Eggless Rye Bread & Cinnamon Rolls with Tangzhong Method

Every 15th of the month, if you are following my space my followers will definitely know that am a part of a group with a decent bunch of home bakers called baking partners.This challenge was started by Swathi of Zesty South Indian Kitchen and every month we will be baking cakes or breads. Our this month's challenge was bread with Tangzhong method and scalded method.I decided to bake my breads with tangzhong method, this method of baking bread is quite famous in Asian countries.

Tangzhong is a water roux method prepared with a part of flour along with 5parts of water combination.This mixture is later cooked in low heat to make a roux, once this mixture thickens, its cooled down to room temperature and this roux is used in bread making. Leftover water roux, can be conserved very well in fridge in case if you need just half of the prepared roux for making a bread.Tangzhong method gives super softness to the bread and also keep the bread will stay fresh much longer than the usual breads.You can make the famous Indian dilkush/dilpasand, coconut and dry fruits stuffed bread with this tangzhong method. However i choosed to bake mine with rye flour as a simple bread and as cinnamon rolls with all purpose flour and wheat flour combination.

Tangzhong/Water-roux:
1/3cup All purpose flour
1cup Water

For Rye Bread:
1+1/2cups All purpose flour
3tbsp+2tsp Sugar
1cup Rye flour
1tsp Salt
1/4cup Mashed potatoes
2tbsp Milk
1/2cup Milk
120grms Tangzhong/Water roux (use half of the tangzhong)
2tsp Instant yeast
3tbsp Butter (cut as small pieces & softened)

Making the tangzhong:

Mix the flour in water well without any lumps.

Cook in medium low heat, stirring continously with a whisk to prevent buring.This mixture will becomes thickens, if you are able to see some lines for every stir you make with the spoon,your tangzhong is ready,remove it from the heat.

Transfer it to a clean bowl,cover with a cling wrap sticking on the surface of the tangzhong to prefect from drying. Let cool completely.You can use tangzhong straight away once it cools down to room temperature.

Rye Bread:

Take the flours,sugar,salt,milk powder and instant yeast in a bowl,make a well in the center.

Meanwhile take the milk,mashed potatoes, tangzhong in an another bowl,whisk well and add it to the dry ingredients.

Knead everything as a dough, add the butter and knead again for a while, this dough will be smooth but not sticky and elastic.

To text stretch the dough, if its forms a thin membrane, your dough is done. Knead the dough as a ball and place it in a greased bowl,cover it and let it sit in warm place for about an hour.

Transfer the dough a flate space, deflate the dough and divide into three or four equal parts, place it in a plate and let it sit again for half an hour covered with plastic.

Roll the each balls as long oval and roll it to form a log like loaf.Place it in a greased loaf pan, keep again for an hour to double their volume.

Preheat the oven to 350F.

Brush the loaf with milk and bake for 25-30minutes until the crust turns golden brown.

Remove the bread from the pan and cool it completely before slicing.

I used few chocolate chips while rolling my loaf but unfortunately i didnt sprinkled them generously.

I replaced the rye flour with wheat flour and prepared my bread dough with water roux.

For cinnamon rolls:
Bread dough

2tbsp Cinnamon powder
2tbsp Brown packed sugar
2tsp Butter


Flatten the dough with a rolling pin and brush the butter over the flattened dough and springle the packed brown sugar, cinnamon powder over the dough..roll the dough as a loaf...

Slice the dough as thick slices,arrange those slices over a greased baking square pan..Cover it with a plastic wrap and let it sit again for an hour until they double their volume.

Preheat the oven to 350F..arrange the baking pan in the middle rack and bake the uncooked rolls for 25-30minutes until its turn golden brown.

Let them cool,prepare a thick paste with confectioner's sugar and water,drizzle over the rolls once they gets cool completely.

Enjoy!!

