Baking Archives - Page 4 of 8

Khoya Cheesecake (fusion dessert)

Khoya Cheesecake (fusion dessert) is a wonderful lip-smacking dessert that you can even prepare without baking. There are baked versions of cheesecakes also but to keep the recipe simple we are doing a no-bake version. Khoya/Mawa from milk is a very rich, delicious ingredient used for Indian sweets. Using khoya in cheesecake with Indian cookies ‘nankhatai’ crust gave it such a wonderful taste and I loved the way this Khoya Cheesecake(fusion dessert) looked.

When I started cooking in the kitchen, it was forced by my mother and my whole aim used to be to finish the given work fast as soon as possible and dash out of the kitchen.

Later, when I started staying in a different city alone because of my job, I had to cook because I needed something to fill the stomach.

After marriage I was completely a housewife, so started doing organized cooking. Some disasters happened and calls to mom before each festival for the recipe of a particular dish were regular.

Disasters in the kitchen never encouraged me to try the same dish again. As I used to feel that already I had wasted so much… I should not take a second chance.

Successful attempts and praises used to give energy and enthusiasm to try something new!!! But till now I was cooking only those dishes which had fixed recipes. It never occurred to me to do some experiments and create something new. Probably because I was in my own shell. My world was around my mother and my mother in law’s world where traditions were fixed. But now social media was slowly creeping into people’s life. People were getting introduced to unknown regions. I got introduced to the world of baking. I was so surprised to see that people bake bread and cookies in their kitchen ovens. Not only this, but many create new dishes by experimenting with two different types of recipes together.

I gathered courage and started baking in my microwave. Slowly we stopped buying any bakery stuff from the market as I got to know the difference between ingredients used in bakery and home-baked stuff.

Success boosts our confidence a lot!! I was willing to prepare a dessert which should be a fusion of western and Indian cuisine. But at the same time, it should not be complicated. Mawa/khoya (evaporated milk) a traditional, classic, rich ingredient in many Indian sweets preparations. A whole sweet could be done with khoya or it could be the base ingredient for other sweet or it can be used as a filling in sweets. It is even added in some vegetables and the best part is that I always prepare it at home rather than buying. So I decided to use khoya, an all-time favorite ingredient and prepare Khoya/Mawa Cheesecake. For the base of any cheesecake, Marie or graham crackers are generally used. I felt that instead of using graham crackers or marie cookies, Nankhatai (cookies prepared with clarified butter) would complement this cheesecake better.

Just a few days ago I had baked nankhatai by following the recipe from my very dear multi talented friend Archana Chauhan’s blog https://apinchoflyfe.com/2019/01/12/kesar-naankhatai/These kesar nankhatai complimented cheesecake so well.

I wanted to create a small border around the cheesecake along with the base from the cookies. I had seen some pictures of cheesecake like this, and this brown border had always attracted me….!!! Cheesecake looked very pretty with this brown border and with the addition of khoya this Cheesecake became a perfect symphony of Indo-Western cuisine culture!!!

Ingredients :

Crust

200 gm crushed nankhatai
3 tbsp melted butter

Filling

200 gm cream cheese
200 gm mawa/khoya
2 tbsp milk
100 gm powdered sugar
1/2 tbsp cardamom powder
1/2 cup whipping cream
1 tsp rose essence (optional)

Topping/Decoration

Cardamom powder
Roasted mixed nuts
Dried rose petles
Saffron strands

Process:

Crush nankhatai in a zip lock bag and keep it in a bowl. Add melted butter to it and mix nicely.

In a springform tin spread this nankhatai mixture evenly and press it nicely with the help of the back of the spoon. If you want to add a little border at the sides of the cheesecake, spread nankhatai mixture slightly at the sides of the tin and press there also. Keep the tin in the fridge for half an hour so that the mixture becomes firm.

In a pan add milk and khoya and keep stirring it on sim heat until khoya turns into a thick paste consistency. Switch off heat and let it cool down.

