whipped cream cake- soft airy and cloud-like!

I am totally enjoying having my mom here. Whenever I am with her I hardly even enter the kitchen and happily relax and enjoy her delicious cooking. Everything -even things that I make all the time like dal and even coffee tastes better when mom makes it for me. Mothers have some extra special kaipunyam or magic touch, don't you think?
But I am always game to make the dessert so when she said she felt like eating cake, I happily obliged with this treasure from Rose Levy Beranbaum who is considered the Queen of cakes. This cake is apparently one of her most popular and with good reason. It is tender, airy and cloud-like. Perfect as a simple tea cake or as a layer cake underneath oodles of frosting and it is my current and absolute favourite- a definite must try for all cake lovers! 

Here is a close up shot so you can see how tender it is! Similar to an angel food cake in texture but minus all those eggs and so much easier to make! 

The main fat comes from heavy whipping cream and not butter. Yes you read that right, this unusual cake contains no butter, instead using cream. I am dying to buy a carton of cream and make this again with some simple whipped cream frosting or my favourite chocolate nutella ganache frosting with the leftover cream, or maybe slathered in some dulce de leche , or with some juicy fruit? Mmmm the possibilities! Since we practically inhaled this cake though, you can guess that it's pretty awesome on its own! 

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andi unda (roasted cashew and rice sweet balls)

Today tea time seems to be either a long forgotten luxury or a quick sip of something scalding to get you going through the rest of the day.
In my grandmother's home in Kerala, however, tea time is a languid, happy part of every day. It is when the men folk are back from town, the women including my mom and aunts are done with most of the day's chores  and us city kids home for the summer holidays, were tired out after a day spent running loose.


We would arrive panting, an internal alarm having magically alerted us while climbing trees,  splashing in the river, feeding and petting my grandmother's collection of critters including a flock of white geese that followed her around everywhere, and three cows, or while simply flopping down with our books, reading away the summer holidays.


Everyone would gather at the kitchen table, including very often neighbours and aunts who lived closeby, always unannounced, walking in through the kitchen door that was always open, sometimes with a freshly baked pound cake or some other palaharam (Malayalam for sweet snacks) to share. How I miss those cozy, informal tea times in today's hurried days!


There would be boxes of laddoos or jaelabis that the uncles brought home from town, cookies or tea cakes or warm pazham pori (banana fritters).
We kids were allowed into the dark store-moori ( room) to choose among the treasures within and bring out tins of typicak Kerala snacks like banana chips, sharkaravartty ( jaggery coated crunchy fried bananas), crisp kozhalappams, achappapams ( made with rosette moulds) , uniappam and other goodies that my grandmother, mom, aunts and the cheduthi's painstakingly made together sharing stories,  along with the various tasks involved with the cooking.

My eyes would light up when I spotted the glass jar containing these smooth brown rounds.
But there was a catch. They could either be the dreaded avalose undas ( which I hated as a child) or these cashew andi undas which I loved. They both looked quite similar to me so every time I picked one up I would wiiisssshhh so hard before taking a bite, that it was an andi unda and not avalose unda! Of course today now that  they are both much harder to come by, I would happily eat either!


The flavour of andi unda of roasted cashews, jaggery and roasted rice is truly wonderful. It is a simple snack involving only 4 ingredients. Some people add spices like cardamom and cumin, however my Amma doesn't since she feels that they may take away from the wonderful flavor of the roasted rice and cashews. Here is her recipe, more of a rough guide since she doesn't measure anything mostly going on colour, smell and taste as do all grandmothers in India! So if it doesn't taste sweet enough for you, simply add more powdered jaggery, if its too dry, add more coconut. Taste away and adjust as necessary.

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Apple pie cake aka Marie-Helene's Apple Cake from Dorie Greenspan

Did you all have a fun weekend? I did! We took the little monkey to our county fair and he was mesmerized ( and just a little scared ) by the crowds, the heat, the colourful spinning rides, the animals- (including two llamas!), the music and the fireworks from friday night on, which he insisted on NOT watching, covering his eyes :( Tonight, though I was super thrilled to catch the fourth of July fireworks, from over the Golden Gate bridge, which is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year! Whoa! I love the Golden Gate bridge, love seeing it in the distance, parts of it disappearing under  the thick fog so that it looks magically suspended in the clouds, and I still ( after two years) always feel really excited when we drive over it, so catching the fireworks over the Bay was just a special treat. 


Something else I love? I love the smell of apple pie baking in the oven. The delicious aromas of baking apples, pastry and cinnamon fills the entire house and announces the arrival of good things, and seriously what could be better than a slice of warm, freshly baked apple pie topped with a scoopful of salty caramel ice cream? Nothing, except maybe this cinnamony apple pie cake :)


Yes, you read it right: its apples and cinnamon, but baked into a cake, so no need to bother with that fiddly pie crust. It's quite amazing. It is so full of apples and the texture is not really like a sturdy cake but veering more toward an apple y  bread pudding, and the flavours are unmistakably that of apple pie so that's why I call it apple pie cake and I'm sticking to it!

