Dark chocolate and raspberry brownies!

The rains are here and we are having beautiful overcast days with a cool breeze and gentle drizzles. The kind of weather that makes me want to sit at a window, watch the world become rain soaked, sip a coffee and devour a gooey, warm brownie!

As I dreamed about this brownie that I wanted to eat I was hit by the beautiful realisation that I had fresh raspberries in my fridge and I instantly wanted to combine the two into my dream dessert!!

So this is what I did waking up early this Saturday morning..

 What you need:

• 200g brown sugar
• 100g dark chocolate, chopped the darkest, dreamiest chocolate you can get your hands on, I used the 75% dark chocolate from Mason & Co.
• 50g milk chocolate, chopped
• 125g butter at room temperature
• 3 eggs, whisked lightly with a fork
• 70g flour and 25g cocoa powder sieved together
• 100g raspberry or strawberry. I used a combination of both!
• 20 ml kahlua

How:

• Preheat oven to 180C. Grease a 20 cm square baking tin.

• Put the butter and sugar in a pan and melt into a beautiful buttery liquid, put in the chopped chocolate and stir with a wooden spoon. Careful to not let the chocolate burn. Remove from the heat and allow to cool slightly

• Stir in the whisked eggs, slowly, into the melted chocolate mixture. Whisk in the Kalhua.

• Tip in the sieved cocoa powder and flour mixture and stir into a smooth mixture. 

• Gently stir in half the raspberries, pour into the tray, then top the brownies with the remaining brownies.

• Bake in the preheated oven for 30 mins. Skewer inserted will come out slightly gungy, no worries, it is the secret to brownies with have a sexy fudgy center.

These brownies are dangerously dark and perfect for rain watching, or as a stealthy mid night snack!

Year end vacationing and lemon cake baking!

I love Decembers, the weather is lovely, everyone seems to be in a festive mood and most importantly I get my annual leave of two weeks in this month. In 2015, husband and I wanted to experience a real winter so we took off  to the Himalayas. We spent an idyllic week in freezing cold Uttarakhand taking long walks, relaxing for hours in front of the fire and waking up to the sounds of nature and breathtaking views of the mountains.

On the way back from Almora we stopped at a local fresh fruit and vegetable market and I spotted this gorgeous stall with huge, bright yellow lemons. Now I am not a big fan of lemons or sourness in my desserts but something about these lemons called out to me and I hauled one, just one giant lemon all the way from the Himalayas to Hyderabad.

Now that this lemon had reached my kitchen I needed to find a recipe that made it the star of the dessert. I was saved by this beautiful recipe from The Kitchn and I made it almost exactly as it is except that I substituted the cake flour with regular all purpose flour.

What you need:

For the cake:

• 3 cups all purpose flour 
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 3/4 cups buttermilk
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 225 grams butter, at room temperature
• 2 1/2 cups sugar
• Zest from 4 small lemons (careful to not scrape of the white part of the lemon)
• 5 large eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

For the glaze:

• 3/4 cup powdered sugar
• 1 tablespoon buttermilk
• 1 tablespoon orange juice (no added sugar) 

How:

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F/180°C: Prepare two 8x4-inch loaf pans with parchment. You can make half the recipe with just one loaf pan which is the perfect size for me. 
2. Whisk together the buttermilk and lemon juice in a measuring cup. 
3. Beat the butter, sugar, and lemon zest: Start on low speed and gradually increase to medium-high once the butter and sugar are incorporated. I use my Kitchen aid which works wonderfully well, but a hand held mixer does the job just fine also. Continue beating until the mixture becomes light and fluffy. 
4. Mixing on medium speed, beat in the eggs one at a time. Make sure each egg is fully incorporated before adding the next one, and scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed. After adding all the eggs, add the vanilla. Scrape down the bowl. 
5. Combine all the dry ingredients and add some of the mixture and beat on low speed until just barely incorporated. Add some of the buttermilk mixture and continue alternating between adding the flour and the buttermilk, beating slowly between each addition and ending with the last of the flour. 
6. Divide the batter evenly between the loaf pans and smooth the tops. I topped mine with some white chocolate chips because I love how they taste when they are caramelised and toasty. 
7. Bake for 50 to 60 minutes, depending on your oven, start checking at 50 I would say. Rotate the pans once during baking. Bake until the cakes are deep golden on top, your whole house is smelling sweet from the baking and the cake has a crack on top running right down the middle. A tooth pick inserted in the middle comes out clean. 
8. Cool for 10 minutes in the pan. Lift the cakes from the pans using the parchment paper and transfer to a cooling rack. Cool completely. 
9. Glaze the loaves: About an hour before serving, whisk together the ingredients for the glaze — it should be thick but pourable. My lemon was not sour enough to add the punch that is required to this rather rich cake so I substituted it with orange juice. I must tell you that the glaze will not be super white because of the orange juice but it adds a lovely kick! Add a little more liquid or a little more sugar if needed to thin or thicken. Spoon the glaze over the cakes and allow to set.

