Apple Pies

After preparing Sfiha, I was very much satisfied with my no-oven baking thing. So this time when I had some extra apples in my room, I thought to prepare a sweet Sfiha. But since my friends wanted to taste something more soft than Sfiha, so I tried something different without knowing about the outcome. But anyway, the new pies (not sure about the name) were sweet & no-oil (only 1tbsp), surprisingly tasty.

So friends, I want you to try this one & let me know how does it go. No need to mention that these are healthy for kids too. 

Ingredients:

For the dough:

2cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp. sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp. milk

1tbsp refined oil

1/2 cup water

For the filling:

About 1tbsp sugar

1large apple, peeled, halved, and chopped

1tbsp Milk

1/2cup , ripe papaya, chopped 

1 tsp. cinnamon powder or 1/2 tsp cardamom powder

For Syrup:

4tbsp sugar

3-4 strands Saffron

1cup Water

1/2cup Apple skin, chopped

Method:

1. Sieve the maida\flour well with salt, sugar, milk and place in a flat dish. Make a bay in the center and put a little of oil for leavening. Add warm water and make a stiff dough.

2. Divide dough into walnut size balls. Roll between hand palms to smooth. Roll out balls with a rolling pin to form 8 cm diameter circles.

3. For the fillings, mix all the ingredients. I used cardamom powder. Keep it aside.

4. Put 2tbsp of the fillings on a flour circle and place another flour clircle over the fillings in such a way that it falls just on the edge of the bottom half. Gently mold the dough around the apple to eliminate any trapped air. Fold the edge of the bottom half up over the edge of the top half and press to seal. Repeat it for other flour circles.

5.Heat the pressure cooker for 5 mins. Grease and dust the baking container with oil & flour. Place the pies in the container and place the tightly closed container in the cooker. Keep the cooker on low flame, without whistle.

6. Bake until golden brown, 25mins to 30mins, turn off the heat & set aside the container. These go well with the hot\cold sugar syrup.

Preparation of Syrup:

In a high-sided saucepan over medium-high heat, bring cold water and sugar to a boil. Turn the heat to low and stir constantly until the sugar dissolves completely and the mixture is clear, approximately 3 minutes. Add the saffron & apple skins. Keep it on low heat for 4-5mins.

Linking to:  Combo meals for kids @ Nithu's Kitchen & Nivedhanam

Linking to JCO: I M Well Stuffed!

Home Made Pizza- No oven

A rainy evening always has its spicy influence on us. We all want to have some hot & spicy food. But that day, my friends wanted to sleep & enjoy the rainy evening (how!!!). But I did not want to waste such a lovely evening alone, watching cartoons. So I planned to make something which will help me to wake up my sleeping friends. 

After preparing this, when I brought that to the drawing room, all my friends started to come one by one & we really had a great chit-chat-laugh evening.

This is my 1st time work on pizza & also without an oven. It was crispy & good. I did not know that without an oven we can make a pizza so well. So if you do not have an oven or your oven is not working for some reason, you can still enjoy your pizza :)

Hope to get some feedback if you like the recipe :)

Here's the recipe.

Ingredients:

For Pizza Dough: 

1 1/2 cups warm water

1 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder (you can use dried yeast)

1 1/2 cups refined flour

1 Tbsp refined oil

1 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon sugar

1 teaspoon ginger paste

(Home Made) Pizza Sauce:

1/2 cup Tomato puree

Black pepper powder

salt to taste

1/2 teaspoon sugar

2 cups tomato chopped fine (blanch & peel, remove seeds & chopped)

6-8 black pepper, crushed

1 small onion, chopped

2 garlic cloves, chopped

1 tbs refined/olive oil

dried oregano

2 fresh basil leaves

For toppings:

Mozzarella or Parmesan cheese, shredded

Mushrooms, thinly sliced

Bell peppers, stems and seeds removed, thinly sliced

Chopped fresh basil

Onions, thinly sliced

Method:

Making the Pizza Dough

1. If using yeast, in the large bowl add the warm water. Sprinkle on the yeast and let sit for 5 minutes until the yeast is dissolved. Stir to dissolve completely if needed at the end of 5 minutes.

2 Mix in the olive oil, yeast mixture (in my case I used baking powder), flour, salt and sugar and knead into a soft dough. If the dough seems a little too wet, sprinkle on a bit more flour.

3. Cover the dough with a damp cloth & leave to rest in a warm place for about 45min or until the dough is approximately double in size.(If you don't have a warm spot in the house you can heat a pan for 6min on high flame and then turn off. Let the pan cool till it is just a little warm, then place the bowl of dough in this warmed pan to rise.)

4. Knead the dough again & cover with a damp cloth & leave to stand for 10-15mins.

5. Divide the dough into two portions & roll out the dough into 6inch rounds. Prick all over with a fork.

6. Sprinkle some cornmeal on the pan. Gently place one pizza on the pan & bake for 3-4min on medium flame.

Preparing Pizza Sauce:

1. Heat oil in a pan. Add garlic & a large pinch of oregano & saute for 1/2 min.

2. Add the onion & saute till translucent. 

3. Add chopped tomato & mix till all the moisture has evaporated.

4. Add tomato puree & cook for another 5-8mins.

5. Add roughly torn basil leaves, salt, sugar, half crushed peppercorns & mix well. Set aside to cool.

Preparing the Pizzas

1. Preheat the pan for at least 30 minutes, preferably an hour.

2. Prepare your desired toppings. Note that you are not going to want to load up each pizza with a lot of toppings as the crust will end up not crisp that way. About a third a cup each of tomato sauce and cheese would be sufficient for one pizza. One to two mushrooms thinly sliced will cover a pizza.

3. Spread the sauce evenly over pizza bases & sprinkle with mozzarella cheese and place your desired toppings on the pizza.

4. Sprinkle some cornmeal on the pan. Gently place one pizza one the pan, cover & bake for 10-15mins or until the cheese melts. If you want, toward the end of the cooking time you can sprinkle on a little more cheese.

5. Remove from pan, cut & server immediately.