Chocolate Banana Cake

Came home one day, last week from work to a very generous slice of a decadent looking cake slice sitting on my table. On inquiring about its whereabouts, got to know it had been sent over by my neighbor who when saw her own daughter enjoying the cake so much, sent some for my baby girl and her Mommy. It was heavenly, one of the best chocolate cakes I have had... quite flavorful and moist without being overly rich or soggy - a fine line to tread that. I had to have the recipe. The next morning saw me at her doorstep.

I would call this the secretly healthy cake because the healthy stuff remains a secret behind all the good tasting stuff. I cheated a bit too on the recipe to up its health quotient a notch. I switched half the all-purpose flour for whole wheat flour. It did not alter the taste much but did make it a little more fudgier but the cake still retained its spring. It gets its moisture from the bananas, the milk and water, uses vegetable oil instead of butter so stays much longer.

Pre-heat the oven at 180 degrees C. In a big bowl, whisk together the flours, cocoa, sugar, baking powder, salt and sugar till well combined.

In a smaller bowl, whisk the egg. Add the mashed bananas (I gave them a whirl in the blender), milk, warm water and oil. Next, add the vanilla extract. Pour the wet mixture into the dry one and fold till well combined. Here is my little one lending Mommy a hand.

Pour it into a greased 8 inch round cake tin and bake for 40 mins till a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Let cool in the pan for 15 mins and then take it out. Enjoy!

Psst... By the next couple of days, the bananas work their magic and it appears the cake has rum added to it ;)

Ingredients (for an 8 inch round cake tin)

200 grams Sugar

65 grams All purpose flour

60 grams Whole wheat flour

40 grams Cocoa powder

1 tsp Baking powder

1/2 tsp Salt

1 Egg

2 mashed Bananas

120 ml warm Water

60 ml Milk

60 ml Vegetable Oil

1 tsp Vanilla Extract

Oatmeal Raisin Muffins

My little one loves cakes, guess the apple does not really fall from the tree! I have been looking for healthier options for her, seeing her down slices of refined flour cakes being not up my alley. Stumbled upon this, it had all things good - Oats, raisin, a proportionally lower level of butter and sugar. So, i got down to making these muffins.

These are adapted from the recipe here. While one adds raisins, the other chocolate chips. I chose raisins mainly because my daughter can't have enough of them! The flavors are quite delicate and the sweetness can definitely be increased. I did sprinkle sugar on top and that helped to add to the sweetness and gave an unusual crunch in the bite.

Pre-heat the oven to 190 degrees C and prepare your muffin moulds. I own pretty pink silicone ones (that I had been dying to use again) which require little prepping and can go in almost ungreased.

In a medium bowl add oats and 1/2 cup of milk and let stand for 10 minutes. In a separate bowl, add boiling water to raisins, to plump them up. Let them sit for 10 minutes and then drain.

In a medium bowl combine flour, baking soda, cinnamon, salt and nutmeg.

In a large bowl whisk together egg and sugar till well combined and takes a caramel color. Add butter and vanilla to it, whisking well till you get a smooth batter. Add flour mix, oat mixture and remaining milk and stir until completely combined. These two mixes have different consistencies and take a good mixing to be evenly combined. Fold in the raisins gently to this batter.

Pour in (rather plop) the batter into the muffin moulds, sprinkle some brown sugar on top. Here are mine ready to go in, don't they look pretty?

Bake for 15-18 minutes till a toothpick comes out clean. My oven took 15 mins.

Allow to cool in the moulds for 15 mins (not any longer!) and Enjoy!

And here is the best part - With trepidation, I put it in my brightest cupcake liner and offered it to my little one - she literally gobbled it down. After downing one, she held my hand and walked me to kitchen and said "Aur!" (More!). It was all just so worth it!

Ingredients:

1 cup all-purpose flour (130g)
1 cup oats, large flake or quick cooking. I used quick cooking.
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp nutmeg. I had run out of it. The muffins tasted great nevertheless.
1 cup milk
1/3 cup packed brown sugar. I added a little more (about a tbsp.), could do with some more.
1/4 cup butter, melted (57g)
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup raisins or any dried fruit or chocolate chips
Brown sugar to sprinkle on top (optional)

Kesar Kulfi

Kulfi hails from (what I presume and could gather), the Indian sub-continent and is a dense, creamy, frozen dessert. It has been a favorite since childhood and I have rarely been able to pass a chance to have it. In the southern part of the country, where we live now, it's not as commonly available as in the North where the summer heralds the tinkling cart of the kulfiwallah filled with Kulfis in various flavors and sizes - Rs. 2, 5 or 10 with small sticks peeping out of their bottoms. Of course I am talking of an era 20 years ago, they have now been taken over by carts of icecream-wallahs. But, this dessert alone has probably more memories attached to it than any other - with no trip to Chandni Chowk complete without it, of having it every time we went to Haldiram's...I have my preference for the nuttier version and love it topped with falooda (a name used both for a dessert beverage and also loosely for the cornstarch/ arrowroot vermicelli put on top of Kulfis).

