February brought with it erratic weather , the child’s landmark 6 months and the husband’s birthday. Determined to bake his bake at home, I foraged through innumerable ideas and recipes on the internet. My search stopped at this. Simple yet impressive, the combination of coffee and citrus appealed to me. This is the 3rd or 4th recipe I’ve tried from Saee’s blog and I am delighted to inform you that they’ve all given me good results. Thank you!

You must hop over to her blog for the original recipe. I made some minor changes because I didn’t have all the ingredients at hand and at 10 PM its hard to rush out to shop. What I’ve changed, I’ve marked out in italics.

Coffee and Orangette cake

Ingredients:
For the orangettes:

• Peels of one orange. – I had to use a kinnu, didnt have oranges at home. 
• 1 cup of sugar – I used 1/2 C sugar.
• 1 cup of water
• Water for blanching
• 50 gms. dark chocolate- I had to use milk chocolate since I had only that. I would recommend dark chocolate- goes better with the orange.

For the cake:

• 2 eggs
• 200 gms. flour
• 120 gms. sugar
• Juice of half an orange- I used the juice of one whole kinnu
• 100 gms. butter
• 50 mls. coffee decoction- I used Bru instant coffee- about 1.5 tbsp mixed with a little water.
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 2-3 orangettes- I used mined chopped finely to mix with the batter. 

For the ganache:

• 50 gms dark chocolate- Again, I was stuck with milk chocolate
• 2 tbsps. cream- I used Amul cream.

Method:

To make orangette:

1. Peel the orange/Kinnu and remove the fibrous white bits. That’s the bitter part. 
2. Cut the peel into strips, about ¼ centimeters in breadth. I blanched them first and then cut them to the size I wanted. I think it works well both ways.
3. Blanch the strips of peel in water.
4. Add the sugar to the water and boil to make a syrup. Add the blanched orangette and cook till translucent.
5. Strain and dry on parchment for 4-5 hours.  I didn’t have time so I drained them well and used them immediately. I highly recommend allowing them to dry and set. Mine were too limp and resultant I had to chop them up. The missing orangette strips impacted the final look of the cake. 
6.  To dip the orangette strips in chocolate, melt the chocolate  and dip strips halfway. Cool and allow to set.

To make the cake:

1. Sieve together flour and baking powder.
2. Mix eggs, butter and sugar with a beater.Add the orange juice and coffee and blend.
3. Add the flour and the chopped orangettes. Mix lightly.
4.  Pour batter into a lined tin and bake at 170 – 180 degrees centigrade for about 40 minutes
5. Remove from pan and when cool.

To decorate the cake:

1. Make ganache by mixing cholcolate and cream and heating in a microwave or double boiler.
2. Pipe this cooled chocolate mix in a patter of your choice.
3. End by placing the chocolate dipped orangette strips.

Here is what my cake looked like.  The original one by Saee is far prettier.

 This is a delicious cake. Its got a lovely texture ( the butter plays a role) and the orange marries well with the coffee. This ones going to be made again soon!

So some Sundays ago, I decided I wanted to try,even if it meant I’d fail. I decided its a good idea to go step by step- keep the base of the bread the same and gradually substitute the APF with other flours. I have had good success with 50% atta breads now it was time to experiment some more.

I am a fan of ragi, or naachni as its called in some part of the country.  At my parent’s place, we are big on ragi, at my in-laws, not so much. They’ve never eaten it and so don’t have a taste for it. Gradual introduction was my safest bet.  I took my tried and tested 50% atta recipe and increased the total volume by adding some ragi. Fermentation took approximately the same time as did the baking. The end result was a bread that had the distinct colour and flavour of ragi. After the initial bite, you begin the accept the change in taste. Its only the initial bite,where the difference is flavour strikes you after that it tastes quite like regular bread- the flavour isnt objectionable at all.

Ingredients:

• 1 C atta
• 1 C maida
• 1/2 C ragi flour
• 1 C water (you may been a little more)
• 2 1/2 tsp fresh yeast
• 1-1 1/2 tsp salt

Method:

• Warm water and dissolve sugar. Add yeast and allow it to become frothy.
• Knead the flour with this water.
• Keep in a warm place and allow it to double.
• Punch down the dough and knead some more.
• Place in a grease tin to bake.
• Bake at 200 deg C for 20-25 mins or till a toothpick comes out clean.

