One of the dishes I had been wanting to try for the past 5 years was tender coconut pudding. For making this I needed fresh tender coconut, which was not available in the US. But here in my hometown tender coconut is abundant.

Tender coconut water has several health benefits. In fact it is an instant energizer. In summer, people in the tropical region depend on tender coconut water to beat the heat and to quench their thirst.

Most of the time after drinking the water, tender coconut is scooped out of the shell and eaten which has a sweet refreshing taste. You could also puree the tender coconut along with the coconut water which tastes really phenominal.

Apart from these, making pudding out of the tender coconut is also quite common. Hands down, this is my favorite pudding even though I frequently make pineapple pudding. Water from the coconut is used to melt agar-agar or china grass and the tender coconut is pureed and added to the milk and condensed milk mixture.

The tender coconut gives the pudding a remarkable taste and a delicate constituency. 

Once you taste this pudding, you’ll embrace the taste forever…

Tender Coconut Pudding:

• Tender Coconut, fresh- scopped from 2 coconuts
• Tender coconut water- 1 cup, to melt agar-agar
• Agar-Agar or China Grass strands- 1/4 cup
• Milk- 2 cups
• Condensed milk- 1/2 cup or depending upon your sweet level

Preparation:

Tender Coconut

• Scoop out the tender coconut from 2 coconuts and puree it in a blender, keep aside.

• In a saucepan, pour 1 cup tender coconut water and add agar-agar to it.

• Heat the saucepan and let the agar-agar melt completely.

• In the meantime, heat milk and condensed milk in another saucepan over medium heat. Let it come to a boil.

• To the boiled milk and condensed milk, add the melted agar-agar, combine well.
• Remove from the flame and let it cool down for at least 5 minutes.
• Add the pureed tender coconut to the cooled milk mixture and mix everything well.

•  Pour the mixture into a cake pan or stainless steel pan.

• Keep the pudding at first in the freezer for about 15 minutes or until it begins to set.
• After that remove the pudding from the freezer and place it in the refrigerator.

• Using a knife gently cut the pudding and serve it in dessert bowls.
• You could granish the pudding with almonds, cashew nuts etc.

Notes:

• Make sure to use tender coconut and not regular coconut.
• Add the pureed tender coconut only after the milk-condensed milk mixture cooles down, otherwise the milk will curdle.

Well, I served this for breakfast. I can explain why. Lately, my husband has been acting little weird oops not little, a little too much weird actually Every morning as soon as the alarm blares out, the first sentence that comes out of his mouth would be “Honey, could you please make me a killer breakfast?”. I am still not clear what he means by killer breakfast. But one thing was crystal clear that he was giving me signals of how tired and bored he was with the usual breakfast I serve. it’s big time I make him something different, or in his words a killer one. Hence, my search for killer breakfast had begun a few days ago.

At first, I ignored his killer breakfast request, but when I started getting this request every morning I couldn’t just ignore it. I took this as a challenge and finally made him a killer breakfast yesterday morning.

Obviously, I don’t want to spend too much time cooking in the morning as I am too lazy to cook in the morning. The main reason why I picked this recipe is that this recipe called for zero cooking time, in fact it’s baked. You just need a pack of puff pastry, whipped cream and strawberry and you could make a killer breakfast or dessert in no time.

If you have more time or if you are in a real mood to make a heavy breakfast, then you should consider making homemade buttermilk pancakes that I make often during weekends and serve this as the dessert.

Strawberry Napoleon

Ingredients:

• Puff pastry sheets, thawed at room temperature- 1
• Whipped topping or heavy cream whipped- 1 cup
• Confectioners sugar- 1/4 cup
• Milk- 1 tsp
• Strawberries sliced- 1 cup
• Semi-sweet chocolate or chips, melted- 1/4 cup

Preparation:

Baking Puff pastry sheets:

• Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
• If using frozen puff pastry sheet, thaw it at room temperature for 30 minutes.
• You could even defrost the frozen puff pastry sheets for 1- 2 minutes in a microwave, make sure not to burn the sheets or cook it.
• Unfold the pastry sheet on a lightly floured surface.

• Cut into 3 equal strips or rectangle shape along the fold marks.
• Lightly grease a baking sheet or line with parchment paper.
• Place the cut pastry sheet on the baking sheet.
• Bake for 15 minutes or until golden.

• Let it cool down.

Making sugar mixture:

• In a small bowl, stir confectioners sugar and 1 tsp milk, keep aside.

