Gulpapte - a fast dessert

One of the Karnataka sweets, so easy to make and tasty to eat. It is made with two kinds of flour, ragi or whole wheat. Since whole wheat is more accessible I am posting it's recipe. Same proportions apply to ragi flour as well. Making Gulpapte with ragi flour make it a gluten free dessert. This brings back memories of my childhood at my granny's place. She used to make it and ask all of her grand kids to eat.. I never ate coz I did not like sweets as a kid. Gran used get angry on me for not tasting... :D... Me is what me is, never listened to her. Now when I have to make it to eat, I realize the value of what she used to do. Miss you gran :(... I made Gulpapte last year for the first time and never in my life I imagined liking gulpapte so much that I would repeatedly make them. My mom's favorite and dear husband loves it too so it is a double bonus... It does not have the gran's touch however has her recipe...very simple to make and will get ready in 30 minutes max!!

Prep time: 15 minutes

Cook time: 10 minutes

Pieces: About 8

Ingredients:

1. Wheat flour - 1 cup
2. Jaggery - 3/4 cup, grated
3. clarified butter/ghee - 2 tbsp[can be substituted with 1 tbsp of unsalted butter or very mild flavoured oil]
4. Water - enough to cover jaggery about 1/2 to 3/4 cup
5. Grated coconut - 1/2 cup [optional]
6. Cardamom - 2 crushed or 2 pinches of powder

Method:

• In a small pot take jaggery and water and heat till all of the jaggery dissolves.
• In another pan, heat clarified butter, add cardamom and flour. Roast till all rawness goes away. You will know when your kitchen starts smelling very fragrant.
• Now add coconut and roast for a couple of minutes.
• Add the water jaggery mixture little by little and keep mixing so that it does not form lumps. Keep doing this till all the jaggery gets well incorporated into the flour.
• Cook till the mixture leaves the pan and forms a ball when you are stirring.
• Turn the stove of, set the pan aside and let it cool to touch.
• Oil your palms lightly and roll them into lime sized balls to enjoy!

Tips:

• If you want to make it richer, add finely chopped nuts and/or raisins.
• If you want to store them for longer time, do not add coconut since it will start spoiling faster.

Chocolate, Rum & Raisin cake....

The name says the good stuff in this goody bake. This is one of the best moist cake recipes' I have ever baked or eaten. Moist dose not mean juicy, Juicy cake is different... this is soft and moist. I Used a recipe of Ina Garten to get the cake it's moisture and added my twist to take it in a different direction. This recipe will yield a huge cake... Good as a party cake (not for kids). If you want to bake this cake for kids, just eliminate the rum part. Use finely chopped dry fruits and nuts. You may notice,I almost never frost my cakes, even if i do, it is with whipped cream and a very thin layer, reasons being... I do not want the extra fat and sugar from the icing/frosting and fondant, and secondly, the food colours are so bad. lot of chemicals. If you want to decorate your cake, one tip from me is, use less of icing if possible and always use fruit pulp to colour your icing [whenever you can].

Prep time: 15 Mins

Bake time: 30 - 40 Mins

Servings: Upto 12

Ingredients:

1. All-purpose flour - 1 3/4 cups plus more for pans for dusting 
2. Sugar - 2 cups
3. Good cocoa powder - 3/4 cups
4. Baking soda - 2 tsp
5. Baking powder - 1 tsp
6. Salt - 1 teaspoon
7. Buttermilk, shaken - 1 cup 
8. Vegetable oil - 1/2 cup + a little more for greasing 
9. Eggs - 2 at room temperature [you can use just the egg whites, I did the same. Not the egg substitute, it makes cake very hard. Just separate yolk from white]
10. Vanilla essences - 1 tsp
11. 1 cup freshly brewed hot coffee or boil 1 cup water and pour it over 1 1/2 tbsp of instant coffee.
12. Golden raisins - 1/4 cup
13. Spiced rum [or any rum] - 3/4 cup (optional)
14. Cinnamon powder - 1/2 tsp or 1/2 inch stick
15. Nutmeg powder - 1/2 tsp
16. Cloves - 3
17. All spice powder - 1/2 tsp  

