Cheese sticks

This is what I call “cheesy and easy”!! It takes just about 5 minutes to put it all together!

Ingredient:

• Maida-60 gms
• Baking powder-1/3 tsp (optional)
• Salt -to taste
• Pepper -to taste
• Butter- 30 gms
• Grated processed cheese-30 gms
• Egg yolk-1/2 + a little for basting
• Water-just enough to bind.

Method:

• Pre heat over.
• Sift flour, salt, pepper and baking powder together.
• Add the butter and gently rub it in till it begins to look like fine bread crumbs.
• Stir in the cheese and bind together with egg yolk and water to form a thick dough.
• Roll out the dough and cut into strips.
• Bake the strips on a well greased tray at 160 deg.C for 7-10 mins.

Source: Basic Food Preparation

Mandira’s notes: The egg yolk in this recipe is totally avoidable. In fact the yolk lends an eggey smell to the cheese sticks. Though the baking powder is mentioned as optional, I think it should be added because it makes the biscuits light. Towards the end of the baking time, it makes sense to repeatedly check on the biscuits ,else you run the risk of making them too brown. Please refer to picture below to know what over done biscuits look like! If you like, you could reduce the cheese quantity a bit- I love cheese, so I would never do that, but if you like it less cheesy, knock of 5-10 gms of cheese.

Basic French Bread Rolls

Mandira: It doesn’t get simpler than this. Very basic bread that needs limited skills. Perfect for people like me who have a hate-hate relationship with yeast!!:)

Lakshmi: This is one of my favourite recipes for bread -  the crumb is fabulously soft and tender. This bread literally melts in your mouth!!  Apart from rolls, the recipe works well for loaves and braided breads as well. The original recipe at allrecipes.com calls for bread flour which I have so far not found in India. I use All Purpose Flour with a protein content of 12%.

Ingredients:

• Maida – 2 cups
• Milk/ Water – 3/4 cup
• Yeast – 2 tsp
• Honey/ Sugar – 2 tsp
• Salt – 1/2 tsp
• Olive Oil – 2 tbsp
• Butter (optional) – to grease the top

Method:

• Warm the Water/Milk. Transfer to a large mixing bowl. Dissolve sugar. Add yeast and set aside for 10 minutes until yeast is activated.
• Add 2 cups of flour and the salt to the yeast and incorporate. Gradually add the rest of the flour and incorporate into a dough. Add the oil.
• Knead for 5 minutes until the dough feels smooth and elastic. Transfer to a kneading surface if needed. Cover and let the dough rise to about double its size – about 1-2 hours.
• Deflate the dough.Divide into 6 parts. Shape each part into a ball. Place balls on a baking tray about an inch or so apart. Cover and let them rise until they look puffed for about 1 hour. Preheat oven to 200 C bake for 15 minutes or until golden.
• Brush with butter once the rolls come out.
• Cool on a wire rack

Source: Jo Caitlin at Allrecipes.com

Lakshmi’s notes: There is really not much that can go wrong with this recipe. Be sure not to kill your yeast with too much heat or introducing yeast to water without bringing the yeast to room temperature. Reduce the distance between the balls before baking and you will get pav buns! I generally mist my bread before baking – i.e. spray some water over the bread – this ensures an even toned crust as well as a better crumb.

Mandira’s notes: The other name for these rolls ,at least for me, is sweet success. I have had horrid luck with bread so far. Irrespective of what I did something went wrong each time.Extremely frustrating. Seems like with the rolls my bread fate has changed. I  am no longer destined  to make flat,hard, tasteless bread.  Of course I still need to learn a lot, shaping bread for instance is something I know squat about. But still, I m just very happy that for the first time very my bread worked! And we actually ate what come out of the oven for dinner. I have absolutely nothing else to say.

Banana chococlate chip muffins

This is a modification of the banana bread. It was done on an experimental basis but the results were so good that it had to put it up on the blog!

