Eggless Wholewheat Banana Choco Chunk Bread

Yeah that title’s quite a mouthful and well worth it too.

Like most others, we end up with a couple of bananas outliving their firm and blemishless skin. Earlier they would land up in the trash can, who wants to deal with the overripe smell of blackened shrivelling bananas in the house. But ever since i realised i could freeze them discreetly and use them straight from the  freezer, i have baked with them happily. This banana loaf too was one such. The original recipe won me over with the lovely brown colour of the loaf, and although it didn’t call for choco chips, i just added them. I know chocolate and banana is a classic combo, but lets just say i’ve arrived rather late at the party!!

I am not very adventurous yet when it comes to baking and i would rather follow a recipe than end up with time and energy (of the appliances too) wasted. This recipe called for eggs, i substituted that with 4 tablespoons of plain homemade yogurt. So you could choose whichever version you want. The slivered almonds were an addition i made in vain. I had them on hand and need to use them before they turn rancid, but K painstakingly picked them out of the cake before he ate it!

The original recipe is adapted from Molly Wizenberg’s “A Homemade Life” and calls for browned butter, in my case that would just be melted ghee that i had at home. The second time i made this (oh yeah its now a favourite and i have made it several times) i just used vegetable oil and trust me, there’s hardly any difference that you will notice.

Its a day late, but you started the trend and now how can i not reciprocate? dear dear friend, name sake and sharer of too many kumbh ka mela type of similarities, Happy Happy birthday and wishing you the best that life has to offer always! and also to my friends S and R who together complete a decade together, with one great creation of A and another very special one to complete your lives….Happy Anniversary and Many more wonderful years together…

the cake tin is courtesy a gift thoughtfully given and carried all the way from the US by P, my friend from school. when she found i was writing this blog, she wrote to me and said she wanted to bring me something that i could use for my cooking / baking. i chose a baking set. her hubby works for this company and she refused to allow me to pay for it. this is my small way of saying thanks….i’ve had it for many months now and am excited each time i use it… thanks babe!!

Brown Butter Banana Bread
the recipe below is my version of the one posted on Amateur Gourmet

Ingredients:

6 Tbs (3 oz.) melted ghee or refined vegetable oil
2 cups Whole wheat atta/ flour
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon candied ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
4 Tblsp plain yogurt
1 1/2 cups mashed bananas (from about 3 large ripe bananas)
1/4 cup well-stirred buttermilk

¼ cup slivered almonds

½ cup of dark chocolate chopped into small chunks
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Brown Butter: If you are using browned butter, put butter in a skillet or a small pot and melt it on a relatively low heat. Swirl that pot or pan around as it goes and it’ll foam up and it’ll start browning. When the butter turns a lovely shade of brown, take it off the heat immediately and let cool.

Method:

Preheat the oven to 350. Grease a loaf pan (9 X 5 inches) with cooking spray or butter.

In a large bowl, whisk the flour, the sugar, the baking soda, the salt, the ginger and the cinnamon.

In a separate bowl, beat the yogurt with a fork; then add the mashed banana, the buttermilk, the cooled brown butter, and vanilla and stir to mix well.

Pour the banana mixture into the flour mixture and stir gently with a rubber spatula until it’s just combined (don’t overmix).

Scrape it into the baking pan and smooth the top with the spatula and bake about 50 mins to 1 hr. Testing till a skewer comes out clean

…and bake it in the oven for 50 minutes to 1 hour, until a tester comes out pretty clean. (Mine took more than an hour, actually, and still wasn’t fully clean when tested, but I stopped so the ends didn’t dry out.)

Cool the loaf in the pan on a rack for 5 minutes then tip out on to the rack and, as Molly says, “let it cool completely before slicing–unless you absolutely can’t help yourself, in which case, dig in.”

Cheesecake cheesecake… which colour do you choose?

