Eggless Pineapple Bread

I opened a large can of chopped pineapple while experimenting with different toppings for my English muffin pizza. Apparently I used about two table spoon of it and the rest went into the refrigerator. Every time I opened the fridge I kept thinking of how to use the left over fruit.With new job and all I didn't have any time to browse for a new baking recipe with pineapple and finally decided to bake my favorite pineapple bread, which I have already blogged here. On a Sunday evening when I was all set to bake I realized that I ran out of butter and hence went ahead with oil and made it eggless too, nevertheless the bread turned out moist and soft.

Ingredients:
1 3/4 cup all purpose flour
1/3 cup oil
1 cup sugar
1 tin chopped pineapple (approx 2 cups)
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp salt
1 tblsp flax meal(powder) mixed with 3 tblsp warm water


Method:
Preheat the oven to 350F/180C.
Butter  or line a loaf pan with parchment paper.
Mix the flax seed powder with 3 tblsp of warm water  and set aside for 10 mins.
In a bowl add the dry ingredients flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt, mix well to combine.
In a large bowl  mix in the oil, sugar, flax meal and vanilla extract. Beat well to combine.
To this add the dry ingredients and gently mix to incorporate. Do not beat or over mix.
Now add the chopped pineapple along with the liquid and stir to combine.


Transfer the batter to the loaf tin and bake for 45 - 50 mins.
The time can vary depending on the oven.So check periodically after 40 min's,a knife or toothpick inserted in the middle should come clean.

Note: If you want a mildly sweet bread reduce the sugar to 3/4th of a cup.
Replace the flax meal and water with 1 egg if you want to try with egg.

Chocolate Brownies with Fudge Frosting - A Christmas Treat

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas weekend. The weather was pretty bad over here on Saturday and it was a white Christmas after 20 yrs or so. But after two days of snow and uncleaned roads, its a complete mess out there.
We had a relaxed weekend at home with the "very happy"  little one running around with the surprise  gift from Santa :) . Well,  he got what he wished for, and also some Brownies as a bonus treat for Christmas.

I baked these wonderful cake like brownies from the book I already mentioned here. 
The recipe was totally different from what I have been baking so long, as it called for a layer of fudge frosting over the brownies. The result was a soft cake like Brownies with a very thin layer of smooth frosting. Loved every bite of it. 
Ingredients:
1 cup All purpose flour
1/4 cup Cocoa powder
1/2 cup soft brown sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup butter
1/4 tsp salt
1 tablespoon milk
For the Frosting:
2 Tblsp Butter
2 Tblsp cocoa
3 Tblsp evaporated milk ( I used whole milk)
1 cup Confectionery/Icing sugar


Method:
Preheat the oven to 180C
Prepare a 11 / 7 inch rectangular pan. Grease and line the pan with parchment paper.
Sift the flour, cocoa and salt in a bowl.
Beat butter and sugar till light and fluffy in a seperate bowl.
 Add the eggs little by little and beat well.
Scrap the sides of the bowl and beat again for a min.
Now fold in the dry ingredients and the milk alternately. 
Mix gently until no visible streaks of flour appear.
Transfer it to the prepared pan and bake for 35 minutes.


Remove and let cool in the pan.


For the Frosting:
Melt the butter in a saucepam under low heat.Add the cocoa powder and mix well, cook for a min.
Remove from heat and add the milk and sugar. Blend well with a whisk for a min.
Pour over the cooled brownies, spread evenly and allow it to set. Cut into squares.


Note: Cut only after the frosting is completly set , atleast 2 hrs, otherwise it will leak while making squares. I was a little impatient as you can see in the picture.

Try this recipe when you bake brownies the next time, you will  not be disappointed.
Sending these to Meeta's Monthly mingle event hosted this month by Ria where the theme is "Chocolate Extravaganza"

On an ending note, I am very happy to announce that I have won the giveaway hosted at Mriganayani for her blog 2nd anniversary.  So I got my share of surprise for the Christmas weekend :) Thanks Anu for the wonderful book giveaway.


Update : The picture after the frosting's set completely (overnight)

Happy Holidays Everyone...

