Obviously, I had to make something special and write about it here. It has been so long. I am sorry for being away for so long.
I have been cooking a lot but somehow I never got a chance to click pictures and write about it. I feel that I am missing out on something but I can not get back to it. I have been shifting cities and have taken up a job which keeps me engaged.
Enough of excuses though! Let me first take you straight away to the food.
I made pumpkin cake. Actually, the plan was to make pumpkin muffins but my muffin plans have never succeeded. I have baked muffins twice and they have kind of over flown and flattened out on me. I know, I know, it is hard to imagine a person having a blog and trying to preach cooking having difficulty baking muffins. So, I made 6 muffins out of the batter and when I saw their beautiful faces, I decided I would bake cake with the rest of the batter. The cake came out really well. I am a bit proud as I made changes to a Dorie Greenspan recipe successfully. We all know that she is amazing and so are her books and her recipes. I bought her book "From my home to yours" just 2-3 months back and now, whenever I have to bake something, it is the first place I peep into.
I changed the recipe to make it healthier. My boy friend is on a strict and healthy diet these days and I did adjustments so that I could provoke him to eat it. I succeeded. I know I am putting all the blame on him but I myself keep searching ways to replace all purpose flour and butter in all these recipes. So far, I have been quite successful. I replace all purpose flour with whole wheat flour and butter with olive oil. It is not that simple as it sounds though. First of all, do not use these replacements when you are baking breads. Breads work with very specific ratios. Secondly, go step by step. Do not replace the complete two cups of flour with whole wheat flour, as both have different densities and different characteristic aroma and you might need to adjust the other ingredients accordingly. I replace half of the flour with whole wheat flour and same goes for butter.
Here is the recipe.
Pumpkin Muffin
Recipe Adapted from : Dorie Greenspan
Ingredients:
1. 3/4 cup (170 g) unsweetened pumpkin puree
2. 110 g (1 cup) all purpose flour
3. 120 g (1 cup) whole wheat flour (Original recipe adds two cups of all purpose flour)
4. 1 stick (110 g) unsalted butter (I used 55 g of butter and added olive oil to compensate for it)
5. 3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
6. 1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
7. 1/2 tsp ground ginger
8. 2 tsp baking powder
9. 1/4 tsp baking soda
10. 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
11. 3/4 cup (170 g) sugar (original recipe adds 1/2 cup sugar and 1/4 cup brown sugar)
12. 1/4 cup (60 ml) buttermilk
13. 2 eggs
14. 130 ml milk
15. 1/2 cup (50 g) soaked raisins
16. 1/2 cup (50 g) cashew
Steps:
1. Beat the butter and sugar together. The original recipe mentions doing this using an electric beater. I have always been using a hand beater though. I heat the sugar and butter a bit before hand to get a head start.
2. Add the eggs one by one and beat well. Add olive oil, vanilla extract and pumpkin puree.
3. Sift the flour, spices, baking powder and baking soda together.
4. Slowly add the flour to the butter and sugar mixture. Add some amount and mix well. While mixing the flour, add buttermilk and milk to keep a good consistency of the batter. The batter should neither be too thick nor too runny. You can adjust the amount of milk accordingly.
5. Add the raisins and cashews and mix well.
6. Preheat the oven to 205 degree C or 400 degree F.
7. Grease a regular size muffin pan or fit the molds with paper muffins cup. Bake for about 25 minutes or till a toothpick inserted into the muffin comes clean.
8. Cool the muffin pan for 5-10 minutes before taking out the muffins.
It is a delicious cake. The pumpkin, cinnamon, nutmeg and the whole wheat flour worked out so well together.
Go bake :)
I have been cooking a lot but somehow I never got a chance to click pictures and write about it. I feel that I am missing out on something but I can not get back to it. I have been shifting cities and have taken up a job which keeps me engaged.
Enough of excuses though! Let me first take you straight away to the food.
I made pumpkin cake. Actually, the plan was to make pumpkin muffins but my muffin plans have never succeeded. I have baked muffins twice and they have kind of over flown and flattened out on me. I know, I know, it is hard to imagine a person having a blog and trying to preach cooking having difficulty baking muffins. So, I made 6 muffins out of the batter and when I saw their beautiful faces, I decided I would bake cake with the rest of the batter. The cake came out really well. I am a bit proud as I made changes to a Dorie Greenspan recipe successfully. We all know that she is amazing and so are her books and her recipes. I bought her book "From my home to yours" just 2-3 months back and now, whenever I have to bake something, it is the first place I peep into.
I changed the recipe to make it healthier. My boy friend is on a strict and healthy diet these days and I did adjustments so that I could provoke him to eat it. I succeeded. I know I am putting all the blame on him but I myself keep searching ways to replace all purpose flour and butter in all these recipes. So far, I have been quite successful. I replace all purpose flour with whole wheat flour and butter with olive oil. It is not that simple as it sounds though. First of all, do not use these replacements when you are baking breads. Breads work with very specific ratios. Secondly, go step by step. Do not replace the complete two cups of flour with whole wheat flour, as both have different densities and different characteristic aroma and you might need to adjust the other ingredients accordingly. I replace half of the flour with whole wheat flour and same goes for butter.
Here is the recipe.
Pumpkin Muffin
Recipe Adapted from : Dorie Greenspan
Ingredients:
1. 3/4 cup (170 g) unsweetened pumpkin puree
2. 110 g (1 cup) all purpose flour
3. 120 g (1 cup) whole wheat flour (Original recipe adds two cups of all purpose flour)
4. 1 stick (110 g) unsalted butter (I used 55 g of butter and added olive oil to compensate for it)
5. 3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
6. 1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
7. 1/2 tsp ground ginger
8. 2 tsp baking powder
9. 1/4 tsp baking soda
10. 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
11. 3/4 cup (170 g) sugar (original recipe adds 1/2 cup sugar and 1/4 cup brown sugar)
12. 1/4 cup (60 ml) buttermilk
13. 2 eggs
14. 130 ml milk
15. 1/2 cup (50 g) soaked raisins
16. 1/2 cup (50 g) cashew
Steps:
1. Beat the butter and sugar together. The original recipe mentions doing this using an electric beater. I have always been using a hand beater though. I heat the sugar and butter a bit before hand to get a head start.
2. Add the eggs one by one and beat well. Add olive oil, vanilla extract and pumpkin puree.
3. Sift the flour, spices, baking powder and baking soda together.
4. Slowly add the flour to the butter and sugar mixture. Add some amount and mix well. While mixing the flour, add buttermilk and milk to keep a good consistency of the batter. The batter should neither be too thick nor too runny. You can adjust the amount of milk accordingly.
5. Add the raisins and cashews and mix well.
6. Preheat the oven to 205 degree C or 400 degree F.
7. Grease a regular size muffin pan or fit the molds with paper muffins cup. Bake for about 25 minutes or till a toothpick inserted into the muffin comes clean.
8. Cool the muffin pan for 5-10 minutes before taking out the muffins.
Go bake :)
