Say cheese!!

Alrite, I am late for this post. I was truly missing the treats I would enjoy back in New York and Abby's recent #baketogether challenge gave me the perfect opportunity. New York cheesecake has been one of my favorite desserts for quiet sometime now! I know many might think cheesecake really? but yes I love it! And look how pretty!! :)

Mini cheesecakes

I usually try to experiment with this challenge but this time I wanted to preserve the essence of a New York cheesecake and hence kept the recipe pretty much same. But one thing is for sure, instead of making a whole cake, I prefer making them in petite form just so that I can control the portion size better and further on reduce the guilt. The two missing in the photo below is just because they were consumed before realizing that no pictures had been clicked.. :P

The only thing I changed was the crust. I didn't have any graham crackers at home and used what I found in my pantry, in this case it was a mix of marie and Nice (a spiced sweet biscuit - Indian) biscuits. The crust tasted really good, and the amount of spice gave a nice contrast to the filling.

I won't be posting the recipe for this since it is the same as suggested by Abby in her post. As for the crust below are the ingredients (I cut down the original recipe to half):

Ingredients:
1 cup marie and/or Nice biscuits ( I used about 10-12 biscuits)

1 tablespoons granulated sugar

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

Unplanned success!

I had no plans of baking on weeknight especially after having a busy and tiring work day. But in the spare 10 mins of my lunch hour I was trying to find a recipe to use up the all-so-ripe pears sitting in my kitchen. Well, instead of that, something else caught eye..this lovely Raspberry Buttermilk Cake on one of my favorite blogs: Smitten Kitchen! :)

After reading this recipe, I just couldn't let it go! I had fresh raspberries from the farmer's market sitting in my kitchen just waiting to be baked. :) So the moment I got home I was ready to whip it up, of course with a healthy twist. I replaced a good bunch of things but kept the essence of it intact. The cake turned out beautiful and light! I cut down the sugar quiet a bit, but the ripeness of the raspberries made up for it.

Raspberry Yogurt Cake

Ingredients:
1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup + 2 tbsp olive oil
1/3 cup plus 1tbsp sugar, divided

3 tbsp honey
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp finely grated lemon zest (optional)
1 large egg
1/2 cup yogurt
1 cup fresh raspberries

• Preheat oven to 400°F with rack in middle. Butter and flour a 9-inch round cake pan.
• Whisk together the flours, baking powder, baking soda, and salt and set aside. In a larger bowl, beat oil and 1/3 cup sugar until pale and fluffy, followed by honey, then beat in vanilla and zest, if using. Add egg and beat well.
• At low speed, mix in flour mixture in three batches, alternating with yogurt, beginning and ending with flour, and mixing until just combined. Spoon batter into cake pan, smoothing top. Scatter raspberries evenly over top and sprinkle with remaining 1 tbsp sugar.
• Bake until cake is golden and a wooden pick inserted into center comes out clean, 20 to 25 minutes. Cool in pan 10 minutes, then turn out onto a rack and cool to warm, 10 to 15 minutes more. Invert onto a plate.

Overall a perfect treat for breakfast or an accompaniment a light lunch/dinner.

Back to the grind

I really couldn't figure out on what note I should begin this post. I have been out of the blogging world for a good 3 months. Its definitely been a long time and truly an unplanned one.
The past year was a real tough one..though it brought on a lot of good changes, it was a challenging year for me and for the new 'us'. But with the hopes that the new year will be a new start for us, we got married on the first day of the year! :) We had a small ceremony with the near and dear ones and truly have some lovely memories of the day..the kind that become stories that would be passed down through generations.

Its been only two weeks that we got back from a long India trip, a true hiatus but now I couldn't be more ready to cook, bake and of course experiment! I must admit to something, for the past 6 months I have been receiving the Martha Stewart Living magazine actually addressed to someone else who lived at the same address previously. :P I am not exactly a big fan of it but then who wouldn't mind a free copy. :D
So after getting back, on a free afternoon and I was finally able to go through all of them and bookmark the interesting recipes. Today's recipe is something I found in the one of these magazines. It is just the right recipe for someone who is actually getting started / getting back to baking and wants to make something simple and quick and with minimal measurements. I was a definite qualifier for that.
So here it is a cookie recipe with a twist in it.

Semolina sheet cookie
The original recipe suggested that the cookie resembled a deconstructed biscotti. The cookie has a lovely crunchy texture and comes out really light.

Ingredients:
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup oat flour
1/4 cup semolina
1 tsp crushed fennel seeds
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 tsp baking powder
a pinch of salt
11/2 tbsp butter
1 large egg / 2 egg whites - save some for brushing
1 tbsp sliced almonds

• Preheat oven to 350 F. Whisk together the flours, semolina, fennel seeds, baking powder and salt.
• Beat butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy followed by the eggs. Add in the flour mixtures and bring it all together. 
• Press dough into an even 1/4-inch thickness on a parchment lined baking sheet. Brush with egg wash and sprinkle with almonds. Bake until golden, 22 - 25 minutes. Let cool on a wire rack. Break into pieces and enjoy!

