Almond Pistachio Craisn Biscotti

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

Recently I discovered magic and power of library system here. The minute I stepped into library I knew I am going to pick lot of books and variety of topics. I must have spent more than 5 hours that week just browsing through books and selecting what all I like. I got this book on the desserts and it had this recipe. First time I made, I tried word to word with few changes in ingredients but this time I changed the proportion of butter, maida as well. I loved how nice and crispy it turned out. We are now set for atleast a week of 4pm snacks :)


Ingredients
3/4 Cup Butter
2.25 Cup Sugar
6.25 Cup Maida
2 Spoon Baking Powder
2 Lemon's Zest
4 Eggs
1 Cup Almonds
1 Cup Pistachios
1 Cup Craisins
2 Spoon Fennel Seeds
1 Spoon Salt

Method

• Preheat oven to 350F/175C.
• Beat butter and sugar together until combined, about a minute.
• Add in Maida, baking powder, salt and lemon zest and beat again till mixed well.
• Add in one egg at a time and beat till mixed well.
• Add in chopped almonds, pistachios, craisins and saunf and again mix well.
• Dust the flat surface with little bit of maida and pull out the mixture and knead and shape it into two 12 inch logs that are just over 1 inch in height.
• Line a baking pan with the parchment paper and transfer the logs into it.
• Bake at 350F for 30 minutes. Pull the logs out of oven and let them cool down for around 10 minutes
• Using sharp knife, slice the log diagonally around 1/2 inch thick slice.
• Transfer the logs into pan with cut side facing up, bake at 350F for another 25 minutes.
• Let the biscotti cool and then transfer into the container.

Notes
I used almonds, pistachio and craisins but really you can use any nuts and dry fruits. In fact this time I forgot to add saunf but last time I made this, I had added it and it gave nice taste and everyone loved it :)
I used my kitchenaid standing mixer to beat in everything, as it was much easier that way than the hand mixer. But if you don't have it, you can use hand mixer too.

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Pear Bars

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

I was looking to bake something new and yet something that would be ready in couple of hours. This turned out amazing twist to the lemon bars I had made last month. Since with lemon bars I felt the presence of egg was too strong for my liking, I was interested in something that would use less egg and that's when I decided to create these using fusion of cheese cake and bar. I cant believe that this was my so far the most bold *experiment*given that I was to serve the friends who were coming over for dinner right away without any margin to recover but thankfully this turned out really great.


Ingredients
1 Cup Butter
2.25 Cup Sugar
1.5 Egg
1.5 cup Maida
2.5 Spoon Vanilla Essence
2.75 Cup Pecans
12Oz Cream Cheese
2 Pears
1/2 Spoon Cinnamon Powder

Method

• Preheat oven to 350F/175C.
• Using handheld mixer cream the butter till very fluffy and light.
• Add in 2/3 cup of sugar and cream further.
• Add in 1 spoon of vanilla essence, sieved Maida and cream further.
• Mix in the coarsely chopped nuts.
• Grease two baking pans of 6inch in size and spread half of mixture evenly in each pan.
• Bake in oven at 350F/175C for 22 minutes.
• Let the base layer cool down in the pan itself for about 30 minutes
• After 30 minutes, with the handheld electric mixer cream the cream cheese till soft and even.
• Add in 1.5 cup sugar, egg and remaining 1.5 spoon of vanilla essence in the cream cheese and cream till soft and even.
• Cut the pears such that their center is removed and then slice them. Add in 1 Spoon of sugar and mix well. Keep aside.
• Preheat oven to 375F/190C.
• Spread the cream cheese mixture evenly in both the baking pans half in each.
• Spread the pear slices on top of this mixture.
• Sprinkle cinnamon and remaining (around 1 spoon of) sugar evenly on top of pears.
• Bake in the oven over 370F/190C for about 35 minutes.
• Take out of the oven. Let it cool for 30 minutes and then transfer it to fridge for at least another hour and then serve by making square pieces.

