Wholewheat Buns Stuffed With Leftover Bhaji

Ingredients:

For the Dough:
Chapati/Whole Wheat Flour                     1 - 1/2 cups
Milk                                                           1/4 cup
water                                                          1/4 cup (add 1-2 tblspoon if more needed)
Active dry yeast                                         3/4 tblsp
sugar                                                          1 tblsp
Salt                                                             3/4 tsp
Olive oil                                                     3 tblsp

For stuffing:
Leftover Bhaji of Pav Bhaji


Method:

Warm the milk,add sugar to it and mix well. Add the yeast to it and mix well. Keep aside.
Take flour and make a dent,add water,olive oil,salt in it and the yeast completely dissolved in the milk.
Mix and make a smooth dough,keep in a warm place covered with a cling wrap for an hour.
Meanwhile to prepare the stuffing, you do not need to do much efforts just dry out the water from bhaji and make it a bit of the paratha style stuffing. Keep it aside to cool down.
By now/after an hour, the dough we prepared would have doubled in size. Take it again and just give it a gentle knead and make 8 equal sized balls.
Take each bun and make a dent in the middle.
put the dried bhaji stuffing inside and pinch all the end towards centre to cover the stuffing, Just like we do while making Kachori.
Roll into smooth bun. Repeat for every bun. Arrange them in the lined baking tray. Keep the pinched joined side down.
Brush them well with olive oil and sprinkle your choice of seasoning on top.

Preheat the oven for 190°C. When the preheat is finished,by the time the buns will again rise a bit.
Bake for 17- 20 mins or until the top crust turns golden brown in colour. (Mine took exactly 20 mins) Smells heavenly!!




































After finished baking,brush them with butter or oil and enjoy with tea/evening snack!
This would also be a great snack for kids after they come back from school!
One more close look at the texture :) Enjoy until next time :)

Coconut and Mix Berries Cookies

Cookies are the best mate for teatime, specially the evening tea. For me cookies are anytime friend, even when I'm not in mood for breakfast or dinner. Adding some berries and coconut makes them more delish. I always keep some berry mix in my pantry to make such little goodies to pamper my family.

This berry mix has cranberries, golden raisin, black raisin, inca berries, cherries, blueberries, and bing cherries. Mix of sweet and sour taste of berries gave the cookies different taste. The subtle earthy taste of coconut is liked by almost everyone.

My family enjoys these cookies with their tea and coffee. Kids love them as a snack with their flavoured milk. Easy and quick recipe for them makes it hassle free. You can use any berries you have at home. I used wheat flour to make these cookies but it can be replaced with APF/Maida.

Try the recipe and leave your feedback in comments below. I'm sure they will trun out to be a hit for you as well like for me. Until Next Time......................Happy Cooking Friends, Saumya

Ingredients:

Wheat Flour                              - 1 cup
Mix Berries                               - 1/2 cup
Desiccated Coconut                  - 1/4 cup (Fine)
Granulated Sugar                      - 1/2 cup
Butter                                        - 3 tblspoon (Semi Soft)
Baking Powder                         - 1/2 tspoon
Baking Soda                             - 1/4 tspoon
Salt                                           - a pinch
Milk                                          - 1/4 cup to as required
Vanilla Extract                         - 1 tspoon (This can be any extract of your choice)


Method:

Line a baking tray with non-stick paper/mat.
In a stand mixer / mixing bowl, Sift flour, baking powder, Baking Soda and Salt.
Add in the Sugar, Fine desiccated Coconut and Butter.

Start mixing on low speed / rub it with hands.
Once the flour starts to look like crumble add in the berries, mix well.
Now add the milk and gently for the shape of dough. Do not knead it like Chapati dough.

Make small balls out of dough and flatten them a little.
Place them all on baking tray and chill for 30 minutes.

Pre heat the oven on 180c and bake the cookies for 12-15 minutes or until the sides starts to get a little golden.
You can keep them a little more (only 2 more minutes) , if you want a bit crunchy cookies.
Once baked to your choice of crunch take them out on cooling rack to cool them completely.
These cookies go very well with evening tea , coffee and milkshake.
These are my favourite cookies for reading time tea.
Kids will also love the sourness of berries and sweetness of coconut.

