Baking for Beginners....

The ever enthusiastic Visha has decided to start baking and asked me a few questions...I am honored Visha, considering that i too started baking just a year back :)

In my journey of baking, i learnt a few things....I am sharing them here...This one is for you, Visha....

I have the LG Microwave Convection oven. It's not the celebrated OTG, but for me it has worked faithfully...I am pretty much satisfied with it (except the size sometimes)....

In this oven there are 3 modes and following are the utensils that can be used in these modes. Please be carefull about the utensils in each mode. If not paid proper attention, you may end up spoiling food, Utensil and the oven itself....So before starting please pay attention to the type of utensils you are using...

Oh and don't forget to buy a beater (manual or electric) and measuring cups and spoons....

Egg Beater - Image from here

Measuring Cups and spoons - Image from here

Don't confuse Microwave mode with Convection (baking) mode. In microwave mode food gets cooked by microwave rays while in convection (baking) mode food gets cooked by heat coming from heating coils. Hence both the modes need different types of utensils. Please read the whole post carefully before you start baking.

1) Microwave Mode: 

What utensils to use in this mode:

    Here you can use special microwave safe Plastic (some of tupperware are microwave safe - but always be sure to ask the vendor if it is really safe...) With my oven some Yellow coloured microwave safe utensil came, but i have never used them, as i am not comfortable cooking in plastic.
You can use Glassware and Chinaware (without any silver/golden design) for heating purpose. If your glassware/china has any metalic (silver/golden) design then please don't use them in your microwave mode.
One way to check if your glassware is microwave safe is to fill it with water and put in the microwave mode on full power for 1 minute. The water should heat up, but the glassware should not. If it heats up then it is not a good idea to use this for cooking. you may use it for occasional re-heating though.
I was also told that the i should be able to use the quartz grills that i got with my oven. But i have never needed them in this mode.
I use borosil and Cornigware microwave proof utensils for cooking in this mode....You can also use Pyrex in this mode....Basically the label on the utensil should say that it is microwave safe...These 3 brands i know are microwave safe. There can be other microwave safe glassware brands also, you can ask the shop keeper before buying them...

My borosil and cornigware microwave and ovenproof bowls

This is one more bowl that i bought from Homecentre (Brand unknown) . You should check for this  information on the utensil itself or on its packaging. If nothing is mentioned then confirm with a reliable shopkeeper.

The quartz Grills that came with my oven

This is the kind of utensil you should NEVER use in microwave mode - it has golden metallic lining

 I make chips, vaghareli rotli, bread crumbs, mug cakes in this mode....
You can also
-soften the hard butter/icecream (If you are like me and forget to get the butter out of fridge beforehand then this feature comes in handy)
-make ghee, (Pretty quickly)
-quickly boil potatoes (or any other vegetable), blanch tomatoes.
-dry green leafy vegetables/herbs to get dry herbs/vegetables (like Kasoori methi) - Haven't tried this, but my book suggests that this can be done too!!!

How to cook in this mode:
In this mode you set the power and the time. In my MW oven, there are different power levels indicated by number. In some basic machines there are 3 levels high, medium and low.
You select the power level then select the time and start cooking...Once the time is over my oven gives an alarm and i take out the food...

2) Convection Mode (For baking):

What utensils to use in this mode:

    This is the mode i use the most. This one is for baking cakes and breads and cookies and cupcakes....Now you know why i use this the most :)
Please note that not all microwaves have this option. Please confirm in manual before you start baking..
In this mode you can use metal utensils, preferably Aluminium utensils. I use my MIL's old cooker dabbas for baking garlic rolls and pav and sometimes cakes also.

Old cooker dabbas - You can see that i bake my pao and garlic rolls in these old faithfuls...

Also in my last visit to Ahmedabad i bought a cake pan, a bread loaf pan and a few cupcake moulds all of Aluminium. I bought them from our local utensils shop (Bartan wala). Here in Noida, i bought Aluminium Ramekins for Choco Lava Cake from a shop in Indira Market. (they specialize in bakeware).