Apple Almond Cake

Here's yet another cake for this season. I baked this over the weekend, the recipe  from Dragon's kitchen. I had bookmarked this recipe as soon as she posted in her blog, but it took about a year for me to make it. When the cake was baking, the house was filled with wonderful aroma of cinnamon ,apples and almonds  typical flavors of December. The cake was moist and delicious, a perfect dessert cake with a scoop of vanilla Ice cream.

Recipe source : Dragon's Kitchen
I almost followed the recipe with a slight change from my side. I increased the cinnamon to 11/2 tsp and used brown sugar for the topping. I also used vanilla essence instead of almond extract.


Ingredients:
11/2 cup All purpose flour
3/4 cup Granulated sugar
11/2 tsp Baking powder
1/2 tsp Baking soda
1 tsp vanilla essence
1/4 tsp salt
2 eggs
2/3 cup yogurt
1/4 cup butter melted


3 apples peeled and sliced thin
1/4 cup slivered /sliced almonds
3 tablespoon Sugar/Brown sugar
11/2 tsp cinnamon

Method:
Preheat the oven to 180C/350F
Prepare a 9'' springform pan
Stir together flour, sugar, baking powder , soda and salt in a bowl.
Break in the eggs one by one in a separate large  bowl, stir in the yogurt  and melted butter and vanilla essence. Beat well for a min.
Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients and stir well till incorporated.
Pour the batter to the prepared pan. Arrange the apple slices over the batter.


In a small bowl mix the almonds, cinnamon and the brown sugar.Sprinkle on top of the apple.
Bake in the oven for 50 - 60 minutes. Mine was done in 50 minutes. So start checking from 50 mins


Serve warm with whipped cream or Ice cream

Sending this off to Champa's Bake-off event at the Versatile Kitchen 

Cakes and cookies - Xmas event at "My Culinary Creations"

Its time to jingle again - at AsanKhana

Vanilla cupcake with butter cream frosting

 I baked these cupcakes for a bake sale at my kids school last week. I have baked vanilla cupcake several times using different recipes, but this is the first time I decorated them with buttercream, did this specially for the kids.I made two batches of them (about 24) and felt happy to see that they vanished within the first 30 mins of the sale.

Recipe source: Joy of Baking

Ingredients:

1/2 cup unsalted butter at room temperature

2/3 cup of white sugar

3 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

zest of 1 lemon (I used 1/ of a lemon)

11/2 cup All purpose flour

11/2 tsp Baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 cup milk

For the Buttecream

2 cus of Icing sugar

1/2 cup unsalted butter

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 tblsp milk

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F

In a large bowl cream the butter and sugar using the hand mixer until light and fluffy.

Add the eggs one by one, beating well after each addition. Scrape down the sides.

Add the vanilla extract, lemon zest and beat well for a minute.

In a seperate bowl whisk together flour, baking powder and salt.

Now add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture alternating with the milk. Beat till incorporated.

Fill in the muffin cups evenly.Bake for 18 - 20 mins or until the tip is browned and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Makes about 12 cupcakes.

For the Buttercream , beat the butter till light and creamy.Gradually add the sugar and beat till fluffy (about 2 mins).  Now add the vanilla extract and milk and beat for another minute. Pipe the buttercream using the large star tip that you have on hand or spread the buttercream on the top using a butter knife.

Tip: the butter should definitely be at room temperature to make the buttercream mixture.I learned this the hard way :)

Sending this to the following events

" Food Palette series - white" hosted by Akheela at Torview  

Cakes and cookies - Xmas event at "My Culinary Creations"

Its time to jingle again - at AsanKhana
Champa's bake -off event at 'The Versatile Kitchen'

                                                                   

Oatmeal Raisin Coconut Cookies

Its been two months since I moved to a new place or I should say its been two months since I baked anything. But I have lots of cakes and cookies, neatly organised in my folders, waiting to be posted.They were the result of the baking marathon I ventured during the last week of december amidst all the chaeos of packing and cleaning.  I baked some cookies, cakes, brownies, and breads as if the world is going to end the next day. Since it was the holiday season, I didnt have to worry about finishing up everything as they were neatly packed and distributed to friends and collegues as soon as they have been photographed. 



