Garden Veggie Frittata...mummy special!

First of all let me begin by thanking all my dear friends and blog readers for being so supportive when they noticed I hadn't been blogging for a while. Cheering comments like ‘Good to see you back in action’ and ‘you’re back with a bang’ etc  just made my day. I’m so touched...Muah!                 

                                                 

Yet,  I'm still living in the past. By 'past' I mean the past 6 months that got over like a week ago. Hmmm....ya if you have guessed it right, I'm talking about the time when my parents had been here visiting us for the summer and what a bountiful summer it turned out to be. But in a way I hope they enjoyed and I'm glad they got to see a bit of snowy winter, pretty and colorful spring and had a lovely summer in the six months they were here. And do you remember the beautiful garden daddy grew. I had shared a sneak peak picture here.

I had earlier shared a daddy special dish on the blog. But today I am overwhelmingly reminded of mummy. I miss her a lot and I also miss her special breakfast omlettes. I don't know how she does it, but though she sometimes slept later than us, she was always the first to wake up, without any alarm and by the time Manish and I got dressed up for work and go downstairs, the kitchen would be smelling heavenly of freshly brewed coffee or homemade tea and Toast or dosa or idli or omlettes! Simple, yet easy and fillings breakfast items.

I was actually scanning my picture folders when I found these set of pics which I had randomly taken while she prepared omelettes on a working day and was rushing up to finish it so that we could eat and leave...Bless her! :-) And in between her rush, was this pesky photographer who instead of helping her, was busy taking her snaps...Lol!

Anyways, I'm going to give it a fancy name and call it a "Garden Veggie Frittata", coz that's what it really is, but we just call it Omlettes at home. This is how mummy loves to make her omlettes and it always includes red onions, tomatoes, thinly sliced ginger, green chillies and cilantro, sometimes even grated carrots, basil or mint (the tomatoes, cilantro, basil or mint actually taken from our garden itself)  and she has no specific measurements, just a spoonful of this or a half/quarter of that or a handful of herbs etc. So just as colorful as it looks, it is healthy and flavorful and the frittata always turns out so juicy!

Her process is simple. Slice all the veggies thinly (she uses a finger glove and slices them on her fingers (ya, that's an art that even I don't know)), crack open the eggs in a bowl and whisk them gently, add the veggies, season with salt n pepper and pour away into a pan lightly coated with canola or olive oil. 

She has her 'I'm busy at work' face there and usually feels cold early in the mornings so wears a light sweater and after seeing this post with her pic in it, she might not talk to me :-P She hates it when I take her 'not dressed up for pics' pics and even worse put it out here on the blog for the whole world to see...But she is my mom and I love her to bits no matter how she thinks she looks :-) (And i'm sooo exaggerating when I say the whole world reads my blog...ha!)

And I love this phrase, it's so simple and yet so apt!
"God couldn't be everywhere so he created Mothers" 

Enjoy this colorful and beautiful breakfast frittata/omlette with few slices of toast and coffee or tea or just as it is (if you are on a carb free diet or something).  It was one of my favorite breakfast items and was so filling that I din't have to even think of a mid-morning snack as it kept me full until lunctime!

Garden Veggie Frittata

This recipe is for a single serving. Increase the quantity for serving more people per frittata/omelette.

You’ll need

Eggs – 1 or 2 (whisked well)

Diced Red Onions – 1 tblsp 

Diced Tomato – 1 tblsp

Thinly sliced ginger (or grated ginger) – ½ tsp

Green chillies, thinly sliced – 1

Corriander leaves or Mint or Basil leaves – ½  tblsp or as per preference

Salt and Pepper – to taste

Spray on Canola Oil / Olive Oil  or else use around 2 tsp of oil (Can use butter if preferred)

Directions:

1. Slice all the veggies, crack open the eggs and whisk them gently until it’s nice and frothy and almost looks doubled in volume.  Add all the  veggies to the whisked eggs and add salt and pepper to taste.

