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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Saffron Pistachio Ice Cream

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

This one is my father's favorite ice-cream and when I was small, i never liked it that much. Then, it was always fig ice-cream which I ended up having. But last few years, I have started liking saffron for the flavor and color it gives, so when mom dad were here I decided to make it. Then I couldn't click the photo nor could i click after that around 4 times I prepared this one. So this time, i made sure to click one before the ice-cream got over :)


Ingredients
1 Liter Milk
3.5 Cup Cream
1 Cup Pistachios
2 Cup Sugar
1/4 Spoon Saffron

Method

• In a half liter milk add in sugar and blend it in mixer.
• In a bowl take a cup of milk and bring it to boil. Add in saffron and mix well till the milk turns bright yellow.
• Mix remaining milk and the boiled milk with milk that was sweetened earlier.
• In a mixer make pistachio powder and mix it in the milk.
• Add in cream and mix well. Keep the mixture in the fridge for an hour.
• Add the mixture to the ice-cream maker and let it set.

Notes
Its important to boil the milk and add in the saffron for the flavor to mix well with the milk.
Also mixture needs to be kept in fridge otherwise it's warmth wont let it set in the ice-cream maker.

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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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Strawberry Icecream

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

Last week I had got strawberries to make jam :) But the week was hectic and i couldn't get myself slogging for an hour or two in kitchen so instead yesterday i decided to make icecream instead. I was little skeptical for this was first time i was trying it out and serving without knowing how it is going to turn out added to the nervousness. Glad everyone enjoyed it and that surely calls for this post.


Ingredients
5 Cup Milk
3.5 Cup Cream
1.5 Kg Strawberries
4 Cup Sugar
1/2 Lemon

Method

• In a mixer, blend 1Kg of strawberries and sugar together till smooth. Transfer it to bowl.
• Add in milk and whisk till smooth.
• Add in cream and lemon juice and again whisk till consistent.
• In ice-cream maker pour this mixture in batches according to your ice-cream maker's capacity.
• Chop remaining strawberries, and when ice-cream is almost set ad them to the ice-cream and let the ice-cream maker set the ice-cream.
• Freez for another hour or two to get the best results.

Notes
I saved few strawberry pieces so I could add them on top while serving ice-cream.

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Entry to Cakes, Cookies and Desserts

While following different blogs on my reader i somehow stumbled on Anjali's blog about the event on cakes, cookies and desserts. I haven't participated in any event as yet, but with my recent post on Mango Mousse Cake and the compliments I had been getting for this cake, I wanted to share it with more audience. I want more people to try it out and see how easy it is to make this delicious cake and hence for the first time, I have decided to enter into this event.


The recipe for the cake can be found here.

The link to event is here.

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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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Payesh

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

I had made this earlier too but today i thought i would make this for milind and ajoy. Its one of ajoy's favorite sweet dish and so easy to make.


Ingredients
1 Liter Milk
3/4 Cup Rice
1.25 cup Jaggery

Method

• Boil the milk and reduce to 3/4th.
• Wash rice and and add it to the boiling milk. Let it cook completely.
• Take off the heat once the rice is cooked completely. Add in grated jaggery
• Mix well and let it dissolve completely. Chill and serve.

Notes
Cook the milk and rice over medium heat with constant stirring so as to avoid burning.

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Lychee Icecream

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

Here almost all stores sell the canned lychees but never the fresh ones. Last month I decided to give it a try especially for ice-cream. It turns out that if you use the syrup you get pretty good flavor from one can


Ingredients
1 Can of Seedless Lychee
1/2 Cup Sugar
1/2 Cup Milk
3.5 Cup Cream
1 Lemon

Method

• Take out lychees from the syrup and put the syrup in the mixie.
• Add in sugar and milk and blend it till the sugar is disolved.
• Mix in cream and lemon juice and whisk a bit.
• Add it in ice-cream maker and let it set.
• Fine chop the lychees and mix that in the ice-cream around 3-4 minutes before the setting is complete.

Notes
If using fresh lychees just use around 30 lychees. Puree around 15 of them with 2 cups of water and use that instead of lychee syrup and finely chop remaining lychees. You might need to use probably 2/3 cup of sugar.
The lemon helps in bringing out the taste from the lychee.

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Fig Gelato

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

Since childhood my favourite fruit was Fig more than even mango.. With known love i share for mango it would be hard to believe but its true :) Whenever i had to choose something while playing i would always pick fig.. Then as i grew up i was introduced to Sujata's (the famous ice-cream parlour in pune) fir ice-cream... Even till date whenever I go to pune i have atleast a tub of fig ice-cream.. So now you might wonder how come i waited so long to make this ice-cream then, but the thing is it was so hard to find dried figs here that I had to get them from India :) So now that I have it I couldnt wait but make this awesome gelato..


Ingredients
1 Liter Milk
250g Dried Fig
3/4 Cup Honey
1 Spoon Lemon Juice

Method

• Soak the figs in two cup of milk. Keep aside for atleast two hours
• In a mixie grind the soaked fig to paste, keeping aside 4-5 figs.
• Add in lemon juice and honey and blend again.
• Add this paste to remaning milk and stir well.
• Set the ice-cream as per ice-cream maker instructions.
• Dice the remaining figs and mix it in the set ice-cream.

