Almond Biscotti

I feel like I am writing a blog post after ages. I have been really busy and my newest obsession of puzzles is not helping the blog either. I was approached by several blogger friends who wanted to know if I would be posting baking recipes this month for my Bake-A-Thon. To be honest, I was afraid to even commit but thought it would be nice to get back into blogging. Here is the first recipe of the season for this year. These biscottis are crumbly, delicious and addictive.

One Year Back -  Pumpkin Granola
Two Years Back - Cranberry Corn Muffins
Three Years Back - Holiday Gift Ideas
Four Years Back - Cake Decorating Basics - II
Adapted from - Bon Appetit magazine
This gives 3 dozen biscottis that are 5" long.
Ingredients: 
All purpose flour - 3 1/4 cups
Sugar - 1 1/2 cup
Oil - 2/3 cup
Eggs - 3 large
Baking powder - 1 TBSP
Salt - 1/2 tsp
Almond extract - 1/2 tsp
Vanilla extract - 2 tsp
Almonds - 1 cup lightly toasted and chopped.

Method:
Preheat the oven to 350 F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. In a bowl, whisk together flour, salt, baking powder. In another bowl, beat eggs with sugar till thick (about 2 minutes). Add oil and beat few more times. Stir in the vanilla and almond extracts. Dump the dry ingredients to wet and mix well. This is a sticky dough. Stir in chopped almonds. Divide the dough into two parts and shape each half into a log of 15" X 3". It should be about 1/2" thick. You can wet your hands and shake off excess water to help shape it. Leave at least 3" between the logs. Bake for 30 - 35 minutes or until lightly brown. Remove from the oven and let it cool for 15 minutes. Reduce the oven temperature to 325 F. When the logs are cooled, transfer them on to the cutting board and slice them 1/2" - 3/4" wide slices. Transfer them back on to the baking sheet placing them on their back and bake for 20 minutes.  Rotate the pan in between. Cool completely and store in an air tight container for 2 weeks.

Enjoy.

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Coconut Poppy Seed Coffee Cake

This is the last post of mine for this year and this bake-a-thon 2012. With too many baked goods in the house due to this bake-a-thon, it was a challenge not to make too many so that there is always something on the counter. I wish everyone a very HAPPY NEW YEAR 2013 and may all be safe, healthy and kind. Enjoy this virtual treat of Coconut Poppy Seed coffee cake and bid 2012 a good bye.

One Year Back -  Savory Apple Onion Galette with yeast
Two years back - Cake Decorating Basics - Part 10
Three Years Back - Rave Unde (Rava Laddoo)


Adapted barely from Perfect light desserts by Nick Malgieri and David Joachim  (makes one 9" round cake)
Ingredients: 
All purpose flour - 1 cup
Poppy seeds - 1/4 cup
Sweetened flaked coconut - 3/4 cup
Baking Powder - 1 tsp
Eggs - 3 large
Sugar - 3/4 cup
Oil - 1/2 cup
Salt - 1/2 tsp
Yogurt - 1 cup
Vanilla - 1 tsp (It was not in the original recipe)

Method:
Preheat the oven to 350 F. Grease and flour a 9" round cake pan. Set aside. In a bowl, whisk together flour, salt, baking powder, poppy seeds and flaked coconut. Set aside. In another bowl, beat eggs, sugar and oil together till well incorporated. Add the dry ingredients alternating with yogurt starting and ending with flour mixture. Add vanilla and beat one more time. Pour into the prepared pan and bake for 30 - 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool on the wire rack for 10 minutes and then turn it on to the wire rack to cool completely. This is not a very sweet cake and goes very well with some milk or coffee.

Notes:
I made 1/3rd of the recipe and baked in 4" ramekins to get two small cakes as seen in the picture.

Check out what my friends are baking -  Preethi, Veena, Priya, Srivalli,  Sumana and Jayasri. Thank you ladies for sharing my obsession for baking and baking with me the whole month.
Enjoy.

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Chilli Garlic Crackers

This year's bake-a-thon has not been hectic because I decided to post just 3 times a week. But, it has been hectic in another way and hard for me to manage. Too many people went on vacation at work and I had to share their load of work with others who were working. Along with that, I took few projects at home and got busy with them.  With all these activities, I managed to bake whatever I found easy and didn't put too much creativity into them. Here is one of them where I took time and used the base of a tart dough recipe and converted them into a savory cracker.

One Year Back - No Knead Bread Sticks, Vegan Banana Chocolate Cake (lowfat)
Two Years Back - Rava Laddoo
Three Years Back - Cake Decorating Basics - Part 9
Ingredients: 
All purpose flour - 1 1/4 cups
Sugar - 2 tsp (optional but brings the flavors well)
Baking powder - 1/2 tsp
Salt - 1/4 tsp + a generous pinch
Butter - 3 TBSP cold cut into few cubes
Canola or Olive oil - 2 TBSP
Cold Water - 3 TBSP (Start with 2 TBSP and add the final TBSP if necessary)
Green chillies - 4 - 5 (I used 4 and they weren't that spicy for an Indian palate)
Garlic - 2 pods

Method:
Make the dough:
Take flour, salt, green chillies, garlic, baking powder, sugar into the bowl of a food processor fitted with chopping blade. Pulse till garlic and chillies are minced and mixed uniformly. Add butter cubes and oil. Pulse to get butter incorporated. Do not pulse too much and make sure there are tiny flakes of butter left as chunks. Add water and pulse till you get the crumbly dough. If you can make a ball out of it (not a smooth one though), it is done. Take it out and flatten it into a disc. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 3 hours or overnight. I felt the dough was easy to handle when it had chilled overnight in the refrigerator.

