. If you are not confident enough then get store bought flour. Then age your egg whites, the older the best. Sieve the almond+icing sugar atleast thrice. Finally allowing the piped shells to dry till they are no longer tacky is super important. So why wait ;ets get going and bake some macarons.

~*What U Need*~ Ground almond - 50 gms Icing sugar - 100 gms Castor sugar - 20 gms Egg whites - 60 gms A pinch of salt How I Made it: Separate the egg whites and place in an airtight container. Refrigerate for 2 days. On the day of use, remove the container from the fridge and bring to room temperature. Weigh all the ingredients and set aside. Blend the icing sugar and ground almonds together with a food processor for around 1 – 2 minutes. Sieve the mixture thrice getting rid of the bigger bits, set aside. Whisk the egg whites with the whisk attachment at medium speed until frothy. Add the pinch of salt. With the mixer at medium speed beat until soft peals. Turn your mixer to high speed and gradually add the caster sugar beating till you get shiny stiff peaks. Gradually add the dry ingredients to your meringue in 3 additions. Gently cut and fold the mixture by means of a silicone spatula. Around 50 folds. You should get a smooth and glossy batter, with no visible dry ingredients just like lava. Attach a plain nozzle to the piping bag and fill it with the macaron mixture. Pipe the shells onto a parchment paper and remove the macaron template carefully. Tap the bottom of the baking sheet against your worktop in order to remove any peaks and large air bubbles. Leave the shells to dry for around 30 mins to 1 hour until no longer tacky. This is the most important step of all. Preheat the oven for 15 mins for 300F. Bake the macarons for around 10-14 minutes. Once the macaron is done, allow to cool for 5-10 mins and then remove from the parchment paper. Place them on a cooling rack and let them cool completely. Fill with chocolate ganache and then combine two shells. Store them in an airtight container inside the fridge up to 2-3 days.

Serve with love!!!

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Whole Wheat Cinnamon Sugar Banana Bread

If you have been following my blog, then you now know that I love banana breads. They are a handy way to use those heavily speckled bananas without throwing them in the bin. Last week saw the men in the house down with severe cold attacks. Fruits too a backseat and there were no takers for the bananas. The bananas got spots, the spots turned brown and finally I left them undisturbed from another two days. And then they were perfect, perfect to make banana breads. I went a step ahead this time and topped it with a cinnamon sugar and sliced almonds.

Adapted from here Mashed Bananas - 1 cup EVOO - 1/3 cup Maple syrup - 1/4 cup Brown sugar - 1/4 cup Eggs - 2 Salt - a pinch Cinnamon - 1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract - 1 tsp Whole wheat flour - 1 3/4 cup Baking soda - 1/2 tsp Hot Milk - 1/4 cup + 1 tsp vinegar Sliced almonds - 2 tbsp 1/2 tsp cinnamon mixed with 1 tbsp sugar How I Made it: Preheat oven to 325 F and grease a 9×5 inch loaf pan. In a large bowl, beat oil and maple syrup and sugar together. Add eggs and beat well. Stir in bananas and vanilla, then stir in the salt and cinnamon. In a bowl, whisk the flour with the baking soda. Whisk the flour into the wet ingredients and mix till combined. Add the milk and mix into batter until it is evenly distributed. Spread batter into the greased loaf pan. Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar and sliced almonds. Bake for 50-60 mins. Let the bread cool in the loaf pan for 5 minutes, then transfer it to a wire rack to cool completely.

Serve with tea or coffee!!!

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Eggless Skinny Banana blueberry muffins

As much as I love baking cakes and cupcakes, I always love to add a touch of health factor to my bakes like making it whole wheat or butter-free or adding fruits and vegetables. It would be either some ultra-ripe bananas or some chopped apples or some shredded carrots or when zucchini are in season some shredded zucchini but when blueberries or in that case any berries are in season it has to be berry muffins for my pappu. A warm muffin with a dollop of melty melty butter is his favorite breakfast. Here is my go to recipe for muffins when I have some ripe bananas and blueberries on hand.

~*What U Need*~ Whole wheat flour - 3/4 cup All purpose flour - 1/2 cup Baking soda - 1/2 tsp Salt - a pinch Cinnamon - 1/4 tsp Honey - 2 tbsp Light brown sugar - 1/4 cup Ripe banana - 1/2 cup, mashed Vanilla yogurt - 4 tbsp Milk - 6 tbsp Blueberries - 3/4 cup How I Made it: Preheat oven to 325F degrees. Spray muffin pan with nonstick spray. In a large bowl mix the flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon, set aside. In another bowl, mix the honey and brown sugar together. Add the mashed banana and yogurt. Fold the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Add the milk slowly and continue to fold. Dust the blueberries with some flour. Gently fold in the blueberries. Divide the batter between the muffin cups. Fill all the way to the top. Bake for 17-18 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow the muffins to cool completely.

Serve with milk!!!

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Banana Doughnuts with Peanut Butter Frosting | Baked Version

Over-ripe bananas are meant to be used in baking for us. And mostly it ends up as a gorgeous loaf of banana bread for our breakfast. Even pappu who is a picky eater loves banana bread and eats his share happily. Every week our local grocery store sells over-ripe bananas for 99 cents. Its usually atleast 2 pounds by weight and its always the organic variety. It might be squished here and there but they are just perfect for smoothies and banana bread. I never fail to grab one whenever I find them on sale.

These donuts happened when I still had some bananas from the discount sale and when I wanted to make something not banana-bready. I dipped then in peanut butter frosting to jazz them up a bit because the kid goes bonkers for stuff like these.

