Baking Snacks Archives - Dees Platter

Garlic knots

Garlic knots are best during the chilled winter season with your morning or evening tea, and are not something very complicated to bake. Garlic knots is just a fancy name for garlic rolls as instead of giving the dough shape of normal buns, we turn them into the shape of knots. They make for attractive snacks when guests come visiting!

You must be wondering that during this Deepawali festive atmosphere why I am posting garlic knots recipe instead of some traditional sweets?

The reason is that finally after one and a half months my OTG got repaired and I was very eager to bake. First I baked White Sandwich Bread(3) to test the oven and then I decided to bake garlic knots as slowly winter is creeping in. To flavor these buns you can buy garlic butter, but it is very easy to prepare that at home also. Peel a few garlic pods, crush them and sauté with butter. Garlic butter is ready. If using unsalted butter, add salt, and to make it more flavored, add mixed pizza spices. If you are calorie conscious, instead of butter, sauté garlic in olive oil.

You can also check a few more posts on baked snacks in the blog…

Baked Snacks

You can check Basics of baking – bread/buns/rolls (Wheat flour buns with pizza spices-2) for a few tips on baking bread.

Ingredients:

White flour (maida) 1+ 3/4 cup
Milk powder 1/4 cup
Salt 1 tsp
Sugar 1 tbsp
Instant active yeast 3/4 tsp
Water 1/2 cup (can increase or reduce if required)
Butter/oil 2 tbsp
Pizza spices 1/2-1 tbsp (optional)
Garlic butter

Few more tips to follow:

All ingredients, other than water, should be at room temperature.
The temperature of the water should be slightly more than lukewarm but not hot.
Milk powder is added to keep the knots soft. If you are not interested in adding milk powder, omit it and add white flour in the same quantity as milk powder.
Instead of water, dough can be kneaded with milk too.
Instead of white flour, wheat flour can be used, but increase the quantity of water while kneading as wheat flour requires more moisture.
If using dry active yeast, increase the quantity to 1 tsp – and remember, dry active yeast has to be bloomed first before adding in the flour.

Process :

Collect all dry ingredients in a big broad vessel.

Start adding water and collect all ingredients in the shape of dough and knead it for 12-15 minutes. Initially, dough will be wet but kneading will make it smooth. Keep adding butter while kneading and mix it nicely into the dough.

Keep this dough in a big oil/butter greased bowl for first proofing. Brush up the top of the dough with melted butter. Cover the bowl with cling film or a wet clean kitchen towel and keep in a warm place so that the dough rises till it is double in the volume. This process might take 60 to 90 minutes, depending on how hot or cold the kitchen temperature is.

After first proofing, gently punch it to knock out the air.

Dust kitchen counter with some flour and knead the dough just to make it smooth. Roll the dough in the shape of a log and cut it for equal sized knots. You can use weighing scale to get exact measurement. Roll these rolls in same length and give them a knot shape. Remember, after tying the knot join both the open edges by pinching them tightly at the bottom. Keep them in an oil greased baking tray, leaving some distance between each because they are going to puff up nicely. Apply some melted butter on them to avoid drying, cover them, and keep them for second proofing.

The second proofing gets over in 20 to 30 minutes. Preheat oven at 180 degrees, ten minutes before second proofing ends.

Brush knots with garlic butter generously and bake them at 180-185 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes or till they are nicely brown on the top and bounce back when pressed. After baking again brush them with garlic butter and relish with hot tea/coffee.

November 9, 2020October 30, 2021

Deeksha Pathak124 Comments

Bun Maska (Raisin Buns)

What is Bun Maska (Raisin Buns) ? Buns filled with raisins, slightly sweet in taste and served with white butter and whipped cream along with kadak chai ki pyali (a cup of strong tea) – what a combo!! I am sure Mumbaikars are very well aware of what I am talking about. These are Irani Cafe special Maska buns or Bun Maska (Raisin Buns) which are served with tea as a snack option and you are supposed to dip the bun in tea and enjoy them!

A few days back I was watching a movie ‘Maska’ on Netflix. It’s a decent one-time watch movie where mother is insisting her son to continue running their family’s traditional restaurant. I got inspired to bake these Bun Maska from this movie. You can try these buns by mixing wheat flour and white flour both or with wheat flour only. Generally kids are not fond of raisins, so they can be substituted with tutti – frutti.

