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This is the second time I baked this cake, the minute I saw this cake here, I wanted to try it out and the first time I made it I just omitted the egg, My eldest loves these Banana loafs, cakes, muffins etc., as I make it rich, which she can nibble on!, (secret - nothing big!), I will post them soon, but this one was very good and she loved it, thanks to both Nags and Belinda Jeffery.
You want to know what happened, I baked it on a weekend, went out and came back to see a very little piece left, you know who ate it, my twins!, My eldest was with me, she had a bit before we went out, as she was so upset :(, told her I will make it again.
If you want it Eggless just forget to add the Egg :))
You must read the write up by Nags to read about the lovely book and this lovely recipe...
MOST FABULOUS BANANA CAKE
INGREDIENTS:
3/4th Cup Plain Flour
1.5 tsp Baking powder
1/2 tsp Salt 1/4 tsp Baking Soda
1 very ripe Banana (3/4th Cup Mashed)
3/4th Cup sugar
1 Egg
1/4 Cup Butter room temperature
50 ml sour cream or Buttermilk (I used Buttermilk)
1 tsp Vanilla extract
METHOD:
Preheat oven to 180 degree, Gas Mark 4
I made it by hand she used her food processor, Check out how she has done it.
How I made it..
I pureed my bananas in my mixie to a puree (I used 2 small Bananas I had 1 cup so, I used it completely, didn't know what to do with it!)
In a large bowl, I put my Banana Puree, Buttermilk, butter, Sugar and Egg and whisked it well enough that they all got throughly combined and to this I added Baking powder,Baking soda, salt and vanilla extract, mixed well together again.
I had sifted the flour before I started off, I added the flour into it in parts and incorporated it completely into my liquidy mixture, Poured it into a tin lined with Baking sheet and baked it for 35 to 40 minutes, until the skewer came out clean, I had baked it in a smaller tin, It doesn't look anything like hers, but tasted great.
That's it, said and done, did you like it, go make it then and enjoy.
Thanks very much, try more recipes and post it, we will enjoy the visual treat from yours and enjoy making it in our kitchens :)).
c u soon with an other recipe from hers to mine :))
I had an eye on this Tart recipe from David Lebovitz's blog, He is got such a wonderful space, you get just drawn to it so easily well explained, Daring things he explores with ingredients and in culinary art of cooking and baking, you can learn a lot from his wonderful posts, not only that his beautiful photographs are a feast to your eyes even though we know we cannot lay hands on them!. I have not done a good justice to this tart recipe as he has done, because I was little slow in checking out the tart when it was baking so you can see a little nicely browned edges, Anyway my family loved it and they all enjoyed it and it was like a one pot meal as it was quite filling.
I have to write about this tart as he learnt this from this lady by name Paule Caillat who teaches cooking classes in Paris Promenades Gourmandes. You have to visit his site and read about this lady and how she taught him make this Tart in his own words as it is very interesting to read, as we all go through that phase when you listen to something you have never heard or thought before that you can do some thing like this for a pastry!, I was really drawn into this French Tart dough and wanted to try out this right away.
You can see wonderful photo Tutorial of this Tart dough in his blog and you would really understand well and try this out.
As we in India make a lot of cakes, this tart dough something very similar to it and a very interesting recipe to try it out.
HERBED MASCARPONE AND VEGGIE TART WITH FRENCH TART DOUGH
So let us start with how to make this French Tart dough..., check out his blog on the link above for this tart recipe with lovely clicks than mine, and he uses microwave to make his butter to boil and I did this on the stove top!. coming back to the recipe.
FRENCH TART DOUGH
INGREDIENTS:
90 gms Unsalted butter
1 tbsp Vegetable oil (I also used canola oil)
3 tbsp water
1 tbsp sugar
1/8th tsp salt
150 g (50z or I used 1 cup of flour).
METHOD:
Preheat the oven to 410 degree F or 210 degree Centigrade, mine is a Gas oven so I baked it at Gas mark 6
Take a thick bottomed wok as shown in the photo take the measured quantity of butter and start melting it once it is completely melted add the other Ingredients oil, water, sugar and salt and allow it to boil, for a few minutes you can the edges turning brown (something like the smell of ghee I did not allow it to turn brown too much) then put of the flame add the sifted flour to the wok and mix it well until well combined and forms into a ball and pulls out or comes out clean from the wok.
If you are using a Microwave method put all the first five Ingredients into a microwave safe bowl or pyrex bowl and allow it to boil for 15 minutes as David Lebovitz says until you can see the edges turning brown and be careful when handling the bowl as it will be very hot and do not grab it with your bare hands!
Once the dough is done, transfer it into a 9 inch (23 cm) Tart mould with a removable base and spread it with the help of a spatula once it starts getting cool with the back of your fingers/heels press the dough completely into the tart mould to cover it pressing it to the base and edges as shown.
Prick the dough a few times and bake the tart shell in the oven 15 minutes until it is Golden, mine turned a Golden brown as I baked it a few more minutes and my tart mould was bigger than anticipated and the crust of the shell was really thin.
