Eggless Pumpkin Muffins | Halloween Special Pumpkin Cupcakes | Eggless Pumpkin Cupcakes

It's that time of the year when it starts to feel the chill and the kiddo's rhymes are always beginning and continuing and ending with Halloween :) And occasionally I can hear "Where's Santa Claus?" too from him ;) We live in India but with those rhymes and those carved pumpkins and everything he sees on TV, he's slightly obsessed with Halloween. Always asks me now to keep Halloween rhymes or asks me to sing them for him :) And he loves cakes. 

So to make it little bit more exciting for us, I decided to make a pumpkin muffin for us. It's an easy peasy recipe, like my most recipes.. Mix the dry ingredients and mix the wet ingredients. And mix them both. Voila. The job is done.. And it is eggless too.. And what's that made me more happy was that Deeps too loved it, see he has not got a sweet tooth especially for cakes. That made me really happy and the 9 cupcakes that I made in the evening got over by the night :) So shall we see how to make this yummy tasty pumpkin muffins..

Recipe Source: Here

Preparation Time : 15 minutes

Cooking Time : 10+25 minutes (pre-heat+baking)

Makes : 9 medium sized muffins 

I Used:

Unsweetened Pumpkin Puree*	-	1 cup
All purpose flour/Maida*	-	1 ½ cup
Baking Soda	-	¼ tsp
Baking Powder Cinnamon powder Dry Ginger powder Salt	- - - -	2 tsp 1 tsp 1 tsp A pinch
Sugar	-	1 ¼ cup
Unsalted Butter (melted)	-	6 tbsp (approx 3/8 cup)
Butter Milk*	-	½ cup
Apple Cider Vinegar	-	½ tsp
The Way:

1. For 1 cup of pumpkin puree, you need 1 cup of cubed pumpkins. Peel the skin and remove the seeds. Then cube them and take them in a pressure cooker. Add ¼  cup of water and pressure cook them for 2 whistles. Once the pressure is released, see if any water is remaining. If then drain them and mash the pumpkins to a puree. You can do that in a blender or use a masher. Once done, keep aside

2. Pre-heat the oven o 180 degree C

3. Take all the dry ingredients - all purpose flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon powder and dry ginger powder and salt in a bowl and whisk well. Then set aside

4. In another bowl take the melted butter, sugar, pumpkin puree, apple cider vinegar and  butter milk and whisk them well

5. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix just until combined. Do not over mix

6. Line the muffin tray with the muffin liners. Spoon the batter into the liners. About 2 tbsp for each liner should be good enough

7. Bake them at 180 degree C in the pre-heated oven for about 25-30 minutes or until a tooth pick inserted at the centre comes out clean

8. Once done, cool them for about half an hour and serve

Notes:

• The original recipe calls for self rising flour. If you are using them then omit the salt and reduce the baking powder to 1 tsp

• If you have pumpkin spice powder then use 2 tsp of them instead of the cinnamon powder and dry ginger powder

• Instead of buttermilk I mixed ½ tbsp vinegar in ½ cup of milk and allowed it to stand for 5 minutes. Then used this in place of buttermilk

• You can use normal vinegar too instead of apple cider vinegar

Cheers,

Chitz

Homemade Butter | How to make butter at home from milk | Homemade Makhan

Making food/food products from scratch gives me so much satisfaction. It is fun for me & I enjoy it to the core. And once I get the final outcome right, I am all like a happy little girl, smiling and celebrating. But it is not like that for many people. They feel it's a waste of time and effort and you can indulge in so many other activities if you have that time ! Earlier during my initial days of marriage I used to try very often to make butter & ghee at home, but used to fail miserably. All those times I used to ask my mil how to make it & try it on my own. Finally, once when she came to visit us, I asked her to make and show me. Then I learnt the nuances of ghee making & then there is no stopping me. 

