Lemon Pudding

I love watching cookery shows, and its probably the only thing i usually watch on tv.

Donna hay is my new favorite, i love her recipes as they are really simple and easy to make in a few minutes.

i have been thinking about trying a lemon cake for a long time now, but that day has not yet come (hopefully soon). when i saw this recipe for a lemon pudding i really wanted to try it, although i was sceptical about the whole lemon in it, what with pith a all.

anyways after much contemplating with myself i decided to give it a go...and even though i changed the recipe quiet a bit for my liking it still turned out exactly like described. Sweet..velvety...with an amazing crust on top...Now i'm a bigger fan...

the changes i made to the original recipe

• I cut down the sugar
• used 2 eggs instead of 3 yolks
• used milk instead of cream

Ingredients:

1 whole lemon

180 ml cream / 200 ml milk

200 g sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla essence

3 tbsp corn flour

30 g melted butter

Method:

Mix sugar and lemon (cut into eights and deseeded) in a food processor and mix till lemon is finely ground. Add cream and mix further. Add the eggs and vanilla, and mix. Add the corn flour and pulse for a few seconds.

Pour into greased individual ramekins or a single oven proof dish.

Bake in a preheated oven at 170° C for 25 -30 minuted until just set.

Can be served warm or chilled. Can top with vanilla ice-cream or whipped cream

Wholesome Yeasted Nachni Muffins

this one is a true experiment....why so...

well, I had some left over cookie dough after i tried making teething cookies for my 8 month old. The problem with the cookies, they didn't turn out crisp and were very crumbly, although the taste was good. could be because of more liquid in it as i added applesauce, or could b because i didn't add any baking powder or soda, as they were for an infant.

anyways i decided against making cookies out of the rest of the dough, and thought i can finish the dough by making muffins out of it.

since i didn't add any leavening agent in the dough, i was thing id baking powder mixed in water or milk, and then mixed with the dough would work. then i thought why not try leavening them with yeast instead.also b'coz i had bought some fresh yeast for making pizzas, but didn't get to make them and didn't want to waste the yeast. so I thought why not experiment.

the result, well i think i added a bit too much yeast (20 - 25 g), and they were smelling a bit to yeasty, other than that you could say i was like a combination of a bread and cake, not too bad, but not that good either. 

If i do try it again with less yeast will let you know...

Ingredients:
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 egg
3 tbsp applesauce
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp dried ginger powder (optional)
1/4 cup nachni flour
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
5 tsp oats
1/4th cup lukewarm milk
1 large banana chopped
15g fresh yeast

Method:
soak the yeast in some lukewarm water with 1 tsp sugar for 5 to 10 minutes
cream butter and sugar until light and creamy. Add the egg and beat well, add in the apple sauce. add in the yeast, stir in the milk
sieve the dry ingredients separately, a mix into the wet mixture. Add the chopped bananas and mix.
cover and keep for 45 minute to an hour in a warm and dark place. (i use a switched off preheated oven for yeasted recipes if the weather is not favorable)
the mixture will become frothy after an hour.
spoon 2 tbsp into a lined muffin tin and bake in a preheated oven at 180 for 12 - 15 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

a bit bready from the inside....
but extremely soft

Moist Chocolate Cake

everyone should have a no fail chocolate cake recipe. a simple and quick recipe that can be mixed minutes and turn out absolutely yumm. the kind of recipe that can be frosted whichever way you want and can be turned into absolutely fabulous party cakes or pastries.
So when i saw this recipe, i knew i had to try it because it looked so easy and yet so yummy. And after trying it i was immediately reminded of the pilsburry cake mix cakes that i used to bake in my teens...but without the mix, it tasted just the same...moist chocolaty goodness...
this is the hershey's moist chocolate cake recipe, but i first saw it on this page. I've halved the recipe as even this much makes quite a lot (a 6 inch round cake)

Ingredients:

1 cup sugar
1 ¼ cups all purpose flour
2/3 cup cocoa powder
¾ tsp baking powder
¾ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
1 egg
½ cup milk
¼ cup vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
½ cup boiling water

Method :

Heat oven to 180°c. Grease and flour your baking pans.

Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large mixing bowl. Add the eggs, oil, milk and vanilla; beat on medium speed for 2 minutes. Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin).

Pour batter into prepared pans. Bake for 30 – 35 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in the centre comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes and remove from pan.

Let the cake cool completely before icing as desired. 

first time i tried this recipe i frosted it with hazelnut ganache

the other two pictures the left one is a simple ganache with sliced strawberries in the centre and top. and the right one is a very impromtu icing of coffee whipped cream and chocolate ganache (but it was still delicious )

i'm telling you this recipe has never failed me as of yet. and hopefully will not in the future.would love to try it for a black forest cake next.

