Cheesy sambhar cake

This is an savoury cake, sandwiched between an layer of cheese and an layer of potato, seasoned with sambhar spices.   The taste was heavenly, and for an savoury-lover like me, every bite was mesmerizing.  Hubby, being an sambhar-aholic, thumbs uped this one.

This is, like, one crazy experiment which turned an best shot.   Yes, though, I wanted to bake buns with aloo masala filling, I settled for this one.  One advantage is that you can add any filling you want.  I made two fillings with the yeast-raised dough.  First one was cheese and second was potato.  I could'nt forsake this vegetable as this had its closest proximity with sambhar.  So making an sambhar flavoured potato was an better idea and sandwiching them between cheesy layers got the taste right.  

As, you can see in above pic, two layers of cake is visible - cheese and sambhar potato.  These can be sliced and best served warm along with cup of tea or before your dinner.  Any-time pleaser, you can also customize them, the way you like.  

Preparation time: 30 minutes
Cooking time: 10 minutes
Baking time: 35 minutes
Serves: 8-10

Ingredients required:

For dough

• 3 cups All purpose flour/maida
• 11/2 tsp salt
• 1 tbspn dry yeast
• 1/3 cup lukewarm milk
• 1 tsp sugar
• 11/2 cups water
• 1/4 cup of melted butter

For filling - first layer

• 1 cup grated pizza cheese

For filling - second layer

• 3 tsp gingelly oil
• 1/2 tsp rai/mustard seeds
• Pinch of hing/asafoetida
• 1/2 tsp whole cumin seeds
• 1 dried red chilly, broken into two
• 8-10 curry leaves
• 1/2 cup finely chopped onions
• 11/2 tsp sambhar powder
• 1/2 tsp haldi/turmeric powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp imli/tamarind extract
• 2 cups boiled, mashed potato
• 1/4 cup of finely chopped coriander leaves

For egg wash

• 1 egg
• 1 tbspn water

To garnish

• 1 tbspn sambhar powder
• 2 tbspn finely chopped coriander leaves

Method

Add flour and salt in an dry vessel.  Mix them thoroughly.  Add yeast to lukewarm water and salt, rest till yeast melts and foams up.  Now make an well in dry mixture and add yeast-sugar-milk to it.  

Slowly adding 11/2 cups of water, knead into an soft, sticky dough.  Cover this with an wet cloth and set aside for an hour or two till they double in volume.  (as in below pic)

After an first rise, pour melted butter and knead them very well.  

Meantime, let us prepare our filling.  In an kadaai, heat gingelly oil and add rai, hing, curry leaves, jeera and red chilly.  Once temper gets set, continue adding onions, spices and imli extract.   Switch off the gas, and add this flavourful tadka to our mashed potato. 

Mix the potato very well  using an fork, allowing an even distribution of spices.  Check for salt.  

Keep this aside. Pre-heat the oven to 180 degree celsius.   Now divide our dough into two balls, one(A) slightly bigger than the other (B)

Roll A into an thick sheet and spread this over greased cake tray, so that the arm extends all sides.

Now, spread over our potato filling evenly using fork.  

Similarly roll over B into an thick sheet (to cover the top part of our savoury cake)

Fold four sides/arms of A over the potato filling, so that filling is completely sealed/sandwiched between two cake layers.

Now, sprinkle pizza cheese evenly.

Add  B sheet over the cheese and tuck them over four sides.

Now, leave this for second rise, which might me around twenty minutes.  After that, do the egg wash.

I sprinkled sambhar powder round the corners and coriander leaves at middle.

This went into the oven for about thirty five to fourty minutes

Enjoy them with an sip of tea, happy baking guys :)

Linking this to Potluck party, cyber style, hosted by Jagruti.