I am extremely frugal when it comes to using my last 10 grams of lavender; I even packed it up and put it away in the freezer to save until the time I was certain that my next batch is on its way. Just recently I found a huge stash of very fragrant lavender when I was rearranging my cabinet. It sat somewhere at the back, tucked away, with a bunch of other things I didn’t remember I had like Hungarian paprika (suggestions to use this?), pearl sugar and some very adorable cupcake decorations.
I’m one happy, happy girl to have so much lavender at hand. As soon as I asked for things to do with it on
Facebook, I got some really interesting suggestions like lavender ice cream, lavender vanilla cake, lavender granita, lavender iced tea, macarons and lavender lemon shortbread (which I hope to try out over the next few weeks1). But what I really had on my mind were honey lavender madeleines. Especially because I’ve had the mould for a few months now, and I’ve been itching to use it!
For the madeleines, I started off with a honey madeleine recipe from
Paris Sweets. Instead of the lemon zest, I used the lavender. And I didn’t just throw the lavender in the batter but came up with a pretty ingenious way to infuse all the lavender goodness into the batter: I first rubbed the lavender in my hands for it to get all nice and fragrant and then I put it in the pan with the butter that needs to be melted. This way the butter absorbs all the flavours beautifully and with the heat, the lavender releases more flavour! To sound more exotic, this recipe could actually be called honey madeleines with lavender infused butter.
I used a
tin pan for large madeleines, but the smaller ones look adorable too. While buttering and flouring the tin might be an additional step, just please stay away from the
silicone moulds - they make the madelines look so artificial with the shiny surface and uneven browning. The
dark non-stick variety might solve the problem, but you will have darker madeleines.
How did they turn out? Little bites of goodness! My hands are still fragrant with the lavender I rubbed, and my fingers still buttery (and now the keyboard) with the half dozen madeleines I just snacked on. Will I be making them again? Yes, tomorrow!
Honey Lavender Madeleines
Yield: 12 large madeleines or 36 small ones.
3/4th cup / 105g flour
½ tsp double action baking powder
5 tbsp / 70g butter
1 tsp lavender, rubbed to release flavour
2 eggs
1/3rd cup / 65g sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp honey
- Sift together the flour and baking powder. Set aside.
- In a saucepan, melt the butter with the lavender. Let it cool.
- In a bowl, whisk together the eggs and sugar until pale and think, about 2-4 minutes.
- Add in the vanilla extract.
- With a silicone spatula, fold in the dry ingredients, followed by the melted butter and honey.
- Mix until just combined.
- Transfer to a disposable piping bag and clip the end. Let this rest in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours. (you can keep it upto two days – the longer the better – this gives the madeleine it’s characteristic hump.)
- Butter and flour a madeleine pan, covering every millimeter of it, else the madeleine won’t come off easily.
- Pipe the batter into the madeleine pan until almost full.
- Bake in a preheated oven at 200C / 400F for 10-11 minutes or until your finger springs back when you touch the centre of the madeleine. The baking time for smaller madeleines will be shorter by 3-4 minutes.
- Remove from the oven and eat the madeleines! If you’re going to be storing it for later, then transfer to an airtight container as soon as they’ve cooled.
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I made marshmallows!
Can I say that louder? I. made. marshmallows!
To start off with, I’ve only recently begun to appreciate the goodness of marshmallows. For the first 23 years of my life, I couldn’t understand what the fuss was all about, but now I know. And I know it too well, especially after having licked my KitchenAid clean: bowl, whisk, spatula – everything.
First to put you at ease, let me tell you things I wish I knew about making marshmallows so you can prepare yourself for it:
- You don’t need a candy thermometer. Just observe keenly, and you will know when to pull the sugar syrup off the stove.
- All you need is sugar, corn syrup, water, vanilla extract and gelatin (and in this recipe, honey). I don’t know why I assumed it had egg whites! That deterred me.
- Making marshmallows is quite messy. Your clothes are bound to get the marshmallow goo on it, and the only way (best way) to combat that is to lick it off!
When I began to make the marshmallows, I wondered how an amber-coloured sugar syrup would take a pristine white form and attain a pillowy structure. And boy, was I amazed to see that happen when the KitchenAid worked its magic.