Chocolate Truffles

what could be the best compliment one can get for something they have made ? ....

any guesses ?? well for me the best compliment i got for these was...people ate them b'fore i had a chance to serve them....confused ?

I made truffles for the first time last Eid and had thought i would serve them in them evening, but in the evening when i opened the fridge, i discover that half of them are already gone !!! My cousins couldn't wait till the evening and they just checked the fridge knowing i would have made something and enjoyed them while i was having a nap...what could be a better compliment..you don't even ave to serve it.

after i made truffles for the first time.. the first thing i thought to myself was that, why haven't i tried this earlier..they are so simple and yet so yummmm.

since this was the first time i tried them, i had made basic chocolate truffles, and the variation was only in the coatings where i used almonds, chocolate sprinkles, cocoa powder and desiccated coconut. i did later try some hazelnut truffles and coffee truffles which were even better.

Ingredients:

400 g of dark chocolate or milk chocolate

200g of fresh cream

Flavoring – coffee/hazelnut powder or almond powder/orange zest/mint essence

Cocoa powder/chopped nuts/crushed toffee/crushed peppermint/crushed biscuits/desiccated coconut for rolling.

Method :

Finely chop the chocolates and place in a bowl.

Heat the cream on slow flame, stirring constantly until boiling. Pour boiling cream over the chocolate, wait for a minute and then mix into a smooth paste.

Refrigerate for 4 -5 hours or overnight so that it gets firm. Use a melon baller or a tablespoon to remove and shape with hands into small balls coat with desired coating and chill.

Coffee flavored – add 1 tsp of coffee powder while boiling the cream.

Hazelnut / almond – add 1 - 2 finely ground hazelnut or almond powder for every 100g of chocolate

Mint – add 1 tsp of peppermint extract to prepared ganache or boil handful of mint leaves with the cream. Let it steep for half an hour. Strain the leaves, boil again and use to prepare ganache.

Orange – boil orange peel with cream; Let it steep for half an hour. Strain the leaves, boil again and use to prepare ganache.

carrot halwa

If you are an Indian, You most probably love Gajar Halwa . evry Indian household has its own recipe of gajar(carrot) halwa, some add no milk, some add khoya, some add only milk, other condensed milk...the list will be endless. the carrots used are usually the red ones you get in winter, which are sweeter than the regular carrots, and it makes this a special winter treat. and you will find mother or grandmother making pots full of halwa in the winter to send to their children or grand children. b'coz lets face it moms love feeding their children and more so their grand children.
My moms recipe is one where she adds a lot of milk to the carrots, and the whole thing is then slow cooked for hours until the milk is completely reduced...time consuming .... yes... but also the best.

I had some left over short crust tart shells that i used to server them in.
the biscuit added a nice twist to it.
My very own Gajar halwa tarts.












Ingredients:

1 – 1½ kg carrots, peeled and grated
1 ½ - 2 L milk

250g sugar
50g cashews, coarsely chopped

50g almonds, coarsely chopped

50g pistachios, coarsely chopped

3 - 4 pcs green cardamom

3 tbsp ghee

Few strands of saffron

Method:

Start cooking the carrot on medium flame in a non-stick pan. Add 250 ml of milk at a time and cook till slightly reduced before adding more milk, until gradually all the milk has been added to the carrots. Also add the saffron, split cardamom and chopped nuts while cooking the carrots.

When the milk has been almost completely reduced, add the sugar and cook till dissolved. Keep cooking till halwa starts leaving the sides of the pan.

Add the ghee and cook for another 5 -8 minutes, while stirring continuesly.

Remove from heat and garnish with sliced nuts.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Some classics need no introduction or description, And fresh out of the oven chocolate chip cookies is one of them.
i myself am not a big fan of cookies...i mean i like to have one or two once in a while but would always prefer a cake to a cookie, and hence i rarely bake cookies, because the recipes are usually for big batches that i know i'm not gonna eat. But once in a while my brothers either force me or bribe or blackmail me (in return for some other favor) to bake them their favorite cookies. And hence the cookies.

this is a classic hershey's chocolate chip cookie recipe that i got from the back of the hershey's chocolate chips packet many years ago...it turned out pretty perfect and i never felt the need to go looking for another recipe, although over the years i have started substituting half of the all purpose flour with whole wheat. it still turns out pretty perfect and nobody has to know about the whole wheat.