2. Heat a frying pan and spray oil enough to coat the entire pan. If using butter, melt the butter in the pan and brush it on all sides of the pan.

3. Gently pour in the egg-veggies mixture , spread it to out to desired thickness and cover the pan and let it cook on medium heat. (This helps in retaining moisture and also puffs up the frittata)

4. Slowly but gently turn the frittata and let it cook on the other side as well for another 2 mins.  Best when eaten hot  :-)

(Mummy used to make two servings of this recipe for Manish and Me before we head out for work)

Note:  You can add or decrease the amount of veggies you want in each individual frittata. 

This is homestyle comfort food at it best! The best thing is that you can add any preferred veggie of choice and still enjoy it whole heartedly.  Remember my Red  Radish Omlette?

Care to  indulge further? Go ahead, add some grated cheese into it as well…yummm and it still doesn't get too calorific..…teeheee!

So who want’s to guess what I’m having for breakfast tomorrow? Care to join us? ;-)

Other Frittata/Omelette Recipes:

Spiced Red Radish Omelette

-Manju

Apple Pachadi (Apples in a creamy mustard and yogurt sauce)

It's officially the second day of Fall today!! Apart from the onset of Fall, I knew September was going to be a month of many changes. Like I had mentioned before, my lil’Appu began daycare fulltime and my parents have gone back to Kerala after a short and beautiful 6 months with us. Apart from all this few other unexpected personal events also came up and I have no idea how this month has gone by.  Anyways we are coming back to our old routines now and the house would have been terribly silent if it weren’t for my lil’Appu’s non-stop sweet nothings and stories!

He talks a lot these days, mostly stuff that only he can understand and we just play along as if we understood. He is such an understanding and accommodating little guy. He definitely misses his grandparents with whom he has spent more time than us and he keeps going into their bedroom to check if they are there. But when we ask him “Appu, where did Ammooma go?”, he says “Opice” (office) :-)

And he goes to his daycare fulltime now without creating any fuss, either coz he knows there no point crying or mayb he likes it there, I still do not know. Anyways, he’s adjusting to the new changes and he seems happy and that’s what matters to me. So all my time is now spent trying to get him to eat well, play, keep him happy and go to bed early and even before he sleeps usually I end up sleeping first, so I’m tired as a log after a full day’s work, so blogging did take a step-back but I will try to keep this space alive as much as possible.

But I’m happy that we had such a beautiful summer this year with my parents here which started with them celebrating our Housewarming with us and ended by celebrating our first Onam in our new home of six months.

Pachadi is a very common side dish for any Onam sadhya. It’s a yogurt based dish that be made with veggies or fruits. I decided to make Apple Pachadi for our sadhya but my mom was hearing of an apple pachadi for the first time :-) She is more familiar with the veggie versions of pachadi and not fruit based pachadi, but I thought it would be a change from the regular items and Apples are plenty this season.  Green apples would be ideal for this dish as it’s nice to have a tart and savory flavor, but I used sweet & juicy red Gala apples and they were fine too.

Apple Pachadi

You’ll Need

Mustard Seeds – 1 tsp

Dry Red Chillies – 2

Curry leaves – a sprigfull ( 8-10 leaves)

Oil – 1 tblsp

Pearl Onions or Shallots (thinly sliced) – 2-3

Green Chillies (sliced into rounds) – 1 or 2

Green or Red Apples (peeled, and cored) – 2  big apples

Mustard Seeds – 1 tsp

Grated Coconut – 1 tblsp

Yogurt – 2 cups

Salt – to taste

Directions

1. Dice the peeled and cored apples into small thin cubes and keep them immersed in some water until required (This helps in them not getting oxidized and turning brown)

2. Using a mortar pestle, crush the mustard seeds gently until they split apart and coarsely crush the grated coconut (can also use a mixer grinder for this)

3. Heat 1 tblsp oil in a deep frying pan, add the mustard seeds, dry red chillies and curry leaves and sauté until the mustard seeds splutter.

