Ambrosia

My love for beets and passion for baking bread resulted in Beet bread. I was mulling over incorporating beets in bread since long. Yesterday when our vendor got us fresh crisp beets, we got down to baking my “dream bread”. The beets were grated, flour measured, yeast sprinkled, oil added and with a balance of sugar and salt and the bright pink dough was all set to rise into a perfect loaf.

Beet bread a strong flavour of beets.

Studded with bright red shreds of beets, it toasts perfectly and tastes heavenly with honey, peanut butter or plain butter.

BEET BREAD

Ingredients

3 cups all purpose flour

1 cup grated beet root (raw)

1 tablespoon canola oil (any neutral oil will do)

2 teaspoons sugar

1 ½ teaspoons instant yeast (also known as rapid rise yeast)

½ teaspoon salt

1 cup warm water for kneading (quantity of water can vary according to need)

Method

Add sugar to warm water.

Mix flour, salt, yeast and oil till well combined.

Add grated beet to the flour and mix well.

Add warm water and knead. Knead for 8 to 10 minutes to get soft smooth dough. By now the dough will become a bright pink due to the beets.

Transfer the dough to an oiled bowl, cover and leave for 10 minutes.

Knead again for five minutes.

Roll the dough into a rectangle. Beginning at short end, roll up tightly.

Pinch seams and ends to seal. Place the loaf in the greased loaf tin ( 8 inch x 3 1/2 inch ) with seam sides down.

Cover and leave to rise in warm place for an hour or till doubled in size.

Bake in a pre heated oven at 190 degrees C for 20 to 25 minutes or till the top turns golden and bottom sounds hollow when tapped.

Remove from the oven and transfer to the rack to cool.

Sending to the food event YEASTSPOTTING

Soft, moist, delicate and fluffy with a deep chocolate flavour is how I would describe this cake. This is one cake that I love to make and eat without feeling guilty. Most of the cakes baked at home are enjoyed by our kids while we are happy and contended with a slice or two. The quantity of butter is always intimidating in cakes. Chocolate yogurt cake uses less butter and hence less guilt. This cake comes from a huge collection of recipes cut out from Femina and Good House keeping magazines ages back and stashed in a file. My blog gives me a reason to try them out!

Serve it with thick custard or ice cream or enjoy plain. Either way it is great.

LOW FAT CHOCOLATE YOGURT CAKE

Ingredients

1 ½ cup all purpose flour

1 cup low fat yogurt

½ stick butter

1 ¼ cups powdered sugar

1/3 cup cocoa powder

1 large egg

1 egg white

¼ cup water

½ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Method

Pre heat the oven at 180 degrees. Grease and line a 9x5 inch loaf tin.

Sift all purpose flour, salt and baking soda.

Beat butter and sugar. Add egg and egg white and beat till fluffy.

In a bowl mix water and cocoa powder. Beat yogurt till smooth and add vanilla extract. Mix till well combined and smooth.

Add butter-sugar-egg mixture to this. Mix well.

Add flour mix in three shifts, mixing well and scraping down from the sides.

Pour the batter in the loaf tin. Level the top.

Bake for an hour till the top changes colour and a skewer inserted at the center comes out clean.

Slice when cold.

This bread was in my “must bake” list since a lot time. I’ve always loved and enjoyed the seed studded breads from the bakeries.

I was waiting for the weather to be warmer so that the yeast could rise from its slumber faster and bubble well to give a much wanted perfect loaf. And now that we are in summers, the time is perfect for baking yeasted breads.

A medley of seeds

There is more to this bread. The melon seeds in the bread have been procured from the first melon of the season that we bought last week. I have memories of my grandmother meticulously cleaning the melon and water melon seeds, drying them and removing kernels. The dry seeds would be split open with a forceps and the kernels would be collected in a jar. In most of her recipes she would use them.

These days convenience rules us. Even if we have time, we do not have inclination for such jobs. I have always tried to follow the food practices of our ancestors. They were a lot more enlightened about food and health and their practices were in sync with nature.

This bread is special because I have worked hard to make it.

First melon of the season!

Slices

Slices with home made Kiwifruit jam, Marmalade and Strawberry jam.

WHOLE WHEAT SEED BREAD

Ingredients

2 ½ cups whole wheat flour

¼ cup sesame seeds

2 tablespoons flax seeds

2 tablespoons melon seeds

2 tablespoons water melon seeds

2 tablespoons poppy seeds

2 tablespoons honey

2 tablespoons butter (softened)

1 tablespoon brown sugar

1 teaspoon instant yeast

¾ teaspoon salt

1 cup water (some more while kneading)

2 tablespoons milk and ½ tablespoon sugar to brush the top of the bread.

