I’ve been MIA for last 2 months… food had become my worst enemy with me retching up with just thoughts of food, cooking or baking was out of question. Though I’ve been feeling ok for last 15 days but getting back into the tempo of kitchen was also proving very difficult. Finally I kicked myself 1000 times & got to baking a simple brown bread which I’ve tried before this as well.
I’ve been told to stay off all yeast goods some time ago. Though I haven’t been able to follow it strictly as breads available in market are made with yeast only. When this baking bug bit me, I decided to use this opportunity to bake yeast free bread for myself. I haven’t come across many recipes for yeast free bread online. However, there are many available with choco-chip & banana in yeast free version but I didn’t want sweet bread as a recipe to bake frequently.
Oats & Wheat Bread
Then I came across this post on my blog & voila, I had the perfect yeast free bread and that too a healthy version with oats & wheat flour. I still had to wait to buy a loaf pan before I could try it – you can’t imagine the process (in my mind) which went into making this. As a rule in a typical family, anything new with sweet is readily accepted but anything else is always fret with critical evaluation… one can put real food connoisseur to shame here. So with all this apprehensions, I ventured into bread making. I halved the recipe & kept everything else same. V ate the whole bread in one go on top of dinner & couldn’t stop singing praises for it. I couldn’t believe it & bit into a slice (especially left for me, how thoughtful!) tentatively… mmm mmm mmm. I felt that the bread was real nice & healthy, way ahead of breads available in supermarket as brown bread.
Combine all dry ingredients. Then mix in butter using your fingers.
Add milk & honey, until well combined.
Pour batter in prepared pan, sprinkle some oats on top & bake for 45-50 mins.
Oats & Wheat Bread
I made only slight changes to the original recipe as I felt it didn’t need any changes though I intend to make versions of it soon. I skipped salt as I used salted butter. Also I needed to add 1 Tbsp milk extra as the consistency was a bit more dry.
Though I need to mention that this bread won’t be like a market-bought spongy bread as it is made without yeast. But this bread tastes delicious straight out of oven. I love it with Orange Marmalade. Enjoy warm bread with butter plain or toasted. 🙂
Oats & Wheat Bread
Though it is a bit late but this is my entry for Sweet Punch – December, which was about baking what we like.
Wishing all bloggers a Happy Dussera, end of Navratras & Dandiya Ras. Hope you all had wonderful celebrations yesterday. I made the Dussera special meal along with matar pulao, aloo phool gobi & kheer. These recipes for some later posts.
Today being the 7th of month, it’s time for some Sweet Punch. And I made my first tarts which have been on my Baking Wishlist. I usually plan & make my posts much in advance & never wait for the last day, however last 15 days saw too much baking & sweet in the household with Eggless BFC, Eggless Checkerboard Cake & Cream Cheese Cupcakes, so I kept postponing this recipe till the last day almost!
Upon researching I realized that the most essential part of tarts is to ensure that butter is chilled. I guess this is as easy as baking can get. Though Ria had chosen Jam Tarts, I had just too much tid-bits leftover from all the above experiments, I decided to use them & finish. For a change this is a recipe in which I didn’t need to worry about assembling lot of ingredients or replacing egg! Thankfully the crust of the tart is eggless, phew!!!
I used a melon scooper to make chocolate truffles from leftover chilled ganache & quickly rolled them in cocoa. I placed them in an airtight container on a parchment sheet & refrigerated till further use.
Pre-heat the oven at 180 C. Lightly grease the tart moulds.
Mix flour & baking powder together.
Add the butter & rub the flour & butter together using fingertips to create a dough resembling breadcrumbs.
Divide the dough into 12 equal parts & line the tart moulds.
Place one truffle per tart mould. Then top it with 2 tsp of cherry pie filling.
Bake for 15 mins or till done. Remove from oven
Allow to cool completely on wire rack in the moulds. Do not de-mould when hot as you can scald yourself.
