egg recipe Archives - My Veg Fare

Yazdi Cup Cakes - Eggless

Jayasri Ravi — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 12:56:00 +0000

I love baking so much, I can't resist baking even for a day, but I need to remember myself is it alright to feed my family with loads of Baking powder, Baking soda, Yeast, Butter, oil etc.., When I was in India, even though I come from a family of bakers, I never used to buy Bakery stuff, it was always like a treat to my kids.
I always tried to cook everything from scratch at home. Never used to visit hotels, restaurants often, Baking became an obsession only after coming to the UK.
Baking has brought me into lot of things I am learning - Come to think of it I should say people living in those climates need those particular kinds of diet I suppose, which is good for that kind of living environment, every country has its own Original recipes suitable to the climate probably, Ancestors might have thought and cooked food the way it was provided by the nature to them may be.
Only now we have changed too fast food and takeaways always, for a fast life, sometimes a lazy life, that we don't want to do anything from scratch and try to take shortcuts....
These food blogs and cookery shows have changed a lot of things in our outlook of healthy eating I think I love Jamie Oliver's show, he is really trying hard to change the food habits of our future generation.
Maybe in India we don't get to see people doing lot of taking away as for lots of reasons, basically living in a joint family where you have people helping in everybody's day to day living, having household help (maids), too many channels showcasing about good food and healthy eating, lot of cookery shows, trying to get best out of everything even from waste ( I mean to say for example like using peels of vegetables etc..,!), sometimes we get people come and cook for us !, that's even better right ? I think its totally the social set up I suppose.
If we ate 2 to 3 days continuously in hotels or restaurants my parents would get upset and complain that we are consuming lot of soda, which is not good for health, they even said, people in hotels and takeaways add BP,BS and loads of oil to make it much tastier and for longer shelf life which is no good!, I was brought up with these concepts every day, Now I get confused and it concerns me, when I bake.
Once, long time before my Hubby came home and said that they have banned using of Baking soda in cooking in his office canteen as it is bad for health, and causing health concerns for its employees!. Anyway as always It is said in the end minimal use of anything and everything in consumption is not a big cause of concern I suppose.
Well, whatever I have said here is merely my thoughts, I am not offending anybody's food habits or cooking habits in particular.., so please don't take it in any wrong sense.
Sorry I don't know why I went away from the topic of baking these goodies!, I started with my cupcakes and drifted somewhere else!, well, coming back to this recipe, One day when I was googling about something I got hooked to this recipe.., well, you definitely would know why if you are an Indian by origin.., It's the spices of course.
I have come to know by googling and from books that a lot of Persian cuisine use spices just like us, or should I say we started using them, as they came to India too..., anyway I am not deep into this subject again, as I am not an authority on these lines.. :).
I fell for this recipe completely.., Azita says this recipe takes its name from the city of Yazd, the capital city of Yazd province in central Iran.
This cupcake is so delicious in flavour you will fall for it, My daughter having one bite said it tastes something she knows, she kept telling me it's that sweet you make mum! the round golden brown balls...., I kept thinking too and suddenly it flashed - Yup its tastes like Gulab Jamoons! only baked version!
She has adapted this recipe from a cookbook by M.R.Ghanoonparvar's ''Colucheh Yazdi'' recipe in his first cookbook Persian Cuisine: Traditional, Regional and Modern foods, check out this link if you are interested.
I found another website showcasing the same recipe but she has adapted from another book by Najmieh Batmanglij from his cookbook New Food of Life: Ancient Persian and Modern Iranian Cooking and Ceremonies.
Once I got the recipe, I have to tweak it to my liking so I had to make it eggless, but I halved the recipe, that's all I did.. changed it into an Eggless cupcake.., I have already made it many a time and taken it with me to friends and family who fell for this lovely cake..

EGGLESS YAZDI CUPCAKES

INGREDIENTS:
1 Cup All Purpose flour/Maida
1/4 Cup Rice Flour
3/4th Cup Sugar
1/2 Cup Plain Yogurt
1/4 Cup + 2 tbsp of Unsalted melted butter
1 tsp Baking powder
1 tsp Baking soda
1/4 tsp Cardamom powder
1 tbsp Rosewater
1/4 tsp Vanilla essence
2 tbsp finely chopped Pistachios
2 Eggs (optional - I just omitted)

METHOD:
Preheat heat the oven to 180 degrees/Gas Mark 4/350 d Fahrenheit.
Mix all the dry ingredients together, plain flour, Rice flour, Baking powder, Baking soda, powdered Cardamom and sieve them together at least twice
Then in a large bowl take the wet Ingredients together....
First of all take Sugar and a bit warm melted butter to this add vanilla essence, Rosewater and beat it together the sugar dissolves (do not worry if not completely) for 2 minutes then add the yogurt mix well together with one tbsp of chopped pistachios and immediately add your sieved dry ingredients to it in batches.
Sometimes the butter might start to harden up maybe because of the cold temperature here, so that's why I said to add yogurt to the end and then the sieved flour immediately in two or three batches as the quantity is very small it won't take too many batches, don't try mix too much, mix in circles and blend it in with no lumps.
Line cupcake trays and cupcake liners and spoon the mixture into them, fill them 3/4th and bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes or when a toothpick inserted comes out clean
These cupcakes need not be frosted as they are lovely just as they are...

VARIATION:
You can add 2 Eggs with the above-said recipe to make this cupcake with eggs.

