Candied Orange Peels

Hello, December.

‘Tis the season to be merry, to sing carols and eat copious amounts of candy. It’s the season when friends from all over world come home and the season when a blanket and a cup of hot chocolate can become your best friend. If I could, I would hug December. Its my favorite time of the year.

Christmas time calls for candy and this time I made some candied orange peels. I can imagine filling stockings with it, it is so Christmassy.

1.       First, cut 5 oranges into 4 segments each and carefully turn the pulp out.

2.       Next, cut each segment into 4 -5 strips depending on how large the segments are. Don’t worry about the pith – there will be no bitterness left after blanching the peel.

1.       Then, drop the peel into a pot of boiling water and blanch it for 2 minutes. Drain the water and rinse the peel with cold water. Repeat this process twice more.

2.       Boil 4 cups of water along with 2 cups of sugar and 1/4^th cup lemon juice.

3.       Return the peel to the pot and simmer. Stir every now and then so that the peel doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pot. Cook the peel for 1 ½ hours until soft and translucent.

4.       Once cooked, lay out the strips of peel on a cooling rack and leave them overnight. It will be very sticky.

1.       The next day, toss the peels in some castor sugar until well coated.

Tip: instead of coating the peels in castor sugar, you can melt some chocolate and coat the cooked peels in it to make orangettes.

Recipe from Baking: From my home to yours.

Chocolate and Pear Cake

Sunday has become my bake-a-cake day. The planning for the Sunday cake starts a few days before when I scan my cookbooks and favorite blogs for a recipe that I might want to try out. Early on Sunday morning, my dad and I go to the market to shop for eggs, butter and whatever fruit I want to use in the cake that day. For some reason, some kind of fruit cake has become traditional on Sundays – I would never make a plain chocolate cake for example. Then, after breakfast, I get down to baking and by lunch time the cake is made. I photograph it when everyone is having a quick snooze in the afternoon and finally, by tea time we all sit down for a scrumptious feast.

The reason this cake appealed to me was because of all the brown butter that the recipe calls for. It was the first time I had to use this technique and was really surprised at the wonderful nutty smell that the brown butter gives off. Be careful with it – the butter foams a lot and you have to be careful to take it off the stove as soon as the butter has turned brown. It doesn’t become brown for a while and then quite suddenly a point is reached when the butter at the bottom of the saucepan starts scorching and all of it turns brown.

The eggs are whipped beyond fluffy. In fact you need a hand held mixer for this at the very least and beat it for at least 9 minutes until it becomes thick, increases in volume and becomes custard like.

The cake is so delicious – soft and airy, moist and light. You whip up the eggs and sugar, brown the butter, mix in the flour and pour it into the pan. Then you scatter the pears and chocolate pieces. I couldn’t wait for it to finish baking. I wanted the batter to enfold the fruit and chocolate and have it spread evenly throughout the cake and I wonder why it all sank to the bottom. It was fruity and delicate still, and as you can guess, didn’t last very long.

Chocolate and Pear Cake

From Smitten Kitchen

Ingredients:

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 eggs, at room-temperature
4 ounces (1 stick) unsalted butter
3/4 cup sugar
3 pears, peeled, in a small dice

3/4 cup chocolate chunks

Method:

1.    Preheat the oven to 350°F. Butter a 9-inch springform pan and dust with breadcrumbs (I used flour), set aside.

2.    Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together, set aside.

3.    Using a mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whip the eggs on high speed until pale and very thick. (on a home machine, it will take nine minutes to get sufficient volume)

4.    Brown the butter. Melt the butter in a medium saucepan (because it will foam a lot) and cook it until the butter browns and smells nutty (about 6 to 8 minutes). It helps to frequently scrape the solids off the bottom of the pan in the last couple minutes to ensure even browning. Remove from the flame but keep in a warm spot.

5.    Add the sugar to the eggs and whip a few minutes more.

6.    Just as the egg-sugar mixture is starting to lose volume, turn the mixture down to stir, and add the flour mixture and brown butter. Add one third of the flour mixture, then half of the butter, a third of the flour, the remaining butter, and the rest of flour. Whisk until just barely combined — no more than a minute from when the flour is first added — and then use a spatula to gently fold the batter until the ingredients are combined. It is very important not to over-whisk or fold the batter or it will lose volume.

7.    Pour into prepared pan. Sprinkle the pear and chocolate chunks over the top, and bake until the cake is golden brown and springs back to the touch, about 40 to 50 minutes, or a tester comes out clean.