I had the bread for breakfast on two consecutive days with omelettes right off the stove!

Next on the multigrain agenda: a 50% multigrain bread!

I absolutely love the regular laadi pav that we get in Bombay. Its ubiquitous- easily purchased from regular around the corner bakeries and lathered with butter and served with misal /usal/bhaaji. Made with maida, its soft and breaks easily so that you can treat it like chapati- tear away a piece with one hand and dip it in the gravy before popping it in your mouth.

I am yet to find laadi pav in Delhi. What we get here is actually bun. Each bun is thicker than the pav and the texture is denser too.

Each time we make pav bhaaji at home, my heart yearns for the original Bombay paav. I chanced upon the laadi pav recipe on vegrecipesofindia and said to myself”Enough of whining, Make your own pav!” You can refer to the recipe shared by Dassana- she’s got step by step pictures that are very helpful.

My recipe is a twist on the original pav. I cannot get myself to make pure maida breads nowadays. If I am taking to effort to making bread, I may as well eat at least half atta! Originally pav is made with maida and you can surely substitute the atta with maida keeping all other proportions the same in the recipe.

  Ingredients:

• 1 C atta
• 1 C maida
• 1 tsp salt
• 3/4 to 1 C water
• 2 tsp fresh yeast
• 2 tsp sugar
• Butter to brush
• Paper to line baking tray

Method:

• Heat water till warm enough to dip your fingers comfortably. Dissolve sugar. Add the yeast and allow it to stand for 5-7 mins till the yeast froths.
• Mix the flours and salt in a bowl. Add the frothy yeast water to it and knead till the dough it soft and smooth. Cover and keep in a warm place till the dough doubles. Its winter in Delhi so it took 2 hours for me.
• Line a baking tray with paper and grease the paper.
• Punch down the down and divide it into equal sections. Roll the sections into even looking rounds and place them  on the tray. They shouldnt be place too far away because we want the pavs to fuse together. I got 15-16 pieces.
• Allow the pavs to rise again.
• Bake for 15-20 mins at 200 deg.C.
• Remove from over and brush with butter.
• When serving with bhaaji, split the pav into half and toast with a dollop of butter on the tawa.

Ingredients

• 2 eggs
• 100 gms maida/APF
• 100 gms butter/cream
• 100 gms powdered sugar
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• Nutella- as required

Method:

• Sift together baking powder and maida. Keep aside.
• Beat the eggs till light and frothy. Add sugar, then the butter/cream and vanilla essence.
• Gradually add the maida- baking powder to mix. I have realised that adding flour  in batches works best.
• Preheat oven at 180 deg C.
• Pour the batter into muffin tray. With this set of ingredients I got 6 medium size muffins.
• Take a spoonful of Nutella and swirl it into a muffin. Repeat till all muffins are covered.
• Bake for 20 minutes at 180 deg. C.

Myjhola’s Spanish flat bread with chorizo, tomatoes and oregano has been on my to-bake list for the longest time. Pre-baby days to be precise. The one thing motherhood has taught me (still learning) is patience- I have actually waited months to try out this recipe.

Last Sunday, the family took turns to baby sit and I got a golden opportunity to make some bread. I made Anita’s burger buns and Myjhola’s spanish flat bread.

The Spanish flat bread is topped with chorizo. I substituted that with olives since I had no takers for meats at home.  I made some other minor changes in the recipe. They  are marked in italics. I highly recommend you visit the original site for the recipe. You will drool over the pictures

Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 cups of plain flour
• 1 tbsp. fresh or instant yeast (I used fresh yeast)
• 1 tsp. sugar
• 1 cup lukewarm water
• 1/2  tsp. salt
• 1/4 tsp. coarse sea salt (for sprinkling on top)  ( I skipped this)
• 3 tbsp.
• 5-6 sprigs of fresh oregano ( I used crushed dry oregano)
• 2 medium-sized tomatoes, sliced ( I used halved cherry tomatoes)
• 2 chorizo sausages (pepperoni if you can’t find it), thinly sliced (I used sliced olives instead)
• 1/2 tsp. chili flakes( I skipped this)