Wholewheat Banana Orange Almond Loaf

Cake, Cupcakes, Pastries, Muffins, Cookies!!!!! Thats whats in my mind nowadays. How strange is that ? When you want to stay away from Carb you just think about Carb but Carb. I'm on to mission of baking cookies and cakes with wholewheat. I just want to finish everything in my pantry and want to shop again. It's like spring cleaning of my pantry. Whatever I see as a leftover packs, I feel like making/baking something with that, Specially nuts and berries.

Once I read somewhere that women who eat whole wheat weigh less and that stuck in my mind. Whole grains, if used intelligently in the diet, helps in lot many everyday problems in women's health. Improvement in Metabolism, Prevention from Type-2 diabetes, Prevents gallstones, Relief Chronic Inflammation, Helps in prevention in breast cancer and what not. Women should thankful to Wheat/Wheat Flour/Whole Wheat grains, as they are really helpful for their well-being.

Nuts, specially Almonds have always been known for their goodness of good fat and brain development. They help in lowering your cholesterol, reduce the risk of heart disease, Prevents your body from cardiovascular diseases and what not. If eaten with it's skin, you increase the benefits of Almonds for rejuvenating your skin health. Some research says, Almonds help you maintain your weight loss as well, as Almonds good fat helps release the energy from body and keeps you going for long time.

I, as you all know, am a big fan of whole grains, nuts and berries. So to finish my left over almonds and mix berries, I chose to make some whole wheat almond loaf for teatime. I was left with ripe bananas, Almonds, and 1 orange on the worksurface. So here goes my hands and brain to start the recipe and bake a delicious eggless loaf to with evening tea. Recipe of this loaf is very easy and can be made with everyday ingredients in your kitchen. Try your hands on this recipe and enjoy a wholesome delicious and healthy Cake with your choice of drinks.......................... Until next time, Happy Cooking friends, Saumya

Ingredients:

Wheat Flour                                           - 1-1/2 cups
Ripe Bananas                                         - 3 medium
Orange Juice                                          - 1/4 cup
Brown Sugar                                         - 1/4 cup
Oil                                                         - 1/4 cup
Baking Powder                                     - 1 tspoon
Baking Soda                                         - 1/2 tspoon
Orange Essence                                    - 1 tspoon
Salt                                                       - a pinch
Chopped Almonds                               - 1 cup
Mixed Berries                                      - 1/4 cup (optional)


Method:

Preheat your oven to 180. Grease a loaf pan with butter and keep aside.
Peel and mash the bananas with a fork or you can use a blender.  Blend in the orange juice with bananas.
Mix in the Essence, Oil and Sugar in the banana and orange puree.
Add in the dried mix berries. This is an optional step, I just saw them and added them.
Sieve the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in big mixing bowl, keep aside.
Coat 3/4 cup of Almonds in the flour mixture.
This ensures that the Almonds do not sink to the bottom of the pan while baking.
We will use the remaining almonds for garnish.
Fold in the coated Almonds with flour mixture.
Now gently mix the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients with the help of a spatula, making sure not to over mix.
Pour the batter in the greased pan and give it a gentle shake/ tap on work surface to take out any air bubbles.
Garnish with the remaining almonds on top of the Loaf.
Bake the loaf for about 40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted at the center on the bread comes out clean.
The cooking time depends on the oven temperature.
Let the loaf cool at the kitchen counter for 5 minutes in the pan and then place it on the cooling rack to cool completely before slicing.
This Loaf can be stored upto 3-4 days in an airtight container.

Mango, Pineapple and Cranberry Muffins

I prefer making muffins and cupcakes, over loaf and big round cakes.  I've noticed that eggless cakes/muffins taste better if consumed atleast 10 hours later. Not sure about the reason but it's my personal observation. I normally bake the cakes /muffins/loafs/cupcakes in the morning and they taste amazing by evening. The texture changes and sweetness enhances.

I often wondered about the difference in Cupcakes and Muffins. If you are a foodie, you might know that English Muffins and American Muffins are different. In America Muffins are made just like cupcakes. In UK, there is a flat bread type, made on griddle, is called Muffin. American Muffins are good in a way everyone gets their own individual size of cake. Muffins can be made sweet or savory. We usually make savory muffins for breakfast.

