Pecans Archives - My Veg Fare

Roasted Pumpkin & Caramelized Pecan Bread

Jayasri Ravi — Mon, 24 Dec 2012 23:30:00 +0000

Hi everybody, hope you are enjoying your Christmas Holidays. Tomorrow is Christmas Day much awaiting for everybody..., Here is a quick post for Champa's Bake-a-thon, having a very busy day yesterdays and Day before, My body is just aching to get to the bed.
Let me get to this post quickly. I had a large pumpkin a few days ( kind of months I could say....), back, I had few portion of it left over.
I started of with doing something and ended up doing an other thing, I peeled and chopped the pumpkin to pieces that was when I changed my mind and ended up making this bread.

ROASTED PUMPKIN AND CARAMELIZED PECAN BREAD

INGREDIENTS:
1 cup Roasted Pumpkin
1/2 Banana
350 gms Strong white flour
1/4 tsp salt
25 gms Unsalted butter softened
60 grms Brown sugar
1/2 tsp Cinnamon powder
1/4 tsp Grated ( powdered ) Nutmeg
50 - 70 grms Pecans
150 -200 ml water ( Use it as needed)

METHOD:
Chop and peel the skin of the pumpkin, In a pan just with a 2 to 3 tsp of oil Roast the chopped pumpkins until they are well cooked and allow it cool.
Meanwhile take yeast add a bit of warm water, confirming that the yeast is active with the bubbles forming.
Meanwhile grind pumpkin, Banana and sugar into a find paste,
Add this grinded mixture into the yeast bowl, mix well then add the flour, start adding water until you form a stiff dough.
Knead this dough for at least 10 minutes, until the gluten has completely started to react.
oil the surface of the dough put it in a bowl and leave to ferment it until it is double in size.
Menawhile in a pan take 2 tbsp of water and around 1/4 cup of sugar when it starts caramalizing add the pecan and leave it until cools down.
Preheat the oven to Gas mark 5 / 180 degrees C.
Now punch the dough shape it into a loaf tin , and leave it for second rise.
once it rises now top the risen bread with caramalized pecan and then brush it wth milk.
Put it in the middle rack and bake it until the skewer comes out clean aound 50 minutes.
Once the Bread is done, remove it on to a cooling rack, within 5 mintues remove the bread out of the loaf tin and leave it upside down so that the bottom becomes soggy.
slice it up and enjoy the bread with jam.
Check out Champa's, Priya, Preethi, Srivalli, Sumana and veena who are baking with me...

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Chocolate & Nuts Sweet Hearts

Jayasri Ravi — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 16:30:00 +0000

Hi everybody, can you believe I just made my assignment just now this month, I wanted to make it today, as today my dear girl turns 18 :), Yup.., My daughter is eighteen and I can't still able to digest this..., My Angel, My little girl is all grown up. I have been is so busy from morning , I still have to cook, I still have to make her favourite cake, Pulav, Manchurian and her Gulab Jamoons.., so now you know my menu for today.., that is all her wish and doesn't want anything else! , she is not a chocolate person.., but other family members are die hard fans of chocolate, So not to make them feel bad we decided to go for this one.., The only thing she wanted me to do was write her initials on everything i make for her today!, silly girl.., Anyway I have done as you can see. It was quite in a hurry I made all these, I was so tensed thinking last minute if I don't do this properly Amanda is going to kick me out of the club and a blog will be orphaned!, Oh! my No.., thanks to Heather this quick recipe turned out perfectly.., (not exactly there were little tiny holes though).

Sorry I need to get back to this posting right ? well, today is SRC .., The Secret Recipe Club of Amanda's has grown up to a very big family and has hostesses to take care of her little club grown to be a big one now.., This month I was assigned to It's Yummy to my tummy of Heather's from my Hostess Suzanne who blogs at Thru the Bugs on my wind shield.

Heather is such a sweet heart having two little kids she finds her way through cooking from lot of sources and a baker just like me.., she loves baking and shares it with her friends.., I wanted to try her pumpkin scones and few others but my daughter wanted me to try this out. I just couldn't say no to her as it is her day to day.., She has tried and tested lots of recipes.., hop on to her blog and check out some fabulous recipes you may want to try out!
Coming to the recipe.., it was a very easy one, only thing I had to restrain from myself was not trying to lick them of my fingers.., even though I am not a big fan of chocolate, I like dark chocolates the chocolates I have used here are 70% Cocoa Lindt chocolate and Swiss Milk Chocolates.
Here goes the Recipe hope you all enjoy just as we did and enjoy the whole group who have tried out many reicpes you might like to give a peek..., I made a little change or should I say addition to the recipe, just to make it more healthier., even thought it is not completely made of chocolate..

CHOCOLATES AND NUTS SWEET HEARTS

INGREDIENTS:
FOR THE CHOCOLATE COATING:
8 oz Semi Sweet Chocolate ( I used 70% Cocoa Lindt)
8 oz Milk Chocolate ( I used Swiss Chocolate)
1 tbsp Shortening

FOR THE FILLING
1/2 Cup Chunky Peanut butter
2tbsp Unsalted butter
3/4th Cup Nuts ( Pecan, Pistachio and Hazelnuts)
1/8th tsp salt (I just omitted)
3/4th Cuip Powdered Sugar
2 tbsp Honey

METHOD
First of all in a double boiler method or in a microwaveable method ( 20 -30 seconds) melt both the chocolates with the shortening, I used double boiler method as i was multi tasking. Keep a bowl with quarter of water say around 1or 2 cups and allow it boil, meanwhile chop or break into pieces your chocolates into an other bowl with the shortening then keep this bowl on top of the boiling water bowl, before keeping completely reduce the flame, it should be simmering, place the chocolate bowl and start mixing, slowly it would have started dissolving completely.., Meanwhile when this process is going on....
I took the extra nuts I used chopped them up and gave a toss on a tawa (girdle) with 2 tbsp of Honey and lightly roasted them for few minutes and kept them aside.
Meanwhile take an other bowl add peanut butter, butter, chopped and honey roasted Nuts and powdered sugar and mix them well completely well combined, Keep it aside.

