How to make 'No Churn' Vanilla Bean Raspberry Ripple Ice cream

At this very moment, our home is raining stone fruits and berries. Cherries precisely. Followed by peaches. Early last week when we went berry picking to a local farm, I went totally ravenous just at the sight of beautiful sapphires and rubies dangling off the bushes and trees. We went picking as many fruits as we could, quite greedily, like there would be no another day for them; from tree to tree, bushes to bushes, buckets after buckets till the scorching summer heat tired us out. With trunk full of cherries and peaches, came along blueberries and raspberries too.

I love how much my fridge is brimming with these fruits in every corner of the space it can accommodate. Every morning, before I reach out to the can of milk to make tea for my family, my hands are drawn to these fruits quite instinctively. Usually a long gaze and in reverence, I pop in a couple of them to start the day with. Some are then packed off into snack boxes for my husband for his mid day snacking. Our mid-mornings and afternoons are usually spent either snacking on them or pitting them to be frozen for a good part of the year when all these little gems will be gone. I wonder if I would let them stay there for so long.

Quite often when I am at farmer's market to pick up fruits, my head bubbles up several ideas of turning them into more delicious treats. My shopping cart is always loaded with more than what we need. Rationally greedy at the fear of season's fag end. But more often I find myself being reluctant to rive and macerate them into any other form. We are a family who adores fruits. Fruit, in its true form.

When we came home with pints of ripe raspberries hand picked from the farm last week, I made this easy Warm Spiced Raspberry Jam leaving out the Strawberries. They went into almost everything - our bread, the daughter's milk, drizzled on yogurt, including accompanying as sides for parathas. I saved a few raspberries for this rippled ice cream that had been playing up on my mind for long. A rippled ice cream, where the layers of contrasting colors and flavors, each complementing other beautifully, create beautiful swirls when scooped to serve. And what can be better than having luscious baby pink ripples between speckled vanilla bean deliciousness.

This ice cream is very simple, quick and easy to put together as it does not require any ice cream maker. Two basic ingredients, heavy cream and condensed milk go into making the base for this ice cream. It takes less than 10 mins from counter to freezer and you have one of the most easiest, creamy and delicious ice cream ever.

'No Churn' Raspberry Ripple Ice cream (Vanilla Bean Ice cream with Raspberry Swirl) - Without Ice Cream Maker

INGREDIENTS

For the Vanilla Bean Ice cream:

400 ml heavy cream, cold
200 grams condensed milk, preferably cold
1 tbsp. good vanilla bean, seeds scraped
1 tbsp. vanilla essence

For the Raspberry Ripple:

1/2 pint Raspberries
2 tbsp. caster sugar

Place the raspberries along with sugar in a blender and blend them to fine puree. Pass this through a sieve to separate seeds. Cook this puree on medium heat for 10 mins or until slightly thickened. You don't need the consistency of a jam, however too thin puree may affect the texture of the ice cream.

To prepare the vanilla bean ice cream, whip the heavy cream till it holds soft peaks. Then add the condensed milk, vanilla extract and vanilla seeds from a pod of vanilla. Continue to whip until the mixture is smooth and fluffy and holds soft peaks. Transfer 1/3 of the ice cream mixture to a loaf tin or your ice cream container of your choice. Drizzle 1/3 of the raspberry syrup on top. Repeat another two times so you have three layers of each. Using a fork, gently swirl the ice cream mixture to create a rippled look. Cover with a lid or plastic wrap and allow the ice cream to set in the freezer for at least 4-6 hours.

It takes me a while usually to compose myself a good deal of writing here, that's if I have stayed too long away from thinking or haven't perched my fingers on the keyboard for a while. Although this not being the case always, I still feel like a sophomoric with words, for today. Where do I begin? What do I tell you?

We are past a week since the 4th of July and I hope you had a wonderful one like we did. Usually, for us, the 4th of July passes by without notice. That's if we were in India, it would have been just another day. Just like how the 3rd of July rolls up on the calendar, follows into the 4th and then into the 5th. But here in the US, it means more than just that.

