Cook like Priya: BAKING

Showing posts with label BAKING. Show all posts

Eggless Coconut Cookies | Easy Eggless Baking Recipes

Eggless Coconut Cookies is a perfect tea time snack, I love dunking these delicious cookies with my black tea. Last week I was in a mood to bake and I had the last stick of butter so the first thing that came to my mind was to make these delicious coconut cookies. I have made these cookies countless number of times. My friends and neighbors would know that :-) I usually make these cookies to take along to meet them. There has been lot of requests for this recipe so I had to blog about it. If you love nan khatai and coconut cookies from Indian bakery then you would love this one. Such an easy recipe to make, in fact you can make them crunchy or soft depending your liking, for me I love them mid way. Either way these cookies are sure to win anyone's heart.

Black Forest Cheesecake Cake | Birthday Cake Recipe for Husband

Black Forest Cheesecake Cake Recipe

Black Forest Cheesecake cake sound so fancy right. This what happens when my husband is gifted with a wife who is a food blogger ;-). Food blogging has made his expectations of me go soaring high, each year I bake two fancy cakes one for our anniversary and one for his birthday, so I get a little carried away planning what cake I need to bake for these occasions in our life. Last year I baked for him a Tiramisu Cake , this year I promise, it was a last minute affair I decided on this cake only 2 days before and got the ingredients and baked it all in one day. In fact I did the frosting of the cake only the next day morning that was his birthday. So for compensation he had to do a little cake modelling for me :P. I love taking risks in the kitchen, I did not have a springfoam pan and yet I pulled off doing a cheesecake recipe. All thanks to God for He always answers my prayer ;0). We both love black forest cake and off late have been die hard fans of cheesecake, so combined both and thought of this and voila I saw a recipe for this so went ahead without any second thoughts. We love dessert cakes too and this recipe is such a keeper, a really rich one so save and plan it for your special occasions. Lets move on to the recipe and its a long post alert...

Hot Cross Chocolate Muffin | Easy Easter Recipe | Eggless Easter Muffin Recipe

Easter is the coming Sunday, it sure is a day of rejoicing of Our Saviour's resurrection. Every year since the blog happened I am getting to do new recipes based on the celebration dates and this year I was totally unplanned something that is usually rare. Since I am a well organised person who loves to plan months ahead. But this time around I really didn't do much thought, so today I just sat up realising that its Easter on Sunday and wanted to do a different recipe. First I was thinking of a bread and I really didn't have the time and patience, went to the kitchen and checked my pantry. I thought ok let me do hot cross muffins, totally happened that moment. And of course its a twist to hot cross buns. I have posted a whole wheat hot cross buns last year and I still have a memory of how good it tasted. I even packed some for our dear friends on our day out to Central London.

This year its just husband and me at home, the weekend looks exciting as we plan to make a trip. A long awaited one just to wind off nothing great. So I wanted to do my baking ritual before we set to do all the packing. The Chocolate person that I am, I wanted to make a twist to the original hot cross buns by making a spiced chocolate muffin that is light and soft with the traditional icing cross on top. This recipe is an original and my husband had two in one go. They are so delicious and can be enjoyed just right out of the oven. Of course you need to cool them down in order to do the icing cross.

Banana Date Cake/ Loaf ~ baking for beginners

Last night I tried out the Banana Date cake and to be honest it came out really well. My husband was surprised and happy at how it turned out, he gave it a 5* :-). Its a good recipe to try out if you are a beginner at baking.

If you are a beginner in baking it a must do recipe. You could also use a loaf tin to bake it, the choice is yours.

Simple, easy and with ingredients available in anyone's pantry. So what are you waiting for?

Recipe Source ~ Nags (modified using dates)

Ingredients needed :

1-2 ripe yellow banana (I used 2 since the bananas were quite small)

2 eggs

1/4 cup white powdered sugar

1/2 cup unsalted butter

1 cup white flour/ maida

1 tsp vanilla essence

Couple of dates (you can use any nuts or raisins, depending on what you like)

Method

Keep the butter out in room temperature and mash the bananas in a separate bowl, just before you start beating the ingredients.
Beat the sugar and butter such that the sugar entirely dissolves in the butter.
Add the 2 eggs and whisk till the two combine.
Add the banana mash and beat in low setting until all the lumps disappear
Now add the vanilla essence and the white flour, combine using a wooden spoon, do not whisk at this point and later add the dates/ any nut of your choice.
Later set it in a greased cake tin and put it on a preheated oven for 180 degree/ fan grill for 40-45 mins until a skewer inserted in center comes clean.
Once done take the cake pan and place it on a cooling rack for 10 mins with the pan. Later flip the cake and let it cool down to room temperature.
Slice into pieces and enjoy the cake.

Notes

- Powder the sugar and then measure, sugar can be adjusted based on the sweetness of the banana

- Always sieve the flour before adding to the whisked mixture, while sieving add a pinch of salt

- While setting the mixture in a cake tin, tap it a couple of times so that there is no air pockets in the cake

Easy Egg Puffs using read-made puff pastry~ anyone can do this

I tried out this recipe after a chat with one of my Indian friend. Got my own idea and did it, trust me it was so easy, a great evening snack without much work to do. You can do variations of this with different patties inside - some suggestions would be chicken, veg, potato or just onions with tomato.

