Whole Wheat (Atta) Bread - (the No Maida Bread At Last!)

(Adapted from vegrecipesofindia.com - 100% Whole Wheat Bread Recipe)

I have a veritable love affair with the process of bread making. I may go through a phase of baking cakes, tarts, bread pudding et all, but whenever my spirits sag low, I invariably return to making my humble loaf of bread. Nothing gives me as much peace and happiness as a golden-brown, fresh-baked loaf of bread.


Some people have asked me " Don't you find the whole process (of making bread) really long and laborious?" Surprisingly, my answer is no. This so because other than the kneading process that actually lasts 10 minutes, the process does not need my active participation. I knead the bread and leave it to rise on it own sweet will. In the meantime, I can put in one solid hour of office work (since I work from home). I cant expect a sabzi or a chicken dish simmering on the gas to take care of itself for an hour or two, while I am busy with a document!


This recipe has been a real God- sent for me. I was never comfortable consuming loads of all-purpose flour in my daily bread. Ironically, whenever I bake whole wheat bread, the husband man and daughter refuse to eat it because it is dense and "not-so-tasty". Most whole-wheat recipes call for vital-wheat gluten, that is essential to soften and make the bread fluffy. Dassana of vegrecipesofindia.com has come up with a breakthrough discovery that adding curd to the dough is all it takes to make a whole-wheat bread soft and tasty. I found her recipe here.


Adding curd to the dough makes the dough acidic, that further helps in gluten development. If you do not have curd, you can use vinegar instead. Any kind of vinegar that you use for cooking purposes! I also added a little powdered flaxseed because I have read that flaxseed really softens bread. The bread may taste slightly of curd (or vinegar), but once you have the bread with jam or any other spread it's just fine.

Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:

Whole wheat flour (Atta): 3 cups

Warm water: 1.25 cups

Active dry yeast: 1/2 tablespoon

Salt: 1 teaspoon

Sugar (granulated or powdered): 2 tablespoons

Butter/oil: 2 tablespoons

Curd/Youghurt: 2 tablespoons (Or Vinegar: 1.5 tablespoon)

Milk: for brushing

Flaxseed powder (optional): 1 tablespoon

Process:

1. Mix Atta with salt. Add curd, sugar, yeast, flaxseed powder to this mixture.

2. Add oil.

3. Now add warm water and knead the dough by hand or using stand mixer.

4. The dough should be smooth, soft, and slightly sticky. You need to knead thoroughly for about 4-5 minutes. Add some more water if required.

5. Dunk the dough in a deep-bottom bowl and brush lightly with some water. Keep covered in a warm place for at least 1.5 hours.

6. The dough will appear puffed up and almost double its original volume.

7. Knead the dough once again and shape into a log.

8. Place the dough in a greased bread tin and keep in a warm place for another 1 hour.

9. The dough will rise and will be visible over the rim of the bread tin. Place a longitudinal cut on the top surface of the dough and brush with milk.

10. Pre-heat the oven to 220 degrees for 15 minutes.

11. Place the dough in the oven and bake for 25 minutes.

12. Cover the bread tin with aluminum foil after 10 minutes to avoid over-browning of the top surface.

13. Remove from the oven and brush with milk or butter.

14. The underside of the loaf should not be wet or sticky to touch. If you tap the lower side of the loaf, you should get a hollow sound. If you don't, just pop it into the open for 5 more minutes at the same temperature.



The bottom part of the loaf

15.Cool to room temperature before slicing the bread. Enjoy!

The lovely slices

Eggless Tutti Fruitti Whole Wheat Milk Buns

The end of the year 2013, was a very difficult one for me. I was loaded with lots and lots of work at the office front. Also, my little S was down with fever due to season change and to top it all the hubby dearest had to be away for a couple of days because of sudden demise of a close relative. So, in a nutshell, it was chaos with a capital C. Finally, today I got up the strength to bake something nice before the 31st. These sweet milk buns can be had at any time of the day/night. They are easy to make and store well. Excellent finger-food for kids!

Without further ado, lets get to the recipe.

