29.8.13

100 % Whole Wheat Bread using Tangzhong

Had I not been this excited, I probably would have postponed posting about this awesome loaf until tomorrow. but i wanted to share it with you while the excitement is still on. so here it is for you, my 100 % whole wheat bread using TangZhong or water roux method. 


A while a back I had baked another loaf using the same TangZhong method. Hokkaido Milk Toast. Remember ? even then I had gone gaga over how soft and awesome the loaf was. but that loaf different. it was with all-purpose flour and had a zillion of other things like butter, milk and heavy cream to make it what it was... heavenly.. i would say but you can choose your own adjective.. this loaf on the other hand uses none of those gorgeous stuff... it is a humble loaf made of whole wheat flour, honey, olive oil, some seeds and nuts.. which despite the presence of whole wheat flour is moist and not very dense. (Thanks to TangZhong !) It is a sweetish bread which can be served with soup for a filling but light dinner or simply slathered with butter or jam for a hearty breakfast.

I adapted the recipe from King Arthur Flour and used tips to convert the loaf into a Tangzhong one from Simply a Food BlogBasically, the idea of the TangZhong method is to mix 1 part of the total flour for the bread with 5 parts of water (by weight) at 65°C (149 °F) to form a paste/wet dough. At 65°C, the gluten in the flour and water mixture absorb the moisture and become leavened. Thus, when the TangZhong is added into other ingredients of a dough, it heightens and produces a fluffier bread. In order to incorporate the TangZhong method into a bread recipe, one simply has to make the Tangzhong with 5% by weight of the total flour and the 5 parts of liquid (by weight) and reduce the flour and liquid in the original recipe by the quantity used to make the TangZhong. Since I do not have a weighing machine i relied on online conversion tools to go back and forth between cups, grams and tablespoon measures of whole wheat flour and at the end did a bit of rounding of figures. I was a little worried, but thankfully the rounding off did not ruin the bread. I ended up with a nice, soft, fluffy loaf which even my little one did not refuse. there isn't anything that i would change about this recipe except maybe i'll glaze it with milk next time. I just forgot to glaze this time.

100 % Whole Wheat Bread
Adapted from: King Arthur Flour
 ingredients
  • for the TangZhong
    • 2 1/2 tbsp whole wheat flour
    • 1/4 cup water
    • 1/4 cup milk
  • for the dough
    • 3/4 cup (+ 2 tbsp) water
    • 2(+1) tbsps olive oil
    • 1/4 cup honey
    • all of the TangZhong that you prepraed
    • 3 cups Whole Wheat Flour
    • 1/4 cup of a combination of sesame seeds, flax seeds and walnuts
    • 1 1/2 tsp ginger powder
    • 1 1/2 tsp salt
    • 1 1/2 tsp instant yeast  
  • for glaze
    • milk
 references
 the method (using bread machine)
  • for the TangZhong 
    • Whisk the flour, milk and water together until there were no lumps. then placing the saucepan over medium heat and stirring continuously, cook the roux until it begins to thicken and stable lines begin to form in the TangZhong, about 2-3 minutes. if you have a thermometer cook the TangZhong till it reaches 65 degrees C and then take is off the heat.then switching off the heat let the water roux rest for at least 2-3 hours, until it cools completely. 
  • for the dough
    • Put all the ingredients for the dough in the bread machine pan and program it for the dough cycle. 10-12 minutes down the line, feel the dough with your hand. it should be smooth. add some more flour if it is sticky and a bit of oil or water if it feels lumpy. I used the Sunbeam bread machine and adjusted the quantities of flour, oil and water as mentioned in the brackets. 
    • once the machine beeps at the end of the dough cycle, shape the dough the way you like, place it in a well greased loaf pan, cover and let it rise until doubled in volume, about 1 -1 1/2 hours. (since i love the way the Hokkaido bread looks, i divided the dough into 3 parts and shaped it the same way as my Hokkaido Milk Toast. but that isn't mandatory.)
    • once the dough has proofed, glaze the loaf with milk and bake it in a preheated oven at  375 degrees F for 30-35 minutes, until the surface looks golden brown.
    • let it cool before slicing.
 references

 references 


This loaf is being yeastspotted. 