HERBED MASCARPONE AND VEGGIE TART FILLING:
This filling was again from David lebovitz blog as the spring onions caught my attention. Actually this Tart caught my attention then when I scrolled down thinking that I wanted to make my own pastry case, I found this French Tart dough recipe! So I made both of them, as usual I had to make some changes with my filling as I had to use the things which I had in hand and fridge.
Basically David's recipe calls for Ricotta, which I did not have and no time to make it as it was night! So, I had to tweak the recipe to my pantry requirement.
My tart tin was a little bigger I think so use the 9 inch (23 cm) mould for a perfect pastry.
So I used what all I had in hand I had .............
IINGREDIENTS:
250gms of Spring Onions
1 tbsp butter
1 and 1/2 tbsp Fresh Thyme
5 ounces of Mascarpone
1 Large Egg
1/2 Cup Heavy Cream
1/2 Cup whole milk
300 gms of Broccoli
1 Yellow pepper
50 gms of Crumbled Tofu
METHOD:
Preheat the oven to 400F/200C/Gas mark 6.
Clean and chop the spring onions into 1/2 an inch thickness, cook Broccoli and peas until 3/4th done drain and keep aside until all the water is gone. Press the Tofu and squeeze out all the water and crumble it. wash and pat the Thyme leaves ready.
Heat butter in a wok and stir fry the Yellow pepper (thinly sliced) first and then add spring onions until tender and then put of the stove season it with salt and pepper and some fresh thyme, and allow it cool down.
Meanwhile In a large bowl take egg beat it well so the egg and yolk are well mixed then add the cheese, milk and heavy cream give a whisk again then add the crumbled Tofu, Broccoli, Peas, thinly sliced yellow peppers
and the spring onions and some more salt and pepper to season as required.
I had some mint and coriander leaves I added a tbsp of them into it. mixed them well and scraped it into the already baked tart shell.
Bake this in the pre-heated oven until it is nicely done as you can see above and check with a tooth pick inserted comes out clean for 20 to 30 minutes
I served it with an array for oven roasted fresh vegetables and sauce of your choice.
I would like to send this to Priya who is hosting AWED - French started by DK of chefinyou, and to Healing foods started by Siri and Guest hosted by Spice mantra.
Hope both of them would like it as my family did....
I am also linking this recipe with ..........
Hi everybody how are you all doing ?, These are the Biscuits I made a long back in my draft, I made these when Lubna and Yasmeen announced for Ramdan event :), I made thrice, we ate, even shared to friends and family but never posted on time :).
I had written this in my book, quite a long time ago but had never tried them as I had no oven, I just thought I will give a try as it was made with dates. Dates are one of my favourite dry fruits, I get so tempted when I see.
When ever my friend visits his parents in Dubai, never forgets to buy me a box full of Dates. So, here I am with this recipe, and of course as I told earlier, I made these quite a lot of time, as my kids and friends liked it.
I made it in both with Egg and Eggless way and it turned quite well in both the ways.
BISCUITS TAMIR
INGREDIENTS:
2 Cups of Flour
200gms Chopped Dates
1 Egg
1/4 Cup Oil
3/4th Cup Sugar
1 tsp Baking Powder
2 tbsp Sesame seeds
water as needed little by little to form a dough
METHOD:
Sieve flour with Baking Powder, add egg, oil and sugar to it. Mix well for 3 to 4 minutes, Make a stiff dough with water, Knead well and keep aside.
Meanwhile chop the dates nicely and keep it ready.
Divide the dough into two portions. Roll out into thick square or round like a Chapati, prick with a needle spread dates all over, cover with another chapati or however you have rolled the dough on the first roll.
Press a little and sprinkle Sesame seeds. Cut into rectangles and bake in a preheated oven at 180 degrees for 15-20 minutes, cool and store.
FOR THE EGGLESS VERSION:
INGREDIENTS:
Same as above for the Egg version but I just omitted the Eggs in it and used water as needed to bond the dough. (An other time I used 2 tbsp of Flaxseed powder to give it a little more healthy touch).
For the dates filling, I Grounded
3 tbsp of Poppy seeds with grated
1/4 cup of Copra and
3 tbsp of sugar and
1 cardamom pod without the skin.
Mix this with the dates and spread it over the rolled dough same as above and spread another roll on top of it and bake the same way.
It will not puff up as the egg one, but tastes good.
I am sending this to the event hosted by Sudeshna of cook like a bong, Cooking with seeds - Poppy seed, started by Priya of Priya'seasyntasty recipes.
Today My eldest was browsing through my collection of recipe books and she was so adamant that I should try out something from one of the books, because she always complains that I have these books on dessert and I never try out anything!. So, we both sat and rumbled through this recipe book of James Martin - Desserts and both decided to try out this recipe!, I love this book as it has a fabulous collection of recipes with basic techniques and is well explained. I could say that it is a fool proof recipe book I have 4 to 5 recipes from this book and all of them have turned out so well, I will post each one of them soon! (?)...
Once we decided upon what we are going to make, I told her we will make this into half and I will add egg to the one half and the other half I will try eggless!, she was not quite happy with it, but then she agreed (thank God!, I had my fingers crossed as I wanted her badly at my side, because I needed somebody to wash up all the things used when I am going through with it!, I always do the washing then and their when I start with the process, so both of us in do the chore!).
