Lychee pannacotta with Ginger biscuit crumb and Coconut lemon curd

I am back to crazy 'Masterchef Australia' watching days. With the current season going on at number 8, I realized that I have missed many seasons in between my first tryst with the series. It all started with series 2 and I remember those days when Dinner was finished by 9 PM so that I could indulge in some non-stop gastronomic ride. My baby, Vaanya was then just few months old and needed attention all the time. Vishal and me would take turns to look after her while we eagerly watched each episode very religiously. 

This season my interest got rejuvenated and I have been ogling and drooling at all the artistic desserts that have been put up. Plating is the key in making even a simple dish shine and stand out in front of complex ones. With all this in my mind, I decided to try my hands in a simple dessert with different elements and a pretty plating technique. Firstly, I decided to hero the fruit-Lychee and pondered on all the other components which can go along with it. In terms of flavours, I decided to pair my lychee with ginger and coconut. So, the idea of ginger biscuits crumb and a coconut lemon curd came into my mind which sounded like a perfect harmony to my lychee pannacotta. 

I used some thickened grape juice to brush the plate and then very patiently decorated all the components on it. My over excitement led me to try 2 different platings with the same dessert. I am super mighty happy with the outcome. Do share your thoughts on the dessert. Will mean a lot to me. 

Components : 

• Lychee Pannacotta
• Ginger biscuit crumb
• Coconut and lemon curd
• Reduced grape juice
• Fresh lychees
• Mint leaves

Ingredients and Procedure: 

Lychee Pannacotta : 

• 1 cup cream (I used Amul)
• 9-10 lychees, peeled and deseeded
• 2 tbsp sugar, powdered
• 1 1/2 tsp gelatin powder

Blend the lychees in a mixer and strain.

Bloom gelatin in 1 tbsp cold water and allow it to get spongy for about 5 minutes.  

Heat cream and sugar on medium heat and add the pureed and strained lychee mixture. Do not let this mixture boil. 

When the mixture is warm enough to touch, add the bloomed gelatin and mix well. 

Pour in moulds of your choice. I chose my small spherical moulds and some silicon cupcake moulds. 

Refrigerate for 4 hours.

Ginger Biscuit : 

• 1/2 cup all purpose flour
• 4 tbsp brown sugar, powdered
• 25 gms butter, room temperature
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• a pinch of salt
• 2 tsp dry ginger powder

Beat butter and sugar till light and fluffy.

Add baking powder, baking soda, dry ginger powder, salt to all purpose flour. 

Add flour mixture to butter-sugar mixture and mix well.

Knead the mixture to a dough and cling wrap it. 

Refrigerate for 1 hr.

Preheat the oven to 180 degree Celsius.

Roll the dough and cut round shapes from it.

Place on a baking paper lined baking pan and bake for 15-20 minutes. 

Coconut and lemon curd : 

• 1 egg yolk
• 2 tbsp powdered sugar
• 25 gms butter, cut in cubes
• 1/4 cup coconut milk
• 1 tbsp lemon juice

Take egg yolk and sugar in a bowl and put on a double boiler on low heat. 

Keep stirring the mixture.

Add butter cubes and mix well.

Add coconut milk and stir till it thickens for about 3-4 minutes.

Finish with adding lemon juice and mix well.

Allow to cool and then transfer to a piping bag. 

Plating : 

Brush your plate with the reduced grape juice which is made by simply putting grape juice in a pan and heating it till it thickens. 

Crumble the ginger biscuits and put them on the plate in a round shape, a little bigger than the pannacotta size.

Demould the Pannacotta and gently put on top of the ginger biscuit crumb. 

Add some fresh peeled and deseeded lychees.

Pipe the coconut lemon curd in intervals and finish with arranging fresh mint leaves. 

Happy Masterchef Inspirations

Amrita

Eggless Choco lava cupcakes

I have been wanting to try my hands on the eggless version of a cake/cupcake for the longest time but being an egg eater I have never gathered enough courage or reason to try one. I mean after all a cake is meant to have eggs. How can any substitute work as good as eggs. Therefore I have been procrastinating the entire idea again and again.

With my recent jump in baking professionally, I realized the need to experiment with eggless baking.

I personally am not fond of the eggless milkmaid cakes so I jumped upon this eggless chocolate cake recipe which uses vinegar and baking soda to react and make the cake rise. 

