Low fat Sitaphal Kulfi (Custard apple)

Sitaphal is also known as Sugar apple or Custard apple. They are currently in season here in Mumbai, and you can find them everywhere. But, my family refuses to eat the fruit by itself, so one interesting way to feed them this amazing fruit is using it in kulfi. The version which I have here is an egg-free as well as a low fat one. I know kulfi and low fat actually do not go together, but you will definitely not miss the creaminess here even without the cream. The texture of this is not exactly like a traditional ice-cream but you can also try serving a scoop of this with warm buckwheat waffles. They should pair well.

 

1/2 kg ripe sitaphal

500 ml + 1/4 cup milk

2 tsp corn flour or corn starch

1/4 tsp cardamom powder

1/4 cup granulated sugar

Deseed the sitaphal, which is a tedious process. But an easier way to do it is to scoop out all the pulp and seed into a mixer jar and pulse the mixer in short intervals for a couple of times or so. Remove the paste and strain it to get a smooth seed free pulp.

Meanwhile in a thick bottomed pan add the 500 ml milk and reduce the milk to 2/3^rd of the original quantity. Keep stirring at equal intervals. Add sugar and cardamom powder and stir well to dissolve the sugar. Mix the corn flour with 1/4 cup milk at room temperature. Add this corn flour mixture to the reduced milk with sugar. Let it boil for few minutes till the mixture thickens a little.

Let the mixture cool till room temperature and then add all the sitaphal pulp. Mix well to form a homogenous mixture and pour into moulds. I did not have the kulfi mould and hence used a silicon cupcake liner.

Freeze overnight. Remove the kulfi from the freezer a couple of minutes before serving. Remove from the mould and enjoy.

Eggless Buckwheat Waffles

Buckwheat is not a derivative of wheat, in fact it does not belong to wheat family at all. Buckwheat seeds are eaten as groats or flour; hence it is referred to as a pseudo cereal too. Buckwheat is high in essential nutrients. It is rich in many trace minerals, including manganese, magnesium and copper. It is also a good source of the B vitamins: B6, pantothenic acid, niacin, folate, thiamin and choline. You can read more about buckwheat from here and here. It is also known as ‘kuttu’ locally in Mumbai and used for Hindu fasting meals.

I try and incorporate such healthy ingredients in everyday cooking wherever possible. I am sure there are better and healthier ways to consume this powerhouse. But, till I find more ways to cook this grain I am happy with these waffles. My son too consumed these ‘chocolate waffles’ (for him anything brown is chocolate;) with complete admiration. Here I have topped these waffles with ready to use whipped cream (Result of my impulse grocery shopping). But you can top these waffles with fresh fruit, honey or maple syrup.

The photos were clicked on the dining table itself as Avvi refused to wait longer and hence are not up to mark. But on a good note, I feel so happy when Avvi devours something which I make. I am one satisfied mother.

Dry Ingredients

3/4 cup Buckwheat flour

3/4 cup Maida or All-purpose flour

1 tsp Baking powder

1/2 tsp Salt

3 tbsp powdered sugar
 

Wet Ingredients

1 cup Milk (use non-dairy milk for vegan waffles)

3/4 cup Water

2 tsp Apple cider Vinegar
1/4 cup Oil

½ tsp vanilla extract

 

Take milk in a bowl, add vinegar and set it aside to curdle.

Meanwhile mix buckwheat flour, maida, baking powder, salt and sugar.

To the curdled milk add water and oil and vanilla extract and mix well. Add dry ingredients to wet and make a lump free batter. Adjust water to get pouring consistency if required.

Let the batter rest for 8 to 10 mins.

Meanwhile preheat the waffle iron. Brush the plates with butter and pour a ladle of batter at a time so as to cover the plate.

Cook the waffles according to manufacturer’s directions. Mine were done in about 4 minutes. Enjoy with your favourite topping. Here I have used whipped cream and chocolate syrup, but can use fresh fruits, honey or maple syrup.

 

 

 

 

Milk Bread

This is my first bread recipe on the blog and it had to be this milk bread. You would have read about my love for this milk bread here, typical from Iyengar bakery, since I was a child. This soft and slightly sweet bread takes you to heaven when you slather generous amount of butter on it. That’s my favourite way to have this bread.

This is a very easy recipe; just make sure that your yeast is good.  I have had a long relationship with yeast and I had my initial good days followed by a long series of disasters. But, baking your own bread feels amazing and the aroma is heavenly. I have used active dry yeast, fresh yeast and instant yeast in my previous attempts and found that I am most comfortable with instant yeast, so this is what I have used here. Good yeast is crucial to a good bread and proof the yeast before you start making bread if you are unsure.