Happy Janmasthami !


Happy Janmasthami to all ! We had a little celebration at home tonight with food, sweets and green flowers.. the only ones that husband found at the nearest store :-) hope you had a great day !! 

more of Janmasthami photos here.

26.8.13

Wheat Berry and Chickpea Salad


Dorie's Wheat Berry and Tuna Salad somehow got me fixated on Wheat berry. Ever since, I have been trying a lot of combinations with the berries and this one worked out great. It made my husband say, "we should have salads more often. may be we should make Monday our salad day !" 

23.8.13

Chocolate Olive Oil Cake (Nigella Lawson)

Yesterday evening I might have spent a good half an hour debating between Nigella's Everyday Brownie and Chocolate Olive Oil Cake... It finally boiled down to a battle between butter and olive oil.. and since health ranks above all in every homemakers' world, olive oil won... well in this case extra virgin olive oil won, because that is what i had in hand. The outcome was a sheer delight. though there wasn't any occasion to celebrate, with a cake like that in hand, yesterday felt special. husband was grinning-happy, baby asked for more... and i was glad that i chose to bake the chocolate olive oil cake..


just wanted to note a few things before i go onto the recipe... i mostly followed Nigella's recipe except that i used EVO instead of regular olive oil and granulated sugar instead of superfine sugar. also, because i did not have enough almonds, i used plain flour and sprinkled some roasted almonds on top for flavor... and as you can imagine it gave a nice crunch to the cake without making it very heavy. 

another thing, if you can, control your urges of digging into the cake right away. for whatever reason... this cake gets better every hour.  the soda smell which was obvious in the first hour magically vanished by the time we put our baby to sleep and cut ourselves nice big slices of the cake ... and the cake tasted awesome with ice-cream and cherries...

Chocolate Olive Oil CakeRecipe Source : Nigella Lawson Express
 ingredients
  •  cup regular olive oil (I used extra virgin olive oil)
  • 6 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
  • ½ cup boiling water
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  •  3/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour or 1 ½ cups almond meal 
  • ½ teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 pinch of salt
  • 1 cup superfine sugar (I used granulated sugar)
  • 3 large eggs
  • chopped roasted almonds for garnish (optional)
-
  the method
  • Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Grease a 9 inch spring-form tin with a little oil and line the base with baking parchment or line a 9 inch cake pan with parchment paper. (I used my cake pan.)
  • Measure out the unsweetened cocoa into a bowl and whisk in the boiling water until you have a smooth, chocolate-y, runny paste. stir in the vanilla extract and set the mixture aside to cool a little.
  • In another bowl, sift in the flour along with baking soda and a pinch of salt.
  • Beat the sugar and olive oil (preferably with a hand-mixer) till the mixture looks smooth and creamy. then beating continuously add the eggs one by one. continue beating until you have a pale-primrose, aerated and thickened cream, about 5 minutes.
  • then turning the speed down, add the cocoa mixture. once that is well incorporated, slowly add the flour mixture and beat lightly till a smooth uniform batter is formed.
  • now pour the batter into the prepared tin, sprinkle the chopped almonds on top, in case you are using them and bake the cake in the preheated oven for 40-45 minutes, until the sides are set and the center, on top, looks slightly damp. (my cake tester came out clean at 42 minutes. however Nigella says that the tester should mostly be clean but can have a few sticky chocolate crumbs clinging to it.)
  • Let it cool for 10 minutes on a wire rack, still in its tin. then ease the sides of the cake with a small metal spatula and spring it out of the tin.(since i had lined the cake pan with parchment paper I did not have to use metal spatula, it came off the pan easily.)
  • Leave the cake to cool completely or eat while still warm with some ice cream, as a pudding. however as i noted above the cake gets better every hour so try and hold yourself back and you'll be fairly rewarded ;-)

Happy Baking and have a nice weekend !

I am linking this post to the event Cook like a Star, organised by Zoe from Bake for Happy Kids, Joyce from Kitchen Flavours and Anuja from Simple Baking


You can read more about the event here.

Also sharing this with the following food events...

