How to make Christmas Fruit Cake | Easy Christmas Fruit Cake Recipe

There's something extremely gratifying about making your own cake and gifting your loved ones with yours. Usually, its days ahead of Christmas that I begin with the process of soaking fruits in booze and later bake them into a fruit cake that sits for a couple of days before being brought out to share. Each year, we have our family, parents, sister, brother-in-law and few close friends to whom the cake goes out to. Beyond celebrations, we seek joy in togetherness, sharing and the art of giving.

My dear friend Lubna is hosting a virtual Christmas party at Yummy Food this year. Ever since her invite, I was left to ponder what I could take along to the potluck, that, it should not only be apt for this celebration, but can also be enjoyed by the young and old without reservations. I scuffled through many options I had on mind - cookies, breads, gateau cakes, or petite fours? None gripped my mind stronger than one. Soon it was sorted. My heart was set on this Fruit cake, and nothing seemed more gratifying than sinking my teeth into a good Christmas Fruit Cake that's speckled with fruits and nuts, bursting with flavor from spices, and left plain without frosting. Simple, yet rich, its gloriously satisfying even with a small piece. Its a tradition to solemnly indulge in Kuswar, (the assortments served during Christmas) for someone like me who grew up in Mangalore. I'm away from home, oceans away from my family whom I miss dearly, so this fruit cake had to be it. Its a thing I delve into every single year, because, it brings back many fuzzy memories of home, family and friends in Mangalore.

I've made many fruit cakes in the past, like this, this and this, each with subtle variation in the recipe and fruits used, all decadent and boozy in nature. I was armed with a kitchen scale, measuring out by grams to the tee, in my initial years, but now a measuring cup does the job well as I can tell well if the cake will bake to perfection or not by the look of its batter. A good Fruit Cake holds a special space in my heart, it doesn't matter if the fruits are soaked over months or made in an instant like the one I have at Yummy Food's party today. Its a simple cake, but packed with flavors from spices and fruits that makes it so luxurious and indulgent. I stick by using a non-alcoholic mulled fruit drink in my recipe, so you don't have to worry if you have a young kid to cater to, but feel free to substitute with a booze or fruit juice of your choice.

So join me over on Yummy Food as we celebrate this season of reflection and celebration. We'll soon leap into the new year that brings along more hopes, positivity and strength. Come let’s bake this cake to celebrate the last leg of 2016 and welcome 2017 with arms wide open. Before you hop over, here's me wishing you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

How to make Cinnamon Rolls with Cooked Frosting | Easy Cinnamon Rolls Recipe

With Christmas around the corner and less than 4 days to go before you can sing Hallelujah, the Lord has come, I thought I'll peep in to help you with a lovely classic breakfast for your family to wake up to this Christmas morning. Its typically Western, hearty and sweet to call your morning off to a good start, supple enough that you may want to lay your head on it and snooze again, gives you the comfort of your bestie's company, and is the festive sorts that you can set up on table for your guests to dessert on.

For the longest time, I've had aversion to cinnamon in all things sweet. Let me not even get to the whys of it, for all I know, cinnamon in my arena existed best in the legion of savories, given the exception for a good Christmas fruit cake where it favorably unites with clove, cardamom and other spices, veiled in a way that it does not hit your senses directly and ruin the flavor. But, here it comes finally, the world coveted Cinnamon rolls looming right out of my kitchen to yours. I’m close to being a convert, convincingly not a cinnamon-dessert-hater anymore. These don’t look a lot like the traditional rolls. I mean they are not enormous in size to consume your palm, certainly not the perfect looking rolls that stand flawlessly edged shoulder to shoulder giving them a clean rip, nor do they bask in the sugary coated frosting that sinks into every groove merrily.