To Bake:
Preheat the oven to 350 F. Adjust the oven racks into the lower most and middle ones. Take out the dough from the refrigerator and let it sit 5 minutes at room temperature. Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper. On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough fairly thin. You can dust the top surface with flour if it is sticking to the rolling pin. Roll it thinner than 1/4" almost to 1/8" thickness. Cut with biscuit cutter or any other cookie cutter. You can also just cut them into squares or rectangles if that is easy for you. Dip a fork in flour and pierce it uniformly all over the cut cracker dough. Gently transfer them to the baking sheet and bake for 12 - 15 minutes. You will be baking the crackers at the lower most rack for the first 12 minutes. Then transfer it to the upper rack for the remaining 3 minutes. It all depends on how thin you have rolled the crackers and how big the area of the cracker is. Do a test batch and go from there. Cool on the wire rack and you can either serve them warm or cold. They become flaky and perfect to go with a cup of coffee or tea. Great for cocktail parties or topped with cheese for those cheese lovers out there.

Notes:
You could add your choice of herbs here if you wish but I kept them simple. For cheesy crackers, fold in half a cup of Parmesan cheese while making the dough.

Check out what my friends are baking -  Preethi, Veena, Priya, Srivalli,  Sumana and Jayasri.

Enjoy.

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Cheesecake Blondies

I have been baking for more than a decade now. I have made more than my share of blondies and brownies. This is the best of the lot. If I tell you that this tastes like out of this world, I am not exaggerating. Try it yourself if you don't believe me.

One Year Back -  Coconut bars, Tutti Fruity Muffins
Two Years Back - Cake Decorating Basics Part - 9
Three Years Back - Cake Decorating Basics Part - 3
Adapted from - Simply Recipes
Ingredients: 
Cream Cheese - 8 Oz block (I used 1/3 fat) - softened
Oil - 1/3 cup (Or use melted butter 1/2 cup)
Sugar - 1 cup
Egg - 1 large (Ener-G egg replacer works fine)
All purpose flour - 1 cup
Baking Soda - 1/8 tsp
Baking Powder - 1/2 tsp
Salt - 1/4 tsp
Vanilla - 1 tsp
Optional (I used):
Macadamia nuts - chopped and measured 1/2 cup (Could use walnuts or omit)
White chocolate chips - 1/2 cup (You could use semi sweet or milk chocolate chips)

Method:
Preheat the oven to 350 F. Grease and flour a 8" square pan or line with parchment paper. In a bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Set aside. In another bowl, beat sugar, oil and cream cheese till creamy. Add egg, vanilla and beat till everything is mixed well. Add the dry ingredients in one go and continue to beat. When the beater starts resisting, switch to spatula and add the chocolate chips and macadamia nuts and fold. Pour into the prepared pan. This is very sticky and thick dough. Smooth the top with spatula. Bake for 25 - 30 minutes or until the top looks pale golden with brown spots here and there. It will also start to pull from the sides of the pan. Check with the toothpick and if very few crumbs come attached to it when you insert it in the center, they are done. Do not over bake them. Cool in the pan on the wire rack and slice when completely cool.

Notes:
After slicing and seeing how thick they are, I can say you can use 9 " square pan to get a little thinner blondies.  In that case, bake few minutes less.
Check out what my friends are baking -  Preethi, Veena, Priya, Srivalli,  Sumana and Jayasri.
 

Enjoy.

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Sweet Wheat Quick Bread

When you are continuously baking, it is hard to decide what to bake next. I had that feeling today and when I started organizing pages and pages of recipes that I have collected, I found this Sweet Wheat Bread scribbled on one such page. I do not know what the source of this recipe is, but I had to change few things to make it work the way I wanted. This is probably the quickest and easiest whole wheat bread one can make. Of course, it is not suitable for sandwiches, but definitely perfect for breakfast bread with some butter or jam or a cup of milk.

One Year Back -  Banana Cranberry Quick Bread, Savory Tomato Muffin, Chickpeas Crackers
Two Years Back - Eggless peanutbutter swirled chocolate cake
Three Years Back -  Cake decorating basics part - 3
Makes one 8 X 4 or short 9 X 5 loaf
Ingredients: 
Whole Wheat flour - 2 1/2 cups
Baking Powder - 2 tsp
Baking Soda - 1 tsp
Cinnamon - 1 tsp (optional)
Salt - 1/4 tsp
Egg - 1 large (flax egg works fine)
Molasses or honey or agave nectar - 1/2 cup (I used agave nectar)
Sugar - 1/4 cup (Skip it if you don't want the bread to be sweet)
Oil - 1/4 cup
Buttermilk or yogurt - 2/3 cup (I used buttermilk)
Water - 1/4 cup

Method:
Preheat the oven to 375 F. 350 F in case of dark pan. I was using a dark pan so heated it to 350 F. Grease with shortening and flour well. In a bowl, whisk together wheat flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. In another bowl whisk together egg, oil, sugar, agave nectar or honey or molasses. Add water to the buttermilk or yogurt and set aside. To the egg mixture, add flour and the buttermilk alternating starting and ending with flour mixture. Fold gently and pour into the prepared pan. Bake for 45 - 50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes and then turn it on to the wire rack to cool completely. Slice when completely cool. I was in a hurry and sliced when still warm. It will crumble if you slice when still warm. This tastes great toasted or plain with some milk for breakfast.

Check out what my friends are baking for this bake-a-thon :  Preethi, Priya, Srivalli,  Sumana and Jayasri.    
Enjoy.

