Tag: baking

Eggless Wholegrain Almond Jaggery Oat Cookies #comfortfood #anzacs

“Remember, there are cookies waiting here for you.”
 Dean Koontz

Eggless Wholegrain Almond Jaggery Oat Cookies had us quite happy. These are cookies that comfort, hit the right spot, keeps you happy and are stuffed to the gills with good stuff. It’s actually a very simple cookie recipe, a twist on the fabulous Anzac, an eggless cookie I make often. A cookie I have recreated in different avatars often too.

The concept is simple, and they are eggless cookies that keep for long and travel well. The same goes for  the tart base that I make ever so often inspired by this eggless dough idea. Here’s one…These Eggless Mini Almond Oat Pies with Rabri Saffron Cream, a recipe for Diwali I did for KitchenAid, scream for attention.That they are eggless meets a growing local demand during the festive season around Diwali. Like Anzacs, these were delicious.

“An Anzac biscuit is a sweet, hard tack biscuit, popular in Australia and New Zealand, made using rolled oats, flour, sugar, butter, golden syrup, baking soda, boiling water, and desiccated coconut. Anzac biscuits have long been associated with the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) established in World War I. It has been claimed the biscuits were sent by wives to soldiers abroad because the ingredients do not spoil easily and the biscuits kept well during naval transportation. “The Eggless Mini Almond Oat Pies were part wholegrain, yet with the goodness of oats and almond meal. These Eggless Wholegrain Almond Jaggery Oat Cookies bettered those! These are 100% wholegrain and the sugar has been replaced by jaggery. As you can see, I keep experimenting with this and that. Some work, some don’t, but it keeps me busy doing what I love best, baking!

With cookies as ridiculously simple as these, I found loads of time playing around styling and shooting them. Credit of course to the beautiful pottery I had on hand. The colours just resonated with my frame of mind, and that day all I did was have endless fun! Some days are so therapeutic; it was one of those!

The beautiful ceramic ware is from a local ceramic artist, Anumita Jain, from Delhi. You can find her at A Clay Story. I think you’ll see a lot more of her art in my frames in future as I mentioned in this Olive Oil Walnut Garlic Rosemary Foccacia post.

Food props give me unbelievable happiness, the ‘earthy’, rustic and hand made ones making my heart sing with joy! Did I tell you I was back in Old Delhi yesterday? Yes, plan made suddenly and off the better half & me went. We wandered around, ate some, shopped some. More about that later. For now, here’s the simple Eggless Wholegrain Almond Jaggery Oat Cookies recipe!

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Eggless Wholegrain Almond Jaggery Oat Cookies

Eggless Wholegrain Almond Jaggery Oat Cookies, 100% wholegrain, the sugar replaced by jaggery & honey, these are yet another delicious twist on the Anzac cookie.
Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Total Time 25 minutes
Servings 3 dozen

Ingredients

Dry mix

  • 100 g whole wheat flour
  • 100 g oats
  • 100 g almond meal
  • pinch salt

Wet Mix

  • 100 g butter room temperature
  • 100 g honey
  • 50 g jaggery
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 140C
  • Place dry ingredients in bowl of Kitchen Aid with paddle attachment.
  • Place butter, honey and jaggery in heatproof measuring cup and heat 1 min in microwave.
  • Stir soda into butter mix.
  • With paddle attachment, gently pour wet mix over dry mix at low speed until dough comes together.
  • Make 1 tsp size dough balls, and flatten gently, topping with almond flakes if desired, gently pressing into place.
  • Bake for 20 minutes until golden brown and firm to touch. The cookies are slightly soft. Bake a further 5-7 minutes if you want a firmer cookie.
  • Cool completely on cookie rack.
  • If they do soften after a day or so, microwave them in a single layer for 30 seconds on high power.

Baking | Dark Chocolate Walnut Oat Tart GF…everyone needs a chocolate hug!

