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NAV BAR

Saturday 11 March 2017

5 INGREDIENTS EVERY BAKER SHOULD HAVE

5 INGREDIENTS EVERY BAKER SHOULD HAVE :





Hello all of you. It's been a long time since a 'Baking Basics' article has been published on the blog. So I thought I should write one now. 

I have already written a detailed article titled HOW TO START BAKING?   for new bakers. It is a detailed description about the procedure one should follow if he/she is going to bake for the first time. Another important article you should have a look at is ESSENTIAL TOOLS FOR BAKING. In this article, I have sum up the basic tools and equipments one should have to start baking. I hope you would enjoy reading these articles. 

A baker weather a home baker or a professional baker, should have some particular ingredients all the time with him. These ingredients form the basis of any baked delicacy. Ofcourse, depending upon what you are baking, the ingredients would differ but these are some of the constant  baking  ingredients which are needed no  matter what you bake. 

Now let's have a look at these 5 INGREDIENTS THAT EVERY BAKER SHOULD HAVE :

1) FLOUR - 



Flour is undoubtedly the most important baking ingredient. Anything you have to make weather it is a cake , cupcake or a cookie; flour is needed. Even if you have to make savoury baked delicacies like pizza, buns, breads, etc, you still need  flour. 
 HOW TO USE  FLOUR PROPERLY? 
Always remember friends, whenever you use flour, ALWAYS SEIVE IT. When you seive flour, it  makes it airy. This helps in making spongy cakes and cupcakes. Also when you would seive flour, baking powder or baking soda together, they would mix together nicely. 

If you want to make your baked items healthier,  you can replace flour with wheat flour. 

Thus always have flour if you want to bake. It is the basic ingredient which you would need everyrime you bake. 

2) Sugar - 


Sugar is another important ingredient for baking. Sugar is needed in cakes,  cupcakes, muffins, cookies, biscuits etc. You should use powdered sugar for baking. You can easily get powdered sugar in market. But if you don't get it, no problem. You can make it at home also. Take a blender and fill it with sugar. Grind it till it gets powdered. You can now easily use it for baking. For making tasty frostings for cakes and cupcakes, you need sugar as well. Thus sugar is an important ingredient. 

3) Butter - 



Butter is also required for baking. Butter provides mositure to the baked goods. It makes cakes and cupcakes spoongy and soft. Remember always USE BUTTER THAT IS AT ROOM TEMPERATURE. This is a very important baking tip. 
Now, most of the recipes ask for creaming the butter and sugar till sugar dissolves in butter properly. Bakers usually use hand mixer for mixing butter and sugar  together. If you don't have a hand mixer, you can wisk butter and sugar together using a spatula as well. 

Like but
ter, oil is also an important ingredient as many recipes use oil instead of butter. 

Also for making buttercream frosting, butter is required in a good quantity. Thus always have butter if you are going to bake. 

4)  Eggs - 



Eggs also make cakes and cupcakes spongy. Eggs should also be used at room temperature. If you are vegetarian, then ofcouse you wouldn’t bake cakes using eggs. You can easily substitute eggs with other ingredients like banana, yogurt and oil. Below is a simple chart which shows the substitutes of an egg - 







You can use this chart to replace egg with ingredients like banana, yogurt and oil. In this way, you can easily bake cakes, cupcakes and many other things without eggs. 

5) Baking Soda and Baking Powder - 





Baking Powder and Baking  soda are the leavening agents. They help the batter to rise.  These are very very essential for  baking. Always keep in  mind that your baking powder and baking soda should be fresh. If they are expired,  they won't help your batter in rising. Therefore always use fresh Baking Powder and baking soda. 


Thus these are the 5 INGREDIENTS EVERY BAKER SHOULD HAVE.  

Tuesday 7 March 2017

Peanut Butter Cookies

PEANUT BUTTER COOKIES - 


Hello all of you. Cookies are a delight to bake, literally. They are easy  to make. They are a perfect snack to munch at any time of the day. You can carry them, with you,  to your school, college and offices. At home, whenever you are hungry, you can gulp down a few.  (Just keep an eye on the number of cookies you are gulping down as some cookies can make you fat. 😁) 





Peanut Butter Cookies are a beautiful blend of peanut butter, flour, sugar, oil etc. They are soft in texture. This is a must try recipe as you only have to contribute a maximun of 20 minutes. 


Preparation Time - 10 Minutes

Cooking Time - 10 Minutes 

Total Time - 20 Minutes 

Serves -  Makes 8 - 10 Cookies


Ingredients - 


  • 1/2 Cup Peanut Butter
  • 1/4 Cup Flour
  • 1/4 Cup + 2 tablespoons Sugar 
  • 2-4 tablespoon Oil ( Here oil is used just as a binding agent. Thus if your mixture is too dry, add one more tablespoon of oil. On the other hand, if, after 2 tablespoons of oil, your dough gets prepared properly, don't add any more oil.) 