I did not grow up learning a lot on American history. I don't remember a streak of it either. 4th of July passed as just another date on the calendar. Many years later when I started working, as part of the corporate curriculum, we were trained on the nuances of American lifestyle, their culture, and in general, their ways of life. We were taught, that while dealing with American clients, how one had to roll their tongue to get the 'R's right; a lesson or two that might impress an American and make us sound like one among them. It also preceded into understanding their holidays - the most essential and beneficial part of the training which came with some promises that every offshore engineer had an obligation to know. A promise of leaner workloads on those holidays, one that each of us looked forward to, a promise that one could possibly take a day off and travel far off place to meet their loved ones and share an extra day for the weekend. A promise that we could catch up some extra hours of lunch and coffee breaks that day. There were just a handful few to remember. Those handful that could be counted on fingertips, all defined well by dates and not by planetary movements like ours did. What thrilled us beyond all was the fact that most of these Federal public holidays were observed on the day preceding or succeeding weekend, irrespective of the day of week or weekend it falls in the year.

It intrigues me often why American Independence Day is always greeted with 'Happy 4th of July'. It could well be wished as Happy Independence Day! But like how most cultures are woven through customs and long time traditions, this one still remains to be called Happy 4th of July. So, I ask I hope you had a good one! And, if you know better, let me know why its a 'Happy 4th of July' and not 'Happy Independence Day'!

While the blog-sphere has vast variety of recipes flooding most spaces with the symbolic red and blue colors of the American national flag, I set out to bake some red and blue berry dotted muffins as a tribute to this tradition. My plans to bake Blueberry Raspberry Muffins toppled when I realized I was out of stock on Raspberries and was in no mood to rush out early in the morning. Nevertheless, these Blueberry Muffins were made and devoured for our breakfast, just the American way.

Blueberry Muffins

INGREDIENTS

3/4 cup all purpose flour + 1 tbsp to toss blueberries into
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
1/8 tsp. salt
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 small egg (If using a large egg, suggest to use 1/2 an egg)
1/2 cup yogurt
3/4 cup fresh blueberries

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 380 degrees F.

In a large bowl sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt and set aside. Separately toss the blueberries with a tbsp of all purpose flour and set aside.

In another large bowl, whisk together the sugar, oil, egg and yogurt. Add the dry ingredients into the wet and stir the mixture gently using a wooden spoon in figure 8 motion. Add the blueberries to mixture, stir them in, reserving a handful of blueberries to be topped on the muffins.

Scoop the mixture to muffin cups and fill up to three quarters. Sprinkle the remaining berries on top of muffins and poke down lightly. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, rotating pan halfway through. Remove from oven and turn out, and allow to cool completely. Serve warm or store in airtight container for 2 to 3 days.

Life beats a charming rhythm when you uncork it from its mundanes. It sings a different chime when you whisk away from the regular. Our weekend went by, but it was nothing like the usual. Before it flipped over to Saturday, we headed out of city for three solid days of fun and adventure to a place we had little known or expected it to be. Well, two and half, if I have to be precise. North Conway it is known, a lovely little destination for home-lost adventurers like us. There's so much around there for every season that a couple of excuses to go back there again may not seem enough. Tucked in sheer wilderness under the bellies of New Hampshire, here's where every vacation can be an inspiration to another one.

As the roads wind up to the city of North Conway, the scenes change. Its urban at the face of it, yet cleverly rural. There are malls, restaurants and ad banners everywhere. Yet, as you drive up the northern hemisphere, the mountain peaks play a peek a boo at every tide of the road. There's a cast of green spell in all shades, a submission to nature, with breath taking views that make you wanderlust. It makes you twisted in tongue and in loss of words.

