Stuffed Caterpillar bread

(Samosa Masala Filling/Pizza Filling/ Nutella Filling)

Ingredients for Dough:

All-purpose flour      -2 cups
Warm milk                -3/4 cup or 12 tblspoon exact
Instant yeast              -1 tspoon
Baking Powder         -1/8 tspoon
Baking Soda             -1/8 tspoon
Sugar                        -1/2 tspoon
Salt                           -1 tspoon
Melted butter            -1 tblspoon
Oil                            -2 tblspoon
Milk powder            -2 tblspoon
Brushing:
Butter                     -1 tblspoon
Milk                       -2 tblspoon



Instructions: 

Prepare the filling of your choice.

Warm 6 tblspoon of milk, add yeast and sugar to it. Mix ell and set aside for yeast to get frothy.
Take a deep mixing bowl, sieve the flour, baking powder, baking soda into it.
Now add milk powder and salt.
Add the oil, butter and mix together.
Now add the yeast mixed milk and start the kneading. Now gradually add rest of the 6 tblspoon of milk.
You might not need it all, so add it sparingly until your dough is nice and soft.
If more milk is needed to get a soft dough consistency, warm a little more and use.
Knead for a good 8-10 minutes. The more you knead the softer the bread results will be.
Touch a bit of oil with your fingertips and apply all over the ball of dough.
Cover in a bowl and set aside for 40 mins to one and half hour for it to double in size.
Now comes the part of shaping the rolls into caterpillars. Follow the instructions given below with pictures.


1. Divide the dough into 6 sections.
2. Start rolling each one into an oval/rectangular shape, about quarter inch or less thickness.

3. Brush with the butter, then cut strips about a third of the way into the oval on one of the longer sides of the rolled out dough.
4. Add your filling on the opposite side of where the strips have been cut.

5. Fold the dough over the filling to enclose it, then roll gently all the way to the end.

6. The strips will cover the top of the bun and give a pretty finish.
7. Pinch the ends of the strips under the dough so they do not open up during baking.

8. Place the caterpillar roll on a greased tray and repeat with the rest of the balls of dough.

9. Place them in a warm spot and allow the rolls to rest for about 30 minutes and expand again slightly.

When ready to bake, preheat the oven at 180c. Brush the butter and milk mix over the bread.
Bake for about 18-20 minutes or until the rolls are golden from all sides.
Remove and brush them with some butter mix.
Caterpillar are ready to serve with soups, chutneys in your parties. Kids love these innovative ideas.

Eggless Vanilla Cupcakes

Ingredients:

For Cupcake:

Plain Flour                  -1 Cup
Butter                          -1/2 cup or 113 grams
Sugar                           -1/2 cup
Milk Powder               -1/2 cup
Milk                            -1/2 cup
Baking Soda               -1/2 tspoon
Baking Powder           -1/2 tspoon
Vanilla Extract           -1/2 tspoon

For Icing:

Butter                       -1/4 cup or 50 grams
Icing Sugar              -1 cup
Milk                         -1 tblspoon
Vanilla Extract         -2 drops

Method:

For cupcakes:

All the ingredients should be on room temperature.
Take a deep bowl, put butter, sugar, milk powder and 2 tablespoon milk to it. Now mix them with hand blender.
Continue mixing it batter adding little milk at a time, Keep mixing until all the milk is mixed up.
Now put the plain Flour, baking powder, baking soda in a sieve.
Now sieve flour mixture into the milk and butter mixture.
Whisk very well until it becomes smooth.
Add vanilla essence and mix it well again.
Pre-heat the oven to 180c and line a 12 cupcake tray with paper liners of your choice.
Now scoop 1 n 1/2 tablespoon or 1 scoop of ice-cream spoon of batter in cupcake moulds.
Bake the cupcakes at 180c for 15-20 minutes.
Take the tray out after 15 minutes and check the cake with pricking a skewer in the centre, if it comes out clean cupcakes are done. If you see any crumbs put the tray back again for 5 minutes and do the skewer test again.

