Happy New Year 2012

Dearest Readers,

I have not posted in ages! The good news is that I am going to try and post something every other day to make up for my absence...

Last year, I lost 4 very special people in my family and they will be missed, remembered and cherished - especially my Nani (grandmom) - who I miss terribly! Though the year ended on a high note with my brother tying the knot with his long term girlfriend... and my son and I had a month full of fun. I know all the 4 people who aren't alongside us today would have blessed the couple and wouldn't have wanted the celebration to be postponed.

My son and I took full advantage of the wedding and moved to Mumbai for a month and celebrated with amongst friends and family a big fat Indian wedding - full of food, laughter, fun and dancing!

Just before leaving, I baked my husband a happy birthday and belated anniversary cake 'coz we were going to spend our first anniversary apart!!!!

The cake is a simple chocolate sponge and the filling is mascarpone, icing sugar, whipped cream and strawberry puree. My hubby loved the cake but did feel that we should have used only whipped cream for the outside frosting as the cake was heavy.. so we had to eat small pieces at a time :)!

Ingredients for the chocolate sponge (taken from Nieglla's Buttermilk Sponge) :

I made 2 of these sponges

11/4 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 cup brown sugar
75 grams butter / 30ml canola oil
100ml buttermilk (milk + curd / vinegar / lime juice)
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
2 eggs
1/2 vanilla bean

I have started adding a bit of oil to all my cakes and brownies as it makes them more fudgy and moist.

Procedure:

Beat the butter, oil and sugar together. Add eggs one at a time and beat further till the mixture becomes mousse like. Add the vanilla bean.

Now mix all the dry ingredients together. And alternately add the dry ingredients and buttermilk in 3-4 times.

Spread into an 8 inch parchment lined baking tin. I tap the tin a couple of times to get an even cake and it's easier to frost.

Frosting:

For the icing I had to use strawberry crush as there weren't any fresh strawberries and mixed it with 250grams mascarpone cheese and about 1/2 cup icing sugar and low fat (Amul) cream. Had to use a bit of gelatine as a stabilizer - I whipped them all together and left them in the fridge to chill for a bit.

I doused the cake with a bit of a chocolate ganache and then let it cool. Then added part of the frosting and sandwiched the two cakes together.

Frosted the top and decorated with swirls of chocolate ganache.

Also, please email me at rbhatnag@gmail.com if any of you know how to add borders in Picasa 3... it has me a bit stumped!

Hope this year brings you all a lot of joy, laughter and happiness! Also, do try and do a good deed a week... so you can spread the joy that you are getting to other people too :) - that is my New Year resolution! What's yours????

Honey Nut Scones - SRC

Has November also been passing you by? What???? Halloween is over already and you haven't even planned your Thanksgiving feast yet?? Well there are only going to be 8 more people over + plus the 4 of us... I totally hear ya! Diwali was like that for me...

But...

This is what I love about the last two months of the year... I so look forward to the holidays and festivity and everyone's cheerie mood! In India this starts in October with Diwali - the festival of lights. The house is going to smell of a varieties of cookies, sauce, chicken / turkey. biscuits and Christmas cakes! There is going to be  a lovely NIP in the air... and some LOVE and lots of gifts - maybe some SMALL.

Well, this month I was just almost not going to make it in time for my Secret Recipe Club assignment. I was given the blog Tea and Scones and it was full of exciting recipes to read. It was full of yummy recipes from Dorie Greenspans books (always a pleasure) and lots of 30 minute pasta recipes that looked yummm too! I had a huge choice but I chose Scones as I thought they are versatile - can be made savory or sweet and can go well with any Christmas or Thanksgiving Brunch... not being a show stopper but definitely an essential to have around turkey and gravy.

Honey Nut Scones are featured in the book Baking from My Home to Yours and they are really simple to put together! I adapted them minimally to the ingredients I had on hand and shaped them like biscuits... since they didn't turn out too sweet I thought they could easily be served at a brunch.

