Bakefest! - The Beginning : Eggless Strawberry Muffins

Okay, I kept up my enthusiasm over the weekend. In fact, I left from work early on Friday to go shop for some baking tools. And because I think it would be helpful for others to know, I am compiling a list of items I bought along with the place and my comments.

Product	Place	Price	My Views
Paper muffin liners	Currimbhoys, Adyar	INR 170	For a pack of 100 standard sized liners
Pastry bags	Currimbhoys, Adyar	INR 180	For a pack of 100 medium sized bags
Measuring Cups & Spoons	Amma Naana	INR 75	For a set of 4 cups measuring -1, 1/2, 1/3 and 1/4. Spoons measuring 1 Tblsp, 1 Tsp, 1/2 Tsp, 1/4 Tsp
Silicon muffin molds	Big Bazaar	INR 115	For a set of 6 molds

I also bought a box of strawberries because my initial plan was to make strawberry bread. I changed it in the last minute to make these relatively healthy muffins.

Recipe

To make 17-18 standard size muffins, you will need:

• All purpose flour - 3 cups


• White granulated sugar - 3/4 cup


• Baking Powder - 1.5 tsp


• Baking Soda - 3/4 tsp


• Salt - 1/4 tsp


• Plain yogurt - 1.5 cups


• Flax seed powder - 1.5 Tbsp


• Warm water - 4.5 Tbsp


• Refined Oil - 1/3 cup


• Vanilla - 3/4 tsp


• Strawberries - 1.5 cups

What you need to do

• Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celsius


• Line the silicone muffin molds with paper liners


• Dissolve the flax seed in warm water and let it sit for 5 minutes. It will turn thick and gelatinous


• Cut the strawberries into small bite size pieces


• In a large bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients


• Spoon 1 Tbsp of the dry mixture into the strawberries such that the flour coats the berries


• In a separate bowl, whisk the yogurt and add the flax seed water into it along with oil and vanilla


• Add the wet mixture into the dry mixture and mix with a wooden spoon/whisk such that everything combines together. The batter will be thick at this stage.


• Add the strawberries and give it a final mix


• Using an ice cream scoop or a ladle, drop equal quantities of batter into each muffin mold


• Bake the muffins in the oven for 20 minutes at 180.

By the end of the 20 minutes, the muffin will have risen nicely and a toothpick inserted into the center of one will come out clean. Let the muffins cool before you dig in or alternately, I frosted them because I was taking them as dessert for a potluck dinner at my grandma's.

My Notes

1. This recipe is adapted from Stephanie Jowarski's Joy of Baking. I adapted her Blueberry muffins to suit the berries that I bought.


2. She uses eggs in her recipe but being a vegetarian, I substitute 1 egg with 1 Tbsp flax seed powder mixed in 3 Tbsp warm water


3. Cutting the strawberries small and coating them with the dry mixture ensures that they do not sink to the bottom of the batter


4. I used regular refined cooking oil and homemade yogurt/dahi


5. Do not over mix the batter - just enough so that everything is combined together


6. I frosted the muffins using Betty Crocker's Cupcake Frosting which is available in a can. I bought the butter cream flavor from Amma Naana on Chamiers Road. This can comes with 4 decorating tips to use. I have been using this till my Wilton set arrives from USA.


7. I am a novice at icing -- hence the uneven frosting design on the muffins


8. I did think that the muffins could have been a little bit more sweeter, not sure by how much though. Maybe the sugar could have been 1.25 cups instead of 3/4 cups.

So, go ahead and try it. Its not a very decadent dessert, more like something you could have for a mid-day snack. I thought it was pretty good, considering this was the first weekend of Bakefest! I am thinking that I should bake something once every fortnight, and so hopefully in the next 15 days all my ordered items from US will also arrive. More on that in the next post!

Till then, happy baking!

Baking Extravaganza!

Okay, so as much as the title of this post may seem as if I am a Baker-Extraordinaire, I am not. Quite the opposite..well maybe not so much.

Before I get into the crux of the matter, let me outline a side of my personality which pleases me and disappoints me at the same time. I am the kind of person who loves (and I mean LOVES) taking up new projects because I am bored by routine. Intrinsically though, I am a person of routine -- I need to take a shower as soon as I get up, I need to leave for work by 8:30, I need to follow the same bedtime rituals -- well, you get the drift.

But, on the other hand, I get bored if I eat the same dish two nights in a row or if I am just drifting along the river of life without an immediate, short-term goal in sight.

So.. that's why I take up things to do. Looking back, I took up the preparation for IIT and MBA in a similar fashion - because they gave me a target to look forward to in the near future. I took up the CFA course two years back for the same reason. However, I have to admit to myself that I don't get into my non-academic projects as seriously as I should. Take, for example, this blog. This would be my ... 4th attempt at serious blogging after leaving my young adult blog more than 3 years back. However, it just doesn't go anywhere. And that upsets me, because I want it to go somewhere. I want this space to become popular, interesting and give me something to look forward to. Ironically, I need to work on it for it to become any one or all of those things.

Cooking, I discovered 4 years back, was more my thing than I would have ever thought. Because, cooking requires skill, attention to detail, imagination and because cooking gives you tangible immediate results. As an extension, baking started interesting me sometime back. I have always been the baker in my family, and let me tell you, that doesn't say anything about me or my family. But it has always been the regular chocolate cake baking for an occasional birthday or anniversary. I have never really moved beyond that and even that has never been perfect.

