Last Minute Diwali Sweet Treat : Chocolate Burfi

This post brings you a Diwali (Deepavali) special recipe for my readers from my mom's kitchen, something that's ready in 30 minutes with easily available ingredients. So if you are like me, a totally last minute person, who is sometimes completely unprepared for the festivals that suddenly come up, this is the perfect recipe for you. 

In my usual style, last evening, I kept the pan on the flame and then called my mom, "How do you make your chocolate cake?". In my family, prior to my generation, the only cakes that were made at home were these kinda 'cakes' - or in culinary terms they would be better called 'squares' or 'fudge'. How soft or hard you want the burfi depends on how much time you allow this to be on heat. My recipe gives you an in between consistency, so it cuts into neat squares. If you want it more soft set, try to remove it from flame onto the baking sheet 5 minutes earlier. These burfis are pretty much trial and error, and are a little trickier than baking cakes, but they are fun experience with a fair bit of arm workout, which we all could do with, given how much we end up gorging on during the festive season. 

If you don't have cocoa powder or if you don't prefer chocolate flavour, [wondering if there are such people in the universe;)] you can avoid the cocoa and add powdered cardamom or a few saffron strands towards the end to get plain milk burfi.

So this special recipe from my mom's kitchen, especially for you! Your last minute, go-to Diwali treat recipe :) Happy Diwali from the Saffron Trail Kitchen to you and your loved ones.

For latest updates from my kitchen and to know about the workshops lined up from the Saffron Trail Kitchen, LIKE my facebook page - http://www.facebook.com/saffrontrail

Recipe for Chocolate Burfi (cake)
30 minutes
Makes 16-20 pieces, depending on the size

Ingredients
500 ml milk (3% cow's milk)
1 cup granulated sugar
4 tbsp ghee (clarified butter)
1 tbsp rava (semolina, fine is better)
2 tbsp cocoa powder + 3-4 tbsp warm milk

Directions

1. Line a deep dish or a baking tray with a parchment paper or grease with a few drops of ghee and keep aside. A size of 8x4" will do, but if you have a bigger thaali / dish, make sure you don't spread over the entire surface or the burfis will be very thin and fragile.
2. In a heavy bottomed pan, place the milk, sugar, ghee and rava. Bring to boil on a high flame with constant monitoring and stirring. Once it comes to a boil, reduce flame and allow to simmer with reasonably constant stirring to make sure the milk does not burn or catch at the bottom of the pan, or doesn't boil over.
3. After stirring and simmering for around 20 minutes, the milk will turn much thicker, roughly the consistency of dosa / pancake batter. Whisk the cocoa powder in warm milk and pour into the thickening milk with constant stirring.
4. In another 5-8 minutes (continue stirring), the mixture will turn much thicker leaving the sides of the pan. At this point switch off flame, because it will continue to thicken in the residual heat.
5. Pour / transfer the mixture over the greased parchment, taking care to spread over a smaller area if you want thicker burfis.
6. Let this cool for 15 minutes after which you can cut into squares / rectangular bars with a sharp knife or a pizza cutter.
7. Store in airtight container and consume in 3-4 days. Keeping them in the fridge makes them too hard and I personally don't like them cold.

They make excellent homemade gifts on Diwali on any other festival. You could easily double the recipe, using 1 litre of milk. That will take around 45 mins-1 hour to thicken and prepare into burfis.

More Diwali treats from the archives:

Okkarai
Teratti Paal - Milk fudge
Dudhi Halva - bottle gourd fudge
Baked Karanji
5 minute microwaved besan laddoo
Eggless mawa cake
Khaja

Read More...

Oreo Brownies - It doesn't get more sinful than this

I'm not a fan of Oreo cookies at all. I once even tweeted that they taste like sweetened cardboard and I found a lot of people agreeing with my sentiment. For me, the best cream biscuit will always be Britannia Bourbon. It was my favourite treat as a kid, we waited for someone to get it home as it was never a frequent buy. Now, I have all the freedom to eat Bourbon biscuits with tea every afternoon, but my diet consciousness prevents me from doing so. 

But yes, once in a while, I love to indulge in the joy of eating my favourite biscuit. OOPS, I nearly forgot that this post is about Oreo Brownies. These brownies actually redeem the Oreo cookie for me. The catchy ad line in Hindi "Twist Karo, Lick karo, Dunk Karo" has suitably appealed to my 4 year old, who thinks of Oreo has a great treat (thankfully, treat only). So I decided to bake these for his birthday party, both for the parents and kids. I baked them a couple of days in advance and put them in the out of reach refrigerator so it wouldn't get raided well before the party :) And they were MUCH loved by everybody.

The Oreo patterns on top of the brownie not only make them look stunning, different, but also add a great texture when you bite into them. Let me tell you a secret, the cookies are both inside and on top of the brownie. Inside they become soft and chewy and on the top they turn crisp. 

Try them with your favourite chocolate cream biscuits - Dark Fantasy or Bourbon for the same effect. These are not 'healthy' brownies. Insanely rich, wicked, FULL of chocolate, very little flour - these are meant to be shared with a crowd. The recipe says 16 pieces, but feel free to cut each square further into half. It's *that* decadent. If you are home alone on a weekend, feeling blue in the mood and you bake a whole tray of this - you are not going to stop at one, and then you'll blame 'that Saffron Trail blogger' for busting your weighing scales. Don't say I didn't warn you!