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Cornmeal Lime Snack Cake

My older kid loves to read. You probably will think I am exaggerating when I say she reads about 20 books a week on an average. More during holidays. Anyway, that makes me go to the library once a week and sometimes twice. After picking out books for her and checking them out, I saw a book on cakes. I don't even remember the title of the book - Sorry. I flipped through since I had crossed the limit of books they give per household and I couldn't possibly borrow it. This was one of the cake recipes from that book and it was called Cornmeal Lime Chili cake. The author had added chillies to the cake batter. Even when I wanted to experiment, didn't want to waste the whole batch if kids refused to eat them and skipped it. My kids liked the flavor very much that I had to bake them again for their snacks. It is not very sweet and I tweaked the recipe to use less oil than what it originally called for so that I wouldn't feel guilty sending these as snacks.

One Year Back - Macadamia and White Chocolate Chip cookies, Quick Palmiers
Two Years Back - Gingerbread Biscotti
Three Years Back - Cranberry White chocolate Chip Bars
Makes one 10" bundt pan, or two 8 X 4 loaves or 24 cupcakes.
Ingredients:
Canola Oil - 2/3 cup
Buttermilk - 1 1/3 cups
All purpose flour - 2 1/2 cups
Cornmeal - 1/2 cup (Fine ground preferred)
Baking powder - 2 tsp
Baking Soda - 1/2 tsp
Salt - 1/2 tsp
Sugar - 1 3/4 cups
Lime zest - 2 tsp (You can skip it if you are feeding people who are picky about green things in the cake)
Freshly squeezed lime juice - 1/4 cup (I used key limes)
Eggs - 4 large

Method:
Preheat the oven to 350 F (325 F in case of dark pans). In a bowl, whisk together flour, cornmeal, baking powder, baking soda, salt. Set aside. In another bowl, beat sugar and oil. Add eggs one at a time and beat till nicely incorporated. Add the lime zest, lime juice and beat one more time. Now add the dry ingredients in thirds alternating with buttermilk starting and ending with dry ingredients. Stir slowly and pour into the prepared pan. Bake cupcakes for 22 - 24 minutes and bundt pan for 55 - 60 minutes and the loaves for 40 - 45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes and then turn on to the wire rack to cool completely. This tasted great for snack and my kids enjoyed them.

Check out what my friends are baking for this bake-a-thon :  Preethi, Priya, Srivalli,  Sumana and Jayasri.    

Enjoy.

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Apple Cake

I came across a link where a blogger has explained about freezer meals. She spends 4 hours a month preparing most of the meals that go in the freezer and that makes it a breeze for her to put dinner together every night. Just throw the contents of the bag in a crockpot or the oven and she is done. I was explaining this to one of my neighbors and even when she is not fond of cooking every day, she said it doesn't taste good and she has tried that. I don't really know about that but I told her cooking is my necessity not mainly for feeding the family but for maintaining my sanity. She just smiled but I am sure she probably wonders who could say that.

This cake is adapted from don't know where. I had scribbled some ingredients on a piece of paper and I just added apples and spices. It tastes so good that my husband who is tired of eating all these cakes I bake ate it happily for 3 days in a row. That is something if you know what I mean.

One Year Back - Caramel Corn
Two Years Back - Gingerbread Biscotti
Three Years Back - Chocolate Chip Cookies, Coconut Macaroons, Ginger Spice Cookies
Makes one bundt cake or two 9 X 5 loaf cakes. I made mine into 4 mini loaves.
Ingredients:
All purpose flour - 3 cups
Cinnamon - 2 tsp
Nutmeg - 1/4 tsp
Baking Soda - 1 tsp
Salt - 1/2 tsp
Canola Oil - 3/4 cup
Sugar - 1 cup
Brown Sugar - 1/2 cup packed
Eggs - 2 Large (Or two flax eggs for vegan version)
Sour cream or yogurt - 1 cup
Peeled, diced apples - 3 - 4 cups (I used 2 very large granny smith apples but you can use any baking variety)

Method:
Preheat the oven to 350 F (325 F in case of dark non-stick pans). Grease and flour the baking pans well. This cake has a tendency to stick. So, be liberal in this step. In a bowl, whisk together flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda, salt. Set aside. In another bowl, beat with an electric mixer both sugars, oil, egg till nicely combined. Add sour cream or yogurt and continue to beat. When everything is mixed well and the oil is not floating on the top, add dry ingredients. Incorporate at low speed. Stir in apples. Pour into the prepared pan. Bake the bundt cake for 65 - 70 minutes. 9 X 5 loaves for 50 - 60 minutes and mini loaves for 40 - 45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Because of moisture in the apples, it takes a little longer than the non-fruit cakes.
Cool in the pan on the rack for 10 minutes and then turn it on to the wire rack to cool completely. This tasted good when warm but the best when it sat for a day. So, plan to make it a day ahead and serve the next day with a cup of tea.

Notes:
Can add about 1 cup chopped walnuts. I did not since it was part of the tray I baked for school and school is nut free.

Check out what my friends are baking for this bake-a-thon :  Preethi, Priya, Srivalli,  Sumana and Jayasri.   

Enjoy.

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Vegan Soft, Chewy Peanut Butter Cookies

When we are going through hardship, we wonder why we are punished. We wonder what did we do wrong to deserve the pain and suffering. But the fact is, it is not like that at all. What did those kids who died in Newtown, CT school shooting did to deserve to die like that? What did the parents do to deserve such a pain? When you think about these, there is absolutely no explanation to any of the things that happen. Guns bought for protection seldom do that. They always harm some innocent people and when everyone is arguing about what needs to be done, I just pray and hope that something happens to prevent these things from happening again. Because, deep down in my heart, I understand that whatever the change the government makes, there will always be bad in every corner and era of this world. I do sometimes wish that the mythological stories I grew up hearing and reading can re occur and that God will come to this world to save all good from bad. One can only hope right?

