BAJRA DOSA

Posted in Small Dishes, Vegetarian-friendly, Veggies by sallybr

I consider this a work in progress… This was my second attempt, the first was quite catastrophic, if I am to be honest. The recipe, as well as a very detailed video, is available at Naturally Nidhi, a blog I love and always teases me into expanding my cooking horizons. You will need millet flour, and a special skillet - tava is the real thing – but I used a non-stick crepe pan. I loved the flavor and the texture, even if my dosa did not look nearly as perfect and gorgeous as Nidhi’s.

INSTANT BAJRA DOSA
(slightly modified from Naturally Nidhi)

1/2 cup bajra (pearl millet) flour
1/2 cup water
Batter:
1/2 carrot , grated
1 tbsp cilantro , finely chopped
1 green chili , finely chopped
1/4 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp salt , adjust to taste
1 cup water
oil or ghee to drizzle over the dosas while cooking

Mix together the bajra flour and 1/2 cup water. Let this rest covered on the countertop for about an hour. This will help the bajra flour soak up the water and ensure the dosa doesn’t have any cracks. Once soaked, add in the remaining water, vegetables, and spices. Mix well. The consistency of the batter should be thin and runny. Make sure you only add the salt once you’re ready to make the dosas.
Heat a nonstick pan until it is very hot. To check if the temperature is right, sprinkle some water on it and it should sizzle immediately.

Wipe off the water from the tava or crepe pan. Stir the dosa batter to ensure it doesn’t settle, make sure to do this everytime before you transfer it to the pan. Pour about 1/4 cup of the water in a circular motion from about 8 inches above the surface of the pan. You should immediately see a net shape form. If there’s large holes, you can pour a little extra batter to fill the big gaps.

Turn the gas to medium-low flame, pour a tsp of oil or ghee over the dosa, and be patient as you let it become golden brown and crisp. Once you see brown spots on the top of the netting, the dosa is ready. Carefully scrape it from all sides and fold gently.

ENJOY!

to print the recipe, click here

Comments: I first made it with Bob Mill’s millet flour, and that did not work very well, so I tried it again with a different type of flour and had better results. I ordered it here. The pan needs to be very hot when you first add the watery batter, but then, if you are using a crepe pan, make sure to reduce the heat and be patient. Cook it until it is looking dry all the way from edges to center. That will ensure the dosa won’t be doughy and uncooked in the center. And it will fold nicely when you use a spatula to do so. I feel that I need to practice more, but I am a lot more confident after my first failed attempt. Make sure to watch Nidhi’s video that shows exactly how to pour the batter, so that you get a lacy pattern as it cooks. It is not easy to cook something you’ve never had and that is also quite different from the food you grew up with. But I love the challenge!

Make sure to visit Nidhi’s blog, it is a fascinating source of recipes and information…

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10Feb2024

BAKING WITH THE HEART

Posted in Breads, Cake, Chocolate Bonbons, Cookies by sallybr

WELCOME TO MY 1700th POST!

Valentine’s Day is almost here! Some don’t care for it, some enjoy each minute. Whatever team you are on, here are some bakes that you can try this week, or anytime love is on your horizon… Without further ado, one recipe and eight ideas for you. Read on…

.
BLUEBERRY CURD SWISS ROLL CAKE
(filling adapted from Caroline’s blog)

for the decoration:
50g butter, softened
50g powdered sugar
50g egg whites
50g all-purpose flour
black and red gel colors

for the cake:
130g cake flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
5 large eggs, at room temperature
200 g granulated sugar
Zest of 1 lemon
1/2 teaspoon lemon extract
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
¼ teaspoon kosher salt
2 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled

for the filling:
https://www.easyonlinebakinglessons.com/blueberry-orange-curd/
I did not use plums, and used a little gelatin to thicken it further (see comments).

Make the piping decoration by beating the butter with powdered sugar in a small bowl until fully combined. I used a hand-held electric mixer. Add the egg whites and beat for a couple of minutes. Add the flour and mix by hand with a spoon, divide in one small portion to dye black, one larger portion to dye red.

Make a diamond pattern with a Sharpie pen on parchment paper, and add heart shapes. Flip the paper so that the writing is at the bottom, and pipe the outline black. Freeze for 10 minutes. Quickly fill the hearts with red paste. Freeze again while you make the cake.

Heat oven to 350°F. Sift the flour and baking powder into a small bowl. Reserve. Place the eggs and sugar in the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Beat until the mixture form ribbons, about 12 minutes. Add the lemon zest, lemon extract and vanilla. Beat until combined. Sift the flour mixture over the beaten eggs, fold gently. When the flour is mostly incorporated, add a little bit of the mixture to the melted butter, whisk well. Pour that into the cake batter, whisk gently to disperse. Pour over the frozen parchment paper placed in a half baking sheet, and smooth the surface.

