Chandrakanthalu

Traditional Indian (from Andra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu) cookies that are BOTH gluten free and vegan!! Plus really tasty. This was a great find for some of those parties where there are multiple people with food restrictions.

  • 225 g moong dal
  • 200 grams fresh grated coconut
  • 225 g sugar
  • pinch cardamom powder
  • pinch turmeric (or saffron)
  • Some cashews (maybe like 1/4 cup or to taste), chopped
  1. Soak beans a least an hour. Blend soaked beans to make a smooth paste. You’ll need to add some water.
  2. Cook bean paste in a pan by itself for a bit, then add everything else. Cook together ~10 min until no longer clings to sides of pan (or until you’re bored/think the beans are cooked through and it seems dough-like. Mine never stopped clinging).
  3. While still hot, spread batter 1.5 cm thick on damp cloth. Let cool then cut into shapes.
  4. Deep fry until browned (2-3 min at 350°F).

Chocolate protein breakfast balls

Making soy milk generates a lot of okara (soy lees) as byproduct. It still has a lot of goodness left, so I don’t like to throw it away, but the texture isn’t super appealing (like wheat bran). There are some traditional recipes meant to use up okara (like unohana), but these protein/nut/chocolate breakfast balls are better and pretty easy.

Original recipe (don’t remember where it’s from)

  • 1/4 cup (64 g) nut butter
  • 0.83 cups (83 g) quick oats
  • 18 g protein powder
  • 13 g cocoa powder
  • 28 g maple syrup
  • 1 Tbsp milk
  • 28 g melted chocolate

Mix and roll into balls.

Recipe modified to use okara

  • 54 g nut butter
  • 25 g quick oats
  • 25 g dry shredded coconut
  • 50 g damp okara. Reduce somewhat if dry
  • 13 g cocoa powder
  • 56 g dark chocolate
  • 1 (?) Tbsp milk if okara is dry

Okara ball recipe scaled up

  • 216 g nut butter
  • 100 g quick oats
  • 100 g dry shredded coconut
  • 200 g damp okara. Reduce somewhat if dry
  • 52 g cocoa powder
  • 225 g dark chocolate
  • 4 (?) Tbsp milk if okara is dry

Jian bing breakthrough

We made jian bing recently (crepe with egg and veggies inside, Chinese style). Usually the crepe would be wheat dough you have to knead and roll out very thinly, but we made this batch using dosa batter (rice-based) and they turned out great!!

We can buy dosa batter from a nearby Indian grocery store, so it’s easier. (Of course, if we made the wrappers at home, they could be whole wheat.)

I used a variety of fillings: egg, fried tofu matchsticks, Chinese pickled spicy mustard stem, fishcake (Korean-style, leftover), minced onion, green onion, lettuce, and cilantro. Sauces were hoisin, peanut chili oil, super spicy oil (leftover from hotpot), and garlic chili sauce.

Pretty darn good overall. My only tip for next time is to use less hoisin. General cooking instructions here.

Japanese soufflé pancake?

We had really good Japanese hotcakes at a restaurant, Rule of Thirds, in Greenpoint. I thought it would be fun to recreate them at home.

The original. Goo in middle is maple butter. Plus the restaurant had fancy counters (walnut, maybe?) and fancy design in general.

The original pancake was light and fluffy, and somewhat eggy but not custardy. Like a standard pancake, it is probably leavened by both eggs and chemical leavening. But the soufflé-like texture is probably from a relatively high proportion of egg and whipping the egg whites. It was not very sweet, similar to a standard pancake.

I figured I wanted some features of a standard pancake and some features of an whipped eggy cake-y thing (not really a soufflé — the hotcake weren’t that eggy).

We happened to see the hotcakes in progress at the restaurant. The batter was ladle-able, but had enough body to make a mound in the baking dishes (definitely egg fluff). It wasn’t particularly yellow.

I referenced three different recipes: sponge cake from Cook’s Illustrated, pancakes from Cooks Illustrated (oddly using lemon juice and milk rather than buttermilk), and pancakes from Joy of Cooking (milk version). I combined steps and ingredients from them that seemed to go in the direction I wanted, and I ended up with:

Hotcakes?

  • 2 oz (1/2 cup) cake flour (I actually used maybe 3/4-1 cup)
  • 3 Tbsp sugar
  • 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 3 eggs
  • 1/4-1 cup (??) milk (I actually used maybe 2/3 cup)
  • 2-3 Tbsp butter, melted (I actually used maybe 2 Tbsp)
  1. Whisk flour and baking powder
  2. Melt together milk and butter. Keep warm.
  3. Whisk egg whites with sugar.
  4. Whisk yolks until light in color and fluffy. Temper with some of egg white mixture.
  5. Fold 1) into 4). Fold in 2).
  6. Bake for 15 min at 350°F.

V1 of the home version. Not so close.

I think I reinvented corn bread (without corn). It wasn’t bad, but not very close at all to the restaurant version.

