Red Velvet Cupcakes

Red velvet – reminds me of royalty somehow. And these cupcakes make me think of princesses having dainty little bites of these for tea.

I have had such a wonderful response to my blog and it is the most flattering thing in the world when friends insist that they want good old ME to bake them important stuff like a birthday cake!! I have tried them out before but the cream cheese frosting never turned out well. So I was pretty surprised when Jahnavi insisted on having a red velvet cake for her birthday with cream cheese frosting. This accompanied by a squeal when I tentatively agreed - all the while hoping that I break my red velvet cake jinx this time.

I read my baking bible religiously and Dorie Greenspan advices that big complicated stuff (read big cakes with icing for me) are best left to really experienced people, and one should start off with easy things. So I decided to break my red velvet cake jinx by baking tiny mini cupcakes instead of one huge cake. And well, what can I say? The advice of this baking guru is never wrong!

This cupcake originated in the southern parts of the United States and has been made famous by Magnolia Bakery and the TV show, Sex and the City. The red colour is formed when the cocoa powder reacts with the acid in the buttermilk. I am also given to believe that white wine vinegar also plays a role in this (apart from the red colouring used of course). Wikipedia tells me that during World War II, when food was rationed, bakers used beetroot juice to enhance the colour of their cakes! For those of you who abhor food colouring, let me know if you try this out!

 Try this wonderfully moist cake out. It has such a satiny finish to it that I almost don’t want to eat it.

Red Velvet Cupcakes

Yields – 12 mini cupcakes, 24 roses, 1 normal sized cupcake

Adapted from – The Purple Foodie via The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook

This recipe doesn’t call for vinegar – though I used it. If you don’t have access to any, you can simply double the amount of baking soda.

Ingredients

4 Tablespoons / 60g. butter, at room temperature
¾ cup / 150g. powdered sugar
1 egg
2 1/2 / 10g. Tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tbsp / 20ml. red food coloring
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup / 120ml. buttermilk or well beaten yoghurt
1 cup plus 2 Tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt (if you’re using unsalted butter)
1/2 tsp teaspoon baking soda

1 ½ teaspoon white wine vinegar

Method:

1.                 Preheat the oven to 170°C/350°F.

2.                 In a bowl, beat butter and the sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy and well mixed.

3.                 Turn the mixer up to high speed, slowly add the egg and beat until everything is well incorporated.

4.                 In a separate bowl, mix together the cocoa powder, red food colouring and vanilla extract to make a very thick, dark paste. Add to the butter mixture and mix thoroughly until evenly combined and coloured

5.                 Turn the mixer up to slow speed, add a third of the flour mixture, then half the buttermilk, a third of the flour, half the buttermilk, and ending with the rest of the flour. You can fold in the last third of flour by hand.

6.                 In another bowl, add the baking soda to the vinegar. Be careful – this will fizz. Add immediately to the batter and mix well.

7.                 Spoon mixture into mini cupcake moulds.

8.                 Bake for about 20-25 mins or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean.

9.                 Let cool completely before frosting the cakes.

Cream Cheese Frosting

1 1/6 cups / 150 gms. icing sugar, sifted

1 ½ Tablespoons butter / 25gms. room temperature

2 ounces / 60 gms. cream cheese, cold
25 grams cream

Method:

1.                  Beat the powdered sugar and butter together. Mix on medium-slow speed until it comes together and is well mixed.

2.                  Add the cream cheese and cream all at once and beat on medium to medium-high until incorporated.

3.                  Turn the mixer to medium-high and beat for 5 minutes, or until the frosting becomes light and fluffy. Be careful not to over beat or the icing might get runny.

Tzatziki with Olive Oil and Sea Salt Crackers

I have had a fun weekend reading Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential and munching on Tzatziki with Olive Oil and Sea Salt Crackers. I was too lazy to make tzatziki from scratch so I just used some of the mix I had bought in Greece. As for the olive oil and sea salt crackers, go here for the recipe. (I hand rolled it as thin as I could and pricked it with a fork before baking so that no air bubbles could form). Go wild with the crackers - you can use all kinds of herbs and toppings for it. Just sprinkle it on top before baking. 

World Peace Cookies

These past few days have been extremely relaxing as the entire city celebrates Durga Puja. I have been browsing through Doris Greenspan’sbook and making a mental list of all the desserts that I am going to try. Ms. Greenspan gives foolproof recipes that always turn out well regardless of how hard you try to mess them up! Remember the double chocolate chip shortbread and the apple pear crisp?

