Chocolate Cashew Butter

This recipe couldn't be any more easier or more delicious! And chocolate makes everything better. This homemade chocolate cashew butter is a great alternative to the store bought chocolate spreads full of corn syrup. The key to the smoothest and tastiest butter is to use good quality fresh cashew and cocoa. So start blending!

Chocolate Cashew Butter

Yeilds: 1 1/2 cups of butter

Ingredients:

• 2 cups - Raw cashew nuts
• 3 tablespoons - Cocoa Powder (add according to taste)
• 3 tablespoons - Extra virgin coconut oil
• 3-4 tablespoons - sugar (add according to taste)

Method:

• In a food processor, grind the cashew nuts to a powder.
• Add in the rest of the ingredients and grind to a smooth paste.
• The food processor over heats, so stop periodically and scrape the sides.
• Transfer to a dry container and keep refrigerated

Note:

• The butter can be stored up to a month in the fridge.
• It can be used as bread spread, to top your favourite ice cream, blend it in with a bowl of oatmeal, or enjoy as a dip for fruit slices.   

Brownies - Eggless

I made this recipe for one of our Deepavali get together. I had to make dessert for almost 60 people, and these brownies seemed like a good idea. I made fondant toppers and stamped them with alphabet stamps.

These brownies where a crowd pleaser! The best part of it was the colorful fondant toppers. This recipe has been adapted from Food for 7 Stages of Life.

Milk + Vinegar resting for 10 minutes

Beating together - Oil, Mil + vinegar mixture, vanilla, coffee 

Chocolate chips tossed with
coco powder or plain flour

Batter in the pan, ready to go into the oven

Baked brownie,  out of the oven and cut into 25 squares.

Brownies – Eggless

Yields: One 8x8 square pan, 25 small pieces.

Ingredients:

For the brownies:

Plain Flour – 1 cup

Cocoa Powder – 6 tablespoons (I used Valrhona Cocoa Powder)

Icing Sugar – 1 Cup

Baking Soda – 1 teaspoon

Salt – a pinch

Oil – 1/3 Cup (I used sunflower oil)

Milk – 1 1/2Cup

Vinegar – 1 teaspoon

Instant coffee powder – ½ teaspoon

Vanilla essence – ½ teaspoon

Chocolate Chips – ½ cup

Walnuts – ¼ cup, chopped and roasted (Optional)

For the fondant toppers:

Chocolate Icing – …. (I used Betty Crocker’s icing)

Readymade Fondant – 1 pack, white color

Food coloring- in different shades

Method:

To make the brownies:

• Line a 8x8 square baking pan with baking sheet. Pre-heat oven to 180C.
• Mix the vinegar with room-temperature milk and set aside for 10 minutes.
• Sift together the flour, icing sugar, baking soda, cocoa powder, and salt.
• In a bowl, beat together the oil and vinegar + milk mixture. To this add the vanilla essence and instant coffee powder and mix well.
• Now add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients in 3 additions, gently fold in the mixture. Do not over beat.
• In a separate bowl toss the chocochips and walnuts with some cocoa powder, this is to prevent them from sinking to the bottom of the tray while baking.
• Fold the chocochips and walnuts into the batter.
• Now pour the batter into the baking pan, and bake for 25-30 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the brownie comes out with crumbs.
• Remove from pan and let it cool. Cut into small squares.

 To make the icing and fondant toppers: (Optional)

• Chill the chocolate icing for about 20 minutes. Then fill a piping bag with the icing and frost the brownies.
• Take a small ball of the white fondant, and knead in the required food colouring.
• Use icing sugar for dusting and then roll out the fondant to desired thickness.
• Use cookie cutters to cut out desired shapes.
• Place the fondant shapes onto the frosted brownies.

 Notes:

• You can add chocolate chips, caramel chips, chocolate chunks, other nuts to change up the flavor of the brownies.
• You can replace the chocolate icing with chocolate ganache. Click here for the chocolate ganache recipe.
• The fondant toppers can be made a day in advance, store in a cool dry place.
• Do not refrigerate the fondant. 

