Tour of French Baking

Hello ,

In french cooking what are the three important ingredients?

Any Guesses?

Butter, Butter and Butter.

With butter everything tests better.Isn't it? No matter sweet or savory.

Here are some snaps of my latest baking experiments.Soon I will post the recipes.

• Butter Croissants with home-made Marmalade and Blueberry Jam

• Chocolate Cheese danish

• Fresh Berry Tart

• Creme Brulee

Cakes-Experiments

Hello,

Here are the snaps of cakes that I tried in past several months. Sometimes I got the final product as I imagined and sometimes.... . Well I have a two admirers and critics who always wants me to do my best; my hubby and my little princess. My friends and family who always encouraged me. One thing for sure this support system makes you believe in yourself even when you feel down. I am trying to improvise myself and I hope you all will like it.

The mermaid cake was for my daughter's b'day and the heart shaped for my dear hubby.

Enjoy!!

• Fondant Covered Winnie the Pooh Cake

• Fondant Covered Mocha Cake

• Halloween Cupcakes

• Monarch Butterfly Cupcakes

• Hello-Kitty Cake Pops

• Chocolate Mousse Cake

• Panda Cake
• Red Valvet Cupcake

• Banana- Walnut Bread

• Anniversary Cake

• Mermaid Birthday Cake

• Black Forest Cake

• Fondant Covered Vanilla-Chocolate Layer cake

• Lemon-Pineapple Layer Cake

• Vanilla Layer Cake

• Mocha Cream cake

• Lemon Buttercream Cake

• Strawberry Cake

Blueberry Crisp

We wanted to spend Friday evening at home with some comfort food, a good movie 'A perfect equation for relaxed time'.

So I prepared blueberry crunch(got a excellent news from my friend so a reason to celebrate) a perfect dish to show your love towards your loved ones :)

Blueberry gives nice tangy,sweet taste and oats,flour mixture gives nice crunchy texture.

Here it is...

Ingredients-

• 3 cups blueberry (if you are using frozen berries thaw,wash and drain)
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• 1/4 cup + 1 tablespoon sugar
• pinch of salt

For Toppings/Crust

• 1/3 cup +5 tablespoon all purpose flour
• 1/4 cup + 5 tablespoon old-fashioned oats
• 1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1/4 cup + 2 tablespoon sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 4 tablespoon blanched almonds or pecans
• 1/2 stick butter at room temperature
• Vanilla ice cream or any other flavor of your choice

Method-

1. Preheat oven to 375 F
2. Toss blueberries,cornstarch,sugar and pinch of salt in a bowl
3. Mix flour,oats,brown sugar,sugar,cinnamon powder and almonds.
4. Add butter and just mash it bit to small chunks and mix to make crumbly mixture.
5. Add berries mixture at bottom of baking dish and spread the oat-flour mixture evenly.
6. Bake for 30-35 minutes.
7. Serve warm with ice cream.

Sugar Cookies for Halloween

BOO...

I remember the episode of Friends (the serial) when Monica was trying to bake cookies like the Phoebe's grandmother used to make;how she figured out the ingredients and prepare loads of batches. Ultimately she discovered that the recipe is ready-made available by a well known brand. But before that she says I won't be the mom who make delicious cookies.

Well I tried my hands on cookies for this halloween and it turned out great and well received.

My daughter can say my mom make some delicious cookies. As she went for trick-o-treating this year I wanted to make something special for her and her friends. I prepared sugar cookies from scratch and decorated with spooky, scary things associated with halloween.

You can prepare this for the coming holiday season and decorate them with holiday specific theme.

Happy Baking!!!

Ingredients-

• 1 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 cup vegetable shortening
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup maple syrup
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 3 cups all purpose flour and more for dusting
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

For Decoration

• 1/4 cup powdered sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1-2 tablespoon water
• food colors of your choice

Method-

1. Combine sugar and shortening into a bowl and beat until well blended.
2. Then add eggs,extract,syrup into sugar-shortening mixture and beat until fluffy.
3. Mix flour,baking powder,baking soda into another bowl and gradually add to creamed mixture.
4. Wrap the dough into plastic wrap and keep in fridge for 1 hour.(If you find dough is still very soft to roll then keep it in the fridge for another 1/2 to 1 hour)
5. Heat oven to 375 F
6. Take out small portion of dough from fridge and keep the rest as it is. Take a sheet of parchment paper and dust it lightly with flour and put the ball of dough and press slightly and cover with another sheet of parchment paper and roll to around 1/4 inch thick.
7. Take a cookie sheet and line with parchment paper and transfer the rolled cookies to the cookie sheet and place 2 inch apart.
8. Bake for 5-6 minutes or until golden brown color.
9. Cool the cookies in cookie sheet for 2-3 minutes and then transfer to cooling racks.

For decoration-

1. combine sugar,extract and gradually add water to form a thick paste and color it with you choice of colors.
2. Put the paste into zipper lock bag and cut the small hole into the bag and decorate.

Apple Raisin Strudel

Start of fall season starts with apple picking. We went to apple picking on a beautiful warm sunday morning to a local farm.We were excited to go and pick apples,blueberries freshly from trees. We picked lots of apples and blueberries and had brunch at their hill side cafe overlooking fields. That was a total Funday.

Here are some pictures...

After getting back home I realized; in an excitement we got more than enough berries and apples that we can eat for like 2-3 weeks (I froze the berries and can defrost whenever I need;so bit relaxed) so decided to do some experiments and here is the first one.

