Mango Basil Cheese Cake

Mango Basil Cheese Cake

Before the mango season wraps up, here is the recipe of Mango Basil Cheese Cake

All You Need:

Digestive biscuits : 100 gms

Butter : 40 gms

Mango pulp freshly blended and sieved : 2 cups

Cream Cheese : Half a cup

Powdered sugar: 50 grams

Finely chopped basil: 1 twig

Gelatin: 10gms

For Garnishing

finely sliced mango and basil leaves

Here you go:

In a mixture jar, crush digestive biscuits with butter. In a cake tin ( I used 6 inch diameter tin) spread the biscuit and butter powder evenly and press it with the help of spatula. This biscuit crust will form the base of your cake. Put the tin in fridge (on top shelf) for setting. 10 minutes will be suffice.

In a pan, heat gelatin with 2 tsf of water until it gets properly dissolved.

In a bowl, with the help of hand blender, blend mango puree, sugar, cream cheese and basil leaves.

Add the gelatin syrup to the mixture and mix properly. Make sure there are no lumps of gelatin.

Pour the mixture in pre set cake tin. and let it set in the top shelf of your fridge for 2-3 hours.

Garnish with sliced mango and basil twig.

Remarks:

1 I prefer using Alphonso Mangoes, as they tend to be sweet. This avoids me adding extra sugar.

2 The recipe requires 20 minutes of preparation and 2-3 hours of setting. My take: quick to make and can be prepared before the party.

3 I added basil leaves for that extra zing and flavor. One can replace basil with orange zest.

4 No oven. No baking required.

5 Gelatin can be replaced with Agar Agar. For those who are strict vegetarian.

waiting for your feedbacks.

 

Lemon Tarts

An quick easy start up dessert to finish the left over sweet tooth craving.

its a perfect balance of sweet and sour.

All you need

Refined flour: 100 gms

Salted butter: 50 gms

Cream: 100gms

Powdered sugar: 50gms

A lime 

few mint leaves

Making of a tart:

Mix the flour with chilled butter. Roll out a sheet out of the flour dough. with the help of cookie cutter, take out round dough sheet and put on greased tart moulds.

bake at 180 degree for roughly 15 mins. Make sure, to tap the dough with the fork, so that it doesnt rise.

Whip the heavy cream with the beater. As the cream doubles, add lime juice, lime rind and powdered sugar. Fold the cream with mixture. 

Fill the cream in piping bag and put in blast chiller for 30 secs.

take out baked tarts. wait while they set to room temperature. 

Fill the tarts with the flavored whipped cream from the piping bag. 

garnish with a mint leaf.

Serve and relish

Molten Chocolate Cake II Choco Lava

Molten Chocolate Cake 

 Choco Lava

The name itself is tempting, steaming hot molten chocolate coming out in the very first bite of the freshly baked cake. Ah!

I learnt this recipe from my senior teacher Dr Anita Verma. She bakes it often for her kids. And I told to myself that am a kid at heart too, lets cherish myself.

Here goes the recipe:

You need:

Chocolate and lots of extra dark chocolate 50gms J

Coco powder 50gms

Refined flour 100gm

Butter 5ogm

Powdered sugar 100gm

1 egg

Baking powder : quarter tsf

Recipe: in a blender, mix butter, sugar, egg, coco powder till frothy. Add sieved flour and baking soda to the mixture. Fold well. Pour the mixture into silicon moulds. Chop the chocolate into cubes of 1inch size. Put a cube in each silicon mould in the mixture. Make sure, the mixture covers the cube from all sides and there is enough space in the moulds for cake to rise.

Bake in a preheated oven at 180C for 20 min. Serve hot.

Crumbled Tiramisu Pudding

Crumbled Tiramisu Pudding

Few days back, bunch of my friends planned a dinner at a fine restaurant of the city. The buffet of the day had tiramisu as in desserts. Meanwhile we finished our main course, we found that tiramisu at the bar was about to finish, I quickly filled my platter with the remaining tiramisu. The restaurant manager said that they will refill the bar shortly. So my friends dint even share with me. Unfortunately they refilled it with black forest cake as tiramisu was out of stock. Ouch! Everyone started cursing me for finishing it. (Though I was lil enjoying their disappointment).

Next day I made my version of tiramisu for myself, fortunately it turned out that one of the friends got the chance to relish it.

Here is my version:

Though it’s not an original recipe, but it’s quite easy version and quenched my temptation for tiramisu.

What you need is:

A sponge cake (chocolate or vanilla)

Whipped cream 100gm

Icing sugar 50gm

Cream cheese 50gms

Espresso coffee 2tsf

Sugar syrup 2tsf (optional)

Crumble the sponge cake with hands. Set the crumbles in a serving bowl. Pour sugar syrup (optional, you can omit to avoid extra sugar or add a pinch of coffee in syrup).

Whip cream cheese, icing sugar and coffee for 2 minutes.

