Dark Chocolate Pannacotta

This is the first time I am trying a pannacotta recipe at home, its a beautiful silky dessert. I loved the texture, it was exactly like it should be - wobbly and creamy! This recipe is completely vegetarian and uses china grass or agar agar instead of gelatin.

Below recipe makes 4 large portions of pannacotta.

Ingredients -

500ml full cream milk
1 cup of water
2gm of china grass strands
1 tbspn cornflour
2 tbspn cocoa powder
6 tbspn sugar
50gm of dark chocolate
1 tspn vanilla extract

Procedure -

Wash and then soak the china grass strands in 1 cup of water for 10 to 15 mins.
Mix cornflour and cocoa powder in a bit of luke warm milk and make a smooth paste.
Bring the remaining milk to a boil. Add sugar and chopped dark chocolate. Simmer till chocolate melts. Stir in the cornflour-cocoa slurry. Stir continuously.
On the side, heat the china grass mixture on a low to medium heat until it is fully dissolved in the water. This may take about 5 mins or so.
Add the china grass mixture to the milk mixture. Stir continously. The mixture would not thicken immediately so let it simmer for about 5 mins and take it off the heat. Add the vanilla extract. Keep stirring while the mixture cools down considerably. The constant stirring would prevent a layer of cream forming on top.
Once down to room temperature, pour into moulds and set in the freezer for about 25 mins. Remove from freezer and keep in the refrigerator. Prettify it as you wish!

Enjoy!

Cranberry Lemon Muffins

The inspiration for these muffins is from http://sallysbakingaddiction.com/2014/11/06/cranberry-orange-muffins/. This is one of my favourite sites for baking stuff.
Also, I didn’t have any oranges. So I decided to experiment with lemons. These are organic lemons from my mother-in-law's lemon tree!

Here is my version of cranberry lemon muffins with a lemon glaze -

This recipe makes 6 muffins.

Ingredients -

1/4 cup unsalted butter at room temp
1/4 cup sugar
1/8 cup brown sugar
1 egg at room temp
1/4 cup yogurt
1 tspn vanilla extract
Zest of 2 lemons
1 cup wheat flour
1/2 tspn baking soda
1/2 tspn baking powder
1/4 tspn salt
1/4 tspn cinnamon powder
1 tbspn lemon juice
1 tbspn milk
3/4 cup dried cranberries

For Lemon Glaze -
3/4 cup finely powdered sugar
1 tablespoon lemon juice

Procedure -

Preheat oven to 220C.
Beat the butter till soft and creamy. Add the sugars and whisk well. Add egg, yogurt and vanilla extract and whisk well. The yogurt gives these muffins a really moist quality. Add the lemon zest and incorporate well.
Mix all the dry ingredients and add them to the wet stuff. Mix well. Add the lemon juice and milk. Add the cranberries and fold them in the batter.
Bake in the oven for 5 mins at 220C. Without taking the cupcakes out, lower the temperature of the oven to 180C and bake further for 20 mins or so. Check to see if done with a clean toothpick test.
While the muffins cool, whisk all the glaze ingredients and pour over the glaze on the warm muffins. Allow to cool before eating.

Happy seventh anniversary honey!

Enjoy!

Mini Caramel Apple Pie

When one gets apples, make apple pie!
I know that one was cheesy :). Apple seems to be Adrika's very first word( or so I think!). So here is something to commemorate that.

This recipe makes about 4 muffin cup sized pies.

Pie Crust

1 and 1/4 cup flour
1/2 tbspn sugar
1/8 tspn salt
1/2 cup oil
4-6 tbspn milk

Mix everything in a bowl till moist clumps form. Keep adding milk to help clumping. Once they just about start coming together, the crust dough is done. Press to the muffin cups by hand . Try to keep the bottom slightly thicker so that fluids don't leak.

Filling

1 Apple cubed small with peel (healthier!)
2 tspn sugar
1/2 tspn lemon zest
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1 tspn cinnamon powder
1/4 tspn nutmeg powder
pinch of salt

Mix everything together.

Salted Caramel

1 cup sugar
3 tbspn cream
1/2 tspn salt

Add the sugar to a deep bottom pan and set on low-medium heat. Just swirl it around, never use a spoon or spatula to stir. Be patient, it takes some time for the sugar to liquidize. After it melts and turns a deep orange/red, switch off the flame. Add the cream and salt, be careful this will splutter and the whole thing is super hot. Mix in the cream well, till caramel sauce is formed. Allow it to cool completely. NEVER EVER EAT HOT CARAMEL EVER!

Putting it together

Preheat oven to 180C. Fill the pie crust with layers of apple filling and caramel sauce. Bake for about 25-30 mins or till the top edges are browned.
Let it cool completely for about 40 or 45 mins before eating.

 Enjoy!

 

Funfetti Cupcakes

Saturday mornings are leisurely. It's a half day for Ajay's college so there is no rush of packing up his lunch. This Saturday morning we enjoyed a bit of sunshine after days and days of rain. It's a glorious day! Time to celebrate with some dessert for breakfast!

Ingredients:-
Makes 6 large cupcakes

1/2 cup unsalted butter
3/4 cup sugar
1 tspn vanilla extract
1 egg
1 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 tspn baking powder
1/2 tspn baking soda
1/2 tspn salt
3/4 cup milk
confetti sprinkles

Procedure:-

Cream the butter and sugar till light and pale. I used a hand whisk (easier to clean!). Add the vanilla extract and the egg. Beat well till fluffy and light.
Add all the dry ingredients. Mix it in with the milk into a smooth batter. Add the sprinkles at the very end and do not stir too much for they start losing colour.
Bake in a 170C preheated oven for 30 minutes or till a toothpick comes out clean.

Chocolate Tart

This is by far the most decadent dessert I have ever prepared, indulge with caution!
Football fever has gripped the family. This was prepared for the opening night gala.

Ingredients:-

For the pie shell -
90gms unsalted butter cut into cubes
1 tbspn veg oil
3 tbspn water
1 tbspn sugar
1/8 tspn salt
150 gm or 1 1/4 cup whole wheat flour

For the filling -
300ml cream
2 tspn sugar
pinch of salt
250gm dark chocolate
50ml milk

Procedure -

The pie tart shell recipe is by my favorite dessert chef David Lebovitz. Here is the complete procedure -
http://www.davidlebovitz.com/2009/05/french-tart-dough-a-la-francaise/
Quick summary - In an oven proof bowl combine butter, oil, water, sugar and salt. Place bowl in oven for 10-15 mins till butter is bubbling and starts browning at the edges. Remove from oven and dump in the flour. Stir quickly until it all comes together. Transfer to a 9 inch pie shell and spread it evenly with fingers. Reserve small amount of dough for patchwork later. Take a fork and crimp sides and prick shell. Bake for 15 mins. Cover and patch cracks and bake for 5 more mins till golden brown. Let is cool completely before putting in any filling.

Filling was inspired by Jamie Oliver's chocolate tart filling.
For the filling, boil the cream, sugar, salt on simmer. Switch off and add chocolate pieces. Let is melt on its own, do not over stir or the cream would churn into butter. Add some milk to adjust consistency(want a soft serve type consistency). Fill into the baked cooled shell and refrigerate for 3 hours till set.

Here is our most ardent football fan -

Enjoy!

Bets in the house -
Me - Argentina
Ajay - Germany
Adrika - Don't understand what the fuss is about

Frozen Goodies

I kept scratching my head to figure out what do for Valentine's Day this year. Finally decided to make some frozen goodies.

Low Fat Strawberry Frozen Yogurt

 Ingredients:-
2 cups low fat curd
10 odd strawberries
1/2 cup sugar
 Pinch of salt

Procedure:-
Blend the strawberries and curd in a mixer along with the sugar and a pinch of salt. Pour it out to a freezer safe container. Every 30 mins for the first 3 hours, take out the frozen yogurt and whisk very well to break any ice crystals. Freeze for total of about 5-6 hours.

Creamy Dark Chocolate Ice cream

 Ingredients:-
250 ml low fat milk
1 cup of cream
1/2 + 1/3 cup of milk powder dissolved in 1/2 cup of hot water
2/3 cup of sugar
2 tablespoon honey
2 teaspoon cornstarch
1/3 cup of dark cocoa powder
150gm of dark chocolate
1 tspn of vanilla extract
1 tspn of rum
pinch of salt

Procedure:-
Boil milk, cream,dissolved milk powder, sugar and honey in a heavy bottomed pot. Make a slurry of cornstarch with a little milk and keep aside. Add the cocoa powder into boiling milk and whisk well. Add the slurry of cornstarch and whisk while the mixture thickens. Take the pot off the heat and add chopped chocolate, vanilla extract, salt and rum. Combine well. Let it cool.
Freeze this custard. Every 1 hour for the first 3 hours take it out and whisk well to break any ice crystals. Freeze for a total of 5-6 hours.

And the winner is -

 Enjoy!

Pecan Pie

Please excuse my torpidity lately! I have been meaning to put up many posts. Have been fairly busy baking. Here is something I tried by pure coincidence on Thanksgiving day!

It all begins with the story of how I got hold of pecans. Well these nuts are non existent in India. Ajay's aunt was visiting us from London and she is known to come bearing many gifts! Thank you auntie! We are enjoying your presents. Pecans down, only if I could figure how to finish off the truck load of spanish saffron now!

Ingredients:-

For Filling
Brown sugar - 1 cup
Normal sugar - 1/4 cup
Whole wheat flour - 1 tbspn
Eggs - 2
Vanilla extract - 2 tspn
Milk - 3 tbspn
Melted butter - 1/4 cup
Salt - 1/4 tspn
Chopped Pecans - 1 cup
Rum - 1 tbspn

For Pie Crust
Whole wheat flour - 1.5 cups
Sugar - 1/2 tbspn
Salt - 1/8 tspn
Oil - 7 tbspn
Liquid (Milk or Water or Juice) - 1/4 cup

Procedure:-

For pie crust - Mix in a bowl all the ingredients till moist clumps form. Add the liquid slowly into the dry ingredients. There is no need to refrigerate this pastry. With your hands press down the dough on the pie mold evenly on the bottom and up the sides. Score with a fork. Pie crust is ready for filling.

Filling - In a mixing bowl add both the sugars, flour, salt and two eggs.  Beat very well till all the sugar is dissolved. If the sugar is not dissolved it would sink to the bottom of the pie during baking. So ensure it is nicely mixed. Add the remaining ingredients and mix well.

Pour this filling into the pie shell and sprinkle with pecans on top. Bake in a preheated oven at 180C for 40 - 45 mins. Cool completely before cutting the pie.

For a variation, one can add a bit of chocolate to the filling.

Chocolate Lava Cake

Image courtesy - healthyindulgences.net

Since we had rice for lunch, I was very sure that Ajay would be hungry when he gets back from college. I wanted to make something nice to surprise him. Settled on making a chocolate lava cake.

But what if I put in all the effort and it turns out like a lump of coal or a puddle of cake mush! Had to try it anyway.

It turned out beautifully perfect with molten chocolate oozing out of the center!

Here is the recipe, it was pretty simple and hardly took any time to whip up.

Ingredients:-
Dark Chocolate - 150gms
Cream - 1/2 cup
Egg - 1
Sugar - 1/3 cup
Flour - 1/3 cup

Makes about 4 full sized muffin cakes.

Procedure:-
1. Preheat oven at 180C for 10 mins.
2. Melt the chocolate with cream in a double boiler. Once melted, keep aside for cooling a bit.
3. Whisk the egg with sugar until pale and frothy. I did this by hand, took about 5 mins.
4. Mix the melted chocolate mixture into the liquids.
5. Add the flour and gently fold it into the batter.
6. Pour in greased and floured moulds. I used muffin moulds.
7. Bake at 180C for exact 15 mins.

Took about 30 mins to make the whole thing.

My 10 month old loved it! Here is Adrika enjoying her cake :)