4. Next add the onions and green chillies and sauté until they are fried well.

5. Add the diced apples (without the water) and mix everything until the apples turn slightly tender but not too soft.

6. Reduce the heat, add the crushed mustard seeds and coconut and stir everything together until combined and turn off the heat after 2 mins.

7. Once cooled slightly but still warm, add the yogurt and mix well. Can be served warm or chilled.

Sweet and savory and with a very unique flavor from the crushed mustard seeds and sweet apples and so creamy, it's one of my favorite side dishes. Try this out sometime, even if you are not having a sadhya, it’s can be a simple and sweet side dish for a simple lunch or dinner.

And I’m hoping to get back to my regular routines and blogging and cake baking soon. Can you believe I haven’t baked a cake since Appu’s b’day, except for instant microwave cakes?? Gotta get out of this phase soon!  So see you all again with more yummy recipes and stories from my kitchen and home to yours :-)

Other Pachadi recipes:

Pineapple and Strawberry Pachadi

TurnipGreens Pachadi

-Manju

Carrot Thoran...and Happy Onam wishes in advance to all !!

I realise it has been quiet here for a while now. But that's only b'coz I've been out and about enjoying a much awaited vacation with my family. We travelled a lot,  ate so much and walked and explored and enjoyed so much that now I'd actually like a vacation from our vacation...have you ever felt like that? ;-)

The only thing we terribly missed during our vacation was nothing but home-cooked meals. Ofcourse it was definitely a bliss to be away from the kitchen for a while and enjoy free continental breakfasts at our hotel and try several new cusinies and tastes, but every now and then we wished to have something simple, something homemade. Eating from Indian restaurants din't help us much either!

So the first thing we did after we reached home was to prepare a simple yet hearty breakfast. Vermicelli Upma being something that our lil'Appu also loves, we prepared that and you should have seen how the little guy savored it, scooping in forkfull into his tiny mouth. He also missed home-cooked and familiar meals I guess :-) 

And although still tired from all the travel we decided to prepare a decent lunch and thanks to the abundance of our garden veggies, we din't have to run out to the store to buy any veggies and there was some Carrots in the fridge bought from the store a while ago.  So we cooked Rice and prepared Carrot thoran, Pulishery (seasoned buttermilk curry), Vendakka Theeyal (lady's finger /okra cooked in a roasted coconut gravy) and Achinga Payar Mezhukuperatty...the last two dishes prepared using homegrown veggies. I wish I had the recipes for all these dishes on the blog, but I'm working on getting it in here soon. 

Appu loves carrots and we add it to almost everything he eats, be it dosa, idli, sweet or savory dishes and lately he loves all kinds of thoran, including this Carrot Thoran. 
Thoran is nothing but a Malayalee version of veggie stir fry which is cooked until the veggies are almost roasted and dry and finally some grated coconut is added for flavour and texture.

Carrot thoran is a staple side dish at our house. I find grating the carrots easier but you can dice it thinly or make small cubes and prepare this thoran and the way I make it, it has a very mild hint of spice with the lovely sweetness from the carrots and onions. It’s one of our absolute favorite side dishes and tastes just great when eaten with plain white rice or Rotis and is really really easy to prepare.

 Carrot Thoran Recipe

You’ll need
Coconut Oil – 1 tblsp

Mustard seeds – 1 tsp
Dry Red Chilli – 1 (broken in half)
Curry leaves – 1 sprig (about 5-6 leaves)
Carrots (grated) – 2 large
Red Onion (diced or thinly sliced) – 1 medium
Green chillies (slit lengthwise or sliced) – 2
Fresh grated coconut – 2-3 tblsp (I used dry coconut powder)
Garlic clove – 1
Salt – to taste

Directions
1. In a frying pan, heat the oil. Temper by cracking the mustard seeds and then add dry red chillies and curry leaves.
2. Add the diced onions and green chillies, add some salt and sauté until the onions are pink and soft.
3. Add the grated Carrots now and sprinkle a tiny bit of water and cover and cook until the carrots are soft and cooked.
4. Coarsely grind or crush using a mortar-pestle the coconut and garlic and add that to the carrot and cook for few more minutes without the lid until the thoran is dry and the garlic smell wears off.