How to whip cream:

• If you are using whipping cream or heavy cream, then you need to whip the cream.
• You could use a hand whisk or electric hand mixer or even stand mixer fitted with a beater attachment to whip cream.
• Use chilled cream, chilled steel or glass bowl and chilled beaters or whisk for better results.
• Place the bowl you are using for whipping the cream and the whisk or beater in the freezer for 15 minutes before using it.
• Place the bowl with the cream in a large “ice-water bowl” so that the cream remains cold while you whip.
• Beat the cream on low speed first, then increase the speed slowly and beat the cream.
• If you are adding sugar or any other flavorings, add them while you whip it.
• Stop whipping the cream when the cream has doubled in volume and forms stiff peaks.
• Make sure not to over whip the cream as it will start to curdle and turn into butter.
• Use the whipped cream immediately, if not cover and refrigerate for up to 24 hours.

How to melt chocolate:

• If you have a double boiler use that to melt the semi-sweet chocolate or chips.
• If you don’t have one, then half fill the saucepan with water and boil the water.
• Take a glass bowl which sits well on the saucepan, put the semi-sweet chocolate chips in it.
• Place the glass bowl with chocolate on the boiling water and keep stirring the chocolate chips.
• The chocolate will start to melt and changes into liquid.
• Remove the bowl from the water and keep aside.

How to assemble:

• Using a sharp knife, cut each of the baked pastry sheets into 2, forming a total of 6 slices.
• Take one of the puff pastry slice.
• Spread confectioners sugar mixture on the puff pastry.
• Spread 1-2 tbsp of whipped topping or cream on the puff pastry.
• Top with 3-4 strawberry slices.

• Repeat this until you make 3 puff pastry layers.

• After layering, drizzle melted chocolate on top of the puff pastry.

• With 1 puff pastry sheet you could make 2 strawberry napoleon.
• Use more of the puff pastry sheets to make more.

As you all know I am always in search of easy, breezy recipes which gives amazing outcome. If I happen to meet such recipes I would never let go, will try in my kitchen no matter what. This is one such recipe, by just looking at the ingredients you’ll never think this is going to taste in a way which makes you go nuts.

Palgova, is an Indian sweet, to be more precise South Indian sweet. I’ve devoured this sweet a lot when I was young as it was easily available in most of the sweet shops in South India. The way I devoured this sweet was quite different from the other sweets. This sweet melts into your mouth as soon as it hits the tongue. But I never wanted it to melt so fast, I wanted to taste each and every bite of it. So I used to keep this sweet on my tongue for a long time tasting it and enjoying it. Of course, with the escort of Mmmmmmm sound I used to feel heaven in my mouth after every bite of it.

However, in the US I haven’t seen this sweet in any of the Indian sweet stores and in the course of time I totally forgot about this sweet. The other day, I saw a youtube video of making this sweet and that kind of woke up my hidden craving for this sweet. My taste buds instantly went wild and it couldn’t think of anything but palgova.

The real way of making palgova involves the cooking of whole milk with sugar in a huge pan in high heat, stirring it continuously without taking your hands off and your eyes off from it until the mixture reduces to 1/4 th and tiny lumps starts to appear, this would take about 45 minutes. This is how store bought palgovas are made. Well, making this at home is quite challenging as we have to be really careful and needs a lot of patience while making this.

I wasn’t disappointed as I found a short cut for making this in my kitchen, which called for only 3 simple ingredients and zero cooking (just involved heating in a microwave for 7 minutes). I couldn’t be happier with the zero cooking part, in fact that’s what I want After the first couple of minutes of heating, an irresistible aroma started to spread the kitchen, I sniffed and sniffed till I couldn’t sniff anymore. When the palgova came out of the microwave, I showed zero patience to wait till it cooled down. I turned into a greedy selfish being and started tasting the hot hot palgova, which did burn my tongue. I didn’t feel the burning sensation, only thing I could feel was the heaven in my mouth. With a spoonful of palgova placed on my tongue, I closed my eyes and totally indulged in it. There came the Mmmmmm sound which brought my husband into the kitchen. He took a bite of it and of course the Mmmmm sound came out of him as well.

Palgova with  Nuts

Ingredients:

• Condensed milk, sweetened, fat-free- 1 can
• Butter- 1 tbsp
• Yogurt or curd, thick- 1tbsp

For Garnish:

• Pistachios, chopped- 1 tbsp
• Almonds, chopped- 1tbsp
• Cashew nuts, chopped- 1tbsp

Preparation:

• In a large microwave safe glass bowl (make sure to use large bowl as the condensed milk will rise high when it boils and you don’t want it to spill over), combine condensed milk, butter and yogurt.

