Halwa, West Indian Pudding

Posted on 22 Aug ’11 by Sarah

It’s been nearly 2 weeks since my last post, but there is a reason… this next dish is very special to me and I wanted to get it just right. It’s a dish taught to me by my mother in law, called Halwa. Halwa is a Guyanese pudding served to the mother in celebration of a new baby. It is believed that this spicy thick pudding helps jump start mom’s milk production. Of course anyone can enjoy this pudding, not just a new mom. I have never had anything quite like it… sweet and spicy, thick and creamy, and the best part of it is, you eat it with your hands! Just rip off a piece of roti, scoop up your pudding, and stuff your face. Love it!

When I had my first born, 3 years ago, my mother in law came for a visit to meet her first grandchild. When she made this for me, I admit, I was kind of scared to try it. After all, it looks very suspicious to a “white gal”. But after the first bite, there was no stopping me… the bowl was licked clean in seconds. The second time she made it for me was just 4 months ago, when she came to visit and meet her second grandson. I forgot how yummy it was and vowed to learn it this time so I could make it anytime I wanted, or felt I needed a boost in my milk production. But, ugh, I didn’t watch her make it! I don’t know what I was doing when she whipped this up in the kitchen.. probably changing a diaper or sneaking in a much needed nap. Fortunately, she gave me some quick directions before she left. Fast forward 3 months… and I have been making batches of pudding, trying to perfect it. Finally, I feel confident enough to post this for the world to see. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

TIP: I have never browned flour before, so I was timid with my first attempt at this pudding. The flour barely tanned, therefore my pudding was light in color and tasted, well, floury. My advice… go for it. Don’t be shy, brown the heck out of that flour. Just be attentive and every few minutes stir it up so it doesn’t burn. The darker it is, the more nutty the flavor and rich the pudding color will be.

Halwa Massala spice is sold at Indian groceries. I couldn’t find it online, if you do know how to obtain it online please leave a comment. The spice contains cumin, dark cumin, fennel, ginger, peepar, mora, havclay, cinnamon.

Note: This is part 1 of a 2 part post. Part 2 is coming soon, will contain the instructions for roti, the accompaniment for the pudding.

Recipe: Halwa

Summary: A Guyanese Pudding

Ingredients

2 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 cups milk
1 heaping TBSP Halwa Massala (found in West Indian grocery stores)
1 TBSP butter

Instructions

Brown the flour in a hot skillet over medium heat for roughly 10 to 15 minutes. Stir every few minutes. Remove from heat to cool.
Use a sieve to sift out the flour clumps.
In a large bowl, combine the flour with the sugar and milk. The mixture should resemble a pancake like batter.
In a small bowl, mix halwa masala with a 1/2 cup of water.
In a skillet, heat the butter on medium-low heat. Add the mixture and the spicy water. The pudding will get thick in just a few minutes. If it gets too thick, you can add a little water until you get the desired consistency (thick enough to hang on an upside down spoon for a few seconds before plopping down!).
Serve with Roti. Recipe in the next post.

Preparation time: 5 minute(s)

Cooking time: 20 minute(s)

Number of servings (yield): 8

Nice Lime Ice (Hold the Mice!)

Posted on 11 Aug ’11 by Sarah

You can learn about ice. You can learn about mice.
Mice on ice. And ice on mice…
Nice ice for sale. Ten cents a pail.
From I Can Read with My Eyes Shut!

If you saw my last post about Blueberry Bumplings, you know we have been making wonderful concoctions in the kitchen from the The Green Eggs and Ham Cookbook, all recipes inspired by Dr. Seuss books. Nice lime ice is a really great recipe that I wanted to share because it was fun to make and its pretty versatile. The kids loved the ice pail tower (my son ate them right off the toothpicks). This recipe would make yummy popsicles just use in popsicle molds.

Everyone can enjoy this ice in sparkling mineral water with slices of lime. The ice provides non-stop limeade power… so as you drink toward the bottom your beverage gets a little sweeter. When your drink gets low, just refresh with more sparkling water. I drank 3 glasses during dinner before needing to refresh my ice! Adults could spike the drink to make a lime spritzer.

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Recipe: Nice Lime Ice (Hold the Mice!)

Summary: Adapted from the Green Eggs and Ham Cookbook by Geogeanne Brennan

Ingredients

4 cups water
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup lime juice (about 7)

Instructions

In a saucepan, combine water, sugar and salt. Bring to Boil over medium heat, stir often. Boil until sugar has dissolved and light syrup has formed (about 2 minutes).
Remove from heat and let cool, refrigerate covered until chilled.
Combine syrup with lime juice in a pitcher, stir well.
Pur into ice cube trays and freeze for about 45 minutes. Then stick in toothpicks (if desired). Freeze for 4 hours more.
Make the towers by sticking the cubes together using the toothpicks.

Preparation time: 10 minute(s)

Cooking time: 5 hour(s) freezing

Number of servings (yield): 72 ice cubes

Blueberry Bumplings

Posted on 8 Aug ’11 by Sarah

Donuts, dumplings, blueberry bumplings, chocolate mush-mush, super sweet.
Clam stew, ham stew, watermelon wush wush, Oh, the stuff that I could eat!
From The Cat in the Hat Songbook

Start your day the Dr. Seuss way! All you little ducklings, have some blueberry bumplings, for breakfast or snack, to give you that perfect quack. I checked out the Green Eggs and Ham Cookbook from the library and we had a great time testing out some of the recipes. If you haven’t heard of this cookbook, its a perfect one for cooking with kids and all the recipes are based on a Dr. Seuss excerpt.