The cake turned out perfectly with lots of flavours in it and as you can see it was soft and moist, it would crumble quickly if left for long (maybe 2 days).

I am sending this to
Vardhini's Bake fest #1, Kalyani's 100 day global food festival, Srav's culinary concept - festive food.

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Chocolate Almond Biscotti - Healthy way !

Jayasri Ravi — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 11:14:00 +0000

Hi everybody, hope you are all doing well, I am quite happy too, I had a heavy rainfall just an hour back and suddenly I see sun shining in full galore now :), this is British weather !, When I came here first everybody would start talking to you with weather first!, I wondered and then I came to know why ?!, As my friend Emma said welcome to British weather, you can 4 different seasons in a day!, Oh! yes I did, yesterday it was so windy I thought I might fly off, It was such a ghastly, howling wind, when I got up in the morning it was pouring down, I was quite upset, now its replaced with sunshine and the wind. I really am talking too much about this right ?. let me stop and come to my recipe.
I had to post this 5 days back, basically I thought I will post it on the 8th which never happened, stuck with lot of things, to tell you the truth I had completely forgotten this team of bakers ''Sweet Punch'', it just happens isn't it, when your health keeps punching you often, I forget lot of things and priorities automatically change. when I saw the first post in my mail, I was very upset that I had forgotten and immediately set out to make this lovely biscotti, and decided I will post it the next day! and the next day slowly changed to 6 days!.
well, anyways here I am, I tweaked this recipe a little bit, just to make it more healthier, when ever I bake I try not to use plain flour as much as possible but not completely as because of its gluten content and use different flours as well, other wise recipe is just the same, If you have sweet tooth, I would suggest you can add more sugar, I really don't know if it works pretty well with plain flour, my kids said I could have added more sugar, but for me it was perfect.

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...

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Baking Quark Mousse cake with Roasted Balsamic Strawberries from PAB

Jayasri Ravi — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 17:49:00 +0000

Hi everybody, I know I have been posting just cakes all the time!, as I want to finish my T and T project, I have to do this!, So soon I can post the round-up from PAB's blog, Did you read it right ?, Had a lovely time baking this cake and the drawings, It was fun spending time with the kids with this!, we all enjoyed baking and eating :), I had an eye on her signature from a very long time, and really wanted to try it out, and I did it. Only we wee bit got carried away and the left over we squeezed it all over the cake! 🙂

It's always just the weather makes me sore to do anything, well, by the way today, we have lot of sunshine, I have just decided I will enjoy it till it lasts. You need to check out her blog HERE for beautiful photos of this really yummy cake and of course her signature too...

BAKING QUARK MOUSSE CAKE WITH ROASTED BALSAMIC STRAWBERRIES

FOR THE SPONGE CAKE

Make 2 sponges (this recipe is for one 7.5’’ cake)

3 Eggs

½ Cup sugar

½ Vanilla Bean scrapped (I used 1 tsp vanilla extract)

½ Cup Plain Flour

METHOD:

Line 2 X 7.5’’ round tins with Baking parchment
preheat the oven to 180 °C/Gas mark 4

In a Clean large bowl beat the eggs with sugar and vanilla extract until thick and mousse like, then Gently fold in the flour in making sure you don’t lose volume, (she says she dumps the flour in one go, as she makes this so often like her basic cooking!, but I did not do like her as my baking mostly egglessJ, so I added the flour gradually, 2 tbsp at a time to make sure it mixes thoroughly and doesn’t lose volume).

When completely incorporated turn the batter gently into the prepared tin, and bake until done for about 20-25 minutes or until the tester comes out clean.
Once baked take it out of the oven, cool on racks for few minutes, then turn out from tins gently and allow it to cool completely before the filling.

This was another fabulous filling which she got inspired by BBC Good Food

QUARK MOUSSE FILLING Inspired by BBC Good Food

400gms quark Cheese

200 ml low fat cream (I used full fat)

½ cup powdered sugar

1 vanilla bean scraped (I used 1 tsp vanilla extract)

1 Cup Roasted Balsamic Strawberries (Recipe here)

METHOD:

Beat the quark cheese with powdered sugar and scraped vanilla bean until smooth, then taste and adjust sugar if required, whip the cream to soft peaks, and fold into the whipped quark cheese. Add the roasted balsamic strawberries (you can reserve ¼ cup for topping), and gently fold in to mix thoroughly.

Topping on the Cake

100ml low fat cream

2-3 tbsps powdered sugar

METHOD:

Whip cream with sugar to medium peaks

Lime-Sugar Syrup

¼ cup sugar

½ cup water

Juice of 1 Lime

METHOD:

Boil for 5 minutes till sugar melts. Add the lime juice. Allow to cool.

TO ASSEMBLE THE CAKE:

Slice the sponges horizontally into two. Brush each layer with lime-sugar syrup as you work. Sandwich the layers with the quark mousse, and cover the sides with it too.

And what did I do her Signature recipe adding Lace Border!!!, Wow it came out so well, my kids got carried away, they did not want to stop as it was chocolate, and we tasted it so that’s it J, we scribbled it all over the cake, that’s it you are not able to see the strawberry topping on it!!, or do as she has done, cover the top with whipped cream and top with some jellied roasted balsamic strawberries.

Finish the top and edges off with chocolate shavings or whatever you fancy

Chill well before serving so that the flavours mature and Mmmm.., tastes very good, which you will love!

MY VERDICT: of course my kids and family LOVED IT..... Mmm....., J J J hahahaha

They just loved it, and both the fillings in both the cakes were so very delicious!!

