" Phirni/ Firni or as they say Rice pudding "

Those who know me knew that I don’t have the sweet tooth. I don’t eat 90% of the things I bake or make like cakes, cookies etc. Sometimes I don’t even taste them. But there is one sweet dish which I’ve started liking which is Phirni/Firni. Phirni is a version of Kheer in which broken rice or rice powder (not so fine though) is used. In India, Kheer is made on special occasions like festivals or marriages. At my home mom used to prepare Kheer on festivals and on special dinners. My father was fond of sweets and Kheer was his favourite. But Phirni is what I heard from my Mom's sister. At her place its a family tradition to make Phirni when a new daughter in law comes to house. So after the marriage of my cousin, my Masi i.e. Mom's sister, made this. The whole day I thought about this gooey, soft, comforting and very tasty Kheer. After almost a year while surfing the channels on television I saw Phirni again on a cookery show, when the tube light of my brain suddenly started blinking :). Now after a year or more I can proudly say that I'm a Phirni expert :). I always like to play with flavours and have already made Phirni in different flavours like Orange, Lemon, Lemon grass, Cinnamon, Vanilla, good old Cardamom, Rose and many more. Till date Orange Phirni is my favourite but I love it with Cinnamon too. I know citrus flavour is my weakness, but don’t you think I’m right in this? This rice pudding is very easy to make and the only key is you have to stir it on frequent intervals to avoid any lumps. I’m telling you the Cinnamon infused phirni recipe. You can add any flavour of your choice.

Ingredients

Rice of your choice – 2 handfuls

Milk – 500 ml

Chopped dry fruits of your choice – 1 handful

Saffron strands – few (optional)

Cinnamon stick – 1 inch

Silver vark (optional)

Method

1. Wash the rice and dry it by spreading in a plate. Then grind it coarsely.

2. Boil the milk in a sauce pan and add the cinnamon stick to it.

3. Now add rice into the boiling milk and cook till the milk gets thicker and rice cooked.

4. If you want then remove the cinnamon stick.

5. Add the dry fruits in the end. Cook for few more minutes.

6. Now serve them in individual dishes. You can use traditional earthen dishes (kulhad in Hindi). I used ramekins. Decorate with some chopped dry fruits and saffron strands.

Now refrigerate it for few hours before serving. As almost every dessert tastes better when serve chilled.

Enjoy!

" Festive Giveaway "

Festive season is on! To make this season more exciting, Chillies'n'Cherries is giving away 'A beautiful recipe book' as a token of love. This book has 100 interesting baking recipes from delicious Cakes to Breads and from small bites to Desserts. So come on all, do participate and help spread the word with your friends/family:)

How to enter the giveaway:

1. Like us on Facebook (Chillies 'n' cherries, Facebook) and leave a comment on this post, saying that you did so.

2. If you have already liked the page, just leave a comment here saying that you have already done it. Isn't it simple :)

Rules:

· Open to all.

· The giveaway ends on 22nd Oct 2014, 10:00 PM.

· Once the giveaway is closed, One lucky winner will be selected using random.org.

· We will announce the winner’s name on Deepawali Day i.e. 23rd Oct 2014 on our facebook page.

· For further correspondence to deliver the giveaway prize, email ID will be asked.



Thanks and wish you a very happy festive season. 

Disclaimer:

This giveaway is not sponsored by any third-party but is solely administered by Chillies'n'Cherries.  If you have any additional questions, feel free to contact at chilliesncherries@gmail.com.

" Focaccia "

I don’t know where I saw it first, but the moment I saw it I fell in love with this beautiful Italian bread. May be it was a TV serial or web I don’t remember that but then who cares! It has been 3 yrs since I’ve started baking and my hands itch every time I get to see this bread’s photo. I always wanted to bake this but the only issue was fresh rosemary leaves. Believe me, I crazily searched for rosemary plant everywhere; be it in Delhi, Dehradun and many other places. Each and every nursery which came into my sight, I asked for this plant but with no success. 

