Apple Pie With a Twist

Tags

apple pie, apples, baking, dessert, Friday Feast, friday feast on monday :), pie, puff pastry dough, recipe, yeast

I love Apple pie actually I love all baked fruit desserts and specially baked apples… a fruit which I really don’t enjoy eating too much just like that but bake it and bingo a brilliant dessert…

I usually make apple pie with the standard pie/tart base but sometime back I tasted an apple pie with a puff pastry base and it was yummmm so I decided to backtrack the ingredients in my head and give it a try and I am so glad I tried because the result was really really good and the whole thing got over in less than half a day 😀 😀

And now that u are probably tempted enough to take a bite into it, here is how to make it 🙂

What I used

For the base

• Flour – 250 gm
• Water – 150 ml
• Yeast – fresh 5 gm. dry 2.5 gm
• Salt – 5 gm
• Sugar – 10 gm
• Milk Powder – 2.5 gm
• Butter/Margarine – 10 gm
• Margarine for laminating – 85 gm

For the filling

• Apple – 2 big sized, I used granny smith, u can use any but I personally like granny smith the most in dessert it balances the sweetness with adding a twist of sourness
• Sugar – 40 gm
• Cinnamon – 1/2 tsp
• Raisin – 50 gm
• Cake crumbs – 40 gm (if u dont have cake crumbs at home, u can use oats or cornflakes also)
• Cornflour – 10 gm
• Water – 15 ml

How I made it

• Mix maida, milk powder, butter, yeast  and water to make smooth dough. Knead well for about 5-10 minutes
• Leave covered with a damp cloth for rising for about 30 mins
• Roll the dough into a thin rectangular sheet
• Divide the margarine into two parts – fom the first part take out a little and keep aside and spread the rest evenly on the sheet. Remember to spread it evenly and not tear the sheet.
• Make four markings on the sheet make four folds. The corner two ¼ folding inside making it look like an open book and then finally keep one on top of another.
• Spread the margarine that u kept aside on the top again. Take extreme care as the chances of tearing are very high when u are reapplying
  Fold it in the same method again.
• Wrap in a dusted butter paper and keep in fridge for 30-45 mins
• Repeat the above process of lamination i.e. sheet spread the second half of the margarine and fold
• Wrap in a dusted butter paper and keep in fridge for 30-45 mins
• Grease and dust the pie mould
• Keeping aside about 1/4 of the dough, roll out the remaining dough into a circle of ur pie mould size and then place it in ur pie mould covering all sides well. Use a knife to cut the extra dough from the top
• Poke the base of the pie with a fork a little
• Keep aside in the fridge for about 10 minutes till u get the filling ready
• Dice the apples in small cubes, the smaller the better as u will be able to put more filling in the pie then
• Mix all the other filling ingredients and mix well
• Dissolve the cornflour and water mixture and mix with the filling
• Spread the filling evenly in the pie mould.
• With the dough that u kept seperately make some shapes or simple simple striped and cover the top of the pie.
• Bake in a preheated oven at 200C for about 15-20 mins
• Serve warm… yummm

PS: I typed it on Friday and thought I have posted it but now when I came to write another post it was right here in the drafts sigh

Choco Walnut Swiss Roll

Tags

baking, chiffon sponge cake, chocolate, desserts, Friday Feast, recipe, sponge cake, swiss roll, walnut, whipped cream

I love swiss rolls, as a child I remember growing up to it… Black forest cake, butter cream pastries, cream roll (anyone remember those? must make them one of these days) and swiss rolls were the things we grew up on… So when I took up the task of making these, I was pretty nervous and excited…. but it did turn out awesome and we all loved it 🙂

I made it using a chiffon sponge and it was soft spongy and not very heavy… perfect for a swiss roll

Ingredients

For the sponge cake

• Flour 100gms
• Cocoa 15gm
• Baking Powder 3 gm
• Baking Soda a pinch
• Egg Yolk 4-5 depending on how big the egg was
• Sugar Powder 60gm
• Salt a pinch
• Water 75ml
• Oil 60ml
• Egg white 5-6 depending on how big the egg was
• Salt a pinch (yes again)
• Sugar 40gm

