Double Chocolate Bitter cake in Ramekins

I made this as a sweet surprise treat for huss dear on New Year. Huss is not a sweet tooth and is exactly opposite to me. An ardent chocoholic I am. Gimme anything with a hint of chocolate in it and I would gobble it down within no time.

So here’s my recipe:

Ingredients: (serves 2 – Ideal for a romantic couple)
All Purpose Flour – ½ cup
Butter – 3 tablespoons
1 large egg
Vanilla essence – ½ teaspoon
Dark chocolate bar – 1 (I used vochelle dark chocolate)
Dark chocolate cubes – 2
Sugar – 3 tablespoons

Procedure:
Preheat oven to 175 C. (I used microwave – convection mode). Grease the ramekins with butter and dust it with powdered sugar (if you have sweetened cocoa powder, you can use that to dust).
Split the egg white from the yolk and set aside.
Melt the butter and chocolate pieces in a double boiler ( I used a shallow pan placed on top of boiling water. Note that the pan with chocolate should not touch the water)
Beat the egg yolks and sugar till they become fluffy and creamy. Add in the vanilla essence.
Beat the egg white till stiff peaks.
Add the egg yolk mixture to the chocolate mixture and stir till well blended.
Fold in the egg whites (Do this gently). Do not overwork on the mixture.
Add the All purpose flour and fold in gently. Set aside.
Pour the batter onto the greased ramekins. Drop in the dark chocolate cubes and bake for 20 mins as per your oven’s strength.

If you need a molten centre: (MY STYLE - I hate eating half done cake :) )
Do not drop in the chocolate cubes. Melt it in a double boiler separately. When the cake is half done, take it out. Punch a hole in the centre and pour in the melted chocolate and then continue baking
Cool the cake and then unmould it by gently passing a knife through the side.
Rich chocolate cake ready!!! It will be a bit bitter as we are using dark chocolate.

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Banana Dates Nutty Smoothie

Yesterday was a hectic day… Needless to say I was banging my head on the office computer till 9 in the night. Asked my huss to have his dinner at my mother-in-law’s house thinking that I could grab something from the office canteen. Being the workaholic I am ;), I was not able to move my eyes from the computer monitor. So grabbed my bag at 9.15 and flew to home with the thought that husband dear would have prepared something for me.

My huss won’t disappoint me at any cost. The first words that came out of his mouth on seeing me were “What did you have at office for dinner?”... Phew!!!! Rumbling through my fridge with my tummy grumbling with hunger, I couldn’t find anything that could be cooked in minutes.

So came up with this yummy milkshake. 2-minute yummy tummy filling drink.

Ingredients:

Ripe Banana - 1

Dates - 7-8

Black grapes - 10

Milk

Walnuts

Almonds

Optional: You can add honey / chocolate sauce

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Hot chocolate with whipped cream

This one is mine and huss’s favorite drink from CCD. One which we always order when we go to Coffee day. So here comes the story.
With an intention to surprise my huss on new year midnite, I thought of trying this at home… So gathered the following…
Dark chocolate bar - 1 ( I used Vochelle dark chocolate. Got it in Nuts and Spices)
Milk - 1 packet (Chennaites - Try with Green color aavin packet)
Fresh cream for whipping (I used Amul fresh cream)
Method:

Break the chocolate bar to chunks and put them in the milk;
Heat the milk in low heat thus dissoving the chocolate simultaneously. The chocolate will dissolve soon but there will be chocolate threads floating around. Once the chocolate is dissolved, ur drink is ready.
You can use this as it is or you may strain and drink. I strained it out and the chocolate threads of course found their way to my tummy…

For the whipped cream:

Add 3 tbsps cream to a large bowl; Add 1 tbsp sugar and 2 tbsps milk.
Beat this with an electrix beater till there are stiff peaks. Tada whipped cream is ready…
You may pipe this on ur drink or you may spoon it on the drink.
Thats it yummy chocolatey hot chocolate ready…

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Belated Pongal Wishes with a Sweet :)

Belated Pongal wishes peeps… This year Pongal was my second Pongal away from home and parents… But it was special cos I celebrated it alone with my huss… Me and him in our Mannat celebrated it together huddled in our kitchen. A celebration of Pongal followed by a small Pooja… Made the traditional Pongal recipes - Sweet and Venn Pongal. Was wonderful but I missed being in my native where we used to celebrate it early morning in front of the house. Sweet and fond memories they are…

So coming to the sweet that I made… Its named Malpua… Inspired from http://www.4thsensecooking.com/

Ingredients:

For malpua -
Maida - 1/2 cup
Rava roasted - 1 cup
Milk and sugar - 1/2 cup
Baking powder - 1/2 tsp
Salt - a pinch
Water - 1 cup
Pistachios - for garnish
Oil - for frying

For sugar syrup -
Sugar - 1 cup
Water - 1 1/2 cups

Method:
Mix maida, Rava, baking powder and salt. Add milk-water mixture to it and make a batter. Set this aside for 15 mins.

Meanwhile mix sugar and water in a pan and allow it to boil till it comes to one string consistency.
Now take just oil in a pan, just about 1 inch from the bottom of the pan and once it is hot, pour in half ladle of batter in the center and allow it to fry for just a min. Flip it and let it roast on the other side too. Remove the malpua when the sides are little roasted and the center turns light golden brown.
Once removed from oil, dip the malpua into the sugar syrup for a min and remove them. Arrange them on a plate and garnish with chopped pistachios. This will yield crispy malpuas.
You may also soak the malpua overnight in the sugar syrup and then serve… This will make the malpua sweet and soggy. I preferred this… Yummy malpua at ur tummy's service...

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