Conchas using Scalded Flour Method

Conchas,  also referred to as "pan de huevo" are sweet buttery buns from Mexico. They are famous for their crumbly shell-patterned sugar topping and soft fluffy texture. They are eaten with coffee and milk but mostly with Mexican hot chocolate for breakfast or late supper- known as merienda, a tradition that dates back to the 16th century.

Cinnamon Swirl Eggless "Brioche"

This month Gayathri of Gayathri's Cook Spot challenged the members of the Eggless Baking group to make an eggless version of Barbara's Cinnamon Swirl Brioche.

My first reaction after reading her mail was, "What ? Brioche without eggs ? Really ? "

Initially I had decided to skip this challenge... but the pretty cinnamon swirl and the simplicity of the recipe kept bringing me back to it until I finally decided to give the eggless version try.

I usually use the combination of yogurt and baking soda to make an eggless version of an eggy bread. However the mere substitution felt a little inadequate for an eggless version of brioche. After all it was brioche.. and no ordinary bread. How could a simple substitution render the bread its richness and textural lightness. I discussed with my mother and she suggested an extra helping of yeast. Okay. I said and pondered a little more... until I remembered Reeni's review about the scalded flour method. She had used the method for making a Scandinavian White Bread and had compared its texture to a brioche... I decided to modify the method to adapt the given recipe..

The adaptation however did not seem direct...

You see, the scalded flour method(SFM) requires one to make a starter of scalded dough which is cooled and then kneaded together with the remaining dough ingredients to make the dough for the bread. This meant, involing the SFM would add an extra step to the suggested recipe from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day, thereby depriving it off its ease and simplicity, the two things that had attracted me towards this bread at the first place. I thought for a while and then decided to try a simple modificaion. Instead of making a scalded dough starter, I decided to beat the yogurt with boiling hot water, then quickly stir in the remaining ingredients including the flour to the hot yogurt.  I am not sure if that little step helped, or if it was just the right proportion of liquid to flour, but things suddenly fell into place and  soon I recognized the dough as brioche-like... soft, flow-y and unmanageable. Thereon I followed the given recipe and was duly rewarded with a lovely loaf the following day.

To be honest, the loaf wasn't as soft as a brioche from the store but the texture was comparable. It was somewhat like my Hokkaido Milk Bread.. only richer with all the extra butter. We were really happy with it and relished it with our morning and evening tea everyday till it got over...

Koulouri / Greek Politiko Simiti

Koulouri is a sesame crusted bread ring from Greece. It is a street food sold by the vendors in Athens. Apparently it is a common snack for both Greeks and Turks and is believed to have been brought to Greece by Greek refugees from Asia Minor and Constantinople(Istanbul). In Turkey they go by the name of Simit or Susam kebabi meaning Sesame kebab. Though a derivative of the Turk Simit, the Politiko Simiti is quite distict from it. It is braided and given a generous coating of petimezi(Greek grape must syrup or grape molasses) before being rolled in sesame seeds and baked. The braiding lends a bagel-type texture to the Koulouri and the grape molasses gives it a mild sweetness, thereby making it a popular breakfast bread or teatime snack for the Greeks. 

Last month Priya Suresh of Priya's Versatile Recipes challenged the members of Gayathri's Baking Eggless Group to bake an eggless version of these braided bread rings. The original recipe uses only one large egg, which wasn't much of a challenge to deal with. I simply replaced it with ¼ cup Greek yogurt. The real challenge however was to make the grape must syrup. Most recipes called for petimezi called for grape juice and wood ash. Now we do not have a fireplace or barbeque grill and I did not know where to get the wood ash from.. so after some considerations I decided to simply simmer the grape juice and make a syrup. I am not sure if the thickened grape syrup tasted anything like petimezi, but it was really good... Having said that I must add that though the grape syrup was great by itself, one could barely taste it in the bun. So unless you are in the mood for it, do not sweat it out. Simply substitute the syrup with an equal measure of honey and you are good to go.... 

But... in case you want to make the grape syrup my way here is how you can do it. For 2 cups of grape syrup, blend  5 cups of red grapes, strain the juice into a large saucepan. Over medium heat, bring the juice to a boil, skim off the foam that rises on top and simmer over medium low heat for the next 1½ to 2 hours, until the juice thickens and acquires the consistency of honey. This syrup can be used as a dipping syrup for the bread or served as a sauce with savory snacks. It also tastes good when served over Greek Yogurt or Frozen yogurt. 

Crème Brûlée Sans Eggs

Translated in English, Crème Brûlée means Burnt Cream. It is a classic French dessert consisting of a rich egg custard base topped with a layer of caramelized sugar. In December, Vimala Lakshmi of Cooking Club challenged the members of Gayathri's Eggless Baking Group to bake Crème Brûlée Sans Eggs...

