Jaffa Loaf

This is a easy cake recipe from the BBC Good Food.  It had good reviews and I made a few changes more because I ran short of a few ingredients.  The family loved it.  Do try it !

The original recipe is here.  The changes I made are in italics at the end of the recipe.

Ingredients:

Butter - softened - 140 g
Self raising flour - 200 g
Baking powder -  1 1/2 tsp
Golden caster sugar - 200 g
Eggs - 3
Milk - 6 tbsp
Finely grated zest of Orange - 1

Topping
Orange juice - 3 tbsp
Golden caster sugar - 50g
Dark chocolate - 50 g

Butter and line the base of a loaf tin.  Oven set at 180C

Place ingredients for the cake in a bowl - butter, self raising flour, baking powder, caster sugar, eggs, milk and zest.

Beat with hand whisk or a wooden spoon for 3-5 mins till light and fluffy. 

Spoon into the prepared tin and level the top.

Place in oven 40-50 mins till golden brown and done.

As the cake is baking heat the orange juice and sugar gently, till the sugar is dissolved.

Cake with the orange marmalade topping

Once the cake is done, remove from oven and spoon the orange mixture on it.  Leave it in the tin till it cools. Then remove and keep on wire rack.

Prepare the chocolate.  Place in bowl and melt over simmering water or in a microwave as per instructions on the pack.

Drizzle over cake and leave to set. 

My changes

I had salted butter.  I used 100 g ( ran short of butter) and 40 g of refined oil
Since I used salted butter, I used plain flour instead of self raising flour.  Take a cup of plain flour, add  1 1/2 tsp baking powder and omitted the salt)
Additional baking powder as per the recipe wasalso added
I used zest and a teaspoon of candied peel
Instead of orange juice, I used orange marmalade for the additional peel that it contained to which a little water was added and gently heated till it dissolved.  Poked a few holes in the cake and allowed it to seep inside and also coated the surface.
Plain chocolate was used instead of dark chocolate and I did not drizzle it but applied it to coat the top.

Chocolate Banana Bread

I looked for recipe to make with the ingredients I had.  One banana that had gone too soft.  No butter.  Few eggs. Some cocoa.  A few walnuts. And I found the basic recipe here that had a chocolate drizzle.  I thought I could avoid that. As well as the pastry flour bit, since I had run out of cornflour.  Put the cocoa in and threw in the nuts. I was also dying to try out an electric hand held beater which worked very well. And the banana bread turned out quite nice.  Good enough to feature here and make again.

Ingredients:  Made half the recipe that could serve 5

All purpose flour - 1 3/4  *
Sugar - 1/2 cup
Baking soda - 1 tsp
Cocoa powder - 2-3 tbsp
Baking powder - 1/2 tsp
Salt - 1/4 tsp
Refined oil - 1/4 cup and a little more for greasing the tin
Curd / yogurt - 1/4 cup
Eggs 1 + 1 egg white ( I used just the whole egg)
Vanilla - 1/2 tsp
Banana - 3 nos - mashed about 1 1/2 cup
Walnuts - 1/4 cups


Grease a tin.  Line it with parchment paper.
Preheat the oven to 180 C

In a bowl whisk the dry ingredients - flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, sugar and cocoa.
In another bowl whisk the eggs, curd, oil, vanilla.
Mash the banana and add it to the liquid ingredients and whisk well.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, add walnuts and blend well.
Pour in the batter into the prepared loaf tin.
Bake till done.

I made half the quantity and it took me 30-35 minutes till the skewer came out clean.
Recipe calls for 50 mins.  So do check.

The loaf can be given a nice chocolate drizzle, or dust some icing sugar on top.
The cake has just the right amount of sweetness, however if you want it sweeter and you are not having a dusting of icing sugar or drizzle, add a wee bit more.
*And it also called for pastry flour - that is with a bit of cornflour- I ran out of it and did not add. Not sure what the difference would be.
All in all an enjoyable cake.

Chocolate Swirl Buns

If you like baked products that use chocolate, this one is for you.  I only messed up the rolling part and would have had more swirls if I had paid more attention to the details.  But the taste was not compromised.  I had run out of the dry yeast that I had bought in the UK.  You know how it is with the best before date that the products have. It said BBE Dec 2014.  I used it in January 2015 and sure enough the yeast was ineffective.  I then got this Indian dry yeast and I am glad it worked well.

