Monday, March 22, 2010

Chocolate and Muesli Blondies

There is something about the aroma of  a dish baking in the oven that I simply cannot resist. It is seductive. It overpowers my senses. It is addictive. And yes, despite many a disasters that I have encountered, I will not give up baking :) :) God save the guinea pigs who will have to eat my babies .. !!! :D :D

Ok .. Deepti's tryst with the Blondies got me all curious and eager. With a little bit of search on the internet, I landed on Smitten Kitchen's and Deeba's version of Blondies, also having learnt the Blondie tale in the meantime.


Story goes that Blondies or the lesser popular "albino cousin" of Brownies probably originated in the mid 19th century when butterscotch was popular. Cookbooks then had recipes with butterscotch (made by combining brown sugar / molasses with butter) , flour and a leavening agent ( baking powder / soda). The modern version of Blondies typically comprise these basic ingredients (brown sugar/butter/baking powder) and the fillings / variations with chocolate / nuts / dried fruits / fruits.


I was a little hesitant about using vegetable oil on my first try of Blondies (prior experiments with cakes / cookies having failed), so decided to go with butter as in Smitten kitchen's / Deepa's version. I ran into a little trouble when mixing the sugar and butter as I used fine crystals of sugar rather than powdered brown sugar (God knows why!! ). I had to warm the mix a little and then cool it down before adding the egg and the remaining ingredients. Thought all will be well soon, however ran into problems again when removing the blondies from the dish (I became a little impatient and tried to remove it from the dish sooner than the suggested time.. Lesson learnt .. It pays to be patient :)). Left it for a few more minutes and all was well indeed.


Though I wasn't infinitely pleased with how I had made the Blondies or the end result (I felt the sugar had masked other flavours, am sure it would be tastier had I cut the quantity of sugar / increased the dark chocolate/muesli quantity), this recipe is a definite keeps' / try again in my recipe archives. 

Ingredients
1 cup Flour
3/4 - 1 cup Light Brown sugar (I used 1 cup and thought the sugar masked other flavours)
1 egg lightly beaten
1 tsp Baking powder
1 Egg, lightly beaten
10 tbsp unsalted butter at room temperature
1/2 tsp Vanilla Essence
3/4 tsp Baking powder
3/4 - 1 Cup Muesli (a little toasted / roasted)
1/4 - 2/3 cup chocolate chips
A pinch of salt


Method
- Toast the muesli for about a minute on a low flame and set aside
- Preheat oven to 180C and prepare an oven-safe baking dish / grease and line with butter paper leaving around one and half inch extra at the rim of the dish.
- Melt the butter in a non-stick sauce pan and pour into a large mixing bowl. Add brown sugar to this and stir till it is smooth.
- Add the lightly beaten egg and vanilla extract and whisk
- In a separate bowl, sieve the flour, baking powder and salt.  Add these dry ingredients to the above wet mixture and mix.
- Add chocolate chips and muesli
- The batter will be thick, though not as thick as dough!
- Pour the mixture into the prepared baking dish
- Bake for about 35 minutes. A skewer test may show the mix still sticking to the sides of the knife/pick but that's ok if you like it a little gooeey !!
- Allow to cool completely and then lift it with the help of the extra butter paper and cut into 1 inch squares
- Top it with more chocolate / sugar frosting if desired. Else just enjoy as is !!

Friday, March 19, 2010

Corn Salad

Inspired by Madhuri on Cook-curry nook, and considering the latest eat healthy / diet frenzy my family has been in, I tried this Corn salad as a light dinner option 2-3 weeks back. I added cucumber to the recipe, voluntarily omitted the potatoes & bhujia sev (to minimise the carbs intake:)) and was forced to omit Amchur powder, chat powder and Kala namak as I didn't have these ingredients at home. Mug loved the end result. So here goes the pic and the recipe.




Ingredients:

* American Sweet corn (shelled) – 2 cups (cooked till soft)
* Onions – 2 nos (small sized, finely chopped)
* Tomatoes – 3 nos (medium sized, finely chopped)
* Pepper powder – 1/2 tsp
* Jeera powder – 1 tsp
* Lime juice – 1 tsp
* Salt – to taste

Garnish with some coriander/cilantro and its ready to serve. The corn salad can be eaten as is or topped on a Khakra (Plain / Jeera)

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Multi-grain cookies

A new day has come  

Am super excited! Mug finally bought me an OTG. I couldn’t wait to bake my first set of cookies. I began browsing through the several cookie / cake recipes I have collected over the months. A recipe called “Whole meal cookies” caught my eye as the recipe did not require butter or sugar or maida!!! Strange, for a cookie, but super healthy I thought! So post lunch today, I tried baking these cookies. I substituted whole-meal flour with multi–grain flour. Frankly, the first batch turned out to be a complete disaster. Without the sugar, the cookies had a light bitter taste lingering in my upper palate. So, in my second batch of cookies, I added caster sugar to the dough and the taste seemed ok. I bet it would have been a lot nicer if the sugar had been beaten with the egg and blended in with the dough. So here goes the modified recipe. Try it and do let me know how it goes!!

Multigrain cookies


Multi–grain flour – 250 gms (I used Pilsbury)
Egg - 1
Extra virgin olive oil – 7 tbsp
Honey – 3 tbsp
Sugar – 1 cup
Vanilla essence – 1tsp
Baking powder – 1 tsp

Makes 20 cookies

Bring the egg to room temperature, if kept in the fridge. In a bowl, beat the egg, honey and olive oil till creamy. Add sugar and vanilla essence and beat again till smooth.
Sieve the flour and baking powder once
Add the flour to the egg mixture and slowly mix till it becomes a dough. Knead the dough till smooth and consistent.
Roll out the dough to approx ½ inch thickness and cut out shapes using a cutter.
Bake in a pre-heated oven at 1600 for 15 mins.
Remove from oven and let it cool on a wire / grill tray for about 5 mins

Green Sprouts & Paneer Sandwich


The credit of this recipe goes to Sri (my only girl dost in Chennai currently and my co-sister :) ). We made this for dinner last night and everyone loved it!!

Ingredients
Sprouted green gram - 2 cups
Paneer - 100 gms
Lite Mayonnaise - 1- 1 1/2 spoon (just to bind the sprouts)
Tomato Ketchup - 1/2 to 1 spoon (to bind & give the spread a tangy taste)
One small green chilli (Optional)
Salt to taste
Pudina chutney
Brown bread


Method
Dice the paneer into small cubes. Mix green sprouts, diced paneer, mayonnaise and ketchup. If you want the spread to be a little spicy, finely chop chillies and add to the mixture. Add salt to taste.

On 2 slices of brown bread, spread the pudina chutney. Top one slice with the sprouts spread. Cover it with the other and grill.

The sprouts sandwich is ready to eat :)
Related Posts with Thumbnails