The April 2009 challenge is hosted by Jenny from Jenny Bakes. She has chosen Abbey’s Infamous Cheesecake as the challenge.

While I didn’t wait till the end of the month to do the challenge, I certainly took my time in posting…. Well… I’d be totally out of character if I didn’t trip in after the deadline ended…without offering anymore blah about the how’s and why’s lets just say I really loved this challenge.

To begin with, blueberry cheesecake, that of the classic and now legendary status is my favourite kind. I wallop it every time I have half a chance. Which is everytime we are in a place that can use imported canned blue berries, translated into fancy very expensive places…not to mention cream cheese which is still very difficult to get in india even if you are willing to sell an arm to pay for it!

I’ve always wanted to make it and have scoured the internet and books for recipes. The ones which allow you to use a substitute for cream cheese are overflowing in my bookmarked file. Yeah I am quite the hoarder and never really got down to actually making a cheesecake ever… so when I saw the April challenge, I hoped the dry spell would finally end.

The idea was to be creative….and I went a little berserk… I tried three flavours, cos I couldn’t decide which one I wanted to make. From strawberry, caramel, lemon, chocolate and orange, I weaned myself away and chose black currant, irish coffee and plain simple vanilla. I had a blast. I used a few substitutions and baked mine without the water bath.

I used a mix of curd cheese and tofu and made mine eggless. They turned out great. I will be trying out all the flavours I gave up to choose the ones I finally did. Thanks jenny for a superb challenge. I will think of you every time I make a cheesecake now…

This is the recipe I used. I’ve adapted it from several online sources

Cheesecake (makes 8-10 slices – 8 inch round pan)

For the Crust

1 ½ biscuit crumbs (I used digestive marie biscuits)

2 T sugar

3 T melted  unsalted butter

In a bowl, mix the ingredients for the crust, press gently into the baking dish. Set aside.

I made 10 servings using disposable aluminium casseroles. 2 Single serving ones for the black currant and  larger ones (to serve 4) for the irish coffee and vanilla.

For the Cheesecake

200 gms tofu (firm is the only kind I found)

1 ½ c curd cheese (in a large strainer, cover with a thin cloth such as muslin and place about 4 cups of curd/ yogurt, place in the fridge overnight to remove the whey, the result is firm like cheese)

2 T corn flour

2/3 C Fresh Cream (low fat)

1 T lemon juice

1 T vanilla essence / extract

2/3 c sugar

I added all the ingredients to a blender jar and pulsed on low for about 8 minutes. Checking in between and adding a Tablespoon of water once. The result was an incredibly creamy mixture with a slight tang (from the lemon juice) that I had to stop myself from licking.

Dividing the mixture into 3 parts, I added the flavours and blended well before pouring it into the prepared crust and baking at 175 centigrade for 40 minutes without a water bath. I left it to cool and then chilled it overnight in the fridge before cutting and serving.

Variations:

Black Currant: add 1/3 C of black currant squash to the cheesecake batter and blend well, pour into a prepared crust and bake.

Irish Coffee and whiskey: dividing the batter into two equal parts, i added 3 T of  readymade Irish  coffee sauce and 1 T whiskey to one half and 6 T irish coffee sauce to the other half and poured them into the crust to make a two toned cheesecake.

My verdict:

I loved the black currant and irish coffee. The plain vanilla was too plain when compared to the other two. I should have baked them a little longer I think cos they sort of sank a bit in the middle after cooling. Anyone knows why that happened? the texture was beautiful and creamy. The black currant was in a smaller container and may have overcooked a bit.

Read on for the original recipe here. Do also check out what my fellow Daring Bakers have been upto. The array is stunning!

A Birthday Cake for Neal and a milestone….

