Double Chocolate Cake

     Life becomes so busy sometimes that you tend to run and in that race you usually forget/ignore stuffs that is important to you. "It can still wait" goes on until finally you totally forget about it and it remains in a corner unnoticed. Same is the case here...Its been real long time. Now there are a lot of things that I can say to support the absence but its best to move on...
   This was a chocolate cake done a little while back. A perefct chocolate lovers cake...Loaded with chocolate. The recipe is from here. Delicious cake with lovely texture.

 Bittersweet chocolate- 2ounce(chopped)
Vegetable oil-3/4 cup
Sugar-1 cup
Egg-1 large
All purpose flour-2 cups
Dutch-process Cocoa powder-1/2 cup
Baking Soda-1 tbsp
Salt-3/4 tsp
Coffee-1 cup
Buttermilk-1 cup
Semi Sweet Chocolate chips-1/2 cup

Method Of Preparation:
1. Preheat oven to 350F. Grease and dust a 8" pan and 4 cupcake liners or 9" pan or 12-cup bundt pan for baking.
2. Melt the chocoate in a pan/bowl on low heat/microwave. Transfer it to a large bowl and let it cool slightly. Then add the sugar and oil into it and whisk until smooth. Add egg and whisk again.
3.In another bowl mix all the dry ingredients and set aside.
4. Now add half the dry ingredients, 1/2 cup of coffee and 1/2 cup of buttermilk to the chocolate mixture and mix until smooth. Add the remaining dry ingredients, liquids and mix smooth.
5. Add the chocolate chips and fold it lightly to the batter.
6. Pour the batter into the pan and bake for 40-45 minutes or until toothpick comes out with just a few crumbs attached. Cool the cake in pan for 10 mins and then transfer it to cooling rack to cool completely.

For Icing:
Semi sweet chocolate-2 ounce
Unsalted Butter-5 tbsp(soft)

Method Of Preparation:
1. Melt the chocolate to smooth  in a microwave safe bowl. See that you dont burn up the chocolate. You can do it using the double boiler method.
2. Add butter 1 tbsp at a time to the melted chocolate and mix well.
3. In a large bowl take some chilled water.Place the chocolate butter bowl on top of chilled water and beat till it reaches the spreadable consistency.
4. Pour the chocolate mixture on top of cooled cake and spread it with the help of spatula.

 Notes:
1. Use good quality cocoa powder and chocolate.
2. The coffee was warm when i used it.
3. Chocolate chips can be omitted.

Molten Lava Cake

This was our valentines day treat...I know the day is gone long back and I had been planning for this post since then...and finally its here..A delicious molten lava cake. My search for something that was not too much of work, perfect for two and done in few minutes ended here.

Semi-sweet chocolate chip-1/4cup
Butter-2 tbsp
Powdered Sugar-1/2 cup
Egg-1
All purpose Flour-3 tbsp
Vanilla Extract-1 tsp
Raspberries, Ice cream,Powdered Sugar to indulge.

Method of Preparation:
1. Preheat oven to 400F
2. Grease 2 ramekins with non stick spray/butter. Place the ramekins on baking sheet and set aside.
3. In a medium microwave safe bowl melt chocolate chips and butter for about 1 and 1/2 minutes  until smooth.Stir every 30 seconds to avoid burning.
4. Add the powdered sugar and mix until smooth.Then add egg and whisk until smooth.
5. Stir in flour and vanilla extract and mix until no lumps remain.
6. Distribute the batter equally into two ramekins and bake them for 12 minutes.
7. Remove from oven and let them rest in bowl for 1 more minute.
8. Then invert into a plate and dust with powdered sugar and serve with a dollop of ice cream.

Chocolate Raspberry Sandwich Cookies

   Sometimes you just want to kill the evening when you have a super excited son and a completely drained mommy. Those are the times when I want him to sit with something instead of frog hopping or running. I offered him a lot of options like reading, painting and all he did was suggest me frog hopping and running...offcourse with a smile that I cant say No to..Then I finally decided to tell him I will give cookies if you go and play..oh come on you guys do that too...right... So after 5 minutes of playing he came running for the cookies. Now to fight with a 3 year old over cookies is something you rarely want to do...because they always win it...No matter what.:(..So finally there I was searching for a simple recipe with less work.

    That when I found this recipe and thought of keeping my son busy with it. So we started with the work. Mixing and rolling was done by me and half of the cutting as my son got quite bored after doing one set. He was much interested playing with all purpose flour as a powder.So at the end I had a completely white faced son..:), quite bit of white floor and these delicious cookies.

