(ONE BOWL) LINDT Peanut Butter Brownies & A simple summer salad

There are a few blogs that I just cannot get enough of... Joy the Baker, SmittenKitchen, Passionate About Baking... I try to read through them on at least a weekly basis and then potter around my kitchen to try and cook something to the best of my ability. Last week I tried a no knead Foccacia and it came out hard as rock... though I added the yeast, let it rise etc etc But life is all about inspiration and experimentation!

Not to get deterred I continue in my endeavors to get you simple tried and tested recipes that can be put together quickly. I know what mothers really want is that extra half hour to catch a nap yet not neglect their kids, all they want is another 20 mins weekly for a mani-pedi yet they want wholesome food on the table for their family, they want their girly night outs if they manage to arrange a great baby sitter but still feel guilty and keep checking their wrist for the time.. you get the drift.

In my 20's life was simple, Friday nights were usually spent checking out a latest pub on the scene, weekend champagne brunches or poolside parties are a thing of the past. At 30 we are usually seen with diaper bags in tow, kid friendly restaurants and socializing with families who have kids are our toddlers age is the new party scene! Most weekends I need to sleep in but am woken by my very energetic toddler at 6am... by the end of Sunday I am ready to give a time-out to anyone in sight.

When I read Deeba's post about one bowl brownies I was delighted! My 3 year old has been wanting me to bake something so he carry it in his lunch box to school. He started big boy school two weeks back and needs to be bribed to even get out of bed on a school day...

The one bowl brownies is great with the weather being super hot and me not wanting to stand anywhere near a hot oven or in the kitchen! I also had a bag of LINDT truffles from my SIL = perfect! They have a peanut butter flavor truffle that I know no-one wanted to try, so I subbed it for the chocolate mentioned in the recipe... and they were as decadent and fudgy as Deeba promised.

Do give it a try - it actually took only 40 minutes from start to finish as her recipe mentions!

Just to make myself feel better about indulging in the brownies I made a simple, fresh salad to go along with it. After missing gym for 10 days straight I couldn't afford a calorie laden meal. Put together with ingredients in my fridge it can be very easily adapted to your tastes and put together in a couple of minutes! I made it with broken wheat but it can be made with couscous or farro!

So here are the recipes...

One Bowl Brownies (recipe adapted from Passionate About Baking)
Ingredients
12 Lindt Peanut Butter Truffles + 50 grams of any milk chocolate
2 eggs
100 grams butter
40 ml oil
9 tablespoons all purpose flour
7-8 tablespoons granulated sugar

Recipe
Preheat oven to 200C. Melt the butter and chocolate together in the microwave. Wait for it to cool a bit. Add the oil and whisk. Add the two eggs and whisk. Add the sugar and whisk. Add the flour and fold it all together.

Put in a square baking tin for 25-30 mins at 180C. Leave to cool and cut into squares and serve!


Simple Summer Salad


Ingredients
1/2 cup broken wheat put in boiling water and cooked as per instructions
1 onion thinly sliced
1 tomato thinly sliced
1 red pepper roasted
Seasoning - paprika, salt, pepper, lemon juice, olive oil
1 fried egg

Recipe
Cook the broken wheat, couscous or farro and put in the fridge to cool.

Caramelize the onions with a little bit of olive oil and sugar. Remove from pan. Saute tomatoes in pan and remove. Roast pepper on gas or in oven, remove skin and thinly slice 9 I would have used a green pepper for contrast but didn't have any). Also some parsley would have been lovely but I was all out of it!!!!

Fry the egg so that the yellow is uncooked. For the dressing, shake a couple of tablespoons of olive oil, juice of 1 lemon, paprika, salt, pepper and Italian herbs in a bottle.

Get your broken wheat out and add the vegetables and toss with dressing. Add the fried egg to the top or on the side or leave it out if you're not a fan... and your beautiful summer salad is ready but I did miss my parsley a lot.

Cinnamon Biscuit Rolls: SRC

Do you love holidays? Who doesn't (No brainer)? Do you love them more, when you have to vacations them "compulsarily" - I am sure you're thinking what can compell you to go on vacation? Last December, when I found out that a school friend of mine (known her since 6th grade) and a cousin of mine are getting married within a week of each other I was a bit worried. How will my 3year old shuttle to two different cities and back home in-between (so 3 climatic changes), party and do late nights, play all day long, attend school in between and think we are SANE parents! But, he seemed to cope better than us.

Between, wedding celebrations (very, very elaborate in India with over 3 functions at least per wedding) all the dress changing, eating great food, site-seeing, fun n' sun(at the beach wedding) you can imagine 2011 has been really going well :)! I celebrated my birthday in between and my husband surprised me by booking us at the very luxurious Leela Palace, Udaipur (pictures above, also one of the destinations we had to go for the wedding ). I hope 2011 keeps my friends and family in happy space....