We went camping in a group of ten, living life in tents and sleeping bags, holding lanterns to cook food on the grill, sitting by the fire and toasting up s'mores, curling up the feet to bare the chilly nights and seeing starry constellations in inky-black skies. And that makes you forget the clock and the cameras too! For the first time ever, we took our SLR out on a trip and came home without shooting any on it. Its hard for me to swallow that.

New Hampshire does that to you. You get to live what you don't see everyday. Many choose to stretch their lazy bones on the sand, either batting their eyelids and soaking up some sun or, flipping a book. But, we went tubing along the river shores where the loons nest. We let the sun shine on our backs. We wallowed and waded through knee deep waters, where the sand and stones make you wiggle your toes and the sun seeps skin deep to stimulate melanin. We ventured into woods and echoed tweets of finches too.

Its the kind of place that makes you want to wake up early to chirping birds and stay up late to the sounds of cicadas. It doesn't matter what hour of the day you are stepping into. There always seems a pause. Where the only other sounds are either the ripples of the meandering Saco river, the sway of tall ferns and chirping of finches. That was our home for those two odd days, all well lived.

When the sun went down to take its customary daily dip, we warmed ourselves by the fire, lit up the grill and ate Quesadillas, Corn on the Cob and drank Sparkling Fruit Mocktails. Brownies followed for the dessert. I baked these Brownies in the morning we left out and took them along for those camping dinner treats. They are wonderful to share in a group where splurging on good food can never seem enough, more so when you are in a gang of ten odd folks who enjoy good food and hearty laughs!

These Brownies are one bowl and simple to make. They are a cross between fudgy and cake-like. While they don't slop, they are intensely chocolaty and rich, much fudge like. They have crackling tops which make them look beautiful. And, no Brownie is good without generous scatter of walnuts. I promise you will love them, as much we all did.

Chewy Fudge Brownies

INGREDIENTS

1/2 cup of unsalted butter, softened at room temperature
1 1/4 cup of bittersweet chocolate
1 cups of granulated sugar
1/4 tsp of salt
2 eggs
1 cup of plain flour
1 tbsp of cacao powder
1/2 tsp of instant espresso coffee powder
1/2 cup of broken walnuts

DIRECTIONS

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Prepare a 9x9” square baking pan by lining it with parchment paper. I like to let the edges of the paper hang up a bit on the sides to make it easy for the removal.

In a large saucepan, melt the butter. Add the chocolate chips and melt them over medium low heat. Once melted remove from heat. Alternatively, you can microwave the butter and chocolate chip on high heat for 1 min. Allow it to rest for 2 mins, then add the sugar, eggs, flour, cacao powder, espresso powder, salt and broken walnuts into the melted chocolate butter mixture. Whisk well together. Spread the batter evenly in the prepared pan, leveling the tops. Bake them for 35-40 minutes. Test by inserting a skewer at the center. The skewer will have flecks, however there should be no wet batter coming out of the baked brownies. Allow them to cool completely and then slice into squares before serving.

Notes:

I've used cacao powder here. However, you may use cocoa powder and up the quantity to 2 tbsp. Cacao is stronger than cocoa powder, hence you will require more cocoa powder, if being used.

Over the past 2 months that we have been here in the US, I have baked only once. And that was when these Banana Cardamom Muffins were made, much on demand by my husband. While banana bakes don't make it to the list my top favorites, I love baking with them and I am now slowly getting closer to loving and appreciating them too. I have come to appreciate the way bananas lend an inherent sweetness to a dish and that helps to reduce the overall amount of sugar. And this one certainly did!

It seems ages since I whipped butter with sugar or whisked batter to make good ol' cakes. On our visit to the States last year, I splurged on baking and took advantage of the large convection oven that the homes here are bestowed with. This time around I made a conscious decision to stay away from baking a ton to avoid all that sugar overload.

I cannot possibly imagine a home that does not stock bananas. Its such an easy takeaway fruit with easy-peasy peeling and no de-seeding. So clean, mess free, hassle free and completely satisfying to a sweet tooth!