Thank you so much Deeba, for this wonderful recipe, and would I make it again Yay! YES OF COURSE..., I enjoyed your signature drawing so much, I am so pleased with myself that I tried.

Oops I forgot something, I made this for my own event - T and T - Passionate about baking, by kitchen chronicles and zlamushka and also to Anu's event - Berries - Strawberries, Hearth and soul, and to Priya and Aipi's Bookmarked recipes and also to Jacqueline and Ruth's Book Marked recipes

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Most Fabulous Banana Cake

Jayasri Ravi — Sat, 19 Mar 2011 22:14:00 +0000

Ooo that sounds nice, I bake lot of Banana cakes in different varities and all of them are mostly eggless, as it has already got banana in it I don't need to add an Egg most of the time.
This is the second time I baked this cake, the minute I saw this cake here, I wanted to try it out and the first time I made it I just omitted the egg, My eldest loves these Banana loafs, cakes, muffins etc., as I make it rich, which she can nibble on!, (secret - nothing big!), I will post them soon, but this one was very good and she loved it, thanks to both Nags and Belinda Jeffery.
You want to know what happened, I baked it on a weekend, went out and came back to see a very little piece left, you know who ate it, my twins!, My eldest was with me, she had a bit before we went out, as she was so upset :(, told her I will make it again.
If you want it Eggless just forget to add the Egg :))
You must read the write up by Nags to read about the lovely book and this lovely recipe...

MOST FABULOUS BANANA CAKE

INGREDIENTS:
3/4th Cup Plain Flour
1.5 tsp Baking powder
1/2 tsp Salt 1/4 tsp Baking Soda
1 very ripe Banana (3/4th Cup Mashed)
3/4th Cup sugar
1 Egg
1/4 Cup Butter room temperature
50 ml sour cream or Buttermilk (I used Buttermilk)
1 tsp Vanilla extract
METHOD:

Preheat oven to 180 degree, Gas Mark 4
I made it by hand she used her food processor, Check out how she has done it.
How I made it..
I pureed my bananas in my mixie to a puree (I used 2 small Bananas I had 1 cup so, I used it completely, didn't know what to do with it!)
In a large bowl, I put my Banana Puree, Buttermilk, butter, Sugar and Egg and whisked it well enough that they all got throughly combined and to this I added Baking powder,Baking soda, salt and vanilla extract, mixed well together again.
I had sifted the flour before I started off, I added the flour into it in parts and incorporated it completely into my liquidy mixture, Poured it into a tin lined with Baking sheet and baked it for 35 to 40 minutes, until the skewer came out clean, I had baked it in a smaller tin, It doesn't look anything like hers, but tasted great.
That's it, said and done, did you like it, go make it then and enjoy.
Thanks very much, try more recipes and post it, we will enjoy the visual treat from yours and enjoy making it in our kitchens :)).

c u soon with an other recipe from hers to mine :))

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Herbed Mascarpone and Veggie Tart with a French Tart dough

Jayasri Ravi — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 23:13:00 +0000

I had an eye on this Tart recipe from David Lebovitz's blog, He is got such a wonderful space, you get just drawn to it so easily well explained, Daring things he explores with ingredients and in culinary art of cooking and baking, you can learn a lot from his wonderful posts, not only that his beautiful photographs are a feast to your eyes even though we know we cannot lay hands on them!. I have not done a good justice to this tart recipe as he has done, because I was little slow in checking out the tart when it was baking so you can see a little nicely browned edges, Anyway my family loved it and they all enjoyed it and it was like a one pot meal as it was quite filling.
I have to write about this tart as he learnt this from this lady by name Paule Caillat who teaches cooking classes in Paris Promenades Gourmandes. You have to visit his site and read about this lady and how she taught him make this Tart in his own words as it is very interesting to read, as we all go through that phase when you listen to something you have never heard or thought before that you can do some thing like this for a pastry!, I was really drawn into this French Tart dough and wanted to try out this right away.
You can see wonderful photo Tutorial of this Tart dough in his blog and you would really understand well and try this out.
As we in India make a lot of cakes, this tart dough something very similar to it and a very interesting recipe to try it out.

HERBED MASCARPONE AND VEGGIE TART WITH FRENCH TART DOUGH

So let us start with how to make this French Tart dough..., check out his blog on the link above for this tart recipe with lovely clicks than mine, and he uses microwave to make his butter to boil and I did this on the stove top!. coming back to the recipe.

FRENCH TART DOUGH

INGREDIENTS:
90 gms Unsalted butter
1 tbsp Vegetable oil (I also used canola oil)
3 tbsp water
1 tbsp sugar
1/8th tsp salt
150 g (50z or I used 1 cup of flour).

METHOD:

Preheat the oven to 410 degree F or 210 degree Centigrade, mine is a Gas oven so I baked it at Gas mark 6

Take a thick bottomed wok as shown in the photo take the measured quantity of butter and start melting it once it is completely melted add the other Ingredients oil, water, sugar and salt and allow it to boil, for a few minutes you can the edges turning brown (something like the smell of ghee I did not allow it to turn brown too much) then put of the flame add the sifted flour to the wok and mix it well until well combined and forms into a ball and pulls out or comes out clean from the wok.
If you are using a Microwave method put all the first five Ingredients into a microwave safe bowl or pyrex bowl and allow it to boil for 15 minutes as David Lebovitz says until you can see the edges turning brown and be careful when handling the bowl as it will be very hot and do not grab it with your bare hands!
Once the dough is done, transfer it into a 9 inch (23 cm) Tart mould with a removable base and spread it with the help of a spatula once it starts getting cool with the back of your fingers/heels press the dough completely into the tart mould to cover it pressing it to the base and edges as shown.
Prick the dough a few times and bake the tart shell in the oven 15 minutes until it is Golden, mine turned a Golden brown as I baked it a few more minutes and my tart mould was bigger than anticipated and the crust of the shell was really thin.

