Chocolate Ganache

Ganache is a French word for glaze and refers to a smooth mixture of chocolate and cream. It gives a shiny and smooth finish when used to cover a cake with it. The taste is also awesome and depends on the quality of chocolate used.

Ingredients

• 1 cup Chocolate Chips
• 3/4 cup Heavy whipping crea
• 2 tbsp unsalted Butter

Cheese Crackers

This is an easy recipe adapted from divinetaste.org

Ingredients:

• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 1/2 cups packed cheddar cheese, grated
• 1/4 tsp red chilli powder (Adjust to taste)
• 1 tsp salt (Adjust to taste)

Method:

1. In a large bowl, add all the ingredients and mix them well into a pliable dough.
2. Divide the dough into 2 equal halves and roll the dough into a log and wrap them with parchment paper. Chill the logs for 10 min in the freezer
3. Unwrap the chilled dough and cut into 1/4” rounds. Place them on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper. Bake in a preheated oven at 350F for 10 to 12 minutes or until browned at the edges.

Celebration Chocolate cake

This is the most yummiest eggless cake I have ever eaten. It reminds me very much of the chocolate cake from Sweet Chariot in Bangalore. This awesome recipe has been adapted from DivineTaste and you can use it to make a 9" round cake. I doubled the ingredients to make a layered cake with chocolate frosting for my daughter's 5th birthday.

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cup All purpose flour
• 1 can (400 ml) Condensed milk
• 1 cup Milk
• 1/2 cup Butter
• 1 1/2 tsp Vanilla
• 2 tsp Baking powder
• 3/4 tsp Baking soda
• 8 tbsp Cocoa powder
• 8 tbsp Sugar

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 350F.
2. Sift the dry ingredients i.e. flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, cocoa powder in a large bowl. 
3. Add the wet ingredients, i.e milk, vanilla, melted butter and condensed milk and mix well. (You can use a whisk / beater to mix it well but since I dont have both, I just use my hands and it tuns out good too)
4. Pour the batter into a greased and floured (or parchment lined) cake pan.
5. Bake for around an hour or till the toothpick inserted comes out clean.
6. Cool the cake completely on a wire rack and decorate the cake if you would like with your choice of frosting. 

Suggestion / Notes

if you would like a soft wet cake, then make a sugar syrup by boiling 1/4 cup of sugar in 1 1/2 cup of water and once cooled completely, pour the syrup on top of the cake before frosting the cake.

Easy Apple Pie

It is Apple picking time!!! My daughter picked a few apples from the orchard when she went for apple picking from school and gave it to me to make apple pie. So I hunted for an easy recipe and came across this one. I made a few changes to the original recipe to suit our taste and it turned out a big hit at home!

Ingredients
No Roll Pastry 
1 1/2 cup All Purpose Flour
1 tsp Salt
1 tbsp Sugar
1/2 cup Ghee
2 tbsp Milk

Pie Filling
3 Apples grated
1/2 cup Sugar (Adjust to taste)
A pinch of Cinnamon powder (Optional)
A pinch of Cardamom powder
2 tbsp Butter

Topping
1/2 cup Butter
1/2 cup Sugar or Brown Sugar
1 cup All Purpose Flour

Method

1. Mix all the ingredients for the Pastry and press the dough into a greased pie pan with your fingers to line the bottom and sides of the pan.
2. Mix the ingredients for the Pie Filling and pour it into the crust prepared.
3. Mix the ingredients for the topping and sprinkle them on top of the pie to cover the pie.
4. Bake the Pie at 350F for around 20 min or till the crust turns a golden brown.
5. Yummy Apple Pie is ready to be served!!

Homemade Chocolates

My mom always made these for our birthdays and we all used to love it because we can get to eat more. Now as a mom, I would still prefer giving these chocolates to my daughter than the store bought ones as it is made without artificial sweeteners or high fructose corn syrup or any other preservatives. This is a simple recipe that takes less than 10 min to make and you can use your creativity to make a variety of chocolates.

