This month’s Daring Bakers problem takes us to Goa for some
semolina and coconut cookies, Bolinhas de coco and to the Irani cafés in India
for some mawa cake!
Aparna of My Various Kitchen was our August 2013 Daring Bakers’ hostess
and he or she challenged us to make some wonderful regional Indian desserts.
The Mawa Cake, the Bolinhas de Coco cookies and the Masala cookies –
fantastically spiced and scrumptious!
Wealthy, milky, laced with cardamom, topped with cashew nuts and even almonds, mawa desserts are a trademark of the Irani cafés. The feel is barely dense, paying homage to a pound cake says Aparna. She challenged us to make mawa cake with hand-crafted mawa. Basundi or rabdi, which I used to make typically earlier, is only a couple
of steps shy of mawa or khoya, however surprisingly I’ve not made it at residence thus far. In case you reside someplace the place you don’t
have quick access to it, take coronary heart, its
straightforward to make, however wants persistence.
I’ve made Mawa desserts earlier,
although lighter textured, much less wealthy ones. However
I did needed to bake this one too, only for the enjoyable of creating mawa at residence and to not miss this problem hosted by Aparna. It was enjoyable certainly!
Mawa Cake :
I’ve halved the recipe and baked the cake in an 3 cup capability bundt pan, remaining batter in 2 small muffin cups.
Components
For the Mawa:
1 litre (4 cups) full fats milk
For the cake:
1/2 cup (1 stick) (120 ml) (4 oz) (115 gm) unsalted Butter (delicate at room temperature)
3/4 cup (180 ml) packed crumbled mawa
1-1/4 cups (300 ml) (10 oz) (280 gm) castor sugar
3 giant eggs
5 to six cardamom pods, powdered, (about 1-1/2 tsp powdered cardamom)
2 cups (500ml) (9 oz) (260 gm) cake flour
1 teaspoon (5 ml) (5 gm) baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (120 ml) milk
1 teaspoon (5ml) vanilla extract (elective)
Cashewnuts (or blanched almonds) to embellish (about 18 to twenty)
Instructions:
1. First make the “Mawa”. Pour the milk right into a heavy
bottomed saucepan, ideally a non-stick one. Deliver the milk to a
boil, stirring it on and off, ensuring it doesn’t persist with the
backside.
Flip down the warmth to medium and preserve cooking the milk till reduces to
a few quarter of its unique quantity. This could take about an hour
to an hour and a half.
2. The vital factor throughout this course of is to look at the milk and
stir it incessantly to verify it doesn’t persist with the edges or backside
of the pan and get burnt. The hazard of this occurring will increase because the
milk reduces and will get thicker.
3. As soon as the milk it has decreased to about one fourth, 1/4 amount,
decrease the warmth to low and let cook dinner for a short time longer. Maintain
stirring recurrently, till the milk solids (mawa) tackle a lumpy
look. There ought to be no seen liquid left within the pan, however the
mawa ought to be moist and never persist with the edges of the pan.
4. Take away the pan from warmth and switch the mawa to a bowl and let it
cool fully. Then cowl and refrigerate it for a day or two (not
extra) until you’re able to make the cake. It should harden within the fridge
so let it come to room temperature earlier than utilizing it. You need to get about 3/4 to 1 cup of mawa from 1 litre (4 cups) of full-fat milk.
To bake the cake : Pre-heat your oven to reasonable 180°C/350°F.
butter, the crumbled mawa and the sugar in a largish bowl, utilizing a hand
held electrical beater, on excessive pace till delicate and fluffy.
2. Add the eggs, separately, and beat on medium pace until effectively
included. Add the vanilla and milk and beat until blended effectively.
3. Sift the cake flour, baking powder, cardamom, and salt onto the
batter and beat at medium pace and effectively blended. Should you can’t discover
cake flour, place 2 tablespoon of cornstarch within the backside of your 1-cup
measure after which fill it with all-purpose (plain) flour to make as much as 1
cup.
4. Grease and line solely the underside of an 8 inch (20 cm) spring type
pan. Pour the batter into this and frivolously clean the highest. Place the
cashew nuts (or blanched almonds) on prime of the batter randomly. Don’t
press the nuts down into the batter. A Mawa Cake all the time has a country
completed look relatively than a adorned look.
5. Bake in a preheated reasonable oven for about 1 hour till the cake is a
golden brown and a skewer pushed into the centre comes out clear. Do
not over bake the cake or it can dry out. If the cake appears to be
browning too rapidly, cowl it can aluminum foil hallway via the
baking time.
