VANILLA CUSTARD

Hello everyone

As summer has arrived with all its pace , so we need something chilling and soothing for our tummy too. Apart from ice creams and cold drinks , some healthy cum yummy dessert also works best. So today I am sharing a very easy yet super tempting dessert anyone can prepare and satisfy everyone's tummy without more fuss. You can find this dessert in almost all parties and celebrations, as it is too easy to cook. 

Stepwise recipe is given below, do try and don't forget to share your experience with me.

VANILLA CUSTARD

Serves: 6-7

Time: 30 mins ( leaving chilling time)

Ingredients 

1 lt milk

50 gms custard powder

1/2 cup sugar ( as per taste)

Fruits , cut in bite size pieces ( Apple, banana, kiwi, grapes, pomegranate, pears etc)

Dry fruits ( as per your choice) , chopped roughly ( completely optional) 

Method:

First of all boil the milk and add sugar to it.

 In the meanwhile dissolve custard powder in 1/4 cup of warm milk to make a thin smooth paste. 

Now add the custard paste to boiling milk and stir constantly to avoid formation of any lump. Let it boil again, stirring in between. Let it simmer for 10-12 mins or till you see it got nicely thickened and colour also darken to dark cream from light. 

**If you feel your custard is not looking as thick as in pics then don't panic as it will further thickens on chilling.

 Now switch off the flame and let it cool completely but stir it occasionally during cooling to avoid formation of dry skin over it. Now add chopped fruits and nuts. Mix well and serve. But for best taste, chill it before serving.

I used to prepare it and let it chill in fridge. When need to serve just add freshly chopped fruits and nuts of everyone's choice and serve. As my kids are picky eater that's why I use this trick of serving according to individual choice. You can also use it to have different taste in every bowl.

This measurement ratio is perfect and never fails so follow blindly and relish on your creamy delight every time.

Hope you will like this super easy recipe and please pour your valuable comments and suggestions here, they meant a lot.

Happy cooking....

COCONUT FILLED CHOCOLATES

Hello everyone

Who doesn't like chocolates ? If you ask this question to kids or even to elders too, then you get the same answer from everyone that we all love chocolates. Even during festivals, people prefer chocolates over traditional sweets, to gift . And if it is home made then just icing on cake. I am a sweet tooth and always love to relish on all sweet things including different varieties of chocolates. But as a health conscious fellow I too have to check on calories sometimes. That's why I thought to give it a try at home , with my choice of ingredients and with balanced sweetness. And to my surprise my chocolates came out perfect in first trial, with mild sweetness and subtle flavour of coconut, just like bounty chocolates, which are kids all time favorite. 

I used dark chocolate bar  to prepare my choice of chocolates, you can substitute it with your choice.

Stepwise recipe is given below, hope you all will love to try this and don't forget to share your experience with me.

COCONUT FILLED CHOCOLATE

Yield: 16-20 chocolates( depend on size of mold)

Time: 15 mins ( excluding refrigerating time)

Ingredients 

100 gms dark compound chocolate bar

2 tbsp butter

2 tbsp powder sugar ( or as per taste)

1/4 cup milk ( as per need)

For filling:

1/4 cup desiccated coconut 

1 tsp powder sugar

1 tbsp milk ( as per need)

METHOD :

First of all prepare filling. Mix sugar and desiccated coconut. Now add milk little by little and mix well. When the mixture is moist enough to hold shape then your mixture is ready, no need to add more milk now. Make small balls of this mixture which can be easily placed in your chocolate mold. Keep balls aside for later use.

** only use required amount of milk in your coconut mixture, neither too dry nor too runny, just enough moist to hold shape easily.

Now break your chocolate bar in small pieces and keep in microwave safe bowl . Microwave it for 2 mins, stirring after every 30 sec to avoid burning it. Mine took 2:30 mins as my chocolate bar was chilled . 

