Desserts Archives - Page 2 of 6 - Cooking by Instinct

Posted on October 15, 2016 October 16, 2016

Jalebi Spiral Doughnut

Jalebi Spiral Doughnut, also popularly recognized as the national sweet of India, has its earliest reference in India, in a Jain manuscript Priyamkarnrpakatha written by Jinasura in 1450 AD, The traditional name for Jalebi was Jal-Vallika meaning “dipped in water”, which in later dialects in India became Jalebi, Jalepi , Jilabi and so on. In Sanskrit it was also alternatively known as Kundalika, which means coiled rope, circle, which is how the shape of this jalebi spiral doughnut. Personally, it reminds me of two things, one is the ripple effect of stone thrown in water, and secondly it reminds me of the countless galaxies that exist in our universe! It so nice to see nature reflected in our daily food and day to day activities!!

The current recipe for making Jalebi, is still very similar to what has been documented in 17th-century classic Bhojan-kutuhala by Raghunath. All these evidences clearly give more weight to the theory that this is an Indian Sweet as compared to some claims that it originated from Persia, where it was known as Zelbia or Zoolabiya. The Persian trade route would have definitely made the travelers excited in their talks about this aphrodasiac dessert which is prominent dessert at weddings and also for major national celebrations and holidays. The fact that Jalebi it was mentioned in the manuscript with the name Priyam, makes me think it was aptly made by the rich merchants to please their guests! And boy it pleases so many across the world, as it is found in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Persia, Iran, Africa, Egypt, Turkey, and even Israel. And it seems in the USA, a Syrian used it to make ice cream cones, till the current ice cream cones were made.

In Gujarat, traditional celebrations of Dusshera is done with jalebi and gathiya, and I have an extreme liking for jalebi. Hence, I had to try it out for Dusherra. So I opted to trying out the Gits Instant Jalebi Mix using a cookie decorating nozzle. The result was very satisfying as I was able to get a great shape, that held even after hours, the right texture that was crispy on the outside and soft on the inside, and the color was the shining golden! Next time I will try to use a different nozzle, so that the thickness is a bit more. I have to admire that the Gits Instant Mix are often my source for instant and reliable recipes and for which I have also blogged earlier for making Idlis, Dhoklas, Handvo and now even desserts.

Jalebi Spiral Doughnut has an enticing shape, a firm texture, inviting color and fragrance. It becomes simple to make with an instant mix, and it would be not surprising if Jalebi, can also be one of the easiest fried donut recipes. Even if the shape is not totally perfect, it does not matter, as one cannot go wrong with this fried dough dipped in saffron sugar syrup! Enjoy these lovely swirls of delicious sweetness as we get closer to the festival of Diwali!!

Recipe makes about 25-30 2inch wide Jalebis

Cooking Time : 30 minutes

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Ingredients

1 pack of Instant Jalebi Mix
Oil for frying
Icing bag, nozzle or ketchup bottle for making jalebi.(In India, the Gits Packet includes the bottle too!)
2 cups sugar
11/4 cup of water
saffron strands
few drops of lemon
1 tbsp of milk(optional)

Method

Cooking the sugar syrup:

Mix the sugar and water and bring to boil.
Boil vigorously about after 8-10 minutes.

Add 1 tbsp milk and a few drops of lemon, to clear the water.

Remove the froth with a slotted spoon to make the sugar syrup clear of dirt.

Add saffron strands to the water and keep it lukewarm, ready to be dipped.
The consistency of sugar syrup or chasni should be for one string.
Make the sugar syrup first, before making the Jalebi.

Making the Jalebis

Mix the ingredients for the pack with 190 ml of water plus 6 1/2 tbsp of water.
Whisk the mix thoroughly with hands.
Continue mixing till it is an extremely smooth paste.

Put the oil to heat on a medium flame
Pour the mix into a icing bag or a ketchup bootle. I used a Kuhn Rikon cookie decorating bottle with nozzle#1

Make swirls into the oil on a low heat. The swirls will hold shape and rotate on its own, when the oil temperature is appropriate.

Cook for a a minute or so and flip over with a slotted spoon. Alternatively you can use tongs too.

Cook the other side for a minute and a half and remove and instantly drop it into the sugar syrup. The color should be light pink, as the above image does not give the indication of the cooked jalebi color.
Ensure that the sugar syrup is always lukewarm, so keep it on a low heat continuously.
Press the inserted Jalebis so that they soak up the sugar syrup.
Remove from the syrup after a minute or so and serve.
After 10 minutes, on cooling, can be stored in an airtight container.
Enjoy them hot, cold, with milk rabri, or just as plain simple snack and sugar shot!

Tips

For Vegan recipes, milk can be avoided in the sugar syrup, as it is mainly used as a cleanser. To get a better control of the shape keep the nozzle close to the oil so that you can go with the flow of the rotating swirls.Do not overcook, the jalebi as that will make them brown in color and also stiff.

A delay in the transfer to sugar syrup will yield it not evenly colored, as well as it will entail crystallizing of sugar on the top. Frying in oil is more preferable to hold the texture, as compared to frying in ghee, though folks in Rajasthan and some other parts, fry only in ghee!

Instinct Factor

Using a nozzle was an instinct based, as was to figuring out how to swirl! Try topping it with cinnamon powder to create a new flavor.The sugar syrup can also have additions of rose water and cardamom powder for extra flavor.

Feel Factor

A sense of joyful accomplishment on savoring Jalebi Spiral Doughnut, a childhood favorite dessert of mine, specially from my hometown Rajkot, where it is savored with fafda ghatiyas. I distinctly remember watching in awe some of the kandoi making these delicious savories and snacks and in my wildest dream I did not think I will be doing this one day! The taste was great, the look was sharp and the texture was firm as I liked it!!! By making this, I surely was happy I celebrated Dusshera in its true sense and the joy of sharing these sweets with friends and family made it even better! Happy Dusherra though belated one, to all my readers!!

