Peanut Butter Swirl Brownie

Love is all around. You just need to open your eyes and your minds to figure it. Universities and political parties boycotting Valentines Day has become the norm of this month year after year in India - just because how misunderstood the whole concept has become. Your perfect Valentine is just about anyone you Love and want to share your time with. Then again - you could have so many valentines too. Love is not limited to this time of the year. It is just a reminder that Love exists in this day of hatred and unrest. And if life turmoils have made you fail in expressing love, this is the day to re-kindle it. Call up your loved ones - express your gratitude and love because you are blessed as can be. To love and to be loved is the greatest gift mankind ever has.

'Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  

It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 

Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  

It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Love never fails.'

The above quote from the Bible sums it all up.

My list of Valentines continue to keep growing from a family I am blessed to have to all my friends who have been there for me - I love you all:)

Happy Valentines Day!

To make the day even more special, I have a dessert for you. Because Chocolate somehow seems to be synonymous with love, here is the recipe for Peanut Butter Swirl Brownie.

Ingredients

1. All Purpose Flour – ½ cup
2. Cocoa Powder – ½ cup
3. Vegetable Oil – ½ cup
4. Brown Sugar – 2/3 cup packed
5. Egg – 2 no.s
6. Vanilla Essence – 1 tsp
7. Salt – 1 pinch
8. Chocolate chips – 2 to 3 tbsp
9. Peanut Butter – 3 tbsp

Method

• Pre-heat the oven at 180 degree centigrade for 15 minutes and grease an 8 inch pan
• Sieve together the dry ingredients
• Pour oil into a bowl and beat in the sugar
• Whisk in the eggs along with vanilla essence
• Add the dry ingredients and fold in well. Tip in the chocolate chips and fold into the batter.
• Transfer this to the baking pan.
• Microwave the peanut butter for 30 seconds and drop in diagonally in dots. Using a tooth pick/skewer/fork, draw along the peanut butter creating swirl like patterns
• Bake at 180 degree centigrade for 20 to 25 minutes

Whole Wheat Honey Oats Bread

Shibin's office shifted about a year back. Earlier, he had to invariably walk through a supermarket twice a day. ( shortcut, instead of having to walk two more blocks and go all the way around the building). Twice a day includes one crawling and the other running - crawling to the office ( everyone crawls in the morning especially during the beginning of the week) and running out of it in the evenings (It is my belief that he ran to meet me :P).

In the process, it is hard to ignore those items that stare at you from the shelves beckoning you to pick them or those that scream out offers  or the ones that flatter you with the lighting .  So atleast once a week, he came home with a treat to my delight. I am still a kid at heart, such treats fascinate me .

Anyways with the shifting of his office to a core business area , there were no more supermarkets to pass through and there went my treats. He comes home empty handed these days!

If you are wondering why I chose to tell this story today, I will not hold you on for long. I have precisely two reasons .

First reason is that, today is Thursday and beginning of the weekend. He is going to be the first person to read my blog !! ( Shibin - this post is a shout out to you that I still love these treats :P)

The second reason is that, it is because of his treats from the supermarket that I tasted honey oats bread for the first time. And ever since then, we have been wanting to make it. We finally did and a whole wheat one too:)

There you go -

Adapted from Bakingdom

Ingredients

1. Wheat flour - 2 and 1/2 cup
2. Oats - 1 cup
3. Warm Milk - 1  cup
4. Honey - 1/2 cup
5. Egg - 1
6. Olive oil - 3 tbsp
7. Instant yeast - 2 tsp
8. Luke warm water - 1/4 cup
9. Salt - 1/4 tsp

