CHOCOLATE MUFFINS BY REBECCA

"Exercise is a dirty word. Every time I hear it. I wash my mouth out with chocolate." Charles M. Schulz

If I remember correctly, the first time I met Siddharth was when I was five. We've been in and out of touch since but recently we found each other in Delhi! At his housewarming I scarfed down atleast three of these amazing chocolate muffins by the ridiculously pretty Rebecca Aranha. Since she is also incredibly nice, she forwarded me the recipe. See below and bon appetit!

 You’ll need:

1.5 cups of flour

1 cup of cocoa powder

2.5 tsps of baking powder

2 and a quarter cups of sugar

1 cup of softened butter

4 eggs

Upto 1 cup of boiling water

2 tsps vanilla essence

Muffins away:

 1. Sieve the flour, cocoa and baking powder together at least thrice.

Note: Whisk the mixture together, pop on to a sieve and then shake the flour through. Repeat twice.

2. Cream the softened butter and sugar together in a mixing bowl. Fold the flour+cocoa mixture into the sugar+butter, in portions, adding an egg each time. Mix well.

3. Add the boiling water little by little (you don't need a whole cup, totally depends upon how thick you want your batter to be. I usually make do with 3/4ths of a cup), and keep stirring the batter till you feel it has the right consistency. The water must be boiling hot - it'll melt all the granules of sugar and make your life much easier when it comes to stirring the batter. Add the vanilla essence at the end and give it a good stir.

 

4. Preheat at 180°celsius.

5. Bake at 150° celsius for 25 mins or so.

 Foodnotes:

• You could also bake this into a light chocolate cake, if you're not in the mood for muffins.
• You could consider dropping in a couple of teaspoons of coffee or cinnamon powder into the batter before you bake to add an extra layer of flavor.

• Baking 101 from Rebecca

 

·   ALWAYS stir everything in only one direction.

·   Taste your batter to see if it's sweet enough for your tastes.

·   Don't over-melt the butter in the microwave. Butter should never be allowed to split.

·   The more you love your batter the better it will be. Stir it realllly well.

·   If you let the batter sit in the mixing bowl for a little while the cake comes out better.

·   To check if the cake is done poke a toothpick down the middle. It should come out clean-ish (you can usually SMELL when the cake is perfectly done. take it out before it starts smelling burnt).

Sid and Rebecca

BANANA BREAD

"Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana” - Groucho Marx

Banana bread! I don't need to convince you do I? Chocolate is a wonderful thing but there are so many beautiful things that come out of fruit being baked! I'm gushing, I know but it's worth it. Rule of life: banana bread is always worth it. What you’ll need: ½ cup softened butter ¾ cup sugar 3 eggs 2 ½ cup mashed overripe bananas 1 full teaspoon vanilla 2 cups flour 1 ½ teaspoon baking soda 1 teaspoon cinnamon ½ teaspoon grated nutmeg (optional)  How to:  1. Preheat your oven to 350°Celsius and grease your baking dish.   2. Beat together butter and sugar until creamy and the sugar is dissolved. Add one egg at a time and keep whisking. Then add mashed bananas and vanilla. Keep whisking.   3. In another bowl combine flour, baking soda, cinnamon and nutmeg (if you have some) and whisk well.  4. Add the flour to the egg mixture slowly and blend. Pour batter into your baking dish. 5. Bake for 30 – 40 minutes or till a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Foodnotes:  Serve warm drizzled over with honey on top.  If you have walnuts at hand, chop them up and chuck them into the batter.

LEMON LOAF WITH LEMON CREAM ICING

“I believe when life gives you lemons, you should make lemonade...and try to find someone whose life has given them vodka, and have a party.” - Ron White

 

I have to confess I'm not always in the mood for chocolate. A strong, fruit flavour is perfect at the end of a summer day.

What you’ll need:

For the lemon loaf:

1 ½ cups flour

1 heaping teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

1 ¼ cup confectioner’s sugar

5 eggs

¼ cup lemon zest

¼ cup lemon juice

1 cup unsalted butter

¼ cup sour cream

1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract

For the icing:

1 cup confectioner’s sugar

4 – 6 tablespoons lemon juice

½ cup cream cheese

How to:

Make your loaf: 

1. Preheat oven to 190°Celsius. Brush down your cake tin with melted butter.

2. Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda and set aside.