This peanut butter cookie is a vegan adaptation from the book. These were soft, chewy and not very sweet. They are perfect to have with a cup of milk.

One Year Back - Coconut Banana Loaf Cake, Sourcream coffee cake, Cashew Cookies
Two Years Back - Almond Butter fudge Balls
Three Years Back -  Masala Corn Muffins, Holiday Cookie Platter
Adapted from King Arthur Flour Baking companion - makes about 2 dozen cookies
Ingredients: 
All purpose flour - 1 1/2 cups
Vegetable shortening - 1/2 cup (I used crisco)
Granulated sugar - 1/2 cup
Brown sugar - 1/2 cup packed
Flax seed meal - 1 TBSP mixed with 3 TBSP of warm water
Vanilla extract - 1 tsp
Peanut butter - 1/2 cup (Smooth and not natural)
Baking soda - 1 tsp
Salt - 1/4 tsp (You can skip it since peanut butter has enough salt)

Method:
Preheat the oven to 350 F. Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper. Set aside. In a bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda and salt. In another bowl beat shortening, peanut butter and both sugars. Add in the flax seed and water mixture and beat till creamy. Add vanilla and beat followed by the dry ingredients. It will be very tight towards the end. Switch to a strong wooden spoon or a spatula. You can even mix everything by hand. It will make a crumbly dough. Make lemon sized balls and flatted very slightly. Place on the cookie sheet with 3" space between them. Bake for 10 - 12 minutes. It will have lot of cracks on the top and it will look like it needs few more minutes. But remove and let it stand on the cookie sheet for 5 minutes. It will firm up as it cools down. If you over bake, it will turn out to be crispy.

Notes:
You could use 1/2 cup canola oil instead of shortening. Then, the cookie will spread more and become thin. In case you are using oil, don't flatten them so that they don't spread too much.

Check out what my friends are baking for this bake-a-thon :  Preethi, Priya, Srivalli,  Sumana and Jayasri.  

Enjoy.

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Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

One cannot have enough chocolate chip cookie recipes. Each one of them is different. I was intrigued by the ingredients in this recipe just because it called for corn syrup. And this recipe is definitely a keeper. I had to make some cookies as part of an order and they had asked for huge cookies. It came out very well and stayed soft even after two days. The ones you see here are the regular sized cookies made with the same dough. They are moist, soft, chewy and delicious.

One Year Back - Vegan Date, Raisin and Coconut Cake, Spicy Cream Cheese Buns
Two years back - Vegan Vanilla Cake, Almond Butter fudge Balls
Three years back - Spiced peanuts / Congress kadalekayi
Adapted from King Arthur Flour Baking Companion book
Ingredients: 
Butter - 12 TBSP or 1  1/2 sticks softened
Light brown sugar - 1 1/4 cups packed (See Notes)
Light Corn syrup - 1/4 cup 
Vanilla extract - 1 TBSP
Baking powder - 3/4 tsp
Salt - 3/4 tsp
Baking Soda - 1/4 tsp
Egg - 1 large
All purpose flour - 2 1/4 cups (spoon and measure)
Semisweet chocolate chips or chunks - 2 cups of one 12 Oz bag

Method:
Preheat the oven to 350 F (See Notes). Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper. In a bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Set aside. In another bowl, beat butter and brown sugar till fluffy. Add the corn syrup and continue to beat. Add the egg, vanilla and beat to incorporate everything. Now add the dry ingredients and beat at low speed. It will be hard for the mixer to mix everything properly. Use the spatula towards the end and mix. Stir in chocolate chips. Make lemon sized balls and place on the cookie sheet with 3 inches space between them. Bake for 12 - 14 minutes. Cookies will have set and started to brown very slightly at the edges. Remove from the oven and let it stand on the cookie sheet (on the wire rack) for 10 minutes. Remove to the wire rack to cool completely. When completely cool, store in an air tight container.

Notes:
I ran out of light brown sugar and had to use part dark brown sugar. If you use all light brown sugar, cookies will come out lighter in color.
The original recipe asks to bake at 375 F. I was baking three different kinds of cookies one after the other and I didn't change the oven temperature. If baking at 375 F, check 2 minutes early. You can even refrigerate the dough and bake within 3 days. Or freeze the dough for a month and use it.

Check out what my friends are baking for this bake-a-thon :  Preethi, Priya, Srivalli,  Sumana and Jayasri. 

Enjoy.

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Vegan Sugar Cookies (Drop cookies)

I was asked to make a platter of cookies for someone. They wanted sugar cookies as part of the tray. The moment I heard that, my mind started thinking about which cookie cutter to use and what colored icing to put on it. But then, I realized they didn't want anything fancy but plain round cookies. To make my life easy, I went for drop cookies which is so simple and yet delicious. You could easily roll them into 1/4 - 1/2" thick layer and cut it out and bake. This recipe is so relaxed that if you want crisper cookies, all you have to do is bake them a little longer. I left mine a bit soft and chewy.