Of late, once again, baking has started to capture my mind space. I have been reading a lot of the internet sites, watching a lot of baking videos. And it struck me yesterday that THIS could be my new project -- Baking. Not just cakes, but muffins and breads and cupcakes etc. And decorating and frosting... :) I feel like Julie of Julie & Julia taking this up but that movie was really really enjoyable.

So, I am interested enough to write about it here. Now, what I need immediately is to get me some tools.. and I am planning to go after office today to scrounge for some bakeware and measuring cups and spoons. Hopefully, this weekend will see me doing some baking.

What is my short-term goal here ? I want to be one of those awesome moms who bake for their own kid's birthday party or for a picnic. About whom other kids and their moms talk about :) By the time R is ready to go to pre-school, I should be the new baker-on-the block!!

The Beginning of a Beautiful Relationship

I think the title aptly captures my thoughts and feelings towards R.

You know how people always say that they fell in love with their baby as soon as the nurse/doctor handed them the baby on the delivery table? Ya, I'm not one of them. I was so wiped out after the delivery process that I did not even pay proper attention to my son. I knew that they placed him on my chest immediately, but that's about it.

My next meeting with him was when they brought him for the first feeding. Even then, I was exhausted and just followed the nurse's cues.

Those first couple of days and nights, I was certainly piqued by his presence but I don't think it would qualify as unconditional love. I will chalk it up to the aftermath of delivery, the sudden loss of sleep and the aching body parts. I think somewhere in the recesses of my mind, I thought I would go into the delivery room, get the baby out and be back for a nap in my room. I was strangely irritated when the nurse got the baby for feeding, like I wanted to tell her "Don't you know what I just went through? Do you think I could get a little break here?"

True to what I had heard from everyone, I found the initial days extremely hard. I was overwhelmed by the need that this little tiny baby had for me through the day and night. I was exhausted by the incessant crying in the evenings. I used to dread night time, not knowing how, when and if he will fall asleep. I used to keep an alarm for every two hours to wake up and feed him. I felt betrayed by the weakness in my own body which was not quick in responding to my baby's cries. I had days when I wept while feeding him. I even complained to my husband that life is not fair to women. Why do I only have to be pregnant, deliver and then breastfeed also? Why couldn't God have made it in a way that once the woman delivers, she can relax and the father can take over breast feeding, or whatever it would have been known as?

And true to what I had heard from everyone, it did get better. Two months since he was born, and it's getting better everyday. I don't know when I started enjoying my baby or when I fell in love with him. But, I have realized that it is gradual. Everyday my love for him grows.When I wake up in the morning to his coos and smile at him to say good morning, he smiles back. And my heart melts.

The hour long feeding sessions that I used to dread early on have become 5 - 10 minutes now and I use that time to bond with my beautiful baby. I wonder. does the father feel envious of this exclusivity that I share with the baby? Does he feel insecure in not having such an indispensable part to play, early on?

I now think of him as a little person with his own developing personality. He interacts and plays with everyone at home. He smiles and gurgles during the day. He looks satisfied when I rub lotion on him and dress him up.

Mostly, I feel that he is starting to recognize me. When he is lying surrounded by folks, and I get up and leave the room his eyes follow me. When he is playing with other people, every once in a while, he looks around the room for me and makes eye contact with me as if to say - "Hey, I'm playing with all these people, but you better stick around." And not just because I am the food provider. Everyday that I spend him, I feel that he is falling in love with me too.

Today, I can't recall how exhausted I was - physically and emotionally - two months back. Today, I love him so much that I actually miss while he sleeps in his crib! I guess this is the beginning of what they call - The Joy of Motherhood :)

Mutter Paneer, anyone?

Although this is an over-abused dish and pretty much everyone know how to make it, I find myself using different recipes every time. No drastic changes, but just a little tinge of this over that. And we all know what a lot of difference that makes in cooking.

Last night, I tried another version of it and loved it. Thought I would write it down here for future reference. This is a jain mutter paneer dish -- no onions, no garlic :)

Things you'll need:

Tomatoes - 4, quartered and blanched

Peas - as much as you like

Paneer - as much as you like

Cloves - 5,6

Cinnamon - a stick

Red chillies - 2

Garam Masala - to taste

Jeera Powder - to taste

Milk - Boiled,1 cup

Almonds - 10

Salt and Sugar, to taste

What you need to do:

* Cut and blanch the tomatoes. I did this in the microwave for 2 minutes.

* Add the blanched tomatoes, cloves, cinnamon and red chilli, sugar and almonds to the mixer and grind to a smooth gravy

* Heat oil in a pan and add jeera to it. Once the jeera sizzles, pour the gravy in the pan.

* Add the peas, garam masala and jeera powder to the gravy

* Add salt, to taste

* Add the paneer to the gravy along with the boiled milk. Reduce the flame so that milk does not get curdled

* You can add more sugar at this point, depending on how you like it

* If the gravy is not thick, you can use some cornflour dissolved in milk to thicken it

Notes to myself:

The dish was tasty but spicier than I would have liked. Next time, I will use one red chilli instead of two.

There you go, the evergreen mutter paneer. I had it with hot phulkas :)