3. In a bowl, combine sugar, lemon juice and lemon zest. Blend in eggs one at a time, mixing the entire time. Drizzle butter into the mixture. Then add sour cream and vanilla.

4. Combine the flour mixture in one third at a time. Whisk till smooth. Pour into pan and bake for 20 minutes or till toothpick inserted in the centre of the loaf comes out clean. Let cool.

Make your icing:

Blend together sugar, lemon juice and cream cheese till smooth.

Top it up:

Unmould cake once its cool and pour icing mixture on top. To prettify further decorate with slices of lemon.

Foodnotes:

If you can’t get enough lemon juice or if you want your cake to have less lemon flavor you can use orange juice in part.

FRUIT AND CREAM

"A table, a chair, a bowl of fruit and a violin; what else does a man need to be happy?" - Albert Einstein

It's always difficult to come up with a dessert that everyone in my family can eat considering everyone's health issues. It makes me feel really guilty to walk in to the living room with a cake while words like hypertension, cholestrol, pre-diabetic are being thrown around. This has to be the healthiest desserts possible and despite this virtue it really is quite satisfying. Try it when you want to spare yourself some guilt. It doesn't hurt that it takes just about 10 minutes to put together.

 

Recipe my own

Ingredients:

3-4 cups of assorted fruit (chopped)

200 ml fresh cream

4-5 tablespoons honey

2 teaspoon cinnamon powder

How to:

1. Wash and clean your fruit, chop into even sized portions and fill into 6 – 8 bowls. Pop in the refrigerator.

2. In a blender or with a whisk, mix together the fresh cream, honey and cinnamon till nice and fluffy.

Note: Make sure the cinnamon powder is really fine and that it’s not going to show up as little lumps in your cream.

 3. Pour even portions of cream mixture on to your bowls of fruit. Drizzle with more honey on top. Serve.

 

Footnotes:

 The only difficult thing about this recipe is your choice of fruit. Try to pick fruits which are firm and which will hold their own flavor (without releasing juice) and not turn the whole mixture goopy or sticky. I would recommend apples, pears, strawberries, grapes and maybe bananas (if nice and firm). Also consider any other berries, slices of orange but then pop them in whole, cutting them will make them fall apart in the mixture.

STRAWBERRY ICEBOX CAKE

“Oh, the strawberries don't taste as they used to and the thighs of women have lost their clutch!” - John Steinbeck

 

An icebox cake is a very easy, no-bake cake where digestive biscuits and cream are layered together and refrigerated. While being refrigerated the cream seeps through the biscuits and the whole concoction melds together into a soft, spongey cake-like texture.

I wouldn't necessarily serve this out to guests, there's something really unglamourous about the whole thing, but I do like it is as a goopy indulgence shared with people looking for a sugar fix, unconcerned with appearances and frippery.

 

Serves 6

Adapted from (and picture from) Kitchn.com 

 

Ingredients:

 

About 1 kg of strawberries

3 cups cream

1/3 cup confectioner’s sugar

1 tablespoon vanilla

28-30 digestive biscuits

½ cup chopped up chocolate

How to:

1. Whip the cream, sugar and vanilla till light and fluffy.

2. Pick a rectangular shaped dish for a cake dish and line the bottom with one layer of biscuit. Unlike ordinary cake/pie crusts there’s no need to crumble the biscuits. Just lay them flat in your dish.

3. Using a butter knife or a spoon, smooth on one layer of the cream mixture on top of the biscuit base. Top with a layer of strawberries, sliced flat.

4. Lay down another layer of biscuit. Repeat with layers of cream, fruit, biscuit twice.

 

Note: The more layers you make the longer you need to refrigerate to make sure the cream has time to soak into the biscuit.

5. Top with a final layer of cream. Garnish with fruits. If you have chocolate on hand, melt it and drizzle on top. Refrigerate overnight.

Foodnotes:

I’ve tried this with mango as well. I think any slightly gooey fruit might work.

THE WORLD'S EASIEST CHEESECAKE

 But Derek, I love you, in a really, really big 'pretend to like your taste in music, let you eat the last piece of cheesecake, hold a radio over my head outside your window', unfortunate way that makes me hate you, love you. So pick me, choose me, love me. - Meredith Grey

Okay, so the quote above has little to do with cheesecake but I'm a sucker for Grey's Anatomy and a big fan of Meredith Grey. Go ahread. Judge me if you must.

