Rose Jam Bars

Last week while shopping groceries at international market I came across something that I was wanting for longtime  "Rose Jam" and wanted to make use of it in a different way instead of just spreading on the bread, did some reaserch on web, found something similar recipe "starberry jam bar", subsituted "rose" instead of strawberries and I should admit 'The Bars' came out pretty well.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup Butter
3/4 cup Sugar
1 Egg
1 tbsp Honey
1-1/4 cup of All purpose flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp of ground cinnamon, nutmeg
2/3 cup of Rose Jam
1/4 cup of Almonds chopped

Preheat the oven at 350 F
In a large mixing bowl, mix butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in egg and honey.Combine the flour,baking powder, ground spices.
Gradually add to the butter mixture.
Divide the dough in half, spread one portion into a lightly greased 9 inch sqaure baking pan.Spread with jam.
Drop remaining dough by teaspoonfuls over jam, Sprinkle the chopped almonds.
Bake for 25-30 minutes or until the top is golden brown. Cool on a wire rack. Cut into bars.

Note: You can store the cut bars in a airtight container for a week.

Pumpkin Spice Short Cakes

Happy Halloween to all out there who celebrating. Seattle is looking so gorgerous and splashed with colors like oranges, red and green.. maples leaves, apples, pumpkins.Well, I am not a big fan of pumpkin but since it's season to celebrate thought will bake some....

1/2 cup (1 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 1/4 cup sugar
3 large eggs
1 cup pumpkin puree (I prepared it at home you can also use canned)
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon fresh-ground nutmeg

Prepare cake pans: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly coat cake pans with softened butter and set aside.

Make the batter: Cream butter until smooth in a large bowl with an electric mixer set on medium speed. Add the sugars and mix until smooth. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition, until the mixture is smooth and light. Set aside. Combine the pumpkin purée, buttermilk, and vanilla in a medium bowl and set aside. Combine the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda, and nutmeg in a large bowl and set aside. In thirds, alternately add the flour mixture and buttermilk mixture to the butter mixture, blending well after each addition until smooth.

Bake the cake: Pour batter into the prepared pans and bake until a toothpick inserted into the middle of each cake comes out clean -- 35 to 40 minutes. Cool the cakes in the pan on wire racks for 30 minutes. Remove cakes from pans and return to the wire racks until completely cool.

Fall and Upside-down Apple Cake

Halo! how are you all doing? last month on been busy..got a new job and life has become routine but I'm loving it. My favourite season is approaching and thought of baking a season's apple cake.
This recipe is from the Cookbook"Food and Wine".

Ingredients

Apples
 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup light brown sugar
Pinch of salt
2 Golden Delicious apples-peeled, cored and cut into 1/2-inch wedges
Cake
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt
2 large eggs, beaten
1/2 cup milk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, melted
Glaze
1/4 cup confectioners' sugar
1 tablespoon milk

1.PREPARE THE APPLES: Preheat the oven to 350° and line the bottom of a 9-inch cake pan with parchment paper. In a large bowl, blend the butter with the brown sugar and salt. Spread the mixture evenly in the lined cake pan. Arrange the apples wedges in the pan in 2 concentric circles.

2.MAKE THE CAKE: In the same bowl, whisk the flour with the sugar, baking powder and salt. In a small bowl, mix the eggs with the milk and vanilla. Add the mixture to the dry ingredients along with the melted butter and whisk until smooth. Scrape the batter over the apples and spread evenly. Bake the cake in the lower third of the oven until golden and springy and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 1 hour and 15 minutes.
3.Transfer the pan to a rack and let cool for 30 minutes. Run the tip of a knife around the inside rim of the pan. Center a serving plate over the cake; carefully invert the the cake and plate. Remove the pan and peel off the parchment paper. Let the cake cool completely.
4.MAKE THE GLAZE: In a small bowl, stir the confectioners' sugar with the milk and drizzle it over the cake. Cut into wedges and serve.

Kiwifruit Pistacho Bread

I have been looking for Kiwifruit recipes on web and found this one interesting and simple. I made this with little of variation by adding nutty kutty pistachos and a desi touch by adding cardamom powder. It tastes bit sour-sweet with wonderful caradamom aroma.

5-6 med. ripe kiwi fruits
2 eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 cup flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 cup powdered sugar
1/4 cup chopped pistachos
1/4 tsp cardamom powder

Wash and peel the fruit. Chop finely  to make 1 1/2 cups.
Heat a pan add chopped fruit and sugar.
Bring to a boil, stirring until fruit loses some of its color. Allow to cool.
Beat eggs and oil well.
 Blend together flour, baking powder and salt.
Add the baking soda to cooked kiwi mixture. Stir until bubbles form.
Add this to the egg mixture and then add flour mixture, Pistachos and cardamom powder to it.
Stir until dry ingredients are moistened. Pour the mixture into a well greased loaf pan.
Bake at 350 degrees about 55 minutes.
Cool in pan 10 minutes and turn out onto wire rack.