Ingredients I used:

Ready-made puff pastry, I used jus-rol puff pasty (they are amazing and lightly salted, which is perfect)Jus-rol

1 or 2 eggs

1 onion

1 tsp oil

1/4 tsp pepper

1/4 tsp turmeric (optional)

pinch of salt

How I did it:

1. Defrost the puff pastry for 20 mins or depending on the instructions given in the pack

2. boil the egg for approximately 10 mins

3. Pre-heat Oven and start to make the masala so that once you are done it will be perfect to bake them

4. In a pan heat 1 tsp oil and add the finely chopped onions and stir till they turn light brown, now add the turmeric, salt and pepper and stir well.

5. Cut the egg or you can put the entire egg in 1 puff, choice is yours. Cute the pasty onto a square shape and full it with just 1 spoon onion masala and place the egg in the center.

6. Try to fold the pastry diagonally and for the pastry to stick in the center just dab it with some egg wash or water.

7. do some egg wash on top of the pastry for some glossy finish, you could even add some sesame seeds on top for a perfect bakery effect.

8. place the pastry on a foiled tray and put it in a pre-heated oven at 180 degree/ fan grill or simply follow the instructions in the pack

Note :

- defrosting the puff pastry is necessary

- let the masala and egg cool down before setting it in the oven, if its done when hot the pastry would be sticky and stretch

- preheat oven and just follow the instructs in the puff pastry pack

Fruit & Nut Biscotti Bars~ yummers

My love for fruit and nut chocolates and biscuits has led me to try this. Who doesn't like a crunchy bar for an evening snack with some coffee? Sometimes I used to wonder if I could find something as tasty as cadbury's fruit and nut and nothing can replace that. But since this is a better calorie version I gave it a try. They are crunchy, nutty, fruity and taste like the biscotti we get in starbucks.

Prep & cook time ~ 40 mins

Makes ~ 5-6 chunky bars

Recipe Source ~ adapted from Joy of Baking( it tried to alter to my taste)

Ingredients

Nuts - 1 cup, coarsely chopped (i used cashew, walnuts and badam)

Dry fruits - 1/2 cup (green& black)

Plain Flour - 1/3 cup

Dermerara Sugar - 1/2 cup (this adds the color, i did not add coco powder)

Baking powder - 1/3 tsp

Baking soda - 1/3 tsp

Egg - 1 medium

Vanilla essence - 1 tsp

Salt - pinch

Method

Prepare a baking dish by lining it with foil on all sides and Pre-heat oven to 200 C, place the baking dish on it
In a mixing bowl sieve the flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda, add the chopped nuts and raisins to this and coat them evenly, next add the sugar and mix well
In another bowl beat the egg and vanilla essence till it becomes think and changes color
Add the wet mixture to the dry one and mix well with a wooden spoon
Now take the baking tray and fill in the mixture and flatten it with the wooden spoon. Make sure that the mixture is 3-4 cms thick
Place it in the oven and bake until you see a golden brown coating on the top or till 20 minutes
Take the baking tin and place the foil on a wire rack to cool.
After 15 minutes cut them into horizontal bars and enjoy

Tips & Tricks

Go by your own taste and replace nuts and fruits as per your taste
You could replace the sugar to any other version, I used dermerara since its unrefined, brown sugar also should be good
You could also use the ready made foil trays available

Spongy Eggless Blueberry Cupcakes/ Muffins

For long I wanted to bake cupcakes and the quest of finding a good recipe seemed like a bigger task than making the cup-cakes. Making cupcakes is super simple and easy. And if you are one who wants to spend the least amount of time in the kitchen this is just for you.

If you have kids this will be a great project to do along with them. The key to great muffins/ cupcakes is less mixing so get it started right away. I used my new silicone cup liners, they are easy to use and no need greasing, invest in a good range and save paper (cupcake liners). My husband truly enjoyed them and he even carried some to work the next day, what a way to make you man keep thinking about you @ work ;-)

Recipe Source ~ Divine Taste
Prep time ~ 45 mins (baking- 25 mins)

Makes ~ 12 medium sized muffins

Ingredients

1/2 cup blueberries

1 1/2 cups plain flour/ maida

3/4 cup milk powder

1/2 cup powdered sugar (adjust to taste)

1/2 cup butter, melted

250 ml milk

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp vanilla extract

Pinch of salt

Method

Preheat the oven to 180 C/350F.
Clean and dry the blueberries with paper or cloth kitchen towels.
In a large mixing bowl, put in the dry ingredients- flour, baking powder, baking soda, milk powder and the sugar and sieve 3 times so that everything combines well.
Now stir in the wet ingredients -melted butter, vanilla and the milk and mix gently with the whisk. Do not over mix as you want to muffins to be soft and fluffy
Fold in the blueberries very gently and give it one mix so that the berries are distributed evenly throughout the batter.
Keep the muffin tray/ silicon cupliners ready in a baking tray. Line your muffin tray with cupcake or muffin liners. Or grease and dust them with flour if you don’t want to use the liners. If using the silicon cupliners do not grease them
With the help of an ice cream scoop or a spoon fill the prepared moulds with the batter, while doing this ensure that you do not fill more than 2-3 blueberries in 1 mold and bake for about 25 minutes or until a toothpick comes clean!
Let the muffins cool down well, in case there is a crust formed on top, do not worry once the cake is cooled down they will become spongy