On a visit to Hypercity, I found a pack of ready to make falooda which required adding just milk and water to it. That is what spurred me to make Kulfi that the falooda could accompany. Next stop was to buy Kulfi moulds - I bought 6 of the standard size. Came home to rake through my cookbooks to find a recipe and landed on this one from Tarla Dalal. The Kulfi came out pretty well, creamy and well set. Next time, a nuttier version!

In a small bowl, soak the Kesar strands in warm milk and keep aside. In another bowl, dissolve the cornflour in 2 tbsp. water and set aside. Bring the milk to boil in a broad-base pan, add the cornflour solution and sugar and mix well.
Simmer this over a medium flame till it reduces to a quantity a little less than half of what you started with.
Cool completely, add the saffron mixture and the cardamom powder and mix well. Pour into the moulds and put in the freezer in an upright position (not lying down) for 8 hours or so till it is well set.

Take out when ready to serve and unmould by just running the sides of the mould under tap water. Pour falooda over it (if you have some - I am not recommending the Hypercity one!) and some Rose sherbet (like Roohafza). My 1.5 years old who shows complete aversion to milk loved the dense milky mix before I put it to set and licked away to glory.

Nestle, has recently come up with ready mixes for some desserts, Kulfi being one of them. I being a stickler for from-the-scratch cooking haven't got around to using them but they maybe an alternative to making it at home.

Ingredients (fills 6 moulds):

1 ltr. Full cream milk
1/3 cup Sugar
1/4 tsp. cardamom powder
A few strands of Kesar (Saffron)
1 tbsp. Cornflour

Jugu Cake - Peanut Biscotti

I love myself some biscotti, their hard, dry texture makes them completely dunk worthy and rarely do I have my cuppa without a thing to dunk into it. Biscottis are of Italian origin, meant to be taken along on travel. The name literally translates into "baked twice", their dryness gives them a long shelf life. Of course, biscottis come in all forms today with a wide range of stuff thrown in to up their ante - from chocolate chips, cranberries, pistachios, cinnamon and what have you. The Italian and the American versions differ in terms of their texture, the American one being softer, closer to a cookie and has butter added to it. The Italian one, being dryer and harder. Here is an interesting read on them.

I had earlier attempted a batch of peanut butter biscotti (mainly in a bid to finish off a never ending box of peanut butter that my family did not take much favor to). They came out a little cake-y for my liking, so had been on the lookout for another recipe with peanuts. "Jugu cakes" ("Jugu" means peanuts in Kiswahili), a Tanzanian special, fit the bill . The recipe (from here) is fairly simple, I made my modifications to make it more biscotti like. The only change I would for the next time would be to lightly toast the peanuts for an extra crunch.

Pre-heat the oven to 160 degrees C. In a bowl beat one egg, vanilla extract, oil and milk. In a bigger bowl, combine flour, baking powder, sugar and peanuts. Add the wet ingredients to dry ingredients and form a dough.

Roll out in strips around 2 inches wide and 1/2 inch thick on parchment paper covered baking tray. Make sure to keep at least 2 inches distance between the strips as they would spread some. Bake for 45 minutes. Let cool for 5 mins and then cut them diagonally in bars around 1 inch (or a little less) wide.

Spread these on the tray and pop them back into the oven to bake at 160 degrees C for another 15 mins. Cool completely on the wire rack and store in air tight containers.

Enjoy!

Ingredients:

1 egg
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup vegetable oil (canola or corn)
1 1/2 cups milk
3 3/4 cups unbleached, all-purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
2 1/4 cups granulated sugar
3 cups shelled, unsalted peanuts, finely chopped

Gur ki Kheer

Kheer, or the Indian pudding has as many variants to how it is prepared as to how it is served - warm, cold... While the vermicelli one is most popular in the part of the country we live in, we have grown up having the rice one. Here is a twist to the rice one, having jaggery added to it rather than sugar, as the common practice is. This jaggery is also not the commonly found one - the one made with cane but is made from palm or dates.

It is simple and fairly quick to make, I like it (as all variants of Kheer) chilled. This recipe would make around 4-5 servings. Enjoy as you like.