Rosemary plant was on top, in my priority list of plants and seeds. I tried to grow it from seeds too but in vain. So when after 3 years I got a chance to visit Bangalore just for a day, for the event of World Kitchen Gardener’s Day on 31st August this year, the only thing in my mind was a Rosemary plant and I really didn’t want to miss this opportunity to get a plant. But because it was on Sunday and all the nurseries were closed I had no choice but to pray to god that my OTG friend Aparna do remember to get me a sapling/cutting for me. She kept her words and I’m really grateful to her for that :) . I brought back this rosemary plant almost like a baby in my hand. Once the plant is home my hands started itching again and my mind argued, NO, the plant is very young, it’s still a cutting. I was like ok let me bake with dried rosemary but then my luck is working now a days :). I got a bunch of rosemary cuttings in a fruit supermarket kind of shop in Solapur [you should’ve seen my face that moment :)]. 

For the recipe I pulled out the book “Artisan breads every day” by Peter Reinhart. Yes, yes Bhai gave me this book last year and I read it with so much enthusiasm but then his elaborate techniques and a lazy chicken like me have nothing in common. I never denied the fact that I’m lazy :P. But now the time has come. For once in my lifetime I had to leave all my laziness and bake this bread. The recipe is fool-proof and flawless. It took me 4days to prepare for it, but this bread was worth every effort. My better half loved the bread and he has become a fan of rosemary :). There are many dried herbs used in this recipe but if you want and if they are available then you can use fresh herbs because nothing beats the aroma and taste of fresh herbs. Use the best extra virgin olive oil and rest assured you won’t be disappointed.

Ingredients

For the bread

All purpose flour – 4 ½ cups 

Instant yeast – 1 ¼ tsp

Olive oil (Extra virgin) – 1 tbsp

Kosher salt – 1 ¾ tsp (I used plain salt)

Chilled water – 2 cups

For herb oil

Olive oil (Extra virgin) – 2 cups

Garlic cloves – 10 crushed

Fresh Rosemary leaves – 1 tbsp

Dried oregano – 1 tbsp

Dried basil – 2 tbsp

Dried parsley – 2 tbsp

Dried thyme – 1 tbsp
Black pepper – ¼ tsp 

Kosher salt – 1 tbsp

Paprika – 1 tsp

Chilli flakes – 1tsp

Method

Do ahead (4days ahead)

1. In a bowl, combine the flour, salt, yeast and water. Stir with a spoon and mix them well. The dough should be wet and let it sit for 5 minutes.

2. Now drizzle the olive oil over the dough and mix it well for 1 minute. The dough will now become smoother but still sticky and wet.

3. With a help of spatula or by hands transfer the dough in a lightly oiled bowl. Cover it with cling wrap and let it sit for another 10 minutes.

4. Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled surface and please grease your hands with few drops of oil and then follow the stretch and fold method for say 5 minutes.

5. Now transfer the dough into the bowl, cover it with the cling wrap and let it sit for 10 more minutes.

6. Repeat this entire process (steps 4 & 5) 2 more times.

7. After the final stretch and fold, return the dough to oiled bowl and cover the bowl with cling wrap and refrigerate the dough for 4 days. Remember Do not freeze it.

On baking day

1. Remove the bowl from the refrigerator about 4 hours before you plan to bake. Let it sit at room temperature for 2.5 hours.

2. Now preheat your oven just to warm it up. Since we are not baking it now just keep the temp to the lowest and that also just for few minutes like one or two minutes.

3. Now grease a tray with olive oil or you can use the silicon mat so that the bread doesn’t stick to the tray.

4. Transfer the dough to the tray and start dimpling it with your fingertips to spread so that it should cover 70-80 percent of the pan. 

5. Now drizzle some herb oil over the dough and cover it with cling wrap and put it into the warm oven (make sure the oven is off) and let it sit for 30 minutes (you can cut short this time for 10minutes). Heat the oven just to give right temperature for the dough to rise again. If you live in a warm place, you can skip the oven portion and let the dough rise at room temperature.

6. After 30 minutes, remove the cling wrap, drizzle some more of the olive oil and dimple it again. Make sure the focaccia now cover 80-90 percent of the pan. Then put the cling film back and again put the pan into the oven for further 30 minutes. 

