Simply Chocolate Chip Muffins!

The newest recipe book that I have added to my collection is Nigella Lawson's How to be a Domestic Goddess - and that has inspired me and shown me how cakes, muffins, cupcakes can be easy to whip up and not a nightmare! The way her book conveys the message to you, it is as if she is right there telling you, "Go on! You can do it! No biggie!" So this afternoon when I was craving something chocolate I thought about baking myself a batch of muffins to have with my cold coffee... 

Well, so here is my first go at muffins. I am using ingredeints I had on hand and making them was as easy as 1-2-3... so I am going to have to try variations before I can conclude that I have mastered muffin making but my first attempt definitely seemed like a success. Within 30 minutes I had a batch of freshly baked muffins on the wire rack cooling and a delicious aroma wafting from my kitchen... and I still managed to catch a nap with my sleeping baby! So all in all it turned out to be a productive day :)!

This post is dedicated to all the mothers who have young toddlers and still seem to find their life a little topsy - turvy. Trust me it will come back all together bit by bit... here's a start for a little treat for your little munchkin with that cheeky grin who has you wrapped around your finger. You can try using whole wheat flour to give it a healthier twist - it makes a perfect evening snack to take to the park with your toddler! No more guilt about giving them only packaged snacks.... you can make mini muffins which are perfect for babies under 1.5 and regular sized ones for the older ones. Better still make an activity out of it coz they are going to be really happy helping put this together! Also, I find cooking therapeutic so making dinner and dessert is very relaxing... and putting together a homemade dinner and dessert after taking care of the baby the whole day makes you feel like giving yourself a pat on your back and sinking your teeth into the soft muffin is your reward for that.

So here goes the recipe:

I read a few recipes before I put mine together - mine makes 6 regular sized muffins.

1 cup all purpose flour
1 large egg
1/4 cup butter at room temperature
1/2 cup milk chocolate
1/2 cup milk
1/2 tablespoon baking powder
1/3 cup demerera sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
a pinch of baking soda

A useful tip Nigella Lawson gives in her book is to mix all the dry ingredients and leave on the counter the night before. Mix all the wet ingredients in the fridge the night before. Then in the morning - just melt the butter - mix the dry and wet ingredeients and you have a yummy breakfast in under 30 minutes :)!

So the batter is as easy as mixing the wet ingredients together and the dry ingredients. Then add the wet ingredients to the dry ones and mix slowly till all mixed together with a wooden spoon. Do not over mix as this will cause the muffins to be hard.

Scoop the mixture equally into 6 cupcake / muffin cups and bake for 20 minutes at 190 degrees. And your mouth watering dessert / breakfast / snack is ready to be dvoured hot or cold!

EVO & Yogurt Cake, Some Inspirational Blogs and an Endeavor to better my Photographs...

Hello All -

High time I post a recipe here, I say!
Well, I have been in the process of reading a lot of blogs and food websites (my favorites are: http://www.nigella.com/, http://www.doriegreenspan.com/, Aapplemint, Passionate about Baking, Brown Eyed Baker, The Pioneer Woman, Happy Home Baking, Joy of Baking, Easy Indian Cooking, Tuesdays With Dorie - I can go on and on ) and learning more about my point and shoot or learning how to use photoshop / picasa - anything that can help improve my food photographs.
I always seem to be in a rush to get my baking over and the icing done before my baby is awake and usually battling away sleep. If I am baking in the morning then someone wants to be in my "godi" (lap) through the baking and frosting process, you get the drift - so by the time I am done with the taking pics - all I want to do is share the recipe coz - 'Yay, I managed to bake another cake' or 'Wow, I had the time to create another dessert' but I have decided to sincerely make a change.
After over 30 posts I have realised I need to be more meticulous and patient with baking and frosting and decorating and the whole process of getting the post to all of you so that it looks as appealing to you to eat as it is for me!

I am very inspired with the likes of The Daring Bakers Challenge and Tuesdays With Dorie(TWD) but definitely intimidated with the level of skill required to be part of it but when I read about the EVO and Yogurt Cake on TWD - I just could not resist baking it! It seemed like a perfect quick cake recipe for me! The original recipe can be found at: http://www.doriegreenspan.com/ or http://tuesdayswithdorie.wordpress.com - this cake sounded simple and healthy (no butter) and seemed like something that could be put together in a jiffy with wonderful results and I was right :)! And I have decided to take mini steps and start baking easy recipes from these blogs...

This recipe is adapted a bit coz I bake in the nights and used whatever I could find available:  
11/2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 cup sugar
Pinch of Salt
1/2 cup yogurt (I used homemade yogurt with low fat milk)
Finely grated zest of 1 lime (I didn't add 'coz my toddler doesn't have a thing for lemony flavours)
3 eggs
1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract (I used vanilla essence)
1/2 cup evo (I used Saffola Oil - a mixture of rice bran and safflower oil - wow, didn't know I had that in my kitchen - have to read up some more on the oil I use in my kitchen!)
                                                        
I followed the rest of the instructions to the T - I added yogurt to the sugar and whisked. I added eggs and vanilla essence to this and whisked further. I then added the dry ingredients to this and whisked it together.

