Buttery Cinnamon Rolls

Soft, buttery, sweet and soaked in cinnamon goodness. Here it is, simple yet so gorgeous cinnamon rolls.

Add this comforting warm bread in your breakfast menu or just serve them with a hot cup of tea or coffee. These are super delicious and tad easy to make at home. I have been dyeing to make few types of bread from quite some time. So what was stopping me? It’s a shame to say, but a reality..I don’t get good yeast in the area where I live. It makes me cry. What a fuss for such a simple thing. If get a good one and buy in bulk they will die off eventually. Every time I open a pack and do the test, my heart beats faster and I pray to have a good yeast to continue my endeavor with bread. Of course I was lucky and went on to bake these beauties which are my current favorite (So yummm!!!)

I have mentioned before in my earlier post on bread here the most important thing in bread making is your humble yeast and step to test that your yeast is alive is just not to be skipped. In this recipe all you need is all purpose flour, butter, sugar and cinnamon. Yeah some water and milk as well, and you can have a winner after the process.

2 and 1/2 cups Flour

1/2 cup Water

1/4 cup Milk

3 Tablespoons granulated sugar

1 teaspoon salt

2 and 1/4 teaspoons Instant Yeast

2 and 1/2 Tablespoons Unsalted butter

FILLING

3 Tablespoons Unsalted butter

1 Tablespoon Ground cinnamon

1/4 cup Sugar

For dough:

In a large bowl, toss the 2 and 1/4 cups flour, the sugar, salt, and yeast together until evenly dispersed. Keep ½ cup flour for later use.

Heat the water, milk, and butter together until the butter is melted and the mixture is hot enough to touch. Pour this butter mixture into the flour mixture. You may add the reserved flour to make soft dough, if the mixture is too wet. I just used a spoon more. Your dough will be ready when it gently pulls away from the side of the bowl and has an elastic consistency.

Lightly flour the surface and knead the dough for about 3-4 minutes. Place in a lightly greased bowl and let rest for about 10 minutes.

For Cinnamon filling: 

After the dough is rested, roll the dough out in a rectangle (approx 12x6 inch). Spread the softened butter on top. Sprinkle it all over the dough. Mix together the cinnamon and sugar.  Roll up the dough tightly. Cut into 8 even pieces and place in a lightly greased the pan. I used a rectangular pan.

Cover the pan with cling film and allow to rise in a warm, for 60-90 minutes. After the rolls have doubled in size, preheat the oven to 180 °C. Bake for 25-30 minutes until lightly browned.

You can make Vanilla glaze by combining 1 cup of icing sugar, with 1 table spoon of Vanilla extract and 1 tablespoon milk. Mix well and spatter over the rolls.

Baked Pasta : A small little treat anytime any day

Finally, I am back. Yes after such a long time, today I am able to let me thoughts flow and writing it down. Its kind of over whelming at this point. How do I structure my thought to let you know where I have been all this while and what all I did.

First thing first, thank you so much everyone who has drop by my posts. I thought my abandoned blog must be deserted. But, no some many of you have being dropping by and seriously that has given it a new lease of life.

So what happened? I went through a very tough time personally as well professionally. But through I this learnt few very important lessons, which I will be sharing one by one. I got this really difficult project at work, which challenged all my learnings and skills. At one point I thought seriously am I really good at what I am doing? Do I really have it in me? Kind of questions. I started doubting myself as it was pushing me to the edge to excel. I somehow sail through but biggest take away was, I truly love my profession J

Then came bad health amidst of storm of crazy work schedule. I always say “in my head, I am still 22”. But body does not hear that unless you take care of it and that’s exactly I have been doing. Juggling through hundreds of things, ignoring signal that I need to slow down and take care. Anyway all that is bygone and with my newly acquired knowledge I am trying to do what I love, Bake and write.

Today I am sharing a very simple classic dish,over simplified to suite all of us – Bake pasta, to give a little treat to yourself when we don’t have much time to cook yet want to enjoy a little something.

Everyone cooks pasta, and everyone has that something to be spot on when it comes to the dish. So for me it “Al Dante”. Perfectly cooked pasta. I hate overcooked pasta to the core. So what the trick to have it perfect every time. For me simple –bubbling boiling water, an eye for2-3 mint when pasta is cooking and sprinkle of olive pit just after draining. What is it for you? Let me know.