Method

• Break open the egg and whisk it well.
• To this, add olive oil, milk and honey. Stir well to combine.  ( Keep aside 2 tbsp of honey)
• Mix together the flour, yeast, oats and salt. ( Keep aside 2 tbsp of oats)
• Add this in batches to the wet ingredients until well combined.
• Either using a dough hook or hands bring together the dough. If it is too sticky, add 1 tbsp of flour at a time and knead for 5 minutes.
• Let the dough rest in an oiled and well covered bowl for 2 hours.
• Knead again, dust the work surface with a little flour while doing this in order to prevent this from sticking.
• Shape it up into a rectangle, roll it over and place in a loaf pan ( 9 inch). Cover and allow it to raise again for an hour.
• Meanwhile, preheat the oven at 180 degree centigrade. Keep a pan filled with water at the bottom rack for steaming.
• Once the dough has doubled, brush the top with honey and sprinkle oats.
• Bake at 180 degree centigrade for 50 minutes to an hour.
• Remove and transfer to a cooling rack.
• Slice and serve with butter or an extra dose of honey.

Herbed Focaccia with caramelised shallots

I am relatively a beginner in bread baking and this is probably the only bread I have baked more than the fingers on my hand! I tasted focaccia only when I came to Dubai and that was the first time I even heard of it. Back in India, I knew 4 types of bread - white bread, brown bread, multigrain bread and fruit bread - that was my extent of bread knowledge.  I would not label bread baking as difficult - it is only time consuming - so if you have the time in hand - Foccacia is definitely worth a try.

Focaccia is an Italian bread with a generous amount of olive oil - topped with herbs, olives, onions, sun-dried tomatoes or any other vegetables that goes along. Focaccia, I realised recntly makes a good sandwich bread too! I have tried topping with olives , tomato and onions but the best for me was the shallots. It is easier to chop them into cute little rounds - it caramelizes well and the looks quite pretty on the bread too. I read an article today by Nandita Iyer from the Saffron Trail in the Hindu where she outlines the need to eat with your senses and we did just that with focaccia!

Ingredients

1. All Purpose Flour - 1½ cup + extra for dusting
2. Water - ½ cup warm
3. Instant yeast - 11 gm sachet
4. Olive oil - ½ cup (¼ +¼ divided)
5. Shallots - ¼ cup
6. Sugar - 3 tbsp
7. Garlic and Herb seasoning - 1½ tsp
8. Semolina - 2 tsp

Method

• Dissolve the yeast and sugar in warm water. Let it rest for 5 minutes.
• Sieve together the flour and salt into a bowl. Make a well at the center of the bowl and slowly add the warm water mixing it together using a fork.
• Now add olive oil - ¼ cup in small batches till the dough holds itself together. The dough is going to be sticky at this point.
• Dust your work surface with a little flour and tip the dough over. Knead for roughly 5 to 10 minutes. The dough should not be very hard to knead, it should be smooth and easy to stretch.
• Grease a bowl with a little olive oil - cover with a cling film and let it rest for 45 minutes to 1 hour in a warm place to double itself.
• Meanwhile, chop the shallots into rounds and add a tsp of olive oil to this and give it a good mix.
• Take a baking tray and sprinkle semolina at the base of the tray. 
• The dough in one hour would double itself and would have a very smooth texture. Punch it down and tip it over into the tray and firmly press down with your hand to attain the shape of the tray uniformly. Poke into the dough using your finger tips to create random patterns as you can see on the bread .( Trust me it is superb fun to do that!!)
• Sprinkle the seasoning and spread the shallots over the surface. Give it a light press so that it holds itself to the dough but doesn't insert itself.
• Sprinkle a little bit of salt all over and be generous with you olive oil on the surface.
• Cover it with a cling film and let it stand for 45 minutes.
• Pre-heat your oven to 220 degree centigrade  and place in the tray. Bake for 30 minutes till the top of the bread begins to brown.
• Remove it from the oven and let it cool for 5 minutes before you dig in you knife:)
• Focaccia is a breakfast or snack in itself that goes well along with your coffee or tea. The herbs and the olive oil gets infused into the bread and the caramelized shallots give the focaccia a lovely aroma.
• You could also try this with a chilli chutney which I thought was a lovely combo!