I have this friend who lives in the building across us, lets call her D. one balcony in my apartment faces one one hers. We struck up a conversation over a wicker chair one day, and that has led to a refreshing friendship. Because we are at least 40 feet away from each other, (we live in different buildings) most of the time we end up talking rather loudly, much to the chagrin of our respective spouse ot to mention the neighbours. She’s got two adorable kids and initially, k was used as a source of terror when they would give her a hard time. Of course it didn’t last long, because there’s nothing like a goo goo eyed kid to get him to turn all protective, and fear factor with K didn’t last very long.

We keep exchanging food. she plies me with Bengali delicacies and I with my experimentation in the kitchen and with baking. When I mentioned that I made chocolates for a living (now, that feels like a previous life!!) and did a bit of baking she was excited. Then I sent her the caramel cake we made for daring baker’s and she told me she wanted me to make her son’s birthday cake.

Neal turned three a few weeks ago and though I was away at an offsite training workshop, I made this cake a day earlier and kept in the fridge for her. I also made the tomato and cheese layered muffins and butter cookies in the shape of ‘3’ for the big lad. D thinks my version of the helicopter I tried to draw was ridiculous, but they all loved the cake and the other goodies. I can tell you I could do better with drawing helicopters with buttercream icing…. But what the heck!!

This post was written and lying in my drafts since Dec. D and family went to Kolkata for a month’s summer vacation in March. D’s hubby’s career needs him to stay on there indefinitely and this turned all their plans awry. Neal was to go to school this year, with the uncertainty ahead, D decided to stay put in Kolkata and put Neal in school there so that it doesn’t get interrupted. if you don’t know how nightmarish it is to get school admissions in India, then read this. So now it doesnt look likely that i will see them all again, atleast not very soon. I didn’t even get to say goodbye. All the plans of going shopping and having lunch together now remain just as plans! I miss you guys…. yelling over the balcony, rushing out to share something important / trivial….and just checking in to see how you are doing…. yes and i miss the chai you used to offer me when i was tired and cranky after work.

On a happier note, this blog registered one lakh hits a few days ago!! I REALLY didn’t thing this would happen. Thank you my readers, fellow bloggers and friends  …. one by one, you came here and made this happen. I am humbled.

Read on for the recipe of the Cake

Daring once more – Chocolate Valentino Cake for Daring Bakers

When I joined the Daring Baker’s group a few months ago, I knew it wasn’t for the faint hearted. I also knew that I would spend much time each month, wondering whether I would do the challenge or not. It has been a two out of five for me so far. The first challenge I did was a brilliant success. And I was glad I did it. The next two months of craziness in my life meant I missed the next two, I realized I had to do this one. With posting day being the last day of Feb., I finally did the challenge a few days earlier. I didn’t manage to post it till now though. But as they say ‘better late than never’. I have to thank deeba for the nudges she gave me. It was so easy to let this one go. I am just so glad I did it. Hopefully I will aim for a better track record this year with the Daring Baker’s Challenges!!

“The February 2009 challenge is hosted by Wendy of WMPE’s blog and Dharm of Dad ~ Baker & Chef. We have chosen a Chocolate Valentino cake by Chef Wan; a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Dharm and a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Wendy as the challenge.”

February’s challenge is a Flourless Chocolate Cake, Chocolate Valentino, inspired by Malaysia’s “most flamboyant food ambassador”, Chef Wan. Recipe comes from Sweet Treats by Chef Wan.

The cake came together easily enough although I was terrified after reading on the forum that many had disasters with the cakes sinking and some ending up with dry cakes. I am not an accomplished baker. And whatever I bake are always no fuss recipes. There’s nothing like “whipping till it stands in stiff peaks” and “fold in gently without deflating” to send me into a tizzy. I just decided to take a call once I actually had a disaster rather than hyperventilating before something happened.

