Tag Archives: baking

All Posts, Desserts, Easy Recipes

Gluten Free French Apple Cake

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Corner House used to have French Apple Cake with ice cream on its menu, my absolute favourite for years, and bizarrely enough a menu item that absolutely no one else I know has ever heard of or tried. It’s almost as if I access Corner House in some other parallel universe, haha.

Ever since I went gluten free, I miss good cakes. I have a friend that makes me lovely plum cakes and brownies, but you know, CAKES. I miss them, and I missed this one the most. And then I chanced upon Nutty Yogi Baking Flour and decided to make one and voila, it was soooooo good! (PS: I am NOT promoting them or being paid for this, come on, this website is not that popular hahaha).

French Apple Cake

Ingredients:

50gm butter, melted and cooled
1/2 cup sugar mixed with 1/2 tsp cinnamon and a pinch cardamom pd
2 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
1.5 cups flour whisked with 1 tbsp baking powder and 1/4 tsp baking soda
3 apples, peeled, cored (2 chopped, 1 sliced)
Milk, probably 1/2 cup

Procedure:

  • Preheat oven to 180 degrees C.
  • Grease a 8-9 inch pan and layer the sliced apples on the bottom.
  • Mix butter and sugar together until creamy.
  • Add eggs, vanilla essence and beat until fluffy.
    It might seem to curdle, that’s ok, add a spoon of flour in that case and continue whisking.
  • Fold in the flour, mix milk until it is a batter consistency.
  • Toss in the chopped apples, pour into prepared pan.
  • Bake for 40 till an inserted toothpick comes out clean.

Serving Suggestion:

I like to serve this hot with vanilla ice cream and caramel sauce.

To make salted caramel sauce, melt 1/4 cup sugar until it starts turning light brown, add 2 tbsp butter, let it melt and combine, Add a heaped tablespoon of (room temperature) heavy cream while continuously stirring and boil for about a minute. Add 1/4 tsp salt and serve.

All Posts, Desserts

Gluten-Free Divine Brownies

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A friend came over and brought a beautiful, ripe banana with him. I was supposed to make a banana-coconut pudding, because that’s his favouite, but not only was this the wrong banana (this one was the big, soft one), it was also perfectly ripe for making a baked banana item. Something like a bread. Or a brownie.

I wracked my brains and googled for the best gluten-free recipes, and finally just combined two recipes to come up with this. As you can see, it didn’t cut evenly – we were too impatient for it to cool down. And the beauty of banana breads/ cakes is that it gets better with time. So 2 days later, it was beyond divine. “Made in Heaven”, he said.. “I’m going to call them Divine Brownies. I could eat this all three times everyday for the rest of my life!”

I hope you love this one just as much as we did.
Skip the banana if you don’t have one, add 2 tbsp butter extra instead.

Ingredients:

3 tbsp butter
2/3 cup brown sugar
¼ cup + 2 tsp cocoa powder
1 egg
¼ cup flax seed powder
1/3 cup buckwheat flour
¼ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp nutmeg powder
¼ cup chocolate chips
¼ cup walnuts

Method:

  • Preheat oven to 180 C and grease an 8 inch square baking pan.
  • Mix buckwheat flour, flax seed powder, baking soda and nutmeg powder, and whisk together.
  • Mix butter, sugar and cocoa powder and warm over bain marie until melted and mixed.
  • Let cool and add egg and whip.
  • Mix in mashed banana
  • Stir in  flour
  • Stir in chocolate chips and walnuts.
  • Bake for 30 min until the toothpick comes out almost clean. Cool and cut into squares.
All Posts, Desserts

Eggless Mango Cake

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This is a slightly textured, crumbly cake, and was suggested by someone on facebook and I found it interesting enough to give it a shot. Goes very well when paired with vanilla custard!

Ingredients

2 cups fine semolina (chiroti rava or sooji)
2 cups mango pulp
½ cup oil
1½ cups sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cardamom (elaichi)
½ cup chopped nuts for garnish (optional)

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 180 °C.
  • Combine semolina with sugar, cardamom and baking powder.
  • Add oil, mix, and then add mango pulp.
  • Let sit for 20 minutes.
  • Pour into a greased loaf pan and top with nuts.
  • Bake for 30-35 minutes, checking regularly after 25 minutes, until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. (Can also be microwaved for 10 min)
  • Let cool on a wire rack, slice and serve.
All Posts, Desserts

Baked Blueberry & White Chocolate Cheesecake

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For some reason, I was never interested in a baked cheesecake. Until I ate one. When we have potlucks at my place, I always make something that would otherwise be too expensive, asking the bachelors to bring the items. And that’s how this cheesecake came about.

If you don’t want to spend lots of money buying cream cheese, hang a kilo of thick yogurt overnight in a muslin cloth and let it drain (place it in the refrigerator to prevent it from souring). You could substitute the frozen blueberries with blueberry preserves or jam – although it would change the appearance and the taste, I’m sure it would still be very yummy.