The cut out fondant toppers, layed out on baking paper to dry overnight.

     

                         

Chocolate Ganache Tart

A few years back my mom got me this tart pan from Chennai. I have been meaning to use it to bake a tart for almost 2 years, and have been researching for recipes! Which lead to the next issue of finding a good ganache recipe for the tart filling. After a bit of trial and error, I found a good chocolate ganache recipe and used it for hubby’s birthday cake. So here it is my final quest for tart! It makes for a versatile dessert to wow your guests!

Chocolate Ganache Tart:

Ingredients:

For the tart shell:

All purpose flour – 1 ¼ cups

Egg yolk – 1

Ice Cold water – 2 tablespoons

Vanilla Extract – 1 teaspoon

Sugar – 1/3 cup

Salt – ¼ teaspoon

Cold Butter (unsalted) – 8 tablespoons

For the chocolate ganache filling:

Cooking chocolate (chopped) – 360 grams

Heavy Cream – 1 cup

Unsalted Butter – 3 tablespoons

Vanilla Extract – 1 teaspoon

Directions:

To make the tart Shell:

• In a bowl mix together the egg yolk, cold water and vanilla.
• In a big bowl, add the sifted flour, sugar, salt and butter and beat on medium speed with an electric beater, until the mixture resembles a coarse texture.
• Add the egg mixture and beat on low until the dough comes together.
• Wrap in plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
• Roll out the dough on a using a rolling pin on a light dusted surface (Use plain flour for dusting).
• Roll out until the dough until the thickness is around 1/8th of an inch, and it should be big enough to cover the tart pan.
• Carefully transfer the dough on to the tart pan. Press it to the sides using your fingers and trim out the excess dough.
• Using a fork, score the base. Then cover the dough with a piece of baking paper, and fill it with rice. And bake the tart in a preheated oven at 200 degrees for 5 minutes.  (I do this step to weigh down the dough and to prevent it from puffing up).
• Remove the baking paper and rice, and continue baking for 15-20 minutes at 180 degrees, until the crust is golden brown.
• Let it cool to room temperature, before adding the ganache filling.

To make the Chocolate Ganache Filling:

• Add the chopped chocolate to a big bowl.
• Heat the cream on the stove, and bring it to a boil.
• Then pour half of the hot cream over the chopped chocolate and let it sit for 30 seconds.
• Using a spatula, very gently mix the cream and chocolate until the chocolate is dissolved.
• Pour in the remaining cream and butter; blend it gently until everything is incorporated.
• Let the ganache cool to room temperature.

To assemble the tart:

• Both the tart and ganache has to cool to room temperature.
• Pour the ganache over the tart. If the ganache has thickened and is no longer pourable, warm it for a few seconds in the microwave.
• Cover the tart with plastic wrap and chill in refrigerator, for at least 30 minutes for the ganache to set.
• Take out the Tart a couple of hours before serving a top with fresh raspberries or strawberries along with a dollop of whipped cream.

NOTE:

• I filled the baked tart with chocolate ganache and served it chilled with raspberries and whipped cream.
• I also cut out small circles from the remaining dough and made mini tarts using my muffin pan.
• You can replace the chocolate ganache with a white chocolate filling or a yummy caramel filling.
• Add some chopped toasted nuts for a nice crunchy texture.

Chocolate Ganache Cake

This was the cake I baked for my hubby's birthday last week. He is a huge chocolate fan. So a cake smeared with chocolate ganache sounded like a good idea! 

I baked 3 plain vanilla cakes with a 6" pan. And layered it using chocolate ganache as filling and frosting. Making the chocolate ganache is as easy as eating it :) and it also holds well in the humidity.

Chocolate Ganache Recipe:

Directions :

Thickened Cream - 1 Cup

Baking chocolate/semisweet chocolate chips - 2 Cups

Unsalted Butter - 1 Tablespoon(Optional)

Vanilla Extract - 1/2 Tablespoon

Method:

• Place the chocolate in a heat-proof bowl. If using chocolate bar, chop into small pieces.
• Heat the cream on stove until boiling.
• Pour the hot cream over the chocolate and mix well. 
• Make sure all the chocolate has melted without any lumps.
• Add the softened butter and vanilla to the chocolate and  mix well. (If any lumps prevail, heat it for a few more seconds in the microwave, and mix well.)
• Cool the ganache in the fridge for a couple of hours.
• Whisk the thickened gaanche with a electric beater before use. 