We get panic attacks at home when we run out of them! Seriously!

I believe every blogger should have a repertoire that boasts of a couple of recipes starring 'the bananas'. Cakes and muffins take the lead here. A banana muffin is the easiest bake you can ever put together and there are little chances that you will go wrong. It replaces egg with utmost ease adding loads of flavor. And it hardly matters how its flavored additionally. It could either be the classic vanilla scented or chocolate studded or just none at all! Either ways, they all taste delicious. Bananas sing by themselves. They have a characteristic sweet flavor of their own. So should you leave them by themselves, they will yet shine. May be a kick of aromatic spices will add bounce to them.

These muffins were made on a lazy afternoon to go along with our evening cup of tea. As I set out the muffin liners and put the batter together, I realized that my pantry had run out of stock for vanilla extract. A BIG sin for any baker, I guess! But here's where traditions come to rescue. Our by-gone generations have sworn by the fact that bananas and cardamoms make a match in heaven. And I cannot deny that! We have grown up eating desserts and sweetmeats made from bananas heavily scented with cardamoms. So, when these muffins were made, they swept our home with warm, mellow headiness from cardamoms, the jaggery and bananas, making these undeniably irresistible to wait till they cooled. Couple of them were downed warm right as they were out of the oven. These muffins certainly make a lovely tea time treat. They are wonderful to carry out on picnics and long drives.

As for me, they brought back warm fuzzy memories of home and my mother's kitchen where the pairing of bananas and cardamom ruled the roost on many occasions.

Banana Cardamom Muffins (Eggless, Vegan adaptable)

Yields 9 large muffins

INGREDIENTS

1/2 cup mashed bananas (about 1 large over ripe banana)
1/2 cup milk (replace with soy milk / nut milk of your choice for vegan option)
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup powdered jaggery (packed)
1/4 cup fine sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon fresh cardamom powder
Handful of chopped walnuts and raisins

DIRECTIONS

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

Mash bananas along with milk, jaggery and sugar in a food processor. To this, add vegetable oil and whisk well. Set aside.

In a separate glass bowl, sift the all-purpose flour and fresh cardamom powder 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 okay, but do not over beat. Finally fold in the walnuts and raisins. 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 raisins. Bake for 25 minutes at 180ºC or until a skewer comes out clean. Allow to cool before removing from pan.

I was ruminating over a conversation with an old associate I have known for over three years now and the fact he knew I blogged. That happened a few months ago. It was one of those familiar moments I have encountered when someone says, 'Aah, so you blog and you make food look good? Okay. Let's see, cook us something and let us say'. I get awfully nervous to a point of quivering knees and nervous breakdown. Neither it puts me into shoes of comfort, nor do I blush. I hate being judged. Its the kind of casual statement made to assume that you are a professional at the best. All bars are raised and expectations set too high. It's hard to satisfy such tastes, where preconceived bias swamps the confidence in me. It could turn anyone into cold feet. It's like a stab on your back testing your skills to restraint the blow, bridling any creativity you want to execute. Not really. I have bad days in my kitchen and I am no perfect for sure.

But little moments of joy come from those folks, unknowing to my penchant for cooking or being irrespective of the fact I blog or not, appreciate my food. For someone who does not know I blog, I post recipes, and yet appreciates that I have cooked good food, that's when you'll see me smile ear to ear. That moment of truth is really a winning moment for me. Honestly, I wish to create memories of food that can be remembered and revived by virtue.

You'll see this often that I don't spill out the fact to many that I blog. A lot of my close friends don't know I have a space out here. And with the ones who happen to know I do, more accidentally or through word of mouth and query about my passion in cooking or blogging in amusement, I wish to bury my face down in my hands and run away miles in embarrassment. Its such a strange awkwardness and I wonder if this has happened to any of you. Most readers whom I know are the ones whom I have never met personally, whom I have never known and strangely I feel the most comfortable posting here for them. Be it musings, my photographs or recipes, there is no prejudice what so ever. That for me is the most comforting factor. I wonder if I would ever be able to write and share so much here if my own folks were so regular at reading my blog. Thankfully I know they are not. That, for me is a consolation in many ways.