For the ice-cream, since I had little time to experiment, and I wasn’t sure what to pair chocolate with, I reached back for my trusty caramelized banana ice cream that I have made with much success and is a firm favourite at our house. This time, I used cream instead of condensed milk and omitted the raisins. It turned out to be the perfect pair for the Chocolate Valentino cake. I garnished it with slivered almonds and a sprig of mint.

to serve, i placed the small chocolate valentino cake on a plate, dusted some icing sugar on it with a cookie press design as a stencil. placed a scoop of caramelised banana ice cream next to the cake, added a few flakes of almonds and a sprig of fresh mint.

This was a smash hit. The cake sat for about 36 hours before we ate it. so by the time we got to it, it was moist and dense and fabulous. I cannot describe the texture. It was velvety on the tongue. I used a locally available brand of dark chocolate called Marko. It is a no frills brand. And I use it for my chocolate making as well as baking. I must say I loved it. it could give any chocolate valentine made with fancier chocolate a run for its money. I quartered the recipe and made two small cakes in 3 inch pudding ramekins. Firstly because I am on a diet, and we aren’t a very chocolate craving pair. Rather than have a large scale disaster (as I was sure it would be) I wanted to cut my losses.

This I will definitely make again. It was that good. Thanks Wendy and Dharm for a wonderful challenge.

First shot at being a Daring Baker with Caramel Cake

My maiden venture as a Daring Baker!! A group that I always was in awe of… I looked forward to their creations with excitement….and the awe was always reinforced…. Many months ago, while chatting with one such wonderful baker, she asked me to take a shot at it….in an insane moment, I wrote in and asked to be added onto the list of ever growing bakers …. Last month, with diwali and the insanity surrounding chocolate orders, I didn’t do the challenge…. What a bummer, to get added on and then chicken out at the first instance!! So this month, when they announced the challenge, I was sure I wanted to give it a shot at least…better to have tried and failed than not tried at all being the mantra!!

Caramel Cake with Caramelized Butter Frosting that was the challenge thrown to us this month. The caramel cake is the signature cake by Shuna Fish Lydon of Eggbeater. The gracious hosts this month are Dolores, Alex, Jenny, and Natalie of Gluten-a-Go-Go to assist for the gluten free baking advice.

 

The additional “optional” challenge was Alice Medrich’s Golden Vanilla Bean Caramels, with LOTS of variation. Which I didn’t do for many obvious reasons…… I am back at work, in my earlier life of working from home, there were times when I would try and “find something to do” in the afternoons. They now, do not exist. 

I funnily lost track of time and date and kept putting off trying the challenge for every other weekend….yesterday while I chatted with Aparna, I told her I was going to do the challenge on the weekend, she said “tomorrow is posting date” imagine what a kick up my pants that was!! I frantically read through the posts at the forum and realized that I might have to make the caramel syrup a day earlier to make it easier on myself…. With what is happening in Mumbai, we were pretty much glued to the TV and that plan went down the drain……

This morning, I decided to get my act together and began my first challenge as a Daring Baker….. First ahead, was the Caramel Syrup….. with amma (as keyed up as I was) deciding just then to help me….. I mentioned that the other DB I spoke with had said the syrup was too much and had halved it, so I would too…. I stepped out to buy some eggs, and by the time I got back, she had mixed 1 c sugar with ½ c water…halving the amount of sugar, but not reducing the amount of water!! I decided not to add any more sugar and try and use the same….so I cooked and stirred and stirred and it bubbled and boiled and with a cup of water close by, I had all these visions of the molten sugar syrup landing on my hands and scalding me (yeah I am the queen of drama!!) instead, it just became one hard mass of white cement like stuff…. So I added 2 T of water and cooked some more, by this time the syrup had become damn lumpy but was beginning to get nice and golden. I took it off the heat and strained it with a metal strainer…. Then as an afterthought, put back the lumps of sugar onto the fire and watched it caramelize a lovely dark amber…. I read about some DB who ended up with hard rocks of caramel, so I strained this back into the earlier caramel syrup, mixed it a bit, and voila!! I had the most beautiful caramel syrup ready…..

Note to self: don’t sit around till the last minute to do the challenge!!

