Black Forest Gateaux!

Last few months have been very busy for us. We moved to our new place :D, Mohan's parents had visited us, Mohan's cousins visited us, many of our friends visited and we have been busy settling into our new place.

Apart from that last few months many cakes were baked. One such cake was this Black Forest Gateaux!(My favorite when I was in India). Baked by Mohan (Gasp!) for me on my birthday (Double gasp!). It was the most awesome birthday gift- I had the cake and ate it too! Plus I got to boss around Mohan while "teaching" him how to make this cake and he had to listen just this once!

This again made an appearance when I made this for a friend of ours. He is a big fan of pac-man and I had long promised him a birthday cake and a pac-man cake . He happened to be in town for his birthday this year so I made him a pac-man birthday cake! :D

Genoise Au Chocolat/Chocolate sponge cake

3 tbsp Clarified Beurre Noisette

1/3rd cup Unsweetened cocoa, dutch- processed

1/4 cup  Water, Boiling hot

1 tsp  Vanilla Extract

5  Eggs, Large

1/2 cup Sugar

3/4th cup Sifted Cake Flour

• Preheat oven to 350 F
• line 2, 8 inch pans with parchment paper. Grease the side of pan with butter or a baking spray.

• Warm the beurre noisette until almost hot a(110 F- 120 F) and keep warm.
• In a medium sized mixing bowl, mix the cocoa powder, vanilla extract and the boiling hot water so that the cocoa has completely dissolved and there are no lumps.

• In the bowl of a standing mixer add the eggs and sugar. Set over a pan of simmering water and whisk till it reaches 110 F.

• Using the whisk attachment in you stand mixer, whisk the mixture on high speed till it triples in volume. Take around 5 minutes, longer if you use a hand beater.

• Remove 2 cups of the egg mixture and whisk into the cocoa mixture till smooth.
• Sift the flour over remaining egg mixture and fold it in gently but quickly with a rubber spatula or a slotted skimmer until the flour has disappeared
• Alternate: 
  
  • Take out 2 cups of egg mixture and whisk into the cocoa mixture till smooth, and sift half the flour into the cocoa mixture and using a rubber spatula fold in. Sift the rest of the flour into the egg mixture directly. I have had trouble with folding  when I was a novice. I improvised a bit with the current method  and that helped retain the volume. This recipe has no leavening agent so the loss of volume could result in a disk that can be used like a frisbee! only heavier . 
• Fold in the cocoa mixture until almost incorporated. Don't worry if you see some white streaks.
• Fold in the beurre noisette in 2 batches using a large whisk or a rubber spatula just until incorporated.
• Pour immediately  into the prepared pans and bake for 12-18 minutes or until the cake shrinks from the sides of the cake. Try not to open the oven door too much as it could make the cake fall .

• Once done, Loosen the sides of the cake with a metal spatula( I use plastic knife  I don't want to scratch my nonstick pans)

• Unmold at once onto a lightly greased cooling rack. Re invert to cool. trim the bottom and top crusts when ready to complete the cake.

Syrup:

1/4th cup + 1.5 tsp Sugar

1/2 cup Water

1 -2 tbsp Spiced rum

• In a small saucepan with a tight-fitting lid bring the sugar and water to a rolling boil, stirring constantly.
• Cover immediately, Remove from the heat. Allow to cool completely
• Stir in the liqueur. Set aside till needed.

Filling :

Cherries - 1/2 cup chopped up ( I used candied maraschino cherries)

Whipped Cream Frosting:

1.5 cups Heavy whipping cream, cold

1/3rd cup Granulated sugar

• Chill the mixing bowl and the whisk attachment  in the freezer for atleast 30 minutes.
• Add the whipping cream to the mixer bowl and whisk on low speed till frothy.
• Gradually add the sugar and whisk on high speed till it forms stiff peaks. 

Garnish:

Cherries - whole, chopped up and as much or as less you need. Let your imagination run wild

Chocolate shavings - pretty much like the cherries you can have them in what ever shape or size and as much or as little as you please.

Assembly:

• Place one cake on a cake board. Sprinkle half the syrup over the cake.