Lemon Macarons With Lemon Curd

Life was bit busy nowadays, almost a week of sickness made me super lazy and very much tired, obviously i had loads of stuffs left aside during those nasty days. Finally since yesterday,am having foods as before (yep i couldnt feed correctly during more than 3days coz of the nasty high fever and my tastebuds were completely dead) and trying to finish all the leftover stuffs.Dont talk about cooking now,am yet to cook different dishes and still didnt started really cooking as before,just having usual quick and easy foods. I really need someone to pull or kick me to cook with full spirit as before.

Coming to today's post, every 15th of the month we Baking Partners, a group of home bakers will be baking something specially and this month's challenge is the famous French macarons. I dont have words to say how i love macarons and we never failed to get them from a famous shop here, thats a real advantage of living in Paris, you can get easily this fabulous devils in every pastry shops and Paris streets are filled with many bakery and pastry shops,so obviously macarons are one of our family favourites. I tried my hands in making macarons long back and my first Macarons turned out simply awesome. When i saw our this month's challenge with french macarons as challenge, i was really happy to make them again. Vidhya of A Portion to Share and Swathi of Zesty South Indian Kitchen,the brain child of this event, chosed this fabulous macarons.

Macarons may sounds really easily, but they are truly very hard to make and you have to be very careful while mixing the flour & sugar mixture to the beaten snow like egg whites, this part plays an important role in making macarons. Overmixing or undermixing will show their faces while your macarons starts baking. After many trials and many disasters,i seriously learned few important things highly recommanded while making macarons. Obviously my lemon macarons came out extremely prefect.I went for lemon curd for the filling, this lemon curd balanced very much the sweetness of my macarons and we just loved it.

Recipe Source: Martha Stewart

2nos Large egg whites (keep in room temperature for 48hours/2days)
1cup Confectioner's sugar
3/4cup Almond flour
1/4cup Superfine sugar
1tsp Lemon zest
pinch Salt/cream of tartar
1/4tsp Yellow food colour powder

Take the confectioner's sugar and almond flour in a food processor and pulse it until well combined, sift the mixture twice with the food colour, finally add the lemon zest,keep aside.

Whisk the whites with salt with a beater on medium speed until soft peaks form, reduce the speed to low and add the superfine sugar gradually.

Increase the speed to high and whisk until stiff peaks form (approximately 8 minutes).

Add the flour-sugar mixture over the whites, fold until the mixture turns shiny and smooth (this is called macaronage, if you take the batter with a spatula, the batter of the macaron should fall like a ribbon)

Now transfer to a pastry bag filled with a plain round tip.

Meanwhile line baking sheets over two baking trays, now pipe out small rounds with enough spaces between them on the line baking sheets, until the batter gets finished.

Tap the bottom of the baking try to the release the air from the piped batter.

Let them sit in room temperature for 30minutes to allow the skins to form(if you touch the top of the piped macarons, you can feel the top is hard and no batter will stick your finger)

Preheat the oven to 300F,bake the macarons for 20minutes, rotate the baking sheet half way for even baking, remover from oven and transfer to a cooling rack.

Lemon Curd:
55grms Butter
225grms Sugar
2nos Lemons
2nos Eggs

Put a large bowl over a pan of water. Put this on the heat, and once the water has come to the boil,put the unsalted butter,sugar into the bowl.

Meanwhile, grate the rind of two lemons and squeeze their juice into another bowl.

Once the butter has fully melted, add the rind and juice to your large bowl over the pan.

Finally, beat two eggs and pour them into the mixture.

Stir the mixture with a wooden spoon. Keep it moving slowly all the time so that it coats the edges of the bowl.

This will allow it to start cooking on the hot glass. Over the next 20 to 30 minutes it will thicken and you may start to see some white parts forming in the otherwise yellow mixture. This is perfectly normal.

Eventually you will see that the mix has become considerably thicker and you will be able to draw the spoon through it and see the bottom of the bowl.

Once you have reached this stage it is ready to be poured into the jar.

