Savoury star shaped bread...

I personally like savouries over sweets. But any festival calls for loads of sugary stuff and Christmas is no different. Cakes, cookies, pies, sweet breads everything is delicious but too much of sweetness is not something I prefer. So today I prepared a savoury bread and keeping the festive mood of the Christmas I have chosen a star shaped bread. So here is my Christmas savoury star shaped bread filled with roasted red bell pepper and tomato sauce and lots of cheese.

Rum raisin cake..

 

Are you feeling the festive vibe? I was really not in the mood for Christmas. For me Christmas is more than a religious festival, it's about having fun with your family and friends, cherishing the beautiful winter days and enjoying the decked up City of Joy. It's also about decorating the house, arranging parties, going out, buying gifts, planning to surprise my daughter and baking loads of delicious cakes and breads for my friends and family. Unfortunately with all these restrictions due to Covid19 the usual excitement is missing and I was feeling less enthusiastic. But when I saw all those images of Christmas cakes and cookies on my Instagram feed, I felt the happy festive vibe and decided to bake a cake, a boozy flavourful Rum Raisin cake with orange glaze.

Sugar free date walnut cake

Hi, I'm back after a hiatus. I took quite a long break from blogging and social media. During this time I have cooked a lot new dishes, dug deep into bread making and even managed to raise my first batch of sourdough starter, yet somehow I lacked the energy and enthusiasm to share it on social media. But during this worldwide Covid-scare and lockdown restrictions I felt an urge to connect with others and share my thoughts.

Black forest cake...

I have crossed the milestone of 200 posts on my blog. It turns out that the last post was the 200th post. Today as I'm writing the 201st post I would like to thank everyone who visit my blog, read and try my recipes and shower me with their kind words through messages and comments. Thanks to all my Facebook and Instagram followers, and all the co-bloggers for inspiring and encouraging me.

Honey n oats whole wheat bread

If you are regular to my blog you know how much I enjoy baking, specially breads. Proofing, mixing, rising, baking, the entire process makes me feel relaxed. This time I baked a whole wheat bread. You may have heard baking a whole wheat bread is tougher than a baking white flour bread. What's so different about whole wheat flour and white flour. The answer lies in a single word 'gluten', to understand the flour one should understand what gluten is.

Everyday Bread...

Baking bread at home is easy and simple. Flour, water, salt and a leavening agent are the ingredients needed to make a bread and are easily available, The most commonly used leavening agent is yeast. I use active dry yeast, that's the easiest option for any home baker.

I love freshly baked bread and hence I bake often at home. I thoroughly enjoy the process of bread making, from mixing, kneading, rising to baking and serving it to my family. Previously I used to knead the dough by hand, which is of course time consuming and laborious. Last year I got a gift from my husband, a KitchenAid stand mixer, and my bread making ventures are thus more frequent and with ease.

How to make a simple vanilla cake...

Today I'm going to share a simple basic recipe for making a vanilla cake. A recipe that can be followed by anyone. For a long time I have been requested to post this but haven't done it till date. Though I bake this cake at least thrice a month as a snack for my kid. It is so easy and simple that my nine year old knows how to do it. 

This is the recipe I have seen my mother and aunts use while baking cakes in winter. It was like a ritual in our house to bake at least one cake during our winter break. I remember it was such a exciting day for us. It was more of an event. We used to announce with pride to our friends "today Ma's going to bake a cake, so we can't join you to play badminton this morning". Badminton, oranges and cake were such integral part of our winter days.

Coming back to the cake, there was an electric oven to bake the cake, a small round shaped aluminium  oven with flat top and bottom with a glass top from where you can see the cake rising. It was my father's duty to take out the oven from its box. Yes, it used to be kept in its original box throughout the year waiting to be used during winter for our family celebration of Christmas and new year.

Cheese n herb bread...

Whenever I want to unwind or relax, I bake. Measuring all the ingredients, mixing them and finally when the aroma of the freshly baked bread or cake or cookies fills the room it feels magical. Research says baking satisfies our creative needs as well as all the processes involved in baking soothes our senses and releases some of our tension. For me baking a loaf of bread is the best cure for my blues.

Many are intimidated by baking bread at home. But in fact baking bread at home is much cheaper and very easy. Like anything you haven't tried before baking bread may sound daunting. But once you overcome the first barrier there is no looking back. I started 5 years ago and I bake at least one bread a week.