I would probably rechristen these as cinnamon pull apart rolls; owing to the pans I had and the amount of dough I made, they ended up this way. But they are cinnamon rolls essentially, so let's stick to that. They don’t snatch away the authenticity from the traditional ones. They smell great in and out of the oven, are near identical in their recipe, forgiving the eggs in the dough. They sat squishing in an eight inch round baking pan, my ideal dish to bake a nice chocolate cake in, but this time around they doubled up as my bread pan too, saving me gracefully from sunken cockeyed bread had I baked them in my ten inch dish instead. They nudged for space as they puffed up on their second sitting, and, by the time they were out they looked glorious in their golden crevices and sugar burnt hunches, flattering into characteristic pull apart rolls that need to be forked by the thumb and forefinger to tear them apart from their siblings. There’s a fun thing to it, to tear it apart in submission in an imperfect way and dunk it in milk over giggles and laughters with our little girl while tapping our feet to the melodies of Christmas jingles. That’s when you know you are up for a good start to a holiday season.

The frosting is purely optional. As for a daily bread, I would stay away from frosting these. They are sweet on their own and make a wonderfully perfect Sunday breakfast with a slather of some salted butter, or cream cheese and coffee by the side. But we are in a holiday season, and that calls for some adornment on the table to give it a festive ring. I have a clean, less sweeter old fashioned cooked vanilla frosting recipe that works really well for me. Since the bread is sweet by nature, a lighter frosting like this one is pleasing to our tastes. Unlike the traditional frosting where you mix milk to confectioners’ sugar till you get a desired consistency, this one is far better version that gives me a similar thick pour-able consistency, albeit far less sweeter than the original version. Give it a try, may be you'll fall for these too.

Cinnamon Rolls with Cooked Vanilla Frosting

INGREDIENTS

For Cinnamon Rolls:

2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup milk (I used full fat milk)
1/4 cup butter
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup coconut sugar
1 tsp. active dry yeast (or rapid rise)

For the Cinnamon Sugar Filling:

1/4 cup light brown sugar
1 tbsp. cinnamon powder
2 tbsp. melted butter

For the Cooked Vanilla Frosting:

1 cup full fat milk
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/3 cup coconut sugar
1/4 teaspoon vanilla

DIRECTIONS

Heat the milk and butter in a large sauce pan till the butter has melted into the milk. Remove from heat and add in the sugar. Stir well and allow it cool down to lukewarm. The milk should be tepid enough to activate the yeast, but not too hot, else will kill the yeast.

Transfer the warm milk to a large mixing bowl and sprinkle yeast into it. Let it sit for 10 minutes, so that the yeast can feed on the sugar and froth.

Next, add flour starting with 1/2 cup at a time and stirring well as you go. Once it forms a loose batter, add the next half cup of flour and stir well. This will help activate the gluten in the dough and yield soft supple dough, resulting in a good, fluffy bread. Continue using all of the flour and stir well with each addition till it comes together to form a sticky dough. Knead it for a minute or two till its soft and supple.

Place the dough in an oiled deep dish and cover it with a dish cloth. Let it rise in a warm place for about 2 hours. By this time the dough should double in size.

Transfer the dough to a lightly floured surface. I use the clean kitchen counter top that provides me ample space to work my dough on. Using a flour dusted rolling pin, roll the dough into a thin long rectangle. Brush it generously with melted butter. Prepare a mix of sugar and cinnamon powder and sprinkle it generously all over the dough.

Starting at the longer edge side, roll up the dough as tight as you can till forms a long log. To avoid opening up, place the seam side down. Using a cleaned knife dipped in flour, cut the log into slices of 1.5 inch each. Butter a 8x8-inch round baking tin. Place the rolls into the buttered tin, next to each other. Brush the rolls with some melted butter. Set aside to rise again for 45 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Bake the rolls for 25-30 minutes or until the bread is golden brown in color. If the top of the bread seems to change color sooner, while the underside still seems uncooked, cover the top with an aluminium foil and continue to bake till done.

Remove from oven and allow it to cool completely. Frost as desired.

For the frosting, combine milk and flour in a saucepan. Cook over medium low heat, stirring constantly, for about 3-5 minutes. The mixture should thicken and come to a boil. Add in sugar and stir well. Boil till the mixture coats the back of a wooden spatula, i.e. of custard consistency. Turn off the heat. Stir in vanilla essence. Cool completely. Before serving, whisk the frosting really well and swirl using a spoon on the cinnamon rolls.

