Crannberry Scones

I found this recipe at this wonderful webpage (Joy of Baking) of Stephanie and Rick Jaworski with uncountable number of mouth watering scones recipes. There you will also find the history of baking scones.

Here is one recipe I tried which turned out superb. I have modified the recipe slightly to adjust to my needs. Otherwise the recipe is perfect.

Preparation time: 15 minutes
Baking time: 15-20 minutes
Baking temp.: 190°C (165°C in convection oven)

Ingredients:
250 g all purpose flour
65 g (granulated) sugar
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 tsp baking soda (I used cream of tartar baking powder instead, which also contains soda)
1 tsp baking powder
100g cold butter, cut into pieces
60 g whole rolled oats
40 g cranberries (or dried cherries)
zest of 1 orange ( I used packed orange zest instead of lemon, made a wonderful combination)
150 ml Buttermilk
Milk for brushing over the scones (Instead of the egg wash: 1 egg, 1 tbsp milk or cream)

Method:

• In a large bowl mix together flour, sugar, salt, baking soda and baking powder.
• Add butter cubes and knead the dough together with the hands till it is evenly combined, but crumbly.
  
• Add the oats, cranberries and zest of orange and combine.
• Add buttermilk and quickly knead the dough.
  
• Pat into an 18 cm circle. Cut out 8 wedges out of the circle.
• Bake in the preheated oven at 190°C (165°C in convection oven) for 15 -20 minutes.
• I used milk to replace egg wash, which I never like because of the smell, but don't know if milk does any good
• Serve with whipped cream. Although, typically scones are served with clotted cream (which is nothing but malai in true sense, as we know it as Indians)
  

Note: Next time I would like to add only half the quantity of salt to the recipe.

Bhune Aloo

I did not plan to put this up here, but this turned out so good, that I had to. And the best part is that I used so few spices with such good results. This is possible much more easily in summers here when the spring onions are growing locally and the green leaves of the spring onions are really juicy and tender.

Ingredients:

4 potatoes (medium to large), washed, peeled, diced
1 bunch of spring onions, cleaned, washed and chopped, the grens as well
1 -2 tbsp oil
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp turmeric powder
1 tbsp coriander powder
chille powder to taste ( I added only a pinch, for my son)
salt to taste
1/2 tsp Amchur (a wonderful combination with spring onion)
1 tbsp Lime juice

Method:

• Wash and peel the potatoes, dice and soak in little water to prevent them from turing brown
  
• chop the cleaned and washed spring onion. The white into thin rings and the green into 1 cm rings
• Depending on if you use a nonstick or a steel pan, heat 1 or 2 tbsp oil on high flame.
• Reduce heat and add cumin, turmeric, and potaoes one after the other and stir immediately.
• Let cook on medium heat, stirring regularly. add a table spoon of water if required now and then
• After the potatoes are almost done, add the spring onion, the rest of the spices and salt and mix.
• Let cook further till done.
  
• Add lime juice and stirr.
  

Tips:
To get a nice brown colour on the potatoes,

• the cooking should be done slowly on medium heat and do not stirr too often.
• and enough oil should be present to prevent sticking.
  
• The potatoes should have been washed in water before, as the extra starch is washed off this way.

Vegetable Pakoras

Garam Garam Pakode!

I made it last weekend for my hubby and son after they came back from their swimming classes (my son's actually!) . Now, this is one recipe where I find it hard to give measures, as I never measure for it! I have learnt it all by watching my mother and the rest is all estimates. But, I'll try to give rough measure here along with some guidelines so that you know what to expect.

Ingredients:

Besan batter:
1 1/2 cups Besan ( gram flour or chickpea flour)
salt to taste (3/4 -1 tsp)
1 tsp Ajwain seeds (sometimes wrongly called as thyme seeds, because of similarity in smell)
1/2 tsp Turmeric
1/2 tsp Amchur
chilli powder to taste (1/4 tsp- its hot for European standards)
1 tsp fennel seeds, whole or ground
2 tsp ground coriander seeds
1/4 tsp kala namak (black salt)
water to make a thick pasty batter

Vegetables :
all washed and dried, added to batter just before deep frying:
potao slices
aubergine slices
cauliflower florets
Other options: spinach, washed and dried; onion, sliced; Paneer, long slices (delicious!)

(~ 500 ml) Oil, for deep frying (like sunflower or peanut)

Method:

• Mix all the ingredients for the batter to give a thick, pasty but flowing consistency. Whip it up a bit wit a whisk.
  
• Cut and pat dry the vegetables. Wash the potatoes to prevent from turning brown before pat drying
• Heat the oil in a large (3-5 liter) deep sauce pan with stable base. A wok is more suitable.
• Check if the oil is hot (can be tested by adding a small drop of the batter, which should come up, float and give out bubbles). If yes, continue with next step.
  
• add the vegetables to the batter, 6-8 pieces at a time, or as the space in the pan allows
  
• Add the pieces one after the other with a spoon to the hot oil to fry in the pan on (a little more than) medium heat.
• Turn them once with a skimmer. Depending on the temperature of the oil the time can vary. It should not turn brown too fast, or it will not be cooked peroperly inside. Too low temperatures would make it too oily
• Once done, put on two layers of kitchen roll on a plate to drain off the oil.
• Continue wit the next batch of pakoras
• Serve with chutneys or sauces.
  

Mung Sprouts Parantha

This is one variant of using mung sprouts which I had to improvised as my hubby protested to mung salad which I love to make, where I steam the mung sprouts for short with a pinch of turmeric, add my simple home made chaat masala, chopped onion, tomatoes, some fresh cilantro, if i have it at home and lemon juice. But NO! It was too healthy for him. I guess you might know what I am talking about.

