Category Archives: breads, cakes, buns and other flour based recipes

Pita at home

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I try out a lot of recipes, this one was incredible fun. I’ve only had fresh pita once, at Shaya in New Orleans. This pita turned out as good as that one in my very first attempt. If you are new to breads, this would be a good place to start.  This one is modified from a David Tanis recipe from the NYT.

A pizza stone or a hot cookie sheet is essential

Make sponge: 1 cup lukewarm water, 1/4 cup chapati (or whole wheat) flour, 1/4 cup all purpose flour, 2 tsp instant yeast and 1 tsp sugar. Mix well and keep in a warm place while you measure the other stuff.

In the bowl of your standmixer, add 2 cups of all purpose flour, 2 tbsp of olive oil and 1 tsp kosher salt. Add sponge- knead on low (or by hand) for 4-5 minutes. The dough should be soft. I had to add 2-4 tbsp of extra water.

Refrigerate overnight or not. The flavor is much better when you refrigerate it but it works perfectly well without this step.

Proof covered in a warm place in an oiled bowl till doubled in size (took me 90 minutes using the proofing setting at 85F in my oven).

Handle dough gently and using a bench scraper, divide into 8 equal parts. Roll gently into round balls and allow them to rest for 10 more minutes.

Preheat your oven to 475 and warm your pizza stone.

Roll each dough ball into 8 inch discs. I put them on parchment (3 at a time) and used a pizza peel to slide them onto the pizza stone. Cook for 2-3 minutes, they will puff up beautifully, use tongs to flip, cook for an additional minute and you are done!

Serve with anything – we ate them with palak paneer.

Fruitcake

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I’ve always liked bits and pieces in my cakes. As a child, I loved a Brittania fruit cake filled with tutti-frutti (probably plastic soaked in sugar syrup). I’ve wanted to bake this cake for years. This year-  I was at home during Christmas break and ready to take on a baking project. I am sorry I waited so long to make this- this cake is sublime. The flavors do indeed get better over time.

Alton Brown is a genius! His baking recipes work every single time. There is a video on the link.  Is this cake worth the effort? A resounding YES!

Day 1:

Prep 4 cups of dried fruits (I used 1 cup golden raisins, 1 cup currants, 2/3 cup apricots chopped to raisin size, 2/3 cup dried cranberries, 2/3 cup dried blueberries) and 1/4  cup crystallized ginger chopped to raisin size. Chop zest of 1 lemon and 1 orange into 1/2 inch dice. Add one cup of rum (I used a dark rum) to dried fruits and zest and cover with cling film to macerate for one day.

Day 2:

Make spice mixture: Grind 4 cloves, 6 all spice berries and a 2 inch piece of cinnamon to powder, add 1 tsp of ground ginger

Cook fruit and rum mixture with 10 tbsp butter, 1 cup of sugar, 1 cup of unfiltered apple cider and spices. Bring to a boil over medium heat and simmer over low heat for 10 minutes. Cool for 1-2 hours or overnight

Day 3:

Baking day: heat oven to 325 F

Dry ingredients: 1 3/4 cup All purpose flour, 1 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp baking soda, 1 1/2 tsp salt- sift together or whisk together

Add dry ingredients to the fruit mixture and mix with a wooden spoon.

Add 2 eggs one at a time stirring with the wooden spoon till well incorporated (this isn’t a genoise sponge – it will be fine). Stir in 1/2 cup of toasted and chopped walnuts.

Prep your pans. This amount of cake filled up 3/4 of a regular loaf pan (8.5 inchesx 4 inches) and 12 muffin cups. Bake till toothpick comes out clean (40 minutes for muffins and 60 minutes for loaf). Cook and baste with brandy (I used cointreau since we seem to have run out of brandy) . Every 2-3 days- baste with more brandy.  This cake tastes best about a week out. Actually, correction – we finished this cake in one week- perhaps it would have tasted even better at 2 weeks, we will never know.

 

 

Vegetarian pot pie

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I love pot pie or rather I love the concept of pot pie, the actual pot pie often disappoints . The base of the crust base is often soggy and a little under baked.