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies | Easy Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe

In our direct sight, right outside our balcony are two young, strong maple trees that stand next to each other in a row. They are probably the last of few trees in our region to hold on to their deepest summer greens, while across the street, the one that we take to drop our daughter to the school bus stop, the towering maples have turned into fiery red, fancy yellows, even burnt browns, scattering themselves on sidewalks and spilling over streets in favor of the autumn's climax that we saw a week ago. The leaves trodden path smell of gentle rot, casting that sweet autumn perfume in air, as many wear their bare-dare look and poke their woody nibs high into the murky skies.

By the time the first streak of sun rays hit our home, we are wide awake, our hair strewn, usually done with brushing and sipping a cup of hot ginger tea for the two. We are at a point when we begin nudging our daughter out of her sleep. That takes us a two-man effort to canoodle, our attempts to wake her up over several minutes - the husband and I, at times her dear grandma adds in too, to pull her off the bed and tow her to the bathroom to start her day with. By this moment there's enough light curtailing the darkness of dawn, and the two maple trees outside our home are well in our sight. We watch it every morning in exhilaration for its transformation, awaiting patiently as it takes its turn to move from greens to yellows, and then to browns. For all the autumn we have seen this season, these two are holding on to their cavernous greens. Did I not say they were strong?

Yesterday, this Saturday morning, voila! The magic unfolded. Leaves changed hues, turning themselves to beautiful golds and bronzes, some earthy greens and blazing reds splashed in random - autumn's treat to us. The curtains stayed open all day long, the doors left ajar despite the chill air, providing us with a better sight and coverage to the trees overall, as we stepped out excitedly to snap a few moments to be treasured. For the next couple of days, the magic shall prevail till they turn matte coppers, sway feebly into air, and pile up in heaps of burgundies and russets on the ground below, before the snow flakes engulf them in uniform of black and white.

With fall around, there's an awesomeness in air that makes home baking more gratifying. With the year end coming closer, and the holiday spirit in air, desserts will make their prominence on family lunches and dinner gatherings. Oatmeal and Chocolate Chip Cookies are just the perfect things you could bake this season. They'll add more charm to your coffee trays that will roll in as guests visit you. If not, consider them gifting to your loved ones and bring joy to their celebrations.

The recipe is adapted from All Recipes. In my quest to find a good recipe for eggless version of Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies, I researched a bit and tried a couple of recipes with varying results. I highly suggest this recipe, albeit minor modifications. I advice you do not cut down on the fat content in this recipe, and balance the brown and white sugars to the below said, that is, if you care for crisp cookies. The cookies do spread a bit, so place them well. We are a family that loves crisp cookies, very Indian in that aspect, so I like to flatten these cookies with a fork before baking. The recipe here will make you a batch of about 16-18 medium sized cookies depending on how much you fill your tablespoon with. If you wish to bring fall to your cookies, add a nice helping of sweet cinnamon and heady nutmeg powder to this recipe. So pull your pans out, warm up your oven and let's bake a batch of these Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies.

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Prep: 10 mins | Cook: 12 min | Makes: 16-18 cookies

INGREDIENTS

1 cup salted butter
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
3/4 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup boiling water
2 cups rolled oats
1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips (I used mini chocolate chips)

DIRECTIONS

Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line the cookie tray with baking / parchment paper and set aside.

Bring the butter to room temperature, and beat it with brown sugar and white sugar till its light and fluffy. Add in the vanilla extract and all-purpose flour to this and mix.

Next in a separate bowl, dissolve a teaspoon of baking soda in boiling water. Add this to the above mixture and stir gently.

Stir in the rolled oats and raisins and mix them in. Drop by tablespoonful into a tray lined by baking / parchment paper. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for about 10-12 minutes. Don't over bake.

Remove from baking tray and allow them to cool completely on a wire rack. Store them in a air-tight container.

Christmas may have been over, but as we move closer to the year end, the celebrations are still on. On a Sunday last fortnight, I flipped through Nigella’s book, 'How to be a Domestic Goddess' wondering if it held some fool proof traditional recipes that I could bake for Christmas this year. The first thought that comes as obvious, is baking that traditional Fruit cake that I was brought up eating during the Christmas time. Of course, those were the store bought ones.