With Diwali as an occasion where people like to indulge in eggless bakes, I realized the perfect opportunity and the required push. I decided to go chocolate all the way and made the easy batter which went into the cute mini cupcakes and got baked. All through I had my fingers crossed and had several questions in the head. When I finally saw them rise and baked, I was happy and surprised to see the softness of it. It tasted more clumpy to me as I am not used to eggless cakes but once I filled them with some runny chocolate ganache and dressed them with some whipped chocolate cream, they looked adorable and tasted yum. 

These mini cupcakes were placed on little diyas to match the festivity.
With my Sweet day falling tomorrow, I add this recipe to the list celebrating another month of the endless joy that our daughter brings into our lives. 

Ingredients : Yields 6-7 mini cupcakes

• 1/2 cup all purpose flour
• 1 tbsp cocoa powder
• 1/4 cup sugar, powdered
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/8 tsp baking soda
• pinch of salt
• 3 tbsp melted butter
• 1/2 tsp vanilla essence
• 1/2 tbsp vinegar
• 1/2 cup boiling water

Chocolate Ganache : 

• 1/4 cup chopped dark chocolate
• 2-3 tbsp cream (I used Amul)

Procedure : 

Preheat oven at 180 degree Celsius

In a bowl, mix all purpose flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. 

Make a well in the center and add melted butter, vanilla essence, vinegar. Mix well.

Add boiling water little by little and keep mixing till you get a cake batter like consistency. You might not need the entire quantity of water.

Pour the batter till 3/4 into the cupcake liners and bake for 20 minutes or till a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean

Allow to cool.

With the help of a knife make holes in the cupcake and fill them with chocolate ganache which can be made by melting chocolate on a double boiler and adding cream to it and mixing it well. 

Decorate with some chocolate whipped cream and chocolate rice. 

Wishing all our readers a very Happy and joyous Diwali. May the festival of light bring you luck, prosperity and happiness.

Happy Diwali

Amrita

Tie & Dye Holi cake with natural colours

Festivals to me are a great excuse for a family get together and having to spend some fun time over delicious food. I am also particularly interested in creating Festival special food. And since my first love is Baking, I cannot help but imagine trying out something new in baking. This Holi I tried my hands on Thandai cookies and this Tie & Dye cake where I have used all natural colours in the cake batter. The idea came from the popular usage of organic colours nowadays which is certainly safer and healthier than the poisonous chemicals used in regular colours. 

People all around are getting more conscious and are ready to take steps to prevent as much damage as we can to our body. It is a great beginning in itself and is a small but important step to ensure our children get to live in a better environment.

Since Holi is the festival of colours, I decided to add some colours to my cake and experimented doing so with Nature's vibrant colours. 

I personally feel I could have added a tbsp more of each colour because the batter before baking seems to have the perfect colour but after baking the colour gets reduced in its intensity. But it is still far better than adding all the artificial food colours. 

Here's to a Happy and Safe Holi! 

Recipe source  : I used the cake recipe from Suma's blog Cakes and More and modified it 
Ingredients : I made a 5" round cake which is good for 4 servings

• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 3/4 cup sugar, powdered
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/8 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 cup yogurt (I used homemade curd)
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1 egg
• 1/2 tsp vanilla essence
• 1/4 tsp turmeric powder
• 1-2 tbsp each of beetroot puree, spinach puree and carrot puree

Icing :

• 3 tbsp white butter, room temperature
• 2 tbsp icing sugar/powdered sugar
• colourful sprinkles

Procedure : 
Prepare the natural colours by boiling each vegetable and then making its puree. 

Preheat oven to 180 degree Celsius. 

Prepare a 5 inch round cake pan by greasing and lining with butter paper.
Sift flour, sugar, baking powder and baking soda in a bowl.
Whisk together yogurt, oil, egg, and vanilla in another bowl.
Fold in the wet mixture into the flour mixture.  Mix well.

Divide the batter in 4 bowls.

Add turmeric powder to one and mix well. Add more if required.

Add spinach puree, carrot puree and beetroot puree each to the the remaining three bowls and mix well. Add more to get the desired colour.
Pour random spoonfuls of each of the coloured batter in the  prepared pan.
Bake  for 30 mins or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean.
Cool on a wire rack.

Slice the dome on top of the cake.

Mix icing sugar with white butter and spread on top. Top with the colourful sprinkles. 

Note : Add more of the individual puree to get more distinct colours. The colour gets reduced after baking.