My loaf pan, a smaller cake pan, cupcake moulds and measuring cups and spoons

The Aluminium ramekins for making choco lava cake

You can also use the borosil, cornigware and pyrex oven-proof utensils in this mode. I have used my corningware glassware to bake a cake. It works alright. But prefer Aluminium as food cooks faster in it.

In absence of ramekins i have used regular steel katoris too for baking choco lava cake. Though it's not a good idea to use it for your regular baking, as it doesn't give nice, uniform heating of Aluminium...
Oh and the quartz Grills that i have got with my oven works in this mode too...

As i mentioned before in this mode i make,
Chocolate sponge cake
Black forest cake
Chco lava cake
Ice cream cake
Brown bread
Garlic rolls
Braided bread
Almond Cardamom Cookies
Pizza base
Pizza
Pao (Dinner rolls)

How to cook in this mode:
In this mode, you have to select temperature and time. Many a times recipes ask for preheating of oven also.
In my microwave oven, for preheating, i just have to select the temperature and start. Once the set temperature is reached the oven gives and alarm and i put the food to be baked inside.

For actual baking, i set temperature and then time and then start cooking. once the time is over the oven gives an alarm. I immediately take out the food, otherwise it will keep cooking, because the oven is still hot.

3) Grill (For Grilling, obviously :) )

What utensils to use in this mode:

In this mode you can make grilled sandwiches, toasts, tikkas, grilled fish etc...
I use it to make Farmhouse club sandwich, Potato Crispies, Paneer Tikka, Pasta with cheese, grilled vegetables...
In this mode, you can use all the utensils used in the Convection mode.
Most of the time i find myself using the Quartz grills (came with my oven) in this mode...

How to cook in this mode:

In this mode i just have to set time. So i set the time, put the food to be grilled in the oven and start. Once the time is over oven gives alarm. And i take out the food immediately otherwise it keeps getting grilled further...

These are a few tips for beginners...

1) While baking follow the recipe to the T (at least for the 1st time, 2nd time onwards you can experiment).

2) For baking breads: Before kneading the dough always check if the yeast is actually active. if not then please throw away this packet of yeast, buy another one. if the same thing happens again, try to use another brand of yeast. remember till your yeast is not active, you won't be able to bake those soft bread, pizza base etc. In colder months keep the yeast water sugar mixture (and the dough) in a warm place. I preheat my oven and keep it inside.

3) If possible, don't try a new dish for the 1st time when expecting guests or on any special occasion. You may be pressed for time and if the dish doesn't turn out to be as per expected then you may have to depend purely on your charm to entertain your guests!!!!

4) Always smell, touch and see food in every step of cooking. This way you will know if something goes wrong at any stage. My Grandmom can smell a dish (cooked/or in the process of cooking) and tell what's wrong with that!!! I can only tell that about the khatti meethi daal.

5) While experimenting and deviating from the recipe, try changing one thing at a time. That will help you in learning the effect of all the ingredients.

6) while baking keep an eye on food. For different ovens and bakeware the temperature and time needed for baking may vary, so first find out the time needed for your oven and bakeware and note it somewhere (or start a food blog and note it there ;) )

And don't worry, baking is not difficult, once you will start, you will find yourself on roll!!!
For the beginners i would suggest the Almond Cardamom cookies coz they are really easy to make and tasty to eat...And the 1st success will enhance your confidence....

Happy baking to all of you...

+techie ZM 

Pizza!!!

Everybody loves pizza, but it is the ultimate junk food!!! So what do we do??!

The solution is to make homemade pizza and using the whole wheat pizza base. So i have been trying for some time to make a tasty home made pizza but while my family liked it, didn't find it great :(

Finally, i saw the recipe of pizza sauce on R's Mom's blog and tried it. And that's the one everybody at home is in love with :) This is how the pizza with it looks like...

