TilGul Poli / Gul Poli / Sweet Jaggery Flat Bread

 

Mission Gul Poli Accomplished!!! 

Traditional recipes can be intimidating. I had never tried making Gul Poli. The trips to India in December would always treat us with mom-made delicious Gul Poli as well as some packed for the journey back ...and so we never made it after coming back here in January. But this year is different. No travel to India and no mom-made Gul poli :(

So to statisfy the cravings and to take us back home to enjoy the super delicious Gul poli, decided to give it a try! Phone calls with mom and few friends provided some great tips and tricks to accomplish this mission succesfully 😊 To make things tad bit simpler, I used the Udipi Jaggery Powder instead of grating the Gul (Jaggery) to make the Poli. The Poli's came out great in terms of taste, texture and color. I could have rolled them out a bit thinner, but that was just me being novice. 

Recipe (This makes about 12 Gul Polis)

Dough:

3 Cups Whole wheat flour

1/4 cup Besan roasted till brown in 1 tsp ghee

3 tsp hot oil

Warm water

Sweet Filling:

2 Cups Udipi Jaggery Powder

1/2 cup Sesame seeds (white Til ) roasted till golden brown

1/2 cup Besan roasted till brown in 2 tsp ghee

2 tsp Cardamom powder

1/2 tsp Nutmeg powder

Method

Dough:

1) Roast the besan in ghee till golden brown. Let it cool. Mix the whole wheat flour, roasted besan and massage with hands till all besans crumbs are broken. Add hot oil. Mix. Add little warm water at a time and knead into a dough. Dough should be stiffer than chapati dough. Keep the dough covered with wet cloth for 1hr. After 1 hr, knead the dough again with oiled hands and make large marble sized 24 balls. Keep the dough balls covered with wet cloth till ready to use.

Sweet Filling:

1) Roast the besan in ghee till golden brown. Let it cool.

2) Powder the roasted sesame seeds. Add the roasted besan and Jaggery powder to the mixer and blend till well combined and the mixture starts to come together. Add the cardamom and nutmeg powder and mix.

3) With oiled hands divide and press the mixture into 12 equal sized balls. The oil in the sesame seeds and roasted besan should help with the binding.

4) Roll out 2 of the dough balls into small pooris. Sprinkle some flour on the roling board to avoid sticking. Place the sweet filling mixture ball in the center and gently press to break it and spread it to cover almost the entire poori, leaving little space on the sides.

5) Place the second poori on top to make a sandwich and gently press the poori with palm of your hands to make the jaggery mixture and dough stick together. Do not seal the sides.

6) Gently roll out the two pooris stuffed with the sweet filling into a poli with a rolling pin. Sprinkle some flour as necessary to avoid sticking. Remove the excess dough on the sides with a dough cutter. (Like the one used for Shankarpalis)

7) Warm a non-stick pan on low flame ( On  Scale of 1-10, 10 being the hottest, I kept the flame on 3 to roast the Gul Polis. Roast with little oil/ghee on both sides till golden brown. The Polis will be soft when you roast them due to the jaggery melting, but will become the correct texture on cooling.

8) Serve the Gul Polis warm/ room temperature with Ghee and Saffron milk.

TilGul Ghya Goad Bola!

Oatmeal-Chocolate-Almond Cookies

At home, anything made with 'Oats' is frowned upon by everyone except me ;0
But to my surprise.... these cookies are a WINNER ! They have been liking it and munching on them with a smile on their faces. Being made with oatmeal and whole wheat flour.....a sure score for me!

When I looked up few recipes of oatmeal cookies, I was under the impression that Oats cookies are usually on the softer side of the texture. But these ones turned out Crunnnchy!! How can anyone not like this Chocolaty-Nutty-Crunchy yumminess!!

I combined a bunch of recipes to get this recipe:

Ingredients:

(Makes about 35-40 cookies)

3.5 cups quick oats
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup all purpose four
1 and 3/4th cup light brown sugar
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 cup slivered / chopped almonds
2 whole eggs
2 sticks unsalted butter at room temperature
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 tsp salt

1 tsp  baking powder 
1/2 tsp baking soda

Method:

1) Pre heat oven to 350 F. Slightly butter 2 large cookie baking sheets.
2) With electric mixer or hand mixer, cream together butter and sugar until fluffy.Add the eggs, vanilla and beat/cream some more.
3) Sift the flour,salt, baking powder, baking soda, cocoa powder.Add to the creamed mixture and mix. Add the oatmeal and mix till combined.
4) Scoop the cookie batter onto baking sheets or form into flat rounds with hand and place onto cookie sheet. Press chopped/ slivered almonds on top.

5) Bake at 350 F for 12-14 mins until crisp. Remove from oven and let it cool on baking sheets.

Enjoy the crispy crunchy wholesome cookie!

My very first...Homemade Italian Bread !!

Baking this bread... was like a dream come true!! I was intimidated by the thought of baking my own bread. I worried about the time it will consume, the hard kneading it might take, especially since I don't have a bread machine. Was worried that the texture might not come out as 'fluffy' as the chemical laden store bought breads have manipulated our tastes and perception of texture.

But finally....I made up my mind one fine day and gave it a try!!! And let me tell you...it wasn't a daunting task...nor did it need lots of kneading..and the texture was 'fluffy' but not artificial sponge like! I would say..it did take up some time...but it was mostly for the yeast to rise and the baking time.
All in all..everyone loved the Home baked... tasty... no artificial anything bread!!!