Ingredients

• 1 cup Milk powder
• 2 tsp Cocoa powder (Adjust to taste)
• 2 tbsp Butter
• 1/2 cup Sugar (Adjust to taste)
• 1/4 cup chopped dry fruits & nuts like Cashews, Almonds & Raisins (Optional)

Mozzarella Sticks

This is a popular appetizer in USA and very easy to make at home. All cheese lovers will love this dish, but be sure to buy rennet free cheese.

Ingredients 

• 8 String cheese (Rennet free)
• 1/4 cup Bread Crumbs
• Salt (As required)
• Chilli Powder (As Required)
• 1/2 cup All Purpose Flour 
• Any other seasoning like Oregano / Ajwain / Sesame seeds (Optional)
• Oil to shallow fry

Method

• Freeze the cheese sticks for 10 min.
• Mix the All purpose flour, salt, chilli powder and seasonings (if using) with water, to make a thick batter.
• Heat oil in a wok.
• Cut the cheese sticks into halves and dip the stick in the batter and roll it over the bread crumbs and shallow fry them in the oil.
• Remove it with a slotted spoon and drain the excess oil on a tissue.
• Serve hot with ketchup.

Shortbread Cookies

I am a fan of the Scottish Shortbread cookies and wanted to try them at home and the result was awesome. Make sure you use the best, tastiest butter as that is the main ingredient here, responsible for the taste.

Ingredients

• 1 cup All Purpose Flour
• A pinch of Salt
• 1/2 cup Butter at room temperature
• 1/4 cup powdered Sugar
• 1/2 tsp pure Vanilla extract

Method

1. In a bowl beat the butter until soft and creamy. Add the Sugar, salt and vanilla extract and beat the ingredients till smooth. Stir in the flour and make a soft dough.
2. You can make small balls of the dough or if you want to use the cookie cutter to shape the cookies, flatten the dough into a disc shape and cover it with a parchment paper and freeze it for 10 min. Then flatten the dough with a rolling pin to 1/4" thickness and use the cookie cutter to cut the cookies.
3. Preheat the oven to 350F and line the cookie sheet with the parchment paper.
4. Place the cookies on the cookie sheet and bake them at 350F for 10 min. These cookies will not brown much, so when the edges/ the bottom side turn a golden brown, remove them from the oven and allow them to cool.
5. Yummy shortbread cookies ready to eat!!!

Dilkush

My husband loves Dilkush and today being his birthday I made a Vanilla cake as that is his favorite but also wanted to make something special and I made this and surprised him! He misses this delicacy that is mainly a product of Kerala bakeries and so I made this today to take him back to his childhood days! I adapted this recipe from Erivum Puliyumm. Made a few modifications to the ingredients and the quantities to make it eggless and suit my taste. My husband and daughter loved this a lot!

Ingredients

• 2 cups All purpose flour
• 1/2 pkt or 1 1/2 tsp Active dry yeast
• 1/2 cup Warm Milk (Around 115F)
• 4 tbsp Oil (preferably Olive oil)
• 1/4 tsp Salt
• 1/3 cup Sugar
• 1 tsp Butter (melted at room temperature)

for filling

• 3/4 cup Shredded Coconut 
• 4 tbsp Raisins
• 2 tbsp tutty fruity
• 2 tbsp Cashew nuts
• 3 tbsp Sugar
• A pinch of Cardamom powder 

Method

1. In a small bowl, add the warm milk and stir in the sugar and yeast into it and mix well. Keep it aside for 5 min or till it froths up.
2. In a big bowl add the flour, salt, oil and the yeast mixture and knead it into a smooth dough.
3. Grease the sides of a bowl with a little oil and place the dough in it and flip it till the dough is also coated with oil. Cover the bowl and keep aside in a warm place for 1-2 hours till it almost doubles its size.
4. Now prepare the filling by mixing coconut, sugar, tutty fruity, raisins, cashews and cardamom powder.
5. Divide the dough into 2 equal parts and roll each with a rolling pin by dipping in flour lightly. 
6. Roll one part of the dough into a circle of diameter 8'' and 1/2" thickness.
7. Spread the filling into the circle leaving 1/2-1" space at the outer border and keep aside.
8. Roll out another ball in the same way of diameter 9''and 1/2'' thickness. Cover it on top of the filling one and tuck the sides under the first one such that it properly covers the sides. Apply water to seal the tucked edges.
9. Leave aside to rise for 20-30 minutes. 
10. Preheat the oven to 375F.
11. Apply the melted butter generously on top of the dilkush and place it on a cookie sheet in a oven for 15-20 minutes or till done.
12. Cool on wire rack for 15 minutes and Serve with tea!!

