Cook with Priyanka: Baking

Showing posts with label Baking. Show all posts

Monday, 1 September 2014

Nankhatai/Indian Cookies (Eggless)

I am a deep lover of Nan Khatais and today I tried the recipe of one of my talented blogger friends Ruchi Airen and it turned out to be scrumptious. Ruchi and me got to know each other at Cal and I always love her all the posts because of their simplicity and energy level. Usually I used to bake the Nan Khatais only using plain flour, however Ruchi’s recipe had semolina and chick pea flour as well, which I found to be interesting and thought of giving a try.

Ruchi has explained her recipe very well which makes it easy to follow, which is the reason I have got the best of khasta nan khatais as per its name. My husband and I are very happy with the flavours and we’ve already bookmarked it for repetitions in future, and I am sure it will be ringing bells in my kitchen soon. Sharing this with you all too.

Ingredients

All purpose flour/Maida : 2 cups
Semolina/sooji : 1 cup
Chickpea flour/besan : 1/2 cup
Clarified butter/Ghee : 1 1/2 - 2 cups (may vary to knead the dough)
Sugar : 1 1/2 cups (powdered)
Elaichi powder : to granish
Pistachios (coarsely Pounded) to garnish

Method:

Mix all purpose flour, Semolina, besan and sugar together.
Add ghee to the dry mixture and try to knead the dough. Donot overwork with it otherwise the nankhatais won't be flaky.
Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 15-20 minutes.
Now make small flat balls/ Pedas and place on baking sheet. Using a knife, cut a cross in the middle of each.
Press some elaichi powder and pistachios in the middle.
Rest the cookie balls in the refrigerator for another 15-20 minutes.
Bake at 190°C for 15-20 minutes (depending on the oven)
Completely cool on a wire rack and then store in an air tight container.

Enjoy!
Link to the original recipe http://www.foodfellas4you.com/khasta-nankhatais/

Please do share your experiences and feedback with me in the below section of comments or on my Facebook page. I too have a You Tube channel please do visit for all the video recipes. All the links mentioned below :)

YouTube : https://www.youtube.com/user/cookwithpriyanka

Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/cookwithpriyanka

Thanks and Happy Baking
Priyanka :)

Wednesday, 2 July 2014

Eggless lemony blueberry muffins with crumble topping

Hello everyone, today I will be showing you all that how to prepare Lemony blueberry muffins with crumble topping. They are crunchy outside and very moist and soft inside. At the same time they are eggless too. Lemon has given a nice kick and took them to the next level, though its not overpowering at all. You can have them with a cup of coffee or just like that as a dessert.

I made these cupcakes specially for my younger little sisi (Sister), Its her Birthday today and also she got selected as a Probationary officer in Bank of Baroda hence wanna wish her with lots of love and wishes. She really made us proud :))))

So without wasting any of the time, lets quickly run through the ingredients following the method.

Here is the video link :

Ingredients :
As usual, I have divided the ingredients list in two parts- the dry & wet ingredients. This way it will be easy for you to follow.
Dry ingredients:

All Purpose flour/Maida/Plain flour : 1 + 1/2 cups
Baking Powder : 1 + 1/2 tsps
Baking Soda : 1/2 tsp
Salt : 1/4 tsp
Blueberries : 3/4 cup

Wet ingredients :

White granulated sugar : 3/4 cup
Thick Yogurt : 1/2 cup (at room temperature)
Vegetable Oil : 1/4 cup
Lemon zest : 1 tsp

For the crumble topping :

All purpose flour : 1/2 cup
Sugar : 1/4 cup
Chilled butter : 3 tbsps
Lemon zest : 1/2 tsp

Method :

First preheat the oven at 180°C. Line the muffin tray with liners or simply grease them with some oil or butter.
Sieve the dry ingredients together atleast 3 times and keep aside, this give more aeration to the flour and helps in making the cake light.
Coat the berries with a couple of tbsps of flour, this will prevent them from sinking to the bottom.
In other bowl mix sugar + yogurt and whisk, you will get a very nice texture. To this add oil and lemon zest, mix well.
After they are well combined add the dry ingredients in two batches and fold in gently. Don't overmix, just make sure all the ingredients are well combined. Also add the blueberries and fold in gently.
Pop the batter in molds.
Prepare the crumble topping - mix together flour, sugar and zest. Then with the help of a fork mix in the chilled butter and form a breadcrumbs textured mixture. Sprinkle it a tbsp on each of the muffin (As shown in the video).
Bake it on the middle rack for 20-25 mins or unless a tooth pick inserted comes out clean. Mine took exactly 25 minutes. But keep checking after 18-20 minutes as every oven vary as per the power.
When done, take it out and give a rest of 5 minutes in the tin, then demold and cool on a cooling rack.

Enjoy !!!!!!

Note :

If using eggs, then replace 1/4 cup of yogurt with one egg, also omit baking soda.