I am a regular at ghee making now at home, that I stopped buying ghee from outside. I still buy butter as I use all of my homemade butter to make ghee as I use it for DD a bit more and not to mention for our weekly biriyani routine ! When I am writing this blog post what I remember is that during my preggy days my mil used to make this butter at home and send me and ask me to eat 1 spoon daily. That is coz she and her sisters strongly believe that eating butter daily while you are pregnant can help you get a normal delivery and the kid will be as soft and spongy as a butter :) But I did not share that belief and not only that I did not like the smell/taste of the unsalted butter during that time ;)  So this might be a slightly lengthy post because I used to feel very bad when I couldn't get this right initially. So I'm sharing all the tricks & tips that I learnt so that you guys have a happy butter/ghee making time :)

Recipe Source: Amma

Makes: 1 cup butter from close to 3 cups cream/malai

Serves: 2-3 persons

I Took: 

Preparation Time: 10 minutes

I Used:

Cream collected from milk / Paal Aadai / Paal Paada	-	3 cups
Water	-	As Needed

The Way:

1. Boil milk on a medium flame. When it starts to boil and raise, simmer the flame and again allow to boil for 2-3 minutes. Then leave it aside and once it cools down, you can see a thin layer of cream on top. 

2.Refrigerate the milk for 3-4 hours. Now, you can see that thin layer of cream has transformed to a thick layer of creamy cream :) Scoop out that thick layer of cream and store it in another container. It is ok if few tsp of milk also come along while you scoop the cream. But if you find more milk or find it hard to separate the milk alone, then use a strainer.

3. Keep collecting the cream for 2 weeks. Ensure that you refrigerate the collected cream. I keep the container in fridge. Whenever the cream is ready, I take out the container, transfer the cream and stash it back in the fridge. 

4. I boil 1 litre of milk daily and collect the cream. At the end of 2 weeks, it gave me nearly 3 cups of cream. This cream can also be used while preparing gravies that calls for cream. Before using it, just give it a whisk so that no lumps are there and it gives a creamy smooth texture.

5.  Once you get a considerable amount of cream (at least 1 cup) or once the container is full, you can make butter and ghee from this cream. Take 1.5 - 2 cups of water in the mixie jar (big wet jar). Add 1 cup of cream to it. Do not add more as it may not have the space to churn up well. I do the churning up in 2-3 batches.

6. Now use the pulse option and pulse it for 15-20 seconds. Or you can run the mixie on the lowest speed for 20 seconds. Do not run it for more time as it can heat up the cream.

7. After about 4 pulses I could see the butter getting separated from the buttermilk. Separate the butter and buttermilk and store in 2 different containers. Clean off the milk solids if any in the butter by running it under water. 

8. Now in the same mixie, add water and repeat the steps from 5 to 7 for the other batches of cream. Every time use new water. Do not use the old water that has turned to buttermilk to churn out butter for a new batch of cream. It may not work. 

9. Transfer the butter to a container and refrigerate it till further use. My mil stores the butter immersed in water in a container in the refrigerator. I do not know the logic behind this, but maybe it is for it to remain solid or for a longer life, I'm not sure :)

Notes:

• You can also collect the malai/cream from curd and use that as well. Alternately, you can collect the cream from milk and add it to curd and store and then make butter out of it. But I do not prefer that way. 

• Instead of using a blender/mixie to churn out butter you can also whip it up using a traditional mathu. But it takes more time. In this method, the downside is a messy mixie which takes a bit of your time to clean up. 

• You can use the buttermilk to make moru curry, pulissery or in whichever recipe that calls for buttermilk

• My mil uses the buttermilk to make kondattam molagu (sun dried green chillies that is used as pappad). Specifically the water from the buttermilk. If you leave the buttermilk collected after churning undisturbed for sometime, you can see that some water will settle down at the bottom (Not always, happens mostly when there are more number of batches of cream to be churned). She uses this water for soaking those green chillies for kondattam molagu. And the upper buttermilk part is spiced up with ginger, greenchillies, hing, salt and curry leaves and whipped in a mixie and served chill on hot summer days ! 

• I use desi cow milk and so collect the malai from that milk. And my mil uses packet milk. So it works well with any milk that you use

• If you are travelling out and would be switching off the fridge (if not, there might be power cuts too), then use up the cream before your trip. It will be all rotten and wasted before you are back. This happened with me twice. Sometimes the smell would be very mild and you wouldn't even notice but it might have spoiled and it makes a very messy mixer to clean if you attempt to churn butter out of it!

