Brownie Cheesecake Marble

Tags

baked, baking, brownie, cake, cheese, cheese cake, chocolate, dessert, Friday Feast, marble cake, recipe

I love marble cakes…. There is something about the pattern which takes my heart away… And hence when I saw this at nupur’s blog it was an instant love. and what is not there to love… there is a bake cheese cake, there is a brownie and they are marbled together… totak win situatio. So I had bookmarked this dish and waiting for something to happen so that I can bake it and than came Diwali when I decided to make the giveaway basket myself… It was one of the most treasured items of the basket for me… the texture brilliant and the brownie and the cheesecake perfectly complimenting each other. We loved this one and I am sure will make it again

What I used

For the cheesecake

• 170gms cream cheese – I actually used hung curd, hang curd in a musling cloth or put it in a sieve overnight so that all the whey can go away. Remember to keep this whole thing in fridge else the curd will turn sour
• 1 tbsp. unsalted butter, softened
• 1 egg
• 2 tbsp. sugar
• 1 tbsp. all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract

For the brownie

• 7 tbsp. melted butter
• 2/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder

How I made it

• In a bowl mix together all the cream cheese ingredients till blended
• In a another bowl beat all the brownie ingredients well.
• And now starts the layering… In a greased and dusted baking pan pour most of the brownie mixture, I poured about 2/3rds of the whole
• Pour the cream cheese portion on top of it
• Now pour some dollops of the brownie mixture on top of cream cheese and swril a knife or toothpick to get a nice pattern
• Bake in a preheated oven at 175C for about 30 mins till done

Serve hot and wait for it to get over in a jiffy… its abs yummmm

Mandy I know this leave with depressed but darling much love passed your away, I hoping that this will motivate you to buy a oven and we can see Baking Buddies back in action

and this is off to a event hosted at Nupur’s blog… off to Blog Bites : The Holiday Buffet

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A Mothers Delight

Tags

apple, baking, carrot, cocunut, dessert, egg, flax seeds, Friday Feast, fruit, muffins, recipe, walnuts

When I first saw this recipe at Meeta’s amazing blog I felt that the recipe has too much going around with it, too many flavours that may clash with each other but than I sat and looked hard at the recipe and as she mentions, the recipe is every mother’s delight… it has vegetables, fruits and nuts all rolled into one. I decided to give it a try and was very very pleasently surprised at the results. The flavours blend with each other so well that its hard to imagine that their are so many ingredients that went into it.

I did make some modifications to meeta’s recipe though… the major one being I used whole wheat flour instead of maida and yes I added a tsp of flax seeds powder to it

What I used

• 280g whole wheat flour
• 200g sugar
• 50g walnuts – toasted and coarsely chopped
• 270g carrots – grated
• 1 large apple – grated
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 cup desicated coconut
• 3 large eggs
• 180 ml vegetable oil
• 1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• pinch of salt
• 1 1/2 ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp flax seed – roasted and grounded to a powder

How I made it

• Preheat oven to 180°C.
• Toast the walnuts till slightly brown, I roast them in the oven itself when it is getting heated
• Mix all the dry ingredients together i.e. flour, sugar, baking powder. salt and cinnamon, Add walnuts and coconut to it and mix a little
• In a large bowl whisk the eggs a little, add oil and vanilla essence
• Fold in the grated carrots and apple.
• Add this mixture to the dry mixture, stirring until the dough is moist.Dont overmix it which I think is the key to make good muffins
• Pour in greased and lined muffin moulds and bake for about 20 mins

Cool and bite into them, as I said before they were yummy… the carrots and apples keeping it moist, eggs adding softnes and walnuts and flax seeds adding the crunch… and very nutritous 🙂

Apple Pie With a Twist

Tags

apple pie, apples, baking, dessert, Friday Feast, friday feast on monday :), pie, puff pastry dough, recipe, yeast

I love Apple pie actually I love all baked fruit desserts and specially baked apples… a fruit which I really don’t enjoy eating too much just like that but bake it and bingo a brilliant dessert…