Raspberry Jam:

Raspberry-1 cup
Sugar-1 cup
Lemon juice-1/2 tsp

Method of preparation:
1. Wash the raspberries and pat them dry.
2. Add the sugar to raspberries and crush them little and set aside for 15 minutes.
3. Heat a pan and add this mixture to it. Mash the raspberries little more and cook the mixture till it boils and then add the lemon juice and mix till it becomes thick. It wont take much time.
4. Turn off the heat when its done and transfer it to a clean bottle.

Chocolate Cookies:

All Pourpose Flour -3/4 cup

Cocoa Powder-1/2 cup
Butter-6 tbsp(at room temp)
Salt a pinch
Brown Sugar-3/4 cup+ 1 tbsp
Egg-1 large
Vanilla-1 tsp

Method of Preparation:
1. In a bowl mix the flour, cocoa powder and salt. Set aside.
2. Beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.Beat in the egg and vanilla on low speed.
3. Add in the dry ingredients and mix well. Roll the dough into two balls and set aside in the refrigerator to chill for about 1 hour.
4. Preheat the oven to 350F. Take a ball of dough and place it between two parcment papers. Now slightly press the dough and using a rolling pin roll it to 1/4 inch thick.
5. Using a cookie cutter cut out shapes. Do dip the cutter in flour to prevent sticking of the dough to cutter.
6. Place the cut out cookies on baking sheet and bake for 10 to 12 mins. Let cool on a wire rack.
7. Once cooled transfer them to an airtight container. Five minutes before serving sandwich the jam between two cookies.

Notes:
1. When the dough becomes soft and difficult to handle keep it back in the refrigerator.

Hot Cross Buns

Happy Easter to everyone who celebrate...Here is some hot cross buns..:) Everytime I studied the rhymes" Hot cross buns" I have wondered how these buns were.. Finally I baked my own batch of hot cross buns by replacing egg with  flax seeds and using raisins and cardamom as flavors..Here is the recipe

All purpose Flour-3 cups

Active dry yeast-2 tsp

Milk-1 cup(lukewarm)

Honey-1/4 cup

Salt-1 tsp

Flax seed powder-1 tbsp

Hot Water-3 tbsp

Cardamom-1tsp(seeds lightly crushed)

Raisins-1/2 cup(golden and dark mixture)

Egg wash/Milk wash

Method of preparation:

1.In a bowl mix yeast and milk and set to foam for 5 minutes.
2. Mix flax seed powder and hot water and let sit for few minutes. It will turn thick by that time. If it doesn't then heat this mixture till it turns thick and resembles egg white in texture. Let cool for some time.

3. Add honey, salt and flax mixture and stir until everything mixes.

4. Add the cardamom and raisins and mix well.

5. Add flour to this mixture and knead to a soft and elastic dough about 8 to 10 minutes. The dough is sticky at beginning but turns soft and elastic as you knead it. Add little extra flour if really needed approx 1 hour for me..

6. Transfer the dough to lightly oiled bowl and set aside to double in size. 

7. Punch the dough and shape them to 12 round balls/ rolls and set on a baking tray to rise for another 25 minutes.

8. Preheat oven to 400F. Egg/milk wash the rolls and bake for about 10 to 15 minutes or till lightly browned.

9. Allow to cool.Apply icing and serve.

For Icing:
Confectioners sugar-1/2 cup
Cream-1 tbsp

1. Mix the cream and powdered sugar to smooth paste. 

2. Once rolls cool completely,  use a piping bag to mark the cross on the buns. You can do it with a tsp too.

Cocoa Brownies with Walnut and Brown Butter

  When Abraham Chacko approached me to write a guest post for his space I was very happy to do it and accepted it without second thought said yes. He had given me enough time and wanted it only by the end of march. As many of you know me..I am the last minute person..No matter how much time I get..ok sometimes I do start early but then there will be something that holds me till the last minute..I guess that is how I am programmed by God..Now I don't want to rewrite it..;)..So here too I started with one recipe and finally ended here after editing the pics and knowing that they were horrible...Guess these are tolerable..:)
     As the many other friends I have got in fb, he is one among them. Quite an interesting guy with loads of talent. He has a great collection of recipes and a very cute family with two adorable daughters and an all in all great wife Susan..:). Chacko's Kitchen is the place where you find their effort..If you have never been there do visit it..
    Here is the small treat that I have prepared for them from here...This is a perfect fudgy brownie with a crunch of nuts perfect to have with milk. Here instead of butter, brown butter is used and it does taste great. Mixing and making them is quite easy though do not over bake them. Do visit here for the recipe..:)

Hokkaido Milk Bread with Tangzong(Eggless)

This time Aparna gave us the detailed recipe to bake Hokkaido Milk bread.They are soft white breads which gets its texture from the use of Tangzhong. This month I have been baking a lot of bread using this method as a part of another baking group too. As I have done the loaf already here I have tried some shapes.Original recipe is from 65 Degrees Tangzhong “65C Bread Doctor” by Yvonne Chen, and adapted from here.