This beauty keeps well for a week under refrigeration and is perfect accompanied with a hot cup of tea or coffee.

Fresh Mango tartelette

My favourite desserts are fruit based. I like my chocolate cake with strawberries or figs on tops and fruit tarts are my favourite. Since it is mango season and all I tried to make mango tartelette*. The best part about fruit tarts is the Vanilla crème patissière which I absolutely relish! The tart base is a sureshot recipe of my MIL's and never fails me.

 

What you need:

 For the base:

• 200 gms white flour
• 100 gms butter
• 1 egg
• 25 gms sugar
• a pinch of salt
• Cold water (to make dough)

For the crème patissière:

• 200 ml Fresh cream
• 200ml Full cream milk
• 1 steeped tbsp white flour
• Two vanilla sticks
• 5 eggs
• 75gms sugar

Topping:

3 juicy mangoes  cut in small pieces (to make 6 tartelets) 

HOW?

For the base:

•  Preheat the oven to 200 degrees celsius
• Mix the flour, butter, sugar, salt and egg with your fingers, till you get a uniform mixture. 
• Add ice-cold water as needed and make a smooth dough.
• Spread the dough in the tartelette containers and put in oven for 10-15 minutes. 
• When it begins to brown take it out and let it cool to room temperature.

For the Vanilla Crème Patissière:

• Slice open the vanilla sticks and put in a saucepan with milk and cream. 
• Heat the cream, milk and vanilla sticks on low heat till it begins to simmer.
• Meanwhile, beat the egg yolks and sugar together, then add the flour mixing well.
• Take the milk and cream off heat and pour into egg flour mixture.
• Put the whole thing on heat again and let it thicken. As it begins to thicken take it off heat and plunge the saucepan in cold water and keep stirring till it cools. Refrigerate till needed.

Once the base has cooled fill the tartelettes  with Crème Patissière and refrigerate. Top with chopped mangoes just before serving.

Enjoy the chilled juicy mangoes mixed with the creamy vanilla and the crunchy tart base blending all together in your mouth. A delight for the palate in summer!

Don't forget to comment after trying it out. Suggestions are welcome.

*Tartelette is a small one portion tart. Fruit tarts with creme patissiere are usually served as one portion tartelettes

Mango Cheese Cake

The best part about Summer for me has to be undoubtedly MANGOES!! If some could eat icecream morning, noon and night, ;-) my food of choice would be mangoes - breakfast, lunch and dinner!!

I have been pretty darned stressed with the PhD and making (and then eating them) desserts is my de-stressor! So I tried a couple of mango recipes and here is the first. It is simple, takes about an hour to prepare and an hour to bake and a recipe that can't fail!

To make Mango cheese cake you need:

• 200 gms paneer (cottage cheese or you can use cream cheese if you find it!)
• 2 medium sized juicy mangoes
• 1 1/2 cup of sugar
• 1/2 packet digestive biscuits
• Butter (to make dough for base)
• 1 tbsp flour
• 4 eggs

HOW?

• Preheat the oven to 150 degrees celsius.
• Crush the digestive biscuits in a bowl, you should have about 2 cups, add butter and make dough and spread evenly in the tart tin. Make sure you don't leave any gaps in the base. Seal with saline wrap and freeze till needed.
• Cut the paneer and mango into pieces and blend till you get a smooth paste.
• Beat the eggs and the sugar till fluffy and mix together with the mango-paneer paste.
• Pour over digestive biscuit base and place tart tin in a bigger container with a little water (helps the cheese cake stay humid).
• Put the ensemble in the oven for 50-60 minutes depending on your oven. When the mango cheese part begins to brown slightly, your cheese cake is done. Take it out of the oven and let it cool to room temperature. Serve cold.

Try it and tell me how it turned out!
Bon Appetit!