Bake Fresh

Double Chocolate Brownies

2012-01-20T12:38:00.000-08:00

Couple of days ago, I made the best brownies.Yes, you read that right, best. Best by all means, the ones I made before and the ones I have tasted and trust me,I have done this alot.Needless to say, these brownies didnt last long to see the daylight. [I made half proportion so stop rolling eyes ;)].I just saved one for my daughter and for photo shoot.

For me baking is perfection.Perfect in taste and looks. Both are extremely important but the first one is a little more important. If it tastes good, no matter how good it looks, it will be slurped up. Vice versa is not true.

Ok, so coming back to the brownies, my hubs had this strange craving late night, "isn't there any cake, can you make something?" Officially I had to bake something for my son's first birthday but he was very disappointed that we wont be able to eat it now. So the plans changed and as per his suggestion, I decided to try brownies. I had two good recipes that I blogged about as well, Cocoa Brownies from BettyCrocker and Fudgy Brownies by Baked.

But this was perfect for me, moist, not too fudgy, not too sweet, not too cakey, just the right amount of everything. For now this is my to-go recipe and why not its originally from Martha Stewart afterall.

Double Chocolate Brownies

adapted from firstlookthencook, originally from Martha

Ingredients

Unsalted butter 6 tbsp

Semisweet chocolate 6 oz, coarsely chopped [I used dark chocolate 41% cocoa]

Cocoa powder 1/4 cup [hence the double chocolate]

Flour 3/4 cup

Baking powder 1/4 tsp

Salt 1/4 tsp

Sugar 1 cup

Eggs 2

Vanilla essence 2 tsp

Method

1. Preheat oven at 350 F. Grease and line 8x8 inches with parchment paper leaving 2 inch overhang for easy lifting. Grease the lining.

2. Put butter, chocolate and cocoa powder in a heat proof bowl placed over simmering water. Stir until melted and combined.Cool.

3. Whisk flour, salt and baking powder in a separate bowl.

4. Beat sugar, vanilla and eggs until pale and fluffy, about 4 mins.

5. Beat in chocolate mixture until just combined.

6. Mix in flour mixture.

7. Pour in prepared pan.

8. Bake for 35 mins. until just done. The tester will not be wet but may have few crumbs attached to it which is ok. DO NOT overbake. They will be dry.

9. Cool in pan for 10 mins and then take out and cut squares.

10. Enjoy with fresh cream.

Lemon Madeleines

2012-01-17T05:58:00.000-08:00

Today we are making Madeleines in a silicone mold. Two new things. First a bit about Madeleine. They are small French cakes baked in a special shell like mold. A girl with the same name once baked these and they got popular among masses and elites.

I picked my silicone mold from a local 2-riyal shop (aka dollar store) and surprisingly it turned out fantastic. No greasing, dusting with flour and easy to take out. I had always thought that silicone molds are expensive, may be some variety is. Mine was also the same characteristic orange color and the cakes came out smooth and shiny. Nice.

I always had madeleines in my to-do list and had never tasted one either so one fine morning I decided to kill the curiosity and they did'nt disappoint me either. Very light, delicate cakes, perfumed with lemon zest and juice. Many people dunk in tea or milk, dip in chocolate or cream, drizzle with glaze or dust with icing sugar. I liked mine plane. Many recipes are made with flour only but the recipe I decided to try from Martha's baking handbook had some almond flour as well which gave a wonderful flavor and texture. Since I had that in hand, I decided to try this. I now have chocolate madeleines in agenda. There's no end right? :) So next time, your butter is not at room temperature and you are craving for some nice cake treat, go for it.

Ingredients

Flour 3/4 cup

Castor Sugar 1/2 cup + 2 tbsp

Almond flour 1/2 cup

Salt 1/2 tsp

Eggs 3

Lemon zest 2 tbsp

Lemon essence 1/4 tsp

Butter 1/2 cup

Method

1. Melt butter on a low heat till melted. Cool.

2. Whisk all the dry ingredients in a bowl.

3. Add lemon zest and essence to the cooled butter.

4. Whisk eggs till frothy.

5. Whisk in the dry ingredients.

6. Lastly whisk in the butter.

7. Cover and refrigerate for atleast two hours or overnight.

8. Preheat oven to 350 F. Spoon the mixture with the help of two spoons nearly 3/4 full.

9. Bake for 12-15 mins until corners are light brown.

10. Cool and enjoy. Incase you are not using silicone mold, grease and flour the pan.

11. Makes about 24. Dust with icing sugar if required.

Croissants for Daring Bakers

2011-09-26T22:33:00.000-07:00

My baking-to-do list is never ending. I have to try many things which reminds me of couple of egg whites lying around in fridge. Croissants is one such item. Well, who does'nt like croissant. On our recent visit to Paris, I was amused to find croissants as their staple bread. Infact, rule is any continental breakfast must have croissants in their menu. Not only croissants, I wanted to try my hands on laminated dough as well - a term used for dough of puff pastries and croissants which means, layers of butter in between flour dough. These layer are what causes the final products to 'puff up' during baking yielding, crunchiness, melt in you mouth feeling.

The Daring Bakers go retro this month! Thanks to one of our very talented nonblogging members, Sarah, the Daring Bakers were challenged to make Croissants using a recipe from
the Queen of French Cooking, none other than Julia Child!

Julia Child is the pioneer of cooking shows and her book is quite popular among French cook books. If you havent seen the movie "Julie and Julia" , you should. I completely enjoyed it watching the frustration in kitchen, blogging and the determination to get the recipes perfect.

The recipe that were given to us was quite simple and didn't require any special ingredients , however the process in lengthy. I broke the process into two days which made things little easier. But you should try it once and I feel next time, it will be easier for me. You cannot beat the freshness of a home baked bread or pastry. There are many varieties of croissants, chocolate and almond being the most popular but I personally prefer plain ones and wanted to make plain atleast for the first time.

I am providing the basic recipe here. For detailed instructions and pictures, you can go to Daring Bakers home page.

French Croissants
Ingredients
¼ oz (7 gm) of fresh yeast, or 1¼ teaspoon (6¼ ml/4 gm) of dry active yeast (about ½ sachet)
3 tablespoons (45 ml) warm water (less than 100°F/38°C)
1 teaspoon (5 ml/4½ gm) sugar
1 ¾ cups (225 gm/½ lb) of strong plain flour (I used Polish allpurpose flour, which is 13% protein)
2 teaspoons (10 ml/9 gm) sugar
1½ teaspoon (7½ ml/9 gm) salt
½ cup (120 ml/¼ pint) milk (I am not sure if the fat content
matters. I used 2%)
2 tablespoons (30 ml) tasteless oil (I used generic vegetable oil)
½ cup (120 ml/1 stick/115 gm/¼ lb) chilled, unsalted butter
1 egg, for egg wash

Method
1. Mix the yeast, warm water, and first teaspoon of sugar in a small bowl. Leave aside for the yeast and sugar to dissolve and the yeast to foam up a little.
2. Measure out the other ingredients
3. Heat the milk until tepid (either in the microwave or a saucepan), and dissolve in the salt and remaining sugar
4. Place the flour in a large bowl.
5. Add the oil, yeast mixture, and milk mixture to the flour
6. Mix all the ingredients together using the rubber spatula, just until all the flour is incorporated
7. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface, and let it rest a minute while you wash out the bowl
It’s a little difficult to explain, but essentially involves smacking the dough on the 8. Knead the dough eight to ten times only. The best way is as Julia Child does it in the video (see below). It’s a little difficult to explain, but essentially involves smacking the dough on the counter (lots of fun if you are mad at someone) and removing it from the counter using the pastry scraper.9. Place the dough back in the bowl, and place the bowl in the plastic bag (Photos 1 & 2)
10. Leave the bowl at approximately 75°F/24°C for three hours, or until the dough has tripled in size. (Photo 3)
11. After the dough has tripled in size, remove it gently from the bowl, pulling it away from the sides of the bowl with your fingertips. (Photo 4)
12. Place the dough on a lightly floured board or countertop, and use your hands to press it out into a rectangle about 8 by 12 inches (20cm by 30cm). (Photo 5)
13. Fold the dough rectangle in three, like a letter (fold the top third down, and then the bottom third up) (Photos 6 & 7)
14. Place the dough letter back in the bowl, and the bowl back in the plastic bag. (Photo 8)
15. Leave the dough to rise for another 1.5 hours, or until it has doubled in size. This second rise can be done overnight in the fridge (Photo 9)
16. Place the double-risen dough onto a plate and cover tightly with plastic wrap. Place the plate in the fridge while you prepare the butter. (Photo 10)
17. Once the dough has doubled, it’s time to incorporate the butter
18. Place the block of chilled butter on a chopping board.
19. Using the rolling pin, beat the butter down a little, till it is quite flat. (Photo 11)
20. Use the heel of your hand to continue to spread the butter until it is smooth. You want the butter to stay cool, but spread easily.
21. Remove the dough from the fridge and place it on a lightly floured board or counter. Let it rest for a minute or two. (Photo 12)
22. Spread the dough using your hands into a rectangle about 14 by 8 inches (35 cm by 20 cm). (Photo 13)
23. Remove the butter from the board, and place it on the top half of the dough rectangle (Photos 14 & 15)
24. Spread the butter all across the top two-thirds of the dough rectangle, but keep it ¼ inch (6 mm) across from all the edges. (Photo 16)
25. Fold the top third of the dough down, and the bottom third of the dough up. (Photos 17 & 18)
26. Turn the dough package 90 degrees, so that the top flap is to your right (like a book). (Photo 19)
27. Roll out the dough package (gently, so you don’t push the butter out of the dough) until it is again about 14 by 8 inches (35 cm by 20 cm). (Photo 20)
28. Again, fold the top third down and the bottom third up. (Photos 21 & 22)
29. Wrap the dough package in plastic wrap, and place it in the fridge for 2 hours. (Photo 23)
30. After two hours have passed, take the dough out of the fridge and place it again on the lightly floured board or counter.
31. Tap the dough with the rolling pin, to deflate it a little
32. Let the dough rest for 8 to 10 minutes
33. Roll the dough package out till it is 14 by 8 inches (35 cm by 20 cm).
34. Fold in three, as before
35. Turn 90 degrees, and roll out again to 14 by 8 inches (35 cm by 20 cm).
36. Fold in three for the last time, wrap in plastic, and return the dough package to the fridge for two more hours (or overnight, with something heavy on top to stop it from rising)
37. It’s now time to cut the dough and shape the croissants
38. First, lightly butter your baking sheet so that it is ready
39. Take the dough out of the fridge and let it rest for ten minutes on the lightly floured board or counter
40. Roll the dough out into a 20 by 5 inch rectangle (51 cm by 12½ cm). (Photo 24)
41. Cut the dough into two rectangles (each 10 by 5 inches (25½ cm by 12½ cm)) (Photo 24)
42. Place one of the rectangles in the fridge, to keep the butter cold
43. Roll the second rectangle out until it is 15 by 5 inches (38 cm by 12½ cm).
44. Cut the rectangle into three squares (each 5 by 5 inches (12½ cm by 12½ cm))
45. Place two of the squares in the fridge
46. The remaining square may have shrunk up a little bit in the meantime. Roll it out again till it is nearly square
47. Cut the square diagonally into two triangles. (Photo 25)
48. Stretch the triangle out a little, so it is not a right-angle triangle, but more of an isosceles. (Photo 26)
49. Starting at the wide end, roll the triangle up towards the point, and curve into a crescent shape. (Photo 27)
50. Place the unbaked croissant on the baking sheet
51. Repeat the process with the remaining squares of dough, creating 12 croissants in total.
52. Leave the tray of croissants, covered lightly with plastic wrap, to rise for 1 hour
53. Preheat the oven to very hot 475°F/240°C/gas mark 9.
54. Mix the egg with a teaspoon of water
55. Spread the egg wash across the tops of the croissants. (Photo 28)
56. Put the croissants in the oven for 12 to 15 minutes, until the tops are browned nicely

57. Take the croissants out of the oven, and place them on a rack to cool for 10 minutes before serving. (Photo Above)

Fudgy Brownies

2011-09-18T13:22:00.000-07:00

If you are looking for a recipe for fudge brownies that uses dark chocolate and cocoa for deep intense flavor and fudgy texture with crisp sugar crust on top then you should try this recipe. Many people have loved my cocoa brownies and its still my to-go recipes but I was for very long been trying to try a truly fudge brownies. After searching alot, I short-listed two recipes, Fudge Brownies from Baked and King Arthur no fail recipe of Fudge Brownies, both looked really promising, had raving reviews and I want to try both but I started with Baked. It It is a bakery in NewYork and they have recipe books written by Matt Lewis featuring these brownies among many more recipes that are quite popular as well. To add to the hype, these are Oprah's favorite brownies as well. On the other hand King Arthur claims that they fudge brownies recipe is guaranteed. Interesting. But the King Arthur one had one negative review and it uses chocolate chips and a little tedious method so I preferred Baked over KA.

For now I am settling down on these since no doubt they are amazing. Fudgy, intensely chocolaty, moist, crisp crust and dense. Don't overmix or overbake otherwise the results can vary alot. Let me know if you try it and how they turned out for you. If you have already tried them, do you think they are the best.

When I saw the same recipe at Smitten Kitchen, I knew they would be amazing. But I was looking to make a smaller batch. So I found a nice halved recipe here.

Fudge Brownies

Ingredients
Flour 3/4 cup
Cocoa powder 1 tbsp
Butter 1/2 cup plus more for pan
Instant espresso powder 1/2 tsp
Chocolate, 5 ounces ,finely chopped or chips, I used 62% dark chocolate,cut into pieces
Granulated sugar 2/3 cup
Light-brown sugar 1/4 cup
Salt 1/4 tsp
Eggs 3
Vanilla essence 1 tsp

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

2. Butter a 8-by-8 inch pan, line with baking parchment paper, and butter the paper as well.

3. Sift together the dry ingredients: flour and cocoa powder.
4. On medium-low heat, melt the butter in a heat-proof bowl over a pot of simmering water. Stir until the butter has melted completely. Add the espresso powder and chocolate. Once the chocolate is melted and incorporated, remove from heat, add vanilla, and let cool.
5. Meanwhile, using a whisk beat together by hand or with a mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, the eggs, both sugars, and salt until light and frothy.

6. Fold the mixture into the cooled chocolate.

7. Add the sifted dry ingredients and fold until just combined. Do not over mix.

8. Spread batter in prepared pan and smooth top.
9. Bake the brownies for 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out with a few crumbs.

Tips

- If the toothpick comes out clean, the brownies will end up being over baked.

- Let cool completely before cutting the brownies.

- Use the parchment paper to lift the cooled brownies onto a cutting board.

- Cut with a serrated knife that has been run under hot water; do so after every cut.

Homemade Chocolates with Daring Bakers

2011-08-27T13:42:00.000-07:00

I have been missing from the Daring Bakers recently, well I have been missing from the blogging scene altogether. But this month's Daring Baker challenge was something I could'nt resist at all. I have been wanting to try this for so long and infact tried to attempt also couple of times with not so much success. The Daring Bakers challenges are thorough, complete and detailed to the core. Inside out things are explained and pointers are provided. Missing this challenge was unthinkable. First things first, the blog checking lines.

The August 2011 Daring Bakers’ Challenge was hosted by Lisa of Parsley, Sage, Desserts and Line Drive and Mandy of What the Fruitcake?!. These two sugar mavens challenged us to make sinfully delicious candies! This was a special challenge for the Daring Bakers because the good folks athttp://www.chocoley.com offered an amazing prize for the winner of the most creative and delicious candy!

The challenge provided lot of recipes for chocolate and non-chocolate candies but being a chocolate lover, I had to try the chocolate ones. This involved tempering chocolate - a quite hi-tech word but in reality quite simple. Chocolate tempering is the process of melting chocolate in a special way such that the temperature of the chocolate remains under control. This as opposed to 'just melting' method results in a high quality chocolate that not only has a wonderful mouth feel but great snap when broken and shiny look simulating all three senses. Pure indulgence. The reason is quite complicated but in one simple word 'chemical'.

But my ambitions were melting away given the heat in Riyadh but I was determined. I could'nt find chocolate thermometer necessary for this process but I still wanted to give it a go. There are many methods of tempering methods but I will provide you with the simplest one that worked for me.

I had planned to make non-chocolate candies (peanut butter fudge and pate de fruits) but after I was done with chocolate ones, there were so many sweets in the house that I had to stop. Though there were plenty of giveaways and everyone loved them.

Tempering Chocolate through "Seeding" method:

Tempering Ranges:

Celsius
Dark: 45°C-50°C > 27°C > 32°C
Milk: 45°C > 27°C > 30°C
White: 45°C > 27°C > 29°C

Fahrenheit
Dark: 113°F-122°F > 80.6°F > 89.6°F
Milk: 113°F > 80.6°F > 86°F
White: 113°F > 80.6°F > 84.2°F

Chocolate is melted and heated until it reaches 45°C / 113°F. Tempered un-melted chocolate is then stirred and melted in until it brings the temperature down to 27°C/80.6°F. It is then put back over heat and brought up to its working temperature of 32°C/30°C/29°C /// 89.6°F/86°F/84.2°F depending on the chocolate you’re using. It is now ready for using in molds, dipping and coating.

• Finely chop chocolate if in bar/slab form (about the size of almonds).

• Place about ⅔ of the chocolate in a heatproof bowl

• Set aside ⅓ of the chocolate pieces

• Place bowl over a saucepan of simmering water (make sure the bowl does not touch the water)

Tip: Make sure that your bowl fits snuggly into the saucepan so that there’s no chance of steam forming droplets that may fall into your chocolate. If water gets into your chocolate it will seize!

