Tag: holiday baking

Baking | Simple Straightforward Delicious 100% Wholewheat Pizza … #cleaneating

“I want to live in a world where the need for pizza belittles that of war.”
Jason Barnett

100% Wholewheat Pizza … nothing else. Simple, clean, quick, delicious and versatile. As I mentioned recently, I have a few good to go recipes that I hold in my head. Most involve eye balling, throwing into the KitchenAid stand mixer rather rapidly, mixing in all at once, and then leaving the yeast to rise to the occasion. Life gets tiring at times with so much going on. For times like those, simple is best. If it can go wholegrain, even better.

There’s nothing to this recipe. In line with my recent experiments, I use cultured buttermilk {available as plain chaach in the local market} to knead the dough as a substitute to water. Chemistry falls flat with me, schooling largely forgotten, but possibly yeast with the added culture does work in there to allow for a quick rise. You could add a spice blend, minced garlic or herbs to the dough as well. I added a dash of Genoa to perk up the grilled vegetables for the topping, the topping inspired from Epicurious. I’m giving away a set of spice blends away here, so you can try and enter if you like. The spice blend paired well with the vegetables and herbs. Worked a charm. Bland vegetables like eggplant and mushrooms take really well to added flavours. Just herbs, garlic and lime also work really well.

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100% Wholewheat Pizza

Simple, quick, fuss free, this 'loaded with goodness' 100% Wholewheat Pizza will keep the young and old all happy. Base done, fix the toppings as you like, else there is a recipe below. Recipe can be easily doubled.
Course Appetiser, Main Course, Snack
Cuisine Italian
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Total Time 45 minutes
Servings 2 people

Ingredients

100% Wholewheat Pizza

  • 1 cup wholewheat flour
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp yeast
  • pinch sugar
  • 125-150 ml cultured buttermilk tepid
  • 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
  • 1/2 tsp Himalayan pink rock salt

Topping

  • 3-4 long eggplants sliced
  • 10-15 button mushrooms quartered
  • 3-4 cloves garlic sliced
  • 2 tsp fresh herbs
  • Juice of 1/2 lime
  • 1 tbsp Sprig Genoa spice blend
  • 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 tomato chopped into 1/2" bits
  • 1/2 cup sweet corn
  • 4 tbsp jalapeno cream cheese
  • 4 tbsp pizza sauce
  • 200 g mozzarella

Instructions

100% Wholewheat Pizza

  • Place everything except buttermilk in bowl of stand mixer. Stir on low speed for 3 seconds, with knead hook attached. Begin pouring in the buttermilk, a little at a time, till you get a soft dough that begins to comes together.
  • Increase the speed and knead for 7-8 minutes on speed 5 until you get a smooth elastic dough. Add a little more buttermilk f the dough is dry, or some more flour if the dough is too wet. {Every brand of four has a different absorption capacity. I usually eyeball the amount.}
  • Transfer to an oiled bowl {or leave in in the KA bowl like I do}, cover with cling-wrap and leave in a draft free place to rise for an hour, until doubled. {You can also leave it in the fridge overnight for a slow rise}

Topping

  • Toss the eggplant slices with 1/2 tsp salt, and leave in colander for 30 minutes. Squeeze out excess water, then toss with mushrooms, spice blend, garlic, lime, olive oil and fresh herbs.
  • Grill in hot oven for 10 minutes then leave to cool.
  • Toss tomatoes with freshly chopped mint and basil and some salt, Place over a colander to allow excess water to drain out. Mix into the grilled vegetables.
  • Preheat the oven to 180C.
  • Divide the dough into 2 or 4 as desired.
  • Roll out quite thin {we like thin crust pizzas}, or as thick as you like. Brush with extra virgin olive oil, and lightly sprinkle with Himalayan rock salt.
  • Place of a parchment lined baking tray and bake for 15 minutes until golden brown. Cool a little.
  • Assemble
  • Give the base a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil, then a smear of cheese spread, followed by one of pizza sauce.
  • Top with the grilled mixed vegetables and sweet corn, grate over mozzarella.
  • Bake for 10 minutes in a hot oven just until the cheese melts and the vegetables get warmed through.
  • Garnish with chili flakes, fresh herbs. Serve immediately.

