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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Chocolate Cupcakes

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

This was one of my impromptu attempt to bake something that turned out quite great. It had been long time since I had the frosting in the fridge so thought about baking something to use that one and these cupcakes worked perfectly well with the frosting.


Ingredients
2 Cup Sugar
2 Spoon Vanilla Essence
1 Egg
1/2 Cup Oil
1 Cup Milk
1.75 Cup Maida
1 Cup Coco Powder
1 Spoon Baking Powder
1 Spoon Baking Soda
1/2 Spoon Salt
2 Spoon Instant Coffee

Method

• Preheat oven at 325F/160C
• Mix together egg, sugar and vanilla essence.
• Add in oil and milk and whisk the mixture over medium speed.
• Sieve maida, coco powder, baking powder and baking soda couple of times to form homogeneous mixture.
• Add the sieved contents and salt in the egg-oil-milk mixture and whisk on low speed till well combined about 2 minutes
• Warm 1 cup of water with coffee in microwave for about a minute.
• Add the coffee to the cake mixture and whisk on low speed for another 2 minutes.
• Line around the cupcake pan with around 14 cup cake liners and fill them with the cake mixture about 3/4th level in each.
• Bake in the oven for 18 minutes.
• Allow the cakes to cool off for at least an hour and then serve with frosting and optionally filling

Notes

I didn't use the filling but chocolate ganache would be great option.
I used chocolate butter cream that I have made previously to frost another cake as the frosting and it went well.

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Chocolate Buttercream

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

Almost 3 years ago I took classes from Wilton about cake decoration where they taught us lots of basic plus advance decorations along with their standard recipe for icing. I modified it a bit to get this chocolate butter cream.


Ingredients
2 Cup Vegetable Shortening
1.5 Cup Coco Powder
1 Spoon Vanilla Essence
10 Spoon Milk
450g icing sugar
Pinch of salt

Method

• Mix shortening, essence and milk together till smooth
• Sieve together icing sugar, coco powder together.
• Add it to the shortening and mix well with the hand mixer till ingredients mix in properly.
• Add salt and blend for about two minutes till creamy.

Notes
Cream lasts almost half an year if stored in airtight container in the fridge.

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Mango Mousse Cake

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

At Hardik and Shweni's farewell party, there was this mango mousse cake that I liked a lot. The first bite into it and I wanted to make my own cake :) In fact the cake was such a hit that people wanted to leave Seattle so that they get farewell and this cake :) When everybody were talking about this, I was quite and when they turned to me, somebody mentioned: "No, Sheetal doesn't need to leave Seattle, she will make it herself :)". I thought the expectations from me are rising, so i didn't say anything that time, but that was the very moment I had decided to try this out over weekend itself. The one we ate had used artificial mango flavor, I decided to use using Alphonso mango pulp, the taste has come out really well. Now I just need to invite all the party attendees to validate if Cake is at least as good as the one they had got :)


Ingredients
1 Cup Maida
3 Eggs
200g Cream Cheese
3 Cup Whipping Cream
5 Cup Alphonso Mango Pulp
1 Spoon Corn Starch
2 Spoon Milk Powder
1/4 Spoon Baking Powder
1.75 Cup Sugar
4 Spoon Gelatin
4 Spoon Lemon Juice
2 Spoon Oil
1.25 Spoon Vanilla Essence
1/4 Spoon Salt

