Cheesy Rings

Ingredients:

Bread - 16 slices

Onions - 2 (medium)

Capsicum - 1

Tomato - 1

Soy Chunks - 1/4 cup

Cheese - 100 gm

Pepper Powder - 1 tsp

Salt - As per taste

Tomato Ketchup/Sauce - 2 tbsp

Butter - 2 tbsp


Method:

1.  Cut each slice of bread into rounds using a lid or round cutter.  Thus, you will get 16 bread disks.  I used multigrain bread for this recipe.  You can use any bread of your choice.

Out of the 16 bread disks, keep aside 8 disks and cut a smaller circle in each of the remaining bread disks to form a ring.  So, 8 round bread disks and 8 bread rings are in hand with us now.  Keep aside.  Save the center smaller rounds of the rings for later use in another recipe.

2.  Finely chop onions, tomato, and capsicum.  Grate cheese.  Boil 1/2 cup water and add soya chunks and switch off flame and squeeze out the excess water.  Crumble the soft soya chunks coarsely.

3.  Mix together the chopped onions, chopped tomatoes, chopped capsicum, crumbled soya chunks, half of the grated cheese, pepper powder, salt, 1 tbsp of tomato ketchup/sauce to form a filling mixture.  Keep aside.

You can add any other spices of your choice to satisfy your taste buds, viz., chilli flakes, italian mixed herbs, etc.

4.  Make an applying paste by mixing together butter, 1 tbsp tomato sauce, 2 tbsp grated cheese, and salt.

5.  To assemble, take a round base bread disk and apply the butter mixture evenly on one side.  Place a bread ring on the butter applied base.  In the center, place about a tbsp of filling mixture.  Spread some grated cheese all over the ring portion of the bread.  Assemble all the other slices of breads in the same manner.

6.  Preheat oven for 10 minutes at 200 degrees C.  Grease a baking tray with butter or oil and place the assembled cheesy rings on the tray and bake at 200 degrees C for 15 minutes or until golden brown and the cheese melts.

7.  Crispy baked cheesy bread rings are ready to be served.

You can assemble the cheesy rings and refrigerate them until the time they need to be baked and served hot for your family or your guests and friends.

Eggless Multigrain Banana and Mixed Nuts Cake

Adapted From:

My Culinary Experiments

Ingredients:

Ripe or Over Ripe Bananas - 4 medium sized (300 gm)

Granulated Sugar - 3/4 cups

Vanilla Extract - 1 tsp

Vegetable Oil - 1/2 cup plus 2 tbsp

Multigrain Atta - 1 cup

All Purpose Flour - 1/2 cup

Cornflour - 1/2 tbsp

Salt - 1 pinch

Baking Powder - 1 tsp

Milk - 2 tbsp

Baking Soda - 1/2 tsp

Vinegar - 1 tbsp

Mixed chopped Nuts (pista, badam, walnuts, cashews) - 1/4 cup

Dark Chocolate Chips - A handful

Method:

1.  Preheat oven to 180 degrees C for 10 minutes.

2.  Grease an 8 inch baking pan on the bottom and all sides with butter and line the base with a disc of butter paper or parchment paper.

3.  Peel skin of bananas and mash nicely without any lumps.

4.  Sieve together the flours, baking powder, corn flour, and salt, preferably 2 to 3 times to make the cake fluffier and aerated.  Keep aside.

5.  In a mixing bowl, add mashed bananas and the oil.  Whisk well together.

6.  Add the sugar and vanilla extract.  Whisk until the sugar is dissolved and well combined.

7.  Add the sifted flour little by little and fold the mixture gently.  Do not whip or vigorously mix.

8.  Pour the milk and fold gently.

9.  Add the chopped nuts and fold gently.

10.  Mix baking soda and vinegar in a small bowl and allow it to foam.  Add this quickly to the cake batter and fold into the cake batter.  The batter will be thick.  Sprinkle the nuts and chocolate chips over it and press slightly with the spatula.

11.  Pour the cake batter into the greased cake tin and spread evenly with a spatula working very gently.  Also, give a gentle tap to release air bubbles if any.  Bake at 180 degrees C for 30 to 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.

12.  Allow the cake to cool in the tin for 5 to 10 minutes.  Carefully remove from the tin and flip onto a wire rack.  Peel off the parchment paper and allow the cake to cool down completely and then store in an airtight container.

The cake when done was really soft and sweet with the good flavor of the bananas.  I used ripe robusta bananas for this cake.  I cut the cake into small bite sized pieces for easy use.


Notes:

Cracks may appear on the top of this cake which is quite common, not to panic.  If the cake is becoming very dark, cover the top with aluminium foil.  The baking time and temperature may vary from oven to oven.