Lauki Halwa

Over the weekend, I made a few sweets for Diwali. Lauki halwa was one of the sweet dishes I made for our small Diwali celebration that I hadn’t made before. Since it turned out pretty well, I’m making a note of the recipe here.

Ingredients:

• 1 big bottle gourd/lauki, about 5 cups, peeled, grated, and excess water removed
• Ghee/clarified butter- 1 Tbsp + 2 Tbsp
• ¼ cup cashewnuts
• A handful of raisins (I used dried cranberries since I realized at the last possible moment that I was all out of raisins!)
• ½ -3/4   cup sugar (adjust according to taste)
• ½ tsp cardamom powder

 Method:

In a large saucepan, heat 1 Tbsp ghee over medium-high heat. Add the cashews and raisins and fry the cashews till they are lightly browned and the raisins plump up a bit. Set aside.

In the same pan add 2 more Tbsp ghee and add the grated bottle gourd. Cook for 10-15 minutes till all the water evaporates.

Add the sugar, mix well and continue cooking for another 10 minutes or so till the sugar melts and the mixture comes together. Add the cardamom powder, raisins and cashews. 

Cook, stirring constantly till the mixture is almost dry. Serve hot or cold.

Chocolate and Zucchini Cake

Many years back, when I first came across the world of food blogs, one of the very first recipes I’d bookmarked was a recipe for a cake from Clotilde Dusoulier’s blog.

Last week when I was on my refrigerator-cleaning mission, I finally got around to making this cake.

You can find the original recipe here; I followed it closely but did make a couple of changes, the most important one being the addition of a good amount of orange zest. My husband does not care much for chocolate or any recipe using chocolate but he does like the classic combination of chocolate and orange flavors. It also happens to be one of my favorite flavor combinations.

Here’s how I adapted the recipe to make my version of the chocolate and zucchini cake:

*I used a lot of orange zest since  I think chocolate and orange are so perfect together.

* I decreased the amount of cocoa powder, butter and eggs.

* I used melted chocolate in the recipe

*I added buttermilk to the batter. 

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Grease a cake pan. I used my bundt pan.

Mix together the following dry ingredients in a bowl-

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• ¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
•  ½ tsp salt

In another bowl mix together the following-

• 6 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 6 oz semi sweet chocolate
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 tsp orange zest (from 1 big orange)
• 1 tsp instant coffee granules
• 2 eggs
• ½ cup buttermilk

Combine the dry and wet ingredients together and mix well.

Grate 2 medium zucchini.  I got approximately 2 cups- a little more or a little less is fine. Squeeze as much water out as possible first and then add it to the batter. Give it a good mix. The batter will be relatively thick; if you have trouble bringing it together, add a splash of buttermilk.

Dump the batter into the greased pan and bake at 350 F for 40-45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.


Cool for 10 minutes; remove cake from pan.

The cake was absolutely fantastic- it had a rich chocolate taste and an  intense orange flavor that I was hoping for.  It was tender, moist and delicious- I’m definitely going to be making this over and over again!
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                        Chocolate Beet Cake

Update: I tried the cake recently using beets instead of zucchini. Although I was a bit skeptical about using beets, I decided to go ahead with it. The cake turned out to be very moist and delicious. I shared it with my co-workers the next day without telling them what was in it. Everyone loved the cake!

Katharine Hepburn's Brownies

I'm always looking for easy recipes for brownies. In my quest for the perfect recipe recently, I came across one for Katharine Hepburn’s brownies. These brownies are easy to make and are delicious as well. They’re moist, fudgy and crumbly with a rich chocolate flavor. I got the batter ready in less than 10 minutes and used just a bowl and a spatula in the process.

I found the recipe here on Noble Pig and followed it closely making a few minor changes. Here are my modifications-

1. I added a bit of instant coffee powder.

2. I increased the amount of chocolate slightly and made use of semisweet chocolate.

3. I decreased the sugar by ¼ cup, and used brown instead of white.

4. I also cut down on the baking time by 10 minutes.

Ingredients:

(For 16 small pieces)

• 1 stick (8 Tbsp) butter
• 2 ounces semisweet chocolate (I used Baker’s)
• 1 ounce semisweet chocolate chips
• ¾-1 tsp instant coffee powder (I used Nescafe)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• ¾ cup brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• ¼ cup all-purpose flour
• ¾ cup chopped walnuts
• Salt

Method:

Preheat the oven to 325 F. Line an 8-inch square baking pan with foil and grease well.

Melt the chocolate and butter in a microwave-safe bowl. Add the coffee powder, vanilla extract, salt and sugar and mix well. Add the eggs, stir in the flour and mix again. Add the chopped walnuts and combine to get a smooth batter.

