"Mango-Saffron-Pistachio" Biscottis

Biscottis are one of my favorite baked goods! I love the crunchy texture that comes because of baking twice (Biscotti means twice baked cookies! ) with mild sweetness and the versatility to bake them with different flavors of choice. Here are a few of my favorites- (https://my-kitchens-aroma.blogspot.com/search/label/Biscotti)
Today I baked this new flavor combo which reminds me very much of the summers in India! The sweet warm fragrance of Mangoes is all over and everyone is trying out their favorite summertime mango recipes during the summer months.
The Italian biscotti got a very summery and warm makeover today with warm-aromatic flavors of Mango and Saffron and crunch from Pistachios. I love the flavor, color, aroma and everything about these biscottis😍 My new favorite!

Recipe:
2.5 cups All purpose flour (Plus little extra)
1/2 cup Mango Puree (I used Desai Bandhu Ratnagiri Alphonso canned puree)
1/2 cup granulated sugar (add extra for sweeter taste)
1/2 cup powdered sugar
5 tbsp Unsalted Butter (room temperature)
1/4 cup chopped roasted pistachios (plus some extra for top garnish)
1 Egg
2 tsp milk with 1/2 tsp saffron strands
2 tsp baking powder
1 pinch salt

** Note: Baking sheet thickness and oven temperatures vary slightly from oven to oven. So always keep an eye on the baked goods and adjust the time as needed

1) Preheat oven to 350 F. Apply butter to baking sheet.
2) Cream together butter, salt, egg, sugar. Add mango puree and saffron in milk and mix.

3) Add flour, baking powder and chopped pistachios. Mix and knead gently into soft dough. Add little extra flour if needed. The dough will be slightly sticky. With oiled hands, form into logs and flatten them on to the baking sheet. Garnish with chopped pistachios and press on the dough.

4) Bake at 350 F for 20-25 mins. Keep an eye on the biscotti logs and don't let them brown too much on the bottom.

5) Take out from the oven and let cool for 5 mins. Slice the biscottis with a sharp serrated knife.

*** Now turn oven temperature down to 300 F for the next baking step

6) Arrange the cut biscottis on buttered baking tray and put back in the oven at 300 F for 20-25 mins till crunchy. (Again don't let them brown!)

Let them cool completely. They will crisp up more as they cool.
** If you prefers crunchier Biscottis ...Keep them at 300F for 6-8 mins more. Or Leave them in the oven for few mins after you TURN OFF the oven. They will crisp up on the residual heat of the oven.

Enjoy with your tea/coffee or as dessert! 😋

"Rasmalai Cake" - An Indian version of the Mexican 'Tres Leches' cake

The newest trend in the world of cakes are the fusion cakes, where they combine best flavors from two or more cuisines to create one of a kind masterpiece. The one I tasted recently was the 'Gulab Jamun Cheese cake' at an popular Indian restaurant in Nashville,TN at the famous Chefs restaurant- Chauhan Ale and Masala house.Another beautiful cake was baked by a contestant at the cooking competition here for the Ganesh festival.The cake was called 'Gajar Halwa' cake- White moist cake with layers of gajar halwa and whipped cream made it delectable! She won the first prize:)

A friend had send a picture of the new popular cake in Pune- "The Rasmalai cake". Since then, I wanted to try my take on this cake and  we had the perfect occasion on this weekend that deserved a special cake! A 70th birthday party!

Here is my version of the Rasmalai Cake which is a spin on the Mexican 'Tres Leches' cake.

Ingredients:

Step 1: Plain Sponge Cake 

*You can prepare the base Sponge cake from scratch with this recipe. Instead of vanilla, add 1/2 tsp cardamom powder 

https://my-kitchens-aroma.blogspot.com/2009/10/pat-cake-car-vanilla-cake.html?m=1

OR For Easy version- Use Cake Mix 

1 eggless cake baked in a glass tray (I used Pillsbury white cake mix to bake the cake. Prepared the cake as per instructions, but substituted eggs with ¼ cup Greek yogurt)

Step 2: For Malai/ basundi 3 milk soak

1.5 cups evaporated milk

0.5 cups condensed milk

0.5 cup whole milk

0.5 tsp cardamom powder

¼ tsp nutmeg powder

(For more sweeter taste add more sugar/condensed milk. But remember the cake itself will be sweet too!)