These Oatmeal Raisin Coconut cookies were past of that marathon as well as my first attempt in baking the cookies. I made two batches of these following two different recipes.This is the first version. It turned out crispy and chewy , just the way I wanted. This gave me the confidence to try out the mexican wedding cookies that was posted earlier for global kadai event.

I adapted the recipe from here. I modified/added/removed some ingredients as per my taste.

Ingredients:

1 cup Softened butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup white sugar
1 egg
1 tsp Vanilla extract

3 cups of Instant oats
11/2 cup of Flour
1 tsp Baking soda
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup of raisins
1 cup dry unsweetened coconut
1/2 cup of chopped walnuts.


Method:

Preheat the oven to 180C
In a wide pan, slightly toast the oats, coconut and walnuts one by one and keep seperatly.
Toasting bring out the nice flavour in all the above three ingredients, but take care not to brown it.
In a small bowl beat one egg alond with the vanilla extract.

Now cream the softened butter and the sugars for 2- 3 minutes using a electric mixture.
Mix in the beaten egg mixture and beat till it becomes creamy.

Now add the flour and mix till its well combined.
Stir in the toasted oats , coconut , raisins and walnuts.

Line the cookie tray with parchment paper and spoon in the mixture.
Gently press each portion with the back of the spoon. Place them well apart.
Bake for 10  - 12mins. Mine took 12 mins. So keep an eye after 10 mins.
The cookies will be soft in the center after 10 mins, not to worry, it will become crisp as it cools down. So if the base it browned and crisp, you are good to go.

This recipe gave me 48 medium sized cookies.

Mexican Wedding Cookies for "Global Kadai" Event

Baked these delicious cookies on the day before New year, especially for the "Global Kadai Event" at Cilantro's. For those who are not familiar with the event click here for more details. The cookies were so soft and delicate to the touch. This is the first time I have made, as well as tasted the cookies, it was absolutely melt in the mouth delicious. The taste was somewhat similar to our traditional 'Nankhattai' , but the later uses ghee instead of butter and the recipe is also slightly different.

The recipe given by Cilantro, had chocolate and cocoa, which I didnt use, because I somehow wanted my cookies to be white :).  I used slightly toasted and finely chopped almonds and cardomom to bring out the Indian flavours. Made two batches in two different shapes. I rolled one part of the dough to 1/2 inch thickness between parchment paper and the cut into crecent shapes, and for the other part simply shaped them into round balls(as per the recipe), both baked beautifully.

Here is my Indianised version of the recipe.

Ingredients:

1 cup softened butter
1/2 cup confectionery sugar.
1 tsp vanilla essence
13/4 cup All Purpose flour
1 cup slightly toasted and finly chopped almonds
1/2 tsp of cardomom powder.( or crush 4 pods of cardomom to a fine powder  using chapati roller)
1 pinch salt

Method.
In a Pan slightly toast the almonds for 7-8 mins and chop as finely as possible
Cream the butter and sugar in a large bowl until creamy until light and fluffy.
Add the vanilla essence and beat for a min
Now gradually add the flour , cardomom powder and the chopped almonds. Mix with a spatula or spoon gently.
Work with your hand and gently gather the dough and make it into a ball.

Wrap the dough in a platic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for minimum 15 mins.

Preheat the oven to 180C.
Line the baking tray with parchemnt paper or lighlty butter the tray.
Make lime sized balls and place 2 inch apart. Bake for 15 - 18 mins.
For the crecent shaped ones, I rolled the dough to 1/2 inch thickness and then cut into crecents using a lid.

Do not worry if the cookies are still soft in the center of after 18 mins. They get firm after cooled for a few minutes. Take the tray out of the oven and leave the cookies in the tray for 2 mins.

Dust with powdered sugar while its still warm and then transfer gently to storing jar

I thank Cilantro for announcing this recipe as part of the event, otherwise I definitly would not have tried these cookies. I throughly enjoyed baking this one along with my son, who helped me in cutting the crecent shaped ones.

Have you Baked your Cookies yet?...Hurry the last date for this event is January 31st and also stay tuned for the announcement of the dish for the "Global Kadai" event for the month of February hosted right here.

After I published this post , I realised from my dashboard that its my 100th post.

Feel happy... but not much proud about it as it took so long (from 2006) to get here because of my frequent long breaks and not to mention the lazy me...anyways CHEERS!!!!

