Lauki ki kheer

An easy and healthier substitute for the traditional rice kheer.

This food is low in Saturated Fat and very low in Cholesterol and Sodium. It is also a good source of Vitamin E (Alpha Tocopherol), Thiamin, Niacin, Vitamin B6, Folate, Iron, Magnesium and Phosphorus, and a very good source of Dietary Fiber, Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Riboflavin, Potassium, Copper and Manganese. Now, that we have enough reasons let's start with the cooking.

Ingredients:
bottle gourd (lauki) - 250 grams
Milk - 1 litre
Sugar- 4 big tablespoon
Roasted Nuts, raisins (kishmish), cardamom (elaichi) powder to garnish

Method:
Fine Grate lauki.
Boil milk and add finely grated lauki to it. Cook on a medium flame. Let it reduce to half. Keep stirring it ocassionally.

When the milk turns slightly brownish, add 4 big tablespoon sugar to it. Give it a nice stir so that the sugar dissolves. 

Add chopped nuts, raisins, and elaichi powder to garnish.

Serve chilled. Bon appetite!!

try our instant vanilla coffee mousse for a quicker recipe.

choco lava cake

This holiday season I probably found the easiest way to bake a cake. From the time I had seen that advertisement on choco lava cake my heart was pounding to make one perfectly.  So after few trials, this one turned out pretty well, also my addition of choco cookies turned out good. (Pat on my back :p) 

I was in short of heavy cream so tried using vanilla flavoured custard cream to top it up. It wasn't a bad idea though, and it served the same purpose as a heavy cream. I had even added 2 tsp of custard powder in the cake mix but you can omit this if you want. I feel it would have been better had I just used custard cream to top it up and not add it to the cake mix. (Wait, am I permitted to write my mistakes here? Maybe yes so that others don't commit the same :P). But it was overall fun to bake.
I took a total of 10 minutes to mix all the ingredients together and then just poured it into a greased container and cupcake moulds. The next 40 minutes, it was only my microwave at work and me busy making the custard cream and cleaning the kitchen. Sometimes I really think these activities are much more time consuming than the actual cooking. 
ahh, done with it. Time to treat myself!!

Ingredients required:

1 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
a pinch of baking soda
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter/refined oil
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract

Optional:
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 cup semi-sweetened choco chips
Few choco cookies

Method:

• Since I started with the normal granulated sugar, my first task was to grind the sugar to make it powdery. It's easy to mix powdered sugar with other ingredients. Alternatively, you can even use icing sugar.

• Once the sugar is done, add butter/refined oil to it and blend until they form a paste and you cannot differentiate between the two.

• Next, add eggs to it. One at a time and mix the contents well. it's important to beat the contents properly at this point so that enough air gets into it and your cake rises up while baking.

• Next, sieve 1 cup flour, 1/2 tsp baking powder and a pinch of baking soda in a large bowl. If you want to make a chocolate cake, add 1/2 cup of cocoa powder also to it. 

• Mix the wet ingredients with the dry ones in the bowl by cut and fold method. Once done add vanilla essence and choco chips to it. mix again.
  

• Grease a baking tin/cupcake mould with butter and pour the mixture into it. 

• Half fill the cupcake mould, put a piece of chocolate in the centre and cover it with another spoonful of cake mixture on top.

• I had used a  baking tin as well and had put small pieces of choco cookies on top covering it lightly with the cake mix. This made the top crust very crunchy and chewy.

• Preheat oven at 180-degree centigrade and bake the mixture for 30-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

• Once done, top it up with cream and choco chips and you're done. Time to treat yourself with this mouthwatering dessert.

Sweet tooth forever,
Ritu:)

Tiramisu

Tiramisu is an authentic coffee-flavoured Italian dessert. When literally translated it means “cheer me up” or to put it in a better way “make me happier”, and this will indeed be your best ever dessert. In the classical recipe they use ladyfingers dipped in coffee, layered with a whipped mixture of eggs, sugar and mascarpone cheese, flavoured with cocoa. Since these are classic ingredients which are not easily available in India, am going to give it an Indian twist making it more desirous for the Indian palate.

This dessert has got 4 components. Starting with the vanilla sponge layer at the base, followed by coffee cream then orange jelly and finally garnished with cinnamon and honey flavoured custard on top. I have served this in edible chocolate bowl infusing the rich cocoa flavor also in this dessert. All the flavours bust in your mouth giving you a heavenly taste and that’s exactly what makes this dessert so special.

Unlike my other recipes, I am not going to tell you this is an easy one because it requires a lot more time and patience as compared to all the desserts I have made till date. But trust me! it’s worth all the pain. You just can’t go wrong when you have got a perfect tiramisu on the table. It’s simply awesome. You only need few key essentials to get one of the most popular Italian desserts right.

   

If I start enlisting how to make each component this is going to be never ending post. So to make things simpler, I have written separately how to make each component elaborately. Refer to the links given below to it perfectly.

For chocolate sponge cake - https://badcafechefs.blogspot.in/2016/07/eggless-choco-coffee-cake.html?m=1

you can also get outside cake to make things simpler. cut it in small cubes. It makes perfect sponge base. brush it with coffee liquor on top.

For coffee flavoured cream- https://badcafechefs.blogspot.in/2016/10/coffee-flavored-whipped-cream.html

Put cream on top of the sponge base. This forms your second layer of the dessert, from the base.

For orange jelly https://badcafechefs.blogspot.in/2016/10/orange-jelly-with-whipped-cream.html

skip the cream and cut in small squares for this dessert. put it on top of the cream making the third layer.

And finally for cinnamon and honey flavoured custard- https://badcafechefs.blogspot.in/2016/10/cinnamon-and-honey-flavoured-custard.html

the top layer consists of custard cream.

note- the layers made with coffee whipped cream and custard cream can be interchanged as per your convienence.

Chocolate cup (optional)- https://badcafechefs.blogspot.in/2016/10/edible-chocolate-cup.html?m=1

you can serve all of these in edible chocolate cup, to give it a finishing touch.

Your perfect cup of tiramisu is ready. Serve chilled and garnish it with rice balls, nuts and cookies.

Coffee flavored whipped cream

Whipped cream does deserve a special place on my blog since I use it almost everywhere, in all my desserts. It makes them even more tasty and appealing. But whipping cream is not all that easy.  It should beaten well to give a good texture but not overbeaten as then, it may curdle to form butter. chilled cream, beaters and ice around the whipping bowl works best for me. If you don’t want the coffee flavor, you can replace it vanilla essence or any other flavor you like. Enjoy this whipped cream on your favorite dessert.

coffee flavoured whipped cream

Ingredients

§  1 cup heavy cream

§  2 tea spoons coffee powder

§  4-5 tea spoon powdered sugar

Method

1.     In a large bowl, whip cream till its half done then add coffee powder and powdered sugar to it. Beat with hand beater or mixer at medium speed until soft peaks form (avoid overbeating as then it may turn into butter).

Tip:

chill cream, bowl and beaters before using.

To get faster results put another bowl containing ice below your whipping bowl. So that it remains cold throughout whipping process and does not separate easily. 

Serve cream on fruit, dessert or ice cream sundaes.