Ingredients:

Flour: 3 and a half cups

Whole Wheat flour: 3 cups

Active Dry Yeast: 1 tablespoon

Salt: 1 teaspoon

Milk: 2 cups
Sugar:1/4th cup

Oil/butter: 1/4th cup

Tutti fruit: a handful

For decoration:

Chocolate sauce: 3 tablespoons

Colored small candy: for sprinkling

Process:

1. Take warm milk in a deep-bottom bowl. Add sugar to the milk. Sprinkle yeast on top.

2. Now add salt and mix once. Add the tutti frutti.

3. Now start adding flour and whole wheat flour alternately. You may need to add some more flour depending on the amount of moisture in the air.

4. Once the mixture forms a solid lump. Now add butter to this mixture. Keep kneading till you get a firm, smooth dough. Keep adding sprinkles of dry flour if the dough gets too sticky.

5. Grease a deep-bottom bowl and dunk the dough in it. Keep the bowl in a dry, warm place for one hour. In one hour, the dough will rise to double its size.

6. Now punch the dough and knead it once more. Divide the dough into small balls. Grease a cup-cake mold and place the balls into the molds.

 7. Keep the cupcake mold undisturbed for another 20 minutes. The balls of dough will appear puffed up.

8. Now preheat the oven to 200 degrees C. Bake the buns for 10 minutes.

9. Once the buns are done, grill the buns for 5 minutes in Grill mode.

10. Take the buns out of the oven. Brush with milk/butter.

11. Cool to room temperature. Pour a spoonful of chocolate sauce over each bun and sprinkle with coloured candies.



12. Serve and enjoy.

I am sending this recipe for the KFB Baking Palooza 2013. :-)



Childhood Ramblings....(and Caramel Candy in the Pressure Cooker)

(Source: Cakes and More!: Dulce de Leche)

I grew up in Chittaranjan Park, the "little Bengal" of New Delhi. The Market no. 2 of Chittaranjan Park was just a stone's throw from my house. The market that I remember was quite different from the pillared and modernized structure of today.

The market of yore comprised of merely seven or eight shops in a row. These shops were really small and old-fashioned. I was a frequent visitor of this market accompanying my Dadaji (whom I used to call Dadabhai).

Out of all the shops that we visited, one shop was the most my special favourite. This was a small, dark, shanty of an aged "press-wallah". He used to specialize in ironing coats and blazers. So, at the start of every winter Dadabhai and I used to descend at his store, armed with a huge load of winter clothes.

This old man (the shopkeeper) was frail, bent, and soft-spoken. Whenever he spoke there was always a twinkle in his eye. "Nanhi gudiya" he used to call me lovingly. I used to sit very comfortably on his old charpoy and dangle my legs to my heart's content while Dadabhai used to count the clothes and chat with him on all topics under the sun. When it was time to go, the old man used to always give me an orange toffee. The small orange toffees that were available for 50 paisa at that time. Oh! to my six-year-old self that orange toffee was no less than a treasure because I was not allowed to eat toffees at home! Looking back, I wonder that my grand-dad never stopped me from eating the sweets. In present times, I daresay, we parents will never let our children accept toffees from strangers for fear of the toffees being laced with toxic things! Different times, different people!


Toffees and children are inseparable! Though I am very strict on the number of toffees that my daughter consumes in a week, but in my heart of hearts I know how she longs for it. Hence, when I chanced upon the recipe of making caramel candy, I just went headlong into making it.

Since the Kolkata Food Bloggers group is turning one and there is a wonderful birthday party celebration, I am sending this beautiful dessert for the "Kolkata Food Bloggers' Birthday Celebration".

This version of caramel candy is called Dulce - de - leche. (pronounced Dool - say - de - leeshay).
It is so simple. One can make it simply by steaming a tin of condensed milk in a pressure cooker. I got the recipe from here.

 

Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:

Condensed milk (I used Amul Mithai mate): 1 tin
Water: Approx three cups. You would need enough water to make sure that the tin of condensed milk is half immersed in water.

Procedure:

1. Remove the plastic wrap of the condensed milk tin (if any). Do not open the metal flap of the tin.

2. Place it in the pressure cooker. Now add water till the tin is partially submerged in water. The water should come halfway up the sides of the tin as shown in the picture below.