Notes
I know 1.5 egg is hard to measure :) but I tried using the mixture with 1 egg and 1 cheese packet but it wasn't enough to cover both pans. For the next egg, I beat the egg and took half the quantity. But in case you are baking this in single pan you could use 8-9 inch pan and use 1 egg with 1 packet of cream cheese. Note you would need to use 1 cup of sugar in that case.
I used pecan nuts because I had them available at home, but you can theoretically use any nuts, they give nice crunch and crisp taste.
I used little overripe pears so they turned out nice tender and I didn't have trouble while making pieces of the dessert.
When you take out the final bar out of the oven, there might be liquid on top, don't worry about it, it sets after the bars cool down.

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Lemon And Apricot Cake

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

I was on lookout for something more like pound cake yet not something plain for Ajoy's birthday celebration. He enjoys plain cake more than anything so something based of that yet something more richer would make perfect for the occasion. I wanted to either use lemon or orange especially after seeing all these food networks making use of their zest. So when i found a recipe for this cake in one of the books i have, i modified it bit to his taste and came up with this.


Ingredients
3 Cup Maida
175g Apricot
1 Cup Almonds
1.25 Cup Pistachios
2/3 Cup Sliced Almonds
2 Cup Sugar
1 + 1/3 Cup Butter
1.25 Spoon Baking Powder
3 Eggs
1/3 Spoon Salt
1 big Lemon

Method

• Preheat oven to 180C/350F
• In a bowl, blend butter and 1.5 Cup sugar together till smooth
• Sieve together maida and baking powder 3-4 times.
• Add it to the butter-sugar mixture.
• Add in eggs, salt, zest of the lemon and 1/2 cup of warm water and blend till smooth.
• Fold in chopped apricot, 1 cup almonds powdered and 1 cup pistachios chopped.
• Line the loaf pan or any other cake pan you want to use with parchment paper on bottom as well as sides and spoon all the batter in it.
• Put remaining pistachios and sliced almonds over the mixture and press it lightly over the cake.
• Bake the cake in oven for 75 minutes on 180C/350F, covering the top with foil after around 50 minutes.
• Take it out of the oven and let it rest for 10 minutes.
• In the mean time, over medium heat with constant stirring, cook lemon juice of the lemon with remaining sugar till sugar dissolves completely an mixture bubbles up slightly.
• Pour the mixture over the cake and then take out the cake on wire rack to let it cool completely.

Notes
Covering the top midway into baking helps not overcooking the nuts and burning them. The lemon-sugar syrup adds the flavor as well as a little moistness to the cake.

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Puri for SPDP (Shev Batata Dahi Puri)

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

Since we came here, we weren't able to get the puris for making SPDP - Shev Batata Dahi Puri which is among favorite chaat items for Ajoy. Using paani puri's puri for SPDP doesn't seem right and I am sure it wouldn't taste as good either. So I decided to give try making these puris. Tried few times and now I think I have got the recipe right which gets best results, and is certified by many friends who had chance to taste :)


Ingredients
1 Cup Maida
2 Spoon Rawa
1/4 Cup Melted Butter
Oil
Salt

Method

• Mix Maida, Rawa and salt together.
• Add in melted butter and mix well.
• Add in 1/4 cup water and knead soft dough.
• Grease the dough with 1/4 spoon oil and cover and keep aside for an hour.
• Make round balls and roll them thin and big. Cut using cup or cookie cutter into small round shapes.
• Heat oil and fry the puris on both sides over medium flame till light brown on both sides. Take out on kitchen towel and let it soak oil from puris.
• Heat oven to 350F/175C and bake the puris in it for 10 minutes.

Notes
I have noticed that if you roll the puris thin then they wont bubble up and that's how you want them for SPDP.
Also I baked the puris again because that make them crispier, that is any rawness and moisture left after frying goes away and puris.