6. Take away from oven and permit it to chill for 10 min within the tin. Launch
the cake, peel off the parchment from the bottom and let it cool
fully.
BOLINHAS DE COCO (Cardamom Flavored Coconut Biscuits/ Cookies):
The notable factor about these cookies are they’re made fully out of semolina and recent coconut (no flour).
These cookies are somewhat crisp, crunchy on the skin and sort of cakey
inside when freshly baked. Cardamom and coconut make a fab pairing and I liked the flavour of
the cookies. Am certain they might have been higher texture-wise if I had not goofed up with the dough.
Components:
2 cups (500 ml) (5-1/3 oz) (150 gm) recent grated coconut, packed
1-1/2 cups (360 ml) (9 oz) (250 gm) semolina
1-1/4 cups (300 ml) (8-3/4 oz) (250 gm) granulated sugar
3/4 cup water (180ml) (6 oz) (175 gm) water
A pinch of salt
2 tablespoons (30 ml) (1 oz) (30 gm) ghee (clarified butter) or melted unsalted butter
2 giant eggs
8 to 10 pods cardamom, powdered (about 1-1/2 teaspoon)
Instructions:
1. Run the grated coconut in your processor or the small jar of your
blender a few instances in order that the flakes are smaller and uniform in
texture. Don’t grind right into a paste. Maintain apart.
2. Put the semolina in a pan and toast/ roast it, over low to medium
warmth, till it begins giving off an aroma, and appears prefer it’s about to
begin altering color. This could take a few minutes. Don’t
brown. Switch the semolina right into a bowl and preserve apart.
3. In the identical pan, pour the water and add the sugar to it. Place it
on medium warmth and preserve stirring till the sugar dissolves fully.
As soon as the sugar has dissolved, preserve stirring the answer and let it cook dinner
for about 2 minutes. Flip off the warmth. The sugar answer ought to simply
start to begin forming a syrup however continues to be watery. Don’t cook dinner till it
varieties a thick syrup.
4. Add the toasted/ roasted semolina and blend effectively. Then add the
coconut, salt and ghee (or melted butter) and blend effectively. Put the pan again
on the range, and over medium warmth stir the coconut combination till it’s
actually scorching and simply varieties a thick clump. This could take about 2 to three
minutes.
5. Take the pan off the warmth and let the semolina coconut combination
cool to room temperature. Switch this right into a bowl or container, cowl
and refrigerate for not less than 8 hours, ideally in a single day. For actually
fluffy biscuits/ cookies, the in a single day relaxation is beneficial.
6. The subsequent day, take the dough out of the fridge and let it come to
room temperature. ( I did the error of warming the combination barely to get it to room temperature sooner as I needed to exit. I ought to have simply let it come to room temperature by itself, needed to refrigerate the dough once more to agency it up, but it surely didn’t come again to the identical consistency). Separate the yolks from the egg whites. Frivolously beat
the yolks with a fork to interrupt them and add to the dough. Additionally add the
powdered cardamom and blend effectively with a picket spoon or fork.
7. Whisk the egg whites by hand till frothy and add to the dough. Combine effectively until included.
8. You’ll now have a barely moist and sticky dough. Refrigerate this dough for about half an hour so it companies up a bit.
9. Pre-heat your oven to reasonable 180°C/350°F/fuel mark 4. Line your
baking trays with parchment or grease them effectively with some ghee or melted
butter.
10. Take the dough out and pinch off walnut sized bits of dough. The
dough ought to be agency sufficient to deal with with out issue. If the dough
is sticking to your palms, frivolously mud your palms with flour earlier than
shaping the dough. Roll the bits of dough into balls after which flatten
them very barely.
11. Enhance the highest by marking criss-crosses (3 equidistant traces one
method and one other 3 crossing them at proper angles), with a desk knife.
Press down a bit however not too deep or proper via the biscuit/ cookie.
Burn up all of the dough this manner.
2. Place the formed dough on the baking trays leaving somewhat house
between them. Bake in a preheated reasonable oven for about 20 to 25
minutes till they’re a golden brown and executed. Mine took somewhat longer most likely as a result of the dough was a bit unfastened. Allow them to cool on the
sheets for about 5 minutes after which switch to racks to chill
fully.
13. Retailer the biscuits/ cookies in hermetic containers. This recipe makes about 4 dozen Bolinhas de Coco.
Thanks for the beautiful problem Aparna, it was enjoyable doing this!