Chocolate Truffle with Cherry Pie Filling Tart
I served it topped with whipped cream. With every bite, you feel molten chocolate with plenty of cherry pie filling & whipped cream. Mine didn’t de-mould very well so I let them be in the mould. 😦
Chocolate Truffle with Cherry Pie Filling Tart
Sending these tarts to Kalyani’s 100 day Global Fest at Sizzling Tastebuds which is a part of My Mother’s Kitchen. Hop on to her blog to get some interesting global dishes
I’m the BIRTHDAY GIRL 🙂 So what if the post is 3 days late, even then I can enjoy being the birthday girl for 1 more week 🙂 I baked the cake & cut it on the D-day only but haven’t been able to post it.
Checkerboard cake have been on my to bake list from the beginning. The first time I saw this I knew I had to make it soon & finally the occasion presented itself in the form of my b’day. I gave this cake option to V but he wanted to stick to known entity of a Black Forest Cake. I guess it’s his loss & my gain. 😀 This cake requires 2 or more colored cakes/ batter to produce the checkerboard effect upon slicing. I initially contemplated going in for girlie colors – pastels for the cake batter, but since the colors here are local versions & not as specific as Wilton, I chose to stick to chocolate & white. The trick for this cake lies not so much in baking as in assembling. If you have a special pan required for this cake then no challenge, but I wanted to make this simply to try my hands at assembling it without the special kit.
Eggless Checkerboard Cake with Chocolate Buttercream Frosting
I googled a lot on this cake without the special tin, almost everyone used the method of cutting 3 different size rings from each cake & interchanging them. Then placing one such prepared layer over the other & voila you have a checkerboard pattern when you slice it. 🙂 There was one more method used by only few – which works if you bake the cakes in square pan. For this method, you cut strips of each type of cake & then assemble them alternatively first in 1 layer & then on top of the first layer. I chose to work with ring method for my first attempt.
Eggless Checkerboard Cake with Chocolate Buttercream Frosting
I baked Hershey’s Lavish Chocolate Cake & an Eggless Silver White Cake from Bakin’ Without Eggs by Rosemarie Emro. I doubled the Hershey’s recipe, replaced sugar with brown sugar. Also I had to change the timing as I baked the batter in 1 pan instead of 3 pans. I followed white cake recipe as such. A silver white cake is typically made from egg whites & almond extract but here we are with an eggless version with no egg whites 🙂 Go figure! I refrigerated both the cakes for 24 hours & then thawed sliced layers for 4-10 hours before decorating. The purpose of refrigeration is to slicing the layers easily, which is the most of the battle won.
I used Chocolate Buttercream for filling & frosting. The filling should be minimal so that checkerboard pattern can be clearly seen.
Eggless Checkerboard Cake with Chocolate Buttercream Frosting
Eggless Checkerboard Cake –
Eggless Chocolate Cake – Hershey’s {Recipe follows} I doubled the recipe & baked the whole batter in one 8″ pan
Eggless Silver White Cake – from Bakin’ Without Eggs (refer book for recipe) For both Heavenly Chocolate Cake & Silver White Cake I had to increase the time by atleast 10-15 mins from the given time in the book.
1/4 Cup – Coke (for soaking)
Chocolate Buttercream – from Joy of Baking {Recipe follows}
Pour batter into prepared pan & bake for 60 mins or till inserted toothpick comes out clean.
Cool the cake in the pan on a wire rack & then transfer to a plate.
Wrap tightly in plastic wrap or cling film & refrigerate till required.
Eggless Checkerboard Cake with Chocolate Buttercream Frosting
Chocolate Buttercream –
Recipe Source – minimally adapted from Joy of Baking
Ingredients –
460 gms – Icing Sugar, sifted
226 gms – Unsalted Butter (226 gms)
1 tsp – Vanilla Extract (I used Almond as I had run out of Vanilla)
4 Tbsp – Milk
120 gms – Melted & Cooled Chocolate (I used Milk Compound which was leftover with me)
Method –
In a large bowl, beat butter till smooth & well blended using hand mixer.
Beat in vanilla extract.
On low speed slowly add sugar & continue beating. Scrape down sides if required.
Add the milk & beat to combine.
Add melted chocolate & beat.
On high speed beat the frosting till light & fluffy, about 5-6 mins.