Few other suggestions:
1. If you do not want to bite into any green chillies by mistake, grind/crush it along with the coconut and garlic in Step 4.
2. You can add some chana dal or split moong dal while tempering for some more flavor and texture.
3. Use Vegetable oil if you do not prefer coconut oil.

See! now wasn't that really simple and easy. And we ate lunch to our hearts content with these simple yet yummy dishes and no restaurant food could have beat that, I say!

Onam is right around the corner (on Sep 16th this year) and I'm sure all Keralites are gearing up to celebrate this popular festival of the south-Indian state of Kerala, with family & friends and the special part is cooking up an elaborate sadhya! 

I wish you all a "Very Happy & Prosperous Onam" in advance. 

Here's a pic of our Vishu sadhya dishes which we prepared for this year's Vishu festival which was in April, just a few a days after we had moved in to our new house. Banana leaves which is traditionally used to serve the sadhya in is missing here, as we din't get a chance to go and buy them, but the sadhya was superb! Just looking at it makes me drool. Burrrp...oops!! Hehe... 

Can you guess the dishes?? :-)

We haven't yet planned our Onam sadhya menu, but we will soon.

Psst: Make this carrot thoran as one of your sadhya sides, lovely color, great taste, easy to make, what else do you want? ;-)

-Manju

Indian style fresh Cucumber chaat

Summer is quickly, far too quickly coming to an end I feel.  Our summer has been filled with settling down and enjoying our new home, road trips,  biking  and walking around our neighborhood,  visiting friends, gardening (for my dad basically) and eating a lot of my mom's yummy meals and I don't want it to end and looking forward to more fun. But then comes something I’m least looking forward to #1) My parents returning back to India and #2) Sending lil’Appu back to daycare. I don’t even want to discuss these 2 topics at the moment… *sigh* :-(

Today, I’m not really sharing any recipe as such but a very simple and totally nostalgic Indian snack with fresh Cucumbers. Most of you know by now about my dad’s beautiful veggie garden that’s treating us with its bounty full of ripened veggies and we are literally feasting on them lately. This weekend we decided to pick up several of the ripened cucumbers. It was a hot sunny day and almost time for evening Tea and the minute we saw the juicy, ripe and beautiful cucumbers we wanted to have it instantly and forgot all about Tea :-)

Lil'Appu enjoys helping with plucking the veggies and carrying them back to the kitchen. Well, sometimes he thinks we gave him a new toy :-) And he really loves eating cucumber. We plucked 4 large cucumbers btw....

So I started washing, peeling and slicing them up into quarters and my mom grabbed some and stared munching immediately. That’s when I remembered a certain street food that I have really enjoyed while I lived in India, Bangalore to be precise. 

It’s such a common scene there to see chaatwaalas pushing their carts around laden with veggies like cucumbers, raw mangoes, fresh limes etc and fruits like pineapple , papaya, watermelon, oranges etc and ofcourse other types of chaat and they serve these veggies/fruits by simply sprinkling on some salt and red chilly powder  or some chaat masala and may I say, its broadens the taste of these fruits and veggies to a different level? Yes, it does!! (The red chilly powder is mostly for the veggies)

So after a memory flash-wave, I decided to do the same for these homegrown, juicy and ripe cucumbers. All you need are fresh cucumbers, salt and red chilli powder. First rub your finger on the open face of the sliced cucumber to moisten your fingertip and press into the salt and red chilli powder and lightly rub them onto the cucumber slice and the take a big bite and feel your tastebuds flow…seriously, you must try it. You can moderate the amount of red chili powder as per your taste.