For Buttercream Icing:

Take a deep mixing bowl, add butter, icing sugar, 1 tblsp milk, and vanilla essence and mix by spoon first.
Now whisk using hand blender until it becomes fluffy and creamy.
You can also divide the buttercream in bowls and add colours to it, for different colour icing.
Decorate the cupcake with the different icing nozzles!

Khandvi

Ingredients: 

For the khandvi batter:
Besan/gram flour                     - 1 measuring cup or 100 gms
Sour curd/yogurt      ,               - 3/4 cup  or about 150 gms + 2.25 cups water OR 3 cups mattha/chaas (Buttermilk)
Ginger and Green Chili Paste  - 1/2 inch ginger, 1 green chili grated or coarse grind
Turmeric powder / haldi          - 1/4 tspoon
Asafetida                                  - 1 pinch
Salt                                           - to taste

For the filling in Khandvi:
Fresh or desiccated coconut    - 2 tbspoon
Fresh Coriander                       - 2 tblspoon finely chopped

For the khandvi Tadka/Tempering:
Oil                                           - 1 tblspoon
Kadi Patta / Curry Leaves      - 8-10 leaves
Mustard seeds/ Rai                 - 1 tspoon
Sesame seeds/Safed Til          - 2 tspoon
Green Chili/Hari Mirch          - 1 slit or chopped


Method:
Preparing the khandvi rolls:

Take the gram flour in a bowl, add Ginger, Chilli paste/powder, turmeric powder, asafoetida and salt.
Now Add the yogurt, whisk well. Add water and stir well till smooth.









With a whisk or electric whisk, keep on stirring and mixing till all the lumps are dissolved and you get a smooth silky batter.
There should be no lumps in the batter. you can also use a hand held beater to mix the batter.
spread oil on plates or boards or tray. large steel thalis or trays work very well. you can also use the back of a large baking tray or best is your kitchen countertop.
Now mix the chopped coriander leaves and grated coconut for filling, and keep aside.
Pour the batter in a heavy bottom saucepan or a broad frying pan. keep the stove flame to the lowest. Start to stir.
Keep on stirring when the khandvi batter is getting heated up. Lumps will begin to form and you have to continuously stir so that the lumps don't form.
The batter will start to thicken and keep on thickening, you need to keep on stirring.
Best to use a wooden spatula or a heat proof silicone spatula. The batter also should not be allowed to stick at the bottom. so you have to stir continuously.
Before you decide to spread it onto trays, do a plate test when the batter has thickened well.
Spread a few teaspoons of the batter on a greased plate. Let it cool a bit and then begin to roll.
If you are unable to roll, then the batter needs to be cooked bit more.
The final consistency of the khandvi batter will be more like thick whisked yogurt.










It took me 20 minutes to get the correct consistency on a low flame.
The timing will vary depending on the intensity of the flame, the thickness/thinness of the pan and the size of the pan.
just do the plate test and when you can form the rolls, then the khandvi batter is ready.
If the batter becomes too thick, then it becomes difficult to spread and you don't get thin layers in the rolls.

In this case, still spread the batter. you will get thick slices, but still they taste good.
Quickly pour about 3-4 spatula of batter on a large plate and spread thinly & evenly with a spatula.
you have to be quick with the remaining batter too. since even a bit of cooling and the batter becomes likes blob, difficult to spread.
Allow the spread batter to cool and then sprinkle the coconut + coriander leaves mixture evenly.
You can also skip this stuffing part if you like them without it.
Cut into equal sized strips say about 1 n half inch. Gently roll each strip tightly.
Place them in a serving tray or plate nice arranged or stacked.

Now prepare the Tadka. 
Heat oil and crackle the mustard seeds. Now add curry leaves, green chilies and fry for a few seconds.
Add the sesame seeds and when they change color & crackle, pour the hot tempering mixture along with the oil on the khandvi rolls evenly.
Garnish them with some more coconut and coriander leaves and serve with green or red chutney.