• Using a rubber spatula, gently stir the chocolate so that it melts evenly

• Once it’s melted, keep an eye on the thermometer, as soon as it reaches 45°C / 113°F remove from heat (between 45°C-50°C / 113°F-122°F for dark chocolate)

• Add small amounts of the remaining ⅓ un-melted chocolate (seeds) and stir in to melt

• Continue to add small additions of chocolate until you’ve brought the chocolate down to 27°C/80.6°F (You can bring the dark chocolate down to between 80°F and 82°F)

• Put it back on the double boiler and bring the temperature back up until it reaches its working temperature of the chocolate (milk, dark or white) as seen in the above chart. (32°C/89.6°F for dark, 30°C/86°F for milk and 29°C/84.2°F for white)

• If you still have a few un-melted bits of chocolate, put the bowl back over the simmering water, stirring gently and watching the thermometer constantly.

• IMPORTANT: You really need to keep an eye on the temperature so that it doesn’t go over its working temperature

It’s now tempered and ready to use.

Milk Chocolate Almond Praline Truffles

Servings: Makes +- 30 truffles, recipe easily doubled or halved

Adapted from the Cook’s Academy Curriculum, Dublin

Active Time: 1 - 2hrs

Ganache Setting Time: 2 - 4hrs or Overnight

Praline Ingredients:

½ cup (2 oz/60 gm) almonds
½ cup (4 oz/115 gm) granulated white sugar
2 tablespoons (30 ml) water

Making the praline and ganache. Once set, making balls of the set ganache then rolling in crushed almonds

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to moderate 180°C / 160°C Fan Assisted (convection oven); 350°F / 320°F convection / Gas Mark 4
2. Place whole almonds on a non-stick baking tray and dry roast for 10mins
3. Allow to cool
4. Line a baking tray with parchment paper or a silicon mat
5. Place the almonds onto the prepared tray
6. Combine the sugar and water in a saucepan over medium low heat, stirring until the sugar is dissolved
7. Turn the heat up and bring to the boil (do not stir), brushing down the sides of the pot with a pastry brush dipped in water to remove any sugar crystals
8. Boil until the mixture turns amber (160°C - 170°C / 320°F- 340°F on a candy thermometer)
9. Remove from heat immediately and pour the syrup over the almonds
11. Allow to cool completely
12. Break into small pieces
13. Transfer pieces to a food processor and process until desired texture, either fine or rough
14. Set aside

Ganache Ingredients

1¾ cup (9 oz. / 255 g) Milk chocolate, finely chopped
½ cup (4 oz. / 125 ml) Double/Heavy Cream (36% - 46% butterfat content)½ - 1 cup Crushed or Ground Roasted almonds for coating

Directions:

1. Finely chop the milk chocolate
2. Place into a heatproof medium sized bowl
3. Heat cream in a saucepan until just about to boil
4. Pour the cream over the chocolate and stir gently until smooth and melted
5. Allow to cool slightly, about 10 minutes
6. Stir in the praline
7. Leave to cool and set overnight or for a few hours in the fridge
8. Bring to room temperature to use

Forming the truffles:

1. Using teaspoons or a melon baller, scoop round balls of ganache
2. Roll them between the palms of your hands to round them off
Tip: Handle them as little as possible to avoid melting
Tip: I suggest wearing food safe latex gloves, less messy and slightly less heat from your hands
3. Finish off by rolling the truffle in the crushed roasted almonds
Tip: You can also roll them in almond praline
4. Place on parchment paper and leave to set
Tip: They look great when put into small petit four cases and boxed up as a gift!

Note: I tempered around 9 ounces of milk chocolate for the next two candies.

Deluce le Leche Chocolates aka Bonbons

Ingredients
Dark or milk chocolate melted, preferably tempered, about 5 ounces
Home made deulce de leche (Source:
http://www.bakersroyale.com/basic-baking-series/baking-basics-how-to-make-homemade-dulce-de-leche/ )

Equipment
2 or 3 quart, heavy-bottomed pot
Candy thermometer
Whisk

Paint the moulds with lustre dust if you wish.
Directions:

1. Empty the contents of about 1/2 can (180gm) into an oven-proof dish; sprinkle with some salt and tightly cover it with foil.
2. Place the covered dish in a larger roasting or casserole pan and fill it up with water until it reaches three quarters of the up the covered dish to create a water bath.
3. Bake at 425 degrees F for 60-90 minutes checking every 30minutes on the water level and adding more as needed.
4. Dulce de leche is ready when it takes on a brown and caramel-like appearance. Remove from the oven and whisk to smoothness. Let cool before storing.
5. Coat the molds with chocolate using the method mentioned above. You can either paint the moulds with chocolate or pour the chocolate withe ladle and then empty the contents, cleaning the surface of the mould by rubber scraper such that only mould wells remain coated with chocolate.
6. Fill chocolate coated molds with prepared filling. You can use a spoon or through a squeeze bottle.
7. Finish off with a layer of chocolate.
8. Once fully set, carefully knock the chocolates out of the mold

Milk Chocolate dipped Coconut Squares - Bonbons

Ingredients
Tempered Chocolate
Coconut squares

For Coconut Squares

150 ml cream (25%)
50 gm butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 tsp powdered cardamom (optional)
1/4 tsp salt
2 1/2 cups desiccated coconut

Method:
1. Place the cream, butter and sugar in a saucepan and slowly bring to a boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar.

2. When it starts to boil (bubble up), take the pan off the heat.

3. Add the coconut, salt and cardamom and mix well. If the mixture seems too wet add a little more desiccated coconut, but not too much. Remember that once it cools down the coconut mixture will thicken. Press into 8” by 8” tin lined with parchment paper and refrigerate overnight.

4. Remove from the tin and turn the set coconut mixture onto a board and peel off the parchment paper.

5. Cut with a sharp knife into 30 squares. Refrigerate till ready to coat with chocolate.
6. Dip each square in tempered chocolate and place on parchment lined baking sheet. Chill until set and cut the feet for finished look.

Chocolate Bark (Base Recipe)
Chocolate bark is really fun and easy to make (kids love making this stuff!). You can also decorate it with almost anything you like, nuts, dried fruits, seeds, crushed candies, honeycomb etc. The whole idea of chocolate bark is that it’s rough in texture and look, just like bark. You can cut it in neat squares, or my favorite, break it up in rough pieces. It’s also great to use up left over tempered chocolate, either plain or if you’ve mixed in crushed nuts to use for coating truffles.

Ingredients

Milk/Dark/White Chocolate, tempered (any amount)
Various nuts, seeds, candies, dried fruits or anything you like in any quantity you like, I used roasted pecans and raisins.

Directions:

1. Line a baking tray with parchment paper
2. Temper your chocolate using your preferred method
3. Once tempered, spread the chocolate over the parchment paper
4. Sprinkle your ingredients over the chocolate
5. Leave to set
Tip: To help speed up the setting, you can put it in the fridge for about 15-30min. Don’t leave it in the fridge to avoid the chocolate from sweating (water droplets will form on the chocolate)
6. Either break or cut into pieces
7. Store at room temperature in an airtight container

Go crazy with this Black Forest Gateau!

2011-08-20T15:04:00.000-07:00

Back in my home country Pakistan, Black Forest Cake is undoubtedly the most popular cake typically paired with fresh fruits of the season. We have grown up with it and it is the first 'decorated' [who knew decorated cakes would take this much height ;)] cake I learnt to make. In Riyadh, Saudi Arabia also, where I am currently residing due to Hubs' work, this cake is available off the shelf from almost all super markets but somehow, I have never liked the cakes here. They all have same taste (my guess is they use the same mix) and that also not quite appealing.

Another reason, I wanted to perfect this cake is that its my hubby's absolute favorite. He either likes plain pound/evening cake or black forest cake. I have tried my hands on this before also here but I knew then only that I had to improve it. I first spotted this genoise recipe at Passionate About Baking and it was further endorsed by the Rose's book successful recipes which I recently got. Mind you that I tried this cake before as well and it didnt turn out as expected, it got really hard and rubber like. Reason, in my opinion,can be two. You have to cool the chocolate mixture completely and second you have to beat eggs and sugar really really well. This is by far the best BlackForest cake I have ever made.

I intended to make this cake for our anniversary but somehow could'nt manage time to assemble it, so I delayed it to our Independence day which was 4 days later. Nevertheless, this anniversary delayed independence cake turned out awesome. My neighbors who got some share loved it too.

A little bit of information on genoise. It is an Italian sponge-type cakes (as opposed to butter cakes) that are aerated with beating of eggs, the baked sponge is then moistened with syrup and is made into a gateau with fresh whipped cream and fruits of your choice. Traditionally cherries go with it but strawberries, mango etc. work equally well. The shavings of chocolate completes the look and taste.

Moist Chocolate Genoise Adapted from The Cake Bible, Rose Beranbaum
Ingredients:

Dark chocolate 8 ounces

Water 1 cup
Eggs 8
Sugar 1 cup
Vanilla essence 1 tbsp
Cake flour 1 1/2 cup [or make by using 1 1/2 cup flour minus 3 tbsp flour plus 3 tbsp corn flour]

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180C.

2. Prepare 2 9 x 2″ spring form cake tins – greased, bottoms lined with baking parchment, greased and floured again.
3. Sift the flours. Reserve.
4. In a pan, bring the chocolate and the water to boil over low heat, stirring constantly. Simmer for 5-10 minutes, or until the chocolate thickens to a pudding like consistency. Cool completely [This is a very important step, cool completely].
Beat the eggs and sugar in a large bowl on high speed till tripled in volume, about 7-10 minutes. {I use an electric hand beater}
5. Sift 1/2 the flour mix over the beaten egg mixture, and fold in gently but rapidly until some of the flour has disappeared. Repeat with the remaining flour until all the flour has disappeared.

6. Fold in the chocolate mixture until incorporated.7. Pour immediately into prepared pans {about 2/3 full}, and bake at 180C for 30-35 minutes, until a tester inserted in the centre comes out clean. Loosen the sides with a metal spatula/butter knife, and invert onto lightly greased cooling racks. Re-invert to cool.

Simple Syrup:
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
Bring the sugar and water to a rolling boil, stirring until the sugar has dissolved. Take off heat, stir in the liqueur if using, cover and allow to cool.

Stabilized whipped cream

Ingredients:

Fresh Whipping Cream 1 cup

Sugar 1 tbsp

Gelatin 1/2 to 1 tsp

Water 4 tsp

Vanilla 1/2 tsp

Method:

1. Whisk cream and sugar really well until it thickens.

2. Dissolve gelatin in water and heat until just liquid. Cool.

3. Keep on whisking and add gelatin.

Assembling the Cake

Split the chocolate genoise horizontally to get 4 layers. Sprinkle both sides of each layer with the syrup, and reserve on platters. Place the bottom layer on the serving platter.

Reserve about 1/2 the cream for the topping and frosting. Take a third of the remaining cream and spread over the bottom later. Repeat with the remaining 3 layers.Put about 1/2 a cup of cream in a piping bag to make rosettes on top if desired. Frost the top and sides of the cake with the remaining cream. Pipe rosettes on top, sprinkle chocolate flakes in the centre. Chill until ready to serve.

Best Ever Pound Cake

2011-08-10T13:22:00.000-07:00

I will not explain why I have been missing from the blogging scene lately. I am really feeling guilty as my regular followers have been asking me this. Well, lot of things and to summarize it all, its my Cake Decorating business, my frequent travelling, Ramadan (more details here), new baby (now 6 months old) and my weight loss plan. You can well imagine, how blogging took back seat among all this hodgepodge. My apologies once again, but there was hardly a day when I didnt miss blogging. It doesnt mean I wasnt cooking or baking, I badly need to get a light setup which can work in evenings as well for some decent photographs.

Coming back to today's post, this is my family's favorite, a plain butter or evening or pound cake. My mother, mother-inlaw and hubby absolutely love plain cakes and I make this pretty often. It has been fairly straightforward over the years, like typical pound cake ingredients and proportions, but as I am always in the quest of the best recipe, I tried sour cream (how I love this ingredient) pound cake and it turned out absolutely delicious and perfect. Before that I also tried Perfect pound cake from Rose Levy's Cake Bible and although the texture was melting in mouth, it lacked the structure, a little crumbly for me. So here for you is my best take on an evening pound cake which I can guarantee will not disappoint you at all.

Best Ever Pound Cake
Recipe source Sweet Kats Kitchen here

Ingredients

1 ½ cup all-purpose flour
1 ½ cup sifted cake flour (I make my own from 1 1/2 cup flour - 3 tbsp and add 3 tbsp cornflour)
¼ tsp. baking soda
¼ tsp. salt
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
2 3/4 cup granulated sugar
6 eggs, room temperature
1 cup sour cream
1 tbsp vanilla essence
2 tbsp honey (I did not use this)
Method
1. Preheat oven to 325ºF.

2. Grease and flour a 12-cup Bundt or 10-inch tube baking pan. I used 8 inches loaf pan for half recipe.
3. Sift together the flours, baking soda and salt. Sift again. Set aside.

4. Combine the sour cream, vanilla extract and honey (if using) in a small bowl. Set aside.
5. In large mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar on medium speed for 10 minutes, or until light and fluffy. I cannot stress this step enough, its absolutely important to beat sugar and butter really well, it give the volume, fluffiness and air to the cake.

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

7. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the flour mixture by thirds, alternating with the sour cream mixture and ending with the dry ingredients. Mix just enough to blend the batter after each addition.

8. Spoon the batter into the prepared pan and spread evenly. Bake for 65-75 minutes (40 mins for half recipe) or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. It is beautifully golden when done.

9. Cool the cake in the pan on a wire rack for 25 minutes. Remove the pan and place the cake on a wire rack and allow to cool completely.

10. Dust with confectioner's sugar before serving although not required.

My blog turns two and its coconut all over!

2011-05-10T00:04:00.000-07:00

It never occured to me that this April, my blog is two years old. I havent been fair to it and to all my followers for which I want to apologize. This was the beginning of BakeFresh - name I thought of my blog has spread in other directions. From there, I have come quite a way but the makeover of this blog and updating it more regularly is still in pipeline. I have a brand new BakeFresh logo (and visiting cards), website (www.bakefresh.net) and I have been busy in cake decoration orders and conducting classes. Managing all this with two kids is never easy but BakeFresh gives me the reason to be managed, more active and re-charges my energy in a way that nothing can.

So, although, the blog is starving for more posts, why not give it and to all my lovely followers a double doze. I have been obsessed with coconut lately, mostly because of the orders and utilizing leftover frostings. I tried not one, not two but three coconut cupcakes recipe and interestingly they all turned out great. Luckily I managed to take some pics as well so here is a grand post, in honor of my 2 year old baby and all the wonderful followers of BakeFresh.

Coconut Cupcakes Version 1 (with coconut milk and unsweetened coconut)
Source: A Sticky Affair

Ingredients
Shreded Coconut 1/2 cup
Flour 1 cup + 2 tbsp
Pinch of salt
Baking powder 1 tsp
Eggs 2
Egg white, 1 extra
Unsalted butter 100gm
Caster Sugar 3/4 cup
Vanilla essence 1/2 tbsp
Coconut milk 1/2 cup
Toasted coconut, for decorating (optional)

Method
1. Using a food processor, process the coconut until very fine - about 3 or 4 minutes (If you're using fine desiccated coconut you can skip this step).

2. Add coconut to a bowl with sifted flour salt and baking powder. Mix evenly until combined.
3. In a separate bowl combine eggs and egg whites. Do not beat.
4. In another bowl, cream the butter for 1-2 minutes. Add the caster sugar a third at a time, beating for 2 minutes after each addition. After the last addition beat until the mixture is light and fluffy and sugar has almost dissolved.
5. Add the eggs a quarter at a time, beating for 1 minute after each addition or until the mixture is light and fluffy. Add the vanilla extract and beat until combined.
6. Add a third of flour mixture and beat on low speed until combined. Add half of the coconut milk and beat until combined. Repeat this process. Add the remaining third of the flour mixture and beat until thoroughly combined; do not over-beat as this will toughen the mixture.
7. Spoon mixture into cupcake papers, filling each about 3/4 full. Bake in a pre-heated oven for 18 minutes or until a fine skewer inserted comes out clean. Remove cupcakes from the trays immediately and place on a wire rack to cool completely.

Coconut Cupcakes Version 2 (with/without coconut milk and sweetened coconut)
Source: Home Cooking in Montana

Ingredients
All purpose flour 1 3/4 cup
Baking powder 2 tsp
Salt 1/2 tsp
Egg whites 3
Coconut milk or whole milk 3/4 cup
Vanilla essence 1 tsp
Almond essence 1/4 tsp (optional)
Sugar 3/4 cup
Unsalted butter, room temp. 1/2 cup
Sweetened shredded coconut 1 cup

Method

1. In a bowl, sift together flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

2. Measure coconut milk in a measuring cup and add the egg whites and extracts. Combine.

3. Cream the sugar and butter on medium speed using a mixer. Mix until the butter lightens in color as well as texture, about 4 minutes.

4. Alternately, add dry and wet ingredients in 3 additions. Starting and ending with dry ingredients.
5. Fold in the coconut. Scoop batter in prepared paper lined muffin tin.
6. I like to use an ice cream scoop. Much easier. Fill about 3/4 full.

7. Bake in a pre-heated oven until toothpick comes out clean...about 25-30. Check at 20 minutes as all ovens are different.