Method:

• Typically you will need to soak the raisins in rum and all the spices for at least 20 - 40(max) days before you bake the cake. If by chance you can't, soak it atleast for 24 hrs. Mix all the spices, rum and raisins in an air tight jar and keep it some place cool to marinate well. Do not keep it in direct sunlight... 
• Stiff all the dry ingredients together. like, flour, sugar, coco powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
• In a big bowl, first beat the eggs till they get frothy next add vanilla essence and beat for a few more seconds.
• Add butter milk in small batches and beat till well incorporate.
• Add  Oil  and beat till well incorporated. 
• Now add dry ingredients in 4 batches till all of it is well incorporated.
• Pour coffee into the batter and fold it gently till it gets well mixed.
• Drain the raisins into a bowl (keep the rum) now sprinkle raisins with some all purpose flour and toss them till they get well coated. Add them to the batter and slowly fold them till they get evenly distributed. Do not over do this process.
• Preheat oven to 350F/175F, grease and dust  big baking pan or pans (2, 8 inch), pour the batter in it/them [if you are making two then divide the batter equally ]
• Bake for 30 - 40 minutes or till the toothpick or some thin stick you insert in the cake comes out dry.
• Cool completely and pour the rum all over the cake and let it soak for an hour before you enjoy it. If you want to frost, do it when the cake is warm. If you want to use whipped cream icing or icing, do it when cake is completely cooled.

Tips:

Exclude rum for kids and just bake a dry fruit and nut cake. Just finely cop all the dry fruits and nuts, do toss them in the flour and fold them into batter before you pour into the baking pan. Use all the spices and coffee mentioned.

You can eliminate coco powder and bake a plain cake.. you will have to eliminate coffee as well when not using coco. If you want to add coffee, just add 2 tsp of instant coffee powder with the eggs and beat well.

For egg substitute.. visit http://tipnut.com/egg-substitutes/ ... Substitutes may not work as good as eggs themselves. Please try any of them and let me know if they do work like eggs...

General Info:

Eggs in a recipe may provide for moisture, binding or to incorporate air in the dish. So when you use egg substitutes, think of the purpose of the eggs in that particular recipe, binding/airiness/moisture and then use the substitute accordingly. Fruit sauces are good binders and moisture providers. Baking soda substitutes provide airiness and so forth...

Quick Chawal ka Kheer [Sweetened rice]

Traditionally this recipe takes quite sometime to cook. Since I am not known for my patience, I always try to find out ways to reduce cook and prep time. This sweet cooks faster if you already have cooked rice on hand. Wonderful sweet for festivals, guests or any special occasion. A good thing about this sweet is you can flavour it with almost any fruit or nut essences. If at all you flavour, I recommend you use finely chopped nuts and pureed fruit... yummm!

Prep time: 15 mins (includes rice cooking)

Cook time: 10 mins

Ingredients:

1. Rice - 1/4 cup cooked
2. Dry fruits and Nuts - such as raisins, almonds, cashew, pistachio finely chopped, 2 tbsp [all or any.. whatever you have on hand]
3. Condensed milk - 14 oz can
4. Saffron : a pinch soaked in a tbsp of milk for 30 mins (optional)
5. Cardamom: 2 pods crushed
6. Clarified Butter - 2 tsp 
7. Milk - about 1/4 cup (only if needed)

Method:

• Heat a pot big enough to hold all the ingredients on medium flame.
• Add clarified butter and give it a few seconds to heat up.
• Add cardamom and all the dry fruits and nut you want. Saute for a few seconds.
• Add cooked rice and mix in withe rest of the ingredients.
• Add condensed milk and saffron and let it cook for 7 to 8 minutes.
• If you think the sweet is getting very thick you may add milk to thin it.
• Please refer to tips if you wish to use fruit in the sweet.