I tried the same with Salt and Black Pepper powder and I must say it did not taste all that great as how it does with red chilli powder. If you aren’t very keen on using red chilli powder, try with Paprika. It might tone down the spice but seal in all the flavors for this simple, lipsmacking and must I say ‘Healthy’ snack.  Or else another option would be to use Chaat masala.

I din't know what exactly this was called so I'm just calling it an Indian style cucumber chaat!

Indian Style fresh Cucumber chaat

You’ll need

Fresh Cucumbers – 3 or 4 or more

Salt – to taste

Red Chilli powder/Paprika – 1 tsp (use as needed)

Chaat masala (optional)

Directions

1.  Wash, peel and cut up the cucumbers into halves first and then each half into quarters.

2.  Moisten your fingertip slightly (just rub your fingertip over the cucumber slices) and mildly press into some salt and red chilli powder (or one at a time) and rub them over the cucumber slices. Enjoy!

3.  Substitute red chilli powder with Chaat masala powder if the spice level doesn’t suit you.

I even had this for my morning breakfast today, ya I’m just that crazy about it. We have several more Cucumbers left and I already know what’s in future for them. So, do you want to try some and get your tastebuds flowing? :-)

 Have a lovely Summer everyone! 

-Manju

Grilled Salmon Kebabs with basil pesto marinade

We’ve been grilling a lot this summer. I know I haven't shared much of the recipes here. Well, let just say grilled food are to be enjoyed hot and straight out of the grill and my family has no patience to wait for my photography session to be over when they are on their toes with hunger. It wasn't easy to get a good snap of these outrageously yummy Salmon kebabs either and I had to quickly take few snaps while my family waited at the table, all ready for dinner :-)

What started out as a small garden in our small backyard has grown into a large veggie patch with tomatoes, carrots, cucumber, broccolli, red and yellow onions, cabbage, eggplant, french beans, yard long beans, lady's finger, thai chillies, red spinach, lettuce and herbs like Mint, Cilantro, Basil and Rosemary growing in full swing. There are also some beautiful Marigolds, Petunia, Dahlia and garden Lily's and some perennials for some color and vibrance. 
All of this is my dad's hard work, labor, love and care for these plants. Every single spare minute he gets, is spent tending to the garden and they have started giving out their fruits for us to enjoy now. I want to do a full post specially dedicated to the garden one day, but I'm waiting for all the veggies to grow before jinxing it ;-) Here's a sneek-peak!

So we are trying to make the best use of our garden produce. That's how I made some Basil pesto from few leaves of the rather overgrown Basil plant we have. We've been eating the basil raw in our salads daily for dinner, but mummy and me are personally not a fan of raw basil. So the pesto was a very good way to enjoy this superb herb.

At our local Costco store, we got some really fresh and fleshy Salmon and I instantly decided to grill them and used the basil pesto as a marinade. To add some color and and to enable cooking space for the salmon I added some colorful veggies in between the salmon. 

The kebabs were juicy and so flavorful. The rather fishy smell and flavor of Salmon subsided with the pesto marinade and it added a very fresh taste to the fish kebabs. It tasted so good , even my lil'Appu ate several pieces of the Salmon. I'm positive now that Basil pesto as a marinade would taste great on veggie and other non-veg kebabs as well. 
By the time I was done with marinating and then grilling these kebabs it was almost 8pm, so the snaps aren't as pretty as I'd like them to be, but I wanted to share it with you, and here it is.

My family felt the Salmon kebabs weren't as spicy as they would have liked, because my Pesto wasn't spicy enough, so I have accordingly updated the pesto recipe if you prefer a spicier version. But my Appu loved it due to the mild spice level and to me that's all that mattered ;-) We had the kebab's with some Naan, seasoned raita and salad...yumm!

