Eggless Chunky Pineapple-Cardamom Cake

Another Cake Recipe!!!! I Saw this Cake @ Jyoti's Blog!!! I Love Pineapples. Tried this last month, before coming to Chennai. Loved the taste of chunky pineapples hidden inside the cake!!!! I have replaced half the amount of AP flour with Wheat flour and also got only 1/2 cup of juice from the can.  Please follow the Link for the Original Recipe

Ingredients
3/4 Cup All Purpose Flour.
3/4 Cup Wheat Flour
1/4 cup butter,soft at room temperature.
3/4 cup condensed milk.
1/2 can pineapple Chunks
1/2 cup of pineapple juice (from the pineapple can).
1 tsp baking powder.
1/2 tsp baking soda.
3 cardamom pod seeds powdered finely.

Method

• Preheat the oven to 180C and Grease a round cake tin with butter or line it with parchment paper.


• In a Bowl, Mix Butter and Condensed Milk together until smooth and creamy.


• In a separate bowl Sift together AP flour,Wheat flour, baking powder, baking soda and powdered cardamom.

• Add the dry mixture to the wet mixture little by little, Keep stirring all the time.Add the pineapple juice little by little and whisk till it is mixed properly. Fold in the Pineapple Chunks into the mixture.


• Pour the cake batter into the prepared tin. Bake the cake at 180C  for 20mins.Reduce the temperature to 160C and bake for another 20-25 mins or until it passes the toothpick test.


• Take it out of the Oven, Let it cool for 5 minutes. Invert it on to a Wire Rack. Serve it Warm!!!

Note

Baking time differs from Oven to Oven. So, Please check the settings of your Oven.

Baileys Ice Cream

Hello to all my baking buddies! How are you doing? I'm back here to defrost my frozen blog, otherwise it would become a huge iceberg soon, hahaha... Well, I can't stay too long here, as the little one need more of my attention. 

As I don't have sufficient time to make interesting bakes, so I think ice cream would be much easier for me to make especially keep it in the freezer to serve my visitors in anytime. This Baileys ice cream was something I like to try long time ago. The unique taste of the ice cream with a bit of alcohol make me feel floated. Hahaha I must admit, I'm not that alcoholic. 

Beside, the texture remain smoothly soft when it's brought out from the freezer unlike my previous attempts which has to be wait for a few minutes before I can scoop it out nicely. I read an article about adding alcohol to ice cream enhances both flavor and texture. Alcohol lowers the freezing point, so ice creams stay creamier and smoother because they do not freeze as solid and are less likely to form ice crystals. Oh yes! It's so true after my experiment. But, I was too greedy on my second experiment as I add too much Baileys in it until it became too soft. So now I've learned that too much alcohol can prevent ice cream from freezing at all. A rule of thumb is to add one and a half tablespoons of 80-proof alcohol for every quart of ice cream base. Well, I'm going to feed my baking buddies soon, hope they don't mind the texture and most importantly is, they won't get drunk, hahahaha.....

Recipe:

480ml whole milk

150g granulated sugar

4 large egg yolks

240ml heavy cream

1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

4 tablespoon Baileys 

some raisin soak in rum (optional)

Pour the milk into a medium size, heavy bottomed saucepan, add approximately 100g of the sugar, place over medium heat, and cook, stirring occasionally, until the mixture register 77C on an instant-read thermometer.

In a nonreactive, medium-size bowl, whisk together the egg yolks and remaining 50g of sugar until foamy and slightly thickned. Carefully temper the egg yolks with the hot milk mixture by slowly adding about half of the hot liquid to the eggs, whisking continously. Pour the heated egg mixture into the sauce pan with the hot milk and return to the stove top. Stirring continously with a wooden spoon or heatproof rubber spatula, cook the mixture over medium heat until it register 85C on an instant read thermometer or is thick enough to coat the back of the spoon or spatula, taking care to make sure the mixture does not boil. Remove from the heat. Emulsify the mix, if not completely smooth, before incorporating it into the cold cream.

Pour the heavy cream into a clean, large stainless-steel or glas mixing bowl set over an ice bath. Pour the heated custard through a fine mesh sieve or strainer into the cold cream, add the vanilla extract and stir until fully incorporated. Stir occasionally about every 5 minutes until the mixture has fully cooled. This should take about 1/2 hour. Remove the mixing bowl from the ice bath, dry off the bottome of the bowl if necessary, cover with plastic wrap, and chill in the refrigerator for at least 8 hours or overnight. Add in the Baileys and stir incorporated. When ready, pour the chilled mixture into the ice-cream maker and about 25 minutes from being done.

Remove the finished ice cream from the ice cream maker and add in the drained raisin then place in a plastic continer. Cover with plastic wrap by pressing the wrap gently against the top of the ice cream, affix lid to container, and place in the freezer to fully harden before serving.

Savoury Oat Crackers

This crackers were tried out from my baking cook book collections and after seeing the final outcome, I started to prepare it quite often. Now a days it has become our most of the time evening snack with a cup of tea. You can feel the crispiness of the crackers and crunchiness of the cashew nuts at the same time. Dried thyme leaves add a very nice flavour too. If you are going to try it out, do not compromise any ingredients except egg. You will definitely like it.



I am blogging here the cashew nut version of oatmeal crackers.



Basic Information:
Preparation Time: 15 minutes
Cooking Time: 12-15 minutes
Makes: 15 crackers


Ingredients: (Updated recipe)



Rolled Oats - 90 grams

Unsalted Butter - 100 grams

Whole meal flour/Plain flour -25 grams

Salt - 1/2 teaspoon

Dried Thyme - 1 teaspoon

Walnuts / Cashew nuts - 40 grams, finely chopped

Egg - 1, well beaten

Sesame seeds - 3 tablespoons or more



Method:



1) Preheat the oven to 180C/350F. Grease the baking tray with butter or line it with baking sheet. Spread out the sesame seeds in a wide plate.

2) Mix Rolled oats, unsalted butter, plain flour, salt, dried thyme and cashew nuts in a mixing bowl. Lightly rub them using your finger tip.

3) Add beaten egg little by little till you get the soft dough. It is not required to use the full egg here.

4) Once the dough is ready, make a gooseberry size balls and roll them in sesame seeds to coat lightly and evenly.



5) Place the balls in the prepared baking trays. Make sure to leave enough space between dough balls.

6) with the help of rolling pin or hand, roll over the balls to flatten them as much as possible.

7) Keep inside the oven and bake it for 12- 15 minutes or until it is pale golden.

8) Cool the baking trays for 3-4 minutes, then transfer it to a wire rock to finish cooling.

Note: I used my hand to make the balls flatten with the help of remaining beaten egg. The beaten egg/water avoids stickiness of batter with hand while flattening.



Linking this recipe to Lite Bite's - WWC - Oats In Baking.