• Place the bowl in the microwave and  heat it for the initial 2 minutes at high power.
• Take the bowl out and using a non-stick spatula stir the mixture well.

• Again, heat for another 2 minutes, the mixture will have a curdled constituency at this point.
• Take the bowl out and give it a stir.

• Again, heat for another 3 minutes, stirring it after every 1 minute of heating. The bowl will be very hot so wear the microwave oven gloves.
• After the total 7 minutes of heating, the mixture will have a light brown color.

• Grease a dish with butter and pour the hot mixture into the dish.

• Garnish the palgova with the above mentioned nuts or your favorite nuts.

• Let it cool down to set.
• After it cools down, you could roll it into any shape of your choice.
• Serve it on a parchment paper and indulge in this sweet.
• Did you feel heaven in your mouth???

Tips:

• Make sure to stir the mixture after every minute of heating, otherwise it will burn at the bottom.
• The power of every microwave is different, so do keep an eye on the mixture for the entire 7 minutes of heating. If you find that the mixture turned light brown in color before 7 minutes of heating, then stop further heating it and immediately pour into a greased dish.
• You could also add a pinch of saffron to the mixture for an extra flavor.
• If you want you could avoid the nuts.
• Health freaks: use fat-free condensed milk.
• If there is any leftovers, you could refrigerate it.
• If you don’t have a microwave, try making this on the stove top in a non-stick pan, make sure to continuously stir the mixture while heating it and stop heating it when it gets a light brown color.

For me, after chocolates ice cream is the most craved pleasurable foods. When I am happy I feel like having a scoop of ice cream, when I am sad I  feel like having ice cream and even when I don’t have any special feelings going on in my mind I feel like having ice cream. Ice cream can be enjoyed regardless of any time, any place and age.

Only thing that is stopping me from having ice cream everyday is the hours of workout I have to do to burn all the fat I might gain from it. I had been looking for some ways to make healthy ice cream in my kitchen so that I can devour it without any guilt. Well, my search finally came to an end when I made this easy, healthy, home made and yet yummy ice cream. And the unbelievable part was the preparation time of this ice cream was only less than 15 minutes, obviously it takes few hours for the ice cream to set.

With only 3 main ingredients fresh strawberries, sugar and fat-free heavy cream I whipped up this healthy ice cream. Also, I added chopped pistachios for an added flavor which made this ice cream even more delectable. I could talk about this ice cream endlessly, so it’s better I stop right here and reveal the recipe.

Strawberry Pistachio Ice cream

Ingredients:

• Fresh strawberries, ripe, pureed- 1 cup
• Sugar- 1/2 cup
• Salt- 1/4 tsp
• Vanilla extract- 1/2 tsp
• Heavy cream or half-half, fat free- 2 cups
• Pistachios, chopped- 1/2 cup

Preparation:

• Dice the fresh strawberries and puree them in a blender, you need 1 cup of puree.

• Pour the puree into a glass bowl.

• Stir in sugar, salt and dissolve it.

• Add vanilla extract and heavy cream, combine it using a hand mixer for two minutes.

• Cover the bowl and place it in the freezer to set for 3 hours.

• After 3 hours take the ice cream out of the freezer, at this point the middle part will be soft and the sides will be hard.

• Beat the ice cream one more time using a hand mixer for two minutes.

• Add chopped pistachios and stir into the mixture.

• Place the ice cream in the freezer until it sets for 3-4 hours.

• Use a scooper to scoop out the ice cream and serve as many scoops as you want in a bowl or sugar cone or waffle cone.

• Garnish the ice cream with pistachios, fresh chopped strawberries etc.

Tips:

• If you find it hard to scoop out the ice cream, keep the ice cream on the counter top (outside the freezer) for 5-10 minutes before serving.
• You could also microwave the ice cream for 5-10 seconds to make it soft.
• Health freaks, use fat-free heavy cream or half-half.

Another ice cream that I always make at home is Mango ice cream, once you try this ice cream you’ll make this over and over.

Note:

• Half and half is a mix of 1/2 whole milk and ½ cream. Half-and-half does not whip, but it can be used in place of whipping (heavy) cream in many recipes for less fat cooking.

Oh ya, my man can bake!

April 28th, 2009 was the day when I posted the first recipe on my website. That means today is the first anniversary of my blog. I can’t believe it’s been a year already!