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Posted on September 5, 2016 September 9, 2016

Healthy Churma Ladoo Jaggery Sweetballs with Wheat and Pearl Millet

Healthy Churma Ladoos with Wheat and Pearl Millet

Ganesh Chaturthi, celebrating the birth of Lord Ganesh, cannot be complete without making Churma Ladoo. So I decided to try making the Healthy Churma Ladoo Jaggery Sweetballs with Wheat and Pearl Millet. Lord Ganesh is known as the harbinger of all things favorable and auspicious, and everyone welcomes him to their homes with intense devotion, worship him with sincerity and in the end, immerse or do visarjan in water. Huge idols with lot of artistry are created. Prayers are done with lot of joy and enthusiasm. Ganesh Chaturthi co-incides with Sanvatsari for Shwetamber Jains. A day after the Ganesh chaturthi, the Das Lakshan of Digamber Jains start and culminates after 10 days. The last day of Das Lakshan and the Visarjan or Immersion of Lord Ganesh, again co-incide on the same day. This close proximity of important festivals for Hindu and Jain religion highlight the close evolvement of Jain and Hindu religions. Indians believe very strongly in the rising moon’s energy to enable their tasks. In Jainism, the fifth day of the rising moon period is considered highly auspicious for obtaining the right and true knowledge, and knowledge being the central tenet of Jainism, hence all good things start on the fifth day of the rising moon, and that explains in my view, why Das Laxan starts on the fifth moon day and ends on the anant chaturdashi (14th day) near full moon day, enabling all to maximize their spiritual learning and progress, aided by the good vibrations during a rising moon period. Intermingling of rituals, religions and customs makes one think, that all religions are part of the same truth, viewed differently and having a common goal of liberation.

As a young child, my grandmother would make gor jaggery ladoo from leftover roti. Chuma ladoos which come originally from Rajasthan, were either fried in ghee or made via bati(cooked in oven) and made with sugar. Obviously the more ghee or fat, the more tasty it is going to be! But since we are going the healthy way, I resorted to cooking chapati/bhakri and added the bajri pearl millet to make it even more healthier. The crunch comes from semolina, which maybe avoided if you have bhakri atta which is a little more granular than normal wheat flour for roti.

The covering of poppy seed and added flavor of nutmeg,cardamom and cashews bring more texture , taste and color to an ordinary jaggery ladoo. By not frying it in ghee, we have reduced the fat content to half, so thats a big thumbs up for healthy alternative in this recipe.

Through this post on Healthy Churma Ladoo with Wheat and Pearl Millet, I would like to invoke the blessings of Lord Ganesh and may all good things come your way and convey Micchami Dukkadam from my side to all Jain Shwetamber/Sthanakvasi readers of this blog!

Recipe makes about 15 ladoos

Time to Prep : 7 min

Time to cook : 30 minutes

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Ingredients

1 cup whole wheat flour for roti
or 2 cups whole wheat flours for bhakri
1 cup semolina rava( not to be used if using bhakri flour)
1 cup pearl millet flour
1/3 cup milk
1 cup water
1/2 cup ghee unmelted
1 cup sliced jaggery
1/4 cup cashew pieces
1/2 tsp nutmeg powder
1 tsp cardamom powder
7-8 strands of saffron

Method

Mix the flours, milk and water and knead all into a stiff dough.

Divide the dough into six parts and make balls.
Roll the dough into a slightly thick rounds as in Bhakhris.
Indent the rolled dough with end of the rolling pin, so as to cook well.

Heat a thick griddle on a low- medium flame.
Cook the bhakri on medium flame, so that is in not too stiff, and also not too soft.

Cool the bhakris and break them into pieces.

Crush the pieces into a food processor into fine granular crumbles.(the below image is after mixed with ghee)

Heat the ghee.
When the ghee melts, add jaggery, nutmeg, cardamom and stir till jaggery melts on low flame.

Pour this melted ghee into the crumbled roti pieces and let the mixture cool.
Once it is at bearable temperature, start making round balls.

The first level will be rough, and you will have to go over two three times to get a smoothened finish.
In a small deep bowl, or in shallow plate, sprinkle poppy seeds and roll the ladoos in them.

The amount of poppy seeds should be based on how thinly or thickly you want the ladoos to be covered with poppy seeds.
Heat 1 tbsp of water in microwave and add saffron strands to it. Leave if for 1-2 minutes and decorate the ladoos with saffron water.
Enjoy and invoke the blessings of the the lord!

Tips

Ensure that the rotis are not too stiff after cooking , as that will leave sharp pieces and it will not not give a smooth texture. If after mixing in ghee, it still feels hard, just do another round in food processor, till it reaches the fine texture. Do taste the sweetness before making them into ladoos.

If not using semolina, you can make it like roti and crush into finer pieces, this will make it more softer.

If finding it difficult to gather into a ball, add some more ghee as required.

Instinct Factor

Combining the wheat and pearl millet was instinct based, as this is how my mother eats bajri no rotlo at home. And the need was there to consume bajri on a regular basis.

When you mix the ghee, you should be able to able to gather it firmly into a ball using your fist. It might need some pressure and 2-3 rounds of going over the ladoos to get the texture right.

If you want to kick it up, hide some pennies and dime, for little kids to get attracted to eating these churma ladoos!

Feel Factor

Memory of my maternal grand mother allaying my feeling of being separated from my mom, even for a short while. through this mouth watering churma ladoos , which she used to make from leftover chapatis. And I would instantly be all calm and happy! Re living those moments with a healthier version of the same. Healthy Churma Ladoo Jaggery Sweetballs with Wheat and Pearl Millet are attractive and I enjoy the saffron and nutmeg flavor in this mix along with jaggery. Not to mention that I am significantly less guilty of eating this quintessential Ganesh Chaturthi dessert! A great way to intake pearl millet, jaggery, ghee , nutmeg, all appropriate things for the incoming fall and winter! For a devotee, Lord appears in all places, so it seemed to me in this pic of Healthy Churma Ladoo Jaggery Sweetballs with Wheat and Pearl Millet, Ganpati Bapa Morya!!