HERBED MASCARPONE AND VEGGIE TART FILLING:

This filling was again from David lebovitz blog as the spring onions caught my attention. Actually this Tart caught my attention then when I scrolled down thinking that I wanted to make my own pastry case, I found this French Tart dough recipe! So I made both of them, as usual I had to make some changes with my filling as I had to use the things which I had in hand and fridge.
Basically David's recipe calls for Ricotta, which I did not have and no time to make it as it was night! So, I had to tweak the recipe to my pantry requirement.
My tart tin was a little bigger I think so use the 9 inch (23 cm) mould for a perfect pastry.
So I used what all I had in hand I had .............

I
INGREDIENTS:
250gms of Spring Onions
1 tbsp butter
1 and 1/2 tbsp Fresh Thyme
5 ounces of Mascarpone
1 Large Egg
1/2 Cup Heavy Cream
1/2 Cup whole milk
300 gms of Broccoli
1 Yellow pepper
50 gms of Crumbled Tofu

METHOD:
Preheat the oven to 400F/200C/Gas mark 6.
Clean and chop the spring onions into 1/2 an inch thickness, cook Broccoli and peas until 3/4th done drain and keep aside until all the water is gone. Press the Tofu and squeeze out all the water and crumble it. wash and pat the Thyme leaves ready.
Heat butter in a wok and stir fry the Yellow pepper (thinly sliced) first and then add spring onions until tender and then put of the stove season it with salt and pepper and some fresh thyme, and allow it cool down.
Meanwhile In a large bowl take egg beat it well so the egg and yolk are well mixed then add the cheese, milk and heavy cream give a whisk again then add the crumbled Tofu, Broccoli, Peas, thinly sliced yellow peppers
and the spring onions and some more salt and pepper to season as required.
I had some mint and coriander leaves I added a tbsp of them into it. mixed them well and scraped it into the already baked tart shell.
Bake this in the pre-heated oven until it is nicely done as you can see above and check with a tooth pick inserted comes out clean for 20 to 30 minutes
I served it with an array for oven roasted fresh vegetables and sauce of your choice.

I would like to send this to Priya who is hosting AWED - French started by DK of chefinyou, and to Healing foods started by Siri and Guest hosted by Spice mantra.
Hope both of them would like it as my family did....
I am also linking this recipe with ..........

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Biscuits Tamir (Eggless and Egg Version)

Jayasri Ravi — Sun, 31 Oct 2010 02:08:00 +0000

Hi everybody how are you all doing ?, These are the Biscuits I made a long back in my draft, I made these when Lubna and Yasmeen announced for Ramdan event :), I made thrice, we ate, even shared to friends and family but never posted on time :).
I had written this in my book, quite a long time ago but had never tried them as I had no oven, I just thought I will give a try as it was made with dates. Dates are one of my favourite dry fruits, I get so tempted when I see.
When ever my friend visits his parents in Dubai, never forgets to buy me a box full of Dates. So, here I am with this recipe, and of course as I told earlier, I made these quite a lot of time, as my kids and friends liked it.
I made it in both with Egg and Eggless way and it turned quite well in both the ways.

BISCUITS TAMIR

INGREDIENTS:
2 Cups of Flour
200gms Chopped Dates
1 Egg
1/4 Cup Oil
3/4th Cup Sugar
1 tsp Baking Powder
2 tbsp Sesame seeds
water as needed little by little to form a dough

METHOD:
Sieve flour with Baking Powder, add egg, oil and sugar to it. Mix well for 3 to 4 minutes, Make a stiff dough with water, Knead well and keep aside.
Meanwhile chop the dates nicely and keep it ready.
Divide the dough into two portions. Roll out into thick square or round like a Chapati, prick with a needle spread dates all over, cover with another chapati or however you have rolled the dough on the first roll.
Press a little and sprinkle Sesame seeds. Cut into rectangles and bake in a preheated oven at 180 degrees for 15-20 minutes, cool and store.

FOR THE EGGLESS VERSION:

INGREDIENTS:
Same as above for the Egg version but I just omitted the Eggs in it and used water as needed to bond the dough. (An other time I used 2 tbsp of Flaxseed powder to give it a little more healthy touch).
For the dates filling, I Grounded
3 tbsp of Poppy seeds with grated
1/4 cup of Copra and
3 tbsp of sugar and
1 cardamom pod without the skin.
Mix this with the dates and spread it over the rolled dough same as above and spread another roll on top of it and bake the same way.
It will not puff up as the egg one, but tastes good.

I am sending this to the event hosted by Sudeshna of cook like a bong, Cooking with seeds - Poppy seed, started by Priya of Priya'seasyntasty recipes.