Recipe for Oreo Brownies

Makes 16 x 2"square pieces

Recipe source 

Printable version of recipe

You'll need:

8" square baking pan

165 grams unsalted butter

200 grams dark chocolate (chopped finely)

4 eggs

16 Oreo cookies, cut into quarters

3/4 cup light brown sugar

3 tbsp flour

1 tbsp cocoa powder

Pinch of salt (omit if using salted butter)

How to make:

1. Line a 8x8 square pan with parchment paper, coming up to the sides, for easy removal once baked. Grease with butter, keep aside.
2. Preheat oven at 180 Celsius. 
3. In a heavy bottomed pan, melt butter on a low heat. Once nearly melted, remove from flame. It will melt fully in the residual heat. Add the finely chopped chocolate to this and stir till the chocolate fully melts in the heat of the melted butter. Keep aside.
4. In a large bowl, whisk the 4 eggs with a balloon whisk or electric whisk until nearly tripled in volume.
5. Add half the sugar along the sides so as not to knock out the air from the eggs. Whisk gently until incorporated. Repeat the same with remaining sugar until the sugar no longer feels grainy to touch in the egg mixture.
6. Add the chocolate-butter mixture to this. Whisk gently to combine well.
7. Add 1/3rd of the quartered Oreos to the batter.
8. In a small bowl, mix with a fork- the flour, cocoa and salt and add this to the above mixture. Whisk well to combine everything together.
9. Pour this into the greased parchment.
10. Top this with the remaining Oreos arranged in a single layer all over.
11. Bake in the middle of a 180 C oven for 40 minutes, until a tester poked into the center comes out nearly clean.
12. Remove from oven and rest for 10 minutes. Pull out with the parchment intact and cool on a wire rack for 2-3 hours or overnight. Cut into 2" squares (16 pieces) and peel off parchment. Refrigerate for a few hours for a great texture.

Note to self : Dear Nandita, Ditch the diet plans. Make these with Bourbon biscuits for your birthday!

Feedback from those who tried this recipe:

Oreo brownies just out of the oven. Thanks for the inspiration and the recipe @saffrontrail twitter.com/livetimefe/sta…
— 5x7 (@livetimefe) December 24, 2012

The sinfully delicious Oreo Brownies. Thanks @saffrontrail for the recipe :) twitpic.com/cr37zn
— ParavaMunima (@Muneema) May 17, 2013

Read More...

My Diwali Gift to you : Triple Decker Brownies

I was looking for something blow-your-socks off sinful to make this Diwali to take to a friends' place tonight and also for the kids in my complex for the Diwali Party. And thank you, Pinterest, for leading me to the right place. I found this piece of awesomeness on this blog and one look at her pictures is enough to set you drooling. 

I've baked brownies tons of times and they are the two go-to recipes you'll find on my blog. But this one is from another planet. Bottom layer of cookie dough, middle layer of Choco Cream cookies (Oreo / Dark Fantasy / Bourbon) and top layer of brownie. So, while this looks complicated, if you've baked cookies and any sort of cake or brownie, you can do this. All you need is to buy a few packets of Oreos or any other rich cream filled biscuits.

Recipe for Triple Decker Brownies / Oreo Brownies / Cookie - Fudge Brownies

Makes 16 pieces

Time taken : Prep time around 30 minutes, Baking time : 35 minutes

Recipe Source : What's Gaby Cooking

Ingredients

For the Brownie Layer:

150 grams unsalted butter (left on counter top or straight from fridge is also fine)

3/4 cup cocoa powder

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

2 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup all purpose flour (maida)

1/2 tsp salt

3 tbsp coffee liquor or decoction

On medium heat, in a big saucepan, melt butter. Once slightly melted, take off heat and stir to melt it fully. Add cocoa powder, sugar and whisk well till incorporated.

Remove from the stove, it should not be too hot. Whisk in eggs quickly along with vanilla.

Finally add flour and salt, coffee liquor, whisk well - for 3-4 minutes and keep aside.

For Cookie Dough Layer :

100 grams softened unsalted butter

1/4 cup brown sugar or powdered jaggery

3/4 cup white sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 egg

1 1/4 cup all purpose flour (maida)

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup chocolate chips

In a large bowl, using hand mixer, cream butter and sugars for 3-4 minutes.

Add vanilla extract, egg and whisk again for a minute or so.

Add the flour, salt and fold in with a silicon spatula.

In the end fold in the chocolate chips.

Oreo Layer : 

Roughly 20 Oreo or Dark Fantasy cookies, if you get double stuffed Oreos, choose those, with the Vanilla filling as the white stands out in the dark brownie. I used a mix of choco filled and vanilla filled cookies, but next time will stick to vanilla alone.

Assembly

1. Line a 9X9 inch pan with parchment or aluminium foil. Butter or grease with oil.
2. For Cookie Layer : Put the cookie dough on the greased lining of the tin and spread it well to the corners, in a uniform layer.
3. Oreo Layer : Place the cookies side by side covering the cookie dough entirely. Break the cookie in half, if you want to cover a little bit of extra space.
4. Brownie Layer : Top the Oreos with the Brownie batter smoothening it out right upto the edges with a silicon spatula.
5. Bake for 30-35 minutes, until tester comes out clean.
6. Remove from over and cool outside removing it along with parchment / foil on a cooling rack - for one hour.
7. Cut into 16 squares.
8. Serve as it is, slightly warm or with vanilla ice cream.