This was the first thing I took out of the new oven in the house we moved to last month. I didn't get to post because this chocolate Oreo cake too its place. And yes, some days, special days, you need a fluffy frosted cake covered in Oreos, or a barely chocolatey cake covered in Nutella frosting roses and ruffles ( yes the birthday cake, that's coming here soon!) but not everyday. This apple pie cake however, I would be very happy to eat everyday :) Its perfectly easy to make, all the equipment you need is a bowl and a whisk- no food processor, mixer or rolling pin needed.

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Whole Wheat Brown Sugar Chocolate Cookies

Are you as excited as I am about the upcoming long week end? Are you planning on flying out? Do carry these cuties for your fellow passengers or the flight crew, especially if you are taking a noisy and probably troublesome little monkey along! I can guarantee that your flight will be much smoother, and your neighbor might even let you use the armrest :)

If you don't have an airplane shaped cookie cutter, you can even draw or print the shape and make a cut out of thick paper or the thin plastic lids of containers like for yogurt, and then use it as a template to cut out the dough with a knife, or simply make whatever shape-hearts, stars (and stripes in honour of the upcoming holiday maybe?) or even roll the dough into a log and slice off rounds and bake them. Leave them plain, or decorate with glaze or royal icing. Whatever you do, and whether you are baking them for others or your self, these hearty whole wheat, brownsugar chocolate cookies from Joy the Baker will make the weekend nicer. I found that they have a heftier and rather coarser texture than melt away butter cookies I must warn, but  you will love them especially if you like the nutty whole wheat flavour in general as I do. If so, you must also try favourite cookie ever- these wholewheat cardamom nankhatais 

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Dorie's Sugar Cookies got Cardomized!

Cardomized sounds a little scary. But you know what I mean right? It's when I take a perfectly good recipe and have the audacity of sprinkling cardamom all over it. I can't help it. I have a cardamom addiction! 

When I was looking to test out basic sugar cookie recipes, I decided to start with Dorie's and I was not disappointed. These are not too sweet, so they are the perfect blank canvas to paint all your colourful icing (awesome fail-proof  recipe coming soon!) dreams, being sandwiched between chocolate ganache, ducle de leche or nutella, you can add chopped nuts, zest, extracts, chocolate chips, shredded coconut, dried fruits....or cardomized and sprinkled with a little cardamom sugar. 

I made these for that poor little teddy. He deserves it after being gnawed at, drooled over, tossed around and in other ways completely manhandled by my little monkey. I was going through the little one's stuff to put away things he's outgrown or no longer uses- onsies, tiny t-shirts, that pretty pastel blanket from his God Mom and that blue one I started knitting as soon as I knew I was expecting a winter baby, looking up basic knitting stitches on youtube video tutorials! That's when this little guy looked up at me sadly and I though he is probably the most loved yet most ill treated teddy ever, and deserved some cookies, though the greedy fellow ate them all himself! Really!

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Flourless Orange Cardamom Almond cake (Dairy-free, Gluten-free)

..a walk through a sunny orange orchard, breathing the zesty air!

It was a very special blessing to live so close to an orange orchard since I love all things citrus. The sight of all those bright sunny oranges never failed to cheer me up and truly California is sunnier with all those orange and lemon trees everywhere!

You would have seen many citrus desserts on this blog, but nothing quite like this cake, made with whole oranges, boiled in their thick orange skin and flour less and butter less to boot! Sounds pretty crazy right? I thought so too!

I was introduced to these at that bakesale we had taken part in. There was a sea of colorful baked goodies- iced sugar cookies in all shapes, gorgeous layer cakes under glass domes, cupcakes piled high with frosting.....but what caught my eye were these tiny clementine mini muffins with a very intriguing ingredient list: Whole clementines, eggs, almonds, sugar, baking powder. No flour? No butter?! Curious, I bought a bunch to share with friends and wow! was I rewarded! 

Each little bite was  incredibly tender and moist, more like pudding than cake, with a heady citrussy flavor and fragrance. I loved them so much I had to have the recipe which the lovely Andrea who baked for the sale, mailed to me. They are made in the food processor or mixie and are quite easy to make too. 

They are perfect to nibble on with a cup of tea or strong coffee ( in my case) and simply perfect for the Mad Tea Party today. What could be madder than a flour less, butter less cake I say ?!

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Dairy Free Fruit & Nut Bars- Quick and Easy one bowl recipe that's Healthy and Yummy too!

