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.

Banana Bread (egg-less)

Been craving for some home-made dessert for a while now. So decided to snap out of my lazy stupor and bake something. There were a few over ripe bananas sitting in the fruit basket - ideal for baking banana bread (egg less).

This is the first bread I learnt to bake few years back (after having tasted the banana walnut bread at ICRISAT Hyderabad). Moist, delicious and wholesome. And folks at home love it.

Ingredients

1 cup sugar ( Indian granulated white sugar or brown sugar)

3 bananas (ripe)

4 tbsp melted unsalted butter

2 tbsp curds/dahi

1 and 1/2 cup all purpose flour (maida)

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp vanilla essence or extract

1/4 cup milk

1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

1tsp cinnamon powder

Method

Pre Heat oven to 350 degree fahrenheit / 180 degree centigrade. Blend the bananas, add sugar, curds and mix. Add butter, salt, and flour till incorporated. Mix the baking soda with the milk and add it to the above mix along with the vanilla essence. Mix in the walnuts and cinnamon

powder and stir till everything is well blended. Pour this batter into a greased bread tin and bake for about 50-60 minutes or till a tooth pick inserted comes out dry.