Desserts
This is an easy to make dessert which involves no bake too. It has a texture similar to a mousse. It’s real rich and just melts in your mouth.
Ingredients
- 3 ½ ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped
- ¾ cups whole milk
- ¾ cups heavy cream
- 3 large egg yolks
- 4 tbsp. granulated sugar
- ¼ tsp. salt
- 1 tbsp. confectioners’ sugar
Whisk the milk, ½ cup cream, egg yolks, granulated sugar and salt in a heavy-bottomed medium saucepan over medium heat. Cook, stirring constantly with a heatproof spatula, until the mixture is thick enough to coat the spatula and almost boiling, 5 to 6 minutes.
Immediately pour the milk mixture over the chocolate. Either you can mix well with a spatula or you can mix them in a blender in the blender. Divide the chocolate mixture among ramekins/ small tea cups and refrigerate until set, about 3 hours.
Whip the remaining 1/2 cup cream and the confectioners’ sugar until soft peaks form. Top the chilled pots de creme with whipped cream.
I served it in tea cups….. !!!!
The smell of lemon is something which soothes my mind and body. I go Zestyyyyyyy (ok that is a little exaggerated)!!!!! This dessert is something I always wanted to try and is adapted from one of my cook books. Easy to make and all the ingredients can be easily available.
Ingredients:
- 2 Cups of Flour
- 1/2 cup of Powdered Sugar
- 230 gms of Butter unsalted softened
- 14 oz. Sweetened Condensed Milk
- 4 Eggs
- 2/3 Cup of Fresh Lemon Juice
- A pinch of salt
- 1 tsp. Baking Powder
- 1 Tbsp. of Flour
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9 by 13 inch baking pan with aluminium foil and set aside.
In a large bowl combine flour, butter and powdered sugar and mix together until it forms dough. Press the dough in the bottom and half way up the sides of the baking pan and bake for 25 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool for a few minutes.
In a large bowl combine condensed milk, lime juice, eggs, salt, baking powder and flour. Here you can add 3-4 drops of yellow food colouring to get a bright yellow lemony colour. Well I have opted that out. Mix well.
Pour into the baked crust and bake for 30 minutes. Cool for 30 minutes at room temperature and 2 hours in the fridge until set.
Dust with confectioner sugar and cut into squares.
I have had this chocolate cheesecake recipe for a while however ended up trying it out very recently. Now usually I would go with the regular cheesecake variant however the temptation for chocolate was one of the reasons why I went for this. Now Nutella is something that I indulge in once in a while (in fact the last time I indulged, the jar had to be pried away from my clenched fists). To get the best out of this dessert, make it one day in ahead.
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups of Arrowroot biscuits crushed
- ½ cup of Granulated Sugar
- 85 gms unsalted butter, softened + 1 tsp.
- 3 tbsp. Nutella or semisweet chocolate
- 2 8oz Cream Cheese, softened at room temperature
- 1 cup of Confectioner Sugar + 2 tbsp.
- 1 ½ cups of Nutella
- ½ tsp. of Vanilla Extract
- ¼ cup of Heavy Cream + ¼- ½ cup
- 4 oz of Semisweet Chocolate at room temperature
For the crust: Add biscuits, sugar, butter and chocolate/nutella into your grinding bowl and grind until everything is crushed and holds together. Press the mixture in the bottom and one inch up the sides of a 9” spring form pan, set it in the fridge while we prepare the filling.
For the filling: With a hand mixer, beat cream cheese and then the nutella in a bowl. Mix completely. Add sugar, vanilla essence and cream. Mix for about 5 minutes until you get a smooth batter. (yummmmm).
Pour the batter into the crust. Cover with an aluminium foil and set in the refrigerator overnight.
For the Topping: Either you can sprinkle some confectioners’ sugar or you can have a ganache topping.
In a pan, add cream and bring to boil. Add the cream to the chocolate and mix completely until the chocolate had melted. Add in the butter. Pour over the filling and let set for another one hour or more.
For serving, carefully remove the pan and sprinkle some confectioners’ sugar and some chocolate shavings or any one of them. Wipe your knife each time you cut out each slice.
Dig in guys!!!!!!