Chocolate cake with ganache..

Everyday is a happy day. The white clouds on a bright blue sky shaped like a big fat bear, the first rain after a hot summer day, the smell of new books, smile on your baby's face, or listening to your favorite singer and sipping a cup of tea after a hard day from work.... these are tiny little jewels around us, brightening up every single moment of our life. But unfortunately most of the time we are too busy complaining about lack of happiness than look around us and feel it. We fail to notice the happiness within us, the simple joy celebrating the spirit of life. Look at yourself in the mirror, smile at yourself and say 'I'm happy'. You don't need anything special to be happy, as you yourself is so special.

Yes I'm happy, rather very happy. Why? Looking outside to the bright sunny day and spending great spring break time with my little one and there are many more reasons, with a cherry on top, a home baked moist yummy chocolate cake...what else do you need to be happy?

Good food and happiness are such a great pair, they always come together, at least to me. Today it's a simple chocolate cake, with some finger licking ganache.

There is nothing new about a chocolate cake recipe. Here I'm sharing a recipe I follow, after all these years of cake baking, I found this method very easy and suitable for a beginner. So if it's your first chocolate cake don't worry this is going to be a perfect one.

I used an electric hand mixer to make the batter. You can use a stand mixer too. Use measuring cups, and spoons to get a perfect result. Most of the beginners get confused with salted and unsalted butter. You can use either of them, if you are using salted butter then do not add extra salt to the batter, where as if you are using unsalted variety then you need to add salt to the cake batter. Start with preparing the cake pan, to ensure the cake comes out smoothly after baking. To prepare a pan, use a clean dry cake pan. Grease the pan with oil or butter and dust the pan with flour. You can also line the pan with parchment paper. Always pre-heat the oven to the temperature mentioned in the recipe. Creaming the butter and sugar is very important. In this recipe I have used brown sugar to bring dark rich color to my cake, if you don't find brown sugar then replace it with white sugar. I used both cocoa and coffee to my chocolate cake and used hot water (not boiling) to enhance the flavor of cocoa and coffee. If you don't like the flavor of coffee then you can skip it. Use electric hand mixer or stand mixer for adding the liquid ingredients, while it comes to flour and other dry ingredient, use a spatula and gently fold in to the rest of the batter. Do not over bake, check with a skewer or knife. A fully done cake will start to release from the sides, and if you press the cake on the top it will spring back and of course your kitchen will be filled with the aroma of freshly baked cake.

I added ganache to glaze the cake. Ganache is a glaze or icing or filling for cake, made using only two ingredients, cream and chocolate. Heat the cream, add chopped chocolate, mix and you are ready with ganache.

Depending on how thick or thin you need the ganache to be the ratio of cream and chocolate changes. If you need to use the ganache as filling of the cake, then you need a thicker ganache, in that case the amount of chocolate increases. To glaze or to ice a cake you need thinner ganache, so add more cream. I used semi sweet chocolate chips to make the ganache. The ganache I made this time, I used equal amount of chocolate and cream. You can use any kind of chocolate of your choice, make sure you have chopped the chocolate into small pieces before adding it to the cream. And do not boil the cream, just heat the cream over low heat and add the chocolate pieces and stir, the chocolate will melt in it. You can flavor the ganache with coffee, or wine or other liquor of your choice. To glaze the cake with ganache, place the cake on wire rack and place a cookie sheet under it, and pour the ganache and give time to set.

Things needed to make chocolate cake:

• Flour: 1 and 1/3 cup
• Cocoa powder: 1/3 cup
• Baking powder: 1 tsp
• Baking soda: 1 tsp
• Salt: 1 tsp*
• Brown Sugar: 1 and 1/3 cup
• Unsalted butter: 1/2 cup (113 gm)
• Eggs: 3
• Vanilla extract: 1 tsp
• Hot water: 1/2 cup
• Coffee: 2 tsp

(*If you are using salted butter do not need to add extra salt)

Things needed to make the ganache:

• Fresh cream: 1 cup
• Semi sweet chocolate or chopped chocolate: 1 cup

Steps of making The chocolate cake:

1. Prepare a 9 inch bundt pan or a 9 inch circular or square pan, whichever you like. To prepare the pan grease the pan with butter or oil, sprinkle flour, shake the pan to evenly distribute the flour on the pan. You can grease the pan and line the pan with parchment paper.