For long now I have been baking mine at home, made fairly the traditional way by soaking fruits, peels and all of that in liquor of some sort for months, before it can be thrown at ease to bake the Fruit cake that can sit for some time, mature and liberate flavours to be brought out at the table during Christmas. It’s good and so good that many a times, it sees end before Christmas. Probably it’s the only time I step into a liquor boutique with no qualms, the time you’ll see me meddling around with mounds of dry fruits, scrapping citrusy zests, amassing peels, chopping nuts and doing all that soaking and sniffing, intoxicating myself in warmth of some boozy fruity aroma. It’s often during this time of the year that I sprint to action with baking that leaves me satisfied immensely, because I love the charismatic happy faces, the assuring smiles by people while sinking their teeth into homemade fruit laden cake. And every so often if time be at hand, I do not hesitate to bake eggless versions that can be relished by my dad too.

I do seek for trivial changes I can make each time, sometimes follow a different recipe too. This time around when I flipped through Nigella’s book, How to be a Domestic Goddess I jumped in joy to see her recipe for traditional Fruit cake under Christmas section and that for sure made my thoughts clear that I wanted to go with it. While the recipe itself is great, my cake turned out a tad bit dry. But then that’s entirely my fault. I followed the recipe to tee carefully weighing out the ingredients on the scale, but soon realized that my butter weighed just 72gms as against 110gms I needed. My husband who kept an occasional tame watch rolled his eyes, as he saw me flip almost an entire pack of butter into the cake batter and then weigh out rest of the oil. He almost shrieked as I made my way to add the oil and suggested I should do without it! I found that 235gms of flour was sufficient as the batter got quite stiff and added a teaspoon of baking powder for the rise. Nevertheless, it still tasted great.

I have made fruit cakes with rum in the past, however here I went ahead with brandy as suggested in the recipe. I am not a connoisseur in wines so I can’t really differentiate. While Nigella lists out each ingredient for dry fruits separately, I substituted the same with the homemade mincemeat and candied orange peels I made earlier. To add an extra touch, I added handful of almonds and nuts to the cake batter. The fresh grated ginger is optional, but adds a beautiful spicy warmth to the cake. The cake needs to be stored in a cool, dry and dark place and stays as long as 6 weeks. If you can't use alcohol in your cakes then I urge you use orange juice as an alternative. However this may reduce the life of the cake as the alcohol helps to act as a preservative.

Nigella’s Boozy Christmas Fruit Cake

INGREDIENTS

110 g salted butter
2 large eggs
90 g brown sugar
1 tbsp. marmalade
235 g plain flour
125 ml brandy
2 tsp. baking powder
300 g homemade mincemeat
100 g chopped nuts (optional)
1 tsp. all spice mix
1 tsp. grated ginger (optional)

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. Sieve the flour and baking powder into a clean bowl. Add in the nuts (optional) to this and coat well. If you wish to notch up the spices, you may also add in some grated ginger or more all spices mix to the flour. Separately, cream the butter and sugar. Add in the eggs, followed by the prepared mincemeat, marmalade and liquor to this and whisk well. Next add the flour, baking powder mix into the wet ingredients and stir till there are no lumps. Add in any additional dry fruits and nuts if preferred. Butter and grease a 8 inch loose bottom cake tin and line with grease proof paper. Pour the cake batter into the tin and cook for approx. for an hour. Insert a toothpick and test. Remove and allow to cool on a wire rack. This can be stored well for couple of weeks.

Gifting or exchanging gifts during festivals per se was never a part of our culture. The only form of festive gifts were probably the homemade sweets and savories we shared with our family, friends and neighbours. However life changes to an extent after marriage, where embracing new culture, their lifestyle and values become essential to maintain the social associates. Exchanging gifts, termed as Shagun is an integral part of my husband’s side of family. Be it an occasion, a festival or just a casual greeting, it is inevitable to exchange gifts as a gesture of love and respect. For someone like me who had never seen this in my part of the world earlier, this seemed a bit prodigal and odd initially. Over years though I have learnt to accept and appreciate this culture and own it as well.