Before starting this blog I had made few cooking videos. One day, for no particular reason, I felt like capturing cooking videos and after all the editing I uploaded  them on youtube. To my surprise, many of my friends and few strangers loved the videos and encouraged me to do more. Shooting the video and editing took a lot of time and after making few videos I kind of felt exhausted. At that time, it was my husband who suggested me to start a blog so that I could keep track of all the recipes I try in my kitchen. Hence, this blog came into being.

When I started this blog I never thought that I would take blogging seriously nor would this blog change my life. As days passed by, I found amazing things happening in my life through this blog. I got hooked to my kitchen and to the food world. Total strangers from different parts of the world read my blog and became my fans. My real friends started to try my recipes and they constantly appreciated my cooking. I became the featured publisher for Foodbuzz. I won a couple of cooking contests. These were the amazing things that happened to me which helped me to move forward without looking back.

I would like to thank each and everyone who inspire me to blog, who support me with their kind and encouraging comments. Without you guys my blog wouldn’t have survived this long.

Last weekend, I had hosted an Indo-Chinese themed party which turned out to be a super hit. Towards the end of the party, the dessert got more raves than my Indo-Chinese dishes. And the dessert was Carrot cake with cashew nuts made by my hubby. I know Carrot cake doesn’t fit into Indo-Chinese category, but my hubby insisted on making this cake all by himself on that day. I had no other choice but allow him to mess up my kitchen. When I had a bite of this cake I was literally shocked and I screamed: My man can Bake, yayy! I am so proud of him and I’ve hired him as my pastry chef

My hubby’s Carrot Cake with Cashew Nuts

For making carrot cake:

Ingredients:

• Grated Carrot- 3 cups
• All-Purpose flour- 2 cups
• Baking soda- 2tsp
• Baking powder- 2tsp
• Salt- 1/2 tsp
• Ground cinnamon- 2 tsp
• White sugar- 2 cups
• Eggs- 4
• Vegetable oil- 1 1/4 cups
• Vanilla extract- 2 tsp
• Cashew nuts, chopped- 1 cup

To make frosting:

• Butter, unsalted- 1/2 cup
• Cream cheese, softened, fat-free- 8 ounces
• Confectioner’s sugar- 3 cups
• Vanilla extract- 1 tsp

Preparation:

• Shred 3 cups of carrot and keep aside.

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9×13 inch pan with butter and sprinkle 1 tbsp flour evenly on the pan.

• In a large bowl, using a hand mixer beat together eggs, oil, white sugar and vanilla extract.

• Using a whisk mix in flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and ground cinnamon.

• Stir in shredded carrots.

• Using a whisk fold in cashew nuts and combine everything. Don’t over mix the batter.

• Pour into prepared pan and bake for 40-50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.

• Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely.

Making the frosting:

• In a large bowl, combine butter, cream cheese, confectioners sugar and vanilla extract.

• Beat until the mixture is smooth and creamy.

• Spread the frosting evenly on the cake.

• Let stand for 10 minutes and serve.

Tips:

• For serving 2-4 people, just half the amount of ingredients and bake the cake.
• Health freaks: You could avoid the frosting.
• For less frosting on the cake: You could half the amount of frosting ingredients.
• You could use any kind of nuts to this cake like pecans, walnuts, almonds etc
• Leftover cake can be refrigerated in an air tight container for few days.
• The cake by itself tastes incredible, no need of frosting.

You don’t have to spend hours and hours whipping up a dessert, with just few simple ingredients you could make a dessert that’s going to impress the entire crowd. If not a crowd, if it pleases your inner self, that’s enough to call it as a winning dessert. This is one such dessert I’ve made lately which kicked the butts of all the other desserts on my favorite list and I instantly crowned it as the No:1.

I must say after ice cream, vanilla pudding is another dessert I can call as my all time comfort dessert. All these years I had never cared of making this from scratch; always relied on instant mix and other times I bought the pudding itself from the stores. My taste buds wasn’t quite impressed by these all these years. Last weekend, while making Boston Cream Pie I had made vanilla pudding from scratch for the first time as the recipe called for this. When I read the recipe for making vanilla pudding from scratch, I was sure I wouldn’t find a much easier dessert recipe ever. Hence, before my mind forced me to get the store bought pudding, I rushed and made this.