Suggestions/ Notes

1. The Dilkush can be stored in an airtight container for 3-4 days.

Sending this to The Kerala Kitchen hosted at Erivum Puliyumm


 

Strawberry Cake

We went Strawberry picking in a nearby Farm and got a lot of fresh Strawberries. So I had to think of a way to use them and decided to make a Strawberry cake as it is my sister's birthday too. The original recipe was for cupcakes but I made a round cake and decorated it with fresh Strawberries. We celebrated her birthday with this cake while she is celebrating with her family in Blore. Happy Birthday Divya!!

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cup All Purpose flour
• 1 1/2  tsp Baking powder
• 1 tsp Baking soda
• 3/4 cup Milk powder
• 3/4 cup Sugar
• 1/2 cup Butter
• 1 cup Strawberries, sliced
• 1 cup (slightly) hot Milk
• 1 tsp Vanilla extract
• A few drops of lemon juice plus 2 tsp sugar for the strawberries

Method

  1) Wash and slice the strawberries. Mix in the lemon juice and the sugar and keep aside for about 15 minutes. This helps to bring out the flavour of the strawberries.

  2) In the meanwhile, preheat the oven at 350F and line a cake tin with Parchment paper and grease the sides with butter.

  3) In a large mixing bowl, beat the butter and the vanilla with a hand blender or with a wire whisk, about 2 to 3 minutes. Mix in the sugar and the milk powder and beat until soft. Add the baking powder and baking soda and stir in half the flour, add half the milk and beat until soft, for about 2 minutes. Put in the remaining flour and milk and beat again until soft for 2 minutes. Mix in the strawberries with their juices.

  4) Pour the batter into the prepared cake tin and bake at 350F for 25 to 30 minutes or till done (until a skewer comes clean).

  5) Allow the cake to completely cool down while you prepare the strawberry cream frosting. (If the cake is hot the frosting will melt and not stay.)

  6) Apply the frosting on the sides and top using the back of the spoon / basting brush and decorate it with some fresh sliced strawberries.

Suggestions / Notes

1. I would suggest you keep the leftovers of the cake (if any) in the refrigerator as it may not keep well outside for more than a day since we have used fresh fruits here.

Strawberry Buttercream frosting

This is a delicious frosting made with fresh Strawberries.

Ingredients

• 1/2  cup  Butter, softened at room temperature
• 2 cups Powdered sugar  / Icing Sugar
• 1/2 tsp Vanilla extract
• A pinch of Salt
• 1/2 cup fresh whole strawberries

Method

1. Puree the Strawberries in a blender.
2. Beat butter in a bowl for a minute or until smooth. Mix in the sugar and the Strawberries puree and beat until smooth and creamy. You can adjust the consistency by adding more sugar if frosting is too thin or strawberries if it is too thick.

Marble Cake

Marble cake is my husband's favourite and I got this recipe from easy cooking and he was totally amazed at how soft this cake was, as he used to think only cake with eggs can be soft. All my friends too loved it and were amazed at how soft this cake has turned out and no one could believe it was eggless! Now I make this cake almost every other week.

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cup All Purpose Flour
• 3 tbsp Condensed Milk
• 2 tsp Baking powder
• 1/2 tsp Baking soda
• 1/2 cup Butter
• 3/4 cup Powdered sugar
• 1 cup Milk
• 1 tsp Vanilla essence
• 2 tbsp Cocoa powder
• 2 tbsp Hot water

Method

   1) In a bowl mix the All purpose flour, baking powder and baking soda.
   2) In another bowl add the butter, condensed milk, vanilla essence, sugar and milk and mix well. Add these to the All purpose flour mixture and mix everything well to form a smooth batter.(No need to worry if there are little amounts of lumps in the batter.)