• Spread almost 3/4th cup of the whipped cream evenly over the bottom layer. Spread the chopped cherries over the whipped cream

• Top with second layer. Soak with the remaining syrup. Spread the remaining frosting on top and sides of the cake.

• Cover the sides of the cake with chocolate shavings ( I got lazy and just blitzed the chocolate in my food processor)
• Decorate with cherries on top.

• Now comes the toughest part. Let the cake soak in for 3-4 hours minimum. The longer it soaks  the better your cake will taste!

How to make Ghee/ Clarified butter/ Beurre noisette/ Brown Butter - Basics

With navrathri getting over, following closely is Diwali! Diwali can mean only one thing SWEETS! To make sweets we need a very key ingredient.... Ghee. Ghee is a staple in every Indian household's pantry. We use it on a daily basis to do tadkas for dishes, use it to make sweets, use a nice dollop on hot  rotis / rice or eat by the spoonful! And off late brown butter seems to be the latest trend in the baking world. So let us go on to make some ghee and  recipes that use ghee will follow ...

  Ingredients & Tools needed:

Butter - 1 Lb,Unsalted,  use the best butter  you can get your hands on
A tall heavy bottomed sauce pan - nonstick works for me
A stainless steel tea filter - I tried using plastic once and it resulted in disaster
A clean glass jar

Procedure:

• Chop the butter in 1 inch pieces. Place the pieces of butter in the pan you will be using to make the ghee in. Set over the counter top till the butter comes to room temperature. 
• Keep the glass jar with the stainless steel tea filter over its mouth

That chotu container was added to my collection thanks to M's grandma!!

• Once the butter has come to room temperature set over the stove and keep on low-medium heat, uncovered.
• The butter will melt and once all the butter has melted you will notice a white bubbling foam with a crackling sound. Don't worry this only means that the butter is boiling/ Cooking. Basically what is happening is that the water in the butter is getting expelled. Do not stir it with a spatula

• You will notice that gradually the intensity of the crackling comes down.

I've moved some of the foam to show you the color of the ghee  at this stage.

•  The white foam  slowly will develop brown specs

• Once the crackling stops be very careful. Turn the heat lower and just allow the ghee to be over heat for just less than a minute. There are different schools of thought on this. Some people like to take it off the heat as soon as the crackling stops. In my house my mom makes a slightly browned ghee, that is very aromatic and  flavorful. And that is pretty much the brown butter that is called for in recipes.

At this stage this is the color of the Ghee.

• Remove of the heat and pour the boiling hot ghee over the stainless steel filter. Once a friend  and I made ghee at her house and she used the plastic variety for straining tea and like geniuses we pour the hot ghee over it and it just melted! what a waste of ghee and a perfectly good filter!!

• The brown stuff is tasty but extremely unhealthy!  
• Let the ghee cool down and then you can close it with a tight lid.Ghee has a long shelf life if you avoid contamination. I have a small container that I use to fill ghee as and when I need from the big bottle just to avoid any water going into it or some food particle accidentally falling into it while serving or cooking.

There is a very fine line between perfectly browned butter and burnt butter so from the start to the finish be around your ghee do not wander away trying to multitask! (I've learnt my lesson very well!!!!)

Mango - Pista Kulfi

This is a special post as my blog completed 1 year a few months  several months ago, and what was I doing for so long? I went to India for a relaxing 2 month vacation! I had a great holiday. Attended 2 weddings

My adorable nephew turned one, and I HAD to bake a cake and decorated with homemade fondant,

Had a bakers night out with my dear friend Mads

Mads & I made 50 cupcake toppers and the main cake in the time we had left from a lot of chitchat and fun!

Went to my native village and had an awesome time!,

Went to Coonoor stayed with M's cousin and his family and also re-lived some wonderful memories from my childhood,

Left: The house where my aunt lived for some 20 years before she moved , Right bottom:  M's cousin's family and our family.

And of course stuffed myself with so much food (made by in-laws & mom  mostly!) I felt like a beached walrus most of the times!

Sorry no pictures here!  All the food was eaten very promptly...