Then I waited 2 hours for the damn thing to cool till I could make the cake…. made an SOS to another fab baker to clear a few doubts i had…..I followed the cake recipe to the T, and was quite happy with the lovely buttery yellow colour of the batter. I baked one 8×6 rectangular cake, and one small 3inch round one. Since we aren’t too hot on sugary stuff, not that I don’t have a sweet tooth, but I feel rather guilty to indulge in it since amma is a diabetic. I made the smaller one to give my neighbor, and half of the rectangular one will be shared at work with colleagues.

So there it is then, my first challenge as a Daring Baker….. I was more anxious than excited…. But it was a lovely beginning…. I enjoyed this challenge…. I will be making the cake again, minus the frosting!!

Do stop by to see what all the other Daring Bakers have come up with. Dolores, Alex & Jenny thanks for hosting this challenge. Cant wait for the next challenge!!

My take on this Caramel cake:

The cake was lovely…. Buttery, moist and sweet. Will be perfect on its own minus the frosting.

read more for the recipes…………….

Baking Escapades# 16 – in sickness and in health…..with a bit of chocolate….

Ever wished someone would surprise you with something totally unexpected (in a good unexpected) way? I wish… a lot of times…when I have a bad cold, I wish someone would knock my door and offer me strong ginger tea….at work I wish someone sent me flowers (k wooed me with this trick)…a surprise trip, tickets to a movie….anything…something to brighten me when I am feeling low…or take my high to the next level when I am anyways happy….

Then one day I thought, instead of waiting for someone to surprise me…why not I do it for others? I know its better said than done…..so food gifts for friends….handmade and handwritten cards….chocolates by the kilo (but naturally!! For a chocolatier this is expected!!)…keeps me happy and believing that what goes around, comes around!! (Eventually at least!!)

P: who taught me to make Punjabi chole, was having a bad week….her one year old was sick for weeks and people with kids will know what a toll it takes on the parents….just watching her care for a crying, clinging baby gave me the shivers…worse still she got sick…..the same week, was her Wedding Anniversary….what looked like a quiet celebration for two, quickly went down the drain….and she was just happy to be able to have a quick bath that day!! So I decided to make a small cake and surprise her…I had no idea how it would turn out and decided to take a call once I made it….to say that I agonized over it…is an understatement……because I had planned on icing it…and after many near misses, ended up with this!! Lets just say that visually there was a long way for me to go…the taste and texture of the cake was great…but the frosting got the better of me!! I used milk chocolate instead of dark / bitter chocolate and didn’t end up with the colour that I wanted….

P and her hubby were really surprised and I think the look on their faces totally made my day……

The Cake recipe is from Tarla Dalal’s book / website and can be found here. I made one cake in an 7 inch round tin. Once the cake was cooled on a wire rack, I sliced the cake into 3 slices.

I used the recipe from the same site to make whipped cream, but made only half the quantity.

Reserving half the whipped cream for chocolate icing, spread the plain whipped cream onto the layers and sandwich them together.

Melt about ½ cup of grated or finely chopped dark chocolate in a double boiler or microwave ( I didn’t have dark chocolate so I used milk chocolate, hence the lighter colour). Stir to remove any lumps. Cool for 5-7 minutes. Fold into the whipped cream. Spread it over the cake, on the outside and on top. Decorate as desired.

I tried out some greetings in script with the same chocolate whipped cream…it was very pale and to highlight it, I dusted the cake with powdered sugar.

