Chocolate Walnut Cake with Chocolate Ganache

Three cute little tots running around the house, another one scheduled to arrive the next day and my mind craving for some chocolate.....

I read once somewhere that "There's nothing better than a good friend, except a good friend with chocolate" and I still had some dark and white chocolates (Ghiradelli too !!) left in the fridge that "kid" had brought when she visited m.

Surely, I didn't require more reason than these to bake some goodies !! Didn't look further than Mallika's blog for the recipe and she didn't disappoint !! I added some walnuts to the chocolate batter to make it crunchy. 

With the below quantity I made 6 muffins and a small cake on Sunday. The muffins were over before I could get a few pictures!! I let the cake set in the fridge for a day and made the chocolate ganache on Monday just before assembling the sinful cake.

Here's what the recipe called for:

For the cake

1/2 cup butter, room temp (50 gm)
1/4 cup sugar (25 gm)
1 egg, room temp
1 cup sweetened condensed milk (100 gms)
3/4 cup flour (75 gms)
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (50 gms)
1/2 cup milk
1 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

For the ganache

200 ml fresh cream (I used Amul, 25% fat)

4 blocks Chocolate

Method :

For the cake

Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Beat butter with sugar until light and fluffy. Beat an egg lightly with vanilla extract and add to batter. Pour in the condensed milk and milk. Beat well. 

In a second bowl, sieve together twice the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cocoa powder.

Add the wet to dry ingredients. Scoop batter into cupcake cups / cake tin. 

Bake until the fork comes out clean. It took me approximately 20 mins to make the cupcakes and around 35 mins to make the cake.

Let it cool on a wire rack.

For the ganache

Pour the cream into a thick saucepan and simmer till it bubbles. Cut chocolate bars into small chunks and add to the cream. Stir continuously for a few seconds. Take it off heat and continue to stir until all the chocolate has melted. Cool. Let it set in the fridge for around 15 mins before topping it on the cake.

To assemble

Cut the cake into two horizontally. A little tip - Use a thread to cut the cake to minimise the crumbs.

Spread (generously) some chocolate ganache on the bottom piece of cake and put the other piece on top of it. 

Crumb coat the entire cake with the ganache and let it set for half hour in the fridge.

Remove from fridge, add a second layer of ganache on the cake and top it with grated white chocolate.

Cut into desired pieces and INDULGE or better still, try to wait for 5-6 hours while it sets/matures in the fridge and then INDULGE .. The wait will be worth it .. I promise you..

Paneer & Peas Paratha

This paratha is a quick fix dinner. There's not much of chopping or cooking (for paratha stuffing) involved and takes around 45 mins from start to finish. I like parathas but avoid making them for dinner as the amount of fat that makes a paratha taste good is a turn off. Last night was an exception. I wasn't in the mood to make phulkas & a sabji. Moreoever, with the cyclone hovering around the coast, we had light showers in the evening and the mind craved for some hot parathas. To feel less guilty about the whole fat content issue, I avoided adding oil to the dough and used a pastry brush to brush oil over the paratha. Oh, I skipped the butter too whilst indulging in the hot parathas :D. 

Must I add, this dinner was a perfect end to a day of making homemade granola and date walnut muffins. :)

For the dough:
2 cups wheat flour
Salt to taste
1 1/2 cup water approximately

Mix the flour and salt. Add water and knead to a soft pliable dough. Cover and keep aside for sometime.

For the stuffing : 

1/2 cup grated paneer

1/2 cup frozen peas

1/4 cup coriander leaves

1 tsp masala powder (recipe below)

1/2 tsp coriander powder

Pinch of Asafoetida

Pinch of Salt

Boil the frozen peas for about 6-7 mins till soft and mash well. Mix all the above ingredients for the stuffing.

For the masala powder:

Dry roast 2 tbsps of jeera with 1-2 red chillies and grind to coarse powder. I usually keep this powder handy to use for raitas, parathas or gravies/sabjis.

To make the parathas:

Roll some dough (diameter of a palm) into small disks using a roller pin. Place 2 tsp of stuffing at the centre, pull the edges up and cover it from all the sides. Flatten it a little and then roll again into a thick, flat paratha.

Heat a tava and transfer the rolled dough it it. Cook partially on one side and turn it over. Cook partially on the other side and flip over the paratha. Drizzle some oil over the paratha  (or you can use a pastry brush) and fry till it's cooked on both sides. 

Serve hot with raita and pickle.

Date & Walnut Muffins

To truly savor something, there is a strategy. One must eat slow, enjoying each and every little bite. Savoring involves the smell, the look, the feel, and the atmosphere. One must focus on only the piece of art that they are eating when they are eating" Jillian E. Pierce

As I opened the fridge yesterday morning, my eyes fell on the 2 packets of dates that Mug had bought on his travel to the ME. I had to use them !! The idea of adding it to cereal not appealing, I chose to bake something with it. The mind went "Cookies.. Bread.. Bars.. Cake.. Oh wait.. I can use my new silicon muffin pan and make some muffins". As I logged in to check out some recipes, my blogger dashboard screamed to me "Date Walnut Muffins posted by M D at Veg Bowl! - 3 days ago" Oo la... Mallika's pics and recipe tempted me so much I couldn't wait more than 2 hours to get started on these babies. 

Boy.. it couldn't have gotten easier than this. Just one whizz in a blender to make the dates milk and then all ingredients mixed in a bowl..And oh..the result was oh so satisfying.. The babies were perfect.. the colour, the texture, the aroma and the taste.. Despite not using eggs and butter in this recipe, the muffins were so awesome!!

As the second batch of muffins came out of the oven, I sat down for a cuppa coffee with these warm muffins, on a perfect evening where the rain God looked down on the city, I savoured every little bite and truly madly deeply fell in love with these babies. And yes, hublord too had a sinful smile as he revelled in them later in the evening.

Ingredients:

1/3 cup pitted dates, chopped

2 tbsp heap of walnuts
1 cup + 3 tbsps hot milk
1/4 cup oil
1 1/2 cup plain flour
1/2 cup
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder

2 pinches all spice powder (I had some homemade powder of cardamom, cinnamon, & nutmeg)

Pinch of salt

Makes 12 small muffins

Place dates and hot milk in a bowl and allow it to stand. Pulse this in a mixer till the dates combine with milk. Though the initial recipe had called for the dates to stand for 10 mins with the milk (so you can have some fruity pieces as you bite into the muffins), I landed up having mine soak for more than 2 hours. So when I put it in the mixer, it took just a whizz for 3-4 seconds for it to blend into a smooth paste.  Add the oil. Blend again for 2 seconds.

Preheat oven to 180ºC. Grease / Line the cups of a muffin pan.
 

Sieve the flour, sugar, baking powder, soda and all spice powder in a bowl. Mix them well.
 

Make a well in the dry ingredients. Pour in the dates & milk mixture and mix gently till they just combine. Add the chopped walnuts. Spoon mixture into muffin pan, bake for 25 minutes until done.

Remove from oven. Let it stay for 5 mins in the pan and then set to cool on a wire rack/grill tray.