Note:

• The ratio of the cream can be increased to make a thinner ganache that can be poured over your cake to form a glossy finish.
• I used Wilton 2M icing nozzle for the rosettes on the top of the cake, and used the back of a palette knife to make the stripes along the sides of the cake.

5-Minute Chocolate Oatmeal

Hey chocolate lovers!!! Here is an excuse to have chocolate for breakfast! This super quick oatmeal recipe for those boring weekday morning! 

To be fair I hate oatmeal. I have no idea how anyone would eat soggy oatmeal every morning. But I wanted a healthy alternative for the sugary cereal breakfast options. So I did a search for interesting oatmeal recipe and came across this chocolate oatmeal recipe at chocolatecoveredkatie.com. She has all these amazing low-cal dessert recipes.

So for your next breakfast, whip up some oatmeal with chocolate! YUM! 

PS: Always use the best quality cocoa available to get a really great end product!

5-Minute Chocolate Oatmeal

Yields: 1 serving

Ingredients:

• Rolled Oats – 40grams
• Milk – ¾ cup
• Banana – 1
• Cocoa Powder – 1 ½ Tablespoon
• Sugar/Unrefined cane sugar/honey – 1 tablespoon
• Salt – a pinch
• Vanilla Extract – ¼ teaspoon

Directions:

• Combine all the ingredients in a pan, and cook for 5-7 minutes over medium heat.
• Keep stirring until cooked.

Chocolate Avocado Mousse

Here is a guilt free recipe for your chocolate indulgences. I have been saving up some avocado recipes for a while now. Finally this weekend, I found some beautiful ripe avocados in the market. So I decided to try out this super simple recipe from kirantarun.com. She posts some amazing recipes with inspiring photos.

The mousse turned up super delicious, so rich and creamy without all that fattening stuff. For a bit of crunch add a sprinkle of crushed pistachios on top.

Chocolate Avocado Mousse:

Yields: 2 servings

Ingredients:

• 2 – Ripe Avocados
• 115 grams – Baking chocolate
• 2 tablespoon – Oil (I used sunflower oil)
• 1 tablespoon – Honey
• 1 tablespoon – Instant Coffee
• A pinch of salt
• Crushed pistachios for garnish

Directions:

• Mix the chocolate, oil, honey and instant coffee in a microwave safe bowl.
• Microwave this on high for 30-45 seconds, stirring in intervals. Just until the chocolate is melted. Be careful so as not to burn the chocolate. Remove from heat and give it a good mix.
• Remove the avocado pulp from the outer shell and mash it well.
• Add the melted chocolate and the salt to the mashed avocado and mix well until everything is smooth and creamy.
• Chill for a couple of hours. Serve chilled, topped with crushed pistachios or cashews.

Chocolate Pudding

Puddings were a new concept to me. When I first moved to Singapore, I tried these small mango pudding cups from Fairprice. These were almost a jelly than a pudding, so I was never really interested in puddings again. But some years later a friend of mine from Germany said that she was totally addicted to chocolate puddings! So I gave chocolate pudding a try, and they were pure bliss! 

I stumbled upon a wonderful site pixelandcrumbs.com, I found this easy recipe for chocolate pudding. Her pictures were so inspiring for my photo shoot as well.

Recently we went to a close-friend’s daughter’s birthday. I wanted to make a quick and eggless dessert to take to the birthday party. And this pudding recipe seemed the perfect dessert for a 9 year old and a 3 year old! The adults too enjoyed their sweet little chocolate cups!

