Breakfast Granola

 

  

Granola is a healthy breakfast option. It is a whole food with nuts and oats.  It can be had with milk or yogurt.

It has good cholesterol and is good for the heart. But, most of the granola available on store shelves have high content of sweetners and sugar syrups added to it which makes it high in calories content. So, if you have the ingredients to make it at home, it is truly worth it.

 Some recipes call for adding a lot more sugar in the recipe. I have cut down on the amount of sugar I have used in it.

Ingredients:

• Quick cooking oats - 4 cups 
• Slivered almonds - 3/4 cup 
• Chopped walnuts - 1/2 cup 
• Chopped cashew - 1/4 cup 
• Chopped pistachios - 1/4 cup 
• Peanuts - 1/2 cup 
• Wheat bran - 1/4 cup
•  Dried cranberries- 1/4 cup
• Chopped dried figs - 1/4 cup 
• Chopped dates - 3/4 cup 
• Golden raisins - 1/2 cup 
• Sesame seeds - 1/4 cup 
• Flax seeds - 1/4 cup 
• Ground cinnamon - 1 tspn
• Dark brown sugar - 1/4 cup
• Water - 1/4 cup 
• Salt = 1/4 tspn

Directions:

•  Preheat oven to 120°C
• In a large bowl mix oats and nuts
• Combine water, sugar and cinnamon and salt.
• Coat the  oat-nut mixture with sugar mixture and bake for 15 mins. 
• In the mean time, dry roast sesame seeds and flax seeds on a pan for 2 mins.
• When the oat mixture has finished baking, remove from oven and add the flax seeds, sesame seeds and the wheat bran. Cool mixture completely.
• Finally, toss in the dried fruits and mix well. 
• Serve with milk or yogurt. 

Cashew brown sugar cookies

Happy New Year to one and all. May the year ahead bring you all  health, wealth and happiness. Happy 2013 again.

For this special day, I have decided to post a special recipe. Hope you enjoy it :)

Ingredients: (Makes 3-1/2 dozen cookies)

• 1/2 cup softened butter (115 gms) 
• 1 cup brown sugar (firmly packed)
•  1/2 cup fine white sugar
•  1 whole egg and 1 egg yolk 
• 1/3 cup heavy cream 
• 1 tspn vanilla extract 
• 2 cups all-purpose flour 
• 3/4 tsp baking powder 
• 3/4 tsp baking soda 
• 1/4 tspn salt 
• 2 cups chopped cashew (and more for garnishing) 

 Directions: 

•  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (177 degrees C). 
•  Line cookie sheets with parchment paper.
•  In a bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt and set aside. 
• In another large bowl, cream together the butter and sugars until light and fluffy. 
• Add the eggs, beating well, then stir in the cream and vanilla. 
• Gradually stir the flour mixture into the creamed mixture. 
•  Fold in chopped cashew pieces. 
• Drop by rounded spoonfuls onto the prepared cookie sheets and press down a little. 
• Place half a cashew on each cookie center (optional) 
• Bake for 10 minutes in the preheated oven. 
• Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Vanilla Cupcakes

 

Last weekend started on a boring note. We had no plans to leave the house as  hubby-dear needed to just laze around and relax for a change. Relaxation for him is reading about photography and watching MMA and sports. For me, I had to think of a way to do something nice. So, as usual, I turned to the kitchen to bake. Now, that's what I call relaxation.

My sister sent me 10 individual  cupcake baking cups. These are so much nicer than the muffin trays because there is more space utilization in the oven. Also, helps me bake just a few, instead of a whole big batch. Loved the idea and had to put these cuties to use. That's when I made my Apple-raisin-walnut muffins (click here for recipe). After that venture, these babies were put away and only now did I think of them again.

So, my weekend relaxation resulted in vanilla cupcakes. They were moist and delicious and this brought hubby's resting phase to a halt as he got busy.............. really busy, munching on these moist cupcakes..............non stop.