Step 3: Saffron whipped cream:

1.5 cups heavy whipping cream

4 tsp powdered sugar

1 tsp saffron

Garnishing

8 Rasagullas (I used store bought)

Few drops of yellow coloring (optional)

Chopped pistachios and almonds for garnish

Saffron for garnish

Method:

1) Prepare cake as per box instructions. Use Greek yogurt to substitute the eggs. Let the cake cool completely.

2) Prepare the malai/basundi by boiling the evaporated milk, condensed milk and whole milk along with cardamom and nutmeg powder. Let it cool completely.

3) Pour the Basundi over the cooled cake.Let it soak overnight in the refrigerator.

4) Whip the cold heavy whipping cream with a electric mixer with the powdered sugar and 4 tsp milk with saffron strands.If the color is not yellow enough, add few drops of yellow food color. Beat till stiff peaks appear

5) Pipe the saffron whipped cream on the milk soaked cake in desired patterns. Garnish with half sliced rasagullas, chopped nuts and saffron.

6) Chill in the refrigerator for few hours. Serve chilled.

Enjoy the delectable moist cake with luscious whipped cream and warm and delicate Indian flavors of cardamon, nutmeg and saffron!

Malpua-Malai Cups

Malpua-Malai Cups

This year for the 'Cooking and Food creativity contest' at the Columbus Ganesh Utsav, one of the competition categories we had designed was 'Dessert Shots'. The participants had to make traditional desserts but present them in a modernized form in form of 'Shots'. There was a superb response, we got to see and taste rabdi-jalebi shots, tri colored kulfi shots etc. They were all lip smackingly delicious!!
For Dussera as I was thinking what dessert to make...I thought of giving the traditional Malpua-Rabdi, a new look. I made the Malpua in the form of cups in the appe pan.The 'malai' filling was made with ricotta cheese.The cups came out crispy and did hold their shape well and with the thick malai filling...tasted delectable!

Ingredients:
For malpua cups in appe pan-
3 tbsp All purpose flour
1 tbsp whole wheat flour
2 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp ghee
3/4 cup milk
1/4 tsp cardamon powder


For Malai filling-
1/2 cup whole milk ricotta cheese
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup sugar
1/4tsp nutmeg powder
1/4tsp cardamon powder
1/4 tsp saffron warmed in in 2 tbsp milk

Chopped almonds, pistachios for garnishing

Method:
1) Maplua Cups
Mix all the ingredients for the mapua cups. Make a thick batter.Heat the appe pan on medium heat
2) Add little ghee to all the wells. Turn the heat to low.Add 2 tsp of batter in the wells. Spread the batter to the sides of the well to cover the entire well and make the 'cup' shape. Add ghee from the sides. Let it cook till golden brown.Gently remove on a serving platter.

3) Malai filling:
In a non stick pan cook the ricotta cheese with milk  for 10-15 mins till it thickens up.It shouldn't be too runny as it will otherwise make the malpua cups soggy.Let it cook completely.
Fill the filling in pastry bags/ ziplock bag and fill the maplua cups.

4) Garnish with saffron milk and chopped nuts.

"Sweet Treats"- Peach Panha (Refreshing Peach Drink)

And then there were those 5 peaches left in the box after the Peach Picking-Peach Recipes" week!! They had me wonder..what could I make???? 'M' had promised me..he will bake "Peach Cookies"....but with his crazy work schedule..I knew that wasn't going to happen soon.  I didn't want those gorgeous peaches to go bad....and then tadah!!!!! Memories take me back ....In Pune....in Summer months....what did we drink to cool off....."Green Mango Panha"!!!!
Panha is this Sweet-Tangy  Refreshing Mango drink made with cooking Green mangoes. 
I thought why not..Peach Panha??? And it came out to be Delicioussssss....with gorgeous Peach color ( the saffron was only for garnish....all the beautiful color is from the peaches) and an amazing taste...

