Orange Cake

Sunshine on my window and winter is ready to bid adieu from Kolkata.

Before the winters are gone wanted to bake some cakes with oranges. Oranges are an universal fave during winters. Throughout the winters, me and daughter have been snacking on oranges. I don't like orange juice. I love to take the small bite size pieces in my mouth. The sweet natural juice that oozes out from each piece is pure heaven.

This winter we made and orange chocolate cake and today I baked a simple orange loaf cake.

Here is how I made it:

Ingredients:

All purpose flour: 1 and a half cups

Sugar: 1 cup

White oil: 1/4th cup

Vanilla essence: 1/2 tsp

Baking powder: 1 tsp

Baking soda: 1/2 tsp

Eggs: 2

Oranges: 2 big ones

Chilled milk: 1 cup

Process:

1. First peel the oranges and take the pieces out. Discard the seeds and the white fibres.

2. Just squeeze the pieces with your hands to make a pulp. Mixer not required. Gather all the ingredients.

3. Mix the orange pulp, sugar and eggs. Mix well. Now add the milk, vanilla essence and oil.

4. In a bowl add the flour and baking soda + baking powder. In case you want to make a chocolate orange cake, add 2 tablespoons of cocoa powder.

5. Add the flour to the wet mixture in batches. Mix well to make a lump-free batter.

6. Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees C for 10 minutes.

7. Grease a baking pan. Pour the batter in the pan.

8. Bake for 40 minutes at 180 degrees C.

9. Take out of oven. Cool till cake is warm to touch.

10. Slice the cake and enjoy.

When Hunger Strikes...Healthy Onion Crackers (Eggless)

(Adapted from a video recipe on Youtube)

Once the baking bug strikes, it is very difficult for me to keep away.

Today's recipe is a healthy one. Crispy crunchy eggless onion crackers with whole wheat.

You can find the video link here: video link

Here is how I made it:

Ingredients:

Whole wheat flour: 1 and a half cups

APF (Flour): 1/2 cup

White oil: 1/4 cup

Caraway seeds: 1 tsp

Unbroken wheat dalia: 2 tablespoons

Salt: 1 tsp

Sugar: 2 tsp

Baking soda: 1 tsp

Onion (chopped): 1/2 cup

Green chillies: 2 (chopped)

Process:

1. In a bowl take all the ingredients. Add enough warm water to make a stiff dough. Try to as less water as possible.

2. Take a portion of the dough. Roll it into a thin roti. Using cookie cutter/ a glass cut out circles.

3. Preheat the oven to 175 degrees C for 10 minutes. Place the cookies on a tray and bake for 22-25 minutes. The underside of the cookies should be golden - brown. (After 10 minutes, you should flip the cookies for even cooking.)

4. Serve hot with a cup of tea.

Winter Evenings....and Chicken Pot Pie

(Adapted from Niru Gupta's Chicken Pie Recipe)

After a lot of dilly-dallying winter is finally here in Kolkata. I was also in the deep freezer mode as far as cooking and blogging was concerned. Haven't tried any new recipe in quite a while.

With the advent of winter, the hubby man has been giving me gentle reminders that I need to bake regurlarly. (Since, I am on the weight loss mode, I was trying to avoid baking yummy goodies.) Cakes and cookies though fabulous in taste are not good for one's waist. (Hee! haw!)

Anyway, I was planning to bake something savory this time. And to answer my prayers, the hubby man bought me a pie-tin this weekend. I tried my hand at making a simple chicken pot pie. This is the pie in all its golden glory.

You can find the original recipe here: recipe link. 

Here is how I made it:

Ingredients:

To make the dough:

2 cups refined flour (APF)

3/4 cup butter

1 tsp vinegar in an egg or 1/4 cup cold milk

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp baking powder

To make white sauce:

2 cups milk

2 Tbsp refined flour

1 Tbsp butter

1 tsp salt

To make chicken filling:

500 grams chicken- boneless, cooked and diced

1/4 tsp white pepper/ black pepper powder

A pinch of rosemary (optional)

1 Tbsp slightly beaten egg or milk to glaze the pie

Process:

1. In a mixing bowl/plate add flour and butter. Mix the butter thoroughly with the dry flour using your fingers. The flour texture will become like breadcrumbs.