Boulevard Raspail Corn on the Cob # French Fridays with Dorie

I love a corn on the cob. Back in India I would always buy myself one whenever fresh juicy corns were in season and a "bhutta-wala," (as we refer to the street vendors selling corn) was in sight. here, my favorite way of cooking corn is to grill it on stove-top and then spice it up with chilly, lime juice and salt. my husband does not enjoy this stove-top grilled corn much so i usually cook it for lunch. but yesterday things did not work out as I had scheduled  and i ended up roasting the corn in the evening. husband agreed to have some, may be because the recipe was Dorie's... and much to my amazement, he really liked it. yeah !!  


Thanks to Dorie for sharing the recipe of the vegetable lady selling corn in Boulevard Raspail. Had it not been for her I would have never thought of roasting unhusked ears of corn in the oven and delighting over it hence. It is certainly a wonderful and easy way of cooking the corn. just put the whole corn with husk and all in a 400 degree F oven, roast it for 40 minutes, turning it once at 20 minutes mark, remove the husk, butter the corn, sprinkle salt and pepper and enjoy ! 

try this recipe while corns are still in season and be prepared to be impressed ! happy Friday !

Visit here to know what the other members of french fridays with Dorie have to say. For many more delicious recipes such as this one order your copies of Around the French Table from Amazon or from The Book Depository and join us as we cook our way through the book.

22.8.13

Nigella's Maple Chicken

Maple Chicken was the first Nigella Lawson recipe that i tried and immediately fell in love with. It was a breeze to pull off and it tasted restaurant-­good. yes. it was that good. juicy, succulent and delicious ! I was more than delighted with it. however my husband did not share my enthusiasm. the thing is, true to his nature, ignoring all my warnings, he reheated his dish in the microwave just before digging in. and that spoilt it all. it dried off the chicken and him sad and grumpy... so in case you decide on this recipe (and you must)... be warned right now.. do not reheat it in the microwave. bake it, serve it and dig into it right away and relish the awesomeness of this chicken dish...


before i share the recipe let me mention the changes that i made. the original recipe from Nigella Lawson Express was Maple Chicken and Ribs. since i do not eat pork or beef so i left it out and halved the remaining ingredients. also i used boneless chicken since that is what i had in hand. also i sprinkled some sea salt over the chicken just before i put the skillet in the oven. i kind of liked the added salt but you can skip it if you like....

now the recipe...

Nigella's Maple Chicken
Recipe Source: Nigella Lawson Express
 ingredients

  • 1/2 boneless chicken cut into 8 pieces
  • 125 ml apple juice
  • 2 tablespoons maple syrup
  • 1 tablespoons vegetable oil
  • 1 tablespoons soy sauce
  • 1 star anise
  • 1 cinnamon stick (halved)
  • 3 cloves garlic, grated
  • sea salt to taste (optional)
-
  the method

  • Put the chicken pieces in a freezer bag or a dish.
  • Mix the remaining ingredients in a bowl, crushing in the star anise and cinnamon sticks into it. then add this mixture to the freezer bag/dish, seal/cover it and leave to marinate in the fridge overnight or up to 2 days.(I left it for 2 days).
  • when ready to cook, preheat the oven to 425 degrees F, pour the contents of the freezer bag/dish into a large enough oven dish or an iron skillet (as i did), sprinkle some salt on it and bake the chicken in the preheated oven for 35 minutes. then reducing the oven temperature to 400 degrees F, bake for another 15 minutes, until the glossy and sticky.
  • serve immediately and enjoy !

I am linking this post to the event Cook like a Star, organised by Zoe from Bake for Happy Kids, Joyce from Kitchen Flavours and Anuja from Simple Baking


You can read more about the event here.

Also sharing this with the following food events...