Serving Suggestion:

Serve it chilled in the refrigerator, It tastes almost like an ice cream if you have used any fruit essence or fresh fruit. You can also garnish it with freshly chopped fruit like mango, banana and etc.

Tips:

1. You may you fruits like mango, pineapple, banana and strawberry.. go ahead and experiment with the fruits you want to try. However, remember that highly citric fruits may curdle the milk in the dish.

2. If you decide to use fruit in the sweet. Take 1/4 cup of the fruit's pulp and add it while you are adding condensed milk and let it cook. If you also want to add essence, make sure you use 1/2 tsp of the same fruit's essence or use vanilla essence, it enhances almost any flavour.

Mango Cream cake

 I baked this cake just like that, no special occasion. I bought this new baking pan and had to use it, so baked a sponge cake and layered it with mango whipped cream. As simple as it sounds, it tastes amazing. This cake will make you want more.... My idea was to make a mousse cake, turns out, to make mousse we need gelatin. I don't like to use gelatin and the fancy gelatin substitutes like, pectin and agar-agar are not readily available where I live, so dropped the mousse idea and made it work as cream... I almost never use food colour in my cream or cakes or decorations as we eat lot of chemicals unknowingly, why should I add some with my knowledge. I don't like to use a lot of icing and fondant coz, they have a lot of sugar and some fondants have gelatin as well.... So it is up to you to make the cake decorations and fillings, however, baking the cake must be followed as it is given.

Prep time: 20 minutes

Bake time: 15 to 20 minutes

Serving: 8 to 10

Ingredients:

For sponge cake:

1. All purpose flour - 1/2 cup + 2 heaping tsp (for later use, not with the half cup)

2. Baking powder - 1/2 tsp [measure flat, not a heaped]

3. Sugar - 1/2 cup

4. Eggs - 2

5. Egg yolks - 2

6. Oil/molten butter - 2 tbsp

7. Vanilla essence - 1 tsp [substitute with the flavour of your choice. Vanilla blends with almost anything]

For whipped cream:

1. Heavy Cream - 1/2 pint

2. Mango puree - 1 cup

3. Sugar - 2 tsp

Method:

To bake the sponge cake:

1. Stiff* flour and baking powder into a big bowl and set aside.

2. In two small bowls, separate the 2 egg yolks from whites. In order to do so, crack the egg's shell, gently and slowly break the shell with out piercing the yolk over a bowl. Let the white flow out of the shell into a bowl, transfer the yolk into another half of the shell and let the remaining yolk flow out. Repeat the some process with the other egg. Put the whites away. Add these yolks to a large bowl. Crack the other two eggs into it, add vanilla and beat them till they get frothy.

3. Add some sugar and beat till it gets dissolved. Repeat the process till all the sugar is used and when you lift the beater, the egg-sugar mixture must form ribbons.

4. Now add 1/4 of the stiffed flour, and beat till it blends completely. Repeat the process till all the flour is well incorporated.

5. In a small bowl, pour the oil and add 2 tsp heaps of all purpose flour, mix it well incorporated and add to the cake batter. Beat till it gets well mixed.

6. Preheat* oven to 400F for 15 minutes. While the oven is heating, grease* and dust* the baking pan you want to use. ( 9inch rectangle or an 8 inch round) pan. Pour the batter in and bake for 15 to 20 minutes. You will know the cake is done when u insert a stick in the middle of the cake and it comes out dry. Cool completely before you taking out of the pan.

7. You can bake the batter in 2 separate pans, if you do not want to cut the same cake into half.

8. After the cake cools, take it out of the pan, cut it in to half horizontally with a sharp knife. Be very careful not to break the layers while doing so.