Festive gifting, particularly around this time of the year seems to be gaining a lot of popularity in India too. As known for a fact, Christmas was always associated with sharing of gifts by Santa Claus. As a kid I have lived by my share of dreams and fantasies, hanging stockings by the bedside and window sill around Christmas time, secretly hoping that some Santa would come by riding on his reindeer on this big night and drop a surprise gift that I had been longing to own as mine. I must say assertively that over the many years I hung my stockings by the window sill never did a Santa come by or drop goodies into my stockings. I realized eventually there existed no Santa, nor would my stockings be ever replenished with gifts, so I gave up on them. I wonder though why my parents never bothered to drop any goodies in there. Least I think, as a bribe that idea would have been fab.

With Christmas just around the corner and keeping in mind that these can make great give away gifts to your family and friends this season, I have 2 recipes for you today. The Home-made Christmas Mincemeat is purely vegetarian, much unlike of what it's name suggests. The inspiration to make these came from Nigella Lawson's 'How to be a Domestic Goddess', however the recipe for the same is tweaked and adapted from David Lebovitz's Quick & no-cook Mincemeat recipe I came across here; while the Candied Orange Peels are such delicious bitter-sweet treats that you will love to munch them as is or use in various recipes.

Home-made Christmas Mincemeat

INGREDIENTS

175 g raisins
100 g sultanas / black currants
100 g dried cranberries
100 g candied peel, finely chopped
175 g soft dark brown sugar
Zest of 1 orange
Juice and zest of 1 lemon
1 tsp. all spice mix (a freshly ground with cinnamon, cloves, cardamom and nutmeg)
5 tbsp. brandy

DIRECTIONS

Mix all the ingredients together and stir well. Spoon this into clean and sterilised jars. I sterilise my jars by placing them in warm oven for couple of mins. Allow the flavours to mature for at least 2 weeks. This works great for pies, tarts, Christmas cakes and puddings.

Home-made Candied Orange Peels

INGREDIENTS

2 large thick skinned oranges
2 cups sugar, divided
1 cup water

DIRECTIONS

Neatly score the oranges into quarters. Remove all the flesh neatly and retain the peels. Carefully scrape off the white pith as much possible so that the zesty orange peel can be used. The white pith will render bitterness to the oranges, hence its essential to remove all of it for best flavours. Chop the peels into 1/4-inch-wide strips as shown above in the 2nd picture.

Drop these peels into cold water. Bring this pot of water to a rolling boil. Drain off the water and repeat this twice with a new batch of water. This will soften the orange peels and mellow down the bitterness.

Next, in a thick bottomed pan heat 2 cups of sugar with 1 cup of water. Bring to a simmer and cook till it reaches one thread consistency. Add the peels and cook further till most of the sugar coats the peels and the peels get translucent. Remove from the flame and drain off any excess sugar. Place them on a tray and allow to dry further if you wish to store them. You may also roll them in castor sugar if preferred. However, I used them on the following day in recipes for Homemade Mincemeat (recipe above) and Christmas fruit cake.

How to make Velvet Beet Cake| Easy Velvet Beet Cakei

I have attempted to bake a Red Velvet cake on several occasions in the past. There’s a strong temptation to get the perfectly red one with beets and no fake colouring. Alas, I failed. So, I call this one a Velvet Beet cake and not a Red Velvet cake that I would have loved to call otherwise. It’s funny because, each time I got perfectly baked cake with pleasing results and good texture, it was sans that deep red colour that would qualify it to be called as a Red Velvet cake. It always ended up brown and chocolatey, often good to be christened as a nice Chocolate cake. Even the best of the beet cake recipes have not helped me.

So it stays to be a Beet cake, till I achieve the perfect palette of colours in them and share them with you here. :)

None can ever figure out that beets are sneaked in there. Not even the husband who saw me busy puree them late night and putting them together! He says he can’t imagine a cake out of beets. But why not, when we have cakes made from carrots? And you are sure to get a thumbs up. Don’t let the folks know there’s a vegetable in there. It makes them biased. Instead, let them enjoy, allow them to take second and third helpings and let the cat out of bag later. I bet you’ll get gawked looks like I did! It’s amusing.