Happy, safe and a colourful Holi

Amrita

Thandai Cookies

Holi is the festival of colours and is celebrated with lot of  fun and fervour. For me Holi is a sweet remembrance of the non stop fun we had as children colouring each other with the darkest of shades that would not come out for weeks. Holi meant the kitchen smelling heavenly with yummy treats esp Thandai and Gujiya. It meant spending hours in the bathroom afterwards scrubbing ourselves hard to get the colour out of our hair, face and body. Our nails would be invariably painted with a pink or black colour. And we all looked the same!

I remember when I was small, my cousin brothers who are elder to me were the mastermind behind all the mischief. They would fill scores of balloons with coloured water and throw them at their friends. Each year, it was a competition of sorts to paint each other with the toughest of colours that would take weeks to come out. Going next day to school meant meeting my friends in different shades. 

Things thankfully have changed over the years. For better reasons, the culture of playing Holi with those chemicals is slowly reducing. People are realizing the after effects of these meaningless colours and have started opting for Organic colours. I personally prefer Holi now with dry colours or what we call Abeer. 

For Holi this time, I experimented with the very famous Thandai flavour and incorporated it in cookies. Thandai is a popular drink consumed esp during Holi which is made by grinding almonds, rose petals, fennel seeds, melon seeds and black peppercorns and adding to milk. There is a variation called Kesariya Thandai where saffron is added to the mixture but the most famous one is the Bhang Thandai which is basically adding the leaves of cannabis plant whihc has intoxicant properties.

Ingredients : Yields about 15 cookies

• 4 tbsp all purpose flour (maida)
• 3 tbsp whole wheat flour (atta)
• 2 tsp rice flour (chawal ka atta)
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• a pinch of baking soda
• 6 tbsp powdered sugar
• 2 tbsp butter, cold
• 2 1/2 tbsp Thandai spice
• 1 tbsp rose water
• 1 tbsp milk
• almonds, chopped
• khus khus/posto (Poppy seeds) for sprinkling on top

Thandai spice : This will make a little more than the quantity required in the cookies

• 1/2 cup dries red rose petals
• 2 tsp fennel seeds/saunf
• 2 tsp melon seeds/magaj
• 4-5 green cardamoms/hari elaichi
• 15 whole black peppercorns/gol mirch

Procedure :

Thandai spice :

Grind all the ingredients to a fine powder.

Sieve the mixture to get a further fine powder and remove any particles.

Cookie dough :

Add all purpose, whole wheat and rice flour in a bowl and mix with sugar, baking powder and baking soda.  Add cold butter and rub the flour in the butter till it gets incorporated in the flour mixture. 

Add the Thandai spice and mix.

Now add rose water and milk and knead to a smooth dough. If required add a little more of the rose water/milk. 

Cover in a plastic wrap and refrigerate for an hour or overnight. 

Take the dough out to come to room temperature before you begin baking them.

Preheat oven to 180 degree Celsius and line a baking tray with a lightly greased parchment paper/aluminium foil. 

Dust a little flour on your work station and roll the dough to 1/8" thickness. 

Cut out cookie shapes with a round cookie cutter or a round shaped bowl/glass.

Press in the chopped almonds on top of the cookie and sprinkle with khus khus/posto seeds. 

Place the cookies on the baking tray and bake for 20-25 minutes or till they are browned well. 

Allow to cool completely to crisp them.

Notes:

• Substitute rice flour with corn flour.
• Be more experimental and add Bhang to the cookie dough.

Wishing all of you a Happy and Colourful Holi

Amrita

The Wicked Triple Chocolate pudding

24th of each month is a reminder to us to be thankful for the wonderful presence of our loving daughter Vaanya. Today has been 2 years and 8 months of the most beautiful and happy days of our lives. Vaanya continues to bring love, warmth and sunshine to our lives in the most uninhibited way. As parents, we are growing everyday, learning the simple lessons of life like unconditional love and care. Vaanya has taught us tremendous patience and has made us stop and enjoy small moments of life which we would otherwise miss in our fast paced professional lives.

Vaanya has started Montessori and has overcome the stage of crying and reached a stage of reluctance where everyday she tries to think of a new excuse not go to school. On her holidays, I feel more happy to have my little pumpkin catch a little more sleep and enjoy a bit more of the careless life she is used to. Sooner or later, I will have to let her go to face the world. I have to let her make new friends and have a world of her own. 

