Recipe #6 Ginger Bread Cookies

Merry Christmas!!… Treat yourself with some Ginger bread cookies this season

Ingredients

·      170 grams of lightly salted butter (NutriLite Butter)

·      320 grams of powdered sugar

·      Zest of 1 orange

·      500 grams of Flour (maida)

·      1 ½ tsp baking powder

·      ½ tsp baking soda

·      1 tblsp ground dry ginger

·      ½ tsp ground nutmeg

·      2 tblsp ground cinnamon

·      ½ tsp ground cloves

·      ½ tsp salt

·      2 eggs

·      140 grams brown sugar

·      Juice of 1 lemon

Method

-Cream butter and powdered sugar until all incorporated and smooth. Add orange zest.

-Using an electric beater, beat in 1 egg at a time, then add lemon juice, sift in dry ginger, cloves, nutmeg and cinnamon. Beat until all incorporated (for 2 mins)

-Sift in ½ the quantity of flour, ½ tsp of salt and fold it using a wooden spoon. Add the remaining half of the flour and knead it with your hand to dough like consistency and knead it until it does not stick to the sides of the bowl (If a little sticky then add 2 tblsp of flour)

-Wrap in cling film and refrigerate for 1 hour

-Using a rolling pin, roll the dough on a well-floured kitchen platform and roll it to ½ a cm thickness. 

-Pre heat the oven at 170deg c

-Using cookie cutters, give the desirable shapes to the dough

-Place it on a buttered tray and bake it at 170 deg c for 10 mins or until golden brown

-Decorate the cookies with white chocolate icing or royal icing (Royal icing recipe in the next post!!)

Happy Baking!!

That's why we bake !!

Food is the best way to express your love for your family and friends.. Keep baking..

Happy baking!!

Recipe #5 Chocolate Tart

Serves: 8

Ingredients

For the Tart

·      120 grams flour

·      40 grams powdered sugar

·      60 grams of cold butter, cut into small pieces

·      2 tblsp of cold water

·      For Ganache

·      100 grams of cooking dark chocolate (Chopped)

·      50 grams of cream (Amul)

Method

For Tart

-Sift the flour and sugar, mix and add to a bowl. Add cold butter and with your fingertips crumb the mixture. It should come to a breadcrumb-like consistency

-Now gradually add water little at a time to combine the mixture in dough like consistency. Knead it until it does not stick to the bowl. Flatten the dough and wrap it with cling film. Refrigerate for 15 mins

-After 15 mins, place the dough on a floured surface and using a rolling pin, start rolling from the centre. Rotate the disc slightly after every rolling to avoid the edges from cracking. Roll the dough to a 1/8’ thickness (2 coins width)

-Take a pie dish or individual tart shells and cut circles 2 inch wider than the mould and place it in the dish/ shells.

-Refrigerate the mould for 15 mins

-Preheat the oven at 180deg c

-Now, remove the tart shells/ pie dish and using a fork poke the bottom as well as the sides to avoid fluffing during baking process

-Bake at 180deg c for 20 mins or until the tarts become golden brown

-After 20 mins, remove it from the oven and let it cool on the racks

For Ganache

-In a heavy bottomed pan, pour in the cream and let it boil

-In another bowl, place the chopped chocolate and pour the boiled cream over it, let it sit for a minute till you see the chocolate slightly melting, now use a spatula and whisk it well to melt the entire chocolate. This kind of process helps in melting chocolate without seizing it (Seizing- Chocolate becomes hard and grainy).

-Now pipe the ganache in the tart shells or pour it in the pie dish. Sprinkle it with chopped hazelnuts / chocolate shavings/ chocolate sprinklers and serve cold

Happy Baking!!

Recipe #4 Hazelnut Brownie

Brownie is actually “A cake gone Wrong”. Extra flour and less baking soda and baking powder was added which led to a gooey centre. However, many people think that brownie is undercooked cake,No! , brownie gets that texture because of more flour in it and not because its undercooked. This recipe shall help you make some yummilicious, absolutely sinful brownies

Ingredients

·      1 cup milk

·      1 ½ tsp vinegar

·      1 cup maida (All purpose flour)

·      1 cup caster sugar

·      ½ cup cocoa

·      ½ cup vegetable oil

·      1 tsp baking soda

·      1 tsp baking powder

·      ½ cup chopped hazelnuts

·      ½ cup nutella

Method

·      In a pan, pour milk and add vinegar and boil it until the mixture has curdled and keep it aside to cool

·      In a bowl, sift maida (all purpose flour), cocoa powder, sugar, baking powder and baking soda

·      Add oil and curdled milk in the bowl of sifted ingredients. Using an electric beater, beat the mixture well until everything is well incorporated

·      Add the chopped hazelnuts and fold these nuts with a spatula

·      Preheat the oven at 180deg c

·      Pour this mixture in a square or rectangle ½ kg well greased mould (you can dust flour on the mould after greasing it in order to ensure that the brownie comes out clean after baking process)

·      Bake it for 30 mins, let it sit in the mould for 15 mins and then demould it

·      The texture of the brownie will be gooey and moist and crunchy because of the hazelnuts

·      After it cools completely, then cut the brownie into square pieces of whatever size you prefer. Then spread nutella on all the pieces using the back of a knife

·      You can serve it cold or at room temperature

Happy Baking!!

Note: You can replace hazelnuts with walnuts or put no nuts at all and add Choco chips in the mixture!

How to identify a good Recipe?

Image Source: http://www.joyfulbelly.com/Ayurveda/images/recipe_book.gif

It becomes very difficult at times to say whether the recipe is authentic or no, or is it going to turnout well when you try that recipe!! Many people have this habit of taking the first recipe link that they find on the Internet and use it. But there are many things you should keep in mind when searching for a recipe online

In order to identify a good recipe, you should keep in mind these few steps and you are good to go!!

·      Step 1- Read the ingredients and see whether they are available in your city/ locality (If a particular ingredient is not available then you should research about the substitutes which can be used, however, try searching for substitutes for that particular dessert only)

·      Step 2- Source of the recipe is very very important, I like to use recipes of renowned chefs or good informative websites or magazines only

·      Step 3-Read the method for the recipe. It is important for you to understand the recipe really well, if you have even a single doubt then it would lead to problems will using the recipe, the recipe should be easy to follow

·      Step 4- The serving quantity should be written, so that you can alter the quantity according to the portion size you want to make

·      Step 5- Know your ingredients well. What’s the use of that ingredient in the recipe, why is it necessary to include that ingredient in your recipe

      Hope this information helps you!

      Happy Baking!!