Hot Cross Buns ..Hot Cross Buns

Hot cross buns, Hot cross buns

One a penny , two a penny

Hot cross buns

If you have no daughters ,

 give them to your sons

One a penny , two a penny

Hot cross buns.

I never knew that such buns really existed until I started blogging.Have been thinking that these were some fancy made up buns for the kids rhymes.Still remember the day when I came across this recipe in a blog , during my early days of blogging, called up my sister and was chatting about it and its history for quite sometime :)
Traditionally these buns are made as a breakfast for the Easter sunday. But for me whether its Easter or Christmas its just the holidays and the holiday spirit that engulfs us matters a lot, hence decided to bake this flavourful bread the past weekend.

 I had picked up couple of cooking books published in the 1980's called the "Hamlyn - The All Colour Cookbook " from the local flea market recently.(These were the only books I could find in english ). It has the recipes for traditionally baked english goodies and 'Hot cross Buns' is one of them.

It may seem like lot of work, but its totally worth the effort.
All the measurements were in oz and pints, I converted them to cups and tblsp for our convenience. Here is the recipe

Ingredients:

12 0z / 3 cups Flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnomon powder

1/2 tsp of nutmeg powder

1/2 tsp of all spice powder(optional)

1/4 cup sugar

4 tblsp melted butter

1 eff beaten

1 cup raisin/sultanas/currants

For the yeast mixture:

1 tblsp   dried yeast

 1tsp sugar
2/ 3 cup warm milk (11oF)
2/3 cup warm  water less 3 tblsp
1 cup plain flour

Makes 12 medium sized buns

Method:

Step 1:

Take a large bowl.Blend yeast with mixed warm milk , water , sugar and flour.
Leave until frothy, about 20-30 minutes.



Step 2:
In an another bowl sift together remaining flour (3 cups) salt and spices.Add sugar and mix well.
Step 3:
Beat the egg seperatly.  Stir butter, egg and the flour mixture into the yeast mixture.Mix well

Step 4:
Knead the dough on a lightly floured surface for approximately 10 minutes. Make into a smooth ball, cover with a tea towell or a tight lid and allow it to raise for 1 - 11/2 hour or until the dough is double in size.


Step 5:
Punch down the dough with your knuckles gently, take it on a lightly floured surface. Shape it to a log and divide into 12 equal portions. Take each portion and shape it into a ball by using the palm of one hand, first presing down hard and then easing up.

Step 6 :
Place it on a Baking tray lined with parchment paper, spaced well apart. Cover with a towel or greased polythene bag and allow it to rise for another 30 mins.

As you can see from the picture that I didn't shape the balls properly as I didnt follow the rolling into log and cutting equal shapes part.I just pinched the dough approximately like we do for chapati's.
But the earlier method works the best

Step 7:
Preheat the Oven to 180C.  Make a cross witha very sharp knife to just cut surface of dough. Cut with a sharp knife little deeper , for more prominent cross after baking.Bake in the oven for 15 - 20 minutes. Enjoy the aroma that fills your house.

Step 8 :
For the glaze, Bring 2 tablespoon of milk and 2 tablespoon of water to the boil, stir in 2 tblsp of sugar and boil for 2-3 minutes. Brush hot buns twice

Enjoy your weekend breakfast with a cup of tea.
Taste better the next day when all the sugar  and cinnomon seeps in. 



To serve:  Cut the buns into half .Toast slightly with butter and serve warm.

Stromboli

I have tasted spinach & cheese Stromboli many times. Everytime I used to think that making the dough would be something very time consuming.But last week when I stumbled upon this recipe in food network website, I was very glad to see that it requires just the basic pizza dough.
The recipe for this starter is very simple and it can be done in minutes if you have the right ingredients.Since the base needs a basic pizza dough, I used the store bought pizza flour mix, not the frozen one(which also works fine).I mixed and matched many recipes and came up with this list of ingredients for stuffing, which is because this is what I had left in my refrigerator that day :)
It turned out perfect and we loved it.
I think I will include chicken in the stuffing when I try it next time.