She claims that these cookies can achieve world peace. One bite, and I agree. When I put them in the oven, my family started coming into the kitchen one by one within minutes. “Are they baked?,” “When will they be done?,” “Can I eat one NOW?” – this every 2 minutes. These goodies are going to make your entire house smell chocolatey and warm.

I twisted things around a bit when I tried it out. Usually when I bake, I use salted butter even when the recipe calls for unsalted and skip the additional salt. This time I used salted butter and the salt as well. These cookies are supposed to be salty and salt also increases the chocolatiness of chocolate! And instead of using bittersweet chocolate, I used milk chocolate. Since the cookie was salty I wanted a completely sweet contrast of milk chocolate. Also, don’t worry about the granulated sugar that doesn’t dissolve in the butter. Each bite of the cookie will give a fabulous sugar crunch!

Now, don’t wait – try these out today and if the cut rounds aren’t perfect, just call them rustic!

World’s Best Chocolate Cookies

Makes 36 cookies

Ingredients

1 ¼ th cups flour

1/3^rd cup unsweetened cocoa powder

½ tsp baking soda

1 stick plus 3 tablespoons / 115 grams plus 3 tbsps unsalted butter (I used salted)

2/3^rd cup (packed) light brown sugar

1/4^th cup sugar

½ tsp fleur de sel or 1/4 th teaspoon fine sea salt

1 tsp vanilla extract

5 ounces bittersweet chocolate roughly chopped (I used milk chocolate)

1. Sift the flour, cocoa powder and baking soda together.
2. Beat the butter on medium speed until soft and creamy.
3. Add both the sugars, salt and vanilla extract and beat for 2 minutes.
4. Pour in the dry ingredients and pulse 5 times until the flour is just incorporated. The mixture will be a little crumbly. At this stage, don’t work the dough too much.
5. Add the chocolate bits and mix.
6. Bring the dough together and divide it in half.
7. shape the doughs into logs that are 1 ½ inches in diameter and refrigerate them for at least 3 hours.
8. center a rack in the oven and preheat it to 325 F or 190 C. line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper / foil.
9. using a sharp thin knife, slice the logs into rounds that are ½ inch thick. Arrange them onto the baking sheet and bake them one sheet at a time for 12 – 15 minutes.
10. transfer them onto a wire rack and cool them before serving with a glass of cold milk.

Tomato Jam

Tomato jam. When I saw the recipe I was intrigued. It promised to be a jam but with all the Indian spices involved I was convinced that it would be more chutney – like. I tried it out though. I was looking for a spread I could eat with a slice of toast before heading for work each morning and this completely fits the bill. Its thick and tangy but not so jammy that it has only sugar. Its sweet and salty with the perfect dose of spices. 

The best part about this jam is its versatility. I eat it with toast in the morning but I can see myself eating it like a pickle within a sandwich that has cheese and lots of veggies. I can also use it like a chutney with tandoori roti (flat Indian bread).

I put in a bit more of the spices than asked for and the flavor was evident though not powerful. But the best part were the tomato seeds that got roasted while the jam simmered. The white bits made the jam look so good. Go ahead and try it!

Tomato Jam

Adapted from The Wednesday Chef via Mark Bittman

Makes 1 small jar

Ingredients:

350 grams ripe tomatoes, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lime juice
3/4 tablespoon fresh grated or minced ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes or cayenne 

1. Combine all ingredients in a saucepan, Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring often.

2. Reduce heat and simmer, stirring often, until mixture has consistency of thick jam, about 1 hour 15 minutes (according to the recipe) or ½ hour (for me). Taste and adjust seasoning, then pour into hot, sterilized jam jars, screw the lids on and turn the jars upside down to cool completely.

Apple Pear Crisp

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy, and Radhika a disgruntled girl.  I started a new job this month guys. Actually TWO new jobs (it is here that I must interject with an apology for the lack of posts this month). And teaching has not turned out to be such a piece of cake. For the past one month I have been studying like I have exams everyday! But what I did discover was, being disgruntled = awesome food!

I had ordered Dorie Greenspan’s Baking: From My Home toYours quite a while back and had been itching to try another recipe from it. However due to a lack of time I got around to making this apple crisp only yesterday! And boy, was I in a rush even then. You see, I had to make some notes (the same ones, again!) for my students because they had been misplaced. But the result was this delicious apple crisp that had an unbelievable contrast in flavor as well as texture.