One Year Back - Chocolate Butterscotch bars, Chocolate Gingerbread bars, Molten lava cake using cocoa powder
Two Years Back - Eggless Almond date cake
Three Years Back - Barley Dosa
Adapted very slightly from - The King Arthur Flour Baker's Companion
Ingredients: 
Vegetable shortening - 1/2 cup (I used crisco)
Sugar - 2/3 cup
Non Dairy sour milk - 1/4 cup (1 TBSP of lemon juice added to 1 cup of soy milk to make it sour)
Vanilla extract - 1 TBSP
All purpose flour - 2 cups (spooned and leveled)
Baking soda - 1/2 tsp
Salt - 1/4 tsp

Method:
Preheat the oven to 350 F. Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper. Set aside. In a bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda and salt. In another bowl, with electric mixer, beat shortening and sugar. It will be a bit crumbly. Add the soured milk and continue to beat. They will get creamy after the addition of sour milk. Add vanilla and beat for few seconds. Now, add the dry ingredients and beat at low speed. You might have to use your hand towards the end to make the dough come together. Make lemon sized balls and flatten slightly. Place on the cookie sheet with 3" from each other. These spread nicely. Bake for 12 - 16 minutes (longer if you made the dough balls bigger) until puffy and edges have just started to brown. Rotate the sheets at half time if you are baking both the sheets at the same time. Do not over bake unless you want crispier cookies. They fall as they cool. Cool on the cookie sheet on a wire rack for 10 minutes. If you try to transfer these as soon as they came out of the oven, they will break and fall apart. When completely cool, place in an air tight container. You could use cookie icing and decorate with sprinkles if you wish.

Check out what my friends are baking for this bake-a-thon :  Preethi, Veena, Priya, Srivalli,  Sumana and Jayasri. 
 

Enjoy.

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No Knead Chocolate rolls/muffins (Vegan)

I love baking with yeast even when it takes more time to get the finished product. Main reason is the flexibility of using less sugar and fat. I needed something to send in as snack and this was something that I could make without too much hands on time and at the same time not using too much sugar or fat. One of my kid felt it was too intense in chocolate flavor because I had used dutch processed cocoa. You can actually reduce the cocoa to just 1/4 cup and increase the all purpose flour to 2 1/4 cup if you want mildly chocolate muffins. You could use natural cocoa and in that case the muffins would be darker instead of having a reddish brown color.

One Year Back - Vegan Carrot Oat Bars, Julekage
Two Years Back - Dry Fruit Bread/Cake (With yeast)
Three Years Back - Green Mango Apple Gojju
Ingredients:
All purpose flour - 2 cups
Cocoa - 1/2 cup
Salt - 1/2 tsp
Warm Water - 1 1/4 cup
Sugar - 1/4 cup
Active dry yeast - 2 1/4 tsp
Oil - 3 TBSP

Method:
In a bowl take warm water. Add sugar, salt, oil to it. Add cocoa and stir. Sprinkle yeast and let it froth (about 5 minutes). Slowly start adding flour and stir with a strong wooden spoon. When the batter is uniformly mixed, cover and let rise till bubbly, about 45 minutes. Stir down the batter. Grease a muffin cup very well. Scoop out the batter into the cups to get 12 muffins. Cover with a well oiled plastic wrap and let rise for 30 - 40 minutes. The batter will rise and almost touch the plastic wrap. Preheat the oven to 400 F. Bake for 15 - 20 minutes. Cool in the pan for 5 minutes and remove to cool completely on the wire rack. This is not very sweet at all. You can either serve with some buttery spread and milk or with some fruit spread.

Notes:
Do not use the cupcake/muffin liner. Since this is a batter and it is made to sit for 40 minutes or so, the paper will get soggy and stick to the muffin horribly. Don't ask me how I know. 

Check out what my friends are baking for this bake-a-thon :  Preethi, Veena, Priya, Srivalli,  Sumana and Jayasri. 

Enjoy.

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Honey Rolls/Buns

When someone is baking 3 times a week for the main purpose of blogging, it becomes hard to choose what to bake. I cannot keep on baking cakes or cookies just because  I don't want too much sugary, fatty things sitting on the counter. I have baked a lot to just give it away in the past. But I feel guilty for giving all these high calorific food in case they are trying to watch what they are eating. So, here is something that serves the purpose of baking and blogging for me and which can be made as a part of regular meal so everyone is happy. My kids loved these for breakfast and they made me slice these in half and spread nutella to make nutella sandwich.

One Year Back - Lemon Coconut Bread, Vanilla Cake using Homemade mix
Two Years Back - Dry Fruit Yeast Bread/Cake
Three Years Back - Coconut Almond Cookies
Ingredients:
All purpose flour - 4 cups
Active dry yeast - 2 1/2 tsp
Warm water - 1 cup
Yogurt - 1/4 cup (measured in dry measuring cup in place of 1 large egg)
Honey - 1/4 cup
Oil - 3 TBSP
Salt - 1 1/4 tsp

To brush before baking:
Honey - 1 TBSP
Milk - 1 TBSP

To brush after baking:
Less than 1 TBSP of butter

Method:
Bread Machine Method:
Place water, oil, yogurt, honey, salt, all purpose flour, yeast in this order in the bread machine pan. Select dough cycle (for a 2 lb loaf) and press start. (Usually the order is oil or butter, water, salt, sugar, flour and then yeast) When the machine beeps, check the dough. Make sure the dough is nice and smooth and not sticky. Adjust the flour or water if needed by 1 TBSP at a time. I didn't need any. Let the dough rise for 45 minutes and then gently deflate it. Transfer onto a greased area (I use a chopping board sprayed with vegetable oil spray) and divide the dough into 12 pieces.  Roll into balls and place in a 9 X 13 pan. Cover with a greased aluminum foil and let it rise for 45 minutes or till almost double in size. By this time, they'll have bulked up and touching each other.

Towards the end of rise time, preheat the oven to 400 F. Brush the rolls with honey and milk mixture. Bake in the preheated oven for 15 - 20 minutes. Mine were golden at 20 minutes. Let it stand in  the pan for 5 - 10 minutes. Brush with melted butter if desired.

