GREEN TEA MOUSSE

140 gms  Whipping cream
70 gms white chocolate
1 tbsp Green Tea Leaves
1 tbsp Dolce de Leche
1 tsp Agar powder
2 tbsp of warm water

CREAM-LESS STRAWBERRY MOUSSE
140 grms Strawberry Puree
140 grms Sugar
1 tsp Agar
3 tbsp Warm water

Whipping cream as required
Pistachio Nuts as required

METHOD
TO MAKE GREEN TEA MOUSSE
In a thick bowl heat cream and tea Leaves until boiling set aside for 30 minutes, strain the tea leaves from cream then whip to soft peak melt chocolate and mix into tea infused cream and set aside.

TO MAKE CREAM-LESS STRAWBERRY MOUSSE
Soak Agar powder in  warm water beat keep it aside for few minutes then beat again , Puree strawberry and sugar together heat them in a bowl, add this to the puree and boil for few minutes keep it aside.

Beat whipping cream until soft peaks are formed. chop pistachios and keep aside.

ASSEMBLE

In a glass bowl or any thing you wish to arrange, layer whipping cream, add chopped pistachios, then layer them with Strawberry mousse then layer it with Green tea Mousse then layer it with Whipping cream and pistachios again then top it with Green tea mousse and top it with pistachios again, leave it in the refrigerate an hour or two and serve it cold.
Recipe source from these two blogs with minimal changes from here and matchachocolate.com
It was very sweet said my kids, hope you like it...

The post Eggless Green Tea mousse with Pistachio and Strawberry Verrines appeared first on My Veg Fare.

Queen of Sheba and King Soloman were two characters glued to my mind from my childhood, I always loved reading story books, comics and especially books like Akbar and Birbal, Chanakya, Tenali,  were mesmerizing characters, writing about these books are bringing back lot of childhood memories and loads of books I miss and wouldn't mind reading them all over again.
So, the next question  is ? Queen of sheba and Julia Child, what is the connection between these two. Julia child is an other character I was so loved, when I think back, I never knew who Julia Child was, blogging has brought me to a new world to know about not just recipes but most of the time particularly with International cuisine, why was this recipe named so, what's is the uniqueness of this recipe, who was behind it ?, why did they call it so ?, which place and why has its origin from here etc.., etc.., right ? you too agree with me right ?.

I came to know about why Julia child especially called this cake Rene de saba ( Queen of sheba ), from our beloved Google that when she made this cake she thought this cake is delicious it is fit for a queen and named it after her.
Queen Sheba like King Soloman was famous for her wisdom and also for her beauty and wealth, she is spoken about in Ethiopian history, the Bible and the Qua'ran.
Coming back to this recipe, this recipe is in her book ''Mastering The Art of french cooking'' by Julia Child,  I came to know that this is the last recipe in her book. As I had already made this cake for the Book club by Simran.  I contacted Swathi of Zesty South Indian Kitchen 
who is the brain child for this Baking Partner group and told her about it, and said may be I will try a Eggless version of this cake, and she was delighted and said go ahead and bake it.
I actually should have remembered something before I baked this cake Eggless.  Do you know why ? actually long back I had baked something like this for a brownie. well, was it not a good introduction  that the cake I baked it for the first time was a disaster. The cake was delicious but just collapsed in the middle!! :)), No problem, I had some Ice cream asked my kids to enjoy it, actually they liked it as it tasted like a brownie, anyway that was done and dusted, I went to work, but kept thinking about it, I was really upset that I couldn't achieve it.
Came back home in the night, asked my daughter to measure the ingredients again and set about baking the cake, that was then I was telling her we will reduce the butter content and choco content in it and see what happens, the best thing was she was the one who helped me with the baking ingredients for the first time, just because of  that I think she remembered the measurements and told me mum, I think the butter and chocolate are of almost equal quantities, what do you want me to do ?, I was quite surprised at her memory as she was not too keen on helping me with the cake baking, so we both decided that we will reduce chocolate and butter to the same quantity  and see what happens.
so, this is how I made it...,

EGGLESS RENE DE SABA AVEC GLACAGE AU CHOCOLAT
For an 8'' pan
Baking time: 25 - 30 minutes

