Apple Custard Muffin : Something naughty for the weekend

Are you a kind of person who like to stay long in the bed during weekend morning, so long till the clock ticks twelve and still feeling lazy to wake up.  Ok you wake up now, once you brush your teeth the next thing on your head, what's for breakfast.  Bored and tired of having a bowl of cereals, orange juice, bread with egg for your whole weekdays and rushing to work.  It's time to keep aside all your guilty feelings, diet conscious and enjoy these scrumptious muffins for this weekend.

Buttery Flaky Croissants With Step by Step Pictures

I never imagined I would make my own croissants.  Like all homemade cakes, breads and cookies, home croissants are also the best.  The buttery smell when you bake these croissants and the flaky croissants straight from the oven to your plate is just amazing.  Well this is not my first attempt in making croissants, I have tried a couple of times before and I wouldn't say my previous attempts were complete disaster, it was good, but this is the best of all croissants which I made.  I know there is a hell lot of butter in this, but you have to forget about your diet and calories if you want to enjoy these.

Baked Oatmeal

  Does your family always say no when it comes to oatmeal, well they won't anymore once you try this baked version.  Good food doesn't have to be bland or unappealing, this is one example for that.  I came across this recipe in Amanda's blog.  The moment I saw this , I know it's definitely going to be on our breakfast table.

Muesli Bar

 Just having breakfast in the morning itself is a big job for most of us.  No matter  your working or non working  woman , moving around busily in the tight schedule sometimes makes you  just skip the main meals of  the day. This Muesli bar will be something very handy for a fast moving men or women.  This will also make as a ideal snack to satisfy your craving in the mid day.

  A single muesli bar is full of whole grains and dried fruits, which slowly release energy and keeps you active for a longer time.
  Actually I had some doubt how to name this bar as Granola or Muesli.  When searched in net for the difference between granola and muesli , I couldn't get any appropriate answer. So I just left it as Muesli bars.

Preparation Time: 15 minutes
Cooking Time: 20 minutes
Makes 12 bars

Ingredients:
Rolled Oats- 100 g
Wheat flakes-70 g
Rye flakes- 70 g
Walnuts- 10
Almonds- 10
Dried s fruit mix( cranberries, sultanas, apricots)-75 g
Brown Sugar- 70 g
Sunflower oil- 60 ml
Golden Syrup- 2 tbsp
Dried coconut flakes or dessicated coconut- 30 g

Note:
Please don't use white sugar in the place of brown sugar in this recipe.
If you find trouble in finding wheat flakes and rye flakes, get a readymade packet of muesli mix and follow the same procedure.
If your muesli mix contains lots of dried fruits, cut down the dried fruits.

Method:
Dry roast the oats, wheat flakes, rye flakes, nuts and dessicated coconut. ( if you are using ready made muesli dry roast the same way).  Add the dry roast ingredients to the food processor and pulse it once or twice until it looks coarse. Don't make it as fine powder.
Preheat the oven to 160 degree Celsius. Grease a 20 cm cake tin and line it with aluminium foil.
In a large bowl add the blended ingredients, dry fruits and mix well.
Add the golden syrup, brown sugar and oil in a pan.  Bring to boil.  Keep stirring in medium heat and bring to boil for 2 minutes.  Quickly pour it over the ingredients in the bowl and mix well.
Transfer this to the cake tin, spread evenly and press the mixture. Bake it in the preheated oven for 20 minutes.  Take it out from the oven, it will look very crumbly  at this stage.  Let it cool down in the tin for 1 to 2 hours until it looks firm. Then cut them into bar and store it in a air tight container.
The day you made it'll have a chewy texture, the next day it turns slightly crispier.

This handy muesli bars goes to Any One Can Cook and to Heart and Soul Blog Hop Vol 33

Eggless Poha Muffin

Poha is nothing but rice flakes.  This is my first trial with poha in muffins and eggless version.  I have to say it turned out quite successful . Simple ingredients which can be  mixed up in  minutes and bake it.  This simple and low fat muffin would make an ideal breakfast or snack.
Check our bloggers in marathon here Srivalli, Reva, Monika, Priya Suresh, PJ, Priya Vaasu, Jay, Azeema , Soumya.and Gayathri.,Usha

Ingredients:
Poha or rice flakes- 50 g
Wholewheat flour- 150 g
Brown Sugar- 70 g
Vanilla essence- 1 tsp
Olive oil- 60 ml
Buttermilk- 150 ml
Banana- 1 mashed
Baking powder- 1 1/2 tsp
Bicarbonate of soda- 1/4 tsp