Grilled Salmon Kebabs with basil pesto marinade

You’ll need

Salmon (skinless) – 1½ pounds  ( Cut into square shaped cubes)

Fresh Basil pesto – ½ cup or more, as needed

Red Onions/Bell peppers/Mushrooms etc – as preferred
Lemon juice – 2 tblsp

Salt and Pepper – to taste

Metal  or wooden skewers

Directions

1.  Prepare the Basil pesto.  Cut up the Salmon into cubes.

2.  Apply the Basil pesto all over the salmon cubes and marinate for atleast 3 hrs. Overnight is best.

3. Chop up preferred veggies into equal sized cubes and marinate it with 2 tblsp lemon juice, salt and pepper for ½ hour.

4. Skewer the salmon and veggies alternately. (If using wooden skewers, soak them in water for ½ hour before using)

5. Heat up your grill and make sure the grill grates are well oiled or use a tray covered with aluminium foil and sprayed with oil and place the salmon kebab skewers on it and cook well on one side (for about 8-10 mins) and slowly turn it to other side and cook the other side.

6. If preferred you can squeeze on some more lemon juice onto the kebabs immediately as it comes out of the grill (My dad’s suggestion)

Suggestions:

1. Please make sure the grill grates or the tray you use are well oiled. Mine wasn’t and some of the salmon cubes got stuck and flaked apart while I tried to turn them over  *bad luck*

2. Fish is very soft and flaky , so be very gentle while turning them, unless you want 'scrambled' salmon…which is great for making fish tacos btw!

3. I wanted the veggies to look bright and colorful on the kebabs, but if you want pesto marinated on the veggies, go for it.

4. Grill on a low to medium-low flame for the fish to cook slowly and nicely, else it may char too fast but not get cooked inside (speaking from experience)!

So folks, I do hope you will try out this really healthy, colorful and absolutely delicious Salmon Kebabs. You can find my Basil Pesto recipe here.  Do try out both the recipes and I hope you will like them and don't forget to share your feedback with me.  See you all again soon :-) 

-Manju

Fresh Basil Pesto

A pesto is nothing but a sort of Italian chutney. Basil Pesto is authentically prepared by crushing some basil leaves, little garlic, pine nuts and some freshly grated parmesan cheese in a mortal pestle drizzled with some Olive oil until a smooth (chutney like) paste is obtained.

When we started our small backyard garden, we bought a tiny basil plant and planted it along with some Mint leaves in a herb grower pot and can you imagine, the Mint took over and killed my basil plant…hmph! So we bought another plant of Italian Basil and grew in the garden along with our tomatoes and carrots and other veggies and they all grew together happily like brothers and sisters and I now have more Basil than I want! And I'm trying out all kinds of recipes to make use of every single Basil leaf from this lovely plant.

Basil often called 'The King of Herbs' is a very nutritious and flavorful herb. Fresh basil  can be eaten raw in salads, made into a pesto to be used as a marinade or sandwich spread, used as a fresh herb on pizza's, breads, curries and can even be used in dessert preparations.

I've always wanted to try making Basil pesto at home and now the chance had come to try it out :-) Pesto can be used for various preparations like a sandwich spread, dipping sauce, pasta sauce, pizza sauce, veg/n0n-veg marinade, on omelettes  etc
Originally recipes for pesto uses pine nuts, but I didn't have any, so used walnuts instead. Some recipes call for toasting the nuts, but I didn't toast mine.

I have found several variations to pesto recipes that's made with spinach leaves, mint leaves, cilantro etc where the main ingredients are fresh greens leaves, garlic, nuts, cheese and olive oil. So its quite versatile and can be made with any green leaves, good quality nuts, cheese of choice and ofcourse Extra virgin Olive oil.

If you do not want to pound on a mortar pestle, make it easy by using a food processor or mixer grinder to combine everything. I added some crushed black pepper for some spice, but my family felt the spice was less, so you can add some green chilies to suit your spice level.