Whip up cream cheese till it is smooth and then start adding caster sugar in small portions. You can reduce or add sugar as per your taste bud. Add cardamom powder and keep this ready cream cheese in a separate bowl.

Now whip up 1/2 cup of whipping cream till it gets stiff consistency.

Now gently add cream cheese and khoya in whipping cream. If you are interested, can add rose essence. I did not add because I wanted the fragrance of dried rose petals.

By now cookie mixture is settled down firmly – take out the tin from the fridge and spread evenly cream cheese, whipping cream and khoya mix in the tin. Keep it in the fridge for 4-5 hours or overnight to firm up.

Toast some mixed nuts and crush them. When cheesecake firms up, take it out from the fridge, loosen the pan and take out the cheesecake carefully and keep it on a separate plate. Decorate it on the top around the edges with crushed toasted nuts and dried rose petals. In the middle of the top sprinkle cardamom powder and some strands of kesar to add some more beauty and flavor.

Enjoy this delicious fusion dessert and if you have a big generous heart, share it with your friends !!

I loved a lot this slightly high brown border around it!

Did you like my experiment for creating a fusion dessert !!

I would be glad to hear from you all ❤️

March 2, 2019December 30, 2020

Deeksha Pathak102 Comments

Burger Buns

There are a few snacks which I can’t have in any restaurant. Burger is one such snack. I know, some of you there just can’t believe it! But it’s true… I can have pizza.. garlic bread is my favourite, potato wedges and I love chocolate shake at Domino’s. But a big no to burger. Actually my husband and daughter both are also not a big fan of burger. So, collectively as a family we three are united with at least one thing…. Lol

Over the years husband and wife start having mutual likes and dislikes of certain things, but if your teenage kid also joins you… maybe over just for a small reason, you feel so happy… or probably you are just lucky!!!

For us burger is that link!!

Still, baking burger buns was in my bucket list for a very long time, but most of the time I ended up baking bread or regular buns/rolls. Sometimes certain simple things take a lot of time to get implemented for no particular reason. We just keep on delaying, not because of being lazy.. but probably something more interesting comes up!

I am pretty sure that anyone who bakes wouldn’t be unaware of King Arthur Flour website. There I had seen burger buns recipe long ago and since then I was determined that one day I will surely try to bake these beautiful buns.

Well, here I didn’t exactly follow their recipe, because I didn’t want to have so many buns with white flour. And moreover I wanted to know how these buns will come up if we use only wheat flour. So I decided to bake with both the flours separately – with wheat flour and white flour, both with two cups of flour for each.

I kept the whole recipe same for both kind of buns except water content because wheat flour absorbs more water than all purpose flour.

What was the difference between wheat flour buns and white flour buns?

All purpose flour is very light and airy, so buns made with this flour got high rise. Whole wheat flour is heavy flour and during baking it didn’t rise as much as all purpose flour.

So to make wheat buns big, we can either add some more yeast, probably 1/8 tsp more or can add samolina/chiroti rava in wheat flour. Rava has a quality to puff up, so along with rava, wheat flour buns will also get high rise. You can also try by adding one egg in wheat flour dough.

Ingredients :

Flour 2 cups +2 tbsp
Milk powder 2 tbsp
Instant active yeast 1/2 tbsp +1/8 tsp
Salt 3/4 tsp
Sugar 1 +1/2 tbsp
Oil /butter 2 tbsp
Water /milk 1 cup +3 tbsp (for wheat flour)
Water/milk 1 cup minus 4 tbsp (for all purpose flour)

Water/milk should be slightly warmer than lukewarm but not hot.

Please go through all the tips before you start the preparation.

Tips:

1. Except water/milk, rest of the ingredients should be used at room temperature.

2. Instead of water, milk can be used to knead the dough. Or you can take both milk and water in 50:50 ratio.

3. Every oven is different – so baking time may vary.

4. Dough proofing time depends a lot on the temperature of your kitchen. In colder temperature first proofing can take 60 to 90 minutes. In warmer temperatures it might get over in 40 to 50 minutes. The same logic will be for second proofing time also.

