Dipu's Chocolate Chip Cookies

My friend gave me this recipe ages ago and I should have tried it sooner, because these are some of the best cookies I've ever made.

 

It was easy. My kids did most of the work! And they did most of the eating too!!

 

Dipu's Chocolate Chip Cookies
(makes about 4 dozen small cookies or 2 dozen regular cookies - mine here are the small version!)

1 cup White Sugar
1 cup Brown Sugar
3 cups All-Purpose Flour
2 cups Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips
1 cup Walnuts, chopped
1 cup Butter, softened
2 Eggs
2 tsp Vanilla Extract
2 tsp Hot Water
1 tsp Baking Soda
1/2 tsp Salt

Preheat oven to 175 deg C.

Cream together the butter and sugars until smooth. Beat in eggs one at a time, then stir in the vanilla.

Dissolve baking soda in hot water. Add to batter along with salt. Stir in flour, chocolate chips and nuts. Drop by large spoonfuls onto ungreased pans.

Bake for about 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until edges are nicely browned.




 

 

Banana Coconut Walnut Bread

This is a quick bread which is sweet and nutty and delicious. An easy bread to whip up when pressed for time.

Banana Coconut Walnut Bread

2 1/2 cups Whole Wheat Flour (or All-Purpose Flour)
2 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Baking Soda
1/2 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp Cinnamon Powder
2/3 cup Sugar
2 large Eggs
1 cup Banana, mashed
1/2 cup Skim Milk (or whole milk, or whatever milk you have on hand)
1/4 cup Coconut Oil (or any oil you have on hand)
1 tsp Vanilla essence
1/2 cup Coconut, shredded
1/4 cup Walnuts (Optional (or) any other nut you have available: almonds, cashewnut, pecans)

Preheat oven to 180 deg C.

Whisk together all the dry ingredients: flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. In another bowl, whisk sugar and eggs until combined. Add the mashed banana, milk, oil and vanilla and whisk until combined.

Add the banana mixture to the dry ingredients and stir until just combined. Add the coconut and walnuts and stir to combine.

Pour the batter into a 9"x5" loaf pan and bake for 60 minutes. Let cool before removing from pan.

Enjoy.

Other Quick Breads in this blog: Parmesan Walnut Bread, Beautiful Banana Bread, Mango Bread, Banana Chocolate Bread and Honey Bread.

Pesto

Pesto has got to be one of the most versatile spreads in the world. And so easy to personalize. Pesto is just a combination of greens/ herbs, nuts and cheese with a wonderful addition of olive oil.

Here is a wonderfully easy recipe for pesto. Feel free to use any combination of greens/ herbs and nuts. Some good ideas are spinach, basil or even sun-dried tomatoes. And any nuts at all. I like to go with a sharper cheese, and hard cheeses seem to give it a nice texture, but feel free to use a creamy cheese (like goat's).

Pesto

2 cups Herbs/ Greens (I used cilantro)

1/2 cup Cheese (I used Parmesan)

1/2 cup Olive Oil (I used extra virgin)

1/3 cup Nuts (I used walnuts)

3 medium garlic cloves, minced

Salt + Pepper, to taste

Pulse the cilantro and nuts in a mixer. Add garlic and pulse. Pour the oil into the mixer in a constant stream while continuing to pulse. Mix in the cheese and pulse until thoroughly combined. Add salt and pepper at the end.

Use the pesto as is. Mix it with some hot, cooked pasta. Spread it on toast. Use it as a base for pizza. Or eat it by the spoon! Some recipes that use pesto from this blog:

Pesto & Garlic Bread, Gnocchi, Pizza, Mushroom Soup and Pesto Toast and Bites of Toast.

Banana Apple Muffins

I'm always looking for fun and healthy food to bake with my daughter. When I came across Divya's post in her blog, Easy Cooking, on Eggless Apple Banana Muffins, they sounded perfect. I was fine with using eggs, but decided to just follow her recipe. I made a couple of changes though, I added some chopped walnuts, and a small fistful of chocolate chips.

Banana Apple Muffins (without eggs)

(from Easy Cooking blog)

3 ripe Bananas, chopped (OR 1 egg + 2 Bananas)

1 cup Apple, peeled and chopped

1/4 cup Butter, melted and cooled

1 tsp Vanilla Essence

1 1/8 cup All-Purpose Flour

1/3 cup + 1 tbsp Brown Sugar

3/4 tsp Baking Powder

1/4 tsp Baking Soda

1/2 tsp Cinnamon Powder

1/4 tsp Salt

1/8 cup Walnuts, chopped

1/8 cup Chocolate Chips

Preheat oven to 180 deg C.

Mix together the mashed bananas, sugar and vanilla until the sugar is well blended. Whisk in the melted and cooled butter.

Mix together the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, apple and salt). Fold in the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients. Spoon the batter into a greased and lined muffin pan. Bake for 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

The muffins are absolutely delicious. And both my daughters ate them as they came out of the oven!