Method

Set oven temperature to 120 degrees C and timer to 15 minutes. Spread flax seeds, melon seeds, water melon seeds and sesame seeds on the baking try and toast till the seeds just start changing colour and a nice aroma emanates.

Mix whole wheat flour, butter, salt and yeast. Mix well.

Add honey and brown sugar to warm water and stir till sugar dissolves completely.

Add warm water mixture to flour. Knead well for 8 to 10 minutes till you get smooth dough. Add more warm water if needed.

Cover and let it rest for 10 minutes.

Knead the dough again for 5 to 6 minutes.

Turn dough out onto the work surface.

Add toasted seeds and a tablespoon of poppy seeds. Knead again and ensure that the seeds are evenly distributed.

Roll into a neat rectangle no wider than the loaf pan. Starting at the far end, roll the dough towards you keeping it tight. Pinch seams to seal.

Place the loaf in the greased loaf tin and cover it. Keep it for 1 hour or till double in size.

Spread some milk sugar mix with a brush and sprinkle the remaining poppy seeds.

Bake at 190 degrees C for 20 minutes or till the top turns golden and the bottom sounds hollow when tapped. Cover the bread with a foil after 15 minutes if the top has become too brown while baking.

Slice when cold.

Sending the bread to -Yeastspotting

Winter is the season of migratory birds. We have spotted the winter guests in large numbers. Some right in our bird bath, while some in the bushes and trees around. Yesterday, we spotted a Grey Bush chat in the fields.

Winter is also the season when vegetables are in bountiful. Lush spinach, shiny zucchinis, bright carrots, spotless cauliflowers, smooth beans, green peas, red and rotund tomatoes and many more.

The colour of beets has always inspired me to use it in my bakes.

Last time when we got beets, a Beet Chocolate Cake was baked. I read this recipe in The VanillaBean Blog.

If you are an avid beet lover, then this is a must try Cake. It is a very Beety Cake with lovely colour and flavour.

BEET CHOCOLATE CAKE

Ingredients

1 cup whole wheat flour (atta)

1 cup all-purpose flour

3 eggs

¾ cup canola oil (any neutral oil will do)

¾ cup buttermilk

2 medium size beets

½ cup sugar (powdered)

2 tablespoons honey

1 ½ teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

½ cup chocolate chips

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

Method

Grease and line a 9 inch cake tin. Pre heat the oven to 180 degrees C.

Pressure cook the beets till just tender. Peel and puree in a blender.

Add honey, buttermilk, eggs, oil and vanilla essence and blend till smooth. Transfer to a large bowl. Add sugar.

Sieve together whole wheat flour, all-purpose flour, baking powder and salt.

Fold the dry ingredients into the wet till well combined and smooth.

Fold in chocolate chips.

Transfer the batter to the cake tin.

Bake for 40 to 45 minutes or till the cake shrinks from the sides and a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean.

Remove from the pan and transfer to the rack to cool.

Bursting with lovely flavour and full of fruit chunks, the strawberry preserve is a treat in itself. Spread it on toasts and paranthas, enjoy with a dollop of vanilla ice cream or eat it straight out of the jar. It is addictive!

Making jam is such a pleasurable experience. Nothing beats homemade jam with fresh seasonal fruits personally picked and processed for making jam. This is the best way to preserve seasonal fruits and relish them for a long time. I have a variety of jams in my pantry that I made some time ago. Once you make jam at home, you will never like the store-bought version that generally has loads of preservatives, artificial colour, pectin and flavouring agents.

Last week during a weekly trip to the fruit mart we got two packs of strawberries and made Jam. It is a spreadable jam with loads of fruit pieces bursting with flavour.

Strawberry Preserve

Ingredients

Strawberries
Sugar (depends on the quantity of fruit)
Lemons

You will also need-

A plate kept in the freezer

Instructions

Wash the strawberries; keep them for some time to dry.

Hull the strawberries and chop them.

Measure the chopped fruit and transfer it to a heavy bottom steel wok.

Measure equivalent quantity of sugar.

Mix sugar and fruit well and let it rest for two hours. The strawberries will become soft and release juice.

Add the juice of half lime to every cup of chopped fruit.

Cook over medium flame stirring at short intervals to avoid jam from sticking to the bottom and burning.

When the quantity of jam reduces and starts attaining jam-like consistency, reduce the heat and cook on low flame stirring constantly.

To test doneness, drop some jam on the cold plate. Return to the freezer for a minute. Run your finger through the jam on the plate. If it doesn't try to run back together, it is done. If it is runny, it needs to be cooked for some more time.

While the jam cools, sterilise the bottles. Place the washed and dried bottles with the lids in the oven. Set the temperature to 100 degrees and set the timer to 10 minutes. Remove the bottles and their lids from the oven.

Ladle hot jam into the jars leaving ¼ inch headspace. Secure the lids tightly.