I have a few other posts on buns in the blog, so if you are interested, can take a look at them also….

Wheat flour savoury buns with caramelized onion and carom seeds

Pull apart buns/Dinner bread rolls

Buns

Burger Buns

Sweet milk buns/brioche buns

Hot dog buns

For a few basic guidelines on baking buns and breads, you can check this link also…

Basics of baking – bread/buns/rolls (Wheat flour buns with pizza spices-2)

Ingredients :

Maida 2 +1/2 cups
Instant active yeast 1+1/4 tsp
Sugar 4 tbsp
Butter 4 tbsp
Raisins 1/4 cup
Water 1 cup minus 2 tbsp (reduce or increase 1-2 tbsp if required)
Milk powder 2 tbsp
Butter and whipped cream for filling

Points to remember :

Other than water all ingredients should be on room temperature. Water should be slightly warmer than lukewarm but not hot.

You can use dry active yeast also, but increase that to 1+1/2 tsp. Bloom dry active yeast first before adding in the flour.

Milk powder cannot be substituted with milk. So, if you don’t have milk powder, simply skip it and add equal amount of flour.

Process :

Combine all dry ingredients in a big vessel.

Start adding water and collect all ingredients in the shape of a dough and knead it for 12-15 minutes. It will be wet and sticky because of extra sugar, but will become smooth as you knead. Keep adding butter while kneading and mix it nicely into the dough.

Keep this dough in a big oil/butter greased bowl for first proofing. Brush up top of the dough with melted butter. Cover the bowl with cling film or wet clean kitchen towel. Keep it in a warm place so that the dough rises till it is double in volume. This process might take 60 to 90 minutes depending on how cold or warm your kitchen is.

After first proofing, take out the dough on clean oil greased or floured kitchen counter and gently punch it.

Spread the dough, add raisins, knead it again to make it smooth and cut equal sized buns from the dough.

Roll these buns smoothly like a ball and keep them in an oil greased baking tray, keeping some distance in between because they are going to puff up nicely. Apply some melted butter on them to avoid drying, cover them and keep them for second proofing.

Second proofing gets over in 20 to 30 minutes. Pre heat oven at 180 degrees ten minutes before second proofing ends.

Brush up buns with milk and bake them at 180-185 degree for 20-25 minutes till they are nicely brown on the top and bounce back when pressed.

Take out golden brown buns and brush them with butter when they are hot.

Bun Muska ( Raisins Bun) will be shiny with the touch of butter and will remain soft longer. Transfer the buns to a cooling rack. During the time buns cool down, whip up the cream and keep it ready.

Once buns cool down completely, slice them from the middle.

Don’t they look beautiful and irresistible with raisins!!

Now apply one layer of white butter followed by whipped cream and cover them.

Once again cut them in three or four slices and serve with tea…

Or without tea and enjoy just like that…..

May 5, 2020October 30, 2021

Deeksha Pathak57 Comments

Baked Cinnamon Doughnuts

I consider doughnut as an another variety of sweet bread in a different shape which is deep fried and can be prepared in different flavors . And probably because doughnuts are fried, they are widely popular with all age groups of people. So when one of my neighbours came with a request to make doughnuts for her 80 years old mother in law, I suggested her to go for baked cinnamon doughnuts and she happily agreed!!

Well, there will be definitely a change in taste between the baked and fried ones, but if you don’t want to break your resolution to consume less oily food, then these baked cinnamon doughnuts are definitely for you.

To add a healthy twist here, instead of all purpose flour, you can use wheat flour and just follow the same recipe. Increase milk a little bit more while kneading, as wheat flour absorbs more liquid than maida (all purpose flour).

Do we really need to buy a doughnut cutter to prepare doughnuts?

Not at all.

Any sharp edged steel glass and one small bottle cap are sufficient. Even round shaped cookie cutter and one icing nozzle would do the same work as doughnut cutter.

So, now you have no excuse for not trying these wonderful cinnamon flavoured baked doughnut in your oven!!!

Ingredients:

Maida 2 cups
Milk powder 2 tbsp
Instant active yeast 3/4 tsp
Sugar 4 tbsp
Salt 1/2 tsp
Nutmeg powder 1/2 tsp
Cinnamon powder 1+1/2 tsp
Butter (melted) 3-4 tbsp
Milk 3/4 cup (add or reduce 1-2 tbsp if required)

Prepare a mix of 1 tbsp cinnamon powder and 4 tbsp powdered and sieved sugar separately.