2. To the flour, add vinegar, egg, salt. Add some milk to knead the dough. The dough will be soft. Keep aside in the fridge.

3. Now, heat butter in a pan. Add 2 tbsp APF and stir fry. Now slowly add milk and stir till the sauce becomes thick. Do not let lumps form.

4. To make the chicken filling, heat 2 tsp white oil. Add half teaspoon of ginger-garlic paste and 1/2 cup of chopped onions. Saute lightly and add some chopped vegetables of your choice. I added chopped carrots and tomatoes. Now add the chicken mince. Stir fry for a minute. Add a dash of mixed herbs and rosemary. Add salt and pepper powder to taste. 

5. Once the chicken mince is cooked, add the white sauce to it and lower the flame. Keep stirring from time to time. The sauce with thicken further and you will get a thick creamy filling. Turn off the gas.

6. Take the dough out of the fridge. Divide it into two parts. One part should be bigger than the other.

7. Roll the bigger ball of dough into a thick roti. Here is my 8-year-old rolling out the dough.

9. Grease the pie tin. Place the roti carefully on the tin.

10. Pour the chicken filling on top of this base (roti).

11. Now roll the other piece into a roti and place it on top of the pie.

12. Prick tiny holes on the pie surface using a fork and brush with egg white. Pre-heat the oven to 160 degrees C for 10 minutes.

13. Bake the pie in the oven for 45-50 minutes. The top crust should turn golden.

14. Remove form the oven and serve hot!

Dates and Raisin Sweet Loaf

(Source: A TV programme)

I often watch cookery shows on TV but hardly get around to re-creating them at home. I saw this recipe on a TV program and it was so simple that I loved it.

This bread has chopped raisins and dates. So its a real nutritious bread. The bread is sweet and aromatic. Kids love it!

Here is how I made it:

Ingredients:

Chopped and de-seeded dates: 1/2 cup
Chopped raisins and cashews: 1/4th cup
Whole wheat flour: 1 cup
All purpose flour: 2 cups
Instant yeast: 1 and a half teaspoon
Sugar: 1/4th cup
Salt: 1 teaspoon
White oil: 1 tablespoon
Lukewarm water: 3/4th cup + 1/2 cup

Process:

1. First take the lukewarm water in a bowl and add the sugar.
Next add the yeast and keep undisturbed for 10 minutes.
2. Now take the APF and whole wheat flour in a pan. Add salt and mix well. Add the chopped dates, cashews, and raisins.
3. Pour the yeast mixture into the flour mix. Add oil.
4. Now knead a dough for about ten minutes. Use more lukewarm water if required.
5. The dough should be smooth and firm to touch. It should spring back if pressed. Dunk the dough in a greased deep bottom pan.
6. Cover with a kitchen towel and keep in a warm, dry place for one and a half hours. The dough will double up in size.
7. Take the dough out. Press lightly to release all the trapped air.
8. Shape into a log shape. To learn how to shape the bread dough, view this video here. Place inside a greased loaf tin.
9. Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees C. Place the loaf inside the oven. You can cover the loaf with foil to prevent hardening of crust. Bake for about 40 minutes.
10. Take the loaf out of the oven. Brush with butter.

11. Let the loaf cool completely till room temperature. Slice and have direct or slathered with butter/jam.

Eggless Croissant-shaped Rolls

(Adapted from a recipe seen on the Home Baker's Guild: Facebook)

For a long time I wanted to make croissants. But the recipe takes complete three days to make. This fact has always put me off.

I saw these crescent-shape rolls on a group called Home Baker's Guild on Facebook. From then on I planned to make these.

Here is how I made them:

Ingredients:

Whole-wheat flour: 1 cup

All purpose flour: 2 cups

Sugar: 2 tablespoons

Salt: 1 teaspoon

Instant yeast: 1 and a half teaspoon

White oil: 1 and half tablespoon (any refined oil)

For stuffing:

Tutti-fruiti: 1 handful

Jam: 3 tsp

Process:

1. Take the lukewarm water in a pan. The water should be such that you can comfortably dip your finger into it. 

2. Add the sugar and yeast into the water. Mix and keep aside undisturbed for about 10 minutes.

3. Next, take the flours and salt in a pan. Mix the yeast mixture with the flours and knead into a dough. You can use your stand mixer with a dough hook to do so. I always knead by hand.