Chocolate Pudding:

Makes: 12 small jelly cups of pudding

Ingredients:

¼ cup (30 grams) – Corn-starch ( I used tapioca starch)

½ cup (100 grams) – Sugar

1/8 teaspoon - Salt

3 Cups (705 ml) – Milk

170 grams (6 ounces) – Baking Chocolate, coarsely chopped (I used Hershey’s chocolate chips)

1 teaspoon – Vanilla essence

Directions:

• Use a double broiler, or place a large stainless steel bowl over a pot of simmering hot water.
• In the stainless steel bowl add the tapioca starch, sugar and salt.
• Slowly add the milk to the bowl. Keep stirring constantly to mix all the ingredients.
• Keep the stove on medium, and continue to stir for about 10-15 minutes.
• As the mixture begins to thicken, to test the consistency, use a spoon to see if it coats the back of the spoon.
• Now add the chocolate and keep stirring until dissolved for about 3-5 minutes.
• Remove from heat and add the vanilla essence.
• If there are any lumps, strain the pudding through a strainer. This is not necessary if the pudding is of smooth consistency.
• When still hot, spoon the pudding into serving bowl or individual cups.
• Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes and upto 3 days. 
• Serve chilled with a topping of strawberries/whipped cream/ any nuts.

Double Broiler Method

The mixture coating the back of the spoon.

Chocolate Brownies

My most favorite dessert is the brownie. I love their rich and dense chocolate texture. I was first introduced to brownies during my Undergrad days. My friends and I often visited a coffee shop next to our college. I hate coffee, but at that time cold coffee was quite the fab! We also had the brownies, which when zapped in the microwave for 10 seconds, tasted like molten lava cakes! I fell for these square pieces of heaven on my first bite!

I love baking brownies for 2 reasons. One, It is very hard to mess up a brownie recipe. Two, everyone loves brownies!

This is my go to recipe for brownies! Thank you www.browneyedbaker.com for this wonderful recipe.

Hershey's Baking chocolate.

Melting the chocolate with butter oven a pan of simmering water.

So I hope you give this recipe a try and share the baked goodies with your friends. They will love you for it.

Chocolate Brownies:

http://chitra-frommykitchen.blogspot.sg/

Yeild: 24 Brownies

Ingredints:

1¼ cups - Plain flour
1 teaspoon - Salt
2 tablespoons - Cocoa powder
11 ounces - Baking chocolate, coarsely chopped (i used Hershey's Baking Chocolate Bar)
1 cup - Unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 teaspoon - Instant Coffee powder (I used Bru Coffee)
1½ cups - Sugar
½ cup - Packed light brown sugar
5 eggs - At room temperature
2 teaspoons - Vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter the sides and bottom of a 9x13-inch baking pan. Line the pan with parchment paper.
2. In a bowl, whisk the flour, salt, and cocoa powder together.
3. Put the chocolate, butter and instant coffee powder in a large bowl and set it over a saucepan of simmering water, stirring occasionally, until the chocolate and butter are completely melted and smooth. Turn off the heat, but keep the bowl over the water and add the sugars. Whisk until completely combined, then remove the bowl from the pan. 
4. Let the mixture cool to room temperature.
5. Add 3 eggs to the chocolate mixture and whisk until combined. Add the remaining eggs and whisk until combined. Add the vanilla and stir until combined. Do not overbeat the batter at this stage or your brownies will be cakey.
6. Sprinkle the flour mixture over the chocolate mixture. Using a rubber spatula or a wooden spoon (not a whisk), fold the flour mixture into the chocolate until just a bit of the flour mixture is visible.
7. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top. Bake in the center of the oven for 30 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through the baking time, until a toothpick inserted into the center of the brownies comes out with a few moist crumbs sticking to it. Let the brownies cool completely, then lift them out of the pan using the parchment paper. Cut into squares and serve.
8. Store at room temperature in an airtight container for upto 3-4 days.
9. Refrigerate up to 2 weeks. While serving, heat in microwave for 10-15 seconds, and top it with vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce.
10. For freezing, cut into squares and store in individual bags, and store in the freeze for up to a month. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator and serve warm.