My solution is to bake the crust separately. Here I used store bought puff pastry (all butter) and baked according to the instructions.

I make a lot of different potpie fillings, some are traditional (mostly bechamel based) and others like this malai paneer one are curry based. I used cranberries in place of my regular raisins today and I use less cream to make the sauce thicker.

Assemble just before serving, the pastry is crisp and buttery and the filling is creamy and full of veggies. A perfect Christmas lunch.

Brazilian Cheese puffs ( Pao de Queijo)

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It’s always tricky to bake something you have never actually eaten before. If you don’t like it, is it because you did a terrible job or because the taste is so new to you.

Luckily, there is no such conundrum with this recipe, it combines the best qualities of gougeres with mochi. Imagine a crisp crust with a glutinous but airy center. This is what the British call a “moreish” recipe, you cannot stop at one.

I looked up several recipes online and settled on this one from the NYT . It starts like a choux pastry recipe but with tapioca flour and then the cheese is folded in.  I always weigh all my ingredients- especially in a brand new recipe. Also- a stand mixer seems essential for this recipe, this is just a super tacky dough.

Ingredients:

  • 335 grams tapioca starch (about 3 cups)
  • 2 tsp kosher salt 
  • ¼ teaspoon baking powder
  • ⅔ cup whole milk
  • 2/3 cup water
  • ½ cup canola oil
  • 1 ½ tablespoons butter, softened
  • 2 large eggs
  • 94 grams grated Pecorino Romano cheese (about ¾ cup)
  • 94 grams grated Parmesan cheese (about ¾ cup)

Boil the water, milk, butter and oil together.

Add to the starch, baking powder and salt in the bowl of your stand mixer. Dump the liquids in and using a paddle attachment, mix at low speed till the ingredients come together (4 minutes for me).

Add the eggs- mix on low for 4 minutes, scrape the bottom and paddle and mix again for 4–6 minutes till the dough gets tacky and forms strands with the edges.

Add the cheese and mix for another  minute. Scrape the bottom of the bowl and cover and refrigerate for 2 hours.

Divide the dough using a bench scraper into 8ths and then into 32s. Make 32 small balls using tapioca flour to dust your hands.

Bake at 375 for 20-23 minutes till pale golden brown. Bake only as many as will be immediately consumed. Apparently these get hard as they cool. We did not test this hypothesis since all the puffs were consumed within 10 minutes.

 

No Knead Rye Bread

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My life changed when I read Mark Bittman’s column on no-knead bread.  I found out that professional baking ovens had steam injectors which injected steam at the start of the baking process. This is what led to the shatteringly thin crust and soft centers of the artisan boules I loved. Jim Lahey said- just start the baking in a dutch oven- bake your loaf covered for 30 minutes and then uncovered. Brilliant in its simplicity!

The no-knead recipe not only saves time but allows complex sourdough flavors to develop with regular active dry yeast. 5 minute artisan bread a day by Jeff Hertzberg is my favorite bread cookbook. This recipe is inspired from his book.

Ingredients:

3 cups lukewarm water (680 gm)

Active dry yeast – 1 tbsp

Caraway seeds- 1.5 tbsp

Kosher salt- 1 tbsp

Rye flour 1 cup (120 g)

All purpose flour 5.5 cups ( 780 gm)

Cornstarch wash: Boil 1/2 cup of water with 1/2 tsp of cornflour in the microwave till glassy (1-2 minutes).  Cool

Add the yeast, salt and caraway seeds to the water and stir till they dissolve. Dump in all the flour and mix without kneading. I use a danish whisk and mix it till all the flour is hydrated. This will form a goopy, wet dough and the whole process shouldn’t take more than 5 minutes.

Rest covered till doubled in size (2-4 hours)

Refrigerate for at least 24 hours. The dough will undergo a second slow rise in the refrigerator and can be stored for 14 days.