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Chocolate Ganache

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

I made this ganache for yummy eggless chocolate cake. This is the easiest way to create this sophisticating and professional looking ganache.


Ingredients
2 Cup Semisweet Chocochips
1 Cup Cream
1 Spoon Butter

Method

• In a bowl add in 1 cup semisweet chocochips and butter. Microwave for 1 minute.
• Add in remaining 1 cup chocochips and 1/2 cup cream. Mix well.
• Microwave for another 30 seconds
• Add in remaining 1/2 cup cream and stir till mixed thoroughly and is glossy and shiny.

Notes
Instead of microwaving, one can always use double boiler to melt chocolate and butter but microwave is easiest and clean way to melt chocolate.

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White Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

I have started liking the taste of cream cheese. I have used it in past with carrot cake and mixed indian spices to create floral taste for the icing. This time I decided to use the chocolate flavour given that i was making Red Velvet Cup Cakes which use the tinge of coco powder for chocolaty taste.


Ingredients
225gm Cream Cheese
225gm White Chocolate
1 Cup Butter
2 Cup Icing Sugar

Method

• In a bowl microwave half of the white chocolate for 1 minute.
• Add in remaining white chocolate and mix well. Microwave for 15 seconds
• Stir the chocolate well till it is smooth and completely melted. Keep aside
• In another bowl beat the cream cheese till soft and smooth.
• Add in the melted chocolate and beat again till smooth
• Add in butter and beat again
• Add in icing sugar and beat till soft, smooth and fluffy

Notes
When adding the chocolate, it should have cooled off, if not wait till it cools down. Don't pour warm chocolate in the cheese.

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Cashew Pistachio Cookies dipped in Chocolate

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

I made this for taking with us to trip tomorrow for memorial day weekend. Perfect snacks for travel. Its inspired by the short bread Ajoy got from Costco couple of times.


Ingredients
3 Cup Maida
2 Cup Butter
1.25 Cup Sugar
1 Egg Yolk
2 Spoon Vanilla Essence
1/2 Cup Cashews
1/2 Cup Pistachios
1 Cup Semi-sweet Choco Chips
1/4 Cup White Choco Chips
5 Spoon Shortening

Method

• In a bowl cream butter and sugar together till fluffy.
• Add in egg yolk and vanilla essence and cream again
• Grind the cashews to fine powder and add it to the above mixture
• Sift in maida and mix together till nice stiff dough is formed.
• Form the lemon sized balls and store them in fridge for around 1 hour
• Preheat oven to 375F/190C
• Chop the pistachios
• Press each dough ball using palms to thick discs. Sprinkle the pistachios on half portion of each cookie disc and press lightly to secure the pistachios in the cookie
• Line the baking sheet with parchment paper and grease it. Transfer the discs on to the baking pan keeping an inch of distance between each of them
• Bake at 375F/190C for 12 minutes
• Let the cookies cool for 5-10 minutes.
• In a bowl mix in semi sweet chocochips and 4 spoon of shortening and microwave for 1 minutes stirring once after 30 minutes. Mix till nice glossy.
• Line the baking sheet with fresh parchment paper. Dip each cookie's part which isn't covered by pistachios in the chocolate and set it on parchment paper.
• Mix white choco chips and remaining 1 spoon of shortening for 30 seconds and stir in till smooth and glossy. Fill it in a piping bag and make zig zag lines over the semi sweet chocolate on the cookie. Let the chocolate set for an hour.

Notes
If you dont have microwave you can heat chocolate and shortening in a bowl set over the boiling water. Stir till the mixture is smooth and dont let the chocolate burn. Microwave is really easy method and one doesnt need to worry much except to check it every 30 seconds so I prefer to temper the chocolate in microwave.