Remove the pan from the heat and very carefully ladle the hot mixture into a sterilised jar using a funnel if necessary to help you get it in, without it running down the sides.

Seal the jar so that it is airtight and store the curd in the fridge. It should keep for around a month

 Assembling the macarons:
Take a macaron,fill it with half a teaspoon of lemon curd and close it with an another macaron. Arrange them in a box and conserve it in fridge atleast for a day.

Enjoy!

Notes:
Use always food colours in powder form or gel food colouring, dont use liquid food colouring, this will spoil the macaron batter.

Piped macaron should sit in room temperature for 30 minutes before baking.

Apple Pie

Apple pie, one of our favourite pie and we just love it, i can also say that apple pie one of the most famous dessert in France. I do it quite often when its peek season of apples here,  when we got the mail for this month's Baking Partners challenge, i was really surprised to see that this month's challenges was to make either pie with apples or a savoury tart. Swathi of Zesty South Indian Kitchen,the brain child of this monthly baking event shared us very interesting pies and tarts suggested by the members of this baking family and asked us to try atleast one among them. I chosed to make apple pie suggested by Gayathri of Gayathri's Cook Spot from Taste.com and i know this pie will be a hit among my kids.

I used golden apples for making this pie, as i told the crust was quite a keeper, am gonna make this pie with different fruits very soon. My lil one enjoyed thoroughly and he even asked me to make an another pie on the same day itself,yep he just loved it. Thanks to Swathi and Gayathri for sharing this beautiful apple pie.

1+3/4cups Plain flour
1/2cup Self raising flour
185grms Unsalted butter
1/3cup Sugar
1no Egg
1tbsp Milk
A pinch Salt
Beaten egg for brushing

For filling:
6nos Golden apples
2tbsp Lemon juice
50grms Butter
1/2cup Sugar
1tsp Cinnamon powder
1/4tsp Nutmeg powder

Sift the flours with salt in a large mixing bowl, add the butter and rub it with your fingertips.

Continue to mix until the flour resembles as fine bread crumbs, then add in the sugar, one beaten egg and milk and drizzle over the flour.

Start to bring the dough together  and form a smooth ball with your hands. Divide the dough into two pieces, one larger than the other.

Wrap it in a plastic wrap and let it sit for half an hour in fridge.

Peel and core the apples and cut into 8pieces, toss it with lemon juice to prevent the discolouring of the apple.

Place the butter,sugar in a large pan and heat it in low medium flame, once the butter starts melting, add the apples,spices and stir to coat.

Cook by stirring occasionaally until the apples softened. Keep aside and let it cool.

Roll out the larger pastry ball,dust it well and roll it as a round circle, transfer the rolled pastry to the pie dish.

Gently press the corners, now place the filling over it.

Roll the small pastry and top it.Lift the pie dish and cut the excess of the pastry from the edges,press the edges well with the fingers.

Chill it for 30minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350F, place the pie dish on the baking tray, brush the top with the beaten egg and bake for 30-35minutes.

Once the pie gets cool, dust it with confectioner's sugar and enjoy.

Plum Cake

Christmas without plum cake is just like christmas without santa. Yep i cant imagine my christmas celebration without this cake loaded with dry fruits and nuts. Usually i'll soak the dry fruits in rum before a month for making my christmas plum cake but this time when we received this month's Baking partners mail with three different festive cakes, i know i'll be baking this plum cake suggested by Archana of Tangy Minds. I prepared this cake last weekend to take them to my mom's place as my dad just love this cake very much.We just enjoyed each and every bite and this cake turned out absolutely awesome with a beautiful texture.I didnt changed anything apart from the candied orange peels from the original recipe given by Archana,i simply replaced them with fresh orange zest and tutti frutti chunks else i followed each and every step as per the recipe went for.

