Walnut Date Cake (Flourless)

This walnut cake is prepared with ground walnuts instead of flour and so its a great way to get all your healthy fats in every bite. The dates gives the cake ample sweetness that is absolutely devour-able and keeps it nice and moist. If your dates are too sweet, you can even cut down the sugar. You can have it for your breakfast with some fruits or as an dessert with a dollop of your favorite ice-cream. One more thing, if you hate to eat the whole dates, then this is a must try for you. Yup, you read it right. And here goes the recipe,

Ingredients:

3 cups raw Walnuts

3/4 cup Dates (finely chopped)

4 Eggs (separated

1/2 cup Sugar

2 tsp Orange zest (finely grated)

3/4 tsp Cinnamon powder

1 tsp Vanilla extract

1 pinch Salt

 How to:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and coat a spring foam cake pan with the cooking spray.

• Separate the egg yolks and egg whites.

• Pulse together the walnuts, cinnamon powder and 1/4 cup of sugar. (Fine ground, not powdery ground)

• In a small bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, orange zest and vanilla test.

• In a stand mixer, beat the egg whites until foamy and add the remaining 1/4 cup of sugar until soft peaks form.

• Now fold the yolk mixture and dates to the beaten egg whites. 

• Then add the walnut mixture in thirds and fold until evenly mixed.

• Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 22-25 mins.

• Let the cake cool in the pan for 10 mins. And then gently run a knife around the edges and loosen the cake.

•  Let it cool completely before slicing. Serve the cake with some whipped cream and garnish with chopped walnuts.

Honey Wheat Pull-Out Rolls

This hearty, nutty and wholesome rolls would make a perfect mini sandwich for picnics and parties. The rolls are light and soft with a slight sweet bite from the honey. Usually, breads with higher whole wheat content tends be denser, but in this recipe the dough is highly hydrated with excess liquid ingredients. The stand mixer has to used for kneading such a hydrated stickier dough, else you will end up using more flour resulting in a dry bread. So go ahead and enjoy the pull-out rolls. And here goes the recipe,

Ingredients:

3 cups Whole Wheat Flour

1 cup All purpose flour

1 3/4 cups + 1 tbsp lukewarm Milk (i use 2%)

6 tbsp liquid Honey

4 tbsp Coconut oil (or Butter)

1 large Egg

1 tbsp Active dry Yeast

2 1/4 tsp Salt

How to (Stand-mixer Method):

• Grease a 13x9 baking dish and a large bowl and keep it aside.

• Dissolve the yeast in the lukewarm milk and keep aside until foamy. (If using instant 0r rapid-rise yeast, you can add it straight to the flour. And add the milk to the honey, coconut oil (or butter) and egg mixture.)

• Mix together the honey, coconut oil (or butter) and egg.

• Mix the milk and yeast mixture to the honey and egg mixture.

• Using the stand-mixer fitted with dough hook, mix the flours, yeast and salt together.

• Slowly add the milk mixture to the flours and mix until dough comes together for a min.

• Increase the speed to a medium and knead until the dough is smooth and satiny, for 8 mins. (Don't panic, the dough will be really sticky. Do remember, 'the stickier the dough, the softer the bread'.)

• Use an oil-sprayed spatula to transfer the dough from the mixer to a greased bowl and cover it with plastic wrap.

• Let it rest for 45 mins in a warm place until doubles in volume.

• Punch the dough on a lightly floured surface and make it to a rough square.

• With a bench scraper or pizza wheel, cut'em into quarters and cut each quarter into 4 equal parts. (Now you have a total of 16 equal dough pieces.)

• Smooth each piece by pulling the edges and pinch sealing'em at the bottom. 
• Place the smooth dough rolls into the baking dish arranging in 3 rows. (Arrange in a way that it has 6 rolls in the middle and 5 rolls in the top and bottom rows.)

• Let the rolls rest for 20 mins covering with a plastic wrap.

• Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and brush the rolls with the remaining 1 tbsp milk with a pastry brush.

• Bake the rolls for 18-20 mins or until golden brown, rotating half-way through baking.

•  Let it cool on a wire rack for 10 mins and serve warm.

• Store it in a dry and cool place.

No-Knead Brioche Rolls

Brioche is a highly enriched French bread, with a rich tender crumb. The eggs and butter makes it light and gives the rolls its fluffiness with a golden brown flaky crust. Brioche is generally eaten as a breakfast or as a snack with coffee. This recipe uses a no-knead technique which is a non-traditional way of making it. As the dough sits in the fridge for a longer time, it forms the gluten slowly without the need of mixer. The traditional way is a long and painstaking process. So there you go, a simplified brioche recipe to try for yourself. And here goes the recipe,

Ingredients:

3 1/4 cups Bread Flour

2 1/4 tsp Instant Yeast

7 Eggs (1 egg beaten with a pinch of salt)

1/2 cup Water (room temperature)

1/3 cup Sugar

16 tbsp melted Butter

1 1/2 tsp Salt

How to:

• In a bowl, mix together the flour, yeast and salt. 

• In another large bowl, whisk together 6 whole eggs, water and sugar, until the sugar is all dissolved. Whisk the butter until smooth.

• Add the egg mixture to the flour mixture with a wooden spoon until no dry flour remains. (It is going to be a sticky dough, so don't panic.)

• Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let sit for 10 mins.
• Holding the edge of the dough and fold the dough over itself to the middle. Turn over 45 degrees and fold the dough 6 more times (a total of 8 folds).

• Cover and let rise for 30 mins. Repeat folding and rising every 30 mins, 3 more times. After 4th set folds, cover tightly and refrigerate for at least 16 hrs or up to 48 hrs.
• Transfer the dough to a floured counter and divide into 2 pieces. Now remove golf balls-size pieces (approx 6) and gently apply pressure in circular motions to make the dough smooth.

• Lightly dust the dough balls with flour if it sticks to your hand. Now cover the dough loosely with plastic and let rest for 5 mins.

• Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and place the rolls leaving space in-between the rolls.
• Cover and let rise at room temperature for 2 hrs or until doubled in size. Half-an-hr before baking, adjust the oven rack to the middle position, place baking stone on rack and heat oven to 350 degrees.

• Remove plastic and brush the rolls with 1 egg beaten with salt. Bake until golden brown for 15 to 20 mins, rotating and switching sheets halfway through.

• Transfer the rolls to a wire rack and serve warm.

 Tips:

• Make sure you wrap the dough tightly with plastic before keeping it in the fridge.
• Do no add more flour to the dough if it sticks, rather lightly dust your hands with flour and apply gentle pressure and smoothen the rolls.