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Egg and Eggless Sticky Toffee Pudding with Toffee Sauce

Jayasri Ravi — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 22:37:00 +0000

Today My eldest was browsing through my collection of recipe books and she was so adamant that I should try out something from one of the books, because she always complains that I have these books on dessert and I never try out anything!. So, we both sat and rumbled through this recipe book of James Martin - Desserts and both decided to try out this recipe!, I love this book as it has a fabulous collection of recipes with basic techniques and is well explained. I could say that it is a fool proof recipe book I have 4 to 5 recipes from this book and all of them have turned out so well, I will post each one of them soon! (?)...
Once we decided upon what we are going to make, I told her we will make this into half and I will add egg to the one half and the other half I will try eggless!, she was not quite happy with it, but then she agreed (thank God!, I had my fingers crossed as I wanted her badly at my side, because I needed somebody to wash up all the things used when I am going through with it!, I always do the washing then and their when I start with the process, so both of us in do the chore!).
So, well when everything was set we were ready to go, she made the mixing of the egg based one and I made the eggless one!

STICKY TOFFEE PUDDING WITH TOFFEE SAUCE

As James Martin tells in this book that

' the origin of sticky tofee pudding are mixed. Some people say it comes from the Sharrow Bay Hotel in the Lake District while others claim it comes from the The Udny Arms Hotel in Aberdeenshire., for me, I like to think Francis Coulson or Brian Sack, the original owners of the Sharrow Bay, invented this dish in their fantastic hotel on the banks of Lake Ullswater, All I've done over the years is to tweak their recipe. I make it with a really rich toffee sauce- let's face it, if you're going to make a pud like this, you've got to do it properly!'.

Mmm.., the pud was really grate with that toffee sauce, even my sweet loving daughter thought it was too sweet for her, If you love sweets this toffee pudding with toffee sauce is just right for you!!!!.

I could just have the toffee pud, but the sauce was too much for me, and what a fool proof recipe!, the pud was so soft and was just like a sponge, I couldn't believe that it turned out so well!.

Coming back to the recipe check out the Ingredients:

The coloured ones in brackets is what I used as I had earlier told you that I made half with egg AND the other half without eggs......, is what I made with this recipe.

INGREDIENTS:

75gms of Soft butter (50 gms butter)

175gms Dark brown demerara sugar (100gms sugar)

200 gms Self- raising flour, plus extra fr dusting (100gms flour)

1 tbsp of Golden syrup (as it is I used)

2 tbsp of Black treacle ( as it is I used)

2 eggs (1 Egg)

1 tsp Vanilla extract (as it is I used)

200gms pitted dried dates (as it is I used)

1 tsp Bicarbonate of soda (as it is I used)

Another important thing I changed in this recipe was I used 2 completely riped bananas. So, one banana for each cake!!. got it....

The Print in the black is the Original recipe but as I said earlier the one in the red is the recipe I used, so what did I do then ?

well, as I had planned earlier I will use half of the original ingredients with egg and the other half with eggless, I had to equalize the recipe first as I could not measure in equal quantities the measurment given above so I increased the quantity of butter and sugar but used the other ingredients as it is and used only one egg.

METHOD:

Pre-heat the oven to 200 degreee centigrade/400 d F/Gas mark 6.

Grease a tin (23cm) thoroughly with 25gms of butter, then dust the inside of the tin with flour.

I used a square tin and a cake tin, to make both the cakes.

Using a mixer, blend the remaining butter and sugar together (I used my spatula), Slowly add the golden syrup, treacle, egg and vanilla extract to the butter mixture and continue mixing. Then add the flour, Until all the ingredients are well combined together.

Place the dates in a saucepan with 300ml water and bring to boil. Puree the water and date mixture and add the bicarbonate of soda. While it is still hot, quickly add this mixture to the egg mix. Once the mix is combined pour into the prepared tin and bake for 40-45 minutes until the top is just firm to the touch.

My Verdict: I made the date puree just as said above but it was not hot when I mixed it with the cake mixture. I blended all the wet ingredients first and then I added the flour little by little not mixing too much but well blended with the wet ingredients, then baked as said.

Remove the pudding from the oven and allow to cool, then turn out of the tin and cut into squares.

EGGLESS STICKY TOFFEE PUDDING WITH TOFFEE SAUCE

INGREDIENTS FOR THE EGGLESS CAKE:

1 Ripened banana mashed

2 tbsp of Linwood's Organic milled Flaxseed, sunflower and pumpkin seed powder

3 1/2 tbsp of Canola oil (instead of 50 gms of butter).

First I took all the ingredients as said in the first recipe, expect for butter and eggs, I mixed all the wet ingredients first then pureed the dates made into 2 equal proportions, then to the first portion I added butter and eggs and then the flour.

For the second cake I again took the pureed dates into the mixie then again gave a nice whisk with flax seed powder and canola oil and blended them well in the mixer. To the mashed banana I added all the other ingredients without the butter and egg, combined well and poured into the baking tin and made a round cake.

Hope you understood what I have explained so stupidly, scroll down so you could understand what I was trying to tell you 🙂 🙁 !!! ????, Please contact me if you have any doubts.

I put both the tins together into the oven both of them almost took the same time to bake, just insert a skewer to check to know when it is done.

TO MAKE THE TOFFEE SAUCE

100 gms soft sugar

100 gms butter

200ml double cream

This was the ingredients given in the book, again I halved the ingredients and made the sauce, it was absolutely delicious, just like the toffee, absolutely yumillacious, too sweet for me!!

METHOD:

To make the sauce, melt the butter and sugar together in a small pan, add the cream and bring to the boil. Simmer for a few minutes until the sauce reaches the desired consistency ( I made it until it was a semi thick batter).

To Serve, you can re-heat the sponge in a microwave or heat for 5 minutes in the oven at 180 degrees /Gas mark 4. Place onto a plate with lots of the sauce on the top and a scoop of vanilla ice cream if you wish.