Notes
I dont like to wait after i start making ice-cream, so I use chilled milk. Also while soaking figs, i keep them in fridge that way they chill too and i dont need to wait for the mixture to chill before i put it in ice-cream maker.

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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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Ras Malai

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

Ajoy wanted me to make this for Dasara but ended up getting the raw material (aka milk) quite late on sunday. So I made it yesterday. It has turned fabulous and the sweetness is perfect not too sweet not too bland..


Ingredients
2 Liter Milk
2 Spoon Vinegar
1 Pinch of Saffron
1/4 Spoon Cardamom Powder
1/4 Cup Almonds
1/4 Cup Pistachios
3 Cup Sugar

Method

• Boil 1 liter of milk in a pan.
• Mix vinegar in half cup water and add it gradually to the boiling milk.
• When the whey separates from milk fat strain it on cheese or muslin cloth. Run through cold water and let it hang for an hour or two so that water is drained completely out from the paneer
• Start boiling remaining 1 liter of milk in a wide pan, stir continuously and let it reduce to half.
• Add in safron and 1/2 cup sugar in it and let it simmer for another couple of minutes. Keep aside.
• Mix in remaining 2.5 cup of sugar with 1.5 liter of water in a cooker or wider pan. Bring it to boil
• Mean while knead the paneer really well till its smooth. Make small flat discs and drop them in the boiling sugar water. Cover with the lid (if in cooker don't put the whistle on) and let it cook for 10 minutes on high.
• Let it sit covered for another 5 minutes and then uncover the pan and keep the discs in syrup and let it come to warm temperature. At this point the discs would have doubled in size.
• Take each disc in your palm and press lightly to remove the syrup from it, then drop these discs in a bowl.
• In earlier prepared milk add in cardamom powder and finely chopped almonds and pistachios. Pour this milk over the discs in the bowl. Chill and serve.

Notes
I soak the almonds in water for couple of hours so that you can very easily chop them.
You can also use half liter of half and half instead of using 1 liter milk to make ras of the ras malai. Just let it simmer and add in saffron.
I didnt have big vessel to accomodate all the discs in one go for cooking, so i cooked the half of discs as mentioned, then added 2 cups of water to the syrup and cooked rest of the discs. Keeping sugar syrup thin is key to make those discs soft. Dont overcrowd the disc so that they have space to double in size

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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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Dry Fruit Chocolate

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

One day while watching Foodnetwork channel I saw this recipe and liked it at that very moment, for it is so simple yet so elegant. Dont remember exact measures and all but here is my own version of the same.


Ingredients
350g White chocolate
120g Dark Chocolate
1 Cup Walnuts
1/2 Cup Apricot
1/2 Cup Cranberries

Method

• Heat oven to 350F/180C and bake walnuts in it for 10 minutes. Set aside to cool down.
• In a bowl microwave white chocolate for 1.5 minutes stirring it every 30 sec. It should be smooth soft molten chocolate.
• In another bowl microwave dark chocolate for 1.5 minute stirring it every 30sec.
• Line a plate/tray with parchment paper and pour the white chocolate in the center. Spread it over the plate to get smooth layer
• Pour dark chocolate on four corners and with a fork mix it in with white chocolate creating patterns
• Dice apricots and walnuts, sprinkle them along with cranberries on top of the chocolate.
• Let mixture come down to room temperature and then transfer it to fridge to set it hard.

Notes
The recipe that I had watched only used white chocolate, but I didnt use white chocolate completely as it would make it very sweet. So instead used dark chocolate to balance out the sweetness. Earlier once I had used semi sweet chocochips instead but that too was sweet to my tooth so this time i used dark chocolate. One can use mix of dark and semi sweet chocochips as well.

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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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Strawberry Sorbet

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

When I got Ice-cream maker recently, i was confused whether to make sorbets first or fresh mango ice-cream.. Both being my equally favorite icy treats.. Well mango won the battle since i had the ingredients easily available. But today when I went to Costco, i made sure to buy lots of strawberries to make this one. I am glad I did.. Its tasting yummy and definitely helping in beating this heat..


Ingredients
600g Strawberries
2 Cups Sugar
1/2 Cup Lemon Juice
1/2 Cup Corn Syrup

Method

• Dice the strawberries into four pieces or more if bigger in size and add in the bowl.
• Add in sugar and lemon juice and mix well.
• Keep in refrigerator overnight
• Next morning, add in corn syrup and pulse the mixture in the mixie.
• Add the mixture to the ice-cream maker and start the machine
• After around 30 minutes, take out and store in container for 2-3 hours. Serve as it is or with mint leaves.

Notes
I didnt grind the mixture but instead pulse it so that when eating the sorbet i could have smaller pieces once in a while in the mouth. It did wonders.
You could chill the mixture for an hour or two as well instead of overnight.

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