If you liked this post, you could follow the Saffrontrail Facebook page for more frequent updates and pictures.

Read More...

Insanely Good Chocolate Almond Brownies

These brownies were baked twice over the weekend. These are the sort that make people have a bite and go 'swooooon' or fall in love with you, or both. If you've been a follower of my blog, you know that I rarely use superlatives. I had blogged another simple brownie recipe a few years ago and I called them 'Easiest to make brownies' - so when I call these 'insanely good' you must know that I am not kidding you. I have resolved to bake these only for others as I, for one, can't seem to stop at a few bites because the taste of this is like nirvana to my soul.

It's quite ridiculously good by itself but serving it warm with cold vanilla ice cream is like the literal icing on the cake. Unlike cakes that come with a lot of ways they can go wrong, this one, if you follow the recipe, is quite foolproof and everyone needs one good brownie recipe that can say "Thanks", "Sorry", "I love you", "I want to be your most favourite person" or even, "I want you to become fatter than me", etc. You know what I mean...these brownies can speak volumes when words fail you :)

Before you think I'm that sort of culinary genius who comes up with brownie recipes that can lead to world peace, please hold that thought. This is adapted from Dorie Greenspan's recipe from her book, Baking: From My Home to Yours, with some tricks from baking forums to overcome the problems I faced with the first batch I baked. 

If you've baked brownies with butter before and after baking, you might have found that all the butter oozed out of the brownie. Not that this will affect the taste or texture once the brownie is chilled enough in the fridge, but there is a technique by which you can avoid it. This often happens when the flour in the recipe is very less like the one here (just 1/4 cup of flour), so when you incorporate all the ingredients, you need to stir well to emulsify the mix so that the butter is well blended into the rest of the mix. I used this trick in the second batch and it turned out just perfect.

Recipe for Chocolate Almond Brownies
Makes 16 two inch squares
Skill level: Easy-Moderate easy

Ingredients
100 grams butter plus 1 tbsp butter - chopped into 8-9 pieces [8 tbsp butter]
1/2 cup cocoa powder
2 large eggs
1 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp coffee liquor (optional)
1/4 cup all purpose flour (maida)
1/4 tsp cinnamon powder
Pinch of salt
1 tsp instant coffee powder (use 2 tsp if you are not using coffee liquor)
1/2 -3/4 cup sliced almonds or chopped almonds [Substitute with walnuts for walnut brownies]
1/2 cup choco chips or your favourite dark chocolate bar chopped into bits

Directions

Centre a rack in the oven and preheat oven to 160 degrees celsius / 325F
Lightly grease with butter an 8" square tin / baking tray, line with baking paper / parchment paper.
Grease this with butter properly and keep aside.
In a large microwave safe bowl, place the chopped butter and microwave for 50 seconds to a minute until it's just melted.
Let this butter cool down for a bit, meanwhile get all the other ingredients.
In a small bowl, mix the flour, cinnamon powder, salt, coffee powder with a fork.
To the melted butter, add the cocoa powder and stir very well with a silicon / rubber spatula mixing them well together.
To this, add the eggs, one by one, mixing them well into the mixture. No need to beat and incorporate air into this. Mix in the sugar.
Add the vanilla extract and coffee liquor. Liquor is optional but it does take the taste to a whole new level.
Now, add the flour-cinnamon-salt-coffee mix to this and stir well for 2 minutes or so in a round motion to emulsify the mix well (so that butter doesn't ooze out after baking).
Final step is to add the nuts and chocolate bits. Fold them in and scrape the brownie batter into the parchment lined baking tin.
Bake for 25 minutes until the top appears papery.

Do not ignore the following instructions to get perfect pieces
Remove from oven and cook in the baking tin itself on a rack, for at least 30 minutes.
Slice into 16 squares (2 inches X 2 inches each) - remove from lining paper, place on a tray and chill for 2-3 hours minimum for a fantastic fudgy texture.

Thank you, my dear N&A for allowing me to borrow this book and keep it with me for long enough to get inspired to bake with one stick butter. 

Dorie Greenspan calls these brownies Tribute-To-Katherine-Hepburn Brownies. If you want to know the connection between Katherine Hepburn and these brownies, check here.

If you want to have sneak peeks into my kitchen, regular updates on the goof-ups  great stuff i cook, well before it appears on the blog, do stalk follow my Facebook page : http://www.facebook.com/saffrontrail

Read More...

Going down memory lane with icecream and recipe for Fig and Vanilla Icecream

"As a kid, the only thing I really cared about was candy. Candy is the only reason you want to live when you’re a kid. Ages zero through ten, candy is your life, there’s nothing else. Family, friends, school…they’re only obstacles in the way of getting more candy."

Jerry Seinfeld

I can say the same thing about ice cream.

As a child, my love for ice cream was pretty intense. More so because I was not allowed to eat it as frequently as I'd have liked to. I was predisposed to getting a nasty cold every now and then. The fact that my people thought eating ice cream led to colds did not help. Exam times, school competitions, all such times were strictly no-ice cream times. I wont say I was obsessed with ice cream the way Jerry was with candy. But being denied something makes you want it more. That's what happened to me.

My first favourite among ice creams was strawberry - no fancy schmancy REAL fruit ice cream - the pale pink synthetic colour and flavour of Amul suited my tastebuds just fine. Next in line came Tutti Frutti - which is it's mild orangey flavour and the colourful fruit bits (coloured and candied dried papaya for all we know) was pleasing to the eye as well as palate.

