Mac and Cheese Recipe

• Macaroni Pasta – 2 cup
• Butter -3 tbsp
• All purpose flour – 3 tbsp
• Milk – 3 cups
• Cream – 3 tbsp
• Salt to taste
• Black pepper powder – 1 tsp
• Cheddar cheese – 1 cup (grated)

Method

• Heat water in a large pot.
• When it comes to a boil, add 1 tsp salt with macaroni.
• Cook till macaroni is done, strain and keep aside.

• Melt butter in a pan, add all purpose flour and fry till slightly browned.

• Switch off the heat and slowly whisk the milk not to form any lumps.
• Add cream, grated cheese and cook till cheese melts, then add salt and black pepper.

• Add cooked macaroni and mix well.
• Transfer to an oven proof dish.

• Pre heat the oven to 180 C and bake it for about 20-25 minutes or till it is lightly browned from the top.
• Serve hot.

Namkeen Karele

Recipe Source: Shveta Hora.

Ingredients:
For 50 pieces approx.

All purpose flour (maida) - 1.5 cups
Whole wheat flour – 1/2 cup
Vegetable oil – 3 tbsp
Cumin seeds – 1 tsp
Ajwain – 1 tsp
Salt as per taste
Water (enough to make firm dough)
Cooking oil to fry

Method:
Combine all purpose flour, whole wheat flour, cumin seeds, ajwain seeds, vegetable oil and salt.
Mix together well and add water very slowly to make dough. Knead well to make it a little firm dough (puri kind).
Keep the dough aside for 10-15 minutes.
Take a small ball out of this dough and roll a small puri.
Cut it vertically, but take care not to cut all the way. Do not separate the cuttings.
Slowly roll the slit puri and gently twist both the sides to give it a karela shape.
Repeat the above process to make all the karelas.
Fry them carefully in medium hot oil.

Serve them any time with tea of coffee.

Chocolate Brownies

Recipe Source: Divine Taste

Ingredients:

280 gm (2 cups) flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

240 gm (1 1/4 cup) dark chocolate*

190 ml (3/4 cup) water

150 gm (3/4 cup) butter at room temperature

40 gm (5 tbsp) castor sugar

397 gm (1 tin) condensed milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 cup walnuts, chopped

Method:

Grease  and line a 10” square tin with baking parchment or greaseproof paper.

 In a bowl mix all the dry ingredients, the flour, baking powder and baking soda and sieve once to make it uniform.

 In a small sauce pan, put in the dark chocolate broken into pieces and the water and heat until the chocolate melts. Stir well to get a smooth sauce and keep aside to cool.

Set your oven to heat at 180 C/350 F.

In a large bowl put in the butter and the sugar and beat well with a wire whisk or a hand blender or stand mixer until smooth and creamy, about 2 to 3 minutes.

 Put in the condensed milk and the vanilla extract and beat again for 3 to 4 minutes.

 Stir in the melted chocolate and mix well.

 Mix in the flour and beat again for two or three minutes until all the flour is mixed into the liquid.

 Pour the batter into the tin, tap the tin once or twice to make the batter uniform, scatter the nuts all over on the top and bake for 40 minutes.

Eggless choclate cake with filling

Taken from Deeba Rajpal's blog


Ingredients
 3 cups all-purpose flour
 1 3/4 cups sugar
 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
 2 teaspoons baking soda
 1 teaspoon salt
 2 cups hot water
 3/4 cup vegetable oil
 2 tablespoons distilled white vinegar
 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
Preparation
 Preheat oven to 180ºC with rack in the center. Line the bottom of 1 9″ spring form tin.{If you can, use two 9×2 inch round cake pans}
 Whisk together flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, and salt in a large mixing bowl. {Don’t use a mixer.}
 Combine water, oil, vinegar, and vanilla in a large measuring cup. Add to the dry ingredients and whisk just until combined, a few lumps are OK. Turn batter into prepared tin {or divide batter between pans if using 2}, then bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 50-60 minutes for 1 or 35-40 minutes for 2.
 Cool cake on a rack for 15 minutes, then invert them onto the rack.. Leave cake upside down (this flattens domed cakes) to cool completely.
 Slice into 4 layers, and sandwich with filling {recipe follows}. Allow to rest in the fridge for about 30 minutes, and then frost with the chocolate ganache {recipe follows}
Filling
 Ingredients
 300ml low fat cream
 200gm strawberries, chopped
 1/4 cup sugar
 1tbsp balsamic vinegar
 1/2 vanilla bean scraped
 1-2 tbsp powdered sugar
Preparation
First prepare filling: Place strawberries, sugar, scraped vanilla bean and balsamic vinegar in a sauce pan, and simmer till it becomes thick and jam-like. Cool completely.
 Beat cream to medium stiff peaks, and gently fold in cooled strawberry mixture, taking care not to release the volume of the cream.
Chocolate Ganache
 Ingredients
 200gms dark chocolate, room temperature
 150ml low fat cream, room temperature
Preparation
 Place the chocolate and 100ml of cream in a heatproof bowl and microwave for 30-40 seconds {if the weather is warm as it is here, else try for minute}. You can also simmer it in pan until the chocolate melts. Stir well to combine both into a smooth ganache.
 Give the cake one basic thin coating with this ganache, and reserve some for piping decorations. Add the remaining 50ml cream and mix until smooth.