So, well when everything was set we were ready to go, she made the mixing of the egg based one and I made the eggless one!
STICKY TOFFEE PUDDING WITH TOFFEE SAUCE
Going through my mind again and again, this thought, and the summer slowly setting, the sunshine making its way and the streaks of the rays falling on her making her beauty worthwhile to watch and the smell lingering and the summery feeling making you rekindle your spirits, I decided I have to do this right away if not she would be finding her way to the bin, were my sweet Oranges!!, Everyday I thought I will do something out of it, and I started browsing through the search engine and ended up here!!, OMG!!, she is a fabulous lady with a dessert apron!!, she seems to whiz some wonderful recipes twisted around her fingers like a wizard and viola!!, she creates them with one click, fall for her clicks and fall for her desserts, and here is a perfect imitation jewellary of her creativity.
If you want to read more about the description of the Oranges you need to check her blog!!, Thank you for this lovely cake Deeba....
GATEAU A' L ORANGE
INGREDIENTS:
4 Oranges ( I used more than 4 until I got 1 cup of Juice)
Zest of 1 Orange
100 gms of softened butter
100 gms Sugar (I used more sugar)
150 gms Flour
3 Eggs Separated
1 1/2 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Orange essence (or Cointreau)
1 Pinch of salt
1 tbsp Rum (I skipped)
Butter to Grease the pan
METHOD:
Preheat the oven to 170 degrees, Grease a 6'' cake pan, and line the bottom with parchment.
In a bowl beat the sugar and butter which is softened together until well blended.
Add the yolks one by one to the this mixture, one by one slowly incorporating each one very well, add each yolk separately one by one carefully until you obtain a smooth batter.
I then added Orange essence but skipped the rhum as she had mentioned.
Then in an other bowl sift Baking powder and flour together and add it to the batter slowly incorporating it into the sugar and butter mixture and mix well.
Cut and juice the oranges, I had around 5 to 6 oranges where in I got 1 cup of juice, make it into two halves pour half of the juice in the batter and add the zest and mix well together.
Separately beat the whites until firm with a pinch of salt, Add them delicately to the batter (So says PAB!!), well I take these instructions very seriously!!.
Pour this batter into the pan and bake for an 45minutes to 1 hour or check by inserting a pick into it and if it comes out clean, then it is done.
You must have noticed that the colour will be dark orange when it is done!!
Take the cake out from the oven and Pour the other half of the juice into the cake while it's still warm!!!.
Take care not to pour it too fast and not to let the cake cool too much before you do it.
It is important to to get the right timing, if you don't get it right your whole cake will not have juice in it!!
Then the cake will have two different textures and will have a visible line halfway down where the juice would have stopped penetrating!!
GATEAU A' L ORANGE
Hi, friends hope you are all doing well, You must be wondering that I keep disappearing every month for a few days to enjoy my migraines and my Irritable, horrible moods, well, I am now 'touch wood' feeling better, I missed a lot of events, don't think I wasn't cooking , I think thats the only thing which keeps me going!!, But, I will never be able to do anything further than that, my kids take the photos upload them in my comp but that's it, I cannot do anything as I will not be able to watch the screen for a long time, this Migraine has become a monthly problem, God!!, how I wish this problem gets out of me soon.
Coming back to the Daring Baker's challenge, I finished my challenge on the 27th of May, but could never post it, As I had made one step of this recipe before, I was comfortable doing this.
The May 2010 Daring Bakers challenging was hosted by Cat of Little Miss Cup Cake , Cat challenged everyone to make a Piece Monte'e or Croquembouche based on recipes from Peter Kump's baking school in Manhanttan and Nick Malgieri.
This month's challenge was ''Piece Mont'ee, which literally means ''mounted piece''. It is also called Croquembouche which means ''crunch in the mouth'' !!, The Piece Montee is actually a large cone like structure made of Profiteroles (Cream filled Puff Pastries, which I have seen in Super Markets dipped in chocolate), It is served like this as a dessert in weddings!!, people pick them out from the structure and enjoy it, there are loads of Videos you should definitely watch to know and how it is done.
PIECE MONTE'E OR CROQUEMBOUCHE
For the Piece Montee to mount there are three steps involved, first you have to make the Vanilla Creme pattissiere, Pate a choux and the glazing.
INGREDIENTS:
FOR THE VANILLA CREME PATTISSIERE (Half batch)
1 Cup (225ml) Whole milk
2 tbsp Corn Starch
6 tbsp (100gms) Sugar
1 Large Egg
2 Large Egg yolks
2 tbsp (30gms) Unsalted butter
1 tsp Vanilla
METHOD:
Dissolve Corn starch in 1/4 cup of milk, combine the remaining milk wit the sugar in a saucepan, bring to boil, remove from heat.
Beat the whole egg then the yolks into the cornstarch mixture.
Pour 1/3 of boiling milk into the egg mixture whisking constantly so that the eggs do not begin to cook.
