Better Breads & Spreads

Better Breads & Spreads Breggies (Vegetable & Herb Breads)
Fruit Breads
Protein Spreads
Nut Butters
Vegan
Preservative Free

Better Breads belongs to Better Breads, Bakes & Foods (Pte) Ltd, Singapore. It is a zero waste, green business projected to operate as a social enterprise worldwide. Better Production in Singapore is now handled by our contract manufacturer Bake Mission Pte Ltd which despatches happen from The Baker's Residence

Is it a sign of catching up with my Mom's ways and being cognizant of age catching up on the wrong side that one now see...
11/16/2021

Is it a sign of catching up with my Mom's ways and being cognizant of age catching up on the wrong side that one now seek's perfect pictures of The Self or then is it the visual pressure of all pervasive media of the likes of Instagram?

Like most things in life including eating choices & patterns... it seems like this is multifactorial but am certainly beginning to feel the होलिस्तिच्नेस्स

The Seasonal Re-Gig...From an Evergreen Summer to Falling in Love with Fall all over again. 2021 is beginning to feel li...
11/16/2021

The Seasonal Re-Gig...From an Evergreen Summer to Falling in Love with Fall all over again. 2021 is beginning to feel like such a special transition.

Thanksgiving with Sibbies, nieces & nephews is around the corner. Feeling a deeper & deeper sense of gratitude in every moment of Being Alive... and no complaints at all over the bite in the air...loving the nip and plan to run a few sprints + walk farther today 🥰

Am rising pre Brahmamuhuratam, still trying to crack the Bhagavad Gita's Moksha Sannyasa Yoga ahead of 25 Nov 2021...plus gap fill on Chapters 15, 16, 17 of this incredible epic...now that the year + of Vedic Chanting has fixed the brain and brought Citta Suddhi of some level as evident in emotional regulation and a more even temperament in an ever shifting environment, including quite a flux in the microenvironment.

Oh Well! Back to the focus of this post. Baked on Day 4 in McClean, Northern Virginia, USA and 14 year old Anika and her Peeps have approved so here is the experimental recipe for these multigrain banana muffins all done in The Little Better Bakery's Red Vitamix that has been ported back to the US.

2 large soft bananas (3 would have been better IMHO!)
1 cup ragi/nachni flour
1 cup whole wheat Einkorn flour
1 cup olive oil
4 heaped serving spoons jaggery powder
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp all spice powder

Blitzed the ingredients in the above pecking order in the same blender jar and made a pourable consistency batter.

Baked at 350 F for 15 min in a pre-heated oven.

Yo! But I ate 2 this morning with my mint Pukka tea... so much for putting restraint into action on self and modeling + embodying the Gita's tenets. 'Tis a long way to go

Majulah Singapura!To think it's been 14 months since a post was put up on Instagram.So much has happened with the stilln...
08/10/2021

Majulah Singapura!

To think it's been 14 months since a post was put up on Instagram.

So much has happened with the stillness and protected time of the Covid-19 times.

For one...one has baked and shared over a 100 cakes for acquaintances, friends & more.

Yesterday 9 Aug 2021...a new creation for Singapura came alive.

It's a chilli chocolate cake marbled with a simple vanilla that was doped with Hershey's butterscotch & seasalt caramel nibbles...then garnished with an infusion of a toffee sauce, pinenuts, red chilli flakes & high quality Goji berries or Chinese red dates.

Baked 4 loaves with a 500g slab of Amul butter, 8 Dasoon Fresh eggs, 500g Lin home powdered brown sugar and 700g self raising flour. Marigold fresh milk was poured (24 tbsp as a guideline) in to make the cake batter pourable and the bake was 180 C for 40min.

Quite a winner it seems!

A red velvet chilli with pure vanilla sugee beckons too!

Thank you Singapore for keeping us safe and for access to urban parks.

Please do keep the cost of living proportionate the earning power of the times.




Sunshine Cookies...Good Day style for late night studies over Ganesh Chaturthi! 28 Aug 2020.Narangi & Crunchy, Sun forti...
08/28/2020

Sunshine Cookies...Good Day style for late night studies over Ganesh Chaturthi!

28 Aug 2020.

Narangi & Crunchy, Sun fortified orange peels & a 10min bake at 180 C...easy, peasy as all good recipes should be

Received the basic recipe over a What's App exchange from Supriya Khanna so put it to test this afternoon just for fun. Her version has double the butter & sugar + is vanilla essence based.

Had been drying out peels of baby oranges for more orange 🍊 cakes and just in general...since we are a minimal waste household & they have such a lovely colour & aroma.

So here goes:

Ingredients:
Almond meal - 2 cups almonds (360g)
Powdered sugar - 3 tbsp
Softened grass fed unsalted butter - 4 tbsp
Almond essence - 1 tsp
Orange blossom essence - 1 tsp
Homemade orange rind powder - 6 tsp
Himalayan salt - 1 tsp

Method:
This makes about 35 cookies

Soak almonds for 4hr in warm water.
Rinse well.
Roast at 180 C for 10min
Cool & blend to make almond meal flour.

