Black Olives, Onion And Rosemary Focaccia

As I mentioned in one of my earlier posts, I'm turning into a major baking fanatic.  If I don't bake anything for more than 4-5 days, I feel like....I haven't done any cooking!!  I absolutely looooovvvveeee the smell of baking bread/cake/muffin/cookies.  I gives me a real kick to see simple ingredients "magically"  transform into something totally different and delicious!

And, besides being obsessed with baking, I also tend to have a very soft corner for all things Mediterranean, especially Italian.  Focaccia is an old favorite.  I love to have fresh focaccia served with extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar.  Recently, I adapted this "Black Olives, Onion and Rosemary Focaccia" from a cookbook.  Easy, low fat, healthy, and yummy - just my kind of food!

Next time, I'd make this focaccia only with whole wheat flour.  Watch out for that post!

Makes one big loaf

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups Multi Grain whole wheat flour (or plain whole wheat flour)
1 1/2 cups All Purpose Flour (or maida)
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp rapid rise dried yeast *(see note below)
1 cup lukewarm water
3 Tbsp olive oil
1 small red onion
1 Tbsp black olives, pitted and sliced
leaves from a fresh rosemary sprig
1 tsp coarse sea salt

Method :

1.  Lightly grease and flour a baking sheet and keep it aside.

2.  Sift the flours and salt into a large bowl.  Stir in the yeast, make a well in the centre and pour lukewarm water and 2 Tbsp of oil in the well.  Mix to make a dough.  You may want to add a little more lukewarm water in case the dough seems a little dry.

3.  Turn the dough on a lightly floured surface and knead for about 10 minutes till the dough becomes smooth and elastic.

4.   Place the dough in a plastic/glass bowl which is lightly sprayed with oil.  Turn the dough ball around so that all sides are smeared with oil.  Cover with a damp kitchen towel/cling film and keep for 1 hour (or til, it is doubled in bulk) in a warm place to rise.  Note: - I usually keep mine in my microwave as I find it a little warmer than other places in the kitchen.  You may want to switch on your toaster-oven to "keep warm" position for a few minutes, switch it off, and keep your dough there after a few minutes.  It should be warm enough for the dough to rise.

5.  After the dough has risen, take it out on a floured surface, knock it down and knead again for 2-3 minutes. 

6.  Preheat the Oven to 220 degrees C/425 degrees F.  Roll the dough in a large circle around 1/2 inch thick, transfer it to the baking sheet and brush with the remaining 1 Tbsp of oil. 

7.  Slice the onion thinly.  Press the onion slices and olives all over the dough, and sprinkle with the rosemary leaves and sea salt (keep the salt coarse). 

8.  Now, comes my favorite part - using your fingertips, poke the surface of dough all over.  Cover the surface with a cling film, and leave to rise again in a warm place for 30 minutes.  Remove the film and bake the loaf for 20-25 minutes, or until golden.  Transfer to a wire rack to cool.  Serve right away, preferably, with a combination of balsamic vinegar and extra virgin olive oil.  Enjoy!

My Notes:

1.  If you don't have rapid rise yeast, you can use active dried yeast, which you would need to 'start' the yeast as per the instructions given on the package.  Reduce the amount of water added to the dough accordingly.  The amount of yeast used remains the same.

2.  If you are not going to use the dough right away, you can -
       * Put the dough away in fridge after the first rising.  When you want to bake, take it out of the fridge, and let it come to the room temp., and knead it for a few minutes to make it elastic, and follow the rest of the steps.
       *  You may put the dough in fridge after the second rising too.  When ready to bake, just take it out and bring to the room temp., and bake as per recipe.

3.  This dough freezes very well.  To freeze, wrap the ball of dough after first rising in a cling film, put in a zip lock and place in freezer.  When needed, let it defrost by itself at room temperature (it may take couple of hours depending on the weather you have), knead it again for a few minutes and follow the rest of the steps.

4.  DO NOT over bake.  Every oven is different.  So, be on the lookout after, say 10-12  minutes.  As soon as it is firm to touch and changes color (happens in my oven at under 20 minutes!), switch off the oven and let it be there till it cools.

How To Make Applesauce

If you want to make healthy low fat yet tasty cakes/cookies/breads/muffins a part of your recipe repertoire, one essential ingredient, in my opinion, is 'homemade applesauce'.  As some of you may be aware, applesauce can be used in place of oil/butter/shortening to make your recipe low fat.  Applesauce can also be used to substitute for eggs in a recipe as I have done here.  It is highly popular as a low fat substitute because it doesn't have any defining taste of its own and hence, does not change the taste of the recipe significantly.

