Mango & Yoghurt Popsicles

Mango & Yoghurt Popsicles

Its Summer time !! Mangoes are so much in season and I don't think theres anybody who doesn't love mangoes. This recipe is Super easy, Super Tasty and Fast Vanishing............ !!

Ingredients

2 cup chopped mangoes ( fully ripe & chopped into small pieces)

1 cup thick yoghurt

1/2 cup fine sugar ( U an add more if  required)

3 tbsp light corn syrup

1 tsp lime juice

a few drops of mango essence ( enhances the flavour)

Method

1. Put all the ingredients in a mixer and blend till smooth .

2. Put into paper cups or kulfi molds.

3. Put and icecream stick.

4. Put them in the freezer for atleast 5-6 hours.

5. Take them out, rub your hands a little on the paper cups so that they come out easily and see them vanishing.........

Corn and Onion Pizza with Tomato Pizza Sauce

                                                            

Corn and Onion Pizza with Tomato Pizza Sauce

It was a delight to be a part of the Home Baker's Challenge Group started by Priya of . This months challenge was hosted by Divya  . It was a home made pizza with a choice of home made tomato pizza sauce or pesto sauce . I chose tomato sauce. This was the first time I made any pizza sauce at home and believe me it was more yummier and affordable than the ready made.

I was not able to take good pics as my pizza vanished before I could take the final shots.....(so you can well imagine how tasty it was) , But next time I will definetly try and take pics before I serve it ......!!

Ingredients
 Recipe source Martha Stewart

For the Dough

3 cups Flour/ Maida 

7 gms Dry  instant yeast (1 pkt.)

1 tsp Salt 

2 tsp Sugar 

2 ½ tbsp Olive oil 

1 tsp Mixed herbs 

½ tsp Chili flakes 

1/2 cup coarse cornmeal for dusting the base

 For the Tomato Pizza Sauce

2 tablespoons olive oil

500 gms red & ripe tomatoes (roughly chopped)

3/4 teaspoon dried oregano

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Directions

1. Pour olive oil into a large skillet, and place over medium heat. 
2. Using your hands, squeeze tomatoes to crush them. Add to the warm olive oil, along with the remaining ingredients. 
3. Cook over medium-low heat, breaking up tomatoes with a wooden spoon, until the sauce is thick, 40 to 50 minutes.
4. Pass sauce through a food mill, discard the seeds, and let cool.

Method for Making Pizza Base

1.    Mix dry yeast with a little warm water and sugar. Keep it for 5 - 10 mins.
2.    Mix  flour, salt, mixed herbs and chilli flakes. Keep them aside.
3.    Make a soft dough using all the ingredients and using little water as required..
4.    Keep the dough covered with a cling wrap for about ½ an hour.
5.    Divide the dough into four balls and dust some cornmeal and roll them keeping ¼ “ thickness.
6.     Prick them with a toothpick.
7.    Keep it for about 15- 20 mins for proofing.
8.    Apply pizza sauce and chopped vegetables according to  taste.
9.     Put pizza cheese on top and bake for about 15 – 20 mins at 220 o C.
10. Cut into wedges and serve.

** You can make the pizza base in advance and store them for a day. Just roll them and bake for about 10 mins. Take them out and cool them properly. cling wrap them and they can be stored for a day at room temp. and for about 2 days if refrigerated.

Battenberg Cake

Battenberg Cake

My Mother

My Mother, my friend  so dear

Throughout my life you’re always near.

A tender smile to guide my way

You’re the sunshine to light my day.

                                                                                     Anonymous

I learnt Baking from my mother. She used to bake Cakes & Nankhatais from the very beginging. I used to watch her and started developing interest. So Today, I dedicate this Cake to My Mother for being my inspiration .......

Ingredients

1 1/4 cup flour

1/2 cup ground almonds

2 tsp baking powder 
½ tsp salt
3/4 cup powdered sugar

3/4 cup butter 
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
red or pink food coloring
yellow food coloring 
⅓ cup  apricot jam
 250 gms marzipan (to cover the cake)**

Method

1. Sieve flour, ground almonds and salt with baking powder and keep aside.

2. Beat butter and sugar till light nd fluffy.

3. Add eggs one at a time. Add Vanilla extract.

4. Fold in flour mixture to make a smooth batter.

5. Divide the batter into two equal parts and add pink or red in one part and yellow in another part.

6. Bake them in a preheated oven for about 30 mins at 180 o C.

7. Cut each cake into half lengthwise and join it with apricot jam (warm it a little) to make a checkered pattern keeping one loaf on top of another.