8. Cool in pan for 5 minutes. Remove and cool completely.

Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients
Cream Cheese 4oz
Butter 2 1/2 tbsp
Icing Sugar 2-3 cups
Vanilla essence 1 tsp

Method
1. Beat butter and cream cheese until creamy.
2. Add in essence and icing sugar beating till combined.
3. Frost with a spatula or piping swirls with an open star tip.

Chocolate Coconut Cupcakes with Fudge frosting
Source: Baking Obsession

Ingredients
Coconut (unsweetened) 1/2 cup
Egg 1
Sugar 1 cup
Flour 1 1/4 cup
Cocoa Powder 3/4 cup
Baking Powder 1 tsp
Baking Soda 1/2 tsp
Salt 1/2 tsp
Sour Cream 1/2 cup
Coconut milk 160 ml
Vanilla essence 1 tsp
Butter 4oz (4 tbsp)

Method
1. Sift together all the dry ingredients except coconut.
2. In another bowl combine coconut milk, essence and sour cream.
3. Beat butter till creamy. Add sugar and beat until light an fluffy.
4. Add egg to the butter mixture and beat.
5. Alternately add dry and wet ingredients beginning and ending with dry ingredients and beat on low speed.
6. Fold in coconut until just combined.
7. Fill the paper lined muffin tray about 3/4th full.
8. Bake in a pre-heated oven at 180 for about 20 mins. Don't overbake.

Fudge Frosting
Source: Martha Stewart

Ingredients

Semisweet chocolate chips 1 bag (12 ounces)
Icing sugar ¼ cup
Salt ½ tsp
Evaporated milk ¾ cup
Vanilla ½ tsp

Method
1. Place melted chocolate chips, sugar, and salt in a medium bowl; set aside.

2. Heat evaporated milk in a small saucepan over medium-high heat until it just comes to a simmer.

3. Remove from heat and pour over chocolate mixture; let stand for about 5 minutes.

4. Add vanilla, whisk until filling is smooth and well combined.
5. Transfer chocolate filling to refrigerator; let chill until slightly firm, but still spreadable, about 2 hours.

Verdict: I like all three versions and thats why they have made they way to the blog. It all depends on ingredients availability (coconut milk, sweetened/unsweetened coconut, left over egg whites and so on). All three yields moist, flavorful and soft cupcakes. If you are like me and love chocolate and coconut combo then the last option is for you.

Pineapple Upside Down Cake

2011-04-11T00:59:00.000-07:00

I am really happy these days, I have got new tools for cake decorating (check www.bakefresh.net if you happen to be in Riyadh) and two new books I have eyeing for so long. The Cake Bible and Martha's Baking Handbook. I will try recipes from these amazing books and will share on this blog.BTW if you happen to be a serious baker, these two books are must have.

I meant to write this post when I actually made this cake for couple of friends who were invited over afternoon tea. I also made this cake to utilize my cake tin that comes especially for this cake. My mother had this pan for a long time. It was after I started this blog and reading different blogs, came to know that this is not only a design rather it was made to place pineapple rings and cherries. When my mother visited me last year, she thoughtfully brought that pan for me.

This is a beautiful cake, the caramelized brown sugar sitting on top of tender pineapple rings and splash of red cherries, underneath is a soft butter cake flavored with pineapple juice. A true comfort. Its a very impressive cake as well given the little effort put in, just make sure you are careful with the oven temperature as brown sugar can easily burn which can spoil the entire cake. The recipe comes from the baking classes I used to take when I was in school. Although I searched for some recipes before trying this one but decided to stick to this recipe atleast for now.

Ingredients:

For base:

Butter 2 oz/2 tbsp

Brown sugar 2oz/4tbsp

Pineapple slices (rings and not pieces)

Cherries

For cake:

Butter 6 oz/6tbsp

Caster sugar 6 oz/12tbsp

Flour 6 oz/12tbsp

Baking powder 1 1/2 tsp

Eggs 3

Pineapple essence 1/2 tsp

Yellow color few drops

Pineapple syrup/juice 1/4 cup

Method for base:

Put butter in 8x4 rectangular tin or pineapple upside down tin. Spread it on all sides of the tin with the help of a spoon or knife lavishly (For me washed hands work best). Sprinkle brown sugar on all the sides. Put pineapple rings on the bottom of the pan and halved pineapple slices on the sides so that they stick to the butter and brown sugar. Put cherries in each hole of the pineapple rings.

For cake:

Preheat oven at No4. Sift flour and baking powder. Beat butter, caster sugar and essence till light and fluffy. Add very few drops of color. Add 1 egg and 1 tbsp of the dry mixture and beat. Continue till all eggs have been added. In the end add the pineapple syrup along with the remaining flour mixture. Mix lightly and pour on the prepared base. Level properly and bake for 50 mins at No4. Invert it when it is done and cooled.

Yeasted Meringue Coffee Cake - DaringBakers

2011-03-27T23:36:00.000-07:00

This month's DaringBakers challenge is special. Special in a way that I was able to complete the challenge in time and was able to post it as well. Life for me has been quite busy with a new baby and my work. Apologies to all of you for not visiting your blogs or if visiting, not commenting.

The March 2011 Daring Baker’s Challenge was hosted by Ria of Ria’s Collection and Jamie of Life’s a Feast. Ria and Jamie challenged The Daring Bakers to bake a yeasted Meringue Coffee Cake.

Ok here is a funny thing, initially i thought coffee cakes mean that there is coffee in the list of ingredients. I had such a firm belief on this that I once even commented on a blog post of someone that your cake is a coffee cake yet it does'nt has coffee. She kindly explained what is a coffee cake. (Not sure how much she was controlling herself) So for those like me, coffee cake is a cake that is intended to serve with coffee or for similar breaks or snacks (source: Wikipedia).They do not necessarily contain coffee and are often single layer cake with nuts, spice like cinnamon, fruits, crumb topping (streusel) or glaze.

I made this cake out of impulsion. In the morning I went to my daughter's school concert and they served this cake as refreshment.It was stale, quite stale.I came back home and made this immediately.In the evening when it was just coming out of the oven and my entire house was filled with its mouth-watering smell, I called my neighbors to have this and tea. They thoroughly loved it. The swirl of meringue filled with chocolate nuts and cinnamon oozing out of the yeasted rolled wreath is just irresistable. Without any further delay here is the recipe. My comments and observations can be found in red.

Check out more beautiful creations at www.thedaringkitchen.com

(Although the recipe is long, just read it out once, its very easy)

FILLED MERINGUE COFFEE CAKE
Makes 2 round coffee cakes, each approximately 10 inches in diameter
The recipe can easily be halved to make one round coffee cake [I made one by easily halving the recipe]

Ingredients
For the yeast coffee cake dough:

4 cups (600 g / 1.5 lbs.) flour
¼ cup (55 g / 2 oz.) sugar
¾ teaspoon (5 g / ¼ oz.) salt
1 package (2 ¼ teaspoons / 7 g / less than an ounce) active dried yeast
¾ cup (180 ml / 6 fl. oz.) whole milk
¼ cup (60 ml / 2 fl. oz. water (doesn’t matter what temperature)
½ cup (135 g / 4.75 oz.) unsalted butter at room temperature
2 large eggs at room temperature

10 strands saffron for Ria’s version (Saffron might be hard to find and it’s expensive, so you can substitute with ½ - 1 teaspoon of ground cardamom or ground nutmeg. Or simply leave it plain like Jamie’s version)[I made Jamie's version, cannot ever say no to walnuts, chocolate and cinnamon]
For the meringue:

3 large egg whites at room temperature
¼ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon vanilla
½ cup (110 g / 4 oz.) sugar

For the filling:

Jamie’s version:
1 cup (110 g / 4 oz.) chopped pecans or walnuts
2 Tablespoons (30 g / 1 oz.) granulated sugar
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 cup (170 g / 6 oz.) semisweet chocolate chips or coarsely chopped chocolate

Ria’s version:
1 cup (130 g / 5 oz.) chopped cashew nuts
2 Tablespoons (30 g / 1 oz.) granulated sugar
½ teaspoon garam masala (You can make it at home – recipe below - or buy from any Asian/Indian grocery store)
1 cup (170g / 6 oz.) semisweet chocolate chips ( I used Ghirardelli)

Egg wash: 1 beaten egg [Just used the leftover yolk from meringue]
Cocoa powder (optional) and confectioner’s sugar (powdered/icing sugar) for dusting cakes

**Garam (means “hot”) masala (means “mixture”) is a blend of ground spices and is used in most Indian savory dishes. It is used in limited quantities while cooking vegetables, meats & eggs. There is no “one” recipe for it as every household has a recipe of their own. Below, I am going to share the recipe which I follow.

4 or 5 sticks (25 g) Cinnamon Sticks (break a stick and open the scroll)
3 ½ tablespoons (25 g / less than an ounce) Cloves, whole
100 g. (3.5 oz.) Fennel seeds
4 tablespoons (25 g / less than an ounce) Cumin seeds
1 ½ tablespoons (10 g / less than half an ounce) Peppercorns
25 g (less than half an ounce) Green Cardamom pods

In a small pan on medium heat, roast each spice individually (it hardly takes a minute) until you get a nice aroma. Make sure you stir it throughout so that it doesn’t burn. As soon as each spice is roasted, transfer it to a bowl to cool slightly. Once they are all roasted, grind into a fine powder by using a coffee grinder, or pestle & mortar. Store in an airtight container and use as needed.

Directions:

Prepare the dough:

In a large mixing bowl, combine 1 ½ cups (230 g) of the flour, the sugar, salt and yeast.

In a saucepan, combine the milk, water and butter and heat over medium heat until warm and the butter is just melted. Ria’s version: add the 10 saffron threads to the warmed liquid and allow to steep off of the heat for 10 minutes. This will give the mixture a distinct aroma and flavor and a yellowish-orange hue.
With an electric mixer on low speed, gradually add the warm liquid to the flour/yeast mixture, beating until well blended. Increase mixer speed to medium and beat 2 minutes. Add the eggs and 1 cup (150 g) flour and beat for 2 more minutes.

Using a wooden spoon, stir in enough of the remaining flour to make a dough that holds together. Turn out onto a floured surface (use any of the 1 ½ cups of flour remaining) and knead the dough for 8 to 10 minutes until the dough is soft, smooth, sexy and elastic, keeping the work surface floured and adding extra flour as needed.

Place the dough in a lightly greased (I use vegetable oil) bowl, turning to coat all sides. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and a kitchen towel and let rise until double in bulk, 45 – 60 minutes. The rising time will depend on the type of yeast you use.

Prepare your filling:In a small bowl, combine the cinnamon and sugar for the filling if using. You can add the chopped nuts to this if you like, but I find it easier to sprinkle on both the nuts and the chocolate separately.

Once the dough has doubled, make the meringue:
In a clean mixing bowl – ideally a plastic or metal bowl so the egg whites adhere to the side (they slip on glass) and you don’t end up with liquid remaining in the bottom – beat the egg whites with the salt, first on low speed for 30 seconds, then increase to high and continue beating until foamy and opaque. Add the vanilla then start adding the ½ cup sugar, a tablespoon at a time as you beat, until very stiff, glossy peaks form.

Assemble the Coffee Cakes:

Line 2 baking/cookie sheets with parchment paper.

Punch down the dough and divide in half. On a lightly floured surface, working one piece of the dough at a time (keep the other half of the dough wrapped in plastic), roll out the dough into a 20 x 10-inch (about 51 x 25 ½ cm) rectangle. Spread half of the meringue evenly over the rectangle up to about 1/2-inch (3/4 cm) from the edges. Sprinkle half of your filling of choice evenly over the meringue (ex: half of the cinnamon-sugar followed by half the chopped nuts and half of the chocolate chips/chopped chocolate).

Now, roll up the dough jellyroll style, from the long side. Pinch the seam closed to seal. Very carefully transfer the filled log to one of the lined cookie sheets, seam side down. Bring the ends of the log around and seal the ends together, forming a ring, tucking one end into the other and pinching to seal.

Using kitchen scissors or a sharp knife (although scissors are easier), make cuts along the outside edge at 1-inch (2 ½ cm) intervals. Make them as shallow or as deep as desired but don’t be afraid to cut deep into the ring.

Repeat with the remaining dough, meringue and fillings.

Cover the 2 coffee cakes with plastic wrap and allow them to rise again for 45 to 60 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C).

Brush the tops of the coffee cakes with the egg wash. Bake in the preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes until risen and golden brown. The dough should sound hollow when tapped.

Remove from the oven and slide the parchment paper off the cookie sheets onto the table. Very gently loosen the coffee cakes from the paper with a large spatula and carefully slide the cakes off onto cooling racks. Allow to cool.

Just before serving, dust the tops of the coffee cakes with confectioner’s sugar as well as cocoa powder if using chocolate in the filling. These are best eaten fresh, the same day or the next day.

Cumin Biscuits - a classic Pakistani sweet and salty cookie

2011-03-13T05:29:00.000-07:00

I know, there have been gaps in posting but you can't blame me that much. There isn't a single day I don't plan something for my baby blog but sadly its the most neglected child of mine, the other two being more demanding. My 5 years old daughter and 2 months old son keep me on my toes all the time. I do manage to utilize time in between and bake so expect some super quick and easy recipes coming in near future. Besides home and kids frenzy, I take orders for cake decoration so that makes life a bit more busy. So lets talk and straight to a very nice recipe, I had planned to share for a long time.

In Pakistan, fresh cookies from bakeries are very popular and usually every house has a jar full of them to go with evening tea. These are one such cookies called 'Zeera Biscuits' normally, here zeera is Urdu word for cumin and what a classic spice it is. Popular in both savory and sweet dishes, this cookie sometimes also called saltish zeera cookies but hey, dont be deceived by the name as it contains considerable amount of sugar and that too icing sugar. Rest of the ingredients are simple.

Some thoughts about making cookies:

1. You should never knead the dough, the idea is to just combine the ingredients to form a ball. You can keep it in fridge, well-wrapped for better handling but no kneading.

2. If at times your dough doesnt form, you can add flour or cold water to bind it but again no kneading.

3. While baking, use parchment/baking paper to achieve golden brown color.

4. Cookies are usually done in 10-15 mins. Not more than that.

So here goes the recipe:

Ingredients
Flour 250 gm
Butter 125gm
Icing Sugar 125gm
Egg yolk or half egg beaten (might need more for binding)
Salt 1 tsp
Cumin seeds 1 tbsp

Method
1. Beat butter and sugar until creamy.
2. Add egg.
3. Add sifted flour, cumin and salt and mix with hands till just combined.
4. Wrap in plastic and stick in fridge for about 20 mins.
5. Roll out the dough on a well floured surface about 1/8" thick.
6. Prick with fork. Cut out with round cookie cutter and place on parchment lined baking sheet.
7. Bake in pre-heated oven at gas mark 4 for about 10-15 mins until golden brown.

Panna Cotta and Florentine Cookies

2011-03-02T14:45:00.000-08:00

I have been missing blogging scene recently due to birth of my second child - a baby boy. As many of you can relate to the changes a new born brings in your life and therefore the missing posts. I was able to pull myself back up with Daring Bakers this month's challenge. Luckily for me, this challenge was pretty simple. Panna Cotta - an Italian creamy dessert that was paired with crunchy florentine cookies. Pretty simple, yes but my cookies weren't perfect.

The February 2011 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Mallory from A Sofa in the Kitchen. She chose to challenge everyone to make Panna Cotta from a Giada De Laurentiis recipe and Nestle Florentine Cookies.The February 2011 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Mallory from A Sofa in the Kitchen. She chose to challenge everyone to make Panna Cotta from a Giada De Laurentiis recipe and Nestle Florentine Cookies.

Here are a few points I would like to mention before I post the recipe:

1. Panna Cotta is extremely easy dessert and can be altered for almost any flavor either within it or layered with gelee.Very versatile.

2. Due to its creamy and melt-in-mouth texture, it should ideally be paired with something crunchy. Cookies, tarts and even I was thinking of pralines.

3. My cookies didnt turn out as they should, didnt spread at all, the final mixture was more of dough like rather than thin. May be some issue with my butter. I think there was some shortening in it.

4. Nevertheless, it really nice and I am going to try different flavors with this. The following recipe is more kinda honey panna cotta.

5. Although people have tried unmoulding it but I didnt and I think its gonna be tricky. For now I am ok with set-in dessert.

I have to read the other DBs posts and then I will know more about this dessert.

For now, check out this easy dessert and enjoy.

Vanilla Panna Cotta (or Honey Milk Panna Cotta)

Ingredients
1 cup (240 ml) whole milk
1 tablespoon (one packet) (15 ml) (7 gm) (¼ oz) unflavored powdered gelatin
3 cups (720 ml) whipping cream (30+% butterfat)
1/3 cup (80 ml) honey
1 tablespoon (15 ml) (15 gm) (½ oz) granulated sugar
pinch of salt

Directions:
1. Pour the milk into a bowl or pot and sprinkle gelatin evenly and thinly over the milk (make sure the bowl/pot is cold by placing the bowl/pot in the refrigerator for a few minutes before you start making the Panna Cotta). Let stand for 5 minutes to soften the gelatin.
2. Pour the milk into the saucepan/pot and place over medium heat on the stove. Heat this mixture until it is hot, but not boiling, about five minutes. (I whisk it a few times at this stage).
4. Next, add the cream, honey, sugar, and pinch of salt. Making sure the mixture doesn't boil, continue to heat and stir occasionally until the sugar and honey have dissolved 5-7 minutes.
5. Remove from heat, allow it to sit for a few minutes to cool slightly. Then pour into the glass or ramekin.
6. Refrigerate at least 6 hours or overnight. Add garnishes and serve.

