Mango Bread

Our trip to Costco ended like it always does... Too many veggies n fruits at home now! And now that our home smells of mangoes and strawberries, decided to go with strawberry milk shake and a mango bread. What can be a better way to spend Sunday afternoon? (Dont you dare say nap, am trying to kick the habit :)

Ingredients:

Mango - One big juicy fresh one

All purpose flour - 1 cup

Baking powder - 1 tsp

Baking soda - 1/2 tsp

Salt - A pinch

Egg - 1 (in room temperature)

Yoghurt - 1/4 cup

Olive oil - 3 tbsp

Sugar - 1/2 cup
Vanilla essence - 1 tsp

Blend the mango without water and get the puree.

Sieve together APF, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

Mix together egg, yoghurt, oil, mango pulp, sugar and vanilla essence until the sugar is all dissolved.

Make a well in the flour mixture, and add the yoghurt mixture to it.

Whisk everything together.

Add chopped nuts like pecan/walnut at this point if you wish to. 

Pour the batter to a greased and floured pan and bake for 30 mins at 375F(center rack)

Done. Enjoy maadi :)

Coffee Walnut cake

Tea time and feeling like some cake? Here is coffee-walnut cake for you...

Ingredients
All purpose flour - 1 cup
Baking powder - 1 tsp
Sugar - 1/2 cup(make it 3/4 if you like your cake quite sweet)
Butter - 1/2 cup
Eggs - 2
Vanilla Essence - 1 tbsp
Instant coffee powder - 2 tbsp
Milk - 1/4 cup
Boiling water - 2 tbsp
Chopped Walnuts - 2 tbsp

Method
Preheat oven to 350 F
Grease and flour a cake pan (I used 9" round pan greased with a little butter and sprinkled with some flour)
Sift together the flour with baking powder.
Add coffee powder to the boiling water and make sure that it's fully incorporated.
Beat butter and sugar until they become fluffy.
Add the eggs one after another, and beat well.
Add vanilla essence and mix.
Add coffee-water mixture and mix.
Now add the flour and milk alternately, starting and ending with flour.
Add chopped walnuts.
Bake for 30 mins or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

(I am not much of a frosting person, and hence my cake looks plain. If you like it frosted, whipped cream-coffee flavored ones will go really well with this cake)

Little Hearts

Ingredients :
Puff Pastry sheet - 1
Sugar - 4 tbsp

Roll out the puff pastry sheet. Sprinkle sugar on top. Roll it gently so that the sugar gets incorporated and do the same on the other side. And now its time for rolling. Roll as per the image below and cut them with a knife.
Bake at 400F for 8 minutes. Let them cool for 5-6 minutes and then turn them around and bake again for additional 4-5 minutes. And lo, little hearts are all set to be devoured :)

The above image is something I found online,  and this is how my own lil hearts turned out to be :)

Banana Cake

I have become a baking fan!!!
I was just not feeling upto my afternoon map and decided to try out something new, and thus started with banana cake recipe, and I threw in some blueberries and chopped walnuts too. The result was wonderful, the cake is long gone :)


Ingredients:
All Purpose Flour - 1 cup
Sugar                   - 1/2 cup
Ripe Bananas       - 2 medium sized mashed
Baking soda         - 1/2 tsp
Yoghurt               - 1/2 cup
Chopped nuts      - 1/2 cup, optional
Blueberry            - 1/2 cup, optional
Unsalted Butter   - 1/2 cup
Salt                     - 1/4 tsp (avoid if using salted butter)
Egg                     - 1

Preheat oven to 350F.
Mix together bananas, butter, sugar, yoghurt and egg.
Sieve All purpose flour, salt and baking soda.
Add the flour to the banana mixture, and mix well.
Add chopped nuts and blueberries if you prefer.
Grease the baking pan with butter and flour.
Bake for 30 minutes.

Chicken Strips

Chicken nuggets are generally deep-fried, and I generally resist the temptation to dwelve into a twenty of them for this particular reason. So decided to bake them cut as strips and evaluate the end product :)

Ingredients:
Chicken breasts cut into long and thin pieces - 1/2 lbs
Salt - As per taste
Pepper - As per taste
Lime juice - 2 tbsp
Egg white  - Of that of one egg (You can use the yolk as well if you feel up for it. For the time being, am sticking to the healthy option :)
Bread crumbs

Marinate chicken with salt, pepper and lime juice. Refrigerate for one hour.
Roll the chicken strips over the egg white and immediately over bread crumbs so that it sticks all around. I used  seasoned crumbs, but the plain ones will be just as good.
In a baking pan lined with a foil, arrange these strips. Spray a little oil(olive oil being my choice).
Put the oven on 'broil' mode, and broil for 7 minutes. Then turn over and broil for an additional 4 minutes. It's always better to check after 5 minutes since the size of the strips you have may vary from what I had.
Once its browned on both sides, enjoy it piping hot with some tomato ketchup and lime wedges (and don't you forget to let me know how it was).

Variation:
If you wish to bake it, bake at 350F for 20 minutes.
Deep frying will make it tastier, if you are game for it!

Butter Cookies

I badly wanted to make cookies after seeing them in all shapes and sizes in various stores here, and I set out to experiment. The cookies which came out tasted great but didnt look all that great (I dont have a cookie cutter). The recipe, though, is simple enough even for kids to follow.

Ingredients:
All purpose flour - 1 cup
Sugar                  - 1/2 cup
Butter                  - 1/2 cup

Whisk together all the ingredients in a mixing bowl. Make small rounds and press them to shapes as you wish.  And bake them at 375 F for 10 mins. Let them cool. And crispy cookies are all so ready for you to taste. Isn' t that easy?

Alteration:
You may use ghee instead of butter and that comes out great too.