For the filling

• Choco truffle cream – 100gms
• Whipped cream – 50gms
• Roasted walnuts – 50gms

Method

• Sift flour, cocca powder, baking powder, baking soda twice
• In a deep bowl mix sugar powder, oil, egg yolks, water and slowly mix to blend together till smooth. This can get tricky, dont be too hard and over mix here
• Beat egg whites, sugar and salt till soft peaks are formed
• Blend the egg white meringue into egg yolk mixture slowly making sure not to loose the volume.
• Fold the dry mixture and mix to form a smooth batter.
• Pour into a 12″x15″ tray which has been greased and lined with butter paper, let the batter be only 1/4″ high maximum
• Bake 180C for about 5-6 mins till done. Remember not to over do it as it will loose the spongyness and softness and will become very dry.
• Let it cool completely and using a butter paper roll and let it set for abour 2 hours.
• Open the roll now and spread a layer of truffle cream on top of the cake.
• Spread the whipped cream and walnuts in a very thin layer on top of the truffle cream of make alternate rows to see the design in the final roll as I did

• Roll again and keep it to set in a butter paper for about 2-3 hours.
• Slice and enjoy

Or in my case distribute it to celebrate the Mindful Meanderings brithday…..The blog we love to participate (errr some of u do no?) and watch the fantastic crafty activities…. that turns 1 and she is giving away a lovely painting and distrubuting this swiss roll for her bday might have some effect on the result…. 😉 So go visit her and leave a comment wishing and tell her u came via here 😉

Comfort Food – Post 25

Tags

channa dal, fengureek, Friday Feast, indian, indian main course, main course, methi, NaBloPoMo, palak, pulses, recipe, spinach

Everyone has a comfort food isnt it… The food you crave when u have nothing else to do, when u wee bit down… when may be your mood is not uptight or may be the health is not the best… For N its rasam-rice…. and for me its dal-roti… seriously when nothing works Dal-Roti does…

And hence I love experimenting with dal, mixing various dal’s together, adding some veggies to it… the variations give dal a face lift and make it an all new dish which is yummy and healthy too…

So when after marriage I first eat this dal which is the favorite of my mil too, I fell in love with it… a dal which has all my fav elements – dal, methi and palak… But unfortunately toor dal doesn’t suit me too much these days… gives me terrible gas so I came up with my own version of this dal which now everyone in the house enjoys totally………

Ingredients

• A cup channa dal (use toor dal if u want to)
• 2 bunches of fresh methi (fengureek)
• 3 bunches of fresh palak (spinach)
• 8-10 shallots or baby onions (I love their flavour and the crunch in the mouth they leave, however mil uses normal onions so feel free to use them if u don’t have baby onions)
• 1 large tomato chopped
• 1 tsp urad dal
• 1 tsp channa dal
• 1/2 tsp mustard seeds
• 1/2 tsp jeera seeds
• 2-3 green chillies
• 2-3 dry red chillies
• 1 medium sized tamarind ball
• 7-8 curry leaves
• 1 tsp sambhar powder (optional)
• 1 tsp corriander powder
• 1/2 tsp garam masala powder
• 1 tsp turmeric

Method

• Wash and chop methi and palak leaves finely.
• Boil together with dal, chopped tomato, slit green chillies, salt and turmeric in a pressure cooker
• Let the steam escape.
• Soak tamarind in warm water
• Heat oil in a pan and add mustard jeera seeds to it
• After they turn brown and start spluttering add the urad dal, channa dal, curry leaves and dry red chillies.
• Fry for 2-3 minutes till the dal browns a little
• Add onions to the same and fry them till golden brown
• Add all dry masalas, fry for another minute
• Add the dal, mash a bit along with the tamarind water.
• Let it simmer for about 5 minutes or so
• Serve hot with rotis or rice

Sluuurp

Green Chutney : Post 20

Tags

corriander, dhaniya, Friday Feast, green chutney, indian, mint, NaBloPoMo, pudina, recipe, side