With just few simple ingredients, which is always found in my pantry and refrigerator, I made this pudding. While making this pudding I didn’t get any negative feeling, but was quite definite that this is going to be the best pudding. Just as I thought, it turned out to be the best vanilla pudding I’ve ever tasted. My husband commented: “This is way better than store bought ones”. My ultimate judge has spoken, now what more I need.

This time I didn’t gobble up, but I devoured this pudding as slow as I can, so that the taste of this pudding would linger in my mouth for a long time…

While serving the pudding I layered the pudding with fruits which made the pudding even more delectable.

I’ve already posted the recipe of vanilla pudding along with Boston Cream Pie. After having the leftover pudding along with the fruits, I couldn’t resist posting the recipe one more time separately.

Vanilla Pudding Fruit Salad

Ingredients:

• Sugar- 2/3 cup
• Corn starch- 1/4 cup
• Salt- 1/4 tsp
• Milk- 2 1/2 cups
• Egg yolks- from 4 large eggs
• Vanilla extract- 1tsp
• Butter, unsalted- 2 tbsp, cut into small pieces

Preparation:

• Place a fine-mesh sieve over a large bowl and set aside.
• In a medium saucepan, combine together sugar, corn-starch and salt.

• Add milk slowly and dissolve the cornstarch completely.

• Whisk in the egg yolks.

• Place the saucepan over medium heat, whisking constantly until the first large bubble forms and it sputters.

• Reduce heat to low, whisking constantly and cook for 1 minute.

• The mixture will start to thicken, whisk constantly.
• Remove from the flame, immediately pour the mixture sieve into the bowl (this is to remove any tiny particles that might be present in the pudding).

• Stir butter and vanilla extract into hot pudding and combine well.

• Place a plastic wrap directly on the surface of the pudding (to prevent the formation of skin on the pudding).

• Chill for 3 hours in the refrigerator.
• After 3 hours, take the pudding out, mix the vanilla pudding and serve with fruits in a dessert bowl.

Layering the Pudding:

Fruits used:

• Apple, chopped finely-1
• Orange, chopped finely-1
• Banana, ripe, chopped-1
• Strawberries, chopped finely- 4 no’s

How to layer:

• Combine the fruits in a small bowl and keep aside.

• In a dessert bowl, add 2 tbsp of the fruits as the first layer.

• Add 3 tbsp of the vanilla pudding and smooth the top, this is the second layer.

• Again, add 2-3 tbsp of the fruits as the third layer.

• Add vanilla pudding as the fourth layer.
• Top with cut fruits on top.

• You could also add almonds, pistachios, cashew nuts or your choice of nuts.

Tips:

• To make chocolate pudding: Add cocoa powder along with corn starch and sugar.

It’s actually a cake with two treasures, it has vanilla pudding inside it and chocolate glaze over it; what more do I need? Just gobble up…

Finally spring has sprung and we are enjoying unbelievably beautiful and sunny weather for the last couple of weeks. Hope the weather is not going to trick us by acting anymore weird. As spring arrives, first thing that comes to my mind is it’s time to barbecue. We love to BBQ and we really don’t miss any great sunny day that’s good for BBQ. Yesterday, we had our first BBQ of this year with our good friends. Even though it was slightly chilly in the evening, we had a fun time and we grilled Tandoori chicken, Scallops, Shrimp, Asparagus and of course Corn on the cob. Everything was delicious. To end the fun filled BBQ I had made Boston Cream pie and my friend had made Chocolate cake with chocolate ganache. Two of these delicious desserts gave the BBQ night a sweet ending.

Every time when I feel like having cake, I end up making my Dates cake. So this time I really wanted to try a different cake. While searching for some kool cake recipes, as usual I bumped into Martha Stewart’s website and chose Boston Cream Pie from the dessert category to bake.

Even though it’s called as a pie, it’s actually a cake filled with vanilla pudding and frosted with chocolate. The main reason why I chose to bake this cake was that I could enjoy vanilla pudding along with the cake. Vanilla pudding being my favorite pudding. And my husband will get to enjoy chocolate from this cake.

I made the cake, vanilla pudding and the chocolate glaze from scratch. I had some leftover vanilla pudding which I had this morning topped with fruits and nuts.

Happy Easter!

Boston Cream Pie

Step 1: Making the Cake:

Ingredients:

• All purpose flour- 1 1/2 cups + more for sprinkling on the cake pan
• Baking powder- 1 1/2 tsp
• Salt- 1/2 tsp
• Sugar- 1 cup
• Eggs- 3 large
• Milk- 1/2 cup
• Butter- 6 tbsp + more for greasing the cake pan
• Vanilla extract- 1tsp

Preparation:

• Preheat oven to 350 F.
• Grease a 9-inch round cake pan with 1 tsp butter and sprinkle 2 tsp flour on the pan; keep aside.
• In a small bowl, combine together the flour, baking powder and the salt; set aside.

