Chocolate Gulab Jamun | Choco Gulab Jamun Recipe | Diwali Recipe

Chocolate Gulab Jamun , Chocolate stuffed Gulab Jamun or choco jamun with Khoya (kova) what ever we may choose to call but choclate gulab jamun is delicious jamuns with a twist or we can call it Gulab Jamun surprise. And for Diwali these Choco Gulab Jamuns makes perfect sweet to treat family and friends. I made this with khoya using my khoya (mawa) gulab jamun recipe as base but you can also make this using milk powder, use my milk powder gulab jamun recipe for that and stuff chocolates.

Eggless Banana Chocolate Chips Muffin

I wanted to make banana and chocolate chips muffin for a long time now and every time I kept banana to ripen well but then in the end I have to throw it for some reason or other.  This time I did the same kept the banana, it was well ripen but still I kept postponing to bake the muffins, in the end I just pulled the socks and did it.  

These muffins are so delicious I can't describe.   Strong banana flavor with chocolate chips is yum, I finished clicking and ate immediately 2 muffins controlling myself not to eat any more.  Without egg also the muffins are so soft and spongy that you won't miss the egg factor here.  The recipe is so easy just mix everything and bake, no special gadgets needed.  Frankly, you have to try this there's no excuse just make this and you going to love it as me and my family did.  I took the picture late evening so there's color difference due to light, kindly ignore that :)

Ingredients: [ Yields 6 Muffins]

Mashed Banana - 1 Long
Plain Flour - 1 Cup
Baking Powder - 1 tsp
Milk -1/2 Cup
Sugar - 1/2 Cup [ I used little less]
Oil - 1/4 Cup [ or butter 1/2 cup]
Vanilla Essence - 1 tsp
Chocolate Chips - 2 tbsp

Method:

1. Mash banana well, I used mixer to do the job.
2. Shift flour and baking powder. 

3. Add mashed banana, milk, sugar, essence, oil and mix everything well to combine.

4. Add chocolate chips and fold.

5. Preheat oven to 180C and line muffin tray.  Fill muffin liners with batter.

6. Sprinkle few chocolate chips on top and bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean and cool muffins in wire rack.

Enjoy these yummy muffins.

Have a nice day ~~

Black Forest Cake

Remember my tricolor cupcakes with cream frosting, the same day I also made this black forest cake for DH birthday.  Last year I baked chocolate cake with chocolate frosting which was so delicious I got wonderful review for it from DH and others but couldn’t post it as I didn’t took pictures. 


This year after a lot of thinking I decided to make black forest cake as it was in my wish list for long and took all my effect to take pictures too.  The step vise pictures looks a bit messy, but having newspaper over the counter really helps a lot with aftermath of baking as the one part I hate about baking is cleaning after all the work done, always end up having so many things to wash, clean, wipe and store back all the spoons, cups, tins and what not! It’s just me or any of you have same feeling too?  Anyways here the cake just before cutting :)


Coming back to our cake, yes I agree I didn’t pipe well and it doesn’t cook all pretty too as I am still learning and hope to do better in future.  It was a humid day (as always) the icing was melting which you can see in the pictures and I was running out of my patience.   If you are patience enough and practice you can decorate the cake nicely it comes with practice so don’t be dishearten if 1st time you don’t get it right, you will eventually get it it’s just matter of time. 

Anyways the cake tasted deliciousssss, seriously it was too delicious everyone liked it and I shared this with my friend and she loved it too.   I adapted the recipe from joyofbaking and from Prema’s black forest cake recipe and came up with my own recipe, and thanks to Prema for always motivating to try icing, no matter how I do she still praise it with kinds words (though I know the truth ;)).  So not dragging any more let’s look at the recipe.   Posting this cake today as it's dear friend Dharini birthday, so here you go gal Wish you Happy Birthday.