“When you select the right kind of chocolate it is like giving your insides a hug. Everyone needs a chocolate hug”
Jean Kelsey

Dark Chocolate Walnut Oat Tart for times when you need a little more chocolate in your life. I know I just shared a chocolate cheesecake a few days ago, yet while doing that, I remembered this tart. How could I not have shared this too? So much chocolate, so little time!! This is a particular favourite since it has two things that I use most while baking. Yes indeed, oats and walnuts! Add to it brown sugar and ghee/clarified butter, and magic is guaranteed!It’s another simple fuss free recipe but delivers a sinful punch. I use a cookie dough for the biscuit base. Feel free to bake mini pies like those above, or cookies as below, with the dough instead if you like, maybe top them with a ganache. I really enjoyed making the Dark Chocolate Walnut Oat Tart. I love that recipes are so easily interchangeable, such fun to play around with, It’s not a lot to do actually because the biscuit base/cookie dough is a two step procedure, basically from the jar of one food processor into the bowl of the stand mixer. I use the basic recipe quite often.

It works well each time. This Mascarpone Lime Curd Walnut Oat Tart is testimony. The same cookie dough biscuit base again, topped in a spoon licking good mascarpone & lime curd topping! Hopefully I’ve got you convinced to give the Dark Chocolate Walnut Oat Tart a try. If not this one, then maybe do a variation on it!

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Dark Chocolate Walnut Oat Tart

Dark, divine, delicious is how this tart turned out to be topped with dark chocolate ganache! A healthy biscuit base makes the Dark Chocolate Walnut Oat Tart even better. You can make cookies with the same dough, as also use different fillings to top the tart.
Course Dessert, Snack
Cuisine American
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Total Time 2 hours 30 minutes
Servings 2 tarts {7" each}

Ingredients

Oat Walnut Cookie Base

  • 100 g oats
  • 85 g walnuts
  • 85 g brown sugar
  • 1/4 tsp baking soda
  • 40 g clarified butter/ghee chilled
  • 1 small egg cold
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract

Dark Chocolate Filling

  • 300 g 70% dark couverture chocolate
  • 175 g single cream
  • 30 ml full fat milk

Instructions

Oat Walnut Cookie Base

  • Preheat the oven to 180C.
  • Place oats, walnut halves, brown sugar and baking soda in jar of chopper. Blend in short bursts until you get a uniform brown sugar like consistency, just until it feels like moist breadcrumbs.
  • Don't overwork the blender or the walnuts will release oil.
  • Transfer to bowl of stand mixer, flat mixer attachment, add the clarified butter/ghee, egg and vanilla extract and mix at speed 4 until it comes together like cookie dough.
  • Line the base of the tart tins with parchment paper. Divide the cookie dough between the two. Work up t the edges, and then flatten the base.
  • Bake in a preheated oven for 20 minutes, then cool completely on cookie rack.

Dark Chocolate Filling

  • Warm the chocolate with the cream in the microwave, agitate it with a balloon whisk, added a splash of milk, agitate it a bit more. {Agitate means to whisk briskly until smooth & glossy}
  • Once it chilled in the fridge for 30 minutes turned it into the baked shell, and let it set for about 2-3 hours.
  • Top with dark chocolate shavings and dust with cocoa before serving.

Dark Chocolate Cheesecake … life’s guilty pleasures simply served up

“Dreams are only dreams until you wake up and make them real.”
Ned Vizzini

Dark Chocolate Cheesecake … life’s guilty pleasures simply served up, or life’s simple pleasures maybe with a little guilt. Whichever way you choose to look at it, this recipe is a winner. The recipe isn’t mine. It’s a recipe created by the super talented Ruchira @ Cookaroo, on the go as she said. She did make everything sound so simple, so matter of fact, that of course I didn’t believe her!

That changed very soon. In fact as soon as I put in the cheesecake to bake, I realised that it was really very S I M P L E. Absolutely fuss free. I changed a few minor things. The base for one as hers has Oreos and I prefer Digestives. No big deal there. Both packaged cookies so no work at all. I threw in some cocoa to make mine a chocolate base. Barely any other change other than using brown sugar for white!