20.8.13

Savory Pull-Apart Loaf

This post is late by a week. I had intended to update you about the other half of the cinnamon roll dough last week. but somehow couldn't put the post together in time. so here it is for you. ...


at the very beginning i must confess that this was a last moment decision, so this loaf wasn't very conventional in its form. following the basic guidelines from My Diverse Kitchen, i kept putting things together... and finally ended up with a loaf which was pretty impressive. now the question is would I make this loaf again with the exact same recipe? well I probably will, but if I plan it well in advance then I'll reduce the amount of sugar in the dough.. because though the loaf as a whole is wonderful when warm, it tastes a bit sweet-ish otherwise.... 

before proceeding to the recipe (if it can be called so), let me tell you that this is just an idea of how i proceeded.. since i was relying on my eyes and not measuring my ingredients out.. so i have skipped the details here. . feel free to rely on your eyes/instincts in case to intend to use 'this recipe' as a reference. I am sure.. in all probability you will end up with a delicious loaf.

Savory Pull-Apart Loaf Adapted from My Diverse Kitchen
 ingredients


  • half of this dough
  • olive oil
  • basil pesto
  • green olives, sliced lengthwise
  • shredded mozzarella cheese
  • herb de Provence 
-
  what i did

  • I had covered this half of the dough with a plastic cling wrap while I worked on the cinnamon rolls. 
  • once the cinnamon rolls were done I rolled out the dough into a 9 by 13 inch rectangle, brushed it with some olive oil, spread a layer of home-made basil pesto over it., sprinkled shredded mozzarella, thinly sliced green olives and herb de Provence on top. 
  • next using a pizza cutter, I cut the loaded dough breadth-wise into 6 equal parts. then stacked these 6 strips one on top of one another, taking care so that the toppings stay intact.  
  • then using a knife I cut straight down through this stack dividing it into 6 equal parts.at this point I ended up with a stack of dough which was 2 inches wide. since I had planned to bake the loaf in my 9x5 inch loaf tin and had prepared it in advance by greasing it, so i placed these square slices, in the prepared pan in 2 parallel rows..
    covered the loaf tin with a sheet of lightly greased plastic cling wrap and let the dough rise until doubled, about 45-60 minutes.
  • meanwhile i preheated the oven to 350 degrees F. and once the dough was ready i baked it in the preheated oven for 22 minutes, until the surface looked golden brown.
  • i let it cool down completely before pulling apart the slices.


Will be sharing this loaf at the following parties...


18.8.13

Eggplant Tartine with Tomtoes, Olives and Cucumber # Make Up of French Fridays with Dorie

This week was Make Up week at French Fridays with Dorie. Since I have only recently joined the club I had a whole lot of recipes  to choose from. To start off with, I had the Duck Breast with fresh Peaches to try,  which I had skipped last week. but then my husband was absolutely unwilling to try duck. he had tried duck in Paris and had not liked it much. unwilling to take the trouble just for me felt expensive. so i skipped the idea altogether and flipped through the book for something easy and simple. one of the first things that came up was this eggplant tartine. we like baked eggplants and the Eggplant tartine with cherry tomatoes sounded like a perfect appetizer.


I am not sure what  I was expecting from this, but one bite into the tartine and it felt like I was taking a bite of "Deconstructed Baigan Bharta." though this tartine looks way too pretty to be compared with that Indian cousin of it, with all the tartness from the tomatoes, olive, capers and the vinaigrette, it tasted just as good as baingan bharta or should i say "my mother's baingan bharta." 

for those who do not know what "Baingan Bharta" is, it is a popular Indian dish cooked with roasted eggplants as the star ingredient and almost every Indian household has its own version of the "bharta." my mother's version with copious amounts of onion, garlic, tomatoes and coriander is gorgeously tart and extremely delicious and is one of my favorite vegetarian dishes. so yes, taste-wise i really liked this tartine. I also loved how easy it was to put together. however i thought it was a little cumbersome to handle. between me and my husband, we tackled it with our fingers but I am not sure if this is a tartine I'll like serving to my guests.    

Being a member of french fridays with Dorie, i cannot publish the original recipe in the blog. You can however this recipe here. For many more delicious recipes such as this one order your copies of Around the French Table from Amazon or from The Book Depository and join us as we cook our way through the book.


15.8.13

Kourabiethes # Baking Partners August Challenge

This month's theme for Baking Partners Challenge was cookies from around the world. It was a rather tasty challenge. there were these four cookies that were suggested..
at first I had planned to bake a small batch of each. but as i mentioned in an earlier post things have not been going too well at my end. so i ended up baking only two of the cookies, Kourabiethes and Biscotti. i baked an eggless version of both these cookies using a cornflour solution in place of eggs. I'll tell you about the Biscotti soon. for now lets talk Greek...