Nowadays this Baking Partners group is very close to my heart, eventhough we are just passionate home bakers i just love the friendship chain behind this group. If someone have a doubt, definitely there will be an another one to help and share the tips and tricks.Obviously am learning so many tips from them, thanks to Swathi of Zesty South Indian Kitchen, the brain child of this fabulous baking event, for bringing us together and making this wonderful event very interesting every month.

2cups All purpose flour
1cup Raisins
1cup Dated (chopped)
2tbsp Orange Zest
1/2cup Tutti Frutti
1/4cup Rum
1cup Cashew nuts
200grms Butter
2cups Sugar
4nos Eggs (separated)
1tsp Vanilla extract
1tsp Baking powder
1/2tsp Cinnamon powder
1/4tsp Ginger powder
1/4tsp Clove powder
1/4tsp Nutmeg powder

Caramel syrup:
6tbsp Sugar
In a small pan, take the sugar,water and lemon juice given for caramel syrup and swirl pan to mix.

Heat in medium flame until the sugar turns brown and caramelized, add immediately the boiling water and swirl the pan to mix well,keep aside.

Sieve the flour with cinnamon powder,clove powder,nutmeg powder,ginger powder and 3tbsp Water
1/4tsp Lemon juice
1/2cup Boiling water

In a pan, add the rum,dates,raisins,orange zest, tutti frutti chunks and cook everything in medium flame.

Finally add the cashews and cook again for a minutes,put off the stove and keep aside.

baking powder,keep aside.

Preheat the oven to 325F.Grease well a round baking pan with butter and keep aside

Beat together the butter and sugar in a bowl until they turns creamy, add one egg yolk at a time and blend well.

Add the vanilla extract and beat well, gradually add the flour little by little and blend well.

Add the caramelized sugar syrup to the mixing bowl and blend, finally add the fruit and nut mixture to the mixing bowl and gently mix it with a spoon.

Beat the egg whites in an another bowl with a pinch of salt until they turns fluffy and a soft peaks form.

Fold gently the egg whites to the cake batter.

Pour this cake batter to the greased baking pan and bake for 45-50 minutes or a skewer inserted comes out clean.

Remove the cake from the oven and allow it to cool completely.

Small Braid Rolls, Eggless Clove Leaf & Eggless Lion House Rolls

Our this month's Baking Partners challenge was to make either dinner rolls with eggs or eggless dinner rolls. Swathi of Zesty South Indian Kitchen,the brain child of this monthly baking event shared us 7types of dinner roll shapes and asked us to try atleast 3 among them. I chosed to make both eggless and rolls with eggs for this month's challenge. I tried the small braid rolls with eggs while for eggless version i went for clove leaf rolls and lion house rolls.

I followed exactly as the original recipe of dinner rolls with egg which Swathi send to us through mail,but i made a small change in the eggless version dinner rolls ingredients, the original recipe without egg had potato starch or cooked potato since i dont want use it, i skipped it and went for custard powder. Addition of custard powder gives a wonderful colour to my eggless dinner rolls and tastewise we didnt found anything different,my kids just enjoyed thoroughly when i served these dinner rolls along with cream cheese and a bowl of warm soup.However i enjoyed thoroughly this challenge as i like to play with yeast.

Small Braid Rolls:
5cups All purpose flour
1no Egg
1/4cup Sugar
1+1/2tsp Salt
2tbsp Dry yeast
2/3cup Milk powder
2cups Warm water
1/3cup Butter

Mix the water,milk powder together until the milk powder get dissolves.

Add the yeast to the mixture,then add the sugar,salt,butter,egg and the flour, mix everything and knead for a while, its will be sticky.

Now add the 2more cups of flour and knead for another few minutes to get a stiff dough. Finally add a cup of flour and knead again, the dough will be soft and not too sticky.

Transfer this dough to a greased bowl and keep in warm place for 2hours until they double their size.

Sprinkle the counter with a flour and put the dough on the flour.

Flatten the dough as rectangular disc, cut small rectangular disc from the rolled disc.

Make three slits to the small rectangular disc without disturbing the top of the disc, make the braid as show in the video.

