Microwave Mug Cake - A quick something for that intense sweet craving

When we were growing up Mom used to give us pottukadalai (roasted Bengal gram) with sugar/jaggery. That was our quick fix for a sweet craving. I still keep a box replenished with pottukadalai and jaggery mix for folks at home to munch on.  

But nowadays kids are spoilt for choices, be it TV or food. They want something new every time. So anytime I come across some quick recipe for kids snacks I make sure to try it out so I can be ready to assuage one of those intense cravings and "I don't want this all the time, it is so boring" whines. 

I don't recollect the original recipe, I only remember that the recipe was for just one mug cake. 

What follows is the recipe I have standardised for my use. I typically make 4. The kids down 1 each as soon as it is made and save the other one for later. 

Recipe (makes 4 in 180 ml china cups or kullads)


Ingredients:
1 egg (if you want eggless, please check the substitution below)
1/4 cup (4 tbsp) - milk
2 tbsp - butter
1/4 cup (4 tbsp) - whole wheat flour
1/4 cup (4 tbsp) - sugar
1 tsp - vanilla essense
1 tsp - baking powder

Topping (optional)
Chocolate chips or chopped chocolate.

Method:
Melt the butter in one of the mugs/cups.
Whisk the egg, milk, and sugar in a bowl with a fork. Add the melted butter and whisk again. Add the flour, baking powder and vanilla essence and make a smooth paste.

If adding chocolate chips or chopped chocolate, add them to the batter at this stage.

Grease four china cups/kullads with a little melted butter.

Spoon the batter to fill the cups upto half way. Microwave the 4 cups/kullags for 1.5 minutes at full power. Insert a toothpick to make sure the mug cake is cooked.

Substitute for Eggless variant:
Instead of the egg listed above, you can substitute with one of the following:
a. grind a teaspoon of flax seeds
b. grind half a ripe banana robusta
The microwave time may need to be increased by about 30 seconds for the eggless variant. Be sure to check in between so the cake is not overcooked.

Substitute for Chocolate mug cake:
Instead of 4 tbsp of whole wheat flour, use 3 tbsp of whole wheat flour and 1 tbsp of cocoa powder (if using Dutch processed cocoa powder, add a tsp of vinegar to the recipe)

Verdict: A little too eggy for my taste, but the kids do not mind.  

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White bread with Tangzhong method

Baking with yeast has finally been conquered. Checkout the softest and spongiest milk bread ever eaten in our household and to top it all home-made. What better joy than seeing your efforts bear fruit? 

Baking a whole wheat loaf is not quite there yet. But I am trying... hang on... In the meanwhile, check this recipe out... 

I came across this recipe on Baking Partners, but at that time I did not have this wonderful yeast, so I missed that challenge. I finally made it when I got my packet of good yeast. I did not understand what the Tangzhong would do and how it would help, but apparently it acts as a dough enhancer. It produces really soft and spongy bread. 

Recipe source Christine's recipes

Ingredients for tangzhong: 

50gm/ 1/3 cup bread flour

250ml/ 1cup water (could be replaced by milk, or 50/50 water and milk)
Formula of  1 parts of flour with 5 parts of water heat at 65 c/ 150F

Ingredients for 

bread:

350gm/ 2½ cups bread flour (I used Maida)

55gm/3tbsp+2tsp caster sugar

5gm/1tsp salt

56gm egg (equals to 1 large egg) ( If you want eggless, increase amount of milk or add a cooked potato) 

7gm/1tbsp+1tsp milk powder (to increase fragrance, optional)

125ml/ ½cup milk

120gm tangzhong (use half of the tangzhong you make from this recipe)

5 to 6gm/2 tsp instant yeast

30gm/3tbsp butter (cut into small pieces, softened at room temperature)

Method of making Tangzhong:

1. Mix flour in water well without any lumps. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring consistently with a wooden spoon, whisk or spatula to prevent burning and sticking while you cook along the way.
2. The mixture becomes thicker and thicker. Once you notice some “lines” appear in the mixture for every stir you make with the spoon. It’s done.  If you want to check the temperature of tangzhong it is 65 C/149 F.Remove from heat.
3. Transfer into a clean bowl. Cover with a cling wrap sticking onto the surface of tangzhong to prevent from drying up. Let cool. The tangzhong can be used straight away once it cools down to room temperature.  Just measure out the amount you need. The leftover tangzhong can be stored in fridge up to a few days as long as it doesn't turn grey. If so, you need to discard and cook some more. (Note: The chilled tangzhong should return to room temperature before adding into other ingredients. )

Method of making bread:

