Breadmaker Pretzels

My weakness knows no end for this one perfectly shaped and salted treat. Usually reserved for Mall sojourns, I really never gave account to whipping up supersized  knots of bread in the confines of my little kitchen. But oh, how misguided I was! Pacing through in an online hunt, I discovered the World Wide Web flush with recipes, how- tos and step- two -three's on making the perfect pretzel or brezel, Danke! Weeding through, I found the one that seemed easier than most, with enough clamorings of general comment love. But thingthatcaughtmyattention was the requirement of my oft neglected kitchen accessory, an absurdly tubshaped Oster breadmaker.

Pretzelmaking in itself is not a difficult task, especially when you have hardest work done for you by this remarkable machine. In fact, a soft baked pretzel depends largely on balancing the curve between Perfect Knead and Great Rise. The mechanized coagulation actually does produce smooth elasticity which is so vital for proper pretzel looping. Good dough thus leads to superior bake- holler yes to chewysoft, densesmooth - those be compounds for your new digestive vocabulary.

And so we get to round one. Soft buttery knots of yeasted dough this was precisely NOT. At least in  my maiden adventure. More stretchy than need be and bursting apart at all seams left the dough tasting like chewy bricks and me severely disappointed. So solid were these that their first cut made straight to the waste bin.

After much pondering and excessive hair pulling, a gentle rebalance was done, a here and there effort, reducing flour by a half cup here, throwing in a tablespoon more sugar and there, faster, maybe not,than speed was my fairly decent and well risen dough. Where trusted breadmachine flour and a better suited breadmaker's yeast turned pretzel making into absolute glee.

The only technique, I should say requiring small amounts of mastery would be the shaping of your pretzel knot. Though none of mine looked the same, the smooth elastic dough enabled myself to successfully wing through and turn the skinny snake forms into loop and tuck frames, almost perfect Thor builds. And when you employ the several hands at home, nothing could be easier and after school snacking will never be the same.

For those of you waiting for a pretzel making cue, get on it, for this is the one! Maybe even bests out that mall competition. A challenge indeed which no Wetzel or Auntie Anne can hold candle to.

(Loosely adapted from Food.com- thank you KimmieOH!)

Ingredients:

•  1 cup warm water
• 1 tbsp oil
• 2 ½ cups bread flour
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 1 ½ tsp salt
• 2¼ tsp active dry yeast ( I used breadmachine yeast)
• 2 qts. water
• 2 tbsp baking soda

Glaze Ingredients:

• 1 large egg
• 1 tbsp water

Topping variations:

• coarse pretzel salt
• sesame seeds
• cinnamon sugar
• parmesan cheese 

End Glaze:

• 4 tbsp butter, melted

Directions:

• Place the ingredients, from water to yeast, into the pan of the breadmaker according to your manual's instructions ( I did it in the same order listed above, liquids to dry, ending with yeast).
• Program the machine to the dough setting. Let it complete its cycle. Take it out and allow to rest 10 minutes.
• Turn dough out onto counter. If you want a smooth work surface, flour counter at this point.
• Divide into 8- 10 pieces.
• Preheat oven to 425° F
• Roll each into an 16-18 inch rope. Shape each rope into a round and then lift each end to cross over and touch opposite side of the circle, tucking the ends underneath the round, sealing with a dab of water. Or twist into any shape you desire.

• Place on parchment lined baking trays and let rise for about 15 minutes.
• Combine water and baking soda in a large saucepan and bring to a boil.
• With a slotted spoon lower each pretzel and immerse in this boiling water mixture for about 15 seconds on each side - or when they float to the surface.
• Take out from the water bath and return to tray. About 6 per 9X13" tray
• Beat egg and water together and brush egg glaze onto individual pretzels.
• Sprinkle with salt or sesame seeds or just leave plain. 
• Bake for 8- 10 minutes until golden brown, turning sides halfway through.
• Brush melted butter onto tops of pretzels. If you plan to add cinnamon sugar, do it here.
• Allow to rest for 5- 10 minutes, since they are scalding hot (burned mouths heal slow).

Don't have a breadmaker? There are no dearth for handmade pretzel recipes out there.

 I wanted to showcase my bulksome beauty, prettied it up with the carnation prop. Looking more like an oversized boat, my flowers took first prize in appearance, see that picture below? Beware though, that beast within is worth due praise.

My shapes were functionally disfigured. No two looked the same. A non issue since they were gone by the end of daylight.

Mustard, cheese sauce or cinnamon sugared. Options on how to chow are endless. That being said, how do you eat your pretzel?
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"When I am afraid, I put my trust in you" Psalm 56:3 

No anxiety, no worry. Just give me Jesus and all fear be gone.