All you need:

1 Cup Pasta (any shape you like but Penne is great for baking as it absorbs lot of sauce)

4 Cup water

3 Tablespoon Olive oil

3 Tomato (chopped and sliced)

6 garlic Cloves

1 cup Milk

½ table spoon plain flour

1/2 cup grated cheese

½ cup onion chopped

Salt, Paper and Herbs to taste

1 sage leaf

1 table spoon butter

1.       Boil water and add a pinch of salt. Add pasta and cook it for 2-3 min. Cook it till it’s cooked but still has a slight raw center. Drain and add olive oil. Keep aside

2.       Boil milk in a heavy base pan with 1 spoon chopped onion and sage leaf for 15 min and strain the milk.

3.       In a pan, warm butter and add flour. Cook for 2 min and add milk while stirring. Make sure there are no lumps in the mixture. Add Cheese and cook for 1 min, add salt and paper to your taste.

4.       Pre-heat oven at 200 degree C. Grease a baking tine with butter. Arrange chopped tomato, sprinkle chopped onion and garlic. Pour half of the white sauce.Drizzle some olive oil. Over this layer with half of cooked pasta and sprinkle some cheese and herbs. I chose thyme, go for what you like. Repeat the process. Now place remaining tomatoes and cheese and give a good sprinkle of olive oil, salt and paper.

5.       Bake for 30 min at 200 degree C unless cheese melts and turn brown.

Serve warm and enjoy a happy meal with a smile.

Whole Wheat Citrus Pancake with fruity Honey

Healthy and comforting pancakes laced with orangey fragrance and topped with fruit honey.

This post is dedicated to all mothers who spend almost their 16 hours either feeding, cooking or just worrying that their little one have not eaten enough. So far the most challenging aspect of being a mother has been, making sure my daughter has eaten something out of her meals. Yeah, just something!! You understand my plight??? Thank you!!!

I know many mothers like me, who go through the same struggle four times a day. My daughter said “Good bye” to baby food long back and jumped on to regular food. So I got this challenge of cooking things which are grownup’s food as well as full of nutrition.

I personally love pancakes and can have them any time of the day. She also liked them but the regular pancakes do not fit in my nutrition criteria. So??? I picked one of very humble Indian pancake recipe and gave a twist to make it fun and exciting.

As a child I use to be mad about these whole wheat, sugar laced pancakes which my mother use to make. It was healthy, homely and comforting. Cooked in clarified butter (also known as Ghee) with a hint of cardamom, would lift basic ingredients to a level above.

I thought to throw a spin and replaced cardamom with orange zest and added some orange juice to intensify fruity flavor. Why fruity??? Because my child (Thanks god for this) loves..Loves and loves fruits. Another replacement was sugar with honey. She is not that found of very sweet things and honey does the trick.

Some time back I mentioned about my trip to Coorg. I brought this divine fruit honey from there. Fruit honey will complement the fruity flavor of pancake, though you could use any honey you have.

As you would be making these lovely pancakes for your child, I would suggest you to make them small and slightly thinner than the regular ones. Why? Because first, smaller ones would look super cute and big amount of food in one go overwhelm kids..Try this trick and let me know, if worked with your child.

Whole wheat, orange flavor, honey and cooked in butter did not it sound comforting already??? I am sure your mother brain would be saying “Yes healthy as well”. Don’t you think how come a child would not like to eat such a treat? This recipe has been a hit at my end so I am happily sharing with you..Give it a try mommy and even all the grownups will also like to indulge in its comfort.

2 Cup Whole Wheat Flour

1 Tablespoon Orange Zest

¼ Cup Orange juice

6 Tablespoon Fruit Honey

1 Egg (replace with ½ cup curd)

¾ Cup Milk

4 Tablespoon Butter (melted)

1 Teaspoon Baking powder

Pinch of Salt

In a big bowl add whole wheat flour, salt, baking powder, orange zest, 1 spoon of melted butter and mix. Make a well in the mixture.

In another bowl mix all the wet ingredients ( Orange juice, honey, milk) . Add the egg ( or beaten curd) and mix.

 Pour this mixture into the well of dry ingredients and mix well with a whisker to make smooth batter.

Heat a flat pan and rub tiny butter on the surface. Pour small amount of batter and spread to make a small pan cake. Flip when the side is done and cook on the other side as well until golden brown.

Drizzle 2-3 spoon of honey on the pancake while serving and important serve warm.

You can sprinkle some orange zest while serving.