That reminds me about the amazing set of friends I have found in Kolkata Food Bloggers, a group that was started 1 year back by the most humble and talented person I know, Kamalika Chakrabarty. We have got together to celebrate KFB's first birthday by sharing finger food or desserts on our FB page. This recipe is dedicated to the most down to earth and immensely talented group that I am proudly a part of. Check out more amazing recipes shared on the birthday bash here.

Coming back to today's recipe, this was attempted when I was holidaying in Allahabad. Vishal joined us for the new year and we celebrated it in the most beautiful way with family over a Barbeque dinner. Vishal made the most yummy Chicken tandoori kebabs and Kakori kebabs which got polished in no time. The Barbeque was such a hit that it was repeated soon after a few day for Kushal (Vishal's younger brother) and his friends. This dessert was attempted for that party and turned out to be a unanimous winner and so wicked that it made one of Kushal's friend (who was on a strict diet)  give up his rigorous schedule and plunge right through it, making me have a devilish smile.    

Ingredients : For 4-5 servings

Chocolate Cake layer:

• 1 cup sugar, powdered
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1/4 cup + 2 tbsp cocoa powder
• 3/4 tsp baking powder
• 3/4 tsp baking soda 
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup boiling water

Dark Chocolate cream layer:

• 1 cup whipped cream
• 75 gm dark chocolate, chopped
• 1 tsp gelatin, powdered
• 2 tbsp cold water
• 1/4 cup milk

White Chocolate cream layer:

• 1 cup whipped cream
• 75 gm white chocolate, chopped
• 1 tsp gelatin, powdered
• 2 tbsp cold water
• 1/4 cup milk

Procedure : 

Chocolate Cake layer:

Preheat oven to 180 degree Celsius. 

Grease and line a 9" round baking tin.

Take a bowl and mix sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

Add eggs, milk and oil. 

Mix well so all the ingredients are incorporated well. Stir in boiling water (do not worry about lumps) The batter will be quite thin. 

Pour the batter in the prepared tin.

Bake for 35-40 mins or till a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Cool the cake on a rack.

Cut cake into desired shape to fit in the choice of serving bowl/glass. 

Moisten the cake layer with a mixture of 1 tbsp sugar and 1 tbsp cocoa powder dissolved in 1/4 cup warm milk(Optional step)

I served the dessert in small glasses and so cut rounds of cake and fitted in the glass as the bottom layer. 

Dark Chocolate cream layer:

Take cold water in a small bowl and sprinkle gelatin over it.

Allow it to bloom and become spongy for 5-10 mins. 

Heat milk to a simmer and add chopped chocolate.

Remove from heat and stir well to dissolve the chocolate.

Add gelatin to the milk-chocolate mixture and mix well to dissolve it. 

Take whipped cream in a wide bowl and gently fold in the milk-chocolate-gelatin mixture.

Spoon the mixture on the chocolate cake layer in the glasses and refrigerate for an hour. 

White Chocolate cream layer:

Follow the same steps as above.

Spoon the white chocolate cream mixture over the dark chocolate cream layer in the glasses and allow to refrigerate for another hour to set. 

Sprinkle some grated dark chocolate over the dessert before serving.

Notes : 

• You will have some cake bits left which can be eaten as it is or assembled with leftover cream.
• You can also make alternate layers of the cake with white chocolate cream for an easier version.

Happy Wicked Indulgence

Amrita

Mini Mug Gingerbread house

As a child, I,  like many others was always fascinated with the witches house in Hansel and Gretel. I mean who will not fancy a house made of Gingerbread  and cakes with candies and chocolate all over. Having never tasted a Gingerbread cookie and a long hidden desire to put my hands on a gingerbread house, made me decide to try these adorable mini Gingerbread houses. These can perch on your mugs and look very cute. 

I added my own touch to these cookies by adding Nolen gur in the dough instead of normal jaggery. Not being a big fan of ginger myself, these cookies are not overpowering with the ginger taste (as I always thought). In fact, the spices along with jaggery and honey gives it a very unique flavour. 

Ideally the Gingerbread house calls for the use of Royal icing to join the pieces together. Having my own constraint of not wanting to use raw egg whites, I decide to try a basic icing where icing sugar is diluted to required consistency with some lemon juice and/or milk. The Gingerbread house required heaps of patience as the pieces were so fragile while joining and would fall apart. I had to join them again and again and finally said a short prayer and left them to dry. Thankfully they held themselves together finally. 

I also made some Gingerbread men with the leftover dough and decorated them with the same icing. 