I say this one is extremely healthy. Because I use olive oil instead of butter, beet puree makes up for the eggs, organic vanilla powder and brown organic sugar add depth of flavors instead of the refined one. So it’s eggless, butterless and certainly healthy with vegetable sneaked it. I feel no guilt when I feed my daughter the slices of this cake as she despises beets in their true form. This way though I sneak them into her and I am a happy mother to a cheerful toddler.

Velvet Beet Cake

Recipe minimally adapted from here

INGREDIENTS

1 medium sized, beetroot (boiled until tender, then puréed)
1/3 cup oil (I used Olive-Pomace oil)
1 1/4 cup organic brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp. organic vanilla powder
1 1/3 cup plain flour
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tbsp. cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 cup milk (use any vegan milk of your choice, like soy or cashew milk for vegan option)

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 180 deg C. Grease the bundt pan with oil and dust with plain flour.

Wash thoroughly and boil the beet until its soft and tender. Using a blender/mixer, purée it to a fine paste along with milk and brown sugar. Opt for regular sugar if you don't have brown sugar. Next add in oil and vanilla powder/ extract and blend further until incorporated. Set aside. In a separate bowl, sift together flour, cocoa powder, salt, and baking powder. Add the flour mixture to the beet milk mixture and stir gently until all is well incorporated into the batter. Bake for 40 minutes or till done. Insert a toothpick in the center of the cake and test for done. Remove and allow the cake to cool on a cooling rack. Serve as is or with dollops of cream or ice cream.

I have great memories of playing wonderful set of indoor games with my long lost girlfriend A at her place. My sister and I would spend hours at her place frisking her most coveted collection of Barbies, boards and darts. Apart from being my dad’s boss’ only daughter she had an envious collection of indoor games and dolls to her kitty. Our office bungalows, where we lived then, lined adjacent and we would catch up either at her place or ours, our cartons laden with games of Scrabble, Ludo, Cards, Brainvita, Business and loads more.

We played endlessly in her company, often changing our games to bring around till boredom. In between these games, her mom, Mrs. B, stylish and chic, would elegantly bring in supplies of food and drink from her indulgent kitchen. It was a wonderfully evocative scene that blended food with imagination and made playing indoor games fun and inspiring, something that I foresee for my daughter too in future.

The moment we stepped in, her home wafted strong aromas sarson ka tel (mustard oil) which was traditional to their cuisine. Even today when I cook in Kachchi Ghani I am taken back to those luxurious evenings we spent at her place playing games in her bedroom, while blends of mystic aromas wafted through their kitchen enveloping the entire house with its essence till they pecked our nostrils and let our taste buds salivating. The Bengalis that they were, she often dished out hot pakoras, Beguni, Jhal Muri and more cooked in mustard oil, much to kids delight. She was an admirable cook exposed well to world cuisine and made various other non traditional dishes, many which inspired my mom too.

And like every Bengali, they too had huge fetish for fish and Mishţi (sweets). She doled out sweets and snacks effortlessly. Potlucks and birthday parties vouched these for proofs. Her puddings held a testimony to that. Not surprising we had never heard of clafoutis before, but strangely when I made this (inspired by Nigella's book, How to be a Domestic Goddess gifted by my hubby on Mother's Day!) and took a bite into this, it reminded me of puds Mrs. B used to dish out. Quite similar, just that they had no fancy names, but plain pudding. Dense, fudgy, not so cakelike, just a simple pudding. A cake sans the rising power from baking powder or soda. Call it a Clafoutis or whatever you like, this deep, dark chocolaty, intensely pudding kinds, is just right for the merry season of Christmas.