Some tips:
- Have a pair of kitchen shears as well as a knife handy for cutting the marshmallows. The knife is good to make smooth, even vertical sections, and the shears for cutting them further into cubes. Make sure they’re always greased.
- Use parchment paper. The marshmallow is still going to stick, but quick jerks will help remove the paper off it
- Keep dusting the marshmallow with icing sugar.
- Make sure the gelatin is thoroughly dissolved in the water. You don’t want to bite into a blob of it.
- Let the marshmallow set for a good 24 hours. I let mine rest in the refrigerator for 8 hours before I cut it. It firmed up real well.
See the jagged top right corner? I take full responsibility for it. I just couldn’t help digging into the marshmallow fluff while it was setting.
And how did it turn out? Little bites of cloudy heaven, I tell you! Go make them.
Homemade Honey Marshmallow Recipe
2 ½ tablespoons unflavored gelatin (3 standard American packets)
½ cup plus 3 tablespoons water (divided)
2 cups granulated sugar
1 cup light corn syrup
¼ cup honey
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
¾ cup powdered sugar for dusting marshmallows.
- Line a 9×13-inch baking dish with parchment paper, allowing the paper to overhang the ends by about 1 inch. Evenly coat the paper with nonstick spray.
- In a small bowl, sprinkle the gelatin over the ½ cup cold water. Let stand, stirring once or twice, until the gelatin softens, about 6 minutes.
- In a heavy 3- to 4-quart saucepan over medium-high heat, stir together the granulated sugar, corn syrup, honey, salt and the remaining 3 tablespoons warm water until well blended. When the sugar dissolves (OBSERVE!), raise the heat and bring the mixture to a full boil, stirring. Boil for 20 seconds. Stir in the gelatin mixture, vanilla extract, and cook, stirring, for 30 seconds longer. Remove from the heat and continue stirring until the gelatin completely dissolves.
- Pour the mixture into a large bowl. Using a mixer with a whisk-shaped attachment, and gradually raising the mixer speed from low to high, beat until the mixture is stiffened, lightened and very fluffy, 5 to 7 minutes. (such fun to watch!)
- Coat a rubber spatula with nonstick spray, and use it to scrape out the marshmallow mixture into the baking dish, spreading it evenly to the edges. Most of it will even out, but you might need to use an offset spatula to smoothen the top. Let the mixture cool and refrigerate to firm up for about 24 hours. (The mixture becomes firmer and easier to handle when left for the full 24 hours.)
- To cut the marshmallows: Sift about one third of the powdered sugar onto a cutting board. Lift the marshmallow slab out of the dish and invert the slab onto the powdered sugar and peel off the sheet of parchment paper. Sift about a third of the remaining powdered sugar over the top of the slab. Using a lightly greased large sharp knife, cut the slab crosswise into 12ths and lengthwise and then with kitchen shears into 8ths to form 1-inch marshmallow cubes. Dust all the cut surfaces with powdered sugar to reduce their stickiness.
- The marshmallows will keep, stored loosely packed in an airtight container (with wax paper between the layers) in the refrigerator for upto 2 weeks. Let come to room temperature before serving.
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Over the weekend I had this sudden craving for hummus. With a bottle of tahini paste on my kitchen shelf, and a box of beans soaked and reserved for chole masala, I got down to fulfill the sudden craving. I just love times like these when every thing that I need is within arm’s reach and/or doesn’t keep me waiting endlessly while it soaks, proves, rests, chills, or whatever not.
I pretty much eyeballed the hummus and kept adding flavour and seasoning as I went along. As for the olive oil crackers – I had bookmarked the recipe in the Ottolenghi cookbook when leafing through it, and making them with the hummus felt like the perfect opportunity.
And when I was finally done making the hummus, I couldn’t stop dipping my finger into it for “one last lick”. I even packed a small box of it in the secret-handbag-compartment-that–the-security-lady-doesn’t-check when I went for a movie yesterday! If you heard a girl munching on crackers and filling the movie theatre with the smell of garlic, then I might know her. As for the crackers – they were just brilliant! I never thought that using baking powder instead of yeast would result in such an amazing, light, lavash-like cracker in a lot less time than lavash would! This recipe is a keeper.