5. Here we are using a lot more yeast than usual. So if your kitchen temperature is normal, you can keep the dough bowl at kitchen counter only covered with cling film.

6. If you are preparing buns at the same time with both wheat and white flour, then first knead wheat flour dough and after keeping the dough in the bowl, just leave the bowl uncovered on kitchen counter. This way the process of proofing will be slow.

Now after preparing white flour dough in the bowl, cover this bowl with cling wrap. Now you can cover the wheat flour dough bowl also.

This way now both dough will get proofed at the same time and you will be able to do rest of the steps together with both dough.

7. Absorbing liquid quality of flour varies. So don’t follow blindly the quantity of water/milk given in this recipe. If required, add or reduce 1 or 2 tbsp of water.

8. Don’t get discouraged if your first bake is not as good as you had expected. Try to find out the problem, sort it out and with the same excitement, give another trial – you will surely get it!!

Process:

Combine all dry ingredients in a big vessel.

Start adding water/milk and collect all ingredients in the shape of a dough (don’t use whole quantity of water).

Now keep adding little quantity of water and start kneading. Consistency of dough would be wet and sticky in the beginning, but slowly by continued kneading for 12-15 minutes will get required elasticity. Add oil/butter along with kneading and mix it nicely into the dough.

Keep this dough in a big oil greased bowl for first proofing. Cover the bowls with cling film or wet kitchen towel and wait till the dough rises and is double in volume. This process might take 60 to 90 minutes (read tip numbers 4 and 6).

In between, keep baking tray ready by greasing it with oil and spreading parchment paper. Parchment paper is optional.

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

Collect the dough together, knead it slightly to make it smooth and divide the dough in 4 equal parts. Do the same for both dough, so totally you will be having 8 parts.

Again grease kitchen counter with oil or sprinkle some flour. Prepare these equal sized dough parts in smooth buns. Grease your palms with oil while shaping the buns. Keep the buns in prepared tin by keeping sufficient space for each bun to puff up nicely.

Apply oil or melted butter and sprinkle sesame seeds over all buns. Cover this tray with clean kitchen towel and let it rise for second proofing (see tip number 4 & 6).

Just 10 minutes before second proofing time is getting over, preheat oven at 185/190 degrees.

Brush up buns with milk and bake them at the same temperature for 30-40 minutes or till buns become nice brown from the top. As every oven is different so temperature and time may vary.

Take out buns from the oven and keep them on cooling rack. When they are still hot, apply melted butter.

You will be having a happy dance and feeling proud that you really baked your kid’s favourite snack which is completely free from harmful chemicals and preservatives!!

Prepare these gorgeous burger buns with your favourite filling and enjoy your delicious home baked meal!!!!!

I had prepared Indian vegetarian version of filling for these burger buns. I had cooked aloo tikki Aalu ki tikiya(potato patties stuffed with spicy peas) for the filling and used cheese slices ,chutney, tomato sauce and sliced tomatoes, onions, cucumber and shredded cabbage.

And I was so happy that I developed my taste buds for this vegetarian wheat flour home baked burger bun which I had never liked in any restaurant before. Apoorva gave big thumps up and she was very happy to get junk food in her meals. Manish was too excited to taste them when I sent him pictures on Whats App!

Would love to hear from you about this recipe and your experience while baking them. Feel free to ask any doubts through the comments section!!!!

February 28, 2019February 28, 2019

Deeksha Pathak77 Comments

Hot dog buns

When I started learning baking bread, I thought that there are only three varieties of breads which are common and popular ……sandwich bread, pav buns/dinner rolls and pizza bread. But as we start learning one thing, we become greedy to know more. Slowly I got introduced to a lot more varieties in breads.