Method - 

  • Preheat the oven to 180 dehree centigrade. 
  • In a bowl, add peanut butter,  flour, sugar (preferably powdered sugar) and oil. 
  • Mix this nicely with a spoon till it forms a nice dough. 


  • Now take a small amount of mixture and roll it into a ball. Flatten it. 
  • Similarly make cookies from the rest of the mixture. 
  • If you want you can make a simple design, on the top of the cookies, using a fork. 
  • Bake these for 8-10 minutes at 180  degree centigrade. 

Saturday 4 March 2017

Nutella Cake Balls

Nutella Cake Balls





Hello everyone.  Many a times, when we bake cake, we are left with cut pieces of cake,  especially if we have to frost the cake, we cut the top layer of the cake and thus have left over pieces of cake. So if you also have any such left over pieces of cake, this recipe is perfect for you. You can actually  make this recipe using any cake. If you have baked any cake, you can use that. Or you can even use market bought cake for this recipe. 



Nutella is another very tasty ingredient. Nutella, in this recipe, helps in binding the cake balls. After making small nutella cake balls, they are covered in a nice dark chocolate sauce. After some time, the chocolate gets cooled down and thus makes a nice coating around the cake balls. I decorated them with a cute edible heart. 

Time taken for making this - 10 minutes. 

Serves -  6-8 cake balls 

Ingredients - 

  • 1 Cup Cake pieces 
  • 1/2 Cup Nutella
  • 1/4 Cup chopped Dark Chocolate 
  • 1 teaspoon butter

Method - 

  • Take your cake and break it (crumble it)  into very samll pieces. 
  • Add nutella and knead this to form a dough type mixture. 
  • Make small balls from this mixture. Keep  these balls in the fridge for half an hour. This will make them a little firm.


  • In the meantime, melt dark chocolate and butter. You can do this in two ways - a)  In a microwave safe bowl, add chopped dark chocolate and butter. Microwave it for around two minutes or till the chocolate and butter melts nicely. Take this out and give it a nice stir. b) Take a saucepan and fill it with water. Heat it. In another bowl, add chocolate and butter. Keep this  second bowl on top of the first bowl. Slowly the chocolate and butter mixture will melt. Stir it continously.
  • Allow the dark chocolate sauce  to cool down.  
  • Now take out the nutella cake balls and one by one dip them in melted dark chocolate. Coat these nutella cake balls nicely with melted chocolate. 
  • Allow these balls to cool down. 
  • Your nutella cake balls are ready! 

NOTE - 

If you don't have dark chocolate, then make the nutella cake balls and just keep them in fridge for half an hour. After this, you can eat them like that only. They'll taste nice like this  also. 








Wednesday 1 March 2017

Cheesy Veg Sandwich

Cheesy Veg Sandwich - 






Hello all of you. Sandwiches are the easiest snack / breakfast. They require very little  preparation time and they also get cooked in a short span of time. They are a good evening snack. They also are a good option for the breakfast. If you want to make it healthier, you can opt for a brown bread or a multigrain bread. 

Sandwich is also a nice starter for a party, especially a tea party. You can make some tasty sandwiches for serving along with nice cups of tea. 

Cheesy Veg Sandwich is my favourite. Again it's easy to make, require only a few ingredients and it gets prepared quickly. For making these sandwiches, you will need mayonese, cheese slices, very finely chopped veggies like capsicum, tomato, carrots etc and of course bread slices. 

Preparation Time - 5 Minutes 

Cooking Time - 15 Minutes 

Total Time - 20 Minutes 

Serves - Makes 4 Sandwiches

Ingredients - 

  • 4 Bread Slices 
  • 2 Tablespoons Mayonese 
  • 1 Tablespoon very finely chopped capsicum
  • 1 Tablespoon very finely chopped tomato
  • 1 Tablespoon very finely chopped carrot
  • 1/2 teaspoon Chilli Flakes
  • Salt to taste
Method - 

  •  Preheat the oven to 200 degree centigrade. 
  • In a small bowl, add mayonese, capsicum, tomato, and carrot. 
  • Now add salt and chilli flakes (If you don't have chilli flakes, you can add red pepper powder or black pepper powder) 
  • Mix this properly. 
  • Take a bread slice. Spread this mixture nicely on it. 

  • Put a cheese slice on the top. 

  • Cover it with the second bread slice and press it a little bit. 

  • Now grill the sandwich. Grill it for 5 minutes at 200 degree centigrade on one side. Then turn it and again grill it for 5 minutes at 200 degree centigrade. 

  • Your cheesy veg sandwich is ready!