You can also use double boiler to melt your chocolate. Take hot boiling water in a pot and chocolate in another . Now place chocolate pot over water pot, so that chocolate can melt due to hotness of water. *** But there must not be any direct contact between chocolate and water otherwise your chocolate will be ruined.

Now add butter and again microwave for 30 secs. Now add powder sugar and mix well. At this time your mixture will look little dry. 

So add milk , 1 tbsp at a time and stirring constantly to get thick yet smooth pouring but not runny consistency of chocolate batter. 

** No need to add all milk, just add as per requirement . As quantity of milk added depend on quality of chocolate bar, so add and keep an eye on your batter to get right consistency.

Now take your chocolate mold, I used silicon mold as it is easy to handle, pour little chocolate in each section and then place prepared coconut balls on it. Now pour more chocolate on each coconut balls , so that to cover it completely. Tap the mold to escape any air bubble trapped and place in refrigerator for 30 mins to 1 hr.

 Now take it out and demold, your yummy homemade bounty chocolates are ready to attack on☺️☺️.

* You can use any filling of your choice.

* You can increase or decrease sugar as per your taste.

* To make your filling more rich in flavour you can substitute milk and sugar with condensed milk as per requirement.

You can prepare these chocolates in any shape and size for your kids school party, for birthday celebrations or to gift any one. 

It's really fun to make your own chocolates and share with your pals.

Hope you all will love to try this simple yet interesting chocolate recipe and please do tell how's it turned out for you. Please pour your valuable comments and suggestions here, they meant a lot.

Happy cooking ....

EGGLESS RAS MALAI

Hello everyone

Today I am having a very delicious Bengali sweet recipe, which is loved by almost every sweet tooth. My son is a fussy eater yet he always love to relish on these yummy sweets. He always want to have it. So thought why not to give it a try at home also to satisfy him to core. Though the chhena ( cheese) made from carton milk is not as easy to roll into a nice dough but I managed to prepare these. That's why shapes are not as smooth as we get in market but taste wise, full marks given by my lil one. Today I am not having step wise pics as it was not pre planned and also was not sure for the awesome outcome , so didn't click pics. But will try to explain at my best and will add pics too , when prepare it again. Hope you all will love to try this delicious treat and come up with your feedback.

** Updating stepwise pics too as per my promise☺️☺️

EGGLESS RAS MALAI

Serves: 6-7 ( will make 15-16 regular size dumplings)

Time : 1 hr

Ingredients 

For chhena:

1 1/4 lt full cream milk ( cow's fresh milk is best)

2 tsp white vinegar/ lemon juice( as per need)

For syrup:

1 lt water

1 cup sugar

For base milk:

3/4 lt milk

3-4 tbsp sugar ( as per taste)

8-10 strands saffron ( kesar) , soaked in 1 tbsp warm milk

1 tbsp pistachio, finely sliced

1 tbsp rose water ( optional)

Method: 

For chhena:

Boil milk and switch off the flame. Add vinegar , 1 tsp at a time and mix well. Let it sit for some time and check whether it is cuddled or not. If needed add more vinegar and check. 

When all the milk is cuddled and whey is separated , strain it in a muslin cloth. Now wash it under tap water thoroughly to get rid of any vinegar in chhena. 

Now tie a knot on muslin cloth and hang it for 3-4 hrs or till all the extra water drips from it and it remain only moist not water laden. 

* don't cook milk after adding vinegar/ lemon juice, it hardens the chhena.

* But don't over do hanging your cheese as if the chhena become dry you can't make proper dough with it.

* don't add too much vinegar or lemon juice at a time, it will make your chhena hard. Add little at a time  and give some time to curdle and then use next batch.

* Always use only required amount of vinegar/ lemon juice. Vinegar gives much better result , so if possible go for vinegar instead of lemon juice.

Now your chenna is ready to be kneaded as dough. Knead this for 5-6 mins using your Palm to a smooth greasy non sticky dough ( it will release ghee when kneaded well).

 

* I used carton milk so my dough was not as much greasy and was sticky too. If you are using carton milk then don't expect a clean dough and knead for at least 8-10 mins. 

