Wholewheat Almond Buttermilk Pound Cake … with almond cream & fresh strawberries

“The great thing about cake is it doesn’t feel like work. You forget about work. Kids, adults, they all get the same look in their eye when they’re decorating cakes… That’s the magic right there.”
Duff Goldman

Wholewheat Almond Buttermilk Pound Cake

 Wholewheat Almond Buttermilk Pound Cake … made on the trot the other day before dashing off to Bangalore. There was a young, enthusiastic photographer coming over to shoot my profile for a newspaper feature on The New Indian Express … It’s a Feast For the Eyes. How could I not bake a cake?

There was plenty of stuff baked as I was going to be away for 2 days. Some Coffee Shortbread Cookies which I quickly turned into Coffee Shortbread Nutella Sandwich Cookies {absolutely divine}. Also on hand some recently baked Amaranth Oat Walnut Ginger Cookies {gluten free and eggless}, and a batch of Wholewheat Dark Chocolate Walnut Brownies. Of course, there is  always GF Multigrain Granola at home too …Yet, what’s a food porn photo-shoot sans cake? It was a mad rush that day so I had to keep it simple. Short on time, I reached for one of my most trusted recipes, a buttermilk pound cake which has evolved over the years. It’s a basic recipe that works with infinite combinations; a recipe never short on ideas!

I’ve made a buttermilk pound cake a million times in many avatars, my to-go recipe that lives in my head! Some of my favourites versions are the Buttermilk Chocolate Pound Cake, Whole Wheat Coffee Dark Chocolate Pound Cake and the Tres Leches Wholewheat Lemon Pound Cake.

This one turned out to be a hit too. Light, full of flavour with a silky almond whipped cream topping. Fresh sweet strawberries added the right oomph to it; a burst of colour too. You can use any seasonal berries, actually any seasonal fruit for that matter. Mangoes, litchi, kiwi, oranges, plums … all fruit pair well with almond and vanilla!

Photography is sacrosanct and as vital as the written content for Deeba Rajpal, a celebrated food blogger from Gurgaon, who churns out scrumptious recipes and snaps their exquisite replicas for her website Passionate About Baking.

“We eat with our eyes first cannot be understated in today’s increasingly visual and dynamic world. The photographs should complement the recipe and build a food connect with the reader,” says Deeba, who banks on her aesthetic sense, eye for detail and Canon camera for desired captures.… read the rest of the feature on TNIE

[print_this]Recipe: Wholewheat Almond Buttermilk Pound Cake

Summary: A healthier & delicious version of the pound cake, one that works with infinite combinations; a recipe never short on ideas! The good thing about the Wholewheat Almond Buttermilk Pound Cake is that is made of whole grain only. Another plus that it doubles up as a tea time favourite, a snack box filler AND a light, healthy dessert too!

Prep Time: 15 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour, 15 minutes
Ingredients:

  • Wholewheat Almond Buttermilk Pound Cake
  • 150g whole wheat flour
  • 55g almond meal
  • 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/4 tsp baking soda
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 100g unsalted butter, room temperature
  • 200g vanilla sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1/4 tsp almond extract
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla bean powder
  • 100ml cultured buttermilk
  • Almond Whipped Cream
  • 100ml low fat cream, chilled
  • 30g icing sugar
  • Few drops almond extract
  • 50-75 fresh strawberries
  • Handful fresh mint leaves

Method:

  1. Wholewheat Almond Buttermilk Pound Cake
  2. Grease and flour the sides of a 8″ ring tin, Line the bottom and sides with baking parchment.
  3. Preheat the oven to 170C.
  4. Sift the wholewheat and almond flour / almond meal with the baking powder, baking soda and salt. Reserve.
  5. Cream the butter and sugar. Beat in eggs one at a time, followed by the vanilla extract, almond extract and vanilla bean powder.
  6. With beater on low add the flour mix and buttermilk alternately in three lots.
  7. Bake for 50-60 minutes till golden brown on top, and the tester comes out clean.
  8. Top with almond whipped cream and fresh strawberries.
  9. Almond whipped cream
  10. Whip the cream, sugar and almond extract until medium peaks.