 It is better late than never. A special occasion deserves a special treat and I can't possibly think of anything more apt than mango! It is summer here in the US spring in Australia and some other parts of the world  * feeling extremely sheepish!*. In India Mangoes start making their appearance from early March. Though those are very sour and not the best variety, its just the calm before the storm. The only thing (not really the only thing!) I miss about India is the sea of golden-yellow, during summers. The only reason I used to look forward the the horrible, sweaty and stuffy summers in Chennai was the mangoes.  Heaven!!!! Truly the king of fruits. Though we get tinned mango puree all through year here, I still prefer the countless varieties of mangoes we get in India. Coincidentally the area where my native place is, is called the Mango City. The major supply of mangoes for Tamil Nadu comes from this region. As you can imagine, the wonderful two month summer vacations consisted of abundant supply of magoes from our farms. Apart from mangoes, unlimited supply of coconut water and the world's most awesome organic milk straight from the cow.(My granddad has a mini cow shed right across our house). Sigh! Such were my childhood vacations. Well, as you might have guessed already, my brother hated mangoes and their smell. If it were upto me I would use mangoes instead of perfume, body wash, pillow, mattress etc. He didn't like mangoes, that's his loss and my gain. I did not have to share any.

  Recently for a get together with a some friends I decided to make mango kulfi, I had a tin of mango and a lot of pistachios sitting in my pantry. Also, because I got a set of kulfi moulds along with a funky stand. Ever since I got back from India I have been wanting to make it and with the weather being so terrible right now... seems like the perfect time to cool off with mango kulfi + I have been drooling at my very dear friend DK's Mango kulfi since the day she posted it. I made some changes with an addition of a surprise ingredient. This was a super simple recipe and the recipe contains ingredients that are there in you kitchen mostly.

P.S - Will sell husband for mangoes!

Recipe Adapted from ChefInYou
( I doubled the recipe, since it had to serve 10-12 people)

Ingredients:
5 cups Whole milk
1/2 cup Milk powder
1 cup Condensed milk + more to eat of the tin!
1/2 cup Sugar ( you can reduce the quantity if you like it less sweeter)
2 slices Bread, cut into small pieces &  crumbs removed
2 cups Mango puree
Pistachios, skinned and chopped

• In a heavy bottomed pan heat the milk. Boil it on low heat so it reduces a bit.
• In a wide bowl place the cut bread pieces. Add enough milk to soak the bread pieces. 
• Process the soaked bread in a blender.
• Once the milk has thickened a bit, add the milk powder, condensed milk,the processed bread and sugar. Give it a mild boil so it all comes together. Take off heat and set aside
• Allow it to cool to room temperature.
• Add the mango puree and mix it together.
• Add the Pistachios and mix well so it spreads evenly.
• Pour into moulds. and freeze overnight. Set it on the counter for 5 minutes before serving.

Since I had only 6 moulds. I filled 6 moulds and the rest I poured into a 8x8 Inch square pan. That made it easy for every one to make a serving size of their choice. Everyone loved the kulfi so much that every one had a second serving. I have made DK's original recipe before and the addition of the bread definitely helped the texture of the kulfi. It was much softer to bite into. And I loved the addtion of pistachios, it was a lovely contrast and pistachios reminded me of the traditional kesar-pista kulfi.

Boondi Ladoo

   

  Tamil new years is observed around the 13th-14th of April every year, it is based on the Tamil Calendar.  The Tamil calendar is based on the classical Hindu solar calendar also used in Assam, Bengal, Kerala, Manipur, Nepal, Orissa, Rajasthan and Punjab. I could easily say that my most favorite festival is the Tamil New Years, simply because it is not a religious function and there are no restrictions on the menu. Meaning cook and eat, no elaborate pooja has to be performed before digging into the food! The menu for this festival includes: something sweet (ofcourse!!!), something bitter, something sour and something spicy/salty. Giving one an explosion of flavors! Workout your tongue people...

  This year for New Years I decided to post  Boondi Ladoo. I love Boondi Ladoo very much. Problem: I started remembering the occasions my mom would make Boondi Ladoo and started craving them. I learnt that without the Boondi Ladle I had to depend on the store brought Ladoos.Call me a Ladoo snob, but the ones available at our Indian store don't seem to satisfy my cravings. Lucky for me, I have a LGA (Local Guardian Aunty), who has all the kitchen tools  and gadgets one could ever imagine needed for Indian cooking. She lent it to me,  I could say leased infinitely, because I still have not returned it to her ! Aunty next time I meet you I'll make you a lot of ladoos to make up for it :D. 