Chill atleast an hour to set. Remove from the fridge atleast 15 mins before serving.

other chocolate recipes from this blog you may like

Deep Dark Chocolate cake with frosting

Chocolate Pinwheels

Chocolate Almond Brownie

Baking Escapade # 15 – Giving a gift….of love

One of the things I have been thinking about increasingly, is how people lived before technology completely took over their lives…..put me within closed doors for a day with no internet, telephone and oh ok…as a last option, the television and you will come back to a really mad person….. I myself am a product of the generation before and after cell phones….i should know!! Hell I worked in telecom for a good 6 years!! and am amazed, that for a nation that took almost a century to get used to a landline phone, we took to cell phones with a vengeance….yet I don’t think life will come to a standstill with or without one of these gizmos…. For one till a few months ago I refused to carry one after quitting my telecom job where it was company given and hence compulsory……….( I am referring to cell phones merely as a technological application that’s become integral to our lives…..i am sure the internet, ipods and other such have as big starring roles)

Have you off late observed people when they wait? At coffee shops, airport lounges, bus stops, on the road, at malls, at theatres…just about anywhere at all…..9 out of 10 times, they will be talking, messaging, playing a game on or simply fiddling with their phones (most likely) or laptops or ipods if they are carrying one…..no one just sits fiddling with nothing (and no we won’t consider pocket billiards played by the men folk)…doing nothing…. Just plain and simple waiting….have we become unable to manage our time, or solitude? I don’t know….. I know I get damn restless if I don’t have my phone nearby, cos I don’t know what the day entails (I am a queen of to – do’s remember?), what reminders I have set for myself…..what a disaster the day will be if I don’t remember them all….

So at such a time……when you can’t deny that technology has made it so much easier ( hell I am a blogger no??) ……….it’s such a refreshing thing to celebrate the birthday of my aunt….my mother’s cousin…she completed 86 years a few weeks ago…..lets call her E……a remarkable lady, now frail but (touchwood) in great health….she’s someone I marvel at….except for shaky teeth and very little hair, and of course wrinkled skin, she has no ailments….no diabetes or blood pressure or even a problem with her eyesight!! She’s lived a tough life….bringing up and supporting a large family of siblings, taking whatever lemons life threw at her and making lemonade…..marrying, having children, seeing them grow and spread their wings……they are grandparents now…..rarely will you see her without her smile…..always a kind word….she will even enquire if my mother in law’s maid is regular ( and not in an intrusive manner)….full of love and concern…go to visit her and every other sentence will be punctuated with “what will you eat ma? Have something no?”…what I find most remarkable about her is her ability to remember dates, wedding anniversaries, death anniversaries, birthdays etc of more than 100 people….without any calendar, reminder or to do list……anyone in the family is sick and E is the first one to make an appearance, bearing fruit (or whatever else you can eat)…..death in the family and she will be by your side to keep vigil and comfort you….and difficult as it may be…..has been faithfully attending church twice every week for almost all her life…..and I am not talking about lip service….she will kneel and pray for family and the huge extensions for more than an hour twice a day…..i don’t look at it as a question of faith or the lack of it…even as a practice, imagine kneeling!! For an hour…..imagine that kind of passion for what you believe in!! She’s like a ready reckoner!! If you are confused about how you are related to so and so…..can’t remember an important date or occasion, need a ear to listen to you or anything else that others don’t have the time for, E is my one stop shop….my lady for all seasons!!

I baked this cake for her…and she couldn’t believe I made it at home….she doesn’t know that I blog, so I didn’t tell her she will be making an appearance….happy birthday!!

p.s: Aunty E’s birthday was on the 25th of march….and i wrote this post, overwhelmed by our meeting a day later…..it lay languishing in my drafts, till yesterday, i saw the theme for JFI which is love…..i think there can be not better entry from me than this….so off this goes….to JFI which is celebrating Love….what a fantastic theme…what is food if not prepared with love?? JFI is the brainchild of Indira, this month being hosted by two wonderful women Pratibha and Jigyasa at Pedatha…..

