Coconut Cookies (eggless) / Nariyal ke biscuit

Sometimes you want nothing chocolate-y, sometimes you just want wholesome goodness, sometimes you need to have coconut cookies...
So I baked a batch of whole wheat coconut cookies, which turned out pretty neat.

The recipe is very simple and can be found at more places than one...I really cant remember where I jotted it from.

Ingredients

1. Whole Wheat flour- 1 cup
2. Softened butter - 100gm (1/2cup)
3. Grated coconut- 1 cup + 1Tbsp for topping
4. Icing sugar- 3/4 cup
5. Baking powder-1tsp
6. Coconut Extract- 1/2 tsp (optional)
7. Milk- 1-2 Tbsp

 Method

• Pre-heat the oven at 180 degrees centigrade.
• Cream the sugar and butter. Add the extract.
• Mix the baking powder with the flour thoroughly. 
• Add the flour to the creamed sugar and butter. Mix well.
• Add grated coconut and make soft dough. Add milk if the dough seems to be too dry.
• Prepare the baking sheet by brushing it with a little butter.
• Take extra grated coconut in a flat bowl.
• Make small rounded balls, press them on the coconut flakes/grated coconut so some if them stick to it.
• Place on the sheet leaving room for the cookies to expand.
• Put the tray in the oven for 12-15 min. Keep your eyes on it. they should not burn.
• When slightly browned at the edges and just about to set, take them out let it cool in the tray for a minute or so.
• Remove and store in an air-tight container.
• Bake the rest in a similar manner.

Enjoy!!

Pineapple crumble

An experiment with dessert.


I took a risk when we had guests over for dinner.


But, hey life is about taking risks…even foolish ones…:p


 (psst... I had a backup plan, a tin of Rasgullas..;)


Thankfully, this Tarla Dalal recipe did not disappoint.


You need:
1. 1&1/2 cups chopped freash pineapple
2. 2tbsp sugar
3. 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
4. 1/2 cup rolled oats
5. 3/4 tsp  cinnamon powder
6. 3/4 tsp nutmeg powder
7. 2 Tbsp butter+ butter for greasing the baking tray
8. 1 Tbsp chopped mixed nuts (optional)


How to make:
1. Combine the chopped pineapple with 1Tbsp of sugar and mix well. Keep the pan on fire and cook on slow fire till the fruit becomes soft.
2. Combine the flour, oats, butter ,cinnamon powder, nutmeg powder and remaining sugar and mix well using your fingers till the mix resembles bread crumbs.
3. Spread the pineapple in the greased oven proof tray. Sprinkle  the dry mixture evenly over this. Top with nuts.
4. Bake in pre-heated oven at 180 degree centigrade for 20-25 min. Till the topping is golden brown and serve hot.

Birthday cake...Again!!!

I know its a cake again...but one can never have enough cake recipes...right!?

Right. That's settled then.

It was my friend's birthday…that means i just had to bake a cake.

Plus women like chocolate , so I made a chocolate cake. (yippee!!)

Orange and chocolate is a winning combination, no second thoughts about it.

So I donned my apron and made this cake for her.

Orange chocolate eggless cake

Ingredients

1. Flour/maida/whole wheat flour (take any one)- 1 &1/2 cup
2. Cocoa powder- 1/3 cup
3. Baking soda- 1 tsp
4. Brown sugar- 3/4 cup
5. Salt- 1/2 tsp
6. Butter- 75 gm (you can use 5 Tbsp olive oil also…I used butter)
7. Orange marmalade- 1/4 cup
8. Orange juice- 1 cup
9. Orange extract- 1 tsp

Method

1. Pre-heat the oven at 150 degrees Centigrade. Prepare the pan by greasing it with butter and dusting with flour (you can use cocoa powder to dust it too).
2. Take all the dry ingredients and mix in a bowl.
3. Mix juice, marmalade and melted butter in another bowl.
4. Add 1/2 of the dry ingredient mix to the wet ingredients  and mix well. Add the rest of the dry ingredients , mix well.
5. Add orange extract and mix well.
6. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and keep it in the oven for 40-45 min or until the toothpick comes out clean.
7. Cool the cake before cutting. You can dust it with icing sugar.

Enjoy!

Eggless Choco-orange cake with Nutella frosting

Happy new year!!

I know I've been absent from the blog space for a while now, but now I'm bacck! And we are starting this new year with this very celebratory choco-orange cake...yummm.