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Posted on August 12, 2016 August 18, 2016

Eggless Rose Petal Ice Cream with Gulkand

Eggless Rose Petal Ice Cream with Gulkand is a flavor that is unique to Rajkot, India, from where I hail. It is a town known for its fondness of food and fun, with the town coming to a complete halt in the mid-afternoon, for all to digest and rest from the huge lunch meal!! Its a royal city in all aspects, for the food, flavor, fun and definitely the cooler breeze every night!. This ice cream has the obvious satisfaction of having an ice cream and also the deliciously unique flavor of rose petals in the ice cream, with the fragrance of rose water and rose petal jam or known as Gulkand in India. And to get the rose pink color, we have the rose syrup, and all the rose ingredients are from the fragrant roses knowns as desi gulab in India or well known as Damascus Rose.

I tried using the petals of Mister Lincoln Rose, which used to grow in my previous home, and my neighbors still remember the fragrance and taste of rose petal ice cream from home grown rose! It was that day when I made rose petal ice cream from Mister Lincoln Rose petals, that got me all excited about trying new flavors and in some sense my ice cream journey started 8 years ago from that day.

A lesson learnt from my experience of ice cream making for a medium size group, is to invest in two/three ice cream containers, to allow you to make bulk quantity that will truly satisfy everyones’ mental and physical cravings of ice cream! A delectable ice cream flavor that has lovely rose pink color and you will not know what you are missing till you have a bite of it! Summer experience is not complete without experiencing this truly summer feel flavor of eggless rose petal ice cream with gulkand , and also without the joy of discovering the delicious and hidden combination of rose petals and gulkand (rose petal jelly)!

A garnish that will go well with this is silvered almonds or pistachios. if you please, not that it needs anything extra. Rose for romance, rose for love, rose for fragrance, rose for perfume, and now rose for ice cream too! Enjoy this super flavor that one guest described as “this a s the most delicious thing I ever had ” and I am in complete sync with this statement as this is the only flavor I prefer, when visiting back home!

Eggless Rose Petal Ice Cream with Gulkand

Recipe makes 1 quart of eggless rose petal ice cream with gulkand

Cooking Time: 45 min

Churning time : 30 min

Chilling Time: 1-2 days

Ingredients

1 cups whole milk
2 cups heavy cream
1 tsp rose water
2 tbsp gulkand or rose petal jam
1/3 cup plus 1 1/2 tsp Rose syrup ( Dabur brand)
2/3 cup sugar plus 1 1/2 tbsp sugar
3 tbsp dried rose petals

Method

Boil the milk and sugar for 3-4 minutes, add the petals and continue simmering for 2 minutes.

Add the rose syrup and rose petal jam or gulkand and stir for another minute.

Blend all the ingredients, using a hand blender and chill the mixture for at least an hour.
Mix the heavy cream into the mixture.

Use a well chilled container for making the ice cream, one that is chilled for at least two days.
Churn the ice cream for at least 30 minutes

Remove the freshly mixed ice cream into a ice cream container and chill for at least a day or two to get a great texture.

Garnish with silvered almonds, pistachios or just have plain Rose Petal Ice Cream, and you will have tasted one of the most delicious flavors and original ice cream flavors from Gujarat, India!

Tips

Well chilled container will make a great texture. While freezing the ice cream, if you have an aluminum container, it will shorten your freezing time. Ice cream without any garnish also tastes very yum!

Instinct Factor

If you desire for something, and if it is meant to be, things will show up your way! Felt this, as wanted to really make this, but was wondering how to get rose leaves, as the western roses, do not have a sweet flavor, An unexpected trip to an Indian Grocery not visited, led me to accidentally discovering the dried rose petals from India. Hence was able to create an authentic flavor as I had in India! Not only that, found the rose syrup too(Dabur) brand. Gulkand and rose water which were easily available at most Indian stores.

Feel Factor

Having an authentic flavor from my hometown Rajkot, recreated in USA with ingredients from USA, made me feel so much closer to home. One things that was missing was the use of there fresh rose petals, which has even better texture and flavor! And the ice cream in India was white in base, without the use of rose syrup. This flavor is the only flavor that I prefer to have when visiting home! The use of rose syrup gave it a nice rose pink color which was an added bonus to this experience and a color I could fall in love with!. Back in India the base does not have rose syrup, so is primarily white in color with red rose petals showing through well One gets the ultimate combination of rose fragrance, petals crunch, cooling feeling, as well as the lovely rose pink color that is just pure joy to see and relish!! And a guest summed it well- ” this is one of the most delicious flavor she has ever had”!!

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Posted on July 20, 2016 July 21, 2016

Chocolate Sorbet

CHOCOLATE SORBET

Chocolate Sorbet was our celebration on the National Day of Ice cream, celebrated on third sunday of July! Now that is a fun event started by President Ronald Reagan, and what a way to enjoy the summer! Sorbets feel lighter and more cooling than ice cream, as there is more of water. Ronald Reagan was a Republican candidate, and with the Republican Convention going on, this Chocolate Sorbet is a good accompaniment while watching the RNC. This recipe was found in Stef Ferrari’s book of ice creams. She mentions that she had issues with sorbet, and for me getting the smooth creamy texture in sorbet was a challenge. So I decided to try this recipe out. What interested me also was that this was one of the first non-fruit based sorbet, as popularly sorbet are made from fruit based sweetened water,

The recipe did prove to make it more denser and smoother than my earlier versions. But I had to modify the sugar/chocolate ratio, as the taste had excess chocolate. So adding extra sugar was the only way to fix it! If you are in the mood to buy an ice cream maker, you may want to check out the new ice cream maker with two different blades from Cuisinart. There is one blade for ice cream and one for sorbets! Now I would like to try that, as a special sorbet churning blade will definitely have an impact on the texture of the sorbet. My experience with Cuisinart products has been pretty satisfying across a series of products so I am looking to buy this soon, and thanks again to this blog, I now officially qualify as a professional! For a die hard chocolate fan, this is just one more reason to celebrate and one extra reason to have another scoop of Chocolate Sorbet!