Return the remaining milk to boil , pour in the hot egg mixture in a stream coninuing whisk.
Cream thickens and come to boil, Remove from heat and beat in the butter and vanilla
chill until ready to use.
FOR CHOCOLATE PASTRY
Dissolve 1 and 1/2 tsp instant expresso in 1 and 1/2 tsp boiling water, whisk into pastry cream wit butter and vanilla.
PATE A CHOUX
INGREDIENTS:
3/4 or 175 ml water
6tbsp (85 gms) Unsalted butter
1/4tsp salt
1 Cup (125gms) All purpose flour
4 Large eggs
1 tbsp Sugar
METHOD:
Combine water, butter, salt and sugar in a saucepan over medium heat, Bring to a boil and stir occasionally.
At boil, remove from heat and stir in the flour stirring to combine completely.
Return to heat and cook, stirring constantly until the batter dries slightly and begins to pull away from the sides of the pan.
Transfer to a bowl with a wooden spoon, 1 minute to cool slightly .
Add 1 egg at a time , the batter will appear loose and shiny, like a buttered mashed potato, keep adding eggs one at a time reapeating the same process, until all the eggs are incorporated.
Meanwhile keep your pastry bag ready with a round tip 1'' apart, I just piped the pastry without any tip :) I think that is why my pastry was quite big!!,
Bake the choux at 425 degree F/200 degree C, until well puffed and urning lightly golden in colour about 10 minutes, Lower te tempratrue to 350 degree F/180 degree C and continue baking until well golden coloured and dry about 20 minutes more, Remove to a rack and cool.
Can be stored in a airtight box overnight.
Filling:When you are ready to assemble your piece montée, using a plain pastry tip, pierce the bottom of each choux. Fill the choux with pastry cream using either the same tip or a star tip, and place on a paper-lined sheet. Choux can be refrigerated briefly at this point while you make your glaze.
Use one of these to top your choux and assemble your Piece Monte'e.
HARD CARAMEL GLAZE:
1 Cup (225g) sugar
1/2 tsp lemon juice
METHOD: Combine sugar and lemon juice in a saucepan with a metal kitchen spoon stirring until the sugar resembles wet sand, place on medium heat, heat without stirring until sugar starts to melt around the sides of the pan and center begins to smoke. Begin to stir sugar, Continue heating, stirring occasionally until the sugar is a clear, amber colour. Remove from heat immediately, and use it immediately.
Assembling your Piece Montee: Lay out the unfilled, unglazed choux in a practice design to get a feel for how to assemble the final dessert. For example, if making a conical shape, make a pattern stick them together and start from the bottom layer and build it upwards like a zigsaw puzzle, seeing which pieces fit together.
Once ready to assemble dip the top of each choux in the glaze and start assembling on the sheet. continue dipping and arranging the pastries in usisng the glaze t hold them together and build up.
Once done, I poured some more chocolate glaze on to of it and allowed my kids to enjoy by decorating with what ever they want.
You can take an other look at my Croquembouche..................
My Verdict: It was simply delicious so my kids declared and wanted me to make it again!!, but they did not like the caramel glaze as they found it quite sticky!!, So next time minus the caramel glaze I am going to do this again, My eldest said it was so delicious and said it tasted like the Eclairs, I had to tell her that it was the same choux pastry!! which I have used to do this, Loved it, thanks Cat for this lovely challenge!!....
c u soon...., take care......
I would also like you if you are interested in doing this check out Audax Artifex's blog for some wonderful tips and important things which you need to understand and keep an eye when you want it to turn out perfect. He is a great baker and a very creative one at that, and check out on other daring bakers for their lovely creations and feast your eyes with such creativity you will be awed to see.......
This Book makes me cook, is a book club by few bloggers, with whom I joined with, just to read some books at least once a month!!, these days I have never been able to read any serious books at all, when I found this club, I was truly happy and they also welcomed me into their club. This is my second book, This time again I got hold of this book only after the 15th of last month, I was a bit confused with the posting dates, which I came to know a little late, Now I know exactly when to post the next one!!, Anyways as usual I think I am the last one to post!!.
This month (april) book choosen by the book club was ''Julie and Julia'', 524 recipes, 365 days, 1 tiny apartment by Julie Powell.
As many of you who might have read the book or seen the movie know that Julie powell is a secretary who lives in a tiny apartment with her husband and how she found this book in her mom's collection and her saga or journey through this book of Julia Child's Art of French CoMastering the oking, and this is how the project was born!!
Julie begins to cook everyone of the 524 recipes in the book, within the span of just one year- 365 days!!, Once she plunges herself into this project, she just thinks only about this, it just becomes a breath to her life, The life with her family, friends and work all becomes secondary in her life when she starts the project.
The book particularly I liked in it was her hard labour in trying out all the recipes to the perfection of Julia child, was quite a tedious task for somebody who knew very minimal things about cooking!!, her journey was really a tough one, as she had issues mentally with some of the things which wouldn't eat!!.