 If you've just been reading the recipes here and not trying them out you may be unconvinced by my harping on about how simple they are. Well this one is the EASIEST of them so far. It doesn't even involve an oven! You really just need to try it.

I've adapted this from a Nigella recipe. Ordinarily Nigella's generous hand with all things calorific makes me a little uncomfortable but when the recipe in question is a cheesecake, there's no way to escape without calories anyway, right?

Ingredients:

A packet and a half of digestive biscuits

½ cup unsalted butter

300 gms cream cheese

½ cup confectioner’s sugar

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

½ tablespoon lemon juice

250 ml cream

1 Jar fruit preserve (for a topping, if you like)

 

How to:

1. Beat the biscuits into crumbs. I like to put them in a plastic bag and then bung them with a rolling pin but you decide how you want to pulverize the biscuits. Add butter and mix in with your hands to form crumbly dough.

2. If you want to unmould the cheesecake later then use a springform tin. I usually just leave it in the pie dish and serve out of there. Line the container of your choice with the crumb mixture. You should have enough to create a ridge on the sides of your dish. Pop container into the refrigerator.

3. Take a large bowl and dump in the cream cheese, sugar, vanilla and lemon juice. In a separate bowl whip the cream up and then add to the cream cheese. Whisk baby whisk! Make sure you have a nice smooth batter.

4. Pour batter on to biscuit base and smooth up the surface. Refrigerate overnight.

Yup, that's it. No, seriously you just made a cheesecake.

Foodnotes:

You can add the fruit preserve on top if you want an extra layer of flavor but the cheesecake is lovely even without. If adding preserve, you may want to stir it a little first so it becomes easier to pour/ ladle on the cake.

STRAWBERRY GLAZED PIE

Are wild strawberries really wild? Will they scratch an adult, will they snap at a child? Should you pet them, or let them run free where they roam? - Shel Silverstein

This is such a pretty pie! And without any of the fuss of making pie crusts and fancy fillings. Try this for when you want the most amount of impact with the least effort. Bon appetit!

Ingredients:

For the crust

1 1/3 cup flour

1 tablespoon confectioner’s sugar

8 tablespoons unsalted butter (chilled)

½ teaspoon vinegar (white)

5 tablespoons ice water

For the pie filling

4 cups fresh strawberries (wash and slice off tops)

1 cup sugar

1 cup water

3 tablespoons corn starch

2-3 tablespoons strawberry jello mix

How to:

Make the crust:

1. Dunk flour, sugar in a bowl and mix in the butter with your hands. Be careful not to over mix.

2. Add vinegar and a tablespoon of ice water at a time to the dough till lumpy with bits of butter. Roll into a ball and put in the fridge for a couple of hours.

3. Add some dry flour and roll the dough out and place on a buttered pie dish. Bake for at least 15-20 minutes or till the edges are a pretty golden brown.

Make the filling:

1. Boil the sugar, water and cornstarch till you have a nice glaze like paste. Add the strawberry jello powder and stir it in for the colour. Let your glaze cool in the fridge till it turns to a jello consistency.

2. Take out the glaze and whip into a paste. Add strawberries to half the paste and coat evenly in the jello paste. Taste and see if you want to add more glaze.

3. Place the strawberry mixture into your pie dish and place in the refrigerator to set.

STRAWBERRY STREUSEL MUFFINS

Doubtless God could have made a better berry (than the strawberry), but doubtless God never did. - Willian Allen Butler

Don't let the long list of ingredients intimidate you, this is really quite a simple recipe. The streusel and the strawberry butter are fun embellishments to this nice, light, wholesome muffin.

 

What you’ll need:

 

For the muffins:

1 ¾ cups flour (maida)

2/3 cup powdered sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

½ cup milk

½ cup melted butter

3 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup chopped fresh strawberries tossed in 2-3 tablespoons flour

 

For the streusel:

¼ cup chopped almonds/pecans

¼ cup brown sugar

¼ cup flour (maida)

2 tablespoons melted butter

Strawberry butter:

¼ cup softened butter

½ cup powdered sugar

½ cup chopped strawberries

¼ chopped almonds

How to:

1. Preheat oven to 190°Celsius.

 

2. Brush down a muffin tray with oil or butter.

 

3. Toss together the ingredients for the streusel and keep aside.

 

4. Mix the flour, sugar and baking powder with a whisk to remove any lumps.

 

5. In another bowl, whisk together the milk, butter and vanilla. Add one egg at a time and mix well for smooth well aired batter.