One big issue I had is that I added WAY too much milk, which caused the batter to be too liquidy. I added more flour to give structure to the batter, which made it too dense and cake-y. It seems like most of the structure needs to come from whipped egg whites. My pancake is also more yellow than the one at the restaurant. The eggs we get have super bright yolks, but maybe the “pancake” needs less yolk.

So for next time, I need less flour, and to reduce the overall amount of liquid (so less milk, butter, and maybe egg yolks).

Recipe to try next time:

Hotcakes V2?

    • 2 oz (1/2 cup) cake flour
    • 2 Tbsp sugar
    • 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
    • 2 egg yolks
    • 3 egg whites
    • 2 Tbsp milk
    • 1 Tbsp butter, melted
    1. Whisk flour and baking powder
    2. Melt together milk and butter. Keep warm.
    3. Whisk egg whites with sugar.
    4. Whisk yolks until light in color and fluffy. Mix in 2). Temper with some of egg white mixture.
    5. Fold 1) into 4).
    6. Bake for 15 min at 350°F.

As it turns out, there are recipes online for “Japanese soufflé pancakes”. I didn’t bother searching, because I didn’t think the “hotcake” recipes I would find would be soufflé-y enough. I think I’ll continue with the experiment because it’s fun.

Pancakes from Joy of Cooking

  • 1 1/2 cup flour
  • 3 Tbsp sugar
  • 1 3/4 tsp baking powder
  • 1-2 eggs
  • 3 Tbsp butter, melted
  • 1-1 1/4 cup milk
  1. Sift flour, sugar, and baking powder together.
  2. Beat eggs, and then mix with butter and milk.
  3. Mix 1) and 2) together.

Pancakes from Cook’s Illustrated

  • 2 cup milk
  • 1 Tbsp lemon juice
  • 10 oz (2 cup) flour
  • 2 Tbsp sugar
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1 egg
  • 3 Tbsp butter, melted
  1. Mix milk and lemon juice.
  2. Whisk flour, sugar, baking powder, and baking soda together.
  3. Mix egg and butter together.
  4. Whisk 1) and 3) together. Whisk in 2).

Lemon juice and milk can be replaced with 2 cup buttermilk (for more normal pancakes).

Sponge cake from Cook’s Illustrated

  • 2 oz (1/2 cup) cake flour
  • 1.25 oz (1/4 cup) all purpose flour
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 3 Tbsp milk
  • 2 Tbsp butter
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla
  • 5 eggs
  • 5.25 oz (2/3 cup) sugar
  1. Whisk flours and baking powder together.
  2. Melt butter and milk together. Add vanilla. Keep warm.
  3. Beat 3 egg whites with half of the sugar until stiff, but not totally hard and chunky.
  4. Beat the remaining 3 egg yolks, 2 whole eggs, and the other half of the sugar until fluffy and lightened in color.
  5. Mix 3) and 4) together. Fold in 1). Fold in 2).
  6. Bake in 2 buttered 8-9 in pans for 16-20 min at 350°F.

Great homemade pizza!

I found a great new pizza dough recipe.

Usually my homemade pizza dough is low on flavor, so a master-bread-baker friend recommended using some sort of pre-ferment (discussion of different types). I found an online recipe linked in the preferment article. The author seemed to know what they were talking about and it turned out super well!

Mushroom, almost-caramelized onion goo, blue cheese, mozzarella, and olive oil. Soooo good! The middle was soft without soggy, and chewy. The crust was crisp (almost cracker-like. I rolled the dough a little too thin). The toppings were well-chosen, by sibling C.

Pizza dough

Poolish (preferment)

  • 100 g flour
  • 100 g/mL water
  • 0.3 g yeast

Dough

  • 250 g flour
  • 120 g/mL water
  • 8 g salt
  • 5 g yeast
  1. Mix poolish ingredients. Leave at room temp ~8 hours. If rising longer, can decrease yeast (0.2 g for 12 hour rise, 0.1 g for 16 hours).
  2. Mix poolish with dough ingredients. Knead (7 min with stand mixer, 10-15 min by hand).
  3. Divide dough into four portions and shape each into a ball. Oil and cover. Let rise 1 hour.
  4. Flour hands, work surface, and dough balls. Press each flat, and stretch or roll into a circle 10 in in diameter.
  5. Lightly top and bake 6 min at around 600°F.

If using a pizza stone (highly recommended), preheat the oven and stone 45 min before you baking the pizzas. The oven should be set to it’s highest temperature (around 550-600°F).

If you don’t have a pizza stone, I have a workaround that seems to work well.

Right before you want to bake the pizzas, when you start preheating the oven, heat a large cast iron skillet on the stove until very hot. Put it in the oven upside down. The thick bottom will act similarly to a pizza stone, but heating it on the stove is faster than heating in the oven.

Modelled after a Marshall Farm-to-Pizza flavor, this has tomato (turns out the liquid from canned diced tomatoes works well as a “sauce”), mushroom, Brussels sprout shreds, garlic, mozzarella, and spicy pepper. Officially it was supposed to have parmesan also, but we didn’t add that.

We made this on the recent very cold day. It was 24° in the afternoon and around 10° in the morning.