Sourdough

I've carried on discarding and feeding my starter daily, and will continue to do so. It will go in the fridge and just sit there if I don't want to use it for a while,  then it will need feeding for a couple of days to recharge it.

When you are ready to make a loaf here is what to do:

Take 100ml of starter and add 250g bread flour and 275ml of warm water, mix with hands and leave overnight.

Next morning add 300g bread flour 1 tbsp oil and 10g salt, mix and kneed for 10 minutes. Leave for most of the day to rise, it will take longer than an loaf made with yeast.

When the dough has risen to about twice its size knock it down and leave again to prove this time for about 2-3 hours, again it should be double size.

Then place the dough on a heated floured tray into an oven  preheated to 230C. After 15 minutes reduce the heat to 200C and bake for a further 25 minutes.

Here it is:

Valentine Heart Shortbread Cookies and HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY

HAPPY VALENTINE's DAY To You ALL! :)

Today is my parents Wedding Anniversary too! I hope they live long together happily......

Happy Valentines Day! :)

Running out of time for making something special on Valentine's Day? Here is a very simple recipe for heart shaped shortbread cookies.

 I came home in the evening and thought I had some free time and was wondering if I can make some cookies for Anush, but wanted to keep it simple and easy, but a heart shaped. These shortbread cookies came out so good and it was so soft and the colored sugar really brought the shape pop out and looked very pretty.

These are the easiest cookies that I have ever made.....I hope you all like it too!

Ingredients:
------------
1 cup Butter (room temperature)
1/2 cup Sugar
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
2 cups All purpose Flour
2 tbsp or more Colored Sugar (I used pink and orange as I didn't have red)

Method:
---------
1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. In a large mixing bowl, with an electric mixer cream up butter, sugar and vanilla extract until the sugar is well blended.

3. Now add the flour and mix gently, it will be better if you mix with hand.
4. The dough may seem to be crumbly but, keep kneading, so that you get a soft dough.
5. Now place a cling wrap, and place the dough and shape it to a 2 diameter roll.

6. Now flatten it on one side a bit, then tilt it to other side and flatten it again a bit, so that you get a "V" shape.
7. Now remove the dough and keep it aside.
8. On the same cling wrap spread out the color sugar and then place the dough over the top of the sugar and roll the dough.

9. Now cover the dough gently with the cling wrap and press a little bit so that all the sugar sticks to the dough.
10. Now take a knife and cut the dough into slices each of 1/2" or the thickness you want.

11. Now take each slice of dough and press with a knife in the middle of the third side.
Note: Third side is the side other than the "V".
12. Now try to get the shape of the heart, else the easiest way is to roll out the dough and if you have a heart shaped cookie cutter then cut it and then roll each cookie in the sugar.

13. Now place these cookies 1/4" to 1/2" apart in a cookie sheet and bake it for about 8-12 mins.

You Might Also Like:

	Dark Chocolate Cookies
	Cinnamon Sugar Hearts
	Crunchy Orange Muffin Cookies

Strawberry Lemoncurd Tart

Does celebrating/showing love to your loved one require a gift?



One of my friends quoted in face book,



"If you are with the right person, everyday is your valentine's day"



I find above words are absolutely true. However,  I understand that the definition and celebration of love differs from person to person and it is nothing wrong to buy a gift according to their capabilities and make their loved one more happy on special days like today. At the same time, one need to understand that getting/giving gifts alone won't fulfil the heart. I will never stop if I start talking about it. Before that, let me go for today's recipe.



When I prepared Lemon curd, preparing a lemon curd tart from the scratch was also in my to-do list using it. My web search yielded many results among which I selected this as it used the strawberry coulis too (which I prepared for my breakfast bread) for filling of tart.



This is my first experience of making a sweet tart. My attempt gave me a proper results but the edges of the tarts were shrunk a little after baking. If you want to prepare it in a quick way, buy a ready roll shortcrust pastry, bake it and enjoy with your own creative filling.



As I used my leftover strawberry coulis for this recipe, I couldn't show stepwise pictures for it. I'll be posting a detail and separate post for strawberry couli for sure in upcoming days.

Basic Information:

Preparation Time: 30 minutes

Idle Time: 45 minutes (30 minutes for shortcrust pastry and 15 minutes for final set)

Cooking Time: 1 hour

Makes: 12 mini tarts

Ingredients:



For Sweet Shortcrust Pastry:



All purpose flour/ Plain flour/ Maida - 2 cups

Caster sugar - 3 tablespoons

Cold butter - 1/2cup + 2 tablespoons

Iced water - 3 tablespoons



For Strawberry Coulis:



Strawberry - 1/2 cup, cut into small pieces

butter - 1 tablespoon

Sugar - 2 tablespoons

Cornstarch - 1/8 teaspoon

Water - 1 tablespoon

Strawberry - 3 nos, sliced, for decorating



For Lemon Curd:



Lemon curd - 12 tablespoons (Click here to see how to prepare lemon curd)

Method:



For Sweet Shortcrust Pastry:



1) In a mixing bowl, mix together the flour, sugar and the butter.

2) Make a fine bread crumbs like flour mixture as shown in picture.

3) Add water little at a time and make a smooth dough. Sometimes, you can form smooth dough using 2 tablespoons of water itself.

4) Knead it lightly and keep inside the bowl covering with the cling film.

5) Keep this dough inside the refrigerator for 30 minutes.

6) Meanwhile, prepare strawberry coulis and lemon curd. Make them to cool to a room temperature.(Steps for these two are given below)

7) Preheat the oven to 350F/176C.

8) Roll the cold pastry on a floured kitchen surface until 1/8inch thick.

 

9) Place them inside the tart tins and form the proper shape as shown in the picture. Make sure the pastry is sticking with the tin.

10) Place the parchment paper over it and fill with the baking weights. If you don't have the baking weight, use dried chickpeas or uncooked rice or dried beans or coins. Bake it exactly for 10 minutes.

11) Remove the weights and bake again for another 10 minutes or until the crust slightly changes into golden brown in colour.

12) Allow it to cool for a while.



For Strawberry Coulis:



1) In a saucepan, melt butter and sugar. Heat till the butter melts.

2) Add strawberries and reduce the flame to low. Continue stirring till the strawberry becomes soft. Allow it to cool to a room temperature.

3) After cooling, blend it until smooth.

4) Pour the blended paste to a sauce pan again. Mix corn starch in a tablespoon of water and mix with strawberry paste. Heat it for sometime or until it becomes thick.

5) Strawberry couli is ready now. Cool and refrigerate.



For Assembling:



1) Take a tart, pour a teaspoon of strawberry couli into it. Keep this as a bottom layer.

2) Next top with the one or two tablespoons of lemon curd. Decorate it with sliced strawberries.

3) Keep inside the refrigerator for sometime to set the curd.

4) Repeat this with remaining tarts and enjoy!!!

Happy Valentine's Day to you all!!!