Raspberry Brownies (Birthday Post -2)

I am a bit embarrassed about posting stuff about my birthday when my birthday was more than 2 weeks ago. But I love the recipe and can’t help but share the wonderful time I had with my family and friends on my blog. So this is the second installment wherein I would talk about a lovely brownie recipe, nothing more. Promise.

It looks divine

What would one do, if one falls in love with one’s on creation? Is that terribly narcissistic? I hope not.

Ofcourse the recipe was adapted but the effort was all mine so it is okay to call it my creation, isn’t it? I love this brownie for its simplicity. The ruby pink-ness against the barren brown-ness and the burning candles against this gorgeous expanse looked like  the stars that are shining down. Maybe I imagine too much and try to draw parallels to where there are none.  But beautiful looking food almost always evokes strong images in my mind and this brownie did just that.

Just before I popped it into the oven

The brownie was asked for a generous amounts of  chocolate but that sweetness was offset by the tartness of the raspberries. The recipe was adapted from the latest issue of the BBC GoodFood magazine. It had made it to the cover of the magazine for all the right reasons. Looking at it, there was little reason not to bake this on my birthday.

Do try this brownie and I am sure you’d be as crazy about it as I am. Apart from the lovely brownie which was my birthday cake, I had another wonderfully scrummy cake to cut gifted by Anamika Arun of Taste Junction. It was a delicious, full of chocolate goodness, one my utter favourites – A mud cake. I was spoilt for choice. I also was gifted another eggless version of a gorgeous chocolate cake by Gayathri of Food & Fiction which was divine. I couldn’t help but finish most of it myself since they were so good and made for me with such thought and care. Now you know why this birthday was the best ever ( I can never tire of announcing this every now and then)

The mud cake- thanks Anamika

Gayathri’s Yummylicious chocolate cake with nutella buttercream frosting

Some more photos from the dinner party at my place.

The children had a lovely time blowing off candles on both the cakes. The food was an Italian spread with bruschetta, spaghetti and chicken balls, salad, vegetarian pizza and Salad. Fun, cheer, conversations and laughter filled my home that evening making it so memorable.

the party people

With this I end my birthday post saga with great memories and with a realization that birthdays can be fun. It is just not about getting older but also about trying to spend time with the people you love and cherish and making memories for times to come.

Classic “Compensatory” Chocolate Chip Cookies

Chocolate Chip Cookies command three things – you cannot stop at just one and you can never get tired of them and they beg to be made again and again; especially if they are Dorie Greenspan’s best Chocolate Chip cookies ever!!

If you are wondering why I have called them ‘ Compensatory’ then you ought to read this post.

Mimi loves chocolate chip cookies and I have made these many times before but they vanish before I can photograph them. So this time I planned  my baking such that I had some time to photograph before they got devoured.

 

I clicked a few pictures while they were baking their way to the chocolate spotted golden discs. It is so wonderful to see each scoop of dough spread out into a beautiful cookie. Each one unique and gorgeous in its own unique way. That is the most beautiful part of having home-baked goods.

 

This recipe is a Dorie Greenspan recipe and like all her recipes they tend to be butter and sugar heavy. Since I have already made these couple of times, I have tweaked the butter and the sugar according to the way we like it. Mimi doesn’t like it if it’s too sweet. She enjoys the dull sweetness from the bits of chocolate scattered intermittently in the cookie. She is my official tester of my cookie dough. If she licks it off the ladle and doesn’t spit it out, it means it really is very, very good.

Recipe for the Best Chocolate Chip Cookies

Makes about 25-27 large cookies

Ingredients

All Purpose flour – 2 cups

Salt- 1 tsp

Baking soda – 3/4 tsp

Butter – 225 gms but I used 200 gms, which works perfectly well

Caster Sugar – 3/4 cup ( original called for 1 cup)

Light brown sugar – 1/2 cup ( original called for 2/3)

Vanilla essence – 2 tsps

Eggs – 2, large

chocolate chips ( bittersweet) – 2 cups ( I had run out of these and used actual bitter sweet chunks of chocolate)

Toasted walnuts – 1 cup, finely chopped

Preparation

1. Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 375 F/190C/ gas mark 5. Line the baking sheet with a parchment paper

2. Whisk together the flour, salt and baking soda

3. Working with a stand mixer, beat the butter on medium speed for about 1 minute, until smooth.

4. Add sugars and beat for another 2 minutes or so., until well blended

5. Beat in the vanilla

6. Add eggs one at a time, beating well for a minute or so before adding the other egg and doing the same.

7. Reduce the speed of the stand mixer and add the dry mixture in 3 lots and then add the chocolate and nuts

8. Spoon the dough on the parchment paper keep enough distance between two such scoops so that there is enough space for them to spread out and shine.

