Pie, Pie, Apple Pie

Yes, these are my newest obsession and I just can't have enough of them; both making and having them!!! Apple Pies have this amazing therapeutic quality about them, which just relaxes you while you are making the crust or slicing apples, and of course, devouring a warm slice has no bounds of relaxation. So, I am sharing a recipe, taking elements from many around on the internet..

3-4 Apples (over ripe would work perfectly)
2 cups Flour (Maida)
100 gms Salted Butter (Chilled)
1 cup Sugar
2 eggs
2-3 bars Cinnamon and 3-4 Cloves ground with 1/4 cup Sugar
1/2 tsp Vanilla Essence + 1 tbsp Honey (mixed together)
1 egg to brush over

1. Cut the chilled butter in cubes and add Flour. Rub them in lightly, until it is crumbly.

2. Add sugar and eggs, to form a dough. I first used granulated sugar, and fine sugar the next time. Frankly speaking, no real difference in taste, except granulated sugar gives a better crust.

3. Divide the dough in 2 slightly unequal parts and let the dough harden and chill in the fridge.

4. Now time to peel and slice the apples. Add lemon juice to the slices so they don't turn black.

5. Roll out the bigger part on a floured surface.

6. Lay rolled out base in a baking dish, taking the shape of the base, smoothly. Then arrange the Apple slices evenly.

7. Sprinkle the spiced sugar, quite elaborately and then add honey mixture...

8. Roll out the smaller part too and cover the dish, sealing off the edges.

9. Fork it to let the steam escape and brush over a whipped egg.. I made it in a Microwave+Grill at 600W for 20 Minutes..

One Egg; One MugCake

Well, that rarely happens, as I was left with just one egg in the box. What was it's significance? Was it trying to tell me something? How would it end? Like a good murder mystery; it kept prodding me the entire day, whenever I would open my fridge. Finally, I decided to make something out of it... A French Toast was the obvious choice, but then, I didn't want to sacrifice my solitary egg, waging it's lone battle, on just bread...

After searching the world wide web, I came across THIS. I was curious, after reading the almost-never ending comments. Would it blast? Would it char? Would it burn? Would is taste any good? Putting a rest to all the rumours in my head, I got together some materials and got on to make, probably the simplest dessert ever...

1 Microwave-safe Ceramic Coffee Mug (Bigger the better, you have no idea, how much it'll rise..)
1 Egg (room temperature)
1 tbsp Salted Butter (soften it first)
1 tbsp Flour
1 tbsp Bournvita (The recipe asked for Chocolate/Cocoa Powder; I had none; this was handy)
1 tbsp Sugar
1 tbsp Milk
Some Vanilla
Pinch of Baking Powder

Bournvita is a Chocolate-flavoured Malt-based Milk Additive. 

Now, in the link, the everything was just put together, stirred ferociously by hand and put inside the microwave. My first attempt was terrible, resulting in overtly-creamy, super sweet, mass of flour (Wrong proportions, entirely).

For the second attempt, I used a small mixer jar.
First, I put in my egg and sugar, and creamed it well.. Microwave doesn't melt the sugar in just 3-4 minutes, so it needs to be well done here.

Then I added the Molten butter and Vanilla. Mix some more.

Then add, Flour and Bournvita with the pinch of Baking Powder.

Now check the consistency of the batter. It should a thinner than the usual cake batter. Add Milk as per desired.

Now, No need to butter the Mug. Just pour the batter into the Mug, and put in the Microwave for 750W for 4 Minutes. The original recipe has 1000W for 3 minutes. My Microwave has 750W as the highest setting, so I increased the time.

Watch it rise, rise, and rise above the rim to spill over, but don't worry; It'll settle down, after you open the Microwave door.

Let it cool down on a wire-rack. While it is warm, make a deep cross-cut in the mug, dividing the entire cylinder of cake in 4 parts. Pour over any dressing, Chocolate, Vanilla, Butterscotch or just plain Ice-cream. Watch it seep deep inside the abyss of the cake, and now devour..

Now, clarifying some mistakes/rumours/myths about microwave and this mugcake. First of all, Microwaves don't explode, on their own. Yes, if you put an egg inside, or heat a plastic container with air-tight lid; Yes, the egg will surely explode and the lid would probably blow off the container, spilling everything inside. In both the cases, the interiors of your microwave would be a mess..

Make sure the mug you take is a Microwave safe mug. Check it on the bottom. The microwave safe mug would be painted with colours, containing no iron; therefore making it safe. Any other mugs might not explode, but surely have the danger of poisoning by colour.

To clean any mess, just take a big microwave safe bowl, put water in it, and squeeze a lemon's juice and throw the left over lemon also in it. Put it in the microwave, and let get heated at the highest and for about 10 minutes. After sometime, remove the bowl, and clean the inside with dry towel paper... All the dirt, grim, oil stains, blasted egg remains, all juts vanish, and oven smells nice too...