The other guilty indulgence I added was topping the chilled cheesecake with a dark chocolate ganache as we had folk over for dinner. I wanted it to look special. the ganache and the dusting of cocoa gave it the ‘bells & whistles‘, and some more yumminess of course.

The beautiful thing about the Dark Chocolate Cheesecake, other than the ease of putting it together of course, is that you can bake it a couple of days before you need to serve it. Keep it covered in the fridge in the tin for a day or two. Demold it the day you intend to serve it, top with ganache and you’re good to go. Do remember to thank the Cookaroo if you make this. I’ve thanked her, and so has a reader of my blog, Tania Fothergill, from Tasmania who I shared the recipe with over 3 weeks week ago. It was Tania’s birthday and she really wanted to bake it. Here’s what she said about the cake.

How sweet is that! Thank you Ruchira.

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Dark Chocolate Cheesecake

Dark, divine, sinful, creamy, chocolaty and above all, as simple as can be, this Dark Chocolate Cheesecake will leave you wanting for more. Recipe minimally adapted from Ruchira @ thegreatcookaroo.com. You won't need another recipe ever! Can be made 2-3 days ahead of time.
Course Dessert
Cuisine American
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour
Total Time 9 hours 15 minutes
Servings 8

Ingredients

Biscuit base

  • 150 g digestives​ biscuits​
  • 30 g cocoa powder
  • 20 g brown sugar
  • 50 g butter

Dark Chocolate ​Filling

  • 200 g dark couverture chocolate melted
  • 400 g cream cheese
  • 200 ml single cream
  • 1/3 cup cocoa
  • 3 eggs
  • 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
  • 3/4 cup brown sugar

Ganache

  • 100 g 52% couverture
  • 100 ml single cream

Instructions

Biscuit base

  • Whiz the biscuits, brown sugar and cocoa in food processor until you get a fine meal. Add butter, whiz again to mix. Press into 7-8" loose bottom tin. Chill in the freezer while you get the filling ready, and the oven preheats.

Dark Chocolate Filling

  • Preheat oven to 160C.
  • Place all ingredients in bowl of food processor, and blend well to mix, 1-2 minutes on medium speed.
  • Pour into crust, and bake for an hour.
  • Cool completely in the oven, then chill covered in the fridge, preferably overnight.

Ganache

  • Place chocolate and cream in a heatproof bowl. Heat in microwave for 1 minute. Whisk​ with a balloon whisk​ until smooth. Cool about 30 minutes, then whisk​ again​. Chill until a little f​irm. Whisk once again till glossy and smooth, and holds peaks. Spread over​ chilled cheesecake. Dust with cocoa.​

Baking | Olive Oil Walnut Garlic Rosemary Foccacia … bread of life

“If thou tastest a crust of bread, thou tastest all the stars and all the heavens.”
Robert Browning

This Olive Oil Walnut Garlic Rosemary Foccacia is bursting with flavour, topped with everything I love and more. To get an even heartier bread, you could even double the toppings, maybe knead in some extra walnuts, olive and cheese through the dough after the first rise. These are thoughts that race through my head as I write, things I would definitely consider doing for my next artisan loaf. I know that will be sooner than later!

That’s just how good this bread was. As you might have noticed, I’ve been baking a lot more artisan bread of late. The recent Cheese Garlic Rosemary Eggless Brioche is another great bread, almost similar flavours, though that was cheesy good to the core! Then of course another favourite, the Wholewheat Garlic Oat Soda Bread, rustic, moorish, earthy and wholegrain. While kneading dough is therapeutic and a lot of fun, I think I’ve become a little lazy.

