I don't have an oven partly because i have never used one and secondly i need to find one which will suit my cooking needs and i don't know which one will. I will also have to create space for an oven in my kitchen which itself is a task. So ,though i love baking i have only managed to get around it now. My mom first did the tikdum [experimentation usually without a clue !] of baking cake on tawa on stove. Though it used to cook well, the bottom part used to be crusty and butter paper invariably stuck to it.
Anyone who has eaten cakes with butter/oil and not vanapati baked at home will know how heavenly those cakes are.So, i went about experimenting and finally hit upon making cakes in cooker. Fortunately Google came to my rescue and there were lot of home made recipes of cakes baked in a cooker. I adapted, run trials and have come up with my way of baking a cake in the cooker. My cakes using my mom's basic recipe are different all the time. I have used all sorts of permutations and combinations. I used plain cocoa for i like slight bitter chocolate flavour in my chocolate cake. I have used homemade cinnamon powder generously.Now i'm on my way to making vanilla extract . I have used table butter, white butter ,pure ghee, mix of ghee and oil and most recently olive oil. My sugar too has changed forms and colours..in my effort to minimise cooking with white sugar. I usually make dessert with jaggery, powdered jaggery, molasses based jaggery and cakes with brownsugar, cane sugar and demerrara.
The cakes therefore change their texture and nature each time.
While learning how to bake i came across crumble. A simple no fuss dessert. A lightbulb struck on somewhere in my brain and i decided to make it in the cooker. For those who have oven please go ahead use your oven.
My apple crumble recipe: [use only khaaliss[pure] ingredients and NOT ever vanaspati- it'll clog your hearts with trans-fats which only a surgeon can remove]
50gm butter
100gm plain flour
50 gm oats
Sugar -1/2 cup or more
1tsp cinnamon powder
2-3 large apples [a little underripe will also do]
1tbsp lemon juice
Method
1. Slice apples with skin on[ you can peel the skins if you want].Drizzle lemon juice and keep it in the fridge
2. Melt the butter and add to the mixed flour and oats and 3 pinches of salt if using white butter or ghee. Mix and rub the flour between your palms till its nice and crumbly.You can add some more butter if the desired crumb effect is not achieved.Then add sugar. Keep in fridge for 15 mins.
3. Grease your baking tin and arrange the apple slices ,sprinke the cinnamon powder over the apples.Sprinkle 2 tsp of sugar and then layer the flour mixture.Do not mix. Just cover the apple slices with flour mixture.
4. Meanwhile pour sand in your dry cooker [ i use the large 7 ltr one and the aluminium container which came with it] .
4. heat it on low flame ,when the sand becomes hot put your cake tin on it ,cover with foil if you want. i just put a lid on it.
5. Shut the cooker without gasketor whistle and cook for 15 minutes on medium flame and then 15 mins on very low flame. For people with oven i have found this info over the net: Preheat at 180'C, bake for 30-35 mins.
That's it....after half an hour of cooking time open the cooker and check if the flour layer has turned golden brown. If it has remove the tin and let it cool.
I like it warm just as it is.. but you can drizzle custard or cream or even vanilla icecream over it !
Apple crumble is a yummy filling dessert perfect for rainy cloudy days ,quickly made to cheer up a sick worried parent or friend or sibling !
Anyone who has eaten cakes with butter/oil and not vanapati baked at home will know how heavenly those cakes are.So, i went about experimenting and finally hit upon making cakes in cooker. Fortunately Google came to my rescue and there were lot of home made recipes of cakes baked in a cooker. I adapted, run trials and have come up with my way of baking a cake in the cooker. My cakes using my mom's basic recipe are different all the time. I have used all sorts of permutations and combinations. I used plain cocoa for i like slight bitter chocolate flavour in my chocolate cake. I have used homemade cinnamon powder generously.Now i'm on my way to making vanilla extract . I have used table butter, white butter ,pure ghee, mix of ghee and oil and most recently olive oil. My sugar too has changed forms and colours..in my effort to minimise cooking with white sugar. I usually make dessert with jaggery, powdered jaggery, molasses based jaggery and cakes with brownsugar, cane sugar and demerrara.
The cakes therefore change their texture and nature each time.
While learning how to bake i came across crumble. A simple no fuss dessert. A lightbulb struck on somewhere in my brain and i decided to make it in the cooker. For those who have oven please go ahead use your oven.
My apple crumble recipe: [use only khaaliss[pure] ingredients and NOT ever vanaspati- it'll clog your hearts with trans-fats which only a surgeon can remove]
50gm butter
100gm plain flour
50 gm oats
Sugar -1/2 cup or more
1tsp cinnamon powder
2-3 large apples [a little underripe will also do]
1tbsp lemon juice
Method
1. Slice apples with skin on[ you can peel the skins if you want].Drizzle lemon juice and keep it in the fridge
2. Melt the butter and add to the mixed flour and oats and 3 pinches of salt if using white butter or ghee. Mix and rub the flour between your palms till its nice and crumbly.You can add some more butter if the desired crumb effect is not achieved.Then add sugar. Keep in fridge for 15 mins.
3. Grease your baking tin and arrange the apple slices ,sprinke the cinnamon powder over the apples.Sprinkle 2 tsp of sugar and then layer the flour mixture.Do not mix. Just cover the apple slices with flour mixture.
4. Meanwhile pour sand in your dry cooker [ i use the large 7 ltr one and the aluminium container which came with it] .
4. heat it on low flame ,when the sand becomes hot put your cake tin on it ,cover with foil if you want. i just put a lid on it.
5. Shut the cooker without gasketor whistle and cook for 15 minutes on medium flame and then 15 mins on very low flame. For people with oven i have found this info over the net: Preheat at 180'C, bake for 30-35 mins.
That's it....after half an hour of cooking time open the cooker and check if the flour layer has turned golden brown. If it has remove the tin and let it cool.
I like it warm just as it is.. but you can drizzle custard or cream or even vanilla icecream over it !
Apple crumble is a yummy filling dessert perfect for rainy cloudy days ,quickly made to cheer up a sick worried parent or friend or sibling !