 

1 1/4 tsp instant dry yeast

3/4 cup luke warm milk

2 tbsp powdered sugar

2 tbsp clarified butter (ghee) or oil

3/4 tsp salt

2 1/4 cup bread flour or Maida.

Luke warm water as required

 

In a bowl add sugar and yeast and give it a stir. Add the luke warm milk, mix and let it sit for 5 mins till the mixture is frothy.

In a stand mixer add bread flour or maida, salt and mix well. Then add ghee or oil and run the mixer to incorporate the fat into the flour.

Then slowly add the yeast mixture to the flour in the stand mixer while mixing all the time. Follow it with required quantity of luke warm water to form a soft dough. The dough should be soft and sticky.

Knead the dough for 9 to 10 mins in the stand mixture. You can also the above process by hand, kneading for around 15 mins with the heel of your palm. Post kneading the dough should be soft and should come together as a ball. You can check the doneness with a window pane test. In this test take a small portion of dough and stretch it till it becomes translucent. If the stretched dough breaks before it could be stretched to the correct thickness then knead for some more time.

Transfer the dough to an oiled bowl. Spread some oil on top of the dough too. Cover the container with a cling film or a damp muslin cloth.

Now let the dough rest in a warm dark environment for an hour or more till it doubles its size. Do not keep checking the dough every now and then . . . let the yeast work in peace.

When the dough doubles in size, roll the dough into a log shape and place it in a greased loaf pan with the seam side at the bottom. Here, I have used an 8 inch X 4 inch loaf pan.

Now keep the loaf pan in a warm dark place un-disturbed for almost an hour for the second rise.

When the dough has risen above the pan carefully place the pan in a 200 degree centigrade preheat oven. Bake for 25 to 30 mins till you get a hollow sound when you gently knock on the bread.

Let the pan rest for 10 mins once out. Then with a knife loosen the sides of the bread from the pan and pop the bread out of the pan and onto a cooling rack to cool completely. Slice the bread with a bread knife when the bread is cooled.

Eggfree Blueberry Muffins

Yeah, blueberries . . .

Well, you can replace blueberries with chocolate chips or chunks or raisins.

But blueberries are wonderful; I have used frozen blueberries here. I stocked on some wonderful ingredients during my recent trip abroad. Yes, I go grocery shopping on vacations too J. Didn’t I tell you I am different? So, my readers in India may find some ingredients which are not available easily in India for few of my future posts. But I have got to try these, so please bear with me. Where ever possible, I would also give suggestions for substitutes, so that most of my readers can go ahead and enjoy making the recipe as much as I did.

Coming back to these muffins . . . . These are the most awesome muffins I have ever made. I have tried many other versions of eggless vanilla sponge except the one with milk powder. So, I searched for a few recipes and tweaked this recipe for my version from here. I was really blown away with the result . . . the muffins were soft, fluffy and melt in your mouth with hint of berries . . . just amazing. I am sure these will work for you too, give it a try and let me know how it turned out.

Dry Ingredients

1 1/2 cups maida or all purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

3/4 cup milk powder

3/4 cup powdered sugar

 

Wet Ingredients

1/2 cup unsalted white butter, melted (I used homemade butter)

1 cup milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup blueberries (or chocolate chips)

 

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees centigrade.

Dust the blueberries with maida, so that they do not settle at the bottom while baking.

Sieve all the dry ingredients together and mix well.

Add melted butter and vanilla extract to the milk and combine well.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and gently whisk to get a lump free batter.

Add the blueberries and gently fold into the batter taking care not to smash many.

Scoop out the batter into the cupcake tray lined with liners. Bake for about 18 mins or till the toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean.

Eggless Tutti Frutti Cake

It’s been really long since I posted. Although, there were interesting things that kept me occupied (read vacation), I took a bit too long to get back from my slumber. Blogging is a lot of hard work and I kept finding excuses for myself. Surprisingly during all these times, when I did not post what kept me motivated to get back was steady increase of likes on my Facebook page. Yeah, I have crossed 300 likes on Facebook. This calls for something sweet and here I have a simple vanilla cake decorated with colourful tutti frutti. Use of lemon zest adds freshness to this cake though it can be optional.

I made this cake sometime back, and it was appreciated by everyone. Hope you all enjoy it too.

    

Ingredients

2 cups Maida or All purpose flour

1 tbsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp lemon zest

1 cup milk
1 tsp white vinegar
1/2 cup White granulated sugar
1/2 cup Flavourless Oil
1 tsp Vanilla extract

3/4 cup Tutti frutti

Take milk in a bowl and add vinegar to it. Let it sit for 10 to 15 mins till it curdles.

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celcius.

