Sweet Archives - Page 2 of 20

Chocolate, Cookies, Brownies & Bars, Fruit Inspired, Sweet

Fruit & Nut Chocolate Slab (without the extra calories!)

Yes, its true. Chocolate can save the world, one tongue at a time. And my quick and easy recipe combines fruit and nut mix with semi sweet chocolate, perfectly forming a Fruit & Nut Chocolate Slab (without the extra calories!). Remember, because I use semi sweet chocolate, I am effectively lowering the calorie count, and by adding nuts and dried fruit – we counter the bitterness of the chocolate with a hullabaloo of a mixture of chewy, crunchy and crispy! Now I do not obviously advise eating slabs by the handful, rather having a 1 or 2″ square would be enough to give you your kick of sugar, without the unnecessary guilt!

Christmas Baking: Strawberry Shortcake

Want to make a desert this festive season?

But you want it to be quick, simple, lacking any kind of technique?

And most importantly, need it to look rustically perfect?

Well, have I got all those criteria marked off, and more!

You see, my Strawberry Shortcakes not only make the best and most beautiful centrepiece to your table this festive season, but take literally no time to make, use fresh in season luscious strawberries and is topped off with vanilla bean infused whipped cream. How do you not salivate?! And with christmas around the corner, the redness of the strawberries make the desert look even more festive and inviting!

Potato Chip Cookies with Chocolate Glaze a.k.a. Magic Cookies

After a lot of introspection, I’ve realised that there are very very very few cakes I love. I know it sounds odd, but I don’t love any and all cake. I love pies, brownies, cookies, tarts, blondies, bars, you get the drift. All that being said, I love experimenting and baking cakes, in all shapes and sizes, and worry not, I shall continue to do so! I haven’t quite mastered layering and the tapestry of it all, but I always remind myself that the joy of baking is in the baking itself, and creating a unique piece of my heart.

Most of the time, I don’t end up eating any of the cake I’ve made (exceptions include tasting the batter, frosting, etc while assembling, but rarely stretching to the end product) – but I am known to sneak cookie crumbs (cough cough whole cookies).

Wait, what?

Potato Chips? In a cookie?

With Chocolate?

So bad, it’s good!

I adore the idea of a little bit of salt in my desert, and even more my favourite additions like popcorn – so this time, it’s another all time classic – potato chips! Inspired by @smittenkitchen’s potato chip cookies, these ones are elevated for the festive season at hand, by the addition of a chocolate glaze a la jackson pollock (yes, I’m rather artistic). I tried a dozen of the cookie without the chocolate – but (shockingly) preferred it with the chocolate (yeah, like duh). There’s a fine line on these delicate cookies between too much and too little chocolate – so try and follow your gut and not that trigger happy hand while pouring the chocolate! Read more…

August 23, 2015 | 0 comment

Cookies, Brownies & Bars, Fruit Inspired, Pies & Puddings, Sweet

Lemon Brown Butter Tart + My Latest Crush

As is typically the case when a brilliant new book hits the market (especially by some of my favoured sources of inspiration) I waste little time getting my hands on it. By some gross error, I landed up ordering this gem a tad behind schedule, but oh, it is so worth having in my arsenal! I’ll admit, a lot of the main meals are primarily not vegetarian, but the other chapters {Meatless Mains, Vegetables} quickly make up for that. What I love about this book is that it is an amalgamation of people’s favourites, by phenomenal chefs/bloggers/geniuses, and genuinely meant to be catered towards honest home cooking – none of that layered and complicated deconstructed stuff! Hence, I used two recipes from the book as inspiration for my Lemon Brown Butter Tart. The first is Paule Caillat’s Brown Butter Tart (which BTW is ridonkulously easy) and the second is Elizabeth Falkner’s Eggless Lemon Curd.

Right so in case you thought that this is my latest crush, it isn’t. I mean, I love recipe books and all, but this crush is totally legit. And Yellow too! It’s none other than the Read more…

July 7, 2015 | 0 comment

Fruit Inspired

Breakfast Like a Queen

Off late, I’ve been steering away from the home-style Indian hot breakfasts, not because I don’t enjoy them, but because I just felt my body getting a bit sluggish and almost screaming for a change! Also, I’ve generally (i.e. for about a decade) been a big fan of breakfasts comprising of muesli, granola, fresh berries, dried and fresh fruits and beautiful yoghurt. Yes, breakfast looks and tastes pretty this way, but it’s also packed with fresh and super nutritious foods. I love adding compotes too the mix, especially when fresh strawberries are in season. I’m tempted to try out a cherry compote, inspired by the bounty of cherry in the city off late (and it has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that using my cherry pitter is oh-so-much-fun!), but haven’t gotten around to it just yet!

I recently discovered a brand of Greek Yoghurt called Epigamia (by the same people behind Hokey Pokey Ice Creams), which I must admit, I really enjoyed. One of the biggest selling points to me personally is, that it is a local homegrown brand, selling products at par with the world markets. This also very efficiently beats my mundane process of leaving homemade skim-milk yoghurt to drain overnight, resulting in a silky greek yoghurt consistency by morning. Here are the two combinations I’ve attempted to create over the last week, with more and more to come! Read more…

July 6, 2015 | 0 comment

Bread, Cake & Cupcake Heaven, Chocolate, Fruit Inspired, Sweet

Breakfast Banana Muffins with Coffee-Chocolate Chunks, Hazelnuts and Oats

The last weekend has been a busy busy but fantastic one. It started with a day dedicated to cooking and baking and making everything look pretty and yet relaxed. My idea of entertainment involves very little effort once the guests arrive, I prefer everything to be laid out and let the guests have a little fun DIY-ing and playing around with different stuff, that may to may not work well together. But that’s all the fun! There was: mango feta crostini with red wine fleur de sel, paprika spiked hummus, valrhona cointreau cupcakes, layered lemon cake with lemon cream cheese topped with fresh cranberries and gaufres shards, as well as some mini-mosaic apple tarts. It was quite a day night! And, of course, when at 2am this and this (the British version, of course!) makes a debut, you know the entertainment has taken the best possible turn!

With a Friday like that, even the best of us couldn’t rise and shine from the wee hours into a domestic diva. The thing is, I love the idea of grabbing a weekend (or any day, really) breakfast/brunch/late lunch comprising of breakfast favourites. I love the concept of brinner too (breakfast for dinner, get with the lingo!). The only part which tends to evade this achievement is the fact that it’s usually in the morning, and mornings and me haven’t become quite that friendly yet. That’s kind of how I stumbled upon the idea of making Breakfast Banana Muffins with Coffee-Chocolate Chunks, Hazelnuts and Oats the previous day, so I wouldn’t have to rise and shine early (eek!) to made a hot breakfast treat, I’d just drizzle it with some homemade warm salted caramel, and breakfast is served! Read more…

June 8, 2015 | 0 comment