Dairy- Free Chocolate Brownie Cookies!

On Christmas day, my friends and I were invited for a Christmas dinner and I decided to bake some of these delicious treats! This chocolaty goodness is called a Brownie Cookie. 

When I was deciding on what to make for the dinner party, I couldn't make up my mind between baking a cake or these brownie cookies. The reason I resolved on baking these is because of the fact that they are easy to eat while compared to a cake. These are perfect for something like a dinner party or a kids birthday party. During the party, the guests can even enjoy it with a glass of Prosecco or Champagne.

Just as a warning, the recipe below makes about 50- 60 of these cookies. I took almost the whole lot to the party and came back with an empty tray. They were quite a hit so the quantity wasn't an issue at all.

Prep: 20-25 mins

Cook: 8-10 mins

What you will need for the brownie cookies:

85g cocoa powder

400g caster sugar

110ml vegetable oil

4 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

250g plain flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon table salt

60g icing sugar

 1. Combine the cocoa powder, caster sugar and vegetable oil together in a medium sized bowl.

2. Beat in the eggs one by one and mix in the vanilla essence.

3. Combine together the flour, baking powder and table salt. Mix it in with the cocoa mixture. Cover the dough and chill for about 4 hours.

4. Preheat the oven to 180C/ gas mark 4. Line the baking trays with grease-proof paper. In a separate small plate, pour some icing sugar. Spoon out some of the dough and roll it into approx 2.5 cm balls. Then roll it into the icing sugar and place on the prepared baking tray. 

5. Bake in the preheated oven for 8-10 mins. Once they are taken out of the oven, let them rest in the baking tray for a minute before taking them out and placing them on wire racks to cool.

Hope you enjoy these delicious chocolaty treats! If you try them out, let me know how it goes :)

Waldorf Salad, Thai Chicken and Clafoutis

Recently I have been taking kitchen classes at university as a part of the course I am doing. Towards the end of the semester I had to give an exam for the same.

As you might know, I love cooking and baking. Being able to actually study about the same was one of the things that made me the happiest this semester. Cooking in a professional kitchen is quite different from cooking at home! Over a period of 4 months, we were taught a number of different recipes. 

I thought I would share with you pictures of what I cooked for the final exam. For the exam we had to make three dishes, namely Waldorf Salad, Thai Chicken with chili and basil and for dessert, Clafoutis.

One of the main things that I learnt was to KEEP TASTING while cooking. Tasting while cooking is a key factor to cooking a good dish.

WALDORF SALAD

THAI CHICKEN WITH CHILI AND BASIL WITH RICE PILAF

CLAFOUTIS

Bread and Butter Chocolate pudding

This is a recipe for an easy-to-make dessert and is not very time consuming as well. The recipe is as follows:

Ingredients required:

• White bread or milk bread (preferably not wholemeal or brown bread)
• Butter
• Chocolate

For the custard:

• 500 ml milk
• 4 eggs
• Sugar
• Raisins

Procedure:

Start off by cutting the bread into small pieces and simultaneously place the pieces in a baking tray. Cut small pieces of butter and place them over the arranged pieces of bread. As can be seen in the picture below, I did not add much butter as I was not exactly sure how much I was supposed to add. But this wasn't enough. I had to add more later to make the bread softer and as everyone knows... more the butter, better it tastes :p 

Put this tray in the microwave for approximately a minute or until the butter melts. Simultaneously in a double boiler, melt chocolate. I used Galaxy chocolate bars because I did not find baking chocolate in time. I used a mix of both milk and dark chocolate bars. 

Once the chocolate is melted, pour it over the bread and butter in the tray. Leave this to set aside for a while until the custard is ready.

I made enough for 2 trays, so the picture above is of the 2nd tray. Preheat the oven to 180C.

In a separate bowl start making the custard. Use 500ml of milk and 4 eggs. Therefore, 1L milk would be 8 eggs. Mix the eggs and the milk and add sugar according to sweetness required. 

Mix thoroughly and add it to the tray with the bread and chocolate. To finish off, sprinkle a few raisins on the top. Put the baking tray in the oven at 180C for about 35- 40 minutes. Keep a regular check after approximately 30 minutes.  

The finished product would look something like this:

Victoria Sandwich Cake

A Victoria Sandwich Cake is one of the most basic and easy to make cakes. It is fairly firm yet moist. It can be left plain or can be flavored with grated lemon or orange rind, coffee or cocoa powder.

I made this cake and coated it with a layer of apricot glaze. For a first attempt, the outcome was pretty good.