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Amaranth Oat Walnut Ginger Cookies … inspiration in every crumb

“Cookies are made of butter and love.”
Norwegian Proverb

Amaranth Oat Walnut Ginger Cookies were an experiment, yet another happy one!. Strangely enough, ever since I claimed I hardly ever bake cookies, that’s just what I have been doing of late. Eggless Honey Almond Cookies … then Coffee Shortbread which still has to see light of day on my blog. We’ve got some happy cookie monsters on the prowl this end!!

Did you notice something? They’re all eggless cookies, or lacto vegetarian as they call them. Like the ‘Not Quite Anzac Cookie Pops’ below. I woke up early one morning and had fun making on Anzac Day last week. I did a Not Quite Anzac Cookie Cake too! On this eggless trail, I also recently stirred up Dark Chocolate Nutella Kumquat Pudding … sinfully addictive!  Hmmmm … maybe it’s a trend? Certainly feels like one! Then the other day Ruchira & I popped by at Sangeeta’s and were treated to these fab GF Ginger & Jaggery Energy Bars. The taste of the bars lingered on for long, flavours dancing in my head. That they were just 5 ingredient bars and had amaranth flour and oats was intriguing enough!

I had to come home and recreate ‘something‘. Her recipe inspired me. I’d do cookies. Nice plump whole grain bites. Cookies are always handy to have at home, gluten free more so for Mr PAB. I didn’t have jaggery on hand, so changes happened. Many changes.

Eventually ended up with these and they packed a nice punch. The subtle undertones on ginger and honey teased the palette. The walnut taste didn’t come through, but upped the ante on the ‘healthy nuts’ factor. I ran the Amaranth Oat Walnut Ginger Cookies past the ‘inspirer‘ at the Food Freak Awards Gurgaon later that evening. She gave them a huge thumbs up, so here you are.

These possibly aren’t going to be huge kiddie favourite cookies as they aren’t very sweet. Slightly crumbly, reminiscent of the quintessential Indian nan khatai that we used to bake in our childhood, I found the Amaranth Oat Walnut Ginger Cookies quite addictive. They grow on you. For eggless, gluten free cookies, they are fabulous! I shall experiment some more with the recipe, maybe crack an egg or two in the days to come. Until then, these eggless cookies might please you like they did Sangeeta and me!

[print_this]Recipe: Amaranth Oat Walnut Ginger Cookies

Summary: For eggless, gluten free baking, these Amaranth Oat Walnut Ginger Cookies are fabulous! Slightly crumbly, reminiscent of the quintessential Indian nan khatai that we used to bake in our childhood, I found them quite addictive.

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Total Time: 40 minutes
Ingredients:

  • 100g + 50g oats
  • 50g amaranth flour
  • 50g walnuts
  • 100g butter, chilled, cubed
  • 1″ piece ginger, grated
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 50g brown sugar
  • 50g honey
  • 1-2 tbsp brown sugar for sprinkling

Method:

  1. Place 100g oats, amaranth flour, walnuts, chilled butter and ginger in bowl of food processor and blend to a fine meal.
  2. Add the baking soda, brown sugar and remaining oats and pulse al low speed to mix.
  3. With the motor running on slow, pour in the honey until mixed and the cookie dough comes together.
  4. Heat oven to 150C.
  5. Scoop out walnut sized bits of cookie dough and place on a parchment lined cookie tray. Gently press down with the tines of a fork. Sprinkle over with brown sugar.
  6. Bake for about 20-25 minutes until light golden brown and firm to touch.
  7. Cool completely on the rack.
  8. Note: For a GF diet, make sure your oats are GF.