9. Pour some mango pulp on the inside of bottom layer, spread it around with a spoon and add dollops of mango whipped cream (method given below). Spread it evenly. Place the other half of the cake on top, repeat the same process. And cover the sides of the cake with remaining whipped cream. Or you can pipe it into nice design on top and sided of your cake.

10. Place the cake covered in the fridge 4 hours before you can serve. 

Method to make Whipped Cream:

1. In a big bowl, pour heavy cream and sugar and beat till it forms soft peaks. You will know when the cream turns fluffy soft and when you pull out the whisk the cream should point up.

2. From the reminder of mango pulp and 1 tbsp of it and fold* it into the whipped cream. Repeat the process till you incorporate 3 to 4 tbsp of mango pulp. and the whipped cream is ready.

Serving suggestions:

You can serve this cake with some chocolate syrup drizzled all over. Or with some mango slices or some chopped nuts drizzled on top or all of it.

Tips:

1. To whip the cream, use a ice cube bed i,e. In a large plate which can hold up to 10 ice cubes, put the ice cubes and place the cream bowl on top and whip for faster results, Never put whipped cream on warm or hot cake. It will melt. The cake has to be 100% cool to work with whipped cream.

2. You can use mango Ice cream instead of mango whipped cream and make an ice cream cake. Decorate it the way you want. It will make a great birthday or any special occasions cake. Not only mango ice cream, you can layer any ice cream between these cake layers. Make more layers for more fancy cake. This is a basic cake recipe and can be used to make a wide range of cakes. Shall post all the recipes when I make them.

* Refer Glossary

Banana Dosa/Balehannu Dose

I first ate this at my friend Nivedita's house on my previous visit to India. Must say, her mom cooks such amazing food, I used to travel around  15 km one way, just to eat what she cooked when i was back in college. So, this time around her mom made these scrumptious doasas for me. They were sweet, but not annoyingly sweet and that caramelized banana flavour... umm!! Takes me to a different plane. Her mom gave me this recipe, which i tried after a long time. This dosa is eaten with jaggery, before it is solidified. In the sense, jaggery in it's natural state is a semi liquid, it is processed further to solidify. Or you can have it with a sweet date chutney, coconut chutney, honey, ketchup or anything you may please. If you top it with some roasted nuts and honey, it makes an excellent dessert. I made sorakaya Pachadi to go along with this dosa, recipe for which i will update in coming days. Here goes the recipe for the versatile banana dosa.

Prep time: 15 minutes (excluding soaking and fermenting)

Cook time: 2 to 4 minutes, each dosa

servings: About 10 dosas

Ingredients:

1. Large ripe bananas - 2

2. raw rice - 1 cup

3. Salt - to taste

4. Jaggery - 1/2 cup to 1 1/2 cups or more depending on how sweet you want it. Grated.

5. Water - required amount to thin the batter.
6. Fenugreek Seeds- 1/2 tsp

Method:

1. Soak rice and fenugreek seeds together for atleast 5 hours.

2. Grind soaked rice and banana to a smooth batter, it's consistency should be like dosa or pan cake batter.

3. Add salt and jaggery, let it ferment overnight or atleast 8 hours. 

4. To make pan cakes or dosa, heat a tava or a skillet, pour a ladle full of this batter in the middle of the skillet. Press down the ladle gently on the batter in the center of the batter and in a circular motion, spread it around the pan slightly.. not too much.

5. Pour oil around the batter and let it turn brown, flip and cook for 30 more seconds. Dosa is ready to be served. Be careful when you flip the dosa, it is very delicate so handle it with care.

Serving suggestions:

This particular dosa can be eaten as breakfast or dessert. If serving as break fast, use some savory sides like chutney, ketchup or pudi. If serving as a dessert, use honey, maple syrup, jaggery paste, date chutney. Also drizzle some chopped nut on top for more jazz.