Ingredients-

• 1 golden delicious apple peeled,cored and cut into small cubes
• 2 tablespoon golden raisins
• 1 teaspoon + 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon powder
• 1/4 cup + 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
• 1 sheet of puff pastry
• 2 tablespoon cold butter
• 1 egg
• 2 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon lemon zest

Method-

1. Soak the raisins into water for 30 minutes.
2. Thaw the frozen puff pastry at room temperature for 20-25 minutes.If you have a square sheet cut it into stripes along the folded mark.
3. Pre heat the oven at 375 ⁰F

4. Peel and cored the apple and cut into small cubes around 1/8 inch size
5. Mix lemon juice with apple cubes to coat it evenly to avoid browning of apples.
6. Cut butter into small cubes.
7. Add 1/4 cup sugar, 1 teaspoon cinnamon powder,raisins,butter,lemon zest and mix well and set aside.
8. Now take the puff pastry stripes and again cut it into half.
9. Take 1 teaspoon of apple mixture and put into the center of pastry sheet and then close the sheet by applying egg wash(totally optional) at edges and press with fork.
10. Apply butter on the strudels.
11. In a small bowl mix 1 tablespoon granulated sugar and 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon powder and sprinkle it on the buttered strudel
12. Keep the strudels in a baking sheet and put it in the oven for 15-20 minutes or till it get golden brown
13. Then take out from oven and let it cool completely and then sprinkle powdered sugar or decorate with sugar glaze.

Orange Cupcakes

It's start of holiday season here in United States. Fall has already arrived and leaves are turning into beautiful colors. Halloween is celebrated on 31st October.Day is often associated with orange and black colors and Jac-o'-lantern a carved pumpkin.

Though this day is associated with kids;grown-ups also loves it.Kids go for trick-or-treating in the neighborhood wearing various costumes like spiderman(most favorite one),witches,angles,fairy and what not!!!!

Grown-ups do costume parties,bonfires and watching horror movies(Not on my list for sure).

I am thinking about doing something extra special this year as my daughter is now old enough to go for trick-or-treating wearing a costume she will pick up soon;yes now she started to picking what she want whenever we go for shopping. So I decided to make cupcakes and trying few flavorings and my husband and daughter liked it so far.Here comes the orange cupcakes.

Ingredients-

For cupcakes(makes 8-9 cupcakes)

• 3/4 cups all- purpose flour
• 1/2 cup + 2 tablespoon superfine sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon orange extract
• 8 tablespoon or 1 stick of soft unsalted butter ( at room temperature) or margarine(but personally I don't like it's taste)
• zest of 1 medium size orange
• 3 tablespoon orange juice( freshly squeezed)
• 2 eggs at room temperature

Method-

1. Pre heat the oven at 375⁰F
2. Sift the flour and baking powder
3. Beat the butter till it gets creamy with hand mixer or cake mixer;then add sugar and beat again adding 1 egg at a time.
4. Add orange zest,orange extract, vanilla extract,orange juice and mix well.
5. Now start adding sifted flour gradually; beat the mixture scarping the sides of bowl frequently to avoid unmixed flour patches.
6. Scoop the batter with ice cream scooper(for even size cupcakes) in a muffin pan lined with cupcake liners and bake for 13-15 minutes or till get golden brown. To taste the doneness insert toothpick into center of cupcakes while they are in oven.
7. Take out the cupcakes and cool it completely on wire rack.
8. Decorate with icing.

Vegetable Puff

Afternoon time in the office;most of us feeling sleepy and thinking about a cup of tea and your friend got vegetable puff with hot cup of tea(cutting chai). Surely I will call her/him Best Friend (Ha ha ha :)

In my college days we used to go to the bakery just outside of the campus for some veg puffs, sandwiches,pastries.Couldn't resist the temptation of hot puff- the buttery aroma always won.

So here I am with my version of Vegetable puffs.

Ingredients-

• 2 Puff pastry sheets
• 1/2 cup boiled and mashed potatoes
• 1/4 cup green peas
• 1/4 cup finely chopped onion
• 1/4 cup small cubed paneer / cottage cheese
• 1/2 teaspoon Red Chili powder
• 1/2 teaspoon dabeli masala or 1/2 teaspoon cumin & coriander powder, 1/4 teaspoon garam masala
• 1/2 teaspoon tamarind-date paste
• 1 tablespoon oil
• 1 egg (Optional)

Method-

1. Pre-heat the oven at 350 ⁰F.
2. Take 2 sheets of puff pastry and thaw it for 10 minutes at room temperature.
3. Heat oil in a pan;add pinch of asfodia powder.
4. Now add chopped onion and saute it for couple of minutes.
5. Add Mashed potatoes and paneer and with the spoon mix it well with little mashing.
6. Now add red chili powder, dabeli masala and salt and mix it.
7. Add peas and stir the stuffing for 1-2 minutes
8. Turn the stove off and add tamarind-date paste and mix well.
9. Crack one egg and add little water and mix.
10. Now cut the pastry sheet in half and apply the egg & water mixture (only water can also do the trick ) on four sides leaving the center space to put stuffing; put the 1 tablespoon stuffing at the center.
11. Now close the edges and with fork press a bit a the closed edges; creating a nice pattern.
12. Put butter paper in a cookie sheet(for easy clean up) and put the puff and apply egg wash.(Or you can apply little oil)
13. Bake it for 20 minutes or until golden brown.
14. Serve it hot with ketchup.