Baking day! Remove 1 lb of dough. Dust your bench and your hands and fold the dough onto itself till it forms a smooth ball. This is the trickiest and most important step and should be quick (less than 2 minutes) . The flour dusted smooth surface is critical for the final rise and texture of the bread. There should be no crags or cracks on the surface. Rest for 40 min- 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 450 F. Heat a cast iron dutch oven or a baking cloche for 30 minutes.

Just before baking , brush boule with cornstarch wash, sprinkle with caraway seeds. I place it with the parchment in the cloche and bake covered for 30 minutes and then uncovered for 5-10 minutes till top is brown and the loaf sounds hollow when you tap the bottom.

Rest the bread for 10 minutes before slicing.

Vegan philly cheese “steak”

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When I ate meat, the philly cheesesteak was one of my favorite sandwiches. It’s grilled veggies, protein and cheese sauce. It’s always delicious.

This is my version. I used seitan inspired by a delicious vegan reuben that I had at Modern Love (Isa Moscowitz’s restaurant). Unlike other fake meats, seitan has been popular in East Asia for centuries. It is really good when crisped up with a little oil.

For my vegan cheese sauce, I used another Isa Moscowitz recipe – I’ve blogged about it before. Here is the link. Feel free of course to use real cheese, which I often do

The recipe is practically non-existent. Fry onions and peppers in oil with a few cumin seeds till brown. Fry seitan in 1 tbsp of oil till edges brown a little.

Pile on a roll ( I used a whole grain roll) and add cheese sauce.

Ginger Garlic and Broccoli Thai pizza

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Think of your favorite wood fired pizzeria pizza with its slightly charred crust with large bubbles. This is that kind of pizza but at home.

The toppings are inspired by Jim Lahey’s thai pizza from my favorite food site – Serious Eats. Jim Lahey’s no-knead bread changed my life but I’m not very fond of his pizza recipe. It’s too tacky and I like oil in my pizza dough. For my  dough- I used the olive oil dough recipe from my favorite bread book- Artisan Breads in Five Minutes a Day.  I will write a post about that recipe another day. Today- I want to talk about Thai pizza

Sauce: It is a regular bechamel sauce. Ingredients: 1 tbsp flour, 1 tbsp butter, 1 cup milk. Cook the flour in the melted butter for one minute. Whisk in the milk to make the sauce lump-free. Cook till the sauce bubbles and thickens. Add salt and pepper. Cool

Toppings: Finely chopped ginger, garlic, jalapenos,  baby broccoli.blanched for a minute

Cheeses: Provolone and Mozarella

Heat your oven to 500F with a pizza stone. Roll out or toss your pizza dough fairly thin. Spread the white sauce sparing half an inch at the edge. Sprinkle on the ginger, garlic and jalapenos. Add chunks of the broccolli. Add the provolone and torn pieces of the fresh mozarella.

Slide pizza on pizza stone ( I use parchment) and cook for 10 minutes.

These are flavor combinations that shouldn’t work but they somehow do. Cheese, Ginger, Garlic, Chillies- it’s a winning combination.

Karanji

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Karanji (in Marathi or gujiya in Hindi) is a sweet or savory stuffed mostly deep fried pastry traditionally made on Diwali day in the state of Maharashtra.

Traditional karanji recipes call for a mix of all purpose flour and semolina flour and are deep fried. I really hate deep frying ! I used an empanada dough recipe for my karanjis and baked them. The empanada recipe gives me a wonderfully flaky and sturdy pastry shell.

Dough: Melt 7 tbsp of butter, add 1/2 cup of really hot water with 1 tsp of salt. Add butter and hot water to 3 cups all purpose flour. Knead. Add upto 1/4 -1/3 cup of additional hot water to make a smooth pliable dough. Wrap in cling film and refrigerate for an hour.

Sweet filling: Melt 3 tbsp of ghee, add 1 cup of grated fresh coconut ( I use frozen). Roast till coconut dries out a little and just starts browning. Take off the heat. Add 1/4 cup of jaggery, 3 tbsp of sugar, 1 tbsp of sesame seeds, 1 tbsp of poppy seeds, 1/4 cup roasted cashews, 1/4 cup raisins, 1 tsp of ground cardamon powder.