I find myself turning to the trusted stalwart on my counter, the Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer. That paired with the great quality bakeware they offer makes the whole process so pleasing, so fuss free. Baking bread  is something I’m doing more and more, often wholegrain, sometimes part wholegrain. With dough making sorted out, the mixer kneading in the background, I reach out to flavours my bread might like.It’s often fresh herbs as they grow in my little patch, especially rosemary, as long as it lasts. This past harsh summer killed one of my two precious little plants; the second is kind of surviving. The other thing I like to add is nuts, walnuts in particular. Drizzled with olive oil, they toast up quite beautifully on top of the bread. The rest is pretty optional, whatever catches my eye really. Olives, sun dried tomatoes, mature cheddar, garlic, garlic greens, finely sliced mushrooms, sunflower seeds etc.Use herbs and nuts of your choice, play around with ingredients, but do make this. I think a sweet version with saffron and pistachio might work great here too. Maybe a grape foccacia. The recipe  results in a light, airy, easy to form bread, a dough which behaves beautifully if kept in the fridge overnight as well. Plenty of good quality extra virgin olive oil is key for a Olive Oil Walnut Garlic Rosemary Foccacia like this.

Nothing like  a bowl of salad and a crust of artisan bread. Once the weather gets cooler, maybe some soup to complete the meal. Until then, we’re just happy to keep it light with the Olive Oil Walnut Garlic Rosemary Foccacia & a Roasted Beet, Chickpea, Red Onion, Walnut Salad.

Note: The beautiful ceramic ware is from a local ceramic artist, Anumita Jain, from Delhi. You can find her at A Clay Story. I think you’ll see a lot more of her art in my frames now, like in the Eggless Wholegrain Almond Jaggery Oat Cookies featured above {recipe coming soon}. Her pottery is very inspiring.

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Olive Oil Walnut Garlic Rosemary Foccacia

Nothing better than fresh home baked bread, and this Olive Oil Walnut Garlic Rosemary Foccacia is bursting with flavour. The Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer and their great quality bake-ware make baking breads so therapeutic, so fuss free. Use herbs and nuts of your choice, play around with ingredients, but do make this.
Course Appetiser, Snack
Cuisine Italian
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 40 minutes
Servings 2 loaves

Ingredients

Starter

  • 1 cup warm water
  • 1 tsp honey
  • 1 tsp dried active yeast

Garlic Rosemary Dough

  • 2 cups plain flour
  • 1/2 cup wholewheat flour
  • 2 tbsp extra virgin oilve oil
  • 4 cloves garlic minced
  • 1 tsp dried rosemary
  • 1 tsp rock salt

Topping

  • 1/2 cup walnut halves roughly broken
  • 1/4 cup green olives/ sliced
  • Few sprigs fresh rosemary
  • Himalayan pink rock salt
  • Extra virgin olive oil to drizzle over

Instructions

Starter

  • Place warm water, honey and yeast in bowl of stand mixer. Stir and leave for 5-10 minutes.

Garlic Rosemary Dough

  • Add remaining ingredients to bowl of KA stand mixer fitted with dough hook. Stir to mix on speed 2, then knead for 5-7 minutes on speed 4 until the dough is smooth and elastic. Add a few spoons of wholewheat flour if the dough is too wet, or a tbsp or two of water if too dense. We are looking for a soft dough.
  • Form into a ball, drizzle over with a little olive oil, cover the bowl with cling-wrap or a wet kitchen towel. Leave to rise in a warm, draft free place for an hour or two until doubled.
  • Preheat oven to 200C.
  • Divide dough into 2, knock back a little and make 2 balls. Flatten gently into the base of a lightly oiled round baking tin. I used the Kitchen Aid non stick 9" pie pan. All their bakeware is excellent.

Topping

  • Make indents into the surface, generously pour over extra virgin olive oil, allowing it to get into the indents.
  • Scatter fresh rosemary, walnuts, olives and Himalayan pink rock salt over the top.
  • Drizzle a little more extra virgin olive oil over.
  • Leave covered with a kitchen towel until the oven preheats.
  • Bake for approximately 30 minutes until golden brown and done. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Baking | Cheese Garlic Rosemary Eggless Brioche … goodness of cheese & bread