This recipe from Smitten Kitten, and though she uses her stand mixer, I did the kneading manually.  That worked too :-)

Ingredients - makes 12 ( I used half the recipe and made six)

The Dough

Milk ( I used skim) 1/2 cup

Granulated sugar - 1/4 cup

All Purpose Flour - 2 cups 

Salt - 1/2 tsp

Dry Yeast - 2 1/2 tsp

Egg - 1 large

Unsalted butter - 3 tbsp plus more to grease the bowl and muffin tin and filling

* egg and butter at room temperature

Filling

Unsalted butter - 3 tbsp

Granulated sugar - 1/4 cup

Semi sweet chocolate- 225 gms

Salt - pinch

Ground cinnamon - 3/4 tsp ( optional) 

Egg wash - optional

I had used only part of the egg, so I beat the balance with a little milk

Make the dough - 

Warm milk.  Mix the sugar.  Add the yeast.  Let it stand for about 5 minutes till it becomes foamy and bubbly

In a bowl, whisk the egg and remaining sugar and then mix in the yeast mixture

Combine flour and salt.

Add the egg-yeast mixture.  Knead the dough gently

Add the butter and continue to knead  for about 10 minutes.  

The dough will be sticky, but not a reason for worry.

Grease a bowl with butter, place the dough in it. Cover with cling film.  

Keep for an hour or till the dough doubles in size.

Prepare the filling.

Chop the chocolate, pulse it in a mixer with salt, sugar and cinnamon.  The chocolate is finely chopped and part of it will be powdered.

Keep the butter ready

Grease a muffin tray and keep ready

Making of the bun

Once the dough has risen.  Turn on to a well floured surface

Deflate gently.  Rest for another 5 minutes

Roll it into a large rectangle.  

Short side should be 11 to 12 inches ( for six buns it can be much less)

And roll the other side as long as you can

Now spread the butter over the dough surface

And then spread the chocolate mixture

This is where I went wrong !

Tightly roll the dough over the filling from the short end all the way to the other short end.  You will get more swirls this way

Cut 1" segments and place in the greased muffin tray

Cover and keep for another 30 minutes

Meanwhile pre-heat oven to 180 degrees

You can brush the buns with egg wash or avoid it altogether

Bake for about 15-20 minutes till puffed and golden.  Keep on cooling rack.

  

Brownies - version 2

K made these lovely brownies.  I also have another brownie recipe here, but she wanted something less fudgy. She has full faith in the recipes on the Joy of Baking site, and this brownie was described as one with a cracked crust, moist centre and deep chocolatey flavour. It turned out just that way.  We planned it for dessert on a day I had a guest over for dinner.  And it also helped that the guest walked in with a tub of ice cream.  So we had two servings of the brownie - one with ice cream and one without.

As the brownie was out of the oven just as dinner got over, I could only manage this one picture.

The recipe is simple. A one bowl - no fuss method.  Only towards the end of baking, one needs to keep an eye on the brownies to make sure they don't dry out.  So the trick is to keep checking and remove it from the oven when the toothpick that is inserted comes out with a little bit of batter still sticking to it.

Ingredients: ( makes 16 nos)

Semi sweet chocolate - 150 gms - chopped
Unsalted butter - 113 gms - cut into pieces ( 1/2 cup)
Cocoa powder - 15 gms
Granulated white sugar - 200 gms ( 1 cup)
Vanilla extract - 1 tsp
Eggs - large - 3
All purpose flour - 95 gms ( 3/4 cup)
Salt - 1/4 tsp
Semi sweet chocolate chips - 125 gms (3/4 cup) - optional
Nuts - optional - but added here - 1/2 cup

Prepare a 8" square tin.  Grease and line the bottom with parchment paper
Preheat the oven to 180 C

Melt chocolate and butter either over water or in the microwave
Remove, stir in the cocoa powder and sugar
Whisk in the vanilla extract
Add the eggs one at a time and continue to beat it well
Stir in the flour, salt and chocolate chips
Mix in the nuts

Pour into the prepared tin
Bake for about 20-25 minutes - till the toothpick comes out a little sticky in the centre.
Do not over bake

Remove and cool on wire rack.

Serve at room temperature or chilled.  With or without ice cream.

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

K has been asking me to make these cookies for some time now.  It is a recipe on the Betty Crocker website and is extremely simple to make.  You may never want to buy oatmeal cookies again.

I made half the quantity of the recipe that follows and I should have got 21 cookies but I got about 16 of them.  So it could vary according to the size of the cookie.

