sugar – Page 7

Plantain Upside down Cake:

April 24, 2017

This is my trial in egg less as well as butter less baking. Here I have used raw flax seed gel as a replace for an egg as well as fat and it worked out just fantastic.

Ingredients:

Finger millet flour/Ragi – 1 cup

Whole wheat flour –½ cup

Sugar – ¾ cup

Mashed banana – 1 cup

Flax gel – ½ cup

Baking powder – ¾ tsp

Cooking soda – ¾ tsp

Salt – ½ tsp

Cinnamon powder – one pinch.

Vanilla essence – 1 tsp

Curd – 1/3 cup to ¼ cup (according to requirement)

For Caramelized base:(Optional)

Brown sugar – ½ cup

Butter – 2 table spoon (chilled)

Banana roundels – As needed.

Method:

How to make flax gel: Take 2 tsp of flax seed, make powder. Put this powder in thick bottomed small pan, add one cup of water and boil until it is thick, slimy and reduced to almost half.

-Now make banana slices (half inch thick), keep it ready.

– Take one baking tin in which you want to bake this cake. Brush some oil at the base. Spread brown sugar uniformly and take butter, make small cubes and place it here and there.

-Place this in a pre-heated oven at 180C for 6 to 8 minutes until the sugar has melted. Remove from the oven, mix this liquid nicely and place banana roundels in regular intervals and keep aside.

– Now Take all dry ingredients like flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon powder and sieve together couple of times or mix using dry wire whisk.

– Now take another bowl, beat all the wet ingredients like, flax gel, vanilla, sugar, mashed banana

-. When it becomes frothy, fold in the dry ingredient mixture. If you feel this batter is too thick, then adjust the consistency by adding curds.

– Pour this ready batter to the cake tin in which you placed banana slices.

-Bake this in a pre-heated ready oven at 180C for 40 to 50 minutes or until done. If you insert knife, it should come out clean.

-Remove once it is done. When it is cool, de-mold and serve.

NOTE:- Here I took caramel which was stuck on the base of the baking dish, put it in a microwave cup, re heated it and poured as a sauce to give saucy texture. (You can see that in the picture)

-If you want to make this as a vegan,avoid caramelized base.

Orange – Nutella Swirl cupcakes:

March 19, 2017

These millet cupcakes are healthy and delicious at the same time, a very good snack for all the kids who are studying hard for exams.

picture main

Ingredients:

Mixed millet flour- ½ cup

Whole wheat flour- ¼ cup

All-purpose flour – ¾ cup

Ghee – ¼ cup

Egg – 1

Sugar – ¾ cup

Salt – ¼ tsp

Baking powder – ¾ tsp

Baking soda – ¾ tsp

Curd – ¾ cup

Orange zest – 1 tsp

Nutella – as required

Method:

Pre-heat oven in 170 C. Line cupcake baking tray with paper liners.

collage 1

Mix all the dry ingredients like millet flour, whole wheat flour and all-purpose flour, baking powder and soda, sieve 2 to 3 times or mix with dry whisk.
Now take one more bowl or food processer, put egg, curd, sugar, ghee, salt and beat nicely.
Grate orange zest from outer surface of the orange (Don’t add any white part) and add this to liquid and beat one more time.
Now pour this wet mixture into dry ingredient mixture and fold in and mix everything lightly.
Don’t over mix.
Pour this mixture into cupcake tray by using the spoon.

collage 2

Drop Nutella on the top of each batter filled cupcake mould, swirl a little.
Bake this in a pre-heated oven for 15 minutes or until done.

picture main 2

Enjoy with evening tea. It is a good option as a snack as well.

This flavourful cake happened by chance. I usually make carrot milkshake paste with almonds in the summer. This year I tried this paste by adding pine nuts instead of almonds and it didn’t go very well with my family. To finish off this paste, I tried this by making cake and it was a super-duper hit and it tastes really moist and soft.

Ingredient:

Whole wheat flour – 1 cup

All-purpose flour – ½ cup

Fine rawa- ½ cup

Baking powder – 1 tsp

Baking soda -1 tsp

Sugar – 1 ½ cup

Desiccated coconut – ½ cup

Carrot milkshake paste – 2 cups

Clarified butter/ghee – ½ cup

Cardamom powder – 1 tsp

Salt- ¼ tsp

Method:

-Sieve all-purpose flour, whole wheat flour, fine rawa and baking powder for 2 to three times and keep aside. This is our dry ingredient mixture.

-Beat the wet ingredient like carrot milk shake paste, ghee, sugar.