"Cooking is like making love..

..you do it well, or you do not do it at all."

How true are the lines above!! Comparing 2 exquisite arts as they belonged to one another; Timeless; Exotic; Stress-relieving and not to mention liberating like hell, with amazing dangers involved.. I have never been able to blog about food, despite dreaming and indulging in it all day.. No wonder, I believe in the saying that "Skinny cooks can't be trusted.." If you can't even eat it yourself, how could you make others even enjoy it??

So, under the continuous thunderstorm of taunts of using the new microwave as just a heating device or rice maker; I decided to utilize it better or rather, in a complex way!! So I have Samsung G273V, which is a 20L grill microwave oven..
Now, all my experience of cooking in a conventional grill oven were wasted, when I realized I have none experience of using a microwave for baking purposes.. Well, that would be taken care off later, but the urgent matter at hands were of finding a suitable recipe first.. So thanks to TasteSpotting, I came across some wonderful baked products which looked good and tasted even better.. I decided to take the base of Chocolate Cake from Bits of Taste and add it the cinnamon from the Chocolate Cinnamon Bundt Cake. What say??

Now, quite obviously, some ingredients native to foreign countries would be impossible to find here, in India.. So I had to manage things by trial and error, to suit Indian conditions..
Ingredients:
1/2 cup Dutch-processed cocoa powder / I used Cadbury's Cocoa Powder (the Purple tin one)
3/4 cup boiling water
1 & 1/2 cups all-purpose flour / I used plain Maida
1 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder / Instead of baking soda, I used 1/2 teaspoon baking powder, so in total 1 teaspoon
1/2 teaspoon instant espresso or instant coffee / I used Nescafe instant coffee
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup vegetable oil / I used salted butter (softened in microwave at lowest power)
1 large egg / I used 3 (Since they filled the cup, I measured everything with)
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
Cinnamon sticks (as much as you like it..)

Method:
1. I first coated the inside of a glass baking dish with molten butter.

2. Then in boiling water, I dissolved the cocoa powder.

3. First I thought of putting the sugar directly in the eggs, but decided to ground the sugar and cinnamon together first.

4. Using a sift, I mixed together the flour, baking powder and instant coffee in a large bowl.

5. Now, my food processor came as a blessing in disguise for me, as dissolving the sugar in the liquids is the worst task ever invented in baking. I started whisking the 3 eggs in the food processor and added the sugar.. After a giving a minute fighting the flying splashes of sweet eggs, I added the melted butter, vanilla essence and cooled cocoa mixture.

6. Now by this time, the beige colored eggs mixture had turned sweet-brown and started to jump even more out of the food-processor's lid.. It's quite the task now, but add the flour mixture in step#4, spoon-by-spoon into the cocoa-egg whirlpool..

7. Give it a minute and then turn the food processor off. Then I removed the batter in the baking dish..

8. Now I got reminded of Golden rule of Baking, "Preheating the oven", the manual clearly said, "Never operate the oven empty".. So I just placed the dish in the microwave and chose Combination Cooking ( Microwave+Grill ) with 600W of Microwave for 9 minutes.. Now then I kept looking, peeping, glancing, glueing my eye to the Microwave door, hoping to register the progress of my beloved cake.. And there, Lord, Behold!! It Rose!!...

9. After 9 Minutes, I chose the Grill function and let it brown at the top for 4 minutes.. Then it started to hit, the CINNAMON.. It filled the entire kitchen and the home.. Tempting!!

10. Who would have thought, Cake in a Microwave!! :D

The glaze shown the picture is Chocolate syrup by Mapro, additional.

Butterscotched!!!

Fruit and cakes usually don't mix well, but here's a try which worked out pretty good..

DRY INGREDIENTS:
1 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
3/4 cup sugar

WET INGREDIENTS:
1 cup butter (I used AMUL which is salted any ways)
1 cup eggs (break eggs into the same cup used above, till it's full)
3-4 well ripe bananas

I used a microwave oven with combination heating (Microwave+Grill)...

1. First I greased a baking dish with molten butter.

2. In a large bowl, I put together the dry ingredients (Flour, Sugar and Baking Powder).

3. In a separate bowl, I mixed the eggs with butter.

4. When it turned creamy, I put in the roughly chopped bananas and mixed it using a fork...Don't over mix the bananas into the batter

5. Then add the dry ingredients into the wet ones; gently fold until just even.

6. If the batter is dry, add milk until it reaches the normal cake consistency.

7. Pour batter into baking dish. I used a setting of 600W with Grill for 14 minutes.. You would have to adjust accordingly!!!