Jamie even says that the sponge and sauce can be made in advance. The sponge can even be frozen and both can be plated up and re-heated in the microwave.

Make it and tell how it turned out!! enjoy .......... have a good day ahead and lovely weekend.

The flax seed powder is what I use in all the recipes where I have said flax seed powder to make my eggless bakes!!

I like to send this to champa's bake-of event.... Happy Baking

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Gateau L' a Orange

Jayasri Ravi — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 23:21:00 +0000

A questioning and a longing look at her everyday telling me, don't forget me, Reminding me that ''I have been here from past few days, what have you decided about me!!!'' , was the biggest question ?!!!.
Going through my mind again and again, this thought, and the summer slowly setting, the sunshine making its way and the streaks of the rays falling on her making her beauty worthwhile to watch and the smell lingering and the summery feeling making you rekindle your spirits, I decided I have to do this right away if not she would be finding her way to the bin, were my sweet Oranges!!, Everyday I thought I will do something out of it, and I started browsing through the search engine and ended up here!!, OMG!!, she is a fabulous lady with a dessert apron!!, she seems to whiz some wonderful recipes twisted around her fingers like a wizard and viola!!, she creates them with one click, fall for her clicks and fall for her desserts, and here is a perfect imitation jewellary of her creativity.

Family gave a thumbs up sign and I knew it was good, absolutely delicious when I saw a clean plate.
If you want to read more about the description of the Oranges you need to check her blog!!, Thank you for this lovely cake Deeba....

GATEAU A' L ORANGE

INGREDIENTS:
4 Oranges ( I used more than 4 until I got 1 cup of Juice)
Zest of 1 Orange
100 gms of softened butter
100 gms Sugar (I used more sugar)
150 gms Flour
3 Eggs Separated
1 1/2 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Orange essence (or Cointreau)
1 Pinch of salt
1 tbsp Rum (I skipped)
Butter to Grease the pan

METHOD:
Preheat the oven to 170 degrees, Grease a 6'' cake pan, and line the bottom with parchment.
In a bowl beat the sugar and butter which is softened together until well blended.
Add the yolks one by one to the this mixture, one by one slowly incorporating each one very well, add each yolk separately one by one carefully until you obtain a smooth batter.
I then added Orange essence but skipped the rhum as she had mentioned.
Then in an other bowl sift Baking powder and flour together and add it to the batter slowly incorporating it into the sugar and butter mixture and mix well.
Cut and juice the oranges, I had around 5 to 6 oranges where in I got 1 cup of juice, make it into two halves pour half of the juice in the batter and add the zest and mix well together.
Separately beat the whites until firm with a pinch of salt, Add them delicately to the batter (So says PAB!!), well I take these instructions very seriously!!.
Pour this batter into the pan and bake for an 45minutes to 1 hour or check by inserting a pick into it and if it comes out clean, then it is done.
You must have noticed that the colour will be dark orange when it is done!!
Take the cake out from the oven and Pour the other half of the juice into the cake while it's still warm!!!.
Take care not to pour it too fast and not to let the cake cool too much before you do it.
It is important to to get the right timing, if you don't get it right your whole cake will not have juice in it!!
Then the cake will have two different textures and will have a visible line halfway down where the juice would have stopped penetrating!!

GATEAU A' L ORANGE

I would like to send this to Erin of the Kitchen Apartment who is hosting Monthly mingle this month started by Meeta of what's for Lunch honey to her sweet treats!!

I am also sending this to champa's Bake of event.

That was a slice of my lovely cake!!, (of course don't laugh I couldn't take a lovely click like hers!), As always my girls helped me with this click too...,

Isn't it yum...., My H and K's loved it (me too!!), thanks for this recipe Deeba....

This lovely citrus fruit cake was so summery with the sun shining around for me to take a good click!!..

Have a lovely day......,

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Piece Montee or Croquembouche - Daring Bakers challenge for the month of May 2010

Jayasri Ravi — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 00:36:00 +0000

Hi, friends hope you are all doing well, You must be wondering that I keep disappearing every month for a few days to enjoy my migraines and my Irritable, horrible moods, well, I am now 'touch wood' feeling better, I missed a lot of events, don't think I wasn't cooking , I think thats the only thing which keeps me going!!, But, I will never be able to do anything further than that, my kids take the photos upload them in my comp but that's it, I cannot do anything as I will not be able to watch the screen for a long time, this Migraine has become a monthly problem, God!!, how I wish this problem gets out of me soon.

Coming back to the Daring Baker's challenge, I finished my challenge on the 27th of May, but could never post it, As I had made one step of this recipe before, I was comfortable doing this.

The May 2010 Daring Bakers challenging was hosted by Cat of Little Miss Cup Cake , Cat challenged everyone to make a Piece Monte'e or Croquembouche based on recipes from Peter Kump's baking school in Manhanttan and Nick Malgieri.

This month's challenge was ''Piece Mont'ee, which literally means ''mounted piece''. It is also called Croquembouche which means ''crunch in the mouth'' !!, The Piece Montee is actually a large cone like structure made of Profiteroles (Cream filled Puff Pastries, which I have seen in Super Markets dipped in chocolate), It is served like this as a dessert in weddings!!, people pick them out from the structure and enjoy it, there are loads of Videos you should definitely watch to know and how it is done.