I usually make apple pie with the standard pie/tart base but sometime back I tasted an apple pie with a puff pastry base and it was yummmm so I decided to backtrack the ingredients in my head and give it a try and I am so glad I tried because the result was really really good and the whole thing got over in less than half a day 😀 😀

And now that u are probably tempted enough to take a bite into it, here is how to make it 🙂

What I used

For the base

• Flour – 250 gm
• Water – 150 ml
• Yeast – fresh 5 gm. dry 2.5 gm
• Salt – 5 gm
• Sugar – 10 gm
• Milk Powder – 2.5 gm
• Butter/Margarine – 10 gm
• Margarine for laminating – 85 gm

For the filling

• Apple – 2 big sized, I used granny smith, u can use any but I personally like granny smith the most in dessert it balances the sweetness with adding a twist of sourness
• Sugar – 40 gm
• Cinnamon – 1/2 tsp
• Raisin – 50 gm
• Cake crumbs – 40 gm (if u dont have cake crumbs at home, u can use oats or cornflakes also)
• Cornflour – 10 gm
• Water – 15 ml

How I made it

• Mix maida, milk powder, butter, yeast  and water to make smooth dough. Knead well for about 5-10 minutes
• Leave covered with a damp cloth for rising for about 30 mins
• Roll the dough into a thin rectangular sheet
• Divide the margarine into two parts – fom the first part take out a little and keep aside and spread the rest evenly on the sheet. Remember to spread it evenly and not tear the sheet.
• Make four markings on the sheet make four folds. The corner two ¼ folding inside making it look like an open book and then finally keep one on top of another.
• Spread the margarine that u kept aside on the top again. Take extreme care as the chances of tearing are very high when u are reapplying
  Fold it in the same method again.
• Wrap in a dusted butter paper and keep in fridge for 30-45 mins
• Repeat the above process of lamination i.e. sheet spread the second half of the margarine and fold
• Wrap in a dusted butter paper and keep in fridge for 30-45 mins
• Grease and dust the pie mould
• Keeping aside about 1/4 of the dough, roll out the remaining dough into a circle of ur pie mould size and then place it in ur pie mould covering all sides well. Use a knife to cut the extra dough from the top
• Poke the base of the pie with a fork a little
• Keep aside in the fridge for about 10 minutes till u get the filling ready
• Dice the apples in small cubes, the smaller the better as u will be able to put more filling in the pie then
• Mix all the other filling ingredients and mix well
• Dissolve the cornflour and water mixture and mix with the filling
• Spread the filling evenly in the pie mould.
• With the dough that u kept seperately make some shapes or simple simple striped and cover the top of the pie.
• Bake in a preheated oven at 200C for about 15-20 mins
• Serve warm… yummm

PS: I typed it on Friday and thought I have posted it but now when I came to write another post it was right here in the drafts sigh

Choco Walnut Swiss Roll

Tags

baking, chiffon sponge cake, chocolate, desserts, Friday Feast, recipe, sponge cake, swiss roll, walnut, whipped cream

I love swiss rolls, as a child I remember growing up to it… Black forest cake, butter cream pastries, cream roll (anyone remember those? must make them one of these days) and swiss rolls were the things we grew up on… So when I took up the task of making these, I was pretty nervous and excited…. but it did turn out awesome and we all loved it 🙂

I made it using a chiffon sponge and it was soft spongy and not very heavy… perfect for a swiss roll

Ingredients

For the sponge cake

• Flour 100gms
• Cocoa 15gm
• Baking Powder 3 gm
• Baking Soda a pinch
• Egg Yolk 4-5 depending on how big the egg was
• Sugar Powder 60gm
• Salt a pinch
• Water 75ml
• Oil 60ml
• Egg white 5-6 depending on how big the egg was
• Salt a pinch (yes again)
• Sugar 40gm