Dump the batter into the prepared pan and spread as evenly as possible. Bake for about 40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out relatively clean with a few crumbs still attached.

Cool completely before slicing or else it will be difficult to get perfect straight-edged pieces.

Custard Powder Cake

An unusual combination of ingredients - custard powder, cream cheese, and sour cream, along with a few kitchen and pantry staples come together in this recipe.I found a recipe on Aparna’s blog that I used as a reference point but ended up making a whole lot of changes to it, adapting it to suit the ingredients I had on hand.

Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease your baking pan of choice. I used silicone bakeware (a mini loaf pan and a rose-shaped baking mold). This gave me a mini loaf and 6 mini cakes.

In a large bowl, mix together:

• 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
• ¾ cup vanilla flavored custard powder (I used the Brown and Polson brand)
• 2 tsp baking powder
• A pinch of salt

In another bowl, mix the following very well:

• 5 Tbsp softened butter
• 3 Tbsp sour cream
• 4 Tbsp cream cheese
• ¾ cup + 2 Tbsp sugar (the cake was not sweet enough for me in the end)
• 1 egg
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• ¾ cup milk

Combine the dry and wet ingredients together and then stir in:

• ¼ cup chopped sun-ripened cranberries
• ½ cup chopped toasted hazelnuts (reserve some for sprinkling on top of the prepared batter)

Transfer the batter to the prepared pans and sprinkle the reserved hazelnuts on top.

Bake for 30-40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. My mini loaf took about 40 minutes while the small cakes were done in 30-32 minutes.

Notes: The cakes were a little too dry for my taste and I was not very happy with their texture. I had to use a chocolate glaze to top the cakes since they were not sweet enough; I’ll increase the amount of sugar if I ever make these again. I’m glad I decided to add the toasted hazelnuts to the batter and as a topping for the cakes- in the end that was what gave the cakes their flavor. I’m not sure I’d make the custard powder cakes again without completely changing a lot of things about the recipe!

Strawberry Cake

I've been baking a lot lately. Here is a strawberry cake I made recently using a recipe from the Martha Stewart website.



Ingredients:

• 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
• 1 ½ tsp baking powder
• A pinch of salt
• 6 Tbsp unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup sugar (set aside 2-4 tsp for sprinkling over strawberries)
• 1 egg
• ½ cup milk
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2-2 ½ cups of sliced strawberries

Method:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and grease your baking dish of choice. I wanted to bake this cake in smaller batches, so I used a small baking dish and 2 mini loaf pans instead of the 10-inch pie dish used in the recipe.

In a bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder and salt.

In another bowl, beat together the egg, softened butter, sugar, milk, and vanilla extract. Stir in the flour mixture in small batches and mix well after each addition.

Transfer the batter to the prepared baking dishes. Arrange the sliced strawberries on top of batter, cut sides down, and sprinkle the remaining sugar over the strawberries.

Bake for 40-50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Slice and serve.

Ina Garten's Lemon Yogurt Cake

I picked up a copy of Ina Garten’s Barefoot Contessa At Home from the library a few months back. One of the first recipes I promptly tried out from the book was the lemon yogurt cake. I watch Ina’s show on television and have made a few of her recipes before with excellent results. This one too turned out to be fantastic.

Ina uses vegetable oil and yogurt instead of butter in this cake. I followed her recipe totally but used low-fat yogurt instead of whole-milk yogurt. I skipped the lemon glaze altogether and used just the lemon syrup, and the cake still had a nice lemony flavor.

Ingredients:

· 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour

· 1½ tsp baking powder

· ½ tsp salt

· 1 cup plain yogurt (I used low-fat)

· 1 cup sugar

· 3 eggs

· 2 tsp grated lemon zest (2 lemons)

· 1 tsp vanilla extract

· ½ cup vegetable oil

· 1 Tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice

For the lemon-sugar solution:

· 1/3 cup fresh lemon juice

· 2 Tbsp sugar

Method:

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Grease a 9x5- inch loaf pan and set aside.

In a bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder and salt.

In another bowl, beat the eggs, sugar, oil, yogurt, lemon zest, lemon juice, and vanilla extract.

Combine the dry and wet ingredients and mix well.

Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan and bake for about 50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.

Stir together the lemon juice and sugar in a small saucepan and heat until the sugar dissolves.

While the cake is still warm, pour the lemon-sugar solution all over the cake and allow it to soak in. Cool, slice and serve.

This cake is flavorful, light, moist and absolutely delicious, and it has now become one of my favorites. The recipe is a keeper for sure!