Manual Method:
In a large bowl, take the warm water, honey and dry yeast. Let it stand for about 10 minutes or till frothy. Slowly start adding the flours, yogurt, oil, salt. Knead for about 10 - 15 minutes. Let it rest for about 45 minutes. Deflate the dough and divide them into 12 pieces. Roll them into the ball and proceed as given in the 'Bread Machine Method' section.

Check out what my friends are baking for this bake-a-thon :  Preethi, Veena, Priya, Srivalli,  Sumana and Jayasri.

Enjoy.

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Pumpkin Pecan Bread

My kids never liked nuts in baked goods. But, that was in the past. They have started enjoying nuts in the bread and cake that makes it good for me to add few nuts here and there while baking. This is another version of the Pumpkin Chocolate Chip bread that I had posted sometime back. I made these into Pumpkin Pecan Bread since pumpkin and pecans go very well together.

One Year Back - Sweet and Spicy Almonds, Lemon Coconut Bread

Two Years Back -Holiday Gift Ideas

Three Years Back - Eggless Pecan Pie Bars
Ingredients:

Oil - 1/2 cup
Brown Sugar - 1 cup packed
Eggs - 2 large
Pumpkin puree - 1 cup
Water - 1/3 cup
All purpose flour - 1 2/3 cups
Baking Powder - 1/4 tsp
Baking Soda - 1 tsp
Salt - 1/2 tsp
Pecans - 1  cup chopped
Vanilla - 1 tsp

Method:
Preheat the oven to 350 F. (325 F if using dark pans) Grease one 9 X 5 or 8 X 4 loaf pan with vegetable oil spray or shortening. I made 4 mini loaves. Dust with flour. Set aside. In a bowl, whisk together flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder. In another bowl, beat eggs, oil, brown sugar, pumpkin puree together with a hand mixer. Add vanilla and beat for a second more. Now add the flour mixture in thirds alternating with water. That is 1/3 of flour mixture, 1/2 of water, 1/3 flour mixture , remaining 1/2 of water followed by the final 1/3 of flour mixture. Beat at slow speed or stir with a wooden spoon after every addition. Stir in chopped pecans. Divide between the loaf pans. Bake for 35 - 40 minutes in case of  mini loaf pans and 50 - 60 minutes in case of a large loaf pan or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  Cool in the pan for 10 minutes on the cooling rack and then turn it on to the wire rack to cool completely.
Check out what my friends are baking -  Preethi, Veena, Priya, Srivalli,  Sumana and Jayasri.

Notes:
If you make 3 mini loaves instead of 4 with this recipe, you will get tall, chubbier loaves. You might have to bake for 5 more minutes in that case.

Enjoy.

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Giant Chocolate Chip cookie

If you ask me what is my least favorite goodie to bake, I would tell you pie. That is because nobody likes pies at home. Next one is cookies not because people don't like them (in fact they love cookies), but because of scooping the dough into small portions and baking in batches. That is one of the reasons why I prefer to bake bar cookies more than regular drop cookies or rolled cookies. You can bake about four pans of cookies at one shot which can feed a lot of people. When I saw this recipe of  giant chocolate chip cookie which is baked as one big cookie and then cut into wedges, I couldn't resist the urge of baking it. So, here it is. They make huge portions, so next time, I would pat them into a 8" square pan and make 16 cookies out of this. Also, do not over bake them. They get dry since there is not too much fat in them.

One Year Back - Cardamom Biscotti, Italian Supermarket Bread
Two Years Back - Greek Rice
Three Years Back -  Yam and Apple Kofta Curry
Adapted from - here.
Ingredients:
Oil - 1/3 cup
Sugar - 1/2 cup
Egg - 1 large
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
All purpose flour - 1/2 cup
Whole Wheat flour - 3/4 cup
Baking Soda - 1/2 tsp
Salt - 1/4 tsp
Mini Chocolate Chips - 1/2 cup

Method:
Preheat the oven to 350 F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. In a bowl, whisk together both flours, salt and baking soda. In another bowl, mix egg, oil and sugar with a strong wooden spoon. Add vanilla extract and mix. Now add the dry ingredients to the wet and stir to combine. It will be a bit crumbly dough. Stir in chocolate chips. With your hands, Scoop out the dough and place it on the parchment paper. Flatten it to a make a  9"  - 10" circle. Even though the dough looked crumbly while mixing, it will come together and stay together. Place in the oven and bake for 22 - 26 minutes or until pale golden on the top. Remove from the oven and let cool on the cooling rack for 3 - 4 minutes. Then cut them into wedges but don't separate them. Let it cool more before serving. If you forget to cut them when they are warm, it will get crumbly when cut.
Check out what my friends are baking -  Preethi, Veena, Priya, Srivalli and  Sumana.

Notes:
You could bake it by patting into a pan of 8" square to get small sized more number of cookies.

Enjoy.

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Pumpkin Granola

Today is the beginning of December. A month that lot of people look forward to mainly because of holidays.  The best thing I like about December is the chance to bake a lot of things to give as gifts. And today marks the beginning of Bake-A-Thon 2012. I am sure some of you might not agree with the name since I am not posting everyday, but still I want to call it by the same name. Some of my blogger friends wanted to join me in this venture. I am happy that I have company because with the busy office work, it is easy to stop blogging unless you have some motivation. So, thanks go to Preethi, Veena, Priya, Srivalli and  Sumana.