 

Ingredients: (makes about 12 cupcakes)

• 1-1/2 cup sifted cake flour
• 1-1/2 tspn baking powder
• 1/4 tspn salt
• 1/2 cup or 1 stick unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup(s) sugar
• 2 large eggs, room temperature
• 1/2 teaspoon(s) vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup(s) whole milk

Directions:

• Preheat the oven to 180°C or 350°F.
• Line a cupcake tray or cups with liners.
• In a bowl, mix together flour, baking powder and salt. 
• Beat the butter until creamy. Add the sugar and beat well for about 5 minutes, scraping the bowl when needed (batter should be nearly white and fluffy). 
• Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
• Add vanilla and mix. 
• Now, alternately, add the flour mixture and milk, starting and ending with flour until just mixed.
• Divide the batter into the cupcake liners until 2/3 full (I used an ice cream scoop which was the perfect amount to fill 1 cupcake). Bake for 20-25 mins, until a toothpick inserted comes out just clean.
• Cool for 5-10 minutes on a rack.

Creme Brulee

I'm hard to please when it comes to eating out. I expect food to be really, really tasty at restaurants and anything otherwise is simply unforgivable. We went out to this restaurant called Turquoise in Koramangala. We went to the Italian kitchen floor. I never get too excited before I start my meal as it mostly leads to disappointment.  But, this time, I really loved the food and the ambiance. We had some good veg crostini misti, which is toasted Italian bread with a savory assortment of mushrooms, tomatoes and ricotta cheese.  For main, I had a chicken cappellacci which was a stuffed chicken pasta . The dim-lit environment did not give me an opportunity for good snaps with my point and shoot :( 

When it came to dessert, I had to have tiramisu and he had creme brulee.   I loved it and so, as you can guess, I had to try creme brulee at home and here is my home-made dessert. Did some research on this dessert and came to know that creme brulee means burnt cream. Origin of creme brulee? Some say it's, English, some say French and some say Spanish. You'll never know.

The biggest challenge in this recipe was to create that caramel crust on the dessert without a blow torch. But, my oven was good enough for the job and everything turned out great.

Ingredients (serves 2)

• 3 egg yolks
• 4 tablespoons white sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3/4  cup heavy cream
• 1/4 cup milk

For topping:

• Fine sugar - 1 tbspn 

Directions

Directions

• Preheat oven to 150°C (325° F).  

• Heat a kettle of water and keep ready.

• Beat egg yolks, sugar and vanilla in a mixing bowl until thick and creamy.

• In a saucepan, pour cream and milk  and stir over low heat until it almost comes to boil. Remove from heat immediately. Let rest for 10 mins.

• Stir cream-milk mixture into the egg yolk mixture. Beat until combined and it turns a light color. 

• Pour the liquid into 2 ramekins. Place the ramekins into a large cake pan or roasting pan. Pour enough hot water into the pan to come halfway up the sides of the ramekins. 

•  Bake just until the creme brulee is set, but still trembling in the center, approximately 40-45 minutes. Remove the ramekins from the roasting pan and let cool for a while. Then refrigerate for at least 2 hours or overnight.

Method for creating a caramel crust:

• Preheat oven to broil. (250°C or 480°F)

• Sift some fine sugar evenly over the custard and spread till the edges.  

• Place ramekins on the highest rack position, right under broiler until sugar melts. (about 2 minutes) Watch carefully in order not to burn.

• Remove from heat and allow to cool. Refrigerate until custard is set again. 

Note:

• It is best to caramelize the crust about an hour before serving the pudding . That way the crust remains crisp and does not get soggy when left for too long in the refrigerator.

Pistachio cardamom orange cake

The best thing of being or living in India is that, I can go home whenever I feel like it and our family can visit us often too. That is a real blessing.

My sister and nephew visited us and I made this cake for them.

     

It was a nice pistachio cake which was infused with cardamom. A handsome quantity of pistachios were ground and added to the cake. Orange zest rendered that zing . The orange flavor came through so well. Cardamom powder does the job of  giving a good aroma to the cake. So there is no need for vanilla in this recipe.

 

What I loved most about the cake was that when I cut a slice, the orange and green specs  from the zest and the pistachio were vividly visible, which made it look so beautiful. This cake was a smash hit at home. It lasted 2 days and not a crumb was left.