Method:

1. Mix the flour and salt. Keep aside.
2. Heat water &dissolve the sugar. When the temperature is just right, add the yeast and set aside for 5-10 mins till it becomes frothy.
3. Add the yeast water to the flour and knead into a soft dough. The original recipe says you can add more water if needed- I didnt find that necessary. the yeast mixture to the flour and knead to a soft dough, adding more water if required. Add the olive oil and bring it all together.
4. Keep in a warm place and allow it to rise.
5. Preheat the over.
6. Line a baking sheet with greased  butterpaper/ aluminium foil.
7. Flatten out the dough on the tray using your hands.
8. Place the tomatoes and olives. Sprinkle salt. I missed this and regretted it. Drizzle some olive oil.
9. Bake for 15-20 minutes until golden.

I have been keen on making buns at home. I  had Anita’s recipe earmarked for a long time.  But finding time with a six day working week and a baby is now truly a challenge! My Sundays are not more packed (as if that was possible!) than my weekdays. There is just so much to do around the baby and house.

I took the recipe from A Mad Tea Party.  I love Anita’s her blog and adore her photography- you should really check it out. I modified  the recipe to reduce quantity. I also used fresh yeast and skipped the gluten. Please refer to the original recipe. My version is mentioned below.

Burger Buns

Ingredients:

• 1C atta
• 1C maida
• 1t salt
• 3/4 C warm water
• 1/2 c milk
• 2 t sugar
• 2 t fresh yeast
• 2 t oil
• sesame seeds
• butter for brushing

Method:

• Heat the water. When its warm dissolve the sugar and add the yeast. Let it stand for a few minutes till the yeast becomes frothy.
• Sift the atta, maida and salt. Add the yeast-water mixture to this. Knead.
• Add milk and continue kneading till the dough comes together. the dough will be sticky.
• liberally dust your kitchen counter with atta/maida and knead the dough for a few more minutes till it turns into a soft , smooth log. by the time you are done- it wont be sticky either.
• Cover and keep in a warm place to allow the dough to rise. Its winter in Delhi so I had to place it in my oven. It took 2 hours to get a good rise.
• Knock  down the dough and shape the dough into rounds. On a well grease baking tray, place the dough rounds. Dont forget to keep adequate space in between- I have made that mistake more than one. It ruins the final outcome.  Allow them to rise again. It shouldnt take more than an hour- mine took longer due to the cold weather.
• Sprinkle with sesame seeds. If you like you can brush them with milk  or butter.
• Bake at 200 deg C for 15  mins.
• Take buns fresh out of the over and lather the tops with butter- entirely optional!

The buns were a hit at home. We didn’t bother turning them into burgers. They were eaten  accompanied with dollops of butter and tomato soup.

Excuse the bad photography. I can squeeze out time to bake, but time to take photos is still a far away dream.

I’ve used my basic cake recipe and increased the cocoa content substantially. I then tried my hand at a bit of cake decoration. Nutella and white chocolate chips were brought into use.  For a first time attempt at cake decoration(if you can call it that at all). I was quite pleased. I was more pleased with the taste of the cake and the accompanying ice cream. 

After many months of procrastination, it was time to give a recipe, any recipe a shot. I was prepared to overturn a whole tin of (terrible) cheesecake into the bin, but the cheesecake had to be tried.

I zeroed in on Anita’s recipe and tried it out after work yesterday. It was simple with ingredients within my reach and didnt seem to be time consuming. Much to my surprise, it was successs at first attempt!! Very unexpected. Very delightful.

I tweaked the original recipe a bit, increased the lemon content and halved the recipe.  Here it is for your reference. Ingredients modified are in italics.

New York Cheesecake
Serves 4-6 ( if you eat only one wedge each !)

