Wholewheat Sweet Rolls with Mango Filling for #BreadBakers

We are baking with stone fruit for Bread Bakers this month. Our lovely host Mir, asked us to bake a bread with any kind of stone fruit, in any form, fresh, dried or juice. There are quite a few fruits to pick from like peaches, plums, apricots, nectarines and mango.

With so many fruits to choose from, I was initially confused on what fruit to choose and which bread to bake. But finally decided on baking these sweet rolls with fresh mango. I flavored them with a little bit of ground cardamom instead of cinnamon.

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Sweet Ragi Dosa (Sweet Finger Millet Crepes)

Blogging Marathon# 50: Week 4/ Day 2

Theme: Bookmarked Recipes

Dish: Sweet Ragi Dosa from Suganya's recipe here.

For the final day of 'Bookmarked recipes -- Ragi', I made these sweet ragi dosa from Suganya's blog. I made these few years ago and have been wanting to make them again for a while. It took me all this while to make these yummy dosas again.

Ragi flour has a nutty, earthy taste and the combination of ragi and jaggery is a definite hit. These sweet dosas are flavored with a hint of ground cardamom making these taste more like a dessert. They tasted like crepes to me and I almost felt like drizzling chocolate syrup on top, but controlled myself and drizzled some ghee, sprinkled some chopped walnuts on top instead.

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Unniyappam/ Unni appam (Kerala Style Banana Pancakes)

Blogging Marathon# 35: Week 2/ Day 3
Theme: Regional Dishes - Course Specific
Dish: Snack --- Unniyappam/ Unni Appam

For Day 3 of BM# 35, I wanted to try any authentic breakfast dish from Kerala. After looking through the google search results for Kerala Breakfast recipes, Appam looked very traditional and authentic. But after seeing a couple of you tube videos, I decided it's not time for me to make appam. We are currently experiencing bitter cold temperatures and I'm sure the appam batter is not going to ferment to make soft & fluffy appams. So I went back looking for other options to make.
Then I came across these Unniyappams/ Unni appams. Saw a youtube video and the recipe looked simple enough to make. I already have a few bananas riping away, so thought this is a good use for those too.

Unniyapam is a traditional Kerala sweet that is offered as prasad in temples and is also served as snack. These can be made by soaking and grinding raw rice, but lazy that I am I found a recipe that uses rice flour instead. I also used much less oil than showed in the you tube video. I skipped the traditionally used coconut bits because my son is not a fan of coconut.

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Chatti Pathiri for Indian Cooking Challenge

It has been a very eventful day today. I thought it was going to be a quite sunny day and had plans of making 'Chatti Pathiri' for this month's Indian Cooking Challenge in the afternoon. But one phone call changed it all. It changed my mood from sunny to gloomy and I didn't feel like doing anything. I knew it was a problem that could be fixed but still was antsy until it was fixed.

I gave up on participating in this month's ICC, even though I had been anxiously waiting to make this delicious baked dessert from Kerala. Then came the second phone call saying that the issue is solved and there's nothing to worry about at least for the next couple of months. It brightened my mood, but it was almost late after with sunset around 4:30PM, I had less than an hour to make the dessert and then take pictures.

I'm so glad that I did because both my husband and I liked the dessert a lot. My husband said the best part was the nut filling and I have to agree I loved the crunchy poppy seeds & nutty sesame seeds in the filling.

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Vyborg Pretzels (Eggless version)

Blogging Marathon# 33: Week 4/ Day 2
Theme: BM# 32 Bookmarked Recipes
Dish: Vyborg Pretzels by Chef Mireille

I am revisting my fellow bloggers posts from the A-Z Alphabet marathon for this week of BM# 33. Like I said yesterday it has been tough finalizing this week's 3 dishes. I still have no idea what to make for tomorrow from the very long list of short listed dishes. I've to check my pantry and the fridge to see what can be made with th time I have. I wish I can try all the recipes, but alas I can't.

So for Day 2, I made Chef Mireille's Vyborg Pretzels. These pretzels are popular in the city of Vyborg, which was previously part of Finland. These pretzels caught my eye the minute I saw them. I've been planning to make pretzels for quite some time now and when I saw these I knew this was going to be my very first pretzel recipe to try. I wasn't disappointed. This recipe makes 4 huge challah bread style pretzels that are soft, slightly sweet and super flavorful from the addtion of saffron and cardamom.

Changes I made were, use egg-replacer in place of eggs, brush with heavy cream in place of egg yolk-milk mixture and sprinkle some turbonado sugar on top for some extra sweetness and crunch. My pretzel shape did not turn out as professional as Mir's, but they tasted amazing especially when eaten warm. They stay fresh when wrapped well and stored at room temperature for couple of days.