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Frozen Dessert | Strawberry Quark Ice Cream … have a refreshing Easter! #icecream #froyo #healthy #frozen #summer

“Ice cream is happiness condensed.” Jessi Lane Adams

Strawberry Quark Ice Cream … what a wonderful way to celebrate summer. I made this a week ago to use up the bags of strawberries I had frozen just before we left for Srinagar. I had frozen some left over quark as well and it worked wonderfully in this ice cream. So delicious that I had made several batches since, with plans to make more! Srinagar was STUNNING! From near zero temperatures and sweet fragrant Kashmiri tea ‘kahwa’, from natural beauty that would blow your mind away, a city as beautiful as no city I have seen before, a people so hospitable. From ‘paradise on earth’ as it is so rightly called, we landed in Delhi in sweltering heat. IT WAS HOT!! It’s truly summer in the plains of North India, though we had some mild respite by way of thundershowers  yesterday. Still at 40C and counting, it’s promises to be a sizzling season ahead. For times like this, what can be better than a refreshing and beautifully coloured ice cream. We don’t grow blueberries or raspberries locally here, but I bet this will make a wonderful ice cream paired with any juicy seasonal berry. This was the first time I used brown mineral sugar in an ice cream paired with fruit. One spoon and another later, I wondered why I had never done it before? I went on to lick the bowl clean…and knew I had a winner here!

HAPPY EASTER!

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Recipe: Strawberry Quark Ice Cream

Summary: Celebrate summer with the ‘bursting with flavour’ and the goodness of strawberries low fat Strawberry Quark Ice Cream. It will leave you asking for more!

Prep Time: 5 minutes Total Time: 15 minutes Ingredients:

  • 550gm strawberries , chilled{or frozen for Thermomix}
  • 300gm homemade quark {hung for 2-3 days in the fridge}, chilled
  • 100g low fat cream, chilled
  • 150-80gm brown sugar {adjust as required}
  • 2 tbsp kirsch

Method:

  1. Add all ingredients to bowl of food processor, and blend to a smooth puree. Begin with 150g brown sugar and add more as required.
  2. Place in bowl of ice cream maker and set according to manufacturer instructions.
  3. Thermomix:
  4. Place all ingredients {including frozen strawberries} in the bowl of your Thermomix and process on Speed 10 for 1 minute at a time, stirring with the TM spatula as required. Repeat 3-4 times until well blended. Adjust sugar if required and blend for another 30 seconds.
  5. Transfer to a freezer safe container. Serve immediately or freeze until required

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Multigrain Granola … breakfast o’clock!

“All happiness depends on a leisurely breakfast.”
John Gunther

Multigrain Granola … this is what flavours the mornings our end these days, and it doesn’t seem to change. I have made granola every single week for the past 4 weeks, and its gratifying to see the better half reach out for it. I had forgotten how easy granola, the ‘hippie’ food of the Sixties, was to make at home.I was born in the late Sixties of this “cultural decade” which also saw a paradigm change in the world – the Beatles, the first step on the moon, the Vietnam war, the assassination of JFK, womens liberation movements.  My Sixties saw the good old Pye tuned to BBC World Service every morning, the Hare Rama  Krishna movement gaining fame thanks to  George Harrison, blackouts during war, no television, hopscotch and hide ‘n seek…

My Sixties and Seveties also saw loads of naturally growing foodstuff  – mulberries, wild dates, jamun {Java plum}, ber {jujube/ Indian plum}, mangoes, tamarind, wild berries, wild figs. We would cram everything into our little mouths!The Sixties also saw the ‘hippie’ movement and a revival of natural, healthy foods in everyday diet, and a shunning of processed and sugary foods.My first tryst with breakfast creal began with the Gluten Free Chocolate Granola in 2011. Someway along the way, breakfast options for the dieting diva changed into smoothies, and granola got left behind. Of late, the husband has tired of ‘eggs in breakfast‘. He’s also off wheat as being gluten free makes him feel better.

That’s where granola stepped in! With the weather becoming increasingly warm, a make ahead, on the go ‘cold’ breakfast has won over egg! Topped with seasonal fruit like mulberries, fresh figs, strawberries, banana even better. Of late, my involvement with oats {and other whole grains} has been huge thanks to developing recipes and doing a TV cookshow for Saffola Oats. Suddenly anything and everything oats seems like a recipe opportunity. 