I baked half the quantity as scones are usually not my specialty but they just melted in my mouth and I didn't add the egg...

Ingredients:

1 egg (optional)

1 tablespoon honey

1/4 cup whole milk

3/4 cups all purpose flour

1/4 cup ragi flour (original - whole wheat flour)

1/2 tablespoon baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

4 tablesppons cold butter

1/4 cup ground almonds (original - walnuts)

Makes about 4 medium sized biscuits

Steps:

Stir the honey and milk together.

Whisk the dry ingredients together. Add the butter and rub it in with your fingers till all of it is mixed and looks as small as peas and is all pebbly and mixed up.

Pour the liquid ingredients in and mix with a fork until just combined. Add the ground almonds and mix it together. Pat together into any shape you want - I made discs but you can make the typical triangles.

Bake in a pre-heated oven for 15-20 minutes at 180C until nice and browned.

Serve with butter, jam, honey or dip into gravies and enjoy savory with your meal!It has a really subtle sweet and nutty flavor to it!

Apple Almond Cake

Can't believe we are heading towards 2012 at break neck speed... 

Oct in India is a festive season - full of festivals - the biggest one being Diwali - like Christmas all the buildings and houses are decked with pretty lights, lanterns and flowers. I made rangoli with fresh flowers this time and the fragrance of that and the scented diyas (yes, you read right) kept the house looking pretty and smelling good!

After the week long break of feasting, crazy card nights, losing money and then making some, lights and lots of partying followed by my son's 3rd Birthday Party, tons of gooey chocolate cake and lots of Halloween Candy - I am so ready for a Breezer - oops I meant BREATHER!

I think we need to usher in November a bit slowly so we can savor December in all it's glory - the cold weather, the nice sunny days with a cold breeze, lots of Christmas festivity and holidays and bring in the New Year with a bang.

Delhi is flooded with apples currently and it's not exactly fall but I wanted a warm cinnamony something to keep me going as it gets cold early in the morning and late evenings... so you need something to tuck in with your coffee or tea.

I read a lot of great reviews about an apple cake from Dorie Greenspan's book and went about adapting it minimally to suit my needs. It was real easy to put together and I didn't even get my electric mixer out for this.

Ingredients

1/2 cup all purpose flour

1/4 cup ground almonds

3/4 tsp baking powder

100 grams salted butter

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

3/4 cup brown sugar

2 large eggs

3/4 cup apples finely chopped

Prepration

Center a rack on the oven and pre-heat it to 180C.

Butter a large loaf tin and prepare. 

Whisk together the dry ingredients. Melt the butter. Whisk together the eggs and then add sugar and whisk. Now I added a third of the dry ingredients and melted butter alternatively till completed incorporated. 

I then used a rubber spatula to fold in the apples.

I decorated the bottom of my loaf tin with slivers of apple and brown sugar and poured the batter over this. And baked it for about 40 minutes.

The pictures do no justice to this cake as it was moist and had a very nice nutty flavor from the almonds. It wasn't too apple or too sweet and just perfect to enjoy at anytime!

It made a hand snack for the the toddler to take to school too and the bonus that it had fruits and nuts had me beaming at my genius!

Will you walk into my parlour... to share some BROWNIES?

                                       Will you walk into my parlour?" said the Spider to the Fly,
                               'Tis the prettiest little parlour that ever you did spy;

I remember these words from a poem we read long, long time ago in school... and though the spider is actually being mean here...I say these words in a nice way!

Sometimes you have a gazillion thoughts running through your head at one time and you are trying to fit them all into the 2 hours you have while the toddlers at school:

Running ten minutes late to the gym, the treadmills going to be gone

I need a pedicure

My son needs a new bottle for school ASAP

But we are out of veggies & fruits for the week - and it's only Wednesday?

What about a quick stop after groceries at that pretty shop to check out some baking equipment?

And the dry cleaning has to be picked up by Friday

And we all know what the priorities are... as we rush through errands before the toddler gets off from school.

