White Chocolate Peppermint Bark

Cooking time: 5 minutes | Difficulty level: Easy

We made this peppermint bark for coworkers and everyone loved it, wanting more. Eventually when I ran out of peppermint bark for everyone, I just decided to post a recipe because it is SO easy to make. Here you go... Happy Holidays!!

White chocolate peppermint bark

Baked Maple Gajar Halwa (Carrot Pudding)

Cooking time: 30-40 minutes | Difficulty level: Easy | Makes: 6 servings

Gajar Halwa or carrot pudding is a very popular North-Indian dessert and one of my favorite desserts of all time. Basically 'halwa' is anything that is cooked with milk, and this particular halwa is a very smart way to make your kids get their daily source of Vitamin A and fiber, disguised as yummy dessert! Recently we had a bake-off at work where the theme was "baked" and "fall." So I made some autumnal modifications to the contemporary gajar halwa by using maple sugar instead of regular sugar, and baking it in the oven.

Baked Maple-Carrot (Gajar) Halwa

Mini Cupcakes with Natural Flavors

Cooking time: 20 minutes + 20 minutes baking time | Difficulty level: Medium | Makes: About 2 dozen

Love cakes but worried about the calories? These mini cupcakes are the perfect guilt-free snack to satisfy the sweet tooth, and the frosting uses natural flavoring!

Clockwise: Strawberry, blueberry, orange and lemon

Eggless White Cake with Frosting

Preparation time: 20 minutes + 40 minutes baking time, Difficulty level: Medium | Makes: About 25-20 servings

Recently, I started baking cakes. Since my mom makes the world's best and healthiest cakes (IMO), I thought it would be nice to explore that part a little too! Nevertheless, the first eggless cake I ever baked with my mom's recipe (yes, I had a hard time converting Indian measurements to U.S. measurements), for a group of 20-odd people it blew everyone's mind!

Ingredients:

The final product  frosted and yummy!

For the cake:

2 cups all purpose flour (maida)

200 gm (or 1 cup) butter

1 1/2 cup powdered sugar

200 ml condensed milk 

2 tsp vanilla extract

2 flat tsp baking powder

1/2 cup milk (optional) 
 

For the frosting:

1 cup butter

2 cups confectioners sugar (or 10x powdered sugar)

2 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup milk (optional)

Method:

1. Grease a 9" round cake tin with butter and dust with flour so as to cover the inner surfaces completely. Put aside.
2. Preheat oven to 350 F (180 C)
3. Mix the flour and baking powder and sift it thrice in a 6" - 8" sieve.
4. In a mixing bowl, beat the sugar and butter till the butter mixes completely with sugar.
5. Add the condensed milk and vanilla extract to this mixture and beat until creamy.
6. Add the sifted flour+baking powder to this mixture spoon by spoon, running the mixer on low after every spoon to attain pulpy consistency
7. If needed, add milk till the batter reaches a liquid consistency (when dropped from the spoon it should fall like a pulp).
8. Pour this mixture in the cake pan and tap it on the ground to release any trapped air bubbles.
9. Bake in the oven for 30-40 minutes or until a knife of toothpick inserted comes out clean
10. Once the cake is done, take it out of the oven and let it cool on counter top for about 20 minutes
11. Separate the edges from the tin with a knife and transfer the cake to a cooling rack
12. Let it cool for 40-50 minutes before you start frosting.
13. For the frosting, sift the sugar once to avoid lumps formation.
14. Using a mixer, beat the butter, sugar, and vanilla extract until smooth.



Layered cake with strawberry and blueberry jams

15. If the mixture is thicker than you need, add some milk and beat till the desired consistency is attained. If it is too runny, you can thicken it by adding more sugar



Making the frosting

16. Using a palette knife (or the non-sharp edge of a regular knife), coat the cake with the frosting 

 

Helpful tips:

• Baking times can vary according to the size of your oven or the depth of the pan. It is advisable to check the cake for doneness after 25 minutes as described in step 9.
• Condensed milk will provide the moistness and binding agent that eggs would provide otherwise, but condensed milk also has its own sweetness. The batter should be tasted for desired sweetness before adding all the sugar.
• This recipe calls for the use of baking powder, which is often confused with baking soda.
• You can also make a layered cake by baking two cakes or slicing the cake horizontally in half and you can have a layer of frosting or jam in the middle  (as shown in the picture above)
• To keep the cake from drying while it is cooling, cover it with a cotton cloth

 

Flan or Caramel Custard Pudding

Cooking time: 15 minutes + 45 minutes baking time | Difficulty level: Easy

This sweet dish is a specialty of all Iranian restaurants in India. Not overly sweet, this dessert is a perfect treat to top off the kebabs, biryani or pretty much any food! For me, it is an all-time favorite treat even on an empty stomach.

Strawberry Shrikhand (श्रीखंड)

Preparation time: 15 minutes | Difficulty level: Easy

An all-time summer favorite, I remember Mom making lots and lots of Shrikhand (sweetened Indian yogurt with saffron, cardamom and pistachios) and serving us a scoop of it in waffle cones on warm summer afternoons as a healthier alternative to ice creams, kulfis and popsicles. As a variation, she would occasionally make Amrakhand (with mangoes) or Strawberry-khand (with strawberries) instead of the conventional ingredients to make for a refreshing change.

Pecan Pie

Cooking time: 15 minutes + 50 minutes baking time | Difficulty level: Easy

I chose this as my first post for a very special reason. This recipe of Pecan Pie comes from a very loving lady and a great cook, in a sense my "Foster Mom" who is my mother and my family, away from home.

Ingredients
For the crust:
1 cup all-purpose flour (maida)

1/2 cup melted butter

1/2 tsp. salt (you can avoid this if the butter is salted)

1/2 cup water

For the filling:

1 cup light corn syrup

1 cup sugar

3 large eggs

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

1/4 tsp salt

about 1 cup pecan halves or enough cover the base of a 9" pie dish

Method

1. Add the butter and salt to the flour and while steadily adding water, knead a dough out of the mixture. Chill it in the refrigerator for 30 minutes-1 hour. 
2. For the filling, beat the eggs in a mixing bowl. Add corn syrup, sugar, vanilla extract and salt to this mixture and mix well. 
3. Using a rolling pin, flatten out the refrigerated dough on a lightly floured surface to make a base approximately 11" in diameter and about 1/8th of an inch in thickness. 
4. Carefully line the inside of a 9" pie dish with this dough, lightly pressing it down evenly to line the bottom corners of the pie dish and covering the edges of the pie dish. 
5. Lay the pecan halves at the bottom of the dish to completely cover the base. 
6. Pour the filling over the pecan halves, making sure to completely cover all pecans with the filling. The pecans will float on top. 
7. Bake this mixture in a conventional oven for 10 minutes at 450F. Turn down the heat to 325F and bake for another 40 minutes. Take the pie dish out of the oven using oven mittens and let it sit on the counter top for about 30 minutes. 
8. Once the pie cools down, it is ready to be served.

Helpful tips:

• If kneading the dough in a food processor, it's ideal to use the pulse mode.
• Refrigerating the dough is not a necessary step. Most of the times I just skip this step altogether but chilling the dough makes the crust flakier.
• Your baking time needs to be adjusted according to the size of your oven. This recipe assumes a 30" gas oven, but if you are using a smaller (counter-top) oven, you may need to bake the pie at 300F for a total of 40 minutes.
• Use a pie server or a pizza cutter to cut the pie. You can use a serrated knife in case you don't have a pie server.
• Pecan pie can be stored on the counter top for up to 10 days without refrigerating.