Ingredients:

• 1 egg
• 100 gms AP flour/maida
• 75 gms powdered sugar
• 100 ml fresh cream
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• ½ slightly over ripe bananas(mashed)
• 25 gms chocolate chips (or more!)

Method:

• Sift the AP flour and the baking powder together three times.
• Beat the egg till light and fluffy.  Add the powdered sugar and continue beating.
• Add the fresh cream and beat for another 3-4 minutes.
• Fold in the maida and baking powder.
• Add the mashed bananas, chocolate chips and vanilla essence and ensure that they mix properly in the batter.
• Pour the batter into a well greased muffin tray.
• Bake at 190 deg.C for about 20 minutes.

Source: my creative mind

Mandira’s notes:

Make sure you take slightly over ripe bananas. I used just ripe bananas when I made the banana bread and over ripe ones for these muffins and the difference was quite evident. Over ripe bananas lend a stronger aroma and flavour while other bananas sort of lose their distinct flavour after baking.

If you dont have choclate chips you can easily subsitute them with tiny cubes of any chocolate cooking bar.I did exactly that.

Veggie Casserole – Two Recipes

Most casseroles are miracle one pot meals that can be easily assembled, don’t require exacting measurements and are baked without too much of effort. Both of us baked veggie casseroles – each in our own way. Mandira dunked potatoes, beans and paneer in white sauce and baked until set. Lakshmi Layered Vegetable Casserole with potato, red peppers, onions and tomatoes and baked with a sprinkling of breadcrumbs and cheese on top.

Recipe #1: Mandira’s Paneer, Potato and Beans in White Sauce Casserole

This was a spontaneously developed recipe by Mandira’s mom. She had eaten something similar ages back at a restaurant and decided to re-invent it in her kitchen.

Ingredients

• French beans -100gms
• Cottage cheese or paneer- 100gms
• Potatoes- 2 Small
• White sauce- 1 1/2 cups
• Cheese – 2 cubes grated
• Oil for Sauté
• Salt to taste
• Pepper to taste

Method

1. Boil the potatoes in a pressure cooker. Cool the potatoes and dice.
2. Par boil the French beans till they are cooked just right. String and cut into 1 inch size pieces.
3. Cube the paneer to a size similar to the potatoes.
4. On a non stick pan, pour a few drops of oil. Sauté the potatoes and paneer pieces to make them evenly crisp on all sides. Keep these aside.
5. Prepare white sauce using milk and maida. Once the sauce is ready, add the seasonings and grated cheese.
6. Add the sauted potatoes, paneer and beans and mix well.
7. Put this mixture into a oven proof dish and bake for about 10 mins- till the cheese melts and the top of the dish browns a little.

Ensure the following: Nothing to ensure in this recipe really- its pretty simple and straight forward. The only thing important is the consistency of the white sauce- it shouldnt be watery neither should it be too thick. It needs to be thick enough to coat the vegetables easily.

Source: Mandira’s mom.

Mandira’s Notes: This dish goes well with a hot bowl of soup and well-buttered toasts. To make this dish more interesting, you can finely chop a few flakes of garlic, slightly sauté them in little oil and add it to the white sauce and vegetables. This gives it a nice flavour.

I tried eating this dish with Tabasco. Don’t know why I thought it would go well. Let me warn you, it doesn’t go well at all!! Perhaps regular tomato ketchup will work well. Else, the dish is fine by itself.

Recipe #2: Lakshmi’s Potato, Red Peppers, Tomato and Onions Casserole

I developed this recipe while trying to conjure up an accompaniment to the ciabattas I had baked this weekend.