Ingredients:
[Adapted from Joyofbaking & Prema’s Culinary]

For Chocolate Sponge Cake
Plain Flour - 250gms ( 2 cups)
Baking Powder - 1 1/2 tsp
Baking Soda - 1 tsp
Salt - 1/4 tsp
Eggs - 4
Granulated White Sugar - 200gms
Vanilla Extract - 1 tsp
Vegetable Oil - 60 ml [4 tbsp]
Cocoa Powder - 30 gms [ 1/3 cup]

For Whipping Cream Frosting & Assembly
Whipping Cream - 400ml
Icing Sugar - 20gms
Pitted Cherries - 1 tin [halved, keep the syrup]
Corn Flour - 1 tbsp
Granulated White Sugar - 2 tbsp
Maraschino Cherries - 10-12
Chocolate Rise - 100gms
Colorful Sprinkles - 1 tbsp [optional]



Method

For Chocolate Sponge Cake
1. Shift plain four, baking powder, soda, salt and keep aside. Line and grease a 9" round baking tin. Preheat oven at 180C [ I used 8” round baking tin].

2. In a large bowl break eggs, add sugar and beat in high speed for 5-6 minutes or until egg mixture gets light & fluffy  add oil, vanilla extract and beat for a minute to combine everything well.

• For eggless version, replace eggs and sugar with 1/2 cup of condense milk and rest of procedure is same

3. Add cocoa powder, Keep adding flour in small quantities and blend well.

4. Pour batter into prepared pan and bake 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.  You will also notice cake will start to leave sides of pan.  Cool on a metal rack for 5 minutes before removing cake from pan and then cool the cake completely before frosting.

• [You can bake this as a single cake like I did or divide the batter in two same size tin and bake twice, you need to check the cake after 25 minutes if it’s baked fully.
• You can make the sponge cake in advance and store in fridge (wrapped well in cling) up to to 2 days before doing frosting]

For Frosting
5. Remove wax paper from cake and slice the cake in 2 or 3 layers horizontally.

• [If you baked the cake in 2 pans then slice in 2 layers so in total there will be 4 layers of cake]

6. Drain out juice from cherries in a bowl, halves cherries & keep aside.  In a small bowl take 2-3 tbsp of drained cherries juice, add corn flour and mix well, make sure not to form any lumps.

7. Heat drained juice along with 2 tbsp sugar until it starts to boil, slow flame, now add corn flour mixture and whisk briskly.  In a minute juice will start to thicken off flame and keep aside to cool.

8. In a large bowl add whipping cream, icing sugar and beat till stiff peaks.

Now that we have all prep work done we can work on our assembly.
For Assembly
9. Place a cake layer on the cake board and brush with prepared syrup evenly over, idea here is to soak cake to make it soft but do not add too much of syrup it will make the cake soggy and it will break.

10. Add a dollop of cream on top and spread over, decorate with cherries.

11. Repeat for 2nd cake layer with syrup, cream and cherries. Keep the third layer on second,spread the cream on top evenly.

12. Frost sides of the cake.  Fill cream in a piping bag and decorate top sides.  In the center you have include chocolate  shaves.   I thicken up remaining syrup and spread it in center.

13. Coat sides of cake with chocolate rice and also on top of cake and pipe lower edges of cake.

• [I did a mistake of piping top and bottom of cake and then coat chocolate rice]

14. Place the Maraschino cherries at the top and add sprinkles in center. 

Want a bite?



Have a nice day ~~

Eggless Butterless Chocolate Cupcakes

I made this super easy and super moist vegan cupcake to take along to my sister place but last moment we couldn’t go and thus it making it to blog.  This cupcakes are very easy to prepare it doesn’t require any beater or special gadgets, just mix everything with a spatula and we are ready to go,  added bonus this one is eggless plus butter less. 

I have made few batches as it’s very simple recipe and all the ingredients always easy to find in pantry and always result in soft and moist cupcakes.  These cupcakes are good by itself but of course frosting does add extra frill,  I run out of butter so I didn’t do frosting but just sprinkle some chocolate rise.  If you wish you can do frosting and enjoy these yummy cupcakes. 