Method

• Preheat oven at 350F/175C.
• Sieve through Maida, corn starch 5 times. Add in milk powder, baking powder and sieve couple of times. Keep aside
• In a standing mixer whip egg whites and salt together till foamy.
• Add in 1/4 Cup Sugar and whip till peaks can hold. Keep aside.
• In a bowl whisk egg yolks, 1/2 Spoon Vanilla Essence and 1/4 cup Sugar and whisk till sugar dissolves.
• Add in oil and another 1/2 spoon Vanilla Essence and whisk for 30 seconds.
• Carefully fold in egg whites.
• Fold in Maida mixture 1/3rd at a time. Don't over stir.
• Line the springform or any 9inch round baking pan with parchment paper, grease it and pour in the batter.
• Bake the cake in oven at 350F/175C for 20 minutes.
• Immediately take out the cake on the wire-rack and let it cool down.
• In the mean time, in a pan heat 1/4 Cup Sugar and 1/4 Cup Water together with stirring till it boils. Let it cook for another 2-3 minutes and then take off the heat. Add in 1/4 Spoon Vanilla Essence and let the mixture cool down a bit.
• While the sugar syrup is cooling down, in a bowl whip cream cheese, 1 cup sugar and 2 spoon lemon juice together till soft.
• Heat 1/4 Cup Water in microwave for 1 minute. Add in 2 spoon gelatin and mix till it dissolves completely. Whip it in cream cheese mixture.
• In separate bowl, whip whipping cream till its fluffy and can hold peaks. Fold it in the cream cheese mixture.
• Fold in 3 cup mango pulp till mixture is smooth consistency.
• Now divide the cake into two layers. Put one layer at bottom of the 9inch springform pan. Brush 1/2 of sugar syrup over the cake. Pour in half of mango cream mixture. smooth it with spatula. Put the second layer of cake, brush it with remaining sugar syrup. Pour remaining mango cream mixture and smooth it with spatula. Refrigerate for 1 hour.
• After the cake has refrigerated for 45 minutes, take remaining 2 cup mango puree in bowl, add in 2 spoon lemon juice and heat it over medium flame. Cook the mixture till its hot, don't let it boil or you will loose the flavor. Take off heat.
• In a bowl microwave 1/4 cup of water for 1 minute. Add in remaining 2 spoon gelatin and let it dissolve completely. Mix this mixture in mango puree and stir thoroughly. Let it stand still so that its warm to touch. Stir the mixture again.
• Take off the cake from refrigerator and pour the mango puree over all over the cake. It should form uniform layer over the cake.
• Refrigerate for at least 8 hours before serving. Remove the ring, decorate with fruits and cut into pieces.

Notes
The second layer of cake if is of same diameter as the spring form cake, cut its side so that when you remove the cake there is only base layer visible. My cake was fluffy in the middle so when i cut it into two layers, the top one was automatically less in diameter so worked out perfect.
If you let the cake cool out in pan itself, it will stick to the pan so it is very important to flip it on wire-rack immediately.
I have used mango pulp which is sweetened hence if you are using fresh mango puree then sweeten it with sugar.
Even though process looks lengthy, after first try you will know that the process isn't tedious. Once you know what to do, it is easier and off course the end result is mind blowing :)

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Eggless Chocolate Cake

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

Atul's mom had asked me for egg-less cake recipe almost 6 months back but every time something or the other came up and I didn't get chance to try out anything. Today that we are going to his place for snacks I thought that it would be perfect time to try out and see how she likes it. The cake looks, tastes awesome. It is perfectly moist and fluffy, i think i like it better than this chocolate cake with the eggs or this birthday chocolate cake again with the eggs.


Ingredients
4.5 Cup Maida
1 Cup Coco Powder
3 Cup Sugar
1 Cup Oil
1 Spoon Baking Soda
2 Spoon Vanilla Essence
1 Spoon Salt

Method

• Preheat oven to 350F/175C
• Sieve together maida and coco powder in a bowl.
• Add in baking soda and salt and mix well.
• In another bigger bowl, add in oil, 3 cups of water, Vanilla Essence and beat it together until frothy.
• Add in sugar and blend again.
• Sieve in the maida-coco mixture into it and beat till mixed well.
• Grease the baking pan and pour the mixture in it.
• Bake the cake for 50 minutes on 350F/180C, turning it after 35minutes.

Notes
I drizzled it with Chocolate Ganache and decorated it with the saved white chocolate cream cheese frosting.
If you are going to decorate on top of Ganache then let it set down for 3-4 hours because i didn't and the decoration kept sliding off the place i intended it to stay.

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Red Velvet Cup Cakes

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

I had made these when mom dad were around but they weren't perfect especially they were little on drier side. So this time I made little bit change in quantities and they come out perfect. I frosted them with White Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting.


