My sister Masha, from Russia, shared a COVID baking recipe with me. Working from home is an opportunity to rest and do some self-care while working. She made cottage cheese bread from a recipe shared below. She wanted to know if the recipe was sattvic or if there were any changes to be made. I told her the bread was not sattvic due to the ingredients. Ma Masha, with integrity to becoming as sattvic as possible in her diet and lifestyle, asked if there was a way to makeover the recipe to meet sattvic requirements. In this blog post, I am sharing the makeover process and the considerations that went into the choice of ingredients.
- Here is the original recipe Ma Masha shared with me:
- 360 grams of flour (any kind can be mixed) = 1.5 cups
- 1 tsp soda
- 200 ml. cottage cheese (about 180 gr.) = 6.35 ounces
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1 tsp salt
- 300 ml. kefir = 10 ounce
- any seeds (optional)
- Notes:
- If you are using American cottage cheese, I would drain the liquid first.
- The dough is supposed to be thick.
- Heat oven to 375 Fahrenheit and bake for 50 minutes.
Here are some pictures Ma Masha shared with me.
Based on sattvic principles, I swapped several ingredients of the recipe to build a sattvic recipe.
- Salt: Unless you make the cottage cheese at home (paneer), store-bought cottage cheese has plenty of salt. Thus, eliminating salt will not impact the taste of the recipe.
- Fizz reaction of baking soda and baking powder helps to create air pockets that make the bread soft and porous. Adding lime or lemon juice catalyzes the creation of air pockets. It also replaces the need for the yeast to raise the dough. Since yeast is used in making Kafir and the baking soda and baking powder mixture with lime juice provided sufficiently.
- Instead of adding sugar in the recipe, it is better to sprinkle sugar over hot bread as soon as it is removed from the oven. You can brush warm buns or bread with the following mixture- One tablespoon milk+ one tablespoon oil beat the mixture with the spoon. Brush over warm bread and sprinkle one tablespoon sugar crystals.
- You can also use this recipe—One tablespoon oil + One tablespoon water beat well with water and brush over warm bread. Sprinkle one tablespoon sugar crystals.
- Red chili powder and black peppercorns give a twist of flavor.
- I also reduced the moisture in the dough to bake cookie rather than bread using this recipe. If you want to make bread or bun, increase the moisture content.
- Cooking food at high temperatures destroys nutritional components and produces toxic side effects. Cooking at high temperatures produces chemicals such as acrylamide, heterocyclic amines, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. Cooking foods at lower temperatures prevents the creation of potentially cancer-causing chemicals. However, reducing the heat to cook the food also means increasing the cooking time. Long cooking times also reduce the nutritional quality of the food. Choosing an optimum temperature to prepare food is vital for nutrition quality and taste. Sattvic foods are prepared on stove top fire with a little bit of oil and spices help to capture the nutrients.
- This modified recipe uses a 325-degree Fahrenheit oven for baking the cookies. While cooking, it is best not to go over 350-degree Fahrenheit.
Here is the final recipe to make #savory #biscuits. We also posted a youtube video of this recipe here. Please #share #subscribe #comment if you have tried the recipe.
If you have recipes that you would like to have a sattvic makeover, please feel free to contact livingsattva via email. Stay safe and healthy!
https://youtu.be/rfGm3xFPdgk
