Culinary Xpress: Baking

Sfouf- Lebanese Tea Cake with Semolina &Turmeric

6:59 PM

Lebanese cuisine is very famous for it’s varieties of sweets. These sweets are heavily laded with sugar, cheese and lots and lots of butter. One dessert stands out for it’s sweet and melt in the mouth texture is the Sfouf . This is a famous Lebanese dessert which is characterized by it's intense yellow color due to the use of turmeric, superfood. It is one of the simplest form of cake where semolina, flour, oil, aniseed , turmeric and sugar are mixed and garnished with blanched pine nuts or almonds before baking in the oven.

This Tea Cake is called Sfouf which in Arabic mean rows. So this cake is traditionally cut into squares or diamonds shape. This Turmeric cake believe it or not, is one of the simplest, most delicious cakes I’ve ever had is a perfect tea-time cake with goodness of turmeric. Turmeric is the quintessential spice in everyone’s kitchen essential is actually a relative of ginger and is one of the healthiest food to add color to our home cooked food.

Cuisine: Lebanese

Recipe Source: Here

Preparation Time:20 minutes

Baking time: 40 minutes

Serves:12 pieces

Ingredients:

Dry Mixture

1 3/4 cup Fine Semolina
1 1/4 cup All-Purpose Flour
¾ cup Ghee / Oil
1 tsp Turmeric powder
1 tsp Ground Anise Seed
1/4 tsp salt
1 ½ tsp Baking Powder
½ tsp ground green cardamom
12 nos of Blanched Almonds or pinenuts
1 tsp white sesame seeds

Wet Mixture

1 ½ cup Whole Milk
1 1/4 cup Sugar
1 tsp orange essence

Let's Learn How to prepare this Cake:

Pre Heat oven to 180 degree C.
Place the almonds in a bowl with warm water. After 10 minutes, peel the almonds and keep aside.
In a pan warm the milk and remove from heat and add the sugar and whisk together until the sugar dissolves. Add the orange essence to it and keep aside.
In a large bowl, combine the semolina, all-purpose flour, ground Aniseed, cardamom powder, salt, and turmeric powder well. Now add the ghee to it and mix properly, your mixture should resemble like fine crumbs. Set it aside.
Now pour the wet mixture into the dry ingredients and mix well so that no lumps remain and little air is pumped into the mixture. Do not over mix.
Pour the mixture into a well-greased cake pan. Lightly mark the pan into rows so that you have 12 pieces of cake. Place one almond in the centre of each square and sprinkle the white sesame seeds on top.
Bake the cake at 180 degree for 35 to 40 minutes or till a fork comes out clean if inserted. Remove from the oven and let it cool for 10 minutes . Cut into 12 pieces and serve warm with some Tea.
You can store this in an airtight container for about 1 week. Warm before serving as it tends to become dry when cools.

Baking

Coconut Cookies using Nutiva Organic Virgin Coconut Oil

9:05 PM

Plattershare is a holistic food social media platform which connects food enthusiasts to share their passion for food. Be it Home-Chefs, Professional Chefs, Food Bloggers, Food Professionals or Foodies who love to appreciate the taste and aroma of dishes around the world. I would like to extend my heartfelt thanks to Plattershare for coming up with an Associate Program named as “BellyNirvana” which helps us associate and connect with various Food and Kitchen brands across the country and gives us an opportunity to try brand new and innovative food products and gadgets; and all this from the comfort of our homes.

Plattershare under their “Belly Nirvana” Associate programme has associated with GoIndiaOrganic - India’s only platform that provides premium, exclusive & extra-ordinary naturally organic food products and I am fortunate enough to have received Nutiva Virgin Coconut Oil and under "Plattershare Belly Nirvana Association Program". When I received this product I was a bit skeptical as coconut oil is hardly used in our Odia households. Despite being an coastal area and abundantly availability of coconut , we hardly has explored it’s culinary use . But I was pleasantly surprised when I opened the pack and the light fragrance of coconut oil has taken back to my childhood days when my mother used to prepare this type of oil at home and that was so pure that she used to use it for skin care but never have used it for cooking. This Nutiva Virgin Coconut Oil which is not only organic, it is also unrefined, cold pressed making it ideal for baking and cooking as well as great for skincare, hair care and massage.

Coconut oil has emerged as the new olive oil. This is an excellent source of lauric acid and medium chain triglycerides for your healthy diet and body care routine. Coconut oil is now being promoted for it’s protection against heart diseases. Though I am not qualified to speak on it’s health benefits, I do believe it to be healthy and that’s why I have decided to use this product in my kitchen. It’s a great way to replace fat intake and definitely enhance the flavours and textures of the food. If you would like to see how I have incorporated this coconut oil into my cooking, do follow the recipe below.