Ingredients:

2 cups warm water
1.5 cups Whole wheat flour
1.5 cups (plus some extra) All purpose flour
1 pkg or 2.5 tsp active dry yeast
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp Sesame seeds
2 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt

Method:

1) To 1 cup warm water, add sugar and yeast. Keep aside for 10 mins
2) Sieve together both flours and salt. Add to the yeast and knead gently. Add warm water as needed to form a moist and soft dough.

3) Cover with a cloth and keep in a warm place for 30 mins to rise

4) After 30 mins, with oiled hands, pat down the dough.Knead into a ball.Cover again and let it rise again for 30 mins.
Again after 30 mins pat down, knead, cover and let it rise. (So total rising time will be around 1 hour and 30 mins)

5) Pre heat oven to 375 F

6) Place wax paper on a large cookie sheet. Knead the dough gently and form into a log. Pat with sesame seeds and make diagonal marks with a knife.Brush with olive oil.

7) Place the bread in the pre heated oven and bake at 375 F for 35-40 mins. If you knock on the bread, you should hear a 'hollow' sound and the bread should have a golden brown color.

8) Let it cool  for 15-20 mins before slicing with a bread knife.

9) Enjoy the bread with your favorite soup or as toasted or as Bruschetta with your favorite topping!


Bruschetta:
Brush the sliced bread with olive oil and crushed garlic. Toast in the oven for few minutes (optional) Top with sliced cherry tomatoes, chopped onions, basil, salt and pepper and grated cheese. You can drizzle the toast with balsamic vinegar if you like! Munch crunnnch...yummm!

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.

Laccha Paratha and Saag Paneer

The 'Saag' making started with a funny incident at the Indian store....There were a few different greens and I didn't know the names of all.The store owner told me the name of this green(which I don't remember now) in his language.I asked him what all can you make with this green and he told a few dishes.He saw I still wasn't 'sold'....then he said to me.."Just buy it....why are you thinking....it's a Green vegetable....It won't harm you for sure' and then you don't have to worry about calories either'!!!
I bought the bunch:)

Saag Recipe

1 bunch greens chopped(Spinach/ Mustard/ any other)
1 cup cubed paneer
1/2 onion chopped
2 clove garlic minced
1/2 cup heavy cream/whole milk
1/4 cup yogurt
2tsp corn flour
1/2tsp Garam masala powder
1/2tsp Shah jeera
1/2tsp red chili powder
salt
sugar
oil

Method:
1) Chop the greens and pressure cook. Coarse Puree/ mash them up.
2) Heat 2tsp oil, saute jeera, onions and garlic,Add the cooked greens, milk and some water.
3) Fry the paneer cubes till golden or leave them as is.
4) Add the rest of the spices,salt sugar and yogurt to the saag.Add paneer cubes and let it simmer for few minutes.

Laccha Paratha

 I had heard about this unique technique of rolling the dough for Laccha Paratha and wanted to try it out myself.
The dough is first rolled out in a circle, then pleated like a paper fan, then rolled like a snail, pressed and then rolled out again. The result is a unique circular layered texture to the parathas!!!

1)I used regular chapati dough to make these. I applied some oil+flour on the inside to get the texture.Ideally you should apply oil/ghee liberally to get more layered texture......but I skimped on it.

2) After all the dough balls were done rolling this way..I let them sit for some time and then rolled them out into parathas.

3) Baked them on hot tava with some oil  and served them with the Saag Paneer!

"1/2 Whole Wheat- Walnut-Cranberry" Biscotti

After an failed attempt of "Whole Wheat -Beet and white chocolate Biscottis", I finally made peace with myself and settled for a 1/2 whole wheat flour substitution!
 Failed attempt:

 I couldn't just like the texture and taste of the 'all' wheat flour biscottis. But in my opinion, 'mid-way' is better than 'no-way'!!! So here we go...a 1/2 whole wheat flour Biscotti with lots of nuts and dried cranberries!!!

Ingredients:
1.5 Cups Whole wheat flour
1.5 Cups All purpose flour
3/4 cup Chopped Walnuts
5 Tbsp unsalted butter at room temperature
1/3rd cup chopped dried Cranberries
2 large eggs
1/4cup olive oil or Canola oil
1and 1/4th cup granulated sugar
3tsp Baking Powder
1/4tsp salt
1tsp Vanilla essence

Method:
1) Cream together butter,oil,salt and sugar.Add the eggs and beat again till well blended and smooth
2)Preheat oven to 325F and grease a cookie sheet evenly. Otherwise the dough will stick.
3) Add rest of the ingredients to the creamed butter.Make into a soft dough.
4) Roll into logs and flatten them.

5) Bake at 325F for 25-27 min.(Check at 20 mins to see if they are done.The log will harden.But should brown too much at the bottom) Remove from oven and let cool for 10 mins.Turn the oven  down to 300F
6) Slice the baked log horizontally or at an angle with a sharp knife.

7) Place the cut-up Biscottis flat on the cookie sheet and 're bake' at 300 F for 8-10 mins until slight golden.Do not let them brown!! Remove from oven promptly.
8) Let them cool on the cookie sheet it self. Store in airtight container.