Cover with plastic wrap when not using.
I felt that frosting was just enough to cover the cake & hardly any left to decorate on top or sides. So I suggest to increase the recipe by 1.5 times.
Assembling the Cake –
I’ve searched the net extensively for assembling this cake, most of them have tried to explain the 3 ring method as best as possible but few days ago I came across this illustration on Joy of Dessert which, she in turn has taken from flickr/avkelly. This is by far the best way to explain the assembling & hence I’m also posting it here along with due credit.
Slice both cakes into horizontal layers such that you have 2 layers of each cake & 4 total.
Cut out 2 rings each from all 4 layers. I placed 6″ dia removable bottom of tart pan & cut a circle around it & then I used a 4″ dia. lid & cut another circle within the 6″ circle.
Carefully remove the middle ring of all layers.
Using a spatula, lightly spread buttercream filling on the insides of the remaining rings. Lightly spread butter cream on outside of middle rings as well. This helps in sticking the rings together & not make a mess while cutting the cake. Then place the middle rings backs in alternating colors – place chocolate color ring in white cake & vice versa. Now you have 4 layers of cake with alternating colored rings.
Now place 1 prepared layer of cake on the base or cake table. Soak in coke. Lightly spread the filling & then place the 2nd layer such that the rings are stacked alternate to each other – chocolate color ring on top of white colored ring, then place the 3rd layer again alternating colors on top of each other & then the last layer similarly.
Keep the cake in freezer for 10 mins. This reduces the amount of crumbs to deal with while frosting.
Quickly do a crumb coat on the whole cake & then decorate as per your whim. 🙂
Eggless Checkerboard Cake with Chocolate Buttercream Frosting
Tips –
Refrigerating the cake 10-15 mins before slicing layers & rings will help in neater finish. It also gives lesser crumbs to mess while frosting.
It may help, if you first place the layer you want as base on the cake table & then exchange rings & place other rings on top & biding together with buttercream instead of making separate layers. The risk of layers falling apart in transfer are reduced then.
No amount of planning & tips helped me in assembling this cake as it is very difficult to maintain the rings & adjust them within each other. Almost all my rings broke into many pieces & had to be glued together with filling. I also felt that adding another smaller 2″ dia ring would have made the cake even more aesthetically appealing.
Eggless Checkerboard Cake with Chocolate Buttercream Frosting
But the overall effect was wonderful as you can see. The cake cutting was full of oohhss & aaahhhsss. V was jealous & told me that why his birthday cake was not this nice. Difficult to please husbands! Sonny dear wanted only edible beads & no cake. Everybody wanted to know the technique of assembling it. I’m glad people liked my effort & effect though the making was quite eventful. Taste wise also the cake was wonderful with both variety of cakes complimenting each other. A great success!!!
Eggless Checkerboard Cake with Chocolate Buttercream Frosting
To top this, I had a pleasant surprise thrown in by V. He gifted me a Recipe Journal by Moleskine in which he suggests that I should put together best of recipes & pass on to my future daughter-in-law & Ved gave me a huge card 🙂 Thank you to the men in my life 😀
Birthday Gifts
Sending this cake to Kalyani’s 100 day Global Fest at Sizzling Tastebuds which is a part of My Mother’s Kitchen. Hop on to her blog to get some interesting global dishes 🙂
This Wednesday I am paired with Suchitra (EC) of Simple Indian Food. As I rambled in coconut rice post, when in Rome behave like Romans, so when my partner was another South Indian I choose to expand my skills with another of their delicacy. Knowing the Blog Hop schedule in advance has tremendous advantage, I planned to kill 2 birds with 1 stone – cover the blog hop wed with Radhika & Suchitra in one go & satisfy V’s hunger pangs.
What I love about South-Indian cuisine is use of minimum oil & plenty of veggies. Keeping this in mind, I promptly shot off a mail to Suchitra. She very helpfully guided me to 3-4 recipes loaded with veggies, out of them I chose Raw Tomato Dal as I thought it will go well with Coconut Rice. If I erred in combining the 2 then please excuse me women.
Let me tell you at the onset that this is a loooonngggg post. I’ve tried to keep it as short as possible.
