About Me

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A food technologist by education, techno- commercial by profession and a foody at heart. Discovering and appreciating good food is my habit and experimenting with various flavors, and cooking techniques my passion! Food styling is my hobby and eating a favourite! Why this blog name? Because I always look for the green dot, because I am a vegetarian - no egg,no gelatin! I believe that you can find good food anywhere, sometimes at the places you least expect!I also believe that food is meant to be shared and its okay when you offer somebody your favourite food and secretly wish that he refuses so that you can have it all by yourself!Good food is omnipresent! You need to have the nose for it :)

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Showing posts with label Cakes & Bakes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cakes & Bakes. Show all posts

Friday, July 19, 2013

Vegan Fondant

Vegan Fondant




The main reason why most other home-made fondant recipes cannot be considered vegan is because they contain gelatin or marshmallows as thickeners. One vegan alternative is agar agar.

Ingredients

* 3/4 tsp agar agar powder
* 1/8 cup cold water
* 1/4 cup liquid glucose
* 1 tbsp vegetable shortening
* 1/2 tablespoon glycerin
* a little more than 2 cups icing
* 1 tsp vanilla extract or other flavoring

Directions

1. Start by sifting the icing sugar into a bowl through a large metal strainer. You can see how all the big lumps are broken up and the icing sugar is nice and airy. This will make kneading later on easier and you will avoid having icing sugar lumps in the fondant.
2 Mix the agar powder with water in a small saucepan and let it soak for a while. It will become of a thicker, gelatinous consistency. After about 10 minutes place the saucepan on the stove top on low heat. The goal is to dissolve the agar mixture. This has to be done slowly. (Otherwise the water will simply evaporate and agar speckles are left in the bottom of the pan.) Stir constantly and add more water by the tablespoon as needed so the mixture doesn't dry out.When you see that all the agar powder is dissolved (it will take probably around 10 minutes) take the pan from the heat.
3 Now, add the glucose/corn syrup and shortening. Stir the mixture until all of the shortening dissolves. Stir in glycerin and flavoring.
4.Put half of the sifted icing sugar into another bowl. Make a well and pour in the agar mixture. Stir together with a spatula as much as possible adding more icing sugar when needed. When you can't stir anymore start kneading in the icing sugar as needed by hand. 5 Form the fondant into a ball.
6. Portion into 4 parts and knead in the desired colours.
7. This fondant can be used in various ways to decorate.I had some muffins in hand, so practiced on that.

PS:Will upload step by step tutorial soon :)

Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Banana Walnut slice

Baking is now my latest obsession-it has started growing on me! You wont believe me if I tell you that I am literally thinking about baking 24X7.
This morning when my spouse caught me baking at the wee hours of morning, he was taken aback!
My urge to bake was simply irresistible and I started as early as 5 am!
I baked a banana walnut loaf today, very healthy, very yummy!
Here is the recipe:


This is how it looked, I didn't have a loaf tin so had to manage with a cake tin... 

I thought of clicking pics for every step but was too impatient!





INGREDIENTS:

1. Whole wheat flour : 1.5 cup
2. Ripe Bananas : 3
3. Milk: 1cup
4. Maple/ Golden syrup / honey :2T
5. Chopped walnuts : 1/2 cup
6. Refined oil : 1/2cup
7. Salt: 1/2t
8. Baking soda: 1t
9. Baking Powder : 2t
10. Omega Mix :1T

METHOD:

1. Mix all the dry ingredients (except the walnuts and omega mix )and sift through thrice.
2. Blend and whisk all wet ingredients.
3. Mix the two by cut and fold method, being careful of not over mixing.
4. Fold in the omega mix and chopped walnuts
5. Transfer to a greased mold and bake in a preheated oven for 30 minutes until a toothpick comes out  clean.
6. Demould. Let it cool on a wire rack and cut into thick slices. Serve hot or at room temperature.

PS: This has just the right amount of sweetness for adults. However,if serving to  kids , sandwich some nutella between the two slices.