For the Crust

2 T melted butter
50 gm crushed Britannia digestive biscuits
1 T powdered sugar

For the filling
300 gms hung curd at room temperature (original recipe suggests hanging the curd overnight. I didnt have time for that so I hung it for 2 hours only. I used store bought curd.)
100gms powdered sugar
1 T plain flour
pinch of salt
1 t vanilla essence
zest of 2 lemons
2 t lemon juice
1 T plain flour
1 eggs
75  ml soured cream (Anita suggests you can make sour cream at home by adding a teaspoon of yoghurt to cream and leave to set for a few hours. I had no time for sour cream so I used regular Amul cream)

Method:

• Preheat oven to 180 C .
• Grease a small pan/tin with butter.
• Crush biscuits, combine with sugar and butter and lay out in an even layer at the tin /pan base.  If you would like to have crumbs of the side of the cheese cake, reserve 2 T or so. Bake for 10 mins at 180 deg C , till the crumbs brown a bit. Keep aside.
• Take the hung curd and whisk it well till it is smooth in consistency.  You can use a hand beater for this. I did it manually. Slowly add the sugar,salt, vanilla essence, flour, lemon juice and zest. Ensure it all incorporates well.
• Add the egg and whisk some more.
• Finally add the sour cream and whisk.
• Brush sides of the tin with butter and  sprinkle the crushed biscuit crumbs, if you’ve reserved some biscuit crumbs for the side.
• Pour the filling and put the tin in a preheated over to bake for about 20 mins at 150 deg C. ( I tried baking at 110 deg c for 10 mins as the original recipe suggested but since I had not hung the curd overnight, mine was  moist and needed to bake more). When the cheesecake is done, it will be firm from the centre.
• Remove from oven and cool (preferably refrigerate) before serving.

The cheese cake was smooth, creamy, lemony. What I learnt was that  I needed to hang the curd for longer. Its higher moisture content made the biscuit crust a bit soggy. .. not that anyone complained!

If you’ve been intimidated by cheesecake (like I was), I suggest you start your cheesecake journey with this one!

Never a fan of tutti-frutti, not even as a child, I still wanted to make a small tutti frutti cake yesterday. Browsing through the internet, I found that there is no standard/commonly used/popular recipe. Everyone seemed to have made their own version. So I did exactly that. The results were good and I share them with you here.

Ingredients:

• 2 eggs
• 100 gms maida
• 100 gms sugar( I used brown sugar)
• 100 gms butte/ cream ( I used fresh cream)
• 1 tsp baking power
• 1/2 C tutti frutti
• 1/4 C raisins
• few crushed cashews
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• 1-2 tbs milk

Method:

• Sift flour and baking powder.
• Beat eggs till fluffy.  Add the sugar (powdered is better) and when well incorporated add the butter/cream and vanilla essence.
• Fold in the maida- baking powder. If you find the batter is too thick, add 1-2 tbsp milk.
• Throw in the tutti-frutti and raisins.
• Pour into a greased tin. Decorate with cashew on top and bake at 180Deg.C for 20 mins. or till done.

The cake was light and the brown sugar added a lovely layer of flavour. If you prefer a richer cake  (tutti frutti cake is better when rich), use butter in place of cream. Also a dash of rum may add to the flavour.

I remembered eating rum balls once long ago. Basically cake infused with a bit of rum, some chocolate and lots of nuts. The perfect rescue route!

After reading several recipes on the internet, I came up with this one.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 C of crumbled chocolate cake
• 1/3 C of chopped  nuts( walnut and raisin)
• 2-3 tbsp melted chocolate (Morde chocolate mixed with Amul Cream)
• 2-3 tbsp rum (Old Monk)
• desiccated coconut (optional for coating)

Method

• Crumble the cake left-over with your fingers.
• Melt chocolate in a double boiler. To get a smooth consistency, add some  Amul cream. I used about 30 gms of chocolate and 2 tbsp of cream. You can moderate this- basically the consistency should be slightly on the thicker side so that it binds well with the crumbled cake.
• Chop the walnuts and raisins.
• In a bowl, mix the crumbled cake,chopped walnuts and raisins and pour in the melted chocolate and rum.
•  Divide the “dough” into equal parts and rolls into balls.
• In a plate place some desiccated coconut and roll the balls in it. I ran out of coconut so the balls were left plain.
• Refrigerate for a 10-15 mins to set.

I got  8 balls (2” each) which was good enough for us. You can multiply  the ingredients to  make a large quantity of  rum balls.  Pardon the picture quality. It was a long day, made longer by the cake disaster!