7. Repeat the step 6 one more time. In the final stage, the dough should evenly fill the entire pan. It should be 1 inch thick.

8. After the final resting of last 30 minutes top the focaccia with your choice of toppings, but if you are using the herb oil like I used then there is no need of toppings. If you want to add cheese then make sure you add it in the end so that it doesn’t get burnt in the baking process. Don't worry about the extra oil dripping out of the dough. Your bread will absorb everything.

9. Pre-heat oven at 260 degree Celsius. Place the pan into the oven and bake the focaccia at a lower temperature of 200 degrees for minimum 20 minutes or untill the top of bread turns to golden brown. 

For the herb oil.

Mix all the ingredients I’ve mentioned in a bowl and rest it for minimum 2.5 hours before you use it for any recipe [but then you can always cheat ;)] 




This bread is worth taking every effort. It is a flavourful and aromatic bread and my whole house was smelling like divine while baking. So if you are bread baking enthusiast then this bread is just perfect for you. I made Shakshuka for the perfect combination to be eaten with this bread. That recipe is next on my blog :). One more tip, it tasted best next day :)

Enjoy!

"Basic Photography with Bake along #8"

Time flies! And these eight weeks passed faster than I imagined. I learnt a lot during these formal sessions with you and enjoyed it thoroughly. I loved to watch myself grow with you people as I noticed step by step improvements in your photographs as well as mine. During these sessions I noticed various new aspects of photography which I will explore now and I’m sure same is the case with you.

We will close this eight week formal session with this last post but the real journey begins from here as we have just learnt to walk in this world of photography and we can now explore it. We will continue the journey together and we all will share new experiences during the journey with one another. Believe me with every improvement in your photographs I will be happier than you so please do share your clicks. I will be happy to help with any aspect if you need as I am just a ping away J Nevertheless I heartfully thank all of you and especially Subhasini for such a great opportunity.

Let’s now start the eighth post on ‘Post Processing of photographs’ which I’m continuing from the last session. Remember again; before editing, make a copy of the photo so that if the editing is not according to you then you can start afresh or use the original photo as it is. For better effects of post processing, powerful softwares such as Photoshop and Lightroom are there on internet but I am discussing the steps with common softwares like Microsoft’s Paintbrush and Google’s Picasa which are available on almost all the computers.

Placing your mark/logo on photos - Have you seen a small logo on all the photographs people post? Even I've one for my photos :). Internet world is good as well as bad too. Anyone can use your photographs anywhere so it is always better that you should put small mark on your photograph. The easiest way to do that is in Microsoft Paint. I will tell you step by step.

a) In paintbrush open the image in which you want to put your logo.

b) Now click on text option and put the text box wherever you want the logo.

c) Then write the name, name of your company or your blog or even the name of the dish. Write whatever you want. Like I wrote ©chillies ‘n’cherries.

d) Adjust size and type of font you want, bold, italics etc.

e) Save it and use it. Yes, it’s that simple.

Now the last topic is about the Aperture effect in photos clicked by simple cameras or mobile phones. This effect is helpful in distinguishing the main object from background and gives a feel of distance between them. Question arises how to blur the background without Adobe Photoshop or Lightroom or any other complicated software. I will explain it with Google’s Picasa. For that you have to do a small exercise.

Please click on all the following photographs, then only you can see them clearly as for describing it properly I took the screenshots due to which they are not normally clear. So click on pictures to understand better.

1. Click on this link http://picasa.google.co.in/ and download the latest picasa software developed and provided free of cost by Google.

2. Once the software is downloaded, install it.

3. When you open the software it will automatically import all your photographs to its library. So don’t panic. 

4. After it completes transfer, click on the picture you want to blur. Make sure you select a picture in which there is a scope to blur the background or other object likes props.

I have selected the following photo.

After selecting the picture, you will see a whole new world is open in front of. You can change the brightness, contrast; feel lucky tool will make your picture bright and many more options. You can add light to the dark areas of the photo. Just open your hands and play on with settings :). Choose the best for you.

5. After playing with the other options click on the icon as specified with red arrow(1).

6. After you clicked the first arrow, click the option FOCAL ZOOM as shown with green arrow (2) as shown in above picture.

