The White Ramekins

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Classic Cinnamon Rolls

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Warm comforting aroma of cinnamon spice wafting through the entire house on a chilly Sunday morning tells you that your weekend is going to be all good and relaxed. Classic cinnamon rolls and a mug of hot coffee is something I crave for quite often. My love for these delicious American breakfast started during my days in US, almost 8 years back. …

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Cinnamon Sugar Coated Maple Apple Cakes

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cinnamon sugar coated maple apple cakes

I had been longing for a comforting cinnamon flavored earthy bite of a cake from past few days. As I hadn’t baked cakes in past few days. I made rather healthier stuff like soups, breads and granola {will write about granola soon}. So I had been craving for the dessert. And with winters on, the desire grew all the more strong. Right when I had been thinking of baking a cake on weekend, I got to know that I have to travel to London for work. I was excited to go but I was sad to know that I’ll be away from baking from next three weeks.

cinnamon sugar coated maple apple cakes

So, I thought of baking the cakes before I leave. Despite having almost no time left for baking, I somehow managed to pull these up in a very short time. I got up pretty early in the morning, may be the clock was ticking 5 o’clock. I whipped the batter quickly and baked them in a hurry.

cinnamon sugar coated maple apple cakes

They came out wonderfully moist and amazingly flavored. The extra coat of cinnamon sugar made them perfect to suit winter and the coming holiday season. I took these shots hurriedly when the light was really low, which rather helped setting the mood right. Cold winter days with very little sunshine. A glass of hot simmering coffee is all that I needed to pair with them. 

cinnamon sugar coated maple apple cakes

cinnamon sugar coated maple apple cakes

Cinnamon Sugar Coated Maple Apple Cakes
Cinnamon Sugar Coated Maple Apple Cakes
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Ingredients
  1. 375 gm self-raising flour, sifted
  2. 1 tsp ground cinnamon
  3. 200 gm butter, melted
  4. 175 gm brown sugar
  5. 175 gm maple syrup
  6. 4 eggs
  7. 6 red apples, peeled and grated
  8. 2 tsp ground cinnamon, extra
  9. 200 gm caster sugar
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Place the flour and cinnamon in a bowl and mix to combine.
  2. Add the butter, brown sugar, maple syrup, eggs and apple and mix well to combine.
  3. Spoon into 12 x well greased 1 cup-capacity Bundt tins.
  4. Bake for 20 minutes or until cooked when tested with a skewer.
  5. Turn out immediately. Place the extra cinnamon and sugar in a bowl and mix to combine.
  6. Coat the cakes in the sugar and cool.
Adapted from Donna Hay
Adapted from Donna Hay
The White Ramekins http://thewhiteramekins.com/

Linzer Cookies With Raspberry Jam Filling

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Linzer Cookies 1

I have had some special love for the filled sandwich cookies; cookies filled with cream, jam, preserves or ice cream. Put me to a situation, where I have to chose either of the cream filled ones or the jam filled ones, chances are that I’ll pick both. Both the versions take me back to my childhood. My mama would never let us stay without the cookies. Every afternoon, when the school ended, it used to be tea time for her and milk and cookie time for us kids. And dad always ensured that containers were never empty. He used to bring us brown paper bags full of freshly baked cookies from a local bakery. Bags full of all sorts of cookies; some spiked with Indian spices{ cardamom, carom seeds, cumin seeds }, some coconut cookies {very similar to chewy coconut macaroons} and some jam filled cookies. Out of all, jam cookies used to be my most favorite.

Linzer Cookies

Even today, while I am working sitting on my workstation, I get a sudden craving for those sandwich cookies in the afternoon and that craving is so intense that it forces me to walk down to the cafeteria and buy myself a pack of cookies. Seeing such madness, one of the colleagues asked me that why I hadn’t baked them yet. And to my astonishment, I had no answer. Sometimes we are so busy that we miss such obvious things. Why I hadn’t baked them yet ???

Linzer Cookies 2

And before, the question could haunt me more, I decided to give them a shot. I took this recipe of Linzer Cookies from JoyOfBaking and halved the ingredients. And they came out so well, not-so-overly-sweet and crisp cookies sandwiched with fruity preserves having a hint of cinnamon and lemon rind. I wish I would have made the full recipe.

Ingredients

150 grams almonds (blanched and peeled)
260 grams all purpose flour
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt {skip if using salted butter}
Zest of one small lemon
226 grams unsalted butter, room temperature
150 grams white sugar, divided
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
2 egg yolks

Topping

Icing sugar for dusting
1/2 cup Raspberry Jam, well stirred

Instructions

  1. Toss the almonds in a pan over medium heat, for 2-3 minutes and let them cool completely.
  2. Once cooled, grind the almonds to a fine powder in a food processor with 1/4 cup of sugar.
  3. In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, cinnamon, salt and lemon zest.
  4. In another bowl, beat remaining sugar with butter until pale and fluffy. Beat in vanilla extract and egg yolks.
  5. Beat in ground almonds and then flour.
  6. Divide the dough into two halves, cover with cling wrap and refrigerate for 30-60 minutes.
  7. Remove one half of the dough from fridge. Roll out the dough kept between two long sheets of cling film using a rolling pin until it is 1/4 inch thick. You could also roll them out without cling film, but that would require work surface to dusted with some flour.
  8. Using 3 inch cookie cutter of any shape of your choice, cut cookies in pair such that one cookie out of the pair has an opening cut out {using another cutter of smaller size than the previous one}.
  9. Place the cookies on baking sheet. Let them rest in fridge for another 10 minutes. This will prevent them from puffing too much and losing their shape.
  10. Bake them in a 180 Celsius preheated oven for about 12 minutes, until edges starts to become golden in color.
  11. Let them cool on wire rack. Once completely cooled, dust the cookies with holes cut out, with icing sugar. Apply jam on the other half, place cut-out cookie on top and sandwich them together.