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Lauju/ Laskora (Kobbari Lauju/ Coconut Burfi)

Blogging Marathon# 32: Letter L
Theme: A-Z Dishes from Andhra Pradesh
Dish: Lauju/ Laskora (Kobbari Lauju/ Coconut Burfi)

Letter L was a little tough for me. I couldn't think of any fruits or veggies that start with the letter L. But the word Laddoo got stuck in my head. I was trying to find a laddoo that was made in A.P, but the one I knew that is from Andhra, Thokkudu Laddoo, I have already blogged about it. 

Finally I remembered Lauju/ Laskora that my mom used to make. This is basically coconut burfi, just with a different name. Whenever I buy coconuts, they end up being too tough, but this time for a change I got a coconut that was just right. So I decided to make this traditional sweet with it.

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Firni (Hyderabadi Phirni)

Blogging Marathon# 32: Letter F
Theme: A-Z Dishes from Andhra Pradesh
Dish: F for Firni/ Hyderabadi Phirni/ Firni

My daughter turns 1 today. Past 1 year flew so fast that I can't even believe it's time to celebrate her first birthday today. We are having a party with few of our dear friends and family.

What better way to celebrate my little ones birthday than this rich and creamy firni/ phirni. I saw the recipe for Mango phirni on Etv-Urdu channel and I knew right away that I had to make it for this A-Z series. The cook on tv used rice flour to make firni, but I used ground rice powder and it turned out great. It got thick and creamy as it sat in the refrigerator. An awesome make ahead dessert that is sure to please everyone in a party.

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Banana Mini Rounds (Banana Ebelskivers)

Recipe Courtesy: My dear friend Yagna Jyothy

Another yummy kid friendly creation from my friend Jyothy. She calls them Banana mini rounds, a  fun name for kids to get excited to eat. They look similar to appam and they sound simple to make and delicious to eat for both kids and adults alike. 

Here's what Jyothy had to say about the recipe: "The recipe was put together by something my sister said she made for her coffee mornings out of left over bananas- as I was complaining about bananas rotting often in the kitchen."

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Carrot Ravva Laddu

Recipe Courtesy: My dear friend Yagna Jyothy

I reached out to my cousins and friends to contribute to Valli's Kid's Delight: 5 Ingredient fix event that I'm hosting here this month. I'm so happy that they took time from their busy schedules to make some of their kids favorite dishes and send them over to the event. 

First recipe comes from my friend Jyothy, who lives in Portland, Oregon and has a most lovable little daughter, Raaga. Though I haven't seen Jyothy in over 12 years, I've been in virtual contact with her on Facebook. Thanks to the world wide web and to Facebook for connecting people together and making the world much smaller (virtually). Here's the recipe for Ravva Laddoo from Jyothy that she made healthier with the addition of grated carrot. She says these are Raaga's favorite and she enjoys them for breakfast and dinner.

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Coconut Ice Cream

Blogging Marathon# 27: Week 3/ Day 4
Theme: Seasonal Dishes - Summer Dessert
Dish: Coconut Ice Cream

Summer means time for ice creams. Even though some might say (I'm sure my husband will agree) that ice cream can be eaten any time of the year. But at least in summer I don't have to say it's too cold outside to eat an ice cream :-)
I have stopped buying store bought ice creams more than 3 years back, when I bought my ice cream maker.  I make sure that the freezer is always stocked with vanilla and mango ice creams and I keep making new / fancy flavors when I feel like it, may be once every 3-4 months, but more frequently in summer.

I like my ice creams nice and creamy. I don't like icy stuff and since we are pretty good at portion control, I make full fat ice creams, so we can indulge once in a while.

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Paravannam (Paramannam/ Rice Pudding - Indian style)

Blogging Marathon# 27: Week 1/ Day 4
Theme: Occasions - Birthday
Dish: Paravannam (paramannam/ Rice Pudding)

No occasion is complete without a sweet dish in any Indian household. Paravannam or Rice pudding is probably the most made sweet/ dessert on any special occasion. There are probably infinite variations to this dish and I'm sure each household has its own version of it depending on which state in India you are from.
It is a must however for birthdays. The first thing my mom would ask is if I made paravannam for any of my kids birthday, not the cake, not any other special dishes that are made. It's this simple rice pudding that signifies the occasion along with new clothes to wear :-)

My mom makes one version with just sugar and the second one with a combination of jaggery and sugar. I have the second version today. But my jaggery is very golden and didn't change the color of the dish that much.