Fold the mixture gently into whipped cream.

Layer this cream on the crumbled cake mixture. Dust with coffee or coco powder. Ready to serve.

My notes:

1.     It’s completely eggless.

2.     Can be made from left over cake. Or sometimes if the cake you are making crumbles in the process.

3.      Easter is round the corner, enjoy it.

Sticky Toffee Chocolate Pudding

Sticky Toffee Chocolate Pudding

A quick recipe I learnt from a friend came handy when my best friend from Delhi visited me last Sunday. On the short notice, I found my freeze stuffed with the ingredients of this recipe. And I loved her compliments like anything.

What you need is:

Dates 100gms finely chopped

Egg 1 in number

Refined flour 100gm

Refined sugar 100gm

Butter 50gm

1tsf baking powder

For sauce

Roughly chopped extra dark chocolate

100gms thick cream

Refined sugar 20gms

In a bowl, take roughly 50ml of boiling water and soak dates for two minutes. Drain the water (but save it). In a food processor, crush the dates; add egg, butter, sugar and flour. Add baking powder. Add the water (from dates) to make the consistency thick enough to flow.

In an oven bake it in ceramic bowl at 180C for 20min.

In a double boiler, melt chocolate, add cream and sugar. Mix well.

Take the bowl out of oven. Spread the sauce over the pastry. Bake it again for two minutes. Serve it hot.

Gajar ka halwa

GAZAR KA HALWA

Winters are about to say good bye, in a way that those colourful fresh vegetables won’t be  available in the market soon.  I went to my regular grocery this fine Sunday morning and got tempted by red carrots across the counter. I thought of yummy Gajar ka Halwa. Although it’s a very common Indian dish and my generous colleagues usually offer me a portion of their Halwa, that I dint think of cooking it this winters.

But the charm of my recipe is that it’s a quick 15minutes recipe. Especially for the people like us who don’t have the time to go through proper traditional recipe where the carrot is cooked in milk for hours.

The innovation in my recipe is that I used condensed milk instead of whole milk and mava ( khoya).  I have actually replaced khoya in my kitchen with condensed milk (milkmaid, mithai maid) because the market these days is flooded with adulterated khoya.

Here is the recipe

You need

Carrots  250gms (should be red, enriched with Vitamin E,A)

Milk 10ml (yes just ten ml.)

Condensed milk (50gms)

Cardamom powder a pinch

Shredded almonds, coconut and dry fruits.

Blanch  the carrots in hot water. (YESSS! I blanch them first. It saves the milk quantity, hance calories. And the blanched carrot is easy to shred as well) Grate them.

In a pan take milk. Add carrots, cardamom powder and condensed milk.  Heat till the milk reduces.

Garnish with dry fruits.

Trust me:

The recipe is quick and easy

Calorie count is reduced. Since we are using sweetened condensed milk, no extra sugar is needed.

Adulterated khoya (mava) is avoided.

It tastes almost same, except that u miss the flavour of Desi Ghee. Which can be added. 

Vanilla cinnamon butter cups

Vanilla cinnamon butter cups

Christmas is round the corner. Before the final evening when Santa would be knocking my door, I thought I should be ready with a new flavour cake. This time I tried Vanilla cinnamon cup cakes. The recipe is almost same for cupcakes and cakes except for the fact that cake can be cut in between and the sauce can be spread between the layers and over the top. I chose cinnamon this year, as its my favourite flavour . the mild sweet smell of cinnamon makes my heart wobble. I bought selected cinnamon sticks from Diu this vacation.

For the cup cakes:

100gm refined flour

80gm salted butter
2eggs

80gms powdered sugar

Vanilla essence

Pinch of grounded cinnamon

3/4tsf baking powder

1/4tsf baking soda

In a bowl whisk eggs, sugar and butter till the froth appears. Add vanilla essence and a pinch of cinnamon powder. In another bowl, sieve flour, baking powder and soda. Fold and mix the flour mixture in the egg mixture. Bake in greased moulds in preheated oven at 120”C for 30-40minutes.

For the cream sauce

Whisk 50ml double cream with 50gm powdered sugar, vanilla essence and cinnamon powder until peaks develop.

With the help of cone decorate the cup cakes.

Creativity is all we look for. Merry Christmas.

Chocolate tart

The chocolate mousse turned out very well. You can find the recipe of chocolate mousse in my previous post. The mousse was a very simple recipe and often tried in western homes.
This time I tried using the left over chocolate mousse for my new experiment. Though it’s similar to the recipe of chocolate tart but with a different tweak, hence I decided to keep the name as chocolate tart only.
Here is the recipe,
What you need:
Refined wheat flour 250gm
Salted butter 150gms
Dry fruits  : I chose walnuts and almonds 50gms ( one can use hazelnuts, groundnuts)
Sugar 5tsf
For frosting: look into the mousse recipe
Knead the flour with melted butter. Wrap it in plastic and refrigerate for 1hr. After an hour on the platform, roll out the flour. In the cupcake mould (preferably tin, not silicon) Roll and trim the dough to make a circle large enough to fit the tart moulds.
In a preheated oven, bake the moulds on 180C for half an hour. (till light golden brown).
Prepare the filling: in a pan, heat the sugar till it starts to crystallize. Add the crushed dry fruits and mix properly. A quick way is that one can use the regular dryfruit chikki available in Indian markets. One can take a slab of chikki and crush it and directly use it.
Fill the mixture into the baked tart. In a pipe fill the chocolate mousse and use it as frosting.
 