Bake the cake until it begins to pull away from the sides, 12 to 17 minutes.

Transfer the pan to a cooling rack, cover the cake with a towel and let it cool for 10 minutes. Remove the towel, sift a little powdered sugar over the surface and flip it over parchment paper. Gently peel off the paper with the design, flip the cake again over a clean towel. Starting with a short side of the cake, roll the cake gently, using the towel to support the cake as you go. Let the cake cool all rolled up in the towel, seam side down.

Carefully unroll the completely cool cake, spread the blueberry curd filling, then roll it again. Wrap the cake in plastic and refrigerate for at least 3 hours, overnight is best. When ready to serve, slice a small piece of each of the ends, so that it looks more polished.

ENJOY!

to print the recipe, click here

Comments: I haven’t made a patterned roll cake in a while, so I really enjoyed this little adventure. I messed up while making the curd (sorry, Caro!), did not cook it enough, so after 10 hours in the fridge it was still too loose. Lesson learned. I made a gelatin mass with 1 tsp gelatin + 5 tsp water, warmed it to dissolve in the microwave. I heated up the curd to about 60 C and added the melted gelatin. Mixed well and allowed it to cool slowly, then placed in the fridge overnight. It was perfect to use next morning. Huge thank you to my friend Gary for the advice to deal with the curd. I added a very small amount of pink gel dye to the cake batter, but that is optional. I did not include in the recipe, as the cake will look perfectly ok without it.

The cake was moist and tender, the blueberry curd absolutely delicious!
The combination of orange and blueberry is a real winner, thank you Caro!

And now, time to share a few ideas, you can use any recipe you like, or some that are already in my blog

CHOCOLATE-COVERED OREOS

I used white Wilton candy melts to cover Lemon-flavored golden Oreos, and once that was set I made the heart decoration with Royal icing. First piped the black outline, let that set a bit and flooded the center with pink.

COMIC-STYLE HEART COOKIES

Comic-style, so popular these days! I followed a recent tutorial from Amber (join her club here) to make these babies. Some steps shown below.

POLKA-DOT HEART COOKIES

Super simple design, just flood, air-brush with a stencil and add some Royal icing transfers. A little bead border is of course more than welcome…

ZENTANGLE HEARTS, TWO WAYS

For a modern look, just flood with any color of your choice, and then use a food safe pen to draw the design…

For a modern but romantic look, just play with flowers…

BICOLOR HEART COOKIES

For those who do not care for icing, these will be a huge hit. Just mix two recipes, chocolate and plain, cut shapes and mix-and-match the centers. Bake and you are done!

MINI-BONBONS WITH MARSHMALLOW FILLING

I used candy melts to coat tiny silicone molds with heart shapes (available here). Placed a mini-marshmallow in the center and covered the molds with melted chocolate. Once that set, I un-molded the bonbons and drizzled white chocolate for the decoration, adding a little sprinkle heart on some of them.

POLKA-DOT HEART SOURDOUGH

For the recipe, check my blog post with a click here.

I hope you’ve found some inspiration in this post for your future bakes, and please enjoy the weekend ahead, particularly if you are a football fan!

ONE YEAR AGO: Roasted Cauliflower with Chickpeas and Quinoa

TWO YEARS AGO: A Savory Phyllo Pie

THREE YEARS AGO: Nut-Free Lady Grey Macarons

FOUR YEARS AGO: Mini-Heart Cakes for your Valentine

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ELEVEN YEARS AGO: Sesame and Flaxseed Sourdough

TWELVE YEARS AGO: Green Beans with Miso and Almonds

THIRTEEN YEARS AGO: Saturday Morning Scones

FOURTEEN YEARS AGO: White Bread

6Feb2024

CHINESE-STYLE ORANGE CHICKEN GOES LIGHT

Posted in Poultry by sallybr

We all know how tasty the classic Chinese-American concoction can be, but we also know that it is a true “caloric-bomb”. The chicken pieces are usually breaded, fried, and coated with a super sweet sticky sauce. Not that there’s anything wrong with it, but I normally refrain from ordering it when I go out for Chinese food. Not too long ago I saw this version on Averie Cooks, and made it for us.

CHINESE-STYLE ORANGE CHICKEN
(slightly modified from Averie Cooks)

1.25 pounds boneless skinless chicken breast, diced into bite-sized pieces
1/4 cup cornstarch
2 tablespoons toasted sesame oil
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 large oranges, juiced; plus more orange juice if necessary
1/3 cup tamari sauce (or light soy sauce)
1/4 cup honey
fresh cilantro to taste
additional salt to taste (optional)

To a large bowl or ziptop plastic bag, add the chicken, cornstarch, and toss or shake the bag to coat the chicken evenly; set aside. You may not need all the cornstarch. Try to go for a very light coating.