Method:
Soak the rice flakes in water for 10 minutes until they look soft and mushy.  Add all the dry ingredients to the rice flakes.
Mash the banana well, add the buttermilk, vanilla essence and oil, mix it well. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix until just combined. 
Preheat the oven to 190 degree Celsius.  Grease a muffin tray and line with muffin cases.  Spoon the mixture equally among the muffin cases.  Bake it in the preheated oven for 20 minutes or until a skewer inserted comes out clean.  Serve the muffin while they are still warm drizzled with some honey or maple syrup.


Note:
Do not overmix the muffin mix, it will result in a stodgy muffin.  If you are looking for a light and airy muffin, mix until they are just combined.


This recipe goes to  Healthy Recipe Hunt- Poha by Kurinji Kadambam, Dish Name Starts With E, Any One Can Cook and Fast Food Not Fat Food.

Corn meal bread

This is the most simple bread probably I ever made.  You don't need any special techniques, or mixers to make this bread.  Just a quick mix of the ingredients and put it in the oven for few minutes, you'll end up in a lovely soft bread. May be the soft texture is from the cornmeal, you can serve these breads for breakfast with some syrup or you can serve it  with some curries  like me : )

Also don't forget to check our bloggers in the marathon   Srivalli, Reva, Monika, Priya Suresh, PJ, Priya Vaasu, Jay, Azeema , Soumya.and Gayathri.

Preparation Time: 10 minutes
Cooking Time: 20 minutes
Serves 2

Ingredients:
Cornmeal- 120 g
Wholewheat flour- 120 g
Olive oil- 50 ml
Milk- 100 ml
Egg-1
Brown sugar- 1/2 tbsp
Baking powder- 3/4 tsp
Turmeric powder- 1/2 tsp
Caraway seeds- 2 tsp
Salt- 1/2 tsp

Method:
Mix the flour, salt, sugar, baking powder and turmeric powder together in a large bowl.  In a separate bowl mix together the egg, olive oil and milk.  Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix it without any lumps.  Mix 1 tsp of caraway seeds along with the mixture.  Grease a 20 cm square tin and pour the mixture, sprinkle the remaining caraway seeds on top of it.  Bake it in the preheated oven for 20 minutes or until a skewer inserted comes out clean.
Serve the bread warm with butter and maple syrup.

This recipe goes to Cooking with seeds- Caraway seeds by Priya's Easy N Tasty Recipes,  Bread Baking Day 36 hosted by Girlichef Originally started by Zorra,  Whole Wheat for Breakfast by Lite bites.

Raisin Tea Rolls

A very simple rolls enriched with butter and raisins. These soft rolls can be served with breakfast or afternoon tea with some generous amount of butter and jam.

Preparation Time: 20 minutes+ rising time
Cooking Time: 20 minutes
Makes 7 to 8 rolls( might vary depending upon the size of the rolls)

Ingredients:
Unbleached white bread flour or Wholewheat bread flour- 350 g
Dried yeast- 1 1/2 tsp
Butter- 50 g( melted)
Warm milk- 150 ml
Brown sugar- 50 g
Salt- 1 tsp
Raisins- 75 g

Method:
Sift the flour and salt in a large bowl. Add the yeast, sugar mix it well. Make a well in the center, add the butter and warm milk. Knead it to make a smooth dough.  Finally add the raisins and knead it inside the dough.
Place the dough in a clean and oiled bowl.  Cover with a cling film.  Allow it to rise in a warm place for 1 hour or until doubled in size. Take the dough and punch the air back. Divide the dough into 6 to 7 balls. Roll it and flatten it slightly. Place it in a greased baking sheet.  Cover loosely with a cling film.  Leave it in a warm place until it looks doubled in size.

Preheat the oven to 200 degree Celsius.  Brush the top of the rolls with milk.  Bake it in the preheated oven for 15 to 20 minutes. 

Serve the rolls while they are still warm with lashes of butter or allow it to cool down, toast it in a toaster and serve with  butter.

This recipe goes to Bread baking Day 35, Yeastspotting  and Suma's Baking event with giveaway.