We're nuts for these healthy and delicious Fruit and Nut bars. They contain only 1/4 cup of flour just enough to keep the dried fruits and nuts together and just 1/4 cup or less of sugar so they are tasty without being too sweet, and are like quite like granola bars. The nuts make them crunchy and the dried fruits are both sweet and tart. It would be interesting to make these with rum soaked fruits during Christmas time, instead of the fruit cake which I'm not such a fan of. These though, you must try, even if you are not a fruitcake lover, but love dried fruits and nuts as I do. They leave you feeling pretty full too. Perfect as an after-school snack or breakfast-on-the-go.It would be interesting to try a spicy and salty version of this too, which I might just do soon, but first a version with some chocolate chips!

Important Note: The taste of this really depends on the quality of the fruits and nuts you use. Nuts go rancid very easily and so don't use nuts that taste stale.For longer life, I store nuts in the freezer. If your dried fruits have become hard and dry, you can rejuvenate them, by soaking them in a little warm water- hey add some brandy or rum instead if you like! And they will become juicy and plump again. Drain and pat them dry with a towel and then proceed with the recipe.

Last week, I participated in a Bakesale for Japan and these Fruit and Nut cookies were one of  the goodies I had taken, along with World Peace chocolate chunk cookies, Vegan Banana Bread made with coconut oil and these buttery Nutella stuffed cookies I was thrilled to see all my goodies disappear!

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Whole Wheat Dosas- Savory pancakes

The four year old me looked down at my plate and then at his. In his plate was a special dosa- it was darker than mine, and quite different. A quick look around the breakfast table confirmed it. My grandfather was the only one who had been served this unique dosa and thus it had to be really special. "I want Appa's dosa!" I insisted, which elicited smiles from the adults, because Appapa's dosa was the healthier whole wheat dosa or Godhamb dosa, specially made for him as he was diabetic while the rice batter based dosa that was the popular choice, was served to us. Since then,  my grandmother made sure to serve me wholewheat dosas, or whole wheat puttu ( usually made with steamed rice flour) rava idlis or whatever else Appapa was having and I beamed with pride to have these special things just for Appapa and me :)

It must have started then, my preference for this version, (and for whole wheat and whole grains in general) which may be healthier, but in my mind is special-ler! and oh soo much more easier to make!

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Alice Medrich's low fat Buttermilk Pound cake and a warm thank you!

I had an exciting time playing host to my first ever event- Kerala Kitchen. It was so much fun and such a learning experience! I love that I now have a readily available collection of brilliant Kerala dishes some familiar and some completely new (well atleast to me), for whenever the Mallu food mood strikes!

Most of all it was so wonderful to connect with you amazingly talented and lovely ladies :) So this post is a warm thank you to to all those who graced the very first Kerala Kitchen-

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Cinnamon Apple Braided Brioche Bread

I totally love baking apples into pies, breads, tarts and cakes. There is nothing I love more than the smell of baked apples and cinnamon, except for the smell of yeasty bread so why not combine the two huh? Let me tell you how fantastic that idea is!

A soft, rich, decadent brioche that lovingly wraps around a filling of apples, cinnamon and caramelized brown sugar. And while this may look like I spent 10 hours slaving over, its really quite easily done. I used the pre-made and refrigerated, no-knead brioche recipe from Artisan Bread in 5. Seriously Zoe and Jeff, like hundreds of others, I love you guys. As you may have realized, I have much love for genius chefs and foodies who come up with easy ways to make delicious goodies, with simple tools like a mixing bowl and a spoon. 

Cinnamon Apple Braided Brioche Bread

Recipe source: slightly adapted from Artisan bread in 5 minutes a day from their website here

Brioche dough (makes about 4 loaves- I used only half the recipe) 
You could also use the slightly less decadent Challah dough (see here) 

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups lukewarm water
• 1 1/2 tablespoons granulated yeast (2 packets)
• 1 1/2 tablespoons kosher salt
• 8 large eggs, lightly beaten
• 1/2 cup honey 
• 1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, melted
• 7 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

Method:

Mix the yeast, salt, eggs honey and melted butter with the water in a 5-quart bowl, or lidded (not airtight) food container. I used a largeglass  mixing bowl ( one from set of  Pyrex stackable, lidded ones I love and use for prepping, storing or reheating daily) 

Mix in the flour, using a spoon until all of the flour is incorporated.

Cover (not airtight), and allow to sit at room temperature for about two hours.

The dough can be used as soon as it is chilled. This dough is way too sticky to use after the initial rise, but once it is chilled it is very easy to handle. 
Zoe also uses this same dough to create other goodies like this Tatin, caramel sticky buns, grilled fruit tart, Fresh Fruit Muffins,Brioche à tête, apricot pastries and even doughnuts! The dough can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. After that you can freeze the dough.