Homemade pizza

So now this the recipe i follow to make home made pizza :)

Ingredients:

For Sauce (is enough for 4 pizzas of medium size)

3 medium sized onions (Finely cut)

5 big Tomatoes (pressure cooked/microwaved and peeled)

Green Chilli (1 finely cut or ground to paste)

5 Garlic pods (crushed or finely cut)

2-3 pinches Oregano

2-3 pinches Chili flakes

1/2 teaspoon Mixed Italian herbs (Optional)

1/2 teaspoon Pepper

1/2 cup Tomato ketchup (you can add more if you like)

1 cube grated cheese (Cheddar or any other that you like)

Salt to taste

Sugar 2 teaspoon

3 tablespoon Oil

For Topping

Tomatoes (diced, cut in rings or finely cut whatever you prefer)

Onions (diced, cut in rings or finely cut whatever you prefer)

Capsicum (diced, cut in rings or finely cut whatever you prefer)

Salt to taste

Oregano

Pepper

Mixed italian herbs

1 tablespoon Oil

Any other veggie you want to add

Grated Cheese (i used Cheddar, you can use mozzarella or any other cheese of your choice)

Pizza base (ready made or homemade)

Method:

1) Take the oil in a kadai, add finely cut onions, green chili and garlic and saute...

2) Meanwhile take the boiled and peeled tomatoes and make pulp out of it (using hand mixer or any other mixer)

3) Once the onions in the kadai turn light brown, add tomato pulp to it.

4) Let it cook till oil separates. then add salt, pepper, oregano, chili flakes, italian herbs and sugar.

5) Cook for a minute or 2. Then add tomato ketchup.

6) Add 1 cube grated cheese. let this cook for 5 mins and your Pizza sauce is ready!!!

7) In another Kadai, take the oil and add diced onions for topping, saute them for 1 min and take out (leaving oil in the kadai). they should remain crunchy. Sprinkle salt, pepper (2 pinches), oregano (to taste), mixed italian herb (to taste).

8) Repeat step 7 for all the veggie toppings you are planning.

9) Meanwhile preheat your oven to 210 degree c.

10) Take the pizza base, apply the pizza sauce generously, arrange the veggie toppings generously, sprinkle 1 cube of grated cheese (you can do less or more, your wish)..

11) Bake in the pre-heated oven at 210 degree c for 7-8 mins (but please keep an eye on your pizza while it's cooking)

And enjoy the home made healthy tasty pizza!!!

Notes:

1) You can bake the pizza on the tawa also. For that as R's mom has suggested, you should put the prepared pizza on the hot tawa (or flat pan) and cover it. let it cook till the cheese melts and the bottom of the pizza is also cooked. This way it cooks faster.

2) You can get creative and use different toppings like paneer, olive, mushroom etc (don't forget to saute them before putting on the pizza).

+techie ZM

Whole wheat Pizza Base from scratch | Whole Wheat Kulcha from scratch | Pizza Base from scratch

This is a recipe from from Tarla Dalal website. The pizza with this base was a hit. Check the recipe of Pizza here.

And the pizza base tasted like Kulcha (when I searched for the recipe for Kulcha, it was almost similar, hence the taste was similar too)!!! We even tried it with Chhole.

Though the recipe says it makes 2, I actually had 5 pizza bases in my hands. Probably I made them small, but they were enough...

Whole wheat Pizza Base | Kulcha

Whole wheat Pizza Base | Kulcha

 So here is the recipe:

Ingredients:

Whole Wheat flour - 2 cups (If you really have to replace this with all purpose flour, but then it doesn't remain healthy)

Yeast - 1 teaspoon

Sugar - 1 teaspoon

Olive oil - 1 tablespoon (other oil will also do)

Salt - 1 teaspoon

Method:

1) Take half cup warm water and dissolve sugar and yeast into it. wait till it gets frothy (4-5 mins). If it doesn't get frothy then the yeast is not active, use another packet of yeast.

2) In a mixing bowl (or paraat/kathrot) take whole wheat flour (or all purpose flour if using), add salt, mix well. Using the yeast, sugar water knead the dough. Add extra water (warm) as needed. the dough should be a little sticky.

3) Now grease your hands using olive oil and knead the dough till it is elastic. Slap it to check if it is elastic enough!!!

4) Cover the bowl with a wet kitchen cloth or cling wrap and keep it aside till it doubles in size (30-40 mins)

5) Once it doubles in size, punch the dough in the center to remove any extra air.

6) Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 150 degree C.

7) Take a greased baking tray, on that make pizza base (the recipe says roll, but i used my hands to flatten it) from this dough.