Sift together maida, salt and baking powder and then add lemon zest. Mix well.

Now add sugar, vanilla and oil to the milk and vinegar mixture and beat well till all the sugar dissolves.

Mix dry ingredients into the wet and mix well but gently by hand to form a lump free batter. Lastly coat the tutti frutti in 1 tbsp of maida and mix it with the batter.

Pour the batter in a greased and floured or a parchment lined loaf pan. I used a 9 inch x 5 inch loaf pan.

Bake in a pre-heated oven for 50 to 55 mins till a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Let it cool completely on a wire rack before slicing.

Misti Doi Cheesecake (eggless)

I have been baking a lot these days and enjoy experimenting with yeast, but do not blog about it as frequently as I would like  . . . . .  it’s just lazy me. So, I made this last month and was loved by everyone. It’s prefect for a party as it please all age groups and can be should be made in advance. But, the best part is how incredibly easy it is to make . . . . With just 3 ingredients, it is a rather exotic sounding dessert.

I colleague of mine introduced me to Mother Dairy’s Misti Doi and I liked the creamy texture with subtle flavour it offered. Prior to this I have had misti dahi in earthen ware (‘kulhad’ as we call it here) during Durga Puja festivities. It is otherwise hard to find in Mumbai and was really happy to see it. Purist may not be impressed but it worked for me. Soon I was searching recipes to use it in some other form as my husband will not have it as ‘just dahi’. So, google to rescue and I was hooked onto the pictures on this amazing website ‘Passionate about Baking’ and realised that the recipe is eggless too. So, let’s go straight to the recipe.

400 gms Mishti Doi (I used Mother’s Dairy  brand)

400 gms (1 tin) sweetened condensed milk

200ml cream (I used 25% Amul)

Take a muslin cloth and put in all the dahi. Hang it for about an hour to remove whey. Keep the dahi in refrigerator during this time.

Remove the hung curd from the cloth and mix it together with condensed milk and cream till it becomes a homogenous mixture.

Meanwhile preheat the oven to 180 degree centigrade.

Take a 7” diameter loose bottom cake tin and cover it on with aluminium foil on the outside to prevent any leakage. Place this on a cookie tray.

Add the batter to the prepared tin and bake it for 20 minutes. Leave it in the oven itself to cool. When it has completely cooled to room temperature, cover the tin and keep it in the refrigerator overnight.

Demould and garnish with white chocolate shavings.

Peanut butter cookies (eggless)

I usually make cookies on weekend to pack it in the snack box for my kid during the week. But cookies do have a considerable amount of fat even though I try to reduce it as much as possible. So recently, when I happen to come across peanut butter cookies here, I wanted to give it a try.

Peanut butter along with whole wheat it makes a wholesome snack. I have used homemade peanut butter which has no added sugar. Also, the criss-cross pattern on a typical peanut butter cookie makes them look so pretty.

3/4 cup + 1 tbsp smooth peanut butter

1/2 cup powdered sugar (I added couple of tbsp of sugar more as my homemade butter had no added sweetener)

2 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 cup + 2 tsp milk

1cup + 2 tbsp whole wheat flour (atta)

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp baking powder

1/8 tsp salt

Mix together peanut butter, sugar, vanilla and milk. Mix well so that all the ingredients are combined well.

Separately sieve together atta, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Add this atta mixture to the peanut butter mixture and form a soft dough. Chill the dough for 15 minutes in the fridge.

Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 180 degree Celcius.

Make balls with the dough. (I used 1 tbsp as my measurements as I prefer smaller cookies.). Press the balls onto the parchment lined cookie tray making a criss-cross pattern.

Bake for 8 to 10 mins. The cookies will be soft on the top and the edges will be deeper in colour when the cookies are done. Time taken for baking varies from oven to oven and also depends on the size of the cookie, so adjust accordingly. Cool the cookies on the cooling rack and keep them in airtight containers on cooling completely.

Note : I halved the recipe given above and got around 12 cookies.

Fresh Fig Brownie

Happy Valentine’s day !!!

We really don’t have a ritual for Valentine’s day, but rather just go with the flow. Today it was celebrated with the whole family around the breakfast table. It was wonderful. Coming to the recipe, this is one of those recipes which is just awesome and happens by accident.

We really don’t eat fresh figs and I had a dozen to finish. Fig jam was obvious and tried, so decided on making a cake and an ice-cream. I had my fingers crossed with the cake in the oven because it was the first time I was using fresh buttermilk. (Here, I have used the buttermilk which remains after removing the butter for ghee.) It turned out just wonderful and was liked by all. I decided to call it a brownie because of the taste, texture and the amazing cracked top. It’s an easy and a healthy recipe. I know it has butter, but I believe a controlled amount of good fat is essential for your body.

