Hazelnut Date Cake spiked with Cinnamon

I have been toying with the idea of a date and nut cake for a while now. and i frequently get requests from friends for baked goodie recipes that also cater to the vegetarian way of life. Since this blog is all about experimenting, helping out, making new friends and promoting a healthier lifestyle by (very, very) slowly but surely cutting down on the sugar and even gluten (but in no way compromising on the taste, if that is possible), this loaf is something towards that purpose.

and then, Poof!!! that was reality hitting me with a heavy thud:  i have a jar of beautiful homemade caramel sauce sitting on my counter top. and the little voice in my head was going something like this: how brilliant would it be drizzled over the precious loaf and toasted hazelnuts?! i know!!

 Yep, you guessed right, i succumbed.

P.S: If you are made of stronger stuff than me, by all means leave out the caramel sauce. The loaf really does not need it. The cake by itself is so moist you wouldn't believe the slippery fingers of butter or eggs were not involved. It is so easy, you would want to keep baking versions of it (walnuts? almonds?) It is so healthy, you wouldn't mind tucking in a few extra slices. The caramel sauce only enhances the taste for a sucker for caramel, me. 

Recipe adapted with changes from here

Ingredients:

-2 cups AP Flour
-2 teaspoons baking soda
-1/2 cup vegetable oil
-1 cup pitted dates
-1 teaspoon salt
-1/4 cup regular white sugar
-3/4 cup light brown sugar
-2 cups water
-1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
-1/4 cup toasted hazelnuts (halved) for garnishing the loaf - Optional
-1/4 cup caramel sauce for drizzling over the loaf - Optional


-Preheat oven to 175 C.
-Mix together the water, oil, salt, dates, cinnamon and sugars in a saucepan. Let it come to a boil, and then switch off the flame and let it rest for 20 minutes or till it cools.

-Sift together the flour and baking soda and mix it into the cooled mix by quarters. Stir to make sure there are no lumps. Pour into the baking pan, scatter the hazelnuts over the top if using them.

-Bake for 30 minutes or till done. Let it cool before slicing up.

 

On another note, we will be celebrating the festival of Onam this week, and as is customary, i will be making another traditional payasam to celebrate and to beat the blues of not being at home with folks during this week. Stay tuned!

Hazelnut, Walnut and Blueberry Granola

This is a short and quick one. It's your chance to love the humble and otherwise bland morning cereal by upping it with some great stuff. so here's the deal: i love my breakfast cereal way too much to leave it at 'just cereal'. I improvise, add stuff, and most importantly, don't restrict myself to eating it with just milk. Thing is, i start my day very early and head to work in what can best be described as a whirlwind of activity in a sleepy stupor. As it turns out, i tasted amazing homemade granola a couple of months back in Bangalore and loved it and that's how the experimenting started.
One of my fav twists is the hazelnut, walnut and blueberry version. i'm not going to sell the ''it is very healthy and yada yada'' talk to you. Making this is no biggie. It's brilliantly simple and an example of how something as simple as store bought muesli can be turned into something wonderful and refreshingly different with the help of few but very potent ingredients.

You will need:

-450 g standard store bought Muesli

-200 g toasted and coarsely chopped hazelnuts

-200 g toasted and coarsely chopped walnuts

-150 g dried blueberries

-1/4 light cup brown sugar

-1/4 cup raisins (optional)

-Pre-heat the oven to 160 C and line a flat, not too deep baking tray with baking paper.

-Mix everything up and in an even and not too thick layer, fill the tray with mueseli. Note:  You are anyway going to be doing it in batches, so please do not pile it on. 

-Toast the mueseli for 15 min or till golden brown. Make sure you keep checking for over browning. Do not forget to rotate the try. Also, keep mixing it up so that any bit under may come up and get toasted.

-Continue till all batches are done. Let it cool to room temperature. Store in an air-tight sealed jar.

Served best with cold milk and topped with fresh strawberries. I also gorge on it as is. just like that. plain, straight out of the jar. :)

Hazelnut Financiers

Financiers are these mini, ultra moist cakes that are essentially made of almond flour and eaten apparently by dapper execs in the financial district in Paris. They are traditionally baked in rectangular moulds, seemingly resembling bars of gold. and hence the fancy name.
Now like i said, financiers are typically made of almond flour. I did'nt have any on hand, so decided to  improvise and use hazelnut flour. It worked like a charm. This cute little cake calls for another fascinating ingredient, the beurre noisette or brown butter. A little heads up: beurre noisette is to cake and cookies like ice cream is to us on a hot hot day. It's very good! People are raving about it on the internet with good reason. With its characteristic nutty flavor, it's pretty amazing what ordinary butter can turn into when appropriately prepared. The beurre noisette complements hazelnut in this recipe so well, i'm wondering why it took me so long to try this. This, dear friends, is a winner! It is actually giving the over rated but very delish cupcakes a run for its money around here :D

Recipe adapted with changes from here. I got 7 tartlet sized financiers

You will need:
-100 grams unsalted butter
-30 grams All-purpose flour
-1/2 cup hazelnut flour
-3/4 cup confectioner's sugar
-1/4 teaspoon salt
-3 large egg whites, lightly beaten
-1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
 

-Preheat the oven to 175 C. Roast the hazelnut flour on a baking sheet for 5 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove from oven and let cool.