As it is a season of exotic fruits, I thought to make muffins with those exotic fruits. I found 2 packs of Mango and Pineapple bites, leftover in Kids Snack Pantry, Some dried cranberries left from cereal drawer. You all must be knowing by now that I'm a big fan of baking with whole-wheat flour.

So assembling all the ingredients and heating the oven helped me make these deliciously sounding Muffins. We were planning a short getaway from home, so made few more for holiday. Easy peasy recipe as always, try them and you will pat yourself on the back for good job. Drop your feedback in the comments below.............Until next time, Happy Cooking Friends, Saumya

Ingredients:

Whole Wheat Flour                 - 1 cup
Corn Flour                               - 1 tblspoon
Baking Powder                        - 1 tspoon
Baking Soda                            - 1/2 tspoon
Muscovado Sugar                    - 1/4 cup
Oil                                            - 1/4 cup
Yogurt                                      - 2/4 cup
Lemon Juice                             - 1 tspoon
Orange Extract                         - 1 tspoon
Dried Mango bites                   - 2 tblspoon
Dried Pineapple cubes             - 2 tblspoon
Dried Cranberries                    - 4 tblspoon
Water                                       - 2-4 tblspoon (depending on flour/thickness of batter)


Method:

Preheat the oven to 180c and line the tray with 10 muffin liners.
In a deep mixing bowl, Mix Sugar, Yogurt, Oil and Orange extract, until the sugar is totally dissolve.

Sift Flour, Baking Soda and Baking powder into yogurt & sugar mixture.

Add in the cornflour, mix dry and wet ingredients well to avoid any lumps.

Now add int the dried fruits, if you find them very big in size, chop them before adding in.

At this time I added 2 tblspoon of water and 1 tspoon of lemon juice into the batter.
Adding water loosened the batter a bit and lemon juice made air bubbles into it.
Do not keep the batter for later baking.
Pour in the batter into muffin liners and bake them for about 15 minutes or until they are golden on top and skewer comes out clean.
Leave them to cool for 5 minutes in the tray and then take them out on cooling rack to cool completely.

Muffins are ready to be served with choice of drinks. These are excellent treats for kids as their after school snack.

Baked Moong Daal Kachori / Baked Mung lentil Stuffed Bread

Kachoris are all time favourite item in my house. We can eat them in ay meal time, be it breakfast, lunch, brunch, teatime or dinner. We eat them with tea, shakes, make like chaat or as and how we want to eat them. At the same time I need to keep an eye on everyone's oil intake and health. Afterall healthy family is a happy family.

This time when everyone demanded for Kachori I baked them. To my surprise family loved them and ate them until only 2 left for me. I'm ok with that, just because they enjoyed it. How satisfy you feel, when you see your family smiling while eating.

I also made one batch to take them with us on our Caravan Holiday. Very handy snack, when you do not have extended kitchen gadgets just like your own kitchen. Made some muffins and cookies as well for that holiday. Will post the muffin recipe soon.

The recipe is also not very complicated, I would not say very easy but still easy to make. Baking will also reduce the work of frying and less heating of you kitchen in these hot summer days. So try this recipe and this time bake the Kachoris instead of frying. I'm sure you will love them. Let me know your feedback on these baked kachoris by commenting below........Until Next Time, Happy Cooking Friends, Saumya

This recipe will also represent the blog at this Month's Monthly Masala Party at WhitBit's Indian Kitchen. Visit the link and see more Indian recipes and spread the love.

Ingredients:

For the Dough:
Whole Wheat Flour                     - 1 cup
Plain Flour                                   - 1/2 cup
Semolina                                      - 1/2 cup
Cornflour                                     - 1 tblspoon
Amchoor                                     - 1/2 tspoon
Red Chili Powder                       - 1/2 tspoon
Salt                                             - to taste - 1 tspoon
Butter/Oil                                   - 2 tblspoon
Yogurt                                        - 1 tblspoon
Water                                         - as required

For The Stuffing:
Moon Daal/Mung Lentil          - 1 cup washed and soaked overnight
Carom Seeds/Ajwain               - 1 tspoon
Turmeric                                  - 1/4 tspoon
Coriander Powder                    - 2 tspoon
Amchoor                                  - 1/2 tspoon
Red Chilli Powder                   - 1/2 tspoon
Garam Masala                         - 1/2 tspoon
Salt                                          - to taste
Oil                                           - 2 tblspoon


Method:

Wash and soak the Moong Dal overnight.
Pressure cook the daal with just 1/2 cup of water for 2 whistles, just to soften it.
Take it out from the pressure cooker and keep aside.
Meanwhile lets prepare the dough for the Kachori.
Mix all the dry ingredients listed under "For the Dough" except water, in a deep mixing bowl/stand mixer.