But to keep it simple, we can actually create a lot more varieties through these three types of bread only — sandwich, buns and pizza.

Buns are kind of tiny round shaped bread. I love baking them the most. Just change their shapes and flavors and give them different titles.

Through pizza base basic recipe, do slight changes and create different varieties. Here you have a freedom to add different veggies, sauce and herbs.

The most popular and forgiving is White Sandwich Bread. Unlimited variations can be created with sandwich bread recipe.

Hot dog bun is also a kind of small size rectangular bread. It is named as ‘bun’ probably because instead of slicing it like bread, it has filling in between like burger buns. Whatever you call it, hot dog bun or hot dog bread… it is a wonderful stomach filling snack!!

But hot dog bun is still a fancy variety of bread in India. You wouldn’t find them in local bakeries too. But nowadays courtesy social media, kids have a lot of exposure to different things. They definitely know about hot dog buns. So why not bake this fancy bread at home and give a pleasant surprise to your kids in the evening!!!

I have taken the recipe of Pull apart buns/Dinner bread rolls here to bake hot dog buns. I got total 11 buns from this recipe. But if you want slightly bigger sized buns, divide the dough only in 8-9 buns… choice is all yours!!

I have used all purpose flour here but for a healthy version wheat flour or 50:50 ratio of wheat flour and all purpose flour can be taken. You can follow the same recipe if using wheat flour or mixed flour – just have to increase the quantity of water/milk for kneading as wheat flour absorbs more liquid.

Please don’t forget to go through the whole list of tips before proceeding with the process of baking. I have a separate post for some guidelines on bread/buns baking. You can check that also…. Wheat flour buns with pizza spices (2) (basic tips to follow if following a bread /buns recipe)

Tips:

1. Except water/milk, rest of the ingredients should be used at room temperature.

2. Instead of water, milk can be used to knead the dough. Or you can take both milk and water in 50:50 ratio.

3. Every oven is different – so baking time may vary.

5. Absorbing liquid quality of flour varies. So don’t follow blindly the quantity of water /milk given in this recipe. If required, add or reduce 1 or 2 tbsp of water.

6. Don’t compare the result of homebaked bread with any market bought bread. We are not adding any artificial gluten, emulsifier or bread enhancer. We are trying to bake a healthy bread loaf for our family which is free from preservatives.

7. Don’t get discouraged if your first bake is not as good as you had expected. Try to find out the problem, sort it out and with the same excitement, give another trial, you will surely get it!!

Ingredients :

All purpose flour /maida 3+3/4 cup
Instant active yeast 1+1/2 tsp (Gloripan brand)

Milk powder 1/4 cup

Salt 1+1/2 tsp
Sugar 1+1/2 tbsp
Oil/butter 3 tbsp
Water/ milk 1+1//2 cup minus 2 tbsp (slightly warmer than lukewarm but not hot)

Process:

Combine all dry ingrediants in a big vessel.

Start adding water/milk and collect all ingredients in shape of a dough (don’t use whole quantity of water).

Keep this dough in a big oil greased bowl for first proofing. Cover the bowl with cling film and 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.

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

Collect the dough together, knead slightly it to make it smooth and divide the dough in 11 equal parts.

Again grease kitchen counter with oil or sprinkle some flour. Roll these equal sized dough parts in smooth rectangular shaped buns. Spread the buns about 6 by 4 size.

Roll the bun from the top exactly the way we roll bread.

Seam the edges tight by pinching them. Prepare all the rolls in the same way.

Keeping this seam side at the bottom, place them in your butter/oil greased tin by keeping some gap between each bun.

Brush these buns with oil and keep them covered at a warm place for second proofing. Second proofing will be over in 20-30 minutes. If weather is cold it might take slightly more time.

Just before second proofing time is getting over, preheat oven at 185 degrees. Brush-up buns with milk and bake them at the same temperature till they are nicely brown.

Take out the buns from the oven and keep them on a cooling rack. Apply butter evenly on hot buns. This will be helpful in keeping the buns soft and buns will get nice sheen.