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Kadboli

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

Kadboli is Maharashtrian faral dish. You might wonder why am i posting this after so many months of diwali. But given that world cup has started in full swing, i thought it would be good to have some crunchy home made snack instead of just plain chips. So late on sunday I decided to make them whole lot of kadbolis and soon realised that it is too much of work to shape them. Thats when I came up with the idea of using chakali gun with this disc to shape them instead. With these they are bite size and make perfect snack for movies or games :)


Ingredients
4 Cup Rice Powder
3 Cup Milk
1 Cup Butter
Salt to taste
Oil

Method

• Mix rice powder with butter and salt really well
• Add in milk and make the dough
• Take a small lemon sized balls and roll them with hand and make a long rope shape. Give it in a shape of circle. Fry in medium hot oil till pink in color
• Alternately, put in the dough in the chakali gun and press the circular shapes in the medium hot oil and fry till pink in color

Notes
Dont fry till brown in color as the color darkens a bit after a while.

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Strawberry Crepes

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

I had made them almost a month back but had forgotten about them. It was yesterday I realized that I have forgotten to post this recipe. Then I looked around and realized that since I didn't have laptop that time because of battery issue I had forgotten images on Ajoy's laptop and that was the root cause I missed posting this recipe on time. But here it is, one of the quickest and delicious breakfast.


Ingredients
3 Cup Strawberries
1/2 Cup Maida
1.5 cup Milk
1/2 Spoon Melted Butter
2 Eggs
1/4 Spoon Vanilla Essence
2 Spoon Sugar
Salt to taste

Method

• In a bowl, mix in finely diced strawberries and 1 spoon sugar and keep aside.
• In another bowl mix in maida, milk, remaining 1 spoon sugar, butter, vanilla essence, eggs and salt to taste. Blend together using hand mixer to form a uniform batter.
• Heat the tawa and spread a cup of batter on the tawa each time, tilt tawa each time to get thin crepes.
• Cook both sides on medium heat till light brown and take out on the plate.
• Spread couple of spoon of strawberry sugar mixture on top of the crepe and fold to make a roll. Sprinkle some powdered sugar if you like and serve.

Notes
I used nonstick tawa so that I didn't need to grease the pan, the butter in the batter was good enough

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Chocolate Cake

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

This week I had to bake two cakes one for fondant decoration class and one for flowers decoration class. So this is the cake i made for flowers decoration class. I wanted to decorate it with white flowers which would have tinge of pink/yellow but I ended up with bad icing.. Thats when I decorated with whatever flowers I had made over last month in the class. So here is yet another simple cake recipe that came out so well.


Ingredients
1.5 Cup Maida
1 Cup Butter
1 Cup Sugar
1 Spoon Coca Powder
1 Spoon Baking Powder
3 Eggs

Method

• Preheat oven to 325F/160C
• Sieve through maida, coca powder and baking powder in a bowl
• Add in melted butter, sugar and eggs and mix well till the mixture is uniform
• Grease the cake pan and add in the batter
• Bake at 325F/160C for 30 minutes
• Let the cake cool down the cake for 5 minutes and then take it out and cooling grid. Let it cool completely. Serve

Notes
I made two batches of this cake in a 8 inch loaf tin and them i used melted chocolate between them to make a tall rectangular cake. Covered with chocolate flavored butter icing and decorated with royal icing flowers

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Plain Cake

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

I made this simple cake for my Fondant decoration class.. It tasted awesome with and without icing :)


Ingredients
5 cup Maida
2.5 Cup Butter
2.5 Cup Castor Sugar
2 Spoon Baking Powder
1.5 Spoon Lemon Juice
4 Eggs

Method

• Preheat oven to 325F/160C
• Sieve through baking powder and maida in a bowl
• Add in sugar, melted butter, lemon juice and eggs and mix thoroughly till the mixture is glossy
• Prepare a cake pan ready by greasing it. Add the batter into the pan
• Bake the cake on 325F/160C for 1 hour
• Take out of the oven and let it cool for 5 minutes and then take it out on cooling grid and let it cool completely. Decorate or serve as it is.