In a large skillet, add the oils, orange juice, soy sauce, honey, and the chicken pieces. Turn the heat to medium, and cook until chicken is done and cooked through; flip chicken and stir constantly. If the sauce is tightening or thickening up too much before the chicken has cooked through, add additional orange juice to thin it and keep stirring. Garnish with cilantro and serve immediately. Adjust seasoning with salt if needed.

ENJOY!

to print the recipe, click here

Comments: The original recipe called for double amount of cornstarch and the sauce became way too thick and almost unpleasant to our taste. I suggest you go for the minimum amount that will still coat the pieces of chicken very very lightly. The sauce will still thicken upon refrigeration, so leftovers will have to be gently warmed with some water or orange juice to bring it to a saucy consistency. The interesting bit of this recipe is that you don’t need to sautee the chicken pieces first, so essentially zero mess on the stove, and pretty nice texture on the meat, I was pleasantly surprised. Give it a try, and you might love it too!

The chicken tasted light and fresh, but it was still quite substantial as a main dish. We had it with white rice and pan-steamed broccoli, a recipe I cook probably once a week ever since I first blogged about it (check it out here). This is a simpler version, I just add olive oil and lemon juice after cooking.

ONE YEAR AGO: Roasted Cauliflower with Chickpeas and Quinoa

TWO YEARS AGO: A Savory Phyllo Pie

THREE YEARS AGO: Nut-Free Lady Grey Macarons

FOUR YEARS AGO: Mini-Heart Cakes for your Valentine

FIVE YEARS AGO: Blue Moon Milk

SIX YEARS AGO: Slow-Cooked Chicken Meatballs

SEVEN YEARS AGO: Zesty Flourless Chocolate Cake

EIGHT YEARS AGO: Maple Pumpkin Pecan Snacking Cake

NINE YEARS AGO: Silky Gingered Zucchini Soup

TEN YEARS AGO: Sweet Fifteen!

ELEVEN YEARS AGO: Sesame and Flaxseed Sourdough

TWELVE YEARS AGO: Green Beans with Miso and Almonds

THIRTEEN YEARS AGO: Saturday Morning Scones

FOURTEEN YEARS AGO: White Bread

2Feb2024

MEXICAN BOLILLOS

Posted in Breads by sallybr

Super excited to share these! Hubby loves them and always gets a bag at the grocery store, so I was tempted to bake them from scratch. My first attempt got over-baked and the crust was not as soft as the commercially available, but my second batch was pretty close to perfect, even if I say so myself… This is a very easy bread, made with instant yeast. From start to finish, about 3 hours.

MEXICAN BOLILLOS
(adapted from this post)

1 ½ cups warm water, plus more for steam baking
2 ¼ teaspoons active dry yeast (1 package)
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
500g all-purpose flour (about 4 cups)
2 teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons avocado oil (or another neutral oil)
vegetable oil spray (I used olive oil)

Prepare the yeast. Mix the water and sugar with the instant yeast. Let it stand for 5 minutes until it gets foamy. Prepare the dough. In the bowl of a stand mixer whisk together the all-purpose flour and salt.

Attach the dough hook to the mixer. Drizzle the oil over the yeast-water mixture, whisk a bit and with the machine running in low-speed, add the whole mixture to the bowl. Knead on the same low-speed for 7 minutes. The dough will be slightly sticky. If it seems too sticky, knead in 1 tablespoon of additional flour at a time until smooth and elastic. If it’s too dry, add a little water and keep kneading for another minute.

Place the dough in a slightly oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Proof at room temperature for about 90 minutes, when it should double in size. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Divide the dough in 6 equal pieces (I used a scale, they were about 148 g each), shape each as a little oblong bread, trying to mimic the shape of the bolillo as you form it.

Spray the surface lightly with olive oil. Cover with plastic loosely and let it rise for 45 minutes at room temperature. Meanwhile, heat the oven to 420F and 15 minutes before you bake the rolls, place a 9 x 13 pan in the bottom rack and add 10 cups of hot water inside. That will generate steam for the baking.

Slit the dough in the center, spray the rolls with a little water and bake for about 30 minutes. If they are darkening too much, reduce the temperature to 400F and cover the surface with foil. Bread is baked if internal temperature reaches 205F.

Let them cool for at least 20 minutes before serving.

ENJOY!

to print the recipe, click here

Comments: Such a fun little bread to make! Just make sure to not bake them too long, because the crust will get very dark and hard if you do. It is still great but not like the original. Here you see my first bake maybe you can tell the crust got a little too baked, but the crumb was still very nice, just a bit harder than the second batch.

I urge you to make these, they go well with so many fillings, and even just a smear of olive oil and balsamic if you like to keep it simple. I know I will keep making batches to have some in the freezer at all times, just like I do regularly with sourdough. It is just a different style of bread.

