HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR to one and all!! May you have the greatest time bringing it in, and the most amazing year ahead of you! Wish you the best for the year, I for one am looking forward to 2010, hope it turns out to be a much better year than the previous one!!

I'm off vacationing in Europe, see you in about a week's time. Can't wait to see all the creations all of you have come up with for Christmas, and New Year's!!!

Chocolate Pudding Pie for a Great Christmas

First of all, here's wishing you a MERRY CHRISTMAS, and a Happy New year too! May you have the best times of your life ahead of you! Christmas is one of my favorite holidays - and we have a LOT, here in India - simply because of the whole 'giving' spirit entwined with it. It's such a beautiful feeling. And plus, it brings on the party season!! :)



This pie, in all truth, goes completely against the spirit of Christmas. It's one that you will horde for yourself, instead of sharing. But still, it's the pie to make today, for Christmas. /ou can make two, one for the others, one for yourself :P You won't be sorry!

I kind of messed up with the meringue in this pie, so if you are making this, I would recommend using the meringue recipe from the Lemon Meringue Pie instead. So I'm just going ahead and including that recipe in the post.

Chocolate Pudding Pie
Recipe by Me

1 chocolate cookie crust - store-bought or homemade, I used homemade - bake for 15 minutes at 350 F [180 C]
1 recipe chocolate pudding filling [recipe below]
1 recipe meringue [recipe below]



For chocolate pudding -

1.5 oz chocolate - I used semi-sweet
1/2 cup [120 g] sugar
5 tbsp [50 g] flour
1 1/2 cup [400 g] milk
1/2 tsp vanilla - I used a vanilla bean
3 yolks
2 tbsp [30 g] butter

Instructions -

1. In a small bowl, mix the flour and milk together until it becomes homogenous.
2. In a saucepan, mic together the chocolate, sugar, flour mixture, vanilla and yolks.
3. Don't worry about the yolks cooking or anything, nothing of the sort will happen.
4. Take off the heat, and stir in the butter.
5. Allow to cool, and then pour onto the baked crust.

Meringue topping -
Adapted from Leiths Baking Bible
This is the other meringue recipe that I used in the lemon meringue pie, and it works perfectly.

3 tbsp water
2 tsp cornflour.
3 egg whites
1/3 cup [85 g] caster sugar

Instructions -

1. Place the water and cornflour in a clean saucepan. Stir over medium heat until the mixture is thick and translucent [same as above]
2. Whisk the egg whites until they form stiff peaks. Whisk in the sugar, gradually.
3. Whisk in the cornflour gel until incorporated.
4. Add this meringue on top of the baked lemon cream filling, using a knife to make peaks.
5. Sprinkle a little extra caster sugar. [Do not use powdered sugar, trust me!!!!]
6. Put the pie back into the oven, and bake for about 15 minutes, until the topping is light brown.
7. Allow to cool before slicing and serving.
8. You're done!!! :)

 Here's the picture of the screwed up meringue, which came off very easily from the pie, but I would suggest retaining for a good balance of tastes and textures.



P.S - This is a scheduled post, I'm off vacationing in Europe at this time. See you in about 10 days!!!!

Chocolate Crinkle Cookies

Don't these cookies look amazing? They sure taste so! These cookies are one of the best I've ever made, and are now a part of the regular recipe cycle for me! They are slightly crunchy, while still maintaining a delicious brownie-ish texture, and a perfect balance of sweet and rich! You simply MUST give these a try! They look so pretty too, they are perfect for gift-giving this Christmas.

And well, these cookies are pretty much the extent of my Christmas baking, since I'm Going to Europe!!!! I'm going to be spending Christmas there, so I haven't really baked anything much here! I'm happily munching away on one of these while typing this post, and I don't even miss not having been able to bake more things!! Trust me, include these in your Christmas goodie-basket, and you're going to make some fast friends!

I found the recipe for these from a new book, The Cookie and Biscuit Bible. I haven't tried anything else out of this book, but I sure am going to, in the near future.

Chocolate Crinkle Cookies

Adapted from The Cookie and Biscuit Bible

Makes 18

1/2 cup [50 g] flour

1/4 cup [25 g] unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/3 to 1/2 cup [55 - 90g] castor [superfine] sugar - Depending on preference

2 tbsp [25 g] butter, diced
1 egg, beaten

1 tsp cherry brandy or fresh orange juice - I used orange juice

1/2 cup [50 g] icing sugar [for rolling]

Instructions -

1. Preheat oven to 200 C [400 F]. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. In a large bowl, sift together flour, cocoa, baking powder and sugar
   
3. Rub in the diced butter until the mixture begins to resemble breadcrumbs.
4. In a small bowl, mix together the egg and juice/brandy, and add to the flour mixture.
5. Roll into a flattened circle, cover with cling wrap, and refrigerate for atleast 30 minutes.
6. Now, spread out the icing sugar in a flat dish. Make walnut-sized balls of the dough, and roll in the icing sugar, covering completely.
7. Lay out on the baking sheets, these cookies spread a bit, as you can see in the pictures.
8. Bake for about 10 minutes. They will seem soft, but will harden on cooling on a cooling rack.
   