Cheesy Herb Pullapart and HAZARDS OF WHITE FLOUR

We all love the smell of freshly baked bread whether it's fresh from our own kitchen or from a bakery. Everybody who bakes will definitely try to get their hands work with yeast and at some point they might get addictive to the fresh breads. I know atleast 80 percent will agree with me fresh breads are always good, but there is something we must remember about breads.
  What our fresh bread is made of? ? ? ? ? ?  Most of the time in home or shop bought it's White flour.
 We love the look, smell and taste of freshly baked white bread, but how did the white bread come????
What is the process behind the white flour???????? Which I completely forgot after coming to Germany. I have been making breads....... with only white flour for the last few months. A few backs when I was talking to one of my friend she said all your baking and blogging is good but try to avoid white flour, which alarmed me. Although it's not possible to avoid white flour completely for some bread, it's definitely possible to substitute with whole wheat at least more than half a level. A bread made with whole wheat may not be as appealing to whiteflour, but it makes your body feel inside good.
  
Hazards of white flour: The information about this white flour is from here.

A wheat grain kernel is composed of three layers: the bran, the germ, and the endosperm layer.
The bran is the outside layer where most of the fiber exists. Most of the nutrients and fats are in germ layer. The endosperm is the starchy middle layer.The natural nutrition associated with whole grains exists only when these three layers are eaten together. Old time stone mills ground the flour slowly, and the resulting flour had all three layers mixed in. (This result is called "100 percent stone-ground whole-wheat flour").
But in mass production flour mills, stone grinding isn’t efficient enough, so high speed, high temperature steel roller mills are used.
These high speed mills remove the bran and germ, and the resulting flour is made up of mostly the starchy endosperm layer.
Ironically, much of the bran and germ "waste product", which is the most nutritious part of the grain, is sold as animal feed.
The resulting white flour contains just a fraction of the nutrients of the original grain, with the heat of the steel rollers also playing a role in the nutrient destruction.

Chlorine and Alloxan

Not content with applying pesticides and ditching most of the nutrients, the flour manufacturers then subject the starchy flour to a chlorine gas bath.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) identifies chlorine gas as a flour-bleaching, aging and oxidizing agent that is a powerful irritant, dangerous to inhale, and lethal.
The flour manufacturers use a form of chlorine gas to bleach and artificially "age" flour. The goal, of course, is a clean, white product. The chlorine gas reacts with the flour, oxidizing, whitening it and reducing the gluten.
But it also converts an dough additive called xanthine into a toxic substance called alloxan. The alloxan is an unintended byproduct.
So what is alloxan? Alloxan is a toxin which destroys pancreatic islet cells, resulting in diabetes. In fact, Alloxin is specifically used in research labs to induce diabetes in rats and mice for study purposes.
After the chlorine bath, we get nice, white flour completely devoid of any natural vitamins. And since all the natural vitamins have been destroyed, the bleached flour is mixed with synthetic vitamin and mineral supplements to "enrich" it.
These synthetic vitamins are made from petroleum, elemental ores, bacteria, fungi, and ferrous iron, which is created from sulfate refined out of high sulfur crude oil.


The same applies to white sugar, which undergoes so many process. Any food which by itself created by God is good for health but when it undergoes all the process created by man it loses it's goodness and results in all these hazards to health. I know when most of our diet depends upon grain it's hard to avoid it totally but we can reduce the consumption and use whole grain foods which are available in market and less processed foods.

Right after reading all the hazards about white flour and the processing we are going to recipe made with 100 percent whole  wheat which is considered as less hazard.

Serves 2
Preparation Time: 20 minutes
Cooking Time: 35 minutes + rising time

Ingredients:
Whole wheat flour- 150 g / 6oz
Dried yeast- 3/4 tsp
Warm water- 75 ml/ 3 oz
Salt- 1/2 tsp
Olive oil- 2 tsp
Honey- 2 tsp
Cheddar cheese- 2 tbsp grated
Garlic- 2 cloves grated
Fresh chopped herbs- 1 tbsp( parsely or coriander or chives)
Method:
Prepare the dough:
Mix the whole wheat flour, salt and yeast together in a bowl. Add the honey and warm warm water to make a smooth dough. Place the dough in a clean oiled bowl, cover with a cling film and allow it to rise in warm place for 1 to 2 hours until double in size.
Prepare the loaf:

Mix the cheese, herb and grated garlic together. Divide the dough in to 10 equal parts. Roll them like small discs. Dip one disc in the cheese and herb mixture and place the other disc on top. Repeat the same with the remaining dough. Grease and line a 1 lb loaf tin. Place the discs inside the tin. Cover with a cling film and allow it to rise for another 20 minutes until puffed up.