Baking | Wholegrain Oatmeal Cinnamon Chocolate Chip Cookies. Chewy or crisp, pure comfort food any which way #makehalfyourgrainswhole

“Empty?! You took all the cookies!”
“They were crying to get out of the jar. Cookies get claustrophobia too, you know!”
Charles M. Schulz

Wholegrain Oatmeal Cinnamon Chocolate Chip Cookies. These are cookies that spell “P U R E  C O M F O R T”. Cookies are often the best bites to happiness, the shortest route to instant gratification. Even better if you bake them at home. These were just that and more. Some afternoons, I want need to just steal into the kitchen and bake myself into oblivion. There are a few hits and misses on days like these.Did I tell you that summer is practically here? Yes we’re on the border where spring meets summer. That means a few days of precious mulberries, curry tree blossoms, lime tree blossoms, kumquats too. Tomatoes that will hopefully ripen to a sun kissed red, then we look at notoriously high temperatures of 45C and above.

With the summer heat increasing, and the mercury literally rising by a degree everyday, summer baking needs to be minimal, quick and very fuss free. These cookies were surprisingly all this and more. They turned out darned delicious too. Inspired and adapted from a popular cookie by Deb @ Smitten Kitchen, I made mine wholegrain.

My obsession with the #makehalfyourgrainswhole often works well. With cookies, it’s a near 100% pass rate. I’ve really never understood why brownies or cookies should use refined flour since they taste really great with wholegrain. I recently made wholewheat shortbread too, a recipe I still have to share. That was another winner.These are as simple as can be. Stir a dry mix, whip the wet mix, stir gently to mix the two and you’ve got great tasting cookie dough. If the eggs are pasteurised, you could eat the dough by itself!! It tastes that good! I know because I had a little helper who was stealing away bits of dough!

So here we go. Get the stand mixer going, and in 2 minutes you have cookie dough. I love the big handy bowl of the KitchenAid. Best design ever. If cookies are comfort food, the KitchenAid is equally comforting, magical too!

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Wholegrain Oatmeal Cinnamon Chocolate Chip Cookies

Wholegrain Oatmeal Cinnamon Chocolate Chip Cookies that come together in a matter of minutes, fuss free and absolutely delicious. That they are 100% wholegrain makes them a winner. Swap the chocolate chips for raisins, maybe add some walnuts, or make them coffee chocolate chip cookies. Either way, these will disappear before you know it! This is pure comfort food.
Course Snack
Cuisine American
Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 15 minutes
Total Time 25 minutes
Servings 20 cookies

Ingredients

Dry Mix

  • 75 g wholewheat flour {aata}
  • 120 g oats
  • 3/4 tsp baking soda
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 75 g dark chooclate chips

Wet Mix

  • 100 g unsalted butter, room temperature
  • 115 g brown sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 15 g yogurt
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 3/4 tsp cinnamon powder

Instructions

  • Place all the dry ingredients in a large bowl and stir to mix.
  • Place all the wet mix ingredients in bowl of KitchenAid Stand Mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment, and process for 2 minutes on speed 3.
  • Add the dry mix and stir with paddle attachment on slowest speed for 30 seconds.
  • Let the mixture stand/rest while you preheat the oven to 180C {15-20 minutes}
  • Line 2 baking sheets with parchment.
  • Place scoops of cookie dough on the parchment, 2 inches apart,12 on each sheet. Flatten gently with the tines of a fork. {Sprinkle over a few more chocolate chips if you are feeling particularly indulgent}
  • Bake for 15-20 minutes, until the edges are done, light golden brown, and the centre is still a little soft. {Bake further 5 minutes if you like crisp cookies}.
  • Remove tray from oven, allow to stand for 5 minutes, then cool the cookies completely on the rack.