3. Close the lid of the pressure cooker and cook on high heat till one whistle. (Do not worry. This is safe!)
4. Right after one whistle lower the heat to minimum and let it simmer on the gas for 20 minutes. Do not turn off the gas. The cooking time will vary according to your requirement. If you want a hard dense chewy caramel, cook for 25-30 minutes. I generally like a soft, creamy consistency, so I go for 20 minutes of cooking time.
5. Let the tin come to room temperature. This takes nearly an hour but believe me, it well worth the wait.
6. Once the tin has cooled completely, open the tin. Dig right in with the spoon. It is heavenly delicious! Needless to say, kids will love it.

 

 

Stuffed Caterpillar Buns

(Adapted from Caterpillar Bread by Fauzia's Kitchen Fun)

 

The days that little S has school, are governed by that million-dollar-question: "What do I put in her tiffin box?" You can imagine my annoyance when I open the box and find half-eaten food in it. (My face become red and steam comes out of my ears. :-))

 

I remember the words of a wonderful writer (mom and) grand mom "My grandchildren wont eat anything that has not danced on TV!" Left to her own devices, S would like to eat Maggi or Top Ramen every day of the week. Now I am not against her occasionally eating instant noodles, but sometimes it is good to eat healthy home-cooked food too. (Try explaining that to a 6 year old!) The poor child suffers from peer pressure. Her parents are not so "hep" because they want to give her rotis and paranthas for lunch.

 

While hunting around for interesting tiffin ideas, I got this wonderful recipe of caterpillar shaped bun from here.

 

 

 

These buns are easy to make, and I can experiment with any number of fillings. Home made, preservative-free, portable, and they look cute too!

 

In this recipe I have used spicy chicken kheema filling. Alternatively, paneer bhurjee or even some leftover sabzi can be used as a stuffing.

 

Here is how I made it:

 

 

Ingredients:

For the filling:

Chicken kheema - 250 grams

Onions - 2 (ground to paste)

Ginger-garlic paste - 1 teaspoon

Graram masala powder - 1/2 teaspoon

Red chilli powder - 1/4 teaspoon (more can used if you want it to be more spicy)

Tomato - 1 large, chopped

Turmeric - 1/4th teaspoon

Oil or butter - 2 tablespoon

Amchur powder/lemon juice - 1 teaspoon

Coriander leaves (chopped) - 2 tablespoon

Potato (chopped into small pieces and fried) - 1 (optional)

 

For the bread base:

I used the bread dough that I make at home. You can get the recipe here.

Egg wash:
Egg - 1 (Beaten and mixed with 1/2 cup water)

Process:

Preparing the filling:

 

1. First heat oil/butter in a pan. Add the onion paste and ginger-garlic paste. Fry for a few minutes. Add the tomatoes, turmeric, and red chili powder. Stir fry till oil separates.

2. Next add the chicken kheema. You can steam the chicken keema beforehand to reduce cooking time but I generally avoid this step.

3. Stir fry add in pan till the meat starts changing colour. Add garam masala powder. Sprinkle some water on top of the meat to prevent the meat from sticking to the pan. |Continue to stir fry over medium flame. When the meat takes up a darkish colour, add some water. The amount of water should not be too much. The meat should not be immersed in the gravy.
4. Cover the pan and let it simmer for 5-7 minutes. Open the cover. The water will have dried up. Stri fry for 1-2 minutes till the kheema filling is completely dry. Add the lemon juice and mix. Garnish with chopped coriander and leave aside to cool.

Stuffing the buns:

1. Take a round disc of the bread dough. Roll it into a roti. While rolling the roti, do not use any dry flour. Rather use oil/butter to roll the disc and prevent sticking.


2. Brush one end of the roti with egg wash.













3. Add the filling at one end of the roti.

4. Roll the outer flap of the roti and cover filling with the roti. Slightly press it down with the fingers.

5. With a knife, give longitudinal cuts in the remaining roti as shown in the picture:















6. Roll the roti in form of a roll. Add two cloves in form of eyes.

7. Brush with egg wash.


Baking the buns:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 200 degrees C for ten minutes.

2. Bake in a pre-heated oven for 15 minutes. Set the oven to Grill mode. Grill for 5 minutes at the same temperature.

3. Cool to room temperature. Serve and enjoy!

 



Easy No-Bake Eggless Cheesecake

(Adapted from Steve's Kitchen - Cheesecake Recipe - No Bake)

 

This post is a sequel to my first one about New York Style Baked cheesecake. Cheesecake is a versatile dessert that be prepared very easily at home...without any baking!