8) Prick the base using a fork (If you don't prick, it will puff up like Pita bread/Fulka roti)

10) Bake in the preheated oven at 150 degree C for 7 mins..

And your tasty pizza base/kulcha is ready!!! Make pizza or eat with any gravy based dish...

Notes:

1) First time i made it i used All purpose flour/Maida, but next time i made it using whole wheat flour. 

The pizza was delicious but as kulcha it was not great. So if you are planning to make kulcha from the leftover dough then use maida.

2) You can make Kulcha directly on the tawa the way you make paratha (but using little oil).

Whole wheat Pizza Base | Kulcha

Whole wheat pizza base/ kulcha (On tawa)

+techie ZM

Black forest cake

My friend and neighbour P made this on her daughter T’s birthday. I loved it. So she let me assist her next time she made it and I learnt it :). Later i made it on P's birthday to surprise her and hubby so loved it that i had to bake another one for him....

Personally I like it better then outside cakes…..

Black Forest Cake

Ingridients:

Basic chocolate cake

Cherries – deseeded and cut in small pieces (when fresh Cherries are not available you can use tinned cherries or cherry jam or skip this)

Whipped cream (we used Rich’s whip topping)

Sugar syrup

Method:

1)  Bake the basic Chocolate cake. Here is the recipe.

2)  Then cut it in 2 horizontal layers, you will need a big sharp knife for this otherwise it may break. If you don't want to cut the cake then you can bake 2-3 thin cakes separately and then assemble it.

3)  Take the Whipped cream and whip it till it is fluffy enough, it should not drip when you hold your beater up. (We used Rich’s Whip topping, it had sugar in it. If you are using any other brand then you may want to check if extra sugar needs to be added)

4)  De-seed and cut cherries in small pieces.

5)  Now, cover a big enough plate with Aluminium foil and put the 1st layer of the cake on it.

6)  Sprinkle sugar syrup on that. To make the sugar syrup, you should mix sugar with same amount of water (by volume), P added brandy to this, but it is optional.

7)  After that apply the whipped cream on the 1st layer. Apply generously, more the cream, more the taste :)

8)  On top of this sprinkle the cut cherries evenly. If using jam then spread the jam on this layer. If not using cherries in any form then skip this step.

9)  Put another layer of cake and repeat the procedure, i.e. sugar syrup, whipped cream and cherries.

10) Once all layers of the cake are done, apply cream on the sides of the cake as well, to give to proper shape after applying cream you can use flat spatula or another Aluminium foil. You can decorate it with grated chocolate, chocolate wafers, cherries, chocolate sauce or anything you think will suit it.

 Refrigerate for half an hour. And Enjoy...

+techie ZM

Choco lava cake

This Recipe is from Various sources on internet.

You can know more about my adventure with it here.

1)      Make the batter of normal chocolate cake.

2)      Keep it a little liquidy by adding a little extra milk (and sugar for that milk). Mix well.

3)      Pre-heat the oven to 180 degree C.

4)      Now grease ramekins, or use butter paper cups.

5)      Pour the batter in the ramekins/cups.

6)      Based on the size of your ramekins/cups you will have to set the timer for baking. For the medium sized butter paper cup, bake it for 6 minutes. For a bigger ramekins you may need baking upto 10 mins.

7)      Once cooked, run a knife on the sides and take the cake out carefully in the serving plate without breaking it. If using the butter paper cup then no need to take out the cake, serve as it is.

By the way, i used normal steel katoris (of medium size) for baking this cake as i didn't have ramekins. For this, i kept timer on 5 mins. But keep in mind that based on the size of your baking bowl/ cup/ ramekin the size may differ. Please perform the test mentioned below before cooking the cake further or taking it out.

Edited to add: I am happy to report that using the ramekins, i was able to take out the cake without breaking it :) I am using Aluminium ramekins...

Here, you have to be very cautious because extra cooking may mean that there won’t be liquid in the center. There is a test to check the state. See that the top is cooked and is a springy, when you put the knife inside, it should be coated with the chocolaty liquid.

So basic idea is to cook sides, top and bottom and let the center be liquidy.

