lemon cheesecake

Lemon cheesecake:

For making the cheesecake, we need to make the base, the filling and we will then top it with some lemon curd for that extra, special, luscious lemony taste.

To make the base, we will need -

150gm digestive biscuits,
4-5 tablespoons of melted butter, till you can hold it together in your hand and then crush it again.
Blitz the biscuits until they are fine crumbs and stir in the melted butter. Spread the mixture over the base of a lightly buttered loose bottomed cake tin Or pie tin, 8 inches round. Press the crumbs down firmly with your hand and refrigerate.

For the cheesecake:

I use 300 gms of hung curd and about 200 gms of plain cheese spread. Or you could use 500gms of cream cheese.

50 gm caster sugar, you can increase or decrease the contest of sugar as per your liking.

250ml cream of pouring consistency.

4 teaspoons of gelatin soaked in 4 tablespoons of water in a heat proof bowl

2 teaspoons of lemon rind.

3 tablespoons of lemon juice.


Beat the hung curd+ cheese spread/cheese with the sugar and lemon rind until it is smooth. Strain the lemon juice into the mixture and beat it in. Gradually beat in the cream. Heat the gelatin gently over hot water and let it cool down a bit. Add it in and beat the whole mixture.


Pour over the chilled crumb base and chill in the refrigerator until set. Once set, top with lemon curd and garnish as per your wish.


For the lemon curd topping:

250gm sugar

200ml water

25ml lemon juice

1teaspoon lemon rind very finely grated

50gm cornflour

Lemon yellow food coloring


Bring the sugar, water, lemon rind and lemon juice to a boil in a heavy based saucepan until the sugar has melted, dissolve the cornflour in a little water and add to the saucepan, stir vigorously with a whisk until the mixture thickens and add yellow food coloring.

Pour over the set cheesecake once it cools down and allow to chill in the refrigerator. Once set, take it out of the mould, you can now decorate it as per your liking.

Cinnamon star pull-apart bread

 

It's Corona lock-down, and we felt the need for something to raise our spirits. From our previous experience, we know that baking bread is therapeutic. It never fails to cheer us up, and it didn't disappoint this time either.

Breads are normally Sanju's domain, but this time I was keen on trying out this one. My friend Cherry motivated me into baking during the lockdown, and sweet cinnamon bread always brings a cheer. We don't claim the recipe to be ours but it's simple and the result is fab. 

Ingredients

Flour (maida) : 310 g (plus some for dusting the surface)

Milk:150 ml + 1 tbsp (for egg wash)

Eggs: 2 eggs (one for the bread and one for egg wash for glazing the bread prior to baking)

Yeast:1 tsp

Sugar : 50 g

Butter : 50 g

Salt: 1 tsp

Oil: approx 1 tsp for lining bowl / baking tray

Brown sugar: Approx 2-3 tbsp or as per requirement

Cinnamon powder: Approx 1 1/2 tbsp or as per requirement 

Ingredients

Method:

 Preparing the dough: 

• Add luke warm milk and one egg into a bowl and whisk it in.

• Add sugar, yeast and salt and mix them in. (we used crystallized sugar and it worked out fine)

• Add butter (soft/melted). We used regular pasteurized Amul butter. Mix it in.

• Add the flour (maida) and fold it in. Once they have mixed in, prepare your kneading platform by dusting it with flour and then take out the dough onto the kneading platform.

• In case the dough is too hard, add some more milk/water. If its too wet add some more flour.

• Knead the dough (approx 8 min) till its soft, supple and elastic. It should stretch while you knead it. The more you knead it, the better your bread will turn out.

Sludge like mixture

Take out for kneading

Ready for first proofing

  First Proofing:

• Oil a bowl and put the dough into it, lightly oil the outer surface and cover it with a cling wrap. Keep aside  in a warm dry place for around 2-3 hours or till it doubles in size.

Dough doubles in size after 1st proofing

Shaping and Second proofing:

• Once the dough has risen for about 3 hours (doubles in size), take it out on the platform and punch out the air. Flatten it out till about 10 inches in diameter (about an inch thick). Cut it into four quarters.

• Make small balls of the dough, put them under the cling wrap. Dust the working area with flour and take out one dough ball and roll it out circle (roti/pizza) of about 10 inches in dia. 

• Place this on a tray / butter paper sheet. (remember, what you place it on will be on what you will be baking the bread. We used butter paper sheets and later picked it up and put it on the baking tray)

• Spread cinnamon powder and brown sugar over the rolled out dough. I wont give quantities of sugar/cinnamon as its up to taste. We used both liberally. 