8.    Serve it with slightly whipped cream or just by itself.

Apple Crumble Bars

I found another way to use my favourite flavors! This time apples and dried fruits combine to make an apple crumble bar, very similar in flavor to the apple pear cranberry crisp I had made last year. I found the recipe in Cake Days (the one I made the salted caramel cupcakes from). This book is magical – even the colour of the cover (pink and white) transports me to the land of gorgeous cakes and cupcakes of different shapes and sizes with lip smacking buttercream and chocolate frosting. The recipes are absolutely fool proof, provided one reads their basic instructions at the back as well.  I had read somewhere that there are no bad cooks, only bad recipes and this book caters to that belief. The recipes are easy, not at all intimidating and you couldn’t fail if you tried!

 This apple crumble bar has been made keeping halloween in mind. The top and bottom layers are the bar which is absolutely crumbly and full of buttery goodness and there is a soft layer of cooked apples and plump moist dried cherries, cranberries and raisins in between.  The smell of cooked apples, cinnamon and nutmeg warmed up the house and brought the feel of autumn along.

The bar is made by combining all the ingredients for the crumble in one bowl and tossing together the fruits and spices in another bowl and then simply assembling the two.

Apple Crumble Bar

From Cake Days (USA / UK / India)

Makes 12 bars

Ingredients:

200 gms flour

1 tsp baking powder

¼ tsp salt

200 gms unsalted butter, softened (I used salted and skipped the salt)

250 gms light brown sugar

120 gms rolled oats

300 gms apples

4 tbsp cornflour

3 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp ground nutmeg

1 tsp ground ginger

175 gms mixed dried fruits like cherries, cranberries, raisins

Method:

1.       preheat the oven to 170 C (325 F) and line the tray with baking parchment.

2.       Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a large bowl, add the butter and rub together until the consistency of breadcrumbs, then stir in the sugar and the rolled oats. After mixing, press half the mixture into the prepared tray, and set aside.

3.       Peel and core the apples, then cut into slices and mix together with cornflour and ground spices. Place the spice-coated apple slices in lines on top of the oat mixture in the base of the tray, the sprinkle over the dried fruits. Spoon the remaining mix over the apples and dried fruits and press down gently.

4.       Place in the oven and bake for 30 – 40 mins or until the mixture is golden brown. Allow to cool completely in the baking tray before cutting into slices to serve.  

Sweet Corn and Edamame Bean Salad

Here is one of my favourite salads this year.

Edamame beans taste great and the texture is so velvety. Here is a video by Mark Bittman that teaches you how to cook edamame beans and another article.   I haven’t listed any quantity for the salad – use as much or as little of any ingredient and toss together to serve. 

Sweet Corn and Edamame Beans Salad

Edamame beans, steamed

Sweet corn kernels

Tomatoes, chopped

Onions, chopped

For the dressing

Olive oil

Soya sauce

Grated ginger

Chopped garlic

Chilli pepper flakes

Sugar

Salt

Coriander leaves to garnish

Toss well together and serve. 

Scones for Tea

As I read through some of my earlier blog posts, I realized that I reminisce about food that reminds me of my childhood quite often. I also became conscious of the fact that when you really like some kind of food, it has evoked some kind of special memory in you. You might rave about a particular dessert because it has hints of your mother’s pound cake in it, or that pasta tastes just like the one you ate at an anonymous village restaurant during that unforgettable trip to Italy.

The peach and cinnamon scones that I made today took me right back to my primary school days when I used to devour Enid Blyton books like they were Lindt chocolates. Apart from the exciting adventures that the Famous Five and all the girls at St.Clare’s and Malory Towers used to have, I would be thrilled to bits reading about their picnics, start of term suppers, high teas at farms and midnight feasts. The mouth watering descriptions of homemade jam, ginger cake, scones, treacle tarts, pop biscuits, Moonface’s Hot and Cold treats, lemonade, cans of peaches, sardines, and pies to be finished off with a ginger beer was stuff dreams were made of. Even bread and butter sounded exciting in her books.

Since then it had been my dearest wish to have scones with clotted cream and treacle pudding for tea. I had never had scones before and I was quite disappointed when I finally did have some at a bakery. They were nowhere near what I had imagined them to be. However, seeing how delicious they looked on Kelly’s blog, I couldn’t resist giving them one last chance. And I was glad I did. Make these for the days you want to revisit the adventures of George and the gang and raise a toast to Enid Blyton.