The taste is is chocolaty, texture is dense and sweetness is just right, but the best part is that it only takes five minutes in cooking time! One of the easiest ice cream/ sorbets I have experimented with. It does need overnight aging, and the usual churning time and freezing time.Looks like next week is going to be extra extra hot, and having chocolate sorbet on hand, will definitely assist in cooling the body!

Enjoy the summer with a great selection of ice creams, sorbets and granita and you may just include this chocolate sorbet in that list!

CHOCOLATE SORBET

Recipe makes about 16 oz of sorbet ( or half of a quart)

Cooking time : 5 minutes with aging of mixture of overnight

Churning time: Approximately 20 minutes

Freezing time: 7 hours

Ingredients

2 1/2 cup water
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 plus 1/3 cup cane sugar
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
3/4 cup chocolate morsels, shredded chocolate
1 tsp vanilla essence.

Method

Mix 1 1/2 cup of water and both sugar and heat for 2-3 minutes, till all sugar dissolves.
Remove the mixture from flame, and cocoa powder , vanilla essence and dissolve the chocolate pieces, ensuring that no lump remains.
Leave the mixture overnight.
Using a hand mixer, churn the chocolate mixture for a 1-2 minutes

Churn the mixture in an ice cream/sorbet maker to the manufacturer’s instructions. Usually in 20 minutes, the mixture would firm up.

Freeze the chocolate sorbet in a freezer for at least 7-8 hours before serving. It is fun to serve the chocolate sorbet in an ice cream cone too!

Tips

If using sweetened cocoa powder, you may be okay with 1/2 cup of cane sugar.

Ensure that the ice cream container is well chilled before making sorbet, otherwise, sorbet will not firm up on churning.

Instinct Factor

Its always best to check the sugar and cocoa level before freezing, so that the end product is to your liking!

Feel Factor

Having a Chocolate Sorbet on a late night evening while watching television, is a perfect kind of summer night! For a die hard chocolate fan, you cannot go wrong with this super easy recipe of making a chocolate sorbet. A non-fruit based recipe sorbet in a flavor that has a wide universal appeal makes this chocolate sorbet an easy recipe to go to!

Posted on May 30, 2016 May 31, 2016

Orange Sorbet

Orange Sorbet, having the color of the sun, is a perfect antidote to beat the summer heat! Its a great recipe to have in your recipe collection for this summer. Officially, the swimming pools have opened today, it being Memorial Day over here, so time to look out for cooling recipes that are quick to make and yum to eat!

Memorial Day is also a day of remembering veterans who have served the USA in its wars. Personally I would like to remember a neighbor of mine in NJ, who was a major inspiration for me to get serious about coming out with a cookbook or something related to cooking. We were having conversations on how many recipes to include in the cookbook and so on and so forth, and then we moved away from there. She recently passed away after fighting bravely against cancer. She was one of the first ones, who I asked to critique my blog, and I was encouraged to receive a thumbs up from her for the voice in my writing! Rest in peace Elizabeth Zibman, and your opinion mattered to me a lot as you were a creative writer and a professor at Rutgers! Your confidence in me, helped me take a step towards creating this blog.

This recipe has been adapted from myrecipes.com as it seemed easy enough for my daughter to make it for her class picnic. The kids thoroughly enjoyed it in the 85 degrees weather, though we should have planned to make it earlier, for it to have a more firmer consistency. The picture in this image was after two days of freezing the same!.

The taste feels like frozen orange-lime juice and its quite nice to have a scoop of it in the mid-afternoon to beat the heat, and replace the normal tea break with a sorbet break! Personally I relish the sorbets more, as I have a soft corner for snow cones and ice golas. So this is a cool, fresh juice based, healthy alternative to the syrup based dessert. I truly liked the size, flavor, color and cooling aspect of this high vitamin C delicious dessert, and will be made more often in summer!

Wishing everyone a great Memorial Day and happy memories of the loved ones gone too soon!

Orange Sorbet

Recipe makes 2 servings for about 24 people

Prep time : 30 min

Cooking time : 10 min

Chilling time : 48 hours

Ingredients

15 medium-big size navel oranges
4 cups water
2 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice (about 2 medium)
Grated orange rind (optional)
Mint sprigs (optional)

Method

Using a vegetable peeler, lightly remove rind from 1 orange. Cut rind into 1 x ¼-inch-thick strips and grind it a bit in a mortar pestle. This would result into a roughly a tbsp of rind.
Peel the oranges and extract juices from them, roughly resulting in about 6 cups of orange juice.

Combine water and sugar in a small saucepan; bring to a boil. Add rind strips to pan. Reduce heat; simmer for 8-10 minutes. Strain sugar mixture through a sieve over a bowl, reserving liquid; discard solids. Cool completely.

Add orange juice and lemon juice to sugar mixture; stir well.

Pour mixture into the freezer can of a tabletop ice-cream freezer; freeze according to manufacturer’s instructions.
Spoon sorbet into a freezer-safe container; cover and freeze for about 2 days until firm.

Scoop the sorbet and garnish with mint sprigs, if desired and add grated rind as topping if so desired. Here, we did not go with either of them.

Tips

You can try this with ready orange juice in the market, but in that case, reduce the water quantity by a cup and and use two cups of sugar. There might be a slight taste variation, but will prove to be a much quicker way of going about it. Also taste the sugar content before freezing.