Ingredients

200 g digestive biscuits
80 g butter, softened
400 g cream cheese, softened
1 cup caster or icing sugar
150 ml cream
1 tsp lemon zest
2 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 eggs
1 ½ cups frozen blueberries (or preserves)
½ cup white chocolate (chips or grated)
Fresh blueberries & whipped cream, to decorate (optional)

Instructions

Preheat oven to 170°C (150°C fan). Spray side and base of 22cm springform pan with oil. Line base with baking paper.

In a food processor, process biscuits until they resemble fine bread crumbs. Add butter and pulse until it all comes together. Press into base of pan. Refrigerate.

Whip together the cream cheese, sugar, cream, zest, juice and vanilla. Process until smooth and creamy. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after adding each.

Setting aside a tablespoon to sprinkle on top, melt the chocolate chips, (place them in a little bowl over a pan of boiling water and stir till melted). Mix a little cream cheese batter into the melted chocolate, mix until smooth and pour this into the batter. Mix well.

Pour into pan, scatter blueberries and chocolate chips over, and stir gently to distribute evenly.

Bake for 1 hour; the cheesecake should still be slightly wobbly in the center. Cool completely in oven. Refrigerate overnight.

Serve with whipped cream and fresh blueberries.

All Posts, Desserts

Lemon Bars

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lemon bars

I have been reading and hearing about lemon bars for a long, long time. Just the name would put me off. I couldn’t imagine how such a sour thing could made a nice dessert. Oh, how wrong I was.

The tang balances the sweetness just right, and this melt-in-your-mouth dessert if going to have you pop one after another. Don’t make if you’re on a diet!

Preparation time : 1 hour
Makes about 16 bars

Ingredients:

Crust:
1¼ cups all-purpose flour
¼ cup confectioner’s sugar or powdered sugar
½ cup butter, softened

Filling:
3 eggs
1 cup white sugar
1/3 cup lemon juice
2 tsp lemon zest

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180°C/ 350°F.

Mix 1 cup flour and confectioner’s sugar together.

Cut in the butter and mix well until the dough resembles a pie dough.

Press the dough into a 5×10 inch baking pan.

Bake 10 minutes or until golden brown.

Beat eggs and sugar together, and fold in the remaining flour, lemon juice and lemon rind.

Pour the mixture over the baked crust and bake another 10-15 min, until the lemon topping has set.

Once cool, sprinkle with confectioner’s sugar, cut into bars and serve.

All Posts, Breakfast

Ragi Bread with a Twist

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Ragi Bread

I love rye bread, but rye is not something you get easily in India. And anyway, being a fan of eating locally grown foods, I figured that finding a decent substitute was in order.  Enter ragi.

Now, ragi is wonderful. It contains lesser fat and higher fibre than brown rice and wheat. The amount of calcium contained in ragi is around ten times that contained in wheat or rice!

But there was a problem. Good bread needs gluten, and ragi is gluten free, so breads turned out to be dense and heavy, not exactly how I like them. I was at a loss.

The best dishes are usually created by accident. One day, I used ragi huri hittu (popped ragi flour) because I ran out of ragi flour. And what a difference it made!

Ragi huri hittu is available in most supermarkets in Bangalore, usually next to the rice flours and the like. It is tremendously nutritious and easy to digest, and is used almost all over Karnataka as baby food – the first solid food introduced to an infant. It is not usually cooked again, so it is possible that there may be a slight nutrition loss as a result of the baking – a loss I’m ok with.

Ok, so here goes.

Time: ~ 3 hours
Makes 1 loaf

Ingredients

1 cup ragi huri hittu
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup refined flour
½ cup mixed seeds ( flax, sunflower, pumpkin, chia, sesame, poppy)
1 tbsp active dry yeast or 2 tbsp of fresh yeast
2 cups warm water (just a tad above body temperature)
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1 egg (optional)

Method

Proof the yeast. That is, place the yeast, sugar and a little of the water in a bowl and let it sit for about 10 min until frothy.

Now mix the yeast with the flours, salt, oil, seeds (save 2-3 tbsp of the seeds for later) and water, adding slowly to bring it to a dough consistency.

Knead the dough patiently, for about 10-15min. Shape it into a ball, pat the surface with a little oil, cover with a damp towel and set aside for about 45 min to an hour or until more than double in size.

Gently punch down and shape into a loaf. Moisten the top with a little water and pat down the remaining seeds on top of the loaf.

Let it rest another 20 min. Preheat the oven to 180°C.

Brush the top with beaten egg if you want a glossy finish (I haven’t used it on the loaf pictured above). You could make a few slits on the top surface as well if you like, but I find that it sometimes makes it harder to slice the bread cleanly.

Bake for about 40-45 min until the bread makes a hollow sound when tapped with the back of a knife. Take it out of the oven and cover with a towel until cool.

Let it cool completely before slicing, although a slice of oven-fresh bread with a dollop of butter has its own charm.

Tip:

Smear some butter on the knife before slicing the bread. I find that it helps slice it thinner.

Variation:

Add chopped basil, red bell pepper, olives, raisins and onion seeds to the flour along with the seeds for a nice Mediterranean flavor.