Prepare filling of your choice. I finely chopped onion, cucumber, tomato and cabbage, added salt, pepper crushed paneer, dry mint powder and mix with Coriander Chutneyand tomato sauce. It was delicious vegetarian filling.

Instead of paneer… cheese and boiled potatoes with mustard sauce and oregano flakes can be added. Choices are unlimited!!!!

I am sure some of you are definitely planning to give your kiddo’s a wonderful delicious surprise.. don’t forget to share your experience with us. I would love to here from you about this post and your baking experience ❤️❤️

February 17, 2019October 7, 2019

Deeksha Pathak46 Comments

Wheat flour cylindrical Sandwich Bread(3)

As promised in my previous post, White Flour Sandwich Bread(4) cylindrical shaped here is the recipe for the wheat flour cylindrical sandwich bread. This wheat flour cylindrical shaped log of bread also came out with beautiful brown colour!!

How shiny it is after applying butter on hot bread!!!

Wheat flour bread gives you a guilt free indulgence.

With cylindrical shape of wheat bread, round slices are definitely more appealing, so you can pack sandwiches for your kiddo’s lunch box. I am sure you will find lunch box empty in the evening. Nothing can make a mother more happy than taking out empty lunch box from their kid’s school bag.

Any snack prepared by these beautiful round slices would be a great attraction for your kitty party too.

The main problem generally people face in not trying healthy baking bread is that sometimes family members are so much accustomed to the taste of market bought bread that there is no encouragement to bake healthy bread.

To turn your loved ones into healthy eating habits, you can just show them the list of ingredients printed on any branded bread pack and compare it with the list of ingredients you would be using while preparing a home baked bread. I believe this comparison will be helpful in changing their mindset.

Please go through all the tips before you start kneading the dough …

Ingredients :

Wheat flour 3 cups
Milk powder 1/8 cup
Salt 1+1/4 tsp
Sugar 2 tbsp
Instant active yeast 1 tsp
Oil /butter 2 tbsp
Water/ milk 1+3/4 cups minus 2 tbsp(should be slightly warmer than lukewarm but not hot)

Tips :

Except water, rest of the ingredients should be used at room temperature.
Instead of water, milk can be used to knead the dough. Or you can take both milk and water in 50:50 ratio.
Every oven is different – so baking time may vary.
Dough proofing time depends a lot on the temperature of your kitchen. In colder temperature first proofing can take 60 to 90 minutes. In warmer temperatures it might get over in 40 to 50 minutes. The same logic will be for second proofing time also.
Wheat flour dough is more delicate than all purpose flour dough. So after first proofing don’t knead it much. Punch it and bring it back together to roll the log.
To achieve best results in wheat flour bread, don’t be lazy in kneading. I always knead wheat flour bread dough for almost 20 minutes.
Absorbing liquid quality of flour varies. So don’t follow blindly the quantity of water /milk given in the recipe. If required, add or reduce 1-2 tbsp of water.
Don’t compare the result of home baked wheat flour bread with market bought wheat flour bread. We are not adding any artificial gluten, emulsifier, or bread enhancer. We are trying to bake a healthy bread loaf, so it might be slightly heavy and dense. For better results, try to use milled flour than packed ones.
Don’t get discouraged if your first loaf of bread is not as good as you had expected. Try to find out the problem, sort it and with the same excitement, give another trial, you will surely get it!!

For few more tips you can check Wheat flour buns with pizza spices (2) (basic tips to follow if following a bread /buns recipe)

I am posting link and complete address of the shop from where I purchased this bread tin/mould. It is an Institute of baking and cake art, and within their premises they have this shop, probably for the convenience of their students.

46/3, Mission road – Double road junction, Above Noble stores, Bangalore – 560027, Mission Road, Bangalore, 560027, Karnataka

https://www.ibcablr.in/

This bread tin/mould is also available on Amazon.