Instinct Factor

If you see the juice underneath the top layer, freeze some more.

When you scoop the sorbet, leave it out for 5-7 minutes room temperature, so that it softens a bit for you to scoop nice rounds. Otherwise it will have a brittle crunch feel. And to get perfect rounds, scrape 3-4 times over to make one nice round scoop of sorbet! After all looks do matter when serving!!

Feel Factor

Cool. colorful, healthy, beat the heat, with this easy sorbet recipe, that even a teenager can make! So how about having some sorbet stands this summer instead of the lemonade stands, and earn some good pocket money! Colorful sprigs of mint and orange rind will give additional edge to this delicious cool recipe! Any snow cone and Ice Gola lovers, please make a note of this wonderful sorbet and enjoy the summer!

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Posted on May 18, 2016 May 20, 2016

Almond Coconut Eggless Cake with Strawberries

Almond Coconut Eggless Cake with Strawberries

Mother’s day provided a great opportunity to try gluten free recipe of Almond Coconut Eggless Cake with Strawberries, that has delicious almond and coconut flour as its base and topped with the fresh strawberries. Something that I had almost a year back, was now being re created in my kitchen, with the recipe of my master chef neighbor who takes special extra care to make eggless recipes for me, since he knows that I prefer not to consume egg based products. Love thy neighbor in true sense over here!!

The almons in this recipe reminded me of another great diamond shaped dessert, Almond Katli from India. it. Coconut flour gives it a nice dense texture, and the look of red strawberries over a beige/cream cake base is quite attractive. This being a fruit topped cake, it is much simpler and quicker to make.

The cake base even though its flourless, does not loose any of its taste or texture. It bakes well and holds shape and coconut gives it a unique sweetness and flavor to cake. And the almond flour and coconut flours are readily available at grocery stores.

On this mother’s day, I was pleasantly reminded of how my mother started baking eggless cakes in a handvo oven, using sand as a base, to give it a slow and even cooking flavor.These cakes by her are the ones that I enjoy most, and are just delicious fresh from the oven. I hope that she will be happy to see that the tradition of exploring more on baking and cooking has continued. So here is the perfect recipe, for me to celebrate the Mother’s day, and for all, a great recipe for special occasion with friends and family!

Almond Coconut Eggless Cake with Strawberries

Recipe makes 9*13 inch cake serves 6-8 people

Ingredients

3/4 cup butter

1 cup sugar
1 3/4 cup whole milk (for vegan use almond milk or soy milk)
1 tsp vanilla essence
1/2 cup almond flour
1/2 cup coconut flour

1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
8 medium sized strawberries, thinly sliced for garnishing

Method

Beat butter and sugar until extremely smooth for about 5 minutes on high. The color of the butter should become 3 shades lighter then the original butter color.

Add milk and vanilla essence an beat some more

Combine flours,salt and baking powder and mix it into the beaten sugar milk
Beat everything for another 5-7 minutes, till well blended.
Grease a cake tin 9″ *13″ with butter and some flour.
Pour the mixture into the cake pan.

Pre heat oven to 350 degrees F
Bake for 40 minutes.

Top it with whipped cream and/or fresh fruit of your choice.

Enjoy a piece as fast as you can!!

Tips

While deciding if the cake is ready or not, look out if the cake has released from the sides. Once that happens, the cake is well baked.
Give enough time to cool before flipping it over from the containers, as mine broke on the top while releasing it from the container.
Beat enough for the flours to blend well .

Instinct Factor

Lot of people believe making a cake requires a lot of precision, but in my view it is quite a forgiving dish, as all errors can be more or less made good, either with syrup , or garnishes or layers and sandwiches. And so I used the strawberries on the top to make the top all pretty and professional. Trusting the instincts and my mother’s experience of so many years!!
For more moistness and softness, add another 1/2 cup of milk.

Feel Factor

A cake for myself and for my mother on mother’s day! A lovely celebration with this extremely delicious flavor of coconut and almond as well as strawberries. The combination goes well and the cake tastes great even after a couple of days in the refrigerator, but the chances of it lasting that long are slim:) A great mother’s legacy celebrated with this unique almond coconut eggless cake, which is very likely to become a summer feature in our household to enjoy the varied fruit toppings over this summer!

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Posted on April 23, 2016 October 23, 2016

Theratipal Thabdi Milk Cake from Condensed Milk

Theratipal Thabdi Milk Cake are different names of this dessert! Theratipal as it is known in Tamil cuisine, where the word Therati means to stir constantly and Pal, means milk. So traditionally this sweet dish was cooked by constantly stirring the milk and sugar over heat, until it caramelizes. This same dish is only different in color and shape but cooked the same way, in Gujarat too, where it is known as Thabdi. This happens to be my number 1 sweet from Rajkot, and I immensely cherish this simple milk cake flavor. People often call this as milk cake, as I discovered on researching about it on Google.

I am indebted to my Tamil friend philosopher guide and walking buddy in New Jersey, for introducing me to this recipe. The moment I had it, I was reminded of Thabdi from Rajkot and I was so very pleased for getting to know how to make it in simple easy steps. The secret was using condensed milk and heating in microwave. The recipe had been lying with me for 7-8 years, but never so light of the day till yesterday, which seemed to be a perfect timing to try this out on my own.

Yesterday being Earth day, and me being a big big fan of this planet earth, had to something more to celebrate, other than just plant some new flowers and rejoice in the blooms around me! I have always liked getting my hands dirty in the ground to plant something that gives you joy, year after year, and also teaches some important life lessons, One such lesson I have learnt is that everything is cyclical in nature as depicted by seasons that come and go, and every part of nature gets recycled into something else, and hence my feeling is the universe also gets recycled in some form or other and probably we as souls also keep changing our forms and lives over and over again.