p.s: in other stories (which will make this post even more lengthy!!) i have been swamped, stumped and drowned with love and appreciation!! this beautiful lady and i have discovered each other with a vengeance, a day is incomplete without us saying hello…and much time has been spent chatting (on the internet) on stuff which makes us believe we are in the same room, sitting accross each other with cups of chai (hurrah for the virtual world….err i know this is in total contradiction to how my post began)…..i got this wonderful package with some heady stuff from her….methkoot powder (in the bottle, sans the lid….i had to open it before i could take the pic…my mother was hounding me for a taste), some yummy sesame-peanut chutney powder, mango murrabba (which is a sun dried pickle), an assortment of flavoured teas, and seeds of african marigold which she says “will bloom into the brightest of orange flowers” (amen)….when they do nan, they will fill my home with your love…..thanks….

the second one was most unexpected…..my dear namesake, tantalised me with a comment, then on

chat,shealso called me and i didnt believe it was her, also i was in the middle of some shopping, so i think i was a tad rude…..but the gift from gurgaon stumped me totally….i came home after an ill planned afternoon(scorching at 41 degrees C) shopping trip, dehydrated by the heat and disgusted by the autowallahs to find a parcel on the table…..for a flash second i thought it was self addressed….then realised it was not….apart from the same name, we share the most bizzarely similar emotional and personal qualities…..down to our handwriting!! she saw this post of mine and wanted to let me know….and built the package around it!! a pack of my beloved potato flakes, some all purpose cooking paste, fake chicken legs (oh!! she remembered from our first conversation!!) and home made yummy nankhatais (which again didnt make it to the pic cos they got demolished)

and now to Deeba, my dear dear friend, inspirational baker, super mom and enthusiastic comrade!! one mail and i was presented with a gift of the most wondrous Thai basil….and before i could write a post to thank her, she gives me this award…with some kind words too…..the basil is growing well and so is my admiration for her…..this is the second award from Deeba…thank you girl!! you sure sent me into the orbit of happiness with this one!! muaah!! (there will be another post to pass this on…)

woo hooo…i think this is enough love to spin me around for a while….so i will put a fullstop here and leave you with the recipe for the cake!!

Baking Escapade # 11 – Lemon n Raisin Cake

Memories of my maternal home are full of this lime tree….it was an experimental variety called “Rangapur Limes” that the agricultural university my mother worked at had developed….it was dark green on the outside and the flesh and pulp was orange….it was specifically developed for its juice and I haven’t come across such juicy limes ever…. Everyone who visited us would go back with a bounty….it was a high yielding tree and when laden, the branches would sweep the ground with the weight of the fruit….they were the sourest, most aromatic and greenest on the outside limes I have seen…. they were very big for limes but would easily pass for small sized oranges…and many would mistake them as such…. The house isn’t there anymore…and the lime tree was sacrificed too pretty soon….and I cringe now when I buy lemons from the market… because no matter what, nothing can match home grown produce….on a recent trip to Bangalore, I visited a family friend…they have a picture postcard home in a gated community….both uncle and aunty are avid gardners and their home with as many as 400 potted plants, rose trellises and fruit trees is testimony to their love for gardening….they grow bananas, papayas and to my delight had another variety of limes….hard as a tennis ball but so aromatic that I who am a big citrus aficionado delighted in sniffing them…..as many who have fruit and vegetable trees/patches at home will know, for a small family it is impossible to finish nature’s bounty…and I was offered a dozen limes to take back with me…..i have savoured them this past month as they keep very well under refrigeration….so when I saw the theme for Jhiva for Ingredients….the event started by Indira and this month hosted by Coffee of the Spice Cafe was Lime and lemons, I knew I had raw material on hand…this also goes out to Bindiya, who’s theme for her monthly event “these are a few of my favourite things” this month is cakes and muffins…..

I spent yesterday evening baking and made choc rough muffins (recipe to follow) and a delightful lemon and raisin cake. this is actually a recipe for muffins, but i baked a cake out of it…increasing the baking time by a few mins…. Both were meant to be gifts and as happens in a household with too much access to chocolate, K wanted a taste of the lemon cake because it was so aromatic….i succumbed and it is almost over….the pic that is posted here is after 4 slices were demolished by us…..since the recipe is very simple with very few ingredients, I will make another tomorrow for the intended gift….for now, the aroma and flavor of the lovely limes lie infused into this fabulous cake…..