My aunt used to make these ice creams with seasonal fruits like Chikoo, Mango, Custard apple and also with those ice-cream mixes that were common in supermarkets as we were growing up. Those days, any guests coming to her place would unashamedly poke their head into her freezer to check if that aluminium dabba in which she usually freezed the good stuff was around!

Then entered Baskin Robbins. Probably that time I was low on my ice cream phase and don't recall any big favourites with them.

My short stay in the US made me a big fan of Perry's Death by Chocolate - my tastebuds could not believe that such a decadent icecream could exist. Then of course there was Ben and Jerry's Cherry Garcia and more such exotic flavours that made me regret that my stay in US wasn't long enough. On second thoughts, I'm happy today I gave all those excess calories a miss.

From US when we moved back to Bombay, we settled into ice cream land - Juhu - the place where Natural's Ice Cream was born. The ice cream of Juhu scheme. Anyone who has tasted Naturals will vouch for the real good taste that comes from fresh natural ingredients. Their home delivery box on any fruit ice cream will read just three ingredients: Milk, fruit and sugar. I trust them. My favourites here were the papaya-pineapple and real strawberry. When it comes to ice creams, I'll mostly go with fruit flavours or butter scotch. I'm not a big fan of chocolate in ice creams, I can eat chocolate by itself, thank you.

Today, I have all the freedom to eat ice cream as and when I please. The husband has nothing but words of encouragement when I say "I feel like having an ice cream today". Last week we shared a Willy Wonka Chocolate blast at the Cream Stone, which made me feel guilty as hell :(

There are some things you want to make more often, but we don't get around to making them. Making ice cream at home is one such thing for me. In all these years of frantic cooking, I've made kulfi twice and ice cream twice, including this one. I'll probably make it more often, now that I've almost cracked the jinx. 

I came to know after 5 years of being married to S that his favourite flavour in ice creams was Fig and Honey, which is why they say marriage is a process of continuous discovery of each other :) I saw him poking his head into the Baskin Robbins counter a few days ago searching for this flavour that was out of stock or something like that - which is when the idea of making this cropped up in my mind. And I wanted to start using the vanilla pods that I'd bought in Munnar on my holiday there in April. So this was a fantastic experience for me, handling real vanilla for the first time.

Since this can be made using basic household equipment, more ice cream lovers can try this out. So here's the recipe for the eggless fig vanilla ice cream - no ice cream maker required.

Fig and Vanilla Ice cream

Serves 6-8

Ingredients

12 dried figs

1" vanilla pod

800 ml milk ( I used toned 3%)

1/2 tin condensed milk (200g)

6tsp sugar or more to suit your taste

1 tbsp cornflour

Directions

• Soak the figs in hot water for 3-4 hours till plump and soft. Grind to a rough puree, using some of the soaked water if required. If some pieces of fig remain, it is fine - it will fun biting into the little chewy pieces later!
• In a heavy bottomed saucepan, combine all but half cup of milk, condensed milk and sugar. Bring to a simmer.
• Slit the vanilla pod with the tip of a sharp knife - scrape out the seeds into the simmering milk. I added the empty pods into the milk too, to use any seeds that got left out inside. [If using extract, add in two teaspoons of extract after removing the mixture from the flame.]
• Mix the cornflour in the reserved half cup cold milk and add to the simmering mixture. Bring to a boil. The simmering milk will thicken as the cornflour gets cooked.
• Add the fig puree at this stage. Stir / whisk well and remove from flame. [If using vanilla extract, add at this stage.]
• Cool the content of the pan and pour into two plastic icecream boxes. (I used two old ice cream containers 500 ml each)
• Turn your freezer's setting to maximum and keep the boxes in the freezer for 4-6 hours.
• When the ice cream is nearly set, remove the contents of boxes into a large bowl and churn with an electric hand blender till soft and creamy, around 6-8 minutes.
• Return the content to the boxes and freeze again.
• You can repeat the same procedure after 3-4 hours and freeze for a creamier texture.

If you don't have an electric hand blender, use your food processor or else a wooden spoon to beat the mixture manually.

Taste: The ice cream was mildly sweet and very rich in flavours - vanilla with its intoxicating sweet aroma and the figs with their natural sweetness and textures. The combination worked beautifully for us. The condensed milk almost made up for the absence of the eggs - providing the rich creamy taste.

I used regular 3% milk, but you can use whole milk for better taste and more creaminess.

The only other ice cream on this blog is the Mango-coconut ice cream, which you might like to try if the mango season is still on in your part of the world.

Read More...

The all Indian Apple Cheesecake

Temptation

Apples in bakes come a close second for me after bananas. I have some three regular apple cake recipes that I like to use when I find some apples languishing in the refrigerator and I'm in a good mood to rescue them from dying a slow death. However let me not talk of morose things like death, when there's such an interesting recipe to share with you.

One of my best friends is a Marwari and once again I must say the Marwari ladies are a very creative lot - often indulging in very innovative pursuits, not excluding cooking. This recipe was passed on to my friend by her relative - an Indian version of an apple cheesecake or you can call it an apple pie. You can put this together if you have 15 minutes, 3 apples and a litre of milk on hand. I'm not kidding you, and I find this taste far far superlative to the regular apple pie which is not only more labour intensive but also flour & calorie intensive. If you serve this up at your next party, I can guarantee that your guests may forget you but will never forget the taste of this absolutely yummy piece of cheesecake. I've made this just once which was quite a few months ago - but I can't wait to make it again.