Some more melted butter would be required after baking.

Points to remember:

All dry ingredients should be on room temperature.
Milk should be slightly warmer than lukewarm but not hot.
Dough would be slightly sticky because of extra sugar, but keep on kneading – it will become smooth with melted butter.
For more tips on kneading the dough, proofing time, temperature control etc, check the following link :

Basics of baking – bread/buns/rolls (Wheat flour buns with pizza spices-2)

Process:

Collect all dry ingredients in a big vessel.

Slowly start pouring milk and collect dry ingredients together in the shape of a dough. Don’t worry about loose or tight consistency of dough at this stage.

Now start adding remaining milk 1 tbsp at a time and knead the dough for 15 minutes by adding butter simultaneously.

Initially, kneading will be sticky due to lots of sugar but will soon smoothen.

Place the dough in a butter greased bowl for first proofing (bowl should be big enough to have extra space for doubled up dough). Apply some butter on top of the dough to avoid it drying. Cling wrap the bowl and keep it at a warm place for first proofing. I generally keep my bowl in a switched-off microwave. First proofing takes 1 to 1+1/2 hours, depending on the temperature of your kitchen.

In the meantime, grease baking tin/tray with butter or spread parchment paper.

Mix powdered sugar and cinnamon powder in a separate plate.

Once dough doubles up, sprinkle some flour on clean kitchen counter or grease it with butter. Take out the dough and punch it softly.

Knead the dough very softly and roll it in round shape.

With the help of doughnut cutter/steel glass/cookie cutter cut out as many doughnuts as you can. Knead and roll again the rest of the dough and follow the same process.

Keep all doughnuts in a ready baking tray and apply melted butter on top of them to avoid them drying during second proofing. Proofing will be over in 20-30 minutes depending on the temperature of your kitchen.

Just 10 minutes before proofing time is getting over, preheat oven at 185 degrees for 10 minutes. Give milk wash to all doughnuts and bake them at the same temperature for 25-30 minutes or till the top starts becoming brown. I like slightly crunchy top in doughnuts so I baked them a bit more to get nice brown colour. If you like smooth top then stop baking once they are light brown.

Aren’t you tempted enough to just gobble up one…😋😋😋😋

With the help of pastry brush apply melted butter generously on the top of the doughnuts so that sugar cinnamon mix can stick to them nicely.

Now with the help of a sieve sprinkle sugar cinnamon mix all over the doughnuts.

Now you are ready to give yourself a flavourful treat…!!!

I would love to hear from you all about this post…

October 20, 2019October 30, 2021

Deeksha Pathak136 Comments

Copycat Pizza Hut Garlic Bread

A complete Indian festival season is in the air these days. Nine days of Navratri is over followed by Dussehra. Now North Indian festival for married women Karva Chauth is on the way. Then preparations for five days grand Deepawali festival will start.

In between all these festivals sometimes we want a break from rich festive sweets and crave for some healthy food or snacks. For the last few days I wanted to have good homemade savoury snack. During Dussehra holidays we had gone to Goa for a week’s vacation and I was tired of eating restaurant food, though the whole trip was awesome as weather was fine and it was less crowded. Neat – and – clean beautiful beaches, historical forts surrounded with sea and wonderful flora and fauna. I am not at all good with photography, but still couldn’t resist clicking a few.

We went on a tour of spices plantation and I gained a lot of knowledge. I never knew that javitri and jaiphal ( mace and nutmeg) are from the same plant. Javitri is dry flower and jaiphal is the fruit. But the best part of this spice plantation tour was the discovery of Garam Masala plant. I was amazed to see that there is actually a plant named as “Garam Masala”. Till now I knew that garam masala is a mix of various ground spices. But this Garam Masala plant was a new discovery. This plant originally belongs to Jamaica and is known as allspice plant. We tasted its leaves and they tasted exactly like garam masala mix powder.

Isn’t this amazing!!!

Well, no matter how much you enjoy your vacation, we crave for homemade food. Hubby and daughter both were fine, but I started becoming home sick after 4-5 days. Thankfully it was a short trip and after reaching home I baked my favourite Garlic Bread and this time I used wheat flour.