The recipe she suggested by the celebrated Indian chef Sanjeev Kapoor. It had 4 egg yolks and 1 egg. How on earth was I supposed to substitute so many eggs ! Google revealed that most eggless recipes of Crème Brûlée involved gelation, agar agar powder or china grass. Since I do not use any of those products,  I decided to skip the December challenge until I came across Sharanya Pathmanathan's post of Eggless Crème Brûlée.  It was easy and doable. So I decided to plunge in and bake Crème Brûlée Sans Eggs...

Eggless Slovak Easter Bread - Paska

Hope you all enjoyed Thanksgiving with your dear ones. Now that Thanksgiving is over it is time for everything Christmas-y. But. Oops ! I have a East European Easter Bread for you today. As a compensation I decorated it to look more Christmas-y.. with leaves and berries just so that you do not think that I forgot about Christmas all together and jumped to spring..

I baked this Slovak Easter Bread as part of Gayathri's Baking Eggless Challenge wherein the challenger presents the group with a eggilious recipe and challenges everyone to convert it into an eggless one. This month Gayathri of Gayathri's Cook Spot challenged us with this sweetish butter bread East European Bread. The original recipe was for 3 7 inch round loaves and used 3 large eggs. I decided to make 6 peeps and a 6 inch round loaf and so made only one third of the recipe using whole wheat flour and all purpose flour in 1:1 ratio and yogurt + a pinch of baking soda as a substitute for one egg. The whole wheat made the bread slightly dense, nevertheless it was tasty. We had it with spicy curry for Thanksgiving and enjoyed it much. 

With its buttery deliciousness this loaf will look grand at any holiday table. Be it Christmas or Easter. The peeps of course look more Easter-y so its best to reserve them for spring...

Mrs Maduro's Pie for Vegetarians # July Challenge for Baking Eggless

This month Gayathri of Gayathri's Cook Spot challenged the Baking Eggless group to make a vegetarian version of Mrs Maduro's Meat Pies.

The original recipe is from Saveur. The two ingredients in the recipe that we had to deal with were the eggs that are used for glazing the pies and lean ground chunk that is used in the filling. frankly speaking this wasn't much of a challenge since most Indians make such substitutions all the time. for the glaze i decided on a solution of milk and melted butter and for the filling, i substituted the meat with soy chunks and paneer. the substitutions worked well and even my soy-­hating­ husband liked them. he however commented that these pies would taste even better with a meat filling and i kind of agree with him. all that said i still think that these pies will make a great appetizer in any party. these taste particularly good when served with mint or coriander chutney.

Mrs Maduro's Pie for Vegetarians (makes 9) Recipe Source: Saveur

ingredients    for the dough 1 cup all­-purpose flour 1/4 tsp salt 5 tbsp cold butter, cut into bits 1/4 cup ice­-cold water 2 tbsp milk+ 1 tsp melted butter, for glazing for the filling 1 1/4 cup cooked soy chunks, minced (I used  Nutrela) 1 tbsp butter 1 medium sized onion, chopped 1 clove of garlic, grated 1 tomato, peeled, seeded and chopped 1/2 tbsp cider vinegar 1 tsp red pepper flakes 1/4 cup chopped coriander 1 tsp dried thyme 6 pimiento stuffed green olives, minced 3/4 cup grated paneer 1/2 tsp Dijon mustard 1 tbsp sherry -   what i did for the dough, 1 hour prior to baking, i sifted the flour and salt into a big bowl, added the bits of cold butter to the flour mixture and mixed it until it became somewhat crumbly. i then drizzled the water over the flour and using my hand kneaded the it till the dough came together. then gathering it into a ball, i flattened it with the heel of my palm to form a disc, wrapped it with a plastic cling wrap and put it in the refrigerator to chill for an hour. in the meantime i prepared the filling for the pies. as I have mentioned I used Nutrela soy chunks which I cooked according to the instructions on the box and kept aside. next i melted the butter in a saucepan, added the onions and garlic to it and sauteed them until the onions became tender. i then added the tomatoes, vinegar, pepper flakes, coriander, thyme and olives and cooked until the raw smell of the tomatoes was somewhat gone. once the tomatoes looked well­-cooked, i stirred in the minced soy chunks and the panner and cooked them with all the spices for a few minutes, i.e., until the soy chunks absorbed the flavors of the spices and stopped tasting bland. at this point I added in the mustard and sherry and cooked for a few minutes more till all  the liquid from the saucepan evaporated. then switching off the heat i let the mixture cool down completely before starting to work on the pies. Assembling the pies. once the filling cooled down, i preheated the oven to 400 degrees F. i then took out the dough from the refrigerator and placing it between sheets of parchment paper rolled it into a 1/4 inch thick sheet. next using a 3 inch round cookie cutter i first cut out 18 circles from the dough, fitted half  of them into the molds of the muffin tray, filled each of the dough cups with 11/2-­2 tablespoons of the filling, then covered them with the remaining dough circles. once all that was done, i sealed the edges of the cups with the back of the spoon, brushed the pies with the milk and butter solution, pricked the top with a frock and then transferred the muffin tray into the preheated oven. I baked the pies for 30 minutes until the surface surface looked golden. then removing  them from the oven i let them cool completely before serving with some chutney.