Both granola and muesli contain a mixture of grains (such as oats), nuts, dried fruit and sometimes bran and wheat germ. Muesli may contain sugar and dried-milk solids, but it can be unsweetened. Granola is typically toasted with honey and oil, resulting in a crisp texture and sweet glaze not found in muesli. Because granola contains the addition of honey and oil, it tends to have a higher sugar and fat content. As a result, granola is, on average, higher in calories than muesli. 

Click here for a range of Jordan’s cereals. Both granola and muesli offer nutritional benefits. Both have fiber from the grains, fruits and nuts. In addition, the dried fruits provide antioxidants, while the nuts offer healthy fats. Topping either muesli or granola with low-fat milk, soy milk or yogurt makes for a nutritionally balanced, filling breakfast. 

Along came a huge bowl and in went the oats, followed by popped amaranth. I use amaranth quite often these days I have plenty on hand, both flour and popped. In also went some puffed rice which is available at just about every corner store here. Nuts and raisins are always welcome. I also threw in some melon seeds, the remainder of some last used in Savoury  Hungarian Kalács & Twisted Buns.

Granola and toasted cereal is always nice to have on hand for a quick snack, to top yogurt and fruit, to make granola bars, and even to make a layered fruit dessert. In the Strawberry & Cape Gooseberry Quark Mousse above, I tossed some granola into melted chocolate, let it harden and then used it in the layered dessert!

[print_this]Recipe: Multigrain Granola 

Summary: Full of fibre, crisp, sweet, buttery too, this Multigrain Granola is sure to please! You can always substitute the butter for oil, and play around with different grains and nuts. Go ahead, make it into the granola you love!

Prep Time: 15 minutes
Total Time: 40 minutes
Ingredients:

  • 160g oats
  • 30g puffed rice
  • 35g popped amaranth
  • 50g melon seeds
  • 50-75g walnuts, chopped
  • 100g raisins
  • 25ml water
  • 25ml honey
  • 50g unsalted butter
  • 50g brown sugar
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla bean powder

Method:

  1. Preheat the oven to 150C. Line a cookie sheet with parchment.
  2. Place the water, honey, butter, brown sugar and vanilla bean powder in saucepan. Simmer over low heat until the butter melts. Stir well to mix. {Alternatively, place in a heat proof bowl and microwave for 1 minute}.
  3. Place all remaining ingredients except raisins in a large bowl and stir to mix.
  4. Pour the liquid mixture over the dry mix, stir well to mix uniformly.
  5. Turn onto prepared sheet and bake for about an hour until dry. Stir every 15 minutes to redistribute.
  6. Toss in the raisins, cool completely and store in an airtight box.

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Eggless Almond Honey Wholegrain Cookies … #comfortfood

“You’ll never convince me that there’s more to life than chocolate chip cookies”
Charles M. Shultz

Eggless Almond Honey Wholegrain Cookies … cookies that are meant to be shared! I haven’t posted a cookie recipe for a while on PAB. Possibly since I don’t make new variations very often, or when I do, I forget to jot the recipe down. Ones that I regularly make are all time favourites like Wholewheat & Oat Chocolate Chip Cookies & these Not Quite Anzac cookies.

That morning I was due to meet a sweet girl who was coming in to meet me from halfway across India. I knew she was a vegetarian and I wanted to bake something eggless for her. Cookies seemed a good idea for the coffee morning. I had some Strawberry & Cape Gooseberry Quark Mousse chilling in the fridge for her too.

Spring has all but given way to summer. Mornings and evenings are beautifully pleasant; the season inspires like no other. Flowers bloom, fruits spill off bazaar shelves, birds chirp, butterflies zip around. Baking is fun in this weather though baking cookies is fun any time!!

The cookies came out delicious, even better since they were packed with nutrition and whole grains. I love the idea of adding nut meal to cookies. In my case I ‘have to‘ since the daughter dislikes nuts with a vengeance. She loves cookies with nut meal though!