Ingredients
2.5 Cup Maida
1/4 Spoon Coca Powder
1/4 Spoon Baking Soda
1/4 Spoon Salt
1.5 Cup Sugar
1 Egg
1.5 Cup Oil
2 Spoon Curd
1 Spoon Liquid Red Food Color
1/4 Spoon Vinegar
1/4 Spoon Vanilla Essence

Method

• Preheat oven to 350F/175C
• Sieve Maida and Coca Powder in a bowl
• Mix in baking soda, salt and sugar in it
• In separate bowl add in egg, oil, red food color, vanilla essence and vinegar.
• In a cup add in the curd and fill it with water. Mix well with the fork and add it to the wet mixture (oil-egg mixture)
• Beat the mixture on low speed till smooth
• Add in sieved dry mixture of maida-coca powder a cup at a time and beat slowly till it accommodates in the mixture.
• Line the cupcake pan with the paper cups. Divide the mixture in 12 cups.
• Bake the cake on 350F/175C for 22 minutes

Notes
I normally turn around the cupcakes after 70% of baking time in this case around 15 minutes. It helps in even baking of the cakes.

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Vanilla Icecream

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

This is Ajoy's favorite flavor in ice-cream which i finally made last Saturday. This is so easy and tasty flavor that i wonder why i didn't make it earlier. The texture of the ice-cream came out so well, so much better than the store bought ice-cream.


Ingredients
1 liter Milk
3.5 Cup Cream
2 Cup Sugar
1/4 Cup Vanilla Extract

Method

• In a mixie blend sugar and 1/2 liter of milk together till sugar completely till it dissolves.
• In a bowl mix the milk-sugar mixture, cream and vanilla extract and whisk with fork till everything is combined.
• Set the mixture in ice-cream bowl according to the ice-cream maker's instructions.

Notes
I used heavy whipping cream instead of light whipping cream so if using light whipping cream, you may need to use 4.5 cups of cream instead for the smooth flavor.

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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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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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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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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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Zebra Cake

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

I remember around a year back I had received a mail from a colleague here about tasting the check box cake. She had described a lot about its procedure so when I was looking for something similar yet something where I wont need those card boards etc to make those check box texture. Then I came across the very famous concept of zebra cake. So today I gave it a shot and result was very impressive :)


Ingredients
3 Cup Maida
2 Cup Sugar
4 Eggs
2 Cup Milk
2 cup Oil
1 Spoon Vanilla Essence
8 Spoon Coca Powder
4 Spoon Baking Powder

Method

• In a bowl add eggs and sugar and blend them together till the mixture is fluffy.
• Add in Milk and Oil keeping two spoons of each aside. Blend well
• Sieve in maida gradually in the mixture. Blend well for a smooth batter
• Blend in vanilla essence and baking powder.
• Separate 4.5 cup of batter into other bowl and add in sieved coca powder in the separated batter. Blend well
• In the coca batter, add the remaining milk and oil (2 spoons each) into the batter and blend again
• Preheat oven to 350F/180C
• Grease the baking pan
• Add 1/4 cup of white batter in the center alternating with half cup of coca batter. Keep adding till the pan fills in half in quantity. Repeat same for other pan. The batter would spread on its own in layers
• Bake the cakes in oven at 350F/180C for 40 minutes

Notes
If you are going to make the cake in single big baking pan, then instead of adding 1/4 cup of mixture, add in 1/2 cup to make the correct sized strips. I noticed that if the layers are too thin then after baking they wouldn't be too clear to mark out the layering clearly.

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Kalakand

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

Today morning when I was just thinking about making some sweet, suddenly thought of Kalakand I had when Mehul had taken us to temple for his new car's puja. I searched a little bit for the recipe and found that its very easy one. Oh but when I actually made it, I knew though the recipe is simple, it does take a long time to get to the final product. Especially boiling the milk to half and then drying it completely.