Ingredients (for the basic recipe or 3-egg recipe):

• 3/4 cup or 175g sugar
• 1 cup minus 2 tbsp caster sugar
• 3 eggs, beaten
• 3/4 cup self raising flour
• milk

Procedure:

• Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. The mixture should drop easily from the spoon or whisk if tapped against the side of the bowl. 
• Add the beaten egg a little at a time, beating well between each addition, so that the egg is absorbed into the mixture. 
• Sift the flour and fold into the mixture. Add a little milk to give it a dropping consistency.
• Spoon the mixture into prepared tins. Level the surface, then make a slight dip in the centre.
• Preheat the oven at 180C.
• Put the prepared tins in the oven and bake for about 40 minutes or until the cakes are well risen, golden and firm to touch.
• Allow the cake to cool slightly in the tins, then transfer to a wire tray. Invert the tins over the cake and leave until completely cold. This helps keep the cake moist with cooling.

I layered the cake with a apricot glaze. The apricot glaze is frequently spread over sponge or sandwich cake before the layer of icing is applied. The sticky glaze ensures that there are no loose crumbs that could stick to the icing and spoil the finished effect. It can also be used to attach decorations to a cake, such as desiccated coconut or chopped nuts, to attach almond paste to a rich fruit cake, and as glaze for fresh fruits on a gateau.

Ingredients ( for apricot glaze) :

• 3/4 cup apricot jam
• 2 tbsp water
• squeeze of lemon juice

Procedure:

• Place the apricot jam, water and lemon juice in a small saucepan.
• Heat gently until the jam has dissolved, then boil for 1 minute.
• Strain and cool

As I was a little short of time, I left the cake with only the apricot glaze on and no icing. I had planned on making either a butter cream icing or glace icing for the cake but could not do so.

The Victoria Sandwich Cake with apricot glaze can be served as dessert along with vanilla ice-cream!

Hope you find this useful and easy to make :)

Easy to make Banana Cake

This specific recipe, although easy to make takes a little long to bake. My aunt taught me a similar one and it was one of the very first cake I had baked!

Here is the recipe-

Ingredients:

• 1 cup oil
• 4 eggs
• 2 cups sugar
• 4 bananas
• 2 tbsp lime juice
• 2 tbsp orange juice
• 3 cups all purpose flour
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 2 tsp vanilla essence
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 tsp cinnamon powder
• a few walnuts, crushed

Method of Preparation:

• Preheat the oven to 180C and line 2 cake pans.
• Mix oil and sugar together. Add one egg at a time mixing continuously. Beat well after adding eggs.
• Make small pieces of the bananas and mix it with the lemon and orange juices. The juices help prevent the banana from getting black. Mix it in with the egg mixture. Also add the vanilla essence and the cinnamon powder.
• Sieve the flour, baking soda and salt together and leave it aside.
• Make sure that the sugar has dissolved and then add the flour little by little mixing all the time.
• Just keep in mind that the batter should have a dropping consistency. Mix in the crushed walnuts. 
• Pour the batter in the prepared cake pans.
• Placing both the pans in the oven, bake for about 45 minutes to 1 hour at 180C. Keep checking at regular intervals.

Enjoy!

Hershey's Chocolate Cake with Blueberries

Recently I was looking for a good and easy recipe for a chocolate cake and came across this one- Hershey's Perfect Chocolate Cake and I must say, it is quite a perfect chocolate cake! The first time I tried it, it turned out so well that it needed absolutely NO changes in the procedure or the quantity of ingredients.

As this was a tried and tested cake, I decided on making it for my brother's birthday. But this time I topped it off with a layer of vanilla frosting and blueberries. This was the outcome-

The frosting was done in a little bit of a hurry and therefore wasn't very neat. The recipe for the cake and frosting is as follows-

Ingredients:

• 2 cups sugar
• 13/4 cup all purpose flour
• 3/4 cup Hershey's cocoa
• 11/2 tsp baking soda
• 11/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup boiling water
• Whipping cream
• Icing sugar

Procedure:

For the cake:

• Heat the oven to 350F / 180C. Grease and flour two round 9 - inch baking pans.
• Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large bowl. Add eggs, milks, oil and vanilla and beat the whole mixture for 2 minutes using a speed mixer.
• Stir in the boiling water 
• Pour into the prepared pans.
• Bake for about 30-35 minutes at 180C/350F.
• Cool for sometime by placing the pans on wire racks.

