Whole wheat pancakes

Ingredients

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/4 cup milk
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1/2 Tbsp sugar
1 egg

2 Tbsp oil

1 Tbsp butter
Blueberries or any berries of choice
Maple syrup to drizzle on top

Recipe

Take cold milk in a cup and add lemon juice to it. Keep aside for 5 minutes.

Beat egg in a mixing bowl. 

Add milk and lemon juice mixture,sugar,oil to the egg and beat till everything blends.

Sift whole wheat flour,salt, baking soda and baking powder .Mix into the wet ingredients.

Mix with a spatula till everything just blends. Small lumps is fine in pancake batter.

Heat a pan on low. Brush some oil or butter on the pan

Pour a ladle full of batter into the pan.

after 30 seconds,try to lift the sides slowly using a wide spatula. 

Once the pancake is golden brown on the bottom side, flip it gently.

once the other side is also light brown,Use a toothpick and prick in the center to see if the pancake is cooked throughout.

Transfer to a plate.Drizzle maple syrup on top. Add some berries. Serve hot with a dollop of whipped cream or butter.

Fresh homemade White Bread

Ingredients

3 cups King Arthur Bread flour
2-1/4 tsp Active dry yeast
1/2 tsp salt
1 Tbsp Honey
1 cup warm water
1 Tbsp light olive oil
1/2 cup warm milk

serving:makes 1 loaf

Recipe

In large bowl, add the yeast and warm water,honey and mix.

Leave alone for 2-3 minutes.the mixture should become frothy.

Add salt,milk, oil and mix well.

Add the bread flour slowly and keep mixing with a wooden spoon.

Finally after mixing in 3 cups of flour, the dough should be a little sticky and it will become difficult to mix with a spoon.

Time to use hands. Add 1 tsp flour over the dough and Knead the dough for 5 minutes. 

While Kneading if the dough feels sticky, add 1 tsp flour.

I usually knead it in the mixing bowl. You can put it on the counter and knead if you are not comfortable.

After 5 minutes the dough should be soft to touch.

Drizzle some oil on top,cover and leave it in a warm spot to rise for 1 hour.

After 1 hour,knead the dough for a minute and take the dough out from mixing bowl.

Spray the loaf pan with oil.

Put the dough in the pan  cover and again leave it in the warm spot to rise for 20-25 minutes.

Preheat oven at 375 degrees F.

Bake for about 30-35 minutes or until golden brown.

Take the pan out of oven, and transfer the bread loaf to a cooling rack immediately. Be careful while handling the hot pan.

Once completely cooled cut slices of bread.

To store, wrap it in a cling wrap and aluminum foil.

Put it in a microwave(switched off) and use as needed. 

Paneer Paratha

 

Ingredients

2 cups whole wheat flour
1 and half cups of water
2 cups Grated Paneer
1 green chilli
1 medium size onion minced
4-5 mint leaves finely chopped
Finely chopped cilantro
1 Tbsp lime juice
salt to taste
1 teaspoon Garam masala powder
1 Tbsp grated ginger
1 tsp oil
1/2 tsp cumin seeds

Recipe

Prepare the dough

In a bowl take the whole wheat flour, add water slowly and make a dough. Refer to chapathi/phulka post to know how to make a dough. Keep the prepared dough aside for at least 10 minutes.

Prepare the filling

Heat a pan, add oil. Once the oil is hot add cumin seeds

After cumin seeds splutter, add grated paneer chilli, minced onion, mint leaves,cilantro,lime juice, salt garam masala powder and ginger.Keep sauteing till excess moisture gets evaporated.This is to make sure the paneer mixture is dry.

Prepare the paratha

Heat a Tawa/pan. Make equal number of balls of the dough and paneer mixture. The balls should be of same size. Take a dough ball and roll out a small chapathi. Stuff paneer into the chapathi and close the edges of the rolled chapathi together to make a ball again. Dust the stuffed ball in dry wheat flour and roll out gently to make a paratha. put the paratha on the tawa and wait till the paratha changes color. flip it to the other side and cook.keep pressing the paratha with the spatula. once brown spots appear, drizzle oil/butter on the paratha and cook till a golden brown color is seen on both sides. Serve hot with Raita and pickle or a curry

Phulka- Flat Bread made with Whole Wheat Flour

Phulka

Ingredients

1 cup of whole wheat flour(Makes 5 medium sized phulkas)
3/4 cup of water
1 tsp of oil
Butter/oil to apply on top

Recipe

Add the Whole wheat flour into a bowl.

Add dry flour to a bowl

Slowly add water to the dry flour and keep mixing.
After mixing in all the water the dough should look something like below.

Mix in water to the flour

Knead the dough for a minimum of 5 minutes.
After 5 minutes it should look soft and smooth, something like below

Soft and smooth dough after kneading for 5 minutes

The dough should not be too hard  or too soft  (it should not be sticking to the hands).
Drizzle 2-3 drops of oil on the dough,spread it evenly.
Cover and let it rest for 10-15 minutes.

Cover and rest

After 10 minutes, knead the dough for half a minute and make balls of equal size

Make balls

Heat up a flat griddle/Tawa . Medium-high is the usual setting that i use. A really hot griddle is the secret behind a good phulka.

Take one ball and dust it in dry whole wheat flour

Dust in dry flour

Start rolling with the help of a rolling pin.
Make sure that the thickness is even. If the phulka is uneven, then it may not fluff up.

Roll it even and flat

Put it on the hot tawa/griddle.

Put it on the hot tawa

Once the color starts to change and there are some brown spots on the bottom of phulka , flip it and let the other side cook for couple of seconds till some brown spots appear.

Flip once brown spots appear

Once the second side also gets brown spots,put it directly on the flame or here, i am using a steel mesh over an electric coil. This mesh can also be used on flame.

Put it directly on flame

Once the phulka puffs up turn it to the other side and keep it on for couple of seconds so that there are no uncooked spots.

Puffs up

Take off the flame and put it on a plate.
Apply oil/ghee on top and cover it with a tissue paper. This step can be ignored by health conscious people.

Stacked up phulkas

Serve hot with curry/daal/raita.