Video for Small Brain & clove leaf rolls

Once the braid is ready, keep it again in warm place. Preheat the oven to 350F and brush the small braid rolls with egg yolk and bake for 20-25minutes until the crust turns brown.

                                                          Clove Leaf Rolls (Eggless)

                                                        Lion House Rolls (Eggless)
For Eggless Rolls:
4cups All purpose flour
2tsp Instant year
1/4cup Custard powder
1cup Lukewarm milk
2tbsp Sugar
1tsp Salt
4tbsp Butter
1/4cup Milk + 1tsp sugar for brushing

Take the flour,salt,sugar,yeast,custard powder and butter in a bowl..

Mix everything well,now add the lukewarm milk and knead everything as a soft dough, again knead to dough for few more minutes until they turns elastic.

Keep in a warm place until they double their size.

Punch the dough and prepare rolls with the shapes as you desire.

Simply roll the dough and pinch down three small balls from dough,place them to a muffin mould and keep aside to double their size,this is clove leaf roll.

Roll the remaining dough as a rectangular disc, cut it in the middle and cut them as small sized rectangular disc, and roll over them, arrange in a greased plate to rise until they double their volume, this is lion house rolls.

Watch here for Lion house rolls

Preheat the oven to 350F, mix the milk and sugar for brushing and  brush the dinner rolls on the top.

Bake for 20-25minutes or until the turn turns golden brown.

Let them cool completely and enjoy with your favourite spread.

Whole Wheat Pumpkin Chocolate Chunks Muffins

 As i told earlier,being a member of Baking Partners we get three different recipes for our every month's challenge, obviously we can bake anything from those three recipes, i have already posted an incredible Chocolate Pumpkin Cupcake with orange cheese cream frosting suggested by Priya. Coming to this fabulous looking muffins, it was suggested by Reshmi of Easy Cook from Joy of Baking. Actually this muffins goes for all purpose flour,chocolate chips but i went for whole wheat flour and finely chopped dark chocolate bar.

These muffins came out extremely soft and quite addictive, chocolate chunks in this muffins brings a wonderful texture while having this muffins and obviously all the spice powder used in this muffins completely masked the smell of the pumpkin puree. I prepared my pumpkin puree myself, by cooking them in boiling water and pureed once they get cooled without any water. You can also use canned pumpkin puree for making this muffins, definitely you guys have to try this muffins atleast once.

2cups Whole wheat flour
1/2tsp Baking soda
1tsp Baking powder
1tsp Cinnamon powder
1/4tsp Ginger powder
1/4tsp Cloves powder
1/4tsp Nutmeg powder
1/2tsp Salt
1/2cup Butter (room temperature)
1cup Sugar
2nos Large eggs
3/4cup Pumpkin puree
1tsp Vanilla extract
1cup Finely chopped dark chocolate chunks

Preheat the oven to 350F, line the muffin cups with paper liners and keep aside.

Sift the flour,baking soda,baking powder, spice powders and salt and keep aside.

In an another bowl,beat the butter and sugar together until they turns fluffy, add the eggs one at a time and beat well.

Beat in the vanilla extract,pumpkin puree. Fold in the flour mixture,chocolate chunks gently and mix with a spatula,dont overmix.

Fill the muffin cups with this batter, bake in middle rack for 20minutes until a skewer inserted comes out clean.

Cool completely and enjoy with a cup of coffee.

Chocolate Pumpkin Cupcake With Orange Cream Cheese Frosting

We Baking Partners will be baking different bakes every month and will be posting every 15th of the month. This month challenge is cupcakes or muffins, this is our third challenge after a wonderful almond cake and cookies. Swathi of Zesty South Indian Kitchen, the brain child of this fabulous baking event send us three interesting cupcake and muffin recipes.Three of our baking partners suggested us these beautiful recipes and i choosed to bake two among them,one is this super delicious,addictive chocolate pumpkin cupcake. When its comes a bake with chocolate, everyone at home will never hesitate a second to request me to make some.While going through the mail i recieved with this month's challenge, i know i'll be making this chocolate pumpkin cupcakes and gathered everything to make this incredible cupcakes during a weekend. My kids enjoyed thoroughly and even my lil one helped to squeeze out the frosting.Priya R of Cook Like Priya suggested this cupcake recipe from Country of Living.