Cheers,

Chitz

Sauteed Mushrooms Recipe

The star ingredient of the day is mushroom :) I am becoming a die hard fan of this ingredient week after week. I make it a point to include mushrooms in my menu once every week. Usually I do not like to cook a specific dish for me alone. So if Deeps doesn't like a veggie I do not cook it ! I feel it's boring to cook and have the entire bowl for myself :D But mushrooms have become an exception nowadays. Deeps can't stand the sight of it whereas I am poles away in this regard ! Even though my liking for mushrooms have increased, I still do not like to pair it up with tomatoes for some silly reason. Maybe I have to try some gravy recipes where I can tweak and add tomato puree instead. Sometime in the future, maybe :)

Did you know that mushroom is the only vegetable that has Vitamin D in it, whereas it is found in plenty in non vegetarian sources like meat, liver and fishes. Now intake of Vitamin D is important as it aids in the absorption of the calcium into our body. This specific recipe is quite a regular in my kitchen as it takes less than 20 minutes to put it together and I can gobble up the entire bowl in one go. At times it cheers up my sometimes boring lunch platter as well. But, as this recipe does not use any garam masala or any other Indian flavourings, it may not appeal to many. It has a strong mushroom flavour, so I would say that this is a recipe for those ardent fans of mushrooms :) Do try it out for yourself and let me know how you liked it :) And my other recipes with mushrooms are Mushroom Dry Fry, Mushroom Do pyaza, Restaurant Style Mushroom Pepper Fry & Kadai Mushroom

I Took: 

Preparation Time: 20 minutes

Cooking Time: 12-15 minutes

Serves : 2 persons

I Used:

Button Mushroom	-	200 gm
Butter	-	1 tb2sp
Garlic Salt	-	To taste
Chilly Flakes	-	To taste
Italian Seasoning	-	To taste
Lemon jucie	-	1 tsp
Coriander leaves	-	To Garnish

The Way:

1. Clean the mushroom by removing the stalk & peeling off the skin as shown in the photo below. Clean all the mushrooms in the similar manner. 

2. Then rinse them in water twice or thrice and pat them dry immediately using a clean towel. Do not soak them in water for long, rinse them and remove them from water immediately else they will suck and retain water.

3. You can slice the mushrooms and cook as well. Slice or cut them as per your choice. You can use the stalks as well. Cut them into an inch piece in length and a quarter an inch in thickness.

4. Heat butter in a pan, When the butter melts, spread them across the pan and add the mushrooms in the pan. 

5. Add half of the required garlic salt and chilly flakes. Cook for 5 minutes in medium flame.

6. Now flip over the mushrooms and add the remaining garlic salt and chilly flakes. Cook for another 5 minutes. You can cover and cook as well. When you cover and cook, mushroom releases water. So in the end, you would have to open and cook on high flame to evaporate the water.

7. In the end, add lemon juice & italian seasoning and leave on flame for around a minute or two. Switch off the flame and garnish with coriander leaves and serve hot.

Serve for breakfast along with fried eggs or as a side for fried rice or roti or curd rice. Or you can eat as is, as a main course, as I usually do :)

Notes:

• You can use half and half of butter and oil, if you would like to reduce the quantity of butter
• Chilly flakes can be replaced by pepper powder
• If you do not have garlic salt, use normal salt and garlic instead. If then saute 2-3 pods of chopped garlic in butter before adding the mushrooms
• As this recipe does not use any garam masala or any other Indian flavourings, it may not appeal to many. It has a strong mushroom flavour, so I would say that this is a recipe for those ardent fans of mushrooms :)

Cheers,

Chitz

Savory Semolina Cake | Savoury Rava Cake | Eggless Savory Rava Bread

So, here I am back with an easy recipe for all you lovely readers out there.. Am I going to be regular here from now on? I hope so.. So this is a very interesting recipe that can be served for breakfast or as a snack too ! I always have a soft spot for baked goodies & when I saw this interesting recipe with a twist at 'Erivum Puliyum', I decided I had to make it :) It is very easy except for the veggie chopping part. The rest is just whisk, whisk, whisk & bake !