Notes
The cake was really ok as it is but when i decorated it, it was little extra sweet. May be next time i should reduce the sugar quantity if i am going to decorate it.

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Nutty Butterscotch Chocolate Cake

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

Yesterday I was looking for cake recipe so that I can bake a cake to take into my cake decoration class. First I thought I will bake some simple quick cake and get done with it, but as I approached kitchen I couldn't resist but look into my recipe book for some instant reference to cook something different. I liked a peanut butter recipe in there but because I didn't have peanut butter I decided to give it twist and make my own version of cake. It was delicious and even smelling so good that it was huge hit in my decoration class as well.


Ingredients
4 Cup Maida
2.5 Cup Butter
1 Cup Hazelnuts
1 Cup Almonds
1.5 Cup Sugar
3 Eggs
1 Cup Milk
2 Cup Butterscotch Chocochips
2 Spoon Baking Powder

Method

• Preheat oven to 350F/180C
• Grind hazelnuts and almonds to fine powder and keep it aside.
• Cream butter and sugar together till fluffy.
• Add in hazelnut-almonds powder and whisk again.
• Add in each egg one at a time and beat well after each addition
• Sieve maida and baking powder couple of times. Add salt to taste.
• Add maida-baking powder mixture alternating with milk slowly into the egg-butter-sugar mixture and fold in carefully.
• Microwave chocochips for 1 minutes and stir well to get molten chocolate. Fold it in the batter lightly
• Grease the pan and line it with parchment paper. Grease the paper as well. Pour the batter in the cake till half full.
• Bake the cake in oven on 350F/180C for 40 minutes
• Decorate with icing or serve as it is.

Notes
I used two 8 inch round tins to bake the cake but after baking I thought I should have used one 8 inch and one 6 inch instead to get perfect rise in both the cakes.
I iced one cake with butter icing as part of my cake decorating classes and we ate another cake as it is. Both taste awesome, but I would use dark chocolate or less sugar if I am going to ice the cake next time.
Recently I came to know that preheating oven at least 15 minutes in advance helps to get oven to heat uniformly even hot so I tried this time and results were superb, the cake rose from all sides and there was literally no bump.

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Lemon Date Cupcakes

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

Recently i started watching food network and some programs are really good.. One of them is Cup cake wars.. I was amazed at how people come up with their own recipe and create those beautiful cupcakes. So here i my share of mix and match inspired cup cake.


Ingredients
4 Cup Maida
3 Cup Dates
2 Cup Milk
1 Cup Butter
2 Cup Cream
1 Cup Icing Sugar
1.5 Cup Sugar
2 Eggs
2 Lemons
1 Spoon Baking Powder
1/4 Spoon Baking Soda
Salt to taste

Method

• Grind a cup of dates in with the milk to form smooth paste. Keep aside.
• Whip sugar and butter using hand mixer till mixture is smooth and fluffy
• Add eggs and blend well to get smooth mixture.
• Sieve Maida, Baking powder, baking soda and salt together.
• Add it to the butter, sugar - egg mixture in portions alternating with milk-date mixture, beating well with each addition.
• Add in remaining 2 cups of dates - chopped and a lemon's peel grated and as well as its juice. Mix lightly till combined.
• Preheat oven to 350F/180C
• Line the cupcake pan with the cupcake paper cups and fill each of them to 2/3rd with the cake batter
• Bake the cakes at 350F/180C for 25 minutes. Keep aside to cool down completely.
• Add cream in a bowl and mix it with the icing sugar.
• Whip it using hand mixer on low speed till the cream becomes fluffy and stiff
• Scoop it on each cup cake or decorate using piping bag. Garnish with grated lemon peels.

Notes
I created a cone that i made from the parchment paper and piped the icing on top of few cakes and scooped the icing on others. So making cone is alternate to using piping bag :)
While whipping the cream its better to use hand mixer as its easy, fast and reliable. :)

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Craisin Pan Cake

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

I had been making these type of pancakes quite often lately.. Each time with different fruit. But today when I made it with dried cranberries (craisins) it was like this batter is meant for it. So here i am posting it.


