Walnut Date Muffin

Tweet

  Who knew even chopping walnuts for this muffin could bring out quite the drama.  My son Milan (LM) loves walnuts.  Foreseeing I will not be able to chop up the walnuts, I need for the recipe, without appeasing him first, I counted out a few into his palms, tilted his face to make eye contact, and lovingly but certainly said “No more for today!” 
 


It was about his lunch time, and if I am not stern enough, walnuts will be his lunch.  He seemed to be taking it well.  Ate what I gave him, pulled up a chair, and stationed next to me.  Peering curiously onto the cutting board, while I chopped the walnuts, he asked:

LM:  "Amme, What is this?" (Pointing at the walnuts)
Aaah! All sweetness!  My mommy guard was up.  I knew where this question was going.  I did not answer that question directly for obvious reasons. 
Me: LM, it's your lunch time. I'll soon give you rice, so you cannot have any more walnuts!
He seemed unaffected and continued to stare at the cutting board.
LM: Ooook! (With his dragging ‘o,’ the accent he picked up from his sister.)
 Me: Don’t stand so close to the board kunje (endearment), what if the knife hurts you?
LM: Amme, what is this? (Now, pointing out to dates I was chopping)
Me: These are chopped dates. I am going to try and make some yummy muffins with walnuts and dates. 
LM: Oh, Muffan! (No accent anymore it comes out with a rounded ‘an’ at the end and resonant.  It’s quite cute the way he says it, if I may say so myself!)
Me: Right.
LM: Amme, can I have more walnuts?
Me: I already told you. That's it! (Mildly amused and exasperated, thinking how tenacious children can be, I handed him one more)  “This is the "last-last" one. 
He coined last-last, which essentially means my "last" is not his "last") You figure!
LM: Ooook! (Dragging himself off the chair.)



Having reached an agreement with my son, I continued chopping the rest of the walnuts.  Mostly in a hurry, thinking about getting his lunch ready.    
I turned around to check on him and he was out of sight.  Being a mother, looking instinctively at unlikely places for my children is second nature to me.  Within seconds my eyes caught his shirt behind the counter.  I bent down to see what he was up to.  LM looked back with eyes filled with guilt. I searched him with my eyes:

LM: Here we go! Pushed his hand in front of me, opened his palms and counted out a couple of walnuts into my hands. 

Children!  I have no idea how he nicked those from under my nose.

His middle name is the synonym for Krishna.  If Lord Krishna stole butter from his mother my LM steals walnuts and every thing else that is forbidden.  The proverbial joy of eating the forbidden fruit!

As for the muffins, they are far from forbidden.  Make a whole batch and enjoy them to your heart’s content.   



Ingredients:

Whole Wheat Flour- 3/4 cup
All purpose flour- 3/4 cup
Brown sugar- 1/3 cup
Baking soda- 1 tsp
Nutmeg powder- 1/8 tsp
Cloves powdered- 1/4 tsp
Cinnamon powdered- 1 1/2 tsp
Salt- 1/4 tsp
Milk- 1/2 cup
Unsulphured Molasses- 1/3 cup
Olive oil- 6Tbsp
Eggs- 2 large
Walnuts chopped- 1 1/4 cup
Dates pitted and chopped- 1 cup

Method:

1.Preheat oven to 400 degree F. Line muffin pan with paper liners and grease them.
2.Whisk together the flours,salt,spice powders and baking soda.
3.In another bowl mix molasses, milk,sugar,oil and eggs.
4.Mix the wet mixture into the dry mixture along with the chopped walnuts and dates, only until combined.Do not over mix.
5.Spoon into the muffin pan , till it is 3/4th full and bake for 15-16 minutes or until done.

Notes:

1.As the original recipe suggests you could use pumpkin pie spice mix instead of all the spices.
2.I got 18 medium sized muffins.


Contributor: Namitha
Recipe adapted from :here

Almond Cookies

Tweet

I was on a cooking spree yesterday with some mishaps and triumphs. I would call the recipe I am sharing today, which is Martha Stewart's, a huge success! The cookies are buttery with a refreshing orange zest flavor.  Loved it!

Success in the kitchen always puts me in a good mood.  But there are more reasons why I am jaunty.  ‘Life of Pi’ by Yann Martel.  The book has been around for a while.  It won the Booker Prize in 2002 to be precise.  Since I am the kind who takes books from the library, I read most of them after everyone else has.  At the risk of sounding outdated, let me just say the book is quite inspiring and I am enjoying every word in it  Just like we pick every morsel from a plate of deliciousness, I am lapping up every word in this book.  What fun it is when you can have a cup of coffee and have a good book to keep you company.  Oh, yes and let's not  forget the cookies.  Yum!

Plenty of orange juice for me today having cut open the oranges in the name of photography.