2. Pre heat oven to 375 F. Place the rack in the middle of the oven. 

3. Sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, salt, gently mix with a wire whisk and keep aside.

4. Cream butter and brown sugar. Add eggs one at time, beat well. Scrape the sides as needed.

5. Add vanilla extract, mix well.

6. Mix coffee with hot water. 

7. Add 1/3 of the flour mix and gently fold in with a spatula. Add half of the coffee, mix gently. Keep adding flour and coffee alternating with each other, and mix gently.

8. Pour the batter on the prepared pan and bake for 30 min in the pre-heated oven. To know whether the cake is done, insert a bamboo skewer at the center, it will come clean. If you press the top of the cake it will spring back and the cake will start to leave the sides of the pan. Take out the cake from the pan and let it cool down on a wire rack.

Steps of making the ganache:

1. Heat the cream on a heavy bottom pan, over medium heat. Do not boil the cream. Switch off heat. Add chocolate, mix with a wire whisk. You can add liquor of our choice or coffee to the ganache.

2. Let the cake cool down on a wire rack. Place a cookie sheet under the wire rack, pour ganache on the cake. Give time to set the ganache. Garnish the cake as you like. I kept it simple, added grated white chocolate.

If you like to get regular updates from me go to my Facebook page and click on the Like button. You can also follow my blog on NetworkBlogs. Thank you..!!!

Swiss roll...with pineapple & butter-cream filling

I always feel enthusiastic while doing something for the first time, especially when it comes to cooking. And to be  more specific, baking is always super exciting for me. Days of reading and researching, measuring ingredients precisely, mixing them, baking and seeing the perfect result is a joy that can only be understood by a fellow home-baker. Baking gives me a pleasure beyond imagination. Even if I fail sometime, I learn something new. 

This year just before the Christmas I thought of making one of my favorite cake, Swiss roll. Yes, it was to be my first attempt at it, but the fond memories I have of this cake was an inspiration. As a kid I used to have Swiss Rolls from cake shops in Kolkata, they were either vanilla flavored sponge cake filled with jam or chocolate cake roll filled with chocolate butter cream, both were my favorite. This particular cake is named differently in different places: Swiss roll, jelly roll, roulade, rolled jelly cake, jam roll whatever the name, it is always the same exquisite and awesome taste.

Swiss roll (jelly roll or roulade) is a thin sponge cake filled with jam or butter-cream and rolled and sliced into cross-sectional slices. You can use any filling of your choice. The steps may appear to be complicated, but once you do it, you will realize how easy it is. Even much easier than a normal round cake. This was my first attempt at making a Swiss roll, I can't tell you how much I loved it. Not only because my friends and family appreciated, I loved  and enjoyed every bit of the process. From beating the yolks, to baking the thin sponge and rolling it and at the end slicing  it to some perfect Swiss rolls. When I tasted it, it took me back to my childhood days. So here it is for you all, just before the Christmas something special from my kitchen to yours. Add this little glitter to your baking list and I promise you won't regret it.

Things needed to make the sponge:

• All purpose flour: 1/3 cup
• Corn starch: 3 tbsp
• Eggs: 5 (separated)
• Sugar: 1/2 cup + 2 tbsp
• Vanilla extract: 1.5 tsp
• Salt: a pinch

Things needed to make butter cream with pineapple chunks:

• Butter: 1 cup (2 sticks or 226 gm)
• Powdered sugar: 3 cups
• Vanilla extract or pineapple essence: 1 tsp
• Heavy cream: 3-4 tbsp
• Pineapple (cut into small pieces) fresh or canned: 1 cup

Steps of making the sponge:

1. Grease a jelly roll pan, 17X12 inch (1 inch depth), line with parchment paper, keep aside. Pre heat oven to 450 F.

2. Sift the flour, cornstarch and salt and keep aside.

3. Separate the eggs. Add half cup of sugar to the yolks and beat with an electric beater or on a stand mixer till it turns smooth and almost white, over high speed for 5-7 min. Add vanilla extract and beat. This is the most important step. If you beat the yolks correctly then your sponge cake will come out perfect.