PIECE MONTE'E OR CROQUEMBOUCHE

For the Piece Montee to mount there are three steps involved, first you have to make the Vanilla Creme pattissiere, Pate a choux and the glazing.

INGREDIENTS:
FOR THE VANILLA CREME PATTISSIERE (Half batch)
1 Cup (225ml) Whole milk
2 tbsp Corn Starch
6 tbsp (100gms) Sugar
1 Large Egg
2 Large Egg yolks
2 tbsp (30gms) Unsalted butter
1 tsp Vanilla

METHOD:
Dissolve Corn starch in 1/4 cup of milk, combine the remaining milk wit the sugar in a saucepan, bring to boil, remove from heat.
Beat the whole egg then the yolks into the cornstarch mixture.
Pour 1/3 of boiling milk into the egg mixture whisking constantly so that the eggs do not begin to cook.
Return the remaining milk to boil , pour in the hot egg mixture in a stream coninuing whisk.
Cream thickens and come to boil, Remove from heat and beat in the butter and vanilla
chill until ready to use.

FOR CHOCOLATE PASTRY
Dissolve 1 and 1/2 tsp instant expresso in 1 and 1/2 tsp boiling water, whisk into pastry cream wit butter and vanilla.

PATE A CHOUX
INGREDIENTS:
3/4 or 175 ml water
6tbsp (85 gms) Unsalted butter
1/4tsp salt
1 Cup (125gms) All purpose flour
4 Large eggs
1 tbsp Sugar

METHOD:
Combine water, butter, salt and sugar in a saucepan over medium heat, Bring to a boil and stir occasionally.
At boil, remove from heat and stir in the flour stirring to combine completely.
Return to heat and cook, stirring constantly until the batter dries slightly and begins to pull away from the sides of the pan.
Transfer to a bowl with a wooden spoon, 1 minute to cool slightly .
Add 1 egg at a time , the batter will appear loose and shiny, like a buttered mashed potato, keep adding eggs one at a time reapeating the same process, until all the eggs are incorporated.
Meanwhile keep your pastry bag ready with a round tip 1'' apart, I just piped the pastry without any tip 🙂 I think that is why my pastry was quite big!!,
Bake the choux at 425 degree F/200 degree C, until well puffed and urning lightly golden in colour about 10 minutes, Lower te tempratrue to 350 degree F/180 degree C and continue baking until well golden coloured and dry about 20 minutes more, Remove to a rack and cool.
Can be stored in a airtight box overnight.

Filling:When you are ready to assemble your piece montée, using a plain pastry tip, pierce the bottom of each choux. Fill the choux with pastry cream using either the same tip or a star tip, and place on a paper-lined sheet. Choux can be refrigerated briefly at this point while you make your glaze.

Use one of these to top your choux and assemble your Piece Monte'e.

HARD CARAMEL GLAZE:
1 Cup (225g) sugar
1/2 tsp lemon juice

METHOD: Combine sugar and lemon juice in a saucepan with a metal kitchen spoon stirring until the sugar resembles wet sand, place on medium heat, heat without stirring until sugar starts to melt around the sides of the pan and center begins to smoke. Begin to stir sugar, Continue heating, stirring occasionally until the sugar is a clear, amber colour. Remove from heat immediately, and use it immediately.
Assembling your Piece Montee: Lay out the unfilled, unglazed choux in a practice design to get a feel for how to assemble the final dessert. For example, if making a conical shape, make a pattern stick them together and start from the bottom layer and build it upwards like a zigsaw puzzle, seeing which pieces fit together.
Once ready to assemble dip the top of each choux in the glaze and start assembling on the sheet. continue dipping and arranging the pastries in usisng the glaze t hold them together and build up.
Once done, I poured some more chocolate glaze on to of it and allowed my kids to enjoy by decorating with what ever they want.

You can take an other look at my Croquembouche..................

My Verdict: It was simply delicious so my kids declared and wanted me to make it again!!, but they did not like the caramel glaze as they found it quite sticky!!, So next time minus the caramel glaze I am going to do this again, My eldest said it was so delicious and said it tasted like the Eclairs, I had to tell her that it was the same choux pastry!! which I have used to do this, Loved it, thanks Cat for this lovely challenge!!....
c u soon...., take care......

I would also like you if you are interested in doing this check out Audax Artifex's blog for some wonderful tips and important things which you need to understand and keep an eye when you want it to turn out perfect. He is a great baker and a very creative one at that, and check out on other daring bakers for their lovely creations and feast your eyes with such creativity you will be awed to see.......

The post Piece Montee or Croquembouche - Daring Bakers challenge for the month of May 2010 appeared first on My Veg Fare.