Meatball Curry

There is something about meatballs that commands uniform gastronomic attention. Needless to say they are swoon in many a culture and in just about any dish they lend their good forms to. Molded with breadcrumbs and cheese, ladled in tangy marinara pasta, they make for wholesome comfort. Needled onto kabobs, these are the perfect fingerfood. In soups and stews, orbs of meat offer welcome surprise for the unsuspecting mouth .

But what if I tell you there consists something way beyond for these spheres of joy, even better than your senses can fathom? Yes, tis true, much and more lies in store for these plumped meat rounds. Where pools of curry and spice make for new ground of unsurpassed texture and flavor. And here starring in our ball making role is the white meat often overlooked for these exotic productions, a new hero. Today we call in turkey, lean, mean and yes, minced to perfection. It will be that which gives meaning to healthful, wholesome Indian, meatball curry gorgeously laden with balls of turkey meat.

Let me tell you, extremely magnificent things happen on combining this virtually mellow tasting meat  with texturally vibrant curry. Scoring few pantry staples and one that is vital for any Indian kitchen, these ground balls of meat become showstoppers all on their own. They also take on the role of edible sponges soon bearing likeness to their gravy rich habitat. Balanced with complementing spice and creamy coconut milk, this is that unique which creates generous but tolerable kick. Cut in with a final dollop of tangy yogurt, there be the final hurrah, a curry marked to refinement and spot on Indian.

As with all Indian meals, fragrance rendered from the heating and blending of spice elements is glorious. Makes the almost half hour wait all the more worthwhile.

This is curry to fiend for my friends, one where you will fight to the last for that final meatball. Just like we four did the previous night. Not saying who won, since I'm not one to brag.

For the meatballs~

Ingredients:

• 1 lb lean ground turkey
• 2 tsp pepper
• ½ tsp cumin
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp ginger powder
• 1 tsp garam masala
• 1 tsp salt or enough to flavor

Directions:

• Combine together the meat with the other ingredients and roll gently into 1" balls. Makes 20
• Refrigerate until curry beckons.

Rolled to twenty balls. Ball curry will generously feed a hungry crowd of 5. In most cases had with rice or Indian flatbreads such as chapatti, naan, a less than charitable serving of 6 or 8 works, leaving some better off than others.

For the curry~
Ingredients:

• 2 jalapenos, halved
• 1" piece ginger
• 4 cloves garlic
• 2 tbsp canola oil (or any cooking oil)
• 1 tsp mustard seeds
• handful curry leaves 
• 1 medium onion, diced fine
• 2 medium tomatoes, chopped
• 1 tbsp cayenne
• 3 tbsp coriander
• pinch turmeric
• ½ c  warm water
• meatballs
• 1 cup canned unsweetened coconut milk 
• 1 tsp salt or enough to flavor
• ¼ c nonfat plain yogurt
• a few sprigs cilantro (optional)

Directions:

• Grind in a grinder or blender jalapenos, garlic and ginger to a chunky paste. 
• On medium high, heat oil in a large, deep sided skillet or dutch over. Put in mustard seeds and curry leaves. Part cover pan (to shield yourself and surroundings) and allow mustard seeds to pop.
• Add onions and saute until translucent and wilted
• Add the ginger/garlic mixture. Stir until cooked through, a minute or so.
• Add tomatoes and powders, from cayenne to turmeric. Stir and cook for an additional minute on medium heat.
• Pour in  warm water. 
• Pour in half of the coconut milk.
• Carefully add refrigerated meatballs, gently stirring.
• Increase heat to high and let it come to a boil.
• Lower flame to medium low, and let simmer until done about 15-20 minutes until done.
• Stir in remaining coconut milk. Add additional warm water if a thinner gravy consistency is desired. 
• Stir in the yogurt, mix well and cook for an additional  minute.
• Sprinkle in cilantro.

On all accounts this is the consummate weeknight meal. It will definitely be the cure all for my shameless holiday gorging, and a needed spicy respite for the back to back sugar highs someone's been lending you.
 😳😲10-31-2017**Update** Thanks to a diligent reader, it has been brought to my notice that I totally left out the coconut milk from the list of directions (oh my!!). Please note that it has been rectified and the recipe updated. I apologize and hope that such oversights don't happen again. Thank you.

Tender moist and flavored just right. This will be curry which commands many a repeat performance. Wait and see.
******

Faithful and reliable He is~

 ^"Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful." Hebrews 10:23

Luxurious Plum Cake and a Happy New Year !

