My plain Jane birthday cake: Coffee orangette

I may come come up with fancy cakes at home, but I am a firm believer that a birthday cake must be made at home.  I think I get that belief from my grandmother.  She was the first one I saw baking in my family. She would make the simplest and loveliest cakes at home. For birthdays, she would deck them up with  some gems and tutti-frutti. None of her cakes ever had icing or ganache or any frosting- yet they were the yummiest. Happy memories of summer vacations spent devouring her bakes.

February brought with it erratic weather , the child’s landmark 6 months and the husband’s birthday. Determined to bake his bake at home, I foraged through innumerable ideas and recipes on the internet. My search stopped at this. Simple yet impressive, the combination of coffee and citrus appealed to me. This is the 3rd or 4th recipe I’ve tried from Saee’s blog and I am delighted to inform you that they’ve all given me good results. Thank you!

You must hop over to her blog for the original recipe. I made some minor changes because I didn’t have all the ingredients at hand and at 10 PM its hard to rush out to shop. What I’ve changed, I’ve marked out in italics.

Coffee and Orangette cake

Ingredients:
For the orangettes:

• Peels of one orange. – I had to use a kinnu, didnt have oranges at home. 
• 1 cup of sugar – I used 1/2 C sugar.
• 1 cup of water
• Water for blanching
• 50 gms. dark chocolate- I had to use milk chocolate since I had only that. I would recommend dark chocolate- goes better with the orange.

For the cake:

• 2 eggs
• 200 gms. flour
• 120 gms. sugar
• Juice of half an orange- I used the juice of one whole kinnu
• 100 gms. butter
• 50 mls. coffee decoction- I used Bru instant coffee- about 1.5 tbsp mixed with a little water.
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 2-3 orangettes- I used mined chopped finely to mix with the batter. 

For the ganache:

• 50 gms dark chocolate- Again, I was stuck with milk chocolate 😦
• 2 tbsps. cream- I used Amul cream.

Method:

To make orangette:

1. Peel the orange/Kinnu and remove the fibrous white bits. That’s the bitter part. 
2. Cut the peel into strips, about ¼ centimeters in breadth. I blanched them first and then cut them to the size I wanted. I think it works well both ways.
3. Blanch the strips of peel in water.
4. Add the sugar to the water and boil to make a syrup. Add the blanched orangette and cook till translucent.
5. Strain and dry on parchment for 4-5 hours.  I didn’t have time so I drained them well and used them immediately. I highly recommend allowing them to dry and set. Mine were too limp and resultant I had to chop them up. The missing orangette strips impacted the final look of the cake. 
6.  To dip the orangette strips in chocolate, melt the chocolate  and dip strips halfway. Cool and allow to set.

To make the cake:

1. Sieve together flour and baking powder.
2. Mix eggs, butter and sugar with a beater.Add the orange juice and coffee and blend.
3. Add the flour and the chopped orangettes. Mix lightly.
4.  Pour batter into a lined tin and bake at 170 – 180 degrees centigrade for about 40 minutes
5. Remove from pan and when cool.

To decorate the cake:

1. Make ganache by mixing cholcolate and cream and heating in a microwave or double boiler.
2. Pipe this cooled chocolate mix in a patter of your choice.
3. End by placing the chocolate dipped orangette strips.

Here is what my cake looked like.  The original one by Saee is far prettier.

 This is a delicious cake. Its got a lovely texture ( the butter plays a role) and the orange marries well with the coffee. This ones going to be made again soon!

 

 

Nankhatai

Quick and easy, these cookies get done in a jiffy. The only apparatus you need is a measuring cup and a mixing bowl – another reason to love them.

I learnt this recipe at a hobby class I attended many years ago in Navi Mumbai. At a loss of what to bake yesterday evening, I pulled out my old notes. These simple, indian cookies appealed to me. They required practically no effort and that was their main selling point.

