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Until yesterday, I'd only ever seen nankhatai in photos on various blogs (most of them very, very beautifully shot photos, I might add). Never seen them in real life, never eaten any (not that I know of and not by that name), never baked any. Since Diwali is next week, and because I'd just bought a lovely big bag of pistachios recently, and also because our friends were going to drop by and I wanted to bake something for them with an Indian touch, I decided to make nankhatai with the pistachios and the last of my stash of saffron. The recipe I followed is on Nandita's Saffron Trail blog. My only two additions were pistachio nuts in the dough itself, and extra milk as the ghee alone was nowhere near enough to bind the mixture together to make a dough.
And what a good decision it was. I love saffron - although I don't use it often because it's expensive - and I love pistachios, and I know they're a flavour match made in heaven (fictitious place, obvs, but the match is very real and the flavours are very lovely!). These cookies are very moreish - they're not too sweet, the saffron flavour is awesome, the pistachios are delicious and the semolina gives the nankhatai a lovely crunch. Be sure to use fine semolina, though, otherwise, the nankhatai might have a sandy mouthfeel rather than crispness. Happy eating, people!
Recipe for: Kesar pista nankhatai (saffron pistachio cookies)
Ingredients:
1.5 cups plain flour
2.5 tbsp chickpea flour
1/2 tbsp fine sooji (semolina)
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 cup slivered pistachio nuts
2 tbsp finely chopped pistachios (optional)
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup melted ghee (clarified butter)
1/4 tsp saffron strands, crushed in a small mortar-pestle
Milk as required
Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F.
2. Sift together the flours, semolina and baking soda in a medium bowl. Mix in the slivered pistachio nuts and set aside. Warm 2 tbsp of the milk and let the saffron steep in it for 5 minutes.
3. In a large bowl, mix together the ghee, powdered sugar and saffron-milk until smooth, then add the flour mixture. Add extra milk a tablespoon at a time until you can form a soft dough. Be careful not to add too much liquid.
4. Roll the dough into balls the size of large marbles and place on a cookie sheet lined with non-stick paper or foil, leaving a gap of about 1.5 inches. At this point, if you wish, you can make a dimple in the centre of each cookie with your thumb and sprinkle a pinch of the chopped pistachios. If not, just flatten each ball slightly and place in the preheated oven.
5. Bake for 15-18 minutes or until the cookies are a pale brown, switching the tray around after 10 minutes so that they brown evenly.
6. Remove to a wire cooling rack. The cookies will crisp up as they cool.
7. Try not to eat all the nankhatai yourself.
I’m pretty sure I don’t have much to say in this post, so of course I’m going to try and say it in as many words as possible. It’s obligatory to do so, the First Law of Writing (except that it’s always been an unwritten law, ironically) which I am now vocalising via the written word. The self-styled “expert” analysts who contribute to newspapers, especially in the political and economic areas, are the most obvious propagators of this law. The less you have to say, the more verbose you get. You might have noticed that your favourite writer pretty much always leaves you wanting more. On the other hand, the boring ones just as predictably can lay an entire rainforest’s worth of trees to waste with just one article.
Now I’m beginning to feel like A A Gill, the food and restaurant critic of The Times. He’s supposed to review different restaurants but usually writes for more than half the article (every single time, too) about something completely irrelevant and as far off the topic of food and restaurants as... let’s say, as far off as Big Brother is from an intelligent programme. As one of his readers put it: “I think I finally have the hang of an AA Gill "restaurant review". Talk about something that has nothing whatsoever to do with restaurants (hernia operations, personal loves and loathes, politicians, etc.) and then, at the end, write the name, address and a brief, caustic opinion.
Louise, London, UK”
So, now that we have the “nothing much to say” out of the way, let me say a few brief words about this biscuit/cookie: It’s eggless, it’s nice, it was made by my cousin Hema during her visit to Shrewsbury, and she took it home with her so that her lucky parents could have a taste of her first baking efforts.
That’s all I really had to say in the first place.
Recipe for: Cranberry orange cookies
Ingredients:
1 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup butter, softened
1/8 cup milk
3 tbsp fresh orange juice
1 tbsp yogurt
1-1/2 cups plain/all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt
1/8 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup chopped dried cranberries
1/4 cup chopped nuts (we used pistachios and cashewnuts)
Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 190°C/375°F.
2. Cream together the sugar and butter in a large bowl.
3. Stir in milk, orange juice and yogurt.
4. Stir in flour, baking powder, salt and baking soda.
Add cranberries and nuts
and stir lightly into the dough.