Ingredients
2 Cup Maida
1 Spoon Sugar
1.5 Spoon Baking Powder
1/2 Cup Melted Butter
2.5 Cup Milk
1 Egg
2 Spoon Vanilla Essence
1 Cup Craisins
Salt to taste
Oil

Method

• Beat the egg with sugar till foamy
• Add in milk, melted butter and blend in well.
• Add in vanilla essence, sifted maida, baking powder and salt to taste and blend it well
• Heat the pan on low heat.
• Sprinkle some oil and then drop half up of batter at a time on the pan.
• Thrown in some craisins evenly around and cook till the bottom side is light brown.
• Sprinkle couple of drops of oil on top of the pan cakes and then flip them. Cook till the bottom turns light brown.
• Stack them and serve with the maple syrup

Notes
I have tried using apricots, blueberries, raisins and many more other fruits instead of craisins but as I said we liked craisins the best in these pan cakes.

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Prawns in Garlic Butter Salad

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

I have started to enjoy salads so much that every week i almost crave for one if i dont eat one. So here is a simple butter garlic garden salad with prawns that i made that tasted awesome.


Ingredients
8 Large Prawns
2 Cup Broccoli
2 Cup Green Beans
1 Cup Sweet Corn
1 Avocado
3 Cup Iceburg Lettuce
1 Onion
1 Cup Sweet Bell Pepper Sliced
1/4 Cup Cherry Tomatoes
6 Garlic Cloves
1/4 Spoon Oregano
1/2 Spoon Black Pepper Powdered
1 Lemon
Mozzarella Cheese for garnishing
Salt to taste
Butter

Method

• Heat pan and add in broccoli and green beans with some butter. Cook till they are smoky in color. Mix in salt to taste and keep aside.
• In same pan add in sweet bell pepper and some more butter and cook it for a while.
• When pepper seems almost done add in sliced onion, salt to taste and cook till onions turn light brown.
• Mix it with green beans and broccoli and keep aside.
• In same pan add in prawns and garlic diced coarsely and some butter and cook them turning often on low-medium heat till prawns are done. Mix in salt and keep aside
• Microwave sweet corn for two minutes and keep aside
• Divide the lettuce into two bowls.
• Add in half mixture of green beans, brocolli, pepper and onions in each bowl.
• Add in diced avocado half in each bowl.
• Add in prawns and garlic dividing half in each
• Add in cherry tomatoes and corn half in each bowl.
• Sprinkle lemon juice, black pepper powder and oregano half in quantity on each bowls contents evenly.
• Garnish it with shredded mozzarella cheese

Notes
I used Lemon as the dressing instead of ranch or anything else. If you like you can add ranch or other dressing that you like. But i thought the salad tasted awesome just with natural flavours from lemon.
Except prawns i cooked everything else on high flame giving it a crunchy texture. For prawns i added them on high heat and then reduced the heat so that i could give them smoky taste and color yet cook them nicely.

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Molten Lava Cake

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

Its been a while since I learnt about this cake and was so much facinated by the concept.. I also researched that this is the easiest and quickest dessert to make.. The only issue I had was I didnt have Ramekins to bake this in and neither did I have the paper cups to go in cup cake pan. Finally today I made up my mind to buy ramekins and make this. I am glad I did.. Totally worth it..