That brings me to this Orange Chocolate Chip Cookies here. A recipe that's strangely simple and unprejudiced. You throw in the said measures of all goodness and you have chocolate-y orange aromas wafting within minutes, it's zest leaving you in an all high. So true to the fact, the matrimony of orange and chocolate cannot go wrong. Sometimes you get the most out of the unexpected and that's what these Orange Chocolate Chip Cookies promise to do. Not just you, to your biased friends too!

Orange Chocolate Chip Cookies

INGREDIENTS

1/2 cup non-dairy margarine (can be replaced with vegetable oil)
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1/3 cup white sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/8 cup orange juice
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips (dairy-free for vegan)
Zest from 2 oranges

DIRECTIONS

Beat the margarine along with both the sugars (brown and white) till it's light and fluffy. Next, add in the vanilla extract. Add the flour and salt, mix well. Dissolve baking soda in orange juice and add to mixture immediately. Stir with a wooden spoon and bring the entire mixture to form a lightly wet dough. Next add in the chocolate chips and stir them in. Drop by tablespoonful on to an un-greased cookie tray. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 10 minutes. Don't over bake!

Today, my daughter and I decided to walk to the mall. With less than 3 days for us to head back to India, she insisted on an outing that I could not disobey. She has her favorite spot in the mall. Its the 4 buggy cars for toddlers, each in blue, pink, yellow and white that stand in a queue by their sides, their fascinating shapes and colors pompous enough to draw any child's attention. One, that resembles an ice cream; another, a train engine, and rest that I don't register. They hold a quiet, yet, prominent position in the mall. Right at the entrance, next to tall bubble gum candy loaded glass canisters where you drop in cents or drool over the colored candies. I bought one for myself too. I can barely resist.

There, she played for hours pretending she was driving a car, humming her favorite rhyme she's hooked to these days. The Driving In My Car by the Mother Goose Club. A rhyme that I don't remember learning myself as a kid. We play and listen it in loops, in good doses enough for both of us to know it by heart. She played and played, hopping from one to another at intervals, fluttering her petite pink frilly skirt each time with her moves, the characters of disney fairies flying all over with their wands on her tees, like they were in game with her, crooning through and pretending to drive. 'Mama, why is there no seat-beat in my car like Mama Goose has?', she asked. It's sometimes tough to convince her.

My favorite spot in the mall is the Barnes and Nobles bookstore for two reasons I love. One, she gets to play Lego and two, I get to read. It makes me pretend I own that bookstore, at least momentarily. Wouldn't it be nice if we all had one such big library at home? Oh yes. I dream all the time. I tell my husband - 'we'll have a nice library at home some day'. We are not voracious readers, yet, I am convinced there would be enough to stack up there - handful of my favorite collections, classics, magazines, my books of art, his books of birds, geos and travel, my ever-brimming collection of cookbooks and enough that will come in years from my little one too. A quaint little space of our own which will have silence like none. Where, the only sounds came from flipping of pages, clattering of the coffee cups, may be crunch from a cookie or two or the bat of eyelids to adjust glasses. Books stacked in wooden cabinets from their floor to ceiling, corner to corner, a big wooden armchair and a coffee table by their side, like the one this bookstore has. It's always full, occupied by aged folks in their 60s and 70s mostly. Retired and settled in life. They are the ones who have ample time in the world to sip coffee over hours and bury themselves behind books. To squander their day flipping pages in slow motion, adjusting glasses that have grown older and heavier like their age. There's no worry or hurry to get back home or anywhere, like we do.