The other thing was her husband's involvement in her project was what I most appreciated, juggling between everyday work, his sickness and his wife's project, hats off to him, caring and encouraging her in every step of her project, sometimes his defensive tactic of selective hearing as julie says, made him survive with his wife's venture!!.
what I didn't like in the book was too much of the 'F' word, and talking too much about sex was what I did not like, there was not much of anything about the cooking or baking, as what I had expected!!, Nothing much about Julia child at all, The book is all about her struggling with her life and her living with her family and friends, I could see some of the names of some dishes and reading it I came to know that it is more about cooking meat and not much vegetarian cooking in it.
In the end I felt really sorry for Julie as she felt that she was not at least recognised by Julia child, but as she herself says - what it takes to find your way in the world, It's not what I thought it was, - I don't know confidence or will or luck. Those are all some good things to have no question , But, there's something else something that these things grow out of - It's Joy!!.
I do not blame Julie, being a blogger myself, I know how each one of the bloggers out there dedicate their life into blogging and how much it involves and revolves around their life, through this book I take this opportunity to give a big bow to all the food bloggers who love their bleeders and think them as part of their life.
Meryl streep as Julia child has taken the movie into an excellent setting, she just blends in with Julia child's character and feel us more rapport with that lady in name and fame. After seeing the movie 'Devil wears Prada' I am a big fan of Meryl streep and just loved her in ''Julie and Julia'' too!!.
I should say that I loved the movie than the book, Reading a lot of MAofFc in googling I came to know that this Recipe was the last in her book, as I think I am the last one to write about this book, this would be quite an appropriate choice, I really do not know if Julie or Julia would approve my cake..., but as Julie says I tried my best to bake this cake!!
REINE DE SABA (QUEEN OF SHEEBA CAKE)
INGREDIENTS:
3 Oz Semi sweet Baking Chocolate
1 oz Unsweetned chocolate
2 tbsp Strong coffee (dark rum)
1/2 cup Unsalted butter at room temperature
1/2 Cup Granulated Sugar
3 egg yolks
3 egg whites
1/4 tsp Cream of Tartar
pinch of salt
2 tbsp Granulated sugar
1/3 cup blanched Almonds (Pulverised in blender with 2tbsp of Granulated sugar)
1/4 tsp Almond extract
1/2 cup Plain bleached Cake flour (I used Self-raising flour)
METHOD
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees (Gas Mark 4)
In a sauce pan melt both the chocolates and strong coffee (/dark rum) by using a double boiler set over a pan of 2 or 3'' of water, combine and let chocolate melt stirring smooth and turn of heat
In an another bowl take softened butter, beat it add sugar and yolks and beat until soft and fluffy
In an another bowl beat the egg whites add cram of tartar and salt and beat until soft peaks are formed add 2 tbsp of sugar and beat until shining peaks form leaving a trial behind.
Now Blend the warm melted chocolate into the yolk mixture, then blend in the ground almonds and almond extarcts.
Immediately stir in 1/4th of egg whites, delicately and rapidly fold in the quarter of the flour, this way alternatively keep on adding the egg whites and fold in the flour until completely both of them are used up.
Then fold this mixture into the cake tin immediately and press in well with the help of spatula and bake this in the lower middle rack of a preheated oven
Bake the cake for around 25 minutes or until a tooth pick comes clean when inserted in the cake, But, You need to keep in mind the cake in the middle should be still soft or glooey, and should move when shaken.
Remove it from the tin once it is cooled and then do the Icing.
I did a chocolate Icing with :
4 oz of chocolate
A knob of butter
1 tbsp of sugar
1 tbsp of milk
I melted the chocolate, with knob of butter, sugar and tbsp of milk and made an Icing on to top it.
I had a real problem my cake tin which locks is loose came of when I lifted it to put it in the oven, came off and I felt like crying, and i tried my best to push the mixture into the tin and I had no hope that it would really bake or not !!, thank God!! it did bake and came out really well, I really wanted to show a piece of how it looked but my kids were more interested in eating it than taking photos!!, when I came back I saw that they had just left me a piece of it and as it was late in the night I dare not take any photos, As most of photos are crap !!
I used some flaked almonds to top it which I saw in one of the blogs, when I googled for this recipe, I had 3 to 4 blogs to go through for this recipe, then I decided to take the recipe from this blog and Nigella's blog which were almost similar.
Hope you all enjoyed my post as I enjoyed this cake!! c u soon..., I think I will be on time for the next time.
will be off to see what my friends have cooked from the book... and you also my friends do check out their blogs.
We both did a window shopping around the city centre and came back home quite tired, we had a subway sandwich then had a pack of crisps and went around the shops thought we will go to the station and we would be home soon, she had and kept telling what I need to cook today, but when we came to station we came to know that we need to wait almost an hour and half in te cold weather !!, so by the time we were back home it was nearly half seven, so we sorted somethings out in the house and thought of cooking something up soon, I then remembered this recipe which I wanted to try out from this blog, PJ of Ginger and Garlic has lovely recipes which would be very interesting to my kids, so I was showing my daughter if she would like this than what she had already asked for, so we sat down to check out the recipe, she was really not very interested with eating Tofu today, so we were checking out more recipes from this chef Mr. Mark Bittman, well I really didn't know who it was and I came to know about him through PJ, so I started googling and I stumbled on this blog called I Heart cooking club, I really was so interested to participate in the event, so I had think fast what I could muster up, this was all daughter's idea and she was with me and helped in doing this too..., It was really tasty, but I did tweak them a little, I should say Mark Bittman talks very well, and as he says you can do it your way, if you know the ingredients, lick and see if that is how you want!!, then that's just fine so here is my recipe and of course I did a back up check with the procedures with Joy of cooking.., just to make sure I wouldn' t make anything wrong, like cross checking.. as in the video of Mark Bittman doesn't give you exact measurments.
