Baked Savoury Gujiya With Corn Stuffing| भुट्टे के दानों की बेक्ड गुजिया

 
Hi All!!

My city is turning hot and humid and my days are most busy with parents around, son’s upcoming exams and regular chores at home and amidst all this chaos I’m gearing up for the first ever IFBMeet at Bangalore. I’m both nervous and excited. There’s excitement to meet the faces behind the well known food blogs and to stay together with a few blogger friends but there’s equal amount of nervousness which I really can’t understand why, I would call it as the fear for the unknown..

The few of the sponsors of the IFBmeet have encouraged bloggers to participate in contests, challenging to cook and create recipes  based on a core ingredient. Freedom Tree has thrown a challenge to the participants of IFBMeet to bake a savoury dish  which has fresh corn as one of the main ingredient. They are giving out a bake ware hamper to a winner. Browsing through their site I realised, there’s so much I would like to pickup as I’m always on a look out for props..

I was more than happy using fresh corn as it’s quite a versatile ingredient. I use it quite regularly in my cooking. I wanted to make something interesting using it and my head started thinking about various options, finally it settled on creating a dish which is other wise deep fried but if baked can be made healthier with less usage of oil.

I have posted the Kairichi Vaatli daal earlier and this preparation can also be filled inside a rolled home made pastry sheet and deep fried. It is then called  Daal Karanji which is a very popular preparation in Maharashtra during the month of Chaitra but since it’s deep fried it has very high calories. Making a daal karanji and that too a  low calorie version has been playing in mind  since long and baking can certainly reduce the calorie intake. So thinking on the lines of baked vaatli daal karanji I tried to create this  preparation. So, I cooked corn quite similar to how I made daal and then filled it in a rolled out pastry dough and baked it. This version has less amount of fat and calories as compared to the deep fried version.

I wanted to keep intact the colour of the corn, so I did not use any such ingredients which could harm the colour also I used ingredients which would enhance more of yellow colour, so I used turmeric, saffron and yellow chilli powder, each of which enhanced the yellow colour. I also added some khoya which provided adequate binding to the stuffing.

The result was a crisp Gujiya which had much low oil and a nice savoury filling. It is a nice preparation for snacking.

Sending this savoury corn karanji or gujiya as "an entry to the IFBM and Freedom Tree Baking Contest"

Savoury Baked Corn Gujiya

Preparation Time:1hour | Resting Time:30mins | Baking Time:16-18mins | Makes:19-20pieces | Serves:4-5 | Difficulty: Moderate

 

Ingredients

For Corn Stuffing

200gms frozen corn

2tbsp oil

2-3tbsp khoya/ milk powder

2-3tbsp low fat milk +large pinch saffron

a large pinch asafoetida

1tsp yellow chilli powder

1/2tsp fennel powdered

1/2tsp white pepper powder

2-3tsp coriander powder

1/2tsp cumin powder

a pinch of turmeric

1/4 to 1/2tsp ginger powder

lemon juice as per taste ( I added about 1tbsp juice)

salt to taste

For The Cover/Pastry

1-1/4cups/125gms of all purpose flour/maida

2-1/2tbsp Clarified butter/ghee (melted) or oil

1/4cup warm milk

Method

For Corn Stuffing

In a microwave safe glass container roast the khoya for 1min on high else roast in a pan.

Thaw the corn, rinse and drain. Grind it coarsely in a mixer grinder.

Heat oil/ghee (ghee gives better taste) and on low flame add asafoetida, fennel powder followed by turmeric and corn, sauté and mix properly.

Once half cooked, add the spices and cook thoroughly till it starts leaving edges.

Lastly add khoya and saffron-milk mix. Cook for a minute and switch off the flame.

The consistency of the filling should not be dry nor should it be wet. It should be soft and slightly wet, else it would dry up while baking. Mix the lemon juice at the last.

For The Cover

In the flour mix the ghee and rub gently. Add milk gradually and knead a firm dough, if required use more milk.

Rest the dough for half an hour. Keep covered with a wet cloth.

Knead the dough again and break it into 15-16 pieces.

Make smooth balls and flatten them. Roll into a round, thin disc of 3-4inch diameter.

Take a gujiya/ karanji mould and place the rolled disc over it.

Fill a teaspoon of filling into one part. Apply water on the edges and then close the mould to seal the edges. This would form a D shape.

Remove the excess part and keep it covered under wet cloth.

Keep the gujiya covered under wet cloth.

Make all gujiya’s in this way.

Preheat the oven at 200C.

Grease a baking tray/dish and line the gujiyas over it. Bake for 7-8mins first till light golden colour appears on the top surface.

Remove and apply a milk wash on both the sides, turn the gujiyas to bring lower side up and bake on the other side for 7-8mins or till a nice golden hue is seen.

Remove and serve hot or one can store it for about a day.