   
   
   Do let me know if you tried them out, and how you liked them! I'm sure they'll become a part of your trusted recipe file too!
   

Decorating Course... Part 11

You want to read this post! Atleast, I want you to! I'm very excited to show you guys my cake!! I've been waiting since forever, to catch up on my missed classes, then be able to blog about this session. Now the time has finally arrived!!!

We had to decorate our cakes as we wished, using fondant and gumpaste flowers!! I made this cake about 3 months ago, and I had the comfort of being able to do it at home instead. I was still recovering during this period, and was very weak due to the sickness. I decorated this at home, keeping a relaxed pace up. It was ok to miss class, since all we had to do in the entire class was decorate!! I took a longg time to make the flowers, I don't know whether to chalk it up to the weakness, or lack of practice :P :P

One thing I missed out on, doing this at home, was taking everybody else's suggestions. Everyone in class is very helpful, and so this cake is completely, solely ME!!

So enough blabbering, and on to the cake!!!




Ta-da!!!!

What do you think? I want honest opinions! I was going for the marbled look on the fondant, and liked how it came out, though next time, I will try and make it more pronounced!! Yes, this cake too is pink!! Now you know my favorite color :P
I had a few problems with the carnations, in that many of its petals (?) broke off, mainly because of me. I didn't store them all too well, before placing them on the cake. It's very amateur-ish, I know! I have a LONG way to go before I get those perfect cakes, I made like a million mistakes on this one!!

Here are some more pictures -


Detail


To give you perspective!

Anyway, while I'm know this cake isn't anything spectacular, I am very proud of it nonetheless!! It's my first time (A) :)

P.S - I know this post is FILLED with exclamation marks, I just couldn't control myself! There's one again :P

Read more on this course - Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, Part 10

Banoffe Pie... My first time with Dulce De Leche

I've heard soo many good things about Dulce De Leche [DDL], but was always intimidated making it because of the exploding cans possibility. And since we don't get readymade DDL here, I had never even tried it.

Then one day, when I was feeling particularly reckless, with the 'so what if it explodes, I'll only be in the hospital for a while' thought in me, I decided to go for it. I looked around for a recipe that uses DDL as one of its main ingredients, and came across the Banoffee pie. Perfect!!

I first went and made 2 cans of DDL, and faced my fears. Thank god I did! It was soo worth it. I urge everyone else to try it out as well, there's nothing to worry about as long as you keep topping the pan up with water! I now always have atleast one can of DDL ready, and I eat it right off a spoon on most occasions! :)


The pie was delicious, it really highlighted the flavor of the DDL, and it's combination with the bananas was perfect! Next time, I'll just reduce the amount of whipped cream I put on top, since it made the pie VERY rich!

I didn't really follow a recipe for this, but here it is anyway -

Banoffee Pie
Recipe by Avanika

1 graham cracker crust [store bought, or homemade]
2 cans Dulce De Leche - homemade or store-bought
2 bananas
1 cup whipped cream - vary this as per your taste. You could even omit this if you want.
A few tablespoons cocoa powder, for dusting on top.





I'm providing a recipe for a homemade graham cracker crust, for those of you going the homemade way -

1 1/2 cup [About 24] processed graham crackers - I used digestive biscuits.
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon powder - optional, but I still urge you to add it.
3/4 stick [85 g /6 tbsp] butter, melted

Instructions -

1. Grease an 8 inch pie plate. Preheat oven to 180 C [350 F]
   
2. Combine the ground biscuits, sugar, salt, cinnamon in a bowl, and mix thouroughly.
3. Add the melted butter, then line the pie-plate liberally.
4. Bake for 10 minutes, cool on a rack.

For the pie -

1. Pour both the cans of dulce de leche on the cooled pie crust. If you made homemade DDL, make sure to let it cool completely.
2. Slice the bananas, and line on top of the DDL.
3. Now add the whipped cream on top, using a spatula. Smoothen it out, and dust with cocoa powder for the traditional look.
4. Slice, and serve. Refrigerate the rest.

Do try this, and let me know how you like it. Doesn't it look totally sinful?