As a very happy earthling, this dessert made great choice for celebration, as it is brown like the earth, and sweet and fragrant like the flowers and that bloom in it. Also this being the month of Mahavir Jayanti too, an important festival among Jains on the birth celebrations of Lord Mahavir it gave another reason to celebrate nature and environment and re-emphasize the importance of protecting and living in harmony with mother nature, which seems to be the backdrop on which Jainism values are set, in my opinion.

So wishing a belated Happy Earth day to all with Theratipal Thabdi Milk Cake, and hoping that many of you may have planted some nice flowers for the birds and bees or trees for the shade and shown appreciation in one way or the other for our planet earth- home of all and very happy to display this on leaf dish with blue earth background in true spirt of Earth Day!

Theratipal Thabdi Milk Cake Recipe

Recipe makes 9 pieces of 2*2 inches

Ingredients

1 can condensed milk
3 tbsp yogurt( Not sour)
3 tbsp ghee (unmelted)
3-4 cardamom seeds crushed finely
Pinch of saffron

Method

Use a deep microwave container if possible, as while cooking, the milk tends to overflow.
Grease the microwave bowl with some ghee
Mix yoghurt and 1 tbsp ghee into condensed milk.

Heat for about 3 minutes monitoring it consistently. if the milk rises too close to the brim of bowl, take it out and mix well.

This is how it would look around 4 minutes..

Continue heating the mixture for another 3 minute but take it out every 30 -40 seconds or so and stir thoroughly, till the mixture is brown and the grain becomes finer. and consistent enough to form it into balls. It should not become too hard, it should be pliable

Remove from microwave and fold in the ghee, and cardamom powder.

Set the mixture to cool in a deep dish by spreading it evenly and smoothening the top using a spatula or back of a small steel bowl. I used my microwave container only to set, as it was the perfect depth and shape.

Using a sharp knife or spatula makes pieces.

Cool for about 5 minutes and store in an airtight container.

Enjoy the taste of home sweet home!! This should stay fresh for about 2-3 days, but best when eaten fresh.

Tips

If the mixture gets too stiff, add some ghee and a bit of yogurt and mix it in, to make it more pliable. Alternatively a tbsp of milk also might help to make it more soft.

The consistency will harden after some time, so keep that in mind.

For vegan options, please use appropriate condensed milk from soy or almond.

Instinct Factor

Instinct factor is totally at work to recreate this delicacy and tweak the recipe that was more suited to what was more common in Tamil cuisine.Trusting your tastebuds works the best! So feel free to do what dictates your heart! Make sure that yogurt is not too sour, and if you like it more sweeter, add some sugar.

Feel Factor

Theratipal Thabdi Milk Cake is a simple ten minute recipe using condensed milk and the end result is a filling, soulful sweet that reminds you of mother earth. The fact that some people refer this as a milk cake, gives an indication to the texture of this delicacy, however it is not as soft as how one would expect a cake is. It is slightly more gooey and with some texture too it. If you like yogurt, milk and caramelized flavor, this might be just a new discovery for you to fall in love with and for me to continue my liking for this sweet. I did find out that I like the yogurt flavor in this sweet, and am extremely happy to share this earth looking sweet, around Earth Day which may be called as Theratipal from Tamilnadu or Thabdi from Gujarat. Great thing is, both start with the same syllable, “Th” and both are part of the this planet earth and this sweet also will be equally enjoyed by people from different part of earth, as did my neighbors!

Posted on March 18, 2016 March 19, 2016

Chocolate Cookie Bites

CHOCOLATE COOKIE BITES

Chocolate Cookie Bites Eggless is adapted from Southern Living, whose recipes I am finding quite interesting and quite reliable and works well as I recently have discovered. Though the final output was not the same as shown in the image provided in the magazine, it gave me a chance to create something that I was happy with, as well as the kids for whom it was made!.The interest in this recipe was out of desire to create an Oreo look, but since that did not work for me based on the original recipe, it led me to something different. Inspired by the recent cherry blooms on the neighbourhood trees(a picture of a which I am happy to share), I gave the chocolate cookies a decorative look and feel!.

My personal favourites are the weeping pink cherry blossoms and the Yoshino White Cherry trees in DC , and watching the extreme white blooms glisten in sunlight is a sight of pure joy! If I am lucky to make it to see the peak of cherry blossoms in DC next week, that would be great, if not, I will just have to make do with my own cherry blossom inspired chocolate cookie bites that are firm and yet soft, delicious and stays fresh for a week or so if stored in an airtight container. Bring the beauty of nature within the house and have interesting conversation with your family and friends over this chocolate cookie bites!

CHOCOLATE COOKIE BITES EGGLESS

Recipe Makes about 45-50 pieces of Chocolate Cookie Bites

Time to Cook : 25 min

Time to Prep : 30-60 min

Ingredients

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1 2/3 self raising unbleached flour(King Arthur brand) or
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder ( 1 tsp baking powder if using all purpose four)
3/4 cup plus 1 tbsp butter softened
4-5 tbsp water
parchment paper for lining the baking tray

Filling

1/2 cup shortening at room temperature
1/2 cup butter at room temperature or softened
3 1/4 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
food color(optional)

Method

Sieve cocoa, salt, flour together.

Beat sugar and butter for about 4-5 minutes, until extremely fluffy and white.

Combine the flour and butter mix.
Using 4-5 tbsp water, bind the flour and butter mix into a soft pliable dough

Divide the dough in 4 parts.

Roll the dough into a long cylindrical shape about 1 1/2 inch thick approx.
Cover the rolls in parchment paper and chill in the refrigerator for 30 min.
Remove and slice the roll into about 1 inch thick cookies
Arrange the chocolate cookies on a parchment paper on a baking tray.
Pre heat the oven to 350 degrees or convection 375 degrees.
Lay the baking tray on mid higher level for 6 min.