Hummus
250g chickpeas, soaked, boiled and pureed with the water reserved from boiling
½ cup tahini paste
½ cup water
Juice of 1 lemon
6-8 cloves of garlic, minced
Extra virgin olive oil, to serve
Sumac, to serve (optional)
- In a large bowl, add the tahini paste, water and lemon juice and mix well until it forms a uniform paste. Add the minced garlic to it and mix it well.
- Now add the chickpea paste to the tahini sauce a little at a time, making sure everything gets incorporated evenly.
- In a plate, spoon the hummus and create a canal with the back of the spoon to hold the olive oil, as seen in the photograph.
- Sprinkle with sumac and serve with crackers.
Olive Oil Crackers
Adapted from: Ottolenghi Cookbook
Yield: 25 crackers
250g all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
115 ml water
25 ml olive oil
Freshly ground pepper (I used a mix of black, white and pink!)
Sea salt to taste
Coarse sea salt for garnish (I used pink Himalayan salt)
More olive oil for brushing
- Preheat oven to 220C.
- In a large bowl, or the bowl of a Kitchen Aid add the flour baking powder, water, olive oil, salt and pepper. Knead the dough for 5-6 minutes until it all comes together.
- Make walnut sized balls and roll them out as thinly as you can into long, oval shapes.
- Place the rolled out crackers on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, brush with olive oil and sprinkle with pink Himalayan salt (or sumac, poppy seeds, sesame seeds, za’atar, etc).
- Bake for 5-6 minutes, or until the crackers are golden brown in colour.
- Serve with the hummus!
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Have you ever tried churros?
No? Okay, you must leave everything you’re doing right now and run to the kitchen. At work? Oh well, just tell your boss that your cat’s sick and you need to take her to the vet or something. Do what it takes to get into the kitchen and get down to making these – right this moment!
This little sticks of dough blew my mind. Awfully easy to make and even easier to polish off – these deep fried goodies might just be something you’re greeted with at the gates of heaven.
Exactly how easy are they to make? Just boil some water, oil and salt, throw in some flour, mix in an egg, throw in a blob of butter then pipe it into hot oil and fry until golden brown and then finally toss it in some cinnamon sugar – that’s it! And then of course, munch away and think of the multitude of ways you can eat these. I’ve listed some fun ways of eating these churros but I’d love to hear your suggestions as well. Someone always comes up with a brilliant idea that would’ve never occurred to me! So here goes my list:
- cinnamon sugar
- honey
- powdered sugar
- whipped cream and strawberries
- nutella
- white chocolate sauce
And you know what, there couldn’t be a better time to make churros and serve them with hot chocolate than winter! Go. Make. Them. Now.
Cinnamon Sugar Churros
Yield: 6 servings
Note: I halved the eggs the second time I made them because it was just so dang eggy! So eggy, that my sister said it felt like she were eating an omelette! Here is a much better version of the recipe that yielded amazingly crispy churros that everyone ate up like hungry wolves.
1 cup water
1/4th cup olive oil or canola oil
½ tsp salt
1 1/4th cup flour
2 eggs
1 tbsp / 30g butter
Peanut or canola oil for deep drying
1 cup sugar
2 tbsp ground cinnamon
- In a heavy bottomed pan (not aluminium) combine the oil, water and salt and bring it to a rolling boil.
- Remove from the heat and add all the flour and mix it enthusiastically together. You will see that the dough clumps up around the spoon.
- Place it back on the heat and stir briskly for 30-60 seconds to dry out the excess moisture.
- Now in another bowl, beat the eggs together and mix it in with the dough slowly until the eggs are completely incorporated.
- At this point the dough will be a slightly sticky, evenly yellow mass.
- Stir in the butter and you will see that the dough isn’t sticky anymore.
- Transfer the dough to a piping bag fitted with a large star shaped tip and pipe directly into the hot oil. Fry until golden brown then strain thoroughly and transfer to the plate in which the cinnamon and sugar has been mixed and coat evenly.
- Serve hot!
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