Ingredients:

• Pistachios -1-1/2 cups(unsalted, shelled and toasted )
• All-purpose flour - 1-1/2 cups
• Baking powder - 2-1/2 tspns
• Cardamom powder - 1 tspn
• Salt - 1/4 tspn
• Whole milk - 1 cup
• Unsalted butter - 1-1/2 sticks (at room-temperature)
• Sugar - 1-1/2 cups
• Eggs - 4 large or 5 small
• Grated orange zest - 2 tspns

Method:

• Arrange oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 350°F or 180°C. Line a  9-inch-diameter round cake pan withparchment paper. 

• In a bowl, mix flour, baking powder and salt and sieve 3 times or mix well.

• Add cardamom powder and mix well.

• Using food processor, pulse pistachios until  ground, about 40 seconds. (Do not over process it to a fine powder ).

• Add the ground pistachio to the flour mixture and mix well.

• In large bowl using electric mixer at moderate speed, beat together butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  

•  Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. 

•  Reduce speed to low and flour mixture and milk alternately in 3 batches,  beginning and ending with flour mixture and beating after each addition just until combined. 

• Add orange zest and mix until just combined.

• Spread batter evenly in pan and bake for 35 mins, until wooden skewer inserted in center of cake comes out clean. 

• Remove from oven and cool the cake in the  pan  for about 10 minutes, unmold cake and let cool on a rack.

Plum Clafoutis for him

Watching the Masterchef series gets you so inspired sometimes, that last week saw the outcome of a wonderful plum clafoutis.  It was also baked in time for hubby dear's birthday.  He loves colorful desserts and this birthday, Plum clafoutis it was,  instead of the usual birthday cake.

Peak season for sweet plums was about 3 weeks ago and I kept postponing my clafoutis baking, because, each and every time we bought plums, they were gobbled up, leaving none for baking. So, finally when I realised that plum season was coming to an end, I bucked up and went full fledged to make my plum calfoutis.

The result........a really tart plum clafoutis because of tart plums :(  But luckily, it wasn't inedible. A tad  extra of powdered sugar dusted atop helped.

Lesson learned..... make hay while the sun shines.

 So, to reduce the tartness of the fruit I also caramelized them after pitting.

Since it was my first attempt at baking a clafoutis, I had my fair share of doubts. Is there less of flour?  Is there too much of milk? Is the batter too runny? But, all went well.( We women just worry for nothing :) The recipe was pretty easy. Easier than baking a cake.

When I saw my clafoutis all puffed up as it baked in the oven, I thought "wow!" Then, just like a souffle, it deflated when I took it out and let it rest . That was a disappointment and the next time I bake a clafoutis, I would definitely see if I can work on that .

He loved the dessert  and that was one more feather to my cap :)

So, here we come to the recipe part.

Ingredients : (Serves 4)

• All purpose flour- 1/4 cup
• Fine sugar- 1/4 cup
• Eggs - 2
• Butter - 1 tbspn (melted, cooled)
• Milk- 1/2 cup
• Cream- 1/4 cup
• Medium plums- 10 (halved, stones removed )
• Vanilla extract - 1/2 tspn

Method

• Preheat oven to 180°C. Grease a 4 individual cups or a baking dish.

• Combine flour, sugar and eggs in a bowl. Beat well to combine. Add butter, milk, cream and vanilla. Whisk to combine.

• Place plums, cut side up, in prepared dish. Add flour mixture. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes or until just set. Let stand for 2 minutes. Dust with icing sugar. Serve immediately.

Zebra cake

The Masterchef Australia Season has started all over again and I love, love, love the show. I never miss an episode. Such a pleasure watching people cooking good food and all the more 'beautiful food'. There a so many talented people out there. Good to see wonderfully good food with quality ingredients. Have watched Masterchef USA and India and to be frank, I liked only Australia. The focus is only on food and no cribbing and fussing. I learn so much about food from this show. The judges are fantastic too.
I can just go on and on and on about this but let me just sum it all up with a Big Hurrah! for the Masterchef Australia series.