Turn the baking tray front to back and insert at the lower level in the oven and bake for 6 min.

Remove from the oven and cool on the cooling rack for 5-7 min.

Decorating with filling

Beat shortening and butter for 5-6 min till fluffy.

Gradually add vanilla and sugar and 1-2 tbsp water to make icing consistency.
Using an icing star nozzle, make star/flower shapes on the cookies.

Store in an airtight container and enjoy a piece at a time over a week or so!!

Tips

Using an unbleached and self raising flour does give a great texture to the chocolate cookie bites.

One can variate the color of the flowers on the top using food color, sprinkles etc

Instinct Factor

If complete round shape is preferred, then roll a ball and press it flat. Then make thumbprint into the cookies to create a space for filling or decorations.

To give oreo look , make round balls and then flatten it a bit. Take two baked cookies and then spread the filling, on one and top it with another.

One can also pair two cookies and spread the filling in between – to create “Oreo” look and feel.

Feel Factor

White cherry flowers atop a bit sized chocolate cookie, in sync with nature and not too high on calories! The taste is heavy on the cocoa, it is firm to hold , but soft on bite, and the icing on top gives it a nice festive look! So even if this is for a regular school bake sale, it catches everyone’s attention because of the size and the decorations on top. So worth the effort, for the taste, looks and just pure fun! The secret in baking is the flour, and the beating of the butter in my opinion, and an happy to continue to explore more on the baking front. Chocolate Cookie Bites are perfect to start a conversation over tea/coffee, or just to satisfy that nagging need to eat something sweet coz you know it is good for the soul!

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Method

Posted on March 6, 2016 March 16, 2016

Chocolate Sandesh Cheese Fudge

Chocolate Sandesh Cheese Fudge is a heart stealing dish from Bengal, India and it is fondly called in Bengali Language as Pranhara (heart stealer). Sandesh is the key word over here, which in Indian language means “news or message” and this dessert became a messenger of good and auspicious news, such as birth, marriage, graduation, birthdays, anniversaries etc. So it is quite an apt item to celebrate a birthday dinner with Chocolate Sandesh Cheese Fudge. The story goes that cheese was an item that Indians adapted from Portuguese settlement in 19th century. The Indian version of this cottage cheese is called Chhena, to which sugar or jaggery were added to create different textured cheese based sweets. Special flat moulds of stone with engraved designs as conch shells, elephants, fish, were used to imprint and design and the flavour was rose, saffron, cardamom or even fruits and nuts.

I have very fond memories of eating Sandesh stuffed with orange segments, that my mom used to make from fresh cottage cheese. I remember visually appreciating the delicate way in which orange segments were peeled off its thin skin, divided then wrapped around with a layer of sweetened chhena, and left to chill. Specially on a hot afternoon, eating this orange sandesh was an extreme delight for me!

This version of chocolate sandesh, I had at my tenant’s place who came from Calcutta, Bengal. I quite unashamedly, asked for another serving and also a quick idea of how it is made from her mother, who had just arrived from Calcutta to Mumbai. Chocolate flavour in an all time childhood favorite dessert, made me fall in love one more time with this ” healthy dessert”!

The texture of Chocolate Sandesh Cheese Fudge is like eating a cold soft fudge with a mild lingering vanilla essence flavour. It feels soft, sweet, chilled and chocolaty! I obviously did not have the stone moulds as used to make Sandesh in Bengal, so used my cookie cutters to come with an interesting leaf shape and topped it with sprinkled green crushed sugar crystal.

Folks were happy and appreciative of this leaf shaped chocolate sandesh cheese fudge! And if you do not have shape you like, the traditional round balls would be just fine! If you do not have colored sugar, a drop of saffron, some almonds, or chocolate sprinkles will also be fine, or why not just go plain chocolate!

A “message” from my leaf “sandesh” is Spring is here!! So let’s celebrate the auspicious arrival of Spring with Leaf shaped Chocolate Sandesh Cheese Fudge!

Chocolate Sandesh Cheese Fudge

Recipe makes about 30 pieces

TIme to Cook 45 min

Time to Chill- 12-24 hours

Ingredients

1 gallon full fat milk
1/2 cup lemon juice
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 cup powdered sugar
colored sugar sprinkles
almonds, cashews, pistachios (optional toppings)
Some ghee for greasing

Method

Grease a deep pan with ghee and put the milk to boil on a slow flame till it completely boils over

Add the lemon juice and stir and increase the flame.

Continue heating the milk, till the whey and cheese separates.

Strain the cheese and leave it to completely drain off the liquid for 15-20 minutes.

Once it cools, knead for 3 minutes into a lump.

Add cocoa, sugar powder and essence and knead some more.

Heat a tbsp of ghee is a thick bottom pan.
On a slow flame, add the chhena cheese with cocoa and stir for 2-3 minutes,so that excess water evaporates.

Then using a mould or cutter, insert the chhena into the shapes and leave to chill. In this case, I filled the cookie cutter with the chocolate chhena and then pushed it down to obtain the leaf shape.

If making round balls, make a table spoon size round balls, and garnish with sprinkles, sugar or any toppings of your choice.

Chill for 2-3 hours, fix the shapes if needed after it sets a bit, sprinkle the toppings and chill for another 2 hours before serving. The more it is chilled, the better the feel!

If chilled for 12 hours or more, remove half an hour before serving, so that it softens a bit before serving.

Tips

The key to soft sandesh is making sure that whey separates nicely, so keep the milk boiling on a medium high flame and ensure that there is enough lemon juice.

Cool the mixture a bit, to form round balls. If the chenna is too dry, it will become difficult to have a smooth shape.

Once the first set of chilling is done, pat over with moist finger for smoothness and fix the curves. For round balls shape, just roll them over in the palm of the hands if the texture in case the texture does not feel smooth.