And then it was SRC time! My "secret" blog was Angel Food's Kitchen. She has lovely recipes, weekly menus ideas and lots of handy everyday recipes for mom's. I loved her egg salad sandwich recipe, which was polished off within minutes of making and then I tried her Easy No Rise Cinnamon Rolls - the recipe of which can be found here.

SRC is the brainchild of Amanda Formaro and she had done a wonderful job of building it from strength to strength - we have 4 groups of food bloggers that get assigned blogs secretly and have to choose a recipe from the blog and all of them reveal their posts together group-wise at a particular date and time - come try it!

 My rolls turned out a bit biscuit like since there was no yeast and no rise time in it... my hubby wasn't very happy with the texture (because he didn't have them warm out of the oven) but my son and I loved them with some melted chocolate on them straight out of the oven!

So this is a great recipe to try when you want some cinnamon-y goodness within 30 minutes, yes, they come together really quickly - so maybe for a quick tea party or dessert after party that you are going to serve straight out of the oven - these are the ones to try.

From my pictures you will see I rolled mine too thick 'coz I messed up my ratios a bit, so you can follow the original recipe. I would roll this as thin as possible so my rolls aren't too big. Also, I brushed the rolls with milk before baking but I would brush them with melted butter instead - just makes them crunchier and browner.

So here goes the recipe, which I have adapted a bit:

Dough:
21/2 cups of all purpose flour
1/4 cup granulated sugar (I used very scant)
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 cup butter
1 egg
3/4 cup buttermilk

Filling:
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon powder
melted butter - a couple of tablespoons

Recipe:
Sift the dry ingredients. Add the butter and rub till they are rubbed in like pastry. Now add the wet ingredients and mix well. Knead the dough on a floured surface about 10-15 times till it comes together. Had to chill the dough for ten minutes before I rolled it as it was a very hot and humid day that I made it and I would flour my surface a lot more!

After rolling it as thinly possible, spread melted butter and spread well with sugar mixture.Then roll carefully into a sausage roll and cut into 1/2 inch pieces. Put in a square dish, spread some more melted butter on the top and bake in a pre-heated oven at 200C for about 20 minutes. I think it could be done in 15 also... so please watch it!

I used some good Lindt Chocolate, melted it and my son and I enjoyed it smeared with this. You can also make a mixture of icing sugar and water / milk and spread it over this while warm. Enjoy as warm as possible!

Article Published in Times of India, Gurgaon edition

Dear friends,

I do baking classes for kids and have been doing them for about 3 years now. I started from the house and now do it in playschools and schools... Teaching kids is fun and therapeutic! Do please try and get a hold on the article!

What's been keeping me away, you ask - CAKES

This is what I have been working on for the last few weeks... and I feel like I am partial to Strawberries but just because I find the combination of Chocolate, Vanilla, Strawberry and Mascarpone sinful and irrestible!

Simple Chocolate Sponge for the Lunch Box

Are you a mother with toddlers - one or two? Do you sometimes go half way through the day wondering where the day has gone? Or that it's already time to prepare dinner and your kid wants a snack?

Have you had those day when your child has kept you up at night, you're not wide awake but breakfast has to be made, the hubby is almost leaving for work, the child is clinging in your lap and bawling (he has to be dressed and sent to playschool), you haven't even brushed but you're dying to pop something into your mouth to jump start your day - maybe a scone or double chocolate chip cookie or waffle!

This is the kind of cake that is super comforting and can be totally eaten for breakfast to give you a bit of caffeine kick. This is a kid friendly version I made for my son's friend's Birthday...

But I usually add some ground almonds for health, a little bit of buckwheat flour for depth, olive oil for moisture and a little coffee for a caffeine kick....

It's a great cake to share with girlfriends on a gloomy day sipping on a latte, or while catching up on a book and waiting for the baby to wake up from the nap, great energy booster after a fight with the spouse... ALL in ALL a great way to LIFT SPIRITS in the Winter.

So promise me that you will bake this up your way and enjoy it before this dreary winter ends...

The version I made was

Ingredients

3/4 cup flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder

3/4 cup brown sugar

8 tablespoons butter

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla essence

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

Procedure:

Beat the oil and sugar till creamy. Add eggs and vanilla essence and beat till mousse like. Now add all the dry ingredients in 3 parts.

Put into a parchment lined 8 inch baking tin for 25 minutes at 170C.

I used some chocolate chips 7 oil melted in the microwave to stick on the M&M's onto the cake as frosting is not allowed in their playschool.

I am sending this as an entry to Srav's Culinary Concepts for a Chocolate Fest that she is hosting. She has some great recipes and a blog totally worth checking out!