More than festivals, I enjoy planning & creating our family days – birthdays, anniversary etc. Every year for last 5 yrs, I’ve been celebrating V’s b’day and plan a surprise (little or big) for him. Every year he complains about those surprises as he is not very pro to the idea of surprise – he likes them but would want to be forewarned than surprised. So this year I promised him I won’t give a surprise. He tells me that is a surprise in itself! MEN!!! This year V chose Black Forest Cake for his b’day treat. 🙂
I cajoled V into gifting me many b’day gifts this year – mind you all scattered through the last few months so that he wouldn’t realize how clever I had been 😉 One such gift was a book from my wishlist, Bakin’ Without Eggs by Rosemarie Emro. I had read great reviews about this book & wanted to try my hand at the recipes from it. What I also liked about this book was that it wasn’t just catering to Vegan. Most of the books & blogs on egg-free recipes are Vegan oriented & I have harped many a times earlier that I cannot eat Tofu, soy milk etc. 😦 So this book came as a pleasant surprise – Rosemarie has used mostly White Vinegar as substitute for egg. From whatever recipes I’ve gone through I can assure you that they are good & just waiting to be made. Also the ingredients used are very basic & most baked recipes come with topping recipes as well. I chose Heavenly Chocolate Cake from Bakin’ Without Eggs. I’ve kept the recipe same except substituting buttermilk with curd.
I decided to assemble Black Forest Cake in a non-traditional version, adapting from a video on ehow – simple & beautiful BFC using Ganache, Cherry Pie Filling & Whipped Cream. Last time I tried frosting with Rainbow Cake I was supervised by my sister, this time I was going solo. I’ve been practicing frosting patterns using a mehndi cone for last 20 days on the back of the cake pan, to give me confidence of moving the cone with a flow which is most of the battle won, I guess! I have omitted liqueur from both ganache & soaking syrup as there was a slight chance that out little devil might eat a bite. 🙂
Eggless Black Forest Cake with Cherry Pie Filling & Chocolate Ganache
I will go into detail & recipe for all steps, except the cake as it is from a book & V was very particular that I should have permission for it before posting it. I see many bloggers posting recipes from book, so I wasn’t sure but he is RIGHT. So I unwillingly agreed to not post recipe for the cake. I’ve sent a mail seeking permission to the publisher of this book but they haven’t reverted to me yet, so till then I am not posting the cake recipe. Even when I started the blog, I took permission for my firstfewposts.
I prepared everything in advance & just assembled the cake on the day. Our Little Devil, designed the banner for his Dad! I just helped him a bit where he couldn’t manage – like cutting flags & writing. Enough of jibber-jabber & over to the recipe.
Eggless Black Forest Cake with Chocolate Ganache, Cherry Pie Filling & Low Fat Whipped Cream –
Eggless Black Forest Cake with Cherry Pie Filling & Chocolate Ganache
Eggless Heavenly Chocolate Cake – minimally adapted from Bakin’ Without Eggs by Rosemarie Emro. I made it 2 days in advance and refrigerated it. I brought it out of refrigerator night before the assembly. {For Recipe refer book}
Cherry Pie Filling – I made it 1 day in advance & stored it in refrigerator in air-tight container & minimum 4 hours prior to assembly I allowed it to come to room temp. {Recipe below}
Cherry Syrup – I used drained cherry syrup from cans & stored it in refrigerator in air-tight container & minimum 4 hours prior to assembly I allowed it to come to room temp.
Chocolate Ganache – I made it the night before the assembly. Kept at room temp overnight to allow it set properly. {Recipe below}
Low Fat Whipped Cream – I made on the morning of assembling, thought kept the beater & bowl in freezer at night only 🙂 {Recipe below}
Cherry Pie Filling – I used cherry liquid (drained) instead of water. I reduced the sugar by half as I was already using sugar filled cherry liquid.