Reine De Saba by Julia Child

Jayasri Ravi — Fri, 07 May 2010 00:15:00 +0000

This Book makes me cook, is a book club by few bloggers, with whom I joined with, just to read some books at least once a month!!, these days I have never been able to read any serious books at all, when I found this club, I was truly happy and they also welcomed me into their club. This is my second book, This time again I got hold of this book only after the 15th of last month, I was a bit confused with the posting dates, which I came to know a little late, Now I know exactly when to post the next one!!, Anyways as usual I think I am the last one to post!!.
This month (april) book choosen by the book club was ''Julie and Julia'', 524 recipes, 365 days, 1 tiny apartment by Julie Powell.
As many of you who might have read the book or seen the movie know that Julie powell is a secretary who lives in a tiny apartment with her husband and how she found this book in her mom's collection and her saga or journey through this book of Julia Child's Art of French CoMastering the oking, and this is how the project was born!!
Julie begins to cook everyone of the 524 recipes in the book, within the span of just one year- 365 days!!, Once she plunges herself into this project, she just thinks only about this, it just becomes a breath to her life, The life with her family, friends and work all becomes secondary in her life when she starts the project.
The book particularly I liked in it was her hard labour in trying out all the recipes to the perfection of Julia child, was quite a tedious task for somebody who knew very minimal things about cooking!!, her journey was really a tough one, as she had issues mentally with some of the things which wouldn't eat!!.
The other thing was her husband's involvement in her project was what I most appreciated, juggling between everyday work, his sickness and his wife's project, hats off to him, caring and encouraging her in every step of her project, sometimes his defensive tactic of selective hearing as julie says, made him survive with his wife's venture!!.
what I didn't like in the book was too much of the 'F' word, and talking too much about sex was what I did not like, there was not much of anything about the cooking or baking, as what I had expected!!, Nothing much about Julia child at all, The book is all about her struggling with her life and her living with her family and friends, I could see some of the names of some dishes and reading it I came to know that it is more about cooking meat and not much vegetarian cooking in it.
In the end I felt really sorry for Julie as she felt that she was not at least recognised by Julia child, but as she herself says - what it takes to find your way in the world, It's not what I thought it was, - I don't know confidence or will or luck. Those are all some good things to have no question , But, there's something else something that these things grow out of - It's Joy!!.
I do not blame Julie, being a blogger myself, I know how each one of the bloggers out there dedicate their life into blogging and how much it involves and revolves around their life, through this book I take this opportunity to give a big bow to all the food bloggers who love their bleeders and think them as part of their life.
Meryl streep as Julia child has taken the movie into an excellent setting, she just blends in with Julia child's character and feel us more rapport with that lady in name and fame. After seeing the movie 'Devil wears Prada' I am a big fan of Meryl streep and just loved her in ''Julie and Julia'' too!!.
I should say that I loved the movie than the book, Reading a lot of MAofFc in googling I came to know that this Recipe was the last in her book, as I think I am the last one to write about this book, this would be quite an appropriate choice, I really do not know if Julie or Julia would approve my cake..., but as Julie says I tried my best to bake this cake!!

REINE DE SABA (QUEEN OF SHEEBA CAKE)

INGREDIENTS:
3 Oz Semi sweet Baking Chocolate
1 oz Unsweetned chocolate
2 tbsp Strong coffee (dark rum)
1/2 cup Unsalted butter at room temperature
1/2 Cup Granulated Sugar
3 egg yolks
3 egg whites
1/4 tsp Cream of Tartar
pinch of salt
2 tbsp Granulated sugar
1/3 cup blanched Almonds (Pulverised in blender with 2tbsp of Granulated sugar)
1/4 tsp Almond extract
1/2 cup Plain bleached Cake flour (I used Self-raising flour)

METHOD
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees (Gas Mark 4)
In a sauce pan melt both the chocolates and strong coffee (/dark rum) by using a double boiler set over a pan of 2 or 3'' of water, combine and let chocolate melt stirring smooth and turn of heat
In an another bowl take softened butter, beat it add sugar and yolks and beat until soft and fluffy
In an another bowl beat the egg whites add cram of tartar and salt and beat until soft peaks are formed add 2 tbsp of sugar and beat until shining peaks form leaving a trial behind.
Now Blend the warm melted chocolate into the yolk mixture, then blend in the ground almonds and almond extarcts.
Immediately stir in 1/4th of egg whites, delicately and rapidly fold in the quarter of the flour, this way alternatively keep on adding the egg whites and fold in the flour until completely both of them are used up.
Then fold this mixture into the cake tin immediately and press in well with the help of spatula and bake this in the lower middle rack of a preheated oven
Bake the cake for around 25 minutes or until a tooth pick comes clean when inserted in the cake, But, You need to keep in mind the cake in the middle should be still soft or glooey, and should move when shaken.
Remove it from the tin once it is cooled and then do the Icing.

I did a chocolate Icing with :
4 oz of chocolate
A knob of butter
1 tbsp of sugar
1 tbsp of milk
I melted the chocolate, with knob of butter, sugar and tbsp of milk and made an Icing on to top it.
I had a real problem my cake tin which locks is loose came of when I lifted it to put it in the oven, came off and I felt like crying, and i tried my best to push the mixture into the tin and I had no hope that it would really bake or not !!, thank God!! it did bake and came out really well, I really wanted to show a piece of how it looked but my kids were more interested in eating it than taking photos!!, when I came back I saw that they had just left me a piece of it and as it was late in the night I dare not take any photos, As most of photos are crap !!
I used some flaked almonds to top it which I saw in one of the blogs, when I googled for this recipe, I had 3 to 4 blogs to go through for this recipe, then I decided to take the recipe from this blog and Nigella's blog which were almost similar.

I was not really very precise with the measurments as oz/gms/cups differ a little bit which is very difficult to measure so I have just rounded of and I used a little bit of more sugar, the best was the Icing I made it was really stupid of me when I melted butter and chocolate they were perfect, as my family has a sweet tooth I thought I will add a tbsp of sugar and when I added it started to become hard and then I added milk and made it little liquidy but it was curdled up so then again I added 2 more pieces of chocolate and then it gained back its shining consistency!!.
Hope you all enjoyed my post as I enjoyed this cake!! c u soon..., I think I will be on time for the next time.
will be off to see what my friends have cooked from the book... and you also my friends do check out their blogs.

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