For the Apple filling:
1/4 to 1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tbsp cinnamon pwd
1 apple ( I used a sweet gala apple but you could use any) slice thin with a knife or mandoline )


Eggwash
1 egg (lightly beaten) mixed with 1 tbsp water


Mix the brown sugar and cinnamon powder for the filling
Take the brioche or challah bread from the fridge and working quickly, roll it out on a baking sheet or silpat.
Roll the dough into a rough rectangular shape
Spread out the filling in the center portion of the rectangle and lay out the apple slices over it.
With kitchen shears or a pizza cutter cut evenly spaced strips on both sides of the filling and lightly egg wash them ( The egg wash acts like a glue)
Fold the strips over the filling, crossing one strip from one side over the other, and pinch them together. Zoe suggested something I missed- Make sure that there is quite a bit of excess dough beyond the point where you pinch them together. If you pinch right at the ends it will bust open when baking. Hence you may notice that some of my filling has come out :( 
For a far more easier to understand pictoral how-to see the Danish Braided Bread from Artisanbreadin5 here or their fabulous book.


Let the braid sit loosely covered with plastic wrap ( I didn't cover mine) for about 40 mins
Slide the braid on the baking mat to a cookie sheet/baking tray
Preheat oven to 375 degrees
Lightly coat the bread with egg wash and sprinkle with regular or pearl sugar, a sprinkling of slivered almonds if you like, and bake in the middle rack of your oven for 20 mins or until a tooth pick insirted into the center of the bread comes out clean.
If you can wait that long, allow to sit for about 15 mins before cutting slices off and serving. 
And yes, yes of course you'd like to try other fillings- savoury like feta cheese and spinach, or as Zoe suggests in her Danish Braid:
1/2 cup softened cream cheese, 
3 tablespoons sugar, 
1 teaspoon vanilla, 
raspberry preserves and fresh blackberries or other fruit like peaches, pears... many many beautiful possibilities.


Am sending my gorgeous braided brioche to this month's Monthly Mingle hosted by the passionate about baking Deeba with the theme 'baking with fruit'.

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Easy Chicken Masala Fry

Ingredients

1. Bite sized pieces of chicken
2. Chilli powder
3. Turmeric powder
4. Garam Masala powder
5. Salt

Method

1.  Rub some salt, chilli powder turmeric powder and garam masala powder onto the chicken pieces.
2. Keep in the fridge for some time to marinate, atleast 20 mins.
3. Keep the pieces outside for a little while for it to reach room temperature.
4. Fry the pieces in a tava with a little oil and turn the pieces over once the side has turned brown.
5. Drain the oil and soak pieces in tissue or a cloth.

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Banana- Breakfast & Dessert

South Indians especially the Malayalis can do amazing things with bananas. Almost every part of the tree, including the flower and the spongy bark is used in cooking.The leaves are used to serve food in. The fruit of course is enjoyed on it's own or cooked in various ways, some of which I've featured here. The following are popular desserts as well as eaten for breakfast or as a snack.


Caramelized Banana 


Ingredients

• 1 Ripe Plantain (Nendrapazham)
• 1 Tablespoon sugar
• 1 Cup water

Method:

1. Heat 1 tablespoon sugar in a saucepan until it melts and turns brown.
2. Add the peeled and sliced banana and 1 cup water per banana.
3. Boil till soft.

Serve hot/cold with custard. Good over pancakes. 


Buttered & Sugared Banana Ingredients

• 2-3 bananas
• 4-6 tablespoons sugar (or more)
• 2 tablespoons butter

Method

1. Slice bananas into thick coins or lengthwise strips, depending on your preference.
2. Pour sugar onto a plate. Roll bananas in sugar, until completely coated.
3. Heat butter in a non stick pan over medium high heat. Add bananas and sugar.
4. Cook bananas until light to golden brown underneath, about 4-5 minutes (you can lift with a spatula to peak). Be careful not to overcook or burn them (if you smell them browning, or see color in the pan, flip them right away).
5. Gently flip bananas over to brown other side, turning heat down to medium. The second side will brown in about one minute.
6. Transfer to a plate that has been coated with cooking spray (otherwise they may stick) and serve. Alternately, slide them right onto your ice cream or breakfast food.
7. Soak pan in hot water to facilitate cleaning.

Pazham Puzangithu 


Boil an unpeeled and sliced banana with 1 cup water, 1/4 th cup sugar and a clove, until the banana is cooked and the water combines with the sugar to form a syrup. Good with breakfast items like puttu, upma etc. 


Pazham Chuttathu ( Roasted banana)

1. Take a ripe nendrapazham and place it on a pan ( preferably a hardy non stick one since this gets a little messy)
2. Cover the pan with a lid and turn on the flame to allow the banana to roast until the skin turns black.
3. Turn over until all sides are evenly cooked and the skin is flaky black.
4. Serve plain, or with a little sprinkled sugar and a pat of butter or warm with chilled custard.

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