Ingredients:

Brown Sugar (packed) - 1 1/2 cups

Butter -softened - 1 cup

Vanilla essence - 1 tsp

Egg -1

Quick cooking oats - 2 cups

All purpose flour - 1 1/2 cups

Baking soda - 1 tsp

Salt - 1/4 tsp

Semi sweet chocolate chips - 1 cup

( Optional - chopped nuts - 1 cup)

Preheat oven to 180 C

Whisk the sugar and butter till well blended

Add the vanilla and the egg and continue whisking till light and fluffy

Stir in oats, flour, baking soda and salt

Followed by the choco chips ( and nuts if you are adding)

( The dough was rather solid, and I added a bit of milk to loosen it a bit but K tells me it was not necessary )

Onto an ungreased baking sheet, drop spoonfuls of dough about 2 inches apart

( I did this without the spoons - kind of shaped them into balls and flattened them a bit )

Bake 10 to 12 mins until golden brown.

Cool slightly and then remove them from the sheet on to a cooling rack

Chocolate Chip Blondie

Today is S' birthday.  And she is responsible for the birth of this blog.  She is far away, but I thought I would make this on her birthday.  And also it satisfies my eternal sweet tooth :-)

I have never eaten a blondie before.  This site promised a recipe that could be mixed and made in a jiffy.  And it was just that.  No undue fuss.  And a good product.  I hope I made what it is meant to be. It was kind of crisp on the exterior but nice and chewy as you bit into it.  And it was good.

But as my baking improves, I must say my photography hasn't.  But don't go by the picture.  Make/Bake it right away !

Ingredients - Makes about two dozen

Brown sugar - packed - 1 1/2 cups
Butter - unsalted, melted - 1/2 cup
Eggs - lightly beaten - 2 nos
All purpose flour - 1 1/2 cups
Vanilla essence - 1 tsp
Baking powder - 1/2 tsp
Salt - 1/2 tsp
Semi-sweetened chocolate chips - 1 cup

Preheat the oven to 190C

Take a large bowl
Add into it, brown sugar, butter, beaten eggs, vanilla essence.
I used a manual egg beater to blend it all together

Combine flour, baking powder, salt.

Add to the sugar mixture.  Mix it in well

Blend in the chocolate chips

Spread ( the batter is quite thick) into a baking pan.  I had just a cake tin
Bake till a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean ( about 18-20 mins)
Cool on wire rack
Cut into squares.

Enjoy with a cup of tea.

Chocolate Lava Cake

Sa made this yummy Chocolate Lava Cake.  The pictures say it all...

When it came out of the oven it looked just like any other chocolate cake like this one

However, when we dug into it .....

And now for the recipe, source - The Big Book of Chocolate

Ingredients:
Butter - 100 gms - chopped and a little extra for greasing
Dark Chocolate - 150 gms - broken to small pieces
Eggs - 4
Castor Sugar - 135 gms
Plain Flour - 160 gms

Preheat the oven to 180C
Grease 4 ramekins with butter
On a double boiler heat the butter and the chocolate together until just melted
(Make sure the water in the lower compartment does not come in touch with the base of the upper vessel)
Once just melted, remove pan from heat and stir until smooth with a wooden spoon
Keep aside to cool
In a large bowl or in a processor - beat the eggs and the sugar until thick and pale
Stir in the flour
Then gently fold in the chocolate mixture using a metal spoon
Divide evenly between the 4 ramekins
Bake in the oven for 8-10 minutes
Remove from oven and leave to cool for a few minutes
Should be had warm
You can also turn onto a plate for serving

Blueberry and White Chocolate Muffins

The muffins were picture perfect... but I learnt a few lessons in baking  One - never use blueberries that are still tart for baking.  Two - never try to improvise on a recipe.  I thought I could cut down the white chocolate chips.  Result - great looking muffins but not sweet enough for my liking !!  So, stick to the recipe and if you are on a diet - do not bake !

Ingredients: Makes 6 nos
Flour - 150 gms
Sugar - Golden Castor - 50 gms
Baking powder - 1/2 tsp
Salt - a pinch
Egg - 1 beaten
Butter - 50 gms - melted and cooled
Milk - 100 ml
Blueberries - 75 gms
White chocolate chunks - 75 gms

Pre-heat oven to 200C
Line a muffin tin with paper cases
Put the dry ingredients together - flour, sugar, baking powder and salt - in a bowl
Mix beaten egg, melted butter and milk into the dry ingredients
Add the blueberries and chocolate chunks
Do not over mix.  It should be slightly lumpy.
Put into the paper cases and bake for 25 minutes or till the muffins rise and the tops are golden

Recipe Source: BBC Good Food

Biscuit Brownie

A no baking biscuit brownie.  That even a kid can make.  And so we made B make it.  And it turned out yummy.  Recipe is from Edible Garden and she even has step by step pictures.