9. Bake the cookies one sheet at a time and rotating the sheet at the mid way point for 10 to 12 minutes or until they are brown at the edges and golden at the center. They may be soft in the middle but that is alright. When they cool down they harden sufficiently giving it the right kind of bite.

10. Pull the sheet from the oven and allow the cookies to rest for 1 minute, then carefully using a wide spatula transfer them to a separate plate to cool to room temperature.

 

So it is as easy as that and still happens to be a favourite with my family. Do try these and  see yourself reaching for your cookie jar every now and then.

Taking Baby Steps With Some Chocolate Mascarpone Mini Cups

Just a few posts ago, I wrote about how I was homeschooling my toddler. I was enjoying that experience to the hilt and thought of continuing it for as long as I could. I could see how much it was helping my child learn faster and it was the best way to fill up my time as well. But life has its own quirky way of sneaking up on you and changing it without any prior warning. Usually I’m up for such change of tracks but this new development put me out of my comfort zone and overnight I was fraught with worry about how I was going to manage things from now on. I should have been happy and don’t get me wrong I am happy with this new development but when you are a mum, your happiness has to wait in line till your child’s priorities have been sorted out.

The thing is, after a gap of 2 whole years, I landed myself a job in Bahrain. This was when I had almost given up hope and decided on focusing on doing something entirely different with my life. My first instinct was to stress out about how I was going to manage Mimi. I wanted to home school her given its definite advantages but now with a full-time job which was too good to give up, I had to make alternate arrangements. My kind housekeeper obliged to play the nanny for certain part of the day until I got back home from work. So with that in place, I decided to look for a school that would not only accommodate my child in the middle of the year but also fulfill certain criteria that were important to me with respect to its curriculum and discipline. Most of the schools refused outright asking me to apply the following year and some just didn’t make the cut. Finally I found a leveler in a school that was close to my home and seemed right in most ways for Mimi to attend. Thankfully, they had one last place to offer her and the deal was sealed.

Her first day was on the 1st of March. I constantly spoke to Mimi the previous few days about how she was going to school and what she would do there. I even prompted her every now and then about waking up early since she had to leave by 7 30 am. I never in my dreams thought that she would actually pay heed to what I was telling her. For a  2.5 year-old , she is pretty smart, I must say. She woke up at 6 45 am on the first day on her own and quietly let me dress her up. To see her in her white shirt and beige skirt ( which was too long btw) and her red sweater, I was shedding a silent tear on the side. She posed for me and seemed happy to be going to school. The moment she entered the school compound, she let-go off my hand and rushed to the playpen. She was excited to see the swings, the slides and all her favourite fun activities in one place. I had a tough time coaxing her to see her class. Her class teacher seemed like a kind but firm sort of lady and that put my mind at rest. Leaving Mimi with them was difficult as she is not used to being restricted in a room. After some distraction tactics, I managed to slip away and come home. To return to an empty house seemed very weird. I found myself fidgety and anxious. I worried about Mimi and whether she would have had her breakfast or not or whether she would sit in one place or not. I used that time to bake something (obviously) so that I don’t combust and evaporate. I made these dainty little cups of joy using ofcourse our ( Mimi’s and mine) favourite ingredient Chocolate and another beautiful ingredient Mascarpone. Making these required some focus and that helped me calm down.

While I make/bake something with the intention of blogging about it afterward, I usually start the post in my head with the process. The story, the outline, the character building, the sweet reminiscences start swirling in my head as I start putting the ingredients together. And by the time the task is done, my blog post is ready to be published in my head. So then, it is only a matter of typing the words down on the blog page.

So during this chocolate mascarpone exercise, I thought about how Mimi and I are going through similar experiences in our lives right now. But Mimi has had a head start since she started school before I join work. I join work this Sunday ( 11th of March) and it would be my first after 2 long years. I have had some sort of preparation only because of the zillions of interviews that I had attended but to actually imagine myself in office- that was scary. I thought about how I would have to look serious all the time, wear stuffy coats and trousers ( as opposed to the breezy night pyjamas and comfortable Ts  that I never get out of) and attempt making adult-like conversations with my colleagues ( in contrast to the baby talk that I have practised with my child these 2 years). How in the world was I going to fit in? I am going to feel like a fish out of water the first day. And since my role is primarily going to be a client facing one, I don’t know if I still have it in me to hold anyone’s attention. All of a sudden, the whole job thing started to look like a mistake. I wasn’t feeling up to it. NOT AT ALL. My heart began to race and I had to call my mother. Though I didn’t tell her about my anxieties, but I told her about Mimi and her school. I always feel a lot better after talking to her. She told me about the time when she had to leave me and my brother with our nannies to go back to work and how difficult it was for her ( this was without any prompting from me about my chaotic mind frame).