You may also note -

• It is necessary to knead the dough well and leave it for proofing. Ensure that the dough has risen - approximately an hour should do but colder areas may require more time.
• Usual recipes call for 20 minutes bake time - I got mine done in 30 minutes so keep checking yours to ensure the lovely brown color on top.
• Avoid opening the oven too many times to check - check at the 20 minute mark first.

Whole Wheat Banana Chocolate Muffins

It has been long since I played the game of Secret Santa - I am sure most of you are familiar with this game. It is not the gifts you wrap or unwrap that gives the happiness. It is more about the suspense, the secret letters and the guessing games as to who could be your Santa. I was introduced to this game when I was in hostel where every year we religiously play  - we did have our semester exam during this time of the year but that never dampened our spirits. Nothing could possibly be a hindrance to this game when you have a whole hostel - 100 odd girls playing this game. We had a letter box where we could drop in letters addressed to our secret friend. The thrill of finding a letter addressed to you or small gifts that would mysteriously appear on your bed or a messenger getting it for you. Aah!  Shopping for the gifts weren't easy either. It was always last minute purchases and all the 100 girls end up at the same store every time. We had to dodge our secret friends in the store to get across to buy gifts for them. Aah! Those were the small joys of Christmas.

I wonder as we begin to grow older, do we stop ourselves from enjoying those tiny little things we once enjoyed. So why not this Christmas try to relive your favorite memories - age is after all just a number. May be its a game of Secret Santa or going caroling or baking - let us grow younger this Christmas!

Over to my Christmas recipe - an easy to make muffin with lesser greased utensils. All the combining is done in one bowl - so what are you waiting for - hurry over and try this

Ingredients

(makes 10 muffins)

1. Ripe Banana - 1/4 cup mashed
2. Butter - 1/4 cup melted
3. Brown sugar - 1/4 cup
4. Egg - 1
5. Wheat Flour - 1 cup
6. Baking powder - 1/2 tsp
7. Baking soda - 1/4 tsp
8. Cocoa powder - 1 tbsp heaped
9. Salt 

Method

• Pre-heat the oven to 180 degree centigrade
• Sieve together the dry ingredients - Wheat Flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt
• Take the mashed banana in a bowl and add the brown sugar and butter
• Break open an egg into this and add the vanilla essence and fold well to combine
• Now incorporate the dry ingredients in batches and mix well as you go
• Line your muffin tray with muffin cups or parchment paper and scoop out the batter into the cups.
• Bake at 180 degree centigrade for 20 minutes or till a pin inserted comes out clean.
• Once done move onto a cooling rack.
• Dust a bit of powdered sugar on the top for the finale.

Lemon Cake with Honey Lemon drizzle

And it is a year already!

This blog was born with little or no idea how long it would sustain but here we are - Our first milestone!
And we intend to attain many more.
It has been a tremendous learning experience all along. We confess that we are not the experts, we experiment, trial and errors along the way and happy successes too.
We have presented our successes to you and learnt from our failures to better the food we present to you in every way.

My gratitude to all my family, friends and everyone of you for the encouragement through your constant likes and comments!

Cheers to one year of happiness through food blogging!

Lemon Cake with Honey Lemon Drizzle - that is our latest fad.

Here is the recipe for you -

Ingredients

For the cake - 

1. All Purpose Flour - 2 cups
2. Sugar - 1 cup
3. Vegetable Oil - 1 cup
4. Egg - 3 no.s
5. Vanilla essence - 1 tsp
6. Baking powder - 1 tsp
7. Lemon zest - 2 lemons
8. Lemon juice - 2 lemons
9. salt - 1/4 tsp

For the drizzle - 

1. Honey - 1/4 cup
2. Water - 1/4 cup
3. Lemon juice - 1 lemon
4. Sugar - 2 tbsp

Method

Pre-heat the oven at 180 degree centigrade for 15 minutes. Keep your baking tray ready by greasing it. Sieve together the flour and baking powder and keep aside.