Waiting to be cut

The all Indian Apple CheesecakeTime taken - 15 minutes prep time and upto an hour of inactive baking time
Serves 6 at least
Printable version here

Ingredients
200 grams Digestive Marie or McVites biscuits
1 tbsp melted butter or ghee
3 apples - peeled, cored, sliced ( I used Shimla apples)
1 litre regular cow's milk - turned into paneer*
2 tbsp or more brown or regular sugar
1 tsp cinnamon powder

Directions
Preheat oven at 200 C.

Crush the biscuits coarsely in food processor along with melted butter or ghee. Line this on the bottom and sides of a pie dish, pressing firmly with your fingers or the bottom of a cup / glass.

Place this in preheated oven for 10 minutes. Remove and let cool till the filling is ready.

Next, puree the sliced apples and when its almost done, add the paneer, cinnamon and sugar to get a smooth puree of apple and paneer. Add sugar depending on sweetness of apples.

Turn this puree into the baked crust, smoothen out and bake for 45 minutes or so at 180 C - until top is golden and the cake is nearly firm.

Cool in the refrigerator for a few hours and serve as it is or with some vanilla ice cream.

Dessert is served

* Heat one litre cow's milk till it comes to a boil - turn flame to sim. Add up to one tbsp vinegar or 1/2 cup curds to curdle the milk. Stir around until the separated water (whey) is clear and light green. Filter out the solids, pressing out as much liquid as you can. The filtered soild is the paneer to be used in the recipe.

Read More...

Date Cashewnut Payasam ready in ten minutes

Do you remember the dates stuffed with a cashew in the Diwali gift boxes of yester-years? This payasam is something like that. Something I came up with on spur of the moment to prepare for my baby's 9th month birthday today. Tough to believe that something this simple and quick can taste so good.



Date-Cashewnut Payasam
Makes 4 servings (small cups)
Time taken - Around 10 minutes

Ingredients
500 ml cow's milk ( I used 3%)
8 dates, deseeded and sliced
10-12 cashews
1/2 cup water
1 tsp cornflour mixed in 1/4th cup cold milk
4 tsp sugar
Pinch of saffron
Garnish - 4 cashews broken into bits, few raisins - sauteed in 1 tsp hot ghee for a minute on low flame till cashews are golden and raisins are puffed

Directions

1. Keep the milk to boil in a heavy bottomed pan, and then let it simmer for 5 minutes or so.
2. Meanwhile place the dates and cashews in a glass bowl with 1/2 cup water and microwave on high for 4-5 minutes till the dates are tender. Once cooled, grind this to a fine (or coarse, if you like) paste.
   
3. Add the cornstarch slurry to the milk and bring it to a boil. Then add the date-cashew paste, sugar and saffron. Let the mix simmer for 3-5 minutes and the payasam is ready.
4. I don't usually add cornstarch to desserts, but I wasn't sure if the date paste would curdle the milk, while bringing it to a boil, hence the precaution.
5. Garnish with the cashews and raisins toasted in ghee.
6. This tastes good both warm and cold.
   

Read More...

Peanut Butter Brownie Sandwich

I had blogged about a basic brownie recipe some months ago, and since then I have made them several times. Since the baking time is under 15 minutes, this is the best option when I want to make something in a jiffy for my friends. Besides summer is almost upon us and I dread any recipe with long baking times to add to the heat in the kitchen

Today, it so happened that the same recipe meant for a 9 X 9 pan, got too thinned out and hence this idea of using two pieces to make one brownie and something to get them sticking.

Since I'd made smooth peanut butter at home* for the second time yesterday, they were on top of my mind to use as a gluey fudge. Plus I wanted to get in some chocolate into the middle layer too. So the fudgy middle layer was made using smooth peanut butter and melted cooking chocolate, both mixed to form a nice smooth fugde.

Ingredients
1 basic brownie recipe, cut into 16 squares
4 tbsp smooth peanut butter*
100 g cooking chocolate, melted in microwave (on high power for 1 min)

Directions
1. In the bowl with melted chocolate, add the peanut butter and using a spoon, blend well to make a smooth fudgy paste.

2. Make a sandwich using two squares of brownies, applying the peanut butter-chocolate fudge generously inbetween the slices.


* How to make peanut butter at home in two easy steps?
Roast the peanuts and grind them with their skins with a pinch of salt and sugar until they turn into a fine butter. That's about it.

It was for the first time I was tasting peanut butter inside of a brownie and it tasted fantastic! It's not just me, but my friend P to whom I made this, absolutely loved it too. We had a lovely afternoon today, as she tried to give me a makeover, starting off by trying to straighten my stubbornly wavy hair...we did succeed to some extent...and then we spent the rest of the afternoon in a wonderful place called Candies tucked in a leafy lane in Bandra...the beautiful pics of this green place in the middle of the concrete jungle is matter for the next post on the Feel Good Blog. Cya there soon! Leaving you with one of the lovely pics...a handpainted tiles' mosaic on an electric blue wall, inside the restaurant.

Read More...