For Tazgzhong(Flour-Water Roux):
All purpose flour-1/3 cup
Milk-1/2 cup
Water-1/2 cup

For Dough:
All purpose flour-21/2 cups
Sugar-3 tbsp
Salt-1 tsp
Powdered milk-2 tbsp
Instant dried yeast-2 tsp
Milk-1/2 cup+1/4 cup(extra if needed)
Cream-1/8 cup(25% fat)
Tangzhong-1/3 cup(use half tangzhong from above)
Salt-1/4 tsp
Unsalted Butter-25 gm(cut to small pieces, softened at room temp)

Method:
The Tangzhong:
1. Whisk he flour, water and milk in a saucepan until smooth and there are no lumps.
2. Place saucepan over medium heat, let the roux cook till it starts thickening.
3. Keep stirring constantly so no lumps form and the roux is smooth.
4. Cook the roux till it reaches 150F(65C) or until you see lines forming in roux as you stir/whisk.Take pan off the heat at this point.
5. Let it cool completely before using it for baking.

To make bread:
1. Combine all dry ingredients in a bowl, mix together, make  a well in center and set aside.
2. whisk cream, milk, tangzhong together and add this into the dry ingredients. Knead until everything comes together and you get a dough shape and gluten has developed. Then knead the butter.
3. Knead the dough into a ball shape and keep it in a  greased bowl covered with a kitchen towel to proof till its doubled in size, about 45 minutes or more depending on the weather.
4. Transfer it to a clean surface to shape it.This recipe makes one loaf(9"X 5"), 2 small loaves(6"X4"), or 1 small 6"X4" loaf and 6 small rolls, or can shape it to rolls or different shapes.. Deflate and divide the dough .Preheat the oven to 325F.
I made a tortoise,2 flowers and six small rolls.

To make tortoise:
5. To start with tortoise first take ball of dough and shape it into a smooth ball.Shape a head and four limbs from smaller pieces of dough.
6. To make shell take a small piece of dough make a thin round(1/8" thick) and mark with a knife. 
7. The marks should be deep but don't cut through. Wet the under side of dough with milk or water and stick it on back of your tortoise. 

To make flower:
8. Take two small rolls of equal size. Stretch them to sticks about 3/4 to 1 inch thickness.
9. Take two sticks and make spirals with them. Pinch the ends after making a small round.
10. Now take a small ball that fits in center of round and brush it with little milk on the sides and place it in the center.

To make rolls:
11. Take a small ball and roll it to a small oval shape using a rolling pin. Fold the smaller side into center and then the other side slightly over the earlier one.
12. Now roll the unfolded edges again to form a small rectangle and then make it to a roll and pinch the edges to seal well. Keep the roll in the muffin pan and continue with the other dough ball.
Notes: You can stuff the rolls with sweet or savory fillings.

13. Set it aside covered with a kitchen towel to proof  for 45 minutes or till it reaches to 3/4th of the tin.
14. Apply a layer of egg wash to the dough and bake it in the preheated oven for  35 to 40 minutes. To check doneness tap the bread and you should hear a hollow sound.
15. Transfer to wire rack to cool completely. Slice and enjoy soft freshly baked bread. You can keep it in airtight box for later use. This stays fresh even the next day.

Done by:

Spaghetti Stir Fry

Being a mom is very special, but is there any mom out there who doesn't think - hope I was all alone doing it or who doesn't want to spend a day all free not thinking of anything, not thinking that my kid is pulling this or is putting himself here or there or is too quite..I know all moms do that..and everyone would eagerly be looking for some time to be free..Hmm I do and finally I got 2 days a week free from the past month..Initial few days went in my thoughts whether he will adjust there and how is he going to manage without me..I was all sad then..then few days he din't go because of cold and now we both are doing fine..No more tears to mama and baby.:) And all this has happened in 8 days..Yes he is a playschool going kid now and mama planning to maximum utilize that time..;)
Now my hubby comes home for lunch and God I have always felt to tell him that he can have food from office for those 2 days of week...Don't you think its a good idea as I don't want to spend time preparing food..Hmm need to  put that idea on plate sometime soon..

Off to the recipe..This is one I made on one such days...Its easy to put together...