Florentine Cookies

Ingredients:

2/3 cup (160 ml) (150 gm) (5.3 oz) unsalted butter

2 cups (480 ml) (160 gm) (5 2/3 oz) quick oats

1 cup (240 ml) (230 gm) (8 oz) granulated sugar

2/3 cup (160 ml) (95 gm) (3⅓ oz) plain (all purpose) flour

1/4 cup (60 ml) dark corn syrup

1/4 cup (60 ml) whole milk

1 tsp (5 ml) vanilla extract

pinch of salt

1½ cups (360 ml) (250 gm) (9 oz) dark or milk chocolate

Directions:

Preheat oven to moderately hot 375°F (190°C) (gas mark 5). Prepare your baking sheet with silpat or parchment paper.

1. Melt butter in a medium saucepan, then remove from the heat.

2. To the melted butter add oats, sugar, flour, corn syrup, milk, vanilla, and salt. Mix well.

Drop a tablespoon full, three inches (75 mm) apart, onto your prepared baking sheet. Flatten slightly with the

back of your tablespoon, or use a spatula.

3. Bake in preheated oven for 6-8 minutes, until cookies are golden brown. Cool completely on the baking sheets.

4. While the cookies are cooling melt your chocolate until smooth either in the microwave (1 1/2 minutes), or

stovetop (in a double boiler, or a bowl that fits atop a saucepan filled with a bit of water, being sure the water

doesn't touch the bottom of the bowl).

5. Peel the cookies from the silpat or parchment and place face down on a wire rack set over a sheet of

wax/parchment paper (to keep counters clean).

6. Spread a tablespoon of chocolate on the bottom/flat side of your cookie, sandwiching another (flat end) cookie atop the chocolate

Sweet and Tangy Lemon Bars

2011-01-10T05:17:00.000-08:00

Another overdue post and yet again I am struggling to post recipes regularly. There are many reasons but sometimes its just the shortage of words. I have been trying to post this very nice recipe for a long time, 3 weeks to be exact. I have always liked Ina Garten of Barefoot Contessa and usually her baking recipes become quite popular. Lemon bars is also one such recipe. The perfect balance of sweetness and tanginess of moist gooey filling sitting on a crisp buttery crust, the bars are completed with a generous dust of icing sugar. I made these for Clown Party which we arranged for our daughter and these bars received lot of compliments. They also make perfect picnic snack individually wrapped in wax paper. So next time you want to do some citrus baking try these.

Lemon Bars

Ingredients
adapted from Food Network

For the crust:
1/2 pound unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 cups flour
1/8 teaspoon kosher salt

For the filling:
6 extra-large eggs at room temperature
3 cups granulated sugar
2 tablespoons grated lemon zest (4 to 6 lemons)
1 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 cup flour
Confectioners' sugar, for dusting

Method
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
2. For the crust, cream the butter and sugar until light in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment.

3. Combine the flour and salt and, with the mixer on low, add to the butter until just mixed.

4. Dump the dough onto a well-floured board and gather into a ball.

5. Flatten the dough with floured hands and press it into a 9 by 13 by 2-inch baking sheet, building up a 1/2-inch edge on all sides. Chill.
6. Bake the crust for 15 to 20 minutes, until very lightly browned. Let cool on a wire rack. Leave the oven on.
7. For the filling, whisk together the eggs, sugar, lemon zest, lemon juice, and flour. Pour over the crust and bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until the filling is set. Let cool to room temperature.
8. Cut into triangles or square bars and dust with confectioners' sugar.

Truly Divine Chocolate Cookies

2010-12-07T08:59:00.000-08:00

This year has not been good in terms of number of posts. The count is low but personally for me, quality matters more than quantity. I really try and hope that all my recipes turn out good for you and make my followers happy. Time flies but they say good times fly and I am truly blessed to be surrounded by friends and family who is supportive and my Creator who has special blessing on me.

This is a truly divine recipe. I had been in search of good chocolate cookie - the indulgent one and this one will surely satisfy your chocolate craving and with minimal effort. As I mentioned in my previous posts as well, cookies can be of several types. This one is drop cookies and has soft interior and crisp outer. The wonder that addition of white chocolate chip/chunks does is outstanding so though its optional, ideally you shouldn't skip it. It can be made in 8-10 mins and take same time to bake so you can have these ready in 20 mins. Who said baking is a time consuming task?

This recipe has yet again been taken from Joy of Baking and the recipes on this site has never disappointed me. You can make ice cream sandwiches with these, enjoy with milk or alone. The dough can be frozen and you can make one inch balls, freeze on parchment paper and once frozen, place in freezer bags and bake as the recipe says.

Chocolate Cookies

Ingredients

recipe adapted from Joy of Baking

Butter 1/2 cup

Light Brown sugar 1/2 cup

Sugar (granulated) 1/4 cup

Egg 1

Vanilla essence 1 tsp

Baking powder 1/2 tsp

Flour 1 cup

Cocoa powder 1/4 cup

Salt 1/8 tsp

White Chocolate chips or white chocolate chunks 3/4 cup

Method

1. Cream butter and both sugars.

2. Add egg and vanilla.

3. Sift dry ingredients and add them into batter mixing until just combined.

4. Lastly fold in chocolate chunks/chips.

5. Place a table spoon and a half of cookie dough on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

6. Bake in a pre-heated oven for 8-10 mins at 350 degrees F until firm.

7. Let them cool for 5 mins before removing.

Quiche re-visited, this time with sour cream

2010-11-28T00:33:00.000-08:00

Quiche is such a comforting food and versatile too. You can make it for breakfast, brunch, lunch or dinner, throw in any left overs, play with the flavors etc. Once you know the basics, you can make it indulgent or healthy (yes I consider both of them opposite :)). I have previously blogged about it before but it needed a re-visit.

This time I have made my quiche with some changes. I added sour cream to the filling which again is such a versatile ingredient. It makes the texture of the final dish lot more creamy and rich adding just the right amount of sour and saltiness. Use half whole wheat and half white flour for the base if you are looking for a healthier version.

The base is basically the same as before but I added an egg yolk this time, if you are looking for a slightly richer and crisp base. Else you can skip it altogether.

The recipe has been adapted from here but I added some mushrooms, skipped the bacons and used my own recipe for the base.

Ingredients
Base
All-purpose flour 2 cups
Egg yolk 1
Butter 1/3 cup
Salt 1/2 tsp
Cold water to bind

Filling
Olive oil 2 tbsp
Garlic 1 clove
Onion 1 small
Broccoli 10-15 florets, cut up and steamed or boiled for 2 mins
Salt and pepper and red chilli flakes (optional)
Eggs 2
Milk 1 cup
Sour cream 3/4 cup
Cheddar cheese 1 cup
Flour 1 tbsp
Mushrooms few chopped

Method
Base
1. Rub in butter in flour and salt mixture.
2. Add in yolk.
3. Make a soft dough with water. Refrigerate if its unmanageable.
4. Roll out on a lightly floured surface about the same size as your baking tin (Tart tin should be about 10 inches in diameter).
5. Spread in the tin, making sure that the edges are secure and there are no holes etc. else the filling will go through it making the crust soggy. Prick the dough.
6. Bake in a pre-heated hot oven for 10-15 mins while you prepare filling.

Filling
1. Heat oil, add chopped garlic and onion. Cook for 2 mins.
2. Add broccoli, mushrooms, flour and seasoning.
3. Cook for 2 mins. Spread on the half-baked shell.
4. Sprinkle grated cheddar cheese.
5. Whisk eggs, milk and sour cream.
6. Pour on the shell, making sure it does'nt overflow.
7. Bake for about 30 mins at gas mark 5 until crust and filling and light brown.
8. Cool before cutting wedges.

My basic Bread Loaf

2010-11-11T06:13:00.000-08:00

Its been a busy busy week, with cake orders and sick child at home. This is a long due post since I wanted to share this wonderful recipe for a quite some time. To get a sneak peak on what cakes I did for last couple of weeks, here is snap shot.

This recipe has been taken from Bake Me Delicious. Sadaf posts some promising recipes and the pictures of her bread loaf looked scrumptious thats why I decided to give it a try and for now this is my favorite recipe for simple bread loaf. It keeps well upto a week and I pop it in an air tight box in fridge the next day. This makes two loaves and are ideal for sandwiches and toast really well. Last week I made this bread and invited my neighbors to have breakfast with me. They thoroughly enjoyed with some slightly salted butter, cheese, jam and peanut butter.

The key to yeast breads is to knead a soft smooth dough. This directly corresponds to the final texture of the bread. If you have a machine with dough hook then you can get this quite easily but if you dont have one, you can certainly do it by hand with some effort. It is way better than the breads we get here and we prefer it over every other bread any time.

Basic Bread Loaf
adapted from Bake Me Delicious

Ingredients
Warm water 1 cup
Milk (luke warm) 1/2 cup
Yeast 1 1/2 tbsp
Sugar 3 tbsp
Melted butter 3 tbsp
Salt 1 tsp
All purpose flour 5 cups

Method

1. Mix water, milk in a large mixing bowl. Add sugar and sprinkle yeast.
2. Leave for 5 mins. until yeast is frothy and pale in color.
3. After 5 mins, add flour, salt and butter.
4. Mix with a wooden spoon or at low speed with a dough hook attachment if using stand mixer.
5. Increase the speed to medium and knead for 6 minutes. If using hands, take the dough out on a lightly floured surface and knead for 8 minutes until soft, smooth and elastic.
6. Place it in a well-greased bowl, and cover with kitchen towel and leave to rest for about 1 hour in a warm place until double in size.
7. Knock out air, place the dough on a floured surface and cut the dough in half.
8. Roll out each part in a rectangular shape with one side approximately as long as the length of the loaf tin/rectangular tin and the other side thrice as long as the width of the tin.
9. Roll it like a swiss roll from longer side and tuck the ends.
10. Place it in a greased loaf tin. Repeat the same with the other part.
11. Leave it to rise, covered in a warm place for one hour.
12. Bake in a pre-heated oven for 30 minutes at about 200 C.
13. The top and bottom should be nice golden crust and when tapped, it should feel hollow.
14. Brush with melted butter and immediately cover it to trap the steam.
15. Cool completely before slicing.

This post goes to yeastspotting, a weekly event to showcase recipes made from yeast.

Do Doughnuts with Daring Bakers!

2010-10-27T00:00:00.000-07:00

Who does'nt love doughnuts, they come in so many varieties and flavors that you end up liking one or the other. There are basically two type of doughnuts: Cake and Yeast. Cake doughnuts are also referred to as old fashioned doughnuts and I like them more than yeast ones. As kids we used to make doughnuts, cutting and dipping them in sauce was my particular favorite part. This month's challenge of Daring Bakers was also to make doughnuts - any kind but I decided to try my hands on both. Results? read on.

The October 2010 Daring Bakers challenge was hosted by Lori of Butter Me Up. Lori chose to challenge DBers to make doughnuts. She used several sources for her recipes including Alton Brown, Nancy Silverton, Kate Neumann and Epicurious.

There are many varieties of doughnuts, Crullers is also one of them which is made from choux pastry dough and has been in my to-do list for a long time. Before even beginning, I came to know that yeast doughnuts from Alton Brown's recipe yield excellent results and I wasn't disappointed. However, I wanted more 'regular shapes' but since the dough is too soft, it was a bit difficult to manage. In terms of yeast and high moisture dough, it requires a bit of experience on handling it. Some points before you read the recipe below which is direct copy paste from Daring Baker's challenge. For more wonderful creations check The Daring Kitchen website.

Notes on Yeast Doughnuts:

1. I increased the sugar to 1/2 cup according to my taste.

2. A small skillet, frying pan or pot is recommended so less oil is consumed since you want atleast 2"-3" high.

3. The dough when first mixed is really really wet, almost pouring consistency. Keep faith, dont add flour, pour in oiled bowl and leave to rise.

4. For second proofing, use ample flour to handle the dough, knock out air, shape them and placing it on a well floured tray.

5. After second proofing, they rose beautifully while frying.

6. Oil should be medium hot, a piece of bread should be browned in 60 seconds. Doughnuts will take 30 seconds each side to fry.

7. I was just occupied with my cake orders so I made my easy chocolate sauce and dipped in them. You can use variety of glaze, fillings and toppings.

8. Doughnuts taste best when consumed the same day but a quick microwave for couple of seconds will also make them fresh for next day.

9. Feel free to halve the recipe as I did to yield 10-12 doughnuts and rounds.

10. Hubby enjoyed them without glaze while daughter still prefers Krispy Kreme.

11. If you don't have a stand mixer, use heavy wooden spoon to mix.
12.You can also bake them, brush them with butter and roll them in cinnamon sugar.

Yeast Doughnuts:

Preparation time:
Hands on prep time - 25 minutes
Rising time - 1.5 hours total
Cooking time - 12 minutes

Yield: 20 to 25 doughnuts & 20 to 25 doughnut holes, depending on size

IngredientsMilk 1.5 cup / 360 ml
Vegetable Shortening 1/3 cup / 80 ml / 70 gm / 2.5 oz (can substitute butter, margarine or lard)
Active Dry Yeast 4.5 teaspoon (2 pkgs.) / 22.5 ml / 14 gm / ½ oz
Warm Water 1/3 cup / 80 ml (95°F to 105°F / 35°C to 41°C)
Eggs, Large, beaten 2
White Granulated Sugar ¼ cup / 60 ml / 55 gm / 2 oz
Table Salt 1.5 teaspoon / 7.5 ml / 9 gm / 1/3 oz
Nutmeg, grated 1 tsp. / 5 ml / 6 gm / ¼ oz
All Purpose Flour 4 2/3 cup / 1,120 ml / 650 gm / 23 oz + extra for dusting surface
Canola Oil DEPENDS on size of vessel you are frying in – you want THREE (3) inches of oil (can substitute any flavorless oil used for frying)

Directions:

Place the milk in a medium saucepan and heat over medium heat just until warm enough to melt the shortening. (Make sure the shortening is melted so that it incorporates well into the batter.)
Place the shortening in a bowl and pour warmed milk over. Set aside.
In a small bowl, sprinkle the yeast over the warm water and let dissolve for 5 minutes. It should get foamy. After 5 minutes, pour the yeast mixture into the large bowl of a stand mixer and add the milk and shortening mixture, first making sure the milk and shortening mixture has cooled to lukewarm.
Add the eggs, sugar, salt, nutmeg, and half of the flour. Using the paddle attachment of your mixer (if you have one), combine the ingredients on low speed until flour is incorporated and then turn the speed up to medium and beat until well combined.
Add the remaining flour, combining on low speed at first, and then increase the speed to medium and beat well.
Change to the dough hook attachment of the mixer and beat on medium speed until the dough pulls away from the bowl and becomes smooth, approximately 3 to 4 minutes (for me this only took about two minutes). If you do not have a dough hook/stand mixer – knead until the dough is smooth and not sticky.
Transfer to a well-oiled bowl, cover, and let rise for 1 hour or until doubled in size.
On a well-floured surface, roll out dough to 3/8-inch (9 mm)thick. (Make sure the surface really is well-floured otherwise your doughnuts will stick to the counter).
Cut out dough using a 2 1/2-inch (65 mm) doughnut cutter or pastry ring or drinking glass and using a 7/8-inch (22 mm) ring for the center whole. Set on floured baking sheet, cover lightly with a tea towel, and let rise for 30 minutes.
Preheat the oil in a deep fryer or Dutch oven to 365 °F/185°C.
Gently place the doughnuts into the oil, 3 to 4 at a time. Cook for 1 minute per side or until golden brown (my doughnuts only took about 30 seconds on each side at this temperature).
Transfer to a cooling rack placed in baking pan. Allow to cool for 15 to 20 minutes prior to glazing, if desired.

Notes on Cake Doughnuts:

I wasnt particularly happy with this recipe. Infact I will stick to Betty Crocker's recipe of cake doughnuts which can be found here.

Cake Doughnuts

Old-Fashioned Buttermilk Cake Doughnuts:
Preparation time:
Hands on prep time - 25 minutes
Cooking time - 12 minutes

Yield: About 15 doughnuts & 15 doughnut holes, depending on size

Ingredients
Sour Cream ¼ cup / 60 ml / 60 gm / 2 oz
All Purpose Flour 3 ¼ cup / 780 ml / 455 gm / 16 oz + extra for dusting surface
White Granulated Sugar ¾ cup / 180 ml / 170 gm / 6 oz
Baking Soda ½ teaspoon / 2.5 ml / 3 gm / .1 oz
Baking Powder 1 teaspoon / 5 ml / 6 gm / .2 oz
Kosher (Flaked) Salt 1 teaspoon / 5 ml / 6 gm / .2 oz (If using table salt, only use ½ teaspoon)
Nutmeg, grated 1.5 teaspoon / 7.5 ml / 9 gm / .3 oz
Active Dry Yeast 1 1/8 teaspoon / 5.6 ml / 3.5 gm / .125 oz
Buttermilk ¾ cup + 2 Tablespoon / 210 ml / 225 gm / 7 ¾ oz
Egg, Large 1
Egg Yolk, Large 2
Pure Vanilla Extract 1 Tablespoon / 15 ml
Powdered (Icing) Sugar ¼ cup / 120 ml / 65 gm / 2.3 oz (Used for decorating and is optional)

Directions:

In a small stainless-steel bowl set over a pot of gently simmering water, heat the sour cream until just warm.
Heat the oil to 375°F/190°C.
Over a large mixing bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt, nutmeg; make a large well in the center. Place the yeast in the well; pour the sour cream over it. Allow it to soften (if using packed fresh yeast), about 1 minute.
Pour the buttermilk, whole egg, egg yolks, and vanilla extract into the well. Using one hand, gradually draw in the dry ingredients. The mixture should be fairly smooth before you draw in more flour. Mix until it is completely incorporated. The dough will be very sticky. Wash and dry your hands and dust them with flour.
Sift an even layer of flour onto a work surface. Don’t be afraid to use a lot of flour. You don’t want the doughnuts sticking to your counter. Scrape dough out of bowl onto the surface; sift another layer of flour over dough. Working quickly, pat dough into an even 1/2-inch (12.5 mm) thickness. Dip cutter in flour and, cutting as closely together as possible, cut out the doughnuts and holes. Place holes and doughnuts on a floured surface. Working quickly, gather scraps of dough together, pat into 1/2-inch (12.5 mm) thickness, and cut out remaining doughnuts and holes.
Drop three to four doughnuts at a time into the hot oil. Once they turn golden brown, turn them and cook the other side. Cooking times may vary, but with my oil at 375 °F/190°C, I found they only took about 20 to 30 seconds per side.
Once cooked, place on a baking sheet covered with paper towels to drain.