Ingredients:

1 cup all purpose flour
1 ¼ cup whole wheat flour

½ teaspoon salt

1 cup butter, softened

½ cup granulated sugar

¾ cup brown sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 eggs

2 cups chocolate chips

1 cup chopped nuts (optional)

Method:

Preheat oven to 180°C

sift the flours and keep aside.

In a large bowl beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla until creamy. Add eggs and beat well. Gradually add the flour mixture beating well.

Stir in the chocolate chips and chopped nuts.

Drop by rounded teaspoons unto ungreased cookie sheet and bake for 8 to 10 minutes until lightly browned.

Makes around 5 dozen cookies.

I reserved some of the plane cookie dough(before adding the chocolate chips), kept it in the fridge overnight and made chocofils with it.
all you have to do is shape small portions into a ball shape, make an indentation in the middle and fill it with a small piece of chocolate, close the dough ball so that the chocolate is in the middle and bake the same way as the chocolate chip cookies.
And voila...yummy chocofils..that even a non cookie person like me ate quite a few.















You can also bake plain cookies and sandwich
them caramel sauce or chocolate ganache. to make
sandwich cookies.

Savoury Muffins

I do love to make desserts and feed them to my family and friends... but when it comes to my personal preference..i'm more of a savory person.
So when i saw this recipe for savory muffins.....i Thought to myself..MUFFINS.....and SAVORY.....I got to try these.....
these are perfect as an evening snack with a dollop of ketchup or just like that....or to serve to guests.
the best part of the recipe is that u can put whatever you want in it. just like a sandwich.
I didn't follow this recipe exactly, just used the same base recipe and did whatever i liked with it. and you can do the same... i think these would taste even better if I use yeast as the leavening agent instead of baking powder and soda...and after trying my yeasted nachni muffins, i think i'm sometime in the future i'm gonna try this same recipe with yeast...

Ingredients:

1 cup flour

½ tbsp baking powder

¼ tsp baking soda

½ tsp oregano

½ cup plain yoghurt

½ cup cheddar cheese

1 egg

⅛ Cup butter (2 – 3 tbsp)

¼ cup capsicum, chopped

¼ cup onion, chopped 

⅛ cup boiled chicken or sweet corn

⅛ cup pizza sauce/ tomato ketchup

¼ cup shredded mozzarella cheese

4 cloves garlic, crushed

1 tsp red chili flakes

½ tsp salt

1 tbsp sugar. 

Method:

Preheat oven to 200°C

In a medium sized bowl, mix flour, baking powder, salt, sugar, baking soda, oregano and pepper flakes. Stir in the cheddar cheese.

In another bowl, whisk yoghurt, eggs and butter. Stir in the flour mixture and mix until just blended. Add the pizza sauce, capsicum, onion and chicken at the very end.

Fill muffin cups and sprinkle with mozzarella cheese and oregano. Bake for 20 mins.

Serve with tomato ketchup.

Mawa Cake

Whats special about a mawa cake?
Ask any Indian and you will get various answers, I think its the best accompaniment for your hot cup of Chai on a lazy evening. Available in almost any Indian bakery either as cupcakes , or a loaf cake or a big circular cake, the sweet milky flavour of it is very hard to resist
I personally don't like the taste of mawa or khoya in any desserts and usually use its western substitute..that is Milk Powder.
this is a recipe that I saw ages ago on Khana khazana (when it was the only indian cookery show on tv), its simple, and although the orignal recipe is eggless and turns out pretty good, if you like to add eggs to your cakes you can do that too. ( i think the eggs makes it less crumbly).
I have made this cake hundreds of times and with many variations, you can do whatever you like with the basic recipe. add some whole wheat, or some other flour, can add dried ginger, lemon zest, cinnamon, nuts, tutti frutti (if you like it ), chopped fruit ....the list is endless..use your imagination. its a very flexible recipe.

Ingredients:

¾ th cup butter

¾ th cup powdered sugar

Refined Flour ( or half whole wheat and half refined flour)

5 tbsp milk powder

1 ½ tbsp mawa (optional)

1 ½ cups refined flour

2 tsp cornstarch/1 egg

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

¼ cup buttermilk

2 -8 tbsp milk(depending on consistency) 

Method:

cream butter and sugar. Mix in sifted milk powder, maida, corn starch, baking soda and baking powder, add the mawa and butter milk, mix well and add the milk to adjust the consistency of the batter. Bake for 30 minutes at 170°C.

 I had added a tsp of cinnamin powder in this one and dusted the top with a mix of cinnamon and powdered sugar.
But like i said before you can do anything with the basic recipe.