Ingredients:

For the syrup:

Sugar - 1.5 cups

Water - 3/4th cup

Food colouring - Kesar colour, a pinch

Elaichi powder - 1/4th tsp

Nutmeg powder -  1/4th tsp

Clove powder - 1/4th tsp

For the Boondi:

Besan - 1 cup, divided in 2 batches

Rice flour - 1 tsp, divided in 2 batches

Oil - for frying the boondi

For tempering:

Ghee - 1 tbsp

Raisins

Cashews

Cloves (Optional , if you added the clove powder to the syrup you can skip this)

Sugar candy - You can even add this. I didn't have any on hand so did not add.

To make the syrup: 

• Soak Sugar and water for a few minutes. Boil the mixture till you get 1 string consistency. Approximately 215F- 235F on a candy thermometer.  
• Add the kesar colour, elaichi powder, nutmeg powder, and clove powder( if adding)

To make the Boondi:

• Heat the oil in a kadai.
• Take half the besan & rice flour. Mix together.
• Make a batter adding water. The batter should not be too thick. It should be a bit thin.( It should be thinner than dosa batter). If the batter soaks too much it drinks up more oil and your ladoo will be more oily.
• Over the Kadai hold the Boondi ladle. If you dont have a boondi ladle you can use a wide, slotted ladle. Pour about 1/4th cup of the batter and tap the ladle so that small balls fall into the hot oil. Just tap. DO not rub the surface of the ladle with a spoon or your hands. This will cause the boondi to be flat and not round.
• Take out the boondi from the kadai when it is almost 80% cooked. If it cooks 100% the boondi will get crisp and you will not be able to make balls out of it.
• Put the boondi into the syrup. Continue to make boondis till you run out of the batter.
• In the side, heat up some ghee and roast the raisns, cashew and cloves( If adding)
• Add the raisin & nut mixture to the boondi-syrup mixture.
• Gently mix. Cover it and set aside for 2-3 hours. Then make ladoos out of the soaked Boondis by squeezing between you plams.
• If the syrup is too hard and you are not able to make balls or if the balls don't hold up, sprinkle hot water and proceed. The ladoos may seem to be a bit wet in that case, but it will dry up and hold together well.

Pattani Piratal/ Spiced Peas Curry

This post is dedicated to one of my best friends, who is almost family to me - Pavithra. She was introduced to me by another family friend and used to live in the same community as I do. Her husband(Big V) was pretty easy going and her son(Small V, looks exactly like his dad! Sorry Pavithra... I had to mention it. ) was the cutest and most adorable 9 month old I had ever met, and who eventually became best friends with my husband and I.We all connected and got along very well. We used to be over at each other's place constantly for dinners, lunches, or even just simply just hanging out. As the saying goes, all good things must come to an end... It was true in our case. She moved back to India with her family :(. Fortunately for me the story doesn't end there. She and her family are moving back to the US, though not the same area as us...still something is better than nothing! We can meet up for holidays, etc. YAY! I am so psyched. (I think I am even more excited than even her!!!!!!!)

Pavithra & I

She is a fantastic cook and has re-introduced me to certain dishes which in the past I have hated, but now I love to bits. One such dish was Appam. I am not a big fan of any dish with obvious coconut in it. Pavithra made appam with this pattani piratal. O.M.G!!!! The piratal was so good that I even liked the appam, and now it is a regular feature in our dinner table. She loves cooking so much, that Small V gets very inspired. He used to "cook" for us using his toy kitchen, his specials were avacado sambar and cabbage and  capsicum rasam! I can go on and on about Small V for days so let me stop with this. Do watch out this space for more Pavithra specials!

Future Sanjeev Kapoor making his signature dishes: Avacado Sambar & Cabbage Rasam!

This dish is a Chettinadu special and is a bit spicy & takes a bit of oil. So reserve this dish for one of those days when you want to indulge.