Dark Chocolate Wholewheat & Walnut Cupcakes

“That is one good thing about this world
…there are always sure to be more springs.”
L.M. Montgomery

Dark Chocolate Wholewheat & Walnut Cupcakes, indulgent little treats for days when you want something to go from simple to simply delicious in a matter of minutes. These wholegrain cupcakes are just that and more. Easy to stir together with almost staple pantry ingredients, they are light, moist and full of chocolaty flavour. Have them as they are ‘naked’ if that’s your call, else spruce them up with a sinful dark chocolate ganache, some sprinkles if you like, and voila! You have magic {if I may say so myself}. That these are wholewheat, use jaggery as a sweetener and top of the milk cream or ‘malai’ make them worth the try!!

These cupcakes are inspired by the sweet Shikha of Cocoka,  who I met at my very first food styling workshop with Darter. She’s been difficult to shake off, and has attended each one of the other workshops, the sweetheart that she is. So she baked these absolutely delicious cupcakes in these absolute stunning liners, with the most delicious ganache on top for our last food styling workshop at Lodi.

She also gifted me some of those beautiful Spring like cupcake wrappers when I waxed eloquent about them. Non stop! I couldn’t believe how pretty they were. So here I was, armed with the prettiest ever cupcake wrappers and a need to bake that very day. Maybe something chocolate, possibly brownie cupcakes. With Spring here, the weather brilliant, these cases were all I wanted to use.

Setting off to make home made butter in the KitchenAid Stand Mixer, which is a BREEZE by the way, I stole some cream just because. Just because I suddenly remembered this top of the milk cream {malai} cake, Dark Chocolate & Walnut Wholewheat Cake I had made a while ago, falling prey to a similar feeling then. So here you are, cupcakes adapted from that cake, cupcakes that came out really YUM. Wrappers like these must be the reason because they inspire you to excel! Honestly, good aesthetics give me a spring in my step, a reason to enjoy what I do a little more. What I didn’t manage very well was the piping as I haven’t piped ganache onto cupcakes in eons. Guess that’s what I will be practicing next, in my dreams immediately if not on cupcakes. Shikha received several SOS calls and now I am a little better educated. Her tips – let the ganache rest a bit, then whisk it again before piping. Notes taken for next time!

Dark Chocolate Wholewheat & Walnut Cupcakes
 
Recipe Type: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Author: Deeba Rajpal
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 6 cupcakes
These Dark Chocolate Wholewheat & Walnut Cupcakes are easy to stir together with almost staple pantry ingredients, they are light, moist and full of chocolaty flavour. Have them as they are ‘naked’ if that’s your call, else spruce them up with a sinful dark chocolate ganache, some sprinkles if you like, and voila! You have magic {if I may say so myself}. That these are wholewheat, use jaggery as a sweetener and top of the milk cream or ‘malai’ make them worth the try!!
Ingredients
  • Cupcakes
  • Wet Mix
  • 85ml top of the milk cream {malai}
  • 75g jaggery
  • 1 egg
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
  • Dry Mix
  • 85g wholewheat flour
  • 30g Cocoa
  • Pinch salt
  • 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/8 tsp baking soda
  • 50g walnuts, chopped
  • 50g butterscotch chips, optional
  • 75ml buttermilk
  • Ganache
  • 225g 52% dark couverture chocolate, chopped
  • 100ml low fat cream
Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 180C. Place 6 cupcake wrappers on a baking tray {or line a 6 mold muffin tray}
  2. Place dry mix ingredients in a bowl, and stir well to mix
  3. Place the wet mix ingredients in bowl of stand mixer, and whisk at speed 4 for 2-3 minutes. Mixture might look slightly curdled but that’s OK.
  4. Gently fold in 1/3 of dry mix, followed by half buttermilk. Repeat ending with dry mix.
  5. Spoon into cupcake/muffin cases, 3/4 full. Bake for 35 minutes, until tester comes out moist with a few crumbs hanging. Cool on racks.
  6. Serve warm or at room temperature if sans frosting. If you are frosting them, cool completely before piping the ganache on.
  7. Ganache
  8. Place chopped chocolate and cream in a heatproof bowl and run at high in the microwave for 1 minute. Stir until smooth, then leave it to rest to cool and thicken. Whisk again before piping.
  9. Pipe onto cupcakes with a star nozzle.
Serving size: 6-8
3.5.3208

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Blueberry Frangipane Wholegrain Tray Bake, the galette that became a tray bake!