Take the oil and sugar in a bowl. Break open the eggs into the same bowl and whisk the ingredients together. Pour in a tsp of vanilla essence and once the ingredients have combined well, add the sieved dry ingredients along with salt and fold in the cake mix. 

Zest in two lemons (ensuring that you don't go in too deep) into the batter. Add the lemon juice taken from two lemons and fold this into the cake mix.

Transfer this to the greased cake tray.  Bake it for at 180 degrees till a tooth pick inserted comes out clean.

Baking time varies depending on the size of your oven so keep a tab.

In the meantime, bring together the ingredients for the drizzle - sugar, lemon juice, honey and water. Ensure that the water you use is warm. Mix well to form a syrup.

Prick your cake roughly to form holes for the syrup to seep in. Gently pour the syrup on the cake and let the cake absorb it. Keep the cake covered in a cling film for a day.

Add topping of your choice! We chose to have streaks of whipping cream across the cake as you can see in the photographs.

Happy Baking!

Christmas Fruit Cake

Christmas is fast approaching and I am so excited. It is vacation time, a wedding in the family and a lovely festive get together. It is the best time of the year in so many ways this year and I have begun my countdown! 5 days to go for Christmas and 5 days for me to shop, pack and catch the flight. 

It is another wonderful season and like I said in my previous blog entry, I hope you are enjoying the season to the full. If not here are some perfect movies to watch this week - 

• Santa Claus trilogy, a perfect family entertainer to watch with your family.
• 12 gifts for Christmas, reminds you that festive season is the time for your loved ones.
• Deck the halls - a comedy that keeps up the spirit of Christmas.

Have you put up your tree yet? If not, what are you waiting for? Hurry, put up your tree and star. hang your stockings, adorn your door with wreath, finish your Christmas shopping, let the baking begin and let the carol bells chime all the day through - because it is the best time of the year again.

I finally baked my own Christmas fruit cake this year :)

No more buying cakes for Christmas because I have already baked 4!

Here is the recipe for you - 

Ingredients 

For soaking - 

1. Cashewnuts
2. Almonds
3. Prunes
4. Raisins
5. Apricot
6. Candied fruits/tutti frutti
7. Cherry
8. Dates
9. Red wine - 500 ml

I have not specified the specific quantity since you could use any number as you like. One cake would require 1 cup of dried fruits.

For the Cake - 

1. All purpose flour - 2 cups + 1/4 cup for the soaked fruits
2. Baking powder - 2 tsp
3. Nutmeg powder - 1/2 tsp
4. Cinnamon powder - 3/4 tsp
5. Clove powder - 1/2 tsp
6. Sugar - 1 and 3/4 cups + 1/4 cup for caramel
7. Water - 1/8 cup
8. Butter - 400 gms unsalted
9. Strawberry Jam - 5 tbsp
10. Egg - 4 no.s
11. Vanilla essence - 2 tsp

Method

1. Soaking fruits for cake is a tradition at most places and experts say that the longer you soak the fruits the better the cake tastes. Now that we do not have months to soak it, overnight would just be fine. Chop the nuts and fruits roughly and soak it in wine and keep it closed in an air tight container. If you have longer time to soak, make sure to shake the bottle every other day. Pour just enough wine to cover the fruits that you have chopped. Also make sure that you do not layer the fruits till the top of the jar as the fruits tend to swell up and would require space.
2. Grease a round baking tray(8'') and keep aside. Pre - heat your oven for 15 minutes at 180 degree. 
3. Meanwhile sift together the dry ingredients - the flour, baking powder, nutmeg powder, cinnamon powder and clove powder.
4. Prepare the caramel syrup by heating the sugar in a hot pan with constant stirring till it begins to form bubbles. Switch off the flame and add water to this constantly stirring. Switch on the flame again and bring this syrup to a boil still stirring and let it cool.
5. Removed the soaked fruits from the jar and let the excess wine drain. Toss these fruits in the flour to prevent them from sinking to the bottom of the cake. Sieve this and set aside to remove the excess flour.
6. Break open the eggs, separating the whites and yolk. Whisk the whites till it forms peaks.
7. Add the softened butter and sugar in a bowl and fold them together. To this add the egg yolk and vanilla essence. Fold them together using a whisk or a spatula. 
8. Add the sifted dry ingredients and once this is combined well, add the whisked egg whites. Avoid stirring too much once the egg whites are added. 
9. Add the caramel syrup that renders the color to the cake and fold it again.
10. Add the jam scoops, fold in once again and finally add the flour tossed dry fruits and just give a stir with the spatula.
11. Transfer this to the greased baking pan. Bake it at 200 degrees for first 10 minutes and then lower the temperature to 170 degree till it is almost done and then increase the temperature again for the last 10 minutes.
12. Transfer it to a cooling rack and brush it with the wine used for soaking fruits. Keep it covered  with a cling film and keep brushing it with wine for 2- 3 days to get the most delicious fruit cake.

