Goan Baath | Baatk | Semolina & Coconut Cake

Baath (aka Baatk or Batica), a cake with a golden brown crust atop a pale, dense yet airy body, is a traditional Goan cake with Semolina and Coconut as the master ingredients. What weaves them into a buttery, crumbly yet firm cake is the eggs, granulated sugar and butter (of course!). This particular recipe needs no other leavening agents (yes, you read that right, no baking powder nor baking soda) and it unwraps the subtle flavour of Cardamom as it melts upon your tongue.

This is another recipe I owe to my sister. (Thanks, Natly!)

Tips/suggestions:

• Keep the flame on low when frying the semolina; we don’t need to brown it (browning it will affect the colour of the final cake)
• Dry grind the fresh, grated coconut. This cake needs no additional water.
• Use room temperature butter and eggs. This is usually the thumb rule when it comes to baking any cake unless mentioned otherwise.
• Using granulated sugar is highly recommended for this cake. The sugar doesn’t completely dissolve during the preparation process, but melts into the batter when in the oven. It helps give it a soft crumb.
• When whisking the egg whites, do so in a super-clean and large bowl. Why ‘super’ clean? Any kind of residual fats/contaminants tend to inhibit the whites from turning foamy peaks. Also, be careful to not add any bit of yolk to this. If any yolk breaks and drops into it, try to separate it using a spoon, gently. Why a large bowl? Because the volume doubles due to the incorporation of air and also because whisking is easier.
• Whisk the egg whites till soft peaks are formed, for best results. As you whisk the foamy mix, keep lifting up the whisk every once in a while to check if the foam peak rises and then gently curls downwards.
• I use a microwave cum convection oven (which has a fan); preheated for 15 minutes at 160 degrees Celsius. If using an OTG, use the recommended mode for baking as mentioned in the oven’s user guide/use your experiential expertise/watch tutorials available online.
• Most cakes contract/shrink when removed from the oven to room temperature, as a physical reaction. The best way to avoid this is to allow gradual cooling. I recommend the Baath cake to be kept in the switched-off oven’s heat for 15 minutes, then another 15 minutes with the oven door open, and then at room temperature.  

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon of Dalda (hydrogenated vegetable fat)/ghee
• 1 and 1/2 cups of Semolina (250 gms)
• 2 and 1/2 cups of grated Coconut (220 gms or 2 small coconuts)
• 1 and 1/2 cups of granulated Sugar (300 gms)
• 5 Egg yolks
• 3 Egg whites
• 1/2 cup of Salted Butter at room temperature (125 gms)
• 1 teaspoon of Vanilla essence
• 1/2 teaspoon of Cardamom powder
• 2 pinches of Salt

Method:

1. Heat the clarified butter/dalda in a vessel and add the semolina to it and fry it for 2-3 minutes on a low flame. The objective is to coat the semolina particles; do not brown them. Then let it cool.

2. Grind the grated coconut without water using a dry grinding blade.

3. Beat the egg yolks with sugar. The mix must turn pale yellow; don’t be concerned about the undissolved sugar.

4. Add the vanilla essence, the cardamom powder, the butter, salt and mix well.

5. Incorporate all the ground coconut. The batter will be thick.

6. When combined, add the roasted semolina and mix well.

7. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites till nice and fluffy (soft peak stage) and fold it into the prepared batter and mix well.

8. Cover it and let it rest for 8 hours at room temperature.

9. Grease a baking tin with oil, line it on the bottom and sides with parchment paper and brush some oil over that as well.

10. Transfer the thick batter into the tin and smoothen the surface. Tap it upon the counter 3-4 times to ensure no gaps are present within. Bake this at 160 degrees Celsius for 45 minutes (middle rack) or till a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean.

12. Once baked, keep it in the oven’s heat for 15 minutes; the another 15 minutes with the oven door opened slightly. Then, let it cool completely at room temperature. Remove from the mould, and pull away the parchment gently.

 

Enjoy a piece of this crumbly, buttery cake as per the size of a wedge you like!

You can watch the video here:

Dev Borem Korum | Thanks and God Bless