This dish was specially made for Tannu bhabhi who had invited us over to her place for a get together. This dessert is an easy bake & should be a definite hit among the little ones. You can use raspberry jam, blueberry jam, black currant jam, pineapple jam or for that matter of fact any jam of your choice. My pick was strawberry – other than being my favourite, strawberry jam gives a colourful outlook to these treats. I tried making a few shapes (like leaves, stars etc.) out of dough for a decorative topping. But since that experiment flopped I just crumble them on top. You don’t need many ingredients to make this.
Ingredients
- 1 cup (226 gms) Unsalted Butter, softened
- 2 Cup plain flour
- 1 Egg
- 1 cup Granulated Sugar
- ½ tsp. Salt
- 1 tsp. Baking powder
- 1 tsp. Vanilla essence
- 1 cup seedless Strawberry Jam
Preheat the oven to 375 °F/200° C.
Line a 9X9 inch baking pan with parchment paper and grease/spray it, set aside.
In a large bowl, beat together the butter and sugar for a minute. Add egg and vanilla and mix in until combined.
In to that, add the flour, salt and baking soda and mix it all together until a dough forms.
Set aside a lemon sized ball dough for the topping and press the remaining dough into your prepared pan; smear the jam all over and take the reserved dough and crumble it for the topping.
Bake for about 25-30 minutes or until golden brown. Transfer to a wire rack and cool completely before cutting or otherwise you won’t get bars.
This pie was something I had during my US days and I instantly fell in love with this dessert. The topping in the actual version was meringue but I had opted to omit this. I have also ditched the baking procedure involved in actual pie. So instead of a baked crust, you will be having biscuit crumbs in my version – job made easy!!! The titular lime was not available so I have gone with lemon here. The tanginess of the lemon & the sweetness of the pie give this dessert the perfect blend. You can opt for either lemons or oranges just in case you are unable to get hold of lime. This is an easy pie to make & once you get hold of it, you will definitely get addicted in making more of them.
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups of Arrowroot biscuits Crumbs
- 1 Stick of Softened Unsalted Butter
- ¼ cup of Granulated Sugar
- 1 14oz Can of Sweetened Condensed Milk
- ½ cup Fresh Lemon Juice
- Zest of 2 Lemon
- 1 cup whipped cream
In a large bowl mix together, crumbs, salt and sugar. The butter should be mixed throughout the crumbs. You can also melt the butter if you wish.
Press the mixture in a 9” tart pan with a removable bottom and set aside.
In a medium bowl, whisk together all of the remaining ingredients accept the whipped cream. Pour into the prepared crust and set aside.
In the next step you can either spread the whipped cream on top or you can just make small blossoms using star tip and a pastry bags around the edges.
Refrigerate at least 3 hours before serving.
A part of being gluttonous is that we tend to have cravings at all the odd times & midnight just happens to be one of those. This next dish was made during one such midnight. Since it was midnight, I wasn’t exactly in the mood to bake or cook. So just ended up rounding some stuff from my pantry & the end result was this dessert. For the 15 odd minutes that it takes to make this, the dish is quite delicious & fruity. I whipped out two versions of this – one with milk & the other without it.
Ingredients
- 1 small fruit cocktail mix divided (Delmonte)
- ¼ cup whipped cream + 1 tbsp.
- 6 marie biscuits( any arrowroot biscuits will do)
- ½ cup condensed milk (divided)
- ¼ cup milk
For the milk Version
In a bowl, mix ¼ cup condensed milk and milk together. Add ¼ cup of whipped cream and ½ of the fruit mix; incorporate completely.
Crush the marie biscuits coarsely. Divide them
Take a dessert bowl. Put ½ of the crushed biscuits as a base. Add the milk mixture.
For the fruit version
In a bowl, put the biscuits as a base. Add balance of the condensed milk and balance fruit mix. Top with whipped cream.
AAhhh…… Yuuummy treat. Now hoe easy was that!!!!!!!
Today I am posting one of the favourite sweets that is available in my homeland – Milk Peda (ok so we may have some competition in ladoos & jalebis). This is something real sweet & is pretty easy to cook on a stove top. After flopping on a huge scale in my first attempt, I guess I had preserve for the second attempt. Usually this is made with milk, but that process is really time consuming & being in one of my lazy moods I opted to go with milk powder. You can use either full fat or skimmed powder. Usually kesar (saffron) is added to get that light gold rich colour. At times they add food colouring too. I have skipped both of these steps, keeping this recipe short and sweet. For the topping, you can add pistachios/almonds/cashew nuts etc.