Ideally give four or more hours of refrigeration.  And if you do not have the patience, a two hour wait will also do.  You will get nice chewy brownies rather than stiff ones.  Makes no difference to the taste.  But if you wait, you will get better pictures.

Ingredients:
Marie Biscuits - 20 nos
Cocoa unsweetened - 3 tbsp
Cashew/Almond mix - 1/4 cup - roasted - any nut will do
Condensed Milk - 200 gms ( which is roughly half a tin)
Instant coffee powder - 1 tsp ( optional)

You can add 2 tsp of sugar if you would like it sweeter (optional) - not really necessary

Take a bowl.
Powder the Marie Biscuits.  Allow a few coarse pieces too.  Adds to the crunch
Add the cocoa powder and the coffee powder.
Mix well.  If you are adding the sugar do it here.
Dry roast the nuts of your choice. And make into small pieces.
Add this to the mixture.
Now slowly pour in the condensed milk.  Keep mixing - with a spoon
It will be a slow mix since the mixture is sort of a wet solid.  Make sure all ingredients are blended well.

Line a bowl/tray with greased paper.
Pour in the mixture.
With slightly moist fingers, press down the mixture and level it.

Keep in the refrigerator for a minimum of 4 hours.  Or overnight if you can resist taking a bite.

Cut into pieces.  It will not last long.  So I honestly do not know the shelf life.  But if refrigerated I guess it will keep for at least 10 days.

Chocolate Cake in a Mug

Just 2 minute cooking time, almost as quick as making Maggi Noodles.  Recipe from Edible Garden.   And it was so good that I ended up making quite a few mug cakes.

And if you want to plate it - it makes no difference to the taste, you could even serve it with a dollop of whipped cream, ice-cream, custard or whatever

Sorry, could not resist having a bite of the cake before taking the photograph.

And now the recipe:


Ingredients:
This serves 2
Refined flour - 4 tbsp
Sugar - 5 tbsp
Butter - 3 tbsp
Cocoa unsweetened - 2 tbsp
Egg - 1
Milk - 4 tbsp
Baking powder - 1 tsp
Vanilla essence - 1/4 tsp
Salt - pinch

*Beat the egg in a small bowl and keep ready

*Use 2 mugs - microwave safe - that can at least hold 250 ml since the cake will rise

*To each mug - add half the flour, cocoa, baking powder, salt and sugar.  Stir till blended with a fork

*Add half the amount to each mug of - milk, butter, vanilla essence

*Mix well

*Add half the whisked egg to each mug and blend once again till the whole mixture is well mixed.  If the mixture appears too thick just add a little milk.

*Put one mug at a time into the microwave and on medium heat ( in my Samsung microwave I used 60% heat) for 2 minutes. Just keep an eye to see it does not over flow

*At the end of two minutes your cake is ready.  And it is amazing.  Try it.

Some variations/tips suggested  from Nags of Edible Garden -
1. You could use refined oil instead of butter
2. Use brown sugar instead of white
3. For eggless version replace with 3 tbsp of yogurt
4. Do not use convection mode of microwave
5. If you want your cake a little sticky - then you could stop cooking it as soon as you notice it turning a little like a brownie - as it tends to cook a little more as it cools down.

ENJOY!

Yummy Chocolate Ball

Recipe sent by AG. All the ingredients for the recipe can be eaten plain. But blend them in together and what you get is a delicious product.

Ingredients:

Digestive biscuits - 100 gms

Condensed milk - 50 ml ( amount may vary)

Cocoa / Drinking chocolate - 2 tbsp - I used drinking chocolate, cocoa may be better

Nuts/Raisins - optional

Crush the digestive biscuits in a bowl.

Add the cocoa / drinking chocolate

And the nuts and raisins.

I even added some muesli here.

Slowly add the condensed milk, while you blend continuously.

The mixture consistency should be such that you can make round balls.

You can roll the balls in coconut flakes too.

Place butter paper on tray, and keep the rolled chocolate balls on it.

Freeze till set.

Eat.

( The recipe can also be flattened to make bars)

Quickest-ever Dark Chocolate Mousse

Dish prepared by S.

Prep time: 10 mins, plus chilling - 30 mins
Ingredients:
egg whites -2
caster sugar -5 tbsp
dark chocolate - 200g melted and left to cool.
double cream- 250 ml/ 1cup - whipped to soft peaks.

In a large bowl, whisk the egg whites until soft peaks form, using an electric hand mixer.
Add sugar gradually while continuing to whisk until the whites are thick and shiny.
Using a metal spoon, fold in the melted chocolate and cream.
Using a large spoon, divide the mousse between 4 serving dishes
Refrigerate for 30 minutes before serving.