mayurisjikoni

Learning   The few cooking groups that I belong to are really educative. I have learnt new techniques, more about world cuisine, a bit more about other countries and its fun to see the photos of fellow bloggers. The same recipe turns out quite different in different hands. If it weren't for these groups I don't think I would have tried out different sorts of breads or baked goodies. I would have probably stuck to the more familiar recipes. Sometimes time does not permit me to bake on time but I do finish the challenge before the month ends. A lot of research goes into challenging the groups to a certain recipe.Research by both the one who sets the challenge and also by the ones who take up the challenge.    For the month of May Gayathri challenged the baking eggless group to a Kugelhopf. What is a kugelhopf?Kugelhopf, kougelhopf, kouglof, gugelhuph, is a yeast bread popular in parts of Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Croatia, Serbia, France, basically many parts of Central...

yippeee got it right!         Last month Priya challenged the Home bakers Challenge group to quick breads. Carrot and zucchini, chocolate and an apple one. Chocolate and apple ones were struck off the list immediately as I have already baked those ones. So the choice was between the carrot zucchini one and the sweet potato one. Since I have not made many dishes using sweet potato I wanted to bake the sweet potato bread. Got all the ingredients ready and baked the bread. After one hour, the bread was still raw from inside. The top was beginning to brown too much. I covered with foil and lower the temperature slightly and baked it further for 15 minutes. The skewer came out clean, so I thought its all done. I let it cool for 1 hour. When I sliced it to take photos, much to my horror the texture was just too dense and it tasted as though I have steamed flour. Couldn't even see a tiny hole in the texture. Felt so disappointed and left the bread in the kitchen and sat do...

nutty flavour      I don't know how I bought carrots twice during my last visit to the market. When I was emptying the basket out, I realized I bought carrots twice from different sellers! How was that possible... don't know. So this week has been pretty carroty... carrot salad , grated carrot in dangella , carrot juice. The last few I used for making a nice tea bread. I had invited my friends over to our beach studio apartment and she said that they would have coffee with us. Initially I had planned to make some dessert but since coffee was the plan, I decided to bake a tea bread which I hadn't done in a long time. I am glad I baked this bread because it turned out delicious, nutty and the best part is that it's so easy to make.I had the last remaining slice for breakfast with some tea. You can serve the bread with tea or coffee or as a dessert serve it with some whipped fresh cream, hot custard, ice cream or ice it with cream cheese. CARROT AND APPLE NUT BREAD Makes ...

another healthy breakfast option      My daughter had a lone red apple sitting in her fridge and the first thing I thought of making was muffins. Yes, its yet another one from the to try list which is just not getting shorter. I think if I really wanted to try all the recipes I have jotted down in my book from tv shows, magazines or other blogs, I would probably need to make one every single day. Some have not turned out well, and a big cross has been put on them as I just either didn't like the taste or there was no room for rectification. I am glad that the apple oat muffins were easy to bake and turned out soft and the added advantages are that its a healthy muffin, loaded with apples, oats, brown sugar and little oil.     So finally the lonely apple got changed, along with another I bought to lo behold, yummy muffins. Fresh from the oven made the whole house smell of cinnamon. After having home made muffins, the ready ones at most coffee places seem dry and ...