Mix all the ingredients to form a soft dough.
Make small balls.
Flatten each ball with additional soft butter in palm as needed to hold shape and not crumble
Make criss cross shapes by depressing a fork in each flattened ball.
Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or till the cookies start to brown.
Allow to cool for 15 minutes before serving with a tea/coffee of choice.

We had them with peppermint chai and an orange pekoe brew.

Remember butter is better than a refined vegetable oil both from a stability & nutritive perspective.

For vegan inspirations of these check out

https://www.powerhungry.com/2018/03/3-ingredient-almond-flour-cookies-vegan-grain-free-paleo/




Tiranga Jhanda Day...India's Independence Day. 15 Aug 2020.Remembering https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45668/gita...
08/15/2020

Tiranga Jhanda Day...India's Independence Day. 15 Aug 2020.

Remembering https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45668/gitanjali-35 even as I dock these most critical pics of reconfiguring flawless recipe for a lemon drizzle cake into its "narangi" 🍊 avatar for a few friends.

The recipe is identical to the 🍋 original. See https://www.instagram.com/p/CB-Kgq6Fopv/?igshid=a6a9unfh4d48

2 modifications.

(1) Sugar was powdered with home dried (sun + oven) orange rind to create almost a marmalade texture within the cake
(2) The drizzle "poke in" infusion style was done with orange rind, orange juice and lemon juice...thickened a bit by low temp heating. No sugar needed though unintentionally used here.

The orange blossom flower essence is what a Lebanese friend introduced me to years ago. Incredible fragrance for light desserts. Used here in the cake mix. Not necessary.

Egg whites with their looser peripheries and tighter parts protecting the emulsified yolks are being viewed differently these days as too the impact of flour/starch and sugar on insulin response vis a vis the nutrient dense calories from quality butter with its fat soluble vitamins A D E K, Omega 3:6 and butyrate.

Given how delicious King Kona's birthday cake was with minimal sweetness from organic, raw honey...realize how much scope there is to reinvent skinny tarts & their fillings, Better cakes, calzones Karonji style, scones, biscottis and more for the vegan community with nut flour blends and coconut fillings.

The world of Better possibilities.



Everytime I bake a cake which hasn't been oft in the past few years but is increasingly happening rather frequently in r...
07/21/2020

Everytime I bake a cake which hasn't been oft in the past few years but is increasingly happening rather frequently in recent times to "gift" to friends with love...am reminded of how much my world view on food and it's constituents has so dramatically changed in the past year thanks to GuideDoctor.com

Used to see flour/starch and sugar (well that not so much) as rather benign in the past and like many of my friends...butter as the ugly source of fats and calories, eggs too as the rather sickening & heavy ingredient.

And yet these days I see them as nutritious and sources of essential nourishment while being increasingly appalled with not just the sugar but increasingly the flour...which is nothing but a linear polymer of sugar.

So if you missed the 1st of the Evergreen Health talks on 5 & 8 July which will go on a spool every couple weeks...ping me if you would like to tune in for free for one on Fats in less than 12hr from now.

It's a highly illuminating, scientifically backed knowledge sharing session steeped in experiential learnings & practical wisdom to apply in one's daily life with family.




Chocolate Cake aplenty that's filled our tummies, souls and more over this weekend...all thanks to a recipe brought to ...
07/20/2020

Chocolate Cake aplenty that's filled our tummies, souls and more over this weekend...all thanks to a recipe brought to attention and a YouTube channel that's turning out to be such a source of discovery into B**g & Anglo Indian dishes + so much joy.

https://youtu.be/dtyekBblwkA
https://www.bongeats.com/recipe/chocolate-cake

Lots of learning...for one never tweak a perfect recipe including the moulds...and always go single measure the first time:)

Me doubled up the recipe...so it was 2 large cakes for friends and 4 mini ones in cheesecake moulds to freeze for other Better times.😁

Used Belgian Cocoa https://www.callebaut.com/en-OC/chocolate-cocoa-nuts/cp/cocoa-powder bought at Phoon Huat, Buona Vista MRT and it was very, very good...smooth, dark and so unlike the "in hindsight" rathet average Hershey's😞

Used French double cream, sadly UHT for the ganache on the top and Slovenian Dark Chocolate 70% in the melt and grate/sprinkle. Very good quality too.

A must repeat down the line staying more true to the original recipe with moulds and ganache in sandwich style.

So remembered my sister Sarita and me helping my mom bake her superlative marble chocolate pound cake. Now wish that recipe were somewhere accessible!

18 July 2020







The scientific name of coconut is Cocus nucifera and a story I would share oft with the scores of little children/Green ...
07/16/2020

The scientific name of coconut is Cocus nucifera and a story I would share oft with the scores of little children/Green Dots who would visit when in my avatar as Big Green Dot would be of why?