I made this pesto to my family's liking, by moderating the amount of oil, cheese and nuts used and it still came out really good, so I'm sharing the same with you all. 

Fresh Basil Pesto

Yields 1 cup of pesto

You’ll need

Fresh Basil Leaves – 3 cups , packed

Fresh Garlic cloves – 2 or 3

Pine nuts or Walnuts – 2-3 tblsp (almost ¼ cup)

Parmesan Cheese (grated or powdered) – 2 heaped tblsp  (can add upto ½ cup if preferred)

Extra virgin Olive Oil – ½ cup
Lemon Juice - 2 tblsp

Salt and freshly crushed black Pepper corns – to taste

Green Chilies – 2 or 3 (purely optional - if you prefer more spice)

Directions

1. Add all the above ingredients (except salt) into a food processor or mixer-grinder and blend it well until a smooth pesto is obtained.  (Add green chillies for a spicier version)

2. Season with salt, do a taste test and enjoy using as a marinade or pasta sauce or sandwich spread or as a dipping sauce, however you like!

Suggestions and changes I made:

1. Some recipes suggest toasting the nuts to release the oil and flavor in the nuts. Be sure the nuts are cooled to room temp, before grinding them.

2. I personally did not want to add ½ cup oil, so I added ¼ cup olive oil + ¼ cup water to make my pesto. Tasted great nevertheless.

3. My family felt the pesto I made wasn’t too spicy as I had not added green chillies, hence I’ve included them in the recipe above incase you prefer a spicier version. Or else add more crushed pepper.

My mom really loved the basil pesto. She hates the taste of raw basil in salads but this version was much more appealing to her and everyone else at home enjoyed it too. Its tasty and healthy and can be made so easily with no cooking required :-) Try it out and see for yourself.

The first thing I did with this pesto was to marinate it on some Salmon to make grilled Salmon kebabs and it was simply superb. Here's a pic of the kebabs (ready to be grilled) that I shared on my Instagram page. Coming up next here...so come back soon.

-Manju

We Knead to Bake # 6: Baked Yeasted Doughnuts (Eggless)

Hello there folks. Hope you are all doing well. July just got over so fast and apparently all my time , energy and subsequent blog posts were dedicated to the one little birthday party that we held for our bubbly toddler who turned 2 on July11th. And due to my slack I’m far behind at posting some of my monthly bread baking extravaganzas.

As many of you may know I’m part of a group called ‘We Knead To Bake’ where we bake up some baked (yeasted) bread every month. The month of June was also celebrated as the Month of Doughnuts in the US, which was actually the first friday of June which was June 1st this year, and Aparna's brilliant brain came up with Baked Doughnuts for the group to bake and enjoy!

So see I’m laaaagggging behind in sharing this post :-), but better late then never right?!!

Doughnuts or Donuts, no matter how they are pronounced or written, they are just delicious!! 

Have you ever met a person who has never eaten these? Now how many of you din't know that this goody with a hole in the middle are actually 'deep fried' before being coated in some sugary glaze? I for one din't know until recently and my parents din't know until I made this baked version...its never too late to learn something new now, is it? ;-) But I'm so glad we did a Baked version and that too eggless and they tasted just as good!

We were given the choice of glaze to coat the doughnuts and whether baked or fried I'm a fan of the Chocolate glazed doughnuts ( no sprinkles n' all)  So I made a quick Chocolate ganache glaze making sure it was smooth and dipped my perfectly baked doughnuts in them, tapped off any excess and voila! I made some perfectly glazed chocolate doughnuts - all homemade!!

As for the Doughnut holes, I brushed them with some butter and generously rolled them in the Cinnamon Sugar that I made. 