4. Knead the dough for 10 minutes till it is smooth and pliable. The dough should spring back on touching.

5. Grease a deep-bottom bowl and dunk the dough in it. Keep covered with a kitchen towel in a warm place for one and a half hours.

6. The dough will double-up to twice its size. 

7. Next take the dough out of the pan. Sprinkle some dry flour on your working surface and place the dough on it.
8. Divide the dough into two sections. Roll each dough ball into a roti of 1/2 inch thickness. Cut the top and bottom edges as shown in the picture.

9. Cut into a rectangular shape and further cut into triangular pieces as shown. Decorate with a sprinkling of tutti-fruiti. Also add 1/4th tsp of jam.

10. Now roll the triangular piece as shown.

11. Now grease a baking tray. Place the rolls on the tray and keep undisturbed in a warm place for 20 minutes. Pre-heat the oven to 200 degrees C.

12. Place the tray in the oven and bake for 10 minutes. Grill for 2-3 minutes on Grill mode.

13. Take out of the oven. Brush with butter. Serve hot!

The Perfect Sandwich Loaf: Pullman Loaf

(Adapted from the Pullman's Loaf: Donna Currie)

What is a Pullman loaf? It is the perfect, rectangular shape loaf that is suited for the toaster....makes lovely sandwiches.

According to Wikipedia, these loafs were first made in the Pullman railway cars. In these railways, the bread was baked in lidded pans to give this perfect shape.

The Pullman loaf pan looks something like this:

The Pullman's Loaf Pan (Courtesy: www.williams-sonoma.com)

Bread baked in this pan will give the perfect shape. 

The hubby man had got this bread pan long time back but I had no clue how to use this type of pan.

One day, while randomly surfing the net, I came across the recipe for Pullman loaf. Then, there was no looking back!

You can have a look at the original recipe here.

Here is how I made it:

Ingredients:

Whole wheat flour: 1 and a half cups

All purpose flour:1 and a half cups

Sugar: 2 tablespoon

White oil: 2 tablespoon

Salt: 1 teaspoon

Instant yeast: 1 and half teaspoon

Water (lukewarm): 3/4th cup + 1/2 cup

Process:

1. Take the lukewarm water in a pan. The water should be such that you can comfortably dip your finger into it. If the water is too hot, it will kill the yeast.

2. Add the sugar and yeast into the water. Mix and keep aside undisturbed for about 10 minutes.

3. Next, take the flours and salt in a pan. Mix the yeast mixture with the flours and knead into a dough. You can use your stand mixer with a dough hook to do so. I always knead by hand.

4. Knead the dough for 10 minutes till it is smooth and pliable. The dough should spring back on touching.

5. Grease a deep-bottom bowl and dunk the dough in it. Keep covered with a kitchen towel in a warm place for one and a half hours.

6. The dough will double-up to twice its size. 

7. Next take the dough out of the pan. Sprinkle some dry flour on your working surface and place the dough on it.

8. Knead the dough and create a log shape. To learn how to create the log shape, refer to this recipe. 

9. Now grease the loaf pan and the inner side of the lid of the Pullman pan. Place the log inside the pan.

 

10. Keep the tin in a warm dry place and allow it to rise. Make sure that the loaf should rise such that 1 inch of the pan should remain empty. Make sure that the loaf does not spill out of the pan.

11. Pre-heat the oven for ten minutes at 177 degrees C. Cover the pan with the lid.

12. Keep the loaf tin in the pre-heated oven. Bake at the same temperature for 35-40 minutes. (Also keep a small bowl of water in the oven while the b read is baking.)

13. Remove from oven and de-mold carefully. Brush the top of the loaf with milk/butter.

Allow the loaf to cool down completely before slicing it. Your wonderful sandwich loaf is ready

.

The No-Fail Raisin Cake Recipe

This week I am posting a no-fail raisin cake recipe that I have made several times over. This recipe is extremely forgiving...you just cant go wrong with it. Just follow the measures as given in the recipe and you will get a yummy, moist cake that your family will love.

Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:

Whole wheat flour: 1/2 cup

All purpose flour: 1 cup

Sugar: 1 cup

Eggs: 2

Vanilla essence: 1 teaspoon

Baking powder: 1 teaspoon

Baking soda: 1/2 teaspoon

Cocoa powder: 3 tablespoon

White oil: 1/2 cup

Milk: 1/4th cup

Raisins (chopped): 1/4th cup

Process:

1. Beat the eggs well. Add sugar and mix well. Now add oil, milk, and vanilla essence.
2. In a deep-bottom bowl, add the whole wheat flour, APF, cocoa powder, baking powder, and baking soda.
3. Now add the dry mixture to the wet mixture in two batches. Mix well till you get a thick, lump-free batter.
4. Fold in the chopped raisins.
5. Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees C for 10 minutes. Pour the batter in a greased cake pan. Make sure that batter fills up only half the baking pan.
6. Tie a wet towel strip around the pan to prevent cracking of the top surface of the cake.
7. Sprinkle a few chopped raisins on the top surface of the cake.
8. Bake the cake for 40-45 minutes.
9. Remove the cake from the oven. Set aside to cool.
10. After ten minutes, de-mold the cake. Slice the cake and serve with love.
    

Chicken Pizza from the Scratch

(Star shaped pizza adapted from: Pizza Recipe from the Scratch: Sumod Tomz blog)

Kids love pizza. Small kids and....... big kids like me and my hubby.

I have made chicken pizza from the scratch several times but got down to posting it today.
Also, when I saw the star shape pizza on Sumod Tom's blog, I was dying to make it. I also made a regular pizza.

Please pardon my photography. It was not the best today.

You can check his recipe from this link.

Here is how I made it.

Ingredients:

Pizza dough: 1 ball

For pizza sauce:

Tomatoes: 2 roughly chopped
Onion: 1 chopped
Tomato sauce: 3 tablespoons
Tomato puree: 2 tablespoons
Mixed herbs: 1 teaspoon
Salt and sugar to taste
Garlic: 5-6 pods, finely chopped
Butter: 1 teaspoon
White oil: 2 teaspoon

For assemble the pizza/toppings:
Chicken sausages: chopped, 1 cup
Red capsicum: 1 chopped
Yellow capsicum: 1 chopped
Black olives: 2 tablespoons
Mozarella cheese: grated
Oregano

Procedure:

1. First you need a ball of pizza dough. Pizza dough is same as bread dough. To know how to make bread dough, click here.


To make pizza sauce:
2. Heat some butter and white oil. Add the chopped garlic and onion.
3. Fry for a minute. Add the chopped tomatoes.
4. Fry for a minute and add the tomato sauce along with tomato puree.
5. Add salt and sugar to taste. Mix well. Add the mixed herbs and take off the flame. Keep aside to cool.

To assemble the pizza:
6. Roll the dough into a big roti/crepe about 8 inches in diameter.

9. Place a layer of pizza sauce along the edges. Place the chopped veggies and add some oregano. I added chopped chicken sausages. Finally add shredded mozarella cheese on top.

10. Now pull and join the edges from both ends as shown.

11. Once finished, this is what you will get:

11. Pre-heat the oven at 200 degrees C for 10 minutes.
12. Bake for 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and enjoy the steaming hot pizza.
Yummy!

A Healthy Indulgence: Wholewheat Chocolate Cupcakes

This week, it was Holi. I got an extended weekend and loads of time to rest. Hooray!

Made this wonderfully healthy choco cupcakes with wholewheat.

Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:

Whole wheat/ Atta: 1 and a half cups
All purpose flour: 2 tablespoons
Cocoa powder: 3 tablespoons
White oil: 1/2 cup
Eggs: 2
Baking powder: 1 teaspoon (level)
Baking soda: 1/2 teaspoon
Milk: 1 cup
Sugar: 1 cup

For decoration:

Chopped raisins: a handful

Process:

1.Crack the eggs in a bowl. Discard the shells. Add sugar and mix well. You can use a hand/stand mixer to do this.
2. Add oil, milk and vanilla essence. Mix well.
3. In a separate bowl take the wholewheat, baking powder, baking soda, and cocoa powder.
Mix well.
4. Now add the dry mixture to the wet mixture in two batches.
5. Mix well till you get a batter of dropping consistency.
7. Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees C for 10 minutes. Pour the batter in cupcake moulds. Sprinkle chopped raisins on top and bake for 20-25 minutes.
8. After the cupcakes are well baked, take them out of the oven and keep aside to cool.
9. After 5 minutes, de-mold the cupcakes.
Enjoy the warm cupcakes with your hot cuppa.