Recipe Source: Here

I Took : 

Preparation Time : 15 minutes

Baking Time : 30 minutes

Makes : An 8 inch loaf

I Used:

Semolina	-	1 cup
Carrot	-	1 medium sized (finely chopped)
Beans	-	6-8 no (finely chopped)
Ginger	-	1 inch piece (finely chopped or grated)
Green Chilly	-	3 nos (finely chopped)
Thick Yogurt	-	½ cup
Butter	-	1 tbsp
Baking Soda	-	½ tsp
Oil	-	3 tbsp
Water	-	As required
Salt	-	As required
Coriander Leaves	-	2 tbsp (finely chopped)

To Temper:

Mustard	-	1 tsp
Cumin Seeds	-	1 tsp
Sesame	-	1 tsp

The Way:

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degree C
2. Combine together the semolina (rava), salt & yogurt. Now add the chopped carrot, chopped beans, chopped ginger, finely chopped green chillies, chopped coriander & mix well
3. Heat oil in a pan. When it heats up, splutter the mustard. Then add the cumin seeds & sesame. Take care not to brown. Now add this tempering to the semolina batter & give it a mix
4. Grease the baking pan with butter
5. Add baking soda to the batter & give it a whisk
6. Pour the batter into the baking pan & garnish the top with some sesame seeds
7. Bake for 25-30 minutes or till done (A tooth pick inserted would come out clean)

Serve warm with chutney or ketchup & a smoothie of your choice :)

Notes:

1. Baking soda is for the bread to rise properly. So add it in the end just before putting it to bake in the oven
2. You can add veggies of your choice which can be baked easily like peas, zucchini etc
3. Do not use sour yogurt. It can compromise the taste

Cheers,
Chitz

Crouu-doughnuts | Kronuts - Baking Partner Challenge #14

 You know what is the latest sensation in the pastry or bakery world?? It's none other than the 'Cronut™' which is one of the most viral desserts of all time ! Developed by chef Dominique Ansel for Dominique Ansel Bakery in New York City & launched in May 2013, this dessert has fans all over the world & the imitation versions are being tried all over US & Australia. So what is this dessert actually? You can say in simple words that it is a hybrid of a croissant & donut, but let's listen to what the inventor says about the delicacy (from the Dominique Ansel Bakery website)

Taking 2 months and more than 10 recipes, Chef Dominique Ansel’s creation is not to be mistaken as simply croissant dough that has been fried. Made with a laminated dough which has been likened to a croissant (but uses a proprietary recipe), the Cronut™ is first proofed and then fried in grapeseed oil at a specific temperature. Once cooked, each Cronut™ is flavored in three ways: 1. rolled in sugar; 2. filled with cream; and 3. topped with glaze. Cronuts™ are made fresh daily, and completely done in house. The entire process takes up to 3 days.

So when Swathi decided to challenge us with making Kronuts this month, I was very excited. Since I could not get to eat this delicacy from any bakeries here, I wanted to make it at home & see how it tastes :) I must admit it is a long process & has a lot of work to do, but it was fun learning something new & getting to see the end result. I would never dare to say that I nailed it. There were a lot of hiccups like wet dough & oozy butter & separated layers while frying. But each failure taught me something new, thanks to the guidance of Swathi, Archana, Suja (whose notes on the method helped me) & my fellow bakers :) And I know that next time, I would definitely make a better one :) 

So this is what I treated myself to, frying & eating kronuts when I turned a year older again yesterday ;) So let's see how it is made, do not get scared seeing the long steps & process & also do not omit reading any line, coz the tips & precautions are also listed along with the method :D Taste wise, they were great, crispy & flaky, but I did not use any filling or glaze to make them soft. And also I baked a few to see how it would turn out, but they were nowhere near the fried ones. They could not retain the shape & were falling apart & was also soft & tasted very doughy. So it is best to fry them to enjoy them :D

Recipe Source: Bootleg Cronut

I Took: 3 days/3-4 hours

Makes: 16 kronuts

I Used:

For Dough

All purpose flour	-	510 gm | 3.75 cups
Salt	-	7 gm | 1 tsp
Sugar	-	100 gm | ½ cup
Milk	-	150 gm | ½ cup+2 tbsp
Yeast	-	2 ¼ tsp
Eggs	-	2 jumbo | 3 large
Unsalted Butter	-	50 gm | 3.5 tbsp