Ingredients: [Yield 6 cupcakes]
Plain Flour - 3/4 cup
Cocoa Powder - 2 tbsp
Baking Soda - 1/2 tsp
Salt - a pinch
Granulated Sugar - 1/2 cup
White Vinegar - 1/2 tbsp
Olive Oil - 3 tbsp
Instant Coffee/Espresso Powder -  1 tsp
Water - 1/2 cup
Vanilla Extract - 1 tsp
Chocolate Rice - 1/4 cup [optional]
For Frosting [I didn't use frosting]
Butter - 4 tbsp
Cocoa Powder - 1/3 cup
Icing Sugar - 1 cup
Milk - 2 tbsp
Vanilla Extract - 1 tsp

Method:
1.  Boil water and add coffee powder, mix well and keep aside. 
2. Preheat oven to 350F or 180C and prepare muffin tin with cupcake liners.
3. In a bowl shift flour, soda, cocoa powder and salt.
4. In a separate bowl, mix together prepared coffee, sugar, vinegar, oil and vanilla extract.
5. Add wet ingredients with dry ingredients and stir well to combine everything, make sure there’s no lumps.
~ Mixture will be thin, so don’t panic.
6. Fill cupcake liners with batter till 3/4 full, if using chocolate rice then sprinkle on top. 
7.Bake for 18 to 20 minutes or until a skewer inserted in centre comes out clean.  If not bake again for 3-5 minutes and repeat the test. 
7. Remove from oven and let pan cool for 5 minutes then remove cupcakes from pan and let it cool on a wire rack completely.

For Frosting
While cupcakes get's cool prepare frosting. 
1. Melt butter in a sauce pan or in microwave.  Add cocoa powder with butter and stir until smooth. 
2. Add half of icing sugar, stir, add 1 tbsp milk and stir.  Repeat again for remaining sugar and milk.  Add vanilla extract and stir until smooth.  If it’s runny then add more icing sugar.
3. You can simply spread frosting over cupcakes or fill it in piping bag and do desire design.
You can see how moist and light these cupcakes are inside.

Have a nice day ~~

Eggless Chocolate Walnut Cookies | Brownie Cookies Recipe

To mark start of the year I’m posting this soft, crunchy and delicious Eggless Chocolate Walnut Cookies.  I like to bake cookies more than cake as you can see I have few cookie recipes posted, this is again one of the easy eggless cookie recipe & I baked this cookies for my nephew as for him anything as to be chocolate like I made for him Eggless Chocolate Cookies and Eggless Chocolate Chip Cookies.  But for me more than chocolate walnut cookies it’s like Brownie cookies, as it taste like brownie, soft, dense and delicious.



Honey can be good sweetener in baking cause of it’s rich flavour and texture, cause of honey the cookie stays moist & edges doesn’t becomes hard/crisp and walnut gives the good crunch.  These cookies are so simple to prepare with minimal ingredients and can be put together in around 20 minutes.   Double the recipe to bake this for large batch, but I suggest start with the listed quantity, this cookie recipe is so easy that it actually doesn’t require step wise pictures, just put everything together, mix and bake..can it get simple than this?



You can dust the cookies with icing sugar for festive season like Christmas and New Year, if you wish or have it as it is.   I personally like these beauties as this so I dusted the sugar to only one cookie.




Ingredients:
[Makes 12-15 cookies]

Plain Flour - 1 Cup
Brown Sugar - 1/4 Cup
Cocoa Powder - 1 tbsp
Baking Powder - 1 tsp
Baking Soda - 1/2 tsp
Salt - a pinch
Honey - 1/3 Cup
Vegetable Oil - 1/4 Cup
Vanilla Extract/Essence - 1 tsp
Chopped Walnut - 1/3 Cup
Icing Sugar - To dust cookies [optional]



Method:

1.  Preheat oven to 180C or 350F.
2. Ina bowl whisk together plain flour, cocoa powder, baking powder & soda, sugar and salt. 
3. In another bowl whisk oil, honey and vanilla extract well until everything is combine.  Add this to flour mixture and mix everything well until smooth dough forms. 
~ If the dough is sticky then add 1-2 tbsp of plain flour and mix again.  If you think moisture is more then refrigerate the dough for 20-30 minutes and then bake.
4. Now add chopped walnut and mix well again. Divide the dough into equal portion of 12 to 15 pieces and shape into rounds. 
5. Place a inch apart these on a baking tray line with baking sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes or until the edges becomes light brown.  Cool completely on wire rack and store.
~ Keep a eye on cookies after 10 minutes.
Dust the cookies with powder sugar to make it look snowball cookies.
Due to honey these cookies stays fresh @ room temperature even after 2 weeks, but during summer you may want to store this in fridge.

Have a look at the texture.



Note:
~ Press the cookie dough to flat and then bake if you wish or just leave it round and bake, while it’s baking it forms the shape.
~ You can add 1/3 cup of chocolate chip for the extra chocolate kick, add together with walnut.
~ If you don’t like chocolate then ignore the cocoa powder and make it as walnut cookies. 
~ If you don't want to bake the cookies immediately then wrap the bowl with a cling, refrigerate and bake when ready.


Want to have a bite?   And these cookies goes to Srav's Chocolate Fest Event.



Have a nice day and year ahead ~~

Happy New Year 2012

Wishing all readers a very Happy, Prosperous &Peaceful New Year

Remember the laughter,
the joy,
the hard work,
and the tears.
And as you reflect on the past year,
also think of the new one to come.
Because most importantly,
this is a time of new beginnings
and the celebration of life.
Wish You a Happy New Year!

Eggless Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe

My nephew loves chocolate, let it be in any form so when we were visiting my sister I baked this chocolate chip cookies for him.  Since my sister in-laws are here I had to do it eggless, I looked around for eggless recipe but couldn't find any thing interesting and to find a egg replacement for cookie is not that easy indeed.  So I just one thing, eliminated the egg part from the recipe and followed the rest, the result was just so awesome.  

I received wonderful feedback and everyone loved this cookies including my colleague with whom I shared these and that's makes me a happy person :) so if you are looking for egg less recipe then this is for you with no difference in taste or texture, try this and you will love these too.  

Makes 2 dozen cookies.

Ingredients:

Recipe Source: Joyofbaking

Butter - 1/2 Cup at room  temperature

White Granulated Sugar - 1/3 Cup

Brown Sugar - 1/3 Cup packed [ I used dark brown sugar]

Vanilla Essence - 1 tsp

Plain Flour - 1 Cup

Baking Soda - 1/2 tsp

Salt - a pinch

Chocolate Chip - 1/2 Cup

Chopped Walnut - 1/4 Cup [optional]

Method:

1. Sieve flour, salt and baking soda,  keep aside.  Preheat oven to 375F/190C. 

2. In a bowl beat butter until smooth and creamy, add white and brown sugar.

~ Use the butter in room temperature it's gets the things done fast.  I normally keep my butter outside overnight.

.

3. Beat until fluffy or sugar dissolve about 2-3 minutes.  Add vanilla essence and mix well. 

4. Fold in flour in 2 batches and mix/beat until it combines.   Add chocolate chip and nuts (if using) and mix well. 

~ If the dough is very soft, cover and refrigerate dough for 30 minutes to 2 hours to make it firm.

5.  Scoop 1 tbsp of dough on a ungreased baking/cookie sheet leaving enough space between each piece and bake for 10-12 minutes or until cookies get golden brown on edges.  Cool on a wire rack and remove the cookies from sheet it's come out very easily, if not use a spatula to remove the cookies and store in airtight container. 

~ For large cookie scoop 2 tbsp of dough and bake for 12-14 minutes,  if you are baking the cookies in batches then keep the dough in fridge until you are ready to scoop it again.  My cookies were done in 10 minutes so keep a eye.   

My cookies are little on darker side cause I used dark brown sugar, if you use light brown sugar I guess the cookie color will be light brown. 

Enjoy your day ~~