1. Combine all dry ingredients: flour, salt, sugar and instant yeast in a bowl. Make a well in the center. Whisk and combine all wet ingredients: milk, egg and tangzhong, then add into the well of the dry ingredients. Knead until you get a dough shape and gluten has developed, then knead in the butter. Mind you, it’d be quite messy at this stage  Keep kneading until the dough is smooth, not sticky and elastic. To test if the dough is ready, you might stretch the dough. If it forms a thin “membrane”/ window pan test, it’s done. The time of kneading all depends on how hard and fast you knead.
2. Knead the dough into a ball shape. Place in a greased bowl and cover with a wet towel or cling wrap. Let it proof till it's doubled in size, about 40 minutes (Note: the time will vary and depends on the weather. The best temperature for proofing is 28C/ 80 F.) During summer in Bangalore, it only takes 30-35 minutes for the first rise.
3. Transfer to a clean floured surface. Deflate and divide the dough into eight equal portions. Knead into ball shapes. Cover with cling wrap, let rest for 15 minutes.
4. Grease and prepare a 8" square pan. If you want to make a simple white bread roll without filling you can do that at this time. Roll each ball of dough into an oval shape. Fold the shorter edges of the oval and form a square roughly. Turn it over and roll it again into a rectangle or oval. Turn it over and then start rolling from the wider side of the two shorter sides of the rectangle. Place it in the prepared pan as shown in the picture below. 
5. Leave it for the 2nd round of proofing, about 40 minutes, or until the dough rises up to 3/4 of the height of the tin inside.


6. Brush some milk on the surface gently. Bake in a pre-heated 180C (350F) ovenfor 35 to 40 minutes. I baked for 35 minutes. Remove from the oven and tin. Transfer onto a wire rack and let cool completely. Slice to serve or place in an airtight plastic bag or container once it's thoroughly cooled.

Verdict: This is by far the best bread we have ever eaten at home. I first made this about 5 years ago, and Mom was thrilled at the sponginess of this fresh loaf. When I made this recently, both my daughters downed large chunks at breakfast and tea times. 

My daughter just slathered nutella and ate the chunk. For my husband, I just made a simple channa sandwich after toasting a couple of slices and stuffing some channa masala between. 

Sunday Special - Grilled Chicken

We had started a summer weekend tradition of roasting chicken for my daughter and her playmates a few years back. We had setup a fireplace on the terrace and had the kids play around in the evening, while we roasted the chicken. We would setup a moonlight dinner for them. They all just loved those evenings and would look forward to the next time we plan it.

The first time, I went all out with an Italian herb recipe to marinate the chicken. They liked it but felt the chicken was not spicy enough. So the next time, I went with the traditional Indian spices and they loved it. So I stuck to that marinade mix ever since.

But with the arrival of my little one, and the time it took to roast the chicken on fire, I started grilling it in the oven and then taking it to terrace to smoke it in the fire. The kids still loved it and we felt the chicken was still juicy in this method of cooking.

But this tradition got sparser and sparser after we read about the health hazards of consuming smoked or grilled foods frequently.

So we had stopped grilling chicken, until recently, when my little one took a liking to grilled/barbecued chicken and not the regular chicken curry I cook at home. So I had to get back to grilling the chicken in the oven.

Oh Boy! do they love it. If they are not home when I am grilling, they get back home and start sniffing around immediately asking if I have grilled chicken. And the little one wants to eat it real hot, straight off the oven.

Okay without much ado, let us get to the bottom of it! How to get the perfect juicy grilled chicken.

All recipes for the marinade mix talk about hung curd. That is curd hung in a muslin cloth for a few hours, such that the whey is drained out and we have very thick cheese like paste.

I tried mixing the regular spices with hung curd, but I felt the marinade did not do the job. The spices did not penetrate the chicken even if we make the right cuts.

So I stopped filtering out the whey and started using the curd as such in the marinade. For this recipe, we buy the chicken with the skin. The skin protects the inside from drying out and helps it cook well. The grilling process will char the skin, but you can just remove the skin, once it is out of the oven, and you are left with juicy grilled chicken.

Recipe (serves 6-8)

Ingredients

Marinade mix:
Curd - 1 cup
Chilli powder - 2 tsp
Salt - 1 tbsp (or to taste)
Cumin powder (jeera) - 1 tsp
Pepper powder - 1 tsp
Coriander powderr (dhaniya) - 1 tsp
Turmeric - 1/4 tsp

Chicken - 1 full uncut with the skin

Olive oil - 2 tbsp

Juice from lemon - for garnishing

Method

Clean the chicken and make cuts along the legs and breast of the chicken. Leave the skin intact.

Mix the ingredients for the marinade.

Smear the marinade all over and make sure to stuff the cuts with enough marinade.

Let the chicken marinade at room temperature for an hour or two.

Grease the grill pan with olive oil. Place the chicken on the pan. Drizzle some more olive oil on top.

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celcius.

Place the grill pan on a stand such that it is as close to the grills on the oven as possible.

Grill for 60 minutes.

Make sure to flip the chicken over to the other side and brush the chicken with the juices collected in the grill pan

Remove the charred skin out. brush again with the oil and juices. 

Serve with mint chutney and a slice of lemon. 

Verdict: The skin helps to retain the moisture during the grilling process. Using regular curd instead of hung curd helps as well. I would love to hear any tips and known tricks that work for you. Do let me know in the comments.