Ingredients
1 Cup Maida
1.25 Cup Semi Sweet Choco-chips
1 Cup Butter
5 Spoon Coco Powder
3 Eggs
3 Egg Yolks
2 Cup Sugar

Method

• Grease the ramekins liberally and keep aside.
• Preheat oven to 450F/230C
• Microwave butter and chocochips together for one minute.
• Stir well to get nicely blended choco-butter mixture. Keep aside
• Whisk eggs, egg yolks together till blended well within
• Add in sugar and whisk till creamy, fluffy and thick mixture forms.
• Add in the melted chocolate-butter mixture to it and whisk.
• Sieve in maida and coco-powder. Fold lightly till everything accomodates.
• Divide the mixture into 6 ramekins
• Put ramekins in a baking tray and bake in oven at 450F/230C for 13 minutes so that the sides are cooked.
• Immediately after taking out from oven flip the cakes into plate and serve.

Notes
Alternate method is to use the paper cups inside the cup cake pan - little extra in height so that you can pull it out and flip it in the plate.
To flip the cake into the plate put the ramekin on a plate. Flip another plate on top of it. Holding both the plates flip the ramekin into the just placed plate. This helps since ramekins would be really hot when you take out the cakes into the plates.

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Petite Palmiers

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

We had this for the first time at sush's place when Tejal had gone to work and we three were looking out for something interesting to eat. Ajoy had liked it instantly. I had wondered that it might be easy to make it using puff pastry sheet then. We came to know that costco here doesnt bake these, so I got all the more reason to make them at home. I quickly confirmed my theory and baked them today.


Ingredients
1 Puff Pastry Sheet
1 Cup Sugar
Butter

Method

• Unfold the puff pastry on a sugar dusted kitchen top.
• Sprinkle sugar on top of the pastry sheet. Roll it lightly till the sugar sticks to the pastry sheet
• Fold both sides of the pastry sheet till mid ways and then fold it in middle.
• Keep it in refrigerater for 30-40 minutes
• Preheat oven to 400F/200C, grease the baking tawas
• Cut the pastry sheets into smaller slices if the rolled pastry perpendicular to folds.
• Dip each slice's cut sides into the sugar and arrange it on baking tawa with cut side facing up.
• Bake in oven over 400F/200C for 18 minutes and then take it out.

Notes
Thaw the puff pastry sheet for 35-40 minutes but not more because otherwise it might become unmanageable.
I wanted to put the parchment paper on the tawas so that my tawas dont get messy after taking out the palmiers but i didn't have one. But using it would be better on tawas i think.

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Almonds Topped Chocochip Muffins

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

These days its been raining so much that I had to drive to and from work. Most of the days I end up getting stuck in traffic and by the time I reach home I dont feel like adventuring into anything other than meals.. Yesterday I decided to beat the traffic by leaving early instead and glad it did almost work (got stuck in traffic for just 5 minutes that's an achievement :)). When I reached home I realized that my laptop had succumbed to death just last night and I had to revive it before I can continue my work from home. So while my laptop was getting its life I decided to bake these ones especially with almonds because these days I have become little forgetful. They say almonds help improve memory :D now is the time to see if they can :) Thankfully my laptop has become as good as new and working even better than what it was like when it was new. I give credit to win7 and also to the fact that I kept it light unlike those whole bunch of installs that came from Dell. Now I am looking forward to see if my memory can come back after this almond's dose :) So here I am sharing this extremely simple recipe of these delicious cakes I made.


Ingredients
1 Cup Butter
2 Cup Sugar
4 Cup Maida
2 Cup Choco-chips
3/4 Cup Almonds
1 Cup Milk
4 Spoon Brown Sugar
2 Spoon Vanilla Essence
1 Spoon Baking Soda
1/2 Spoon Baking Powder
2 Eggs
Salt to taste

Method

• In a bowl beat sugar and butter till its fluffy.
• Add in eggs and beat again.
• Add in vanilla essence, milk and beat till creamy, fluffy mixture is formed.
• Add in maida, baking soda, baking powder and salt to taste and mix in with light hands till everything is nicely accommodated in the egg-butter-sugar mixture.
• Add in 1.5 cups of choco-chips and mix lightly. Keep aside
• Chop almonds to coarse pieces and mix them with brown sugar and remaining 1/2 cup choco-chips. Keep aside
• Preheat oven to 350F/180C.
• Grease muffin pans and fill them in with the batter to 2/3rd level each.
• Sprinkle the almond-chocochip-sugar mixture on all these muffins equally.
• Bake the muffins at 350F/180C for 25 minutes.