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29Jan2024

PEPPERMINT DUST MACARONS

Posted in macarons by sallybr

Embracing winter, one macaron at a time…

PEPPERMINT DUST MACARONS
(from The Bewitching Kitchen)

For the shells:
200g Icing/powdered sugar (1 ⅔ cups)
115 g Almond Meal (1 + scant ¼ cup)
115 g egg whites at room temperature (approx. 4 eggs)
1/8 tsp of cream of tartar (optional)
100 g granulated sugar (½ cup)
1/8 tsp vanilla extract
light blue food gel (I used Colour Mill Baby Blue)

Line 3 heavy baking sheets with parchment/baking paper or Silpat mats. Layer the powdered/icing sugar and ground almonds/almond meal in a food processor. Pulse until the mixture looks like fine meal, about 12 pulses. Pass through a sieve and transfer to a small bowl or to a sheet of parchment/baking paper. Set aside.

Place the egg whites and cream of tartar in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Make sure that the bowl and the whisk are impeccably clean. Starting on medium speed, whip the whites with the cream of tartar until they look like light foam. The whites should not appear liquid. The foam will be light and should not have any structure.

Slowly rain in the granulated sugar in five additions, trying to aim the stream between the whisk and the side of the bowl. Turn the speed up to high. Continue to whip the meringue until it is soft and shiny. It should look like marshmallow creme (marshmallow fluff). Add the vanilla and food gel color. Whip the egg whites until the mixture begins to dull and the lines of the whisk are visible on the surface of the meringue. Check the peak. It should be firm. Transfer the whites to a medium bowl.

Fold in the ground almond/almond meal mixture in two increments. Paint the mixture halfway up the side of the bowl, using the flat side of a spatula. Scrape the mixture down to the center of the bowl. Repeat two or three times, then check to see if the mixture slides slowly down the side of the bowl. Add drops of gel color and mix them briefly with a toothpick. Put the mixture in a piping bag fitted with your choice of piping tip (round, ¼ or ½ inch in diameter or 6 – 12 mm). If you don’t have a macaron mat, draw circles on baking/parchment paper about 2inches/5cm in diameter & turn the paper over before placing on the baking sheets. Pipe shells, I like to count numbers in my head and use the same count for each shell so they end up similar in size.

Slam each sheet hard four to six times on the counter/worktop. Let the unbaked macarons dry until they look dull but not overly dry. Drying time depends on humidity. In a dry climate, the macarons can dry in 15 to 20 minutes; in a humid climate, it can take 35 to 40 minutes.

While the macarons are drying, heat the oven to 300 F (150 C/130C Fan oven/Gas Mark 2). Bake one sheet at a time on the middle rack. Check in 11 minutes. If the tops slide or move (independently of the ‘feet’ when you gently twist the top), then bake for 2 to 3 more minutes. Check one or two. If they move when gently touched, put them back in the oven for 1 to 2 more minutes until they don’t move when touched. Let the macaroons cool for 10 minutes before removing from the pan. The macarons should release without sticking.

Assemble the macarons: find two macarons similar in size and add a good amount of filling to the bottom of one of them. Place the other on top and squeeze gently to take the filling all the way to the edge. Store in the fridge for 24 hours for perfect texture.

For the filling:

PEPPERMINT BUTTERCREAM
1 + 1/3 cups powdered sugar
4 tbsp unsalted butter softened
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
a couple tablespoons peppermint dust (I got mine on Marshall’s, similar to this)
1/2 -1 tbsp milk to adjust consistency, if needed

Whisk butter, powdered sugar and vanilla extract until light and fluffy. Mix gently the peppermint dust, adjust consistency with milk, if needed. Transfer to a piping bag fitted with a round tip. Match similar sized macaron shells with each other, fill and sandwich the cookies. Decorate the top with Royal icing in the shape of a snowflake and sanding sugar, if so desired, or leave them plain. Keep in the fridge for 24 hours for perfect texture.

ENJOY!

to print the recipe click here

Comments: After the incredibly amazing macaron masterpiece I shared with you, maybe this post should be named “Down to Earth Macarons”…. I am still in complete awe of Veronika’s talent. But moving on to my little babies: normally I would add peppermint extract or peppermint oil to the buttercream, but this time I omitted and just incorporated some of the peppermint dust. I find that it is very easy to add too much of the extract, and get into “Toothpaste Territory”. I liked the more subtle flavor of the pulverized candy. As to the decoration, piping consistency Royal icing and sanding sugar did the job.

From what I learned browsing around, peppermint “dust” is sold in many versions, some quite fine, some pretty coarse. I don’ think it makes much of a difference in taste, so use what you are able to find, and if all else fails, you can always crush some candy yourself and incorporate it in your buttercream. It is a flavor that helps fight the cold outside. Macarons, a little hot chocolate, and a fireplace going!