Choco-orange cake with nutella frosting
Adapted from Anushruti's cake 

Ingredients

200 gm (1 1/2 cups) plain flour (i use whole wheat flour, pre-milled)

50 gm (1/4 cup) cocoa powder( i used Hershey's)

30 gm (4 tbsp) fine sugar

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda/ sodium bicarbonate

1 tin/400gm sweetened condensed milk ( Nestle)

150 gm butter melted

1 tsp Orange extract

250 ml  (1 cup) water

For soaking the sponge

Orange juice ( fresh or packed, i used packed)- 5 tbsp approximately, but you can use more if you wish to. I intend to use more next time.

Nutella frosting

 Nutella- 1/3 cup

orange extract - 1 tsp

Filling for layer

Pulp of 2-3 oranges (or mausmi/moshumbi)  - about 1/2 cup

Icing sugar- 25 gm (5-6 spoons approx.)

20 gm butter

Method

1. Grease and line the bases of cake tin with greaseproof paper/baking parchment/butter paper.

2. Assemble the flour, cocoa powder, sugar, baking powder and baking soda, mix with a fork and sieve once to make the mixture uniform.

3. Preheat the oven at about 150 c/300F.

4. Add in the condensed milk, melted butter, vanilla and water. Beat with an electric hand mixer or whisk till the mixture is uniform and smooth and there are no lumps. Do not overbeat.

5. Pour the batter into the prepared cake tin and bake for 50-60 min. or until a skewer or toothpick comes out clean.

6. After the cake is, allow to rest in their tins forsome time and then cool them by keeping them on a cooling rack.

7. When the cake is cooled, slice it from the middle and divide into 2 parts. Sprinkle the Orange juice. Keep both parts seperate and leave them overnight.

Filling

Mix all the ingredients together and leave it overnight.

Frosting

Put Nutella in the microwave for 10-15 sec to make it smoother in consistancy, add orange extract and whip it to mix well.

 Assemble the cake

Spread the filling on the bottom portion of the cake and place the upper part on it. Press gently. Now spread the nutella frosting on the top and sides with a flat spoon or butter knife. You can sprinkle a little icing sugar or white chocolate chips on it.

Devour the yummy cake...;)

enjoy

Pumpkin pie- an eggless dessert

When you throw a ladies party last in the chain, you have to really rack your brains to come up with a great dessert. Thankfully, I was all armed with this amazing eggless pumpkin pie recipe by Anushruti of Divinetaste.

My friend help me serve it, and by the time I came out of the kitchen..all was gone except a teeny-tiny piece for me. And with all the kudos came numerous requests for the recipe. I know I'm a wee bit late in posting this, but here's to all my friends here.

Pumpkin pie
from Anushruti of Divinetaste
Ingredients:

For the crust:
○ 140 gm (1 cup) plain flour
○ 1/3 cup cold butter
○ 1/2 teaspoon salt
○ 5-7 tablespoons cold water

For the filling
○ 2 cups (500 ml) Pumpkin puree
○ 400g, sweetened condensed milk
○ 2 tablespoons cornflour (cornstarch)
○ 1 ½ teaspoon cinnamon powder
○ 3/4 teaspoon freshly-grated nutmeg
○ 1/2 tsp ground cloves
○ 1/2 tsp ginger powder
○ 1/2 teaspoon salt

Prepare the crust:

1. Mix the flour and the salt and cut the butter into the flour with your fingers until you get coarse breadcrumbs.
2. Alternatively, combine the flour, butter and salt in a food processor and process with short bursts until it resembles coarse breadcrumbs.
3. Add the cold water and form into a soft dough. Do not handle the dough more than required at this stage.
4. Gather the dough into a ball and chill well for an hour or so.
5. Place the dough on a floured surface. Roll out the dough to a circle, to line a 9-inch pie dish or cake pan with removable bottom. Prepare the edges and chill till you are ready with the filling.

Prepare the filling:
For the pumpkin puree:

1. Cut the pumpkin into wedges.
2. Scoop out the seeds, pith and fibre with the help of a spoon.
3. Pre heat the oven to 180 degrees centigrade.
4. Place the pumpkin wedges cut side down on a lightly oiled baking sheet and bake in the oven for about 45 minutes to an hour or until the pumpkin is tender when pierced with a knife.
5. Scoop flesh out of the skins and puree with a hand blender or mash well by hand.

To make the pie:
1. Pre-heat the oven to 200 C.
2. In a bowl, mix in the pumpkin puree, condensed milk,  cornflour, spices and salt and beat until there are no lumps.
3. Spoon or pour the filling into the chilled crust and level with the help of a palette knife.
4. Bake for about 60 minutes (the original recipe says 40 minutes, but i got better results in a longer period of time) or until the filling is set and the top crust is a nice golden brown.
5. Allow to cool, cut into wedges and serve. (I did not follow the cooling step well, couldn't keep everyone waiting!)