Do not ignore this recipe even if you do not like soy. they actually taste pretty good cooked this way. With all the additions that i made along the way I had some extra filling in hand which I mixed with mashed potatoes and turned into soy-paneer patties. just in case you were curious... those tasted good as well.

So much for today... Happy baking and happy snacking !

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Jam Swirled Eggless Muffins # June Challenge for Baking Eggless

This month Priya from Priya's Versatile Recipes challenged the members of Gayathri's Eggless Baking Group to bake these fantastic Eggless Jam Swirl Muffins.

The original recipe, the one with eggs, was by Patricia of Technicolor Kitchen . She had created these amazing muffins  by swirling some blackberry lemon jam into Dorie's lemon poppy seed muffins... and we followed suit.

since the only jams i had in the kitchen were the orange marmalade and some apricot jam, I baked my first trial batch with applesauce as the egg substitute and raspberry coulis (for the color) and some apricot jam. Think the coulis made the batter a bit more soggy than desired and i ended up baking the muffins for 30 minutes. They looked and tasted fine but were a little dense. i was not completely satisfied and decided to make another batch. this time i used sweetened condensed milk as a substitute for eggs and the did not try too hard to make the swirl. mostly because i used orange marmalade and that wouldn't really show up. the result was e-x-c-e-l-l-e-n-t. The muffins were super soft and delicious. and the whole batch vanished faster than i would have liked. I had halved the recipe and had made 9 muffins and Mr MN and I finished it all within a day. we simply kept feeling hungry-for-the-muffins... 

now the recipe...

Eggless Jam Swirl Muffins (makes 9) Adapted from Technicolor Kitchen

ingredients 3 tbsp ground sugar (i ground it in the coffee machine)  the dry ingredients to be sifted together 1 cup all-purpose flour 1/2 tsp baking powder 1/2 tsp baking soda 1/8 tsp salt the wet ingredients 90 ml sour cream or yogurt (i used sc) 3 oz sweetened condensed milk 1 tsp vanilla 1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled 1/3 cup jam -   what i did i preheated the oven to 400 degrees F ; buttered a standard muffin-cupcake pan ; sifted the dry ingredients together and kept them aside and whisked the wet ingredients together until they were well blended. i then added the ground sugar to the sifted flour mixture and mixed them, then  poured the wet ingredients into flour-sugar mixture and using a fork, lightly whisked the mixture. * next i added the jam to the mixture, whisked it lightly and pouring the batter into the prepared pan, transferred it to preheated oven and baked for 20 minutes, that is until the surface turned golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center of the muffin came out clean.* then removing the baking pan from the oven, i left it to cool down completely before taking out the muffins and relishing them. * see my notes

Notes 

•  It is really important to whisk the mixture lightly otherwise the muffins get tough.
•  Though these are called Jam Swirl Muffins, its best not to try to hard to create the swirl. it   does not  show up like a marble cake swirl even if you try very hard. trying too hard only makes the muffins tougher...  

 I tried both the "don'ts" the first time and ended baking this set and regretting.

So much for today. Hope you had a relaxed weekend. we spent a regular Sunday shopping, cleaning and planning for the 4th of July weekend. 

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Eggless Crispy Cheesy Donuts

This month I joined Gayathri's Eggless Baking Group. Well its no secret that I love baking. I bake a lot and every now and then I like my cakes and bakes to be eggless . While I had been hesitating on whether or not to join another baking group, their last months challenge convinced me that to join the group. They had baked eggless Tiramisu. Now that is something I would like to try but I wonder if I would try to bake it unless I was challenged to do so. so yes. I left a message at Gayathri's Cook Spot and soon enough she added me to the group and mailed me the challenge for May... Eggless Crispy Creamy Donuts. The original recipe that Jayanthi of Sizzling Veggies suggested from All Recipes   included eggs and we were challenged to bake rather fry an eggless version of it.

Though every once in a while we love to pick up donuts from our neighbourhood Dunkin Donuts, to be honest I wasn't very excited about trying these at home. The reason. I hate to deep fry. not just because it isn't the healthiest option but because I cannot fry. getting the correct oil temperature always seems like a tricky business and you know everything goes wrong if the temperature is not correct. the fried stuff is either undone or soaking with too much oil. and no one is happy. anyway since it was the challenge for the month I gave it a try. the first batch of donuts and their little star shaped kins came out fine. but i wasn't very happy with the second and third batch. so though 1 made 13 normal sized donuts and several little star shaped ones, it is only the mini star donuts and 6 of the 13 donuts that I am proud of... its however a different question if I'll ever make them again. probably not. but i do intend to try out the baked version .