Recipe Source – loosely adapted from Tammy of Tammy’s Recipes
1 1/2 Cups – Sugar (adjust as per the tartness or sweetness of cherries)
1/4 Cup *+ 3 Tbsp – Drained Cherry Juice (adjust as per thickness required)
3 Tbsp – Cornstarch
Method –
Combine sugar & cherries in a thick bottom pan & stir. If cherries are soft & mushy, you won’t need more additional water but if they are firm, add 1/2-3/4 cup water.
Mix cornstarch in 3 Tbsp drained cherry juice separately. Make sure no lumps are formed.
When the cherries are boiling, slowly add cornstarch, stirring all the while. Allow the mixture to become clear & starch to dissolve completely. Do not overcook as the filling will start breaking down.
Remove from flame & allow to cool. When cool, store in an air-tight container in refrigerator.
Notes–I made a mistake & started with 1 cup water, the filling became very watery as sugar also releases water upon being subjected to heat. It took me a lot of time to reach desired consistency & I was scared all the while of over doing the filling.
Eggless Black Forest Cake with Cherry Pie Filling & Chocolate Ganache
Chocolate Ganache –
Recipe Source – minimally adapted from Joy of Baking
Ingredients –
227 gms – Semi-sweet/ Bittersweet Chocolate, cut into small pieces (I used Hershey’s)
180 ml – Heavy Whipping Cream (I used Amul)
1 Tbsp – Unsalted Butter
Method –
Put chopped chocolate in a large bowl & keep aside.
In a saucepan, heat cream & butter on medium heat. As soon as it boils, remove from flame & pour over chopped chocolate.
Allow it to stand without mixing for few mins (about 3-4 mins). Do not stir as we do not want to incorporate air in Ganache.
Using a wooden spoon/ rubber spatula or whisk, gently stir by beginning in the center & gently moving out to the edge of the bowl.
When the chocolate is fully melted & mixture is smooth, add any liqueur or liquid flavorings (all should be at room temp.)
Allow it to cool down completely & set properly. Before storing, cover with a piece of plastic wrap pressed on the top of the ganache so a film doesn’t form.It can be stored at room temp in a cool corner for 2 days & freeze upto 3 months.
Whipped Cream from Low Fat Cream – I halved the recipe, reduced the amount of cream & increased butter little so as to achieve higher fat content & get stiffer peaks.
Take a cardboard pieces & cut it out 1 inch bigger than the cake pan. Cover it with the golden paper. Cake base is ready.
Allow your cake assembling ingredients to come to room temperature – cake, cherry pie filling & syrup. In the meanwhile, prepare the whipped cream.
Place the prepared cake base on a flat base or cake table.
Using a serrated knife, carefully slice the cake horizontally into 2 halves. Liberally sprinkle both sides of halves with sugar syrup. Place the top half on the base upside down.
Fill the ganache in a frosting bag & using small star tip, make 2-3 circles of ganache on the base cake to create a sort of dam as we do not want the cream to spill out when we fill it in.
Then using a rubber spatula, fill the dam with whipped cream, spreading till the edge of the dam.
Now place some dollops of cherry pie-filling on the cream. This is just to give that extra flavor of cherry when we bite in. No need to spread a big layer, just some dollops would do.
Place the second layer of cake with bottom up (as this has a smooth & flat top) on top of of first layer. Allow this to set in fridge for few minutes so that ganache is set & doesn’t get disturbed when we start decorating.
Remove from fridge. With the help of frosting spatula, spread ganache on the sides of the cake completely. Smooth the ends & spread any extra ganache towards the top centre. Since we are going to fill the top with cherry pie filling, the top can be little untidy, it won’t show. 🙂
Take the ganache filled frosting bag & make small scallop design, press & then pull forward, again press & pull forward the tip, at the base of the cake. This gives a clean edge to the cake.
Now fill the remaining whipped cream in a frosting bag & using a bigger star-tip make alternate shells or any other design you want on the edge.
Now fill the centre with the remaining cherry-pie filling & spread towards the edges without spoiling the cream.
Chill the cake covered for atleast 4 hours for best taste. Slice & serve.
Eggless Black Forest Cake with Cherry Pie Filling & Chocolate Ganache
You can’t imagine the amount of butterflies I had in my stomach for last 1 week leading upto the day. I was hoping for atleast the photos to come out great & not let me down. The cake was very tasty, chocolatey, crumbly & soft. I guess use of Chocolate Pudding Filling in the batter gave it the extra chocolatey taste. Every bite was real heaven.
