Chocolate, Bread & Butter Pudding

Starting the blog post with an apology is making me feel so guilty. But I can't help it too. I am really sorry to my blog as well as my readers. Lately I have not able to update much, even my cooking is affected. As the financial year is going to end in another month, I have been piled up so much of work that I am unable to breathe. That is leaving me all occupied that I am not able to cook or bake much.

The delicious chocolate bread and butter pudding is off to Meeta's Monthly Mingle hosted by Life's A Feast.

Although the recipe was perfect. I baked it well too. The only mistake I did was that somehow I added more milk. Because of which it became more moist than required. So I have reduced the quantity of milk. Still it tasted heavenly. The lovely moist gooey taste of chocolate along with butter was delicious.

Ingredients

10-15 slices of bread or a loaf of brioche
4 yolks
1/2 cup caster sugar
1 cup cream
2 cup milk
1 vanilla bean, scraped
1/2 cup salted butter – melted
1 piece of dark chocolate, chopped finely

Method

* Remove the crust of the bread slices.
* Whisk the egg yolks and sugar together in a bowl until the mix turns pale. Keep it aside.
* In a pan add milk, cream and vanilla essence. Let it be warm on low heat.
* Add one fourth of this mixture to egg one. Again whisk.
* Then pour in the remaining mixture, whisking continuously.
* Strain the mixture and let it cool.
* Apply butter on the slices and place them on a baking dish.
* Sprinkle the chocolate pieces on them.
* Then add another layer of slices, followed by chocolate pieces.
* Pour the mixture on top of the slices.
* Let the slices soak the milk mixture for about half an hour.
* Bake it in a preheated oven at 130(C) for about 40-45 minutes.
* Remove from oven and cool the pudding.
* Serve warm, sprinkled with little powdered sugar.

Caramelized Bananas - A Quick & Simple Dessert

When you are back home after slogging for almost nine hours of work and you come to know that you have guests, then what do you do? Panic ? Atleast I do. Although I love to entertain but unexpected guests really spoil my mood. Yesterday night was also the same. But for a change, I pondered for a few moments, searched quickly through my refrigerator, checked the blogs of my foodie bloggers, took a deep breath and diverted my anger towards preparing the dinner.

Preparing the main course was easy, followed by a salad. Being equipped by the appliances of modern cooking, it took me over an hour. Yoo-ho !! Guests arrived just at that moment. Cooking had made my mood. I welcomed them with a smile. But still an important thing was left and that was the dessert. All of a sudden a glance on a bunch of bananas and something clicked. Any guesses?? Yes, Caramalized Bananas. Bingo !! When you want something quick and simple, caramelized bananas make just a perfect dessert in winters and even in summers, if served with scoops of ice cream. The recipe is just too simple and almost all the ingredients are there in the home.

Ingredients

6 bananas (peeled)
1/2 cup sugar
2 cup orange juice
1/4 cup butter
1 tbsp cinnamon powder (roasted)
1 tbsp cardamon powder
handful of raisins, peanuts & pistachios
1 tbsp orange zest
1 tbsp brown sugar

Method

* In a pan, heat sugar on low flame until it melts and turns brown in color.
* Add butter, orange juice, cinnamon and cardomom powder.
* Keep on stirring till the mixture comes to a boil.
* In a baking dish, place the bananas and pour the mixture over them.
* For topping add orange zest along with the nuts.
* Sprinkle the brown sugar and bake the bananas for about 20 minutes at 170 degrees(C).
* Remove and let it cool for sometime and serve warm with fresh cream or vanilla ice cream.

Steamed Chocolate Pudding - Weekend Special

Sunday was special for me. After contemplating for about a month, finally I had bought a laptop. So there was a reason for my happiness. And any reason of happiness needs a celebration. Now we foodies when we are happy, what we do? Obviously cook or bake or eat out. Whatever we decide on, food is definitely there playing an important role. The menu consisted of chicken in red wine sauce with mushroom pilaf, followed by the yummy dessert.

The star of the menu was the dessert,  a lovely Chocolate pudding and that too steamed making my weekend treat special, . Easy to make in home, even if you don't have an oven. Morever you dont have to have a steamer too. What you can do is take a large pot anf fill it one third with water. Put a strainer in it and over it put your mould, covering it with a foil. Then close the lid of the pot. Its a quick home method. But if you have oven, you can always bake the chocolate pudding.

The chocolate pudding I made was wonderful. I served it warm with scoops of vanilla icecream. And I also saved some spoons of melted chocolate. While serving I poured it on the pudding. It was such a lovely treat. I still have that warm gooey taste in my mouth. So here goes my recipe -

Ingredients

1 cup grated dark chocolate
2/3 cup all purpose flour, sieved
3 tbsp cocoa powder
½ tsp baking powder
2 eggs
½ tsp vanilla essence
3 tbsp sugar
1 teaspoon coffee powder
Milk as required

Method

* In a pan on low heat add grated chocolate and melt it.
* Then whisk the chocolate till it smoothens.
* Mix flour, baking powder, cocoa and coffee powder.
* Then using a strainer sieve through into a large bowl.
* Add eggs, vanilla essence, melted chocolate and sugar.
* In a blender, blend the mixture adding little milk if it is thick.
* Take a mould and grease it with butter and pour the mixture in it.
* In a steamer, add the mould and cover it.
* Steam it for around half an hour or so. Check using a knife by piercing it in the pudding. If nothing sticks to the knife then the pudding is ready.
* Let it cool for few minutes then remove from the mould.
* Serve it warm.