It's been way too many days. More than I can count. Except that I did. 15 days after I left you with the tidings for a Merry Christmas and a sappy picture of a stuffed animal looking at cake pops, made by kids. Not that I didn't do much, just that probably this winter break was truly underestimated and the force by which it went by, all fast and furious made my visions of a truly dramatic new year update, complete with magnificent pictures fly out the window.

Blame it on the fruit. The dried fruit that needed to be soaked, that is. "Soaked", you say? Yes. Soaked and submerged in brandy. Here is when I argue that I had no brandy. You see, there's not much use for it, in our house, unless you speak of just that one time of year, the one I'm trying to get to. It's then I do purchase the brandy needed to pour over my fruit. "What are you talking about?" I hear it, even the eye rolls. I'm getting there, I'll explain. So my introduction begins. It's a conversation that was playing in the nether of my mind, myself to you and back. Maddening, don't you think?

It's what I'd mentioned only a million times. The bang that I wanted to begin the year with, and, though, I knew I'd be late, I didn't want anything but. this. very. subject. To grace the first page of 2013.

With the greatest pleasure and and a dash of pride, I introduce to you the King of cakes and my personal favorite; my friends, meet The Venerable Plum Cake. Or fruitcake as some would call it. It is a customary celebration cake of that part of India I hail from. With quite a formidable history, this cake is of heirloom ranks, of the British era, a colonial period in India's history once, and in this matter where fruitcake became a welcome and permanent visitor to many a kitchen, especially along the country's Southern and coastal regions. Since then, it has been our own, labelled rightly, Kerala plum cake.

Unfortunately for many, when I say fruitcake, various inflections of UGH! resonate in your minds. Thereby, it'll be here in this one post that I attempt to destroy any disturbing image you may have of fruits in cake. It might be those familiar shaped boxes and rounds filled of cubed kaleidoscope gels, hardly resembling any fruit known to man. Or even the cement bricks, requiring a safety sign to go with. Nix. No. Forget. For we do not talk of the same cake.

Get ready to rewire your mind. Plum cake is precisely not what it claims to be. Definitely a type of fruit cake, though no single plum exists in its twenty+ ingredient list. Albeit, beautifully well set in construction, the bulk of this fruit cake's form comes from a bevy of dried fruit- three types raisins, diced up dates, soft quartered figs, sugar coated ginger. A handful of raw cashewnut to boot. The fruits are soaked and preserved in brandy, in most cases well over a month. In my case, it happened to be just short of a week, and with the aid of microwave rendered heat,  dried forms were impressively plumped and mellowed fine to play their part in the annual saga of our plum cake.

The flavors are warm and impressively distinctive, complementing each and other, progressively getting better over time. When rested over days, maybe weeks, time works magnificently in further deepening flavor, perfecting texture, a change and experience that leaves you in awe, to wonder, " Oh Sweet Glory, did you come from these hands?"

And of course, so need of mention is the outstanding air that I breathed in for the time these were baking, and several hours after. My whole house was shrouded in clouds of caramel sugar and spice.

Have I made you a believer? Congratulations, for this will now be your life long love story. One that gets blissfully better with age.  Happy fruitcaking!

The metric system of weights is what I use, almost always for this recipe. An exact weighing in requires the kitchen scale, your most needed accessory.

Ingredients:

• 200 gms black raisins
• 200 gms white raisins
• 75 gms currants
• 100 gms dates
• 4 tbsp chopped crystallized ginger
• 1 ½- 2 cups brandy or enough to cover dried fruit
• 1 cup sugar ( for the caramel syrup)
• ½ cup water
• 500 gms all purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• ½ tsp nutmeg (powder)
• ½ powdered cloves
• ½ ginger powder
• ½ tsp salt
• 125 gms chopped, raw, unsalted cashews
• 500 gms unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 500 gms sugar
• 500 gms eggs (9 large eggs)
• 2 tsp lemon rind
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• ¼ c orange marmalade

Though the cake itself has heavy, very rich ingredients, it is not so on an actual bite. Less sweet and lighter than most dense cakes, plum cake is loaf like in structure, but moist because of all the alcohol dissolved fruit. It's cherry wood color and warmed sweet taste owes in part to the proper melting and burning of sugar.