“Life is great. Cheese makes it better.”
Avery Aames

Cheese Garlic Rosemary Eggless Brioche is everything you might want in bread, then some more. Yes, with the weather changing, or rather showing some sign of cooling down, I’m back to bread baking quite a bit. For those who know me, I love a good stuffed bread. Give me a French Fougasse that is bursting with the goodness of cheese, walnuts and garlic and I promise I will not complain. Actually, for the baker in me, the process of making the bread from scratch is seriously therapeutic. The end result always worth waiting for. After all, how much wrong can you go with bread?If you’ve been baking bread for a few years like me, you’ll know that simple is best. Yeast that works, good quality ingredients, flavours that pair well, a handsome dose of some delicious cheese, some nuts. What else? Oh yes, fresh herbs too. Always a winning combination and such a crowd pleaser. And if you know me, you’ll know of my love for dairy and that any eggy flavours don’t work with me, especially with breads.

So I thought I’d do a brioche style enriched dough, but chose to skip the eggs. Because eggs give volume to baking and bread, so the absence means that this dough does’t rise much. Yet stuffing it with all things good makes it better than a normal brioche. I used an absolutely delicious Red Cheddar from Godrej Nature‘s Basket for the brioche. The gourmet cheese store offers you the option of having the cheese grated, sliced or cubed if required. I had it grated, and that I found very handy, a tiny yet welcome luxury!The bread was gone before I knew it. With so many fabulous things within, eating the Cheese Garlic Rosemary Eggless Brioche was literally like nibbling a cheeseboard! Serve pears, apples, grapes, olives, cold cuts on the side, maybe a nice smoked cheese too. The bread takes care of the rest. The rolling up is quite simple, the slicing through and twirling a tad more complex. If you aren’t up to playing with your dough, plaiting it etc like I enjoy doing, you can always just cut the roll into 1″ circles, bake them flat in a square pan.

The bread is on the indulgent side, a little healthier since I added some wholewheat flour as well. Also better than most breads as it is a virtual mini meal in itself. Since it’s rolled thin and well stuffed,the carbs come down, and with it a little guilt too. It’s a good bread for friends, to gift, to nibble. It’s also entirely customisable to your palette. Use any variety of cheese you like. My next one is going to be a smoked cheese, sundried tomato and olive brioche.

Use stuffing that you enjoy, let your imagination lead you. I’m thinking pizza sauce, salami, olives, mozzarella … and roll! Also a herbed garlic chili oil, feta, walnuts, olive, smoked cheese … and roll! I’m thinking many good things, combinations that work for a bread like this. The Cheese Garlic Rosemary Eggless Brioche makes a great make ahead snack for the evening, sliced thin like biscotti, also a very welcome tiffin filler.

Just make sure the cheese is good, the ingredients are fresh. The rest will fall into place!

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Cheese Garlic Rosemary Eggless Brioche

With so many fabulous things within, eating the Cheese Garlic Rosemary Eggless Brioche is literally like nibbling a cheeseboard! Serve pears, apples, grapes, olives, cold cuts on the side, maybe a nice smoked cheese too. The bread takes care of the rest.
Course Appetizer, Side Dish, Snack
Cuisine Italian
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Total Time 2 hours 50 minutes
Servings 4 people

Ingredients

Yeast starter

  • 1/4 cup plain flour
  • 1/2 tsp brown sugar
  • 1 tbsp yeast
  • 1/4 cup water

Enriched eggless dough

  • 1 cup plain flour
  • 1/2 cup wholewheat flour
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 65 g clarified butter room temperature
  • 2 tbsp milk {as required}

Filling

  • 1 tsp roasted red chili flakes
  • 2 tsp dried Italian herbs
  • 2 cloves garlic, grated fine
  • 1 cup grated mature cheddar 150g
  • 1/2 cup toasted walnuts chopped
  • Few sprigs rosemary chopped

Instructions

Yeast starter

  • Place ingredients in a small bowl, stir. Leave to rest for 5 minutes to activate the yeast

Enriched eggless dough

  • Place yeast starter and all ingredients except milk in bowl of food processor. Knead to a soft smooth dough, adding a tbsp or two of milk as required.
  • Place in a bowl covered with cling wrap in a warm place to rise, approximately 2 hours OR leave to slow rise in the fridge overnight. I prefer an overnight rise since the chilled dough is easier to roll out.