Instinct Factor

Instinct is what worked over here, in using a cookie cutter mould, to create a unique shape for the sandesh! And the same with sprinkles of sugar! Followed my heart for this heart stealer! Use your instincts and go with your heart!

Plain version without chocolate, but with some saffron, cardamom flavour is the true original flavour, with some rose or vanilla essence.

Feel Factor

Happy, happy, happy to eat not one but multiple leaf shaped chocolate sandesh cheese fudge! They will stay fresh for a day or two, and the last piece is to be finished now, after finishing this entry in the blog! Cannot have enough, but need to watch the calories, so will just savour the last piece of this soft, contemporary, light feel, cheese based dessert that has the unique chocolate flavour and fudge warm feel to it! Let the spring roll in with the new flowers and new leaves and lots of new tidings for all!

Posted on February 28, 2016 February 29, 2016

Strawberry Cardamom Kulfi Ice Cream

STRAWBERRY CARDAMOM KULFI ICE CREAM

Strawberry Cardamom Kulfi Ice Cream is an amalgamation of desserts from east and west! Kulfi, the traditional ice cream from India and strawberry, the most popular fruit in the western desserts.The cardamom flavour is keeping the kulfi true to its original taste. A combination truly inspired to keep both the cultures and cuisine alive in one dessert!

Oscars is on tonight and definitely a time to celebrate, also for the reason that there is an amalgamation of two cultures over here too! Priyanka Chopra, a highly favorite actress of mine from India, now doing exceedingly well in Hollywood, actually was on Oscar stage presenting an award! I could not find a better night than tonight to share this flavour with all of you!

When you have some leftovers,the creative part of the brain just goes wild. As a young kid, I was always the one to order the most strange looking name on the menu at the restaurant! Just had to try out that the new dish on the platter for sure! I guess I still have that gene alive and kicking in me, for wanting to continue to explore and try out new things with a sense of wonder!

The Kulfi ice cream is much firmer than the ice cream as known in the western world. You can actually bite into it, and the thickening texture is obtained by reducing the milk via boiling quite similar to condensed milk. Traditional flavours of kulfi consists of saffron, plain, cardamom, almonds, pistachio, and each of them taste highly delicious. The look of the kulfi is similar to popsicles and the word kulfi comes from the Persian word which means something covered in Persian. The kulfi ice cream is frozen in a kulfi mould similar to popsicle mould but made out of aluminium. Aluminium containers are best for freezing desserts, the lack of which did not give me the sharpness and shape of a true kulfi. But I plan to buy the kulfi aluminium moulds during my next trip to India, till then I will just have to do with plastic popsicle moulds.

What is interesting is that the kulfis are fast becoming the “New Ice Cream to go for” in New York city, due to a new restaurant Babuji, which is making the kulfi highly popular amongst the new york foodies. Do read more about this new restaurant and kulfi pictures at Babujis Kulfi .

The ease of making the kulfi is facilitated by the use of thick bottom non-stick pan, which eliminates the need to constantly oversee and stir the boiling milk!You will enjoy the extremely creamy taste of this dense textured ice cream that has the surprise of fresh strawberry sauce pulp. The cardamom flavour lingers on for a long period much after you have savoured the last drip of Strawberry Cardamom Kulfi Ice Cream.

Strawberry Cardamom Kulfi Ice Cream

Recipe makes approx 9 kulfis

Cooking time 1-1/1/2 hours

Chilling time – 24-36 hours

Ingredients

For the Kulfi base:

1/2 gallon or 1 litre full fat milk
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup condensed milk
1/2 tsp cardamom powder
Some ghee for greasing the base.
Popsicles or kulfi moulds
Long sticks to remove the kulfi from kulfi moulds.

For Strawberry Pulp Sauce

Strawberry Cardamom sauce pulp as detailed at Recipe for Strawberry sauce. The recipe makes approx 1 1/2 cup strawberry sauce which is adequate for the kulfi.

Method

Grease a deep pan with ghee, preferably a thick bottom non stick pan.
Add milk, condensed milk, sugar and cardamom. Stir well and put to boil on slow flame.

Keep boiling till the milk, till it reduces to approx 1/3 of its original quantity.

Leave it to cool .

Once cooled, fill 1/3rd of the mould with this kulfi base.
Mix in 2 spoonful of strawberry mixture to the popsicle moulds.
Fill up the popsicles with plain kulfi base.

Close and chill for at least 24-36 hours.
To serve remove the freezer, and leave it to warm for 7-8 min. or dip the moulds in warm water. If using kulfi moulds, use the long skewer kind of sticks to remove the kulfi.
Enjoy two different flavours distinctly with the strawberries in one part and the original kulfi flavour in the other half!

Tips

If the kulfi breaks on removing from mould, just serve on a plate like I did.

If you do not have any moulds, one can also just freeze this in any cake/bread container and cut into square pieces and serve on a plate. This is also how the restaurants also sometimes serve kulfi.

Do taste for sweetness before freezing the kulfi.

Other traditional flavours of kulfi are having it just plain, cardamom, almonds, saffron, pistachio,

Instinct Factor

To judge whether the milk has boiled and reduced enough, look out for the pink, prominent as the milk starts thickening.

Feel Factor

Enjoy the Strawberry Cardamom Kulfi Ice cream for its distinct creamy, sweet, dense texture with contrasting flavours of fresh strawberries and cardamom. This was so appreciated by my neighbours, that they called for round two of this! What I liked is the taste of semi crushed strawberry pulp giving an added dimension to kulfi taste. Looks like Kulfi Ice cream is here to rock the folks in the western world and why not enjoy this at home, as there is not much cooking, but simply just boiling the milk in a non stick pan! Do appreciate the ice cream spoon from India, which suggests the dense structure of kulfis that need the slanted top of spoons to make pieces of ice cream! If you are not up for strawberry flavour, just add in some pistachios or almonds or have it plain which is equally delicious and original!