Recipe Type: Baking

Prep Time: 10 minutes

cooking Time: 12 to 15 minutes

Yields: 24 cookies

Ingredients:

2 cups all Purpose flour
2tsp baking Powder
A pinch of salt
½ tsp cinnamon powder
¼ cup Nutiva Virgin Coconut Oil
¾ cup milk
1/4 cup grated coconut
½ cup castor sugar
few Cherries for garnishing

Let’s Learn how to make these Coconut Cookies

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees and line a parchment paper on the baking tray.
Mix the All purpose Flour, castor sugar, salt, baking powder, grated coconut, cinnamon Powder in a bowl and mix well.
Now slowly pour the coconut oil and combine everything so that it resembles fine crumbs.
Now pour the milk and mix the dough until it is completely combined to form a ball. But do not over knead.
Transfer the dough to a floured surface and roll out until it is ½ inch thick. With the help of a cookie cutter , cut out the cookies. Place a slice of cherries on each cookies. Transfer these to a baking sheet, and bake for 12 to 15 minutes.
Remove from the oven and place on a wire rack to cool completely.
Enjoy these coconut cookies with a cup of tea with your family.

Last but not the least, I would like to thank GoIndiaOrganic for sending across this extra virgin coconut oil which I LOVE and would like to use it in my kitchen more often in preparing traditional and non traditional food. I mostly love the flavour and the tenderness it lends to baked goods.

Baking

Irish Soda Bread Buns with Cranberries and Fennel Seeds

7:15 AM

This is one of the most old fashioned Soda Bread recipe with just the basic ingredients which can be ready in less than an hour. The addition of buttermilk gives this bread the much required crust and this is the perfect recipe when you are in a hurry. Like any other Soda bread, these buns tastes as good as when it is eaten with a slice of cheese or with butter and jam. The exotic scent of the fennel seeds and the burst of tartness from the cranberries make these buns to have it in a perfect cosy environment with your family.

Soda bread is a variety of quick bread traditionally made in a variety of cuisines in which sodium bicarbonate (otherwise known as baking soda) is used as a leavening agent instead of the more common yeast. The ingredients of traditional soda bread are flour, bread soda, salt, and buttermilk. The buttermilk in the dough contains lactic acid, which reacts with the baking soda to form tiny bubbles of carbon dioxide. Other ingredients can be added such as butter, egg, raisins, or nuts to make it as per your recipe. ( Source: Wiki)

If you’ve never made bread before just like me and terrified at the very thought of making homemade bread, simply relax. It is quite easier to make a soda bread than making a pancake or muffin. This is going to be part of my contribution to the 45^th Foodie Monday Bloghop theme of #Bread.

Recipe Source: Simply Nigella

Recipe Type: Bread

Prep Time:10 minutes

Cooking Time: 15 minutes

Yields :8

Ingredients:

1 ½ cups of whole wheat Flour
½ cup All Purpose flour
½ cup butter
1 tsp salt
1 ½ tsp Baking powder
¾ tsp soda
¾ tsp all spice powder
150 l runny buttermilk
1 large egg
½ cup dried cranberries
2 tsp fennel seeds

Let's Learn how to make this bread:

Melt the butter and then leave it to cool a little.

Preheat the oven to 220 degree C and line a baking sheet with baking Parchment.

in a large bowl, combine both flours, salt, baking powder, baking soda, all spice powder and mix well.

Whisk the egg with buttermilk and then fold in the melted butter.

Pour the wet ingredients over the bowl of dry ingredients, and then add the dried cranberries and fennel seeds and mix everything with a wooden spoon. The final bit of mixing should be done by hands.

Turn the sticky dough into the floury surface and then cut into 4 equal parts and out of those 4 parts make 4 more balls. Now you have 8 balls made from the dough.

Shape each piece of dough into a rough dough ball and place on your lined baking sheet with some space between them.

With the help of a knife, mark a pattern of ‘X’ in each of the dough.

Sprinkle little flour on all the breads and bake in the oven for 15 to 20 minutes or untill the buns are brown and sound hollow when tapped on the kitchen slab.

Let them cool for about 10 minutes before you eat them.

these Buns are best eaten the day it is made.

I like to have it with butter and some plum and tomato chutney and a glass of milk.

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Baking

Spiced Garbanzo Beans Pie Recipe- Guest Post for Shaheen Ali

6:19 PM

It was a pleasant surprise when I receive a request from Shaheen Ali of https://www.spoonforkandfood.com to do a guest post for her. She is a huge inspiration for me because of the way she manages her Blog. Despite being in neck deep in work, I managed to finish this post because I really wanted to be at her Blog. You have to visit her blog to believe what I say here. Shaheen is not only a gifted food blogger who masters the art of articulating food, but also a very talented food stylist and photographer.