~*What U Need*~ Prep time: 10 mins; Baking time: 12-15 mins; Yield: 6 Banana, mashed - 1/2 cup Sugar - 1/4 cup Egg - 1 Yogurt - 1/4 cup Butter - 2 tbsp, melted All purpose flour - 1/2 cup Whole wheat flour - 1/2 cup Baking powder - 1/2 tsp Baking soda - 1/4 tsp Salt - a pinch For the frosting: Peanut butter - 4 tbsp Powdered sugar - 1/4 cup or more Milk - as needed, to thin the frosting How I Made it: Preheat oven to 325º. Lightly grease a 6 count donut pans with cooking spray. Combine bananas, sugar, yogurt, butter and egg in a large bowl. Mix till thoroughly combined. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Mix dry into wet mixture and fold gently. Divide into the donut pan. Bake for 10-15 minutes, until a tester inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool completely. Mix everything under the frosting list until desired consistency. Dip the donuts into the frosting and set aside till the frosting is set.

Serve with a glass of milk!!!

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Black Forest Cake | The Perfect One

For June's Cooking secretly challenge, I was paired with Sathya from Appetite treats, a gorgeous blog filled with awesome recipes and awesome picture. This time I was challenged with one my favorite ingredients ever ~ "Chocolate". I thought about brownies, pots de creme and even chocolate macaroons. Well, you know me and my laziness and finally ended up with merging the challenge and my huss's birthday cake. And it was chocolate all the way.

We are not big fans of buttercream and so I mostly stick to whipped cream frosting when I bake for friends and family. Also its been a long time since we had a blackforest cake, the last one being pappu's first birthday cake. After I moved to the US, I have been experimenting with other flavors and the all time classic remained untouched.

Ever since I made fondant toppers for pappu's second birthday themed cakes, the huss has been asking me to do a simple fondant topper for his forthcoming birthday cakes too. He is a big fan of race bikes, Valentino Rossi being his idol. I knew what had to go as the fondant topper, only that I had very little fondant at hand and I didn't want to make a big batch just for the sake of his cake. So instead of making a standing bike, I made this flat kinda topper. The huss totally loved it.

Prep time: 40 mins; Cooking time: 30 to 35 minus; Serves - 10-12 ~*What U Need*~ For the cake: All purpose flour - 1 3/4 cup Sugar - 2 cups Cocoa powder - 3/4 cup Baking powder - 1 1/2 tsp Baking soda - 1 1/2 tsp Salt - 1 tso Eggs - 2, room temperature Whole milk - 1 cup, room temp Vegetable oil - 1/2 cup Freshly brewed coffee - 1 cup, boiling Cherry pie filling - 1 can For the whipped cream: Heavy cream - 2 cups, chilled Icing sugar - 1/2 cup Vanilla extract - 2 tsp How I Made it: Preheat the oven 350F. Grease and flour two 9-inch round baking pans. Whisk together the sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt in the bowl of a standing mixer. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed of mixer for 2 minutes. Meanwhile boil the coffee. Stir in boiling coffee. Divide batter between the two prepared pans. Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until thin knife inserted into center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely. Reserve 8 cherries from the can for decorating. Pour the filling onto a sieve and separate the cherries and juice. To make the whipped cream, combine the heavy cream, powdered sugar and vanilla extract and whip until stiff peaks form. Refrigerate whipped cream until ready to use. Once the cakes are cool, using a serrated knife, cut each cake into two. Place one layer on a serving platter. Using a pastry brush brush some cherry syrup on the cake. Top with about ½ to ¾ cup whipped cream, spread cherries on top of this. Repeat with remaining layers. After placing the final layer, use the remaining cream to decorate as desired. I made a chocolate lace border with some melted chocolate.

Serve chilled!!!

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Honey Wheat Oatmeal Bread

I am obsessed, well that happens most of the times~ lets talk about that later. Today its breads. I am totally obsessed with home baked breads. I know that its not a good season for baking but who cares when you get a good loaf of bread after all that sweat. I mostly like to include whole wheat flour in our daily breads but this time there is an additional health factor in the form of oats. The honey, the oats and the whole wheat flour gives a unique taste to this bread which makes it great for sandwiches. BTW, don't fret if you donot have quick cooking oats on hand. Give the rolled oats a quick pulse in the blender and there you have the quick cooking version.

~*What U Need*~ Instant yeast- 1 1/2 tsp Honey - 1/4 cup Olive oil - 2 tbsp Warm water - 1 1/8 cups Salt - 1/2 tbsp Unbleached all purpose flour - 1 cup + 6 tbsp Whole wheat flour - 2 cups Quick cooking oats - 1/2 cup Vital wheat gluten - 2 1/2 tbsp Egg - half of an egg How I Made it: Add the yeast to the warm water and mix. Set aside till frothy for 10 mins. In the bowl of a stand mixer, add the olive oil, honey and the yeast water. Add the 2 cups wheat flour, gluten and oats and salt to this mixture and mix well in low speed. Increase the speed to medium and beat for 2 minutes. Add the egg and one cup of all purpose flour. Blend on low until the egg is incorporated then beat on medium for 2 more minutes. Add flour by 1 tbsp and mix until it's smooth and elastic. Place the dough in a greased bowl and cover and allow to rise for 1 hour or until double in size. Punch the dough down and turn onto a floured surface. Shape into a loaf. Place in greased 9x5 inch loaf pan covered with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place for another hour. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 35 to 40 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool on rack for 5 minutes before removing from pan. Remove bread from pan and brush with melted butter, allow to completely cool on cooling rack.

Serve toasted with butter/jam!!!

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