But now I wanted to prepare it exactly like we get in Pizza Hut. So I prepared a little bit more garlic butter (method is given in the recipe of Garlic Bread) . After slicing the bread, applied garlic butter, Pizza sauce, grated cheese, sprinkled pizza spices, added sliced bell peppers ,onions and tomatoes and sprinkled a little more pizza spices. Baked these bread coins in a preheated oven at 175 degrees, till the cheese melted and edges of the bread became crisp.

There was a wonderful aroma of garlic butter, pizza sauce and spices while baking!!! Couldn’t take more pictures, as no one allowed me…

October 10, 2019October 12, 2019

Deeksha Pathak74 Comments

Mint flavoured Pinwheel Potato Rolls

We Indians are a lot obsessed with potatoes. Potato compliments so well with almost every vegetable. Other than using potatoes with vegetables, we have Aaloo ka Paratha (wheat flour flat bread with spicy potato stuffing) potato chips and snacks like samosa and Aaloo ki kachori which also have potato fillings. So when I thought of trying Pinwheel Rolls, I decided to fill them with boiled potatoes. But I felt that rolls with only potato filling would lack some flavor – might not be tangy enough. I had mint chutney in the fridge – so I flavored these rolls with mint chutney and there was this wonderful delicious savory baked tea time snack, Mint flavoured pinwheel potato rolls.

Isn’t this an interesting filling with complete Indian taste!!!

You can change the filling as per your taste and liking. Instead of potatoes, paneer can be added or we can shred some cheese on top of the rolls…

I have a post on Coriander Chutney in the blog. If you are interested, can go through this link as recipe for coriander and mint chutney is same. For mint chutney, just replace coriander leaves with mint leaves.

You should definitely try these mint flavoured pinwheel potato rolls. Not very complicated steps, and in pinwheel shape – rolls look really attractive!

Ingredients :

Maida 2 cups +2 tbsp
Milk powder 1 tbsp
Salt 1 tsp
Sugar 1 tbsp
Instant active yeast 3/4 tsp
Water 1 cup minus 1-2 tbsp
Oil 2 tbsp
Mint chutney(thick) 5 tbsp
Boiled potato mix

Except water, all ingredients should be on room temperature.Water should be slightly warmer than lukewarm but not hot.

Process:

Boiled Potato mix :

Boiled potatoes
Salt
Asafoetida
Dry mango powder
Garam Masala
Red chilli powder

Chopped green chillies
Chopped green coriander /mint leaves

Peel and mash potatoes and add above mentioned ingredients, mix well and keep this mix aside.

Rolls preparation:

Collect all dry ingredients in a big vessel and mix them. Add water/milk slowly and prepare the dough.

Be careful not to use all water/milk completely. Once all ingredients are together in shape of a rough dough, slowly start kneading the dough by adding one tbsp water at a time and knead it for 12-15 minutes. Keep adding oil during kneading. Initially, dough will be wet, but slowly it will be pliable and smooth.

Keep the dough in an oil greased pan covered with cling film at a warm place for first proofing. This might take 60 to 90 minutes, depending on how warm or cool your kitchen is.

In the meanwhile, keep your baking tray ready by greasing with oil or by spreading parchment paper.

After first proofing, take out the dough on clean oil greased kitchen counter and punch it gently.

Collect the dough together and roll it into rectangular shape. Apply mint chutney all over the dough with the help of a pastry brush .

Now spread potato mix evenly everywhere. As both my potato mixture and chutney were very spicy, I limited the quantity that I applied and so you can see some gaps in the photo below.

Start rolling the dough and keep it firm.

Once dough takes the shape of a log, seam the edges tight by pinching them.

Cut this log in equal size rolls and keep them in your ready baking tray by maintaining some gap between them so that during baking rolls have enough space to puff up. Apply some oil on them and keep them at a warm place for second proofing. Second proofing will be over in 20/30 minutes.

Just 10 minutes before second proofing time is getting over, preheat oven at 180 degrees. Apply milk on rolls to avoid them drying during baking and bake them for 20/30 minutes or till they are light brown. Apply butter on warm rolls and relish them with any sauce or chutney along with your tea/coffee ☕

August 9, 2019October 30, 2021

Deeksha Pathak63 Comments

Wheat flour cookies with Jaggery

Have you ever baked wheat flour cookies with jaggery? Ok, if not baked, have you ever bought wheat flour cookies with jaggery? if not, today we will be discussing about cookies, which is a very popular snack all over the world.