-Mix in baking soda, salt and desiccated coconut, cardamom powder and beat.

-You will see a frothy texture. This is our ready wet ingredient mixture.

-Pour wet ingredient to dry ingredient, lightly mix without over doing.

-Bake this in a pre-heated oven at 180 C for 40 to 50 minutes.

-After checking its doneness, remove from the oven, cool and serve.

Carrot and Almond Milkshake:

March 3, 2017

I usually store this puree in my fridge in summer season. Whenever my kids asks for a milkshake this is such a handy option. So this option acts as a win- win situation for both. Mummy will be happy that, kids are having healthy milkshake and kids will be happy to have a really creamy, fragrant milkshake 😉

Ingredients:

Carrot – ½ kg (I have used Delhi Red carrots)

Almonds -15

Method:

Wash ,peel and chop the carrots
Put these pieces as well as almond in a pressure cooker with sufficient water.
Cook for 2 whistles, cool and make puree by using mixer grinder.

This is your basic “Milk shake Puree” to prepare milkshake whenever you want.
You can store this “Puree” for 10 days under refrigeration.

For preparing Milkshake:

Take one or two tablespoon of this “Puree”, required amount of sugar and chilled milk and Enjoy.

Cornmeal-Cranberry Scones:

February 21, 2017

These are very soft, crumbly and melt- in- the -mouth kind of delicacies. It has rich corn meal flavour and it is neither a cookie nor a cake and is very mildly sweet. It does not need any side dishes like butter or jam and one can enjoy it as it is with a cup of tea or coffee.

main

Ingredients:

All-purpose flour- 1 cup

Cornmeal- ¾ cup

Butter- 100 grams

Dried cranberries- ½ cup

Baking powder – ¾ teaspoon

Baking soda- ¾ teaspoon

Salt – ¼ teaspoon

Sugar – ½ cup

Butter milk – ½ cup (chilled)

Topping – Sugar crystals

Method:

Pre heat oven at 170 C
Take one mixer jar or food processor. Put all the dry ingredients like flour, corn meal, salt, baking powder, baking soda, salt and sugar. Dry grind all these for a couple of rounds.
Chop the butter into bite size pieces and add. Again dry grind until flour becomes crumbly and wet.
Add buttermilk and run the food processor. Dough will become a little sticky.
Line the cookie tray with butter paper.
Drop the dough into lined cookie tray either by using spoon or ice cream scoop.

pic collage

Sprinkle some sugar on top and bake this in a pre-heated oven for 12 to 15 minutes.

It yielded 15 scones for me and I have used small ice cream scoop to scoop out the dough.

Chikki from ellu bella/ Energy bar from left over sesame mixture:

February 2, 2017

Makara sankranti festival is over and you may have left over Ellu Bella which you got from your near and dear ones during distribution to each other.Usually there will be no takers for this after two days of festival. Even I had some left over sesame mixture and tried this Indian Chikki or energy bar from these power packed ingredients.This mixture usually has lots of sesame seed, which is a high iron source, peanuts, coconut bits etc.

Ingredient:

Left over ellu bella mix – as much as you have

Sugar – 3 to 4 spoons (What I took)

Butter – 1 table spoon

Cardamom powder – ¼ teaspoon

Method:

Separate Sugar blocks as well as jaggery chunks from the mixture.

Take one thick bottomed vessel; add all these jaggery and sugar chunks as well as extra sugar with butter.
Heat this by constant stirring, until it becomes caramelized liquid.
Immediately mix in the rest of the sesame mixture and cardamom powder mix nicely to coat caramel liquid uniformly.

chikki collage

Spread this on a clean kitchen counter or butter paper laid baking tray and press this nicely till it is uniformly flat.
You can use either pav bhaji masher or roti belan to press this mix.
Make a mark when it is hot by using sharp knife.
When it is cool, store this in an airtight container.

Lemon pudding cake with Fresh Strawberry Sauce:

January 24, 2017

Soft, melt in a mouth citrusy warm pudding is paired with fresh strawberry sauce. It is a real treat in winter evenings. The basic recipe is from here and I adapted it according to our taste and availability of the ingredients.