Ingredients:
Any pizza dough, frozen or ready mix.
3 cloves garlic minced
1 green bell pepper thinly sliced
1 medium onion thinly sliced
1 tomato sliced 1/4 cup olives chopped
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese / any cheese of your choice
1 tsp olive oil
2-3 tblsp pasta sauce/marinara sauce ( its better if its chunky)
1 egg for egg wash / 1/4 cup


Method:
Preheat the oven to 350F /200C
Add the olive oil in a pan and fry the garlic ,onion and peppers.Keep aside.
Roll out the pizza dough into a rectangle , about 1/2 inch thick
Spread the onion mixture evenly leaving 1 inch at the borders.
Spread the tomatoes and olives over it.Top it with the pasta sauce.
Sprinkle the cheese as we do for pizza.
Brush one long end with the egg wash.
Roll the dough like a log, starting from the end without egg wash.
Brush the top with egg wash, and sprinkle some Italian seasoning
Place the log carefully on a baking sheet and bake for 20 - 25 mins.
Cut into think slices and serve warm.

Pineapple bread

Pineapple bread

Felt like baking something this weekend, but was not in a mood to try something new.
So I took the good old banana bread recipe , did some modifications and just used canned pineapple chunks instead of banana.
Turned out very flavourful and tasty.
Should Definitely try with a scoop of Ice cream.


Ingredients:

2 cups all purpose flour
1 egg
1/2 stick butter/ 1/4 cup softened butter
3/4 cup sugar
1 small tin chopped pineapple
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp vanilla extract

Method

Preheat the Oven to 180C
Mix in the butter and sugar.Beat till smooth and frothy.
Sieve the flour and baking powder and soda mixture three times.
Beat the egg separately and add it to the butter mixture little by little, while mixing simultaneously.
Add the flour mixture and mix well.The mixture will be very thick at this stage. Fold in the pineapple pieces at this stage and mix well.Add the remaining juice also and mix well.
Grease the baking tray with butter, dust it with some flour.Pour in the mixture and place it in the preheated oven.

Bake for 45 -50 min's.The time can vary depending on the oven.So check periodically after 40 min's,a knife or toothpick inserted in the middle should come clean.

Banana Nut bread

Banana Nut Bread

Its Baking Time this weekend.Its been a long time since I baked something.
When I first came here to US, I was very excited to see the ovens in the apartment, which motivated me to try baking.To start with I used all the store bought cake mixes, which came out wonderfully.How many ever time you bake, the excitement to see your final product is always the same...Dont you all agree....
One of my collegue Invited me to her sons birthday party.She had baked a nice and delicious cake, when I asked about the receipe, she told me that it was a Banana bread receipe without a egg.Since they were Jains, they didnt want to buy cake from the stores.But their cake was very soft and it was a hit. So I got the original Banana bread receipe from her and started experimenting with it by adding an egg, it turned out good.

Nowadays I make it atleast once in a month for ourselves or as a nice gesture for friends when they invite us over for dinner.
Last week we had India - Pakistan one day match, and one of our friends invited us over to watch the overnight match.It sounded fun, so I decided to bake the Banana bread for some midnight snacking.

Ingredients.

2 cups all purpose flour
1 egg
1/2 stick butter
1 cup sugar. ( I used only 3/4 cup as I wanted to cut down on sugar)
2 Rippened bananas
3 tblsp milk
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup chopped walnuts
1/4 tsp vanilla essence or powder

Method:

Preheat the Oven to 350F/180C
Mix in the butter and sugar.Beat till smooth and frothy.
Sieve the flour and baking powder, soda, and salt mixture three times.
Mash the bananas well with the back of the fork
Beat the egg seperatly and add it to the butter mixture little by little, while mixing simultaneously.Add the flour mixture and mix well.The mixture will be very thick at this stage, add the milk now and mix well.Fold in the bananas at this stage and mix well.
Now add half of the chopped walnuts.
Greese the baking tray with butter, dust it with some flour.
Pour in the mixture and place it in the preheated oven.
Sprinkle the remaining walnuts over the spread.
Bake for 45 -50 mins.The time can vary depending on the oven.So check periodically after 40 mins .a knife or toothpick inserted in the middle should come clean.

You can Enjoy this bread as breakfast or a snack along with tea.
Happy Baking.