Another Banana Cake - David Lebovitz inspired

Warm pieces of cake

I never tire of making banana cakes (or bread if you like to call it that). Banana cake was the first thing I ever baked and it has remained a hot favourite. Besides, now that we are trying to avoid eggs in baked products too, it is fun to look at innovative ways to bake our favourite goodies by using interesting substitutes like yoghurt, coconut milk, coconut water, flaxeed paste etc.
For a banana cake, since bananas are a great binding agent anyway, use of adequate baking powder and replacing the liquid part of the eggs with a liquid of our choice seems to work pretty well.
I came upon this beautiful piece of cake on one of my favourite blogs, and I had to tie my apron on immediately. This was over 2 months ago and the cake turned out so moist and delicious, we simply loved it. In that one, I had sprinkled poppy seeds and arranged a sliced firm banana on the top - in addition to mashed ripe bananas in the mix. The banana slices caramelized to a yummy brown colour and deep rich taste. Unforgettable. I do remember having taken pics, but will take me a while to fish them out.
Today's version looks plane Jane in comparison, but I can already smell the sweet heady aromas, as it is baking.
Here's my recipe adapted from David Lebotitz's blog.



Dressed up BANANA CAKE

Time taken - Around one hour
Makes one loaf
Ingredients
1/2 cup All Purpose flour (Maida)
1 cup whole wheat flour (Atta)
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

¾ cup crushed jaggery
4 tablespoons coconut water or coconut milk
2 medium sized, very- ripe bananas

½ cup yoghurt (homemade dahi)
½ teaspoon vanilla extract

2 tablespoons ghee or butter or canola oil plus some more for greasing baking tin
1/3 cup walnuts or mixed nuts

few thin slices of banana, tbsp of sugar, pinch of cinnamon powder and poppy seeds (optional) to sprinkle over the top for decoration, before baking
Preparation
Butter a 9-inch (23 cm) square pan or a loaf pan. Preheat the oven to 350F (180 C).
Directions
1. Sift together in a bowl the flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon.
2. In a mixer, put in the bananas, jaggery, coconut water and yoghurt. Blend into a fine puree.
3. In a large bowl, place the melted ghee. Add the puree into this along with vanilla essence.
4. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and stir in the wet ingredients with a spatula until almost mixed. Add in the nuts and stir until just combined, but don't overstir: stop when any traces of flour disappear.
5. Scrape the mixture into the prepared pan - top with banana slices nicely arranged, sprinkle sugar and cinnamon with some poppy seeds over the top and bake for 40 minutes, or until the center feels lightly-springy and just done.
6. Cool on a wire rack.
Notes:
This cake is very low in fat, from the two tbsp used. Sugar is replaced by jaggery which is a healthier source of sweetness, not to mention the lovely golden brown colour it imparts. Eggs are replaced by coconut water and 2/3rds of the the AP flour is replaced by whole wheat flour, adding to the fibre content.
I have also tried using 1/4th cup Semolina and 3/4 cup whole wheat flour, for a cake with added texture. Diabetics can enjoy a slice of this cake too, right after lunch or dinner without worrying about shooting up their blood sugar too much.

A word about WBB for December - I was trying to contact the blogger who had confirmed to take up this month until this week, and since I haven't received a response yet, I am assuming it is quite late to start the proceeds for the month. However your hostess for Jan is in the loop and I shall request her to announce the event by end Dec / early Jan for the first edition of WBB in 2008. In the meanwhile, you can expect a recap from me about WBB 2007 soon!

Other banana delights on Saffron Trail:

Eggless banana cardamom loaf

Honey banana muffins

Steamed / Microwaved Rava Banana cake

Morning Glory muffins

Read More...

Cocoa Ripple Ring

This is one recipe that really appealed to me from the Better Homes - Desserts CD sent by an online friend and blog reader - Ritu. My additions to the recipe were addition of some lovely blue-green poppy seeds and a generous swig of Cointreau. I'm not the one who generally indulges in icing, but since the ripple cake split horizontally as i was trying to turn it out from the ring, the fudgy icing helped bind the layers together.

I stuck to the recipe apart from the two additions mentioned above.





Cocoa Ripple Ring
Time Taken: Under 45 min
Makes 8 servings
Recipe Source: Better Homes

---

What you need:

1/2 cup softened butter
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs

1 1/2 cups sifted AP flour
3/4 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
2 tbsp poppy seeds

2/3 cup milk
2 tbsp Cointreau or Grand Mariner
1/3 cup presweetened cocoa powder
1/3 cup broken nuts

6 1/2 cup ring mould

Directions:
Cream together butter and sugar till light and fluffy.
Sift together flour, salt, baking powder.
Add to creamed mixture along with poppy seeds alternately with milk, beating well after each addition. Mix in the liquor.
Spoon 1/3 of batter into well greased 6 1/2 cup ring mold or 9 x 9 x 2 inch pan.
Mix pre-sweetened instant cocoa powder and broken nuts; sprinkle half over batter in pan. Repeat layers, ending with batter.
Bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes. Let stand 5 minutes; turn out of mold, serve warm.

The fudgy top was made using the leftover sweet cocoa-nut mixture, some cream and a tbsp of butter. I had a quite a bit of the cocoa-nut mix leftover after sprinkling between the layers, so it was a good way to put it to use.

The poppy seeds give a lovely spotted look to the cake and the orange liquor gives it the exotic taste. I'm sure this cake will do well as a coffee-cake sans the fudgy topping, but with it, it's just super to carry to a friend's place or a picnic or just to make someone happy! This slice of cake is for my dear friend and her hubby S as they've celebrated their 1st Anniversary this week. Here's wishing you both a lifetime of happiness :)

Read More...

A healthy cake in 15 minutes

A no-bake, no-eggs, no-sugar cake and it is delicious

Whenever I see a dessert recipe whose ingredient list does not feature sugar and a gazillion calories worth of butter, I almost try it out on the same day...firstly too see if it would still taste good and secondly, it is quite difficult to resist such a recipe. When I chanced upon a steamed 'rava' (semolina) - banana cake, it seemed too good to be true. When my newly married cousin in Bangalore tried it out and gave me a really bright green signal, I had to try this out. Shilpa of Aayi's Recipes has something similar on her blog, an authentic Goan recipe sent to her by a reader, but her recipe uses sugar instead of jaggery.
I've made slight modifications to the original recipe, in terms of microwaving the batter instead of steaming, and I did it on a trial and error basis, because my kitchen doesn't have a big enough steamer to take the whole batter in one go.

Using the microwave for this recipe did seem to have its advantages:
1. Lesser cooking time (7 minutes as against 25 minutes of steaming)
2. Lesser cleaning up - just one microwave safe dish other than the wok used to mix ingredients
3. Even your kids can handle the recipe from the assembled-ingredients stage

Semolina-Banana-Coconut Cake (No bake)
Time taken - Under 15 minutes
Serves 6-8 people or more
Category - Healthy dessert, Festival food, Neivedyam

---

Ingredients
1-2 tbsp ghee (clarified butter, see notes) If you don't have this, use unsalted butter
1 1/4 cup semolina (buy the finer of the varieties)
3/4 cup jaggery (see notes)
3 bananas - medium sized
1 pack thick coconut milk (I used Dabur's 200 ml pack)
1/2 cup water
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder

Directions
1. Grease a 9" or so microwave safe flatware with some ghee on your fingertips. Keep aside.

2. In a blender / mixer, place the 3 peeled bananas with the jaggery, make a smooth paste and keep aside.

3. Heat the remaining ghee in a heavy bottomed wok, put in the semolina. On medium to low flame, constantly stir it around until it turns lightly golden. This part requires your full attention for 5-7 minutes and the slightest burnt semolina will spoil the taste of the cake.

4. Once the semolina turns golden, turn flame to lowest possible, pour in the banana-jaggery paste, stir till it is nearly absorbed by the semolina. This will take 30 seconds to a minute. Take the wok off the flame.

5. In a jug, whisk well the coconut milk, water, salt, baking powder, cardamom powder and pour it into the semolina mix in the wok. Stir well till ingredients are blended through.

6. Pour this mix into the greased microwave safe dish. Garnish with any nuts /dried fruits or candied fruit to make it more appealing to kids.

7.Microwave at 100% for 5 minutes. Check the degree to which the cake is cooked and then depending on that microwave at 80% for 2 minutes or so. Remove, cool and cut into squares /diamonds.

8. Serve warm.

Health tip:

This cake needs to be refrigerated because of its coconut milk content which may go rancid if left out for longer time. You can warm it by nuking it for 20 seconds or so. It makes an excellent dessert idea for the tiffin box for your kid or your spouse.
Jaggery is known to be rich in iron because of the huge iron vessels in which it is processed, hence better that sugar which is just empty calories. Diabetics, please be informed that eating jaggery does nothing better than sugar for your blood sugar levels as they both have the same glycemic index - calorie-wise and carbohydrate-wise, both are nearly the same. If you have to choose between the two, jaggery is just a slightly better choice because its more natural and nutritive than plain sugar.

Notes:
1. You will find jaggery, rava and ghee in any store selling Indian groceries.
You can also make ghee at home from unsalted butter - instructive posts here, here & here.
2. In case you do not have a microwave, you can surely steam this cake as per original recipe's instructions.
3. A lighter coloured jaggery will yield a paler cake and a dark brown jaggery will give you the rich brownier one. If you do not find jaggery, by all means use brown sugar or even white sugar.
4. My cousin tried this with whole wheat flour instead of semolina and said the results were as good. Just increase the baking powder a tad bit.
5. Try it out with spices of your choice. I love the taste of cardamom and hence it found its place in this recipe. You could try out cinnamon or clove powder or even all spice powder.
6. This quick recipe can also fit into the 'Neivedyam' category, which is the offering to Gods made in most Indian homes for festivals and auspicious days as it has no eggs. And from what I hear, most Indian Gods and Goddesses love jaggery as well as bananas :) , and we love them for that.

(This was written for the Family-Lifestyle blog Daily Tiffin)

Read More...

Mango Coconut Icecream

Here's to two of my best friends from the blogosphere -
Meeta who celebrated her Birthday on 2nd June and Sig who is celebrating her anniversary today !!

This is my first ever attempt at making ice cream at home. With Natural Ice Cream's main outlet a stone's throw away from home, I really can't be blamed right? Musk melon, Fresh strawberry and Papaya-Pineapple have been my season's favourites and Custard Apple & Tender coconut are my all time favourites.

Their natural fruity ice creams have only 3 ingredients - Milk, Sugar and Fruit pulp / chunks. It can't get fresher and simpler than this. A half kilo box costs around Rs.150 ( under $4.00 ). I wont be wrong if I say this is Mumbai's favourite icecream brand. While I like trying out the gelatos that are taking the city by the storm, nothing can beat Naturals!!

Anita's Roasted Banana icecream truly inspired me to try my own, especially because she made with without any fancy schmancy gadgets. Meeta's dark chocolate raspberry icecream made me feel like hiding my own simple creation right at the back of the freezer LOL!! And there's Priya's Mango icecream giving company to my own...




Mango Coconut Icecream
Category: Dessert, Icecream, Fruits
Serves 6
Recipe source: Rediff.com

Ingredients

500 ml cold milk (3% or higher fat content)
200 ml tetrapack of coconut milk
1 cup skimmed milk powder
3/4 cup sugar or equivalent Splenda for those who avoid sugar
1 tsp mango essence or vanilla extract or cardamom powder
1 ripe mango, peeled and chopped into small pieces

Directions

1. Turn your freezer control to 'quick chill' or lowest temperature one hour before you start with the ingredients.

2. Take all of the ingredients except chopped mango in a large deep bowl and churn with a handblender for 10 minutes till frothy. It's good to take some breaks of a few seconds each so as not to overheat the blender's motor.

3. Put in the mango pieces and blend for another 2 minutes.

4. You may either turn this mixture into your ice cream maker and follow instructions or pour it into an airtight plastic jar / aluminium tin and freeze for 4-5 hours.

5. Remove the contents back into the bowl and churn with hand blender for 5 minutes or so, until all the frozen chunks are broken and frothy.

6. Repeat as in 4.

7. Icecream should be set and ready. Scoop out into chilled bowls and garnish with mint leaves or cardamom powder or mango slices.

Notes

The coconut flavour happened as a result of laziness. I didn't have the cream on hand to use in the recipe, and since coconut milk is as thick as cream, I decided to give it a try. Coconut and mango both being tropical flavours, blend quite well. If you are a person who loves pinacolada type flavours, you are sure to love this one.

If you do not have a hand blender, by all means use your regular food processor / mixer to beat the frozen icecream.

This is my entry to Meeta's BIG BIRTHDAY BANG!

Read More...

Summer food series # 4 - Quick Mango Sandesh with my friend Preeti

Cooking with friends is a delight and especially so if your friend is as talented as mine. Preeti has been a cooking enthusiast since she was in school inspired by India's queen of cookbook writing- Tarla Dalal. P has a whole collection of Tarla Dalal right from her first hardbound book in 1974.

Though I've got to know P only recently, we already feel as though we know each other since ages and needless to say, food is a mainstay of our conversations. Page 3 and world politics can take a walk as the two foodies discuss recipes, tastes and restaurants.

When she mentioned this easy breezy Sandesh to me, I felt, this is one thing I must see her make, taste it and of-course share it with my beloved readers. Something as simple yet tasteful as this one must be in the recipe files of every enthusiastic entertainer.

This recipe for a change has loads of step-by-step photos I could take as she was in the process of making it. This is a perfect entry for Trupti's Spring FLing -Family and Friends in the kitchen.

Also, Q is for Quick and this 30 minute, chilled out recipe goes into One Hot kitchen for the A-Z event.


Quick Mango Sandesh
Category - Dessert, Fruit, Milk dessert
Time Taken - Under 30 minutes
Makes - 12 pieces

Ingredients
2 L whole milk
1/4 tsp citric acid crystals or juice of one lemon
1/2 cup water
2 mangoes
6 tbsp powdered sugar or more

Special Equipment
Mesh colander
Square / Rectangular box / pan

Directions



1. Bring 2 L whole milk to a boil.
2. Meanwhile, dissolve 1/4 tsp of citric acid crystals in half cup water.
3. Peel two mangoes and keep aside.



4. Keep the flame on SIM, and add the citric acid solution a tsp at a time stirring the milk all the time.
5. Do this until the solids separate out leaving a greenish whey, do not add any more citric acid now.
6. Using a large mesh colander, filter out the solids (chenna).Press lightly to remove excess whey but do not squeeze it dry. Let this sit for 10 minutes or until cool enough to handle.



7. Remove the chenna onto a plate.
8.Add 6 tbsp of powdered sugar and knead well for five minutes until sugar is well mixed and you get a soft yet grainy dough.
9.In a rectangular / square pan or box, press one half of the chenna tightly into the base.



10. Slice the mangoes thinly and place over the chenna layer.
11. Do this until the whole layer is covered with mangoes.
12. Press the remaining chenna over the mango layer to make a sandwich.

Chill the pan / box for 30 minutes or so in the refrigerator. Do not freeze.
Remove and cut into pieces of desired sizes. Serve chilled.

Variations:

Preeti has used pineapple slices instead of mangoes, when the latter are not in season and the pineapple sandesh tastes superb too!
You can also mix mango puree into half the chenna to get 3 layers, one pure chenna, one mango flavoured chenna and the top layer of mango slices.
Powdered cardamoms can be mixed along with chenna to give it a strong flavour, cardamom goes well with mangoes!
You could also make smaller pieces of this sandesh and float them in a creamy sweet gravy made with condensed milk, milk and saffron strands and serve it as a ras-malai!

Notes:

While traditional Bengali sweets are made by steaming the chenna or cooking it, this is one is a simple technique and fast to make that tastes wonderful. This makes an excellent party dessert that can be made the previous day and chilled.

Priti uses whole milk, but you can always use skimmed milk, probably you will need a gallon of milk to get out the required amount of Chenna though.

I loved the simple flavour of the sweetened chenna and complemeted perfectly by the strong, sweet taste of Alfonso mango slices, the best example of A Perfect Balance.

You can easily adapt this recipe for diabetics by using Fructose sugar or Splenda. Since this recipe is rich in fats from whole milk, it is recommended that diabetics indulge in one small piece at a time!

Read More...