Pane 1- ZOOMINESS - With the yellow zoom sign on photo you can select which tomato should be in focus. As shown with tomato 1, 2 or 3.

Pane 2- FOCAL SIZE – with this the size of the blurness can be increased or decreased. You have to decide how much area of the picture should be clearly visible and how much to be blurred.

Pane 3- EDGE HARDNESS- with this you can harden or soften the hardness of your edges. Which means to control how clearly the edges are visible.

Pane 4 – FADE – with this tool you can increase and decrease the fading effect as per your choice.

After all the changes you made to the photo, save it. And post it to your blog or any networking site :). Now compare the first and the last photo.

I selected the photograph with many objects to show that in Picasa, object can be selected at your will and I gave exaggerated effects to make the changes visible. You have to choose the right settings to give desired effect to your photograph.

With this the formal session ends here and I promise I will be back with new aspects as I further explore the world of photography.

So here is today's exercise.

Exercise #4 

1. Try to put a logo on your bake along pictures.

2. Try to use Picasa and make the background blur.

Thanks again and Take Care J

"Basic Photography with Bake along #7"

So we are in our second last week of these sessions :) before I write today’s one, I want to thank you guys for patiently reading me. Your responses encouraged me to dig more deeply into the subject. thank you once again :). I am really happy to see that you guys have practiced it with full dedication. I can see the improvements in your photography and most of you have picked all the points very well. 

Following slight improvement I wish to suggest though:

1. When you click a setup like you did in Hazelnut white chocolate cake, please avoid clicking outer areas like floor or other part of table which we didn't decorate as per our story.

2. Please don’t over crowd the setup, props mean one or two things which blend in with situation. You have to enhance the beauty of main object not to suppress it. Overcrowding of props confuses the viewer.

That's it :) rest all is going fine thanks to your hard work :). Thank you again for this honour. So let’s start with the last topic “Post processing”.

When you have captured the photograph in your camera, another story begins. It’s not like that you’ve to do it every time and with each and every photo. But at times, when you feel that even after your efforts the picture is not up to the mark then for such situations these tools are helpful. But keep in mind that editing a picture will decrease the quality of the picture a bit, though we will achieve the desired effect.

Note/caution/warning – Before starting the post processing of a photograph, save the original copy in a separate location and use another copy for post processing so that if you don’t like the result of post processing you can use the original picture or try again for editing. There are several editing softwares i.e. Photoshop, Picasa, Lightroom etc. But I will discuss the one which is available on all the computers by default.

Every computer has this software ‘Microsoft Office picture manager’. Open the photograph either by directly opening it or by right click and choosing ‘open with option’. Once the photo is open, click on 'Edit Pictures' button on toolbar and various options will appear on the right pane where you can perform the following steps.

1. Crop – with this tool one can cut the excess/unwanted area you want to remove from the photo.

Before 

After 

2. Rotate and flip – If you want to rotate the picture you can use this tool. Flip or rotate can be done and you can rotate it with specified degree also. Like if the picture has to be slightly rotated you can choose rotate by degree option and specify the degree of rotation i.e. 2 degrees or 20 degrees etc.

3. Colour enhancement - following effects can be given by choosing the colour option.

a) Saturation - This tool enhances the colours. Like if you want the grass looks greener or sky more blue then you can use this tool. But let me remind you, increase the saturation of the photo only upto acceptable limits so that the photo doesn’t looks too dramatic.

b) Hue -  At times you want to add a tint in photographs like blue or yellow. In that case you can use this tool. Say if your photograph has a warm tone then you can add some blue tint to sooth it.

Blue tint

Yellow tint

4. Brightness and contrast – Even after your efforts of maintaining good lighting condition for capturing a photograph, if the photo is not bright enough, then Brightness tool can brighten the photo to some extent. Further if the photo is very bright you can up to some extent reduce the brightness.

With the contrast tool you can adjust the contrast between different colours.

Now a days some mobile cameras have many of the camera settings which have been discussed earlier. Like you can change the tint, shutter speed while clicking the photos. Still if your mobile camera doesn’t have these features then you can use the above post processing tools to get desired results. Most of the cameras don’t have aperture settings for which I’ll explain in the next session which is also my last session in the series. 