STRAWBERRY WITH ALMOND CREME ANGLAISE
INGREDIENTS :
Strawberries as you wish
1/2 cup Cream ( I used full creme)
1/2 cup milk
1 and 1/2 tsp Custard Powder
2 Egg yolks
1/4 cup sugar
10 Almonds
1/2 tsp Almond essence
METHOD
Take a pan and toast almonds slightly and keep aside.
Take a bowl put the toasted almonds and pour in the cream, milk and sugar and keep stirring and when it starts heating up add custard powder and the yolks and keep on stirring until it thickens, do not boil and if you allow it boil as the yolks are in their they might get curdled up, as both Mark and Joy of cooking say it might curdle up and if it does Joy of cooking says put it in the processor and it would become alright.
But I was, should I say both us worked together and it didn't curdle up and my daughter reminded me as Mark says turn your spoon around and pull a straight line on it, to check the right consistency of the Almond sauce it will not waver!! ahem!!, mum it is perfect said my little sweet heart and here my Almond sauce was ready.
Take a bowl and strainer and strain the sauce and take the Crushed almonds out and set aside, put this Cre'me anglaise into the refrigerator for the sauce to cool
Cut the strawberry and then pour the Almond Sauce over it and sprinkle crushed almonds to decorate and serve it chilled.
Hope you enjoyed as we did, check out a precise recipe for the above sauce in Mark's/Joy of cooking or by Googling with some of wonderful bloggers who would have tried it out !!.
I would also send this to Thanda Mela event and cooking with kids both hosted by Srivalli.
Here are some more pics of my strawberry almond sauce.
Thank you and c u soon......
This month's Bread Baking Day was hosted by Cathy of Bread Baking Experience..., which was started by Zorra of Kochpotf I wanted to make this after I had a taste of this combination, where in I couldn't stop eating.., it was so awesome...
BROI'CHE WITH VANILLA CRE'ME PATISSERIE
INGREDIENTS:
600 gms flour
10 oz / 250 gms butter
4 eggs
1 tbsp Yeast
3 oz/100ml milk
1/2 tsp salt
30 oz/ 80 gms sugar
METHOD
Dilute yeast in the warm milk and leave it for some time so that it starts to raise, then Take flour, salt, sugar and mix well then add yeast and add eggs one by one in a bowl and beat it then mix well with the flour and then add butter softened little by little and this dough would be very soft and very difficult to handle, allow it to raise.
Once raised put them in pots and allow it to raise again second time then Bake them in a preheated oven at 160 degrees/Gas Mark 3 until well done, that is the skewer comes out clean.
The Best thing was my broiche couldn't go up very well and burnt slightly as you can see because it hit the top of the oven which I later noticed and had to change the stacks!!, what did I learn from this, that I should check out the raise of the dough when it is baking!!
I have shown some of my fillings here in each pot
Green pot has a chocolate filling
Pink has just the patisserie filling
Yellow pot has Nut filling
All my fillings are getting ready to go into the pots for a raise....
TO MAKE VANILLA CRE'ME PATISSERIE
INGREDIENTS:
1 Pint Milk
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup Sugar
3 Eggs
1 tbsp of pure vanilla extract
METHOD:
Boil Milk in a medium heat with vanilla extract, Break eggs beat it with sugar, whisk well and then add flour and whisk again, Pour boiled milk little by little then put it back on heat, stir continuously until it thickenes use it immediately or cover it with wrap and store in the refrigerator.
Ref: Joy of baking and videos in Google!! check out, you have many videos out there..., I did a little bit alteration like adding little less butter, and used flour to manage the dough as it was too difficult to handle!!
One more click of the Gorgeous bread...
I have lost Vanilla cre'me patisserie photos, My card reader is not reading!!, once I get it sorted out may be I would able to post it :(
Anyway I don't think cathy is going to accept my post as it is past midnight, My comp got stuck again, and I couldn't post it on time...,
Now, I will be able to write leisurely about my saga of this recipe, I had no pots today morning I bought these pots!!!, I had thought of getting dough ready and then I will go and buy some pot today, and then I noticed I had no plain flour at all, So, I did all my shopping in the afternoon came home by half three and started of with everything, having diffculty in raising the dough everything went well, and I baked them by around 10:45 in the night and I was ready with the post, I must thank my daughter who helped me in taking photos and got everything ready for me to post but with computer getting stuck I got into all sorts of problems and she helped with that too.., I owe this recipe to her!!, sorry cathy I tried my best and I was not able to do it on time!!, may be next time..