I am truly fascinated by her Baking skills and her creativity at that. Do check out the BLACK FOREST CAKE, VANILLA SPONGE CAKE WITH DDL FILLING AND FRESH CREAMFROSTING, BRITISH BATTENBURG CAKE, FLORAL FONDANT CAKE, WATERMELONCOSMOPOLITAN, PINK LEMONADE, BLUE LAGOON (NON - ALCOHOLIC), POMEGRANATELEMONADE to name a few.

Now coming back to my dish, I just love leading a simple, hassle fee and laid back life and sometimes the simple pleasures of life can be found in simple recipes which are close to our heart. Chickpeas are one ingredient which I can go on about making a lot of varieties with. I have decided to make a pie out of it which can be best enjoyed with some salad and fresh juice. That’s it as simple as that.

A pie is a baked dish containing a filling of various sweet or savory ingredients which is usually made of a pastry dough casing that covers it completely. The first thing that comes to our mind is the sweet, fruit-or-custard-filled pastry when you think of pie. But all pies need not necessarily be sweet. Savory pie is one of the all-time hit food with me and my family. Whether eaten in small slices for a snack or as a main course, this vegetarian pie is awesome and satisfying. When it comes to a Quick Brunch, savory pies take the lead.

Course: Brunch
Prep Time:20 minutes
Cooking Time:25 minutes
Yields:6 Pies

Ingredients for the short crust Pie:

· 500 gms, all-purpose flour

· 220gms butter, chilled and cut in ½ inch cubes

· 4-5 tbsp, ice cold water

Let’s learn how to do this recipe:

· Rub the cold butter with the all purpose flour till it resembles coarse crumbs. Add ice cold water little at a time and using your fingers, mix very gently to bring the flour and butter mixture together to form dough.

· Divide the dough in 4 parts and wrap each portion of the dough with cling film very well and freeze it for 30 minutes.

· Preheat the oven to 160 degree and Grease the tart pans.

· Take out 2 of the dough, place it between two parchment papers and roll it gently to form a circle with a thickness of about 1/4inch depending upon the size of the tart shell you require. Carefully place the rolled pastry onto the tart pan and trim the edges of excess dough. Now fill the tart with kidney beans and bake the tart crust for 20 to 25 minutes.

· Once done, allow it to cool for few minutes and very carefully remove the pie weight.

· You would yield 6 pie shells out of this.

Spiced Garbanzo Beans

prep time:20 mins

cook time:25 mins

Serves:6

Ingredients:

· 1 cup dried white Garbanzo Beans

· water for pressure cooking

· 2 black cardamoms

· 1 inch cinnamon stick

· 2 to 3 cloves

· 1 bay leaf

· 1 black tea bag

· salt as required

for making the gravy:

· 1 large onion, finely chopped

· 3 medium to large tomatoes, finely chopped

· 1.5 tsp ginger garlic paste

· 2 to 3 green chilies, slit

· 1 tsp amchur powder

· ½ tsp red chili powder

· 1 tsp coriander powder

· 1 tbsp Chole Masala

· 1 tsp garam masala powder

· ½ cup stock or water

· salt as required

· 2 tbsp chopped coriander leaves for garnish

· 1 medium onion, thinly sliced for garnishing

how to make the recipe:

· Soak 1 cup dried white Garbanzo Beans overnight in water. Drain and rinse them. Pressure cook the Garbanzo Beans, black cardamoms, cinnamon, cloves and bay leaves along with tea bag and 3 cups water till the beans have softened and completely cooked.

· Heat 3 tbsp oil in a pan. Add ginger garlic paste and slit green chilies. Saute till the raw aroma of ginger-garlic goes away, then add chopped onions, stir and saute the onions on a low to medium flame till they turn golden.

· Then add chopped tomatoes and add the red chili powder, cumin powder, coriander powder and mix very well and saute till the tomatoes become mushy and you see fat releasing from the sides of the masala. Now add the cooked Garbanzo Beans and stir very well.

· Add the dry mango powder and ½ cup stock or water. Check the seasoning and stir very well and simmer the Garbanzo Beans till the gravy thickens. Mash a few beans which helps in thickening the gravy.

· Simmer for about 12 to 14 minutes on a low to medium flame and lastly add 1 tsp garam masala powder. stir and mix very well.