• Take another ball of dough, roll it out into a circle of similar diameter. Place it on top of the previous rolled out dough. Add the sugar and cinnamon combo again. Repeat till the last ball of dough. No sugar & cinnamon on top of the last one. So at the end of this process you will have four circles of dough with sugar+cinnamon sandwich.

Four portions

Four balls of the dough

Cinnamon powder + brown sugar layer

• Use a glass (or any circular utensil) to make an indentation in the center of the dough sandwich (just a depression, dont go all the way down). This will be your cue for the next step.

• Use a big sharp knife to make cuts, from the circular indentation till the edge, at 12 O'clock, 3 O'clock, 6 O'clock and 9 O'clock positions. Cut all the way down. 

• Now make similar cuts to split each quarter into two and then again to finally split the circle into sixteen even parts.

• Now pick up two of the segments and twist them (individually) twice. And then seal the ends together. 

• Do it for the rest of the segments as well, so that you get a star / flower with eight segments.

• Now cover loosely with cling wrap and set aside for second proofing for 45 min to an hour.

• 

  Glass to make indentation

  

  Circular indentation in center

Cut through the layers

Cut from circle to edge

Cuts at 12, 3, 6 and 9 O'clock position

Divide it into 16 parts

Pick up two segments

Twist/roll the segments twice

Seal the ends

Star with 8 segments

Baking: 

• Pre-heat the oven to 180 deg C / 350 deg F.

• Prepare an egg wash by mixing one egg and a tbsp of milk.

• Brush the dough with the egg  wash generously.

• Place the dough in a tray / baking dish and bake for 20-25 min at 180 deg C.

After second proofing

180 deg C for 20  min

And its ready

Tips:

• In place of cinnamon + sugar you can use nutella or strawberry preserve or anything which meets your imagination.

• You can also drizzle it with powdered sugar to give it a more exotic look.

• Tastes amazing when fresh. With a cup of tea / coffee, the cinnamon bread is fantastic.

Christmas Cake

We got interested in baking ages ago; and a decade ago in the North East we got into bread making, as getting a decent bread meant a journey to the closest city around an hour's drive.

Somewhere in between we experimented with Christmas cakes and through trial and error came upon this great recipe. We don't claim it as ours.

The prep for this cake started a year ago, again by default, when we had some soaked dry fruits left over from last year, not enough for a fresh cake, but still enough left for me to add some more dry fruits and brandy in the hope of making it in Jan last year. But that was not meant to be and we had well soaked dry fruits matured over a year ready for this year's cake.

Our tip - start at least a month in advance for soaking the dry fruits. And make the cake at least 2-3 days before consumption.

Ingredients

1/3 cup Prunes 

3 cup raisins/munnacca/ sultanas/currants

1 1/2 cups glace cherries (karonda cherries)

1 cup mixed peel

2 cups walnuts

1/2 cup sweet sherry/ sweet port wine

1/2 cup brandy

125g unsalted butter

1/2 cup brown sugar

3 eggs

1 tbsp instant coffee

1/4 cup hot water

1/4 cup plum jam

1 cup flour

3/4 cups self raising flour

1 tbsp cocoa powder

1 tsp cinnamon powder

1/2 tsp mixed spice /garam masala

1/2 tsp nutmeg (grated/ground)

Method

Combine all the dry fruits except the walnuts, soak in the sherry/wine + brandy. Soak for as long as you can. Minimum one day.

Drain the dry fruits from the syrup just before making the cake. Keep syrup aside for soaking subsequently.

Cream butter and sugar till combined. Add eggs one at a time and beat only until combined between each addition. 

In another bowl combine coffee, hot water and jam.

Transfer to a large bowl, stir in the combined coffee, water and jam mixture. Then add the dry ingredients in two batches, while combining.

Add the drained dry fruits & walnuts to the cake mixture.

Grease a 23cm round cake tin with 3 layers of paper (don't skimp as the cake will be in the tin for atleast one day)

Spread the cake mixture into the tin (it's pretty dense but don't worry)

Bake in a slow oven (160°C )for about 2 hours.

Brush the left over syrup over the hot cake and then let cool in the cake tin itself.

Our tip - Every day brush with around one tbsp of Brandy and keep.

The cake in north Indian winters should stay for a couple of months (highly unlikely in our place as it gets consumed pretty fast).

Our tip- it tastes great with coffee, tea, hot chocolate and mulled wine (recipe coming soon)

Gulab jamun cake

Gulab jamun, the traditional Indian sweet. Think of any festival and gulab jamun will figure in it. Traditional balls of mava in sticky golden syrup....mouth watering. While browsing in the morning, having made a Christmas cake, I came across this interesting recipe so I said why not??? I gave the original recipe a bit of a twist, but the credit still goes to www.anuskitchen.cucumbertown.com
The best part of this recipe is it's eggless and made of whole wheat!!