Thanksgiving Day, Cranberry Relish & New A Look

After a new domain, I almost disappeared for a week. Worked hard to get a new look for my blog. Finally I have been able to come up with something. Although I consider it a beta version somewhat. Need a lot of advices and lot more changes so that I am finally satisfied with it. So dear friends a request to all of you. Please give me the feedback on this new one and help me improve it.

Thanksgiving is just in a few days. So here is an easy recipe to make. No preparations required. Ideally you should serve it warm. What you can do is make it a day before and when required, just warm it in the microwave. The recipe is so delicious and so easy to make. Its just that you will have to get the cranberries.

Ingredients

2 cup frozen cranberries
2 cup sugar or any other sweetener
1 teaspoon cinnamon powder

Method

* In a pan combine cranberries, sugar and cinnamon powder. Mix well.
* Add the mixture into a baking dish. Cover the dish with a foil.
* Preheat the oven to around 300 degrees(F).
* Place the dish in the oven and bake for almost an hour.
* After an hour, take it out and let it cool.
* Serve it warm.

Lemon Prune Tart - A Sinful Dessert

“Only one who devotes himself to a cause with his whole strength and soul can be a true master. For this reason mastery demands all of a person."- Albert Einstein

I took a lot of inspiration from this quote reading Leo Babauta's blog and this is the reason for my delayed tart. I know you all must be wondering what kind of tart I am making that I disappeared for so many days. But in true terms I made the tart twice to achieve the perfect flavor and color and then after so many clicks the perfect shot, which I liked. I know I have a long way to go after all mastering anything takes time and depends on how often and how much you do it. Still I really envy food bloggers who have such professional food pics with food worth dying for.

The first tart I made using dried prunes, it came out to be a little sweeter. So the next time when I made prune tart again, I added lemon to it which reduced both its sweetness and the golden color. Making the prune tart is very easy. Its just that it takes a longer time to make. But all good things are priceless. When you will have the first bite, you will just feel wonderful. The flavor and aroma is almost sinful, filling your senses.

Ingredients

For the pastry

1 cup plain flour
1/2 cup butter
2 tbsp caster sugar
1 egg
pinch of cardamom powder

For the filling

10-12 dried pitted prunes
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup golden syrup
2 eggs
1 lemon juice

Method

* Put flour, sugar, butter and an egg together in a bowl and mix properly with hands.
* When everything is properly mixed, using a little water form a firm dough.
* Keep the dough in refrigerator for half an hour.
* After half an hour, remove the dough and roll out in the form of a large round flat thin pastry.
* In a preheated oven at 180 degree, bake the pastry for 10 minutes.
* Meanwhile start making the filling. On a low flame, heat butter and golden syrup in a pan.
* Remove the syrup after few minutes. Whisk the eggs in a bowl and add to the syrup along with lemon juice. If you want, you can add cardamom powder to the filling too.
* Remove the pastry from the oven and let it cool.
* Arrange the prunes on the pastry, followed by pouring the filling evenly over them.
* At 160 degrees, bake the tart for around 30 minutes.
* Serve warm with mango sauce.

Rice Pudding With Orange Flavoring

There are many of us who have a strong urge to have something sweet from time to time. And when we are invited for dinner by any of our friends, colleagues or relative, what we look forward to is desserts. And I am just that kind of a person. No matter how good might be the food, I make sure that I have space reserved in my tummy for the dessert. Although any dessert means a lot of calories even if most of the steps have been carried out to reduce the calories. Still that has no relation with the craving.

To end this craving I made, rice pudding this weekend finally. And while I was making it, a wonderful thing happened, it started raining. Initially I wanted to have a chilled dessert but when I was through, I couldn't resist and ate it when it was warm. Rains had made the temperature dip and in that cool weather when I had this warm dessert, it was such a heavenly feeling. The orange flavoring gave such a wonderful aroma and a change from the traditional rice pudding.

Ingredients

For rice pudding
1 cup rice
3 cup milk
1 cup cream
1/2 cup coconut milk (optional)
1 teaspoon cardamom powder
3 tbsp caster sugar

For flavoring

1 cup orange juice
2 tbsp honey

Method

* Before making rice pudding, wash and soak rice in water for half an hour.
* First prepare the flavoring. For it in a saucepan add orange juice and honey and boil on medium heat till it thickens like syrup.
* Set it aside to cool.
* Take another saucepan and boil milk.
* Drain and add rice to the boiling milk, reduce heat to low and cook for some time, stirring continuously.
* Cook till the rice is soft and the milk is thickened.
* Add cardamom powder, cream and sugar. Stir and set it aside to cool.
* Refrigerate for an hour.
* Serve in chilled bowls with orange flavoring on top.
* If you want you can add chopped nuts.

Note: Coconut milk not only thickens the pudding but also make it tastier.