Double Chocolate Clafoutis

Inspired by Nigella's book, How to be a Domestic Goddess

INGREDIENTS

1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 tbsp. cocoa powder
2 eggs
4 tbsp. granulated white sugar
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
Handful of dark chocolate chunks

DIRECTIONS

Whisk together the cream, eggs and vanilla extract. Sift all of the dry ingredients together and and add this the wet ingredients. Whisk well to make a smooth batter. Pour the batter into ramekins or ceramic dishes and throw couple of chocolate chunks into the batter. Bake at 180 deg C for 20 minutes or until the clafoutis is golden brown around the edges. Serve hot with a dusting of powdered sugar.

So my frivolous love for bananas continues with this post….

Hope you don’t bog me down for this one. It’s not that I am head over heels for bananas in desserts, but the bananas and chocolates go together so well, the twosome combination is a pair made in heaven. That probably is my opinion alone. In fact my husband thinks its otherwise. He abhors bananas in desserts, to his taste it ruins the dessert entirely.

We were out at Swenson’s on a recent weekend to enjoy some goblets of ice cream. Their colossal menu in lanky brochures are sure to instigate sundae cravings in anyone. Earlier the week, my husband picked up a Times daily deal that randomly caught his interest while flipping through a newspaper ad.

The deal didn’t go down well with us, given the fact we were offered limited choice to pick from. It wasn’t just worth the penny saved on discount. Every option we were allowed to choose from had bananas in it, not certainly my husband’s choice. With puckered brow and frown on his face, he beheld a manifestation which Swenson’s wouldn’t like to envisage, I am sure.

While I made my choice for a Fruit n’ Nut Sundae, given his weakness for chocolates, he finally ended up indulging in a Chocolate Sundae, with loads of chocolate ice cream, gooey chocolate sauce, cream, nuts, and of course banana chunks (that according to him would have been decadent minus the bananas).

Bananas apart ;), that made up for a nice romantic evening we spent together. Of course with a baby around, you can never make it romantic, can you? May be the song Paani da rang vekh le currently playing on my iPod would have conjured up for that romance. :) I am so much in love with this number from Vicky Donor (wish I got to see the movie too…) that I have it playing in loops! Good job Aayushman, love your voice.

Ironically, despite the dislike of bananas in desserts, one of our all-time favorite still remains the Banana bread. For the chocolate lover boy I have at home, I made these Banana Chocolate Muffins with walnuts and it turned out that from the small batch of 6 large muffins that I got, I was left with none the moment they were out of the oven. I got to click these snaps in less than 5 minutes I was given for the countdown, so please bear with these photographs shot in the evening in low light conditions.

Eggless Banana Walnut Chocolate Muffins

INGREDIENTS

1/2 cup mashed bananas (about 1 large over ripe banana)
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup butter (replace with vegetable oil for low fat)
1 tbsp. cocoa powder (add a tsp. more for a denser chocolate flavor)
1 scant cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup fine sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
Handful of chopped walnuts

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 350ºF/180ºC. Line the muffin tin with paper cases.

Mash bananas along with milk in a food processor. To this, add melted butter and whisk well. Set aside.

In a separate glass bowl, sift the all-purpose flour, cocoa powder and sugar along with baking soda.

Make a well in center of sifted flours. Add the wet mixture to the dry ingredients. Fold gently. Few lumps are perfectly fine, they give texture to the muffins. Finally fold in the walnuts. The batter should be thicker than the regular cake batter.

Scoop out spoonful of the muffin batter and dollop them into the lined muffin tins. Scatter a handful of walnuts and brown sugar for a good crusty, crisp topping. Very optional, but rest assured you will love biting into that crunchy topping, also rendering caramelized butterscotch flavor to the cake. Bake for 20 minutes at 180ºC or until a skewer comes out clean. Allow to cool before removing from pan.

So what differentiates muffins from cupcakes? Traditionally is that muffins are meant to be denser with lower fats and sugars, usually left without frosting. They are supposed to have drier texture than cupcakes, however most bakeries replicate the recipe for cupcakes with high fat and sugar content in them, making them unhealthy and unfit for regular consumption. With this recipe I used butter, but for low fat version use vegetable oil instead of butter, also replace all-purpose flour to an equal mix of all-purpose flour and whole wheat flour for a healthier option.

Hope you had a good weekend just like I did.

These sweet little buns made my weekend. It was fabulous.