Enjoy when its warm or at room temperature.

Mango Rasayana

Ingredients:
3 Mango(Peeled and smashed, disgard the seed)
3 tbsp Jaggery powdered.
1/4 tsp cardamom powdered
pinch of salt
1 cup grated coconut
Water

Blend the grated coconut and extract milk. In a serving bowl, add jaggery, cardamom, smashed mangoes, salt and coconut milk and mix well. If required add water/ milk and serve.

Cantaloupe Drink

Hope you all having wonderful summer! Had a amazing and refreshing vacation at Alaska. Weather in Alaska was moderate and when I landed here in seattle it was 90 F.So to beat the heat here is a refreshing drink. 

Ingredients:
2 cups Cantaloupe(Peeled and cut into cubes)
3 tbsp Jaggery
1/4 tsp Cardamom powered
Water

Blend Cantaloupe and Jaggery and water( as required) add cardamom.
Transfer to serving glass and Enjoy outdoor!

 

Poppy seeds and Cashewnuts Halwa!

The dessert was long time pending. Even this recipe is from south karnataka, India. It is rich and calorie-packed with cashews and flavourful poppy seeds,coconut milk and clarified butter/Ghee. You can use oil to make it less- fat but adding ghee gives halwa wonderful taste.

I will be offline for next one week as me and him going on vacation to Glaciers and will miss all your interesting recipes. See you soon..

Ingredients:
1/2 cup Cashewnuts 
1/2 cup Poppy seeds(soak for 15-20 mins)
1 cup Coconut milk
1 cup Sugar
1 cup Milk
1 tsp Cardamom powder
1/4 cup Ghee(clarified butter)

 

Grind cashwenuts,soaked poppy seeds with the coconut milk to fine paste.
Heat a heavy saucepan, add milk, sugar and ground paste.
Keep adding ghee in regular intervals and stirring continuously.
Add cardamom powder, mix well. when the mixture becomes thick and you can see ghee on the surface. remove from heat.
Transfer to serve bowl and garnish with safforn strings and cashewnuts.

Sending off to the event"Sizzling Summer Contest" hosted by SpicyTatsy.

Watermelon punch with dash of Orange and Sweet lemon- Non Alcoholic!

As the temperture rises in seattle you see people with glass of colorful refreshing drink. Here comes one of the simple yet colorful refreshing punch to beat the heat.

2 cups Watermelon cubes
4 tbsp fresh Orange juice
2 tsp fresh sweet Lemon
3 tsp Sugar
Ice cubes
pinch of salt

Blend the Watermelon cubes and strain it.
In a glass pitcher add orange and lemon juice with salt and  sugar,some lemon slices and ice cubes.
Dress the glass with slice lemon and mint leaves and serve.

Sending off to event "Sizzling Summer Contest" hosted by Spciy Tasty's. 

 

Apple Raisins Bread

Hope you all had a wonderful mother's day. Last four days was sun feast here in seattle. I was out all days to enjoy sunny weather and did little of weekend baking and manage to click one photo.

Ingredients
1 big Apple
11/4 cups Sugar
1/2 cup Vegetable oil
2 large Eggs, lightly beaten
2 tsp Vanilla extract
2 cups All-purpose flour
1 tsp ground Cinnamon
3/4 tsp Baking soda
1/4 tsp Salt
1/2 cup Raisins

Preheat the oven at 350 degrees and grease the loaf pan with oil or butter
Peel and finely chop apples. Set aside.
In a big bowl ,stir flour,baking soda,cinnamon and salt.
In another bowl, beat the eggs, sugar, oil and vanilla extract. transfer sugar mixture to flour mixture, stirring just until blended(batter will be stiff) Fold in finely chopped apples and raisins(keep few for topping)
Divide batter evenly between  to the greased loaf pans.
Bake at 350° for 1 hour or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean.
Remove from pans, and cool on wire racks.

Fruits Salad (Fruits in Mango Pulp and Condensed milk)

A weekend treat simple and quick dessert Fruit salad. There are various method of doing it based on one's preference and taste. You can make as simple as by adding honey to the chopped fruits,If you aren't calories conscious add powdered sugar or may be with scoop of ice cream. Here is my way of doing quick and simple salad.

Ingredients:
2 cups of your favourite fruits chopped
4 tbsp condensed milk
5 tbsp Sugar
1/2 cup mango pulp
few saffron strings
few raisins
few Cashew nuts
few Hazelnuts

In a bowl,mix mango pulp, condensed milk and sugar.
Add fruits, nuts and saffron strings. Mix well and keep in refrigerator for an hour and serve cold.

Sending off to 'Serve me Some…Salads’ event hosted by Madhuri from Cook-curry Nook.

                                                                 

                                      

Almond Banana Smoothie

Happy Friday!