One Year Back - Cranberry Corn Muffins
Two Years Back - Holiday Gift Ideas
Three Years Back - Cake Decorating Basics - II

Ingredients: 
Rolled Oats - 5 cups
Brown Sugar - 1 cup packed
Canola Oil - 1/4 cup
Pumpkin Puree - 3/4 cup (I used homemade)
Salt - 1/2 tsp
Cinnamon - 1 tsp
Ginger - 1 tsp
Cloves - 1/2 tsp
Nutmeg - 1/4 tsp
All Spice - 1/4 tsp
Dried sweetened Cranberries - 1 - 1 1/2 cups (Or your favorite dried fruits like raisins or chopped dates)
Walnuts - 1 cup chopped (Pecans make another delicious addition/variation)

Method:
Preheat the oven to 325 F.  Line two large baking sheets with aluminum foil and spray with vegetable oil spray. Set aside. In a bowl, take rolled oats and chopped walnuts. Toss gently. In a saucepan, combine brown sugar, canola oil, pumpkin puree, salt and other spices. Heat stirring occasionally till brown sugar melts a bit and combines with the rest of the ingredients in the pan. It doesn't have to boil. Pour this on to the granola and walnut mixture and stir to combine. There will be lot of lumps, leave them as is or break them into smaller lumps. Spread on the two baking sheets and bake for 50 minutes to an hour stirring once midway and rotating the baking sheets. If you have spread it thin enough, it should be ready in 50 minutes. If you have too many big lumps, it will take up to an hour. Remove from the oven and let cool slightly. I would suggest you to break the lumps into smaller ones since it will add texture uniformly through out the cereal. Add sweetened dried cranberries and mix. Once cooled completely, store in an air tight container. This should be good for two weeks if not eaten by then. I prefer to eat this with warm milk instead of cold milk.

Notes:
You could reduce the spices if you don't like the spices or omit them altogether. In that case, add about 2 tsp of vanilla to pumpkin mixture.

Enjoy.

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Bake-A-Thon 2012

I recently went looking for bundt cake recipes on Food Librarian's blog written by Mary. She has been consistently posting Bundt cake recipes on every day of November for more than 2 years now. When I didn't see any bundt recipe this month on her blog, I was curious and sent her an email. She replied back saying she was unable to do it this year because of her busy schedule.  I then realized that maybe someone is wondering about the month long Bake-A-Thon I did last year with few blogger friends.

And exactly at that time, Veena who baked month long with me last year asked if I was going to do it this time. So I am asking if anybody wants to do it with me? I am going to make it less stressful this time by posting 3 times a week.

Remembering last year's Bake-A-Thon, here is the list of all goodies that I baked and shared with you all. Some of my favorite pictures are:

Day 1: Cranberry Corn Muffins

Day 2: Cardamom Biscotti

Day 3: Italian Supermarket Bread

Day 4: Sweet and Spicy Almonds

Day 5: Lemon Coconut Bread

Day 6: Vanilla Cake using homemade cake mix

Day 7: Vegan Carrot Oat bars

Day 8: Julekage

Day 9: Chocolate Butterscotch Bars using cake mix

Day 10: Soft Chewy Applesauce Cookies

Day 11: Chocolate Gingerbread Bars

Day 12: Molten Lava Cake

Day 13: Spicy Cream Cheese Buns

Day 14: Vegan Date, Raisin, Coconut Cake

Day 15: Sour cream Coffee Cake

Day 16: Cashew Cookies

Day 17: Coconana Loaf Cake (Coconut Banana Loaf Cake)

Day 18: Mid-way Recap of Bake-A-Thon

Day 19: Caramel Corn

Day 20: Quick Palmiers

Day 21: Macadamia, White chocolate Chip Cookies

Day 22: Banana Cranberry Quick Bread

Day 23: Savory Tomato Muffins

Day 24: Chickpea Crackers

Day 25: Coconut Bars

Day 26: Tutti Fruity Muffins

Day 27: No Knead Bread Sticks

Day 28: Vegan Banana Chocolate Cake (Low fat, low sugar)

Day 29: Savory Onion, Apple Galette with yeast dough

Day 30: Crust less Coconut Custard Pie

Have a great day everyone

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Bake-A-Thon 2011 - Final Roundup

Happy New year everyone. May the year 2012 be filled with health, happiness and prosperity. For some reason, everyone looks back into the entire year during this time. I think it is a great practice, to learn from our own mistakes, make resolutions to do better and correct the mistakes in future. If you have New Year resolutions for this year, I wish you all the best with that/them.

If there are people who are glad that 2011 is over, I am one of them. Year 2010 was bad enough in my personal life, but 2011 was worse. I am hoping, praying that year 2012 has good stuff for me/us.

On a side note, I have been really busy this month with this Bake-A-Thon. I do not know if you all enjoyed reading these daily baking adventures, but I certainly did. Am I going to do something like this again? time only will tell.
But for now, enjoy the summary of all the posts written for this Bake-A-Thon -

Day 1: Cranberry Corn Muffins

Day 2: Cardamom Biscotti

Day 3: Italian Supermarket Bread

Day 4: Sweet and Spicy Almonds

Day 5: Lemon Coconut Bread

Day 6: Vanilla Cake using homemade cake mix

Day 7: Vegan Carrot Oat bars

Day 8: Julekage

Day 9: Chocolate Butterscotch Bars using cake mix

Day 10: Soft Chewy Applesauce Cookies

Day 11: Chocolate Gingerbread Bars

Day 12: Molten Lava Cake

Day 13: Spicy Cream Cheese Buns

Day 14: Vegan Date, Raisin, Coconut Cake

Day 15: Sour cream Coffee Cake

Day 16: Cashew Cookies

Day 17: Coconana Loaf Cake (Coconut Banana Loaf Cake)

Day 18: Mid-way Recap of Bake-A-Thon

Day 19: Caramel Corn

Day 20: Quick Palmiers

Day 21: Macadamia, White chocolate Chip Cookies

Day 22: Banana Cranberry Quick Bread

Day 23: Savory Tomato Muffins

Day 24: Chickpea Crackers

Day 25: Coconut Bars

Day 26: Tutti Fruity Muffins

Day 27: No Knead Bread Sticks

Day 28: Vegan Banana Chocolate Cake (Low fat, low sugar)

Day 29: Savory Onion, Apple Galette with yeast dough

Day 30: Crust less Coconut Custard Pie

Day 31: This post 

Be safe and you will get to read this blog in the new year.