I baked another batch soon after as we flew into breathtakingly beautiful Srinagar for a short vacation. It’s always nice to carry a ‘taste of home’ with us. Though Srinagar is known for its little bakeries that dot the length and breadth of the city, my humble cookies were much in demand with the kids too! One look at the ingredients in the recipe and you’ll see the cookie goodness I am talking about. Almonds, whole wheat, amaranth {my latest obsession}, oats, and honey instead of  corn syrup!  Told you … these are deliciously healthy cookies. Indulgent too!

Try them. Cookies don’t get simpler than these. One bowl goodness, fun to make, get the kids involved. Do watch them towards the end of baking. Honey in baked goods tends to lead to faster browning. So do keep an eye!

Healthy, fun recipes with amaranth, whole grains, oats {read lots of oats}, unrefined sugars, honey etc have kept me busy of late. I’ve been involved in doing a project for Saffola Oats here in India.

Shot two recipe videos with the very sweet Michelin Starred Chef Vikas Khanna for Food Food Channel, India as part of the engagement. You can catch the first episode for a Bittersweet Dark Chocolate Gateau {Gluten free} which has been uploaded onto You-tube.

[print_this]Recipe: Eggless Almond Honey Wholegrain Chocolate Chip Cookies

Summary: Eggless Almond Honey Wholegrain Cookies offer deep delicious butterscotch flavour thanks to the brown sugar and butter. Almond meal adds interesting taste, and chocolate chips are thrown in to make another quintessential chocolate chip cookie, this time eggless. These whole grain cookies are nice, chewy if you underbake them a little, and crisp if you bake them longer!  Makes approx 2 dozen
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Total Time: 40 minutes
Ingredients:

  • 100g unsalted butter, room temperature
  • 100g honey
  • 1 tsp vanilla bean powder
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • pinch salt
  • 55g brown sugar
  • 100g whole almonds {or almond meal}
  • 50g amaranth flour
  • 50g whole wheat flour
  • 100gm oats
  • 50g chocolate chips {I used dark}

Method:

  1. Preheat oven to 150C
  2. Run the almonds in the processor with the wholewheat flour until you get a fine-meal.
  3. Heat butter, honey and vanilla bean powder in a pan over low heat till the butter melts. Mix well. {Can do it in the microwave too}.
  4. Add the baking soda, salt and brown sugar and whisk to mix.
  5. Add the remaining ingredients and stir to form a cookie dough. The dough will be a little stiff.
  6. Drop tbsp of dough on parchment lined cookie sheets, flatten with the tines of a fork. {I rolled the dough into balls, flattened them slightly with the palm of my hand, and then further flattened them by pressing down with a fork.}.
  7. Bake for approx 20 minutes until golden brown.
  8. Leave to cool on cookie sheets for 5 minutes {they are quite tender when they come out of the oven} , and then transfer on racks to cool completely.
  9. Thermomix Recipe:
  10. Run the almonds in the TM bowl with the wholewheat flour on speed 7 for 30 seconds to get a fine-meal. Scrape and repeat if necessary. Turn into a bowl and reserve.
  11. Place butter, honey and vanilla bean powder into TM bowl. Heat for 2 minutes at 60C on speed 2 until fully dissolved. Place bicarb into bowl and mix for 5 seconds on speed 3.
  12. Add remaining ingredients and set dial to closed position and mix for 30-35 seconds on interval speed…. then continue as above from step 5.
  13. Note: Since the dough has honey, the cookies tend to brown faster than normal cookies. I use double cookie trays. Keep an eye on them.

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Vicky Goes Veg … green, fresh and exciting

‘Going green has never been so deliciously exciting. Bon Apetit…’
Farhan Akhtar

Roasted Red Bell Pepper & Broccoli Salad from Vicky Goes Veg. Everything about the book is colourful, fresh, exciting, full of flavour and vegetarian of course! It’s an exciting new book by Chef Vicky Ratnani and holds a LOT of promise. Vegetarianism is no longer considered ‘second food. Slowly but surely vegetarian centric cookbooks are appearing on bookshelves, grabbing eyeballs as they do so!We were hosted by Harper Collins & Nachiketa at the lush and beautiful ‘The Palms‘, Gurgaon for the book launch. Vicky Ratnani has infectious energy, is animated and absolutely passionate about food. I was fortunate to meet him in Jan last year at a tea & food pairing session, and it certainly was a pleasure to meet him again.