2+1/2cups All purpose flour

2tbsp All purpose flour

4nos Eggs

1+1/2cups Sugar

1+1/2cups Pumpkin puree

2tsp Vanilla extract

2+1/4sticks Softened butter

1cup Cocoa powder

1tbsp Baking powder

1+1/2tsp Baking soda

2tsp Cinnamin powder

3/4tsp Nutmeg powder

3/4cup Buttermilk

Preheat the oven to 350F, line the cupcake moulds with cupcake papers, but i used my silicon moulds.

Sift the flour with cocoa powder,baking soda,cinnamon powder and nutmeg powder in a large bowl and keep aside.

Combine the buttermilk,pumpkin puree, vanilla extract in an another bowl and keep aside.

Beat the butter,sugar together in a bowl with a electroc mixer until the mixture turns fluffy, add the eggs one at a time and beat well after each addition.

Alternately add the flour mixture and the buttermilk mixture,blending well after each addition.

Spoon out this batter to the already prepared cupcake moulds  and bake in middle rack for 20-25minutes until a skewer inserted comes out clean.

Keep aside and let them cool completely.

Orange Cream Cheese Frosting:

1cup Cream cheese (softened)

1/4cup Softened unsalted butter

1tbsp Fresh orange juice

1tsp Orange zest (grated)

4cups Confectioner's sugar

1/2tsp Vanilla extract

2pinch Orange food colour

Blend the cream cheese,butter,orange juice,orange zest,vanilla in a large bowl using a electric mixture until smooth.

Slowly add the sugar and continue to beat until the mixture turns light and creamy.Arrange in fridge atleast for an hour before frosting.

Fill this chilled frosting in a pastry bag with your favourite nozzle or tip and squeeze gently to decorate.

Enjoy this cupcake with a cup of tea, beware that this cupcakes are pretty addictive.

Ultimate Chocolate Cream Cheese Cookies

As i told earlier for Baking Partner's Challenge, we got three cookie recipes to bake as we can choose and bake any cookies out of them. One among those three cookies i baked two cookies,i have already posted Cornflakes Cookies and here comes one more irresistible cookies i baked two days back for this baking partner's challenge. This ultimate chocolate cream cheese cookies was suggested by Tina of Pinay In Texas Cooking Corner from Food & Wine Best of the Best Cookbook Recipes Vol. 14. This fantastic cookies are fabulous and am damn sure you wont stop munching them if you make them at home. These cookies are truly awesome and definitely a real feast for chocoholic persons like me. Thanks to Tina and Swathi for suggesting this scrumptious cookies.Sending this yummy cookies to Srivalli's Kid's Delight-Anniversary Potluck Party.

2+1/4cups All purpose flour
1/4cup Unsweetened cocoa powder
2tsp Baking soda
1/2tsp Salt
225g Unsalted butter(softened slightly)
113g Cream Cheese(room temperature)
1cup Granulated sugar
1/2cup Dark brown sugar
2nos Eggs
2tbsp Heavy cream
1tsp Pure vanilla extract
85g Bittersweet chocolate(melted and cooled)
225g Semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.

In a medium bowl, sift the flour with the cocoa powder, baking soda and salt. In a bowl ,beat together the butter, cream cheese, granulated sugar and brown sugar and beat until fluffy, about 3 minutes.

Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Beat in the eggs, heavy cream and vanilla until blended. Slowly add the dry ingredients.

Add the melted chocolate and chocolate chips and beat just until incorporated.