Baking Escapade # 6 – Jugalbandi’s Almond Chocolate brownie

I’m usually one of those people who drools over recipes, thinks of throwing a party to sufficiently showcase the labour that goes into actually trying it and after a while, the memory of whether or not i actually tried out the recipe is a blur…… this time it was different…i logged in this morning and did the usual trawling….i checked out jai and bee’s as usual…..pondered over the almond chocolate brownie…..fantasised some about serving it at a party and the oohs and aahs that would hopefully follow…(consider the fact that baking is always a hit and miss for me…..more misses actually….), bookmarked the recipe….couldn’t get it out of my mind…..wrote it down in my diary…..shut the book but couldn’t get it out of my mind…..for the first time i rushed to the kitchen hours after reading a recipe and boy o boy!! the result is fabulous….even if i say so myself….thankfully i had everything on hand……..by the time the batter was ready the power was off so waited impatiently for a while and when the power came on again i popped it in to bake……the top was firm and the insides moist and perfectly gooey…..my mom had a piece and paid me the best compliment ever…she’s asked me to bake her one to take back with herwhen she’s ready to go back to bangalore……

i followed jai and bee’s recipe to the T, of all the brownies i have made (and there are 3 already posted on this blog) this one was the easiest and easily my best !! pardon the bragging…i just cant get over it!! i only couldnt slice the almonds so simply split them down the middle, and they browned a bit after baking….. after i post this, i am having myself another piece for dessert.

Baking Escapade # 5: Chocolate Brownies

Food blogging has done many things to me, for one; the most enriching has been all this exposure to this virtual world. Where talking about food, swapping recipes and taking a peak into others plates isn’t frowned upon, it is celebrated….all these fantastic food bloggers, the people behind the pages, the lives they lead, the camaraderie, the fun and the absolute celebration of the things they love best…..it has made me take greater interest (if that was possible) in my food, I find myself spending time actually reading the labels and not just checking the prices of stuff I buy, I am reading so much more, on the internet and otherwise, and not just about food, its also made me so much more adventurous in what I do in my kitchen these days….

I often tell people I don’t have a sweet tooth, I have a sweet jaw!! Infact I always maintain that no matter how delectable a spread is turned out, the one who makes the dessert always gets more ‘bhav’…… Sweets and I: we go back a long time….from the time my mother told me dahi and sugar was a special treat to make me have some form of milk ( I was averse to the white liquid and all its derivatives) to tiramisu……it has also been something that I haven’t been very adventurous about, barring a few episodes of successful chakkara pongal and one semiya payasam, I haven’t made too many desserts (and no I am not counting the jelly from a packet ). Infact at my last workplace, there was a European style café in the same complex and for want of better options at the office cafeteria we’d religiously eat at this café at least three times a week. The food was definitely better than the stuff we’d get at office, but what drew us there was the dessert of these amazing chocolate brownies with ice-cream. Once my partner in crime and I had made this discovery, we’d split one lunch between us so we could split one dessert to be relatively guilt free. And trust me it was to die for……..So armed with some recipes I ventured into brownie territory this weekend and they turned out fabulous even if I say so myself and the picture I took before they got demolished just doesn’t do any justice to the way they tasted – heavenly. I followed the recipe from here to the T (something that I am learning to do, so that I don’t end up with baked bricks) and found it a tad too sweet (yeah even for me). So the next time I will cut down on the sugar. I must say that I don’t know if it was by design, but there was some granulated sugar that didn’t dissolve, and it added a crunch to the texture. I made them in a muffin pan for individual servings and this batter made for 12 brownies. They didn’t survive till be could get the ice-cream but they taste just as great without anything else.