So, here is a creation which is worth a second trial. I steamed the sprouts like I mentioned above and I made the paranthas with rape seed oil (mustard), which added to the flavour a lot. I just mixed the sprouts to the usual dough while preparing it with atta (whole wheat chapati flour).
All you need is the atta, salt, spices of choice, mung sprouts steamed with turmeric and salt for 3-5 minutes with little water, if required.
I could not make these paranthas puff up so much, because of the sprouts, but they still tasted really good. If you want to know exact preparation method, here are two links: one at about.com, the other at Indian Foods link.

It can be eaten with yoghurt raita, daal or any vegetable preparation.

Apple Cake

This is a recipe of a Polish Apple Cake from my precious baking book I have. I baked it for a old colleague, also a good friend, who came to visit us with his family. We met after almost a year.
And despite my fears, it was appreciated a lot.

Preparation time: 1 1/4 hours
Baking time: 45 minutes
Baking temp.: 200°C (180 °C convection oven)

Ingredients:
The values in brackets are for a round (26 cm Ø) tin

200 g (150 g) soft butter
100 g (75 g) sugar
3 (2) eggs
4 (3) tbsp milk
1 vanilla bean or 1 tsp essence
225 g (150 g) all purpose flour
50 g (30 g) edible starch (e.g., cornflour, rice or potato starch)
50 g (40 g) raisins
50 g (40 g) currents
3 (2) tbsp Rum (I took hot milk instead)
50 g (35 g) sugar
750 g (500 g) sour apple varieties (Boskop, Granny Smith)
1/2 untreated lemon
1/2 tsp Cinnamon ( I used 2 pods of green cardemom, the seeds ground)
50 g (35 g) sugar
100 g (50-75 g) chopped or slivered almonds

Method:

1. Beat together butter with sugar till fluffy
2. Separate egg into egg white and egg yolk
   
3. beat into the buter: egg yolks, half of vanilla (essence) and milk
4. Mix flour, starch and baking powder. Add slowly to batter while beating
5. Wash the raisins and currents in hot water and soak in Rum or hot milk
6. Wash, cut and peel the apples into thin small or large slices and mix with lemonjuice
   
7. Mix together the raisins, apples, spices and sugar
8. Preheat oven to 200°C (180°C convection).
   
9. Grease the baking try (or round pan) with butter and spread the batter over the pan with a spatula
   
10. Spread the apple mixture over the dough and bake for 25 minutes
11. Beat the egg white with the remaining sugar with clean blades of an electric beater until stiff. Add almonds caredully
12. Spread over the cake, once done and bake further for 20 minutes on the lowest position.

Herb scones

We had these scones for breakfast this sunday along with scrambled eggs. I still have this lovely aroma of the fresh hebs in my mind. It is a wonderful recipe from my old cookbook, it being one of the first cookbooks with a lot of baking recipes. And I had made these scones before, about 5 or 6 years ago. While going through the book, I found it again. This is the original recipe with my modified version at the end. So, here it goes:


Preparation time: 20 minutes
Baking time: 15 minutes
Oven temp: 225 ° C (convection oven: 200 °C)

Ingredients:

6 tbsp mixed fresh herbs, washed and chopped finely (like oregano, lemon balm, cress, other wild herbs)
200 g flour
50 g wheatflakes
1 tsp baking powder
1 level tsp salt
1 pinch ground black pepper
50 g butter
5 tbsp sour cream (10 % fat)
1 egg
butter for the baking tray

My eggless recipe:
6 tbsp herbs - oregano, lemon balm and mint (all from my garden), washed and chopped finely
200 g wheatflour
50 g oatflakes, soft
1 tsp baking powder
1 level tsp salt
1 pinch chilli powder
50 g butter, cut into small cubes
3 level tsp sourcream (10 % fat)
3 level tsp sourcream / schmand (24 % fat)
4 tbsp milk
butter for the baking try


Method:

• wash and finely chop the herbs.
• Preheat oven to 225 °C (200°C). Put butter on the baking tray.
• Mix flour, oatflakes, salt, pepper and baking powder thoroughly.
• put small cubes of butter over it.
• add both the sour creams and the herbs.
• Knead the dough and roll out 2 cm thick (1/2 ") on a flat surface with the help of some flour.
• Cut out 12 circles and put on the baking tray. OR:
  
• make 12 balls and press them flat with the help of some oil on the hands.
• I skipped this step: whisk the egg a little bit and brush the scones with it.
  
• Bake them in the oven for 15 minutes.
  
• Instead of the eggs I used: After about a minute, put some milk over the scones with a brush.
  
• Serve warm with chutneys, or sauces or just fresh cheese.
  

Chocolate dessert

Preparation time: 5 minutes
3 servings

Ingredients:
For the smoothie:
2 cups yoghurt (from the fridge)
1 cup cold milk
1/2 Banana, sliced
1 tbsp haselnut spread (like Nutella)
1 chocolate muffin, cold (from the fridge)











In addition:
3 muffins with chocolate glaze

Method:

• Mix the smoothie ingredients in a Blender.
  
• Cut the muffins horizontally into two halves.
  
• Take 3 dessert glasses. Put in each: the lower half at the bottom.
• Put some fruit pieces over it.
• Add the smoothie.
• Followed by the other half of the muffin.
• Decorate with another piece of fruit. and serve.

I have tried to make it as healthy and low in calories as possible. Basically this is another effort to feed my son some milk and yoghurt. And it surprisingly turned out better than I feared. But I do need to optimise it further. This was a very spontaneous idea which I just made with my gut feel.