Ingredients
2 Liter Milk
1 Cup Sugar
3 Spoon Vinegar
1 Spoon Pistachio
A drop of Kewada Essence
A Silver Leaf

Method

• Boil half of the milk.
• Mix Vinegar with 3 spoon water and add it to the boiling milk.
• When the whey separates completely remove it from the stove and strain it
• Wash it through running cold water
• Put it in the muslin cloth and drain the water. Keep it aside under the heavy pan
• Boil remaining milk till half in quantity
• Add in the curdled milk stored aside in it and cook over medium flame till the mixture thickens
• Add in sugar and kewada essence. Cook till the mixture thickens completely.
• Spread the mixture on the plate, apply the silver leaf and garnish with chopped pistachios
• Let the mixture cool. Cut it into cubes and serve

Notes
I tried using non stick pan to boil the milk to half but it didn't work well. So I transferred it to the aluminum pan. It works best for making the sweet.
While boiling down the milk, you need to stir it constantly and vigourously so that it doesnt stick to bottom or sides of the pan.
05Nov: I tried using 2 galons of milk instead of 2 litre today which is approximately 8 liter and I had terrible time boiling down the milk to half and even after adding paneer. I totally missed the fact that since its boiling of the milk the time taken would be increasing and wont be a marginal increase. So be aware if you are making it in bulk. Its too much of work. And it made approximately 16 pieces of sweets with 2 liter and we finished it so fast that I had to make it again :) and thats how I thought of making it in bulk so that we can give it to few others too :)

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Pumpkin Almond Cup Cakes

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

Few days back I made 'Khatakhata' - a special mixed vegetable dish from konkani cuisine. It needs pumpkin and I looked for it through all grocery stores, super markets, indian stores but every one said its out of season. But Wholes food had canned pumpkin and I thought of giving it a try. But when I opened the can I found that it was mashed one and not cubed ones. So I couldnt use that in the khatkhata. (Yes recipe will come for it when I cook it next time as this time I forgot to take pics). Then I was looking for all pumpkin recipes that can use puree of Pumpkin and found that cupcakes use them. So finally after reading lot I came up with this my version. Once it started baking it spread so much of aroma that I just couldnt wait for them to get ready. What a nice way to eat Pumpkin :)


Ingredients
2 cup Pumpkin Puree
3 Cup Maida
1 Cup Butter
1.5 Cup Brown Sugar
1/2 Cup Castor Sugar
2 Spoon Baking Powder
1/2 Spoon Baking Soda
1/2 Cup Milk
1/2 Spoon Cinnamon Powder
1/2 Spoon Cloves Powder
1/2 Spoon Nutmeg Powder
1/4 Cup Almond Sliced
1/2 Spoon Pistachio Essence
2 Eggs

Method

• Sieve through Maida, baking powder, baking soda few times.
• Mix Nutmeg powder, cinnamon powder and cloves powder. Keep aside
• In a bowl, beat butter, brown sugar and castor sugar together untill mixture is fluffy and sugar is completely mixed
• Add in each egg at a time and beat them into the mixture.
• Now add the sieved maida-bakingpowder mixture little at a time till completely accomodated. Stir with a spatula and dont use blender here.
• Add milk and mix well. Mixture will thin down a little
• Add pumkin puree and pistacheo essence and mix gently using the spatula
• Mix in the almonds except few to decorate in the batter.
• Preheat the oven to 350F/180C
• Grease the cup cake trays and fill in the mixture upto 3/4th level in each cup
• Garnish with remaining almonds
• Bake in the oven on 350F/180C for 20 minutes. Knife inserted should come out clean.

Notes
If you are using fresh pumkin, just steam the pumkin and then mash it in mixie. I guess that should work too.
Made around 16 medium sized cup cakes

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Melon Lassi

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

Couple of weeks back I tried this unique experiment. I had one old melon sitting in the fridge so was curd, so thats what lead to this recipe.


Ingredients
1 Melon
6 Cup Curd
5 Spoon Sugar
A pinch of Vanilla Essence
Salt to taste

Method

• Chop the complete melon into small piece
• Keep aside few pieces for garnishing and grind rest of them in the mixie to make the juice.
• Strain the juice and add it to curd.
• Add sugar, salt, vanilla essence and again mix in the mixie
• Garnish with the melon pieces and serve chilled.

Notes
I used sweet thick curd, and didnt need to add any water because the melon juice was enough to lighten the curd to Lassi

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