 

6. Add the egg mixture to the flour slowly, whisking well to ensure there aren’t any lumps. Add the strawberries tossed in flour.

7. Drop the batter into the muffin trays and top each cup with the streusel mixture. Pop in oven.

8. Bake for 25 – 30 minutes or till a toothpick inserted in the muffin comes out clean. Cool the muffins for 10-15 minutes, unmould them and drop them on a wire rack to cool further.

9. Mix together all ingredients for the strawberry butter.

10. Serve the muffins, slightly warmed with a pat (or more) of the strawberry butter.

Foodnotes:

This recipe makes for quite a lot of strawberry butter so you may have some left over. Don’t fret, it tastes so good that the most logical thing to do is to top your toast with it the next morning.

 

TAMARIND COOLER

"Then there is the tamarind. I thought tamarinds were made to eat, but that was probably not the idea. I ate several, and it seemed to me that they were rather sour that year." Mark Twain

 

What you’ll need:

250 gms tamarind

1 cup sugar

4 – 5 heaping spoons of black salt

2 litres water

How to:

1. Clean the tamarind and bounce it into a large container with 2 litres of water. Mix in the sugar and salt.

2. Once the mixture comes to a boil, run it through a sieve to get at the tamarind juice. Taste and check if you’d like more sugar or salt.

3. Once cool, serve in small glasses with lots of ice.

Foodnotes:

 

• In a pinch you could use ordinary salt but I really think that it wouldn’t have the same amount of flavor. If using ordinary salt maybe you could also put in some chaat masala.
•  I haven’t tried this yet but the tanginess of the tamarind should be a perfect foil for vodka, try it as a cocktail and let me know!  

EGG IN A BREAD CUP

"When you wake up in the morning, Pooh," said Piglet at last, "what's the first thing you say to yourself?"

"What's for breakfast?" said Pooh. "What do you say, Piglet?"

"I say, I wonder what's going to happen exciting today?" said Piglet.

Pooh nodded thoughtfully. "It's the same thing," he said."              

 A.A. Milne

Breakfast is my favourite meal of the day and I often eat breakfast food for lunch, dinner or just as a snack. These are surprisingly easy to make, adorable and need just a glass of orange juice on the side to be the perfect start to a day.

 

Makes 6 cups

Recipe and photo from Martha Stewart

What you’ll need (for 6 cups):

8 slices bread (white or brown as your conscience permits)

6 bacon slices (or more if your conscience permits)

6 eggs

Unsalted butter

Salt

Pepper

How to get your breakfast in a cup:

 1. Preheat your oven to 185° Celsius.

2. Cut the corners of the slices of the bread so you have an almost circle. This doesn’t need to be perfect so don’t stress! Cut in half and flatten the semi-circles of bread with a rolling pin.

3. Pull out your grease paint brush and grease the sides of a cupcake muffin with some melted unsalted butter.

 4. Line each muffin cup with the flattened slices of bread to form a cup. Make sure the bread sticks out above the level of the muffin cups. Use extra bread to patch up any holes in your bread cup. Brush down the whole cup with some butter.

5. Fry up your bacon for about 4 minutes, flipping once. Don’t cook the bacon all the way through because it’s going to cook some more when you put it in the oven.

6. Place a strip of bacon at the base of each bread cup and crack an egg into each cup.

7. Sprinkle salt and pepper on to each cup and place in oven for 20 – 25 minutes till eggs are firm. To un-mould your bread cup, slide a knife around the edge and scoop out.

 Foodnotes:

 Bacon fan? I know I am! Go ahead and put in more than one slice, the cup will hold together.

BAKED, SMASHED POTATOES

"What I say is that, if a man really likes potatoes, he must be a pretty decent sort of fellow." A.A. Milne

There's nothing I like more than a simple recipe which with minimal effort gives me maximum deliciousness. The reason this recipe is one of my all time favourites is because it is so simple it's silly, it would actually take effort to get it wrong and potatoes are yum. Smash a potato today and you'll never see things the same way....

 

Number of people it'll serve will depend on how many potatoes

Recipe and photo adapted from the Pioneer Woman

 

What you’ll need:

 Small round potatoes (as many as you like)

Generous quantities of olive oil

Salt

Pepper

Herbs (of your choosing, I picked basil and oregano this time)

How to:

1. Boil potatoes in a container with water and lots of salt. Remove once tender, you should be able to stick a fork into the potato easily. Pop potatoes out.