In the end I added the oil and mixed it with a spatula as instructed. I couldn't find a loaf pan so in, it went into a round baking dish.

50-55 minutes at 350F for a loaf pan but mine was done in 45 mins in a round pan at 170 degree Celsius.

Though this cake calls for a jam or glaze I made a simple frosting to enhance the slight tart flavour that I thought the yogurt would add to this cake. I also wanted to give the cake a very cloud like ethereal look 'coz from the reviews I had read it was a dense cake with lots of character and flavour so I used the soy based whipping cream thats available in India and to it I added some fresh mango puree and very little sugar and whipped it together to get a fluffy and light frosting. Here is the recipe:

1 cup whipped cream - lightly beaten till it holds form
1/3 cup mangoes pureed
2 tablespoon powdered sugar
Fold the puree and sugar into the whipped cream

Frost the cake and decorate with mangoes and enjoy! By the time I finished baking and decorating the cake it was 2am and I had to wait till morning to take pictures.. so they are yet to be uploaded!

But my toddler love the cake and kept saying 'more', 'more' and he even added "yummy" after tasting the frosting so I think I passed. Those of you who have tried this recipe yet - it is a must have for cakes in a jiffy! The cake itself was really nice and dense and I did get good reviews from the family!

I am leaving you with a collage of some of my pictures and would really like some true feedback on them... pictures of the cake to follow soon!

Mango Shrikhand

Having been on a self indulging spree for the last 14 months, I have decided to take stock of my life and gradually start steering myself to my pre-pregnancy days and follow a healthier lifestyle. Blogging has been taking a toll on my waist and not having time to hit the gym is just adding ‘fat’ to the fire! So I decided to start thinking of healthy desserts from today (last night I tried making a molten chocolate cake and couldn’t find enough tiny ramekins to bake it in and made one disaster of a big cake – but the ‘Eton Mess’ tasted soo good – I ended up eating it all – 350gm of dark chocolate, butter n sugar n all – yumm!).

Growing up in Bombay (Maharashtra) and surrounded by loads of Gujarati and Maharashtrian friends I have been lucky enough to savour a variety of cuisines. One of my favorite childhood memories is of eating cool and creamy home-made Shrikhand on hot sweaty days. Shrikhand is made in many flavours – cardamom, saffron and nowadays in any fruit you wish flavor. You also get Amul Shrikhand off the counter isn’t as yummy and healthy as home-made Shrikhand.

Shrikhand is a very versatile ‘food’. Any good Gujarati restaurant serves it as an accompaniment to be in their Thali’s. It can be eaten as is for dessert or in dinner with paranthas or poori. When I was younger and not very calorie conscious I used to really enjoy “shrikhand-poori” but now I can only see the health benefits in this dish. Shrikhand is made of strained yogurt, flavored with ‘elaichi’ and ‘kesar’ and can be sweetened with fresh fruits…. Easy to whip up at home – it is my all time favorite comfort food for the summer months.

The health benefits of yogurt itself have been known for centuries… so this dessert is a no brainer… go ahead and try it out!

Recipe:
Puree of 1 mango - Alphonso preferred but any sweet mango will do.
400gm yogurt - hung for about an hour
1 tbsp castor sugar (you can adjust the sweetness by adding more sugar... I kinda like the slightly sour taste of the yogurt and mango combination and also less sugar equals less calories)
1/4 tsp cardamom powder

Combine the yogurt, sugar, cardamom powder and puree all together till the combination is creamy and smooth. Don't whip since the yogurt can become smoothie like in texture and you want this to be slightly thick. Leave in fridge for an hour to set.

Mine is in the fridge setting itself right now... will add pics as soon as it comes out and if we don't devour it before that!

Mango Cream Cake - Part II (Pictures...)

Apr 30, 2009 contd.

8:00pm Cake out of the freezer. Not falling apart yet!!! Yayyyy!!!!

8:30pm Cake all iced and put in the freezer for the final lag.

9:45pm Power cut yet again!!!! But thankfully the cake had set, though by the time I started taking the pictures the icing which was made with cream and sugar had started to melt a bit - I don't know what I did wrong - maybe it hadn't set very well in the 1st place???

10:45pm Cake is Mmmmmmmm!!!! Reviews were awesome!!! And I was very very proud of myself because - this cake was an improvisation from my original recipe and turned out scrumptious -this is an original recipe and it is the 1st ever cake I have iced and decorated in my entire life! I have done a few basic melt the choc. and pour on cake type icings but nothing elaborate...

The pictures are not as great as the cake tasted.... but I had to show you the end result!!!! Recipe to follow soon!