Sift powdered sugar over doughnuts and serve.

Pinkarons for Pinktober

2010-10-20T02:42:00.000-07:00

Macarons were first introduced to me in my first DB challenge. They unlike Macaroons - American coconut cookies are either French or Italian are somewhat temperamental cookies which poses challenge for bakers. Usually after accomplishing a DB challenge, recipe can be considered successfully under your belt but not Macarons. They are difficult to produce specially if you are talking about perfection - a trait common to all fanatic bakers.

Recently Laudree opened in Riyadh, KSA in a very posh mall. I haven't visited it yet which I plan to very soon. That triggered the Macaron monster in me and I decided to give them a try. Moreover my left over egg whites from Tiramisu and Not So Humble Pie post on Macarons added to the motivation. After all I have been baking for a long time and Macaron making should too come as a natural process. For more details on what are macarons and how perfect macarons should look and taste like, please refer to my earlier post I mentioned in the beginning.

For now, if you want to master macaron making process, I highly recommend the Macarons 101 by Not So Humble Pie in which she explains every tiny detail. I am now of the view that baking is certainly not an art, it is definitely a science and once you attempt to understand it, it becomes much more fun. I think I have found the perfect recipe, it yields almost perfect macarons. Crisp outer, moist interior, no holes, chewy and they could stand on their feet, yes they had feet too.

This post is dedicated to Breast Cancer awareness month which starts October 1st and is symbolized by pink ribbon. I lost my maternal aunt having this disease and have witnessed quite a few tragic deaths. Please help me spread the awareness of this since it is curable if detected early. A good resource is www.breastcancer.org. So my this time Mac Attack goes to Mactweets blog for their Pinkarons for Pinktober.

I have no special tips since I followed each and every tip in the above post so I am posting the recipe and wishing you best of luck.

Pink Macarons with Dark Chocolate Ganache
Ingredients
Egg whites 100 grams
Sugar granulated 30-35 grams
Icing Sugar 200 grams
Almond meal/flour 120 grams
Pink color few drops
Cream of tartar 1/4 tsp or a pinch of salt

Method
1. Age egg whites, either on counter top covered loosely for 24 hours or in fridge for 5-6 days.
2. Bring to room temperature. Add cream of tartar or salt. Using a hand whisk or electric beater, beat egg whites till fluffy. Make sure the whisk and bowl is impeccably clean with no moisture or grease.
3. Sprinkle granulated sugar and beat till glossy stiff peaks are achieved. Don't over beat else meringue (beaten stiff egg whites) will break and become grainy. Don't proceed since you cannot achieve macarons through this. Add color.
4. Pulse almond meal and icing sugar in a food processor and sift it.
5. Add in batches of 1/4 to meringue folding quickly. Don't over or under mix.
6. Fill the batter into a piping bag fitted with plain tip and pipe rounds on parchment lined baking sheets. There will be roughly 50-60 rounds.
7.Bake in a pre-heated oven for about 15-20 mins at gas mark 2.
8. Cool for 5 minutes and gently peel off the parchment and cool them upside down till ready to fill.

Dark Chocolate Ganache
Ingredients
Dark/bittersweet/semisweet chocolate 4 ounces
Heavy Cream 4 ounces

Method
1. Measure the ingredients by weight.
2. Melt chocolate cut into pieces in microwave for 1 minute.
3. Gently heat cream until it begins to bubble.
4. Pour over chocolate.
5. Let it stand for 5 minutes.
6. Stir well.
7. Leave at room temperature until ready to pipe or pop in fridge for a couple of hour. give a stir and pipe on half of the cookies. Don't fill too much or on the sides since it will spread once sandwiched.
8. Sandwich and keep in fridge in a covered container for a couple of days to mature.
9. Bring to room temperature before serving.

Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

2010-10-09T01:12:00.000-07:00

I have been on cake recipes hunt spree. For me, a wonderfully baked cake that tastes awesome is a real treat. I have been doing a lot of reading too in this regard, about the ingredients, methods and various flavors. I will share some of the findings with you. One more important thing, when I visit a blog in a particular niche, for example food, I am very interested in the whereabouts of the recipe and writer's opinion.

Cupcakes are often regarded as mini-cakes. Usually the batter is same but my experience is different. I think cupcakes are mini cakes, baked quickly and have a quick chance of drying out so it has to be ultimately moist with no compromise. If cupcakes are delicate and not so firm, they will forgive since they already have individual serving. Cakes on the other hand, are often torted, sliced and iced so they have to be firm yet moist. Both should have uncompromised moist, soft, delicate crumb with desired level of firmness. I would love to hear your take on cupcakes and cake difference too.

Coming back to red velvet cake, its a rich cake famous for its striking color combination. It is a moist deep red cake often frosted with cream cheese. It has a distinctive flavor with subtle hint of cocoa powder and that is why it is often compared with devil's food cake.If you are like me and have'nt tasted it before, you will find the flavor a bit odd but once paired with frosting, it is definitely a heaven. In my opinion, this is one of the cakes which cannot be consumed unfrosted.

The recipe is adopted from Annie's Eats, one of my favorite blogs and after a quick research,I found that Food Network and Bakerella uses the same recipe for their cakes. So, even though I have'nt tried personally, it looks that this recipe can be easily made into a cake. A little problem though, my cupcakes were'nt that tall but I think its just because of the baking soda, next time I will try with different brand and will keep you posted. For now, I am quite pleased with this recipe.

Red Velvet Cupcakes

Ingredients
Cake Flour* 1 1/4 cup
Caster Sugar 3/4 cup
Baking Soda 1/2 tsp
Cocoa Powder 1/2 tbsp
Salt 1/2 tsp
Vegetable Oil 3/4 cup
Egg 1
Buttermilk** 1/2 cup
Red Food coloring 1 tbsp [I used a local brand in powder form]
Vanilla Essence 1/2 tsp
Distilled white vinegar 1/2 tsp

* 1 cup Cake Flour can be made by placing 2 tbsp corn flour in a cup and then filling the cup with all purpose flour. Now do your math for 1 1/4 cup. More on cake flour and other types of flour in later posts.

**Buttermilk can be made by adding 1 tbsp vinegar/lemon juice in 1 cup of milk and let it stand for 5 minutes before using

Method
1. Combine flour, sugar, baking soda, cocoa powder, salt in a bowl and whisk.
2. Beat eggs, buttermilk, oil, food color, essence and vinegar and until blended.
3. Add in dry ingredients and beat on medium speed for two minutes.
4. Divide the mixture into a paper cup lined muffin pan.
5. Bake in a pre-heated oven at around gas mark 4 for 18-20 minutes until toothpick inserted comes out clean.
6. Cool and frost.

Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients
Cream cheese 4 ounces [use Philadelphia or Kiri]
Butter 2 1/2 tbsp
Vanilla essence 1 tsp
Icing Sugar 1 1/4 cup

Method
1. Beat butter and cream cheese until creamy.
2. Add in essence and icing sugar beating till combined.
3. Frost with a spatula or piping swirls with an open star tip.

Daring Decorated Sugar Cookies with Daring Bakers

2010-09-28T08:45:00.000-07:00

I have been out of Daring Bakers' scene lately. Not only that, I have'nt been doing a lot of baking and blogging too. Reason being guests, lot of travelling and sickness. I am back and active and I plan to cover a lot of things specially the last two DB challenges. For now, this month's challenge which again turned out to be my favorite.

The September 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Mandy of “What the Fruitcake?!” Mandy challenged everyone to make Decorated Sugar Cookies based on recipes from Peggy Porschen and The Joy of Baking.

This is going to be a long post, I warn you. Not only because generally DB challenges are lengthy but making and decorating Sugar Cookies is a dream of every baker. Perfecting the sugar cookies can be a really rewarding experience owing to the versatility you can add in terms of flavors, shapes, decorating etc. I have previously posted about sugar cookies here and have also attempted to make cookie pops decorated with royal icing here.

I am glad that I found out this recipe of sugar cookies since they turned out perfect. Just a little sweeter given it will be decorated with Royal icing. Other than that the recipe is perfect and if ingredients are measured accurately and tips are followed, they are sure going to become your family favorites. They can make great giveaways individually wrapped in cellophane or decorated according to any special occasion.

For this challenge, we were given theme 'September' whatever that means to you. For me, since I have just come back from vacations in Karachi, Pakistan and had the most wonderful time celebrating Eid with our families after a long time. Eid, by now most of you know is the most important festival of Muslims and mark the end of holy month of Ramadan. This Eid also called Eid-ul-Fitr have many festivities related to it. Scrumptious food, new clothes, home renovations, charity and meeting family and relatives. Among them colorful bangles and henna or mehndi. My decorated sugar cookies are also inspired by mehndi which me and my 4 year old daughter absolutely adore.

Below you will find recipes, although for royal icing, I use meringue powder instant of raw egg whites. You can find the recipe in this post. Also included are the tips and some pointers. Please take time to explore, since its really very useful and once you master the art of decorating cookies, you will very proud of yourself.

Before you delve into sea of recipes, tips, method and information below, the following resources are worth checking.

http://sweetopia.net/category/tutorials/
http://www.universityofcookie.com/
http://www.flickriver.com/groups/cookiecuttercookies/pool/interesting/

And did you know you can make your own cookie cutters?

http://blog.jugglingfrogs.com/2007/10/make-your-own-cookie-cutter-from-clip.html
http://www.cutoutandkeep.net/projects/homemade_cookie_cutters_2

The content below is the courtesy of Daring Bakers forum.

Basic Sugar Cookies:

Makes Approximately 36x 10cm / 4" Cookies

200g / 7oz / ½ cup + 6 Tbsp Unsalted Butter, at room temperature
400g / 14oz / 3 cups + 3 Tbsp All Purpose / Plain Flour
200g / 7oz / 1 cup Caster Sugar / Superfine Sugar
1 Large Egg, lightly beaten
5ml / 1 tsp Vanilla Extract / Or seeds from 1 vanilla bean

Directions
• Cream together the butter, sugar and any flavourings you’re using. Beat until just becoming
creamy in texture.
• Tip: Don’t over mix otherwise you’ll incorporate too much air and the cookies will spread during
baking, losing their shape.
• Beat in the egg until well combined, make sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl.
Add the sifted flour and mix on low until a non sticky dough forms.
• Tip: I don’t have a stand mixer so I find it easier to switch to dough hooks at this stage to avoid
flour flying everywhere.
• Knead into a ball and divide into 2 or 3 pieces.
• Roll out each portion between parchment paper to a thickness of about 5mm/1/5 inch (0.2 inch)
• Refrigerate for a minimum of 30mins.
• Tip: Recipes commonly just wrap the whole ball of dough in clingwrap and then refrigerate it for an
hour or overnight, but by rolling the dough between parchment, this shortens the chilling time and
then it’s also been rolled out while still soft making it easier and quicker.
• Once chilled, peel off parchment and place dough on a lightly floured surface.
• Cut out shapes with cookie cutters or a sharp knife.
• Arrange shapes on parchment lined baking sheets and refrigerate for another 30mins to an hour.
• Tip: It’s very important you chill them again otherwise they’ll spread while baking.
• Re-roll scraps and follow the above process until all scraps are used up.
• Preheat oven to 180°C (160°C Fan Assisted) / 350°F / Gas Mark 4.
• Bake until golden around the edges, about 8-15mins depending on the size of the cookies.
• Tip: Bake same sized cookies together otherwise mixing smaller with larger cookies could result in
some cookies being baked before others are done.
• Tip: Rotate baking sheets half way through baking if your oven bakes unevenly.
• Leave to cool on cooling racks.
• Once completely cooled, decorate as desired.
• Tip: If wrapped in tinfoil/cling wrap or kept in airtight containers in a cool place, un-decorated
cookies can last up to a month.

Royal Icing:

315g – 375g / 11oz – 13oz / 2½ - 3 cups Icing / Confectioner’s / Powdered Sugar, unsifted
2 Large Egg Whites
10ml / 2 tsp Lemon Juice
5ml / 1 tsp Almond Extract, optional

Directions

• Beat egg whites with lemon juice until combined.
• Tip: It’s important that the bowls/spoons/spatulas and beaters you use are thoroughly cleaned and
grease free.
• Sift the icing sugar to remove lumps and add it to the egg whites.
• Tip: I’ve listed 2 amounts of icing sugar, the lesser amount is good for a flooding consistency, and the larger amount is for outlining, but you can add even more for a much thicker consistency good for writing. If you add too much icing sugar or would like to make a thinner consistency, add very small amounts of water, a few drops at a time, until you reach the consistency you need.
• Beat on low until combined and smooth.
• Use immediately or keep in an airtight container.
• Tip: Royal Icing starts to harden as soon as it’s in contact with air so make sure to cover containers with plastic wrap while not in use.

Decorating Your Cookies: Flooding

“Flooding” a cookie is a technique used when covering a cookie with Royal Icing.

1. You outline the area you want to flood which helps create a dam
2. Then fill or flood inside the area you’ve outlined

Decorating Your Cookies: What You'll Need
- Piping bags / Parchment Cones / Ziplock Bags
- Elastic bands
- Piping tips (between sizes 1 & 5)
- Couplers
- Glasses (handy for standing your piping bags in)
- Clean clothes, dry & damp
- Toothpicks
- Gel or paste food colouring

Decorating Your Cookies: Royal IcingThe most important thing when it comes to decorating with Royal Icing is the consistency.

There are two ways of flooding your cookies. Some like to do the outline with a thicker icing and then flood with a thinner icing. Some like to use the same icing to do both which saves time and you don’t have to have two different piping bags for each colour you’re using.

The Same Consistency Method
Consistency:
• Mix your royal icing according to the recipe/instructions
• Drag a knife through the surface of the Royal Icing and count to 10
• If the surface becomes smooth between 5 & 10 seconds, the icing is at the correct consistency
• Tip: If your icing is too thick, thin it by adding a few drops of water. Mix, do the 10 second test, then if it’s still too thick, add a few more drops of water, repeat, etc.
• Tip: To thicken your icing, add small amounts of icing sugar until thick enough for the 10 second test

Two Different Consistencies Method
Consistency:
• Mix your royal icing according to the recipe/instructions.
• Separate into 2 different bowls, one lot of icing for outlining, the other for flooding.
• For the outlining icing, drag a knife through the surface of the Royal Icing.
• If the surface becomes smooth at around 10 seconds, the icing is at the correct consistency.
• Tip: If your icing is too thick, thin it by adding a few drops of water. Mix, count to 10 seconds, then if it’s still too thick, add a few more drops of water, repeat, etc.
• Tip: To thicken your icing, add small amounts of icing sugar until thick enough for the 10 second test.
• For the flooding/filling icing, drag a knife through the surface of the Royal Icing.
• If the surface becomes smooth at around 3-4 seconds, the icing is at the correct consistency.
• Tip: If your icing is too thick, thin it by adding a few drops of water. Mix, count to 3-4 seconds, then if it’s still too thick, add a few more drops of water, repeat, etc.
• Tip: To thicken your icing, add small amounts of icing sugar until thick enough for the 3-4 second test.

Colouring
• Separate Royal Icing into separate bowls for each colour you plan on using.
• Tip: Make sure to cover the bowls with cling film or a damp cloth to prevent the top from setting and then making lumps
• Using a toothpick, add gel or paste colouring to each bowl and mix thoroughly until desired colour is reached
• Tip: You can use liquid food colouring but you might not be able to get the desired strength of colour, liquid colouring will also thin out the icing so you’ll need to add more icing sugar to thicken it again.

Prepping and Filling Your Bag
• Attach your icing tips to the piping bags using couplers
• Tip: You don’t need to use a coupler but it makes it easier if you want to change tip sizes
• Tip: A size 1 tip is best for doing intricate details. A size 2 tip is good for some details and outlining. Fill or flood with sizes 2 – 5.
• Tip: You don’t need a piping bag, you can use a parchment cone or ziplock bag with a tiny bit snipped off the corner. I would however recommend getting a piping set if you don’t have one as it will be much easier and more precise.
• Stand the piping bags in glasses with the tops of the bags folded over the top of the glass.
• Fill your icing bags with each coloured icing.
• Tie the ends of the piping bags with elastic bands.

Decorating: Outlining

• Fit the piping bag with a size 2 or 3 tip.