Carrot Cupcakes

This is a Martha Stewart recipe with my modifications.

Ingredients:

(For 18 cupcakes)

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

½ tsp cinnamon

A pinch of powdered cloves

½ tsp powdered cardamom

Salt

1 cup sugar

1/3 cup oil

¼ cup orange juice

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 cups grated carrots

¼ cup coarsely chopped walnuts

Method:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a muffin tin with paper baking cups.

Put the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, powdered cloves, cardamom, and salt in a bowl and mix.

In a large bowl, mix the sugar, oil, orange juice, vanilla extract and eggs.

Combine the dry and wet ingredients. Stir in the grated carrots and walnuts and mix well.

Divide the batter among the muffin cups and bake for 20-25 minutes or until the cupcakes are lightly browned and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

I skipped the cream cheese frosting in the original recipe and used nutella instead.

Homemade For The Holidays

I decided to gift homemade treats this year for the holidays and spent a good part of the day yesterday making a few things.

I made different variations of chocolate bark, 2 kinds of truffles, fudge, peanut clusters and the easiest of them all- chocolate-dipped marshmallows.

* Truffles- I made a few flavored with orange zest and used toasted hazelnuts and cocoa powder as toppings. I'd made balsamic truffles earlier and they were really good.

I got lots of ideas for bark from this month's issue of the Food Network Magazine. I made 3 kinds using different combinations of chocolate and toppings-

*Swirled Bark using white and dark chocolate melted separately, poured onto a baking sheet lined with foil, swirled together and then topped with toasted and coarsely chopped hazelnuts and dried apricot bits.

*Milk Chocolate Bark using milk chocolate as the base layer, a small amount of white chocolate, melted and spread on top of it, and finished off with a sprinkling of chopped up dried cranberries.

*White Chocolate Peppermint Bark- I added a tsp of mint extract to the melted white chocolate before spreading it. Then, I added crushed candy canes on top.

*Peppermint Pistachio Fudge using this Mango Power Girl recipe that is an adaptation of a Nigella Lawson recipe. I used my microwave to make the fudge. I melted 2 tablespoons of unsalted butter, 4 oz. semi-sweet chocolate and 8 oz. bitter-sweet chocolate chips in the microwave and then stirred in a 14 oz can of sweetened condensed milk and microwaved again for 2 minutes or so. Finally, I added ¾- 1 cup of coarsely chopped pistachios and a teaspoon of mint extract. I poured the thick fudge in my largest baking dish and cooled it for a bit before refrigerating. A few hours later, I took the fudge out of the refrigerator and cut it up into bite-sized portions.

*Chocolate-dipped marshmallows inspired by what I saw here- I used crushed candy canes, toasted hazelnuts, slivered almonds, chopped up dry mango pieces and shredded coconut as toppings.

* Peanut Clusters- I just melted some chocolate (any kind will do) and added some store- bought roasted peanuts to it. I spooned small amounts of the mixture into my mini muffin pan after lining each of the cups and kept it refrigerated for the mixture to set.

I put together a few gift bags for my neighbors. Each bag had a few pieces each of the various goodies I’d made. I used these festive take-out boxes for delivering my edible gifts.

Happy Holidays, all!

Cranberry Ricotta Loaf

I had a lot of cranberry sauce left over from Thanksgiving which I promptly froze till I figured out what to do with it. I pulled it out of the freezer recently when I had some leftover ricotta cheese. I decided to use both cheese and sauce in some kind of a cake. Loosely inspired by this recipe from Inside The Kaganoff Kitchen, I gathered my ingredients together and set about making the cake.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Grease and flour a loaf pan.

In a bowl mix together the following dry ingredients:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• ½ tsp salt

In another bowl, beat together these wet ingredients:

• 8 oz ricotta cheese
• 2 eggs
• 4 Tbsp butter, softened
• 1 scant cup of sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• Zest of a small lemon
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• A couple of splashes of milk (I did this to thin out the batter a bit)
• ½ - ¾ cup cranberry sauce (I do not have a recipe for this- this was just something my husband had made for Thanksgiving)

Combine the dry and wet ingredients (except the cranberry sauce) together. Mix well. The batter will be a relatively thick one.

Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan. I had enough batter for a loaf pan and a small heart-shaped pan.

Place half of the batter in the loaf pan. Add a layer of cranberry sauce followed by the rest of the batter. Then add the remaining sauce in small blobs all over the surface of the batter and run a knife through it to create swirls on top.

Bake for 40-50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out relatively clean.

Cool, slice and serve.