BUT

Sometimes, your day is just long and you do not want to drag yourself out of bed - you just want to speak to your BFF over the phone, enjoy an extra cup of tea and eat another brownie.  

BFF's change over time and time flies... when I was younger (read teens) I was always at logger heads with my MOM and didn't want her anywhere near my parties / school work / classes. I felt she embarrassed me... and NOW I am always clambering for her attention and need her opinion on most things. She is the one person who will always be there to speak to you when you call, answer your calls back, give her opinions, fight with you and reason with you!

My mom doesn't live in the same city as me and neither does she like chocolate much but I am sure she would have had another cup of tea and a brownie with me if I had insisted... that's what BFF's are for!

These are just a box brownie mix with extra chocolate chips thrown in for good measure :) - hope they warm up your tea-time like they do for me!

Banana Chocolate Cupcakes - Secret Recipe Club

What's it about playschool and toddlers? A cold or cough or "a new bug" every 3 weeks, early mornings chases around the house with my son in his PJs and I following him with his brush, school bags being left behind in the elevator... I barely got time to recover from the sleepless nights in April when playschool started and by the time I had a chance to put my head up, we were already in October!

The year has not ended yet, but has been very difficult for my family with a lot of close members not being around anymore and two going in a very sudden way leaving us surprised at how short life can be.

There has been a sudden awakening around me to appreciate life more and become a better person. Yes, I am still snappy at that time of the month; No, I haven't suddenly become Ms Goody-Two-Shoes; I still lose my cool at small things when I having a bad day - BUT I have started to sit up and look at the simple pleasures life has to offer so it doesn't race you by.

Walking hand in hand with your little one picking up flowers, picking up your toddler from school with a treat (chocolate cupcake), getting up early in the morning to enjoy your morning cuppa in a quiet house before everyone is up or just enjoying some quiet sit-down time with your spouse away from the maddening social commitments.. this list can just go on and on.

And, life I realized is as simple as you make it to be...So go on and do something you really want to but haven't been able to do for a while 'coz of your super crazy schedule!

When I chose this recipe from http://eggscreamandhoney.com/, I wanted something kid friendly that my son could bake with me 'coz he thinks he is my lil helper and likes to whisk away in the bowl while I add the ingredients. I was not going to be a MANIAC and look for perfection but these came out pretty perfect if I may say so!

The Secret Recipe Club is the brainchild of  Amanda Formaro where you get assigned to a secret blog and get to cook from it! Excited... you can learn more about it from the links provided! A great initiative to get to know more bloggers and try out new recipes!

The original recipe is here - http://eggscreamandhoney.com/2011/06/21/banana-cupcakes-and-peanut-butter-icing/ - I tweaked it a bit here and there depending on what I had on hand!

Ingredients
100 grams salted butter
1 cup flour ( About 3/4 all purpose and 1/4 millet flour and 2 tablespoon cocoa powder)
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp baking powder
2 very ripe bananas
1 tsp vanilla

Makes 6 cupcakes and takes about 30 minutes from start to finish. A great way to get your child involved.

Method:
I sat my kid down in the middle of the kitchen on a splat mat with a big bowl and whisk - in went the bananas - mash, mash, mash. Then went in the melted butter and a lot of vigorous whisking. Then went in the sugar - I had to help here a bit so that the mixture was a bit creamy and the sugar was dissolved. The eggs and vanilla were broken and whisked by me in a separate bowl and then whisked into the bowl by the toddler. The flour all in one heap, into the bowl and all mixed together.

WHAT A FORGIVING RECIPE! The toddler opted for whisking after all the effort and I went back to lining the muffin tin and put the cupcakes in for 25 minutes in a 170C preheated oven.

We just used a icing sugar and warm water to make a paste, put it in a baggy and most of what you see is what my son did with me holding his hand... life is all about having fun! Enjoy with your loved ones with a tall glass of milk or hide it in the snack box for a warm hug when they get back from school!