 

While hunting around for no-bake cheesecake recipes, I stumbled upon this wonderful video. You can take a look here.

 

Non-bake cheesecake is a recipe that you can make without any cooking per se. Mainly it needs to be chilled in the refrigerator and serve chilled once it is set. In this sweltering heat, it is simply perfect! So, without further ado, let me jump right in to the recipe:

 

 

Ingredients:

 

For the biscuit base:

 

Arrowroot or digestive biscuits: 10-12

Butter: 3 tablespoons

Sugar: 3 tablespoons

 

For the cheese topping:

 

Home-made paneer - made from 1.5 liters of toned milk

Whipped cream - 1 cup

Sugar - 3/4th cup

Juice of one lemon

Zest of Lime - 1 pinch

Vanilla Essence - 1 tablespoon

Yoghurt - 6 tablespoons

Gelatin - 3 and a 1/2 teaspoon

 

For decoration:

3 tablespoon of Mango Jam

 

Process:

1. First to prepare the biscuit base, crush the biscuits with your hands. Then dry grind them into a fine powder in a food processor. The biscuit mix will look something like this:
 

 

 

 

 2. Now pour the biscuit base into a plate. Mix butter and 3 tablespoon sugar with this mixture.

\

 

 3. Mix well with your hands and make a layer of this mixture at the bottom of the springform pan. Make sure you press some of this mixture to the sides of the pan so that it forms a strong base for the cheese topping.

 

 

4. Keep the pan in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours to set.

5. To prepare the cheese topping, add the paneer, yoghurt, sugar, vanilla, and lemon juice to the food processor bowl.

6. To get lemon zest just grate a whole lemon using a hand grater. You will get snips of lemon peel. Add a pinch of this grated lemon peel to this mixture.



Grating the lemon

  

7. Now make a smooth paste of this mixture after adding the whipped cream. You will get a thick batter, slightly more runny than a cake batter.

8. Mix gelatin with 2 tablespoon of water at normal room temperature. (Vegetarians can substitute gelatin with china grass or Agar Agar). In a few minutes the gelatin will bloom and look like this:

9. Now place the gelatin in a water bath. Stir slowly till the gelatin dissolves into a clear liquid. Do not let the gelatin boil.

10. Mix the gelatin thoroughly with the cheese mixture. Pour the cheese mixture over the biscuit base.

 

8. Now place the pan in the fridge. Keep it overnight for the cheesecake to set.
9. In the morning, take out the cheesecake from the fridge. The top surface will be firm to touch.

10. To prepare the topping take 3 tablespoons of mango jam in a pan. Add 1/3rd cup of water and let the mixture simmer over low flame. The jam will melt and get mixed evenly to form a smooth jelly. Cool this jelly and pour it over the cheesecake. Place the cheesecake in the fridge for another 10 minutes.
11. Voila! The cheesecake is ready. Slice and serve. (It was a superhit with my little one. She devoured her cheesecake slice in no time!)

I am sending the recipe to the Kolkata Food Bloggers online event: Beat the Heat.

 

 

 

 

New York Style Baked Cheesecake

(Adapted from Foodnetwork.co.uk: New York Style Cheesecake Adapted for India)

I have always wanted to bake a cheesecake. Even after baking a number of cakes, the cheesecake remained a elusive dream for me just because I did not have a springform baking pan. Now, a cheesecake is a delicate thing and it cannot be baked in a regular baking pan for the simple reason that is difficult to demould. A springform baking pan has a removable structure. You can remove the upper portion whereas the cake can sit pretty on the base of the pan. Sort of like this:

Two days back, hubby got me a springform baking pan and all my secret desires of baking a cheesecake just kicked in!

The cheesecake is made entirely of cream cheese. If you do not get cream cheese easily, you can substitute it with home-made paneer. Of course, if you are using store-made paneer, just crumble it with your hands.

I got a very good recipe adapted to Indian taste from here.

Here is how I made it:

Ingredients:

(My cake pan is 8 inches in diameter. So the ingredients are given as per the size of the pan.)