• Tip: Or snip a very small bit of the corner off of a parchment cone or Ziploc bag
• Hold the piping bag at a 45 degree angle above the cookie where you want to start the outline.
• Gently squeeze the piping bag and start moving in the direction you want to outline the cookie.
• Start lifting the piping bag away from the cookie so that the flow of icing falls onto the cookie, making it an even and neater outline.
• As you start to reach the beginning of the outline, bring the piping tip closer to the surface of the cookie to meet the start of the icing outline.
• Tip: If you’re doing an intricate cookie, like a snow flake, you won’t be able to lift the tip as far away from the cookie.
• If you’re doing a different colour border, eg a black border, let the outline dry before flooding. If using the same colour for the outline as you’re flooding with, begin flooding after doing the outline.
Decorating: Flooding
• Fit the piping bag with a size 2-5 tip, the bigger the area being filled, the bigger the tip.
• Tip: Or cut slightly more off the corner of a Ziploc bag to create a slightly larger opening.
• Quickly zigzag back and forth over the area you want to fill.
• Tip: You need to be quick when flooding the cookie so don’t worry too much if it’s not filled in neatly.
• Using a toothpick or clean paintbrush, push the icing around into the gaps that are still remaining.
• Either pick up the cookie and tip it from side to side to even out the filling, or lightly bang the cookie
Decorating: Melding Colours
• If you would like to add lines or dots to the base colour that you flooded the cookie with so that they meld and dry as a smooth surface, you need to add the lines/dots/patterns as quickly as possible after flooding and smoothing the surface of the cookie.
• Tip: Make sure to have all the colours you’re planning on using ready and close by so that you can switch between colours quickly
• Simply pipe other colours onto the flooded surface in patterns or lines which you can either leave as that or then drag a toothpick through to make marbling patterns.
Decorating: On top of flooding
• If you’d like to do other patterns/outlines or writing on top of the flooded surface so that they are raised above the flooded background, simply allow the icing to dry, preferably over night.
• Fit the piping bag with tip sizes 1-3.
• Pipe patterns or write on top of the dry icing
• Tip: For writing, the consistency of your icing should be thicker rather than thinner, drag a knife through your icing and when the surface smoothes around 12-15 seconds, the consistency is correct.
Packaging and Storing
• Once fully decorated, allow cookies to dry for 24 hours in a cool and dry area.
• Stack cookies in an airtight container, from largest cookies at the bottom, to smallest and more intricate at the top, with parchment or wax free paper in between the layers.
• Store in a cool and dry area with the container’s lid firmly sealed.
• Will last for about a month if stored this way.
General Baking Tips
• When measuring by volume (cup) always shift/aerate your flour/icing sugar in the container/bag before measuring because it settles as it sits and so you end up with more flour/icing sugar in your cup. I do this by moving the ingredient around with a spoon, whisk or fork.
• When measuring flour or icing sugar by volume (cup) never scoop the flour/icing sugar up with the cup otherwise you compress the contents and this can make a big difference in the amount you’re using. Rather, spoon the ingredient into the cup until level with the top.
• When measuring baking powder or baking soda, always level off the top of the measuring spoon with something flat (like the back of a knife) as these ingredients need to be accurately measured.
• When mixing your ingredients, always follow the recipe instructions, especially when it comes to beating in eggs and flour, so if it specifies to mix until just combined or to beat for 4 minutes, follow the instructions to get best results.
• Unless otherwise specified, always have your ingredients at room temperature.
• It’s always best to invest in an oven thermometer so that you know exactly the temperature you’re baking at then you can also find out if you have cold or hot spots in your oven.
• If you need to rotate your trays midst baking, always allow at least half the baking time to lapse before opening your oven to move baking trays around, this allows time for your baked goods to form a good structure so that they won’t flop.
General Royal Icing Tips
• Keep a damp cloth handy while decorating your cookies so that if you’re switching between different icing bags, you can keep the tips covered with the damp cloth so that the icing doesn’t dry and clog them.
• If your icing tips do clog, use a toothpick or pin to unclog them.
• Always pipe a little bit of royal icing onto a board/paper towel before you begin to make sure there are no air bubbles.
• Remember to always cover bowls containing royal icing wither cling wrap, a damp cloth or sealable lid so that the surface doesn’t dry.
• Don’t store anything decorated with royal icing in the fridge otherwise the royal icing will
become tacky.

Pin Wheel Biscuits

2010-09-25T01:18:00.000-07:00

Biscuits or Cookies are one of the most popular snack items, whether you dunk in milk for your breakfast, dip in your evening tea or just munch them mindlessly while working or relaxing. I have always loved cookies. In my home country, bakery cookies are very popular and during my recent visit, I tried many but ultimately concluded that you cannot beat the homemade goodness. Here in Middle East, I generally don't like any bakery items, I have this weird superiority complex that I can bake better at home. Not only versatile in taste and texture, they can be made through variety of methods. Some are drop cookies, some are chilled before baking, some can be shaped while many can be pressed with cutters. Some are no-bake or even twice baked.

My sister who is also a hobbyist baker made pin wheel biscuits on Eid (a recently concluded occasion of Muslims to mark the end of the fasting month of Ramadan), turned out really good. They are swirl shaped round cookies with alternate layers of chocolate and vanilla. The recipe I am posting here is near to perfect and is an old recipe from my baking classes I used to take.

From here onwards, I will try to give measurement in variety of formats and it is always recommended that you invest in a good measuring scale.

Pin Wheel Biscuits

Ingredients
Unsalted Butter (room temperature) 3oz/75 gm/3 tbsp
Flour 6oz/150 gm/12 tbsp
Baking Powder 1 tsp
Caster Sugar 3.5 oz/7 tbsp
Vanilla Essence 3-4 drops
Egg Yolk 1
Cocoa Powder 1 tsp heaped

Method
1. Cream butter, sugar, egg and vanilla.
2. Add sifted flour and baking powder and mix with finger tips or hand beater till the mixture resembles fine bread crumbs.
3. Add chilled water with a tea spoon to just bind the mixture. You might not need water at all. Don't knead, just work to bind.
4. Divide the dough into two and add cocoa powder to one. Mix.
5. Roll out white dough between piece of parchment/baking paper into a rectangular shape. Cut the uneven edges and patch them to make a near perfect rectangle.
6. Repeat step 5 with chocolate dough. Remove the top parchment papers from both.
7. Lay chocolate dough over vanilla dough and start rolling firmly but gently from the longer side peeling off the parchment carefully. It should be shaped like a log.
8. Wrap it in the same parchment paper on which the vanilla dough was placed.
9. Freeze for 20-25 minutes.
10. Cut about 1/2 inches thick slices and place on an un-greased tray preferably lined with parchment paper.
11. Bake in a pre-heated oven at no.6 for 20 minutes until golden brown. Don't bake for longer period, increase the temperature if required.

Mum's famous Pizza

2010-06-06T05:17:00.000-07:00

Ta Daaa! I am really excited about this post and its a long requested recipe. I have been making it long before I even started blogging. Then why late, should you ask. Well, one reason, I cook dinner in evenings and it rarely lasts the next day to take pictures. Neither do I like to take pictures of un-fresh food. So, this time I deliberately made it for lunch and some clicks, not great ones were enough to put up this recipe. Its a keeper and my favorite recipe for a satisfying deep pan pizza meal. I have tried many recipes for pizza crust and few are very promising and I will soon post recipe of thin crust pizza also.

This recipe comes from my mum who took some cooking classes way back when we were kids and there was only one shop of pizza in our city. She learnt for our sake since me and my sister have always been a food lover and great admirer. Her pizzas got so famous in our friends and family that I remember a pizza party happening once in a while. My school and university friends still remember her pizza and the salads complimenting it.

It is a rich dough consisting of eggs, milk powder in addition to the usual flour and yeast. I am also posting recipe of basic pizza sauce which is very easy and compliments this crust very well. For toppings, you have unlimited options. You can use cooked chicken from last night's dinner, grilled veggies, mince meat or just cheese. I like mine with some fresh veggies like capsicums, onions, tomatoes, mushrooms and black olives. Let me know if you try this and how it turned out for you.

This recipe yields two large pizzas of about 14 inches. You can easily halve this recipe if you like.

Pizza Base
Ingredients:

Flour 500gm or 1/2 kg
Salt 1 tsp
Milk Powder 2 tbsp
Egg 1
Sugar 1 tbsp
Yeast 1 1/2 tbsp
Oil 4 tbsp

Method:
1. If you have taken granulated yeast then place yeast, 1 tsp sugar and little luke warm water in a small bowl for 5 minutes. If you are using instant yeast goto step 2 directly.
2. Meanwhile, place all the ingredients in a large bowl. Mix.
3. Add in frothed yeast. The granulated yeast will become pale and foamy.
4. Start kneading the dough with luke warm water. Make sure you add enough water to make a soft dough. Dont worry if your dough is soft and sticky, you can lightly dust with flour but aim at making a medium soft dough. Once the dough is hard you cannot add water to make it soft. This texture is directly proportional to the final result of the baked crust. Enough said.
5. Place the dough on a lightly floured surface and knead with palms of your hand, pushing the dough away and then gathering back. Do this for 5-7 minutes until dough is elastic and smooth.
6. Place the dough in a greased bowl and put some oil on top of dough as well to avoid drying out or cracking. Place in a warm place for about an hour until significantly double in size and when you press your finger, the indentation remains. If weather is cold then u can place it near a burning stove.
7. Punch out air and cut the dough into half. Roll each piece to a 14 inch circle and place on a lavishly greased round pizza tray.
8. Prick with fork and leave to rise for another half hour in a warm place.
9. Spread the pizza sauce, top with some cheddar cheese, place topping of your choice, sprinkle with cheddar and mozzarella cheese and sprinkle some oregano powder or leaves.
10. Bake in a pre-heated oven at gas mark 5-6 for 20 minutes until base is golden and cheese has melted.

Basic Pizza Sauce
Ingredients:
Tomato paste 1 cup [or blend 2-3 tomatoes without water]
Chinese salt 1/2 tsp
Oil 2-3 tbsp
Ketchup 4 tbsp
White pepper 1/2 tsp
Salt 1/2 tsp
Oregano 2 tsp
Crushed red pepper/chilli 1 tsp
Crushed garlic 1 tsp

Method:
1. Heat oil, add garlic.
2. After a minute, add rest of the ingredients and cook for 10 minutes until a sauce is formed. You can add red food color or a tbsp of tinned tomato paste for color.
3. Cool and use as directed.

Pizza Topping:
Vegetables cubed (onion, tomato, corns, olives, capsicums, mushroom)
Chedder cheese grated 1 cup approx.
Mozzarella cheese grated 1 1/2 cup approx.
Oregano leaves/powder

A come back post with Daring Bakers - Piece Montee

2010-05-28T09:01:00.000-07:00

I have been out of blogging scene for almost 2.5 months now. Reason, well a lot of them and genuine ones. First, towards the end of March my family (parents and sister were visiting me) and I wanted to make the most of that time. We had a great family re-union with lots of food being cooked and many places were visited. Second, I went to our annual family vacation to UK. That too was great. These things happen back to back, leaving me no time to blog. I surely missed it and apologies to all of you for not updating it. But I am back now and what a better way to come back with Daring Bakers. Please remain tuned to BakeFresh as I have planned some exciting new posts and recipes for the upcoming months.

First the blog checking lines:
The May 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Cat of Little Miss Cupcake. Cat challenged everyone to make a piece montée, or croquembouche, based on recipes from Peter Kump’s Baking School in Manhattan and Nick Malgieri.

The moment I read this challenge, I knew I had to make it. Its basis (choux pastry) is one of the things I have always had trouble making it. It was only hit and trial before I completed this challenge. I am much more confident not and would like to thanks Cat for brining this up. Obviously I had some issues but it was not disastrous even in the first go. Thanks to Audax for the four points which also helped alot. The issues I had were:

1. I piped them too big which when baked doubled in size yielding even bigger pastries.
2. My choux buns went a bit soft from crispy when i kept them overnight in air tight box, my guess is that they were not completely allowed to cool.
3. I had issues filling them as the cream kept oozing out and same was the case when we were eating them, it was spilling all over.
4. Next time I want to make a tall tall piece montee.

If any of you can mention any pointers regarding the above issues, it would be great.

Now to the recipe:
The recipe is very simple and has three parts, choux , creme patissiere , glaze. All of them are very easy to prepare and the ultimate part of this challenge was to assemble it as piece montee which is essentially a pyramid of profiteroles (cream filled choux buns). This is a traditional dessert many times served as a wedding cake in France.

An interesting thing which you will find interesting is that back home in Pakistan, Karachi, the small profiteroles are often decorated on blackforest cake and once it was a favorite cake in our family.

Following is the recipe with the method copied from Daring Kitchen as is.
Ingredients:

For the Vanilla Crème Patissiere (Half Batch)
1 cup (225 ml.) whole milk
2 Tbsp. cornstarch
6 Tbsp. (100 g.) sugar
1 large egg
2 large egg yolks
2 Tbsp. (30 g.) unsalted butter
1 Tsp. Vanilla

Dissolve cornstarch in ¼ cup of milk. Combine the remaining milk with the sugar in a saucepan; bring to boil; remove from heat.

Beat the whole egg, then the yolks into the cornstarch mixture. Pour 1/3 of boiling milk into the egg mixture, whisking constantly so that the eggs do not begin to cook.

Return the remaining milk to boil. Pour in the hot egg mixture in a stream, continuing whisking.

Continue whisking (this is important – you do not want the eggs to solidify/cook) until the cream thickens and comes to a boil. Remove from heat and beat in the butter and vanilla.

Pour cream into a stainless steel/ceramic bowl. Press plastic wrap firmly against the surface. Chill immediately and until ready to use.

For Chocolate Pastry Cream (Half Batch Recipe):
Bring ¼ cup (about 50 cl.) milk to a boil in a small pan; remove from heat and add in 3 ounces (about 80 g.) semisweet chocolate, finely chopped, and mix until smooth. Whisk into pastry cream when you add the butter and vanilla.

For Coffee Pastry Cream (Half Batch recipe)
Dissolve 1 ½ teaspoons instant espresso powder in 1 ½ teaspoons boiling water. Whisk into pastry cream with butter and vanilla.

Pate a Choux (Yield: About 28)
¾ cup (175 ml.) water
6 Tbsp. (85 g.) unsalted butter
¼ Tsp. salt
1 Tbsp. sugar
1 cup (125 g.) all-purpose flour
4 large eggs

For Egg Wash: 1 egg and pinch of salt

Pre-heat oven to 425◦F/220◦C degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

Preparing batter:
Combine water, butter, salt and sugar in a saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a boil and stir occasionally. At boil, remove from heat and sift in the flour, stirring to combine completely.

Return to heat and cook, stirring constantly until the batter dries slightly and begins to pull away from the sides of the pan.

Transfer to a bowl and stir with a wooden spoon 1 minute to cool slightly.

Add 1 egg. The batter will appear loose and shiny.

As you stir, the batter will become dry-looking like lightly buttered mashed potatoes.

It is at this point that you will add in the next egg. Repeat until you have incorporated all the eggs.

Piping:
Transfer batter to a pastry bag fitted with a large open tip (I piped directly from the bag opening without a tip). Pipe choux about 1 inch-part in the baking sheets. Choux should be about 1 inch high about 1 inch wide.

Using a clean finger dipped in hot water, gently press down on any tips that have formed on the top of choux when piping. You want them to retain their ball shape, but be smoothly curved on top.

Brush tops with egg wash (1 egg lightly beaten with pinch of salt).

Baking:
Bake the choux at 425◦F/220◦C degrees until well-puffed and turning lightly golden in color, about 10 minutes.

Lower the temperature to 350◦F/180◦C degrees and continue baking until well-colored and dry, about 20 minutes more. Remove to a rack and cool.

Can be stored in a airtight box overnight.

Filling:
When you are ready to assemble your piece montée, using a plain pastry tip, pierce the bottom of each choux. Fill the choux with pastry cream using either the same tip or a star tip, and place on a paper-lined sheet. Choux can be refrigerated briefly at this point while you make your glaze.

Use one of these to top your choux and assemble your piece montée.

Chocolate Glaze:
8 ounces/200 g. finely chopped chocolate (use the finest quality you can afford as the taste will be quite pronounced; I recommend semi-sweet)

Melt chocolate in microwave or double boiler. Stir at regular intervals to avoid burning. Use the best quality chocolate you can afford. Use immediately.

Hard Caramel Glaze:
1 cup (225 g.) sugar
½ teaspoon lemon juice

Combine sugar and lemon juice in a saucepan with a metal kitchen spoon stirring until the sugar resembles wet sand. Place on medium heat; heat without stirring until sugar starts to melt around the sides of the pan and the center begins to smoke. Begin to stir sugar. Continue heating, stirring occasionally until the sugar is a clear, amber color. Remove from heat immediately; place bottom of pan in ice water to stop the cooking. Use immediately.

Assembly of your Piece Montée:
You may want to lay out your unfilled, unglazed choux in a practice design to get a feel for how to assemble the final dessert. For example, if making a conical shape, trace a circle (no bigger than 8 inches) on a piece of parchment to use as a pattern. Then take some of the larger choux and assemble them in the circle for the bottom layer. Practice seeing which pieces fit together best.

Once you are ready to assemble your piece montée, dip the top of each choux in your glaze (careful it may be still hot!), and start assembling on your cake board/plate/sheet. Continue dipping and adding choux in levels using the glaze to hold them together as you build up. (You may want to use toothpicks to hold them in place – see video #4 below).