Now take whatever desired pan, cup liners of any shapes and sizes you would want to make these and line them with melted chocolate paste.., She says coat them up completely so the peanut butter filling doesn't peep out.., for that she had refrigerated the liners for few minutes so she was sure.., I took her advice because mine was a lot more filling and the Heart shape I used were quite big.

So I coated them and left them in the fridge for few minutes when I took them out they were almost getting to dry, Now I spooned the filling up to the brim, and poured the chocolate over the filling, I still had lot of chocolate left over!, I think my coating of the chocolate was quite thin.., Just now when I was typing I realised, well it has not gone for a waste as I am using it for my daughter's birthday cake!.

Thank you Heather, Suzanne and Amanda for making this a success... , do you want to join click here

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Eggless Mocha Muffins with Chocolate Chips and Pecans

Jayasri Ravi — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 05:30:00 +0000

Hello everybody, I was planning to post recipes which I made for Pongal festival, but then it is Monday today so I am back with baking for Monday Muffins, you must have noticed I love baking Muffins, simple versatile and quick to bake and my kids do enjoy them.
Baker street sent me the recipe to bake these delicious Mocha muffins, basically adapted from Bon Appe'tit.
I did not change the recipe too much, I just made it Eggless with a little twist with flour and sugar.
As my kids eat them ( hubby too.. can't stop him), I prefer to bake it a bit healthier, Baking has become an obsession, so I try to make it much more healthier, then don't ask me, why I can't use eggs, as Eggs are a good source of proteins.
Definitely, I can't say no, I have nothing against Eggs. Even though I can't become a vegan as I love milk and milk products, at least I can try omitting Eggs where ever I can, well, If a recipe calls for 6 eggs, I just have to go ahead and bake it as substituting 6 eggs would be a challenging job! or it may become a flop. So, whenever it is possible I try and bake it Eggless, and my kids don't complain at all.
They always turn out good and my kids do enjoy them very much.
Muffin Mondays is an initiative by Baker Street. A culinary journey of sharing a wickedly delicious muffin recipe every week. If you are interested drop in a quick line to join her on her journey to make the world smile and beat the glum Monday mornings week after week.

EGGLESS MOCHA MUFFINS WITH CHOCOLATE CHIPS AND PECANS

adapted from Bon Appe'tit with minimal changes

INGREDIENTS:
2 tbsp Hot water
1/2 tbsp Instant espresso powder
1/4 Cup butter milk
1/4 Cup vegetable Oil
1/2 tsp Vanilla extract
1/2 Cup All Purpose flour
1/4 + 2 tbsp Barley flour
1/4 Cup packed Golden Brown Sugar
1/4 Cup Agave Nectar
1 and 1/2 tbsp Unsweetned cocoa powder
1 tsp Baking powder
1/2 tsp Baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
100 gms Milk Chocolate Chips
100 gms coarsely chopped pecans toasted

METHOD:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees/Gas Mark 6.
Line 6 Muffin cups with Paper Liners
Sieve both the flours with Cocoa powder, Baking powder, baking soda and salt in a bowl.
Stir 2 tbsp of hot water and expresso powder in a medium bowl until the powder dissolves.
In a large bowl add buttermilk, oil, Sugar, Agave Nectar and vanilla, whisk well until well blended.
In parts incorporate the flour into the Liquid mixture until well combined, Mix in chocolate chips and pecans.
Divide the batter equally among the prepared muffin cases.

I baked my muffins 15 minutes in Gas Mark 6 then reduced it to Gas Mark 5, they got baked within 20 minutes.Bake Until the tester or tooth pick inserted into center of muffins comes out clean.
Transfer muffins to rack and cool.

My Verdict: Here I have Halved the recipe. So, if you want to make 12 Muffins just double the recipe and I would say if you are baking it Eggless then I would suggest you to add 1 tbsp of Flaxseed powder with 3 tbsp of very warm water and allow it to rest for 5 to 10 minutes and then blend them with other Liquid ingredients.
Even if you are baking 6 Muffins use 1/2 tbsp of Flaxseed powder, it gives a moist texture to the muffins and helps in replacing the fat content in the baking process, as the muffins were not too moist, they were soft though.

If you are planning to bake it in Vegan Version you can substitute buttermilk with soya milk and Cocoa powder with Carob powder and vegan Chocolate chips
These muffins are not too sweet if you have a sweet tooth, substitute Agave Nectar with Sugar, they are perfect for Breakfast with Tea or as an evening snack with Tea or coffee.
If you want to make it with Eggs then for the above recipe just add 1 Large Egg, you will get your Mocha Muffins perfectly, If doubled add 2 Large eggs!!

See you next week with an other muffin recipe....., check out her blog for the MM team members and their Lovely Muffins. Thanks Anu for these beautiful muffins which my family enjoyed.

I am send this to vardhini's Bake fest and co-hosted by Anusha's Tomato blues

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