 Preheat the oven to 200 degree celsius. Bake the loaf in the preheated oven for 35 minutes or until golden brown top.
I served the bread with Tomato souffle which I made for sweet punch, you can serve with any curries or stew of your choice.

This bread goes to Champa's Bake Off and Yeastspotting

Mini Apple Croissant

This is buttery but not flaky. After having those soft home made brioche, I really want to make use of that basic recipes and add different flavours. After looking out for few recipes I ended up in making making my own version of apple croissants, It's actually only a touch of apple flavour. It was as soft as the brioche I made earlier.
Anyway this would be great along with your breakfast, not as main. You can simply have this for tea or snack

Makes 30 mini croissants
Preparation Time: 30 minutes
Cooking Time: 30 minutes+ rising time- 1 hour

Ingredients:
Dough:
White bread flour- 100 g / 4 oz
Whole wheat flour- 100 g / 4oz ( If you couldn't find whole wheat or white bread flour, you can just replace the both with All Purpose Flour)
Butter- 50 g / 2 oz
Apple Puree- 2 tbsp( recipe follows)
Egg- 1
Dried yeast- 1 1/2 tsp
Warm Milk- 75 ml / 3 oz( adjust accordingly)
Honey- 3 tbsp
Salt- 1/2 tsp
For the glaze:
1 egg yolk+ 1 tbsp of milk
For the sprinkle:
Cinnamon powder- 1 tsp
Sugar- 1 tbsp

Method:
To make apple puree:
Peel, core and chop 1 apple. Add the apple along with 1/2 tbsp of honey , 1/2 tsp of cinnamon powder and 1 tbsp of water in a pan. Heat it in medium to slow heat. When the apple gets completely soft, switch off the stove. Let it cool down and puree it without adding any water.
Make the dough:
Sift the flour in a large bowl, add the salt and yeast mix well. Make a well in the center, add egg, honey, apple puree, melted butter and the milk little by little to make a smooth and elastic dough. Knead the dough with a electric mixer fitted with dough hook attachment or knead well using your hands. Place the dough in a clean and oiled bowl, cover with a cling film and allow it to rise for 1 hour or until doubled  in size.
Make the croissant:
If you are new to make croissants it might sound and looks difficult but actually it's very easy. Refer the pictures for instructions.
Once the dough has risen, knock back the air. Divide the dough into two equal halves. Roll out each half into a circle of 12 cm diameter. Cut the circle into 12 equal triangles as shown in the picture. Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.

Take 1 triangle and start rolling from the wider end to form a croissant shape. Repeat with remaining dough. Place all the croissants in a baking sheet, spaced well apart. Cover loosely with a cling film and allow it to rise in a warm place for another 30 minutes until it looks well puffed up.
Meanwhile preheat the oven to 180 degree Celsius. Brush the croissants with the egg glaze and bake it in the preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes until it looks golden brown on top.
Take it out from the oven, leave it to cool in the wire rack. Serve warm with butter and jam for breakfast or tea.

This recipe goes to  Champa's Bake-Off and Yeastspotting. It also goes to Deeba's Fruit in Baking  Monthly Mingle event started by Meeta

Cinnamon Fantans

These fantail rolls look stylish and are so versatile that they can be good as a simple snack, for a weekend breakfast or even for gourmet dinner party. With the addition of buttermilk this bread is soft , you'll never stop munching this....

As usual this bread is also a recipe adapted from my book, The Bread.

Preparation Time: 30 minutes
Cooking Time: 20 minutes+ rising time 1 hour + 30 minutes

Makes 9 rolls
Ingredients:
White Bread Flour- 375 g / 13 oz
Butter- 65 g / 2 1/2 oz / 5 tbsp
Buttermilk- 75 ml / 5 tbsp at room temperature
Milk- 75 ml / 5 tbsp
Caster Sugar- 2 tsp
Dried yeast- 3/ 4 tsp
Salt- 1 tsp
Cinnamon powder - 1 tsp
1 egg lightly beaten
Method:
Sift the flour and salt in a large bowl. Add the yeast and sugar, mix it up. Heat the 3 tbsp of  butter and milk in a pan until the butter is completely melted. Allow it cool down lukewarm.
Make a well in the center of flour mixture, add the buttermilk, egg and melted butter and milk. Knead the dough using a dough tool or hand until you get a smooth and elastic dough.
Place the dough in a clean and oiled bowl, cover with a cling film. Allow it to rise in a warm place until doubled in size.
Turn the dough to a floured work surface , knock the air and knead it until smooth and elastic. Roll it out into a rectangle of 45* 30 cm and 1/4 inch thickness.