Ingredients:
65 grms ( around 2/3 cup) Plain flour*
74 grms ( around 3/4 cup) Ground Almonds
35 gms butter
35 grms Semi sweet chocolate**
2 tbsp of Coffee powder
1/4 cup Granulated sugar
3 tbsp Condensed milk
1/4 cup Yogurt
1 tsp Baking Powder
3/4th tsp Baking Soda
1 tbsp Corn starch
2 tbsp hot water

FOR CHOCOLATE ICING:
56.7 Grams / 2 Ounces semi sweet baking chocolate**
2 tbsp coffee
5 to 6 tbsp unsalted butter

** I have used Dark chocolate
If you like to check out the Original recipe for the cake which swathi gave us do please check out her blog here.
*She uses Cake flour, If substituting for cake flour: Take 1 tbsp of Corn starch in the cup and then fill the rest of the cup with plain flour but I changed it as I have mentioned above.

METHOD:
Preheat the oven to Gas Mark 3.
In a double boiler method, In a bowl  boil water and bring it to simmering then place a small sauce pan over the bowl melt chocolate, In 2tbsp hot water dissolve coffee powder and then add it to the melting chocolate.allow it to melt switch off the stove.
Line the cake tin with Baking parchment, Measure Almond meal, All Purpose Flour, Baking powder, Baking soda and corn starch and combine well together, and sieve them well together and keep aside.
In a food processor or an Indian Mixie blend together condensed milk, yogurt, melted chocolate with melted butter to a nice and creamy consistency.
In a large bowl take this creamy blend add sugar mix well then add Baking powder and Baking soda, combine them well together, within a few seconds you will start noticing bubbles forming up.
To this blend immediately fold in the dry ingredients delicately with the help of a rubber spatula, until everything is well incorporated.
Turn the batter into the cake tin and bake it in the middle rack of the oven for 25 to 30 minutes in the preheated oven.  Cake starts to puffs up around the circumference,  plunge a tester / skewer into that area of the cake when it comes out clean then you would know it is done.
The center might be a bit shaky if a toothpick inserted comes out a bit oily and comes out with a few moist crumbs.
Take out the cake when it is done, Allow the cake to cool it on a wiring rack, after 5 minutes run the knife through the edge of the pan and turn it on to the cooling rack.
Allow it to cool for at least for at least an hour, if you plan to do Icing, you need to cool it completely.

FOR THE ICING:
Place chocolate and coffee in a small sauce pan, and set it in a larger pan with almost simmering water away from heat allow it to melt with butter beat it together until smooth and shiny.  Immediately spread it over the cake.

I used my pastry brush to make strokes on it and decorated it with flaked almonds in the middle and I had some home grown strawberries which I placed it on top just to make it look nice.  Hope you like it.

If you want to see more beautiful cakes and the challenge done with care, love and especially with perfection here are my friends from Baking partners... check out their blog and enjoy the visual view.

As I had already told you that I had baked this cake long bake for a book club I wanted to show you a click of that as well which I baked using eggs

Here is the link to that post : https://www.myvegfare.com/?p=242 and here is a picture of it.

Seniding this to
cook eat delicious - desserts - Chocolate, started by cook eat delicious hosted by Riddhima of culinary vibes
Sending this to JCO - Super foods - Super Power
Bon Viviant #7, by symee's culinary
Bake Fest by Foodmania, started by Vardhini

The post Eggless Rene de saba avec Glacage au Chocolat appeared first on My Veg Fare.

Biscotti is an Italian cuisine : the Wiki gives you a detailed information on this....check out...

Biscotti (pronounced /bɪˈskɒti/, Italian pronunciation: [bisˈkɔtti]) more correctly known as biscotti di Prato (English: biscuits of Prato), also known as cantuccini(English: corners), are a twice-baked cake originating in the Italian city of Prato. The cakes are large almond biscuits, made dry and crunchy through cutting the loaf of dough while still hot and fresh from baking in the oven.