For Butter Layer

Butter

-

295 gm | 1 ¼ cup+ ½ tbsp

For Frying

Canola Oil	-	2-4 cups
Water	-	200 gm
Cinnamon Sugar	-	400 gm sugar + 100 gm cinnamon

The Way:

Day 1: Prep the dough

1. Take out butter & eggs from the refrigerator half an hour before the dough preparation. This is to allow them to reach room temperature
2. Prep-ing the yeast                                                                                                                                                                            Fresh Yeast  - Mix with milk (at room temperature) beforehand to activate the yeast                                                                    Active Yeast - Heat half milk to lukewarm (around 110F / 43C) & add yeast. Set aside for 5-7 minutes to proof
3. Heat milk in microwave for about 30 seconds & add butter to it. This is for butter to melt easily. Keep aside
4. Combine all the dry ingredients - flour, sugar, salt & instant yeast (if using) in a bowl of a stand mixer
5. Add the butter-milk mixture to the dry ingredients. Add yeast (if not instant) & eggs
6. Mix on low speed for 3 minutes or until everything is incorporated. Mix on high speed for another 8 minutes. If kneading by hand, as I did, knead well for about 10-15 minutes until you get a smooth shiny dough ! Do not over knead the dough
7. Remove the dough & tuck under edges to form a ball. Grease a bowl with oil or cooking spray & place the dough in the bowl with seams down. Cut a cross across the top of the dough with a knife to help the dough relax
8. Cover the bowl tightly with clear plastic wrap & make sure it is not in contact with the dough. Place the dough in a warm area & allow it to double in size, which would take about 60 minutes
9. Once the dough has proofed to double, refrigerate it overnight

Day 2: Incorporating butter to dough

Prepping butter

1. Cut the cold butter lengthwise into ½ inch thick slabs. Arrange the slabs on a piece of parchment/waxed paper to form a 5 or 6 inch square, cutting the butter crosswise as necessary to fit. Cover it with another piece of parchment paper
2. Using a rolling pin, pound the butter with light even strokes. As the pieces begin to adhere, use more force
3. Pound them until it's about a 4x6 inch rectangle. Then trim the edges & place the trimmings on top of the rectangle & pound again lightly. When done, place the butter in refrigerator for 2 hours
4. Do not over work with butter. If the butter starts to leak, try to put it back in the refrigerator

Laminating the dough

1. Unwrap & place the dough on a lightly floured work surface. Roll into a 10 inch square. Brush excess flour off the dough
2. Unwrap & place the butter at the centre of the rolled dough square
3. Fold one flap of the dough over the butter, stretching it slightly that the flap just reaches the centre of the butter. Repeat the same with the 3 other flaps to form an envelope
4. Press the edges together to completely seal the butter inside the dough

First turn

1. Lightly flour the top & bottom of the dough. With a rolling pin, firmly press the dough to elongate it slightly & then start rolling to lengthen the dough and keep the edges straight
2. Now turn the dough so that the shorter end faces you. Roll again to expand the length of the dough. Make sure the dough does not stick to the work surface. Add flour if needed
3. When the rolling yield you a rectangle of 21x9 inches, mark the rectangle into 3 equal columns. Fold the right third of the rectangle into the centre third. Fold the left third of the rectangle into the centre third like a business letter. This is the first turn

Second Turn

1. Try to do this right away after the first turn, but if the dough is too warm, wrap in film (aluminium foil) & place in refrigerator
2. Repeat rolling just like the First Turn and make sure to lock the unsealed edges of the dough & roll over the dough to form a rectangular shape
3. Again, as in first turn, mark the rectangle into 3 equal columns. Fold the right third of the rectangle into the centre third. Fold the left third of the rectangle into the centre third
4. Marking the dough allows you to track your progress, and ensure that the orientation of the dough is correct when you remove it from the refrigerator
5. Cover the dough in parchment paper & refrigerate for at least an hour

Third Turn

1. The dough will be hard, so gently pound the dough to warm the butter. If it is too cold the butter will separate and not spread as it should
2. Repeat the previous steps, and turn again, marking the corner with three fingerprints
3. Cover dough with parchment paper and plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour

Fourth Turn

Make the final turn, repeating the steps from turns 1-3. Refrigerate overnight

Day 3 - Kronuts frying day:

Rolling out the dough

1. Lightly dust a work surface with flour and roll out the dough to approximately the size of a sheet pan, ½ inch thick
2. The dough should stay cold, without sticking to the surface. If it starts to stick, place in the refrigerator and roll again when cool
3. Transfer to a sheet pan with parchment paper and chill before use

Punching out Kronuts

1. Prepare a sheet pan with parchment paper & greased with oil  
2. Remove dough from fridge and take two ring moulds, with the larger mould around 3½ inch and inner around 1½ inch 
3. Make sure that the dough is really cold while you punch out the holes. Or else the kronuts will not fry straight
4. Transfer the punched kronuts to the sheet pan, leaving enough space between them to allow them to proof. Brush the top of the kronuts with water and set aside  
5. Leave in a warm area until they have proofed which would take about 30 min
6. Once it is proofed keep it in the refrigerator for 1 hour or in the freezer for 15 minutes before frying

Frying the Kronuts

1. Heat canola oil in a pot over medium temperature. about 3 inches high
2. Once the oil is ready for deep frying, turn heat to low and place Kronuts in oil to fry (1-2 at a time to avoid overcrowding) 
3. Turn and flip the kronuts often so that they brown evenly. Fry them in a low temperature otherwise outside become too dark soon and also the inside will not cook properly. Also if the temperature is very low, the layers would start to separate out in the oil & you would not get a full kronut
4. Once golden brown throughout, remove from oil and strain them on paper towels

Once it is no longer shiny transfer to a container with sugar and cinnamon and toss. Enjoy with some icing sugar dusting or with a glaze of your choice.

Notes:

• Eat them immediately as they have a short shelf life 
• Do not refrigerate them as the humidity from the refrigerator will cause them to go stale and soggy 
• If filled with cream or glazing, avoid serving them warm

Cheers,

Chitz

Ribbon Pakoda | Ola/Ottu Pakoda | Ribbon Murukku | Nada Thenkuzhal

Ribbon shaped fritters prepared from besan flour

Not many of you would need an intro to this lovely snack ! You might have always seen your mom or granny prepare this for Diwali or Janmashtami & just munching them as such is a delight on it's own :) It is also a very common snack/fritter in the South Indian bakeries. At times, on lazy days, we used to have them as an accompaniment to rasam sadam when cooking elaborate meals with poriyals & kootu were not in picture. Have you tried them that way? If not, do take a chance. You would love them. As a matter of fact, they taste awesome with sambar sadam too ! Very easy to make, just mix all the ingredients together & fry them in hot steaming oil. Voila, your fritters are ready. Now let's take a peep on the ingredients that needs to go in for the dough :)

Recipe Source: Ma

I Took: 40 minutes

Serves: 3-4 cups

I Used:

Besan Flour	-	1 cup
Butter	-	2 tsp
Red Chilly powder	-	1 tsp
Black Sesame Seeds	-	1 tsp
Asafoetida	-	1 tsp
Oil	-	For deep frying
Salt	-	As Needed

The Way:

1. In a bowl mix together the besan flour, butter (softened), red chilly powder, black sesame seeds, asafoetida & salt 
2. Add water little by little & mix together to make a soft yet firm & non-sticky dough. It should not be watery & almost like the chapathi dough
3. Meanwhile heat oil in a kadai to deep fry. Grease with oil the string hopper/idiyappam mould with the ribbon pakoda disc on. Fill the mould with the dough 
4. Press the dough onto the hot oil in circular motion to form a single layer. Do not overcrowd as it will not ensure even & fast cooking
5. Fry them until the sizzling (shh) sound ceases. Turn over to the other side & fry again till the sizzling ceases 
6. Drain the excess oil onto a tissue paper & cool completely. Continue the same process with the remaining dough

Store in airtight container and enjoy them over a cuppa chai !

Notes:

• If the sesame seeds are too big, then they might get stuck in the disc & you will not get the desired shape. If then, pulse them in the mixie before adding to the dough. This ensures that they are fine enough to get through the holes of the disc
• If you like the pepper flavour you can add ½ tsp freshly ground pepper. Again make sure they are fine enough to get through the holes of the disc
• Originally dalda is used in the preparation of this pakoda, but considering the side effects on health I used butter instead !

Cheers,

Chitz