Ingredients

• Vegetables – 500 g (Potatoes, Peppers, Tomatoes or similar vegetables of your choice)
• Onions – 2 Medium
• Milk – 1/2 cup (or fresh cream/double cream for a richer version)
• Cheese – 50 g
• White breadcrumbs – 1/2 cup
• Salt and Paprika for seasoning (as per taste)
• Olive Oil – 1 tbsp

Method

1. Grease a 9 inch Baking dish with Olive Oil.
2. Slice the Onions into rings. Saute the onions until translucent and set aside to cool. Slice the other vegetables into thin discs.
3. Preheat an oven to 200 degrees C.
4. Form layers in the baking dish with the sliced vegetables, starting with the tomatoes. Sprinkle white breadcrumbs and seasonings over each layer before proceeding to the next. Continue doing this till all the vegetables are used. End with a layer of either potatoes or tomatoes (never onions, unless you like black onions!!!).
5. Pour the Milk into the baking dish. Top with the remaining bread crumbs and grated cheese.
6. Bake at 200 C for 40 minutes or until the dish turns golden on top.

Serve with bread of your choice.

Lakshmi’s Notes: Oven timings may vary. Note the browning on top to know when to stop. I finished with a layer of tomatoes for a change this time. Finishing with Potatoes in a casserole is a better idea – browned potatoes taste doubly better than oven baked tomatoes IMHO.

Cinnamon cookies

Both of us made Cinnamon biscuits/ cookies recently, though we followed different recipes. I followed my mom’s basic cookie dough while Mandira adapted her biscuits from the book Basic Food Preparation.

Mandira’s Biscuits

Ingredients:

• Maida – 30 gms
• Baking powder – 1 pinch
• Butter – 15 gms
• Castor sugar – 20 gms
• Semolina – 10 gms
• Cinnamon powder 1/8^th tsp
• Plain water

Method:

• Sieve flour, cinnamon powder and  baking powder. Rub in the butter till the mixture resembles bread crumbs.
• Add the sugar and semolina. Using adequate quantity of water, make a dough.
• Roll out the dough and cut into desired shapes.
• Bake at 180-200 deg.C for about 10-12 minutes.

Source: Basic Food Preparation

Mandira’s notes: This recipe makes about 4 biscuits. They are really quick and easy. I made the mistake of rolling them too thin. That made them a tad too crisp. Also, to make the dough add water very slowly. If you add too much, the dough becomes too sticky and then you have to add more maida and that changes the biscuit proportions. If you dont have biscuit cutters, use any small katoris readily available at home or use a kitchen knife to cut simple shapes.

Pl. note the picture are of cookies made by Lax’s recipe.I think I inadvertently deleted the pics of the other recipe. Opps! Now I am too lazy to locate them and upload again. May be one of these days when I am jobless, I will up load the other set of pics too. Till then, please adjust!:D

Lakshmi’s Cookies

Makes: 30-40 cookies (will vary with cookie cutter size or how big you shape them)

Ingredients:

• All Purpose Flour – 1 1/2 cups
• Butter – 1/2 cup
• Sugar – 1/2 cup
• Cinnamon – 1 inch piece (skip for plain cookies or add your own flavouring)

Method:

• Powder the sugar and cinnamon stick to a fine powder.
• Cream the butter and sugar until fluffy.
• Add all purpose flour and knead well to form a dough. The dough should neither be wet nor very dry and hard. In case the dough feels too dry add a tablespoon or two or butter. Add some more flour if dough feels too wet.
• Pat the dough into a flat disc, cover with a plastic foil and refrigerate overnight for 8-12 hours.
• Take dough out from the fridge. Roll out the dough to about quarter of inch in thickness and cut into shapes using cookies cutters. Or shape into cicular discs with hand.
• Bake at 220 C for 10-15 minutes until creamish brown.

Source: Lakshmi’s Mom

Lakshmi’s Notes:

• The butter in the recipe can be replaced with ghee for a dough that can be baked immediately.
• The melt in mouth texture for the cookies develops only through practice. Kneading for about 5-10 minutes improves the texture of cookies greatly.

Eggless Apple Cake

Apples are a great fruit. They taste good , smell divine and allow you to do a lot with them-baking wise.