I would also like to send this to Yeast spotting and champa's Baking event.
Hi all, I have been so busy past 3 weeks, with lot of things going on, even though I had finished my challenge 2 weeks before the dead line I could never post it because of time constraint, today I decided I have to post this, well, as usual my photo is a disaster, as I take them only in the night with my daughter's mobile.
Jennifer of chocolate shavings was this month's host and as she says herself, this scrumptious dessert she made at the Alain Ducasse Cooking School in paris, France, made her bring this to all of us to try out, Hoping you also would enjoy this dessert by making it.
The 2010 March Daring Baker's challenge was hosted by Jennifer of Chocolate Shavings. She chose Orange Tian as the Challenge for this month, a dessert based on a recipe from Alain Ducasse's Cooking School in Paris.
ORANGE TIAN
Note: There are quite a few steps to making this dessert: however a lot can be made in advance. The Orange marmalade can be made several days ahead of time and the caramel sauce and orange segments preparation should be made the day before you make the dessert. The whipped cream should be firm enough to make the dessert to set in the freezer for long enough or they will fall apart when you unmould them.
FOR THE PATE SABLEE
INGREDIENTS:
2 medium sized yolks at room temperature
Granulated sugar 6 tbsp + 1 tsp/2.8 oz/80 grms
vanilla extract 1/2 tsp
unsalted butter 1/4 cup + 3 tbsp ; 3.5 oz ; 100 gms ice cold , cubed
Salt 1/ 3 tsp ; 2 gms
All purpose flour 1.5 cups+ 2 tbsp ; 7 oz ; 200 gms
Baking Powder 1 tsp ; 4 grms
Put the flour, BP, cubed butter and salt in a food processor and mix well, In a separate bowl, add the egg yolks vanilla extract, and sugar and beat with a whisk until the mixture is pale, pour this mixture in the food processor and process (I used my hand as I don't have a food processor), until the dough just comes together, If you find that the dough is still a little too crumbly to come together, add a couple of drops of water and process again to form a homogenoous ball of dough. Form this into a disc, cover with plastic wrap and leave to rest in the fridge for 30 minutes
Preheat over to 350 degree Faherheit, Roll the dough onto a lightly floured surface until you obtain a 1/4 inch thick circle.
Using a cookie cutter, cut out circles of dough and place on a parchment lined baking sheet and Bake for 20 minutes or until the circles of dough are just golden.
FOR THE MARMALADE:
INGREDIENTS:
1/4 cup + 3 tbsps/ 3.5oz/100 gms Freshly pressed Orange Juice
1 Large Orange used to make orange slices
cold water to cook the orange slices
pectin 5 gms
Granulated sugar: use the same weight as the weight of oranges slices once they are cooked
Finley slice the orange, place the orange slices in a medium-sized pot filled with cold water. Simmer for about 10 minutes, discard the water, re-fill the cold water and blanch the oranges for another 10 minutes
Blanch the orange slices 3 times, This process removes the bitterness from the orange peel, so it is essential to use a new batch of cold water every time when you blanch the slices.
Once blanched 3 times, drain the slices and let them cool
Once they are cool enough to handle, finely mince them (using a knife or a food processor, I used my mixie)
Weigh the slices and use the same amount of granulated suar or use a cup measurer for both.
In a pot over medium heat, add the minced orange slices, the sugar you just weighed, the orange juce and pectin. cook the mixture till it reaches a jam consistency (10-15 minutes).
Now your Marmalade is ready (this is absolutely delicious and was my kids favourite, they told me it was far better than the shop bought one, as I had to beg them to try for the first time!!, they were bowled out by the taste of it).
FOR THE ORANGE SEGMENTS:
For this step you will need 8 oranges
cut the oranges into segments over a shallow bowl and make sure to keep the juice. Add the segments to the bowl with the juice.
(This was my disaster, my oranges were quite sour and made the orange tian sour!!, so what I learnt was when slicing check each orange to see if it is sweet!!)
FOR THE CARAMEL
INGREDIENTS:
1 cup , 7 oz/200 grms Granulated sugar
1.5 cups + 2 tbsp /14 oz/400 gms Orange juice
Place the sugar in a pan on medium heat and begin heating it. Once the sugar starts to bubble and foam, slowly add the orange juice, as the soon as the mixute starts boiling, remove from the heat and pour half of the mixture over the orange segments
Reserve the other half of the caramel mixture in a small bosl, you will use this later to spoon over the finished dessert, when the dessert is assembled and setting in the freezer, heat the kept caramel sauce in a small saucepan over low heat until it thickens and just coats the back of a spoon about 10 minutes it takes, you can then spoon it over the orange Tians
FOR THE WHIPPED CREAM:
INGREDIENTS:
1 cup/7oz/200 gms Heavy whipping cream
3 tbsp of hot water
1 tsp Gelatine ( substitute with agar-agar flakes,Xanthum Gum)
1 tbsp Orange Marmalade (see above recipe)
In a small bowl, add the gelatine and hot water, stirring well until the gelatine dissolves. let the gelatine cool to room temperture while you make the whipped cream, As I used xanthum Gum I just dissolved the powder in warm water and used it instead.