Further, while practicing the earlier sessions you might have come across some obstacles or doubts, you can send these doubts to me before Friday so that I will try to clear the doubts in my last article.

Exercise #3

With this week’s bake along, click photo using the ingredients of your recipe as prop. For example, you can use eggs, flour, chocolate bars or cocoa powder as prop. You don’t have to use all the things as props, just one or two ingredients from the recipe.

P.S. I’m again reminding that before using post processing tools please save the original copy separately :)

"Basic Photography with Bake along #6"

As we started last week with object and composition this article is in continuation with that. I am glad that some of you have done the exercise with backgrounds and now we know how backgrounds affect the photographs. The best part about food photography is we can control almost everything :) This week we will discuss some more aspects about object and composition.

1. Props - Props are certain items of your choice which are placed in a picture to enhance the overall look of a photograph. A prop can be anything from a rustic looking bowl to an antique spoon, from a milk bottle to a napkin, a twine, a glass of wine, cookie jars, bottles, chopping boards, a twig of herb or spices. The main idea in selecting a prop is that you like its look and it should fit in the theme of the photograph.

In the following picture I have used a milk bottle and straw as props (I know it’s not that good :P)

In the next one I used kitchen towel and roasted almonds as props :) .

A prop can be placed anywhere in the picture as per your choice but again we should be careful that focus of the picture should remain on the main object and colours of the props should not overpower the main object of your photograph.

Fresh herbs like coriander, basil, mint etc. are also very good props and are widely used by food photographers.

Like I used mint sprig in the second photo just for decoration and the photo is better than first one. At times the spices or simply the ingredients of your dish also serve as great props.

2. Prepare the table the way you serve your dish - At times food photographs look more appealing when the main object’s is served with side dishes:). The dish can be garnished and served along with condiments complete with spoons/forks and napkins. Like an idly photograph looks more appealing when Idly is served with Sambhar and chutney; here Sambar and chutney will act as prop to the main object idly. 

3. Plan your photograph - Capturing the beauty of your dish needs a proper plan. Planning starts right from the selection of your dish and its ingredients. Following example makes it clear.


Say you are baking Vanilla Cookies. Following are the steps of planning a shot:

a) Object - Vanilla cookies which will be of light brown colour and mostly round in shape.

b) Serving plate - Plate or bowl or you can also keep the cookies directly on any other background. But if using a plate or bowl etc, take note of its colour, it can be of white or black colour or a colour picked from colour wheel just like selecting your background. Now, the colour of your plate will also be considered while selecting the colour of background as the plate will itself be a part of object now.

c) Background - Background can be of dark colour to enhance the beauty of our light coloured object. It can be a simple table top, a chart paper or a wooden plank. Be very careful in choosing the background because it will suppress or enhance the appearance your main object.

d)Placing - If you use a rectangular plate, cookies can be kept in a cascading formation in length, if the plate is round, cookies can be stacked or placed in a round formation. You can choose the placing as per your choice.


e) Props - I would prefer to use subtle colour props for this object as per my colour wheel. My choice of props are – a plain milk bottle filled with milk, a vanilla pod (as vanilla extract is used), you can also choose a cup of tea or coffee served in white mug or a brown mug depending upon the colour theme, a brown twine or burlap cloth.

f) Angle of capture - We can capture the photograph from different angles to choose the best one after shooting. Different angles can be eye level, over-the-head or 45 degree angle.

g) Lighting - Arrange proper lighting depending on whether you are shooting in day or night, natural or artificial light and use ISO, shutter speed, diffusers or reflectors etc accordingly.

h) Final touch - Now select your best shot and you may need to post process the photograph which will be discussed in our last session :)

I guess you guys are now geared up to click today's bake along recipe :) so here comes the exercise :).