Only when we have our own children do we realize what all our parents would have endured raising us and we take it all for granted. Unfortunately, these bursts of realization come very late. So talking to my mum laid most of my fears to rest and I concentrated on getting my tiny desserts done well. I don’t know where I got the recipe from but I must thank whoever that person/cookbook/blogger is. These fabulous pieces of ecstasy are meant for those special occasions; the first days sort of celebration. Indulgent but not being overly so.

Recipe for Chocolate Mascarpone Mini Cups

Makes about 20 cups

Ingredients

 100 gm plain chocolate ( for the cups. You will need petite -size paper cups to make these chocolate cups)

Filling 

100 gm milk chocolate

200 gm mascarpone cheese

1/2 tsp vanilla essence

cocoa powder for dusting

Preparation

1. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

2. Break 100gm plain chocolate into pieces and place it in a bowl. Set it over a saucepan of hot water. Stir until the chocolate has melted. Spoon the melted chocolate into 20 paper cups ( the smallest ones), spreading it up the sides, with a small spoon or pastry brush. I think the pastry brush helps to spread it out evenly and reduces waste. Place these tiny paper cups upside down on the baking tray and leave to set.

2. When set, carefully peel away the paper cases. You have to be very careful lest the chocolate breaks. I had some mishaps but I used those broken chocolate cups anyways. It is chocolate after all. I cannot let anything chocolate go in waste.

3. For the filling, melt the chocolate. Place the mascarpone cheese in a bowl and beat in the vanilla essence. To this add the melted chocolate until well combined. Leave the mixture to chill in the refrigerator, beating occasionally, until firm enough to pipe. I was excited to do the piping but my piping nozzle kept dropping off every time I tried to squeeze the chocolate mixture out of it, into the cups. Finally I gave up and used a spoon to fill the cups.

4. In case you have a better quality piping bag and nozzle with you, a star nozzle would be the best to pipe the mixture into the cups. Decorate the cups with a dusting of cocoa powder. Keep in the refrigerator until you want to serve.

*If you have paper cups of a thicker variety, it would be easier to have better shapes.

These were an instant hit with Mimi and my husband. I even sent some off to my friend Gayathri, whose birthday is on the 11th of March. I dedicate these chocolate mini cups to Gayathri and wish her a beautiful birthday. I know she would make a spectacular cake on her birthday for herself and I cannot wait to have a taste of it.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GAYATHRI

While you all read this post, I would be in office trying to look professional. I feel the giggles coming already! I must imagine how difficult it must be for Mimi to step out of her cocoon into an unknown territory without knowing a thing about what lies before her. Atleast I have 5 years of work experience before I took a break. In that terms, Mimi has it tougher but I am sure both Mimi and I will manage and succeed by taking baby steps while enjoying the process.

We need your best wishes and prayers so that we manage to tread these unknown paths with confidence and great optimism.

The Nostalgia Trip With Tiramisu

December is such a wonderful month for resolutions and nostalgia. I am always high on nostalgia and find myself fleeting several feet high up in my past, rarely wanting to get down.  While resolutions and me don’t really go hand in hand, I did have a bunch of resolutions written down last year, more out of peer pressure than anything else. But nostalgia is my friend. That is because my past and present are as evident to me as night and day.

All the time before 2009 was the past and time after that would be my present. As for the future, it’s not really my bother because I have always been the take-it-as-it-comes kind of person. You must be wondering about, how I got to this clear division of my past and present? Well it is simple really. I got pregnant in Jan 2009 and since then I have been living in the moment; in the present. Any event, occasion before that time is my past. When I think about my past, I see a very different person because, I looked different, I did different things and lead a different life. The year 2008 was an important year for me in many ways. Not only because I fell pregnant the next year, but I did a lot of growing up in that year alone.  Out of the 12 months, I had to be on my own for the half of it. That alone time, gave me lot of time for reading, watching movies, working out and reflecting. Now when I think about that time, I experience mixed emotions. Alone-ness sometimes turned to fierce loneliness and sometimes the sheer joy of being in my own company surprised me to no end.

In my opinion at a sub-conscious level my mind and body were preparing for a life altering event; arrival of Mimi. But ofcourse at a conscious level I wasn’t aware. I can say this now with some ounce of surety, because I lived a whole life in the year 2008 before embarking on this wondrous journey of being a mother.

The year started with prepping for the half marathon in November. A healthy diet and exercise became the norm and I completely enjoyed my running  jigs.

