Apple Galette

      Galette is an free form of pie.  They are from French Cuisine and can be made both sweet and savoury.  Since I had lot of Simla Apples left in my refrigerator, I made Apple Galette.  They made an very light dessert and we enjoyed having these.  

A big thanks to Swathi Iyer  and Suja for suggesting such an wonderful recipe.  Tastewise these resembled the pie and with the given recipe for shorcrust pastry, I made two 7-inch Apple Galette.  Let us move to the recipe

Ingredients required:

For shortcrust pastry

• 11/4 cup All purpose flour
• 1/4 cup cornflour
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 tsp sugar
• 55 grams of unsalted butter, cut into tiny cubes.
• 11/2 tbspn of cold water

For filling

• 140 grams of Apple, peeled, cut into thin slices
• 1/2 tsp of lemon juice
• 1 tbspn of unsalted butter
• 1 tsp of cinnamon powder
• 2 tsp of sugar

To top with

• 2 tsp of granulated sugar

Method

For shortcrust pastry, add both the flours, salt, sugar in an dry bowl and mix them together. 

Rub in butter cubes into the flour till the flour resembles breadcrumbs.  

Add in cold water till the crumbs form an soft dough.

The soft dough should be firm enough to hold.  To test, take an pinch of dough, if it breaks apart, then it needs more water.  If they hold shape, then dough is complete.  

Cling wrap them and refrigerate for an minimum of two hours.   For the filling add the sliced apples to lemon juice.  This helps in preventing discolouration.  Melt butter, add in cinnamon, sugar and mix till sugar dissolves.  Toss around the apple slices and cool.  

Remove the shortcrust dough from cling wrap and let them come to room temperature, preheat the oven to 180 degree celsius.   Divide into two halves.   Roll first half  sandwiched between two butter  sheets.

After they reach 1/8inch thickness, add in the filling leaving 3 inch gap around the edges.

Using hands, fold the edge up forming loose frills, covering the filling.  

Sprinkle with sugar.

Bake them for 20-25 minutes.  Cool them in wire rack and serve.  

Linking this to Baking partners run by Swathi Iyer.

Happy Baking :)  :)

WORLD DIABETES DAY - November 14th 2013

   Hi all, this day,  November14th is observed as World Diabetes day.  When  Swathi , highlighted this importance and announced the event, I can barely resist myself from joining.  Thanks to her, this event made me go through a lot of learning process and know more about Diabetic diet.  So, with no more delay, I present you two diabetic-friendly dish topped with brief description.

 

 

 

What is Insulin?

Our body cells needs energy in order to perform all our physical tasks.  And this energy is available in form of glucose/sugar that floats freely in our blood.  But our body cells won't easily grab them or digest them.  They need some hormone to help/intake the glucose available, just like my kid, Varsha who wants food, but needs Mommy to feed her :D .  So, this mommywali help is done by Insulin, an hormone secreated by Pancreas.  Insulin helps cells to digest the glucose so that your body cells becomes active and carries on all activities.

What is Diabetes?

    Just imagine your body cells when  not enough Insulin is created, or when Insulin is not recognized by them.  The amount of glucose/sugar stays as such, and increases everytime you have your food.  This results in high level of glucose in blood or  high blood sugar.  This condition is called as Diabetes mellitus. 

Complications

So, when blood sugar increases, there is an urge for blood cells to feed/ to consume, where will they go??  Some try to utilize fat content available as energy source while some degenerate.  Such degeneration of cells throughout they body may lead to severe complications like Heart-attack, Paralysis, Dementia (loss of memory), Blurred vision, Loss of weight, Increased thirst, Frequent urination and other gastric-oriented problems like Nausea, Vomitting etc

No Direct cure

Since there is no direct cure, an diabetic patient must restore to all three preventive measures, given below.

• As key effect, degeneration of blood cells should be prevented.   Medication plays its part here and homeopathic medicines have also shown to have good remedy.

•  Alternatively, body sugar levels must also be controlled.  This is helped by physical exercise.

•  Following an diet with high-fibre, low-fat/cholestrol is also important since this disease may lead to cardio-vascular problems.

Diabetic Diet

Diabetic diet is filled with whole grains(wheat, oats, barley, maize, brown rice, millet etc), fresh fruits, vegetables.  Here, I am going to make two dishes, which are diabetic-friendly in order to highlight this event.  They are Barley vegetable soup & Barley topped fruit salad. 

Barley vegetable soup

Ingredients required are 1/2 tsp amul 'light' butter, 3-4 garlic pods sliced, 1 cup of finely chopped vegetables like  Onions, Mushrom, Carrot, Palak (spinach), 1/2 cup of Barley pearls soaked for 3-4 hours, Salt & Pepper, to taste.

Heat butter in pan, add garlic slices and sauté till they brown.  Add onions and other vegetables and sauté well.  Wash the soaked barley and add in pan. 

 

Add 1 cup of water and pressure cook for single whistle. 

 

Season them with salt and pepper, serve hot!

 

 

Barley topped fruit salad

 

Ingredients required are 1/2 cup of barley, soaked for two hours, 2 cups of chopped fruits like Apple, Papaya, Kiwi, Banana, 2 orange deskinned de-seeded and separated to segments, 1/2 cup of pomegranate seeds, 1 tbspn of lime juice, 1 tsp of chaat masala.

 

Wash the soaked barley seeds, cook them on stove-top with one cup of water.  As you will notice, barley will absorb water and turn soft after it gets cooked.   

 

 

In a large bowl, add chopped fruits, pomegranate seeds, barley pearls, lime juice, chaat masala.  Mix well, finally fold in orange segments. 

 

 

Serve them chilled. 

 

 

Happy cooking!!!  :)

 

 

  

 

Apple & Custard scrolls

Hi guys, I fell in luv with these scrolls ever since I first saw them in Christine's blog... I, was dying to prepare them... and finally took extreme step to prepare these gorgeous scrolls.  Prepared in two batches, made individual buns and baked them on aluminium tin to get stuffed loaf.. Pics follows:

Apple pie

   Hi, this is my second challenge to Baking Partners, and topic i choosed was Apple pie.  To begin with I am a poor baker.  My first righteous cake made was, plum cake, for my first challenge for Baking partners (and before that tried making several cakes, but in vain)  I joined this group just in correct time, bcoz joining so pushed me to learn many facts, google many baking videos online, and learn baking tips.  It made me to exercise 'sincere baking efforts' which i wud not have done otherwise.  So I am feeling so thankful to Swathi Iyer, Tamy, Gayathri, Samantha and other friends of mine for putting such an nice initiative, and encouraging new bakers.. Great job guys.. go ahead...

  And yes, my apple pie, really turned out super-delecious (though i was a bit upset about its shape, as i had baked on aluminium pan, it came out like 'cake shaped' .  On the top of this my kid didnt beleive it was pie, she said 'no mummy, it is apple cake' ;) ;) and correcting me, she happily ate it )

.

So, off to recipe..

Ingredients required

For the crust

• 250 gm plain flour/maida
• 1 tsp Baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 80 gm butter
• 1 Egg
• 100 gm powdered sugar

For the filling

• 1/2 kg apple
• 1 tsp cinnamon powder
• 20 gm butter
• 2 tsp lime juice
• 50 gm powdered sugar
• 1/4 tsp cloves