Baking with Merry

Now-a-days, the ads on TV influences kids a lot and they would just like that demand whatever they feel to have, right then! With my kids, it would be a biscuit, a noodle/pasta, a juice or even a pizza.... It was one such demand that led me to bake a pizza at home. The first time I baked, I used a Maida based base with lots of cheese, but my kids preferred less cheesy!! So, the second time I baked, I used wheat flour for the base to make it more healthy and of course less cheesy!! So here are the recipes for both.... However, the toppings for the pizzas are left to you....    Let's go for the healthy one first!!! Whole Wheat Pizza Base Ingredients: Recipe Source: Sharmis Passions Wheat Flour/Atta - 1 1/4 cups Yeast - 1 tsp Water - 1/4 cup and 1/4 cup Sugar - 1 tsp Salt - 1/2 tsp Olive oil - 1 1/2 tbsp Method: Preheat oven to 200 C. In 1/4 cup warm water, add yeast and keep it aside to bloom. In a mixing bowl, add the bloomed...

To keep myself motivated to bake, I joined a group on FB - Fondbites, Bake Along hosted by Subhashini Ramsingh, who is based in Chennai. She conducts professional baking and cake decorating classes in Chennai. Her classes are worth attending, though I haven't (but wish to in the future)..... Now, to start off, I decided to bake her Scottish Oatcake #19....... A very simple, healthy and less- caloric recipe, loved by adults, but not by the kids ;)...... A good in-between snack for weight watchers! Ingredients: Recipe Source: Fondbites, Bake Along Oatmeal - 1 1/2 cups Wheat flour - 6 tbsps Cornflour - 2 tbsps Brown sugar - 1 tbsp Salt- 1/4 tsp Baking powder - 1/4 tsp Olive Oil - 1 tbsp Hot water - 1/2 cup Method: Preheat oven to 200 C. Line a baking tray with parchment paper and set aside. Process the oats in a mixer on high for about a minute or so until it is powdered well. Add the powdered oatmeal, wheat flour, cornflour, sugar, salt an...

Well, this cake wasn't planned... it  just happened!! My kids kept on nagging me for another cake after the previous one and so just baked a simple one from my book, for the sake of it!!! This was actually a muffin recipe and since my kids don't like muffins, I converted it to a cake!  Ingredients: Recipe Source: Oops, sorry ... don't remember !! Plain flour - 1 1/2 cups Whole wheat flour - 1/2 cup Baking powder - 2 tsp Salt - a pinch Vanilla essence - 2 tsp Sugar - 3/4 cup Milk - 1 cup Instant coffee powder - 2 tbsps Egg - 1 Melted butter - 1/2 cup Cocoa powder - 2 tsp Olive oil - 2 tbsps Water -1 tsp Method: Preheat oven to 180C. Stir the cocoa with olive oil in a small bowl and add 1 tsp of water to make it into a paste. Keep aside. In a large mixing bowl, combine both flours, baking powder, vanilla essence, sugar and a pinch of salt. Crack the egg into a medium sized bowl and add milk and coffee granules. Whisk for 2-3 mins ti...

Ever since  I started baking, one blog I follow and drool over is   Deeba Rajpal 's  Passionate about Baking  aka PAB...... She also writes for Times of India's online baking blog under the name  The Rabid Baker . Though I had jotted down a few of her recipes, to this date haven't baked anything!! This recipe was adapted from her recipe for Whole wheat Apple Almond Tray B ake which appeared on The Rabid Baker. Since we don't like fresh fruits in our cake, I choose to leave the apple behind and thus ended up with this Whole wheat Almond Squares . This recipe is worth a try, unlike my earlier wheat cake . Since it's made of wheat  flour  and ground almonds it tends to be more on the healthier side! Ingredients: Recipe Adapted from: the Rabid Baker by Deeba Rajpal Whole wheat flour - 140g Ground almonds - 40g Cinnamon powder - 1/2 tsp Cardamom powder - 1/2 tsp Baking powder - 1 tsp Baking soda ...

Sausage Rolls, one of my childhood favorites ( I still love it! ). I decided to bake it at home by using the same recipe of whole wheat garlic pull-apart rolls. And the result is what you see in the below pics.. Though I used both atta and maida, you can use just the maida for the base..... Ingredients: Recipe Adapted from Easycooking Whole Wheat Flour/Atta - 1 cup All-purpose Flour/Maida - 1 cup Lukewarm water - 1 cup Dry yeast - 1 tsp Sugar - 2 tsp Salt - to taste Olive Oil - 2 tsp Method: Mix together warm water,sugar,salt and yeast and keep aside for 5-10 minutes to froth. In a bowl, add atta and maida. Pour in the yeast mixture along with olive oil, little at a time and knead the dough to form a smooth dough.  (You may not require the entire quantity so add as required) Knead the dough for 5-7 minutes or till the dough becomes smooth and elastic.  (Add flour a tsp or two if you feel the dough is too sticky) . Coat the bowl with s...

Finally, I baked the Whole Wheat garlic pull-apart rolls about which I mentioned in my last post. Since this was my first bake with yeast, I was quite anxious!! But at last, everything went fine - the yeast frothed at the right time, the dough doubled before and after applying the spread and the rolls got baked at the right time too...... except for the photo sessions (as usual) ... Ingredients: Recipe Source:  Easycooking Whole Wheat Flour/Atta - 1 cup All-purpose Flour/Maida - 1 cup Lukewarm water - 1 cup Dry yeast - 1 tsp Sugar - 2 tsp Salt - to taste Olive Oil - 2 tsp For Garlic spread Olive Oil - 2tbsp* Garlic cloves - 4-5 finely chopped Green chilly - 1 finely chopped Method: Mix together warm water,sugar,salt and yeast and keep aside for 5-10 minutes to froth. In a bowl, add atta and maida. Pour in the yeast mixture along with olive oil, little at a time and knead the dough to form a smooth dough. (You may not ...

Few days back I told JJ about the wheat cake recipe I had found in one of the blogs. He was like “What? A wheat cake?? Oh come on! it would taste like an ada , so pls don’t try it”…. Fine! But I desperately wanted to try out the wheat cake for two reasons-first,it was rich in nutrients since the refined flour (empty calories) was substituted with wheat flour and we use jaggery instead of the normal sugar (which is of course another source of empty calories!!)…..and secondly, I haven't tasted a wheat cake before,so wanted to know how it would taste like!!*smiles* Finally, yesterday when I had some “me time”, I decided to bake the cake and believe me it took hardly 30 minutes for preparing and baking the cake…..The cake was just delicious---a soft cake with a rich taste of jaggery (I like the taste of jaggery) *smiles*..... And guess what?? even JJ liked it!!!*winks* (according to him, the jaggery had balanced the wheat flour taste). Ingredients: Recipe Source: Spicy Chilly...