Recipe source : Adapted from Taste.com.au

Ingredients : For 5 Mini gingerbread houses and 15 Gingerbread men

• 50 gm butter, at room temperature
• 1/4 cup jaggery, grated(I used Nolen gur)
• 1/2 egg(Beat one egg in a bowl and use half quantity) 
• 1 1/2 tbsp honey
• 1 1/4 cup all purpose flour
• 1/2 tbsp ginger powder(I used saunth-dry ginger powder)
• 1/4 tbsp cinnamon powder
• 6-7 cloves, dry roasted and powdered
• 1/4 tsp grated nutmeg
• 8-10 black pepper, ground
• 1 cardamom, powdered
• 1/8 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• pinch of salt

Icing:

• 5-6 tbsp icing sugar
• few drops of lemon juice
• little milk for diluting

Procedure : 

Gingerbread dough:

Take jaggery and butter in a bowl and beat till pale and creamy. 

Mix in honey and egg.

Sift flour, ginger powder, all spices, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add to the bowl.

Knead dough using hands till it comes together smooth and soft. 

Wrap in a plastic and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 180 degree Celsius.

Roll out dough 1/4 " thick and cut out desired shapes form it.

I used my Gingerbread man cutter and a template for the Gingerbread house.

Place on a butter paper/parchment lined baking tray and bake for 8-10 minutes or till they brown well.

Allow to cool.

Icing:

Mix icing sugar with few drops of lemon juice and some milk to get a thick consistency good enough for piping. 

Fill a piping bag/Ziplock/plastic bag with this icing and snip off the end.

Make desired design on all the pieces.

Use some icing to stick colourful sprinkles on the cookies.

Leave to dry.

Use the same icing sugar as a glue to join pieces of the gingerbread house.

Note : 

• Cut out the template on a piece of thick paper/cardboard and use it to cut out shapes from the dough.
• Keep a check on the cookies while baking to prevent overbrowning.
• You can omit the egg and use some milk for kneading the dough. 
• The joining of Gingerbread house pieces require some patience and precision as the house can fall apart. After fixing the pieces let it dry completely before touching.

Sending this recipe to 'Kolkata Food Blogger's ongoing baking event 'Baking Palooza 2013

Happy Mini Gingerbread house enjoying
Amrita

Owl Cupcakes

'Know your Kolkata Food Blogger' event was on a hold as all of us were busy in the festivity last week. We are back introducing our very sweet, polite and extremely helpful member, Archita Chanda Ray, who blogs from My Food My Life.  Archita, having left her Banker job, now enjoys running a playschool together with her husband. Her blog reflects her ideology about food and is a treasure of some easy to cook and impressive recipes. As much as I tried to look away from her baked goodies, I finally gave in to the sweet temptation and tried her super easy, super soft and very yummy Choco vanilla Mini Cupcakes. 

Once the recipe was decided, I realized that my OTG(oven-toaster-griller) was at my mother's house. We had a Paath (puja) at home where I had baked some stuffed buns and hence my oven was required there. My Microwave oven is a simple one without the grill feature and I am a very partial OTG baker. That's when I remembered the Electric Tandoor gifted by my Amma(mother-in-law) which I have successfully used to make Pizza, Naan and all sorts of grilled meat. It does not have a temperature control and thus needs high level of supervision while making anything in it. The Tandoor is an amazing appliance which cooks food in a jiffy. It melts the cheese on my pizza in 2 minutes flat! However, baking had never been attempted in it. 

I decided to try half the recipe and see how my Tandoor bakes my cupcakes. The Tandoor needs a preheating time of 3-4 min after which I placed my cupcakes in it. It took less than 5 minutes for my cupcakes to get completely cooked and to perfection with beautiful crumbs. I was shocked and very pleasantly surprised with my results. Though next time, I will consider covering my cupcakes with aluminium foil before baking as the high temperature makes the crust go brown faster.

I had some leftover Pumpkin puree from my last bake (Pumpkin shaped dinner rolls) which I added in my cupcakes to add to the Halloween effect which I created with Oreo biscuits and Gems. The idea was taken from Pinterest, the source of which I could not locate.

My wonder Appliance-Electric Tandoor

Ingredients : Yields 4-5 cupcakes

• 1/2 cup all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup sugar, powdered
• 2 tbsp cocoa powder
• 1 egg
• 2 tbsp milk
• 2 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 tbsp pumpkin puree(boiled and ground to a paste. Check here)
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp baking soda 
• 2 tbsp boiling water

Garnish :

• 1 tbsp grated chocolate
• 1 tbsp cream, room temperature
• Oreo biscuits/cookies
• Gems/colourful round candies

Procedure : 

Preheat oven to 180 degree Celsius.