This is my first time with sweet punch and the september theme was ''Chocolate Almond Biscotti'' from Joy of baking, I had already made a biscotti with different flavours and eggless, I was into this as I love Joy of baking and my kids like these crunchy cakes and eat them as snacks when they come back from school. It's been quite sometime I made anything with egg, so I thought why not 🙂

CHOCOLATE ALMOND BISCOTTI

INGREDIENTS: 
makes about 16 pieces
110 gms (3/4th Cup)  Blanched whole  Almonds
135 gms (2/3 cup) Sugar
2 Large Eggs
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
1 tsp Baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
100 gms Plain flour
60 gms whole grain Rye flour
65 gms Oat flour ( Morn flake powdered in mixie)
100 gms Semi sweet chocolate

(Original recipe calls for 225gms/ 1 3/4th cup Plain flour)



My daughter clicked this close up from iphone!

METHOD:
As I had no ready made toasted almonds, I soaked almonds in hot water for 10 minutes, then peeled the skin off and spread it on a baking sheet set the oven to 180 degrees/Gas mark 5 and toasted it for 8-10 minutes until light golden and fragrant, and set aside. Once cool chop them into pieces
Take a baking sheet and line the parchment paper.
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees/Gas mark 5/350 d F
In a bowl I took all the flours, salt and Baking powder and combined them well together and then sieved them twice, just to make sure they are well mixed.
In a large bowl, I whisked 2 Eggs and sugar until thick fluffy, the batter from the beater should fall in ribbons, at this point beat in vanilla extract.
Now add the flours, combine well then fold in chopped almonds and chocolate.
Transfer this dough on to the parchment lined baking sheet and form into a log, about 12'' long and 3 1/2'' wide, as you can see in my photo, I just dumped on to the sheet and with wet hands I pressed them down into that shape (that's what happens when you don't plan and bake late in the night!).
You have to dampen your hands to form a log as the dough is quite sticky!!
Bake for 25 minutes or until firm to touch, then remove it from the oven and let it cool on a wire rack for about 10 minutes.

Meanwhile Reduce your oven temperature to 165 degrees/Gas Mark 3/325 d F, Cut the baked log into 3/4'' slices on the diagonal.  Place these biscotti cut side down, on the baking sheet and bake further for about 10 minutes then turn them over again and bake for another 10 minutes or until golden brown.
Remove from oven and allow it cool and store it an air tight container

These are all the clicks my daughter took, I couldn't bin them as I told until you take photos no eating, she was so upset with me, she couldn't resist broke some pieces though, the smell was making them want to taste it :),  they had no fat at all, such a guilt free recipe.
I had made a Biscotti long back, an eggless one, I will definitely post it soon check out...

The post Chocolate Almond Biscotti - Healthy way ! appeared first on My Veg Fare.

Green pot has a chocolate filling

Pink has just the patisserie filling

 Yellow pot has Nut filling

All my fillings are getting ready to go into the pots for a raise....

TO MAKE VANILLA CREME PATISSERIE
INGREDIENTS:
1 Pint Milk
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup Sugar
3 Eggs
1 tbsp of pure vanilla extract

METHOD:
Boil Milk in a medium heat with vanilla extract, Break eggs beat it with sugar, whisk well and then add flour and whisk again, Pour boiled milk little by little then put it back on the stove, stir continuously until it thickens use it immediately or cover it with wrap and store in the refrigerator.

Ref: Joy of baking and videos in Google!! check out, you have many videos out there..., I did a little bit alteration like adding little less butter, and used flour to manage the dough as it was too difficult to handle!!

One more click of the Gorgeous bread...

I have lost Vanilla cre'me patisserie photos, My card reader is not reading!!, once I get it sorted out maybe I would able to post it 🙁
Anyway, I don't think Cathy is going to accept my post as it is past midnight, My comp got stuck again, and I couldn't post it on time...,
Now, I will be able to write leisurely about my saga of this recipe, I had no pots today morning I bought these pots!!!, I had thought of getting dough ready and then I will go and buy some pot today, and then I noticed I had no plain flour at all, So, I did all my shopping in the afternoon came home by half three and started off with everything, having difficulty in raising the dough everything went well, and I baked them by around 10:45 in the night and I was ready with the post, I must thank my daughter who helped me in taking photos and got everything ready for me to post but with computer getting stuck I got into all sorts of problems and she helped with that too.., I owe this recipe to her!!, sorry Cathy I tried my best and I was not able to do it on time!!, maybe next time..
I would also like to send this to Yeast spotting and champa's Baking event.