8. Roll the marzipan and cover the cake with the marzipan tightly.

9. Trim the ends of the cake so that checkered pattern is visible.

 **Method for making Marzipan

1 cup finely ground almonds

1 cup icing sugar

2-3 tbsp sugar syrup

1 tsp vanilla extract

Mix ground almonds and icing sugar together. Add vanilla extract. Add sugar syrup spoon by spoon and knead it to make a soft and pliable dough. ( U can also use readymade dough available in the market)

Tomato Tarte Tatin

Tomato Tarte Tatin

Ingredients

Filling
1 tbsp butter
1/2 tbsp caster sugar
250 gms cherry tomatoes (cut into halves)
2 garlic gloves (finely chopped)
1 tbsp white vinegar
Salt & Pepper - To taste

Tart
1 cup flour
40 gms butter
1 tsp oregano (chopped if using fresh)
4-5 tbsp cold water

Method

1. Melt the butter in a pan. Add the sugar and stir over high flame till it becomes golden brown.
2. Lower the flame and add cherry tomatoes and garlic.

3. Switch off the flame, add vinegar, salt and pepper acoording to taste.
4.Put the cherry tomato filling in a 6-7" pan and set aside.

5. For the Tart, put flour, salt, butter and oregano in a food processor and pulse it till the mixture looks like breadcrumbs.
7. Add enough cold water to make a soft dough.
8. Roll the dough in a 7" cirle and place over tomatoes tucking in the edges.

8. Pierce with a fork. abd bake in a preheated oven for about 30-35 mins till golden brown.

9. Run a knife around the edges and invert in a plate .
10. Put some oregano on top for garnishing, cut into wedges and serve.

My Twisted Cookies

                                   

We Knead to Bake #4 : Torcettini di Saint Vincent
(Sugar twisted Cookies)





                                

This month Aparna of My Diverse Kitchen decided to make Yeasted cookies instead of bread. It was a welcome change for all of us in the group We Knead to Bake !! Though I was a liitle skeptical in the begining but when I tried them with family and friends..for their views.....to my delight everybody liked it!! My son even carried them in his tiifin for his friends....!!

The origin of these biscuits is believed to be from Grissini (breadsticks) which were made from the leftover scraps of bread dough. According to one story, a Grissini baker had some leftover butter which he needed to use up. Inspiration struck and he decided to add the butter to the last batch of his Grissini dough for the day. To be able to differentiate this lot of “breadsticks”, he rolled them in sugar and shaped them into loops, and the Torcetti was born. Torcetti/ Torchettini taste even better when they’re flavoured with lime/ lemon zest or anise.

These yeast-risen cookies are a cross between a bread stick and a caramelized puff pastry palmier. The cookies are crunchy – you can easily tell this by their look. 

Torcettini di Saint Vincent

(Adpated from A Baker’s Tour by Nick Malgieri)

Ingredients

 1/2 cup warm water

 1 1/4 tsp active dry yeast (or 1 tsp instant yeast)

 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 tbsp cocoa powder (if making chocolate torcettini)

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp lime/ lemon zest (replace with orange zest for the chocolate version)

 40gm unsalted butter, cold and cut into small pieces

 about 1/3 cup sugar for rolling the cookies

Method

1. Dissolve the yeast in the warm water, in a small bowl and keep aside.

2  Cut cold butter into small pieces and combine them well with flour and salt. Then add the yeast mixture to form a ball. On a slightly floured surface, fold dough onto itself 3 or 4 times or until it is smooth and no longer sticky.

3.  If making chocolate Torcetti, remove 2 tbsp all-purpose flour and add the 2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder mentioned in the recipe. Don’t add the lemon zest/ anise. Use orange zest and maybe add 1/ 2 tsp instant coffee powder with the flour.

4..Place dough in the buttered bowl, turning it over so that the top is buttered. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let dough rise until doubled, about an hour. When you pinch off a bit from the top you can see the interior looking a bit like honeycomb. Press down the dough and deflate it, wrap it in cling warp and refrigerate it for at least one hour or up to 24 hours. 

5. When ready to make the cookies, take the dough out and lightly roll it out into an approximately 6” square. If the dough feels sticky, scatter a little sugar on it. Using a pizza wheel cut the dough into four strips of equal width. Cut each strip into 6 equal pieces, by cutting across, making a total of 24 pieces. The measurements are not very critical in this part because this just makes it easier to have 24 equal sized  of dough, as compared to pinching of bits of the dough.

6. Roll a piece of dough on a sugared surface to make a pencil-thick strand of about 4 or 5-inches long, then cross one end over the other about 1-inch up from the ends. Place shaped cookies on prepared baking sheet, spacing about 1-inch apart.

                          

7. Let  twisted cookies rest at room temperature for about  15 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat  oven to 180 C.

8. Bake until they are lightly golden, about 20 to 25 minutes.