· Preheat the oven to 180 degree. Take out 2 of the dough, place it between two parchment papers and roll it gently to form a thin circle out of it. Carefully place the rolled pastry onto the tart pan and trim the edges of excess dough. Make some patterns with the help of a cookie cutter and place them on the pie shells. mark some incisions with a sharp knife in few places of the coved pie shells.

· Bake in a preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes or till you see the top becoming golden brown.

· Serve it with a salad of your choice and enjoy this treat with a fresh glass of mango juice.

Baking

Double Cheese Burst Italian Pizza- How to make Pizza at home

3:01 AM

A dish which has accepted worldwide for it’s adaptability and versatile nature, it is none other than the Pizza. When we think of Pizza, we think of Italy simultaneously because Italy is famous for both it’s Pizza and Pasta. Pizza could be thin and thick, cheesy or traditional; it can be made as per your choice. The choice of topings in unlimited from vegetables to meat.Whichever way you make it, it turns out to be yummy.In it’s basic form, pizza is a flatbread, which is later cooked by placing it on a hot stone and seasoned with special herbs. Pizza is made from some simple ingredients like flour, salt, oil and yeast and some herbs.Italian Pizzas have thin crust , whereas American Pizza has thick base.

When it comes to having Pizza , it is my son's favorite food and whenever I have time I try to make this at home for him.For a couple of days, the weather here seems so gloomy and to cheer us up, I decided to made this cheese burst pizza at home which happens to be our 41st Foodie Monday Bloghop theme of #pizzamania.

Cuisine: Italian

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Resting Time:30 minutes

cooking time: 12 minutes

Yields:2 medium Pizzas

Ingredients:

For the Pizza Base

2 cups All Purpose Flour
2tbsp Semolina
1 cup lukewarm water
1 tsp dry yeast
1 tsp sugar
½ tsp salt
1 tbsp oil

For the Pizza sauce:

12 nos of tomatoes
1 medium size onion finely chopped
8 to 10 garlic pods finely chopped
1 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp vinegar
1 1/2tbsp of dried basil leaves
1 ½ tbsp of dry Oregano
3 tbsp live oil
1 tbsp freshly ground black pepper
salt

For the Toppings:

I large onions cut into rings
1 Green Bell Pepper cut into rings
1 large tomato cut into rings
100 gms paneer cubes
5 to 6 nos of green olives
5 to 6 nos of black olives
12 tbsp sweet corns
Grated mozzarella cheese
Pizza seasonings
1 tbsp chilli flakes
Basil Leaves for garninshing

Let's learn how to make this Italian Pizza from scratch.

Making the Pizza Base:

In a cup of lukewarm water, add the sugar and yeast. Stir well so that it gets mixed up properly. Cover the container and let it sit at room temperature for 10 to 15 minutes. After 15 minutes you will notice the mixture has frothy, then you can use it, or else you have to discard it.

Mix all purpose flour, semolina, salt, oil and the yeast mixture and mix everything with your hands. You will find the mixture quite sticky. Keep on kneading the dough with the help of greasing your palms with oil so that you can knead the dough properly . After 5 minutes you will notice the dough has becomes soft. Cover with cling film and kept in warm place for minimum 2 hours. After 2 hours you will notice the dough has doubled in volume , that means you are ready with your pizza dough.

Making the Pizza sauce:

Boil the tomatoes for 10 minutes ad take away from heat. Let it cool. Once cool, blanch them and puree in the blender. Keep it aside.

Heat oil in the pan and add the chopped garlic to it and saute for 10 to 15 seconds and then add the chopped onions and cook till onions are translucent. Add the tomato puree, basil leaves, oregano, salt, crushed pepper , vinegar and cook for 5 to 10 minutes or till the sauce thickens a bit. Add sugar and check the seasoning and cook for further 4 to 5 minutes. Turn off the heat and let the pizza sauce cools a bit.

For making the Pizza:

Preheat the oven to 200 degree .
Cut the vegetables and the paneer cubes and add salt, chilli flakes and Italian seasoning to it and keep aside.
Divide the dough into 2 equal parts and on a floured surface, flatten them to form a round disk. I keep flatting with the tip of my fingers; you can use the rolling pin also. Brush the parchment paper with olive oil and keep this pizza base on it. Sprinkle generous amount of mozzarella cheese over it and season with chilli flakes and some Italian seasoning and place the other pizza base over it so that the base one gets completely covered. With the help of your finger tips , close the edges properly.
Now spread the pizza sauce over it, Top it with the vegetables , sweet corn, paneer cubes, olives and spread grated cheese over it.
Bake the Pizza in the pre heated oven at 200 degree for 12 minutes or till you see the edges turning a little brown.
Sprinkle seasoning over it and some fresh basil leaves and serve it along with some fizzy beverages.