Measurements for bread tin

11 inch length
3 inch diameter

Process:

Collect all dry ingredients in a big vessel.

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

Now start pouring remaining water 1 tbsp at a time and knead the dough for 20 minutes by adding oil/butter simultaneously.

Initially, kneading will look a lot messy and sticky, but slowly dough will become smooth. Keep the dough in an oil greased bowl for first proofing (bowl should be big enough to have extra space for doubled up dough). Apply some oil 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 switched-off microwave. First proofing takes 1 to 1+1/2 hours depending on the temperature of your kitchen.

In the meantime oil grease both sides of the bread tin.

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

Knead the dough very softly and spread it according to the size of bread tin.

Start rolling it tightly in the shape of a log.

Seal the sides by pinching them tightly.

Keep this wheat flour sandwich bread log into the tin by keeping seamed side at the bottom and apply oil on top of the log to avoid it drying. Close the tin and once more keep it in the switched-off microwave or any warm place for second proofing. Second proofing generally takes 15 to 20 minutes.

Just 10 minutes before baking, preheat your oven at 185-190 degrees for 10 minutes. Give milk wash to proofed dough and bake it in a preheated oven at the same temperature for 40-50 minutes or till the bread becomes evenly brown.

I bet you will fall in love with your gorgeous bake of wheat flour based cylindrical sandwich bread 💞

Apply butter on hot log of bread. Butter will be helpful in keeping the bread soft. Take out bread from the oven and let it cool down completely on cooling rack. Don’t let the bread stay in tin for long. Steam from hot bread will make the bread soggy from the bottom.

Once bread cools down completely, you can slice it. But if you can control your temptation for a few hours more, you will get the best slices!!

Once bread cools down completely, wrap it in 3-4 layers of cling film and keep it in the fridge. This will settle down the crumb of bread and later slice it with bread cutting serrated knife.

Now, who can say no to have breakfast of these gorgeous wheat flour bread round slices!!!!

Enjoy your home baked bread with your loved ones and don’t leave a chance to impress your friends by gifting them….

I would really love to see you baking this healthy wheat flour bread for your loved ones.

If you liked this post of healthy wheat flour cylindrical sandwich bread, please spare some time to express your thoughts through the comments box. A little bit chat over food connect people together… 👭👫👬👭👬👫

February 13, 2019April 28, 2022

Deeksha Pathak36 Comments

White Flour Sandwich Bread(4) cylindrical shaped

Finally, after a long gap I am baking!!!

I love baking or doing new experiments in my kitchen. But sometimes a phase comes in life when you don’t want to do anything. You simply want to leave everything and disappear somewhere. Sounds hilarious, but I was wishing that I should be kidnapped 😁.

Not sure if this thought was hilarious or weird 🙆.

Around one month back I had gone to my favorite shop in a ‘Baking institute’ in Bangalore to buy brown sugar for chocolate cookies. Unfortunately brown sugar was not available there too but I found some new bread tins and without giving a second thought I bought them. My husband Manish was puzzled with my obsession for bread tins.

According to him ‘it’s the same bread you are going to bake in this tin also, then what difference does it make?’

I did not argue. I didn’t want to justify myself for my collection of bread tins. No one can understand that glow in your eyes the moment you see a different type of tin. And most importantly, I don’t buy costly branded stuff here. “Go local” is my motto.

You can check this place through their website

http://bakersmart.co

I am posting another link and complete address of this shop also. It is an Institute of baking and cake art, and within their premises they have this shop, probably for the convenience of their students.

46/3, Mission road – Double road junction, Above Noble stores, Bangalore – 560027, Mission Road, Bangalore, 560027, Karnataka

Home

The shop also had triangle shaped bread tins, but they were too big in size,so I didn’t buy, although I was very tempted to buy them.

Shopping was over and I was excited to use those tins. But somehow, as I mentioned before, I had completely lost interest. Every morning I used to plan to bake this and that but ended up not doing anything; strange!