4. Add the flour mix to the beaten yolk and gently fold in.

5. In a separate bowl beat egg whites and two tablespoon of sugar till peaks are formed.

6. Add the egg white to the yolk-flour mixture and fold in very gently.

7. Pour the batter in the prepared pan and spread it evenly with spatula. Bake on the bottom rack of the oven for 5-6 min. Take out the sponge after 5-6 min, if you touch the center of the cake it will spring back.

8. Dust the sponge with confectionery sugar. Lay a clean kitchen towel on your work surface, invert the sponge from the jelly roll pan  on the towel. Very gently but tightly roll the kitchen towel wrapping the cake.

9. Keep the roll wrapped in towel on a cooling rack, let it cool down completely.

Steps of making the pineapple filled butter cream:

1. Bring the butter to room temperature. Cream the butte over high speed  for 4-5 min with an electric hand mixer or on a stand mixture.

2. Gradually add the powdered sugar to the butter and keep beating. Add heavy cream depending on the needed consistency. Add vanilla extract or pineapple essence, whichever you are using, beat well. Add small chunks of pineapple, if you are using fresh pineapple, make sure that's sweet enough to use. You can add other things of your choice from chopped cherries, nuts, or chocolate. You can change the flavor depending on your choice. 

Assembling the Swiss roll:

Unroll the towel wrapped sponge cake. Place it on clean parchment paper. Spread the butter cream evenly over the sponge.

With the help of the parchment paper roll the filled cake as tightly as possible but with utmost care, wrap it with a plastic wrap or aluminium foil tightly and refrigerate for 1-2 hrs. Slice and serve.

Instead of using butter cream you can spread jam or whipped cream or chocolate mousse over the sponge cake to finish up the Swiss roll. Before serving you can decorate the Swiss roll as per your choice, with whipped cream or chocolate or any frosting of your choice.

.I know it is a long procedure, here I have summarized the whole process for you,

This post is going to the bake event of Kolkata food bloggers. Click on the following logo to know more about the event and get scrumptious recipes.

If you like to get regular updates from me go to my Facebook page and click on the Like button. You can also follow my blog on NetworkBlogs. Thank you..!!!

Quick n easy cake for Christmas...

What I love about any festival is the festive mood, the preparation for it, the feeling of something very special is going to happen. I always found the days  of waiting for a festival the most exciting part. Christmas is not an exception. Making the wish list, buying gifts for my little one, expecting a surprise, discussing about food with friends, decorating the tree and above all baking cakes and cookies.

I bake several different cakes during this time, but a special Christmas cake is a must. Though I do not like the long elaborate process of soaking dry fruits with alcohol, then baking the cake and again brushing it with alcohol. I found it easier to bake a cake that taste exactly like a Christmas cake but can be baked just the day before Christmas.

This quick and easy Christmas cake has a dense, moist texture, with loads of candied cherries and orange peels. I used store bought tutti frutti, you can always make your own. I did not use any alcohol in this cake, but you can add rum or brandy to flavor the cake, or else add imitation rum flavor to bring the boozy essence. You can add nuts, raisins of your choice. It is a versatile recipe, you can customize as per your choice. 

Things needed to make the Christmas cake:

• All purpose flour: 1 and 3/4 cup
• Eggs: 4
• Brown sugar: 1 cup
• White sugar: 3/4 cup
• Salt: 1 tsp*
• Baking powder: 1 tsp
• Unsalted butter: 1 stick (113 gm)
• Vanilla extract: 1 tsp
• Orange extract: 1/2 tsp
• Tutti frutti mix: 1 cup
• Cinnamon powder: 1/4 tsp
• Nutmeg powder: 1/8 tsp
• Extra butter and flour to prepare the pan
• Rum or brandy to brush the cake (optional)

*If you are using salted butter, no need to add salt.

Steps of making the Christmas cake:

1. Pre-heat oven to 375F.

2. Grease a 9 inch loaf pan or 9 inch round pan with butter and dust with flour, keep aside

1. Sieve together all purpose flour, salt, baking powder, cinnamon powder and nutmeg powder. Keep aside.

2. Cream the butter for 3-4 min. Add brown sugar and white sugar and cream it with the butter for 5-6 min, scrape the side of the bowl as needed.