Ingredients:

• Maida – 1 cup
• Sugar – 3/4 cup
• Fresh Cream (Heavy) – 1/2 cup
• Apple puree – 3/4 cup (approx 1 medium apple)
• Apple wedges  - approx half or 1 apple cut into wedges – depending on size of apple
• Demerara Sugar – 2-3 tbsp
• Cinnamon – a small stick
• Cinnamon – 1/2 tsp powdered
• Vanilla – a few drops
• Baking Powder – 1 tsp
• Cooking Soda – 1/4 tsp
• Curd – 2 tbsp

Method:

1. Line baking tin/muffin pan.
2. Sieve Maida with Baking Powder and Cooking Soda together.
3. Powder Sugar and Cinnamon stick.
4. Cream powdered sugar with fresh cream and Apple Puree. Add Curd. Fold in the Maida.
5. Transfer cake batter to baking tin. Lay apple wedges in the batter and push them half way into the batter. Sprikle with demerera sugar and cinnamon powder.
6. Bake at 200 C for 50 minutes or until browned and skewer inserted in center comes out clean.

Source: Sweet and Simple Bakes

Lakshmi’s notes: I replaced the eggs in the original recipe with apple puree. For the loaf I baked (pic below) I have used an apple crumble topping instead of just demerara sugar.Please note that it turns out  darker than what is indicated in the picture – since Mandira skipped the topping and I used an apple crumble topping, our cakes look lighter. The recipe also works well for muffins – reduce baking time by 10-15 minutes since muffins bake much faster.

Mandira’s notes: This is my first eggless cake. I have some kind of a mental block against eggless cakes-thats why I have never tried one before!My first attempt wasnt bad. It tasted ok but it wasnt as nice as my other cakes are. I am told by Chef Lakshmi I lack practice!

Walnut and date pie

Date and walnuts make a great “sugar free” mithai. They also make great pies!

Ingredients:
Short crust

• 300 gms maida
• 150 gms butter(cold)
• 1.2 tsp baking powder
• 2tbsp powdered sugar
• ice cold water to bind
• 9″ diameter flan tin

Filling

• 400 gms date(deseeded and finely chopped)
• 3/4 cup water
• 2 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 cup chopped walnuts
• 1 tbsp butter
• 1/2 tsp vanilla essence
• 1/2 cup cream*

*please read notes below, both Mandira and I skipped this and it worked just fine

Method:

1. Cut cold butter into cubes.
2. Sift maida and baking powder. Rub in the butter lightly using your fingers to get “crumbs”. Bind with cold water. DO NOT knead, but bind the crumbs with a little bit of cold water.You will not need more than 1-3 tbsp for this. Cover dough and refrigerate for 30 mins.
3. For the filling heat butter in a thick bottom pan. Add the chopped and deseeded dates and water. Stir around till they become pulpy and soft.
4. Add the walnuts, essence, lemon juice and cream.
5. Remove pastry dough from fridge and roll out to fit the flan tin. Keep about 1/3rd aside to cover the top of the pie. Bake blind at 200 C for 15 mins till golden brown.
6. Remove from oven and cool. Spoon in the filling.
7. Roll out the remaining dough and cut into thin strips. Lay the strips in a criss cross fashion over the filing. Bake again for 10-15 min at 200 C.

Source: Nita Mehta’s book Bakes and Cakes

Lakshmi’s notes: I replaced the maida with wheat flour (whole wheat atta) and it worked brilliantly. I also quartered the recipe and made two mini pies in tart moulds. I loved the short crust this recipe produces – its very very cookie like and melt in mouth. I skipped on the cream for the filling. I don’t think the cream is required at all – the pulpy dates and walnuts are quite rich and tasty by themselves. I added cinnamon powder instead of the essence.