For those of you who are familiar with using applesauce in baked goodies, I'd urge you to use home made fresh applesauce which is easy to make and can be stored in refrigerator for at least three weeks (I have always finished it by that time!).  Please DO NOT give in the urge to buy 'ready made applesauce' because it is full of 'high-fructose corn syrup' which is not good at all if you are on the journey of eating NATURALLY healthy and low fat food products.

Here's a simple recipe for making applesauce at home, which I use all the time:

Makes 2 cups of applesauce

Apple Sauce Home Made

Ingredients:
4-5 medium/big size red skin apples (you can use any variety of red apples, just DO NOT use granny smith apples/any green ones.  Why?  Because they are sour and you would have to put extra sugar to compensate for their sourness in the recipe.)
1 tsp cinnamon powder
water as needed

Method:

1.  Wash, peel and core the apples.  Chop them into bite size pieces, not too small!

2.  Dump the chopped apples in a thick bottom steel pan and pour water as to cover about an inch of pan's bottom.

3.  Bring to a boil, add cinnamon powder and cover and simmer for about 15 minutes or till the apples are disintegrating (which shouldn't take too long since they are 99% water anyways!).

4.  Cool slightly, blend to a smooth puree in a blender.....and that's about it!

You have homemade, without preservatives/chemicals, applesauce which you should keep in an airtight jar in the fridge (I keep mine refrigerated in a closed lid pyrex bowl) and which should last you about two to three weeks.

MOIST ORANGE AND ALMOND CAKE

Being perpetually obsessed with "Healthy Low fat" food recipes BUT without artificial substitutes, AND with little compromise on taste, leave me frustrated many a times.  Especially when it comes to baking cakes.  And I, these days, am possessed with some 'baking spirit', which forces me to look for new recipes to bake - almost everyday!

Now, coming back to finding cake recipes, which are healthy, low fat yet yummy to eat, well, they are a little hard to find.  So, whenever, I come across a cake recipe which does not call for butter/oil, or other usual suspects which you expect in a 'tasty' cake, I want to yell in happiness - 'Eureka'!   And I did exactly that, when I happened to chance upon this wonderful 'Orange and Almond Cake' in this book called 'Low-fat no-fat mediterranean'.

The only changes that I did were related to eggs.  I made this cake with 1 egg instead of 3 as directed in the original recipe.  I used home made applesauce as the major egg substitute, and made some other adjustments to the ingredients to compensate for the 'loss' of 2 eggs.

Here's the recipe as I made it:

Makes one 8 inch cake

Ingredients:
1 large orange *(see my note below)
1 egg
2/3 cup homemade applesauce
1 1/4 cup caster/icing/powdered sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 scant tbsp lime/lemon juice
2 cups ground almonds
1/4 cup plain (all purpose) flour
icing sugar for dusting (I didn't use it)
low-fat greek yogurt to serve(optional - in my opinion doesn't need anything else - tasty enough on its own!)

Method :
1.  Wash the orange and pierce it with a skewer.  Put it in a deep pan and pour over water to cover completely.  Bring to the boil and then reduce the heat, cover and simmer for an hour, or until the skin of the orange is very soft.  Alternatively, you can pressure cook the orange to give one whistle and let it simmer in cooker for about 20-30 minutes.  Drain and cool.

2.  Preheat the oven to 180 degree C/350 degree F.  Grease a 8-inch round cake pan and line it with parchment paper, or just dust with a little flour.

3.  Cut the orange in half and discard the pips (seeds), if any.  Place the orange with skin in a blender and process till smooth.

4.  In a bowl, whisk the egg and sugar together till thick.  Add Applesauce and whisk again.  Fold in the baking powder, baking soda, almonds and flour.  Fold in the orange puree and lime/lemon juice.  Mix everything just well, don't over mix.

5.  Pour into the prepared baking pan and level the surface.  Bake in the preheated oven for 1 hour, or until the skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean.**  Cool the cake in the pan for 10 minutes, then turn out on a wire rack, peel off the lining and cool completely.  Dust the top with icing sugar, if you wish.  Serve it as a dessert with greek yogurt, if you like.

Notes:
* Orange used here is the  Australian bright yellowish-orange-colored orange.  If you are not able to get that, you can use tangerines (usually called oranges in India).  You may need to adjust the time for boiling.
** If you find (as I did) that the top gets browned faster, much before the rest of the cake has baked, you can simply cut a piece of almunium foil and cover the top of the cake to prevent it from burning while the rest of the cake is still being baked.