Panjiri Laddoo

Ingredients:

Aata / Wheat Flour                    - 2 cup
Granulated sugar                       - 1 1/2 cup
Poppy seeds / khuskhus            - 2 tablespoon roasted
Edible gum / Gound                  - 1/4 cup
Til / Sesame seeds                    - 1/4 cup
Mixed dry fruits                        - 1/2 cup roasted (Almond, Cashew, Pistachio, Walnuts)
Sounth / Dry Ginger powder    -  2 tblspoon
Safed Mirch / White Pepper     -  2 tblspoon
Cardamom Powder                   - 2 pinch
Clarified butter / Ghee              - 1/2 cup

Method:

Take heavy bottom Kadhai or deep pan, Roast the heat flour until you can smell the aroma of flour and it starts to leave it's white colour. Do not over roast to golden brown. Keep aside.
Now take another non-stick pan and roast the edible gum with 2 drops of ghee, keep stirring and it will start to puff (like tapioca seeds, when they are deep fried). Put these puffed gum to grinder if they are very big chunks. Coarse grind them not to the powder consistency. After coarse grinding, pour it over into wheat flour Kadhai.
In the same pan roast the poppy seeds until golden colour. Pour the roasted seeds into Wheat flour Kadhai.
No comes the turn of Sesame seeds for roasting. roast them until they start crackling, pour them into Kadhai as well.
Now switch on the flame to low. Put the Flour mix Kadhai onto it. Mix everything well.
Now add the mixed dry fruits into it. Mix well.
Now add dry ginger powder, cardamom powder and white pepper powder to the mix. Mix it well gain.
After a  minute of roasting everything together, add the ghee. If you feel the ghee is less you can add 1 to 2 tablespoon again.
Once the mixture starts to look crumbly switch off the flame. Mix it again well. Keep the Kadhai onto the gas so that heat can still be passed to the Kadhai.
No add the Sugar and keep mixing it. sugar will start to melt with the existing heat in the laddoo mixture.
Now take off the Kadhai from the gas and pour the laddoo mixture to a Thali or a big shallow tray.
Keep it aside for few minutes to let it cool down. Keep checking the mixture temperature.
Once the mixture is warm enough to handle with the hands, start binding the laddoos of your desired size.
I made them medium size so the number was 20 laddoos.
Once cool down completely transfer them to an dried airtight container.
Enjoy your winter time laddoos with warm milk before bed or with your breakfast.

Note : Keep the flame to low all time while roasting and mixing else it will start to smell burned. It needs a lot of patient to cook / mix it well on low heat
Make sure laddoos when kept should not catch the moisture.

Healthy Breakfast Loaf

Ingredients:

Gram flour                  - 2x1/4 cups
Eggs                            - 4
Mix veggies                - 1 cup (Sweet corn, bell peppers, mushroom, green beans, onions, tomatoes)
Grated Mozzarella      - 2 tblspoon heaped (Optional)
Green Chili                 - 2 finely chopped
Fresh Coriander          - 2 tblspoon finely chopped
Baking Soda               - 1/8 tspoon (Optional)
Salt                             - to taste
Red chili powder        - to taste (optional)
Vegetable Oil             - 1/2 tspoon to grease the loaf tin (Optional)

Method:

Take a deep mixing bowl, put gram flour, baking soda and dry masalas together. Mix with the whisk very well.
sprinkle 2 tablespoon of water to make a thick paste. careful about the lumps.
Mix the veggies in with gram flour paste.
Now add the eggs one by one.
Mix in the cheese, green chili and fresh coriander.
Pre-heat your oven to 180C. Grease or line a bread loaf tin.
Mix everything very well for 5-6 minutes with the help of hand whisk or electric whisk.
Once everything starts to look as one and you can not differentiate between eggs and gram flour, transfer the mixture into the loaf tin.
Bake it for 25-30 minutes. Check in between if you see the upper layer is getting dark brown but inside seems to be raw lower the temperature.
I baked it on 180c for 20 minutes and 5 more minutes on 170c, just to make sure it's cooked properly.
I also checked it with the conventional way to putting toothpick inside the centre of the loaf and it came out clean.
Gram flour Bread loaf is ready to serve for the breakfast or as the evening snack.