Green Chutney is something I use very often and is almost always there is my house and quite a lot of meals pics I have on this blog have that too… I have got many mails and comments on people asking me how I make my green chutney…

There are many ways one can go about making a green chutney and me myself making it atleast 3 different ways…. So here I will try and give to main variations

Green Chutney – 1

• 1 Bunch of Mint leaves
• 2 Bunches of coriander leaves
• 1 onion chopped
• 2-3 green chillies (more if u want it spicy)
• 1/2 tsp cummin seeds powder
• 1/2 tsp garam masala
• Something for the tang now here u have the following options
  • 1-2 tsp anardana
  • 2 tsp dry mango powder
  • 1/2 small raw mango chopped
  • 3 tbsp curd
  • 2 tomatoes
  • juice of 1 lemon
• salt to tastes

Method here is very simple, put everything in the grinder and using just enough water to mix grind them to a coarse paste.

The taste of the chutney totally varies along with the ingredient used to provide the tang… my personal favorite is raw mango and the one with anardana comes a second close… and N seems to love the one with curd followed by the one with raw mango. So try out all variations to see what suits your taste buds the best, but do keep in mind that when u use tomatoes or curd the shelf life of the chutney reduces a lot.

Sometime back I discovered another form of green chutney which at first totally amused me and I even refused to make it thinking it will be eeeks horrible because the mint and coriander in this were cooked before making the chutney…. but when one day I was indeed in a experimental mode and made this we were all in for a surprise… it was yummy beyond belief… there is a very different flavour to this one and we all loved it at home. So here it is…

Green Chutney 2

• 1 bunch of mint
• 2 big bunches of coriander
• 7-8 curry leaves
• 2 tsp cummin seeds
• 7-8 garlic cloves
• 4-5 green chillies
• juice of 2 lemon
• salt to taste
• 1 tsp oil

Method

• Dry roast the cummin seeds and garlic together
• Heat oil in a pan and add the pre roasted cummin seeds and garlic
• Add chopped onions. Fry till they start turning brown
• Add green chillies
• Add the coarsely chopped mint and coriander leaves.
• Fry for 3-4 minutes
• Add salt and lemon juice
• Let it cool and then coarsely grind

So your green chutneys are ready to be served with whatever u want 😀

Whole Wheat Choco Chip Cookies

Tags

atta, baking, choco chip, chocolate, cookies, Friday Feast, recipe, whole wheat

I love to bake, my son loves to eat baked goodies but still there are times when he has to demand for cookies… 🙂 As these was mainly for him I didnt really want to do anything with maida and then I had this brain wave of making up a recipe myself… I did some browsing and thought some and came up with whole wheat choco chip cookies… and they were yummy…. the thin ones that I made crisp as they should have been and the round thick ones soft and chewy…

Ingredients

• 1 cup whole wheat flour (atta)
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1/2 powdered sugar
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon powder
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 25 ml chilled milk
• 20 – 35 gm choco chips (depending on whether u going to make it round or shape them)

Method

• Mix oil and sugar together till it becomes light and fluffy
• Mix whole wheat flour, cinnamon powder and baking powder together
• Mix the oil-sugar mixture and milk to the flour to knead a soft dough.
• Add the choco chips in it
• Keep aside for 10 minutes
• Shape or roll into rounds as u want
• Bake for about 9-12 at about 160-180 degrees depending upon the thickness of the cookie

As I was making them for Ojas I shaped them into various shapes, animals, ginger bread boy, aeroplane, car…

And there was Ojas itself as a highlight

And the entire batch of about 20 cookies got over in under an hour 🙂

Muruku conquered : ICC

Tags

indian, indian cooking challenge, muruku, recipe, snacks

Yeah I made the yummy snack muruku first time in my life… thanks to Srivalli and Indian Cooking Challenge... and that too Sago muruku no less 😉 it was yummy and I think it came out decently well… though I was not very happy with the first one I made… the thick one in the photo below, the inside of it was not as crisp as it should have been. Then I changed the mold and made the thick sev like ones, they came out perfect. Wondering why? Anyone has a clue?