Ingredients:
Almond – 1 cup
All purpose flour – 1 cup
Unsalted Butter – ½ cup
Orange zest – of one navel orange
Egg – 1 whole and 1 white
Sugar – ¾ cup
Baking Soda – ½ tspn
Salt – ½ tspn
Method:
1. Boil about 2 or 3 cups of water and add the almond in and cook for 1 to 2 minutes
2. Strain the water and cool the almonds off under tap water
3. Peel the skin of almonds and dry off on a tissue paper
4. Microwave the almonds for a minute on high
5. Set aside about 28 whole almonds and grind the remaining to make almond meal. Neither too fine nor coarse
6. Use your hand blender to beat sugar and butter (at room temperature) until fluffy
7. Continue beating after adding 1 whole egg and the orange zest
8. Mix all purpose flour, salt and baking soda and gradually add it to the above mixture continuing to beat to form the dough
9. Once that comes together, which will only take about 2 to 3 minutes, mix in the almond meal. Do not beat the almond in but only mix
10. Preheat the oven to 350 D F
11. Form small balls of dough, as much as will fit a tablespoon, and set on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper
12. Press the whole almonds in the center
13. Beat the egg white and brush it over the cookies and bake at 350D F for 12 to 15 minutes

Notes:
1. You can keep the egg yolk for the extra egg you will break open and once you are finished with egg white there will be enough remaining to mix them up and make an omelet.

2. Nothing to do with the recipe: I can write 'omelet' and still be right because I am in the US. It's a blessing some of these spellings have been simplified! If you are in Britain or India, please correct the spelling to 'omelette.'

Courtesy: Martha Stewart
Contributed by: Sunitha

Peter Reinhart's Buttermilk White Bread

Tweet

White bread always reminds me of freshly-baked breads in bakeries, back in my hometown, Kottayam. I think most families have their own favorite bakeries, where they pick up their goodies. Like white breads, rusk and cup cakes were some of our favorites which we always brought. Talking about which, I remember vendors carrying baked buns and dilkhush in bamboo baskets, and selling them door-to-door. My granny would buy us children whatever we point at! You know, the things most parents would stir away from. Grandparents are like that! They are here to pamper grand kids and spoil them! Right? I wouldn’t have it any other way.





I have tried several bread recipes, some of them are posted on this site. But I have never tried baking white bread, so far. We (my family and I) do not like the usual store-brought white bread. Then again, when you bake them, it is a different story. This is why I started searching for a white bread recipe, and yet not the usual, but something different, something special! Bingo! I found it in the recipe I am sharing with you today. The butter, buttermilk and egg that goes into this recipe gives the bread a die-for-it flavor nobody can resist. I saw this recipe was recommended by many other sites when I decided to give it a go myself. I would not talk about the recipe to you unless everyone in my family loved it. Great recipe!

I made buns using half the dough and they came out great as well !




Serve it with your favorite spread or with soup






Ingredients:

Bread flour- 4 cups +1/4 cup if necessary
Salt- 1 1/2 tsp
Sugar- 3 Tbsp
Active dry yeast- 2 tsp (approx 1 packet)
Butter- 1/4 cup at room temperature
Buttermilk- 1 1/2 cup
Egg,slightly beaten,optional,for brushing on top- 1

Method:

1.Stir together the 4 cups of flour,salt,sugar and yeast using a spatula or your mixer.(yes,you don't have to dissolve the yeast in anything)
2.Add the softened butter,buttermilk and lightly beaten egg and mix well, till the dough comes together.
3.Knead well for 6-7 minutes using your kitchenaid.
4.If you are using hands, then transfer the dough onto a floured surface and knead well for at least 10 minutes.(the dough is a little bit on harder side )
5.Spray or coat with oil and cover the dough. Keep in a warm place to rise for about 2 hours or until the dough has doubled in size.
6.Transfer the dough onto a floured surface and divide the dough into 2 equal parts, if you are making bread and cover with a towel and let rest for 20 minutes.(I divided one part into 6 and made some buns too)
7.Divide the dough into 12 equal parts if you are making buns .
8.Shape them and cover with a towel and let rise for about 90 minutes or until doubled.
9.Meanwhile preheat the oven at 350 degree F, if you are making bread,400 for rolls and 450 for buns.
10.Give an egg wash, using an egg beaten lightly with some water or use some milk, just like me, to brush on the top.
11.You could use sesame or poppy seeds to sprinkle on the top.
12.Bake the bread loaves for about 35-40 minutes or until the top turns golden brown.Bake the buns for about 15 minutes
13.Cool on a wire rack.Serve with the spread of your choice


Sending this for Yeastspotting at Wild Yeast
and Foodpaltette series Brown at Torview










Contributor: Namitha
Recipe Courtesy:Mainly from here.But basically it's from The Bread Baker's Apprentice, by Peter Reinhart.