Enjoy.

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Crust less Coconut Custard Pie

Anything that has coconut in it, I jump into trying it. I saw this recipe on Susan's blog for the first time and since then, I wanted to make it. I just halved the recipe and baked in two individual ramekins.

One year back - Eggless Yogurt/Sourcream Cake
Two years back - Carrot Coconut Cake
Adapted from - Kraft

I am posting this as the post for bake-a-thon's day 30. My fellow bloggers doing it with me are - Preethi, Veena, Priya.

Enjoy.

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Savory Onion, Apple Galette with yeast dough

Galette is nothing but a free form tart or single crusted pie. It is usually made with tart dough or sometimes pie dough, but there are recipes which use yeasted dough for galette. I wanted to use the dough that does not call for too much fat and here is what I have. You can vary the filling as per your taste.

One year back - Cake Decorating Basics - Part 10
Two years back - Rave Unde (Rava Laddoo)
Ingredients:
For the yeast dough:
All purpose flour - 1 cup + 1 TBSP (plus more for rolling)
Sugar - 1/2 tsp
Salt - 1/4 tsp
Instant or active dry yeast - 1 tsp
Warm water - 1/3 cup
Olive oil - 2 TBSP


For the filling:
Olive oil - 1 TBSP
Garlic - 1 clove minced
Red Onions - 2 medium sliced thin
Apples - 2 cored and sliced thin
Cilantro - chopped 1/4 cup or any other fresh herb of choice
Salt - to taste
Red chilli powder - 1/2 tsp or to taste (optional)
Red wine vinegar or lemon juice - 2 TBSP
Red chilli flakes to serve - optional

Method:
To make the dough:
Mix all the ingredients mentioned in the 'For the dough' section and knead for 4 - 5 minutes or until smooth. Add 1 TBSP more flour if needed to make a soft dough which is slightly tacky but not sticky. Cover and let rise for 45 minutes to an hour. Meanwhile, prepare the filling.

For the filling:
In a saucepan, heat oil. When hot, add minced garlic, sliced onions. Sprinkle some salt and let it wilt. When onions are almost cooked, add sliced apples, red chilli powder if using and mix. Let the apples cook till soft. Add the vinegar or lemon juice and lower the flame and let it all evaporate. Adjust the seasonings if required and add cilantro. Let it cool to room temperature.


To assemble:
Preheat the oven to 375 F. Divide the dough into two parts. Make a ball and let it rest covered for 10 minutes. On a lightly floured surface, roll each ball into 8 - 9 " circle. Circle need not be perfect. Top it with half the filling leaving 2" border around. Gather the ends and pleat and fold on the top of the filling so that the center is exposed.Place them on a baking sheet.

Bake in the oven for 25 minutes rotating half way or until golden. You could brush with egg wash to get a better looking crust, but I didn't do it. Cool on the wire rack and serve warm or at room temperature sprinkled with red chilli flakes if desired.

I am posting this as the post for bake-a-thon's day 29. My fellow bloggers doing it with me are - Preethi, Veena, Priya.
  
Enjoy.

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Vegan Banana Chocolate Cake (Low fat)

I like weight watcher's recipes. For one, they are low fat and low sugar. Secondly, they either use egg whites or no eggs at all. I had seen a chocolate cake recipe in one of the weight watcher's magazine. It had more sugar than what I used here in this recipe, but no bananas. I used bananas and since they add to the sweetness, reduced the sugar. Recipe has melted butter, but I prefer to use oil when I can instead of butter and here comes a modified recipe. This is not a high rising cake - letting you know not to expect one.

One year back - Cake decorating Basics - Part 10
Two years back - Rava Laddoo
Adapted from - Weight Watcher's magazine
Ingredients:
All purpose flour - 2 cups (or use whole wheat pastry flour)
Sugar - 1 cup
Baking Soda - 1 1/2 tsp
Salt - 1/2 tsp
Natural cocoa - 2/3 cup
Canola or vegetable oil - 1/2 cup
Warm water - 1 1/2 cups (Or use coffee for a more chocolate flavor)
Vanilla - 2 tsp
Banana puree - 1 cup (I used 2 large ones)

Method:
Preheat the oven to 350 F. Spray a 10 - 12 cup bundt pan with vegetable oil spray. Or you could use 2 loaf pans of size 8 X 4. In a bowl, whisk together flour,  baking soda, salt, cocoa. Set aside. In another bowl, whisk together oil, water or coffee, banana puree, vanilla and sugar till well mixed. Dump the dry ingredients to wet and whisk to combine without over mixing. Be gentle and stir or fold if needed. Pour into the prepared pan and bake for 45 - 50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes and then turn on to the wire rack to cool completely. You could dust with powdered sugar or pour a simple glaze, but I left it as is. This makes a light dessert or snack. My kids loved them.

I am posting this as the post for bake-a-thon's day 28. My fellow bloggers doing it with me are - Preethi, Veena, Priya.  
Linking it up to Kid's delight - Vegan and egg less bakes hosted by Priya, started by Srivalli.

Enjoy.

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