The post Broi'che with vanilla Cre'me patisserie BBD #29 appeared first on My Veg Fare.

PETIT PAINS AU LAIT

Ingredients:

• 450 gms/4cups unbleached white Bread flour
• 10ml/2tsp salt (1 tsp salt)
• 15ml/1 tbsp Caster sugar (1/4 cup caster sugar)
• 50gm/2 oz/ 1/4 cup butter, softened
• 15g/1/2 oz fresh yeast (1 tbsp fast action yeast)
• 280 ml/ 1 cup milk, lukewarm
• extra milk for glazing

1. Lightly grease 2 baking sheets. sift the flour and salt together into a large bowl.  Stir in the sugar.  Rub the softened butter into the flour.
2. To 4 tbsp of lukewarm milk add yeast whisk it well and leave it to froth up, then add the remaining milk, then pour into the mixture and mix into a soft dough.
3. Turn out on to a lightly floured surface and knead for 8 to 10 minutes until smooth and elastic. place in a lightly oiled bowl, cover with lightly oiled clear film and leave to rise, in a warm place, for 1 to 1 & 1/2 hour or until it is doubled in bulk.
4. Turn out the dough on to a lightly floured surface and gently knock back, Divide into 12 equal pieces, shape into balls and place them on the baking sheets giving them space to rise again
5. Using a sharp knife, cut across in the top of each roll, cover with lightly oiled clear film and leave to rise, in a warm place, for about 20  minutes, or until double in size.
6. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees/400 degree F/ Gas Mark 6.  Brush the rolls with milk and bake for 20-25 minutes, or until Golden.

One another thing I wanted to send by baking to yeast spotting of wild yeast, So, here I am sending this to Yeast Spotting.

The post Petit Pains Au Lait appeared first on My Veg Fare.

FRENCH MACARONS:

Ingredients:

Confectioners’ (Icing) sugar: 2 ¼ cups (225 g, 8 oz.)
Almond flour: 2 cups (190 g, 6.7 oz.)
Granulated sugar: 2 tablespoons (25 g , .88 oz.)
Egg whites: 5 (Have at room temperature)

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 200°F (93°C). Combine the confectioners’ sugar and almond flour in a medium bowl. If grinding your own nuts, combine nuts and a cup of confectioners’ sugar in the bowl of a food processor and grind until nuts are very fine and powdery.
2. Beat the egg whites in the clean dry bowl of a stand mixer until they hold soft peaks. Slowly add the granulated sugar and beat until the mixture holds stiff peaks.
3. Sift a third of the almond flour mixture into the meringue and fold gently to combine. If you are planning on adding zest or other flavorings to the batter, now is the time. Sift in the remaining almond flour in two batches. Be gentle! Don’t overfold, but fully incorporate your ingredients.
4. Spoon the mixture into a pastry bag fitted with a plain half-inch tip (Ateco #806). You can also use a Ziploc bag with a corner cut off. It’s easiest to fill your bag if you stand it up in a tall glass and fold the top down before spooning in the batter.
5. Pipe one-inch-sized (2.5 cm) mounds of batter onto baking sheets lined with nonstick liners (or parchment paper).
6. Bake the macaroon for 5 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and raise the temperature to 375°F (190°C). Once the oven is up to temperature, put the pans back in the oven and bake for an additional 7 to 8 minutes, or lightly colored.
7. Cool on a rack before filling.

The above is the original recipe from the Daring Baker's you must visit other Daring Baker's for their tips and methods of baking a good macaron.
My verdict:  I did twice, I was not happy with my achievement, I have planed to do it again, as I did not get the feet what they kept saying, I just had to put my feet up and cried my best..., I thought I must quit baking,
For the filling:  I did not try any thing, as I was quite upset, as I did not achieve the results, I used
2 tbsp of poppy seeds
4 tbsp of dessicated coconut
1/4 tsp of cardamom powder
2 tbsp of roasted pistachio
1/2 and 1/2 of butter and sugar
I roasted all the ingridients except coconut powdered them and mixed with the butter and sugar cream and filled them.
well, children said it was quite nice and have finished them, that is all I could say.

The post French Macarons - Daring Baker's challenge october 2009 appeared first on My Veg Fare.