Chocolate Fudge

Melt in your mouth cubes..

I you are from Mumbai, or have been to any of the maharashtrian hill station (matheran, mahabaleshwar, khandala, lonavla). You would have surely brought bag their signature fudge..its gooey, its oily, not very chocolaty..and i would actually call it more of a chocolate walnut halwa, than fudge...whereas fudge in the west is block of soft chocolate, that melts in your mouth....and much better than out maharashtrian version.
Easier to make than truffles (provided you pick the quick n easy recipe) and equally yummy, this candy recipe is perfect as a home made gift or to serve and children's birthday parties, or to just eat.

Ingredients:
1 can sweetened condensed milk (400 g)
350 g dark chocolate
150 g chocolate praline/butterscotch chips (optional)
125 g whole hazel nuts
125 g whole almonds
1 tsp vanilla powder
2 pinches salt

you can also add roasted peanuts or pistachios in place of almonds and hazelnuts, or if you have a nut allergy, then you can skip the nuts all together.

Method:
Roast the nuts for 10 mins in a preheated oven at 180 degrees.
melt the chocolate either in the microwave or on a double boiler.remove from heat and add the condensed milk into the chocolate. mix to obtain a thick paste, then stir in quickly hazelnuts, vanilla and salt.
Pour into a rectangular silicone mold or a dish lined with parchment paper.
refrigerate for at least 4 hour and the cut into cubes using a good chef's knife and a cutting board. you could also try setting it in individual silicone mold. although haven'e tried it yet.

Lamingtons

Eid Mubarak

Ramadan is already over...and i know i'm a little late with an Eid post, but didn't really get time before this, what with Eid coming on a long weekend for a change.
So this year I decided to make lamingtons for eid. And talk about a mammoth task, especially since Eid came early this year,and i was short of time.
I adapted my moist chocolate cake recipe to make a moist vanilla cake (which i wanted to try since a long time). the cake turned out ok, but not the best as it did not rise as much as the chocolate cake does. although I couldn't pinpoint why.
 I made both chocolate and jelly lamingtons and with the frosting and the coconut the lamingtons tasted really fine..

• Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 
  
• 1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup vanilla custard powder
• 
  
• 1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 
  
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2  eggs
• 
  
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 
  
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup boiling water
• 
  

Method:
Heat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour two 9-inch round baking pans.
Stir together sugar, flour, custard powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed of mixer 2 minutes. Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin). Pour batter into prepared pans.
Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely.

For chocolate lamingtons:

Chocolate Frosting:

1 1/2 cups icing sugar

5 tbsp cocoa powder

1 tbsp melted butter

1/3 cup boiling water

Sift icing sugar and cocoa powder together, add melted butter and boiling water and mix till smooth and not too thin.

dip vanilla cake squares in chocolate icing, let it rest on a wire rack, so that all the extra chocolate sauce can drip out. roll in desiccated coconut.

cool for the icing to set.

For jelly lamingtons:

1 packet of strawberry jelly

Mix jelly in 2/3 of the water mentioned on packet, and let it set at room temperature. use a fork to break up the jelly.

dip cut pieces of cake in jelly and follow same procedure as the chocolate lamingtons, and enjoy.

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.

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.

Chocolate muffins.....

My first post....

as i have finally decided to start blogging, i thought of wt my first post should be. And felt it would only be right to start blogging with the recipe that started my food photography craze. i had only photographed this with the intention of showing it off to my brothers and making them jealous, but the pic came out so good that after thins i ended up wanting to photograph all my desserts.

this is a very basic muffin recipe that i found on joyofbaking, and my motto is to always find the simplest of recipes. if a simple recipe gives you delicious muffins why even try a more complicated one.
The chocolate sauce that i drizzled on top..was absolutely delicious, rich, creamy and oh so chocolatey...my secret -  it was actually a devils food cake frosting recipe that i found on the net, but when i made it, it turned out really liquidy, and i didn't know how to thicken it enough to use as frosting....so instead i just used it as chocolate sauce and didn't tell anyone that it was meant to be frosting...haha ..

Chocolate sauce

Ingredients:-
125 ml water
30 g brown sugar
175 g butter, cubed
300 g dark chocolate, chopped

Put water, brown sugar, and butter in a pan over low heat to melt. when the mixture begins to bubble, take the pan off the heat and add the chopped chocolate, swirling the pan so that all the chocolate is hit with the heat. leave it for a minute to melt before whisking till smooth and glossy.
Note- to make frosting reduce the water to around 80 ml. leave the mixture for about an hour whisking now and again and refrigerate before using.