Now these Kourabiethes turned out really well. Its a pity that i made a small batch.. because this was definitely our favorite cookie in a long time. it tasted like butter cookies had a pleasant orange fragrance. in fact it was that fragrance that made me fall for the cookie even before i had tasted it. the only thing that i wasn't too fond off was that sugar coating. it kept sticking to the fingers.. but husband  did not seem very bothered by that. he simply said... "this is good... really good," and baby boy was more happy to lick the sugar off the cookies.



Kourabiethes
(9 cookies)
Recipe source : taste.com.au
 ingredients
  • 3.5 tbsps unsalted butter, softened
  • 1/2 cup icing sugar
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla essence
  • orange rind from 1/2 an orange
  • 1 tbsp of solution made with 1 tbsp cornflour + 2 tbsp water*
  • 1/2 cup + 1 tsp all-purpose flour
  • 1/4 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tbsp + 1.5 tsp almond meal (ground almond)
* this is the substitute for 1/5 egg.
-
  to make these cookies...
  • preheat oven to 335 degrees F. line a baking tray with parchment paper.
  • using a electric mixer, beat butter, 3 1/2 tbsps of icing sugar, vanilla, orange rind until it turns creamy. then add 1 tbsp of the cornflour solution and mix till it is well combined. 
  • now sift the flour and baking powder over the mixture, add almond meal and mix (i used my hands here) until the dough comes together.
  • using 1 tbsp dough per biscuit, roll out 3 inch long cylinders; bend them to form crescent shape. then place them on the prepared baking tray 11/2 inch apart and bake for 20 minutes, until they turn light golden. 
  • allow them to stand on the tray for the next 5 minutes till they become firm. then place the remaining icing sugar in a bowl/plate and coat 1 cookie at a time in the sugar. once the all the cookies are coated allow them to cool completely before sifting the remaining sugar over them.(i did not sift the sugar after the cookies cooled as some of them had already disappeared by then and knew that the rest would disappear too...)

So much for today. Wishing my family and friends a very Happy Independence Day.  Have some activities planned for tomorrow. Hope it turns out to be share-able....

and before you hop away check out what my Baking Partners have baked...
BakingPartners










Will share this at the following parties... 

Monday Food : Marvelous Mondays @ This Gal CooksMeatless Monday @Veggie Mama's Meatless Monday My Sweet and SavoryJust Another Meatless Monday @ Hey What's for Dinner Mom, Melt in your Mouth Mondays, Mop It Up Monday, Mealtime Monday, Recipe Sharing Monday, Inspire Me Monday, Clever Chicks Blog Hop, Maniac Monday Linky Party Tuesday Food:  Totally Tasty Tuesday @ Mandy's Recipe BoxTasteful Tuesday Party @ Nap Time Creations,  Show Me What You Got @ Our Delightful Home,  Hand Made Tuesday @ Ladybug BlessingsShare it Link Party @ Winthrop Chronicles Tasty Tuesday
Wednesday Food : What's Cooking Wednesday @ Confessions of Overworked MomCast Party Wednesday @ Lady Behind the Curtain  Wednesday Whatsit @White Lights on Show and Share @ Semi Homemade MomWonderful Food Wednesdays at @ Home Take 2  Thursday Food: Link it Up Thursday @ Seven AliveCreative Thursday @ Michelle's Tasty CreationsFantastic Thursday @ Three Little ChiefsThriving on Thursdays @ DomesblissityFreedom Friday @ My TurnFull Plate Thursday @ Miz Helen's Country Cottage  Friday Food: Foodie Friday @ Home Maid SimpleFriday Favorite (DYI too) @ Simple Sweet HomeFoodie Friday @ Not Your Ordinary Recipes Foodie Friday @ Rattlebridge Farm Weekend Wonders @ The Thriftiness MissFriday Food Frenzy @ Mostly Food and Crafts , Weekend Potluck @ Sunflower Supper Club The Weekend re-Treat @The Best Blog  Recipes

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