My Christmas Cake is ready!

Merry Christmas to all around.

Cinnamon Rolls

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

Just the right season for baking and celebrating.  Latest addition to the baking list - Cinnamon roll!

I am not sure how the idea of baking a cinnamon roll crossed my mind, but I enjoyed every moment of this baking session. Seeing the dough rise to folding it over and over again, it was amazing. The roll looks complicated, however the baking process is not as complicated as the roll itself.

So here is another recipe to celebrate Christmas this year.

Ingredients

For the dough

1. All purpose Flour - 2 cups + 3 tbsp
2. Yeast - 3 tsp
3. Water as required
4. Salt - 1 pinch
5. Sugar - 2 tbsp

For the filling

1. Cinnamon powder - 1/8 cup
2. Sugar - 1/4 cup
3. Raisins - a handful
4. Butter - 2-3 tbsp

Method

Soak the yeast and 2 tbsp sugar in 1/4 cup of warm water and keep it covered for half an hour till it turns frothy.

Take sifted flour into a big vessel, add salt to this and mix well. Tip it onto the kitchen slab and create a well in between and slowly pour in the yeast water. Now using your hands, fold in the dough. Slowly add water as required and bring in the remaining flour and keep mixing. Pour water as required till well combined. Knead the dough for ten minutes to make it airy. Keep it covered in a vessel using a cling film. Let it rest for half an hour and the dough slowly rises.

Punch in the dough and knead it again for another 10 minutes. Place it back in the vessel and keep it covered for another half an hour. 

Meanwhile bring together the cinnamon powder and sugar and set aside.

Take the dough and make 3 or 4 smaller balls. Flatten out the dough, sprinkle a little of the flour and roll into an approximate rectangle shape. Apply a little butter on the dough and sprinkle the cinnamon and sugar mixture as needed on this. Spread raisins over. Carefully roll this tightly and seal the ends with a little water.

Cut into approximately 8 cm  length pieces and place it in a baking tray lined with butter paper.

Place the rolls with a little space in between to give space for it to rise. Cover and set it aside for half an hour before placing in the oven which has been pre- heated for 20 minutes at 220 degree. Let the roll bake at 180 degree for 45-50 minutes. 

Brush it lightly with butter for a glaze and let it cool. Cut into rolls and serve.

You may also note - 

• Sprinkle enough flour while rolling out the dough, lest it stick to the bottom.
• You may choose to add other dry fruits.
• Make sure you seal the end of the rolls well else the on baking it may open up.

Marble Cake

It is the best time of the year again. I may be a little too early.  Nevertheless,the weather is too tempting and the carols playing are just so joyful that I cannot let it go unnoticed. That is how I came to bake today after a long day at work. The aroma from the hot oven is tickling palates around here.

Shibin ( that is my husband) and I love Christmas. Perhaps that is what drew us close - our love for Christmas. I remember how endlessly we could chat about Christmas and the holiday season earnestly before we were married. This is our second Christmas together and we vow to make this Christmas even more beautiful than our first one together. Carols to wake us up in the morning and Christmas movies that make our evenings! I would be doing a grave injustice, if I forget to mention CBN radio - an American radio station that plays carols round the year. That is what is playing right now, giving me the Christmas spirit. For those who love Christmas as much as I do, google up CBN radio soon and enjoy the season.