“I’ll be back before you can say Blueberry pie.”
Bruce Willis {Pulp Fiction}

Blueberry Frangipane Wholegrain Tray Bake, a tray that happened just because the galette failed. A friend recently got me some blueberries and they were a source  of constant inspiration. The pretty little deep blue berries had me fascinated. All day long I thought of how best to use them. Muffins, galettes, cheesecake, trifle, ice cream and so much more. Finally settled for a wholewheat galette!

What I ended up with was obviously far from it. While I was really pleased with the galette when it went into the oven, ten minutes later, I stared at a virtual meltdown. Disaster had struck. Like the rivers of Babylon, how the dough spread. The pastry spread to make a base, while everything else merrily leveled above it. Heartbroken, I left the disaster to bake, slamming the oven door shut in horror.I let it be for quite a bit, sitting to cool in the oven because I was heartbroken. Nothing much I could do I figured, and set out to make a trifle. Upcycle as Ruchira had cleverly suggested at my overbaked batch of Wholegrain Butterscotch Blondies. It made the most fab ‘Upcycled‘ Butterscotch Blondie Pudding not so long ago. Clearly the more often I bake, the higher the chances of upcycling! Yet one look at the now settled tray seemed to suggest that all wasn’t lost. I stamped out shapes to salvage a few decent round cut outs while happy hungry mouths nibbled the left over edges away. No chance for trifles!! Turned out pretty delicious, and hence the Blueberry Frangipane Wholegrain Tray Bake was born. I’ve scaled the ingredients to match the tray bake, just the base has been reduced, while the rest remains pretty much the same. I did a test run with strawberries yesterday and that came out just as good too!

Recipe: Blueberry Frangipane Wholegrain Tray Bake

Summary: Moist, full of wholesome almond and fruit flavour, here’s a tray bake that you might enjoy. The Blueberry Frangipane Wholegrain Tray Bake is a quick and fuss free bake for times when berries are in plenty. Makes one 8″ X 8″ tray.

Prep Time: 15 minutes
Total Time: 45 minutes
Ingredients:

  • Wholewheat biscuit base
  • 110g wholewheat flour
  • 60g unsalted butter, chilled, chopped
  • 15g brown sugar
  • Pinch salt
  • 10ml apple cider vinegar
  • 40-50ml water
  • Frangipane
  • 75g butter
  • 75g brown sugar
  • 75g almond meal
  • 2 eggs
  • 1/2 tsp almond extract
  • 1 vanilla bean scraped
  • 150g Blueberries {or strawberries, cherries, peaches etc}
  • Almond flakes for garnishing

Method:

  1. Wholewheat biscuit base
  2. Place wholewheat flour, butter, brown sugar and salt in bowl of food processor and process briefly until you have a coarse mix. The butter should be pea sized.
  3. Add the vinegar and process briefly, then gently pour in enough water until it just about begins to come together when you pinch it between your fingertips. Don’t over work, else the pastry will become tough.
  4. Line the base of an 8″ X 8″ baking tin {or 7″ X 11″} with parchment paper. Lightly grease sides.
  5. Press the biscuit it evenly to line the bottom.
  6. Chill for 20 minutes while you preheat the oven, and make the frangipane.
  7. Frangipane
  8. Place butter, almond meal and brown sugar in same bowl of food processor and blend to mix.
  9. Add remaining ingredients and briefly process to mix. { Can be stirred together in a big bowl too.}
  10. Assemble
  11. Preheat the oven to 180C.
  12. Spread the frangipane over the chilled biscuit base, and scatter the blueberries over.
  13. Bake for 30-35 minutes, until the frangipane feels set.
  14. Allow to cool for 30 minutes, then cut into squares or bars.
  15. Serve with unsweetened cream and extra berries if desired.