Soak the rice for 1 hour. Take 1 litre of milk, you may use the toned version,"full cream" not required as this Kheer has a tendency to thicken as it cools. Bring it to boil and add the rice to it, let this simmer over low/ medium heat till it is nearly halved. This is also the time to add any dry fruits (cashewnuts, almonds, raisins etc.) if you'd like so that they are nice and soft by the time the milk takes to condense. Let it cool. Grate the jaggery or crush it roughly. Add it to the milk and mix thoroughly. The Kheer should take a light brown color. You may adjust the sweetness per your taste by adding more/ less jaggery. The jaggery lends its own special touch to the taste. Enjoy!

Ingredients

• 140 grams Palm Jaggery
• 70 grams Rice
• 1 litre Milk
• 1/4 cup sliced Dry Fruits

Coffee Cake

This is my first coffee cake. I had been looking for an alternate to a chocolate cake, equally rich in flavor and on the dark side (if you know I mean). This one promised an over the top experience, no subtleties, delivering just what it says - Coffee and Cake! And did it live up to it! This one packed a punch - flavorful, moist and absolutely delish!
Also, had been dying to try my hand at icing these roses. So a friend's wedding anniversary gave me the perfect chance to do it and the perfect cake.
The recipe for the cake is from Pioneer Woman (btw, love the way she writes!), I halved the ingredients and used a 7" round baking pan.
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C and grease and flour the pan. I would strongly suggest lining the bottom with parchment paper to avoid any stick-ins, this cake turns out quite moist.
In a bowl, mix sugar, flour and 1/8 tsp. salt.

Melt butter over medium-low heat (the recipe asks for 1 stick, which I found to be 113 grams). While that's melting, add 1 1/2 tablespoons instant coffee to 1/2 cup boiling water. Set aside.

To the melted butter, add the coffee mixture and boil it for another 10 seconds, turn off the heat. Set aside for just a minute.

In another bowl, add buttermilk, eggs, baking soda, and vanilla. Mix until well combined.

Pour the butter/coffee mixture into the flour mixture. Stir the mixture together gently till it is cooled down and ready to receive the egg mixture.

Add in the egg mixture and stir gently until well combined. Pour into an 8 inch pan and bake for 20-25 mins till set. Let it cool completely.

 

 

Ingredients

• 1 cup Flour
• 1 cup Sugar
• 1/8 tsp Salt
• 110 grams Butter
• 1 1/2 tbsp Instant Coffee
• 1/4 cup Buttermilk
• 1 Egg
• 1/2 tsp Baking Soda
• 1 tsp Vanilla Essence

And now for some pretty flowers! I had on me some powdered whipped cream. I took half a cup of it and added equal part cold milk to it with a few drops of pink food color (since it already had sugar and vanilla added to it). Whip it till it quadruples in volume and keep refrigerated. Crumb coat the cake to seal them in.

Fill the cream in a piping bag with a star nozzle and pipe flowers moving in a clockwise direction to form a flower. Cover the sides first and the then the top of the cake, beginning by frosting a flower in the center. And, you should have a pretty little cake!

Chocolate Chip Cookies

My first post on the blog. It had to have chocolate, the ultimate in flavor, texture, versatility - God's gift to humankind. Tell me, what is it that it can't set right? So, here are Chocolate Chip cookies, the vanilla in the cookie world, my favorite.

A colleague's birthday had come up and the cake promised to her (that's up next) couldn't live past the preceding weekend as it went away, one thin sliver at a time. This recipe is from Martha Stewart and turned out nice, soft, chewy cookies. I halved the ingredients to get around 2 dozen cookies. I tried varying the baking time to get a crispier version too.

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C. Whisk the flour and baking soda in a separate bowl and keep aside. Combine the sugars - brown and white and butter (at room temperature) till well mixed and fluffy with an electric mixer. Add the salt, vanilla and eggs and beat further at a lower speed until well combined.

Add the flour mixture, mix and add the stir in the chocolate chips. As you would notice, I had just half the chips required, so I added roughly chopped milk chocolate.

Fold them in to get your batter.

Plop tablespoonfuls of the batter 2 inches apart on a parchment paper lined baking tray. The paper is important here to avoid an over crisp bottom.  Resist the urge to smoothen them and keep the tops rough for a final jagged look.

Bake for 8-10 mins till cookies are golden around the edges. And see them turn into these beauties.

Let cool in the baking tray for 2 mins and then on a wire rack for 10 mins. As you would take them out, you would find them to be puffier but they would become flatter as they cool. For a crispier center, bake them for 12 mins. Enjoy!

Ingredients

• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup packed light-brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs
• 2 cups (about 12 ounces) semisweet and/or milk chocolate chips