I believe that the most common and easily available munching snack is cookies. But have you ever gone through the ingredients printed on the pack? Many people are not even aware of the details of some ingredients – whether they are safe to consume or not. Some cookies/biscuits are sold at such low price that I wonder if this company is able to get back its cost?

Around four years back when my husband’s doctor prohibited him from consuming market bought cookies/biscuits due to his digestion problems, I decided to bake cookies in my microwave which was being used only for heating food for the last 6-7 years. Initial attempts were not bad, and I improved slowly.

But till now I was baking with white flour (maida) only. Once I became confident, I tried with wheat flour. Our taste buds are so used to white flour that it is difficult to develop a liking for wheat flour based snacks.

But I was determined to use wheat flour for cookies, so with some failed experiments, I was finally successful to get best results in wheat flour based cookies!! My wheat flour cookies became so popular that they are now my best seller cookies. Parents buy them for their kids’ school snack box as they are done with ghee (clarified butter) or branded butter (Amul, Nandini, Nilgiri) and without any preservatives.

This success further encouraged me to eliminate white sugar in cookies and I started using jaggery. Personally also, I have a liking for jaggery based sweets, snacks and even tea – so I loved these cookies a lot.

This recipe for wheat flor based cookies with jaggery is not at all difficult to follow and it is done with just one cup flour. So, in my opinion you should definitely give it a try. With jaggery, cinnamon and nutmeg flavors compliment each other very well. But if you are not comfortable using cinnamon and nutmeg powder, simply avoid them and go ahead with the rest of the recipe.

Here I have used jaggery powder which is easily available nowadays in shops and supermarkets. But this jaggery powder also has small granules. I ground those granules to make a fine powder. Now this fine jaggery powder was very easy to mix with butter.

There are certain common doubts which people face during baking cookies. I have posted a separate post regarding those queries Basics of baking – Cookies (Tips and tricks on how to bake cookies) .

Ingredients :

Wheat flour 140 gm (1 cup)
Jaggery powder 85 gm (1/2 cup +2 tbsp)
Rava 22 gm (2 tbsp)
Baking soda 1/4 tsp
Baking powder 1 /4 tsp
Cinnamon powder 1/4 tsp
Nutmeg powder 1/8 tsp
Cardamom powder 1/2 tsp
Butter 50-55 gm (1/4 cup)
Milk, if required

All ingredients should be on room temperature.

Process :

In a bowl take wheat flour, baking soda, baking powder, rava, cinnamon powder, nutmeg powder and cardamom powder. Mix them well and keep the bowl separately.

In another bowl take butter and cream it with a spatula.

Add jaggery powder in the butter and mix it nicely till it is creamy.

Add rest of the dry ingredients and mix them nicely to prepare dough. If dough is little bit dry, add 1-2 tbsp of milk.

As jaggery based dough would be little bit sticky, apply some butter on your palms while preparing dough.

Roll this dough in between two sheets of butter paper. Rolling between two sheets of butter paper gives smooth, crack free cookies and it’s easy to roll sticky dough.

Now keep this sheet of rolled dough in the fridge along with butter paper.

In between, spread parchment paper on your baking tray and keep it ready. If you don’t have parchment paper, simply grease baking tray with oil/butter.

After 40-50 minutes rolled dough would be firm in the fridge. Take it out and with the help of cookie cutter cut the cookies in desired shapes. If you don’t have cookie cutter, use any sharp edged steel glass or bowl. Cold and firm rolled dough helps in getting neat cookies.

Finish the rest of the dough in the same way and place them in your baking tray. Keep some gap between cookies.

Bake them in a preheated oven at 170/175 degrees for 15-20 minutes or till the edges of the cookies start turning brown. If your cookies are too thin, reduce the time and temperature. Cookies will be very soft after baking time is over, so carefully shift them on cooling rack.

Remember that when we shifted cookies on the cooling rack they were very hot – so this heat might turn cookies into dark brown in colour. Cookies will become firm once they cool down completely.

You are definitely going to love these healthy, flavoured beautifully with spices, jaggery based cookies and I bet you can’t stop yourself with just one cookie only…!!!

August 7, 2019October 31, 2021

Deeksha Pathak54 Comments