Divide dough into  4s and then into 8s. Use a rolling pin or flatten each dough ball into a 3 inch diameter circle. Add 1 tbsp of filling and crimp into half moon shapes and make a slit on top for the steam to escape. Can be frozen at this stage (freeze flat on a baking sheet and add 5-6 minutes to bake time)

Bake at 375 for 10-15 minutes. Continue reading →

Yorkshire pudding / popovers with malai paneer

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Yorkshire puddings with paneer curry

Yorkshire pudding with malai paneer

While doing the stream of consciousness internet browsing thing, I came across Jamie Oliver’s video on Yorkshire pudding. I have no idea why I haven’t made this before. Hot oil, batter that puffs up, crisp outside, doughy interior – sounds so beautiful. Jamie paired his with salmon and creme fraiche. I’ve paired mine with a paneer curry, mint chutney and raw onions

Yorkshire pudding

I’ve linked to Jamie’s video below. Whisk 4 eggs, 200 ml milk and 200 g all purpose flour together with a pinch of salt. Heat oven to 425F. Pour a cm of vegetable oil in 12 muffin tins. Heat the oil for 15 min. Pour the batter in cups 2/3 full (I overfilled mine and had only 9 puddings). Shut the door and do not open till 20-25 min have passed and the puddings have puffed up gloriously

Malai paneer: my easy go-to paneer recipe

Heat 2 tbsp butter or ghee, 1 tsp cumin seeds, 2 dried chillies and half a cup of sliced onions till onions are pale gold.

Add 3 chopped garlic cloves and 100 gm of chopped paneer. Sauté for 2-3 min. Add frozen corn, green beans, raisins, cashews (I added pine nuts today). Add half a cup of cream and 1 tsp cumin powder and 1 tsp coriander powder. Cook for 10 min. Adjust consistency with more cream if needed, add ½ tsp of garam masala powder and ½ tsp of crushed kasoori methi.

Mint chutney: blend ½ cup of yogurt with ½ cup mint leaves, ½ cup cilantro and 2 jalapeños and salt

Assemble: tear open popover, add paneer, top with sliced raw onions and chutney. Find your happy place !

Vegetarian Steamed Baozi Buns

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Even before I became a vegetarian- my severe shellfish allergy limited the Asian food I could eat which was depressing because it is my absolute favorite cuisine. A few years ago, I was in Hong Kong for the world glaucoma congress and had vegetarian steamed buns at a Buddhist monastery and they were a revelation. They are surprisingly easy to make – here is my own recipe which took me a while to develop.

Dough buns :

Dough ingredients :2 cups all-purpose flour,1 teaspoon instant yeast, 1 teaspoon baking powder, 4 tablespoons sugar, ½ tsp salt, 1 tablespoon sesame oil, ½ to ¾ cup lukewarm water

I use my kitchen aid mixer with the dough hook to get this dough together. After it comes together- knead on high for 5 more minutes. It’s a soft elastic dough

Rest in a warm place for 2-4 hours till doubled or more in volume

Bao filling:

1 small cabbage shredded and steamed for 5 minutes. Drain the cabbage to remove all the water.

Additions: corn, tofu, cooked mushrooms, anything really. I used corn today – they are in season and I steamed the cob and removed the kernels

2 tbsp oil (sesame or olive or a mix)- add 1 tbsp ginger and 1 tbsp garlic. Cook for a few minutes.

Add to the cabbage corn mixture with 1 tbsp of soy sauce

Divide raised dough into 16 equal parts. Treat the dough gently – like you would pizza dough – don’t beat the air out of it

Make the baos- be generous with the stuffing. The dough is easy to work with- the yeast and the kneading makes it very elastic.

Rest for 10 min- steam on parchment for 15. They really puff up- don’t crowd them.

Serve with your favorite sauce. Today I made a gochuang, soy and vinegar sauce and a hoisin and vinegar sauce.