For the filling

• Choco truffle cream – 100gms
• Whipped cream – 50gms
• Roasted walnuts – 50gms

Method

• Sift flour, cocca powder, baking powder, baking soda twice
• In a deep bowl mix sugar powder, oil, egg yolks, water and slowly mix to blend together till smooth. This can get tricky, dont be too hard and over mix here
• Beat egg whites, sugar and salt till soft peaks are formed
• Blend the egg white meringue into egg yolk mixture slowly making sure not to loose the volume.
• Fold the dry mixture and mix to form a smooth batter.
• Pour into a 12″x15″ tray which has been greased and lined with butter paper, let the batter be only 1/4″ high maximum
• Bake 180C for about 5-6 mins till done. Remember not to over do it as it will loose the spongyness and softness and will become very dry.
• Let it cool completely and using a butter paper roll and let it set for abour 2 hours.
• Open the roll now and spread a layer of truffle cream on top of the cake.
• Spread the whipped cream and walnuts in a very thin layer on top of the truffle cream of make alternate rows to see the design in the final roll as I did

• Roll again and keep it to set in a butter paper for about 2-3 hours.
• Slice and enjoy

Or in my case distribute it to celebrate the Mindful Meanderings brithday…..The blog we love to participate (errr some of u do no?) and watch the fantastic crafty activities…. that turns 1 and she is giving away a lovely painting and distrubuting this swiss roll for her bday might have some effect on the result…. 😉 So go visit her and leave a comment wishing and tell her u came via here 😉

Cheese Croissants – Post 11

Tags

baking, bread, breakfast, cheese, croissants, Friday Feast, main course, NaBloPoMo, recipe, recipes

I was going to do this recipe a little later but than lot of people have asked for it since I put the pic on FB… specially Deeps…So deeps this one is for u 🙂

Actually these are just cheese dinner rolls shaped as croissants but they taste pretty yumm and go very well with any continental kind side dish for dinner, with eggs for breakfast and even with tea if u make their mini versions

Ingredients

• Maida 250gms
• Salt 4gms (1 little less than 1 tsp however u can go upto 1 tsp)
• Sugar 10gms
• Yeast 12gm
• Water 150ml
• Fat 14gm (we can use butter/margarine or oil)
• Milk 10ml
• Pepper Powder 1 tsp
• Cheese 75gm
• Mustard Powder ¼ tsp

Method

• Mix yeast, water and sugar together and let it activate for about 5 mins.
• Sieve flour and make a well in the center. Add the yeast solution, milk and make soft and smooth dough by kneading. We have to knead it really well atleast for 25 mins or so till it passes the gluten membrane test. Basically when u take a piece in your hand and stretch it should not break

• Mix the fat now and smoothen it.
• Add the grated cheese, pepper powder, mustard powder and knead again for like 4-5 mins. (U can also add any herbs at this point, I think I added oregano to mine)
• Rest the dough covered for about 20-40 mins (depends on the weather hot weather it will work sooner) till it becomes double
• Knockback the dough and rest again for 5 mins
• Roll the dough in a smooth circle. Cut into 8 triangle pieces using pizza cutter.
• Take one part, make the slit at the bottom of about ½ – 1 inch and roll upwards to give it a Croissant like shape till u reach the tip. Put a drop of water to seal.

• Place in the greased baking tray
• Leave it for proofing for about 10-15 mins till it doubles in size and when u touch it kind of bounces back. At this stage u can also brush them with a little mixture of egg and for the shine and color
• Bake at about 200C for 10-15 mins
• The above recipe will yield 8 of them.

Masala Chilli Cookies – Post 3

Tags

baking, cookies, Friday Feast, NaBloPoMo, recipes

Who doesn’t like cookies but while I am doing the course (specially in the cookies week) I had such an overdose of sweet things that I couldn’t stand the sight of sugar and all I wanted to do was eat loads and loads of spicy stuff… That is when I chanced upon these cookies somewhere and I sure had to make them…. and man how yummy they were 😀 😀