• Combine milk and butter in a saucepan over low heat and let it come to a boil.

• Using an electric mixer, beat eggs and sugar on high speed for 4-5 minutes or until thick, lightened in color and the mixture holds together for several seconds when the beater is lifted.

• Gradually whisk in the dry ingredients (flour/baking powder/salt) just until incorporated (don’t over mix it).

• With mixer on low speed, add the hot milk mixture to batter; mix just until smooth.

• Mix in vanilla and transfer the batter to the cake pan and smooth out the top.

• Bake until golden, about 35-40 minutes, until a fork when inserted comes out clean.

• Cool cake for 10 minutes in the pan, remove from pan and transfer to a rack or a platter to cool down, side up.

Step 2: Making Vanilla Pudding:

Ingredients:

• Sugar- 2/3 cup
• Corn starch- 1/4 cup
• Salt- 1/4 tsp
• Milk- 2 1/2 cups
• Egg yolks- 4 large
• Butter, unsalted- 2 tbsp, cut into small pieces
• Vanilla extract- 1 tsp

Preparation:

• Place a fine-mesh sieve over a large bowl and set aside.
• In a medium saucepan, combine together sugar, corn-starch and salt.

• Add milk slowly and dissolve the cornstarch completely.

• Whisk in the egg yolks.

• Place the saucepan over medium heat, whisking constantly until the first large bubble forms and it sputters.

• Reduce heat to low, whisking constantly and cook for 1 minute.

• The mixture will start to thicken, whisk constantly.
• Remove from the flame, immediately pour the mixture sieve into the bowl (this is to remove any tiny particles that might be present in the pudding).

• Stir butter and vanilla extract into hot pudding and combine well.

• Place a plastic wrap directly on the surface of the pudding (to prevent the formation of skin on the pudding).

• Chill for 3 hours in the refrigerator.

• We will be using only half of this pudding to fill in the cake, rest you could place in the refrigerator for up to 3 days and have it later topped with fruits, nuts etc.

Step 3: Chocolate Glaze:

Ingredients:

• Heavy cream- 1/4 cup
• Semi-sweet chocolate chopped- 4 ounces

Preparation:

• In a saucepan, bring heavy cream to a boil.

• Remove from heat, and add chocolate, stir in smooth.

• Set aside to cool to room temperature and to thicken slightly, about 10 minutes.

Step 4: Filling the cake with vanilla pudding and topping with chocolate glaze:

• With a serrated knife, cut the cooled cake horizontally into two parts.

• Spread the bottom half of the cake with half of the prepared vanilla pudding and spread it evenly on the cake.

• Gently place top half of the cake over the pudding layer.

• Using a small spatula, spread the prepared chocolate glaze over the cake.

• Allow it to set for 15-20 minutes.
• Leftover cake can be refrigerated , covered up to 2 days.

Every bite of truffle I slip into wild ecstasy and I turn into its humble slave…

I dedicate this post to all the chocolate lovers out there, that means to each and everyone living on this planet. Is there anyone who are bold enough to say NO if they are offered some chocolates? I truly guess none.

In the chocolate world, I love truffles the most. It’s heavenly, it’s enslaving and it’s therapeutic. I think of enjoying one truffle and end up having many in just one sitting. I’ve never quite thought of making truffles in my kitchen, every time I get the craving I know I could get it from the nearby chocolate stores. So why go through the trouble of making it at home, that’s what I thought all these days. But making truffle in my kitchen had been one of the things I wanted to accomplish and this wish was buried deep inside the corner of my mind.

Yesterday, I had gone to Barnes and Nobles (my favorite book store) with the sole intention of reading a book. How could I possibly read any other book if an aisle of cook books were lined in front of me. The whole time I surfed through those cook books. I flipped through the cookbooks with my eyes glued to the stunning pictures and soon my mouth turned into an ocean. And I stumbled upon the recipe for chocolate truffles in one of Martha Stewart’s cookbooks. Truffles made with just 3 main ingredients and in just 15 minutes, Voila this was the kind of recipe I had been looking for. Clicked a picture of the recipe and rushed to my kitchen without wasting a minute. I was so eager to make this and to take a bite of my homemade truffle.

The actual recipe called for brandy which I ignored.