Eggless Mocha Cupcake with Vanilla Frosting

Super intense coffee cupcakes topped with soft buttercream vanilla frosting..This is hundred percent mochalicious pleasure. Here I am, presenting my best frosted cupcake so far. Let me confess something today, I dream of producing beautiful bakery style frosted cupcakes every time I make them. Luck has not been on my side and I have not been able to do so till now. Frosting looks like an easy thing when I see people doing it but I have been beaten by it royally.  Never mind!!! I am determining to go beyond homely looking frosting to bakery style sophistication. Be part of my journey..till then, let’s focus on the taste. ;P  One of my friend who tasted these told me that this is the best frosting I have ever done and she just loved it. See me flying Yeeeeeyyy….. As a home baker its immensely satisfying that people for whom you bake for, love your dishes and would like to try the recipes themselves. I started blogging with the intention to record recipes and share my ups and downs, learning and experiences so that any one could look at my recipe and start baking. Just one requisite, You need an OVEN!!! Do let me know if I have been successful doing that and you have baked something after reading my post. So check out how to make these egg less but extremely light and testy mocha cupcakes frosted with vanilla buttercream. For the Cupcake 1 Cup Curd 1/2 cup Buttermilk 1/2 cup Vegetable\Cooking oil 1/4 cup Black coffee or espresso, at room temperature 1 Teaspoon pure vanilla extract 1 ¾ cup Flour 1/4 cup Regular unsweetened cocoa powder 1 cup Brown sugar 1/2 Teaspoon Baking Powder 1 Teaspoon Baking soda 1/4 Teaspoon salt For The Vanilla Buttercream 6 Tablespoon Butter 4 Tablespoon Heavy Cream 3 Cup Icing sugar 2 Teaspoon Vanilla extract Preheat the oven to 180 °C. Line a 12 cup cupcake pan with cupcake liners. In a large bowl whisk together the buttermilk, oil, coffee, and vanilla extract.  In another large bowl whisk together the flours, cocoa powder, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.  Fold the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients with light hands using a spatula and stir only until the ingredients are combined. (Do not over mix the batter or the muffins will be tough.) Divide the batter between 12 liners in your cupcake pan. Bake for 18 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool for about 5-10 minutes before removing from pan.  To make the frosting: Beat the butter until creamy, add shifted sugar in small amount and mix. Alternate with heavy cream and vanilla, until all the sugar is combined. Beat for 2-3 minute to make it smooth and light and its done.

Frost the cupcakes with buttercream and dust some coco powder. Decorate with coffee caramel toffee. Am I able to tempt you to try baking yet?? Do let me know...

Oreo Vanilla Cupcake with Tempered Dark chocolate Icing

Do you want to dig into pure pleasure of dark chocolate crunch followed by vanilla sponge and taste gooey dark chocolate Oreo Bites?

Then read on…

Experience is a wonderful thing, irrespective of whether its good or bad. A good one definitely make one feel good but even a not such a nice on leaves with a learning. This goes word to word for me and my baking. To tell you very honestly my equation with cake batter has not changed much, remember my confession here

Kitchen still feels like boxing ring where batter calls me for a face off every time I pick up a recipe to try….But as I mentioned before, experience is teaching me tricks and tip even if batter gets the upper hand some times.

I have learnt the most important thing is that I need to give it love and attention to make it behave. Accuracy in measurement and patience while mixing and baking, is doing wonders. So yes, we are getting better in terms of sweet successes. 

This newly acquired trait “Experience” has given wings to creativity, now when I see some good recipe I don’t hesitate to try and even I think of new recipes and  ideas(Ahuum Ahumm J). As an ardent fan of “Masterchef Australia” I have learnt one thing to look at recipes as building block and use them to create something new altogether.

So what have I done so special that I am writing so much about it..well nothing indeed. Yes really just took my vanilla cupcake recipes and added Oreo and choc chips to have this divine vanilla chocolate cupcake.

Just that?? Yes!!!. Its that simple that indeed it’s feeling silly to write the recipe. Mind you!!! These cupcakes are only simple to make but the flavors are to die for. I am big fan of Oreo and have seen few dishes incorporating it. What is so great about this cookie is when baked it converts into such wonderful soft gooey texture. My plain vanilla cupcake came alive with its dark and dense chocolate taste with vanilla cream melted in the cake to intensify the vanilla taste.

Shall I talk about the dark chocolate icing…Let me do a quick dance first!! I am excited and thrilled to share this here that my first ever Chocolate tempering effort is a success. 

If you are wondering what Tempering is??? Its defined as process of producing small cocoa butter crystals to get the uniform sheen and crisp bite of properly processed chocolate is tempering.

It is actually a simple yet technical thing to do. Chocolate is melted in a double boiler which is not boiling till it reaches 46-48°C (depending on milk or dark chocolate) then a small amount of chopped chocolate is added in the melted hot chocolate. The mix is stirred to maintain the same temperature though out and then again the temperature is increased till 46-48 °C. For Dark chocolate the chocolate is melted at 46-48°C. Tempered chocolate get spread or poured warm and the temperature is maintained placing the pan back on double boiler when ever required.