Condensed Milk Chocolate Pedas

I love Indian sweets. Unfortunately in Singapore, the so called Indian sweets are a bad concoction of food colouring and sugar! But I have to say some of our sweets are soo tedious to make, and it takes many trials to get it just right. There was this one time I tried hot jalebi, it was so much work, and at the end of two hours it turned out to be soggy!

  So here is a quick and easy recipe to help you through your sugar craving moments, and it gets better with an added touch of chocolate! This recipe was adapted from Niya’s World. 

Condensed Milk Chocolate Pedas:

Makes  18 pedas.

Ingredients: 

• 2 teaspoon – butter/ghee
• 1 tin (400 g) – Milkmaid Condensed Milk*
• 1 Tablespoon – Cocoa Powder
• 2 tablespoon – Sugar
• 2 teaspoon – more ghee

*I used Evaporated milk for a richer taste. 

Cooking the milk and cocoa mixture,
stirring continuously.

Directions:

• Grease a steel/glass plate with a little bit of ghee/butter.
• In a non-stick pan, heat the 2 teaspoons of butter/ghee, on a medium flame.
• Add the condensed milk along with the cocoa powder and sugar. Mix well
• Stir continuously for 20-22 minutes on a low flame, or until the mixtures thickens and leaves the sides of the pan.
• Pour the cooked mixture into the greased steel/glass plate and keep aside to cool completely, about half an hour.
• Apply the remaining ghee on both palms and shape the cooled mixture into small balls/pedas.
• Garnish with slivered almonds or cashews.
• Store in the refrigerator,  for up to a week.

Eggless Chocolate Chip Cookies

Hubby and I were to meet with a few of his North Indian colleagues over the weekend. We meet at the Lakeside park. It was a wonderful evening, and the place was so beautiful. We had so much fun and games! 

All of has decided on a pot-luck style dinner, so each family got to bring something. I made some veg. noodles as main course, and decided to bake some cookies for dessert or as a snack. But most of our friends were pure vegetarians and don’t eat eggs. So this was a challenge for me. Because, I have never tried out an eggless cookie or a cake recipe before.

 

I have been asked a lot of times before, about eggless recipes. So this seemed like a good time for me to do some research on eggless baking. I decided to make Eggless Chocolate Chip Cookies. And I started collecting recipes. I had 4-5 recipes that I was going to try out. The first recipe was a simple cookie recipe, without egg. I thought this was so simple, and tried out my first batch. It wasn’t nice at all, too oily and too hard. 

So I went to me second recipe on my list. This time it included flax seeds as a replacement for eggs. I was sceptical at first. But still gave it a try, and the cookies were so good! They were crunchy and chocolaty! Perfectly cooked! I was so relieved that they came out good! And the flax seeds are high in fibre, and also contain omega 3 fatty acids, so double ok for the Eggless Chocolate Chip Cookies!!!

Eggless Chocolate Chip Cookies 

Ingredients: 

·         1 1/4 Cup - All Purpose Flour

·         1/4 tea sp  - Baking soda

·         1 pinch  - salt

·         1/2 Cup -  Brown Sugar

·         1/4 Cup  - White Sugar

·         1/2 Cup - Butter

·         2 table sp - Ground Flax Seed  ( got mine at NTUC )

·         3 table sp - Warm Water

·         1 tea sp - Vanilla Essence  

·         1 Cup - Chocolate Chips ( I used Hershey’s )

Directions: 

·         Preheat your oven to 160°C for 10 minutes.

·         Mix the ground flax seed with the warm water. Allow it to sit for 2 minutes.

·         Sift together the all-purpose flour, baking soda and the salt.

·         In a separate bowl, combine together the brown & white sugar, butter and flax seed mixture.  Mix thoroughly. 

·         Add the sifted flour to the sugar and butter mixture.  Mix until combined.

·         You should have a nice stiff dough.

·         Mix in your chocolate chips.

·         Cover your baking tray with butter paper.

·         Form small balls of dough with wet hands.

·         Place on the baking tray with 2 inch space between them, and slightly press them flat.

·         Bake for 20 minutes at 160°C, until golden brown.

This one is for all you vegan out there! enjoy! And for non-vegan, Please add two eggs in place of the flax seed and warm water. Thanks.