Chocolate Banana Swirl Cake

This wonderful cake can be made with little effort. If you like bananas, this is a cake you'll definitely love - it's very banana-y. I didn't bother frosting it but decided to create some swirls on the surface of the batter instead for a pretty finish. I baked this late one night and took it in to work the next day - it disappeared pretty quickly.

My cake was inspired by this recipe from Week Of Menus. I made a few changes to come up with a slightly healthier alternative.

Here's what needs to be done:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour a 9-inch cake pan.

In a bowl, mix together these dry ingredients-

• 1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
• ¼ unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• ¼ tsp salt

In another bowl, beat together:

• 5 Tbsp softened butter
• 2 oz melted semi-sweet chocolate chips
• ¾ cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 ripe bananas, mashed well
• ¾ cup yogurt
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp rum extract

Combine the dry and wet ingredients together. Mix well. The batter will be a relatively thick one.

Add 2 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips to the batter and mix again.

Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan.

Melt 2 ounces of white chocolate. Drop small blobs of the melted chocolate all over the surface of the batter and run a toothpick through it to create beautiful swirls.

Bake for 50-60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out relatively clean.

Cool, slice and serve.

Notes: I was a little disappointed that I could not taste the rum or vanilla flavors in the cake. I could not even taste the chocolate in the cake though I'd added almost 6 ounces of it in addition to the cocoa powder. The banana flavor had overpowered all of the other flavors in the cake. Next time, I'd like to try adding some coffee to the cake for a different taste.

I'm sending this over to Deeba for the Fruit in Baking edition of the Monthly Mingle event that she's hosting.

Cocoa Brownies

I’ve tried a lot of different brownie recipes in the last few months, but my all-time favorite recipe continues to be this one that I spotted on Dessert First almost 2 years back.

I made these cocoa brownies last night inspired by what I saw on Nupur’s One Hot Stove. Nupur, in turn, had been inspired by something she’d come across on Smitten Kitchen. I’ve made a few changes to the original recipe. The ingredients are listed in the order in which I’ve used them in the recipe.

Ingredients:
(For 20 brownies)
8 Tbsp butter
¾ cup cocoa powder
1 cup sugar
1 oz semi-sweet baking chocolate
Salt
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
½ tsp instant coffee powder (dissolve this in 1-2 tsp water)
½ cup all-purpose flour (I had to use whole wheat flour or roti flour here as I realized that I had no APF only when the batter was almost ready!)
¼ cup sun-ripened cranberries
½ cup walnuts, chopped (reserve a few pieces for sprinkling on top of the prepared batter)

Method:
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Line an 8-inch square baking dish with foil and grease well.

In a microwave-safe bowl, melt the butter and chocolate. Add the cocoa powder, sugar and salt to the butter-chocolate mixture. Mix well. The mixture will be a little gritty at this point.

Next, add the eggs, vanilla extract and coffee. Mix well again.

Dump in the flour, cranberries and chopped walnuts and stir together gently until all the ingredients are just combined.

Transfer the batter (it will be really thick) to the baking dish and spread as evenly as possible.
Bake at 325 degrees F for 30-35 min, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Mango Halwa

I came across Madhuram's mango halwa a few days back while I was looking for ways to use up some mango pulp that had been left over from a recipe I'd tried a couple of days earlier. I decided to give her recipe a try based on the great feedback she'd received by way of comments, and her beautiful picture of the halwa.

Ingredients:
(For 7-8 small pieces)
2 cups canned mango pulp (easily found at any Indian store)
1 Tbsp ghee


Method:
In a heavy-bottomed pan, add the ghee followed by the mango pulp. Cook, stirring at regular intervals till the pulp thickens. It will reduce considerably as the moisture in it evaporates, almost 55-60 minutes. It is advisable to use a splatter screen while cooking to keep the stovetop and its surroundings clean. Though I cooked the pulp for close to an hour, I did not get the consistency that I was looking for. I thought that refrigerating it would help solidify it a bit, so I left it in the refrigerator overnight. However, it was still very soft and gooey the next day. I then microwaved it (in a small microwave-safe cup) for 5-8 minutes taking the sticky mango mass out of the microwave and stirring every couple of minutes. Finally, it began to come together.

Place the halwa on a small greased plate and spread as evenly as possible.

Refrigerate, cut and serve.

Notes: I managed to get the texture that Madhuram got (she cooked almost 3 cups of the pulp in 45-50 minutes on stovetop alone) only by a combination of stovetop cooking (an hour, in my case) and microwaving (another 6-8 minutes)- too much work considering that all I wanted to do was just use up some leftover pulp! This is definitely a lot of work for something that yields so little. The taste, despite a hint of sourness, is simply fantastic. I will make this again for sure, relying completely on my microwave the next time, to simplify things a bit to get the job done.