Ingredient:

All-purpose flour or Almond flour – ¼ cup

Salt – one pinch

Lemon zest – from one lemon

Eggs -2 (separated)

Butter- 1 tablespoon

Sugar- 2/3 cup

Buttermilk – 2/3 cup

Lemon juice – 2 tablespoons

For Sauce:

Strawberries- 20

Sugar – 2 tablespoon

Method:

Combine dry ingredients in one bowl. i.e. All-purpose flour, salt, lemon zest and mix this nicely by using a dry wire whisk.
Preheat oven at 160° C . Keep cookie tray inside by putting water. So that the water bath will be ready to bake while preheating.
Take 4 pudding moulds and apply some butter or oil and keep aside.
In another bowl, beat egg yolks, buttermilk, lemon juice, sugar. Beat until well mixed.
Add dry ingredient content to this and keep aside.
In another bowl, beat egg whites until you get stiff peaks. It takes almost 2 to 3 minutes of beating.
Combine this with a pudding mixture by folding gently by using a wooden or plastic spatula.
Divide evenly by filling this into 4 pudding moulds.

Bake these filled cups in a hot water bath for 40 minutes or until the top becomes light brown.
After placing the cups, check for the water level in the cookie tray (water bath). If it is less, please fill it with little hot water and close the oven door.
When it is done, remove from the water bath and cool those cups.

Now you can make strawberry sauce or Compote :
Chop all the strawberries, Mix in sugar and keep aside for 5 minutes. Churn half of the content in a mixer jar and keep another half as it is. So that you will have some chunks in your sauce and it looks good as well OR to make the compote, cook all these until syrup become bubbly and cool before serving it.
For serving, invert the pudding on a serving plate and pour some strawberry sauce and enjoy.

Note: To invert the pudding, you can use a small knife at the edge and it will release itself from the sides.

Til Chikki /Indian Sesame Brittle:

January 13, 2017

Makara Sankranti and Sesame/Til seed are very much associated with each other. Every year my kids look forward to having their favourite Chikki on this auspicious day. This time I wanted to make a different type by enhancing its nutritional value by adding other ingredients too. Finally came up with this recipe.

chikki main

Here I have taken one big water tumbler as a measuring cup.

Ingredients:

Peanut: 1 cup

Sesame seed – ½ cup (white and black mix)

Sunflower seed -1/2 cup (de-skinned one)

Roasted gram – ½ cup

Almond – ½ cup (slice or chunks)

Cashew bits – ½ cup

Desiccated coconut – ½ cup

Sugar – 2 ¼ to 2 ½ cups ( if light sweet, add 2 1/4 cup otherwise, add more)

Ghee/clarified butter – 2 tablespoons

Cardamom powder – 1/2 tsp

Method:

-Dry roast peanuts, remove the outer skin and make halves.

-Now dry roast sesame seeds, Sunflower seeds, Roasted gram, almond chunks, and Cashew bits one by one and keep aside. For roasting, you can use a stovetop method or microwave.

-When it’s a little cool, add desiccated coconut, cardamom powder and mix nicely. Keep it aside.

-Take one rolling pin and apply little ghee and keep aside.

-Now we have to make the caramel by adding sugar and ghee in a thick bottomed vessel/tawa. Keep this on a stovetop, heat it until it attains liquid form and becomes light brown in colour. This is caramel. (Please refer to the below picture for stages to attain light brown colour)

-Without wasting any time, mix in the nuts and spread this on a wooden plank or on a clean kitchen platform. Use ghee applied chapati rolling pin (belan) and spread this mixture nicely till it is uniformly flat.

-Leave this for 5 minutes. Take one knife and mark, cut it into the desired shape. After it cools down completely you can store this in an airtight container.

Chikki Preparation by Using Jaggery: (Ratio should be 1 part of dry fruits: ½ part of jaggery)

–Follow all the steps precisely like Sugar added chikki. You can omit or add any ingredients according to your wish.

Instead of Sugar, take grated jaggery, loosely fill the cup and measure, by using the cup in which you are taking the ingredients.

-First, take the jaggery, put water, ghee. Heat the solution and strain. If any sediment or tiny particles, it would go away, and the final result would be perfect.

-Then start boiling, until it reaches the frothy, thick. At this stage, pour one drop of the liquid in a small cup of water and check. It should come together, like a crystal and you should be able to break it easily.

-If it is not yet ready, it will come(extend) like a chewy thread. You will not be able to break it.

-If it is ready, pour all the roasted dry fruit, mixed and kept into the solution. Switch off the gas. Give a stir, spread, and follow all the steps like a sugared one, which I have dealt earlier.

-Enjoy all the goodness without a pang of guilt.

NOTE: -I would suggest the usage of Sugar for the first-timers. It is foolproof and easy.

-After a couple of trials with Sugar, you would be knowing about the stages and gradually shift to jaggery.

-Here, I have taken round, organic ball jaggery, made into chunks by using the stone pestle.