Marble Cake on my blog to kick start the Christmas celebrations. Probably one of the easiest cake recipes for all beginners. I got this recipe on our recent visit to Cyprus, from the Mr. Xenios' wife who was the owner of the Cottage where we stayed. 

So here it is - 

Ingredients

1. Egg - 2 no.s
2. Flour - 2 and 1/4 cup
3. Oil - 1 cup
4. Sugar - 1 cup
5. Baking powder - 2 tsp
6. Lime juice - 1/2 lime
7. Cocoa powder - 2 tbsp
8. Milk - 3/4 cup

Method

Sift together the flour and baking powder.

Separate the egg whites and yolk. Whisk the egg whites till it is completely frothy.

In a bowl bring together the oil, sugar, egg yolk and 1/2 a cup of milk. Fold in together and slowly add in parts of the sifted flour combining it well.

Add the whisked egg white and lime juice. Fold the mixture together till they are combined. Avoid overdoing as you may end up with air bubbles.

In a separate bowl mix the cocoa powder in 1/4 cup of warm milk and dilute the powder. Add 5-6 tbsp of the cake batter to this and mix it well. This mixture gives the marble designs on the cake.

Grease a baking dish and layer the batter alternatively with the two batter. Add the white batter first and pour tablespoon full of chocolate batter randomly over. Keep repeating this until done.

Pre-heat the oven for about 20 minutes. Place the dish in the oven initially at high temperature of 220 degree and lower it to 160 after 10 minutes. The cake may need about 50 minutes to bake.

Once done, move this to a cooling rack. Slice and serve it.

You may also note

• Make sure to keep the consistency of both the batter the same, else both  may separate and may not bake at the same time.
• The batter should be a little thick . Making it runny would result in both the batters mixing.

Dates and Walnut Loaf

It is Ramadan season.
Festive display of dates and sweets made of dates fills the supermarkets in Dubai.

So why not something made from dates for Iftar this season.

This is my first attempt at making dates loaf and it was a colleague who suggested to add in the walnuts as well for the crunch.  Dates by itself is quite sweet and I wanted to make sure that the loaf does not become extra sweet by regulating the sugar content.

Again, like my most recipes it is simple and quick.

Here you are -

Ingredients

1. Dates - 3/4 cup de-seeded and chopped
2. Milk - 3/4 cup
3. All purpose flour - 1 and 1/2 cup
4. Sugar - 4 tbsp
5. Egg - 2 no.s
6. Cinnamon powder - 1 tsp
7. Baking powder - 1 tsp
8. Salt - 1/2 tsp
9. Vanilla essence - 1 tsp
10. Walnuts - 1/2 cup
11. Vegetable Oil - 1/2 cup 
12. Honey - 2 tbsp

Method

Heat the milk with the chopped dates on medium flame for 5 minutes and let it rest.

Sieve together the flour, baking powder,cinnamon powder, salt and keep aside.

Break open the eggs and whisk well. Add sugar and vanilla essence and mix it well.

Fold the dry ingredients into this and add dates, milk and oil. Whisk together the ingredients.

Pre- heat the oven for 10 minutes at 180 degree and grease a loaf tin.  Add  crushed walnuts into the loaf mix and just swirl around with a spoon. 

Transfer the mix into the loaf tin and spread some walnuts on top.

Place the tin in oven and heat at 180 degree for around 30 - 40 minutes. After 25 minutes, take out the loaf tray and glaze the top of the loaf with honey using a brush and place it back inside.

Cook till a pin inserted comes out clean. Transfer it to another surface for cooling. Serve with topping of your choice.

You may also note - 

1. You can increase either the dates quantity or sugar to make it sweeter. We chose to make it less sweeter.