You see Cocus means monkey in Portuguese and nucifera is nut-bearing. When coconuts fall into the sea and their hairy outers fray away...you spot the 3 germinating pores that look like the eyes and nose of a monkey! It's true and interestingly squirrels know exactly where to drill a perfect hole right through the central pore and siphon the nutritious coconut water away...all possibly through tapping and sensing the weak, centric, nosey spot.

So we humans who can't as yet climb the vertical trees like the native Keralites & yogic squirrels rarely get to have our own garden coconuts!

But as luck would have it...one fell intact few days ago and my multi-handy Better Half managed to use some screwdrivers to pry away at it this morning then cracked it open exactly in half.

So this morning we celebrated with IIttala glasses from Finland and did a toast with 3 is company, Eterna included.

It's also one of my favourite desserts with gur...the way Mom packed it in school dabbas oft with peanuts as a lunch dessert so we pounded some gula melaka to enjoy it.

In fact my mother would bring me coconuts and plants from our home in Poona...so auspiciously tucked away in her suitcase and so connected were our gardens and lives.

As for coconut oil for South Indian seasonings and savoury grain bite type bakes + hair usage...prefer patronising the Sri Lankan & Philippines brands from Mustafa's. They smell neutral and non rancid but don't unfortunately come light protected. Have been tested on deep frying but they do smoke towards the end and that's left me wondering.




As life goes we don't eat Indian style with rotis or rice anymore everyday. Now stand confirmed as someone with impaired...
07/16/2020

As life goes we don't eat Indian style with rotis or rice anymore everyday. Now stand confirmed as someone with impaired carbohydrate metabolism me thinks. What an irony.

My better half is so flexible and non-demanding that since I've dialed back on the grains, he's just kept pace with me.

The foundation of our meals is unlimited veggies above ground with eggs/fish/chicken/prawns/tofu/paneer/yoghurt as protein.

And I try to remember to include fat all the time...whether from EVOO, ghee, butter or some nuts & seeds.

Given that it has been 3 days of carb skewed meals this week with this being the 4th...guess am docking it only because we've probably made banana flowers only for the 2nd or 3rd time in our home.

We went veggie shopping to Buffalo Road near Tekka on Tuesday and the man picked up two banana blossoms/blooms recalling Gipshi making it with coconut. He seemed to think our Philippino helper would be able to wing it!:)

So we made it along with begun bhaja, basmati rice with ghee and a dilute tur dal varan/jhol style sans a tadka. Simple meal but filled the B**g boy's heart with joy.

The 2 recipes we adapted from:

https://youtu.be/AK2T-kt582o
https://youtu.be/EekgtH5s6VA

And that's chaas/dilute buttermilk with fresh coriander & ginger in the glass




Last Saturday was with a family that one feels so easy & compatible with. It was a much overdue get-together to welcome ...
07/16/2020

Last Saturday was with a family that one feels so easy & compatible with. It was a much overdue get-together to welcome their eldest, incumbent daughter-in- law at our home for the first time as well. So we maxed out with the new Covid-19 Phase 2 rules of a gathering of 5 invitees and enjoyed our banter & some singing together immensely.

They brought us a beautiful lantern with a scented candle which we plan to hang from our neem tree for the next fancy dinner at home. In addition the young couple brought us these gorgeous lilies....my mother's favourites and it seemed to synchronize as a gift of remembrance for her 8th death anniversary month.

The menu was simple. The family is vegetarian but the younger generation eats non-vegetarian and it seemed safe to do a chicken. Have been wanting to try a whole roast chicken and do it multiple styles - Philippino Adobo, Moroccan Tagine, Indian Tandoori even Thai/South East Asian so our helper prepped both the whole broccoli & the Sakura Chicken (from Fairprice, Bukit Timah) by boiling them al dente in salted water and rubbing in some Tandoori powder blends. Then they were both baked covered with ample drizzle of EVOO in my Le Creuset pots. Stirfried oyster mushrooms with soyabean sprouts formed a ring around the Tandoori broccoli while thinly sliced onions with salt & lemon were kept as a side for the whole Tandoori chicken.

Common items were red, basmati rice from Sri Lanka (which was too steeply priced and worked out no different in looks than a red cargo rice), a cherry tomato salad with Himalayan salt, coarsely ground black pepper and fresh basil from the garden.

There was also a gongura dal...made slightly differently from the traditional Andhra way. The base was a mung & masoor dal + remains of a carrot ajwain soup. Had made a neutral, not too spicy gongura pachadi with organic leaves our neighbours had shared. So doped it in. And also used a dehydrated coconut powder from.Kara I was testing to balance the tartness.

Dessert was Hagen Dazs Green Tea Matcha & Belgian Dark Chocolate.

We enjoyed the sit down meal and the bread knives were out to slice the broccoli & chicken.



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