I tried tempering with a small batch of chocolate  and without thermometer, just going by my instinct.Luck was on my side and my temperature instinct worked. I coated my cupcake with warm tempered chocolate and in the end I had this wonderful shiny and full of bite chocolate layer on top.

It’s a sin full delicious cupcake…don’t trust me??? you have to bake to believe. 

For the cupcake 

1/2 cup  Unsalted Butter, softened to room temperature

1 cup  Granulated Sugar

2 Eggs (use 1 cup curd, if you don’t want to use egg)

1 Teaspoons Vanilla Extract

1½ cup Flour

2 Teaspoons Baking Powder

1/2 Teaspoon Salt

1/2 Cup Milk

¼ Cup Chocolate Chips

6 Oreo Cookies chopped in big chunks

For frosting

200 gm Dark Chocolate Chopped

2 Tbsp Milk Chocolate grated (Optional)

Preheat the oven to 180 °C. Line a 12 cup cupcake pan with cupcake liners.

In a bowl beat the butter and sugar together with a handheld mixer whisker attachment on medium speed for 2-3 minutes until creamed and fluffy.

Add eggs and vanilla and beat on medium speed until everything is combined, about 2 -3 minutes.

In another bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, and salt.

Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients in 3 additions and stirring by hand after each addition. Mix until just combined, do not over mix. This batter will be thick.

Fold in chocolate chips and Oreo chunks with spatula.

Divide the batter between 12 liners in your cupcake pan. Bake for 18 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

For Tempered Chocolate icing

Prepare a Bain Marie (Double boiler) by placing a saucepan on stove with some water. Take a slightly smaller pan and put ¾ of the chopped chocolate in it.

Place the smaller pan in the simmering water pan, making sure only the bottom of the pan touches the water. PLEASE MAKE SURE THE WATER IS NOT BOILING and you be careful about no water droplet gets into the chocolate pan. PLEASE FOLLOW this to the “T” or else you will not be getting tempered chocolate at all.

When the chocolate is melted remove from heat and add chopped chocolate and stirrer this with a spatula until all the chocolate is dissolved. Place this pan again in the simmering water pan and stirrer gently for 1 min and remove from heat.

Your chocolate must be shiny and super smooth. Cover the top of your cupcakes generously with it and sprinkle grated milk chocolate.

Leave you cupcakes alone to get the chocolate set on the top. You can tuck these shiny babies in the refrigerator for 5 min, if you are in a hurry to eat them: D

Plum Pudding Cake - Sweet, Fruity and Spicy Treat

It’s a gorgeous sweet, fruity and spicy treat – great as a pudding or with evening tea.

I find baking with fruits is very exciting and quite challenging. Getting a good texture and keeping the flavours of fruits alive is quite tricky if you ask me.  So when I got my hands on some lovely ruby red plums I thought of trying this cake. The heart and soul of this cake is good sweet plums so please taste your plums before taking the plunge. I came across this recipe long back on a BBC show and it’s just got stuck in my head. It’s not like I did not try it before, that warning above is coming from there. You need beautiful and sweet plums, ITS A MUST.

Other thing which I would insist on is brown sugar. Brown sugar not only uplifts the flavors of fruits in the cake but it does wonders to the texture. So get ready to bake a rich, buttery and gooey cake with me.

2 Cup Flour

1 lightly heaped Tsp Baking Powder

1 tsp Bicarbonate of Soda

1 lightly heaped Tsp ground Cinnamon

1 lightly heaped Tsp Ground Ginger

4 Tbsp of Honey

1 Cup Butter

¾ Cup Brown sugar

¼ Cup Granular sugar

 2 Cup Plums

2 Eggs (Replace with 1 Cup curd, if not using eggs)

1 Cup Milk

Pre heat the oven at 180C. Line a square baking tray with baking paper.

Sift together flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, cinnamon and ginger into a bowl.

Warm honey, granular sugar and butter very gently in a pan until the butter and sugar melts. Stir in the brown sugar. Set aside and allow to cool slightly.

Halve the plums, or cut them into quarters if they are very large, and remove the stones.

Break the eggs into a bowl, pour in the milk and whisk lightly to mix.

Pour the honey butter syrup mixture into the flour and mix with a large spoon. Pour in the egg and milk and continue stirring till you have almost sloppy batter without any lumps.

Tip the mixture into the lined cake tin, drop in the plums and bake for 30-35 minutes.

Server this pudding cake with a dollop of whip cream or just a scoop of vanilla ice-cream and see the magic.