Ingredients:
Peas - 2 cups, fresh or frozen but thawed
Onion - 2 medium sized, finely chopped
Tomatoes - 4 medium sized, finely chopped
Oil - 5 tbsp , sounds like a lot but do not try to cut it as it is needed in this dish.
Curry leaves- few
Cilantro - finely chopped

The color combination is so bright!

For the Masala:
Coconut - 3 tbsp
Ginger - 1" piece
Garlic - 5 cloves
Fennel seeds - 1 tsp
Cinammon - 1/2" piece
Cloves - 4-5
Green chillies - 1-2 optional
Dhaniya - 1.5 tsp
Chilly Powder - 2.5 tsp(lesser if you wish)
Turmeric - 1 tsp

• Process all the ingredients listed for the masala, into a fine paste. Try to avoid adding too much water while grinding.
• In a kadai heat some oil. Add the onions and sautee with a dash of salt, till it becomes translucent. The salt helps in cooking the onions faster.
• To the onions, add the tomatoes, peas, and the ground masala, and salt required for the dish.

• At about half way through add the curry leaves.
• The mixture will start coming together into a tight ball eventually. The tomatoes will "dissolve" and the water from the mixture will go and the mixture will start becoming a ball.
• Once done turn off heat and garnish with cilantro.
• This dish goes with chappatis, rice,dosa,idiyappam, and my current favorite appam!

That one is for you Pavithra!

I got this wonderful recipe for appams from here.

Triple Chocolate Mousse Cake

Hey! Hope you remember me still! I know have not blogged in over a month.My bad :(. With the winter being very weird (One day it is like a nice spring day, another day it is freezing cold), I wasn't feeling too great. I am back to normal now and hopefully back to regular blogging :). 

I get very excited for birthday's and anniversaries as I can come up with a cake to make for celebrating. I make other big plans, but based on my history of sucking at planning events, I make sure I engage in cake making for these celebrations! For my husband's first birthday, after we got married, I had planned to make a huge cake and have friends over. Then came the anti-climax - we were snowed in a week before D-Day. We couldn't even remove the car out of our apartment complex. So a day before his birthday, I sent him to the grocery store and made him buy the ingredients for his own birthday cake! You see, we are very engaged together in all activities :P. It was a yummy chocolate truffle cake reward for a grocery trip well done and for being the b'day baby.

The endless possibilities makes picking a cake I want to make very hard and it becomes a research project before I settle on one and keep it a secret. So, Mohan plays the guess the cake game for me. He tries to observe the products I am looking up online, or at the store. What books I am refering to and which pages have a lot of bookmarks. I go on tangents during my research, so he cannot really get much out of snooping around :P.

For year two I made Madhuri's Pineapple Pastry Cake. I wanted to finish making the cake and keep it in my friend's fridge so hubby wont see it. I managed to keep it a secret till the eve of his birthday. The husband decided to take off from work earlier than usual randomly, and the party started early with good friends of ours coming over! I was still frosting the cake in the side and was in shock!! So much for my secret cake plans and so much for random unplanned surprizes!

For my Hubby's birthday this year, I managed to keep it a secret till the cake cutting! (Almost!). Mohan and his friend dug into the cake and other agents of inebriation. They loved the cake very much. It had white "chocolate" in it. Thanks to being married to me, I don't even show my husband the light of white chocolate. I love dark chocolate and believe that white "chocolate" is not even chocolate! That being said, I was very surprised with the outcome of this cake. I enjoyed it inspite of it having white "chocolate". This cake was very fun to make, but it was a very lengthy process and I made it over a day. It was so worth it. Every bite was a peek into heaven. So let me not keep you in suspense and show you how I made it!

