Caramel Bread Pudding

This is a very simple and yummy dessert that can be made with easy and readily available ingredients at home. This is a no bake and no oven version and is prepared by steaming the bread-milk-sugar batter.

The texture is not like that of a cake ,but more of a soft pudding. If you have some leftover breads and wondering how to finish them off, this would be a perfect delicacy to treat your kids and family.

I have used readymade hershey's caramel syrup as I had them with me. However, I have mentioned how to make homemade caramel syrup. This recipe is picked up from VegRecipesOfIndia with slight changes to make it more sweet.

serves: 3

Ingredients

1. Whole Wheat Bread - 6 slices
2. Boiled Milk - 1.5 cups *I used the semi fat milk
3. White Sugar - 1/2 cup
4. Corn Flour - 1 tsp
5. Vanilla essence - 1/2 tsp

Homemade Caramel Syrup

1. White Sugar - 2.5 tbsp
2. Water - 1 tbsp

Method

1. Powder the bread slices in a mixer grinder.

2. Warm the milk on a stove in a low heat. Add powdered bread, corn flour, essence and sugar and mix well on a low heat till the mixture thickens and the sugar dissolves completely.

3. Take sugar in an aluminium pan or any pan of your choice. Add sugar and water and heat it on a low flame. Keep stirring the mixture until the sugar caramelizes and becomes golden brown as shown in the below pic. Once this stage is reached, remove the pan from stove.

4. Add the bread - milk - sugar batter on to the pan which already has caramel syrup in it and pat nicely.

5. Seal it properly with aluminum foil so that steam does not enter the pan.

6. Steam the contents in an electric cooker steamer or in a normal pressure cooker for about 30 mins.

To steam in electric cooker, fill the cooker pan with 4 cups of water and switch to cooking mode. Place the steamer basket above the cooker pan as shown in the pic. Once the steam starts coming up, place the pudding batter pan inside the steamer and steam for 30 mins.

In Pressure Cooker, fill the pressure cooker with 4 cups of water and place a stand. On the stand, place the batter pan and steam for 30 mins. Do not use the weight while steaming in pressure cooker.

7. After steaming, let the pudding cool down. Once cooled down, refrigerate the pudding for 2 hours.

8. Open the pan and remove the foil. Use a knife to gently scrape the sides so that it is easy to unmold. Flip the pan gently onto a plate.

9. There you have, the delicious caramel coated bread pudding ready to be sliced :):) Yummy...

10. You can put more caramel syrup if required depending on your taste :)

Vegan Banana Bread

I have been googling a lot to find some healthy snack options for my kid which I can pack for him and send it to school. That is when I bumped on to this recipe. I am an amateur baker and still learning. I have had my bad day at baking where my cake has been either burnt or got hard or never raised. I am still figuring out the various reasons and nuances of baking and trying to fine tune the art of baking. This is a recipe picked from Veg Recipes of India and you can refer the recipe here.

I don't have an OTG and am using a normal convection mode Panasonic microwave oven. The cakes baked from OTG definitely looks more professional in terms of texture and color compared to convection oven cooking. Still, you can achieve a close enough texture and softness from convection oven by following proper tips, understanding your oven and setting the right temperature.

Baking to me has always been like a chemistry lab experiment, you add the right ingredients in right amount and there you have the final output :P:P I generally haven't had the courage to play around with ingredients due to the fear of they not turning out properly. In the picture, I have used granulated white sugar. But I suggest you to use unrefined brown sugar or cane sugar instead to make it a healthy option for kids.

This recipe turned out really well for me and my kid also loved it. I will share certain tips that I followed to prevent major mishaps while baking in order to get a smooth soft cake. Follow the exact steps and ingredient amounts to get it perfect. :)

Ingredients

1. Whole Wheat flour - 3/4 cup
2. All purpose flour - 3/4 cup
3. 4 medium sized over ripe bananas
4. Olive Oil - 1/3 cup
5. Unrefined sugar/cane sugar - 3/4 cup
6. Vanilla extract - 1 tsp
7. Cinnamon Powder - 3/4 tsp
8. Baking Powder - 1.5 tsp
9. Baking Soda - 1/2 tsp

Method

1. Take a bowl and mash the banana and sugar together into a puree using hand blender or even mixer. I have used White sugar here, but pls substitute with unrefined brown/cane sugar for kids as its healthy.

                           

2. Add  cinnamon powder and Vanilla extract to the puree for flavour enhancement.

3. Add olive oil. This provides the extra softness to the cake as this an eggless cake.

4. Sieve the flour (Maida+Whole Wheat Atta) and add it to the above wet ingredients.

5. Mix the batter using (Cut and Fold Method) to ensure the wet and dry ingredients are combined evenly. Do not over do it. Stop when both wet and dry ingredients have combined in right proportion.

6. Grease and dust a bread loaf pan with flour, transfer the bread batter to the pan. Tap twice and level it.

7. Preheat the oven at 180 degree Celsius for 10 mins. After the preheat temperature is set, cook the batter for 40 mins.

Tip 1: After first 20 mins of baking, cover the top of the pan with a wet cloth or wet butter paper. This is done to allow the centre of the batter to get cooked without burning the top. The centre takes long for getting cooked. Wet the cloth/paper every now and then and place it on the top to prevent burning through the entire baking process. The browning of top varies from oven to oven. So if you feel the browning of top happens quickly, then start covering the top much earlier.

Tip 2: After 40 mins, insert a toothpick in the middle of the bread and take it out. If it comes out clean, then the bread has been cooked well and you can remove it from oven.

If not, bake for another 10 more mins and repeat the toothpick step.

8. Allow the bread to cool down on its own completely and remove it from the loaf pan by inverting it.

9. You can store this cake in fridge in an airtight container for about 5 days. Warm the cake  before serving :):)