Whole wheat thin Spaghetti -11/2 cups cooked
Carrots-1 big/6 baby cut(I used purple and orange ones, cut lengthwise to thin sticks)
Green beans-10 nos(cut lengthwise)
Cabbage-1/4 cup(Used purple ones, finely cut lengthwise)
Capsicum-1/2 of big one(cut lengthwise)
Onion-1/2 of small one(thinly sliced)
Garlic-1 tsp(minced)
Ginger-1 tsp(minced)
Soya Sauce-1 tsp
Red Chilly Sauce-1 tsp
Tomato Ketchup-1/2 tsp
Vinegar-1/4 tsp
Olive oil-2 tsp
Spring Onion-2 tsp(chopped)
Salt and pepper to taste

Method of preparation:
1. Cook the noodles as in the package. Drain, Wash with cold water and set aside.
2.  Heat oil in a wok.Add the minced ginger and garlic and fry for a second.Then add onions and saute for 2 to 3 minutes.
3. Then add veggies,pepper and saute it well. Add the sauces and salt on medium high flame and mix well.
4. Then add the coked noodles and mix well. Do not overdo it or you will end up breaking the noodles.
5. Add the vinegar to this along with spring onion. Mix well on high heat and serve warm.

White Bread using Tangzhong Method

Baking a bread and then enjoying the fruit of your work is the best thing to do..And if the bread turns super soft and delicious then you can sing along about it..:) This time Baking Partners group came up with baking bread using either Asian method-Tangzhong or the Scandinavian method. I went with the Tangzhong method where in one part of flour is heated to 65C with five part of water. This method yields soft breads. The recipe is from Christine's Recipe   and thanks Swathi for suggesting it. The bread was super soft and had great texture..Here is how its done..

Ingredients for tangzhong: 

Bread Flour-1/3 cup/50 gms

Water-1/2 cup
Milk-1/2 cup

Ingredients for bread:
Bread flour-21/2 cups/350gms
Caster Sugar-3 tbsp+2 tsp/55 gms
Salt-1 tsp/5gm
Egg-1 large/56gm
Milk powder-1 tbsp+ 1 tsp/7 gm(optional)
Milk-1/2 cup/125ml
Tangzhong-120 gm
Instant Yeast- 2 tsp/5 to 6 gm
Butter-3 tbsp/30gm(softened)

Method of Preparation:
1. Mix flour n water well without any lumps. Cook over medium low heat, stirring constantly  to avoid burning or sticking. The mixture starts to become thick.
2. Once you see some lines appear in mixture when you stir with spoon remove from heat. The temperature of mixture will be 65c/149F.
3. Transfer it to a clean bowl and wrap with a cling film to avoid drying. Once cooled completely this can be used to make bread. You can use it the same day or the next day.

Method of making bread:
1. Combine all dry ingredients in a bowl make  a well in center and set aside.
2. whisk egg, milk, tangzhong together and add this into the dry ingredients. Knead until everything comes together and you get a dough shape and gluten has developed. Then knead the butter.
3. Knead the dough into a ball shape and keep it in a  greased bowl covered with a kitchen towel to proof till its doubled in size, about 40 minutes or more depending on the weather.
4. Transfer it to a clean  floured surface. Deflate and divide the dough into four equal portions. Knead into small balls, wrap in cling film and let rest for 15 minutes. Meanwhile grease a 9"X 5" loaf pan. Preheat the oven to 350F.
5. Take a small ball and roll it to a small oval shape using a rolling pin. Fold the smaller side into center and then the other side slightly over the earlier one.
6. Now roll again to form a small rectangle and then make it to a roll. Keep the roll in the baking pan and continue with the other dough ball.
7. Set it aside covered with a kitchen towel to proof  for 40 minutes or till it reaches to 3/4th of the tin.
8. Apply a layer of egg wash to the dough and bake it in the preheated oven for  35 to 40 minutes. To check doneness tap the bread and you should hear a hollow sound.
9. Transfer to wire rack to cool completely. Slice and enjoy soft freshly baked bread. You can keep it in airtight box for later use.

Turned them to a simple sandwich.....

Notes:

1. Tangzhong can be kept fr a day or two in fridge. Do not use it if you see it has turned dark. Top be on safer side use it on the day its made or the next day.
2. You can make this bread into rolls, shape it, fill it.
3. Instead of bread flour you can use all purpose flour.
4. For the half milk half water used in making tangzhong you can use full 1 cup water.
5. Instead of egg wash you can use milk or cream to get brown color, but gloss will not be there.
6. While baking if the top of your bread is browning fast then cover it with a foil.
7. The rise time of dough depends on the area you live.
8. The dough is very sticky.Its a mess when you knead with hand. You have to knead till it is soft and elastic and do not add extra dough. Kneading properly should help to get rid of stickiness.

For shaping the bread check this link.