So there she was, perched on the gray baby couch at the play table with piles of blocks that I had emptied from the bucket. Sadly, those blocks in same colors and shapes have been cornered with remote interest at home. There are wooden trains and rails for her to explore, well, just in case she lost her interest in these. I stood behind her with my presence lingering around so she could tap me from the corner of her eyes. It matters the most to her, least she knows mama dear is just around. My eyes gently wandering around for books that interest me the most. Legos are for her, not me; I make them mine for her. Its not time for fiction, nor classics. They need hours, not minutes that I have at hand. Spirituality and religion have a long long way to go. Magazines go into my bag for billing. Cookbooks are just what I need. Deep there with my eyes fixed, as I scanned books after books, there came a recipe for blackberry tea cake from one among them, 'English Tea and Cakes'. That reminded me of the box of berries we bought a fortnight ago. They just needed the right recipe to be consumed.

Boxes of little black jewels, plump and rounded, stay stacked in my fridge since over a week. I could string them to a beautiful necklace or stud a couple of ear danglers, oh the little darn beauties they were; but I held them - for a dear recipe instead. Enough berries were smothered in bananas berry smoothies to bore all. A berry tea cake from this cookbook was inspiring, however not far from the pound cakes I made in the past. I gorge a lot of it when I bake big batches of tea cakes, loaves or brownies, so it wasn't the day for another tea cake or a loaf. I had promised myself to resist. Patience, I know is tough. Persistence, is even tougher. Instead these tiny bites of my all time favorite brownies interspersed with these black jewels were made. These cupcakes help me resist that urge. The urge to eat a ton. Like a glutton. The urge to taste the ingredients, the batter, the after baked test tasting, the break snacking and mid night cravings, slices after slices. Mini treats like these keep me in curb.

I would hate to admit if someone asked me, 'How many cupcakes did you consume in a go?'. Half a dozen? Or did I miss anymore?

Blackberry Brownie Cupcakes with Chocolate Ganache Frosting

Loosely adapted from Joy the Baker

1/2 stick salted butter (or 1/4 cup)
1/4 cup bittersweet chocolate (72% cacao), coarsely chopped
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp. baking powder
1/4 cup (60 grams) of yogurt (was substituted for 1 egg)
1 tsp. vanilla powder (or extract)
1 tbsp. cocoa powder
10 blackberries, sliced to quarters
8-10 pecans, chopped
Chocolate Ganache for Frosting
Handful of blackberries for garnish

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Prepare mini cupcake moulds separately. I did not have a cup cake tin / muffin tin. Hence these cupcakes are free standing ones.

Whisk together flour, baking powder and salt and set aside.

Melt butter in a medium steel heat proof vessel. Once the butter has melted and is hot, remove from heat and add chopped / grated chocolate. You can do this in a double boiler method too, however I like it this way since it consumes less time and is faster hence. Stir well so that the chocolate and butter are completely melted and combined. Whisk well and allow to cool to room temperature. Then add in sugar, yogurt (or egg), and vanilla extract. Whisk well. Add the blackberry slices and pecans and whisk them in. Pour into the prepared paper cups, up until 3/4th of each cup and bake for 10-12 minutes. Keep a firm eye on them so that you don't over-bake.

Allow to cool these cupcakes completely on a wire rack. Then frost with a topping of your choice. I chose a Chocolate Ganache frosting, the recipe for which can be found here. Stud each cupcake with blackberry.

Note:

If you skip the berries and choose to bake these brownies alone, they may be slightly more cakey in nature and less fudgy. If you like fudgy brownies, then you can skip the baking powder and reduce the flour to half a cup in them. The blackberries add a bit of moisture to these brownies.

How to make Chocolate Sandwiched Coconut Macaroons | Easy Coconut Macaroons Recipe

Outside my window its a beautiful sight I marvel. Tender fresh leaves on trees are full grown and creepy green patches have embraced the ground covering every little stretch of open land available. As the skies cried over the past few days, the shrubs and weeds colonized themselves, densely populating our backyard as far as my sight can go. I wake up these days to sounds of birds tweeting in unison, winds swaying slowly, the leaves fluttering gently - it's music to my ears against the silence I have long borne. That makes me ridiculously peppy and dreamy. From dreary drizzle to swarm of bright pillow-y clouds interspersed with streaks of some sunshine, that's how the weather Gods have been lurching around for a while.