Ingredients

• Maida – 125 gms
• Whole Wheat Flour – 125 gms
• Baking Powder – 1.25 gm
• Butter – 140 gms (u can reduce this but then one wont get the khasta biscuit if u understand what i mean)
• Sugar – 25 gms
• Salt – 7.5 gms
• Milk Powder – 20 gms
• Custard Powder – 15 gms
• Curd – 25 gm
• Water – 12.5 ml
• For the masala
  • Green Chilli – 10 gms (If u don’t want it very spicy cut this and increase others litte)
  • Methi Leaves – 10 gms (If u dont have fresh dry will do)
  • Mint Leaves – 10 gms
  • Corrainder Leaves – 25 gms
  • Curry Leaves – 5gms

Methodg

• Grind all masalas together to form a thick paste
• Cream butter, sugar, milk powder and custard powder together
• Mix baking powder with the flour and gradually add to above and mix well
• Mix curd and water to the above mixture
• Add the masala and knead a little to form a dough.
• Roll with a rolling pin using a little dry dough if needed (don’t use too much though)
• Cut with round or any desired cutters or shape with hand.
• Place in a baking tray and bake at 150C for around 10 mins till done

PS: this yields quite a lot so make half the recipe if u like

Bread Kofta Biryani and more

Tags

baking, biryani, bread, curd, fahsion show, Friday Feast, indian, indian main course, main course, plus size, ramp, recipe, rice, soya, veggies

I love biryanis and I often claim that veg biryani is a term meant to make vegetarians happy and there is no such thing like that, its just a modified form of pulao but then once in a while a recipe like this comes and proves me wrong 😉

When I first saw this sometime ago in Tarala Dala’s book it excited me because I love both koftas and biryanis and a combination of that excellent isnt it 😉

As usual I tweaked the recipe a little to suit what I want and here is how I made it..

Ingredients

For the bread koftas

• 4 bread slices (I took the 5 grain bread)
• 2 tbsp finely chopped onions
• 2 green chillies finely chopped
• 2 tsp curds
• 1/2 carrot grated
• 1 tbsp soya flour
• salt to taste
• some oil

For the rice

• 1 cup long grained rice
• 1 bay leaf
• 1″ cinnamon stick
• 2 cardamom
• 2 cloves
• salt to taste

For the gravy

• 2 cloves
• 1″ cinnamon stick
• 1/4 cup sliced onions
• 1 tsp chilli poweder
• 2 tsp coriander-cumin powder
• 1/4 tsp turmeric powder
• 1 cup tomatoes sliced
• 1/2 cup curds
• 1/4 cup green peas
• 1/4 cup carrot grated
• 1/4 cup cabbage grated
• 2 tsp pil
• salt to taste

To be mixed together for curd mixture

• 4 tbsp curds
• 2 tbsp chopped mint
• 2 tbsp chopped corrainder
• 2 tbsp water

Method

For the bread koftas

• Combine all the ingredients except oil with some water and mix well
• Shape the mixture into 15-20 even sized rounds.
• Now u can deep fry the koftas or bake them at 180C for about 15 mins or till brown or fry them with a drop of oil in my fav paniyaram pan 😀

For the rice

• Clean, wash and soak rice for approx 15 mins
• Boil 2 cups of water, add the bay leaf, cinnamon, cardamom, cloves and salt and then add the rice
• Reduce the heat to a simmer, cover the pan and cook till the rice is done
• Seperate each grain of rice with a fork. Keep aside

For the gravy

• Heat oil in a pan and add the cloves and cinnamon
• Add the onions and saute till golden brown
• Add all the dry masalas and saute for 1 min
• Add the tomatoes and cook for 5-7 minutes till oil seperates
• Add the curds, mix well and simmer for further 5 minutes
• Add all the veggies and mix well. Keep aside

For the final assembly

• Spoon out the gravy at the bottom of a baking dish
• Top with bread koftas and cover with cooked rice
• Top with curds mixture
• Cover with a lid or aluminium foil and bake in a pre heated over at 200C for 15-20 mins. Serve hot

The changes I made to the recipe were basically that I added some veggies and soya flour to the koftas and lots of veggies to the gravy… makes it more healthier… and yes didnt deep fry the koftas as suggested and also used much less than what was suggested by the recipe.