When you have finished the design of your piece montée, you may drizzle with remaining glaze or use ribbons, sugar cookie cut-outs, almonds, flowers, etc. to decorate. Have fun and enjoy! Bon appétit!

Additional Information: Here are some videos you may want to take a look at before you get started on your piece montée.

1) Martha Stewart Assembles a Croquembouche:http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/marthas-famous-croquembouche

2) Assembling croquembouche using the interior of a cylinder:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fq-UgMxe0Y4
3) Asembling Free-standing Croquembouche with Chocolate Glaze:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrIanD5pi9E&feature=related

4) Assembling a Croquembouche with Toothpicks and Cone:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIGaidsM-NI&feature=related

See this google images search of Croquembouche for inspiration:http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&source=hp&q=croquembouche&btnG=Sea...

Here’s a link to a dairy-free pate a choux and crème patisserie recipe:http://dairyfreecooking.about.com/od/dessertsbeverages/r/creampuffs.htm

Here I would like to quote Audax 4 points which I think were the key to success of making this dessert. Thanks Audax.

Pâte à choux dough, know as panade, is the only dough that is cooked before being baked. It consists of water, butter, flour, and eggs. During baking the eggs help form a thin crust on the outside, while the steam trapped inside expands giving to the choux pastries the typical puffed hollow shape.

1) Make sure that the cooked water/flour/butter has cooled down below 140F (60C) before adding the eggs or else you will scrambled them! Remember to add the eggs one at a time. For the first egg I use a cold one straight from the fridge that way it is less likely to scramble. The quantity of egg should be just right. If the recipe calls for 4 eggs add the first 3 (one egg at a time) and the last a little at a time in order to control the consistency. Too much egg will cause the panade to be too liquid and unable to hold the shape when is baked. It should have the consistency of thick mayonnaise.

2) The panade needs to be cooked carefully till is smooth and dry. If it is undercooked the ingredients could be unevenly mixed, and it would retain too much moisture. If the bottom of the pan is covered with a thin whitish crust this is an indication that the dough is sufficiently dried. Do not attempt to scrape up the floury film that forms on the bottom and sides of the pan – just let it be.

3) Do the preparation very quickly. Piping and baking the panade immediately when still warm will help lightness and expansion. This is the biggest tip do the piping fast!

4) Bake the pastries until they are crisp, dry and golden. If the pastries are undercooked they could collapse when they are removed from the oven. Also it is preferable to cool the pastries slowly in the oven or else they might collapse.

These are the three most common problem areas with pâte à choux preparation:
* Insufficient beating of water, flour and butter before adding eggs – the water/flour/butter batter needs to develop sufficiently (i.e. dried out) to provide structure
* Failure to incorporate eggs one at a time – the eggs need to be beaten enough to provide leavening
* Baking at too low a temperature or removing puffs before fully baked – the water in the dough needs to steam to leaven the dough as well

Fettuccine Alfredo with mushrooms and broccoli and healthy too!

2010-03-10T03:57:00.000-08:00

This is a quick post but I HAD to share this recipe. I am usually pressed for making savory dishes mostly since some of my regular followers expect. Besides that, I have more ideas for making sweets and baking items, I cook proper meal at night and I haven't still mastered the night time photography skills. Well, that doesn't at all means that I have mastered natural light photography. Some pictures still come out horrible but thats the fun of learning.

So today, I had to stir something quickly for lunch, in half an hour to be exact. Secretly I was feeling Giada De Laurentiis from Food Network. I knew I had to make pasta because thats usually the quickest meals and family favorites. I had bought Fettuccine, so that had to be the main ingredient. I had tried Fettuccine Alfredo in a restaurant last week over a lunch with friends [btw it was great fun]. It was just ok, not great, I mean the food. So, after some searching, I settled down with a promising recipe which didn't have cream. All the other recipes had cream [including Giada's] as main ingredient and rightly so, it was Alfredo after all. I cannot over-indulge, not good for us. And guess what, it did turn out great with low fat milk thickened with corn flour. For now atleast I am settling down with this recipe.

Back to the recipe. Fettuccine means 'little ribbons' in Italian, is a popular Italian pasta with ribbon like shape and the most common dish that is made out of it is Fettuccine Alfredo. Some says this dish has its roots in Rome but its now gaining immense popularity worldwide. Alfredo refers to the thick buttery, creamy sauce seasoned generously with parmesan cheese - another popular Italian ingredient. Some veggies can also be added for variation.

Enough talking, did I tell you it was quick post?

Mushroom and Broccoli Fettuccine Alfredo [somewhat healthified]

Ingredients:

adapted from Honey,What's Cooking?

Fettuccine pasta approx.250 gm

Crushed Red pepper flakes 1/2 tsp

Garlic (chopped) 2 cloves

Broccoli approx. 1 head cut up

Mushrooms 200 gm (small tin)

Butter 2 tbsp

Extra Virgin Olive Oil 1 tbsp

Milk [I used low fat] 3 cups

Corn starch/flour 2 tbsp

Parmesan Cheese 1 cup

Black Pepper 1 tsp freshly grounded

White pepper 1 1/2 tsp

Salt

Parsley [I used green corriander] a handful

snips of green onion and a couple of mint leaves

Method:

1. Cook pasta according to package directions.

2. In the same boiling pasta water, put broccoli in a sieve and steam for 5 minutes.

3. In a separate pot, place oil, add garlic, red chilli flakes and after 2 minutes add mushrooms. Cook for good 5 minutes. Lastly add in broccoli.

4. Keep the above mixture aside.

5. Make Alfredo Sauce. In the same pan, melt butter, add 2 cups of milk.

6. Separately in a bowl, mix one cup of remaining milk and cornflour.

7. Add salt, white pepper, milk with cornflour into the sauce.

8. when it starts thickening, add cheese and parsley.

9. Lastly add in mushroom and broccoli mixture.

10. Add in all the pasta and let it sit for 15 minutes so all the sauce is absorbed by the pasta.

11. Garnish with green onions, parmesan cheese, freshly ground black pepper and mint leaves.

SourCream Cake with Walnut Streusel - perfect pair with a coffee

2010-03-07T22:40:00.000-08:00

To be honest, I never knew that a cake eaten with coffee is a coffee cake, I always thought only the cake which 'contains' coffee is a coffee cake. Bummer!!! Did I mention I am still learning? As usual, my favorite ingredient was near its expiration and I had to utilize it and create something interesting enough to post it on blog. I came up with this recipe after some searching, which I discovered was very popular. Ina Garten from Barefoot Contessa is one of my favorites too, since she cooks and bakes some delicious and great looking food. Although I adapted this recipe from Elizabeth's Edible blog but she has credited the recipe is from Ina.

This is a Sour Cream Cake with walnut-cinnamon streusel. A couple of points about streusel. Streusel is a German word meaning something scattered or sprinkled, similar to strew in English. In baking/pastry making it refers to the traditional German crumb topping of butter, flour and sugar baked on top of muffins, breads and cakes. Often variations like nuts and spices are added to flair up the flavors.

As usual, you can try substituting yogurt, if you don't have sour cream and can use any other nut/spice combination. For me, cinnamon is my all time favorite. Rest of the recipe is pretty straight forward. Typically this cake is baked in a ring pan or bundt [d silent] pan [as typically 'coffee' cakes are baked in bundt pans]. They are distinctive ring shaped pans with some design on the bottom. I baked the cake in loaf tin since I made half of this recipe. If you are making full recipe then a typical 8-9" bundt or ring pan will be perfect.

Sour Cream Cake with Walnut Cinnamon Streusel

adapted from Elizabeth's Edibles

Ingredients:

Cake

Butter 3/4 cup or 12 tbsp [unsalted at room temperature]

Sugar (granulated) 1 1/2 cup

Eggs [extra large at room temperature] 3

Vanilla 1 1/2 tsp

Sour Cream 1 1/4 cup

Flour 2 1/2 cups

Baking powder 2 tsp

Baking soda 1/2 tsp

Salt 1/2 tsp

Streusel

Brown sugar [light] 1/4 cup

Flour 1/2 cup

Ground cinnamon powder 1 1/2 tsp

Salt 1/4 tsp

Butter [cold] 3 tbsp

Walnuts [chopped] 3/4 cup

Glace

Icing/Confectioner's sugar 1/2 cup

Maple syrup or water 2 tbsp

Method:

1. Make the cake batter first. Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs, one at a time.

2. Add sour cream and vanilla.

3. Sift all dry ingredients and add in to the batter beating at low speed until just mixed.

4. For the streusel, combine all the ingredients with finger tips so the mixture resembles as crumbs.

5. Spoon half the cake batter into prepared greased pan.

6. Sprinkle 1/2 of streusel on it and pour rest of the batter.

7. Sprinkle the remaining streusel.

8. Bake in a pre-heated oven at gas mark 4 for about 60 minutes until done.

9. Cool in pan for 10 minutes, remove and pour the glaze on it.

10. Make glaze by mixing two ingredients until a thick pouring consistency is formed.

Yet another challenge - Making Tiramisu with Daring Bakers

2010-02-27T00:09:00.000-08:00

My blog is gaining popularity. I never aimed it to be popular because I felt a dwarf when i first started blogging. Some great blogs exist which are well-rounded in terms of recipes, photography and loads of creativity. My blogversary is in a month's time and I am really happy that the thing which started just as an attempt to document and share my recipes is growing and was a source of enormous learning for myself. The only thing I make sure is that all my recipes are kitchen tested several times and received great feedbacks. This has paid me off. Thankyou all.

Talking about popularity, many of my friends suggest ideas on what to post next and their ideas are very valuable for me. Tiramisu - a classic Italian dessert was one such suggestion. Honestly I had never tasted it, or even if I did, I don't remember. I tried it in a local Italian dessert to check what it tastes like. I did all the research on making it from scratch and was about to give it a shot when this challenge came up. I was jumping with joy since a lot of research undergoes when selecting a challenge and hosts are pro-active to address any issues, DBs (Daring Bakers) are having.

The February 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Aparna of My Diverse Kitchen and Deeba of Passionate About Baking. They chose Tiramisu as the challenge for the month. Their challenge recipe is based on recipes from The Washington Post, Cordon Bleu at Home and Baking Obsession

Moreover, I had a big dinner for 10 families coming up on 25th so I thought it was the perfect timing to double the quantity of the recipe and present it as a side sweet-dish. No need to tell that it was an instant hit and it was finished before i got a chance to taste it. I couldn't even take decent photographs of that dish. I did however assembled an individual serving for tasting and photographing.

Now to the problems, I had trouble in getting the dessert properly set. Although I chilled it overnight, yet the 'cream' wasn't properly set and there were no neat layers. May be I didn't whip the cream stiff enough. Any suggestions, please comment.

The recipe can be divided into 5 stages. Don't worry, if you are pressed for time or in no mood to make everything from scratch, Lady fingers biscuits/Savoiardi and Mascarpone cheese can be purchased from the supermarket. Rest is pretty straightforward. As a part of challenge, we had to make Savoiardis and Mascarpone cheese. I loved how they both turned out specially cheese. Mascarpone is very expensive here and equally opposite cheap to make it at home. The other three 'stages' are whipped cream, vanilla pastry cream and Zabaglione. These are the components of a perfect Tiramisu along with a generous dusting of cocoa powder.

How I approached the challenge was

1. Making Savoiardis on Sunday - Store them in air-tight container for upto one week

2. Make Mascarpone on Monday

3. Make Zabaglione, Vanilla Pastry Cream, whipped cream on Tuesday

4. Assemble everything on Wednesday

5. Serve it on Thursday

Yes it does require planning but is worth it.

Following is the recipe from the original Daring Baker's post and my comments in red colors.

TIRAMISU

(Recipe source: Carminantonio's Tiramisu from The Washington Post, July 11 2007 )
This recipe makes 6 servings [you can double is easily as I did]

Ingredients:
For the zabaglione:

2 large egg yolks
3 tablespoons sugar/50gms
1/4 cup/60ml ~~Marsala wine~~ (or port or coffee) [I used 1/4 cup coffee made with 1/4 cup water and 1/4 tsp coffee]
1/4 teaspoon/ 1.25ml vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest

For the vanilla pastry cream:
1/4 cup/55gms sugar
1 tablespoon/8gms all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
1/2 teaspoon/ 2.5ml vanilla extract
1 large egg yolk
3/4 cup/175ml whole milk

For the whipped cream:
1 cup/235ml chilled heavy cream (we used 25%) [I used normal whole milk whipping cream, the only cream available here]
1/4 cup/55gms sugar
1/2 teaspoon/ 2.5ml vanilla extract

To assemble the tiramisu:
2 cups/470ml brewed espresso, warmed [I used 2 cups coffee made with 2 cups hot water and 2 tsp instant coffee]
~~1 teaspoon/5ml rum extract (optional)~~ [I didnt' use it for religious reason]
1/2 cup/110gms sugar
1/3 cup/75gms mascarpone cheese [see recipe below]
36 savoiardi/ ladyfinger biscuits (you may use less) [see recipe below]
2 tablespoons/30gms unsweetened cocoa powder

Method:
For the zabaglione:
Heat water in a double boiler. If you don’t have a double boiler, place a pot with about an inch of water in it on the stove. Place a heat-proof bowl in the pot making sure the bottom does not touch the water. [I used stainless steel bowl]
In a large mixing bowl (or stainless steel mixing bowl), mix together the egg yolks, sugar, the Marsala (or espresso/ coffee), vanilla extract and lemon zest. Whisk together until the yolks are fully blended and the mixture looks smooth.
Transfer the mixture to the top of a double boiler or place your bowl over the pan/ pot with simmering water. Cook the egg mixture over low heat, stirring constantly, for about 8 minutes or until it resembles thick custard. It may bubble a bit as it reaches that consistency.
Let cool to room temperature and transfer the zabaglione to a bowl. Cover and refrigerate at least 4 hours or overnight, until thoroughly chilled.

For the pastry cream:
Mix together the sugar, flour, lemon zest and vanilla extract in a medium heavy-bottomed saucepan. To this add the egg yolk and half the milk. Whisk until smooth.
Now place the saucepan over low heat and cook, stirring constantly to prevent the mixture from curdling.
Add the remaining milk a little at a time, still stirring constantly. After about 12 minutes the mixture will be thick, free of lumps and beginning to bubble. (If you have a few lumps, don’t worry. You can push the cream through a fine-mesh strainer.)
Transfer the pastry cream to a bowl and cool to room temperature. Cover with plastic film and refrigerate at least 4 hours or overnight, until thoroughly chilled.

For the whipped cream:
Combine the cream, sugar and vanilla extract in a mixing bowl. Beat with an electric hand mixer or immersion blender until the mixture holds stiff peaks. Set aside.

To assemble the tiramisu:
Have ready a rectangular serving dish (about 8" by 8" should do) or one of your choice.
Mix together the warm espresso, ~~rum extract~~ and sugar in a shallow dish, whisking to mix well. Set aside to cool.
In a large bowl, beat the mascarpone cheese with a spoon to break down the lumps and make it smooth. This will make it easier to fold. Add the prepared and chilled zabaglione and pastry cream, blending until just combined. Gently fold in the whipped cream. Set this cream mixture aside.

Now to start assembling the tiramisu.
Working quickly, dip 12 of the ladyfingers in the sweetened espresso, about 1 second per side. They should be moist but not soggy. Immediately transfer each ladyfinger to the platter, placing them side by side in a single row. You may break a lady finger into two, if necessary, to ensure the base of your dish is completely covered.
Spoon one-third of the cream mixture on top of the ladyfingers, then use a rubber spatula or spreading knife to cover the top evenly, all the way to the edges.
Repeat to create 2 more layers, using 12 ladyfingers and the cream mixture for each layer. Clean any spilled cream mixture; cover carefully with plastic wrap and refrigerate the tiramisu overnight.
To serve, carefully remove the plastic wrap and sprinkle the tiramisu with cocoa powder using a fine-mesh strainer or decorate as you please. Cut into individual portions and serve.

MASCARPONE CHEESE

(Source: Vera’s Recipe for Homemade Mascarpone Cheese)
This recipe makes 12oz/ 340gm of mascarpone cheese

Ingredients:
474ml (approx. 500ml)/ 2 cups whipping (36 %) pasteurized (not ultra-pasteurized), preferably organic cream (between 25% to 36% cream will do) [I just used full fat whipping cream, the only cream available here]
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

Note: I made half quantity of above and it yielded enough cheese for double the Tiramisu recipe.

Method:
Bring 1 inch of water to a boil in a wide skillet. Reduce the heat to medium-low so the water is barely simmering. Pour the cream into a medium heat-resistant bowl, then place the bowl into the skillet. Heat the cream, stirring often, to 190 F. If you do not have a thermometer, wait until small bubbles keep trying to push up to the surface.

It will take about 15 minutes of delicate heating. Add the lemon juice and continue heating the mixture, stirring gently, until the cream curdles. Do not expect the same action as you see during ricotta cheese making. All that the whipping cream will do is become thicker, like a well-done crème anglaise. It will cover a back of your wooden spoon thickly. You will see just a few clear whey streaks when you stir. Remove the bowl from the water and let cool for about 20 minutes. Meanwhile, line a sieve with four layers of dampened cheesecloth and set it over a bowl. Transfer the mixture into the lined sieve. Do not squeeze the cheese in the cheesecloth or press on its surface (be patient, it will firm up after refrigeration time). Once cooled completely, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate (in the sieve) overnight or up to 24 hours.
Vera’s notes: The first time I made mascarpone I had all doubts if it’d been cooked enough, because of its custard-like texture. Have no fear, it will firm up beautifully in the fridge, and will yet remain lusciously creamy.
Keep refrigerated and use within 3 to 4 days.