Blueberry Bumplings is probably our favorite recipe in the book, its become a staple in our home. We like to make them for our weekend breakfast. They taste similar to scones and are very airy and they are the best when the blueberries are still warm and gooey. One change I made, and would recommend: triple the amount of blueberries. The original calls for only 1/2 cup. We use 1 1/2 cups because the blueberries are the best part and we want at least one in every bite.

Recipe: Blueberry Bumplings

Summary: Adapted from the Green Eggs and Ham Cookbook by Georgeanne Brennan

Ingredients

2 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 stick butter softened (1/2 cup)
1 1/2 cup fresh or frozen blueberries
1 large egg
3/4 cup half-and-half

Instructions

Preheat oven to 400F. Prepare cookie sheets with parchment paper.
In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.
Add butter and mix with fingertips until crumbly.
In a separate small bowl, whisk egg and half-and-half. Quickly pour into the dry mixture and stir to combine, but don’t overwork. Then stir in your blueberries.
Now you can either just lump them by the spoonful onto prepared baking sheets, or cut them into shapes. To do the shapes: lay the dough between 2 wax paper sheets ( I used flour on top the wax paper to help from sticking). pat down to about 1/2 inch thick. Remove top wax paper and use cookie cutters to cut out shapes.
Place on prepared cookie sheets.
Bake in oven for about 10 minutes until golden on top.

Preparation time: 15 minute(s)

Cooking time: 10 minute(s)

Number of servings (yield): 12

Strawberry Yogurt Cake Roll

Posted on 6 Aug ’11 by Sarah

We are celebrating over here in the cakestudent household because I got my first product promotion! Yay! Dannon has asked me to sample their new line of Activia Selects French and Greek yogurt. And, boy was I happy to do it!

So, cakestudent fans, I’m excited to announce that you can join us in the celebration… Visit the Activia Selects Facebook page to get your FREE coupon now! Take it with you to any local super market to redeem. Let your friends and family know… the coupons are available only until August 15th… so spread the cheer!

The challenge for me… what to make that could showcase this yogurt? Well, usually we just enjoy our yogurt right out of the cup, sometimes dipping fresh strawberries into it. I have also used strawberry yogurt in smoothies, popsicles, baked it in cakes and muffins. But for this task, I decided to go with a recipe that really honors my original intent for this blog… to be a student of cakes. I have never made a roll cake before, and I thought it was a good time to try. The beauty of this recipe is that the yogurt isn’t baked in the batter, but rather its used as a filling after the baking process… so you can really taste the yogurt.

Roll cake, A.K.A swiss roll, A.K.A jelly roll… this cake was thought to be created over a hundred years ago somewhere in central Europe. There must be a reason it’s lasted so long. After creating it in my own kitchen I found out why, it’s really fun to make! The final product is attractive, it was easy to make, cleanup was a breeze, and its a light delicious summer dessert. Since it is set in the freezer, the creamy yogurt filling is very cold and the angel food cake is still soft and airy.

I tested out the Dannon Activia French Strawberry with chunks on the bottom, and Strawberry flavored thick & creamy Greek. Both were good, but if I had to choose my favorite it would have to be the Greek (I really love the creaminess). The chunks of strawberries in the French yogurt lended itself nicely to this cake filling. It was only a 6 oz container, so I added a few spoons of the Greek and also chopped up about 1 cup worth of fresh strawberries and added it to the filling. Then when I finished, I sat back and polished off the Greek yogurt as my reward.

This cake is definitely a keeper, great for a dinner party. It just presents so nicely, and its a very light treat to offer after a full meal. So easy to make you can’t really mess it up. Well, it was almost perfect… I did learn a lesson from my first attempt: when prepping the rolled cake to go into the freezer… you mustn’t wrap with plastic wrap because the golden outer layer will peel off in bits when you take it out to serve. Instead, just keep it in some kind of covered container while its freezing. However this mistake was easily concealed by sifting powdered sugar on the top.

Note: The recipe called for a jelly roll pan, I didn’t know if I had one or not. After some digging on the internet I found out I could use my cookie sheet measuring 15.25 x 10.25 x .75 in. I didn’t use all the cake batter because it wasn’t 1″ deep and I wanted to avoid an overflow. So I filled it to the rim and then put the leftover batter into a muffin tin and made 6 cupcakes.

Recipe: Strawberry Cake Roll

Ingredients

1 (16 oz) box of Angel Food cake mix
5 tsp confectioners sugar
1 (8 oz) non-fat strawberry yogurt
1 (1 oz) package instant sugar free white chocolate pudding mix
2 cups Lite whipped topping

Instructions

Set your oven rack to the lowest level. Preheat the oven to 350C.
Line Jelly Roll pan with waxed paper. Place a clean kitchen towel on your workspace, dust with the confectioner sugar.
Make the Angel Food cake according to package directions.
Pour into the prepared pan and level it with a spatula. Bake for about 15 minutes, or until golden. Let cool for 5 minutes.
Flip cake onto the prepared kitchen towel dusted with the sugar and very gently peel off the waxed paper. Roll up jelly-roll style in the towel, then place the whole thing on a wire rack to cool.
While cooling, whisk the yogurt, the pudding mix in a bowl. Then fold in your whipped topping.
Unroll the cake and spread filling evenly over the cake. Roll it back up (without the towel!). Place it into a covered container and freeze it for at least a few hours. When ready to serve, remove and let thaw for about 30 minutes before slicing.

Preparation time: 20 minute(s)

Cooking time: 15 minute(s)

Number of servings (yield): 8

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