Exercise no#2

Plan your shot

As this week's bake along recipe is "Hazelnut White Chocolate Cake" and I'm sure most of you people are going to bake this yumm cake. So lets plan a bit for that perfect picture of this beautiful cake. This is my story and you can portray your beautiful story with the pictures

Just imagine a scenario where you and your friends are sitting for a perfect gossip session at tea time in the evening :P :P, ok ok I know its bad. Back to scenario, I'm sitting with my friends for tea time and this beautiful cake is served with the evening tea (Subhashini after seeing your pictures I'm imagining this shoot outdoors). Now i will make my list from here.

a) Object- Beautiful Hazelnut White Chocolate Cake.

b) Background - I'll prefer white background or slight off white or light grey. Preferably white wooden table and other white furniture (sigh! wish i have those).

c) Serving plate - White round plate (big) for main object.

d) Placement - In the mid of plate. I'll cut a piece out of the cake.

e) Props - Besides big white round plate for main object, I'll keep few white quarter plates for serving, preferably 3 plates in stack and in 1 plate I'll serve a piece. Forks and spoons. Tea set in white(again I wish I've one :( ) or a big white coffee mug . Some nuts or chips in a Bowl and napkins. Cake serving spoon will also act as a prop. 

f) Angle of capture - It completely depends on you. But few shots are compulsorily for me. I will capture it as complete setup from eye level, one over head, few at 45 degrees angle  taking cake in focus and making other things blur. One more from 45 degree, on high shutter speed with wide angle ( everything in focus) to show this is how we serve tea.

g) Lighting and settings -  Please set according to your need :).

This is just an idea to capture. You can weave your very own story and click beautifully. 

"Basic Photography with Bake along #5"

So here I’m, again :). As we have completed the basics of camera and light and I think most of you understand what I wanted to convey in those write-ups. I hope you guys are now a bit comfortable with your camera settings so I want to introduce a fun element in our session. This would be more practical kind of thing in which you have to click and post the same week’s bake along recipe ;)

Today’s session onwards we will start discussing the best part of food photography i.e. Object/subject and its composition which is quite interesting :). Object in food photography is an interesting thing because you can eat it in the end :P and it grabs audience’s attention better than anything else :P. It can be a beautiful cake, cookies, brownies or anything. The main motto of these whole write-ups is to tell you how to present your food in a way that it looks appealing to the eyes. There are several techniques that a food photographer uses before clicking the picture. I hope to cover many of them and you guys have to promise me that you will apply them in clicking your photographs from now on.

Following are a few basic techniques for your click:

1. Placement of object- placement of an object is important. You have to see what suits you best. Sometimes the object looks good in centre of the frame but at times it looks better off-the-centre. So you have to decide which position is the best for you to capture the photo. Like in below pictures I wanted to capture the tumbler of strawberry ice-cream. 

Center 

Off center

In the first picture I placed it at the center of the frame and in the next picture it was little bit off center and I’m not wrong in saying that off center photo looks more appealing to us. This rule can benefit you in many other situations. Like if you have only few pieces of shapely cookies then keep them off center and focus on those shapely cookies only and let the other cookies off the frame or out of focus ;).

2. Angle- the angle of capturing the photo is equally important. There are two major levels i.e. eye level and overhead level. These two are regularly used by photographers worldwide. In every picture you have to see what you actually want to show in that. Most of the food photographers prefer eye level angle to capture their food. It is good but sometimes it loses details of the dish. 

Eye level angle

For example I clicked this strawberry ice cream from two angles one is overhead and another is eye level. From eye level angle, i captured not only the ice cream but also the front of the tumbler, so if you want to flaunt those flashy utensils you can use this angle ;) in the next picture, i captured the same ice cream but from the overhead angle to show the content of the tumbler.

Overhead angle

From the overhead angle the ingredients of the ice cream are clearly visible like fig chunks in the following fig ice cream photo.