I have adapted this recipe from the chocolate beet cake recipe.

Dry ingredients

1 1/4 cup whole wheat flour

1/4 cup cocoa powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4  tsp salt

 

Wet Ingredients

1/4 cup fresh homemade butter (at room temperature)

3/4 cup powdered jaggery

1 cup fresh buttermilk

1/2 cup fresh fig puree

1 tbsp vanilla extract

 

Pre heat the oven at 180 degree Celsius.

Sieve together all the dry ingredient and combine it well.

In another bowl cream butter and powdered jaggery. Then add pureed fig and buttermilk and mix well.

Add the dry ingredients into wet ingredient and wisk together for a lump free batter. Do not over mix. Pour the batter in a greased and floured 7” x 9” tin. (I used a parchment paper at the bottom of the tin)

Bake for 25 mins or till the toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Each oven is different so the time required may vary.

Let it cool in the pan for 20 mins and then on the wire rack till it is completely cooled. Slice and serve.

Smashed Potatoes

 

2016 had a very interesting start for me . . . cannot share the details here but it’s something I will always remember. I have been baking regularly but did not find time to post. In fact, I did not get a chance to click pictures of an interesting cookie recipe I tried during these days. Also, I am definitely not happy with the pictures of this post too. These were taken late evening with hungry eyes staring at them. Hope you all understand.

This recipe has been playing in my mind for some time now. I had seen it somewhere . . . I don’t remember, but it’s pretty simple and a forgiving recipe. This is my version. Well! You can’t go wrong with potatoes, isn’t it ?

Potatoes are everyone’s favourite . . . well almost everyone. As a kid I hated them but I am not sure when by liking turned into a full blown love affair with potatoes.

15 baby potatoes

2 tbsp olive oil

Crushed black peppercorns as per taste

1/2 tsp Chaat masala

Salt as per taste

3-4 cloves of garlic

1/8 tsp Garam masala

 

Para boil the washed potatoes until they are fork tender. Remove them and let them cool.

Meanwhile heat the oil and add the whole garlic cloves. Turn off the gas as soon as the oil is hot and let it cool. This allows the pungent garlic release its flavor in the oil.

To this oil add all the spice mentioned above. I have used less garam masala here as my six year old prefers less spicy food. You can substitute black pepper with chilli flakes too.

Preheat the oven to 200 degree centigrade.

Line your baking tray with aluminum foil or use a not stick baking tray as I have.

Smash the para boiled potatoes with a fork or simply by hand. Make sure you do not smash it through and arrange it on the tray. You can also smash it directly on the tray. Brush it with the masala and oil mixture.

Bake it for 25-30 mins till the outer covering turns crisp. Garnish with fresh coriander and serve hot. Green mint-coriander chutney goes very well with this . . . but I preferred them just as they are.

Eggless Vanilla Cake

Happy New Year to all my Dear Readers,

To welcome this new year, I have an indulgent recipe which is one of my favourites too. A simple recipe which tastes amazing and will add to the celebrations of those special occasions.

The cake is versatile and can be made into cupcakes or can be used for layered cake. I have used cranberries to add that touch of tang in this version but I forgot to mix them with flour and so all of them settled at the bottom. I have earlier tried this cake with strawberry jam sandwiched between layers and topped with fresh cream and it was divine. This recipe is a keeper for sure.I have adapted the recipe from here with few changes (taking cues from the comments section).

I frosted the cake with white ganache and topped it with cranberry heart. Frosting looks rustic and has a homemade charm to it. White chocolate ganache can be trickier than the dark chocolate ganache and it deserves a separate post to explain. Meanwhile, you could use the dark chocolate ganache recipe from here for frosting this wonderful vanilla cake.

Ingredients

3/4 cup + 1 tbsp maida/ all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
200gm sweetened condensed milk (I used Amul)
50 gm butter
1/4 + 1/8 cup milk
2 tbsp dahi/ yogurt
1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 150 degree centigrade.

Sieve together maida/ flour, baking powder and soda. In another bowl mix butter and condensed milk till it is combined properly. I used my hand held blender for this.

Add yogurt, milk and vanilla and blend again till a homogenous liquid is formed. Tip in the flour and mix gently with a whisk till all the traces of flour is incorporated. Do not over mix.

Pour the batter in 6” round tin which is greased and floured (I use parchment paper for the bottom to ensure easy release of the cake from the pan) and tap the tin to remove any trapped air. Bake for about 45 to 50 mins or till the toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Let the cake cool for 5 mins in the tin and then transfer it to the cooling rack to cool completely and only then proceed with the frosting.