ahmi

I love shopping online at jabong. When bharathy asked to send entries for her spicy recipe event, i wanted to prepare a recipe with red chilli, just to suit her blog logo! i tried chilli bread sticks, chilli-mint flavored paneer. no dish looked sexy and hot with dry red chilli!



I still do not know, whether bharathy will accept my entry or not, as the deadkine for the submission  just closed yesterday.



serves - 3
preparation and cookin time - less than 5 mins

Ingredients:

Dark chocolate - 45 gms
Milk - 250 ml
Red chilli flakes - 1/2 tsp
Cinnamon - 1" inch size stick
Sugar - 4 tsp

Method:

Heat Milk in a pan, add dark chocolate and cinnamon stick and keep stirring, till the chocolate melts.



Note:

To prepare dry red chilli flakes, take 3 o 4 dry red chilli and remove the stalks of the red chillies. grind coarsely so that you get chilli flakes.

Just a pinch of chilli flakes will do for a serving.

a tiny pinch of salt

Molten Chocolate Lava Cake, sure you should love this, if you are Chocolate lover. I first had this sort of cake at dominos pizza. once even i tried by making nutella indentations inside chocolate cup cakes. which was good, but i did'nt see chocolate lava from it!! On Googling, i landed on my favourite Joy of Baking, referred to me by Nirmala. I just followed  the recipe and the outcome was Just Perfect to produce Lava..



Cake was just like Pudding. It's Chocolate inside and outside its little crisper and crumblier. It was Heavenly with Vanilla Ice Cream. I could'nt click decent pictures, as the Ice-cream melted over the hot cake. and the cake raised so good, but it went down soon after it is taken from oven. you got to experience this chocolate magic..

Ingredients:

1/4 Cup     Butter (or) Margarine
1/3 Cup     Sugar (Powdered)
2                Egg's (seperated)
1 tsp          Vanilla extract
1 Cup        Dark Chocolate (6 oz. approx. 180 gms)

Method:

*  Melt the Dark Chocolate and Butter by Double Boiling Method.

*  Pre-Heat the Oven to 200C.

*  Take Half of the mentioned Powdered Sugar in the recipe and beat with Egg Yolks with Hand Mixer, till it turns out fluffy and pale white. Add Vanilla extract and beat in middle. It takes about 3 minutes by hand mixer and 5 minutes, if beating by hand. To this add the Melted Dark Chocolate, Butter and Beat with Hand mixer, till mixture is evenly mixed.

* In Another Bowl, beat the Egg White's with a pinch of salt, till soft peaks are formed. Add the rest of the granulated sugar while beating. Now mix it with the egg yolks and melted chocolate mixture. Mix them all together with a wooden spoon or spatula.

* Grease the Ramekin bowl's and dust it with some powdered sugar. Scoop in the the prepared chocolate mixture into ramekins bowl, just half of its size.

* Bake them at 200C for about 10-12 mins. Longer you bake, you wont get lava. the cake rasies well and you would get cracks on top of the cake.

* Serve with Vanilla Ice-cream for the Divine Experience. or dust with powdered sugar and serve with fresh cut fruits.

I love Brownies but folks at home dont, so baking brownies becomes rare. I baked these low fat brownies for Divya's Brownie Event. Iam making into the event at last minute desperately, as i very badly missed not being part of her Very Famous Best Chocolate Cake Event.


I just want to share 2 Brownie tricks. one is Brownie takes less flour compared to Cakes. second is cooling the baked brownie for atleast 40 minutes is a must. These Low Fat Brownies dont ask for Butter, but still you will never miss butter in brownie. The Guilt part is the Egg's.

Recipe from GoodHouseKeeping's Cakes and Bakes.

Ingredients:

Makes about 12-16 brownies

Olive Oil / Sunflower Oil - 50 ml / 2oz.
Dark Chocolate - 250 gms
Egg's - 3
Demerara Sugar - 150 gms / 5 oz
Vanilla extract - 1 tsp
All Purpose Flour - 75 gms / 3oz
Baking Powder - 1/4 tsp
Cocoa Powder - 1 tbsp
Butter - 1 tsp for Greasing the Cake Tin.

Method:

Pre- Heat the oven at 180C. and Grease the Cake Tin with Butter and set aside.

Melt the Dark Chocolate by placing in Microwave for 30 seconds at 900W. or melt the chocolate by double boiler method and let the chocolate cool after melting.

Break the Eggs into a large bowl, add Oil, Sugar, vanilla extract and whisk well.

