People often ask me ‘Doesn’t it take so long?’ ‘How do you manage to cook stress-free?’. My standard answer is 5 words: You need to be organised. Here’s how:
- Whenever you intend to make something from a recipe, first read the recipe well before you intend to make it.
- Check your kitchen/pantry for ingredients.
- Use measuring cups or a digital scale, depending on what the recipe calls for (some recipes say 2 cups of flour whereas others say 200gm).
- Dont be nervous! Once you’re read the recipe, pulled out all your ingredients, just make sure that the dish in which it is to cook/bake is prepared (i.e. greased with butter/lined with parchment or cooking foil, etc) and if using the oven, start to pre-heat.
- The first time you try a recipe, stick to the proportions. This will allow you to pinpoint what changes you may like to make the next time around.
- Taste as you go along, and adjust the salt/sugar/pepper as you like.
- Especially for baking, precision is everything. It is a science, after all, so don’t play around with the quantities of baking soda, baking powder or any other rising agent.
More on point number 1: Reading the Recipe. Many of my friends and acquaintances wonder (out loud) whether baking is daunting. It really isn’t as overwhelming as it seems. Reading a recipe is akin to fiction, as it really is an imagination of what can be made. Reading recipe books for me is just like reading any other book, vivid stories and concoctions unfolding into beauty, into disaster, into tragedy and into great success. The tragic disaster of a cake rising and then collapsing, or the overwhelming joy in appreciation of beautiful apple galettes, is really what life is all about. Like in all books, patience is key. You cannot jump to the end, flip open the last page and see the ending- its out of context and quite frankly, a wasteful act. Imagination and interpretation too play a unique and often undermined role. Read, read again and patiently make a list of things you don’t quite understand, or techniques you may not be familiar with. Ask anyone and everyone around you, there is no better language than the love of food!
On a completely and utterly unrelated note, I am desperately craving strawberries. Like, now.
These amazing DIY liners are life changing, so so easy to make at home, with minimal effort. And you can totally do this with any other printed/recycled paper for other textures and results.
Nutella Cupcakes (with DIY Cupcake Wrappers)
Ingredients:
1. 1 cup milk
2. 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
3. 3/4 cup granulated sugar
4. 1/3 cup canola oil/vegetable oil
5. 1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla bean extract
6. 1/3 cup hazelnuts, crushed (for topping)
7. 1 cup all-purpose flour
8. 1/3 cup good quality cocoa powder, (Dutch-processed is preferable)
9. 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
10. 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
11. 1/4 teaspoon salt
12. 12 tsp nutella (room temperature is easiest)
Method:
1. Preheat oven to 175*c and line a muffin pan with plain muffin liners.
2. Whisk together the milk and vinegar in a large bowl, and set aside for a few minutes to curdle. Add the sugar, oil, vanilla extract, and other extract, if using, to the milk mixture and beat until foamy. Add in the sifted flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Mix well with a whisk until the wet ingredients and dry are well integrated and no large lumps remain.
3. Pour into liners, filling 1/3rd of the way. Add a tsp of nutella to each, and top will batter till 3/4ths full. Sprinkle the crushed hazelnuts. Bake 18 to 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean. Transfer to a cooling rack and let cool completely.
4. Neatly slip each cooled cupcake into the pretty DIY wrappers.
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Feedback:
- A useful guide on how to read a recipe by Joy can be found here.
- When you check the cupcakes to make sure they are cooked through, avoid the centre as you’ll get the molten nutella on your skewer/toothpick.
- This requires absolutely no frosting, as it is self frosted! But if you do feel over indulgent, try some ganache topped with crushed hazelnuts.
Nirlep India
October 1, 2013 at 3:37 pm (11 years ago)Hi,
We love your posts!
Looking forward to exciting conversations on Nirlep’s facebook page which is about food, fun and much more!
Visit http://www.facebook.com/Nirlep.HealthyCooking and click Like to become a member.