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Wholegrain Dark Chocolate Almond Biscotti

“So much chocolate, so little time.”

Wholegrain Dark Chocolate Almond Biscotti … chocolate yet again because it was a hurried baking batch. Same story, different biscotti. With the better half set to travel and a last minute change in plans, I had little to almost no time to bake. I hurriedly threw these together this morning adapted from a recipe from Smitten Kitchen. One stop over at Deb’s blog, or leafing through her cookbook, leaves you inspired to hit baking mode.

For me chocolate is one of the easiest and most forgiving mediums to bake with. With my hashtag #makehalfyourgrainswhole, I can blindly experiment, knowing in the end we’ll have something edible, if not delicious. Going the whole food way has been possibly one of the most satisfying journeys of my life, if not the most exciting. Makes me want to constantly experiment, try new things. That makes life a lot less mundane too. This biscotti did just that giving me room to change things around.

Hazelnuts out. Almonds in. I added butter since I often find biscotti a little ‘skinny’ or dry. Personal choice definitely but a delicious end nevertheless. I also added dark couverture chocolate just because I like cookies that have deep, chocolaty flavour. Cocoa powder often is not enough to get you the indulgent edge. Since I threw these together with limited time on hand, I cut the slices quite thick. Taking advice from my chef friend Ruchira, next time I will freeze them a bit to try and get thinner biscotti. That is my dream and hopefully I get there one day. Biscotti with plain flour behaves a lot easier for thin slices, is also easier to handle. Thick chunky biscotti is a healthy trade off I guess!!

Recipe: Wholegrain Dark Chocolate Almond Biscotti

Summary: Comfort cookies with deep chocolaty flavour, and toasted almonds just hitting the right notes. Wholegrain Dark Chocolate Almond Biscotti might just be the answer for comfort food; never mind what the question is!!

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

  • 75g almonds, toasted, roughly chopped
  • 50g unsalted butter
  • 75g dark chocolate
  • 1 tbsp espresso powder
  • 3 eggs
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 150g wholewheat flour
  • 60g all purpose flour
  • 40g almond meal
  • 30g good quality cocoa powder
  • Pinch of salt
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 3/4 tsp baking powder
  • 200g brown sugar

Method:

  1. Preheat oven to 180C. Line a heavy baking tray with parchment.
  2. Melt the butter and chocolate in the microwave, 1 min. Stir until smooth, then stir in espresso powder.
  3. In a large bowl stir together wholewheat flour, plain flour, almond meal, cocoa powder, salt, baking powder, baking soda, sugar and chopped almonds.
  4. Place the egg and vanilla extract in bowl of stand mixer. Whisk on high speed for 15 seconds, then add melted chocolate mix and stir on low speed for 15 seconds to combine.
  5. Add the dry mix and run mixer for 20-30 seconds on slow speed to combine. Don’t over work.
  6. Turn out onto work surface and divide into 2. Form into 2 long flat logs about 8-10″ long {or as desired}
  7. Transfer to prepared baking sheet, brush gently with water, and sprinkle over with brown sugar.
  8. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until firm to touch.
  9. Remove tray from oven, allow to cool for 5-10 minutes, then slice at an angle as thin as you like with a good sharp serrated knife.
  10. Reduce oven temperature to 150C. Return the sliced cookies back to the tray, cut side down {and up of course!} and bake for a further 20-25 minutes until crisp and dry.
  11. Cool completely on racks before storing.