You can serve this with Vanilla ice-cream for the hot and cool effect in summers and as it is in winter to warm your guests up :)

Leaving you with one more pic:

+techie ZM

Ice-Cream cake or Cake Ice-cream?!?!

I am not able to decide the name of this dessert, but both these names suit it completely because it has both - the ice-cream and the chocolate cake...

It's not the regular ice-cream cake, where you have ice-cream frosting or even the one where you get a piece of cake with a scoop of ice-cream!!! It's a little tweaked recipe and gives you Popsicle like dessert...

Why i made it? because i was supposed to get guest and i was planning to make choco lava cake for dessert, but they got delayed, so from the same batter i baked regular chocolate cake and mixed it with ice-cream for a quick dessert next day!!!!

And let me tell you it tastes yummazing :) See for yourself...

Ice Cream Cake...

Now, don't you want to make it??!!! So Please take the recipe and make it before winter starts full blown....

Ingredients:

Vanilla Ice cream (in semi-solid state)

Chocolate cake

Cup-Cake moulds (Or Kulfi moulds will also do)

Chocolate syrup (Optional - For decoration)

Whipped cream (Optional - For decoration)

Popsicle sticks (Optional)

Method:

1) Brake your cake into crumbs.

2) In a bowl, mix ice-cream and cake crumbs thoroughly (preferably using your hands).

3) Fill in the cup-cake moulds (if you wish you can insert small dessert spoons or popsicle sticks in it, but it is completely optional).

4) Before serving freeze for 30 minutes (or till the cake sets - remember, we don't want a hard rock cake).

5) Take out and let it sit out for 5 minutes. If it became too hard in freezer then let it sit out till it gets softer.

6) I served it with chocolate sauce and whipped cream!!!! It tastes great just like that also...Take your pick and ENJOY!!!!!!

Notes:

1) You can go crazy with the combination. So in place of chocolate cake you can use vanilla cake or fruit cake. Similarly experiment with different ice-creams, (Vanilla, strawberry, butterscotch...)

2) You can add nuts/raisin/chocolate chips/Chocolate shavings (or anything else that comes to your mind) to the mixture!!!!

+techie ZM

Farmhouse Club Sandwich

I posted this recipe in TGND's post on sandwiches.

As i said there, we had it at the Ice station in hyderabad and we loved it. They have a kind of open kitchen, so could see the sandwich being assembled and realized that it's very easy to make, so made it at home and it was as good as they come :)

Try it out, it's easy to make and tastes great :)

Also, you get a chance to sneak in capsicum and this is very healthy, complete meal with dairy protien (Cheese), Carbs (Bread and potato) and veggies (tomatoes, capsicum, corriander)...

Farmhouse Club Sandwich

 Ingredients: (To make 4 Sandwiches)

12 Bread Slices (I use brown bread, you can use whichever bread you like)

3 Medium sized boiled potatos, peeled and cut into small pieces

3 Medium sized Onions (Finely cut or cut or cut in slices, whatever you prefer. i prefer finely cut)

3 Medium sized tomatoes (again i prefer finely cut, you can do slices if you want)

1 Big (Or 2 small) capsicum (My choice Finely cut or cut, but slices also tastes good)

4 Cheese Cubes, grated

Green Chutney

Butter

Salt

Black Pepper

Chaat Masala (Optional)

Method:

1) Take a slice of bread, apply butter and chutney on it. then put tomato, onion and capsicum and cheese on that bread slice. Sprinkle Salt, Black Pepper and Chaat Masala on it.

2) Take another slice of bread, apply butter and chutney on both the sides of the slice and cover the 1st bread slice with this one.

3) Now on the 2nd bread slice, put potatoes, tomatoes, onions and grated cheese. Sprinkle Salt, Black Pepper and Chaat Masala on it.

 Bread Slice with the stuffing

4) Take another bread slice, apply butter and chutney on this one as well and cover the sandwich.

5) Toast it in OTG or tawa or sandwich maker, a club sandwich is ready in jiffy.

You can serve it with Potato chips and Ketchup 

Notes:

1) If you are watching weight then you can skip butter and Cheese, i won't say it tastes equally good, but nevertheless, it tastes good...