Middle of year saw my hubby moving away to Seattle for  next 5-6 months. To fill my time, I joined spinning classes apart from my regular gym and running jaunts.

I haunted all the book shops in the city and gathered an enviable collection. Weekends were devoted to reading through different books at the same and at a rate that surprised me. I can proudly claim that I may have read more books in that year than the rest of the life put together. It is during this time, that I read a life changing book , ‘ Eat Pray Love’. To me, during that phase, this book made so much sense that it has etched an indelible mark. I even bought extra copies for my girlfriends and my mum too. I also read the Harry Potter books several times and  you can quiz me about anything in the books and I am sure, I won’t disappoint.

I also watched a whole lot of movies  that I always wanted to watch but never had time to. I was able to watch brilliant movies like ‘Closer’,  Eternal Sunshine of the spotless mind’, ‘ My house in Umbria’, ‘ Talented Mr. Rippley”, “Under the Tuscan Sun’ and many more. Under the Tuscan Sun and My house in Umbria clearly remain as favorites even today. If you haven’t seen them yet, get your copy of the DVD and watch it. I also watched the entire Kill Bill series and I think, Uma Thurman is a Goddess. I worship her.

In between, when I felt the world was closing in on me, I took a breather and went visiting my parents in Kerala. I spent a whole lot of time with them discussing, chit chatting and mostly just being around them. I am so glad I took that time off.

I went around Delhi to explore places I hadn’t been before and stopped for coffee at the quaintest little coffee shops that served the most amazing coffee.

I also went partying on weekends and danced the nights away. I was always the quintessential party girl and dancing was my first love and my greatest stress buster.

For an office assignment, I found myself wandering the streets of Amsterdam ( The Netherlands). I spent my time admiring the mannequins on display in shops only to realize they were actual people displaying their ‘wares’. It was here I fell in love with the foulest smelling cheese and the heavy wooden clogs.

Just around Christmas, I traveled to Stockholm ( Sweden) to see Santa Claus and tell him my little wish. It is here, I started to believe again in the magic of Christmas and Santa Claus when I saw my wish come true.

Just before my wedding anniversary and the year-end, my husband returned. He bought my first Chanel perfume and we celebrated it with Champagne. That was my first taste of Champagne and I loved it.

We took a memorable trip to Goa with friends and that was my last real vacation.

2008 was a year that I experienced  momentous joys and also fell into the deepest chasms of despair. During my trying moments I picked myself up by rewarding myself with little things that made me happy. It could be a new dress or a new music CD or sometimes a guilty dessert. I always felt chocolates loved me unconditionally. They always set my mood up and I felt positive  even on the dreariest days.

It was during this year that I also coined the term, ” Earn your dessert”. According to this,  only after doing my 7 km run every weekend, I would reward myself with a dessert and it had to be Tiramisu. I loved Tiramisu in puddings, in biscuit flavours, in cakes and in ice creams. Funnily, I may have never had an authentic Tiramisu, if there is any such thing. In the most up market Italian restaurants in Delhi, I was certain that they had a sponge cake or a pound cake dipped in coffee essence and not the lady fingers which made it more Italian. But what the heck, it tasted wonderful, this not-so-authentic Indian version of the Italian Tiramisu.

So 2008 was the year of the Tiramisu for me; bittersweet. 

So to toast my Nostalgia that December, I made some kick -*** Tiramisu inspired from a lovely blog -Sunshine and Smile. Kankana’s blog has become my go-to blog for most of my experimentation in the kitchen and I must add, the success rate has been 100%.  I tried this decadent tasting Tiramisu only to realize how ridiculously easy it is to make it. To stay true to my fond memories of Tiramisu, I decided to use  pound cake strips dipped in espresso.

Recipe for Tiramisu

Ingredients

3 egg yolks

1/2 cup sugar

4 tbsp mascarpone cheese

24 lady fingers or strips of pound cake or sponge cake

2 tbsp cocoa powder plus extra for dusting

1 cup strong espresso, cooled down to room temperature

1/2 cup bitter-sweet chocolate shavings, for garnish

Directions:

1. Beat the egg yolks and sugar in an electric mixer or whisker until they are thick and pale.

2. Add mascarpone cheese and continue beating until smooth.

3. Add 1 tbsp of coco powder and mix until its thoroughly combined.

4. Dip each ladyfingers/ pound cake strip/ sponge cake strips  into espresso for about a second and place on the bottom of the serving bowl (I placed 3 in each).

5. Next, pour the mascarpone mixture over the ladyfingers.

6. Now, arrange another layer of soaked ladyfingers and top with remaining mascarpone mixture.

7. Cover the bowls with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 4 hours (I keep it overnight).

8. While serving, sprinkle some more coco powder with chocolate shavings.