Oats and cheese cupbread

Oats and cheese cupbread

Those who love baking will relate with the amazing feeling of baking breads, its therapeutic and really boosts our senses. Bread baking is no rocket science, have seen many people hesitating to bake breads when they fail at the first or second attempt. All I would say is keep trying and get there, its not difficult at all. Few pointer which you need to concentrate in bread baking are the rising of the yeast and the rising of the dough. In fact the rising of the dough comes perfect if you have got the yeast working right. You get it right by practice, I will explain in the possible way here too. 

Ingredients 
Whole wheat flour - 1 cup
Oats - 1 cup
Refined flour/ All purpose flour/Maida - 1 cup
Olive oil - 2 tbspn
Sugar - 2 tbspn
Yeast - 1 1/4 tbspn
Water - 1 cup
Salt - 1 tspn
Cheese cubes and oregano and chilli flakes.

Method

• The crucial step in bread making as I said above is fermentation of the yeast. For this purpose the water should be luke warm which means if the water is more or less warm than required the yeast will not work or ferment. So if u have microwave heat one cup of water in a microwave proof large glass bowl for one minute at high power. On stove top water should be just a little more warm than just being warm. 
• Remove the bowl from the microwave, add sugar and the sprinkle yeast over the water, stir with a fork and leave it aside for 10- 15 mins. You would see a froth in the bowl which is nothing but fermentation of yeast. If you have not got this step right I would recommend to repeat the step until you see a frothy mixture. :)
• Once the yeast has fermented sieve one cup each of flours in small gaps mixing the dough with the hand mixer with dough hook attachments, you can also use your hands. I would recommend hand mixer if you mind messed up fingers :)
• Once the flour has come together add the olive oil and mix it again. Knead the dough thoroughly and leave the dough in the bowl covered for about one hour in a warm place.
• After one hour you would see the dough doubled, that shows your bread dough is right and yeast has worked perfect. Now knock down the air of the dough.
• Now since we are making cubreads :) , divide the dough and place in cupcake moulds and insert a small cheese cube in each cup.
• Now preheat the oven at 200 degrees Celsius, meantime the dough will rise again.
• Season the dough with oregano and chilli flakes on top and bake for about 20 minutes or until the bread has risen and top browned and we hear a hollow sound when tapped.

Remove the bread from oven and serve hot or warm or as per your choice.
Enjoy!

Whole wheat oats cookies with almonds, sweetened with jaggery

Whole wheat oats cookies with almonds, sweetened with jaggery 

A mother of school going kids often breaks her head for ideas for snacks box for the kids, and these days mothers are more aware to add something healthy. In this recipe instead of using sugar, I used jaggery syrup to sweeten the cookies.

Following is the recipe
Ingredients
Whole wheat flour- 1 cup
Oats- 1 cup
Butter - 1/2 cup
Jaggery syrup - 1/2 cup *
Blanched peeled and halved almonds- 1/2 cup
Baking powder - a pinch / 1/8 tspn
Cocoa powder - 2 tbspn

* I melted 1 kg jaggery in I cup of water , strained and used 1/2 cup of this liquid for the recipe. 

Method
As simple as said always take a big bowl and throw in all the ingredients and mix well, it will be a little wet and sticky because of the jaggery syrup. Scoop out small spoons of the dough and place it in a greased baking tray, press it lightly with the back of the fork.
Bake for about 10 mins in a preheated oven at 150 degrees Celsius and grill for another 4-5 mins.
Remove and let it cool in a wire rack and then store in a airtight container.
Enjoy! :)

Jaggery amla ( amla caramelized in jaggery syrup)

Jaggery amla

Been wanting to try some sweet combination with amla when it is in season. Even if it fails I might not regret too much :). This is a wild try of caramelising amla in jaggery syrup, undoubtedly it turned very yummy. But I might as well warn you that you need a little ' more' time to get this done. But anyways I am going to save the recipe for me and for others who would love to try this.

Ingredients 
I kg amla ( steamed and seeds removed)*
2 cups of jaggery syrup**

Method
Mix both the ingredients and stir until it is reduced. You needn't wait until all the liquid evaporates, you can retain a little amount of the reduced liquid which adds on to that sweetness.

* Wash, and steam steam cook the amlas just until it breaks.
** I melted 1 kg jaggery in I cup of water , strained and used 2 cups of this liquid for the recipe. You can retain the remaining liquid for any other recipe/cooking or use it instead of sugar.

Chewy avocado almond cookies

Chewy avocado almond cookies

One of the days that I wanted to experiment making cookies with avocados :) The result has been not bad either.

Following is the recipe

Ingredients 
Mashed avocado - 1 cup
Whole wheat flour- 1/2 cup ( I use organic wheat flour)
Ground almonds- 1/2 cup ( I use mamra variety almonds)
Sugar - 1/3 cup
Butter - 1 tbsp
Baking powder - a pinch
Desiccated coconut 

Method
Take a big bowl and throw in all the ingredients except desiccated coconut, mix well with a fork initially and then with the hands to a smooth dough.
Preheat the oven at 180 degrees.
Slightly butter a baking tray, make small balls of the dough, place it in the baking tray, press it with a fork and then sprinkle some desiccated coconut over it.
Bake the cookies for about 10-15 mins and grill for around 5 mins.
Remove the cookies and let it cool in a wire rack.

Note: these cookies are chewy and not crunchy.