I played around with the recipe a bit and used only 2 apples instead of 4 and put in 2 pears. I read up a lot on the correct quantity of fresh ginger that would be a substitute for ground ginger powder and ended up using only 1 teaspoon of it instead of the prescribed 1 tablespoon. I didn’t bother getting my measuring scale out and threw in what only looked like a teaspoon of cinnamon, what looked like a teaspoon of ginger and what looked like 115 grams of butter! The result though, was stupendous.

The crispy layer was grainy with a hint of cinnamon and ginger and held together by lots of butter. The next layer which was bubbling all around the crisp in the oven consisted of the apples and pears. They released all their juices and became utterly moist and flavorful. The cranberries all went to the bottom along with the sugar. The sugar caramelized and had a tinge of bitterness that was the perfect foil for the tartness of the cranberries. I had this crisp after / for three meals straight – served straight from the oven after dinner, chilled with a hot glass of milk for breakfast and warm with cold vanilla ice cream as an afternoon snack. Just thinking of it is making my mouth water and I think I need to make this again next week!

Adapted from Baking: From My Home to Yours

Makes 8 servings

Ingredients

For the topping

¾ cup all purpose flour

½ cup light brown sugar (packed)

½ cup oats

½ cup shredded dried coconut

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 tablespoon fresh grated ginger

1 stick (115 gms) cold butter, cut into pieces

For the filling

2 medium apples, peeled and cut into ½ inch chunks

2 medium pears, peeled and cut into ½ inch chunks

½ cup dried cranberries

2/3 cup sugar

1 tablespoon all purpose flour

1. Preheat the oven to 375 F or 190 C. Lightly butter 8 oven proof bowls and place on a baking sheet.
2. To make the topping: Put all the ingredients together and beat with a hand mixer on medium speed till it all comes together.
3. To make the filling: Toss all the ingredients together in a large bowl.
4. Divide the fruit evenly among the cups, then spoon an equal amount of topping over each portion. Bake the crisps for 40 – 45 minutes, or until the topping is golden and the fruit juices are bubbling up around it. transfer the cups to a rack for 10 minutes before serving.

Crispy Garlicky Baked Fries

I do not have words to describe these fries. How do you describe fries that are not actually deep fried but baked, that induces guilt free eating? Potato wedges that are wonderfully crisp and golden? A batch that makes the kitchen aromatic and smelling of warmth and home-iness?  

I didn’t even get to take proper photos as my family pounced on them as soon as they were out of the oven! We ate them with tomato and red lentil soup and it became a meal all by itself.

Garlic infused olive oil is the best thing that has come out of my kitchen and this is what I used to give the potatoes the awesome flavor. Also, since I find using the microwave a little scary, I parboiled the potatoes, tossed them in garlic and oil and then baked them for 45 minutes. These will give you wedges that are crispy on the outside and really soft and moist on the inside. Just what fries are like!

Garlicky crispy baked fries

Adapted from Lottie and Doof

Ingredients

15 small garlic cloves, minced

6 tablespoons olive oil

3 russet potatoes (about 8oz each), each cut into 12 wedges

2 ½  tablespoons cornstarch / cornflour

2 teaspoon garlic sea salt (thank you, foodie!)

1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Method

1.Preheat oven to 475 F / 250 C. Combine the garlic and oil in a large bowl and cook until the garlic is fragrant, about 3 - 4 minutes. Transfer 5 tablespoons of the oil (leaving the garlic in the bowl) to an aluminum foil coated baking sheet, tilting the sheet to coat.

2.Parboil the potatoes. Add the potatoes to the bowl with the remaining oil mixture and toss to coat.  Bake for 5 minutes.
                                                         OR

2.Add the potatoes to the bowl with the remaining oil mixture and toss to coat. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap and microwave on high power until the potatoes are translucent around the edges, 3 to 6 minutes, shaking the bowl to redistribute the potatoes halfway through cooking.

3.Combine the cornstarch, salt, pepper, ½ teaspoon garlic powder (if not using garlic salt), and cayenne in a small bowl. Sprinkle over the hot potatoes and toss well to coat. Arrange the potatoes in a single layer on the prepared baking sheet and bake, turning once, until deep golden brown and crisp, 30 - 40 minutes. Serve.