Tips:

1. If bananas are rotting away, you know what breakfast to make the next day, ;) wink.

2. Very good carbs, so it is an excellent breakfast when you need all the energy.

3. Use more jaggery into batter if you are planning to make dessert, than breakfast.
4. Heat of the skillet should be monitored, since this dosa has a lot of sugar, it will burn faster and will not cook through. Heat the skillet on medium heat, not high.

Cannoli Cake

Cannoli is a sweet cheese filling usually filled in a deep fried tubes. Cannoli can be of different kinds and flavours. I baked a orange flavoured cake and layered this filling and frosted the cake with some whipped cream for my husbands birthday... He loved it. There are many ways to make this cake, my husband loves the citrus taste, so i used a lot of orange in the cake. So here goes the recipe, bake and enjoy.

Prep time: 45 mins

Bake time: 40 mins

Decoration time: 40 mins

Servings: 12 to 16

Ingredients:

1. Eggs - 4
2. Sugar - 3/4 Cup
3. All-purpose flour - 1 cup
4. Butter or margarine - 1/2 cup /(1 stick) melted and cooled

6. Orange juice - 2 tsp

7. Orange zest* - 2 tsp

8. Baking Powder - 2 tsp

9. Salt - 1 pinch

10. Orange\vanilla\Almond essence - 2 tsp

11. Orange chopped into little bits - 3 tsp (optional)
12.  Ricotta Filling - given below

13. Whipped Cream Frosting - given below


Read here on how to chop orange from.

Ricotta Filling:

1. Ricotta Cheese (Skim milk)- 2 cups (15 oz.)
2. Sugar - 3 Tbsp.
3. Vanilla essence - 1-1/2 tsp.
4. Heavy cream - 1 cup, whipped
5. Semi sweet mini chocolate chips - 1 cup

Whipped Cream Frosting:

1. Heavy cream - 2 cups
2. Powdered sugar - 2 Tbsp.
3. Vanilla essence - 1/2 tsp.

Method:

To bake the cake:

1. Take flour, baking soda and salt, sieve them twice and keep aside. 

2. Break the eggs into a big container in which you can prepare the cake batter, beat them till they get very frothy. 

3. Add little sugar and beat till it's well incorporated, do it till all the sugar is mixed well. Now Add the essence and zest*, beat well. Add the butter in small portions and beat well till all of it gets well incorporated.

4. Now add the flour mixture in 4 batches. Every time you add, make sure you mix it well in the liquid mixture. Grease* and dust* a 8 inch round baking pan and pour the cake batter into it. Do not rub the mixture down in the pan to spread it evenly. Instead, hold the pan with both hands and pat it down on a flat surface so that the mixture spreads evenly. Preheat* the oven to 350F/ 180C, place the pan on the middle rack of the oven and let it bake for 40 minutes. You will know it is done when you insert a tooth pick or a thin stick into the middle of the cake and it comes out dry and clean.

5. Let the cake cool completely before you do any thing else with it.

To make Ricotta Filling: Beat Ricotta cheese, sugar and vanilla on medium speed in bowl with electric mixer 3 minutes. Fold in whipped cream and chocolate chips.

To make Whipped Cream Frosting: Beat cream on high speed in bowl with electric mixer until soft peaks form. Beat in sugar and vanilla.

To layer and frost: Cut cake in half horizontally using sharp serrated knife. Cut each layer in half again horizontally. Place 1 layer on serving platter; spread with one-third Ricotta filling. Repeat procedure, ending with cake layer. No sooner than 6 hours before serving, frost sides and top of cake with all but 1 cup frosting. Decorate with remaining frosting, chopped chocolate and fruit. Refrigerate until serving time. 

Tips:

1. You may add a few orange fruit bits to the cake. To do that, chop the orange into small bits, take a tsp of flour and lightly mix these bits into it. This will ensure all the bits are evenly spread in the mixture, or all of them will deposit in the bottom of the cake.
2. Do not use egg substitute for this cake, makes the cake slightly hard and it also has a funny chemical taste.

* Please refer glossary