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Mango-Cashew Upside Down Cake

Summer is HERE in our neck of woods. We have heat wave advisory for the next 3 days with temperatures reaching upto100°F (38°C). It’s nothing when compared to Indian temperature standards but we got so used to the weather here that anything above 35°F is scorching and makes us run for cover.

But summer brings the yummy tropical fruits and veggies, so instead of complaining I just try to enjoy the warm weather and the bounty of treats it brings. We picked up a case of mangoes from our local Indian grocery and after enjoying them as is; I still had some left that needed to used up. Google brought me to this upside down cake and the picture was too tempting, so I had to try it right away.

It was a perfect tea cake, fresh, nutty, not too sweet and quick and easy to make. I had to change the amount/ quantity of ingredients since the recipe used a 6” cake pan and I only have a 8” cake pan. I also substituted macadamia nuts with cashews since I didn’t them.

Ingredients: 

Mangoes – 2 medium, peeled and thinly sliced (I diced my mangoes, but thinly slicing would make for a prettier cake) 

Lemon juice – 1½tbsp

Light Brown Sugar – ¼ cup 

Butter – 1½tbsp, melted 

Cashews – 3tbsp, chopped 

For the Cake batter:

Butter – 3tbsp, softened 

Sugar – 1/3 cup 

Egg – 1, lightly beaten 

All-purpose flour – 1 cup 

Baking powder – ¾ tsp 

Ground cardamom (elaichi) – ½tsp

Salt – ¼tsp 

Milk – 1/3 cup 

Method: 

• Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line a 8” round cake pan with parchment paper and lightly spray with cooking spray.
• In a small bowl, combine mango and lemon juice. 
• Combine brown sugar and butter and sprinkle evenly in the cake pan. Arrange the mango slices and sprinkle the nuts. Set aside. 
• Whisk flour, baking powder, salt and elaichi in a bowl. 
• In a medium bowl, whisk butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in egg until incorporated. 
• Add half of the flour mixture and whisk until incorporated, next add half of the milk and mix well. Repeat with remaining flour & milk. 
• Pour the batter evenly over the prepared mangoes. 
• Bake for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. 
• Cool for 5 minutes, before inverting onto a plate.

Sending this over to Harini's "Only Baked" event which is a brain child of Pari @ Foodelicious.

No Knead Swedish Cardamom Bread

Vegan Mofo Day 27:

This is the recipe for the Holiday Braid Bread I had mentioned in my Thanksgiving post. Recipe is from Vegetarian Times magazine and has won 1st place in "Holiday flavors around the world contest" and I can say that this recipe deserves to win the 1st place, hands down. The winner, Celia Ozereko, modified an old Swedish family recipe by getting rid of all the eggs and butter and making it a no-knead bread. It tastes amazing, we polished off half the loaf in one sitting. It is slightly sweet with a nice spicy kick from the cardamom, I bet no one can eat just one piece. Do try this out this holiday season. I'm sure I'll making it many many times.

Ingredients (makes 2 loaves):

All purpose Flour - 5¼ cups

Flaxseed Meal - 2tbsp

Active Dry Yeast - 1tbsp

Salt - 1½tsp

Whole cardamom seeds - 1½tsp, coarsely ground with a mortar and pestle

Almond Milk - 2 cups, plus more for brushing the loaf (I used soy milk and it worked fine)

Agave nectar (or Maple syrup)- 1/3 cup

Canola oil - 1/3 cup

Demerera sugar (Sugar in the raw) - 2tbsp, for sprinkling

Method:

• Stir together almond smilk (soy milk), flax seeds meal, agave nectar, oil, yeast, salt and cardamom in a large bowl. Add flour, and mix thoroughly with the wooden spoon.
• Cover with lid or plastic wrap (I draped the bowl with kitchen towel for extra sealing), let stand for 2½ hours at room temperature.
• Transfer the bowl to the fridge and let rest overnight.
• Coat a baking sheet with cooking spray or line it with parchment paper. Remove half of the dough from the refrigerator (reserve the other half for later; dough keeps good for up to 5 days in the fridge).
• Divide dough into 3 equal pieces, roll each piece into 18" long rope on a floured surface.
• Place dough ropes side by side 2 inches apart on the prepared baking sheet. Pinch ends together and tuck under. Loosely braid dough ropes, then pinch ends together.
• Cover braided loaf with kitchen towel or plastic wrap, and let rest for 30 minutes.
• Preheat oven to 375ºF. Brush top of the loaf with soy milk and sprinkle generously with sugar.
• Bake for 30-45 minutes, or until golden brown.