Slowly I prepared myself to come out of this phase and last week, one whole day all I did was bake cookies and breads.

This was such a good and productive day – cookies were perfect and breads were wonderful!! I felt so good and excited for trying some new things…..!

Now let’s talk about this bread. One day while surfing on Google I found the image of cylindrical shaped bread. I liked it a lot. After reading about it I found that it’s an old style of bread baking.

Old style??? Are you kidding, it looks so wonderful.

That’s why the moment I saw this type of bread mould in the shop, without thinking I purchased. They had plain cylindrical tins also but because of the stripes effects I preferred to buy this one.

I loved the picture perfect cylindrical log of bread and those cute round circles of bread slices….

Do you still think that I need to justify my shopping!

Come, let’s bake this bread!!

If this is your first bread baking experience or you have some doubts regarding bread baking, I have given some tips in a separate post to help you with your doubts. Go through this whole post, Wheat flour buns with pizza spices (2) (basic tips to follow if following a bread /buns recipe) but still if you have any doubts feel free to ask.

Measurements for bread tin

11 inch length
3 inch diameter

Ingredients :
All purpose flour(Maida ) 2 +1/2 cups
Milk powder 1/8 cup
Salt 1 tsp
Sugar 1+1/2 tbsp
Instant active yeast 3 /4 tsp
Oil/butter 1+1/2 tbsp
Water 1 cup minus 1 tbsp (should be slightly warmer than lukewarm but not hot)

Rest of the ingredients should be on the room temperature.

My 1 cup is 250 ml

Process :

Take all dry ingredients in a big vessel so that kneading is easy.

Collect all these ingredients in shape of a rough dough with the help of water. Don’t use entire quantity of water in this step.

Now keep adding water in small quantity along with oil/butter and knead the dough for 15 minutes or till it gets elasticity.

Transfer this smooth dough into a big size oil greased bowl. Apply some oil on top of the dough, cling wrap the bowl and keep it in a warm place for first proofing.

In between, keep baking tin ready by greasing it with oil/butter. Remember to grease both the bottom and lid sides.

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

Collect the dough together, knead it very lightly to make it smooth and spread it as per the size of baking pan.

From the top, start rolling it tightly and prepare a log.

Don’t let the edges be loose – seam them by pinching nicely.

Keep this seam side down and gently place this log in the baking tin.

Apply some oil/melted butter on top of the log to avoid it drying and close the tin for second proofing.

Just 10 minutes before second proofing time is getting over, preheat oven at 180/185 degrees.

Second proofing will be over in 20-30 minutes.

Brush up the log with milk, close the lid and bake it at 180/185 degrees for 40-50 minutes or till the log gets beautiful brown colour.

Isn’t this a gorgeous bake!!!

Take out this beautiful cylindrical loaf of bread, apply butter all over it(I forgot) and let it cool down completely on cooling rack. You can slice it once bread cools down completely but for the best results, cling wrap it with 3-4 layers, keep it in the fridge for 3-4 hours and then slice it with a serrated knife.

You will be dancing with joy seeing your neat, pretty, cute bread coins!!!

Story of these beautiful bread slices doesn’t end here…….

soon it will be followed by the post of whole wheat flour cylindrical bread version….

till then try this all purpose flour bread. White flour boosts a lot of confidence in your baking journey.

If you liked this post, I would love to hear from you in the comments and if you are trying this recipe,please share your experience with us. Your experience might be a lot useful for others!

February 9, 2019February 10, 2019

Deeksha Pathak54 Comments

Coconut Cheesecake (No-Bake)

Coconut Cheesecake (no – bake) is a dessert where no flour is required. You can bake a cheesecake and it can be prepared without baking also. I had no plans for this dessert. From cookies baking disaster Coconut Cheesecake(no-bake) was planned!!

I decided to bake coconut cookies and chocolate chips cookies in the evening.

I should never plan to bake anything in the evening…my first mistake.