Mandira’s notes: I wanted to make the filling lighter so I skipped the cream altogether. I dont think it made any great difference to the taste. I also forgot to add the essence(!!) but the original taste of the dates and walnuts worked just fine for the family. I think the essence is superfluous! I have tried various butter and maida proportions for short crust pastry. I have found this to be the best.

Calzone

What Dominos makes you pay a bomb for, you can easily make at home! Here’s how…

Ingredients:

For the crust-

• 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 cup Maida
• 1/2 cup Whole Wheat Atta + 1 tbsp for dusting
• 1 tsp Yeast
• 1/2 tsp Salt
• 1 tsp Honey
• Oil - 4 tbsp

For the filling-
Any dry vegetables will do.spinach-paneer, roasted peppers, mushroons and onions, Aloo ki Sabji etc work very well. You’ll need approx 1 1/2 to 2 cups of veggies for filling.

 Method:

• Warm water. Add honey. Add yeast. Let it stand for 5 minutes.
• Sieve the Madia, Whole wheat Atta and Salt. Add flour-salt mix to the dissolved yeast and whisk into a smooth dough. Knead by folding for about 1-2 minutes till dough is smooth. Set aside for 2-4 hours or until doubled in volume in a well oiled bowl.
• Punch to release air and divide into 2 portions.
• Preheat oven to 250 C. 
• Roll out one portion into a 6 inch round dusting with some flour. Place filling on one half of the circle, fold the other side over to form a crescent shaped Calzone. Seal the edges (use a fork and press if you want it to look pretty).
• Using a spatula tranfer to a greased baking tray. Bake at 250C for 15 minutes until golden brown. Makes  2 individual portions

Source:

Mandira’s notes- I used capsicum, onions and paneer for the filling along with chillie flakes and oregano. The calzones go very well with any soup.

Lakshmi’s notes- I borrowed the idea for spinach feta filling from this recipe for a casserole calzone at Cooking Light. Instead of the regular cresent shape, I folded the dough into a rectangular pocket. 

 

 

 

Going bananas!

Fruit based cakes are fun to do. They are quick and easy and they give you a lot of scope to experiment with.

Ingredients:

• 3 ripe bananas (roughly mashed)
• 2 eggs
• 2C Maida
• 1 ½ C powdered sugar
• ½ C butter (softened but not totally melted)
• 1 tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
• ¼ t salt
• 1 tsp cinnamon powder or cardamom powder
• ¼ C of dry fruits/nuts of your choice
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• a few tablespoons of milk(optional)

Method:

• Sift the maida, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, salt and cinnamon/elaichi powder thrice and keep aside.
• Beat the eggs till light and fluffy. Add the powdered sugar and beat for 3-4 minutes more. Then add the butter and beat the mixture some more.
• Add the mashed bananas and vanilla essence and beat for a minute or two to ensure even mixing.
• Cut and fold the maida mixture(prepared in point 1) along with the dry fruits/nuts.
• Bake at 180-190 Deg. C for 35-40 minutes( or till a toothpick comes out clean.)

Source: The basic recipe was found at Shyamala’s food blog. We made a few minor modifications.Please note Shayamala used a different order of mixing ingredients.She creams the butter and sugar first and then adds the eggs etc. You can use our method or her’s-both should work.

Lakshmi’s notes: I substituted half the maida with ground almonds. I substituted the butter with fresh cream. I added an additional banana + 6tbsp of milk intead of the two eggs the recipe requires. I cut the sugar by 1/2 of a cup since I was using really ripe and sweet bananas.  Instead of roughly mashing the bananas, I pulsed all of them in a blender with milk.

This is most definitely a cake rather than a bread. Its really rich and moist.  

Mandira’s notes: This is my first even banana cake(or bread). I totally skipped the dry fruits/nuts and instead of the cardamom powder mentioned in the original recipe used cinnamon powder. I also added a tsp of vanilla which wasn’t mentioned in the original recipe.( I got this idea from another blog but I had read so many banana cake recipes before I baked mine, that now I cant remember which one mentioned this!!). I dint have bicarbonate of soda at home, so I increased the quantity of baking soda by ½ a teaspoon. After cutting and folding, I felt the batter had become a little thick so I added 2 tbsp of milk. I made half the quantity of the original recipe.