** While making it again this time , I used fresh cows milk available here in plastic gallon and is pretty better than carton milk to make chhena.

To get best chhena and ras malai like store ones , I will advice to use cow's milk. 

** Here only packaged milk is available, so I used that. It's little tricky to use packaged milk for making chhena dough but not impossible. Just have some patience 😊, as I did 😜.

For cooking chhena dumplings in sugar syrup:

Boil water and sugar in a wide deep pan ( as chenna expands to double on cooking) till rolling hot. Now make small flat discs of chhena dough little bigger than a coin and put in rolling hot sugar syrup . 

Let it cook for a while to check it is not breaking during cooking. If it is breaking then knead your dough for more 2-3 mins and then make discs. 

If it's not breaking while cooking then add all the prepared discs one by one carefully in boiling suger syrup.

 Cover with lid and Let it cook on high flame for 10 - 15 mins then lower the flame and let it cook for another 10 mins. Switch off the flame and let it cool down completely before dipping in prepared milk .

** If you feel your sugar syrup is getting much thicker while boiling then add some water.

* always add chenna discs in rolling hot sugar syrup. If it's not boiling then discs may scatter in syrup.

* To check whether your chhena discs are cooked well, dip one cooked disc in normal water in a bowl. If the cooked chhena settles down then it is completely cooked otherwise cook for more minutes and check again for doneness.

* let the chhena cool completely in sugar syrup before removing it from pan to avoid breaking your chhena dumplings as they are too delicate to handle while hot.

For milk condensing:

Meanwhile your chhena dumplings were preparing, boil 3/4 lt of milk till it remain 1/2 lt. Add sugar and 

Saffron to it and simmer for 4-5 minutes. 

Switch off the flame and let it cool completely. Add rose water and pistachio. 

Now add prepared chhena dumplings one by one to it by squeezing a little, don't press too hard otherwise dumplings will break. 

Let it chill in refrigerator before serving.

Your super delicious ras malai is ready to please your guests and loving ones. 

Prepare these easy and tempting sweet dish and earn lots and lots of praise . 

I tried to short out all the do's and don't in my post but even if there is any thing left then please let me know in the comments box below so that I can clarify at my best. 

Hope you will love to try this super delicious sweet treat and don't forget to share your experience with me here, they meant a lot.

Happy cooking....

EGGLESS DATES AND DRY FRUITS BUNDT CAKE

Hello everyone

According to me no celebration is completed without a sinful cake. Whether it's birthday, anniversary or  Christmas, Easter etc. Cakes increase the excitement of an occasion to many folds and if it comes to festivals like Christmas or Easter then it becomes must to have a rich and flavorful cake in hand . So today I am sharing a very delicious and rich cake recipe full of healthy ingredients and most importantly it's eggless. You will just fall in love with this gorgeous eggless and alcohol free cake which is perfect for Christmas, Easter or any occasion you want to celebrate. 

Step wise recipe is given below, hope you will love this awesome cake and don't forget to tell me your experience ☺️

EGGLESS DATES AND DRY FRUITS BUNDT CAKE

Serves: 7-8

Time: 50 mins

Ingredients 

2 cup whole wheat flour / all purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/8 tsp salt

1 cup dates, deseeded and finely chopped  

1/4 cup raisins

1/4 cup almonds

1/3 cup oil

1 tsp vanilla essence 

1 tbsp lemon juice

2 cup water

1/2 cup sugar 

1 cup milk 

Method:

First of all add water , sugar and oil in a pan. Add all dry fruits in it and let it boil, then lower the flame and let it cook for 15 -20 mins or till dates become mushy . Switch off the flame and let it cool completely.

Till then sieve flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt together and keep aside for later use.

When dates mixture is cooled down, add milk and vanilla essence to it. 

Mix well and add lemon juice, give a quick stir and add flour to it in two to three batches and fold to a lump less smooth batter.