Sift the Flour with Baking powder and cocoa powder and mix the flour to the large bowl which had egg-oil whisked. Mix them all together.

Mix Melted Chocolate to the bowl. mix with a wooden spoon. mix very lightly, as the chocolate thickens up the mix so quick. Transfer the mix to the Greased pan.

Place the Pan on Oven and Bake it for 20 minutes.
Once baked, check the brownie by inserting a toothpick close to the centre of the brownie , it comes out clean.

Cut the Bownies, while its still on the pan. and let them cool for about 40 - 60 minutes in the pan.

Remove the Bownies from the Pan and Serve with Ice-Cream.


To Store, wrap the brownies with cling film and store it in air-tight container.

I know i went missing here for a month. I needed the break from this webworld, now i can say proudly that iam not addicted to blog or FB or WEB in total :) apart from funny thoughts flooded, i gave treat to my Depression, by making these Eggless Chocolate Muffins. This is Superb eggless recipe, suggested by Sharmilee. Its Easy, you will know when you prepare it.


Recipe Copied from my Eggless Moist Chocolate Cake. its a Fool Proof Recipe I tell You.
Baking Time : 25-30 mins, Yields 18 muffins.

How to Prepare Eggless Chocolate Muffins?

Wet Ingredients:

Cold Water - 1 and half cup
White Vinegar - 1 and half tbsp's
Brown Sugar (or) Sugar - 1 cup
Olive Oil (or) Canola Oil - 6 tbsp's


Cocoa Powder - 1/4 cup
Baking Soda - 1/2 tsp
Salt - a small pinch


So that no lumps of cocoa powder / all purpose flour are there and also the baking soda is mixed well with the flour.

Mix the Dry Ingredients along with the wet ingredients and stir slowly. make sure no lumps are formed in the mix.

Pre-Heat the Oven to 180c and line the Muffin tray with Muffin Liners.

Pour the mix on to the Muffin tray and bake it for 25 mins exactly. Check whether muffins are baked, by insering a toothpick in the centre of a muffins, it should come out clean, else bake for another 5 mins.

Remove the Muffins from the tray and cool them on wire wrack. Let them cool down for 10 minutes.



To make Icing:

Mix the Icing sugar (5 tbsp's) with warm water (1 tbsp) and beat well. spread the icing over the muffins and serve.

Notes:

I found this Silky Chocolate Pudding from Smitten Kitchen. i prepared this pudding for my apartment kids and they loved it so much. they came to me one day asked me to prepare again and saw me live preparing the pudding and they went home and prepared just like i did. One of the kid's Grandmom was so impressed and asked me, where i found the recipe? believe me the kids prepared the pudding more than me and even they brought me what they made to taste, it was so so Gooood!


Ingredients: Recipe for 5-6 servings

Dark Chocolate -  1 and 1/4 cup (or)  6 oz.
*Coccoa powder can also be used instead of dark chocolate. if so, Coccoa Powder - 1/2 cup

Milk - 1/2 litre (3 cups)
Vanilla Essence - 1 tsp
Salt - a pinch
Sugar - 1/2 cup
Corn Flour - 1/4 cup

Method:

Use Double Boiler or Boil water in a big bowl and fit another empty bowl over the big bowl. simmer the flame once the water starts to boil.

Grate the Dark Chocolates or cut them into small pieces.


Add Corn Flour, salt a pich, Sugar to the empty bowl and mix well. If using Cocco powder, add it too. slowly add milk one cup at a time and mix well with a whisk. see to that no lumps are formed.

Keep Stirring with the whisk in slow flame for upto 5-8 mins till the mix gets thicker, or it should coat the spoon.

Once the mix got thickened, add Dark Chocolate and mix well with the whisk. the chocolates melts and mixes well with milk and corn starch. once it all turned chocolatey, remove from the bowl and add vanilla essence and mix. If you wish you could strain the pudding in the stage, if you feel some lumps in the pudding.

Let the Pudding cool and transfer them to small cups. cover them with a cling wrap and refrigerate for upto 2hrs. Serve them chill.


Adding Chocolates or coccoa powder can be skipped and the pudding can also be enjoyed plain as Vanilla Pudding. It Tastes Good!

Enjoy the easy dessert!!