The past weekend, we saw an awesome weather. The kind that summers are like. The one that lets you feel less burdened with weight of clothes you put on. People fluttering around in sunglasses, hats, bright cottons, loose pants and floral prints. Sipping their ice tea and licking ice creams. Driving cars with their window panes down to let the mild breeze blow in. Parks flocked with family picnics and beaches busting in magnetic colors, rapt in sun-bathing. With traffic on the roads more than I ever saw. With people busy pruning their gardens and nurturing flowering shrubs as butterflies flapped by. It gave signs that the summer was here. Just a hint.

The met department forecast 9ºC yesterday. It rained and stayed dreary cold all day long. Today its 12ºC, warning us more cloud and showers for the day. This has been the case since the past three days. Though spring is in its full bloom it seems like summer will take longer than usual to make its way here. And mind you, I still have major challenges at conversions from ºC to ºF, grams to ounces, kilometers to miles, and all metrics American. Google at my rescue here, it's 54ºF today.

Back in India, I've hardly cared to read weather updates through any day of the year. Here it seems more evident to follow the weather forecasts. Honestly, I never thought I would speak so much weather here, but alas I am.

That clearly means we remain confined indoors. It wrapped up all my plans to take my daughter out on a walk to Walmart or the nearby mall and sign-off shopping gifts for my folks back home. Instead we stayed home and baked to feel cozy indulging.

So what if the summer isn't here yet, we baked some summer at home with these Coconut Macaroons today. I whisked the whites and sugar, while she threw in the coconut. We watched together as it baked, half in excitement and rest in ambush as these came out warm and golden from the oven. We just made up a good team together. These macaroons are crisp on the outside and sweet chewy inside. We felt mighty good adding a dose of Chocolate Ganache, made from the dark 70% bittersweet chocolate, that was gifted from a dear friend who visited us from Boston a while ago. Its optional and can easily do without, but icing on these darn little beauties is certainly a treat.

Chocolate Sandwiched Coconut Macaroons

INGREDIENTS

For the Coconut Macaroons:

1 1/2 cups sweetened, shredded coconut
2 large egg whites
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1/8 tsp. salt

For the Chocolate Ganache:

1/2 cup dark chocolate
1/4 cup heavy cream
1 tsp. sugar

DIRECTIONS

Preheat the oven to 350°F. In a clean bowl, whisk the egg whites along with sugar, vanilla, and salt. Whisk them until the whites and sugar are completely combined and the mixture is frothy. Next add in the shredded coconut to the egg white mixture and stir until the coconut is evenly moistened. Shape the coconut macaroon mixture into small balls as shown above. Place them on a baking tray spacing them an inch. Bake the macaroons for 15 minutes. Check if they have turned golden brown, else bake another 2-3 minutes further till light brown. Remove the macaroons from oven and cool on the baking tray for 5 minutes. Then gently transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely.

To make the Chocolate Ganache:

Heat the cream in a small saucepan. It just needs to get hot, not boiling. Add the sugar and the chopped chocolate and stir well till it's homogeneous. Cool the ganache and use it to sandwich the macaroons.

I was five years old when my mother first enrolled me into learning dance. The classical one - Bharatanatyam. It was in suburbs of Bombay (the then Mumbai) that my mother conscientiously learnt driving our first blue Fiat car to drop and pick me from those dance classes after school. I spent 3 years attending those after-school classes with deep rancor and resentment. My pale memories of my lack of interest to learn, teacher's constant chastisement at my dancing abilities, my mother's distress at my own inabilities to deliver, to forage excuses in all manner possible to avoid attending classes; stay as stale stories of my childhood; reminding me often how my mother had harboured a dream to see a dancer in me, while I stood cold feet and barely moved my bones to the tutelage. They are bleak and faded in blotted patches, but clearly there for me to remember, like the photograph of me in my dancing costume with my brows raised, my hands in action and a tight smile on my lips. That was probably clicked to save this memory.