Milky Vanilla cupcakes- easy eggless recipe

A friend of mine was faced with a dilemma. Her son was asked to get "cupcakes" for the cristmas party which they were having at their school. Not really into baking; she wondered what to do as they had to get home made stuff.

That's when I came into picture. She knew my relations with the oven were good :-) and asked me to make cupcakes for her son. Always looking for an excuse to bake something new, I jumped at the suggestions and soon was busy digging into all the recipes I've got and searching the internet for more.

As per her suggestion, I decided not to frost them as they might get spoiled on the way, but could not help myself from sprinkling some chocolate on it.

Here's the recipe. (Adapted/modified from divinetaste)
Makes 12 big muffins

You'll need:
1. 210 gm (1 1/2 cups) plain flour/maida/All purpose flour
2. 1 tsp baking powder
3. 1 tsp baking soda
4. 100 gm (3/4 cup) milk powder (full fat)
5. 100 gm (3/4 cup) fine sugar
6. 100 gm (1/2 cup) butter, melted
7. 250 ml milk (I've used low fat)
8. 1 tsp vanilla extract
9. Chocolate drops- to decorate (You can use chocolate chips also)
 
Method:
1) 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.
2) Preheat the oven to 180 C/350F.
3) In another large bowl, put in the flour, baking powder and baking soda and mix well with a fork.
4) Put in the milk powder and the sugar into the flour and mix well.
5) Stir in the melted butter, vanilla extract and the milk and mix gently with the whisk. Do not over mix.
6) With the help of a spoon fill the prepared moulds with the batter (till 3/4 of the cup) and sprinkle some chocolate drops on them.
7) Bake for about 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick comes clean.

I tasted it as soon as it was done. It was warm, fluffy, moist and a delight to look at. Just the right amount of suger for me, but some people may want to reduce it to 1/2 cup if they are using suger procured in India (I find that sugar much sweeter than what we get here).

Now there is only one question - Will the kids like it?

A birthday and Pineapple Cake

 We celebrated the birthday of my mother in law this month. She is a perky and fun-loving person with a genuine smiling face. It is very easy to talk to her and she befriends you with her laughter charm. Given the special person she is, I wanted to make a cake really suited for her birthday.

Pineapples are in abundance here and they are as sweet as it can get. We've been feasting on ripe pineapples almost every day during the duration of their (my mother and father in law) stay. So this cake came out to be the perfect choice for this joyous occasion.

Pineapple layer cake
Make a 9" round cake (ref: here and here)
Note:
If you are using fresh pineapples then soak the slices in thin sugar syrup. This will prevent pineapple from turning bitter. Otherwise used tinned ones.
For the Sponge:
Ingredients:
250 gm (1 & 3/4 cups) plain flour
2 tbsp vanilla custard powder
4 tbsp icing sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda/ sodium bicarbonate
1 tin/400gm sweetened condensed milk
100 gm (1/2 cup) butter
175 ml (3/4 cup)  milk (can use water instead)
2 tsp good quality vanilla extract
Method:
1. Grease and line the bottom of an  9” round cake tin with greaseproof paper.
2. In a mixing bowl, assemble the flour, custard powder or cornstarch, icing sugar,  baking powder and baking soda, mix with a spoon or a fork.
3. Preheat the oven at about 150 degrees centigrade.
4. Put in the condensed milk,  butter, vanilla extract and milk into the mixing bowl containing the dry ingredients. Beat with an electric hand mixer, whisk or spoon  until the mixture comes together and there are no lumps. It should not be overbeaten otherwise it'll cause the cake to be hard.
5. Pour the batter into the cake tin and bake for an hour at 150 degree centigrade.
6. The cake is done when a knife comes out clean when inserted in the centre of the cake.
7. Cool the cake.
Cream icing
Ingredients
Whipping cream- 500ml chilled
Icing sugar- 4 tbsp
To Prepare the Cream:
1. Chill 2 Bowls in the Fridge. Chill the Beater/Whisk.
2. Divide the Whipping Cream in 2 Bowls. Add 2 Tablespoons of Sugar to each bowl along with the Cream.
3. Put one bowl back in the Fridge to Chill.
4. Beat the Whipping Cream, & the Sugar in one bowl till the cream is thick,  fluffy & forms peaks.
5. Repeat with the other bowl of cream.
To assemble the cake
1. Slice the sponge cake into 2 halves carefully
2. Keep the bottom half in the serving plate and sprinkle with pineapple juice till its well soaked.
3. Spread a layer of cream and top it with thin pineapple slices.
4. Very carefully keep the top portion on the prepared one and soak it again with pineapple juice.
5. Spread the cream over the cake to cover the sides and decorate with more pineapple slices.
6. Chill for a few hours or overnight for the flavors to set in.
 

Enjoy!!