What I absolutely loved about this recipe was the fact that this is a true one pot meal not even curd needs to be served along as the top layer is just that

Wanna have a bite with all the layers?

Apart from this so nice of u guys this time to ask where have I been missing since a week… life has been very busy, in the baking class, coming home and practising… It was also N’s birthday last week and we planned a party for him and another friend who had her birthday last saturday and did lots of rain dance 😉 and I baked two cakes for the same… they were yumm and were totally polished off 😀 😀

Mocha Black Forest

Chocolate Sacher Cake

Both the cakes were yummy and were polished off by a gang of 10 people….

What fun that party was and then for the day his actual birthday falls on I planned a surprise family dinner for him with his sister, cousin a few close friends… the higlight of that party was the cake too but this I didnt bake it… I ordered it and u have to see it to understand what I mean

A picture cake with a family collage

Apart from that I have been very busy in one more thing and that is the fashion show that I took part in…  About a month or so back a friend called me saying her friend who is a final year student in JD Institute of Tech is doing a collection for plus size women and will I be interested in walking the ramp for her…. I didn’t think of it much and said yes why not… a sweetheart of a girl came and took my measurements of the dress, showed me a couple of designs and I choose one and then all was forgotten about it till a week or so back when she called saying that we have to come for rehearsals and Rahul Dev Shetty is the one who is choreographing it and there are the likes of Jacky Shetty and Pashmina Barker along with a whole of lot of other models walking for the other segments that I started getting shivers…. 😉 The last time I had walked the ramp was when I was 15 yrs younger and 1/4 the current size…

But Rahul and others did everything to make us all (the plus size models who were all regular women) comfortable and confident and we did walk the ramp after all… It was so much fun… I totally enjoyed myself…

And these are the details for all of those have been asking after seeing the pic on FB, I hope I didnt disappoint those who were asking the designer name 😉

So how has life been with u?

Just a Rant

Tags

baking, power, rant

I hate hate hate when power goes off when I have put something in my oven… Why cant we have a unintteriputed power supply? WHY?

after so much of hard work I put my mud cake in oven and after 7 minutes the power goes off

Damn… I am so angry I can kill someone right now

WHY

Week 1 Recap

Tags

baking, breads

And here are some pictures of what we did in the week 1 of the course, just to make u guys drool and for me to remember 😉

Day 1

Dinner Rolls and Bread Sticks

Day 2

Burger Buns, Cheese Crossiants, Chelsea Bun and White Sandwich Bread

Day 3

Carrot Bread, Spinach Bread, Whole Wheat loaf and rusk

Day 4

French Loaf, Multigrain bread, rich plum bun and fruit bun

Day 5

Savorin, Milk Bread and Sweet Bread

Its all about donuts, masala donut, sugar donut and choco donut

Whole Wheat Choco Chip Cookies

Tags

atta, baking, choco chip, chocolate, cookies, Friday Feast, recipe, whole wheat

I love to bake, my son loves to eat baked goodies but still there are times when he has to demand for cookies… 🙂 As these was mainly for him I didnt really want to do anything with maida and then I had this brain wave of making up a recipe myself… I did some browsing and thought some and came up with whole wheat choco chip cookies… and they were yummy…. the thin ones that I made crisp as they should have been and the round thick ones soft and chewy…

Ingredients

• 1 cup whole wheat flour (atta)
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1/2 powdered sugar
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon powder
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 25 ml chilled milk
• 20 – 35 gm choco chips (depending on whether u going to make it round or shape them)

Method

• Mix oil and sugar together till it becomes light and fluffy
• Mix whole wheat flour, cinnamon powder and baking powder together
• Mix the oil-sugar mixture and milk to the flour to knead a soft dough.
• Add the choco chips in it
• Keep aside for 10 minutes
• Shape or roll into rounds as u want
• Bake for about 9-12 at about 160-180 degrees depending upon the thickness of the cookie

As I was making them for Ojas I shaped them into various shapes, animals, ginger bread boy, aeroplane, car…

And there was Ojas itself as a highlight

And the entire batch of about 20 cookies got over in under an hour 🙂