Ingredients:

• Maida- 1 1/2 C
• Ghee (solid)- 1 C
• Sugar (powdered)- 3/4 c
• Rawa/besan- 1- 2 tbsp (optional)
• Cardamom powder- 3-4 pinches

Method:

• In a mixing bowl, mix together ghee,maida, sugar rawa/besan and cardamom power. You can bring the dough together using your hands. If you add besan(chickpea flower) or rawa/suji (semolina),it will have a slightly course texture.
• Divide the dough into equal portions. Roll each portion into a circular shape and place on a lined baking tray. You can put half an almond or a pistachio on top of each cookie.  Or if you prefer make a design with a sharp knife. I kept mine plain.
• Bake in a preheated oven at 180 deg. C for about 12 minutes.

Stacked up

Broken off

The cookies can be flavoured with saffron instead of cardamom.  While my orginal recipe doesn’t mention baking powder, most recipes I have read tuse a pinch or two. We liked the way the cookies turned out but a little leavening would make them better.

I made half the quantity given in the recipe and I got 9 cookies of 2.5” diameter.

The nankhatai made it to office as well. It was well received and polished off quickly.

Boxed!

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 oven.
• 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.

Black currant-choco chip cookies

Another shortbread cookie.  A twist on the  original cuban shortbread cookies  with black currants and  chocolate chips thrown in.

Ingredients:

• Maida 60 gms
• Butter 30 gms
• Sugar 15 gms
• Vanilla essence a few drops
• Black currant 1- 1½ tbsp
• Choco chips 1-1 ½  tbsp
• Baking powder   ½ tsp
• Milk to bind

Method:

• Mix together the maida and the baking powder.
• Rub in the butter till the flour begins resembling bread crumbs.
• Add the black currant,choco chips and essence and mix well.
• Use milk to bind together.
• Use the dought to form any shape you like and place the cookies on a well greased over tray and bake for 10-15 min.s at 180 deg.C.

Source:  With the cuban cookies turning out as well as they did, I used the basic dough with a variety of additions to get new cookie.

Mandira’s notes: I like shortbreads. They are very easy to put together and taste good. Once we know how to make the basic shortbread, you can alter the flavouring and add as many variations as you like. I used black currant and chocolate chips because I had them at home. There is no hard and fast rule about the proportion of both these ingredients. You can also increase or decrease the quantity of each but please make sure you dont increase their quantity so much that it becomes  difficult to roll and cut the cookies.

Cuban shortbread cookies

Mandira: I stumbled over this recipe on Baking Bites and it tried it out. Since it was a success, I am sharing it with all of you here. I tweaked the recipe a bit.

 

Lakshmi: This recipe is similar to the short bread recipe we use in our family – minus the egg. The guava paste called for in the original recipe at Baking Bites  went fabulously with the shortbread. 

Ingredients:

• 3 cups all purpose flour (if you’re skipping the 1 egg used in this recipe use 2 3/4 cups of flour)
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder 
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup butter, softened
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1 tbsp orange zest
• 1 large egg 
• 1 tbsp orange juice
• Guava Paste/Jam 
  

Method:

• Preheat oven to 350F. Grease or Line a baking tray. 
• Whisk together flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt.
• Cream together butter and sugar until light. Beat in orange zest and egg followed by the orange juice.
• Gradually beat in the flour mixture, scraping down the sides of the bowl as you work, until dough comes together.
• Divide dough into three portions and work with each one individually.
• Place the dough on a lightly floured surface and roll out to be 1/3 inch thick. Add more sprinkles of flour as you work to keep the dough from sticking. Use a lightly floured 2-inch round cutter to cut out circles of dough. Place on prepared baking sheet.
• Top each cookie with a piece of guava paste. 
• Repeat with remaining cookie dough. Bake for 13-16 minutes until cookies are  golden at the edges.
• Cool on baking tray for 4-5 minutes and then transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Source: Original recipe here.

Lakshmi’s Notes: Baking times will vary with oven, mine took just 11 minutes for cookies to turn golden at 220 C.  I skipped the salt completely. I skipped the egg and to compensate reduced the flour by 1/4 cup. I generally rest by dough overnight before baking, so I shaped the cookies and rested them overnight before baking.  