   3) Take the hot water in a small bowl and add the cocoa powder and mix well so that it becomes a thick paste. Now add 1/4 of the batter to the cocoa paste and mix well.

   4) Preheat the oven to 350F and grease a cake tin or loaf pan with butter and flour or use a parchment paper. Pour the vanilla batter into the greased tin as shown below.

   5) Now pour the cocoa batter along the middle and make marble like designs using a fork. (But don't overdo the designs. It has to be a gentle zig zag like pattern with the fork.)

   6) Now bake the cake at 350F for 35-20 min or till a knife inserted comes out clean.

   7) Allow the cake to completely cool and then slice and serve!

Suggestions/ Notes

1. The original recipe calls for orange zest but I skipped that as we all like only plain marble cake.
2. You may replace condensed milk with milk powder as in the original recipe. I didn't have milk powder so I used condensed milk instead and since we all love this texture, I didn't try it with milk powder again.

Sending this to  Bake Fest event guest hosted by Priya @ Now Serving

Homemade Bread

I bought a bread packet from the store and saw that there were almost some 15-20 ingredients in that while actually the bread would take only 5-6 ingredients. This only means so many preservatives/chemicals/artificial flavourings are added to increase the shelf life and in turn harm our self. So I decided to try making the bread at home and followed the recipe at Breadworld by halving the recipe since I wanted to make only one loaf. Making bread at home is unbelievably easy except you have to have patience to wait while the dough rises. Nothing can beat the taste of freshly made bread and that too when it is homemade it becomes healthy as you know what you are eating. I have decided not to buy any more bread. So be ready for more bread recipes!!

Ingredients

• 3 cups All purpose flour
• 1 1/2 tbsp Sugar
• 1 tsp Salt
• 1 packet Active Dry yeast (2 1/4 tsp)
• 3/4 cup Warm Water (Not very hot! Around 110F)
• 1/4 cup Milk
• 1 tbsp Butter

Method

1) Add the Sugar and Yeast into the Warm water and keep aside for 5 min till it foams up.

2) In the meantime, add 2 cups of Flour and Salt and mix.

3) Warm the Milk and add the Butter and add them to the flour. Add the yeast solution too and knead the flour well. Add the remaining flour little by little while kneading. Knead well for 8-10 min.

4) Grease a big bowl with a little butter and place the kneaded dough ball in that and flip it over once so that it is slightly greased on top too. Cover it lightly and allow the dough to rise in a warm place for 1 hr.

5) When the dough has almost doubled in size, punch it down and shape it into a rectangle.

6) Grease a loaf pan (8 1/2"  x  4 1/2") and place the dough in it and pat it slightly so that it takes the shape of the loaf pan.

7) Cover it loosely and place it again in a warm place allowing it to rise once again for around 30-45 min. It will look as below once risen.

8) Bake at 400F for around 25-30 min or till done.

9) Remove from pans and cool on wire rack.

10) Once completely cooled, slice the bread with a knife and serve with Butter!

No-Bake Biscuit Brownie

This is a fabulous recipe with no cooking involved and with only very simple ingredients. This recipe adapted from edible garden makes around 15 small brownies.

Ingredients

• 22 Marie biscuits
• 3 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/4 cup roasted nut of choice (I used chopped Almonds)
• 1 tsp sugar (Adjust to taste)
• 7oz/ 200gm condensed milk

Method

1. Break the biscuits and crush them by hand or with a pestle. Alternately you may coarsely grind it in a blender.
2. Add the cocoa powder and sugar to it and mix well.
3. Add the nuts and the condensed milk and mix well to form into a dough.
4. Grease a baking tray with butter or line it with parchment paper and transfer the mixture to it.
5. It will be sticky, so press firmly and level it with clean wet fingers and refrigerate it for around 4 - 5 hours or overnight.
6. Slice the brownie into cubes with a knife and serve!

Vanilla Sponge Cake

I made this cake for my friend's birthday and everyone loved it. The recipe for this cake is from Sharmis Passions. I followed the recipe to the word, except increased the sugar and it came out awesome. So I made this again and again and my husband could just not have enough of it!