Ingredients
Gulab jamun mix - 3/4 cup (I used Gits)
Whole wheat flour (atta) - 3/4 cup
Powdered sugar - 3/4 cup
Milk - 1 cup
Almond/cashew/pistachio slivers - 2 teaspoons
Oil (I used refined oil) - 1/4 cup
Baking powder - 1/2 teaspoon
Baking soda - 1/4 teaspoon
Cardamom powder - 1 teaspoon

Method
1. Add gulab jamun mix and sugar in a mixer and mix thoroughly. (The idea is to blend them together while breaking lumps if any in the mix and aerating the mixture.
2. Sift the wheat flour, baking powder and baking soda 2-3 times in a separate bowl. While doing so hold the 'chalni' (sifter) 5-6 inches above the bowl to properly aerate the flour.
3. Add the gulab jamun and sugar powder mixture to the flour and mix well.
4. Add the oil and mix.
5. Add milk and fold gently so that no lumps are left. Do not over mix the batter as we don't want to work the gluten too much.
6. Pour the batter into a greased tin  top with the slivers of almonds/cashew/pistachios and bake in a pre heated oven at 180° for 30 minutes.
7. Check if done using a toothpick.
You can eat the cake as it is either hot or cold. But to get the festive gulab jamun spirit, I suggest you add the syrup. It's a major force multiplier!!!!

Syrup
Ingredients
Sugar - 1/2 cup
Orange juice - 1/2 cup
Water - 1/2 cup Orange zest - 1 teaspoon
Kesar (saffron) - 10 - 15 strands

For people who don't fancy the tang of Oranges, you can skip the orange juice and zest part, and add cardamom in place.

Method
Add sugar, orange juice, zest and water in a pan, dissolve in the syrup without bringing it to a boil, once the sugar dissolves, add the kesar; bring the syrup to a boil. Now reduce the heat, cover the pan and simmer for 5 minutes.

As soon as the cake is out of the oven, douse it lovingly and generously with the syrup. Cover and cool to room temperature.
Your cake is ready to be enjoyed.

Shepards Pie

Its a blessing to be surrounded by family who appreciate and encourage me cooking for them.

This, like most the stuff I make, is a direct result of all the food and gourmet telly shows we end up watching at home.

So here's a result of the experimenting. I present my version of Shepard's pie.


With crispy potato all the way round, tender juicy meat and veg in the middle this rustic dish also has a very good feel good factor to it. Combine it with garlic bread and sautéed veggies and you have a gourmet meal.



Ingredients for the mashed potato crust

Potatoes - 5-6 (med sized)
Cream - 1/4 cup
Milk - 4 tbsp
Butter - 50 gms
Salt - to taste
Pepper - to taste

Method

Boil the potatoes, then peel and mash. Pass through a sieve to get a silky smooth texture. Add milk, butter, cream, salt & pepper and beat together till mixed. Set aside.

Ingredients for the filling

Chicken / Lamb mince - 500 gms
Carrots - 2  (peeled and chopped fine)
Onions - 2 large (chopped fine)
Thyme - a couple of sprigs (2-3 tsp if you have the dried one)
Garlic - 2 tsp chopped
Olive oil - 2 tbsp
Butter - 2 tbsp
Tomato Puree - 300 ml
Worcestershire sauce - 2 tblsp
Sugar - 2 tsp
Salt & pepper - To taste

Method
Sauté the onions, garlic and carrots with the olive oil and butter, until just staring to colour. Add the thyme and Mince. Cook till it changes colour and starts to release liquid. Add the tomato puree and Worcestershire sauce. Cover and cook till the meat is cooked (approx 20 min). Add salt, sugar and pepper. Taste and check. Cook till liquid evaporates. Set aside.

Take the pie dish. Lay the mince mixture in the pie dish. Top with the potato mash. Make a light chequered pattern on the crust with a fork.
Bake in a pre-heated oven till the crust turns golden brown.

The vegetarian version of the same dish may be made from soya granules. Soak the soya granules in warm water for 15 min. Take the granules out and squeeze out the excess water and the rest of the process remains the same.

Serve hot with garlic bread and sautéed vegetables.

Banoffee Pie

As the wife of any service officer will tell you, we are often required to cook up food for an impromptu get-together of friends/acquaintances who happen to be passing through base. This pie goes down as one of my favourite desserts to make as the most important ingredient the 'toffee' can be made months in advance and stored. And when you bring out the dessert, the hungry horde of bachelors/ officers can barely believe you made it at such short notice.