Add Butter and Yogurt and Knead it to a stiff dough with the help of water.

Keep the dough aside, covered with a damp cloth.

Now in a pan/karahi, heat 1 tblspoon of oil, when warm ass carom seeds into it.
When seeds start to crackle, add the Cooked daal and all the dry spices, Turmeric, Coriander powder, Amchoor, Garam Masala, Red Chili powder and salt.

Start mixing the daal in the pan with spices and oil.

Keep mixing and pressing the Daal to make it in to the mushy texture. Keep mixing and roasting until it becomes dry and starts to leave the pan from all sides.

You can roast the Daal as much as you like to make it crispy or keep it soft.
Once roasted and mixed, take the daal out on a plate and let it cool down.
Pre heat the oven to 200c. Prepare a baking tray with nonstick paper/mat.
Divide the Dough into equal portion of 18-20 balls, and shape them into balls, depending on the size you like.
I made 18 dough balls out of this quantity.
Spread balls into round discs, place a portion of cooked daal mixture, pinch the edges together and seal into a round.
Brush the kachoris with oil and place them on the lined baking tray.
Put tray in the preheated oven and bake for 8-10 minutes or until golden brown.
Do not over cook the Kachoris if the don't look very dark brown, as they will keep cooking with the heat inside them, just like other baking items.
Take the Kachoris out from oven once golden and keep them on cooling rack to let them cool a bit.
Serve the Kachoris with choice of Chutneys and Dips.

This recipe will also represent the blog at this Month's Monthly Masala Party at WhitBit's Indian Kitchen. Visit the link and see more Indian recipes and spread the love.

Amritsari Kulcha / Stuffed Flat Bread

Kulche & Chole is a very popular breakfast, brunch or street food in the North of India. Be it Delhi, Punjab or now even UP, whole of north India loves this one plate food. I have never been to Punjab, but I'm always fascinated to go there and visit famous cities and their monuments, specially Golden temple. Punjabi food, as we all know is THE most delicious food in the world, spicy, tangy, full of ghee!! Yummy!!!!  This is a very famous street food around North India.

Amritsari Kulcha is the stuffed variety of regular Kulchas. Authentically these kulchas are rolled and stretched between your palms and fingers not with rolling pins. These are cooked in Clay ovens not in electronic ovens or griddles. They are accompanied by Spicy thick Chole, Yogurt Dip, runny onion chutney, Salad and Pickle.

I've had Chole Kulche, so so so many times in my life. I've tried them in many places, in my native, It's surrounding cities, Delhi, UK and so on....But everywhere the taste is different. But I love this combo a lot. I often make this combo and we go for seaside picnic. Warm sunny day, cold breeze from sea, lots of seaside water play and when you are hungry, you eat Chole Kulche. Thats is called day well spend. My hubby is also a big big fan of Punjabi food, He is a foodie basically, he loves tasty food, be it North Indian, South Indian or from anywhere else. The food should be awesomely tasty.

As it is Father's Day today, I thought to treat my hubby, who is an AMAZING father, with Chole Kulche in breakfast. He just loved when me and kids present this combo on breakfast. We all enjoyed the Kulchas together and now we are off to have some outside fun.........You also try making this combo and I'm sure everyone in your family will love it. Let me know your feedback on this recipe by dropping a comment............. Until next time, Happy Cooking Friends, Saumya

Ingredients:

For Kulcha:
Whole Wheat Flour               - 1 cup
Plain Flour                             - 2 cups
Sugar                                      - 1/2 tblspoon
Baking Soda                           - 1/4 tspoon
Oil                                           - 2 tspoon
Yogurt/Curd                            - 3/4 cup
Salt                                          - 1 tspoon / to taste
Water                                       - 1/4 to 1/3 cup for kneading of the dough