Cover the bowl and refrigerate the dough for at least 15 minutes or up to 2 hours.

Scoop heaping tablespoons of cookie dough onto the prepared baking sheets, spacing them two inches apart.

Bake for 12 minutes until the cookies are just set; shift the baking sheets for top to bottom and front to back half way through.

Let the cookies cool on the baking sheets for 5 minutes, then transfer them to a rack to cool completely.

The cookies can be stored in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

Cornflakes Cookies

Baking is a kind of timepass for me, so obviously i'll be always a part of any baking groups in this virtual world. Before two month's Swathi of Zesty South Indian Kitchen launched an incredible group of home bakers,obviously am a part of it. We Baking Partners will be baking different bakes every month and will be posting every 15th of the month. Last month, we baked Reine de Saba, an fabulous cake of Julia child's as a tribute on her birthday, we enjoyed thoroughly and seriously am loving to be a part of this fantastic baking group. This month we baked some cookies, once we posted our last month's bake, i got a mail from Swathi asking me to share a cookies recipe from either a book or from a site. Immediately i went through my book shelf and choosed this irresistible super crunchy cornflakes cookies from Baking: Commonsense guide by Mudroch Books which i won before few years ago for participating in an event in this blogsphere.

Eventhough we have three different cookies recipes to try for this month's bakes, i choosed this cornflakes cookies suggested by me and cream cheese chocolate cookies suggested by Tina of Pinay In Texas Cooking Corner from Food & Wine Best of the Best Cookbook Recipes Vol. 14. I'll be posting soon those addictive and ultimate cream cheese chocolate cookies. Coming to this cornflakes cookies, they goes for very easy breezy preparation with cornflakes. This recipe is a keeper and i'll be making quite often as everyone at home simply enjoyed munching them.Sending this yummy cookies to Srivalli's Kid's Delight-Anniversary Potluck Party.

125grams Softened unsalted butter
3/4cup Sugar
2nos Eggs (lightly beaten)
1teaspoon Vanilla extract
2tablespoons Golden or black raisins
1+1/2cupsDessicated coconut
1/2teasponn Baking soda
1/2teasponn Baking Powder
2cups All purpose flour
2cups Crushed Cornflakes

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F, line two baking trays with baking paper.Sieve the flour with baking soda and baking powder.

Cream the butter and sugar in a bowl,using electric beaters until they turns light and fluffy.

Gradually add the egg, beating thoroughly after each addition, add the vanilla and beat until combined.

Now add the raisins,coconut, give a stir. Fold the flour mixture with a metal spoon and stir until the mixture is almost smooth.

Put the crushed cornflakes in a shallow dish, then drop tablespoon of this cookie mixture onto the cornflakes and roll into balls.

Arrange on the trays, bake for 15-20minutes or until they turns golden.

Cool completely and arrange it in an air tightened box.

Reine de Saba Avec Glacage Au Chocolat/ Chocolate Almond Cake

                                                Happy Independence Day India

Few days back i got a mail from Swathi asking whether am interested to join a new baking group called Baking Partners, baking the word itself makes me happy and i didnt even hesitated a second and send a reply mail saying that am very much interested. As i told earlier baking makes me happy and its a kind of therapy for me to keep away myself from my stress, obviously this baking group goes for many more food bloggers who joined with more motivation to share their ideas and their baking skills with others,this is wat i need too. Coz eventhough i bake quite often, am still want to know more about baking and frosting and all.

This Reine de saba avec glacage au chocolat was choosed by Swathi for our first post as a tribute to Julia child, a famous celebrity cook on her 100th birthday. This cake came out excellent with a fabulous coffee and chocolate icing, my daughter helped me a lot while making this cake. She had loads of fun while doing the frosting and she decorated the cake by herself simply with sugar pearls and few almond slices.