So it took 3 years, a stage dance where I was made to stand (read hide) in the third row behind tall girls, one transfer of dad's posting to a far-distanced-remote district location for my mother to realize classical dancing was not my cup of tea. She gave up on me finally and let me live on my own. To let me explore what I could do better over dancing.

I had harboring interests in other aspects of art. My mother took up to learn nib painting in her free time. Canvas, oil paintings and nibs lay scattered all over the house. She was a pro at sewing and would stitch dresses and accessories for us with utter ease. Scraps of leftovers were handed over to us for play. It got over to me too. Sketching, painting and craft as a hobby became dear to me with time. I had a creative side in which I fared quite well and gained good scores at competitions in school. I received encouragement from all. There was no pressure to perform, no one coerced me to bring accolades, no teacher to reprimand. It was for me to develop and bloom my hobby the way I wanted to. My mother supported and fostered my interests beyond all. And I did reasonably well for many years.

I pursued this interest for long till I got married. They gave me sincere company when I was living by myself. I bought several painting books from the bucks I made while in college teaching painting in my free time to kids at a school. They are stacked neatly on my book shelf even today. Plastic binders don the books. Not a dog-ear that you can spot. My parents have my sketches and paintings framed that adorn their walls at home. The guy whom I was dating then (my husband today :)) told me once that he liked Sushmita Sen over Aishwarya Rai. I spent an entire night sketching her out for him. She has a look of shock on her face! Now that's what a night out does to you! That was probably the last time I held a pencil over paper and dipped brush into the paint box. And then we got married.

Charcoal over paper

Marriage changes life. It changes hobbies as well. That happened to me too. New families were embraced, following traditions - his and mine became important and career brought in responsibilities. Life became focused and busier, so hobbies distanced by virtue. Cooking took over as feeding family became a priority. With time and a baby it became a coherent part of my life that couldn't be ignored. So I accepted to love it instead of moaning. Cooking became a hobby. So did photography to feed the blog. Sayonara to all other forms of art.

Sadly, these artistic skills have been least helpful while icing cakes. I set out to bake these cupcake last fortnight with a batch of Raspberry-Strawberry Jam I had at hand. While the cupcakes themselves were a simple to make, considering how much little effort I had put into making them apart from just blending all ingredients in the blender (following Nigella's directions on one of the episodes I had seen in the past) they were moist and delightful to devour. I assumed my artistic skills would really be put to use while frosting them. But boy, I was so wrong and boggled at what mess I had created out of the canned frosting. Fortunately no butter or cream wasted. Just 3 cupcakes topped and stopped at that ordeal. I decided to stay out of it for the rest. I thought you should see my shabby work at frosting too!

Raspberry Strawberry Swirl Cupcakes

INGREDIENTS

3/4 cup plain flour
1/2 cup caster sugar
1/4 cup milk
1 egg
1/4 cup salted butter, softened at room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 cup any berry jam such as Strawberry, Raspberry or blueberry (store-bought or homemade)

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line cupcake pans with liners and set aside.

Blend the first 7 ingredients, except the raspberry jam in a clean blender till the mixture is incorporated well and is light, pale yellow and fluffy. This should take just about 30 sec of whiz. I like to throw in the wet ingredients first and then the dry ones. Divide batter evenly among the cake liners, filling each about three-quarters full. Drop a blob of the raspberry-strawberry jam into each cupcake and swirl them gently in the cake batter using a toothpick. Bake for about 20 minutes, or till the cake tops and edges are golden brown. Remove from the oven and let me sit for 5 min. Transfer to a wire rack and allow them to cool completely. Frost them with any choice of frosting.