Mumbai & Mango Cream Cake - Part I

I am sorry to be out of circulation for long but am back now... and I may have a story, recipe and pictures by the end of the post - so thats always a good sign!

I was away visiting family in Mumbai last week and had a wonderful and relaxing week - lots of eating happened - yummy food from Mahesh Lunch Home home delivered and sweet juicy alphonsos was the highlight for the foodie side of me. Catching up with family and friends was much needed!!!

Now that I am back in Delhi with two dozen alphonsos for the husband and myself I owe my blog at least a good mango recipe... I have been doing a lot of reading up on cakes and thougth about baking a Mango Cream for my son's half year b'day!

I am doing this post in parts coz I have a feeling I will forget the recipe or get involved in a million others things and won't end up finishing this post.

April 30th, 2009
10:30am
I decided to bake my son a Mango Cream Cake and I needed to get it ready by 30th night. I had an hour before my son woke up and not all the ingredients to bake a cake from scratch. Lucky me. I had a box of moist Vanilla Cake mix from Pillsbury's. I put all the ingredients together and popped the cake into the oven.

10:45am
I was all ready to have my son awake for his massage and bath routine and the cake would be ready in 30 minutes. Just as I was ready to pat my back and the lights went. Power cuts in Delhi is supposedly a regular feature but not having lived in Delhi long enough I just don't seem to take the situation in my stride as well as Delhites do and go about their routine as if nothing has happened. Anyways - the cake had baked for 5 mins. Waited 10 more mins and put the cake in the fridge - coz I didn't know when the power would be back and I didn't want to take a chance of running my oven on the invertor for fear of blowing the invertor. That would have left my son and me with no electricty at all.

12:00pm
Lights have come. Cake goes back in over. 30 minutes later I have a very very flat cake. Totally Expected.

12:30pm
My son's food is in the food processor and the very very flat cake is cooling on the rack.

1:45pm
I couldn't have slit the cake horizontally to make my original recipe so I have a couple of options. Make mango custard and do a regular sponge cake with custard topping. But have done a sponge and custard combo no. of times and nothing special about it.

3:25pm
Have tried to execute the brainwave I had. It will be out of the freezer at 7pm. If it's picture worthy and tastes good I shall have the recipe and pics up by the weekend! Please pray it comes out well...

Strawberry & Mascarpone on the Sponge...

This was an impromptu dessert to celebrate my son's monthly birthday. We hadn't gotten around to cutting a cake or celebrating his monthly Birthday on the 1st and I wanted to do something special for him over the weekend! We had a late Friday night and was up with my alarm clock (read: my son) at 6:30am.

I wanted a quick dessert completed within an hour before my boys woke up and demanded my attention... Delhi has become really really hot suddenly and I wanted to do something light and fluffy and fruity! I dug out a box of ready cake mix - moist vanilla cake flavor (Pillsbury). I thought I will bake a cake and add some fresh fruit and cream to it and voila my dessert would be ready.

I baked the cake according to the instructions and being a novice baker made added some Mascarpone cheese to the batter and baked it too much and instead of a white fluffy cake I found a flat bread like looking thing in my cake tin.

Anyways here goes the recipe:

Bake cake according to instructions on the box and add one yolk less and 2-3 tbsp Mascarpone cheese to the batter. Bake for 5-7 minutes less than what is mentioned on the box and let cake cool.

I then took equal parts Mascarpone cheese and heavy cream and whipped it together till slightly stiff with 1 tbsp Castor sugar and left it in the fridge (since it was too hot to leave it outside...). While the cake was cooling I ran to my "fruitwalla" and got a box of the most luscious looking strawberries to add to my dessert because I couldn't think of anything better than the bright blood red berries to offset the whiteness of the cake and cream...

If your cake rises nicely unlike mine then slice it from the middle and add 1/4 of the cream mixture and strawberries (cut into small bite sized pieces) and sandwich the two cakes together. Then take the remaining cream mixture and coat the cake on the outside and decorate with strawberries cut into halves.

That was my original idea which didn't pan out quite well... so this is what I did with my dessert:

I tried to slice my cake but that didn't turn out quite well so I cut out small round cakes from my big cake (using a sharp edged bowl). I then pretty much stuck to my original idea and used the marcarpone and cream mixture to sandwich together the cake and strawberries (as seen in the picture and I put the remnants of the cake I put them in glasses - alternating layers of cake, cream and strawberry's and topped it with a dollop of cream.

Despite my disastrous cake the end result turned out to be great. the mascarpone cheese in the cake gave it a a very soft texture dipped in syrup kinda texture and noone can really go wrong with strawberry's and cream!!!!

The dessert won me rave reviews from my in-laws and husband and he actually proclaimed it my best dessert ever! I wish the pictures could do justice to the taste but you will just have to take my word for it.

Till next time....