4. Form dough into balls (approximate will do) with slightly wetted fingers and drop onto cookie sheet.
5. Bake 10 to 15 minutes or until light brown around the edges.
Immediately remove from cookie sheet and cool.
I have to say that baking with eggs is a LOT less hassle than egg-free baking. As per my previous post on fried-vs-baked, I really think that egg-free baked goodies usually come off second-best. They are fairly uncommon occasions when I'm perfectly satisfied with eggless baking outcomes.
The thing is, I dont have the time or the patience to keep trying variations on recipes to see which might work out best. I prefer to let others do the trying-and-testing - this is why I buy cookbooks, for cryin' out loud! It really annoys me when a cake turns out too gluey or too crumbly or too crisp - especially when I've been trying to make the cake as a special item for someone (like my mother) who will not eat eggs or anything made with them.
So, just to get over the last few occasions when I've been dissatisfied with my baking efforts, I made these muffins. (One egg required). Well, not JUST because of that. Also because I had two overripe bananas - whose lives I had protected endangering life and limb. Pete doesnt like to be around overripe bananas. (He's the kind of guy who eats his bananas just barely ripe.) I had to resort to hiding the damn things around the house the last couple of days, moving them from place to place, while he went around sniffing the air like a bloodhound. Or possibly like the Giant at the top of the Beanstalk. ("Fee fi fo fass, I smell me some overripe bananass" - ok, never claimed I could rhyme well, or at all).
Anyway, this recipe makes six large muffins - no fuss, no mess. I liked them especially because they werent oversweet. Nice with a glass of milk.
Recipe for: Banana-pistachio muffins
Ingredients:
1 heaped cup all-purpose flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
2 overripe bananas
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
a handful of pistachio nuts, roughly chopped
Method:
1. Preheat oven to 180C.
2. In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, and salt.
3. Mash the bananas with a fork in a small bowl.
4. Remove 1/2 the mashed bananas to another bowl. Add the sugar and whip it briskly with a balloon whisk for 2 minutes.
5. Add the oil, egg and vanilla and beat well.
6. Now add this to the flour and mix till just incorporated.
7. Fold in the nuts and the mashed bananas with a rubber spatula.
Spoon the batter into the muffin tins (use paper cups if you like) to fill them 3/4ths of the way.
8. Bake until a toothpick stuck in the muffins comes out clean.
Let cool for a few minutes in the pan before turning the muffins out.
Serve warm or at room temperature.
I do believe I'm beginning to get rather fond of my eggless baking book! Another ridiculously easy cake that tastes wonderful - can you believe there's no beating or creaming or any such hard work involved? It's a one-step cake. Basically, get all the ingredients together, mix 'em and shove into the oven for about 40 minutes.
As is usually the case, I did make a few changes to the original recipe to make the cake more "Indian" tasting - with an added tip remembered from a Madhur Jaffrey cookbook. Basically, to substitute some of the butter with 2 tbsp ghee for that carrot halwa taste without having to suffer the smell of cooking carrots.
For certain my mother's enjoying my baking efforts. For all that she moans that she'll put on all the weight she lost in India (by being unwell), it doesnt stop her from "sampling" my eggless cakes. I'm going to try and make as many from the book as possible while she's here... and eventually see if I cant adapt other cake recipes to be egg-free. It's going to be a slow journey but who cares!
The next thing I'd like to try is a pressure cooker cake, suggested by Vijayalaxmi Hegde in a comment on my previous post. I know there are some Chinese-style pressure cooker cake recipes around, but those arent what I want to try just yet.
Anyway, for now here's how to make my spicy eggless carrot cake.
Recipe for: Carrot cake
Ingredients:
1 heaped cup AP flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
4 tbsp soft butter (I used 2 tbsp ghee and 2 tbsp butter)
1-1/2 cups grated carrots
1/2 cup caster sugar
3/4 cup yogurt
1/4 cup chopped nuts - I used pistachios and pecans
1/4 cup sultanas
1 tsp fresh grated ginger
1/4 tsp nutmeg
a large pinch of cardamom powder
Method:
1. Grease a 6" square pan. Preheat the oven to 180C(350F).
2. Sift together the flour, baking powder and baking soda in a big bowl.
3. Add the ghee/butter
yogurt
and sugar
and mix. The batter will be quite thick at this point.