Combine the cream in a chilled mixing bowl, whip the cream using a hand mixer on low speed until the cream starts to thicken for about one minute. Add the confectioner sugar, Increase the speed to medium-high. Whip the cream until the beaters leave visible trails in the cream, the add the cooled gelatine slowly while beating continuously. continue whipping until the cram is light and fluffy and forms soft peaks. Transfer the whipped cream to a bowl and fold in orange marmalade.
ASSEMBLING THE DESERT:
Make sure you have room in your freezer, Line a small tray or baking sheet with parchment paper, Lay out cookie cutters, Drain out the orange segments on a kitchen towel, I drained them in a sieve fist and then on the kitchen towel, Have the marmalade, whipped cream and baked circles of dough ready to use.
Arrange the orange segments at the bottom of each cookie cutter. Make sure the segments all touch either and that there are no gaps. Make sure they fit snuggly and look pretty as they end up being top of the dessert. Arrange them as you would sliced apples when making a tart.
Once you have neatly arranged one layer of orange segments at the bottom, add a couple spoonfuls of whipped cream and gently spread it so that it fills the cookie cutter in an even layer, then top it with the dough circle, before that spread a small even layer of orange marmalade on each circle of dough, this side should touching the shipping cream, gently press on the cirle of dough to make sure the dessert is compact.
place the desserts to set in the freezer to set for 10 minutes.
using a small knife, gently go around the edges and make sure the dessert is easy to unmould, Gently place your place on serving plate on top of a dessert and turn the plate over and add a spoonful of carmale sauce and serve immediately.
Check out from other daring bakers here and their lovely creations.
My verdict:
My only problem was my oranges, the oranges I segmented were quite sour and it spoiled the taste of orange tian !!, so I feel it is better to check the oranges before using them. I did not use Gelatine as it is made from the collagen of animal parts, A vegetarian substitute is Agar Agar flakes or Xanthum Gum both help as binding product in the recipe.
This was the most wonderful cake I ever tasted, it had so much Indianish in it, well I need not have to say it right ? the name itself tells you that it is made from Mawa or Khova, which almost all the Indians use in one way or the other in making sweets. As a kid I always liked to eat the sweetend khova, they were my favourite as I have already told in most of my recipes that I love milk and milk based sweets, that is why I love bengali sweets, This wonderful cake recipe I got it from Helen of tartelette, who is an amazing baker, you must go through her blog and her lovely recipes and photograhy and the presentation is is..., I don't have words to express, I tumbled into her blog because of our lovely Indian daring baker, who is my inspiration in baking none other than Aparna of My diverse kitchen, seeing her baking success, I thought I should also join the Daring Baker's and as you all know I have indeed joined and struggling to become a baker (?) !!!, well, coming back to the recipe Helen gives good tips, facts, tutorials to help the daring group in achieving it, and I saw lot of them praising her, wanted to see what's she is been doing and I thought she is truly fantastic, this cake I made doesn't look anywhere near her clicks or looks, if you really want to see how it is been done and the real story of how she came upon this cake you visit her, in her blog thanks to Helen again. we all loved it.
I made this Mawa cake on the 28th of october, that is on my wedding anniversary, I had never ever made a cake all these years, well I just thought I will do it this time, when I came across this one, after 17 years of marriage. well, I couldn't get all the pics as I had left with only one for myself.
INDIAN CARDAMOM MAWA CAKE
INGREDIENTS:
- 2 cans (14oz) evaporated milk (not low fat)
- 1 cup (250ml) heavy cream
- 11/4th Cup (155g) flour
- 1/2 tsp (baking powder-25g)
- 1/4 tsp Cardamom powder
- pinch of salt
- 1/2 cup (100g) mawa, at room temperature
- 6 tbsp (85g) unsalted butter
- 1 cup (100g) sugar
- 2 eggs
- 6 tbsp whole milk
- To make khoya or mawa, take a thick bottomed kadai or a vessel, prefferably a non-stick one would be much better, pour both evaporated milk and heavy cream and allow it to boil, with a spoon in it, but be careful when it is boiling so it is better to keep on stirring it, so that when it starts thickening it doesn't get stuck to the bottom.
- Once it starts to get thickening lower the flame and keep on stirring, it starts to become like a pudding/halwa consistency allow it thick a lit bit more, but don't stop stirring.
- Now your khova is ready, I think it is slightly different from the khova you make from milk, this one had so much fat in it (oily). but then after sometime they all got absorbed by the khova!!
- well it tasted nice.
- Preheat oven to 350 degree F/180degree C/Gas mark 4
- Take mawa at room temperature. add unsalted butter, sugar and beat it until light and fluffy
- Then add eggs once at a time and beat well until everything is completely folded in it properly
- Then in an another container take flour, baking powder, cardamom, and pinch of salt and sift well
- Next slowly add the flour to the fluffy mawa little by little with no lumps and milk until the mixture is smooth.
- I used muffin cases to do this as i did not have the moulds she had, but as her suggestion in the recipe she says whatever you have, I made them with muffin cases,
- Bake these cakes for around 20 to 25 minutes or until done