Another feather to the fabled hat never hurt!   

Banoffee Pie

Banoffee Pie or Banana Toffee Pie is a decadent dessert made out of Bananas, Toffee and cream. The humble banana is transformed into this delicacy of exquisite sweetness from the Toffee. The toffee is a short cut recipe to be made from condensed milk. So here goes -



Pie base
Blitz marie biscuits to fine powder consistency. To 150 gms of the powder add 1/4 cup fresh cream and 30 gms melted butter. Mix this with your finger tips. Butter the base of a pie dish / ramekin and pat the mixture on the base and on the sides. The thickness of the base is as you require, we prefer to have about 3-5 mm of thickness. Keep aside.


Pie Filling
To make the toffee - take a tin of condensed milk. Do not open it. Put it in a rice cooker or steamer or a pan of water (remember to remove the plastic items on the tin so that it does not melt in your pot). Cook the tin for about 40 minutes. What you get is a brown thick toffee. (you can eat this by itself as well)

TIP - While you are at it, I suggest you cook 3-4 tins of condensed milk (to save gas / electricity). Now you can store these toffee tins (without opening it) for a good 6-7 months. Open it when required and you have nice toffee.

Take your pie base and spread a layer of toffee over the pie base(thickness depending on how sweet you want your dessert). Now slice bananas and arrange all over the toffee layer. If you like your dessert really sweet, top this with another layer of toffee (it becomes sickeningly sweet but the choice is yours). Top it with whipped cream, decorate with chocolate shavings or decorations or some dry fruits / sliced bananas.
Refrigerate and your dessert is ready. Simple isnt it?

100% Whole Wheat Bread

I have always been wanting to make a 100% whole wheat bread. All the recipes I have made till now included some part of 'All purpose flour' or 'maida'. Now, I have always wanted to make a bread with only 'whole wheat flour' or 'atta'. Every time I tried to increase the proportion of whole wheat flour, the bread would either be too dense or would not rise enough. This time, after researching using ebooks from Tanima and going over some recipes online, I decided to go with this particular recipe.

Actually, we used the recipe only for the feel. The conclusion we came to while making this bread was that making bread is actually a 'feel' thing. With experience you get the feel for the dough (which is by far the most important aspect of bread making).

Ingredients (to make 1 loaf in a 10"x4.5" tin)

• 3 Cups of warm water (the original recipe asked for 1 1/2 cups but the dough was not hydrated enough)
• 1/6 cup Olive Oil
• 1/6 cup Honey / Molasses (The recipe asked for molasses, I had it so i used it, if not you can use honey).
• 1 tsp salt
• 3 Cups Whole wheat flour (we used Ashirwad atta; why I mention this is because, we have come to the conclusion that every atta / flour has different capacity to absorb water)
• 1 tbsp active dried yeast

Method

• Proof 1 tablespoons of Dry Active Yeast in 1 cup of warm water with a tsp of sugar / honey.
• Then mix the first four ingredients in the bowl (2 cups of warm water, olive oil, honey / molasses, salt)
• Add: 1 Cups Whole Wheat Flour, add the yeast after it has been activated,
• Mix well till the consistency is somewhat even. 
• Then continue to slowly add rest of the flour, 1/2 Cup at a time until the dough quits sticking to the sides of the bowl. It should be tacky to the touch. The trick is to have enough consistency to stand up with the least amount of flour so the bread will be fluffy. Don't over mix or the bread will be tough.
• When your dough is finished, Cover the bowl and let it rise for about 30-45 minutes in a drought free place. The dough will be larger but it doesn't need to double.
• Mix again just enough to knock it down at least close to the original size.
•  Drop the dough on a floured surface so you can work the dough and shape it. Roll it in the flour and shape it in your hands to make a nice ball getting enough flour on it so it isn't sticky. Shape the loaf by turning the dough under it's self over and over. When the dough is shaped right the sides and ends will be sealed and all you will see is a nice oblong shaped loaf with smooth sides and top.
• Grease the bread tin. Drop the loaves in your bread pan and let them rise until almost doubled. You can top it with some oats,sesame seeds or other whole grains that you like. I had also used flax seeds.
• Pre-heat the oven to 200deg C. Then bake the bread for 35-40 min at 180 deg C.
• To get a nice crust, I keep a shallow tin in the oven and either put 3-4 ice cubes  or 1/4 cup boiling water to steam up the oven (twice during the baking cycle, ensuring that the door is open for least time). 
• When done turn the bread out of the pan to a rack to cool. To check if the bread is done, take it out and tap the top of the bread, it should sound hollow.

This is a work in progress guys... we look forward to improving this recipe, will keep updating, until then, happy baking