I am sending this recipe to the Holi Special Recipe event on KFB.

Sunflower Shape Stuffed Bread for the Valentine Week

(Adapted from the recipe posted on Home Baker's guild on Facebook)

Its February! February is synonymous with mild chilly mornings, the Kolkata Book Fair, and of course Valentine's Day.

Though the hubby man and I do not celebrate V day formally, but I love to surprise him with some new bakes. Needless to say, even my little Valentine loves it!

This time I had decided not to post anything sweet. So it had to be a savoury recipe. I got this fabulous recipe for Sunflower bread from the Home Baker's Guild on Facebook. I have forgotten the name of the member who posted it, but she had done a wonderful job of posting the recipe in pictures. Thanks you so much for this lovely recipe.

The sunflower bread can be made with any kind of bread dough and the filling can be altered as per requirement. This bread is not made of sunflowers or sunflower seeds! The name is due to the sunflower shape.

I used a filling of veggies with chopped chicken sausages but you can use paneer bhurji, soya kheema, chicken keema, or mixed veggies. The possibilities are endless. 

This stuffed bread looks beautiful and tastes yummy. 

Here is how I made it:

Ingredients:

A ball of bread dough (To check the recipe of bread dough, click here.)

Any kind of dry filling (I used a filling of veggies and chicken sausages): 1 and a half cup

Butter: 2 tablespoon (for brushing)

Process:

1. Knead the bread dough with the ingredients given in this recipe. Grease a deep bottom bowl and dunk the ball of dough in it. Keep in a warm dry place for one and a half hours.

2. The dough will rise to double it's size. Sprinkle some dry flour on the working surface and place the ball of dough on it.

3. Press the ball of dough to release the air trapped inside.

4. Divide the ball of dough into two parts using a knife. 

5. Now follow the step-by-step process as shown in the pictures below:

(You can also refer to the following video to view the steps for shaping this bread.)

6. Pre-heat the oven to 200 degrees C for ten minutes. Place the tray containing the sunflower bread inside the pre-heated oven.

7. Bake for 20 minutes at the same temperature. After 20 minutes, you can grill the bread using Grill mode (for about 2-3 minutes) for a evenly browned top.

8. Remove the bread from the oven and brush the top with butter.

9. Let it cool till it is warm.

Slice and enjoy with your Valentine!

I am sending this recipe to the ongoing event on KFB called "Valentine's Day Special Week".

Portugese Custard Tarts: Anwesha's blog

(Pasteis de Nata Recipe - Portuguese Christmas Custard Tarts: Peanuts on the Road)

This week the blogger of the week is Anwesha. Anwesha has a wonderful blog full of travel and food posts. She is very pretty girl with a lovely smile. I am quite surprised with her amazing repertoire of recipes.

While selecting the recipes, I hit upon this wonderful recipe of custard tarts.

These tarts are pretty easy to make. The filling is a wonderfully creamy custard which complements beautifully with the biscuity short crust pastry base.

You can refer to Anwesha's original recipe here.

Here is how I made it.

Ingredients:

1/2 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1/3 cups milk
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon  vanilla extract
2 large egg yolks, whisked
Pinch of cinnamon powder
1 ball of short crust pastry base

Process:

1. First you need to make the short crust pastry base. To know how to make this short crust pastry, refer here.

2. To make the custard base, add flour with the powdered sugar. Now add the egg yolks to this mixture.

3. Next, slowly add lukewarm milk and mix well.

4. Place this mixture over the gas on a low flame. Keep stirring to avoid formation of lumps.

 

5. The mixture will thicken. Take off the gas and keep aside to cool.

6. Now divide the short crust pastry into small balls, about 13 in number.

7. Roll the balls into small roundels (rotis). Grease small ramekins and place each roundel in the ramekin.

8. Spoon some custard into each ramekin. Make sure that the custard should not be filled to the brim.

9. Pre-heat the oven at 200 degrees for ten minutes. Place the ramekins in the oven (on the middle rack) and bake for 15-20 minutes. (I baked for 15 minutes)

10. Once the sides turn golden-brown, take the tarts out of the oven. Let it cool till you can touch the ramekins.

11. De-mold carefully and serve while warm.

Enjoy!

I am sending this recipe to the ongoing event on KFB "Know Your Blogger".