Now, does anyone have a recipe for treacle tarts?

Cupcakes I made just because they remind me of Silky, from the Magic Faraway Tree.

Peach and Cinnamon Scones

Adapted from Eat Make Read

Makes 12

Ingredients

2 cups (10 ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

5 Tablespoons chilled, unsalted butter, cut into 1/4-inch cubes

1 cup heavy cream (whipping cream works as well)

2-3 peaches, diced

cinnamon sugar

Whipped cream to serve

Method:

1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 425 degrees F or 220 C.

2. Place flour, baking powder, sugar, salt, and cinnamon in large bowl or work bowl of food processor fitted with steel blade. Whisk together or pulse six times.

3. IF MAKING BY HAND

Use two knives, a pastry blender or your fingertips and quickly cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse meal, with a few slightly larger butter lumps.

IF USING FOOD PROCESSOR:

Remove cover and distribute butter evenly over dry ingredients. Cover and pulse 12 times, each pulse lasting 1 second. Transfer dough to large bowl.

4. Stir in heavy cream with a rubber spatula or fork until dough begins to form, about 30 seconds. Gently fold in the peaches until fully incorporated into the dough.

5. Use a 1/3 cup measuring cup to scoop the dough onto a parchment-lined baking sheet. Dust the scones with a little cinnamon sugar and bake until scone tops are light brown, 12 to 15 minutes. Cool on wire rack for at least 10 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature with some whipped cream.

10 Foodie Things to Do When You’re Feeling Blue

There are some things that you just need to do to take care of yourself. 

Banana Coconut Bread with a big dollop of Dulce de Leche

10. Bake this Coconut Banana Bread and eat it with dulce deleche. Every single piece. Hide it so you don’t have to share it.

9. Watch Eat Drink Man Woman and Ratatouille (possibly the best food movies ever) on an unexpected day off from work (yay me!).

8. Buy that new set of measuring spoons and cups you have had your eye on for a while now.

7. Sit by that big window, watch the rain and drink some hot cocoa.

6. Wear your favourite pink apron, put on some earphones and dance around the kitchen singing to Phil Collins and Kishore Kumar. If someone asks you what that awful humming noise is, flatly deny that it was you.

5. Go to helenjane.com and read. It feels like breathing in great gulps of fresh sea air. Read this and this and this.

4.  Make a list of things that you do have. Try gratitude and count your blessings. Literally.

3. Take a walk through your local fruit and vegetable market and give free rein to your senses.

2. Fill in your shopping bag with big bunches of all the fresh herbs you can find. Just because the smell soothes you. Don’t start thinking about what you are going to do with all of them when you get home.

1. Take comfort from the fact that in this topsy turvy world, when you put in a batter of flour, sugar, butter, eggs and chocolate in the oven; it will always always always make you a cake.

Banana Coconut Bread with Cardamom

Adapted from  HomeBaking: The Artful Mix of Flour and Tradition around theWorld via The Wednesday Chef 

Makes 1 loaf

Note: I have changed some flavors in the recipe – the original recipe calls for ½ tsp of nutmeg instead of ½ tsp of freshly ground cardamom and 1 ½ tbsps of dark rum instead of which I have used Mastica, a liquor I got in Greece that has a slight cardamom flavor.

Ingredients

3 large, very ripe bananas
2 cups all-purpose flour
¾ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon freshly crushed cardamom seeds
Pinch of salt
1 stick (4 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
1/8 teaspoon white vinegar
1 ½ tablespoons Mastica
½ cup dried shredded unsweetened coconut
1 tablespoon demerara sugar

Method: 

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Butter a standard-size loaf pan.

2. Purée the bananas and set aside.

3. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, nutmeg, and salt. Set aside.

4. In a large bowl, beat together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the vinegar and rum, and beat to mix well. Add the banana purée and the flour mixture alternately, about 1 cup at a time, beginning with the banana and beating to just incorporate. Use a spatula to fold in any flour that has not been absorbed, and stir in the coconut. Do not overmix.

5. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan. Smooth the top, and sprinkle evenly with the demerara sugar. Bake for 50-60 minutes, or until the top is nicely browned and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool on a wire rack for about 20 minutes; then turn the loaf out of the pan and allow it to cool completely. The loaf will keep, wrapped well, for at least three or four days.