For the frosting I used whipping cream, icing sugar and a little bit of vanilla essence just for the flavor. Whisk it together until it forms a rich and creamy frosting.

Do let me know if you try it and also send pictures :)

Enjoy !

Lemon Meringue Pie

Hello there!

Sorry for not being very active on the blog as I have been trying to get my university applications done. Last week one of my friends asked me if I knew how to bake a pie and that when I realised I didn't. Actually I had never tried a pie, any pie.

So I decided on making a Lemon Meringue Pie! And for my first and second try, I must say it wasn't all that bad.

First attempt.

Second attempt.

I used a proper pie pan for the first time but the quantity that the recipe mentioned was a little less for the pan. The second time I used a pan that was smaller but deeper. Keep in mind- ALWAYS USE THE THINNER PAN! There is a very valid reason for this. Firstly because the liquid inside gets cooked easily when it is more spread out and secondly because the top layer of the pie gets cooked really fast leaving the inside liquid like.

Ingredients:

• 1 packet Marie biscuits
• 130g unsalted butter
• 2 eggs
• 350ml condensed milk
• 1/2 cup lemon juice
• 1 lemon rind
• 2 tbsp sugar

Procedure:

• Crush the Marie biscuits in tiny pieces and simultaneously melt the butter. Slowly pour he melted butter into the crushed biscuits and mix it well with your hand. 

• After the biscuit and butter is mixed well, set it in the pie pan. Remember to use a thin pan. Bake it in the oven for about 5 minutes at 180 C.

• In a larger bowl grate the lemon rind and take out the juice of the lemon. To that add the 2 egg yolks and condensed milk. Whisk it well. Leave the egg whites separately for later.

• Whisk the egg whites and sugar together to form meringue. Continue until you can see soft peeks of the egg white. 
• Once done, pour the condensed milk mixture in the pie pan. 

• Then pour in the meringue as the top layer and put it in the oven at 180C. Bake it till the top is brown in colour. 

Let me know in the comments below if you tried out the recipe and how it turned out :)

Enjoy!

Cinnabon- World Famous Cinnamon Roll

Cinnabon is a branch of American baked goods whose signature item is the Cinnamon roll. They operate in over 30 countries, one of them being the United Arab Emirates.

There are a variety of products that they offer including the Classic Cinnabon, Minibites or Cinnabites, Minibons, Chocobons, CinnabonStix, CinnaPretzel, Caramel Pecanbon, Pecanbon bites, various beverages like MochaLatta Chill, Chillata, Lemonade, Lemonatta, Raspberry Lemonade etc. They also sell CinnaPacks that are super convenient to take home.

And so I did. I took home a pack of 5 minibons when I visited one of their branch tonight.

As I was walking towards the metro station I crossed their bakery. I could smell the aroma of the cinnamon rolls that were being baked and were kept in the counter. I couldn't resit and ended up by taking a few with me.

If you want to try making your own cinnabons, check out the following recipe: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/clone-of-a-cinnabon/
I am surely going to try it soon !

Enjoy !

Chocolate Roll for Chocolate Lovers

Before beginning this post there is one thing I want to say. I love chocolate. Every time I decide to make a dessert or bake, I tend to look at recipes that have chocolate in them. So I'm sure that on this blog you will see plenty of recipes that have chocolate in them.

Here is one such recipe that is very quick and easy to make.

Ingredients:
150 g butter
200 g dark chocolate
2 eggs
100 g sugar
300 g Marie biscuits






Procedure:

• In a double boiler, melt the butter and chocolate until completely melted. Set it aside to cool.  

• Break the Marie biscuits into small pieces.

• Beat the eggs and the sugar until a smooth, creamy mixture forms.

• Add the egg mixture to the melted chocolate while whisking continuously. 

• Add the broken pieces of biscuits to the chocolate mixture and fold it all together.

• Place a rectangular baking sheet on a tray and pour out the mixture on it. Roll it up like a log and close the edges of the sheet. 

• Roll it up in an aluminium foil. Making the roll in baking paper might be a little too messy.

• Place it in the refrigerator and cool for about 4-5 hours.

A few suggestions:

To melt chocolate using a double boiler : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2UGOZMd9qM

To make the roll without making too much mess, add more biscuit pieces to the chocolate mixture to make it thick.

After getting it out of the fridge, cut it into slices and serve with vanilla ice-cream or sweetened whipped cream.

The finished product:

Mine did not exactly turn out to be a roll because I dint add the proper quantity of biscuit pieces. It had to be thicker to form a proper roll.

Hope you find this useful :)

Enjoy !