2) I use food processor to finely cut Onions, Tomatoes and Capsicum.

3) To make it healthier, you can use the multi-grain bread.

+techie ZM

Bread Bonanza - Garlic Bread

As i had already baked the bread, i thought of making garlic bread for Zini as she likes the garlicky flavour a lot.

Garlic bread

There are multiple recipes on the net and all of them are very easy to follow. I followed this one

Ingredients:

Bread Slices - 4

Salted Butter - 4 Teaspoon (you can vary as per your preference)

Grated Garlic - 2 teaspoon

Mixed Italian herbs (1/2 Teaspoon) (Though the recipe said oregano only, but i used this. It had cheese powder, garlic, oregano, thyme, salt, rosemary, basil, red chili, lemon peel)

Pepper - 3 pinches (the recipe didn't ask for this but, i like the flavour so added this as well)

Method:

1) Take the butter in a kadhai, add garlic and heat it while stirring the garlic.

2) Add the Italian herbs and pepper. Mix well and your spread is ready

3) Now apply this on the bread slices.

4) Toast the bread slices on a tava. (The original recipe suggested toasting in the oven, but i did it on a tava using butter. )

And your tasty garlic bread is ready to be eaten :)

+techie ZM

Bread Bonanza - Bread Chevdo (Chivda)

My mom makes this. It's a very filling snack. It is also called Vaghareli bread (The bread that has been treated to tempering :) ). Here, we give desi treatment to the Videsi bread :)

As you know that i baked the bread and in my excitement, cut it early before letting it cool down. As a result, i was left with some bread crumbs. So i decided to use them and make bread Chevdo :)

Bread Chevdo[/caption]

Ingredients:

Bread Crumbs of 5 breads (crush the bread using your hands thoroughly as if you are kneading dough (or you can run it in mixy to get small bread crumbs), ensure that you get as small as possible bread crumbs)

Oil for tempering (1 tablespoon)

Mustart seeds - 1/4 teaspoon

Hing - 1 pinch

Kadhi Patta - 6-7 leaves

Salt to taste ( i used 1/2 teaspoon)

Sugar to taste (i used 1 tablespoon)

Red chili powder

Turmeric - 1/4 tea spoon

Method:

1) Take oil in a kadhai and add Mustard seeds.

2) Add red chili powder, salt, turmeric and sugar in the bread crumbs and mix well.

3) As the Mustard seeds crackle, add hing and Kadhi patta to the kadhai.

4) Now add the bread crumbs to the kadhai and mix well.

5) Keep stirring and mixing for 2 minutes.

And your yummy easy bread Chevdo is ready :)

You can use you imagination and add other ingredients to this easy recipe :)

+techie ZM

Bread Bonanza - Brown bread....

I have been trying to bake my own bread since some times now. In my previous attempts i got Okayish breads, where some of the part was nice and as a bread should be and some of the part was un-cooked in centre.

Finally, yesterday i was able to bake a bread that was uniformly cooked. Though in my excitement to cut it, i couldn't wait for the bread to cool down and ended up breaking some slices...But still it was a good bread, the way a brown bread should be!!!! Jumping to recipe now. I am following a recipe from Baby and toddler cookbook from Tarla Dalal with little modification (from Good housekeeping magazine's recipe section).

I want to mention here that i didn't have a bread baking tin (Actually i bought one but it was a little big for my oven and didn't fit in :( ), so i kept the loaf in my regular circular tin and used aluminium foil to cover the bottom and sides of the loaf. But it is always better to use to bread baking tin for better results.

Freshly baked bread.......

Edited to Add : I bought a bread loaf pan and you can see the result :)

 Ingredients:

Whole Wheat flour - 2¼ Cups (250 gms)

Dried Yeast - 1 teaspoon (Though the recipe asked to use 2 teaspoon fresh yeast, i didn't have any so i  used 1 teaspoon active dry yeast)

Sugar - ¾ Teaspoon

Butter - 1 teaspoon

Salt - ¾ teaspoon

Method:

1) Take 1/2 cup warm water and add sugar to it. Mix well.

