Friday, March 21, 2014
HOMEMADE FLOUR TORTILLAS
While this recipe makes about eight 8" tortillas, it is also a wonderful convenience not to be stuck with "one size fits all" tortillas. For example, you could make half full size tortillas and half "toddler size" tortillas. I think the little ones would get a kick out of that.
This recipe produces a dough that is very easy to work (feels almost like Play Doh) and it fries up in either a dry pan (if you are watching calories) or in vegetable oil if you are looking for a nice and flaky tortilla. Hubby gave the flaky style both thumbs up!!
4 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 tablespoons cold shortening (or bacon grease)
1½ cups hot water
Put first 4 ingredients in the food processor and pulse until well mixed. Add hot water while machine is running. Turn machine off when dough comes together. Remove dough and knead about half a dozen times or until the dough becomes smooth and elastic. Wrap it in plastic wrap and let it sit for about 15 minutes.
After 15 minutes, turn dough out onto lightly floured counter and roll into balls about the size of a small golf ball. Roll out tortillas (starting in center and rolling outwards, turning often).
To cook the tortillas, the recipe says to use a cast iron skillet, but I found it hard to regulate the temperature (it got too hot) so I used an electric skillet instead. Im sure with practice, the cast iron skillet would be the way to go. I fried the ones I wanted to eat in a dry skillet, but to get the big flaky bubbles, fry them in a little vegetable oil. Keep the tortillas warm in a kitchen towel while you cook the others.
NOTE: I made a half recipe for just hubby and myself and it gave me five nice big tortillas. It is such a great dough, Im sure you could double the ingredients as well if you are cooking for a crowd. 
Monday, December 23, 2013
Guilt free Gingerbread JFI Flour
When Santhi announced flour as the theme for JFI, I thought it would be very easy. I have a stock of flours in my pantry at all times. Mainly:
Wheat flour
Gram flour
Rice flour
Millet flour
But it wasn’t easy at all deciding what to make. Chapatis, Parathas, dosas were too ‘everydayish’ for this wonderful event. Then were the list of fried snacks like murukku, tenkuzhal, ribbon pakoda etc, which I must admit, I avoid making. Ofcourse if mom or my aunts make for me, I love to munch on them!
I thought of baking something then for the event. There are some excellent vegan, fat-free recipes for a healthy living at the PCRM website. Their baking projects are amazingly easy and all that with minimal use of oil. In this case no oil or fat.
Simple wheat flour and semolina is spiked with the bold flavours of ginger, cloves, cinnamon and nutmeg, sweetened with a mix of sugar and jaggery, fortified with dates and raisins. This bread or cake, if i may call it that, is a breeze to bake and a joy to serve, because it is absolutely guilt-free. It all health and yet full of taste.
The original recipe from PCRM is here. You must check out their vegan food plan for 15 days, with a complete menu and recipes.
Ginger is supposed to a pain-fighting food and this recipe was originally published in the book Foods that fight pain by Dr.Neal Barnard.
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 cup semolina (rava)
3 T sugar
3 T grated jaggery
3 T Zero cook and bake (this is the Splenda equivalent available in India -manf. by Alembic)
Handful of pitted, chopped dates
Handful of raisins
1 generous T of grated fresh ginger root
1/2 tsp grated nutmeg
1 tsp cinnamon powder
1/4 tsp clove powder
Pinch of salt
1 3/4 cup water
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
Method:
1. Combine the raisins, dates, sugar, salt, spices, and water in a large saucepan, and bring to a boil. Boil for 2 minutes, then remove from heat and cool completely (This is important).
2. Once thoroughly cool, preheat oven to 350°F / 175 C. Stir the flours, baking soda, and baking powder together.
3. Add to the cooled fruit mixture and stir to mix. Spread into a 9- x 9-inch pan lined with non-stick foil bake for 30 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean.
4. Makes a 9 X9 inch cake. Cut into thin slices and save in an air-tight container.
I have always loved the taste of ginger, be in in tea, or ginger cookies or the ginger snaps. I would always wonder how ginger-bread would taste as it was something that Id never eaten. After baking this one, I am sure, I will bake this quite frequently. Probably will go a little light on spices or focus on just one spice apart from ginger. The flavour of nutmeg was most pronounced other than the main taste of ginger. Theres a load of gingery spicy taste in each bite and for the people who are not great lovers of spice-this may seem a bit of an overload on your taste-buds. But for me- I loved it and so did the hubby!
This one aint for the weak-hearted !
So here goes my heartfelt entry for Santhis JFI-Flour.
P.S.
When it comes to fat-free baking, Im sure therell be very few that can come close to this one! For Zero fats, its a 100/100 for taste.
Tags:
JFI, gingerbread, ginger, fatfree, spicy cake, baking, diabetic dessert