Cinnamon Rolls

Fluffy, chewy & soft, bursting with buttery sugar-cinnamon filling - Cinnamon rolls for Sunday evening; My house smelled heavenly with the baking aromas of fresh bread and cinnamon. I was keeping my fingers crossed, hoping they'd taste as good. Well, my family has polished of most of it, so I guess its decent! 

This is how I made it.

For the dough:
Maida/All purpose flour - 3 1/2 cups
Vanilla Essence - few drops
Milk -1/4 cup
Sugar -5 tsp
Salt -1 tsp
Butter -5 tsp(softened)
Active dry yeast - 1 tbs
Olive Oil - 1 tbs

For the filling:
Cinnamon Powder
Melted butter 
Granulated Sugar 

For the frosting:
4 tbs melted butter
5 tbs icing sugar
1/2 cup warm milk

Ready the yeast mixture by dissolving the dry yeast in lukewarm water until dissolved and frothy. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the milk, sugar, salt vanilla essence and yeast mixture. Add the flour little at a time and knead to form a pliable dough. Add the olive oil and knead further (knead for about 20 minutes). Cover the dough with a damp cloth and set aside for a few hours or until the dough doubles in size.

Preheat the oven.

On a floured and dusted surface, roll out the dough into a rectangular shape with a rolling pin.  Coat the dough with butter and spread the cinnamon and sugar generously. Tightly roll up the spread dough and cut into even pieces. Place in a greased baking tin and bake for about 30 minutes or till golden brown.

For the frosting, whisk together all the ingredients to form a smooth syrup. Drizzle over the rolls before serving.

Mango Mania: Mango Cheesecake

Ever since my last post on mango gojju, not a day has passed without eating mango in some form or the other. And when mango and cheese is combined, it is a killer combo. Layers of fresh ripe mango pulp, cheese and cottage cheese on a bed of crushed biscuits is just what the family needed as a sinful sweet indulgence on a hot Sunday afternoon.

Ingredients:

Cheese spread - 1 tub (I used Amul creamy cheese)Cream - 100 gms (I used Amul)

Cottage Cheese - 250gms (I used Amul paneer)

Sugar - Half a cup 

Mango puree from 4 ripe mangoes

Gelatin - 1 tbsp (I used Lion vegetarian gelatin)

Hot Water - 1/4 cup

Digestive biscuits - 2 packets (I used Marie biscuit)

Unsalted butter, melted - 75 gm 

Method:

Crush the biscuits in a food processor to form a coarse powder. Add the melted butter and mix well. Press into a spring form pan or a loose bottom dish, or individual glasses. Refrigerate till rest of the cheesecake is ready. 

Blend the mango pulp with sugar and set aside. Add gelatin to hot water till completely dissolved. Add this to the mango puree and stir well. 

Blend together the cheese spread, cottage cheese and cream. To this cheese mixture, add half the mango pulp and beat till well incorporated. 

Pour the mango-cheese mixture over the biscuit layer as a second layer and refrigerate for a about 2 hours. As a third layer, pour the mango pulp gently over the mango-cheese ensuring the layers do not get mixed. Refrigerate for at least 8 hours or overnight.

Apple Crumble with Warm Vanilla Custard

What do you do when lots of apples get accumulated and you can’t eat them all up? Make an apple crumble – quick and easy! And then, some vanilla custard.

You would need 6 ripe apples, cored and diced, 5tbs sugar, 3 small sticks of cinnamon or to taste, 6 slices bread and 4tbs cooking butter

Preheat the oven. Meanwhile, peel, core and dice the apples (I got my husband to do it as I hate peeling and chopping). In a thick bottom pan, cook the apples along with 3tbs of sugar on medium flame. Throw in 2 sticks on cinnamon so the apples catch the cinnamon flavour. Cook covered and stir a bit to ensure that the apples don’t burn. This will take about 10mins. Once the apples are cooked and slightly soggy with a little syrup, turn off the gas. Run the bread slices, 1 cinnamon stick and 2tbs of sugar in a food processor or blender until coarse bread crumbs are formed. Mix the butter and bread crumbs mixture well. In a greased baking dish, spread the cooked apples evenly. Top the apple spread with a thick layer of bread crumbs taking care not to leave any gaps. Press the bread crumbs layer lightly. Bake in a pre-heated oven at 200 degrees Fahrenheit for about 20 minutes, or, depending on your oven, until the bread crumbs layer is crisp.

While the apple crumble baked, I made some vanilla custard with custard powder that I happened to have. I served the crumble warm with custard. You could also add a scoop of vanilla ice-cream.