Thanks for a great recipe, Divya. And I'm excited this is my first eggless muffin recipe, and it's already a keeper.

Parmesan Walnut Bread

The first oven I bought was a little OTG (Oven Toaster Griller). It came with a booklet of recipes to be made in the free pan that came with it. I loved the OTG and tried almost all the recipes in that booklet! Surprisingly, every single one was a keeper. The first one was banana bread, that we loved. And I was hooked. Quick breads are fast, delicious and extremely versatile.

This is a wonderful quick bread that I came across at Mary's blog, One Perfect Bite. She's made three wonderful variations. I varied her walnut bread a little to include some freshly grated Parmesan. It was super quick and full of flavor.


Parmesan Walnut Bread
(Recipe adapted from One Perfect Bite)

2 1/4 cups All-Purpose Flour
2 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Salt
2/3 cup Milk
1 large egg
3/4 cup Sugar
1 1/2 cups Walnuts, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup Parmesan, grated

Preheat oven to 160 deg C. Grease and flour a loaf pan.

Mix the flour, baking powder, sugar and salt. In a separate bowl, combine the milk and egg. Add the milk mixture to the dry ingredients and mix until just combined.

Stir in walnuts and parmesan. Pour into the prepared loaf pan. Bake for 45 minutes. Increase the temperature to 180 deg C and continue baking for a further 15 minutes.


Mary recommends letting it rest for 15 minutes and then allowing it to age 24 hours before serving. I did the first 15 minutes. And then another 15 minutes! There was no way I could wait for 24 hours to eat anything that smells as good as this bread!


Other quick breads on this blog: Banana Bread, Chocolate Banana Bread and Mango Bread.

Christopsomos

As the second bread in our Bread Bakers Apprentice Challenge, we were to tackle a Greek Celebration Bread, Artos. There are several variations of the basic bread. One of them is Christopsomos, a beautiful, decorative bread full of lovely flavors! For the recipe, please see Google Books.


We start with a poolish of water, flour and yeast. Allow it to rest overnight for a few hours at room temperature and then in the refrigerator. It will be all lovely and bubbly the next day.


Then add the rest of the flour, butter and lovely spices (cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice and cloves), yeast, oil, honey and eggs. I left out the allspice because I couldn't find them in the store, and instead increased the quantity of cinnamon (because I just love cinnamon!).

This is the basic Artos bread. To make the variation, add dried fruit (cranberries/dates/figs/cherries), walnuts and raisins. I used dried chopped dates, walnuts and golden raisins. Be sure to include these in the final stages of kneading the dough before the bulk fermentation.


Allow the dough to double in size (about 90 minutes).


After the bulk ferment, divide the dough into 1/3rds and 2/3 rds. Wrap up the smaller portion and put it away in the refrigerator. The larger portion is shaped into a boule, then lightly oiled and allowed to proof at room temperature for about an hour.


When you are ready to bake the bread, take out the smaller piece and divide into half. Roll each half into a rope. Cross the ropes on top of the boule and let the ends hang down. Split each end and roll up to form a fun decorative pattern. If you're having trouble making the ends stick to the boule, apply a little bit of water.


Bake at 350 deg F for 20 minutes, then rotate the pan for even baking, and bake another 20-25 minutes. While the bread is baking, make a glaze of water, sugar, honey and lemon extract (I left this out because I didn't have it).

Brush the glaze onto the bread after you take it out of the oven and sprinkle generously with sesame seeds.

The bread was absolutely delicious. I made it on Mother's Day and my mother loved it. The crumb is soft and filled with the deliciousness of raisins, walnuts and dates.


The crust is sweet and sticky with the glaze and the sesame seeds.


I'll definitely be making this bread again!

Mango Bread

Mangoes are back in season! Woohoo! The downside is that this means that summer's here in full force - in April! At an average temperature of 95 deg F, Madras is way way too hot! But... you can't be really too frustrated with the heat when you have gorgeous juicy mangoes to fill you up!

Is there anything better than mangoes with vanilla ice cream? Well, maybe this mango bread! Have you ever visited Joy the Baker? Her blog is absolutely incredible with beautiful photographs. Do take a look, if you haven't already.

This recipe was inspired by her Mango Lime Bread. I made a few changes. Actually, quite a few changes - I omitted the ginger and apples and added walnuts instead. It was simply an amazing bread!


Mango Bread

2 1/2 cups Whole Wheat Flour
1 cup Sugar
1/2 cup Brown Sugar
1 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Baking Soda
1 tsp Cinnamon Powder
1/4 tsp Salt
3 Eggs
3/4 cup Oil (try to use a flavor-less oil, like Safflower)
1 1/4 cup Mango pieces (I had to chop up about 1 1/2 mangoes)
3/4 cup Raisins
1/2 cup Walnuts, chopped

Preheat the oven to 180 deg C.

Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, sugar and salt. Crumble in the brown sugar. Add the wet ingredients (oil and eggs). Mix till fully combined. This might be a little difficult but keep stirring and it will come together. Fold in the mango, raisins and walnuts.

Transfer the dough to a greased and floured loaf pan. Bake for 1 1/2 hours or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Remove from oven and let cool 5 minutes. Turn loaf out from the pan and let cool completely on a wire rack before slicing. Enjoy the wonderful smell in your kitchen!

Cinnamon Raisin Walnut Bread

I have a friend who had a birthday recently. She said all she wanted for a gift was a bread a month. Sort of like the Fruit A Month (anyone see that Everybody Loves Ray episode?) Club except of course that this is ... bread!

This month she requested a sweet, nutty bread. I'm not someone who enjoys sweet breads and wouldn't normally have tried this recipe, but her request got me to look into Peter Reinhart's recipe for Cinnamon Walnut Raisin Bread. And it's another winner from Reinhart!



Cinnamon Raisin Walnut Bread
(original recipe from Peter Reinhart's The Bread Baker's Apprentice)

3 1/2 cups Unbleached Bread Flour (I used All-Purpose)
4 tsp Granulated Sugar
1 1/4 tsp Salt
2 tsp Instant Yeast
1 1/4 tsp ground Cinnamon
1 large Egg
2 tbsp Shortening (I used 3 tbsp Butter)
1/2 cup Buttermilk or Whole Milk (I used Whole Milk)
3/4 cup Water, room temperature
1 1/2 cups Raisins (I used golden raisins)
1 cup chopped Walnuts

For the Cinnamon Sugar:
1/2 cup Granulated Sugar
2 tbsp ground Cinnamon

Stir together the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, yeast, salt, cinnamon). Add the egg, butter, milk and water and mix until it forms a doughy ball. Turn the ball out onto a floured counter and begin to knead until the dough is soft and elastic (approximately 8 minutes). Sprinkle in the walnuts and raisins, a little at a time, and knead for an additional 2 minutes. I've never kneaded in chopped nuts before, so I found that a little difficult but the whole thing comes together beautifully as you knead).

Place the dough in a slightly oiled bowl and cover with muslin. Let rise until doubled in size, approximated 1 1/2 - 2 hours.

Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and divide into two equal parts. This next part is optional - If you want that lovely swirl filled with cinnamon sugar, then go ahead. Otherwise, you can just shape each half into a loaf and go to the next step. For the swirl - Gently press each part out into a rectangle (about 8" by 5"), with the long side facing you. Sprinkle the cinnamon sugar over one side of the rectangle. Now tightly roll, starting from the long side facing you. Seal the end and place in a loaf pan, seam side down. Repeat for the other rectangle. Reserve maybe a teaspoon or so of the cinnamon sugar.

Spritz the loaves with olive oil spray, cover with muslin and let it proof at room temperature for about an hour. Preheat the oven to 180 deg C.

Place the loaf pans in the middle rack of the oven and bake for 20 minutes. Rotate the pans 180 deg and bake for an additional 30 minutes (this is to ensure even baking. It really works for me as I've found that the back half of my oven is hotter than the front).

The finished loaf will be golden brown on top and will make a hollow sound when thumped on the bottom. Roll the top of the loaf while warm in a bed of the reserved cinnamon sugar (alternately you can sprinkle some on top of the loaves) while the loaves are warm. The caramelized sugar will give it that extra crunch and burst of cinnamon which is oh-so-delicious!


Let it cool for atleast 1 1/2 hours before slicing and eating.

This is for Susan @ Wild Yeast for YeastSpotting.

Beautiful Banana Bread

This is for Not Quite Nigella's Banana Bread Bake-off. Thanks for hosting this - I can't wait to see the round-up!








I've made this banana bread a half dozen times, and just don't tire of it. Not being much of a baker, I loved this when I realized there was no yeast to work with (yeast and I have a hate-hate relationship). I immediately thought of these as party favors for the Chennai Bloggers Meet (always nice to have something sweet to take home).

I had never baked them in individual portions before, but that turned out to be a breeze. I just bought little aluminium foil loaf-ish pans, and baked them two at a time (leaving a little space for the bread to rise).



Banana Bread with Walnuts (makes 4 small-ish servings)

3 medium Bananas, cut into small pieces
2 Eggs
1 1/4 All-Purpose Flour
1 cup Sugar
1/2 cup Melted Butter
Salt, to taste (about 1/2 tsp)
1 tsp Baking Soda
1/2 cup Walnuts, chopped (optional)

Preheat the oven to 350 deg F.
In a bowl, combine the sugar and butter until creamy.
Add the banana a couple of pieces at a time.
Add the eggs, AP flour, salt and baking soda and mix well till combined.
Add the chopped walnuts.



Pour into the loaf pans


Bake for 45-50 minutes.


And Voila!






I packed them up and was all set to go off and meet my new friends! And I was left with a home smelling of lovely freshly baked bread!