Chocolate Mousse

This Diwali was little unusual for me. I have never been such sad on diwali.
missing home, broken hand, incapable of doing routine chores made me all day grump.
diwali had always been one of my fav festivals. loads of mithai(sweets) crackers, lights, lamps and rangoli.

This year due to broken shoulder i cud not do all those fancy fancy things i loved to do.
the morning used to be fresh and vibrant with rangoli colors. post rangoli loads of home made mithai like  ladoos, barfi, kaju katri... missed all that fun.

i was lying on my couch grump and cold. then i just felt of making some dessert atleast for my friends.
i looked into my freeze and thought of a quick recipe.
then i came up with chocolate mousse.
although its not a mithai for the occasion and people prefer it as a potluck dessert.
here goes the recipe.

100 gm Bittersweet (cooking) Chocolate  • 3 tbsp  Sugar • 1 cup Heavy Cream • 1 tsp Vanilla Extract • 2 Egg Yolks  • Heat 2/3 cup of cream in pan over low flame until it just begins to steam. • In a separate bowl, whisk together the egg yolks and sugar. • Add half portion of the hot cream, whisking constantly, until the mixture is thoroughly combined. • Add the warm egg-cream blend back into the rest hot cream in the saucepan and cook over low heat, stirring constantly for a few more minutes. make sure the eggs dont get scrambled • Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla extract and melted chocolate. • Chill the chocolate custard thoroughly. • Beat with the help of electric whisker remaining 1-1/3 cups of cream in a separate bowl until stiff peaks form. • Thoroughly stir ½ cup of the whipped cream into the chilled chocolate custard, and then gently fold in the remaining cream.  serve chilled. garnish with grated chocolate

Kopra pak or Coconut barfi

The festive season is around the corner. With just a warm good bye to ganpati, i could not resist the mithai we generally offer to the idol. Before the price of sugar sores, lemme enjoy the extremes of my cravings for desserts... it was a dull day and in no mood to go out for grocery. I thought of enjoying my Sunday eve with the most common sweet made in Indian houses.

“Kopra pak or coconut barfi”

A quick 15 min recipe needs 1 kg sugar, 250 gm of desiccated coconut powder (yes i use plenty of coconut. I am fond of coconut. One can titrate the quantity of coconut as per owns palate) 2tsf of desi ghee, 50gm of milkmaid (condensed milk) and pinch of cardamom powder for flavour.

I prefer desiccated coconut powder instead of fresh one as it doesn’t release oil on heating.

Here we go: in a pan, heat sugar with 100gm of water and make  syrup, thick enough to produce three threads. In another pan heat milkmaid, add coconut powder and mix cardamom powder. Mix properly. Once syrup is ready, add the milkmaid batter to syrup gradually and stirring constantly making sure no lumps left. Grease the tray with ghee. Pour the mixture onto the tray. Freeze it for ten to fifteen minutes. Now cut the cubes once set. Garnish with coconut powder.

Easy to go... lemme know how it tastes.

Muffins

My sweet tooth is an all time problem for my knees. But one has to suffer at the cost of another. Well am glad to announce that we finally bought a beater, blender cum chopper. Thanks to Vishwa for generous part payment. On a usual day, I am hardly awake past 10 pm. But the new gadget was tempting me to try the long lorn muffins, and so, at 11 pm that night, I finally decided to try my hand at the muffins with the newly purchased, opened the first time whisker. Haash!

The recipe is quite easy and quick. In a bowl, take 2 eggs, 100 gm powdered sugar, 50gm salted butter (Amul utterly butterly delicious!) and few drops of vanilla essence. It’s a shame we don’t have vanilla pods available in neighbourhood. Well, whisk it properly until it’s frothy. Add 100 gm refined flour, 1tsf baking powder and 1/4^thtsf baking soda (Yes! I use both egg and baking powder) sieving into the mixture. Whisk again. Pour the mixture in different shape silicon moulds. Bake in preheated oven at 120C for 20-25 minutes. The smell itself is sufficient to know when it’s done, though the best out there have their ways to check the muffin. Poke the knife in the middle. If it comes out clean, it’s done! But my experiment animal (Vishwa J) has his own way to check it. He will cut a wedge shape part of it over knife. If it doesn’t crumbles down, then its perfectly done. Huh! I say, “bade log! bade log!”

Time to enjoy the feast!!