Cheese Garlic Rosemary Eggless Brioche

  • In a small bowl, stir together extra virgin olive oil, chili, herbs and garlic.
  • Roll out dough to a rectangle, 12" X 8". Spread the seasoned oil all over with a pastry brush.
  • Sprinkle over with chopped walnuts,then grated cheese and rosemary.
  • Roll up the longer edge to form a tight Swiss roll. Gently seal the open end and transfer to parchment lined baking sheet.
  • With a sharp knife, cut right through the centre, lengthwise, leaving one end attached. Gently plait the two, and tuck in the ends. Leave to rise 30 mins while you preheat the oven.
  • Bake at 180C for 30 minutes.

Mango Almond Roulade … making the most of the season


“Don’t sit at home and wait for mango tree to bring mangoes to you wherever you are. It won’t happen. If you are truly hungry for change, go out of your comfort zone and change the world.”
Israelmore Ayivor

Mango Almond Roulade with almond whipped cream. Light. Fresh. Delicious. Part wholegrain. To make it even better, filled with fresh mangoes swathed in beautifully whipped almond cream. Some things are just better with mango!

So here’s another last minute mango based dessert to add to the last few mango desserts I shared, while we hang on to the end of the mango season. Just another clutch of days, maybe a week or so, and they’ll be gone.

However don’t panic if you can’t find some juicy mangoes. I’ve made this to great deliciousness with tinned peaches, fresh strawberries, a coffee whipped cream too {skip the almond maybe go with chopped walnuts}.

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Mango Almond Roulade with almond whipped cream

Mango Almond Roulade with almond whipped cream. Light. Fresh. Delicious. Part wholegrain. To make it even better, filled with fresh mangoes swathed in beautifully whipped almond cream. Some things are just better with mango!
Course Dessert
Cuisine French
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 40 minutes
Total Time 55 minutes
Servings 6 people

Ingredients

Almond Sponge

  • 3 eggs
  • 1/2 cup + 1 tbsp almond meal
  • 1/2 cup + 1 tbsp plain flour
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • pinch salt
  • 1/2 cup Castor sugar
  • 2-3 drops almond extract
  • 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

Whipped Almond Cream

  • 300 ml low fat cream chilled
  • 25 ml clarified butter/ghee
  • 4-5 drops almond extract
  • 50 g icing sugar {adjust as per taste}
  • 1 large mango peeled , diced

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 180C and line a Swiss roll tin with baking parchment.

  • Sift together the almond meal, plain flour, baking powder and salt 2-3 times. Reserve.
  • In a bowl of the stand mixer, whip the egg with sugar on high speed to stiff peaks.
  • Add the vanilla extract and almond extract and beat again.
  • Sift the flour over the beaten mixture and gently fold in.
  • Pour batter into prepared pan, level out.
  • Bake for about 20-25 minutes until light golden brown and firm to touch. {tent the top with aluminum foil if you think it’s getting too brown}
  • While this is baking, lay out a clean kitchen towel, bigger than the size of the tray, and sift sugar evenly over it.
  • Once the roll is baked, overturn immediately {very carefully} onto the sugar sifted towel, and gently peel parchment off. Trim the edges if required.
  • Place a parchment sheet on top, and roll with the towel lengthwise, and leave to cool completely. {The longer side will be the length of the roll}

Whipped Almond Cream

  • Place all ingredients in a large bowl. Whip with an electric hand blender on the highest speed until thick.

Assembling

  • Unroll the cooled cake, place on a sheet of parchment. Spread the almond cream filling over it with an offset spatula, leaving a little border right around to avoid the filling oozing out.
  • Sprinkle over with chopped mangoes.
  • Now with the help of the parchment paper, roll it right back into a roll, pulling the paper slightly to make a tight roll. Place seam down on cling wrap and chill for a couple of hours. Unwrap gently and lay seam side down on your serving platter.
  • Sift over with powdered sugar, scatter almond slivers over it.
  • Slice with a sharp serrated knife and serve!
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