3. Add eggs one by one and beat well.

4. Add vanilla extract and orange extract, beat well. You can add the alcohol (if using) at this stage.

5. Add the dry ingredients and fold in gently. Add the tutti frutti and fold.

6. Pour the batter in the prepared pan, bake in the middle rack of the oven for 45 min or till a toothpick inserted at the center comes out clean.

7. Carefully take out the cake from the pan. Let the cake cool down on a wire rack for 4-5 hrs. You can slice and serve it. To give it the flavor of alcohol, Bake the cake at least 2-3 days prior the party, after the cake cools down, brush the cake from all sides with brandy or rum, cover with a plastic wrap and store it in the refrigerator. Brush the cake with alcohol in between 2-3 times.

Wish you all a Merry Christmas, enjoy with your friends and family.

If you like to get regular updates from me go to my Facebook page and click on the Like button. You can also follow my blog on NetworkBlogs. Thank you..!!!

Pizza margherita with no cook pizza sauce

I always find it really difficult to click  food photographs while two pairs of eyes are following me and silently asking when the food will be served. It is the one of the reason I avoid clicking my food during dinner time apart from the fact that I am much more comfortable shooting in day light.

Usually I cook and click when nobody is at home, I keep myself busy with my ingredients, camera, light and of course cooking. It's easy when I bake a cake or stir up a curry, those can be served later. But when it comes to food like pizza, which needs to go directly to the plate from the oven, I feel hesitant whether to click first or to serve. And the fun part is if I don't click before I serve the food, both the man and the little one will give me a curious look. And often I have been asked why didn't you click what you cooked?

This time things worked for me and my new personal pizza pan set saved me from my click or serve dilemma. I found these great 7 inch personal pizza pans from Home Goods. It's a good place to collect props for your food photography. Sometimes you get lucky and find something very useful like a set of four 7 inch personal pizza pans I got. Two of the pizza went straight to plate and two for my camera, end of the day a happy me.

So, it was the basic of all pizza, the margherita pizza for our dinner, and that too with a no cook pizza sauce. A quick easy one but loaded with flavors and "yammmy" as my little one says.

Things needed to make Pizza Margherita:

• A recipe for pizza dough  click here.
• No cook pizza sauce (recipe follows)
• Tomato slices
• Fresh mozzarella
• Fresh basil leaves
• Olive oil

Things needed to make no cook pizza sauce:

(adapted from finecooking.com and thekitchn.com)

• Tomato: 600 gm
• Garlic: 2 cloves
• Fresh basil: 1 tbsp
• Olive oil: 2 tbsp
• Honey: 1 tbsp
• Chili flakes: 1-2 tsp (optional)
• Salt to taste
• Black pepper powder for seasoning

Steps of making no cook pizza sauce:

1. Use fully ripe tomatoes or canned tomatoes for best result. If using whole tomatoes, dice the tomatoes and discard the seeds. Chop fresh basil.

2. Put all the ingredients for sauce in a blender and blend to a smooth paste, do not add any extra water. Check seasoning and adjust accordingly. I added a teaspoon of chili flakes to spice up the sauce, it is optional.

Assembling the Pizza:

1. Preheat oven to 475 F.

2. After punching down the dough, divide the dough into two equal halves. If you are using a 14 inch round pizza pan then work with one half. You can keep the other half for future use. Wrap the dough with cling film and store in refrigerator, for 2-3 days. Or you can divide the dough into 4 parts, as I did, for 4 personal 7 inch pizzas.

3. Dust the pizza pan (you can also use baking sheet) with flour or cornmeal, spread the dough on the pan evenly. Brush dough with olive oil. Cover the dough with a cling wrap and let it rise for 30 min at room temperature.

4. After 30 min the dough will rise again, spread the tomato sauce, arrange sliced tomato and fresh mozzarella and basil. As tomato releases water, after slicing the tomato shake off all the seeds and excess juice.

5. Cook the pizza in the middle rack for 15-20 min (if using a 14 inch pan), or for 10-12 min (if using a 7 inch pan) in the preheated oven. When the cheese bubbles up and few brown spots appear the pizza is done. Garnish with some fresh basil and serve hot.

If you like to get regular updates from me go to my Facebook page and click on the Like button. You can also follow my blog on NetworkBlogs. Thank you..!!!