For the biscuit base:

Digestive or arrowroot biscuits: 10-12

Granulated sugar: 3 tablespoons

Butter: 3 tablespoons

For the cheese topping:

Paneer - 500 grams

Yoghurt - 6 tablespoons

Vanilla essence - 1 tablespoon

Eggs - 3

Sugar - 3/4th cup

Flour - 2 tablespoons

Jam - 5 teaspoons ( I used Kissan Mixed Fruit jam)

Process:

1. To prepare the biscuit base, crumble the arrowroot or digestive biscuits. Dry grind the biscuits in a food processor to get a fine powder.

2. Mix the butter and 3 tablespoon sugar with the biscuit powder. Spread evenly at the base of the greased cake pan to form a layer about 1/2 inch thick. Pre-heat the oven to 150 degrees C for 10 minutes.

3. Place the cake pan in the pre-heated oven and bake for 10 minutes till biscuit base is firm to touch. Keep aside to cool.

4. Next, prepare the cheese topping. In a food processor, mix together paneer, yoghurt, vanilla, flour, and sugar. Mix well. If required, push the mix down with a spatula in between.

5. Add eggs one by one. Whisk well. You will get a smooth white mixture, slightly more runny as compared to cake batter. Pre-heat the oven once again to 150 degrees C.

6. Now pour the mixture over biscuit base and bake for 40-45 minutes till the center of the cheesecake is firm.
7. Remove from the oven and cool to room temperature.

Just out of the oven!

8. Dot the surface with jam.

9. Chill in the refrigerator overnight. Next morning remove the cheesecake from the fridge. Cut into wedges and serve. Enjoy!

Healthy Eggless Wholewheat Cupcakes in the Microwave

(Adapted from Amuthi's Kitchen - South Indian Recipes)

Have been missing in action for some time. Sometimes life gets so hectic, that I just don't seem to find time to do the things I love.

Anyway, managed to squeeze out some time for this post. This time I decided to post an eggless recipe. My dad is allergic to eggs. Also my dad-in-law cant eat eggs because of some health-related issues. So, whenever there is any celebration in the house, I am called upon to whip up an eggless cake so that both my dads can also enjoy sampling a piece of cake.

While hunting around for a healthier version of the basic vanilla cake on the internet, I came upon this recipe here. Just loved the simplicity of this recipe. The recipe uses a minimum of ingredients that we usually have at home and it uses 100% whole wheat (Atta).
If made with Sugarfree Natura powder, this recipe will be safe for diabetics as well.

As a rule I mostly bake in my oven. But for these cup-cakes, I decided to try baking in a microwave (without the convection mode).

One word of caution though, this cake is a bit dense. It will not be as fluffy and airy as a cake made with Maida. But for all that it is real soft and spongy. My little daughter loved it!

Today is also my Dad's birthday, so I am posting his favorite cake recipe.

This is how I made it:

Ingredients:

Whole wheat flour (Atta) - 1 and 1/2 cup (I used Pillsbury Chakki Fresh Atta.)

Sugar (or Sugarfree Natura powder) - 3/4 cup

Baking powder - 2 heaped teaspoons

Vanilla essence - 1 teaspoon

Oil - 6 tablespoons

Water - 1 cup + 2 tablespoons

 

For decoration:

Pink edible color (optional)

Chopped cashew nuts - 3 to 4

 

Procedure:

1. Sift whole wheat flour and baking powder together.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2. Now mix all the wet ingredients in another bowl.

3. Add sugar to the dry whole wheat mixture.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4. Add the wet mixture to the dry mixture. Beat the mixture well till all the ingredients are mixed thoroughly. I added a few drops of edible pink color that is completely optional. If you feel that the batter is too thick add 2 tablespoon of water additionally. The batter will be thick but free-flowing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5. Pre-heat the microwave for 30 seconds on 100% (High) power.

6. Pour the batter in cupcake molds. (I use my microwave-safe silicone molds.) Remember to fill 3/4th of the molds so that the cakes will get space to expand. Add a sliver of chopped cashew nut on top of each cupcake.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

7. Now bake in the microwave for 3 minutes on 100% (High). Let the cupcakes remain within the microwave for 5 minutes more (standing time) with the microwave turned off. Now take the cupcakes out of the microwave. The cupcakes will be soft but springy to touch. In case you feel that the cupcakes are not done yet bake for an additional 30 seconds on High power.

 

8. Cool the cupcakes and de-mold them. Serve with love.