He held fort by the poolside under the blazing setting sun, which shouldn’t have been quite so blazing in Mid March … but was! Sporting that he is, he didn’t blink an eyelid, no complaints nothing. He was there well before the guests began to arrive and after a short delay {thanks to the TV crew}, he fired up!

Sauteing, chatting, sharing tips and trivia and a load of his passion, he held the attention of the select audience. As he stirred up magic, we were served the same from the kitchen alongside. The flavours blew us away! Who wants to eat non vegetarian food if vegetarian food can be so exciting. Not me!! The Braised Plantain with Thai spices was out of the world good, as was the Eggplant & Bok choy in sambal.

I love the energy throughout the book. It entices you to ‘try’ something different. I also love that Vicky has stuck to the concept of  sourcing local produce, something that makes the locavore in me do a merry dance. The photographs that liberally colour the pages are a journey of the food chain in India including the merchants and the local bazaars.

Vicky is often seen arm in arm with the guys who matter … yes, those who grow, deliver and sell local produce. It’s refreshing to see so much space dedicated to the local sabziwala i.e. vegetable vendors. The recipes in the book are unique, hail from across the world but come with an Indian twist, all green and fresh!

The good thing is that Vicky encourages you to think out of the box, constantly innovate and evolve. He offers his book as a stepping stone for new ideas in vegetarian cooking, and tells you to be fearless. If you don’t have this, use that. There’s plenty of trivia tucked within that makes the book even more interesting. One downside is that the number of portions or ‘servings’ aren’t specified.
So I set off to make the Roasted Red Bell Pepper & Broccoli Salad.  Of course, my heart followed his advice and my recipe meandered off as I was short on time. I didn’t blend the dressing, only whisked it. Substituted apricots for walnuts, simplified the dressing a bit. I also made Stromboli from the book which disappeared too quick!

If you’d like to win a copy of the book, VICKY GOES VEG, please leave a comment below telling me which your favourite vegetarian dish from across the globe is. Please be sure to leave a valid email address so I can contact you. This giveaway is open to residents of India, or anyone with an Indian mailing address. {Giveaway sponsored by Harper Collins}

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Recipe: Roasted Red Bell Pepper & Broccoli Salad 

Summary: Summary Info Goes Here

Prep Time: 15 minutes
 Total Time: 40 minutes
 Ingredients:
  • Salad
  • 1 red bell pepper, roasted
  • 1 yellow bell pepper, roasted
  • 1 big head of broccoli, cut into florets
  • 1 broccoli stem, peeled, thinly sliced
  • Salt to season
  • A pinch of cracked black pepper
  • A few sprigs of thyme
  • 2tbsp olive oil
  • 1/2 cup fresh coriander leaves
  • Dressing
  • 2 cloves of garlic, cut into chips
  • 2tbsp olive oil
  • 1/2 a white onion, sliced
  • 1 tbsp red wine vinegar
  • Salt to taste
  • Pepper to taste
  • 1 spring onion, cut into 3cm long batons
  • 4-5 dried apricots
Method: 
  1. Season the bell peppers, broccoli florets and stems with salt, pepper, thyme and olive oil {I blanched the broccoli for 2 minutes first and then plunged it into ice cold water}
  2. Cut the bell peppers into strips
  3. Fry the garlic in olive oil, and allow to cool and crisp. Reserve the garlic flavoured oil for the dressing.
  4. Dressing
  5. Sauté the white onion in the garlic oil. Deglaze with red wine vinegar. Transfer into a bowl to blend it to a dressing.
  6. Season with salt and pepper. Add the coriander leaves including their juicy stems. Whizz to blend to a smooth, sour, creamy, garlicky dressing.
  7. Mix the spring onion batons and apricots along with the broccoli and peppers. Spoon the dressing over the veggies. Garnish with the fried garlic chips.
  8. Yum! Toss all the veggies along with the dressing. Chill before serving.

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