Now, let me get to my baked goodies. This time round, I want to share the recipe and pics of a  Zebra cake.  I think it looks adorable. I'm impressed with myself. Pat, pat, pat on my back. This cake went straight to a cousin's home. So I could not taste it, but, those who did, said it was fabulous.

What I would do differently next time,
1) make more layers. This time I tried just few.
2) Since I now know how to do it, I would spoon the batter a little neater next time. This time the job was shabby as you can see  :)

The layers were not so clear on the outside . But , when cut, there was this beautiful display of brown and white.The design looked so fashionable.

Ingredients: 

• 1 1/2 cupsall purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoons salt
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter at room temperature
• 1 cup sugar
• 3 medium eggs at room temperature
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup warm, whole milk 
• 2 tablespoons cocoa powder.  

  

Directions:

• Preheat  oven to 400 degrees F or 205 degrees C . Line an 8-inch cake pan with parchment paper or butter and dust with all-purpose flour. 
• Sift flour, baking powder, and salt and set aside.
• In a large mising bowl, beat butter and sugar using an electric mixer set on low speed, until the mixture resembles damp sand (about 3 mins).
•  Beat in the eggs one at a time on medium-high, until wellblended and  a smooth fluffy consistency is reached. (About 7-8 mins)
• Add vanilla and mix.
• Add 1/3 of the sifted flour mixture and milk alternately and mix until you have added it all.
  
• Do not overbeat this mixture. Once the flour is incorporated well, stop mixing. 
• Separate this batter into 2 equal parts. To one part add cocoa powder and mix well.   

  

Now to create the zebra design.  

For this the batter has to be poured in a particular fashion into the mold.

• Take a large spoon or ladle and first spoon the vanilla batter right into the center of  the prepared pan. Tap the pan thrice to spread the batter a little.  
• Next, spoon the chocolate batter right in the middle of the vanilla batter and tap the pan.  
• Repeat these 2 steps alternately till you have added all the batter. (see pic above)
  
• Bake until a wooden skewer inserted in the center comes out clean — 25 to 30 minutes. 
• Cool cake completely on a wire rack.

Blueberry Walnut Cake

It's been very difficult to find blueberries here, in India, and so I asked an aunt to look out for some dried blueberries abroad. And lucky me, she brought me a pack of dried blueberries. I was so excited to bake this blueberry walnut cake. I did miss the plumpness of fresh, juicy blueberries as the dried berries had the texture and feel of raisins.They tasted very much like fresh blueberries though. So now, for all I care, I have blueberries in my pantry all year round and don't have to go hunting places for them.


It was a neat bake and and I was pretty happy with the result. A fairly easy recipe.
A moist cake with crisp walnut and chewy blueberries. This can be served plain or with fresh fruit.

Ingredients:

• Butter( at room temperature) - 1 stick( 115 gms)
• Sugar - 3/4 cup
• Eggs(large) - 3
• Pure vanilla extract - 1 tspn
• All purpose flour - 1-1/4 cup
• Baking powder - 1 tspn
• Baking soda - 1/2 tspn
• Salt - 1/8 tspn(optional)
• Milk - 1/3 cup
  
• Walnuts - 1 cup (chopped)
• Dried blueberries - 1/4 cup
  

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F( 177 C)
• When the oven is preheating, put walnuts on a baking sheet into the oven. This will toast the walnuts. Remove after 3-4 mins. Set aside to cool. Once cool, give walnuts a rough chop.
  
• Butter an 8" round cake pan or line it with parchment paper. Set aside
• Seperate the eggs. Put egg yolks in a small bowl and set aside. Put the egg whites in a large, clean, dry bowl and beat the to stiff peaks and set aside.
• Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt and set aside.
• In a large bowl, beat butter and sugar for about 5 minutes, until light and fluffy.
• Add egg yolks one at a time and beat well after each addition.
• Add vanilla extract and mix well.
• Now add the flour mixture and mix. Stir in the milk until batter is smooth. (Do not over beat the cake batter as it will result in a hard cake).
• Add the walnuts and the blueberries. Mix.
• Fold in the egg whites gently into the cake.
• Pour batter into the prepared pan. Bake for 30-35 minutes in the preheated oven. For cupcakes, bake 20 to 25 minutes. Do the toothpick test to see if the cake is done.(See note below).
• If the cake is not done, reduce the oven temperature to 275 degrees F(135 C) and bake for 8-10 more mins.Repeat tooth pick test.
• When the cake is done, let it rest in the cake pan for 10 mins.Then remove the cake from the cake pan and cool completely on a wire rack.
  