Sugar Cookies

From Gayathri's cook spot

Yields around 80 cookies

Ingredients: 

Butter-1 cup

Granulated Sugar-3/4 cup ( grind to fine powder)

All Purpose Flour/ Maida-2 1/2 cups

Baking Soda-1/4 tsp
Salt-1/4 tsp
Fresh Cream-1/4 cup
Vanilla Essence-1 tsp

Procedure:
1. Cream together butter and powdered sugar. 
2. Add cream and beat until fluffy.
3. Add in vanilla essence.
4. In a separate bowl mix flour, salt and baking soda.
5. Add this mixture to butter mixture and mix until everything comes together to a soft dough.
6. Divide it into 4 equal portions, place each portion in a cling wrap, and refrigerate.
7. You can prepare this the day before and the cookies can be made the next day or any day with in the week.
8. Before making the cookie, remove the dough from fridge and let it become little soft.
9. If it is straight out of the fridge, then it will break while trying to roll it.
10. When the dough comes to slightly softer consistency, place it between two sheets of cling wrap and roll it into 1/8" thick disc.
11. Cut with a cookie cutter.
12. Gently remove the cookies from the wrap and place it on a lined baking tray.
13. Refrigerate until firm.
14. Preheat oven to 175C.
15. Bake the cookies for 5-10 minutes.
16. When the base starts browning, remove from oven and let it sit on counter for 5 minutes or until the cookies become firm.
17. Remove the cookies from the tray with a spatula and cool completely on a wire rack.

P.S: The dough consistency is very important while rolling it. If it has become soft, wrap it and place in refrigerator until firm before rolling it out.

For Icicng

Ingredients:
Confectioner's Sugar/ Icing Sugar-2 cups
Milk-4-5 tbs
Vanilla Essence-1 tsp
Liquid Food Colours

Procedure:
1. In a large bowl sieve the icing sugar.
2. Add vanilla essence and 2 tbs of milk.
3. Whisk until incorporated.
4. Add milk by tablespoons until you end up with a thick icing of dropping consistency.
5. Divide it into 4 equal portions.
6. Leave one as it is and for the other 3 bowls add different food colours.
7. Mix well. Pour the colours into disposable icing bags.
8. Decorate the cookies as per your creativity.



Picture source Gayathri's Cook Spot

Ginger Bread Cookies

Ingredients
2 and 1/2 cups Plain flour(maida)
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tbsp Mixed spice or (1 tsp ground dry ginger,1/2 tsp ground cinnamon,1/4 tsp ground cloves,1/4 tsp ground nutmeg)
1/2 cup butter,at room temperature
1/2 cup brown sugar      
1/4 cup warm milk
1 tsp vanilla extract


Method

• I used the mixed spice powder,you can use the grounded dry ginger,cinnamon,cloves,nutmeg.
• Take a mixing bowl add plain flour,spice powders,baking powder,baking soda,mix well.
• Shift the mix and keep aside.

9

• Add the butter and brown sugar(brown sugar which is used is not too dark so the cookies looks light brown) in a mixing bowl and beat well.
• Add the milk and mix well.Add in the shifted flour and mix well.

• Use your hands and knead the dough,the dough consistency will be like chapathi dough.If it is too thick add a tsp milk and knead well.
• Take little part and roll it using the rolling pin.
• Use the cookie cutter and cut the dough.

• Use your desired cutter and cut the dough.
• Line a parchment paper and arrange the cookies on it.
• Bake it for 15 minutes at 180 degree Celsius.Remove it from oven and let it cool completely.Cookies are ready for dress up.

Lets make the icing:

How to make Vegan Royal Icing for Cookies:
You need:

1 cup icing sugar(shifted)
1 and 1/2 tsp corn starch
1 tsp lemon juice
2-3 tsp soy milk(if you don't get add normal milk)

• Shift the icing sugar and corn starch,keep aside.
• Take 1/2 cup of flour first.Drop lime juice or vinegar and soy milk beat well.

• Scrap down the sides and then add in the remaining icing sugar,beat well.
• If you feel the mix is bit watery add a tsp of icing sugar and mix it.Now the icing is ready.

• Separate the icing into 3 parts and keep the one part separately.
• Take the other 2 parts add 3 drops of red and green colours,mix well.
• Fill the icing in cones and make it ready.

• Make ready the cones and start the decoration. Drop the outline first and then fill it.Use tooth pick for spreading the colour all over the cookies.

• You can make the simple deco also ,if you want to make the snow effect on cookies and sprinkle sugar on top of white icing,it will stick on it.Let it cool down after deco so that the cream will not stick on you hands.Once done store it in air tight co

Biscuit Pudding

Source: Divya's CookBook

This recipe is K's favourite pudding and posting here for my Lovely Little D. 

Love you Loads D

Ingredients

Marie Biscuits - 1 pack

Milk - 1 packet ( 500 ml )

Sugar - 5 tbsps,about 1/3 of a cup

Cornflour - 3 level tbsps

Cocoa powder - 3 level tbsps

Coffee decoction - 4-5 tbsps diluted with 2-3 tbsps water OR

Instant Coffee powder - 1 tsp mixed with 5-6 tbsp of hot water

For garnish-Nuts,white chocolate chips,chocolate curls etc

Method

 

Make the coffee dipping liquid.Instant coffee mixed with hot water.

 

Dip the marie biscuits in coffee decoction(both sides) and layer them in a serving bowl.

Finish the whole packet this way.

 

Mix together the cornflour and cocoa powder in a bowl.Add about 1/4 cup of cold milk and make a smooth lump-free paste.Reserve. 

 

In a pan,boil the milk and add sugar.

When the milk boils,add this cocoa-cornflour paste and mix well.

It will start thickening immediately,keep stirring.

Switch off the flame when it thickens,but still of pouring consistency(similar to custard).While still hot,pour it over the biscuits and cover the biscuits all over with this sauce.

Garnish with nuts or chocolate chips.

Refrigerate for 4-5 hours and serve chilled!!