LADYFINGERS/ SAVOIARDI BISCUITS
(Source: Recipe from Cordon Bleu At Home)
This recipe makes approximately 24 big ladyfingers or 45 small (2 1/2" to 3" long) ladyfingers. [I doubled the recipe]

Ingredients:
3 eggs, separated
6 tablespoons /75gms granulated sugar
3/4 cup/95gms cake flour, sifted (or 3/4 cup all purpose flour + 2 tbsp corn starch)
6 tablespoons /50gms confectioner's sugar,

Method:
Preheat your oven to 350 F (175 C) degrees, then lightly brush 2 baking sheets with oil or softened butter and line with parchment paper.

Beat the egg whites using a hand held electric mixer until stiff peaks form. Gradually add granulate sugar and continue beating until the egg whites become stiff again, glossy and smooth.
In a small bowl, beat the egg yolks lightly with a fork and fold them into the meringue, using a wooden spoon. Sift the flour over this mixture and fold gently until just mixed. It is important to fold very gently and not overdo the folding. Otherwise the batter would deflate and lose volume resulting in ladyfingers which are flat and not spongy.
Fit a pastry bag with a plain tip (or just snip the end off; you could also use a Ziploc bag) and fill with the batter. Pipe the batter into 5" long and 3/4" wide strips leaving about 1" space in between the strips.
Sprinkle half the confectioner's sugar over the ladyfingers and wait for 5 minutes. The sugar will pearl or look wet and glisten. Now sprinkle the remaining sugar. This helps to give the ladyfingers their characteristic crispness.
Hold the parchment paper in place with your thumb and lift one side of the baking sheet and gently tap it on the work surface to remove excess sprinkled sugar.
Bake the ladyfingers for 10 minutes, then rotate the sheets and bake for another 5 minutes or so until the puff up, turn lightly golden brown and are still soft.
Allow them to cool slightly on the sheets for about 5 minutes and then remove the ladyfingers from the baking sheet with a metal spatula while still hot, and cool on a rack.
Store them in an airtight container till required. They should keep for 2 to 3 weeks.

Orange Cake - perfect with a cup of evening tea

2010-02-16T05:15:00.000-08:00

I know, I know, its been a long absence. I have been very busy with my cake decorating orders and if you want to have a look at them, check my Flickr album here. It was very hectic, 3 large cakes and 40 decorative cupcakes in a week. I was in my kitchen most of the time but it is really a source of contentment. Nothing can beat the fulfillment of passion. Lot of lessons are learnt with each cake and the more you practice, the better you get. I am still learning and I am loving each bit of it.

Coming back to my baby blog, I have a great recipe to share with you. Funny thing is that this cake was made way back but I didn't get time to post it. I usually don't bake with fruits but not too long ago, my Apple Cake and now this Orange Cake has compelled me to try more recipes with fruits. I loved both of them. Orange Cake has one more special ingredient, which I wanted to try out for a long time that is olive oil. Moreover, sour cream addition made it extra special and left people wondering, Did you make at home? and I am not bragging. This cake also reminded me of my childhood, when we used to live in Middle East and at airports they used to sell a cake piece wrapped in plastic. This cake turned out somewhat like that minus the nuts and raisins part. I also like this recipe since it is very quick to make and has no butter.

This recipe was adopted from The Cooking Photographer - a great looking blog run by Laura. She has some amazing pictures and recipes at her site. The title of this cake as posted by her was Orange Sour Cream Loaf Cake and the moment I read, I knew I had to make this. My pictures though, didn't turn out that great, they were a bit orangish/yellowish for which I have to understand the white balance (lots of learning going on).

There are many followers of my blog back home in Pakistan and if sour cream is not available, you can try using yogurt [just drain extra water for a couple of hours and add 1-2 drops of lemon]. I have heard that works.

Orange Sour Cream Loaf Cake

adapted from The Cooking Photographer

Ingredients:

Sour Cream 1 cup

Granulated Sugar 1 cup

Eggs 3

Zest of 3 oranges

Vanilla essence 1 tsp

Salt 1/4 tsp

Olive Oil 1/2 cup (extra light or extra virgin)

Baking powder 2 tsp

Flour 1 1/2 cup

Method:

1. Prepare a loaf pan, I used 8x3 inches. Grease well with butter and lightly dust with flour. Do this properly since the cake has no butter and it might get stick. Place a parchment or baking paper at the bottom to be sure that it doesn't stick.

2. Add all ingredients in a food processor except flour and process until mixed well.

3. Add in flour and pulse gently until just mixed.

4. Alternately, you can repeat the above process with a hand-beater.

5. Pour the batter in prepared pan and level it.

6. Bake for about an hour at gas mark 4 until a toothpick comes out clean.

7. Wait for 10 minutes before turning it out on the plate.

For soaking the warm cake:

Freshly squeezed orange juice 1/3 cup

Granulated sugar 1 tbsp

Heat both together until sugar is dissolved for about 5 minutes and the syrup is clear. Cool it and pour over warm cake.

Orange Glaze

If you want to make this cake extra special, frost it with some glazed icing. I didn't do this.

Powdered Sugar 1 cup

Freshly squeezed orange juice 2 tbsp

Mix together until uniform glaze is obtained.

If you like coconut, you will love these

2010-02-01T23:19:00.000-08:00

I have always loved coconut, I love the things made out of it like Pina Colada, Thai food and coconut curries. In baking, it adds both flavor and texture however the end result can be dry when using desiccated coconut so when making coconut cake, often it is combined with yogurt or sour cream. I also made coconut tarts which are delectable and my best friend's favorite too. Recently I have learnt recipe of Basbousa which is a middle eastern coconut cake with a twist (and sometimes semolina aka suji is also added) from my neighbor. I will be posting it sometime next week.

The entire prelude was to state that I made coconut cookies and they turned out awesome. I got some nice compliments for this. I think I will be settling down with this recipe of coconut cookies, atleast for a while. The recipe has been taken from Martha Stewart site and as they describe it, they are a cross between butter cookies and coconut macaroon, exactly what I was looking for. I love what salt does to these cookies and its background hint makes you wonder, whats that.

Coconut Cookies

Adapted from Martha Stewart

Ingredients:

Shredded/Desiccated Coconut approx. 5 cups

Sugar 1 cup

Salt 1/2 tsp

Baking powder 1/4 tsp

Butter 1/2 cup chilled and cut into cubes

Egg 1

Vanilla essence 1 tsp

Flour 1 1/2 cup

Method:

1. Set aside 2 cups loosely packed coconut on a plate.

2. Place rest of the coconut, salt, sugar and baking powder in a food processor and process until finely grounded.

3. Add butter and process until no lumps remain.

4. Add egg and vanilla and process just until smooth.

5. Add flour, pulse until a crumbly dough begins to form scraping the sides but don't over-mix.

6. If you are making by hand, or don't have food processor, grind the ingredients in step 2 in a grinder. Add butter and rub with fingers until mixed. Add egg and vanilla and mix well with a wooden spoon. Add in flour and combine to form a dough with hands. Don't knead.

7. Using a scoop or table spoon, form equal balls and roll them into reserved coconut.

8. Arrange balls on lightly greased baking sheet at well placed distance. I used parchment lined baking sheet.

9. Bake in a pre-heated oven at gas mark 5 for about 25 minutes until light golden in color.

10. Cool on baking sheet for 2 minutes before transferring to wire racks and cool completely.

Not a Baker's but food lover's challenge - Making Nanaimo Bars with The Daring Bakers

2010-01-26T22:35:00.000-08:00

Food Blogging community is amazing. I am loving each bit of it since I have started blogging and joined food blogosphere. I love being part of The Daring Kitchen. Thankyou all of you for inspiration, setting great standards in recipes, presentation, photography and help.

The January 2010 Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Lauren of Celiac Teen. Lauren chose Gluten-Free Graham Wafers and Nanaimo Bars as the challenge for the month. The sources she based her recipe on are 101 Cookbooks and www.nanaimo.ca

I really liked the challenge but it was more of a food lover's challenge then a baker's since it is pretty straightforward (although lengthy) to make but very challenging to resist. The way the layers compliment each other is great. I did not go for gluten-free version of graham crackers though since I knew they were not going to be used up and also because the three kinds of flour are difficult to find here. I have always loved graham crackers and making it yourself was a great idea. It is so simple to make and next time I do plan to make it with whole wheat flour to yield healthier version.

Nanaimo Bars are a classic Canadian dessert created in none other than Nanaimo, British Colombia. In case you were wondering, it’s pronounced Nah-nye-Moh. These bars have 3 layers: a base containing graham crackers, cocoa, coconut and nuts, a middle custard layer, and a topping of chocolate. They are extremely rich and available almost everywhere across the country.

Assembling Nanaimo Bars themselves is a fun task. Making each layer, chilling and making next is quite fun. I loved the bottom layer - the way chocolate, crackers and coconut were complimenting each other was phenomenal. You must try this recipe. I loved the idea from one of my fellow Dating Bakers of turning these bars into mini chocolates or chocolate bars. However, they are eaten, they are addictive and delicious.

For a very dear friend of mine who was looking for any gluten-free dessert recipe for her son's upcoming birthday, I am listing down ratios of gluten-free flours as well.

Graham Crackers
Ingredients:
Sweet Rice Flour or Glutinous Rice flour 1 cup
Tapioca Starch/Flour 3/4 cup
Sorghum Flour 1/2 cup
OR
Substitute all above three flours with 2 1/2 cups plus 2 tbsp of All-purpose-flour

Dark Brown Sugar (lightly packed) 1 cup [I used light brown sugar and it was ok]
Baking soda 1 tsp
Salt 3/4 tsp
Unsalted butter (frozen and cut into 1 inch cubes) 7 tbsp
Honey 1/3 cup
Milk 5 tbsp
Vanilla essence 2 tsp

Method:
1. In the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade, combine the flours, brown sugar, baking soda, and salt. Pulse on low to incorporate. Add the butter and pulse on and off, until the mixture is the consistency of a coarse meal. If making by hand, combine aforementioned dry ingredients with a whisk, then cut in butter until you have a coarse meal. No chunks of butter should be visible.
2. In a small bowl or liquid measuring cup, whisk together the honey, milk and vanilla. Add to the flour mixture until the dough barely comes together. It will be very soft and sticky.
3. Turn the dough onto a surface well-floured with sweet rice flour or all-purpose flour and pat the dough into a rectangle about 1 inch thick. Wrap in plastic and chill until firm, about 2 hours, or overnight.
4. Divide the dough in half and return one half to the refrigerator. Sift an even layer of sweet rice flour or All-purpose flour onto the work surface and roll the dough into a long rectangle, about 1/8 inch thick. The dough will be quite sticky, so flour as necessary. Cut into 4 by 4 inch squares. Gather the scraps together and set aside. Place wafers on one or two parchment-lined baking sheets. Chill until firm, about 30 to 45 minutes. Repeat with the second batch of dough.
5. Gather the scraps together into a ball, chill until firm, and reroll. Dust the surface with more sweet rice flour or all-purpose flour and roll out the dough to get a couple more wafers.
6. Prick the wafers with toothpick or fork, not all the way through, in two or more rows.
7. Bake for 25 minutes in a pre-heated oven at gas mark 5, until browned and slightly firm to the touch, rotating sheets halfway through to ensure even baking. Keep an eye if you are using all-purpose flour since they get browned quickly.
9. When cooled completely, place enough wafers in food processor to make 1 ¼ cups (300 mL) of crumbs. Another way to do this is to place in a large ziplock bag, force all air out and smash with a rolling pin until wafers are crumbs.
10. This proportion makes a lot of wafers so you might want to divide the recipe into half.

Nanaimo Bars

Ingredients:

For Nanaimo Bars — Bottom Layer
1/2 cup (115 g) (4 ounces) Unsalted Butter
1/4 cup (50 g) (1.8 ounces) Granulated Sugar
5 tablespoons (75 mL) Unsweetened Cocoa
1 Large Egg, Beaten
1 1/4 cups (300 mL) (160 g) (5.6 ounces) Graham Wafer Crumbs (See previous recipe)
1/2 cup (55 g) (1.9 ounces) Almonds (Any type, Finely chopped)
1 cup (130 g) (4.5 ounces) Coconut (Shredded, sweetened or unsweetened)

For Nanaimo Bars — Middle Layer
1/2 cup (115 g) (4 ounces) Unsalted Butter
2 tablespoons and 2 teaspoons (40 mL) Heavy Cream
2 tablespoons (30 mL) Vanilla Custard Powder (I used Betty Crockers' Caramel powder)
2 cups (254 g) (8.9 ounces) Icing Sugar [i used 1 1/2 cups to reduce sweetness]

For Nanaimo Bars — Top Layer
4 ounces (115 g) Semi-sweet chocolate
2 tablespoons (28 g) (1 ounce) Unsalted Butter

Method:
1. For bottom Layer: Melt unsalted butter, sugar and cocoa in top of a double boiler. Add egg and stir to cook and thicken. Remove from heat. Stir in crumbs, nuts and coconut. Press firmly into an ungreased 8 by 8 inch square dish or pan.
2. For Middle Layer: Cream butter, cream, custard powder, and icing sugar together well. Beat until light in colour. Spread over bottom layer.
3. For Top Layer: Melt chocolate and unsalted butter over low heat. Cool. Once cool, pour over middle layer and chill.

Some important points:
1. Toast almonds and coconut lightly for added flavor.
2. If you are making in a hot weather, make sure you chill each layer for neat appearance and layers dont' get smudged.
3. Chocolate in the top layer should be cool so it doesn't melt the middle layer but still liquid for easy spreading.
4. These bars freeze really well and graham crackers can be put in air-tight container for upto 2 weeks.
5. A very good video which i found helpful can be watched here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5aqa6R1jIM&feature=fvsr
6. Some good sources on gluten-free baking
http://www.thesensitivepantry.com/the-sensitive-pantry/2009/8/3/grahams-plain-fancy.html
http://glutenfreemommy.com/gluten-free-grains-101-the-best-flour-blend/

Genoise Sponge turned into a Black Forest Gateau and a great book review

2010-01-20T05:42:00.000-08:00

This is another post right from the heart. Long before I knew I would do Cake Decorating at some point in my life, this was my favorite thing to make. Black Forest Cake moistened with syrup and loaded with fresh whipped cream and topped with any seasonal fruit of your choice. It is quick to do and is definitely a crowd pleaser in my case hubby pleaser. This cake gained additional importance in my life since my hubby dear loves it. He totally enjoys chilled moistened cake with fresh cream and strawberries. So today, I planned to give him a little surprise as he was missing this cake alot lately and I was not getting time to do it. Another reason for this post is one of my apt follower requested something similar in order to please her man. God, we spoil them :)

This recipe is adapted from a wonderful gift from my sister. The only thing common about this book is that it is a Chocolate Cookbook. But it is a such a unique and informative book that educates you about chocolate in a very interesting manner. It has all the information on types of chocolate, how to taste it, how to judge quality, special equipment and tools required to work with it and what not, followed by very nice set of selected recipes. When it was given to me I thought it was a chocolate bar. I love this information packed (as opposed to calorie packed) chocolate bar on my kitchen shelf. Thankyou sista :)

Enough of talking, coming to some recipe education, Genoise Cake is originally a French butter sponge cake or European sponge cake [description courtesy: Joy of Baking] is somewhat similar to sponge cake with a difference that in this one, a little melted butter is added which give extra flavor and richness to the sponge. In sponge, eggs are usually separated and beaten but in Genoise, eggs are beated whole. Since the Genoise sponge can be dry, it is important that it is moistened with syrup or juice and the flavor penetrates into the sponge when it is kept for sometime. So make sure you time your making and serving carefully.

Genoise Sponge

Ingredients:
Eggs 3
Sugar 1/3 cup
Flour 1/2 cup
Cocoa Powder 2 tbsp
Butter (melted, don't boil it) 1 tbsp

Method:

1. Prepare 6" round cake tin. For double recipe use 8". Grease it lavishly and then dust with flour. Remove excess flour.
2. Beat eggs and sugar for about 8 minutes with a beater until ribbon like.
3. Sift flour and cocoa powder together.
4. Add quarter of flour+cocoa mixture to the egg batter and fold in carefully incorporating maximum air. Use spatula to do this. Add in remaining flour in batches alternating with melted butter until everything is incorporated.
5. Pour the mixture in prepared pan and bake in a pre-heated oven at gas mark 4 for 25-30 minutes until done.
6. Keep in pan for 10 minutes after removing from oven and then loose the edges with knife and invert it carefully on a plate. Invert again so the face of cake is up again.

For Black Forest Gateau:
1 chocolate Genoise [see above]
Whipping cream or fresh cream 3/4 cup
Icing sugar 1 tbsp
Sugar 1/4 cup
Water 1/4 cup
Strawberries 5-6 [chopped or sliced]

Assembling:
1. Make syrup by placing sugar and water in a pan and heating it till sugar dissolves. I added a stick of cinnamon for added flavor.
2. Whip chilled cream to soft peaks. Add in icing sugar and beat again until fluffy.
3. Cut Genoise into half carefully with a serrated knife.
4. On one half, Pour half syrup evenly distributing specially around the edges.
5. Spread half cream and strawberries.
6. Sandwich with other half of Genoise.
7. Repeat step 4 and 5 above.

Chill in fridge for atleast 2 hours before serving.