2. Grease a baking dish with a generous helping of olive oil. Pour on a good layer so your potatoes don’t stick to the dish post-baking.

Note: For all greasing purposes I use a nice wide paint brush. Dip and paint in broad strokes. It works perfectly!

3. Preheat oven to 200° Celsius.

4. Drop your potatoes on the baking dish and squish them down with a potato masher or any other hard flat object you can lay your hands on. This is my favorite step!

 5. Find your brush and brush on a good amount of olive oil on your smashed potato. Sprinkle salt (again don’t skimp because starch will SOAK salt), nice spicey freshly ground pepper and whichever chopped up herbs you’ve chosen.

6. Slide the potatoes in the oven and wait 20 -25 minutes till they’re nicely browned and crispy.

Foodnotes:

Whenever baking its best to use fresh herbs, the problem with baking a dried herb is that it will burn on the surface of the potato and not lend much flavor. Fresh rosemary, thyme or basil will add some moisture and bake well with the potatoes.

THAI PEANUT NOODLES

“No man in the world has more courage than the man who can stop after eating one peanut.” - Channing Pollock

Not sure where I got this photo from.   I'm a huge fan of Thai food but then who isn't? While I've always thought Thai was the easiest thing to put together for a group, the usual curry and steamed rice combination is getting old. These noodles look like a lot more effort than they really are and I'm a big fan of the honey peanut flavour. To love this recipe as much as I do, I strongly recommend that you replace the options here with vegetables that suit your taste and what you happen to have in the fridge. Bon appetit! What you’ll Need:   A pack of noodles (Udon or Lo Mein, if you can get it) 6 tablespoons oil (preferably sesame) ½ cup green onions 1 cup carrot (shredded as thin as you can) ½ cup broccoli florets ½ cup chopped up french beans ½ cup mushrooms ½ cup sliced capsicum ½ cup chopped onions 4 tablespoons minced fresh garlic 1 ½ tablespoon minced fresh ginger ½ cup honey ½ cup peanut butter ¼ cup soy sauce 4 tablespoons vinegar 1 tablespoon chilli garlic sauce or 1 teaspoon chilli powder   How to:   A. Get the noodles done   1. Cook noodles in a large pot of salted water according to package directions till al-dente. Drain, rinse down with cold water and return to pot.   2. Add 3 tablespoons oil to the noodles and toss so the noodles are coated. Set aside.   B. Make the sauce   1. Heat 3 tablespoons oil in a heavy pot on medium heat and add ginger, garlic and onions.   2. Then add thecarrots, broccoli, beans and mushrooms. Stir till vegetables soften. Add the capsicum and spring onions towards the end – you don’t want to cook these as much because they’ll wilt.   3. In a bowl, mix the honey, peanut butter, soy sauce, vinegar and chilli garlic sauce/chilli powder into a thick goopy paste. Pour paste on to vegetables. Simmer for a couple of minutes.   4. Once you’re sure the vegetables are done, taste the sauce to see if you need salt. Remember this is a sauce you’re going to pour over the noodles so you can add a little water if you need to reach a sauce like consistency.   Note: This is also a good time to check if you want to enhance any one particular flavor. I added more honey at this point because I really liked the honey peanut flavor coming through. Depending on your taste you may want to put in more peanut butter or soy sauce - see what works for you.   Top it Up:   1. Toss the noodles and sauce together well, so the noodles are evenly coated.   2. Garnish with crushed peanuts, lime wedges and thinly sliced cucumber. If you like, you can also bung on some spring onions but try to make sure that you have the cucumber and lime.   Foodnotes: Depending on what you have in stock, you can change the vegetables in the sauce around. The original recipe I saw called for cabbage and bak choy but the combination here is one I prefer. Because the sauce has so many vegetables in there, it may get thick and difficult to toss in with the noodles. Add some water into the sauce when cooking to thin it so it coats the noodles well. If adding water, keep in mind that you may need to add more seasoning to keep the flavor from becoming dilute.   If without peanut butter, just blending peanuts, some butter and salt together will work.  Watch carefully when sautéing the vegetables you need to make sure they don’t wilt so you have all that crunch and flavor in the sauce.