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups All Purpose Flour
• 1 cup thick plain Yogurt
• 1 cup Granulated Sugar
• 1/2 tsp Baking soda
• 1 1/4 tsp Baking powder
• 1/2 cup Cooking oil
• 1 1/2 tsp Vanilla essence
• 1 tbsp Milk (just for brushing the top)

Method

1) Preheat oven to 350F.

2) Cream sugar and curd until sugar completely dissolves. Add baking powder and baking soda to the creamed mixture and mix well. 

3) Now add vanilla essence,cooking oil and mix well. Add the All purpose Flour and blend it with the wet ingredients. Beat well with a whisk until creamy and thick.

4) Grease the cake tin or loaf pan and pour the batter to it and bake in the preheated oven at 350F and bake it for 25-30 min or till a fork inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Just brush the top of the cake with 1 tbsp milk, 10 min before the ending time to get a nice polishing glaze.

5) Allow the cake to cool down for 10 min before taking it out of the pan and allow it to cool completely for around 30 min before frosting the cake.
6) In the meantime, I made the Vanilla frosting doubling the quantity given in the recipe to frost the entire cake.
7) Using a basting brush or the back of a spatula, apply the vanilla frosting to cover the entire cake. Make it a smooth finish.
8) Refrigerate the cake for 10 min so that the initial layer of the icing is a little solidified. Out of my experience I found that it is easier to decorate the cake this way.
9) Take it out from the refrigerator and decorate the cake in the way you would like it. I had some chocolate frosting left with me, so I used that to draw the borders and write on the cake. Then I added the sprinkles to make it colourful.

Suggestions/ Notes

1. Don't doubt on using Yogurt as the taste of yogurt will not at all be noticed in the cake. (Actually my family still doesn't know this secret ingredient but they all love the cake.) 

2 min Microwave Mug Cake

This is a great recipe when you are in no mood to bake but have a craving for a yummy chocolate cake! All you need for this is a microwave and a microwaveable mug!! It is unbelievably simple and yet very tasty..

Ingredients (For 1 mug)

• 3 tablespoons All-Purpose Flour
• 3 tablespoons Sugar
• 3 tablespoons Oil
• 3 tablespoons Milk
• 1 1/2 tablespoons Cocoa Powder
• 1/8 tsp Baking Soda
• 1/8 tsp Salt
• 1/4 tsp Vanilla extract

Method

1. In the mug, mix together all purpose flour, cocoa, sugar, baking soda and salt.
2. Add oil, milk and vanilla and mix well with a spoon. Make sure there are no lumps underneath.
3. Microwave on high for 2 min.
4. Cool it completely before removing it from the mug. Cake is ready to eat!

Suggestions/ Notes

• Take a tall mug such that the batter is filled only to half of it. Also make sure that the mug is microwave safe!

Chocolate Chip Cookies

The Chocolate Chip Cookie is America's most famous cookie as it was invented here. The original recipe uses eggs, so this is my eggless version below and they are just as awesome.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups All Purpose Flour
• 1/2 cup Butter (at room temperature)
• 1/4 cup White Sugar
• 1/2 cup packed Brown Sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder 
• 3 teaspoons oil   
• 4 teaspoons hot water
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts (or Any nuts of choice)

Method

1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. Mix the butter, white sugar, and brown sugar in a bowl until smooth.
3. Dissolve baking soda in hot water. Add this to the bowl with salt and mix well.
4. Stir in the Flour, chocolate chips, and nuts.
5. Mix everything well and Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls about 2 inches apart onto a baking tray.
6. Bake for about 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the edges turn brown.

Variations

1. You may replace All purpose flour with Whole Wheat Flour to make it a healthier snack.

Chocolate Layer Cake

For this Valentine's day I made a chocolate layer cake and my daughter helped me decorate the cake. My husband was really surprised at the cake as this was my first cake and I also tried some decorating stunts on it.

My search for a moist eggless chocolate cake ended at Chowtimes.The cake came out awesome and was super soft and moist and delicious . Since I wanted to make a layer cake I used two 9" cake pans and made it into layers as this cake is very soft and may break if you try to slice it and make a layer out of that. Then I used chocolate frosting to frost the entire cake.