so here is the recipe I followed given by Srivalli… my comments as usual in blue 🙂

Sagu Biyyam Muruku / Sago Muruku
Ingredients

• Rice Flour  2 cups
• Besan flour  1/2 cup
• Fried gram flour – 1/2 cup
• Sago – 1/2 cup
• Salt to taste
• Curd – 50 gms (half of half cup) I used the store bought amul butter milk rather than making butter milk at home
• Chilli powder – 1/2 tsp or as per taste

Special Utensil

Muruku Achu

Method

• Soak Sago in Butter milk for 3 hrs, please ensure that you soak it enough else you may risk having the sago burst. (I soaked it overnight but somehow the stupid sago I had was not softening at all so I grinded it a little along with the butter milk)

• Mix all the flour together, heat 50 gms oil (u know I forgot this 😦 may be that was the reason the thick ones were not as crisp?), mix to the flour along with salt and chili powder. Then add the buttermilk soaked sago slowly and knead to a chapati dough consistency

• Heat oil for deep frying.In the muruku achu, add the dough. When the oil is hot, press down directly as as murukus. (I tried doing this though it was happening, I was feeling the direct oil heat too much to bear, so I made them on the polythene and then transferred them to the oil)

• Cook on medium flame to ensure the muruku is cooked well.

Notes:

Ensure sago soaks in buttermilk well and is soft or else it will burst when you press it down in hot oil.
Cook on medium to ensure even cooking.
Fried Gram flour is fried channa dal that is available commercially. It is general sold as the dal, we have to powder it at home. This is also referred as chutney dal as it is used in making coconut chutney.

And they were enjoyed with tea for 2 days before they got fully over

This post is off to ICC and to drool over everyone else’s Muruku go here

Layered Spinach Casserole

Tags

baking, Friday Feast, main course, one pot meal, recipe, rice, spinach, stir fry, vegetables, veggies, vegies

I heart, I love spinach so its made in the household quite often and Ojas seems to like it too makes it even more common and hence I am always on the lookout for some spinach recipes

So when I saw this dish with spinach flavored rice and stir fried veggies in Nita Mehta’s Baking Dishes cookbook I had to make it… a great one pot meal…

Ingredients

For the rice

• 1 cup rice – washed and soaked in salted water for 30 mins
• 2 tsp vegetable oil (the original recipe asks for 4 tbsp butter.. sigh)

For the spinach layer

• 2 cups chopped spinach – pureed in a mixer
• 1 tsp grated ginger
• 1 green chillies (the original asked for 3 though I am sure it would taste awesome I reduced it because of Ojas)
• 1/2 cup curd
• 1 tsp atta (the original asked for maida and the regulars here now my hatred for it very well 😉 )
• 1/4 tsp salt

Stir Fried Veggies

• 1 onion – sliced
• 1 potato  – boiled and sliced into thin fingers (I skipped this and instead added a little more of all other veggies)
• 1 carrot – cut into thin fingers
• 5-6 french beans – cut into 2″ inch long fingers
• 1 capsicum cut into thin fingers (I added this and I personally u can add any veggies to this)
• salt, pepper and red chilli flakes to sprinkle
• 2 tsp olive oil (my addition)

Method

• Boil 6 cups water with 1 tsp salt. Add rice and boil till soft. Strain rice. Spread the rice in a plate to cool. Keep aside
• Heat oil butter in a pan, add ginger and green chilli. Stir till ginger starts to change color. Add spinach puree. Cook for 2 minutes. Remove from fire. Let spinach cool.
• Whisk curd till smooth. Add 1tsp flour to curd and whisk again. Add curd to spinach and mix. Return to fire and cook till thick. Add salt to taste. Remove from fire to cool. Pour over the rice.
• For the stir fried veggies, heat the olive oil in a pan (in the original this is also done in butter… so chose what u like). Add onion, stir fry till pink. Add all the veggies apart from potato incase u are adding it. Stir fry for 3-4 minutes on low heat. Add the potato and stir fro another 2-3 minutes. Add salt, pepper and red chilli flakes to taste.