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White Chocolate Cheesecake with balsamic strawberries

“All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn’t hurt.”
Charles M. Schulz

White Chocolate Cheesecake with balsamic  strawberry topping, music to this bakers ears. I’m not one for cheesy baking on V Day; possibly the last one who’ll bake for the day. Yet, I am a sucker for good recipes that catch my eye, and this one certainly did. A white chocolate cheesecake with ingredients as many as the fingers on my hand would tempt any baker or cheesecake lover. It certainly tempted me!

The minute I saw BetterButters fun video, part of their V Day series, to get men into the kitchen to bake something simple for their loved ones, they had me in the loop. If the first frame lists 5 simple ingredients, 4 of which are already there, then what’s to stop this rabid baker? Not much!! All it took was a trip to the local grocery store, grab some cream cheese, also some thyme that happened to be there, and I was set. I always have strawberries at home since they are so much in season these days.

It’s a simple recipe, S I M P L E. Make sure you see the video twice. First to enjoy the ease, and next, if you are like me, to jot down the steps. Else grab someone a willing soul, asking them to play the video as you go along. One thing I always do is follow the main recipe as is the first time. This was super fun, and I am going to bake this again soon. You know the other thing what I loved about the recipe? The natural quintessential cheesecake sink in the centre that holds the delicious filling.

A few things I might change. Maybe make the white chocolate cheesecake with quark the next time around. I am not a huge fan of Britannia Cream Cheese as the slight saltiness creeps through and takes away somewhat the joy and beauty of white chocolate. Talking about white chocolate, make sure you use good quality white chocolate. With as little as 5 ingredients in the cheesecake, each one counts in the end.

This is a great great recipe for beginners, for bakers, for cheesecake lovers and especially for people like me who need a springboard for creativity. I have already begun dreaming of what else I can do with this. For now, enjoy it as it is, a beautiful White Chocolate Cheesecake with balsamic  strawberry topping. You could even do a light jelly topping that BetterButter did, but try this recipe you must! You can download the BetterButter app here – https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=in.betterbutter.android

Recipe: White Chocolate Cheesecake

Summary: White Chocolate Cheesecake with balsamic strawberry topping  is a great  recipe for beginners, for bakers, for cheesecake lovers and especially for people like me who need a springboard for creativity. You could even do a light jelly topping that Better Butter did, but try this recipe you must! Makes a 7″ cheesecake

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour
Ingredients:

  • White Chocolate Cheesecake
  • 200g white chocolate, melted {I used white baking chocolate}
  • 200g Cream Cheese {Britannia}
  • 4 eggs, separated
  • pinch of salt
  • 1 vanilla bean, scraped
  • 1/2 tsp strawberry extract
  • Topping
  • 150g strawberries, quartered
  • 40g brown sugar
  • 1-2 tbsp water
  • 1 tsp balsamic vinegar
  • 1 vanilla bean shell
  • 1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
  • Garnish
  • Fresh strawberries, thyme

Method:

  1. White Chocolate Cheesecake
  2. Preheat the oven to 180C. Line a 7″ dessert ring or a loose bottomed baking tin.
  3. Place egg whites with a pinch of salt in the bowl of a stand mixer and whisk until stiff peaks form
  4. In the meantime, place the melted white chocolate, egg yolks and cream cheese in a large bowl and whisk until smooth. Add vanilla and strawberry extract and whisk again.
  5. Add 1-2 tbsp of the beaten whites to loosen the mixture, then gently fold the rest in. I turned the chocolate mix into the bowl of the KitchenAid stand mixer as it is a large very convenient bowl to mix in.
  6. Transfer batter to prepared tin and bake for 15 minutes. Reduce temperature to 150C and bake for a further15 minutes. Finally, reduce the temperature to 120C and bake for another 15-20 minutes.
  7. Allow to cool completely in tin, then chill for a few hours or overnight. Gently demold and place on serving platter.
  8. Top with strawberry topping, and scatter fresh thyme over.
  9. Topping
  10. Place all ingredients in a heavy bottom non-reactive saucepan. Simmer gently until thick and jam like. Taste and adjust sweetness if required. Cool. {Can be made a day or so in advance}

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