Ingredients

• 3 cups All Purpose Flour
• 2 teaspoons Baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon Salt
• 6 tablespoons Cocoa powder
• 2 cups Water
• 2 cups Sugar
• 1 tablespoon Vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon Lemon Juice
• 1/2 cup Oil

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 350F.
2. Sift the dry ingredients i.e. flour, baking soda, salt and cocoa powder in a large bowl. 
3. Whisk the sugar and wet ingredients, i.e water, vanilla, lemon juice and oil in a medium bowl until the sugar is dissolved.
4. Add the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix well.
5. Pour the batter into two greased and floured (or parchment lined) pans.
6. Bake for 35-40 minutes or till the toothpick inserted comes out clean from both the pans.
7. Cool the cakes completely on a wire rack and carefully cut the dome part from both the cakes.
8. In the meantime prepare the chocolate frosting / vanilla frosting / Any frosting of your choice.
9. Frost the top part of one of the cakes and place the other cake on top of it. Now frost the entire cake by doing the sides first and then the top.
10. Then decorate the cake to your liking!

Suggestions/ Notes

• The original recipe uses Vinegar but I substituted it with Lemon Juice and it still came out fantastic.
• The cake is super soft, so you have to be very careful while cutting the dome part from each of the cakes or it may break.

Whole Wheat Classic

This recipe is a variation of the Classic cookies but with Whole Wheat flour.

Ingredients

• 1 cup - Whole Wheat Flour
• 1/2 cup - Sugar
• 1/2 cup - Ghee
• A pinch of Cardamom powder
• 1/4 cup - Cashews/Almonds/Any Nuts of choice (Optional)

Method

1. Add the Whole Wheat flour, sugar, cardamom, ghee and nuts (if you are adding nuts) into a mixing bowl and combine the ingredients to make a dough.
2. Pinch off small bits of the dough, shape it into a small ball and flatten it slightly and transfer it to a baking tray. (I also added an almond on top of all cookies.)
3. Preheat the oven to 350F and bake the cookies for around 10 minutes or till the bottom of the cookies are slightly golden in colour.
4. Transfer the cookies from baking tray to a wire rack and cool.

Suggestions/ Notes :

1. When you take the cookie out of the baking tray it may crumble as they are extremely soft till they are completely cooled. Hence use caution while transferring the cookies to the wire rack.

Fruit and Nut Cookies

I love the Karachi biscuits that is very famous in Hyderabad and wanted to try a similar cookie, so here we go for the delicious fruit and nut cookies recipe.

Ingredients

• 1 cup Maida/ All purpose flour
• 1/2 cup Butter (at room temperature)
• 1/2 cup powdered Sugar
• 1/2 tsp Rose water
• 1/4 tsp Cardamom powder
• 1/4 cup Tutti frutti
• 1/4 cup Cashew finely chopped

Method

1. Mix the Maida, butter, sugar, rose water and cardamom powder to form a dough.

2. Divide the dough into two portions.

3. Flatten one portion of the dough into a 1/4" thick square on a parchment paper/ wax paper and spread half the tutti fruiti and half the cashews on the dough as shown below

4. Spread the remaining portion of the dough on top and add the remaining tutti fruiti and cashews on top.

5. Cover this with another wax paper or parchment paper and freeze it for 10 min.

6. In the meantime preheat the oven to 350F or 180C.

7. Remove the dough from the freezer and slice them into squares and bake them for 10 min or till the bottom of the cookies are golden brown.

8. Transfer the cookies to a wire rack and cool them and then store in an airtight container.

Vanilla Frosting

I like to use the Vanilla Frosting for decorating the cakes. You may double the quantity if you would like to frost the entire cake.

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup butter
• 2 cups icing sugar/ powdered sugar
• 2 tablespoons milk
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 pinch salt

Method

1. Beat all the ingredients in a bowl until light and fluffy.

Suggestions/ Notes

• We can add food colours to this recipe to get the desired colour for decorating the cakes.