I turned out to be a bit messy looking cake as – I’m a clueless decorator, the cake broke into 2 while slicing into layers, I forgot to soak each layer & just did the top one. The ganache on the sides didn’t spread as neat as I had hoped & the whipped cream despite all my calculation for stiff peak, didn’t hold for even a minute. 😦 😦 😦 Nevertheless, the cake was very rich & heavenly!!!
Eggless Black Forest Cake with Cherry Pie Filling & Chocolate Ganache
Sending this to My Favorite Dish Event by Ammu of Ammaji Recipes. In a pastry shop we are spoiled for choices these days, but time & again I come back to eating the good old Black Forest Cake/ Pastry & that is why it is a favorite dish with me.
I have a perception that most of the Indian food bloggers (settled in India or abroad) are South Indian. My perception can be totally skewed but that’s what I have felt in last 10 months of my association with food blogosphere. So when I started this blog, I was sure that I wouldn’t put try & put recipe of a dosa or idli & pass it off as great. I know for a fact that there are many excellent recipes available for South-Indian cuisine in food world. When I had to choose from Radhika this Wednesday a recipe for Blog Hop I knew it was going to be a South-Indian recipe.
Since, I’m not very familiar with south-Indian cuisine & its nuances I asked Radhika to help me select a rice dish which is authentic South-Indian. She directed me to Coconut Rice. I have not made any major change to the recipe except skipping ground nuts.
Coconut Rice
Coconut Rice –
Recipe Source – minimally adapted from Radhika of Tickling Palates
Ingredients –
2 Cups – Cooked Rice
1 Cup – Fresh Grated Coconut
1/2 tsp – Mustard Seeds
1/2 tsp – Urad Dal
2 tsp – Bengal Gram Dal
2 – Green Chillies, slit
2 – Whole Red Chillies
1/2 tsp – Chopped Ginger
8-10 – Roasted Cashewnuts
1 sprig – Curry Leaves
a pinch – Asafoetida
2 Tbsp – Coconut Oil
to taste – Salt
Method –
Heat oil in a pan. Add mustard seeds, when they splutter add urad dal, bengal gram dal, red chillies, green chillies, ginger & curry leaves. Fry them on low flame. Do not over do them.
Now add asafoetida & coconut. Roast till the kitchen starts filling with aroma of fresh roasted coconut. 🙂
Now add cooked rice & mix well. Add salt. Garnish with roasted cashew nuts.
Serve hot.
I served it with Raw Tomato Dal. It was the yummiest South-Indian dish I made & had. I ate with my fingers, which I rarely do {you see the farang in me ;)}
Coconut Rice
It is not usual for us to cook in coconut oil, hence it was a very different & novel taste for us. Also, I’m not a big rice lover, so when I cook rice, it is always an elaborate affair like this one.
For this month’s sweet punch, they chose Chocolate Almond Biscotti from Joy of Baking. Biscotti was totally new for me, to tell you a secret, for the first time I’d consciously became aware of something called Biscotti. And again the challenge of substituting eggs came up. Everytime I divert from the given recipe, I’m quite apprehensive & excited about the outcome. I chose to replace eggs with Flax Seed as it works well where the dish has nutty flavour. I also used Milk compound Chocolate as that was available at home with me. My oven doesn’t have 165 C so I chose the closest to it (160 C) & increased the time by 2 mins. It worked fine for me.
Eggless Chocolate & Almond Boscotti
1 egg = 1 Tbsp Powdered Flax Seed mixed in 3 Tbsp warm water
Eggless Chocolate Almond Biscotti –
Recipe Source – minimally adapted from Joy of Baking
110 gms – Semi-sweet Chocolate, chopped into 1/2″ pieces or choco-chips
Method –
Pre-heat the oven to 180 C. Toast almonds for 8-10 mins or until golden brown & fragrant. Allow them to cool & chop coarsely. Set aside.