Notes
I used raw almonds and sprinkled them on top instead of mixing it in the batter. The almonds were roasted amazingly while the cake baked.
I also mixed in brown sugar and chocochips with the almonds because I thought it would give nice sweetness to the cake while taking a bite. And guess what it really worked :)

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Dates Peacan Chocolaty Brownies

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

Just few weeks back I had got lots of choco-chips and Peacans from the costco. Thinking I could bake some cakes, muffins. So today when payesh that I made last week was getting over, I thought it would be nice to make these brownies for dessert hoping they would last for week.. But frankly, they have turned out so well, I wonder if they are going to last even till monday :) We already have had 2 pieces each :)


Ingredients
80g Dark Chocolate bar
1.5 Cup semi sweet choco-chips
3 Cup Powdered Sugar
1.5 Cup Maida
1 Cup Butter
1 Cup Dates
1 Cup Peacans
3 Eggs
1 Spoon Vanilla Essence
Salt to taste

Method

• In a glass bowl, add dark chocolate, 1/2 cup semi sweet choco-chips and butter and microwave for 1 minute. Stir well.
• Microwave for 30 more seconds and stir well. Keep aside.
• Sieve maida couple of times and set aside.
• Preheat oven to 375F/190C
• In a big bowl add eggs, powdered sugar, vanilla essence. Beat for 5 minutes.
• Add in above made chocolate paste, maida and salt to taste. Mix lightly, just enough to make it consistent paste.
• Add in remaining 1 cup of chocochips, dates and peacans chopped. Again mix it lightly.
• Grease a pan and pour in batter into it. Bake the brownies at 375F/190C for 35 minutes.
• Serve with ice-cream, topped with chocolate sauce and some nuts chopped finely.

Notes
I normally microwave chocolate to melt it - works wonders :D, but if you don't have microwave, you can boil water in a pan and keep a bigger bowl on top of it with chocolate and melt it over low heat. Be careful not to over heat the chocolate or it would spoil the taste and feel of the chocolate.

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Dates and Chocochips Pan Cakes

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

I had been making pan cakes for quite some time. One of the easiest and tasty breakfast. I had made it with cranberries, mangoes, blue berries earlier. Today I didn't have any of the fruits that would go in it. So I decided to make it with what I had plenty - Dates and Chocochips. The pan cakes came out really nice and we had hearty breakfast on such a lovely bright day.


Ingredients
1/2 Cup Dates
1/4 Cup Choco Chips
1/2 Cup Wheat Flour
1/2 Cup Maida
3/4 Cup Curd
1 Egg
3/4 Spoon Sugar
1/2 Spoon Vanilla Essense
1/4 Spoon Baking Powder
1/4 Spoon Baking Soda
2.5 Spoon Melted Butter
Salt to taste
Oil

Method

• Deseed the Dates and chop them into small pieces. Keep aside.
• Sieve together wheat flour and maida
• Add Sugar, salt, baking powder and baking soda and mix well
• Add egg, curd, melted butter and vanilla essence. Mix well.
• Add 1/2 cup warm water and mix well to flowing consistency.
• Heat a nonstick pan over medium flame.
• Pour the pan cake batter 1/2 cup at a time on the non stick pan and top it with some choco-chips and dates
• Over medium-low heat, cook the pan cakes till golden brown in color and bubbles up the top side. Flip and golden the other side too. Serve with honey and or maple syrup

Notes
The batter is so non sticky that I didnt have to grease the pan at all.
Ajoy felt that the sweetness from Dates was little too much, I guess using Dark choco chips might be good idea to balance the sweetness. I didnt have dark choco chips sot used semi sweet chips.

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