Baking with Merry

Merry   Christmas  once again The ingredients used are the same as mentioned in my previous post of Candy Cane Cookies . Even the method is same, except for the rolling of the dough. So, to roll out the pinwheel logs, here are the steps: After the dough is refrigerated, take it out. If the dough is too hard, let it stand at room temperature for a few minutes, before rolling. Place the red dough on a butter paper. Place another butter paper on the top and roll out into a rectangle shape.  Repeat the above step with the green dough.  Place the doughs in the refrigerator along with the butter paper, for about 15 minutes. To shape the cookies, remove the doughs from the refrigerator and peel off the top sheet of butter paper from each. Invert the red dough over the green (or vice-versa), taking care to align the two layers as evenly as possible (if, not trim the edges). Using a rolling pin, gently roll over the dough to seal the layers togethe...

Merry Christmas  to all my  Wonderful Readers Christmas is just few hours away and the home is ready for the day!! The crib, tree and the star are up except for the Christmas Plum Cake *smiles*.... Instead, I baked few Christmas cookies for a change. In fact, I made two different cookies with a single dough! The first one is the Candy Cane Cookies and the second, The Pinwheel Cookies , which would be in the next post! Ingredients: Recipe Adapted From: My Diverse Kitchen Butter - 125 gm Sugar - 1 1/4 cup Egg - 1 Milk - 1/2 cup Vanilla essence - 1 tsp Almond essence - 1 tsp Baking powder - 3/4 tsp All purpose flour - 3 1/2 cups Red food colour - 1-2 tsp Green food colour - 1-2 tsp Method: In a bowl, cream butter and sugar well.  Add egg, milk, vanilla and almond essences and mix well. Then add the sifted baking powder and flour and mix into a dough. Divide the dough in half. Add the red food colour to one half and mix well....

We Knead To Bake!  is a bread baking group on FB, hosted by  Aparna Balasubramanian  of My Diverse Kitchen . Though I had joined this group couple of months back, I haven't baked anything to date except for pizzas. Now, baking bread is not a child's play. So, I waited until I get to bake something easy. And this month's recipe proved to be the right one to bake for an amateur like me!! Julekake (or Julekaka/ Julekaga) is a rich holiday bread flavoured with cardamom which is traditionally served at Christmas in many Scandinavian countries. It is particularly popular in Norway and Denmark. Incidentally, Julekake means “Yule Bread” in Norwegian.  This bread is more cake-like in texture and sometimes it is dusted with powdered sugar or glazed with a white sugar icing. If it is not glazed or left plain, then it is usually served warm at breakfast with butter or a goat milk cheese called geitost/ brunost.  In Norway, Julekake traditionally only a...

Chocolate Mousse Layer Cake for Mama's Boy My boy turned 7 and to celebrate his special day I decided to bake him a chocolate cake because he's sooo fond of chocolates.....To make it more chocolatey, I decided to frost it with a chocolate frostings! But didn't want the usual frostings -buttercream, whipping cream or ganache; so decided to play with a mousse frosting!! And what more can I say---it was utterly delicious.  The recipe for the Chocolate Mousse Layer Cake is from my favourite book Cake by Rachel Allen !! I am not posting the recipe here and but you could visit this link for the recipe...  And a word of caution to all weight watchers; health and calorie conscious readers out there... This cake is definitely not your cup of tea as the cake itself uses eight eggs and the mousse just six... *smile*.... But if you want to indulge go ahead, you won't regret..... though make sure you are able to stop after a serving or so, which is ve...

When Subhashini of Fondbites baked the Chicken Wreath for this week's Bake Along Challenge #52 , I seriously couldn't wait to try it out....But as it is Advent, which means abstinence from non-vegs, I gave it a try with paneer.....And now, can't wait for Christmas to try it out with chicken *winks*...... So, here it is my second special recipe for this month!!! I have tweaked the original recipe according to our taste buds.....Next week, is a big week for me!!Keeping my fingers crossed for it *smile*..... Ingredients: For the Wreath: All-purpose flour – 300 gms Instant dry yeast – 1 tablespoon Salt – 1 1/2 teaspoons Granulated white sugar – 2 tablespoons Olive oil – 2 tablespoons plus extra for basting Water – 180 ml Egg – 1, for egg wash For the Filling: Paneer – 250 gms, crumbled Onion – 1 large size, chopped Tomatoes – 2, processed into puree Ginger-Garlic paste – 1 tsp Green capsicum – 1, chopped Red capsicum - 1, chopped Frozen...

Well....my favorite month is here!!Yippee!!And I have lots and lots of baking coming up!!In fact, starting with this post, I am hoping to bake something new every week until Christmas!!And so to start off, here is my first recipe for you--Swiss Roll... Ingredients: Recipe Adapted from: Cake by Rachel Allen Castor sugar- 100 gm Eggs - 4 Plain flour - 100 gm Baking powder - 1 tsp Mixed berry jam - 3-4 tbsp Whipped cream - 1 box Icing sugar - for dusting Method: Preheat oven to 180 C. Butter the sides of a Swiss roll tin and line the base with baking paper. Beat the sugar and eggs in a large bowl with the help of an electric beater for several minutes until light, thickened and tripled in size. Sift the flour and baking powder over the mixture. Fold in until just combined. Pour it into the prepared tin and smooth the top with a spatula.  Bake for 10-15 minutes or until just springy to touch in the center. Remove from the oven and leave th...