3. Colour scheme -A colour wheel    

 

Courtesy: Google

      

Artists; especially painters, designers, photographers; always keep handy a colour wheel which enables them to decide the use of colour harmony in the painting or for clothes etc. Every food picture tells a story. So pick a theme in terms of colours. I’m sure you all know the value of colours in food, after all you guys are cake artists. But at times we all must have thought, oh! I should have used that colour or I should not have placed that mat or napkin or I should have used a different background colour there or a flower would look better in that corner. The colours you pick must look flowing with your main object it should compliment your object, not over shadow it. Like a flowers bouquet with different coloured flowers just behind your cake will confuse the viewer as what to see. Whether to see the cake or the beautiful bouquet? You have to assist not confuse. Even if you want to use the bouquet, make sure it contains such colour flowers due to which the photo looks flowing and not confusing. You can use the same side colours of the wheel to match colours or just diagonally opposite colours to show the contrast, like I choose 1. Violet and blue(same side) 2. Violet and yellow (diagonally opposite) 3. Violet and blue with hint of yellow. But you can’t abruptly pick any colours like red-violet or red-orange. I clicked a picture below and as you can see there is very little harmony in the colours of this picture except of the background which is almost neutral. 

                                            

I hope you guys will take care and refer the colour wheel in future :). In contrary of above photo, i clicked one more picture in which every colour is complimenting to each other. From the background colour to corn and to the coaster. Even my logo is in harmony :)

4. Background- Choosing a background for that perfect picture can be very very tricky. Your background should never ever dominate your main object. It should compliment your object and not overpower it. You should check what kind of background is suitable for the capturing a picture. You can try different backgrounds and see what suits your object and if you don’t understand what would be the best suited background then keep it neutral so that it won’t overshadow your object. You can use the colour wheel for choosing the colour of background in harmony with your object. A background can be of anything, from a table top to wall tiles, a simple plain coloured cloth to a coloured chart paper. You can use a wooden plank also. Floor tiles sometimes give a nice texture to the background. If the colour of your object is plain, like a plain vanilla cookie then you can use a bright multi-coloured background but make it sure that you use a small aperture setting to keep the object in focus and back ground blur. I clicked the following photos for independence day. Object of each photo is same but background is different.

So I’m concluding this week with an exercise to be performed by you and upload the photos.

Exercise no #1

Click this week’s bake along recipe with different background. Make sure you understand the colour wheel and pick colours according to it. Try to portray a story with your picture :). for all people who have already baked this week's brioche recipe or not baking because of some reason, try to click with any other object. All the very best!

"Tricolor eggless vanilla cookies and 68th Independence Day celebration"

A big warm Cookie J

Two years back I made this tricolor cake and it was a hit. Bubbling again with patriotism this year, on 15^th august I wanted to make something which represents the beautiful tricolors of our flag. What to bake for Independence Day? A cake! No I baked it already. Make dhokla! No, I want to bake something. Why not to make tricolor cookies? Good idea! But it will contain colors. That’s OK! I can eat colors once in a while J. 

Like our Flag

So for that I had to search for plain vanilla cookies and I googled again. I got few recipes there. But I needed an egg less cookies recipe because my mother doesn't eat eggs. After exploring few recipes, I selected this one from NDTV cook. I was a bit skeptical about the recipe as last time I picked some potato and poppy seeds gravy recipe from this site and it was not good but then these cookies were worth taking a chance. Ingredients are simple but flavor is intense. Cookies were crisp and crunchy just like the way I want. In last a question, is there anything better than a warm cookie just out of the oven? Think about it J.

Cute cookie

Ingredients

All purpose flour – 1 ½ cups

Vinegar – 1tsp

Butter at room temperature – 120 grams

Powdered sugar – ½ cup

Vanilla extract – 1 tsp

Milk – ¼ cup

Salt – 1 pinch

Colours – Orange and green (absolutely optional)

Method

1. Pre-heat oven at 170 degrees Celsius. Line a cookie tray with butter/ parchment paper.

2. In a big bowl, beat the sugar and butter on medium speed until the butter is creamy and fluffy.

3. Now add the vinegar and vanilla. Mix them well.

4. Add in the flour, salt and milk. Mix everything till well incorporated.

5. Now, divide the mix in three equal portions and add green and orange edible colors in two

    of the portions separately. For white color, we can rely on the natural color of this mix J

6. Now take equal and small marble size dough from each portion and give various shapes to

    these coloured balls and make innovative patterns of your choice J

JJJ

7. Bake them for 18-20 minutes or when they start getting brown.

   These plain cookies are so aromatic and tasty. You can eat them just like that or with a 

    mug of coffee or tea J.

  

 Enjoy!