Saturday was phenomenally good with a family outing to my workplace. What’s so good about being at workplace, where one spends 10 odd stressful hours slogging, that too on a weekend? Our org campus is massive, sprawling green, with pebble and stone laden pathways that wind beautifully into buildings that become our workspaces on our weekdays. Yeah, on a regular week day we probably would not take time out see this serene beauty surrounding us with the same eye, however over the weekend it was a completely different thing. No stress from work, no timelines to adhere, no brain racking meetings, no conference calls to answer to, no stressful last minute rush… simply a relaxed day out in the plush greenery with my family. It put a sense of pride in me to show my family my workplace, the place where I spend most part of the day.

I had plans to bake some cinnamon rolls for the weekend. I wished to proof the bread dough on Friday night, but pushed it for Saturday as other priorities consumed my energy. I had cinnamon rolls on my mind for quite some time and couldn’t get them off even in my sleep! Just managed to rush through the morning before leaving out from home to proof the dough. Put in the bit of muscle work (kneading) by multi-tasking between the breakfast and packing for the day out. Sneaked to click a few photographs too… here and there ;) Phew!

Back home, sun shone bright and nice in sky. Had left the dough on the balcony and it rose to doubles and triples. I was elated like a kid!

Initially, I had plans for cinnamon rolls. I almost put together brown sugar and cinnamon, when a jar of nutella put me into confusion! Felt too tempted for a chocolate version. Anyway, we are not too high on cinnamon in our desserts, so took a second opinion from my husband and he was too swift to vote for Nutella rolls. Chocolate seduction in a bread roll! Deliciously yum!

Nutella Bread Rolls

INGREDIENTS

For the dough:

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup warm milk (maybe a little more or less)
2 tsp. active dry yeast (I used Baker’s here)
1/4th cup melted salted butter
1/4th cup powdered sugar

For the filling:

Nutella spread or any chocolate hazelnut spread

Sugar glaze or melted chocolate to drizzle (optional)

DIRECTIONS

Dissolve 2 tsp. of active dry yeast in half a cup of warm milk and a teaspoon of sugar. Warmth helps yeast wake up from its sleep and sugar aids in providing food to the yeast. Keep it aside for 10 minutes till it turns active and frothy. This is how it should look.

In a glass bowl, combine all the ingredients for the dough, the yeast milk, sugar, butter and flour, pouring just as much extra milk as necessary so as to form a sticky soft dough. I use a wooden spoon to mix the ingredients. As you beat the ingredients, the dough will initially tend to be sticky, but later will begin to leave itself from the sides of the bowl.

Knead into a smooth elastic dough with as little flour as possible. Stickier the dough, lighter will be the bread. Beat/knead the dough for atleast 5-7 minutes so as to release its gluten which helps in a nice, light bread.

Place the dough in a bowl, cover it and allow the dough rise until it has doubled in size (should take about 90 minutes in warm condition).

This is how it would look after 90 minutes. Look at the texture when pulled apart.

Once risen, punch the dough down...

Knead it further for 5 more minutes.

Using a rolling pin, roll the dough out on a lightly floured surface to form a rough rectangular shape with uniform thickness.

Spread the nutella paste all over the dough. Sprinkle with nuts if desired. Beginning with the long edge closest to you, begin rolling the dough into a tight roll.

Slice the roll into 9 even pieces. Place them on the baking tray and keep them in a warm place (like an oven pre-heated to 40 deg C and turned off) for at least 1 hour, until they've roughly doubled in size. By now I had transitioned from evening to night, so you can see that by the time the rolls went to oven it was late! Bake them at 180 deg C for 30 to 35 minutes.

I rarely do step-by-steps, but this time around I succeeded, at least to an extent. You ought to thank me for that. I use regular tea cups for measurement, so you can be assured of its correctness.

These nutella buns are rich and soft, and deliciously sweet. Complimenting them with a dollop of nutella frosting will make them absolutely irresistible.

These are quite easy to make. And honestly, there is nothing better than the smell of homemade buns fresh out of the oven. Heavenly!

Showing you a slice of what I eat is so typical of me! So here it goes...