 This batter should not be runny , will be little thick . Now transfer the batter in greased and dusted bundt pan , tap the mold to evacuate any air bubble formed. 

Now bake it at 180 degree C in a preheated oven for 35-40 mins to till skewer or knife inserted in it comes out clean.

Let it cool for 10-15 mins in pan then demold on a wire rack and let it cool completely.

Your super delicious cake is ready to be served. 

Either serve it as it is or pour some ganache over it. It will taste divine in either way.

Choice of dry fruits is completely yours, you can use cashews, pistachios, cranberries, prunes or whatever you like. If you don't have bundt pand then go for any pan you have, but then baking time may vary so keep an eye on it after 30 mins of baking and keep checking.

Never over mix the batter after adding wet and dry ingredients together. 

Always let cake to become warm before de molding other wise it will not come out clean if it's too hot . 

It's a never fail recipe as I made it many time and it turned out perfect every time. 

So enjoy this rich palatable cake on any occasion and don't forget to share your feedback with me. Your comments and suggestions are precious, they meant a lot.

Happy cooking....

WATERMELON SWEET

Hello everyone 

Today is holi , a festival of colors and deliciousness. First of all wishing you all a very happy, colorful and delicious holi.

My daughter is too fond of sweets and somehow she saw a sweet in watermelon shape and color in some mall few days back. From that day she was insisting me to make the same for her and being a lazy mom I always tried to shift it to next day all the time. But now I thought to give it a try on this colorful festival to please my kids. Thought it was only experiment, so made very small batch but soon will make another big batch as it turned out more delicious and eye catching beyond my expectations.

It is perfect for this occasion,very easy to prepare with only few ingredients, little chewy and super tempting tummy and eye treat for everyone.

Step wise recipe is given below, hope you all fall in love with these cuties and definitely come up with your feedback😊😊.

WATERMELON SWEET

Yield: 20-24 pieces

Time: 25 mins ( excluding resting time)

Ingredients 

3/4 cup condensed milk, nearly 200ml

3/4 cup milk powder

1 tbsp ghee

2 tbsp sugar ( as per taste)

1/2 tsp cardamom powder 

2 tsp chopped cashews

Red and green gel food colors

Method:

First of all add ghee and condensed milk in a heavy bottom wok and let it boil. Now add milk powder and mix well stirring constantly to avoid forming lumps. Let it cook until it starts to come together and form a big lump. Now add sugar and cardamom powder, again cook till it again become nice thick mass.

 Take very small pinch of this dough in your hand and try to roll it, if it rolls without sticking then your dough is ready other wise cook few more mins and check again. Be careful while checking as it will be really hot to handle, so be quick in rolling and take very small dough to avoid hurting your palm.

Now let it cool until it become easy to handle. Divide the dough in three parts, two equal and one little smaller than these two. Now add green and red colors to equal part doughs and mix well to get desired color. Leave the third one as it is. Now add chopped cashews in red dough and again mix well.

Your doughs are ready to prepare your sweet. 

Divide all the three doughs in 5-6 equal portions. First of all take red dough portion and roll it to round ball, then take white dough and flatten it with your fingers to make small round poori shape. Now place red round ball on white one and cover it completely by rolling in between Palm, so that red ball is completely covered by white dough. Similarly do with green dough. Finally you will get a slightly big green ball in your hand.

In the same manner make all the watermelon balls and keep in a plate. Now keep these in refrigerator for 1 1/2 - 2 hrs then with help of a sharp knife , cut each balls in quarter.

 Your super tempting easy eye treat delight is ready to serve.

Do all cooking at minimum flame to avoid uneven colored and burnt , final outcome.

Keeping in refrigerator before cutting is an important step to get clean slices, so don't skip it.

This is very easy yet palatable delight to serve this festive season and will surely win your guests heart. 

My daughter is super happy to see these, even my fussy eater loved to hog on. 

So prepare these cuties and please do tell me how's it turned out for you, your valuable comments and suggestions are always invited, they meant a lot.

Happy cooking....