Chocolate Truffles= simmer milk and butter+ pouring it over chocolate + constant whisking on an ice bath+rolling the chocolate over your favorite coatings+refrigerate to set= awesomeness…

Box these homemade truffles and wrap it with a ribbon, this will make a perfect gift for your dear ones.

Chocolate Truffles:

Makes: 8 truffles

• Milk- 1/4 cup
• Butter- 1tbsp
• Bittersweet or semi-sweet chocolate, finely chopped- 5 ounces

For topping:

• Pistachios, coarsely ground- 2 ounces
• Almonds, coarsely chopped- 2 ounces
• Cocoa powder, unsweetened Dutch-Process- 3 tbsp
• Peanut brittle, finely chopped- 2 ounces

Preparation:

• Create the truffle work station: Place pistachios, almonds, cocoa powder and peanut brittle in separate bowls.

• Prepare an ice-water bath: Put 2 cups of ice on a large glass bowl and keep aside.
• Place chocolate in a heatproof bowl.
• Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and keep aside.
• Bring milk and butter to a simmer in a saucepan.

• Pour this over the chocolate and whisk until smooth.

• Place this bowl over the ice bath and constantly whisk it.

• Whisk, whisk and whisk until the mixture is thick enough to scoop with a spoon, about 5 to 10 minutes.
• At this point you might be skeptical about how this melted chocolate mixture would turn thick: Just keep on whisking over the ice bath and you’ll see the magic of liquid state transforming into a solid state.

• I know this whisking might hurt your hands, but your mind has already fallen into the yummy truffles you are going to devour soon, so you are not going to give up in the middle.
• When the mixture has turned thick, using a tea spoon or mini ice-cream scooper- form the mixture into mini balls.

• If you find it hard to make the balls with the spoon, go ahead let your hands do this.
• Drop the balls into your favorite topping and roll it to cover with the topping
• You could do the assortment, by coating with pistachios, almonds, cocoa powder and peanut brittle.

• Place the truffles on the baking sheet lined with parchment paper and refrigerate to 10- 15 minutes or until set.

• Just like me, you’ll be also checking the truffles a million times, the moment it sets it will be taken out of the refrigerator and gobbled up so fast beating the speed of light.
• These truffles will keep up to 1 week in the refrigerator, keep in a single layer in air tight container.

Tips:

• Whisk the chocolate mixture constantly over the ice bath, it takes 5- 10 minutes for the mixture to turn thick.
• You could use skim milk.
• You could use any one of these toppings or try all of these toppings.

Bon bon is a french word which means “good”. It refers to a chocolate or truffle confection. It need not be always covered with chocolate, sometimes any candy can be called as bon bon. Making homemade bon bon wouldn’t have struck my mind if I hadn’t seen the recipe of making peanut bon bon on the back of the Graham-cracker crumbs box. I told ya, I wouldn’t let go any of these recipes. I had bought a box of Graham-cracker crumbs for making lemon pie and had saved the remaining unused crumbs. I didn’t have to search anywhere for kool recipes as the back of the box had few recipes I could make with the crumbs. Of those recipes, the recipe for making bon bon drew my attention as it covered all my expectation of being easy breezy and quick yet yummy recipe. I didn’t procrastinate any longer, after making few variations to the actual recipe I instantly made this using ingredients that’s always found in my pantry.

I never thought that this easy recipe would give such delicious and exquisite outcome. This was unbelievably yummy and it tasted like peanut truffles. Anyone who tastes this would definitely think these are bought from some gourmet chocolate shops, and they are going to make you reveal the name of the shop and the recipe. This would be the proud moment for you, you could say with all dignity that you made this from scratch in your own gourmet kitchen.

The actual recipe called for Kellogg’s Rice krispies cereal and chocolate confectioner’s coating. But, I used my favorite Post Honey bunches of Oats cereal with almonds and covered the bon bon with melted chocolate morsels.

The crispy flakes, crunchy oats and the touch of honey from the cereal, the creamy peanut butter and the rich chocolate coated on it made this bon bon taste heavenly and hard for anyone to stop munching this. It’s that good, not just kids even old people are going to go crazy for these. Trust me!