Wishing You All Very Very Happy New Year! Last decade had more for me, College, Marriage, Kid and learning at different stops of Life. One big thing i learnt in last decade is Cooking. When i got married in 2004, i knew to make Maggi Noodles, Bread Upma, Pizza's with store bought Pizza Base. In the last 6 years, Cooking turned to be a big Passion for me. as a result you are reading this Food Blog:)

Okay, what's my New Year Resolution? Its not just for this Year, as i think, it will be in long term, for the next decade atleast. One is to feed the Family Healthier way. Second, I should Think several times before taking important decisions. Third, to enjoy every bit of Life.  in simple, iam trying to correct the mistakes of last decade.

If you ask me what happened to my last Year's Resolution, Yes i was able to follow it for 6 months atleast.

Last Year's Resolutions were, not to expect other hands for help.( it purposely meant, that i should do all my house-held work without maid). I survived without domestic help for 6 months. later i was pushed to have a helper, as hubby went abroad, and i needed someone to looks after the kid, when i had to look after outside work.

Next was to reduce maida, oil in cooking.  and i have reduced the oil consumption from 1 and half litre a month to 1 litre. but could'nt reduce maida, as iam experimenting on baking mode, maida/APF becomes  must for the experiments.

Coming to the Chocolate Temptations Cookies, I tried it out, from my Cakes and Bakes Book. I just followed the recipe. It turned out fabulous and vanished in just two days. My Son and I loved it!

1. Pre-Heat the oven to 180C. Line a Tray with Butter Paper and Grease it with butter.

2. If you have Double Boiler, Melt the 225gms of chocolate, Butter  along with Coffee.

               (or)

Boil 2 cup's of water in a bowl and simmer it.  find another fitting bowl, that could sit over the boiling water bowl and place it over the boiling water bowl. add 225gms of dark chocolate, 1/2 cup butter and Coffee to the bowl and melt them together.

3. Beat 2 eggs in a bowl until fluffy. whisk in sugar gradually till the  mix, turns thicker. Remove the chocolate melted, and add to the egg-sugar whisked. Mix them all together, till they are mixed well and becomes Thicker.

4. Sift the Floour, Baking powder, salt  into a bowl. add the melted chocolate-egg mix to the flour and give a mix with spatula or wooden spoon. add chocolate chips, almond extract and nuts and give a mix to get the cookie dough.

5. Spoon in the cookie dough over the greased butter paper and bake in the pre-heated oven for 15-17 minutes. Transfer the cookies to wire-wrack once its baked.

With the help of double boiler or in double boiling method(refer step 2), melt the chocolate, butter and icing sugar together. once the chocolate gets melted and mix turns thick, add milk to make the mix thinner.

Pour the mix to a Piping bag and pipe lines over the cookies.

* I used Milk cover instead of Piping Bag.

* I did a foolishness of using Demarara Sugar instead of Icing sugar and it did'nt melt and struck in between while piping chocolate lines.

I am a brownie addict. whenever i buy dark chocolate bars, i turn them into delicious Bbownies. Last week, it was a brownie week for me, as i tried two variety of brownies, one was low fat banana brownie and the other is this almond brownie. banana brownie, varied from the usual ones, for me, it tasted much like banana-chocolate halwa!!


But this almond brownie came out so perfect. I could proudly say, this is one of my best from my baking experiments.  now this brownie is attending Brownie event at divya's place. This is such an easy method, coming to the recipe.

 

Milk - 1/3 cup
 

 

 

While Googling for a Good Chocolate Cake, i came across a term / ingredient Cake Flour. Iam very sure, if i have to search for it in Chennai, it will take atleast 2 months for me, and also its not 100%, that i could able find it. so the next search went as Substitute for Cake Flour. and there my baking teacher Site Joy of Baking, had a solution for it and it said, to mix Corn flour with all purpose flour / Maida in 3:10 ratio. i added One cup of all purpose flour and 2 tbsp's + 1/4 tsp of Corn Flour and used as Cake Flour.

Exactly before 2 years, i started this blog. how dare i started a recipe sharing blog, without knowing anything other than chutney, sambhar, curry. i really wonder my courage on starting this blog!! with much interest, then i learned to cook other than chutney, sambhar. this place motivates me to learn more and more. Food photography, Baking, little of Web Designing were all learned bcoz of blogging. I should also tell, Blogging kept my mind busy and thus avoided tons of worries.

When I check the comments of you all in the morning, the enthusiasm you all give thru comments stay with me all thru the day. Every Comment makes me smile and proud. Every E-mail from you make me feel your love. This Blog is a Feel Good Home for me. Thank You Friends for all your comments and emails.

I want to continue this blogging passion to enrich me knowledge wise, to gain lots of friends and to record all my recipe's for my daughter-in-law and to my Grand Children's and the Generations to come.