2) Now add yeast to this water and see that it dissolves completely.

3) Wait for 4-5 minutes. You will see rise in the water level. (In colder countries, please keep this mixture in warm place to allow the yeast to work.)

4) Sieve the flour along with salt. Add butter and mix well.

5) Now using the yeast, sugar, water mixture, knead soft dough. If needed add some more warm water.

6) Knead well till the dough is smooth and elastic. A lady in a youtube video suggested "slapping" the dough to see that it is elastic enough!!!

7) Cover with a damp muslin cloth (i used my regualr kitchen cloth) and allow it to prove (meaning increase in size by fermentation) till it doubles in volume. (May take 20-30 mins)

8) Once the dough doubles in size, punch it in the center (from the same lady in the youtube video) to remove any air.

9) Knead it again thoroughly.

10) Shape into a loaf and place in the greased loaf tin. (as i said, i didn't have any, so i kept the loaf in my regular circular tin and covered the loaf's sides and bottom using aluminium foil.

11) Cover again with the damp muslin cloth and allow to prove again till it doubles in volume.

12) Pre-heat oven to 180 degree C (though the book said to 200 degree C, i found that this temperature works for my tin)

13) Sprinkle some water on the tin and bake in the preheated oven at 180 degree C for 15 mins. (Recipe says at 200 degree c for 10 mins)

14) Then reduce the temperature to 150 degree C and bake for 15 more minutes. (But keep checking in between to see that it is not turning to brown, if that happens then plz stop baking further)

Please, please let it cool before you cut it. I know it is very difficult, but let it cool (you can enjoy the smell of the baked bread :)) and then only cut into slices.

Note: If you want softer bread then you can replace 1/4 th cup of wheat flour with 1/4th cup of maida (so you will be using 2 cups of whole wheat flour and 1/4th cup of maida, mix and proceed)

Home made bread......

+techie ZM

Chocolate sponge cake.....

I am following recipe from Neeta Mehta cookery book with little modification suggested by my MIL .

This is the first cake i baked  . First time, I made it for my hubby’s birthday. As I didn’t have time to go out shopping for him, I thought of surprising him by a cake. But when I started making it, I realized that I didn’t have enough eggs with me.

So I called my front door neighbour and friend P, she not only gave me eggs, but came to see if I was doing it alright.

And thank god she came, because it was she who noticed that I had used Rice flour in place of Maida!!!! So, I discarded the flour and started again from scratch.

But now I am pretty confident with this cake, and make it very often. I have also replaced maida with whole wheat flour for health reasons

Hubby's birthday cake - The 1st cake i baked...

Ingredients:

Eggs – 4 medium sized
Powdered Sugar – 1¼ Cup
Whole Wheat flour – 1 Cup (you can use Maida, but I find this healthier and tastier :) )
Cocoa Powder – ½ cup (I use cadbury’s cocoa powder)
Baking powder – ½  tspoon
Mitha Soda – a pinch
Oil – ¾ cup
Vanilla essence – 1 tspoon

Method: 

1) Sieve the flour, Baking powder, Mitha soda and cocoa powder together using a sieve (or you can simply mix them with your hands).
2) Break egg and keep egg whites separate from yolk.
3) Now, put egg whites in food processor and run it on low speed. (if you don’t want to use it then use beater to beat egg whites)
4) Add sugar to food processor and continue to run it. (in place of food processor beater can be used)
5) Add Vanilla essence.
6) Add the flour little by little while still running the food processor. (If not using food processor, fold it using a wooden spoon a little by little)
7) Add Egg yolk. Let it mix well and stop food processor. (Use the beater if not using food processor)
8) If you find the consistency of the batter too thick then you can add a little milk or fresh cream and then mix well.
9) Pre-heat the oven at 180 degree C.
10) Grease a baking tin using oil and flour. Remove extra flour from the greased tin. (Or you can use butter paper as well.)
11) Pour the batter in the baking tin.
12) Bake it in the oven for 30 minutes or till the knife comes out clean. (You can put a knife in the cake and if it comes out clean that means the cake is ready.)
13) Take it out on a wire rack and let it cool. 

Decorate if you wish to and cut it and enjoy it :)