Tag: sugar

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.

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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.

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-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.

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

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-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.

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

Christmas Fruit cake:

December 21, 2016

The day before yesterday, my daughter V asked, ‘Amma, everywhere I can feel the Christmassy atmosphere, why haven’t you made anything?  Please make a plum cake.”

Immediately, daughter A said, “No need to do that grrrrrrrrrrr, It has raisins; I don’t like raisins in any baked goodies. Make Red velvet instead of plum cake.”

Finally, mamma came up with this win-win cake for both –

This cake has no booze or fruit juice, or raisins.

Ingredients:

Dry fruits to soak – 1/2 to 1 cup (dried cranberries, tutti-frutti)

For the Caramel:

Light brown sugar – ½ cup

Water – ¾ cup

Butter – 1 tsp

For the Cake:

All-purpose flour – 1 ½ cups ( you can take whole wheat flour + all-purpose flour as well)

Baking powder – ¾ tsp

Baking soda – ¾ tsp

Dry ginger powder – ¼ tsp

Cinnamon powder – ¼ tsp

Cardamom powder – ¼ tsp

Pinch of salt

Eggs – 2

Light brown sugar – ¾ cup

Melted Butter – ¾ cup

Fresh Orange rind – 1 to 2 tsp (grated)

Caramel – ½ cup

Dry Nuts – 1/4  cup (cashew and almonds)

Method:

-Make caramel in a thick-bottomed vessel. Heat sugar and butter until it melts; lower the heat, add water, mix nicely, boil, and add the dry fruits.

-Here, I took dried cranberries and tutti-frutti. Soak the dry fruits for 2 hrs.

-When you are ready to bake the cake, drain these soaked fruits, separate the caramel and fruits and keep them aside. This caramel can be used while mixing cake batter.

-The next step is the preparation of the cake batter –

-First, we will mix all the dry ingredients, from flour, baking powder, baking soda, ginger powder, cinnamon powder, cardamom powder, and salt, in one bowl and dry mix using a wire whisk.

-Drop all the dry fruits like soaked and drained dry fruits, chopped cashews and almonds

-Once again, mix the flour nicely and keep it aside. This is the dry ingredient mixture.

-The next step is- to preheat the oven to 180 degrees centigrade.

-Line the cake tin in which you want to bake. I have used a bread tin over here.

-Next, we should make a wet ingredient mixture. Break the eggs, beat them properly, and mix in butter, caramel, sugar, and grated Orange rind. Beat all these together until the sugar dissolves.

-Take one wooden spatula, fold it in the dry mixture, and make a uniform batter of wet and dry ingredients with a very light hand. Don’t overmix this.

-Now pour this ready batter into the lined cake tin, sprinkle some cashew and almond chunks, and bake this for 40 to 45 minutes or until done at  180* C. Enjoy this fruit cake this festive season!!!

Home-Style Pineapple Jam:

December 12, 2016

Some things are such that, it brings back lots and lots of fond memories from your childhood. This pineapple jam is one among the list, which is so flavourful and has lovely texture of grated pineapple. This week, when I saw a pile of pineapples over the carts in every nook and corner of our streets, immediately my mind went back to my grandparents farmland, loads of pineapples and home style pineapple jams, which I used to cherish with breads, Roti’s or Dosa’s. My urge to have that taste in my taste bud was so strong, I couldn’t resist it and I bought one pineapple and made this jam.

Now we will jump into the recipe part  –

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Ingredients:

Pineapple – 1

Sugar – 1  to 1 ½  cups (adjust according to your taste)

Lemon juice – 1 teaspoon

Method:

-Remove outer skin and make 4 vertical pieces.

-Grate the fruit.

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-Now put these gratings in a thick bottomed Kadai and start cooking on a low fire.

-Mix in-between to avoid burning.

-When pineapple is cooked and all the water, which oozed out while cooking has evaporated, add sugar and mix.

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-Cook until pineapple mixture leaves from the sides of the kadai.

-Add lemon juice, give one stir and switch off the gas.

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-Cool this mixture and store this in a glass bottle.

 

Choco chip cookie with M&M:

November 28, 2016

Who can resist Choco chips and m&m? My kids just love this combination and it works really well as a birthday party treat too.

If u have leftover m&m’s at home which you totally forgot about? This is a yummy way to use them up! Every crumb tastes so delicious; you wouldn’t want to put it down!

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Ingredients:

Whole wheat flour -1 cup

All-purpose flour – 1 ½ cup

Baking powder – ¾ tea spoon

Cooking soda – ¾ tsp

Demerara sugar – 1 cup

White sugar – ½ cup

Butter – 200 Grams (I have used 100 gms butter + 100 gms sunflower oil)

Eggs – 2

Vanilla essence – 1 tsp

Choco chip – ¾ cup

m&m chocolates – to decorate.

Method:

–  Pre heat oven to 170º C, grease cookie tray and line with butter paper.

-Add all the dry ingredients (flours + baking powder + cooking soda).

-Take a bowl, put butter and beat nicely. Add both the sugars, vanilla essence and once again beat until it becomes soft and airy. Now add eggs and beat. Add all the dry ingredients and mix using a spatula .While mixing add Choco chip. Now using an ice cream scooper, drop the dough into the cookie tray .

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-If you have m&m s, you can press it on to the center.

–  Bake for 12 to 15 minutes or until knife comes out clean.

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When it’s done, take it out and cool. After it cools completely store it in an air tight container.