-Spray moulds with non stick cooking spray or butter well. I used tartlet moulds.

-Onto the beurre noisette: Heat the butter in a saucepan over medium heat till foam appears. Continue to cook the butter till it clears and milk solids deposit at the bottom of the pan and turn dark brown. Remove from heat and pass through a fine strainer and allow to cool to room temperature.

-Sift together the hazelnut flour, flour, salt and sugar. Make a well in the middle and pour in the lightly whisked egg whites, vanilla extract and cooled butter. Fold gently and pour into prepared moulds. Bake for 15 - 20 minutes or till they pass the skewer test and have browned on top and are springy to the touch. Remove from the heat and let cool on rack before unmoulding.
They taste best when eaten right after they have cooled.

Hazelnut Sandies

Nuts about Nuts - Chapter I

Hazelnut Sandies

I am starting a new series here called the 'Nuts about Nuts' edition. One simple reason: I am nuts about Nuts.  Its in my genome. I come from a family that has emphasized the goodness of the few blanched almonds in the morning cereal since we were kids. The pistachio and honey in the baklava make a world of a difference to me. The chopped and toasted macadamia nuts that would adorn our birthday cakes when we were growing up were a classic. I turn to mom-made peanut butter sandwiches for comfort. Heck, even Oreo loves peanut butter. Using it in my food adds a certain oomph and feel good factor to seemingly regular fare.True, my repertoire of nuts has been restricted to very very few. So i decided to forage. The current discovery chez Zachs is the infinitely good (read addictive) and flavorful hazelnut.

This cookie is essentially an icebox cookie. Icebox cookies are cookies made from a dough which has been refrigerated or frozen, typically in a log shape. The chilling of the dough makes it easy to work with but more importantly, keeping a batch in the freezer ensures the quickest cookie gratification. The dough keeps for upto a month when tightly wrapped in the freezer.

The recipe has been adapted and halved from here. Thank you Bakingdom! For a batch of 18 hazelnut sandies, you will need:

3/4 cup hazelnuts - toasted and skinned*
1/4 cup sugar
1/8 cup brown sugar
1 small egg yolk
80 g butter
1/4 teaspoon salt

 How you go about it:

-Line your baking tray with baking paper and preheat oven to 175 C.
-Process the hazelnuts till you get the closest you can to a fine powder. (It will be mealy, but no worries)
-Sift together the flour and salt and add the sugars and and blitz it in the processor till it is all well mixed. (Scrape at the bottom and make sure all the that it becomes a homogeneous mixture)
-Add the cold and diced butter over the mix and keep pulsing. The mix will now look like coarse, wet sand.
-While the processor is running, add the egg yolk and continue to mix till it clumps into a ball.
-Divide the dough into two halves and shape them into evenly shaped logs 2" in diameter. Wrap in cling film and freeze for 30 min.


 -Remove from the freezer, remove the cling, and with a sharp edged knife, cut slices of .3" width. Rotate the log every few slices to ensure that you get round slices.

(You may taste the dough at this point. and marvel at that delish taste. i had to keep myself from eating up a substantial amount of dough. Yes, i am weird)

-Bake for 15 - 20 min till evenly baked (rotate the tray halfway through). The cookies will get some color and will be soft to touch but will set as they cool. Keep aside on a wire rack to cool.

Now onto the beautification (not that it needs any, but how can you say no to the eternal combination of chocolate with hazelnuts???)

-Melt 7 squares of milk chocolate in a bain marie and once it's cooled, pour into a piping bag or improvise and cut a tip off a zip lock bag. Or you could use nutella (evil grin).

-Once the cookies have cooled, drizzle the melted chocolate. Keep aside to set. or if you are anything like me or my better half, unabashedly wolf down four in a go (If Oreo were given a chance, she'd single handedly finish the jar). Welcome to my world!

P.S: As you can see, i did freak out with the piping bag and doodled away to glory. It tasted just as yum, nonetheless! :)
Moving on, if  you thought that these cookies could'nt get any better, here' a tip. (My better half is forever looking for ways to improvise and eat ice cream and this time, he may have hit the jackpot). Crumble a cookie over a scoop of vanilla ice cream and dig in . i guarantee you nirvana. Really!