Baking with Merry

Last week's Bake Along #67 was Empanadas. These were the most delicious ones I have ever baked among the savoury bakes... Empanadas have a melt in mouth buttery tart base and the fillings can be made depending on one's taste. The original Empanadas have cheese added to the filling, but I skipped, not that we don't like cheese...I actually forgot that part!! *winks* Ingredients: For the Crust: Butter - 75 gms, cold All-purpose flour - 1 1/2 cups Water - 4 tablespoons Salt - 1/4 tsp For the Filling: Potato - 3 (boiled and mashed) Frozen green peas and corn -  1/2 cups Tofu - 200 gms Onion - 1, finely chopped Cumin seeds - 1 tsp Garam masala powder - 2 tsp Red chilli powder - 3 tsp Turmeric powder - 1 tsp Oil - 1 tbsp Salt to taste Milk - for milk wash Method: Preheat oven to 180 C. Line up a baking tray with butter paper.  Grate cold butter into a bowl. Add flour, salt and water into it. Use your fingertips to combine the butter and

The Fondbites Bake Along # 59 was Karachi Biscuits, which were new to me.... However, Mr. Hubby said it was famous in Hyderabad and every bakeries sold these biscuits.... Anyways, I gave it a try with few changes in the original ingredients..... Now, on to my tweaked recipe: Ingredients: Recipe Source: Fondbites Butter – 350 gms, softened Icing sugar – 1 1/2 cups All purpose flour – 3 cups Baking powder – 1/2 teaspoon Orange zest – grated from 1 whole orange Fresh orange juice – 1/4 cup Pure vanilla extract – 1 teaspoon Tutti Fruiti – 100 gms, orange coloured Almonds – 1 cup, finely chopped Method: Whisk together all-purpose flour, baking powder, zest of orange in a big bowl. Add tutti fruiti and chopped almonds and mix well using your hands until the flour mixture coats the tutti fruiti well. Keep aside. Add butter into the bowl of your electric beater and beat on medium speed for 2 to 3 minutes until it becomes lig

Aparna chose the Black Forest Buns for the February month's We Knead to Bake #25, as a Valentine's day special. Whereas, the Black Forest cake is made with chocolate cake, cherry compote and kirsch and lots of cream; these Black Forest Buns are filled with chocolate sponge cake and cherry compote or jam. These buns were new to me, since I haven't heard of them nor seen it sold in any bakeries.... And so was eager to bake and taste them and viola! it tasted yummy... It's a perfect snack for kids, you could use their favorite jam instead of the cherry compote.  Now, on to Aparna's recipe: Black Forest Buns Ingredients: For the Dough: 1/2 cup water 1/2 cup milk 50 gm butter 1/4 cup sugar 1 egg (at room temperature, optional) 3/4 tsp salt 1 1/2 tsp instant yeast 3 to 3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour For the Filling: 3/4 cup cherry/ strawberry jam or compote 2 1/2 to 3 cups crumbled

Hi folks....Long time!! Blogging has taken a setback for the past few months due to various reasons.... Though I have been baking, nothing remarkable enough to post on the blog, it was either a repeated bake or a new one but of course, the flopped versions!! But, then on Valentine's Day, I managed to bake a Carrot Cake. This cake has been on my to-do list for quite sometime. You could frost the cake with a cream cheese frosting, but I preferred mine to be plain.... Ingredients: Recipe Adapted from: Baking by Parragon Books Eggs - 2 Brown sugar - 3/4 cup Unsalted butter - 1 cup Grated carrots - 1 1/3 cups All purpose flour - 2 cups Baking soda - 1 tsp Ground cinnamon - 1 tsp Ground cardamom - 1 tsp Nutmeg, grated - 1 tsp Almonds, roughly chopped - 1 cup Method: In a bowl, beat the eggs until well combined and add the sugar and butter. Mix well. Add the grated carrots, sift in the flour, baking soda and the spices. Then add the chopped almonds. Mix eve