Ingredients:
½ cup Yogurt
1 banana, peeled and sliced
½ cup milk
1 tbsp ground almonds
½ tsp almond extract
1 tsp sugar

 

Place all ingredients in blender and blend on medium speed until well combined. Garnish it with finely chopped almonds on top.
Serve immediately.

Mango Shake

Here is everyone's favourite fruit Mango and everyone's favourite drink or say never ignored drink Mango shake. To make it rich I added a scoop of vanilla icecream.

 

Ingredients:
2 cup Mango pulp
2 tbsp Sugar
1/2 cup milk
1 scoop vanilla ice cream
1 cardamom
4 strings of safforn for garnish(optional)

Peel the cardamom and make a powder.
Blend all the ingredients for about 2-3 mins.
Refridgerate the mango shake and  before serving garnish it with safforn string and enjoy the sunny weather!

Have a great weekend!

Holige/Obbattu/Puranpoli

Wishing all  Ma recipes readers  Happy Ugadi and Gudi Padwa.   

Ingredients:
1 cup Maida\All purpose flour
2 tbsp Wheat Flour
1 tsp Turmeric Powder
1 pinch Salt
Water to make dough
6 tbsp Oil
Oil
Inner Filling
1  cup Jaggery
1 cup Bengal Gram Dal
1/2 cup Toor Dal
1/4 tsp Cardamom Powder

In a bowl, mix flour,turmeric,salt with water and a dough. knead well and apply oil and keep aside for 2 hours.
Pressure cook the dal and starin excess water and grind to fine paste.
Heat a pan melt the jaggery and add dal paste and mix well until it's one ball like.
Make small balls of the filling. Divide the dough into small balls and flatten them. Place one ball of filling on the dough and cover and seal up the filling.
On a plastic sheet apply oil and place the dough filled on the sheet and gently roll out.
Heat a griddle/tawa grease oil and place the dough.Cook on both sides until golden.
Holige/Obbattu/Puran Poli is ready to be served.

Pineapple Cake

I am one of those people who likes to bake especially saturday afternoon. We love the plain flavour moist cake.

2 sticks unsalted butter
2 cups granulated sugar
4 extra-large eggs
3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
3/4 cup buttermilk
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
2 tsp pineapple extract

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour pan.
Cream the butter and granulated sugar in the bowl by an electric mixer for about 5 minutes, or until light and fluffy. With the mixer on medium speed, beat in the eggs.
In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
In another bowl, combine the buttermilk, pineapple and vanilla extracts.
Combine flour,butter,eggs and buttermilk mixtures and mix well with help of electric mixer for a min.
Pour the batter evenly between the pans, smooth the tops, and bake for 35-45minutes, until a cake is golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Let it cool for 10 minutes. Take them out of the pans, place them on a baking rack and allow them to cool completely.

Carrot Shake

Today's morning dose of Vitamins:

  

Ingredients
1/2 cup baby carrots chopped
2 cups milk
2 tbsp sugar

 

 Cook the chopped carrots in the milk on a medium heat for 30 mins. Let it cool and blend the milk and carrots. Add Sugar and mix well. Cool it in the refrigerator for 6 hours and serve cold.

Peach Smoothie

As summer is around the corner or may be started off :).It's the time to fill fresh water to ice cubes and having chilled drinks and here comes one.

Ingredients:
2 large fresh peach, skinned and sliced
1/2 cup of  yogurt or peach flavour yogurt(to get more flavour)
1/2 cup of whole milk
6 ice cubes

Blend the peach slices with the ice cubes and milk slurry misxture.
Now,add the yogurt and blend for another minute and serve chill.

Homemade Vanilla Ice cream with Fruits and Nuts

Here in Seattle for last couple days we had a grogerous sunshine and thought let me try homemade vanilla ice cream. For dressing added some starwberries,pears,organes and nuts with chocolate syrup which looks similar to Mangalore Gadbag ice cream.

Ingredients:
2 cups half-and-half milk
5 large egg yolks
2/3 cup granulated white sugar
1/2 vanilla bean or 1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
Half and Half cream is a mixture of cream and whole milk.

In a small saucepan, over medium-high heat, bring the half-and-half and the vanilla bean to the boiling (the milk begins to foam up). Remove from heat, take out the vanilla bean and scrape the seeds from the bean with the back of a knife, and mix the seeds back into the half-and-half.

Meanwhile in a stainless steel bowl beat the egg yolks and sugar until fluffy.Gradually pour the scalding half-and-half into the whipped egg yolk mixture, keep whisking constantly so eggs yolks don't curdle. If any lumps do form, strain the mixture first before heating.
Place the bowl over a saucepan of simmering water and, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, cook until the custard thickens enough that it coats the back of a spoon.
Immediately remove the custard from the heat and continue to stir the custard for a few minutes so it does not overcook.Cover and let cool to room temperature and then refrigerate the custard until it is completely cold  preferably overnight.

Transfer the cold custard to the chilled container of your ice cream machine or blend it for a min and transfer the ice cream to a chilled container and store in the freezer for 24 hours.