Ingredients:
5 Ripe Peaches
1/4 to 1/3 cup Sugar (add according to the sweetness of the peaches)
1/2tsp Cumin powder
1/2tsp Cardamon powder
1tsp Salt
Saffron(optional)
Cold water 2-3 cups

Method:
1) Peel the peaches.Cook them in pressure cooker(2 whistles)
2) Remove the pulp.
3) Mix the pulp,sugar,cumin powder, cardamon powder,salt and the cold water in a blender , till nice and smooth.Add more water if the Panha is too thick.
4) Drink Cold...with extra ice...and cool off in the summer months ...in a Delicious..Peachy way!!!

 

"Sweet Treats"- Ricotta Cheese 'Rasmalai' with Saffron/ Sweet Ricotta cheese dumplings in sweetened milk

This weekend was pretty good.Saturday took 'E' for a Puppet show in a near by school and then in the evening, our good friends 'M' and 'V'called and said they would stop by to meet us in the evening. Now we were meeting them after a longggg time..and needed to catch up....and ofcourse I wasn't letting them go without having dinner with us. I already had prepared Idli batter.So it was easy enough to make idlis,sambar and chutney.My friend 'M' loves Idlis...so that was going to be a feast for her. What to make for Dessert???
I had been planning to make this Ricotta cheese Rasmalai for a long time.I had bought Riccotta last week itself, but did not have time to get to it. So it was perfect ....I would try this one for tonight's dessert!
My friend 'P' had made it few times..and also 'A' had made for one of her party.Looking at the recipe...it seemed pretty straight forward. When I made it myself..it was really 'NO BIG DEAL RASMALAI'. It was so quick and easy and tasted pretty good!! The 'ras/ basundi' is done similar to the 'authentic recipe' and tastes the same,but the 'malai/ dumplings' are made by baking the ricotta cheese in the oven.How easy is that??? The dumplings come out pretty close but there is obvious texture difference and are not as 'Spongy' as the authentic paneer dumplings in Rasmalai. But wait.......a 'Health fact'
Paneer has about 21% fat ......while Ricotta cheese....even the whole milk Ricotta cheese has 11% fat!!! The Ricotta is a 'whey' cheese..ie...made from the liquidy whey left after the milk is curdled.
So if you are craving Rasmalai but also watching your waist line...this may be an option for you!!! Guiltless(may be less guilt) Indulgence!!!
Ingredients:
For 'Malai'/Dumplings:
15oz Ricotta cheese
1/4 cup sugar
1 pinch cardamom powder
Mix everything till well blended, spoon a couple tsps in a 'muffin' pan. Makes about 12 'dumplings'.
Bake at 350F for about 35-40 mins, till the cheese sets and the sides turns slight brown.Check with toothpick. The cheese 'discs' will look like these after baking-

For the 'Ras'/ Basundi:
There are many ways to do it. You can use either whole milk or half and half or condensed milk etc.
I made mine with some whole milk, some 1% milk and condensed milk.No particular reason.The basundi came out nice and sweet,not too thin or thick.
1and 1/2 cups whole milk
1 and 1/2 cups 1% milk
14oz condensed milk
1tsp corn starch
1 pinch Saffron
1/2tsp Cardamom powder
1 pinch nutmeg powder
Chopped almonds/ pistachios etc for garnishing
1) On low heat boil together all the milk,corn starch for about 20 mins.
2) Stir continously and make sure the milk doesn't burn.
3) Check for sweetness.Add sugar if it isn't sweet enough for you.
4) Add the saffron cardamom,nutmeg etc.Let it cool.

Ras+Malai
Either arrange all the cheese dumplings in a big serving dish and pour the 'ras' on top OR place the dumplings in individual serving dishes and pour some ras on top.Garnish with chopped nuts, saffron etc.Serve at room temp or chilled. I think it tastes best 'Chilled'.

Enjoy this sweet-creamy-cold sensation with unique flavors of saffron,cardamom and nutmeg!!!

Note:

I am sending this entry to JFI-Saffron hosted by http://chefinyou.com/