These doughnut holes and mini doughnuts turned out to be good mid-day snacks for Manish and me at office for few days :-)

I made 6 large doughnuts, 7 mini doughnuts and 12 doughnuts holes (round and star shaped). Some were glazed with chocolate ganache and the rest with cinnamon sugar. I wanted to do some Jam filled doughnuts as well, but no one at home wanted any, so I din't make any. 

These baked doughnuts were soft and spongy and I for one ate them without much guilt :-) Manish and my dad felt they were a bit dry when compared to the fried ones we get at bakeries, but with the yummy glaze and cinnamon sugar on them, they tasted just perfect to me. These are best eaten the day they are made. 

Baked Doughnuts

(Adapted from Lara Ferroni’s Doughnuts)

You'll need:

1/4 cup superfine sugar

1 cup warm milk (45C/115F)

3/4 tbsp instant yeast (or 1 tbsp active dry yeast)

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp vanilla extract

3 1/2 cups cake flour (or all-purpose flour) , plus more for kneading

100gm butter, cut into 1 inch cubes

For the topping:

75 to 100gm butter, melted

1 cup superfine sugar + 2 tablespoons cinnamon (more or less, depending on your taste), mixed together

OR

Glazes of your choice ( I made a thin Chocolate ganache)

OR

Jam to fill your doughnuts

Directions:

1. Using a processor to knead helps but you can do this by hand. Put the sugar, milk, yeast, salt and vanilla in the processor bowl and pulse to mix well. Add the cake flour and 1 cup of all-purpose flour and process, adding a little more of the flour as necessary till the dough is thick and pulls away from the sides of the bowl.

Now add the butter pieces one at a time and process till there no large chunks of butter are left in the bottom of the bowl. Now add a little more flour until your have a soft, pliable and elastic dough that is most but not overly sticky.

Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead gently until the dough no longer sticks to your hands. Shape the dough into a ball and place in a lightly greased large mixing bowl., turning it to coat well. Cover with a damp towel and let it rise till double in volume. This should take about an hour.

2. Punch down the dough and roll out to a thickness of 1/2" thickness. Cut out doughnuts using a doughnut cutter or whatever you have on hand to cut out 3” diameter with 1” diameter holes. If you’re making doughnuts to fill with jam, then do not cut out the holes. Place the doughnuts and the holes on parchment lined or lightly greased baking sheets, leaving at least 1” space between them.

Re-roll the scraps and cut out more doughnuts. I used the last left over scraps of dough by pinching of bits, rolling them into balls and baking them too.

3. Let them rise for about 20 minutes or till almost double in size and then bake them at 200C (400F) for about 5 to 10 minutes till they’re done and golden brown. Do not over bake them.

4. Take them out of the oven and immediately brush them with the melted butter and then dip them into the cinnamon sugar mixture. If filling the doughnuts with jam, let them cool.

(Ideally this recipe makes about 12 to 14 doughnuts and holes )

(The slightly browned one is how the bottom portion of the baked doughnut looks like)

If glazing the doughnuts:

If glazing your doughnuts, let them cool completely and then dip one side of the doughnut in the glaze of your choice and let it set.

( I made a small quantity of chocolate glaze by heating quarter cup of 2% milk and adding it to 3 tblsp semi-sweet chocolate chips + 3 tblsp powdered sugar until everything was melted and smooth )

If glazing with flavored sugar (like Cinnamon Sugar)

If glazing your doughnuts with flavored sugar, let them cool completely and then lightly brush them with melted butter and roll the doughnuts in the sugar until coated.

(I made a small quantity by adding 2 tsp cinnamon to 3 tblsp of sugar and mixing it together)

If making jam filled doughnuts:

Put the jam into a piping bag with a writing nozzle/ tip and press into the doughnut from the side and gently press out the jam into the doughnut till it starts oozing out. Jam doughnuts do not need too much jam to fill them.

You must try baking doughnuts at home sometime and who knows, you might just love them so much that you might never buy a store bought one again! Have a great day ahead you guys and enjoy some doughnuts today :-)


-Manju