Dinner preparations got pushed to a later hour, so I decided to prepare cookies after dinner…… my second mistake.

Baking cookies is not a big project but I prefer to cook or bake alone, otherwise I easily get distracted and end up forgetting to add some or other ingredient. That’s why I always bake in the afternoon when I am alone with my oven.

In the evening my daughter Apoorva is back from school and she starts telling her whole day stories. Then Manish is back from the office and TV is on. So I never bake anything during these hours. But that day I thought that as now I am baking cookies for such a long time so I wouldn’t do anything wrong. Basically what can go wrong in a cookie recipe and many people bake cookies while watching TV?

But I was definitely wrong. I was watching a comedy show on TV and completely forgot to add sugar in the coconut cookies. I had powdered sugar and left it in the jar. Took rest of the ingredients with me and kept everything on dining table. After baking first batch I wanted to taste warm cookie and realised my mistake!

These cookies had very mild sweet taste of coconut, but I knew very well that Manish is not going to eat them… I felt so sad for wasting so much of butter. I just couldn’t find any other way to use these sugar-less cookies.

Next day while scrolling down Instagram posts I saw one cheese cake post and immediately knew how I am going to use my sugar-less coconut cookies. I had cream cheese, desiccated coconut, whipping cream and condensed milk in my pantry. I decided to go ahead with these ingredients only for a no-bake coconut cheese cake.

In India we don’t get good quality dairy based whipping cream. All bakers use non dairy whipping cream of different brands. Amul brand has dairy based whipping cream in red colour pack but it is not available in all shops. Once when I saw this pack at my nearest grocery store, I bought a small pack to try it out. For coconut cheese cake I decided to use this, but while whipping, realised that it is taking its own sweet time to get stiff peaks. I gave up in between and thought that it might set in 5-6 hours in the fridge. It did set, but was not completely firm. That’s why you can see in the pictures that the top part of whipping cream in cheese cake is slightly loose from the sides. So if you try this cheesecake, go ahead with non-dairy whipping cream. We can add melted white chocolate or agar agar for loose cream to set firm.

For flavor, along with roasted coconut flakes, I added orange zest with whipping cream to balance sweet taste. Orange zest gave delicious fresh flavor and roasted coconut flakes added wonderful crunch along with cookie base.

Overall, I really loved and enjoyed this simple no-bake cheese cake experiment which was done only to use my sugar-less coconut cookies.

Ingredients :

cookies crust

250 gm sugar less coconut cookies
3 tbsp condensed milk
30 gm butter

filling

400 gm cream cheese
70 gm castor sugar

200 gm whipping cream
60 gm castor sugar

extra flavour and decoration

1+1/2 tsp orange zest
1/4 cup roasted desiccated coconut flakes

Process :

Keep coconut cookies in a zip lock bag and crush them nicely.

In a bowl add crushed cookies, condensed milk and butter. Mix well everything and spread this mixture evenly in a spring form cake tin. Press this mixture nicely with the back of spoon. Keep it in the fridge to firm up for 20-30 minutes.

Whip up cream cheese till it is smooth and then start adding caster sugar in small portions. You can reduce or add sugar as per your taste bud. Keep this ready cream cheese in a seprate bowl.

Grate zest from the oranges.

Now whip up whipping cream and in small portions keep adding caster sugar. I have used dairy based Amul red pack whipping cream, so I have to add sugar. If you are using non dairy whipping cream, sugar is not required. Mix orange zest nicely in the cream (coconut cream can also be added).

By now cookie mixture is settled down firmly. Take out the pan from the fridge and spread evenly cream cheese.

Sprinkle some toasted coconut flakes.

Now spread whipping cream evenly.

Again sprinkle toasted coconut flakes all over the cream. Keep the pan in the fridge for 5-6 hours or overnight.

Later take out the pan from the fridge and carefully take out cheese cake from the spring form tin. Give it 5-7 minutes standing time because it would be too cold.