Dil Pasand/ Dil Khush

And it’s a happy b’day to mil :D. What can I say? I am surrounded by way too many cancerians in my life and I am not complaining. What I find very interesting though is most of these people are so very different from each other but most of them are also very very dear to me! I definitely seem to attract the right kinda cancer :D. Anywho, day before yesterday I was telling Adya that 21st is Usha paati’s b’day. His face instantly brightened and he declared that we have to bake a cake for paati’s b’day. I suggested that he could check with his paati and ask what sweet she wants made or loves the most. Adya initially set out to ask the question with a good intention but couldn’t bring himself to ask the question since he did not want a ‘sweet’ but only a ‘cake’ (In his def, sweet does not mean cake :D) and so obviously, paati had no choice there. However, I thought I should try something other than the usual chocolate cake and figured I could try dil pasand. Been wanting to give it a try since there are some huge fans of it in my family (You know who if you are reading this :)) and my mil likes any Indian bakery item. Adya was still not happy with the choice and wanted a chocolate cake. He went to my mil asked her if she likes chocolate cake and came and told me that paati is ok with chocolate cake so let’s make that :D. Did not want to disappoint Adya and did not want to disappoint myself as well 😀 and so decided to make both. Adya was super excited and kept jumping around mostly and licking the flour, dough & the batter and of course claiming to the whole house that “WE” as a team were making 2 cakes (he was super cute and super excited).

And my oh my, the dil pasand was such a huge hit. Even Adya loved it. He now calls this dil pasand ‘cake’ :). I went throught a few recipes online and decided to stick to the usual pizza base recipe and use milk instead of water in that. The filling proportions were fairly standard wherever I saw and I used only cashews for the nutty component of the filling. The tutti fruity I could lay my hands on here do not taste as nice as the ones we get back home but the filling turned out absolutely stunning too. The only thing I would differently in this dish the next time around is to try and have the filling get clumpier with a little more addition of butter. And for those of you who know my struggle with getting breads of any kind to brown on top, I am very pleased to inform you that I have cracked that code with my oven 😀 😀 and I couldn’t be happier. I have mentioned the how part in the notes below and I would probably make a post for it for my own reference in the future and maybe it would come of help to a few others as well.

On a side note, we cut dil pasand ‘cake’ on Usha amma’s b’day eve and the chocolate cake on her b’day. It’s a lot of fun for me to see a generation that doesn’t value the b’day cake celebration mix in with the gen that associates nothing but a cake for a birthday :D. Usha amma enjoyed Adya enjoying the whole scene associated to her b’day and I enjoyed seeing usha amma enjoy seeing Adya enjoy and with this I should stop typing :D.

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Dil Pasand/ Dil Khush

Prep Time

15 mins

Cook Time

35 mins

Resting Time

1 hr 30 mins

 

Course: Dessert, Snack

Cuisine: Indian

Servings: 8 pieces

Ingredients

For the dough

• 1.5 cups all purpose flour/ maida
• 1.5 tsp sugar
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 tsp instant dry yeast
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 cup warm milk

For the filling

• 1/2 cup desiccated coconut
• 1/4 cup tutti fruity/ candied fruits
• 1.5 tbsp glaced cherries
• 10 nos cashews
• 2 tbsp powdered sugar
• 1/8 tsp cardamom powder
• 1.5 tbsp melted butter

For brushing

• 1/2 tsp olive oil
• 1/2 tsp milk
• 1/2 tsp butter

Instructions

The dough

1. Take a large bowl & add 1.5c all purpose flour, 1.5t sugar, 1/4t salt, 1t instant dry yeast. Mix it all using a fork.

2. Now add 2T olive oil & 1/2c warm milk.

3. Mix and knead using your hand till you have a smooth pliable dough.

4. Add a drizzle of oil on top & coat it all over.

5. Close the bowl with a lid/ wet cloth and set it aside for an hour.

6. After an hour, the dough would have doubled in its quantity.

The filling

1. Prep work – Finely chop cashews and cherries.

2. In a smaller bowl, place 1/2c desiccated coconut, tutti fruity, cherries, cashews, powdered sugar, cardamom powder, 1.5T melted butter.

3. Mix it all up & set it aside.

Putting the dish together

1. Take the dough out after an hour of resting. It should've doubled its quantity.

2. Punch the air out and divide the dough into 2 equal sized balls.

3. In a flat surface dust some flour & roll out one of the dough balls roughly to a 9" diameter (or to the size of whichever cake pan you are using)

4. Grease the bottom of a 9" cake pan and place this flattened dough on to it.

5. Spread the prepared filling on to the flattened dough leaving 1/2" of the sides free of filling (needed to seal)

6. Now spread the other dough ball to a 9" diameter (similar to the first) and place it on top of the filling.

7. Seal & press the ends on to the bottom dough.

8. Brush with a drizzle olive oil, cover with a lid/ wet cloth and set it aside for 30 minutes.

9. After 30 mins, take it out and with a knife, make an "X" slit on top. This helps with the dough to fluff up while baking.

10. Bake in a preheated oven of 180c for 20 minutes.

11. Take it out & brush 1/2t milk on top.

12. Continue baking for another 10-15 minutes.

13. Once the top browns, the dil pasand/ dil khush is ready. Take it out of the oven and smear 1/2t butter for a softer crust.

14. Leave it out for it to cool. Once cool, take it out of the cake pan, cut into slices and dig in!

Recipe Notes

1. You can use a mix of nuts instead of just cashews. 
2. Use candied fruits and candied/ glaced cherries. 
3. Make sure your desiccated coconut is at room temperature.
4. I wanted my filling to be more clumpy so the next time around I might add a little more butter while making the filling (0.5tsp maybe).
5. I have been struggling to get the top of any breads to brown and finally figured out what to do in my oven. I use a gas oven which has multiple racks. I used the top ones this time (2nd from the top to be precise). I kept the tray inside while pre heating and the preheating took longer (15 mins) but it was worth it. The crust was a gorgeous golden brown. 
6. The thickness of the crust seemed perfect for us. However, you can play around with a little more or little less thickness. 
7. You can use active dry yeast instead of instant dry yeast. 1t instant = 1 1/4t active dry yeast. So use it accordingly and oh, you will need to proof your yeast first if you are using active (one of the main reasons I prefer using instant).

Stepwise pictures