Mandira’s notes: I skipped the rum that the original recipe asked for and I dint dust the cookies with sugar before serving. We are not much of a jam family.  We have had a bottle of marmalade lying in the fridge for ages. Some of it got used in these cookies.  Mixed fruit jam or any other jam would work just as well.  A brighter colour jam(like mixed fruit) may even make the cookies look more attractive than the dull orange marmalade. I used Amul butter and skipped the addition of salt. I love the smell of fresh zest. I didnt have oranges at home but I did have sweet limes(mausambis). I used the zest of the sweet lime and to me it tasted just as good as orange zest.

Dill potatoes turned baked potatoes

This is crazy. I am at the verge of leaving for a vacation and when I think of things I need to do before I go, I think of publishing a post! There must be something clinically(or medically, what ever’s the right term) wrong with my head. But I just had to post. So for the sake of my sanity and a happy,blog -disassociated, mentally relaxed holiday, I will post. A dish on good ol’ aaloo-universally liked and almost always easily available at home.

Ingredients:

• 4-5 medium potatoes
• 11/2 tbsp butter
• 4 garlic flakes chopped
• 11/2 C milk
• 4tbsp cream
• 1 tbsp maida
• 4-5 tbsp finely chopped dill
• 2 green finely  chopped chillies
• ½ tsp salt
• ½ tsp pepper
• A few drops of lemon juice

Method:

• Peal the potatoes and cut into ¼” thick rounds.
• Boil 4 cups of water with ½ tsp salt. Add slices of potato and boil till tender but firm. Drain and keep aside.
• Heat butter in a pan. Sauté garlic, stir for a minute and add maida. Cook lightly reduce heat and add milk. Stir constantly till it thickens.
• Add chopped dill, chillies, salt, pepper, cream and potatoes.
• Stir coat the potatoes evenly. Reduce heat and add a few drops of lemon. Serve hot

Source:Nita Mehta’s continental cooking.

Mandira’s note: This recipe sounded nice except for two things-a- it does use the oven  in anyway and this blog is about baking so it doesn’t qualify and b-I don’t know what in the world dill is! These two “problems” were solved easily – a- I twisted around a recipe a bit to allow me to bake it and b-I read up about dill and then realising it wont be that easy to find in the local market,  I found an  substitute- dried parsley.

Boiling potatoes in a pan seems like a waste of time and fuel. So I boiled them making sure I removed them just in time to ensure they didn’t get too soft or soggy. I sautéed the garlic and made the white sauce as mentioned in the original recipe.  In place of dill I used dried parsely that I had picked up from the stall of Arohi, during an NGO mela organised in Mumbai. I am an ardent fan of all Arohi products. They are all so  good! They offer many herbs-basil,oregano,sage,mint and what not. Grown and processed in the hills of Himachal, the herbs have a divine smell. The potatoes were well coated I grated some cheese over it and poped it in the oven for a few minutes to allow it to melt.

There, all done! Now I shall leave for my vacation in peace.:D

Coconut macaroons

I have happy childhood memories that revolve around coconut macaroons, summer vacations and gorging. A couple of weeks back I tried this  macaroon recipe that works wonderfully.Here it is..

Ingredients:

• 2 egg whites
• 1 C powdered sugar
• 1 ½ C desiccated coconut
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 pinch of salt

Method:

• Whisk eg whites with salt till stiff.
• Fold in sugar,coconut  and essence with a spoon.
• Cover a baking tray with butter paper/aluminium foil.
• Place spoonfuls of the batter about 2” apart. You should get 16-20 macaroons.
• Bake at 180Deg.C for 20-25 mins.
• Cool and remove from tray.

Source: Nita Mehta’s Bakes and Cakes

Mandira’s notes: This is absolutely fabulous recipe. It takes literally 5 mins to have it all mixed up and  baking in the oven.  Highly recommended.:D Btw, its nice and coconutty. If you dont like coconut, skip this one..obviously!