113 grs Plain chocolate melted with 2 tablespoons coffee
113grs Butter
1cup Sugar
3nos Eggs (separated)
pinch of salt
1tbsp Caster sugar (for sprinkling on egg whites)
1/3cup Grounded almond
1/2 tsp Almond extract
1/2cup Cake flour (you can also use all purpose flour)

Chocolate Icing:
1/4cup Semi sweet chocolate
2tbsp Coffee
100grs Butter

Method:
Preheat the oven to 350f. Butter and flour an 8 inch cake pan. Set aside.

Melt the chocolate with the 2 tablespoons of coffee in a double boiler. Let cool.

In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg yolks until well blended.

Bthe egg whites and salt in a separate bowl until soft peaks are formed, sprinkle on the 1 tablespoon sugar and beat until stiff peaks are formed.

With a rubber spatula, fold the melted chocolate into the butter and sugar mixture, then stir in the almonds and almond extract.

Fold in one-quarter of the egg whites. When partially blended, sift on one-quarter of the flour, and continue folding, alternating with more egg whites and more flour until all is used.

Turn the mixture into the cake tin, pushing the mixture up to its rim with a rubber spatula. Bake in the middle of pre heated oven for about 20-25 minutes. Cake is done when it has puffed, and 2.5 to 3 inches around the circumference are set so that a needle plunged into tha area comes out clean, the centre should move slightly if the tin is shaken,and a needle comes out oily.

Allow cake to cool in the tin for 10 minutes. Run a knife around the edge of the tin, and reverse cake on the rack. Allow it to cool for an hour or two, it must be thoroughly cold to start the icing.

For Icing:

Stir the chocolate and coffee in the saucepan over hot water until chocolate has melted into a very smooth cream.

 Remove the saucepan from hot water, and beat the butter into the chocolate, a tablespoon at a time. Then beat over cold water until the chocolate mixture is cool and suits prefect to spread.

At once spread it over your cake with the spatula or knife.

Notes:
My cake is done after 20 minutes, i used a heart shaped 8inch cake mould.
Use good quality of chocolate for making this cake.
I used cornflour and all purpose flour instead of cake flour,this works wonder.
Cake tastes absolutely awesome if they are served chilled.
If you are coffee and chocolate lover, this cake will definitely makes you happy.
I used toasted almonds for grounded almond meal.
The original recipe goes for both rum and coffee, but i used strong brewed coffee in this cake.If you want to go for rum you can do it very well.

Dont forget to try this cake, its quite easy and tastes absolutely divine.

Baking Partners ~~ A New Baking Group Announcment

Baking a homemade bread, cake or cookies will give the best outcome. However in order to achieve the best results, a  perfect recipe and  right techniques are required.

We are a small group of home baker friends, Reeni (Cinnamon Spice and Everything Nice) , Julie (Erivum Puliyum) Tina  (Pinay In Texas Cooking Corner ) , Priya (Priya's Versatile Recipes)  , Suja (Kitchen Corner -Try It),Archana (Tangy Minds), Prathibha (Cook Ezee), Reshmi (Easy Cook) and Swathi  ( Zesty South Indian Kitchen) who love and want to learn more about the nook and corners of baking.


 We are planning to try out recipes from books/magazines and cooking shows.  Every member gets a chance to present their choice of recipe and share important points with the rest of the group.


Main purpose of this group is to learn the techniques, critic the procedure if there are ways to improve, and to eat a delicious food.

Rules are simple, we will choose one recipe  and send it out to the group by 16th of every month and  the reveal date will be 15th of the next month . On that day we will  blog about it. A linky tool will be open during that time and each member can link their post.

First month we are going to do a recipe, 2nd and 3rd month will be a theme and the 4th month we will be back at  a recipe. By doing in between recipes, we will able to learn more.

All enthusiastic bloggers interested in baking are welcome, please email me  at favoriterecipes12@gmail.com.

We will appreciate the use of logo or worded link that will help to spread the word.  A bunch of thanks to Tina for designing this beautiful logo.

If you   want to make it a gluten or vegan free diet, you can do those modifications also.