Please make sure that the butter is really soft before you add it to the batter else it wont blend it well with the rest of the batter and that will make your cake a little dry in some portions. I made this mistake and though the error dint kill the cake, I could have got better results had I followed instructions properly! if the sugar isn’t finely powdered, you may get granules of sugar when you bite into your cake. My sugar wasn’t as fine as it should have been but I kinda liked the texture the granules of sugar lent to the cake- especially in the crust!

Coffee- Currant cake

Siri and Srivalli almost got it right when they guessed Lakshmi’s birthday cake contained coffee and some kind of raisins/berries. The cake is a coffee-currant cake.To keep our promise, we are posting the recipe of the cake. We have for you two different recipes- Lakshmi’s has no eggs and uses butter while mine has eggs and substitutes butter with fresh cream.

Version1-

Ingredients

• All Purpose Flour – 1 1/2 cups
• Sugar – 1 cup
• Butter – 1/2 cup
• Coffee Decoction – 1/2 cup (coffee concentrate)
• Dried Currants – 3/4 cup
• Espresso Powder – 4 tbsp
• Curd – 4 tbsp (adjust as per batter consistency)
• Baking Powder – 1/4 tsp
• Cooking Soda – 1/4 tsp

Method

• Line and Grease a microwave safe square glass dish (8in to 9in in size). Leave some paper to hang from the sides.
• Soak the Dried Currants in Coffee Decoction for 1 hour or so until the currants are plump.
• Powder the sugar. Take a large mixing bowl and cream the butter and sugar.
• Add the flour followed by the Espresso Powder. Mix well.
• Add the dried currants with the Coffee dicoction.
• In a small cup, mix the curd with baking powder and cooking soda. Add this to the batter in the mixing bowl and mix well.
• Check the consistency of the batter which should be thick but flowing. Add a couple of more tablespoons of curd or milk to adjust consistency if required.
• Transfer batter to the greased dish and microwave on high for 7 minutes. Check for doneness by inserting a toothpick in the center of the cake. Keep for an additional minute or so if the toothpick doesn’t come out clean.
• Remove from oven when done and wait for the cake to cool before cutting into pieces.

Version-2

Ingredients

• 4 eggs
• 200gms maida
• 200 gms sugar
• 200 ml fresh cream
• 2 tsp Baking Powder
• 4 tbsp Coffee decoction
• 2 tbsp Cocoa powder
• 2 sachets of Bru Coffee
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• 100 gms of black currants 

Method:

• Sift together maida, cocoa, baking powder and keep aside.  
• Whisk the eggs using a beater. When light and fluffy, add sugar and continue beating.  
• Add the dry ingredients(maida,cocoa, baking powder) gradually, beating lightly.
• Mix the Bru coffee in the coffee concoction and add to the batter. You can increase the quantity of either of the two coffees depending on personal preferances.
• Add the black currants and vanilla essence and mix using a ladle.
• Pour into a greased tin and bake at 200Deg C for about 40 minutes.

Source: original recipe is from the Yum Blog

Lakshmi’s notes: This cake can be baked in both microwave as well as convection mode with identical results. Use glass ware if you choose to bake in microwave mode, glass or aluminium tin if you’re using convection mode. Remember to line your baking dish if you’re making an eggless version.  

Mandira’s notes: I have basically taken Lakshmi’s recipe and turned it into an egg based one- blended the flavouring ideas from Lakshmi’s recipe and made the egg base using the fundas of the Marbled cake. I was surprised to find black currants in my local market and so I have used them. Any other currants will work just as well I suspect.  I like the use of coffee decoction- it ensures that there is a distinct flavour of coffee even after baking.