4. Add the grated carrots, ginger, spices, nuts and sultanas.
5. Mix well. The moisture from the carrots should make the batter a little loose, but if it seems still too thick, add a little more yogurt and mix again.
6. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top with a wet spatula or with your hand.
7. Bake at 180C for 40 minutes or till the cake tests done. Let the cake remain in the pan for 10 minutes.
8. Loosen the cake from the sides of the pan, if required, and turn out onto a wire rack to cool.
9. Cut into squares or rectangles when cool. Store in an airtight tin.
Discovery over the past week: There isnt enough time in a day to do everything I want to, especially as a large chunk of it is taken up by the working hours to which I'm forced to adhere. I'd like to read, watch my favourite TV shows (usually sitcoms and/or documentaries), write about my recent US trip for my travel blog, sort the (hundreds of) photos from said US trip and put them online, go blog-hopping in the fascinating world of food blogs, do the gardening while the weather's good, do the cooking, work on my embroidery and go cycling. (Less important things like vacuuming or doing/putting away the laundry dont figure on my list.) As you can see, it's a little difficult to cram all that into the 5 or 6 hours I have between getting home from work and going to bed. It might SEEM like a lot of time but believe me, it isnt.
Since I cant do all the above simultaneously, some of them inevitably take a back seat. At the moment, since I'm on an embroidery kick, anything to do with computers (writing, blogging, blog-hopping, photo-sorting) doesnt get done. So, what I've been doing since my last post on this blog is watching TV and working on my embroidery. (It's halfway to finished, to be fair - and I might be tempted to post a photo of it when it's done, if I think it deserves publicity!)
Anyhow, I havent put up any new posts and already it's Tuesday and time for ARF/5-a-Day hosted by Cate. This time, instead of something savoury, I'm going to post the recipe for a carrot-and-orange cake. The original recipe was off the Internet and I do wish I could remember where I got it. (I copied it during pre-blog days, when attribution wasnt necessary. Who knew I'd be writing about those recipes online! Note to self: Remember to copy source at all times.) In any case, I've tweaked it enough for it to be a hybrid now.
It's a very comforting sort of cake - because of some of the desi ingredients, the aroma and taste are tantalisingly reminiscent of Indian mithai (sweets), yet it is very definitely a cake that will appeal to Western palates.
I'm putting this cake forward for the ARF event because it contains carrots, fresh orange juice, nuts and buttermilk - all good ingredients!
The original recipe called for dark brown sugar. What I had was molasses sugar, which is infinitely darker and richer in taste than regular brown sugar. It probably made a huge difference to the aroma and flavour, I dunno. I had a hell of a time getting the lumps out of it (should have done that BEFORE adding it to the eggs and oil) but it was worth the effort, really.
One last thing - I used cream cheese frosting to fill the cake, but it would have been moist and tasty enough (and sweet enough) to hold its own even without any frosting. Next time I wont bother with the frosting - serving it with thick sweetened whipped cream will be more than enough! Also, this makes a BIG cake.
On with the show!
Recipe for: Orange-carrot cake
Ingredients:
1 generous tbsp ghee
1 cup oil
1 cup dark brown sugar (I used molasses sugar)
2 large eggs
1 tbsp vanilla essence
grated rind 2 oranges
4 tbsp orange juice
3 cups grated carrot
3/4 cup sultanas
1/4 cup halved pistachio nuts and chopped pecan nuts
3 cups flour
1 tbsp mixed spice
1/2 tsp powdered cardamom seeds
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 cup buttermilk (if you dont have buttermilk, use 1/2 cup yogurt, 1/2 cup water)
Frosting:
200g cream cheese
1 cup icing sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
Method:
1. Heat the oven to 160C. Grease a 10" square or round baking pan with Pam or other spray and line the bottom with non-stick paper.
2. In a large bowl beat together the oil, sugar, eggs, vanilla essence and orange rind.
3. Next, add the grated carrot, orange juice, sultanas and nuts.
4. Sift together the flour, mixed spice, cardamom powder, baking powder and soda and stir into the batter along with the buttermilk. Transfer to the prepared baking pan.
5. Bake at 160oC for 60-70 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean.
6. Cool the cake in the tin for 10 minutes before turning out onto a cake rack. Let it cool completely, then split the cake horizontally in half.
7. For the frosting, beat the cream with the icing sugar and vanilla essence until smooth.
8. Spread the frosting on the bottom layer, then replace the top half of the cake.
9. Dust with vanilla sugar or sifted icing sugar.