Ingredients
- 50 gms butter
- 1 cup milk powder
- 1/2 tin of condensed milk (200 gms)
- Pistachios to garnish
NOTE: Non-stick pan is a must to avoid the burning of the mixture.
Take a non-stick pan and melt the butter. Add condensed milk and milk powder and mix completely until no lumps are formed. Heat this on a low flame for a minute or two.
Take off from the heat and mix. Again put it back on the heat and mix for a minute and take it off the heat. Repeat this step one more time. You can see the mixture getting thick and leaving the sides of the pan.
Take off the heat and let it cool for about 10 minutes.
Rub some ghee on your hands and make small balls and flatten it a little bit.
Garnish with pistachios. Enjooyyyyyyyyyyy !!!!!!!!!!!
This next dish is a classic French dessert to die for. A chilled dessert made by lining up a bowl with strawberry sponge cake and then filling it with Bavarian cream. If you don’t have time to make the filling, you can opt for the instant pudding mix. Over here I have gone for custard in place of Bavarian cream. My preference is the Bavarian cream as that brings out the richness of this desert. However owing to time constraints, I have gone for the pudding mix. The only take taken is for making the sponge roll. This dessert is ideal when made one day ahead.
Ingredients
For the Sponge Roll
- 250 gms sugar
- 125 gms plain flour
- 5 eggs separated
- 1 tsp. baking powder
- 1 tsp. vanilla essence
- 1 jar of strawberry jam
- 1 packet instant vanilla pudding mix
- 1 packet instant strawberry pudding mix.
Preheat oven to 180°C.Line a baking sheet with parchment/baking paper and grease it with butter.
In a bowl, mix flour and baking powder and sift 3 times.
Using a mixer, beat egg whites until stiff peak forms. Add yolks and sugar gradually and beat. Add the flour and using a spatula, fold them gently. It takes time to mix everything… but take your time; gently and slowly fold them.. Don’t fold vigorously or you will lose some air in the sponge cake… … Scrape from the bottom of the bowl.
Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and smooth it out evenly to the edges. Bake in the middle of the oven for 10 to 15 minutes until lightly golden and just firm to the touch. Put the jam in a bowl and stir it so it is spreadable; heat it up a little in the microwave if necessary. Lay out a clean damp cloth .Place a large piece of greaseproof paper that’s at least 5cm bigger than the Swiss roll on top of the cloth.
Dust it with caster sugar. Loosen the sponge with a knife and then turn it out quickly onto the dusted paper (topside down). You may need to support the sponge with your hand as your turn it out. Peel the paper off the sponge. Trim the edges so you have a tidy rectangle.
Using a spatula or spoon, spread the jam evenly on the sponge cake. Trim the edges and roll them. The paper will help you to roll the sponge cake tightly.
Keep in the refrigerator for about 1 hour or more (Will be easy to slice).
Line a medium bowl (6 cup) mould with plastic wrap. Slice the jelly roll into ½ inch slices and line the entire bowl, pressing the jelly roll slices together as tightly as possible without altering their shape.
Prepare the pudding as per the instruction on the packet. Pour in the vanilla pudding first. And keep it in the refrigerator until set. Then add the strawberry pudding and chill until set. Cover the charlotte with plastic and chill for at least 4 hours to set.
To serve, invert the charlotte onto the serving plate and peel away the plastic wrap. Slice into wedges and enjoy this piece of heaven.
This next pudding is a quick make & is quite easy too (another reason being that I lazily decided for an instant pudding mix). Coffee & sugar content can be accordingly increased per your requirements. Don’t be surprised by the wobbly nature of this pudding!!!!
Ingredients
- 1 Packet instant pudding mix (vanilla flavour)
- 3 tsp. Coffee powder + extra for dusting
- 1 ½ tbsp. Sugar
- 1 tbsp. gelatin
Prepare the pudding according to the direction given on the package. Mix gelatin into the pudding mix while its hot.
Add coffee powder and sugar and mix completely. Transfer the pudding into the moulds. (I used ramekins). Any bowl is fine.
Chill for 3 hours or more. Unmould and dust with some coffee powder on top or a dollop of whipped cream. !!!!!