Also, I haven’t shared this exciting news yet to my dear readers that I’ve become an Aunt for the first time to my beautiful niece, Aleena. She has completed her 53 days on this magnificent earth. She’s such a darling and is growing real fast. My new obsession is looking at her pictures and I never seem to get tired of seeing her. Waiting to embrace and play with her soon. God Bless her! Here is a picture of my doll:

Cereal Peanut butter Bon Bon:

Ingredients:

• Post honey bunches of oats with almonds cereal- 1 cup
• Graham-cracker crumbs- 1 cup
• Peanut butter- 1 1/4 cups
• Powdered sugar- 1/2 cup
• Semi-sweet chocolate morsels or chips- 2 cups

Preparation:

• In a large bowl, stir together the cereal, graham-cracker crumbs, peanut butter and powdered sugar without any lumps.

• Keep the well combined mix in the refrigerator for one hour.

• In the meantime, on a double-boiler melt the chocolate morsels or chips and let cool down.

• Double-boiler: Boil water in a saucepan and place a glass bowl with the chocolate chips over the  pan making sure the bottom of the bowl is dipped in hot water.

• After an hour, take the mix from the refrigerator.
• Shape the crumbs into small balls, using one level tablespoon or ice cream scooper for each and place it on a baking sheet.

• Dip each ball gently into the melted chocolate and let the chocolate cover the entire ball, letting excess drip off.

• Place it on a baking sheet lined with wax paper and immediately refrigerate for 30 minutes or until set.

• You could store these in an airtight container for few days, I tell you there is no chance of any leftovers. You’ll be surprised to see how fast this is gobbled up by everyone in your house.

Tips:

• You could use any kind of crispy cereal.
• While coating the balls with chocolate be gentle as the balls tend to fall off.

I make lime pies often, how can I not make this as this is my hubby’s favorite dessert…

For this month’s food meetup, I had made lemon pie for dessert and this turned out to be a huge hit. Usually, I make this with ready-made pie crust, so I just have to make the filling which could be made in just a matter of seconds. After just 15 minutes of baking, lime pie comes out of the oven most deliciously. Isn’t this the one dessert you could make even on days of extreme laziness? May be not during extreme laziness, but of course on days with mild laziness and extreme sweet craving.

I am so lucky that this dessert is my hubby’s favorite and he didn’t fall for anything which called for hours and hours of mixing and baking.

Couple of days before the meetup, I had searched for desserts that I could make easily and at the same time that would impress my foodie friends. And I stumbled upon a recipe for lime pie at Martha Stewart’s website. The moment I read the recipe I made up my mind to make that with few atlerations. I used lemons instead of limes. The crust was made with ground pistachios and Graham-Cracker crumbs. I loved the addition of pistachios while making the crust and the light green color the crust had made this a perfect dessert for St. Paddy’s day themed meetup.

I’ve made few alterations to the original recipe.

Lemon pie with Pistachio Graham-Cracker crust

Ingredients

For making the crust:

• Pistachios, shelled- 2/3 cup
• Graham-Cracker crumbs- 1 cup
• Butter, unsalted, melted, cooled- 4 tbsp (1/2 stick)
• Sugar- 1/4 cup
• Lemon zest, grated- 1 tbsp

For Filling:

• Egg yolks- 3
• Condensed milk, sweetened- 1 can (14 ounces) + 1/2 can (7 ounces)
• Lemon juice, freshly squeezed- 1/4 cup

Preparation:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
• Brush an 8-inch square baking dish with 1 tbsp melted butter.
• Line bottom with parchment paper, leaving a 2-inch overhang on two sides.

Making the crust:

• In a grinder, ground the pistachios and keep aside.

• In a large bowl combine the ground pistachios, Graham-cracker crumbs, sugar and lemon zest.
• Using a hand mixer, blend the melted butter to the crumbs and combine well.

• Press the mixture into the bottom and 1-inch up sides on the baking dish.

• Bake until lightly browned, 8-12 minutes and cool the crust for 30 minutes.

• You could even make the crust in a food processor.

Making the filling:

• In a large bowl, whisk together egg yolks and condensed milk.

• Add freshly squeezed lemon juice and combine until smooth.

• Pour filling into the cooled crust and spread evenly.

• Bake until set, about 15 minutes.
• Let cool down and chill it in the refrigerator for at least an hour before serving.

• While serving, cut into squares or any shape of your choice.

• For an extra flavor, you could even serve lemon pie topped with whipped cream.

Tips:

• You could make this with limes, use lime zest and lime juice.
• Use freshly squeezed lime or lemon juice for the best taste.
• If you like to have your pie with strong lime or lemon flavor, then go ahead and add 1/2 cup of freshly squeezed lime or lemon juice.
• Health freaks: use fat-free condensed milk and low-fat Graham-cracker crumbs.