Mix flax seed powder & warm water. Mix well & allow to stand for 5-10 mins.
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or butter paper.
In a medium bowl, beat together flax seed egg & sugar till thick & fluffy on high speed. This should take about 5 mins.
Add in vanilla extract & beat well.
In a separate bowl sieve flour, baking powder & salt. Whisk together.
Add flour mixture to flax seed mixture. Beat till combined
Slowly fold in the chopped almonds & chocolate.
Transfer the dough on the lined baking sheet & make a log of about 12″ long & 3.5″ wide. You might need to dampen your hands as dough would be sticky.
Bake for 25 mins at 180 C or till firm to touch.
Remove from oven & cool on a wire rack for 10 mins.
Eggless Chocolate & Almond Boscotti
Transfer to a chopping board & diagonally cut the dough into slices of 3/4″ thickness.
Reduce oven temp to 160 C. Place the biscotti cut side down on the baking sheet & bake again for 12 mins. Turn over the slices & bake for another mins.
Remove from oven & cool on a wire rack.
V as usual couldn’t wait to come back & enjoy them with some warm milk before bed. I was also busy nibbling on all the left overs from each baking cycle. 🙂 I felt that my slices were not as thin as they should have been. This is a keeper recipe for me & I’ll surely improvise on the thickness. Till then enjoy with a hot cuppa!
Today is my sister’s birthday. Wish you a very happy birthday with these biscottis & a promise that I’ll surely bake these for you when I meet you next. Love you Didi! Hope you enjoyed your b’day gift.
Blog Hop Wednesday is here and my this Wednesday my blog partner is Prathima of Prat’s Corner. She has some amazing repertoire of recipes which are begging a reader to try. Radhika has made me go through this dilemma every fortnight. There are just too amazing bloggers there who enjoy cooking & eating as much as I do if not more. 😀 I love being a part of Blog Hop.
Coming back to Prathima, I chose Mint & Choco-chip Ice-cream which she had made for her mother. I felt that this was something I have never done before & the recipe was easy enough for someone like me to replicate. However, I did make slight changes – I replaced choco-chips with tender coconut & added vanilla essence for just the hint of flavor. Also I doubled the recipe & increased tender coconut as per my needs. I also added coconut before blending rather than after blending as it would give a uniform taste of coconut in the ice-cream. But if one is using choco-chips then they have to be added later.
Mint & Tender Coconut Ice-cream
Tender Coconut & Mint Ice-cream –
Recipe Source – adapted from Prathima of Prat’s Corner
Ingredients –
1 lt – Full Fat Milk
8 Tbsp – Sugar
2 1/2 Tbsp – Cornflour
200 gms – Fresh Cream
4 tsp – Crushed Peppermint (Polo/ Minto)
8 Tbsp – Finely Chopped Tender Coconut (the coconut flesh should neither be too firm nor too soft)
1/2 tsp – Vanilla Essence
Method –
Drink a coconut. Ask the vendor to remove & give you ‘malai’ or tender flesh of coconut. Bring it home, chop it into fine pieces. 🙂 I loved writing this step.
Dissolve cornflour in 50 ml milk & set aside.
Boil the remaining milk in a thick bottom pan. When it is boiled, add cornflour-milk slowly, stirring continuously. Now add sugar & mix till uniform.
Simmer for another 4-5 mins, continue stirring.
Remove from flame and allow to cool completely.
When cool, add the cream, vanilla essence, peppermint & tender coconut. Mix. Transfer to a shallow container & freeze till slushy – about 7-8 hours.
Divide the ice-cream in 2 batches & churn each batch separately in a blender till smooth. Transfer back to the shallow container.
Freeze till set completely.
Serve chilled with wafers or in a waffle cone. The ice-cream was very good, with just a little hint of refreshing peppermint complimenting tender coconut beautifully. Also, it had perfect sweetness – just the way we like it. Though little ice-crystals were formed, the reason for which I have to do some R&D on, the ice-cream was still a hit. If any of you are aware why it happened & how to avoid in future please suggest.
Mint & Tender Coconut Ice-cream
Our friends had their 3rd Anniversary last week & we enjoyed this ice-cream with them to celebrate. Also she loves tender coconut so it became a perfect gift for them from us.