To assemble the casserole

• Grease a baking dish and spread spinach rice and press down gently
• Spread the stir fry veggies over the rice in a uniform layer
• Bake in a hot over at 200 degrees for 20 mins
• Remove from oven, sprinkle chopped coriander and serve hot. We had it with curd and it was yummy

And it look so colorful and vibrant that u feel like reaching to it and eating 😉

Ariselu : Indian Cooking Challenge

Tags

dessert, Friday Feast, indian, indian cooking challenge, jaggery, recipe, rice

Couple of months while blog hopping food blog so something interesting to make,I stumbled upon the Indian Cooking Challenge and I really liked the concept…If we can have a Daring Bakers we can have a ICC too 😉 and I promptly mailed Srivalli that I want to participate but then my neck gave me dhoka and I couldn’t take part last month but this month I was very sure I will do it…

So here is my first entry for the ICC

The rules just as Daring bakers are to follow the recipe given there exactly and make the dish and post it on ur blog on 15th of every month

This is the recpie I followed (my comments in Blue)

This method yeilds about 8.

Ingredients Needed

Rice Flour – 1 glass (standard measurement)
Jaggary – 1/2 glass (I used the dark brown one)
Coconut grated – 2 tsp
Cardamom powder – 1/4 tsp
Water – 1/2 glass
Sesame seeds – 1 tbsp

Oil for deep frying.

Method to prepare:

I had the Paku (a kind of jaggery the dark brown one, see pic by Srivalli to understand), so grated and added water just enough to cover them. Cooked on high and removed the scum. Then added the cardamom powder. Once it starts boiling, add the grated coconut. You will see lot of bubbles coming out.

At this stage, add the Rice flour slowly and stir it together well. You will know when the consistency is correct, so till then you got to keep adding the flour, but I used up the entire glass of flour I used a little more than 3/4 glass of flour.

The beauty of this dough is, you can store and use whenever you want. If it becomes too hard, just add about 2 tsp of water along with 2 tsp of sugar. Get it to boil, while you keep stirring it. The mix should become soft again. When you handle it, it should come together as a soft dough. Divide it to equal balls.

Heat a kadai with oil to deep fry these. In a greased plastic sheet, pat them down to equal sized discs. Press down the sesame seeds over the top. Once the oil is hot, gently drop these into them. Fry on both sides. Since the sesame seeds are just pressed over the top, they will get into the oil. If you want to avoid this, try adding to the dough (I added it to the flour)

Once they are golden brown, remove and drain them on a kitchen towel.They will be soft when you remove them, will become crunchy once they are cooled.

The regular ones are normally soft and oily, but these were crunchy and no oil at all!

It came out well but somehow I think something is a miss here… I haven’t really eaten the original ever doesn’t help either… N says its good and as Srivalli’s recipe says this one is supposed to be crisp so I guess I was able to make what was supposed to get back though I broke the first one while frying… but the rest came out pretty decently

Its also her 100th post so lets congratulate her on this 🙂

Where I secure my place in mommy heaven

Tags

., baking, birthday, cake, icing, mommy heaven, Ojas, recpie, train

Isn’t there is this rule that you if you bake a fancy cake for your son you go straight to mommy heaven 😀 well then I have secured my place there he he

I made a train cake for Ojas this time…  and here I present it to u….

Last time when I asked you guys for some icing recipes in my mind I was wanting to make a car cake but when I searched the internet for some pictures and TMM sent me this link, I got really scared of the shaping involved. This being the first time I was going to try anything so elaborate I was just not getting confidence on looking at those cakes

Then I remembered that she had made a lovely train cake for the munchkin’s first birthday and I told her I might just pick up her idea and generous soul that she is smiled and said go ahead 🙂 thanks avanti  (its a different story that my cake is not half as pretty looking as her’s but I am happy with mine too 😀 )

So with that lead and the icing recpies you lovely guys had sent me… I started out to bake the cake for Ojas….

The bogies and the engine are actually all baked in rectangular break tin’s or tea cake moulds. I bake in total of 5 such cakes and assembled them together.