Note: Take a tooth pick or a knife or a bamboo skewer and poke it till the bottom of the cake.If it comes out clean the cake is ready.If it comes out with wet cake batter, it needs additional time to bake.

Luv 'n' luc'
Smitha

Apple Raisin Walnut Muffins (Eggless)

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL MY BELOVED READERS.
The Holiday Season......This is the time of the year when baking is at an all-time high. It is not surprising because baked goodies taste delectable. Homemade baked treats are a good gift idea. Baking gets you being creative. It's fun and it is such a good hobby for a number of reasons. So, last week the baking bug bit me too. But, I did some low profile baking. Made some Apple Raisin Walnut Muffins. The highlight of this trial was that it was an eggless muffin recipe. I have never tried baking cakes or muffins without eggs, so, I was a little sceptical about the outcome. But, it was a big success story and the muffins were so moist too. And so, if you ask me if I would bake this eggless muffin again.......................Yes, definitely. It is a very easy recipe and I would recommend it to a beginner as well. Prep time - 10 mins.

The recipe is adapted from Paula Deen's Apple Raisin Muffin recipe.

I spiked the recipe by adding walnuts and a dash of rum. My recipe is provided below.
Ingredients (makes 10 muffins)

• 1/3 cup water


• 1 cup sugar


• 1 cup grated apple


• 1/4 cup raisin


• 1/2 cup (1 stick/ 115 gms) butter


• 1-1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon


• 3/4 teaspoons freshly grated nutmeg


• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves


• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts


• 1 teaspoon baking soda


• 1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour


• 1/8 tspn salt


• 1 tspn vanilla extract


• 1 tspn rum

Directions

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C) .


• Combine the water, sugar, apples, raisins, butter, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves in a saucepan; bring to a boil. Remove the pan from the heat and cool completely.


• Add vanilla extract and rum.


• In a large bowl, stir the nuts, salt and baking soda into the flour.


• Add the cooled mixture to the bowl, and stir until blended.


• Fill greased or parchment lined miniature muffin tins with batter to the top. Bake for 15-20 minutes.

Luv 'n' luc'

Smitha

Homemade Vanilla Extract

I stumbled upon this recipe for homemade vanilla extract and have been wanting to try my hand at it for a while. Atlast, sometime last week, it's time had come. So, here's how I made my homemade vanilla extract.
I bought a small bottle of vodka( 180 ml) and used that bottle itself to make the extract.

Ingredients:

• Vanilla beans - 4 nos.


• Bean skins(optional) - few


• Vodka - 180 ml

Method:

• Cut the vanilla beans into halves. I did this because my vodka bottle was not tall enough to hold a full bean.


• Then cut them lengthwise, splitting them in half, leaving the end connected.


• Put vanilla beans into vodka bottle. Add vanilla skins also if you have any.Cover tightly. Give the bottle a good shake every once in a while.


• Store in a dark, cool place for 3 weeks or longer. You can keep topping it off with vodka once in a while as you use it, just remember to give it a good shake.


• Vanilla extract is like wine, the longer it is stored, the better the flavor.

My Vanilla extract is just over 5 days old and look at it's intense color. It has also become so fragrant. Can't wait to use it. Will have to wait another 2-3 weeks though.

Hints:

• Avoid discarding vanilla bean skins after using the vanilla seeds. Save them for making extract.


• The skins and a split bean can also be put into a jar of white sugar and left for a few weeks to make vanilla sugar.Great way to infuse the sugar with vanilla flavor for baking.

Luv 'n' luc'
Smitha