My next partner for Blog Hop is Radhika of Tickling Palates & I can’t wait to visit her blog & have fun. Catch other Blog-Hoppers here to see what they have been doing for their blog hops. If you wish to join contact Radhika of Tickling Palates. Happy Hopping!!
Hope you all had great Independence Day Celebration & long weekend. I did! As I mentioned in Eggless Tutti-Fruity Cake, I went to visit my aunt in Mumbai. I baked the cake & cookies for them and carried with me. Also, since I knew that my next blog hop will be due as soon as I get back, I planned a dessert which I had chosen to make from Monika of Sinamon Tales during that visit. She is my blog-hop partner this Wednesday & I chose this wonderful dessert as it has the deadly ‘C’s – cookies, chocolate, coffee & custard. Monika started her blog just like me – with no job, sitting at home, she started experimenting in kitchen & they came out very good. She was encouraged by her family to go ahead and explore this talent more by becoming a food blogger. This custard is one of the first recipes she wrote.
Eggless Cookie Crunch Mocha Custard
I baked fresh Choco-chip & oats cookies & I was ready to make the dessert anywhere. 🙂 I carried custard powder, cooking chocolate & coffee powder with me just in case they were out of stock in my aunt’s household. And I rustled this wonderful dessert for 3 men gathered in the family with only slight tweaking based on our tastes.
It is so enriching to go through food blogs especially of people who have been into IT for more than you. When Radhika of Tickling Palates gave us this opportunity to explore each other’s blog & share experiences, it felt just so right. If you want to be a blog hopper, visit her here to know more about it.
Eggless Cookie Crunch Mocha Custard –
Recipe Source – minimally adapted from Monika of Sinamon Tales
In 50 ml milk, dissolve custard powder in a small bowl. Boil the rest of the milk in a heavy bottom saucepan.
In the meanwhile, melt chocolate in a microwave or double boiler. If you are using microwave, ensure not to burn the chocolate. Usually 30-40 secs is more than sufficient to melt a chocolate.
Dissolve coffee in 1 Tbsp water in a small bowl & keep aside.
When the milk starts boiling, add sugar and allow it to dissolve.
Remove from flame and add custard powder paste. The paste should be added using thin thread dropping flow & your other hand should continuously stir it in the milk to avoid any lumps formation.
Once the custard powder is uniformly mixed & there are no lumps, keep the pan back on a very low flame. Continue stirring. Allow it to boil once again for 2-3 mins.
Then add melted chocolate & coffee paste & boil for another 3-4 mins all the while continuously stirring.
Remove from flame & allow to cool.
Once it reaches lukewarm temp, add the crumbled cookies on top. Ensure the custard is neither too hot or cold as the cookie will either become too soft or will not blend, respectively.
Set in refrigerator for 4-5 hours. Serve chilled with a dollop of fresh cream.
Eggless Cookie Crunch Mocha Custard
The custard came out great & was gobbled up instantly. Who can resist the deadly Cs. 😀 This is one of the best custards I’ve eaten. It was just too perfect with a delectable crunchy taste. I drove Monika crazy with asking the same Qs again & again in 5 mails. The dumb me! But i finally got the recipe right 🙂 Hats off to Monika for creating a sinful & excellent custard. I just loved it!
Some notes –
I felt that 500 ml milk was slightly lesser than required for 3 Tbsp custard powder. I added about 100 ml extra to get the desired consistency.
I increased the chocolate as that was the last bar with me & I wanted to finish it off. You can use lesser if required.
Also, the cookies in the recipe are 8-10, I felt 6 was more than enough for this quantity.
Once the custard reached the lukewarm temp, I used a hand blender to give it smooth mix as custards invariably becomes lumpy while cooling down.
If the custard feels more cool than required temp, before topping with cookies, just microwave for 30 secs or lesser and then add cookies. I did this as due to blending the temp reduced more than required.
Looking forward to my next blog hop with Prathima of Prat’s Corner in a fortnight. Check out what other bloggers are upto here.
Lemon in Ginger 