Melt the remaining butter and brush it on top of the dough, sprinkle with cinnamon powder.. Cut the dough into 5 equal strips lengthways. Stack the strips on top each other and cut it into 9 equal 5 cm strips.
Grease a muffin tray.
Pinch one side of the layered strip together and then place the pinched side down in the muffin tray. Repeat with the remaining strips. Cover the tray with a lightly oiled cling film and allow it to rise in a warm place for 30  minutes.
Preheat the oven to 200 degree Celsius. bake it in the preheated oven for 20 minutes or until golden.
Turn it out to a wire rack to cool, dust it with icing sugar.

This recipe goes to yeastspotting, Champa's Bake- Off and to Hearth and Soul. This recipe also goes to Dish Name Starts With C by Akila.

Brioche

Brioche is one of favourite French Breakfast made with white flour, enriched with butter, eggs and very little sugar. This buttery light buns can served with both sweet or savoury foods.

 First when I made this bread I had no idea of posting this since the dough dint look so good, so I dint make any proper Brioche shape, but when I had a piece of this bread, OMG! no matter how bad it looks I definitely have to post this recipe, since it tasted so buttery and light. I doubt I'll go to shop bought brioche now...

Recipe adapted from the book ' The Bread' by Christine Ingram and Jennie Shapter
Makes 1 loaf or 12 mini brioche
Ingredients:
White bread flour or Plain Flour- 300 g
Dried Yeast - 1 tsp
Eggs-2
Warm Milk-50 ml
Butter- 150 g( softened)
Salt- 1 tsp
Sugar- 1/2 tbsp
For the glaze:
Egg yolk- 1
Milk- 1 tbsp
Note:
I dint give the glaze so my breads are not in the lovely golden colour , to get the colour please give the glaze.
Method:
Sift the flour in a large bowl. Add  dried yeast, salt and sugar mix it well. Make a well in the center , add the eggs and warm milk, knead it to make a dough, now add the softened butter and mix well into the dough. Form the dough like a neat ball, cover with a cling film and leave it to rise for 1 to 2 hours or until doubled in bulk. Knock the air back, knead it again. Keep it in the refrigerator for overnight. The next day , take it outside one hour before baking.
 Either shape it into 1 big loaf or divide it between 12 mini brioche forms. I used muffin tray with paper cups.
After shaping , cover with a cling film and leave it to  rise for another 1 to 2 hours until it reaches the top of the mould, brush the brioche with half of the glaze.
Preheat the oven to 230 degree Celsius, brush the brioche with remaining half of the glaze. Bake it in the preheated oven for 10 minutes. Then reduce the oven temperature to 190 degree Celsius and bake it for another 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown on top.
Leave it in the wire rack to cool, serve the bread warm with your favourite jam and cream.
This recipe goes to Yeast spotting and Champa's Bake-Off event.

German Oven Pancake

This is something very easy to make, just mixing and baking. Serve the pancakes with some fruit syrup or maple syrup which would make an ideal weekend breakfast for you to sit back and enjoy.
My pancakes are little bit thick since i used a small pan, but if you use a bigger pan you'll get much light panckes.
Ingredients:
Plain Flour-1/2 cup
Milk- 1/2 cup
Eggs- 3
Butter- 3 tbsp melted
a pinch of salt
For the topping:
Fresh blueberries or strawberries or raspberries- 100 g
Maple syrup- 3 tbsp
Vanilla extract- 1/2 tsp
Method:
Beat the egg lightly, add the flour gradually to the beaten egg and beat well. Then add the milk, melted butter and salt and mix well.
Preheat the oven to 200 degree celsius. Grease a 22 cm cake pan and pour batter in it. Bake it in the preheated oven for 20 minutes or until set.
For the sauce heat the blueberries , syrup and extract  in a  saucepan  in medium to low heat  until all the fruits  gets  mushed and becomes  syrupy.
Pour the sauce on top of the pancakes, slice into wedges and serve.
This recipe goes to  Versatile Kitchen Bake-Off event.