YouTube : https://www.youtube.com/user/cookwithpriyanka

Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/cookwithpriyanka

Thanks & Happy Baking

Priyanka :)

Tuesday, 17 June 2014

Mango cake (Eggless, butterless)

Hello everyone, today I am very happy as after a long wait I got to find some really good and nicely ripped mangoes here. Though they are not Asian but still have a very nice flavour. I was seeing so many posts daily related to mangoes, as Indian markets are flooded with them. But did not prepare a single one due to unavailability of mangoes here. As soon as I saw them, first thing came to my mind was cheese cake and as soon as I went to buy cream cheese, kept it down immediately because of its huge calories, I am struggling to loose and on the top of it "cheese cake" no ways!!!!!!!.

These were nicely ripped, so had to make something from them. Therefore baked a sponge cake which eggless and butterless too (So finally succeeded to shed few of the calories but not much). I poured the mango glaze on the top which was super yummmmm and decorated with some finely chopped mangoes. The cake was moist and fluffy, glaze took it t other level and the mango pieces gave it natural freshness. It was a great treat to us an you won't believe Sushant galloped it like anything. So here comes the ingredients following the method :)

Ingredients :
As usual, I have divided the ingredients list in two parts- the dry & wet ingredients. This way it will be easy for you to follow.
Dry ingredients:

All Purpose flour/Maida/Plain flour - 1 cup
Baking Powder - 1 tsp
Baking Soda - 1/2 tsp

Wet ingredients :

White granulated sugar - 1/2 cup
Thick Yogurt - 1/4 cup (at room temperature)
Vegetable Oil - 1/4 cup
Mango puree - 1/2 cup (Freshly squeezed)

For Sugar glaze

Icing sugar/Ground sugar - 3-4 tbsps
Mango puree - 1/2 cup

Finely chopped mango to decorate.

Method :

First preheat the oven at 180°C. Grease & flour the baking tin of 6-7" diameter, or line with parchment paper/Butter paper. I took a loaf tin.
Sieve the dry ingredients together atleast 3 times and keep aside, this give more aeration in the flour and helps in making the cake light.
In other bowl mix sugar + yogurt and whisk nicely, you will get a very nice texture. To this add mango puree, oil and mix well. After they are well combined add the dry ingredients and fold in gently. Don't overmix, just make sure all the ingredients are well combined.
Pour the batter in tin.
Bake it on the middle rack for 45-50 mins or unless a tooth pick inserted in the cake comes out clean. Mine took exactly 47 minutes. But keep checking after 45 minutes as every oven vary as per the power and also the type of tin used :)
When done, take it out and give a rest of 2 minutes in the tin, then demold and cool on a cooling rack.
Prepare the sugar glaze - In a pan take sugar and mix in mango puree, whisk and cook on medium flame. The sugar will dissolve. Now let it cool. Once cooled will thicken.
When the cake is completely cooled, pour the glaze and let it set for 5-10 minutes. You can finish it with some spatula even. Sprinkle the chopped mangoes on top and sprig of mint. Slice it and serve.

Enjoy !!!!!!

Note :

For Mango puree, simply blend roughly chopped mangoes in a blender without water.

YouTube : https://www.youtube.com/user/cookwithpriyanka

Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/cookwithpriyanka

Thanks & Happy Baking

Priyanka :)))

Monday, 16 June 2014

Spiced Carrot cake with walnuts (with eggs/eggless recipe-both)

Happiness is when your beloved Husband bakes his first cake while you're asleep and that too without any occasion. Sushant baked his first cake early morning, without any of my directions and also without any recipe. I was surprised to see the texture, it was just perfect. He woke up early morning and baked it. We didn't have any such plans but still he did it. Felt like I was on the top of the world. Though he was beaming a lot after it, but anything for this lovely cake :)

As it was a morning surprise hence I clicked it on the bed only. After a lot of tantrums, he wrote the recipe and sent to me, hence sharing with you all.

Ingredients :

All-purpose flour/ Maida – 1 and 1/2 cups
Baking powder – 1 and 1/4 tsps
Baking soda – 1/2 tsp
Cinnamon powder – 1 tsp
Nutmeg powder – ½ tsp
Brown Sugar – ½ cup firmly packed
Granulated white Sugar – ¼ cup
Grated carrots – 1 and ½ cups
Walnuts – 1/2 cup chopped
Vegetable Oil – 1/2 cup
Large Eggs – 2
Vanilla Essence – 1 tsp

Method :

Preheat oven to 180°C. Grease and dust a 6” diameter round pan.
Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda, nutmeg and cinnamon and keep aside.
Coat the chopped walnuts with a tbsp of flour mixture and keep aside.
In a bowl mix the brown sugar and the grated carrots and keep aside for 8 to 10 minutes.
In a large bowl whisk eggs, sugar and oil together. Now add the vanilla essence and whisk.
Now add the grated carrot+sugar mixture and mix well. Add the flour mixture in small portions and gently fold in. Also add the walnuts and fold in.
Transfer the mixture to greased pan and bake for 45-50 minutes or until a skewer inserted into center comes out clean (cover loosely with foil if over-browning). Stand in pan for 5 minutes. Turn out onto a wire rack to cool.

Enjoy warm with any ice cream or with coffee or tea.

Notes :

If you don't have brown sugar simply replace it with white one.
For the eggless recipe, simply replace 2 eggs with 1/2 cup of thick yogurt/curd and follow rest of the same recipe.