Masala Whole Wheat Laddu/ Pinni Ke Ladoo:

December 31, 2016

Happy New Year wishes to all my Readers!!!!

Masala whole wheat laddu’s are pure bliss!!!! I had some apprehension before tasting this mainly because, I couldn’t imagine the taste of laddu’s with fennel, pepper etc.! These beauties are originally from Punjab and known as Pinni ke ladoo. This recipe is from my friend and according to her; each family has their own style of preparation of Pinni and is a must for winter months. I have prepared according to our taste and availability of the ingredients in my pantry.

main-1

Ingredients:

Note: Here I have used steel tumbler or regular steel glass to measure ingredients.

Whole wheat flour – 3 cups

Ghee – 1 ¼ to 1 ½ cups

Almond- ½ cup

Pista – ½ cup

Desiccated coconut – ½ cup

Flax seed powder – 1tblsp

Sugar – 1 ½ cup (powdered)

Jaggery – ¼ cup (powdered)

For masala: Fennel – 1 tsp, black pepper – 1 tsp, cardamom – 1 tsp, ginger powder – ¼ tsp.

Salt – ¼ tsp

Edible gum – 30 – 50 gms.

Method:

-Dry roast almond and Pista, cool, powder it and keep aside.

-Dry roast desiccated coconut for 2 minutes, to increase its fragrance.

picture-1 -Powder masala ingredients in a small mixer jar. No need to roast this.

-Put 1 tsp of ghee, fry edible gum in a hot ghee until it puffs and becomes transparent. Cool it and powder in a mixer jar.

picture-2

-Take one thick bottomed kadai, add one cup of ghee and roast whole wheat four in a very low fire, until it becomes light brown and sandy in texture.

picture-3

-Switch off the gas. Add in edible gum, sugar powder, jaggery powder, masala powder, salt, coconut, dry fruits powder,flax seed powder etc.

picture-4

-Mix everything together, try to make roundels. If you are able to bind it together, well you can proceed to make laddu’s.

-If it breaks while binding, add little by little hot ghee and mix, and then make the roundels.

main-2

-Cool completely before storing it in an air tight container.

Gingerbread cookies:

December 26, 2016

My daughter wanted to bake gingerbread man cookies for this Christmas and she was asking for the recipe of the same. I finally gave her a recipe with the ingredients which were available in our pantry.Now I will handover this post to my daughter, who is 15 year old 🙂

Hi all, I am Vinushree. I really wanted some gingerbread cookies this year, and we made this unique version of gingerbread man cookies- but as women. I just wanted to bring out women empowerment. Just kidding, we didn’t have the cookie cutter for a man ;). This was very fun to make and an easy process. Please enjoy.

ginger-1

Ingredient:

All-purpose flour – 3 ½ cup

Cinnamon powder – 1 ½ tsp

Ginger powder – 1 ½ tsp

Salt – ½ tsp

Baking soda- ¾ tsp

Egg -1

Jaggery syrup – ½ cup

Light brown sugar – ½ cup

Cooking Butter – ¾ cup

For Icing:

Cooking chocolate – 4 squares

Nutella – 2 tbl sp

Icing sugar – ½ cup

Vanilla essence – ½ tsp

Milk – 2 tbl sp.

Method:

Mix all the dry ingredients by using wire whisk, like flour, cinnamon, ginger, salt, baking soda and keep aside.
Beat butter and sugar by using stand mixer. When it is done, add in egg, jaggery syrup and beat nicely.
Add dry ingredient and make dough into 3 parts and keep this in a fridge by wrapping in a cling film cover or in a zip lock separately.
Keep this for one hour and remove one of the dough parts from the fridge and keep this outside for 5 minutes.
At the same time, pre heat the oven at 170 degree C and line a cookie tray with butter paper.
Now roll the dough by using Chapati roller, by dusting some flour into ¼ inch thickness and by using cookie cutter and bake this for 12 to 14 minutes.

collage

After it cools down, make the icing.
Take one microwave safe glass bowl, put icing sugar, chocolate, Nutella, milk and vanilla. Microwave for 1 minute and mix nicely. If it is melted and perfectly blends, start dipping those cookies into it and decorate with any sprinkles. Otherwise heat chocolate mixture for some more time and proceed.

pic-5

Dry them in air for one to two hours, and then store them in an airtight container.

Category: sugar

Plantain Upside down Cake:

Orange – Nutella Swirl cupcakes:

Eggless Carrot cake:

Carrot and Almond Milkshake:

Lemon pudding cake with Fresh Strawberry Sauce:

Masala Whole Wheat Laddu/ Pinni Ke Ladoo: