Chocochip muffin

Ingredients:
2 cups of all purpose flour
1 tbsp of baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp cinnamon powder (it will make all the difference as it enhances the flavour of chocolate. Dont put much as excess of it will make Cinnabon)
1 bag chocochips ( roughly 250 gms but its totally unto you. I mix white and dark chocochips)
2/3 cup milk
1/2 cup unsalted butter
2 tbsp sour cream
2 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup white sugar(powdered)
1/3 cup brown sugar (powdered)

Preparation:
1. Just keep eggs and butter at room temperature
2. Take chocochips in a bowl and add 2 tbsp all purpose from 2 cups which we are using for the recipe. Mix it well and keep it aside. Reason of doing this is that it will prevent chocochips to sink at the bottom of the batter and it will be evenly distributed so that you can taste chocochip in every bite :)
3. Preheat oven to 180 degree C
4. Keep you muffin tray ready with muffin lines. No need to oil but put oil at the edges of the tray.

Methods:
1. Take flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Mix them and keep it aside.
2. In another bowl add eggs, sugar, milk, butter, sour cream and vanilla extract and mix it well.
3. Then add both the sugars and mix until well combined.
4. Now add all the dry ingredients and mix until everything combines.
5. Just ensure dont over mix. Your cake will be soft and fluffy it not over mixed. More you mix, harder your cake will become.
6. Finally add flour mixed chocochips and mix well.
7. Take an ice cream scoop and scoop out the batter into the muffin tray. Advantage of this is that your muffins will be evenly sized.
8. Put the muffin tray in the oven and it will take around 20 mins to bake.

Garnishing:
Just eat as is :)

Fudgy Brownie

Ingredients:

140 gms unsalted butter at room temperature
200 gms bittersweet dark chocolate
1 cup sugar( can use combination of brown and white as well)
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp of salt
1 Tbsp cocoa powder
2 large eggs
2 Tbsp warm water
1 tsp expresso coffee
2/3 cup all purpose flour
* Yes you read it right , there is no baking powder/soda in it. It will be a dense moist chocolate brownie not a typical cakey one

Preparation:
1. Keep butter and eggs at room temperature
2. Microwave the dark chocolate so that its warm and easy to manage. You can use double boiler as well
3. Mix expresso powder and 2 Tbsp warm water and keep it aside
4. Preheat oven at 180 degree C
5. Use a square tin of 8 * 8 inches and put a butter paper or oil the tin.

Method:
1. Take a bowl and beat butter and sugar together till soft and fluffy
2. Add eggs, vanilla extract and expresso mixture. Beat till everything is combined.
3. Add melted chocolate into it and mix.
4. Add all dry ingredients but do not over mix.
5. Pour the batter into the baking tin. It will take around 40-45 mins to bake.
6. Insert a fork or knife and check. Moist crumbs are ok but it should not be a wet batter.
7. Cool it for about 5 mins before taking it out from the tin.

Garnishing:
I prefer it as is but if you want to make it more presentable , sprinkle icing sugar using a sieve over the top of the brownie and cut them in square bars. Serve it with a warm chocolate sauce drizzle and a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Malpua

This malpua recipe is also from my mom.

Malpua is a mandatory dish in Holi. Believe it or not, we eat it with mutton curry during Holi :)

Ingredients

1. Maida - 2 cups
2. Sooji - 1/2 cup
3. Milk - 1.5 cups
4. Over ripe bananas - 1.5 big or 3 small
5. Sugar - 2.5 cups
6. Cardamom powder - 1/2 teaspoon
7. Chopped pistachios for garnish
8. Oil or ghee for frying

Method

For chashni

1. Add 1/3 cup of water to sugar and heat it. Once it starts boiling, let it boil for 2-3 minutes and switch off the gas.

For malpua

1. Soak sooji in milk separately, add just enough milk to cover sooji. Leave it for 1 hour.
2. Then mix the sooji very well with your palms. Add maida and milk and leave it for 3 hours.
3. Blend bananas only in a mixie and then add it to the maida + sooji mixture.
4. Add cardamom power and mix well with a big spoon.
5. Bring oil to medium heat and add 1 big spoon of mixture. Once it rises and is brown on the lower side, flip it over.
6. Once it is brown on both sides, squeeze it between two spoons to remove excess oil.
7. Add the malpua into the chashni, leave it for 2 minutes and then take it out.
8. Garnish with chopped pistachios.

Ragi Banana Chocolate Walnut Cake

I came across this recipe posted by a runner in one of the running magazines in India. Made it for the first time on Christmas Eve and it turned out to be much better than expected.

The cake uses all healthy ingredients  and can be made in vegetarian / vegan way.

Ingredients A:

• 1 cup ragi flour
• 1 cup wheat flour
• ½ cup cocoa powder (unsweetened)
• 2 level tea spoons baking powder

Mix the above and sieve all together.

Ingredients B:

• 1-1/4 cup jaggery powder (I used "bhoora" powder)
• 1 cup oil / melted butter
• 1 cup milk / smooth beaten curd / soy milk
• 3 medium sized ripe bananas, mashed (leftover over-ripe will also do just fine)
• 1 level tea spoon vanilla essence (optional, as the chocolate and bananas already lend plenty of flavour)
• 1 cup walnut (lightly crushed)

Mix the above with a wooden spoon stirring in one direction only. You can use a cake blender, if you use one. It should be well blended with no big lumps. The small lumps of jaggery (about the size of a wheat grain) are hard to avoid. But that’s fine. They will dissolve slowly or melt when baking and meld with the cake.

Fold ingredients A into ingredients B. By fold, we mean add the flour a spoonful at a time and gently incorporate it into the wet mixture using the side of your spoon while continuing to stir in one direction only. You will be maneuvering the spoon with your wrist.

When all the flour is incorporated, pour it into a baking mould of around 10 inches in diameter, lined with aluminium foil or butter paper at the base. (This is my no-fail way of ensuring cakes willingly slide out of their pans when done. You don’t need to oil the pan.)

Bake for about 40-45 minutes at 180 C. You know its done when a cake tester (or small knife) inserted into the cake comes out clean. If the tester still has liquid dough on it, let it bake for another 5-10 mins. Due to the mashed bananas, the cake will tend to have a moist texture, so the tester might not come out fully dry like traditional cakes, which is okay.
If using a microwave convection oven, you may need to grill it for about a minute to get the top of the cake fully cooked.

You can eat it hot or cold, separately or with vanilla ice-cream.

Enjoy!

Banana and Chocolate Chip Cake

I have attempted to make this cake couple of times, and the combination of banana and chocolate chip never fails.  Unfortunately never took a picture of how it looks but will upload once I make this one next.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour (1/2 cup can be replaced by oat flour)
• 1 cup sugar  (granulated)
• 1/2 cup cold, unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
• 1/3 cup sour cream; ½ cup of warm milk can also be used
• 3 ripe bananas
• 2 eggs
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 or 1 ½ cup chocolate chip

Method:

• Preheat the oven to 170 C, and butter a 8-inch round cake pan or loaf pan
• Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl.
• In a separate bowl, beat the butter and sugar until light and creamy.  
• Mash the bananas and add them into the butter and sugar mix until combined.  Add the eggs, one at a time, until combined.  Add and mix cream or milk and vanilla.
• Add the flour mixture and 1 cup of chocolate chips to the wet ingredients, and mix by hand lightly until combined.
• Put the batter into the prepared pan. Sprinkle with the remaining 1 or 1/2 cup of chocolate chips.
• Bake for 45 to 50 minutes or until cooked through when tested with a fork.

Yum yum yum :) !!!

Orange butter cake with chocolate ganache

First of all, I am quite shocked (and those who know me obviously very well know that I may have many talents but cooking is certainly not one of them) that 'I' am going to contribute to this blog and that too - not one but two recipes.

When you belong to a family where almost everyone can cook so well, all level 0 amateur cooks like me can completely understand the pressure of show-offing culinary skills to a set of cooking experts who can smell garam masala from over a kilometer away and can talk about whether a particular dish has X amount of salt, Y amount of ginger, Z amount of heeng, tomatoes, onions, cinnamon, black pepper etc etc. (my only achievement till date is to call out haldi and that too only since the dish looked yellow)

So proud of myself!

Anyways, here is the first one - Orange butter cake with chocolate ganache! (I have to thank Masterchef - at least I can sound intelligent since my food GK is definitely better than an average Indian household and there will be times when I will be using such terms to prove what a good cook I am evolving into :) :)

Here are the ingredients for the cake

• 225 gms  while butter at room temperature
• 170-180 gram sugar (you can reduce it by 10-20 gms more if you like)
• 220 gram flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp salt
• 4 large eggs
• 1-2 tsp orange zest (trust me, peeling it isn't as simple as it looks in many cooking shows that we see :O)
• 1/3rd cup freshly squeezed orange juice. Adding a little more also will not harm.
• Essence (obviously ideally orange, but since I had none at home, I ended up using vanilla and it worked! I think cooking is not as difficult as I thought it will be)

Ingredients for chocolate ganache

• 100 g dark chocolate, chopped (I used Lindt Dark, Orange Intense - really worked very well :))
• 100 ml of cream

Method is simpler and shorter than list of ingredients

• Grease and line an 8” round baking pan or a  loaf pan. 
• Preheat oven to 175-180 degree C. 
• Sieve flour, baking powder and salt.
• In a separate bowl, mix butter and sugar until light and creamy. 
• Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition until mixture is light and fluffy. Add in the orange zest.
• Add in the flour and stir in orange juice. Mix until well combined.
• Turn out mixture into prepared tin. 
• Bake for 45-50 or until cooked through when tested with a fork. the cake is ready!
• For ganache, heat the chopped dark chocolate and whipping cream over a low heat and stir till melted and smooth. Let it cool for about 10-15 minutes and spread over the cake.

And eat when hot! :)