For Stuffing:
Potatoes                            - 4 medium size boiled and Mashed
Onion                                - 1 medium chopped finely (will give you around 4 tblspoon )
Paneer                               - 1/2 cup crumbled
Grated Cheese                  - 1/2 cup grated Mozzarella
Green Chillies                  - 3 finely chopped (gives you 1 full tspoon)
Red Chili Powder             - 1/4 tspoon + 1/4 tspoon
Amchoor                           - 1/4 tspoon + 1/4 tspoon
Coriander Powder             - 1/4 tspoon + 1/4 tspoon + 1/4 tspoon
Garam Masala                   - 1/4 tspoon + 1/4 tspoon + 1/4 tspoon
Salt                                    - to taste for all 3 stuffings
Coriander                          - 3 tblspoon freshly chopped ( 1 for each stuffing)


Method:

Making Kulcha Dough:
Take a deep mixing bowl, add whole wheat flour, plain flour, baking soda, sugar, and salt. Whisk well.

Now add yogurt and oil into it.
Start mixing your hands lightly.
With the help of little water at a time start to knead the dough. Adding water depends on the quality of flour as well, so add little at a time.

Take it out on lightly floured surface and knead with hands for few minutes.

Knead it to a smooth soft dough. cover the dough and keep aside for atleast 2 hours.

I used my stand mixer so threw everything together and mixed for 2 minute in low and 5 minutes in high speed with the dough hook on.

Making the Stuffing:
While the dough is resting we will make the stuffings. I made 3 types of stuffing for everyone's taste.

Potato Stuffing:
Mix Mashed Potato, 3/4 tspoon chopped green chillies, 2 tblspoon chopped onion, 1/4 tspoon Red chili powder, 1/4 Amchoor, 1/4 Coriander powder, 1/4 Garam masala, Salt and 1 tblspoon chopped coriander.
Mix everything well to make stuffing like a dough.

Paneer Stuffing:
Mix Crumbled Paneer, 1/4 tspoon chopped green chillies, 2 tblspoon chopped onion, 1/4 tspoon Red chili powder, 1/4 Amchoor, 1/4 Coriander powder, 1/4 Garam masala, Salt and 1 tblspoon chopped coriander.
Mix well with hands to incorporate everything together.

Cheese stuffing:
Mix Grated Cheese,  2 tblspoon chopped onion, 1/4 Amchoor, 1/4 Coriander powder, 1/4 Garam masala, Salt and 1 tblspoon chopped coriander.
Mix very well to combine everything.

Preparing Kulchas:
After 2 hours, or when you are ready to make, knead the dough again to smooth it out.
Make medium size balls out of it, like a cricket ball. I made 11 kulchas out of this quantity.
Lightly flour the work surface/rolling board.
Place the dough ball of it and roll a 4 inch circle.

Place 2 tblspoon of stuffing on it.

Pinch the end edges together to make it a ball again.

Roll it gently between your palms.

Sprinkle some more flour on work surface/rolling board.
Now roll the stuffed ball, slowly / gently with a rolling pin, into a 7-8 inch circle / or your choice of size.

Heat a heavy bottomed Tawa/Griddle.
Place the rolled Kulcha on the tawa. Sprinkle few drops of water on it.

Cover it and let it cook for 1 minute.

It will start to form some puffs on the Kulcha.

Now flip it over and cover again for it to puff fully.

Once cook from both side, which is turned golden brown evenly from both side, take it out of the griddle and put it on cooling rack.
Spread generous amount of ghee/butter/clarified butter on it.
After cooking each Kulcha, wipe clean the Tawa/Griddle.
Use the same process with Paneer and Cheese stuffing as well.

For Cheese and Paneer Kulchas, I made them by baking in the oven. Preheated the oven on max temperature. Place the rolled Cheese and Paneer kulcha on non-stick baking mat/greased baking tray.

Bake until both sides are golden brown.

Once baked take them out on a cooling rack and Spread generous amount of ghee/butter/clarified butter on them.
Serve the Kulchas with Chole, Raita, Salad and Chutney.