The engine is Chocolate Temptation (for those of you who asked I have updated the post with the rec) in which I have layered half of the second cake on top of the first to give it the engine look.  There is a ginger bread man sitting as the driver of the bogie on the side and the chimney is half cut ice cream cone filled with gummy bears and on top of that I put the 2 year candle

The three bogies are plain pound cakes with this butter cream icing (which I modified to replace shortening with white butter as the shortening was not really available anywhere near my house and later when A sent me her frosting recipe I realized its the same :D) flavored with Green Apple essence and green color

On the first bogie I put some chocolate rolls as logs, the next one I lined up with gems and wrote Happy Birthday, the next one had Ojas written on it…

The last one the guard box is the left over half of the chocolate part of what I put over the engine… again there is a ginger bread man sitting there as a guard and the icing is the same as above but an orange flavor.

All the bogies and the engine are joined together with chocolate wafers and the wheels are the coin chocolates.

I would be kidding if I say that oh it was very easy there was a lot of effort that went into it, I baked all the cakes and made the icing ready on Sunday evening and then put together the cake on Sunday afternoon but the end result gave me an amazing amount of satisfaction and ofcourse the place in mommy heaven 🙂 may be next time I will really be brave enough to try the car cake.

Mom’s Special

Tags

blog meet, Delhi, food, Friday Feast, friends, mom, recipe

So I am back from a wonderful break at home… 15 days spent getting pampered by mom.. enjoying the food, Delhi shopping and Delhi in general… I tell u the city is a boon for shoppers and foodies and considering I am both its actually a heaven for me 😀

I also met some amazing bloggers there and that was the sone pe suhaga… and what an afternoon that was… Met Meira, nm, How do we know, SMM, Neera at the gracious host nm’s house… great talks were had with some awesome pav bhaji , pasta and kachoris and dhoklas which Neera got… this delicious food was followed by some amazing pastries that Meira bought… the kids behaved themselves, played with each other and the mom chit chatted over food as long last friends… Can it get better and then with a heavy heart at around 4:30pm we parted ways…  Yay guys I do too many blogger meets and would be happy to see too many J J comments 😀 👿

(Read what Meira wrote about the meet here 🙂 )

And now that I am back from home, let me put a Friday Feast recipe (coming on a Sunday… but just couldn’t manage to post it before even when the post was almost complete) which is my mom’s special…Bread Rolls…  I am sure a lot of people make it but this somehow remains mom’s specialty for us specially for N… When mom came to our house first time after my wedding she made it for breakfast and N instantly loved it… and now when everyone mom is visiting here or we are gone home that has become a must make breakfast… and the funny thing is that N calls it bread pakora and the first time he asked us to make bread pakora we were like really surprised because I didnt know he likes them but nonetheless we made it and when it reached the table…N was what have u made and then we realised that he is actually asking for brad roll 🙂

So here is the recpie of Mom’s Special Bread Roll

Ingredients

for the filling

• 1 big potato boiled and mashed
• 1/2 cup peas boiled and mashed lightly
• 1 small onion chopped
• 1-2 green chillies chopped
• handful of corrainder leaves chopped
• 1 tsp dhaniya powder
• 1/2 tsp garam masala powder
• 1/2 tsp aamchur powder (dry mango)
• salt and chilli powder to taste

For the rolls

• Bread slices 6
• Oil to fry
• Some water

Method

• Mix all filling ingredients and divide it into 6 equal parts
• Take a slice of bread, dip it in cold water and then squeeze out the water
• Take a ball of the filling, place it in the bread and the fold the bread to make it look like a roll
• Repeat for all slices
• Deep fry in oil

Serve hot absolute sinful but delicious bread rolls with green chutney or sauce

I also make a little healthier variation of this which I stuff with mix veggies and mozzarella, bake it instead of frying… that turns out yum too… will post that soon after I make it next time, I need a pic to upload

till then enjoy the sinful treat

PS: I haven’t been able to come and read your blogs and reply to the comments… from past some time its happening so often that I am feeling bad saying sorry too now… but I promise to be more regular now… promise promise promise dont leave me and go haan 😀