Directions:

• Chop all your dried fruits( raisins to ginger, currants need not be cut, dates quartered, then halved) into smallish pieces and place in a jar or non reactive glass container with lid. Pour in brandy to immerse the fruit. This should be done a few weeks in advance, but if you're like me a week/even a day/hour or so will do. 
• Line and butter your pans with parchment. (I use several small loaf pans and a 9 in round)
• Using a medium  saucepan, melt the 1 cup sugar on medium high heat. Allow it to boil until it reaches a deep dark brown, about 5 minutes.
• Immediately, remove the pan from the stove top and carefully add ¼ cup of water to the darkened sugar. Simmer on a medium flame for an additional 3-4 minutes until it combines and becomes uniform in color. Allow to come to room temperature.
• Preheat oven to 375° F.
• In a separate bowl, sift all dry ingredients from the flour to the salt.
• In the meantime, drain fruits from the jar and lay onto a large flat surface( like a large plate). Reserve 5 tablespoons of the soaking liquor.
• Add cashews to the fruits. Sprinkle a couple tablespoons of the flour mixture and lightly roll the soaked fruit and chopped cashews in it.
• In a large bowl, using either a stand mixture or handheld, set to medium speed, whip butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 3- 5 minutes. 
• Set speed to low and add eggs one at a time, beating a minute or so after each addition. When last egg is broken in, set the speed to medium high and beat until you get thick pale yellow ribbons, another 6-8 minutes. Blend well, after adding each egg.
• Add flour, 1 cup of caramel syrup and fruits/ cashews alternatively, starting and ending with flour. Fold in the reserved liquor. 
• Complete the mixing of ingredients using a wooden spoon/ladle ( it is too large and heavy a batter for the stand mixer) stirring thoroughly after each addition.
• Add lemon rind, vanilla extract and marmalade. Stir until all ingredients are combined well and the fruit is distributed evenly. 
• Pour batter into prepared pan(s). You can do this in 2 9"X 13" pans, in two batches.
• Bake for 15 minutes at 375°F.
• After which reduce to 300° F and allow to bake for another 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center of cake comes out clean.

Notes~

You can add 125 gms chopped figs, if desired, or swap out any fruit for other dried fruit.

17. Exactly the number of times I've mixed and baked this cake. One for every Christmas/New Year of my married life. Generously taught by JZ's cousin, when we were in Goa that very first year. She jumpstarted an ongoing love of baking and eating this bejewelled magnificence. Though the recipe has been changed and refashioned several times to suit present tastes, the tradition and love that it came with remains unaltered.

Notes and Tips:

~If you rely on a shorter soak time, warm fruits 1 minute intervals on 60% power in microwave. The fruits will plump up a bit and absorb the liquid. Do not boil or overheat. Set aside to cool and use as recipe directs.

~When preparing the caramel syrup, use warm water to pour in and bring final mixture to simmer, twirling the pan in between. Keep it away from your face- I like to take it over to the sink and do the task, since hot burnt sugar gets ferocious once bothered.

The end goal is a cola colored syrup, that should not be too thick, lighter flow than pure maple syrup. 

~ Your fruits/nuts  spread evenly throughout the cake while baking and not sink if they are rolled in a small bit of flour.

~ Sugar syrup can be made in advance, up to a week and refrigerated. Bring it to room temperature before adding it to the cake.

~There are those who may theorize that separating eggs, and adding stiff whites later will yield fluffier cake. I don't see a huge difference, plus isn't there enough work in this already? Try and test. Then decide.

~You can bake in batches if you plan to do several cakes (and it does yield enough and more).

~This makes for 2 9"X13" cakes or an interesting mix of many cakes using different cake/loaf pans, if gifting is in your future. Need only one? Halve the recipe, please, using only gram measurements.

~Plum cake keeps well. With proper storage and an occasional brushing of brandy, it can be stored double foiled, in an airtight container for months.

That's it. Picking through crumbs and shaved pieces has probably gifted my tummy the equivalent of a pound of cake. 

We like to eat this magnificently unadorned with no icing. For gifting purposes, though, I decided to dress some up, a layering of my own marshmallow fondant on a few and, a sprinkling of  confectioner's sugar and buttercream rosettes on others.

***Rich plum cake recipe is one I've had that I've tweaked and reworked a lot, that too playing with different combinations of dried fruits. Over the years, the recipe has been, slyly, taken from me, by at least a dozen people and even submitted in a local cake competition to which it won first prize, by the same cake thief. I don't have any qualms now. I know this is a winner. And it's my present to you.

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"And now that you belong to Christ, you are the true children of Abraham. You are his heirs, and God’s promise to Abraham belongs to you." Galatians 3:29 (NLT)

You have all you can ever  possess in Christ. Keep your eyes fixed on Him, and see Him do the impossible in and through you. A wonderful year to you, friends, one of overflow, blessed and faith filled throughout.