The semolina adds the crunch to the cookie, but the fennel seeds show up in between and deliver a lovely flavor. I was surprised by the flavor of the seeds, truly didn't expect them to do so well in a cookie! Hope you guys enjoy it too.

Steaming goodness..rava idli!

Yikes, I really got late on this one! We all know and love South-Indian cuisine. The light fluffy idlis, crispy dosas and the spicy & tangy sambar..umm just makes your taste buds crave. I of course crave these delicacies once in a while and then try to recreate them in my small homely kitchen. A fortnight back, I was trying to recreate the ever-so known and loved rava idli. I researched around to find out what others have done to create light rava idlis as I was not very keen on using baking soda. So finally after reading up on a few of the recipes I created this one..they turned out really good! When I made these I didn't have all the usual ingredients for a green coconut chutney, so I made one with red chillies and it was surely yummy!

Rava idli with red chili coconut chutney

For the idli:
Ingredients:
1.5 cups rava
3/4 - 1 cup yogurt
3/4 cup grated carrots
8-10 cashews broken
2 tbsp chana dal
6-8 curry leaves light crushed
1.5 tsp mustard seeds
1-2 red chillies cut into small pieces
salt to taste
1 tbsp oil

For the chutney:
3/4 cup freshly grated coconut or frozen grated coconut
4-5 red chillies
2-3 cloves of garlic
1 inch piece ginger
1-2 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp mustard seeds
2-3 curry leaves
1 tsp oil
water to adjust consistency
salt to taste

For the idli:

• Add oil to a heated pan, add mustard seeds and when they splutter add chana dal, cashews, red chilies  and curry leaves. Saute for a min and add the rava. Roast the rava until it changes colour slightly and smells good. Season with salt and take it off the stove.
• Keep the idli plates greased and ready. Transfer the rava mixture in a wide bowl and mix in the carrots. Add the beaten curd to the rava mixture, add little water so that the mixture is of idli batter consistency. Pour the batter in the idli plates immediately and steam. If you dont have the conventional idli stand then you can make them in small bowls and place them in a steamer. The tip that I got is that once the curd is added, the batter must be steamed right away. In about 7-8 minutes delicious rava idlis are ready. Makes about 20-25 idlis.

For the chutney:

• Grind together the coconut, chilies, ginger and garlic with some water into a smooth texture. Once you get the desired texture, add salt to taste and transfer into a bowl.
• Now for the tadka, heat oil in a sauce pan and add mustard seeds, curry leaves and red chilies. Once they splutter, pour it into the chutney mixture in the bowl. Mix well and add lemon juice. Adjust the salt and mix well. The chutney is now ready! Enjoy with steaming idlis!

Cheer me up cookies!

The past week has been a real rough one for us. But as the week progressed things have got better and we feel life is coming back on track. I am serious when I say baking is really therapeutic for me. I was craving to bake and I knew that my fiance was craving something sweet to get over all the strong meds he is on. So when I asked him that should I bake some cookies for him, he gave me a big nod and I was almost jumping! I made these cookies mid-week but got around to writing the post today. Better late than never.

I had bought a Nutella jar last week in the notion of baking over the weekend and finally got the chance to have fun with it. I have a bunch of things in mind to try out but I decided to make simple Nutella cookies inspired by this recipe posted by Tasty Kitchen.

I am not new to Nutella and of course I love it! I haven't had it for a while and surely I had forgotten what I was missing. These cookies were just what I needed.. the rich flavor of the nutella contrasts perfectly with white chocolate and of course hazelnuts accentuate the flavor even further.

White chocolate & hazelnut Nutella cookies

Ingredients:
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup nutella
1/3 cup sugar
1 egg
1/3 cup chopped hazelnuts and white chocolate

• Preheat oven to 350°F and arrange a baking sheet with parchment paper.
• Beat the egg and mix in the sugar. Add in the flour followed and mix well.
• Add nutella and mix. The batter will become crumbly, knead it a little bit and start making 1 inch balls.
• You can add in the chopped nuts and chocolate into the batter and bring it together or flatten each balls using a flat base glass and press in some hazelnut and white chocolate.
• Bake for 8-9 mins or until the cookies firm up. Cool them on a rack and like I did serve some right off the sheet! Enjoy!

Do try these healthy cookies..yes healthy. I managed to make them with whole wheat and no butter. The fat content from Nutella was enough to get a crunchy cookie with a chewy inside. The cookies were ready in less than hour..and are truly hard to resist. 

Note: I had pressed in the pieces of nuts and chocolate after the flattening the cookie and then turned the cookie over..magic happened! The chocolate chunks got caramelized and have added a lovely chewy flavor to the cookie. :) See the overturned cookies below..yummy yum yum!!!