Line cupcake tins with liners.

In a bowl, cream together sugar and egg with a electric blender till fluffy. Alternately, use a hand whisk.

To the bowl add milk, vegetable oil and pumpkin puree. Mix well.

Sift together all purpose flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and baking soda in another bowl.

Add the dry ingredients to the wet ones and fold in gently. 

Lastly add the boiling water and mix to incorporate.

Pour the batter divided in the prepared cupcake tins till 3/4. 

Bake for 15-20 mins or till a toothpick inserted in the middle come out clean.

Allow to cool.

Melt chocolate on a double boiler or microwave in 15 secs interval till melted.

Add cream and stir well. If this gets thick add little milk. 

Spread on the cupcakes.

Take two cream halves of the Oreo biscuits and put them as the owl's eyes.

Finish the look with Gems as in the eyes and beak.

Note  :

• If using the electric Tandoor, preheat it for 3-4 minutes and then place your cupcakes
• Always use metal tins in the Tandoor. (I had put my silicone cupcake which got slightly burnt)
• Keep a vigilant eye on the tandoor and keep checking by taking the tray out. 
• Cover your bakes with an aluminium foil to avoid the direct high heat burning tops. 
• If using Tandoor, keep the batter a little more than half as it tends to rise very fast and high. I had to remove ugly overgrown tops from my cupcakes. 

Check out the Mummy Cupcakes I made last year for Halloween. 

Happy Halloween Baking

Amrita

Soft Pretzels

Every month my diary gets enriched with some amazing new baking recipes. That is because I am part of some of the most wonderful baking groups. Its exciting and an enriching experience to learn new bakes and recreate them. The only downfall of being part of the challenges is trying to keep a pace with them and post them. Today's post is actually a part of my baking challenge which was meant for the month of August! 

Pretzels was the choice of yeasted bake for 'We Knead to bake'. The choice was between the hard and the soft ones. Having never tasted pretzels, I assumed the soft ones would be better to attempt. In fact, that is what most of the members felt.   

Pretzel, having originated from Europe, is a type of baked bread which has a traditional and unique knot-like shape called the 'pretzel loop'. They are often seasoned and flavoured with salts, sugars or various seeds/nuts.

The shape of a Pretzel is though to resemble folded arms during prayers with the three holes in it representing the Holy Trinity.

The pretzels are actually fairly simple to make and involve a unique process of boiling the proofed and shaped dough in baking soda bath before baking it. This step is supposed to give the pretzels a deep brown colour and a soft and chewy texture.

Pretzels are served with a mustard based or cheese based dips or else enjoyed just as they are. I loved dunking them in my evening milky tea and enjoying them the Indian style!

Ingredients: I halved the recipe to yield 6 pretzels

• 1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
• 1 tsp instant yeast
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup warm milk
• 3 cup water
• 1 tbsp baking soda
• milk for brushing
• white sesame seeds for sprinkling

 
Procedure :
In a bowl, take flour, salt and yeast. Add warm milk and mix till a soft dough forms. Knead for 10 mins to get a smooth and elastic dough. 
(If using active dried yeast, dissolve it in the warm milk and sugar and allow to stand for 5-10 mins. Add it to flour and add salt and knead to form a smooth dough.) 
Form the dough into a ball and place in a well oiled bowl, turning to coat all sides. Allow to double in size for around 1 hour
Deflate and divide into 6 equal portions. 
Roll each (while others are covered to prevent drying) 
to around 18" long rope with tapered ends. 

Cross the ends, one with the other.

 Twist the overlapped ends.

 Fold the ends over the circle and secure them by pinching well.

Repeat the same for all the portions.
Allow to rise for 10 mins.
Meanwhile pour 3 cups of water with 1 tbsp baking soda in a pan and let it boil.
Turn down the heat and let it simmer.
Gently lower one pretzel and cook for 15 secs each side.

Remove and place on a greased wire rack repeating the same for all.

Preheat oven to 220 degree Celsius and place the pretzels on a greased and lined baking tray.
Brush the pretzels with milk and sprinkle white sesame seeds on top.
Bake for 10-12 mins or till they brown up well.

Happy Soft Pretzel eating
Amrita