Recipe source: America's test kitchen TV show

For the Flourless Chocolate Cake Layer:

7 oz Bittersweet chocolate, chopped

6 tbsp Butter, Unsalted and cut into pieces

4 Eggs, separated

1 1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract

1/3rd cup Brown Sugar, packed

• Preheat oven to 325 F. Prepare a spring form pan with butter.
• Over a double boiler, melt the butter and chocolate. Set aside to cool for 5 minutes.
• Whisk in the egg yolks, one by one to the chocolate mixture
• Add the vanilla extract and whisk it.
• In the bowl of a standing mixer or a mixing bowl, add the egg whites and salt. Using the whisk attachment , beat on medium speed until frothy.(takes about 30 seconds)
• Add the half brown sugar to the egg whites and beat until incorporated. Add the rest of the brown sugar and continue to beat at high speed until stiff peaks form.
• Take about 1/3rd of the egg white mixture and whisk it into the chocolate mixture.
• Add the rest of the egg white mixture and gently fold it in, ensuring you do not deflate it too much.
• Pour into the greased pan and bake for 13- 18 minutes. The sides should be firm, but the center should be soft but cooked. It took me 15 minutes.
• Transfer the cake to a wire rack to cook down completely. Do not take the cake out of the pan.

For the Middle layer:

2 tbsp Dutch processed cocoa

5 tbsp Hot water

7 oz Bittersweet chocolate, chopped

1 1/2 cups Heavy Cream

1 tbsp sugar

1/8th tsp salt

• Whisk together cocoa powder and hot water and set aside to cool
• Melt the chocolate over a double boiler whisk until smooth. Take off heat and set aside to cool
• In a bowl of a stand mixer fitted with whisk attachement, whip the cream until forthy for 20 seconds.
• Add sugar and salt and beat on medium until it starts to thicken.
• Beat on high speed until the cream holds soft peaks.
• Add the cocoa mixture and 1/3 rd of the whipped cream and whisk it in till incorporated.
• Take the rest of the whipped cream mixture and fold it in gently with a spatula. Until no streaks remain.
• Pour the entire mixture into the springform pan over the cooled cake
• Smooth the top with an offset spatula. Tap the pan on the counter gently to remove any large air bubbles.
• Using a damp tissue wipe the side of the pan to clean the drips.
• Set it in the refrigerator for atleast 15 minutes.

For the top layer:

3/4 tsp Gelatin, powdered ( I used vegetarian gelatin)

1 tbsp Water

6 oz White Chocolate, chopped

1 1/2 cups of heavy cream

• In a small bowl sprinkle the gelatin over the water. Set aside for atleast 5 minutes for it to soften.
• Place the chocolate in a medium bowl.
• In a medium saucepan heat 1/2 cup cream until it boils. Add the gelatin misture and whisk it until it dissolves.
• Pour over the chocolate and let it stand for a minute. Whisk the mixture until smooth
• In the bowl of you standing mixer add the cream and using whisk attachment beat on low speed till it thickens a bit.
• Increase to high and whip till it forms soft peaks.
• Whisk in about 1/3rd of the whipped cream into the chocolate mixture and fold in the rest of the whipped cream gently with a rubber spatula.
• Pour the mixture on top of the second layer. Level it with an offset spatula.
• Tap the pan very gently to remove any air bubbles.
• Set in the fridge for atleast 3 hours. If you want to cover with a plastic wrap ensure the wrap wont touch the surface of the cake.
• Run a knife in the side of the pan to loosen the mousse. Remove the cake pan from the spring form.
• Decorate with chocolate curls. Well, mine look like grated chocolate rather than curls :P
• Enjoy yourself!!!

I am usually a white chocolate hater, but this recipe was really good. The gelatin ensured that the white chocolate din't set hard and the cream reduced the sweetness of the white chocolate. It was very subtle. Don't tell me I didn't warn you,  This is a very rich cake so even a cake crazy person such as myself could not eat a full slice in one sitting. (Shocking isn't it???)

Blueberry And Lavender Cream Pie

  Color,color what color do you choose? Violet, will be my answer. As kids we all have our favourite color. The mauve shades were my favorite specially purple and violet. I just took a trip down the memory lane and I remembered a game based on colors I used to play with my friends when I was a kid. Also, this is the beginning of a new year, so a lot of you will be reminiscing the past year, past decade etc. I'll leave you to that, while we at FSB unveil a colorful theme to represent a colorful past year and for an even more colorful new year which we all are looking forward to.


  The theme for this month was picked by me. This season of FSB saw all kinds of themes so it was tough for me to pick something that was not done before. I put on my thinking cap and landed on COLORS!! and colors instantly  remind me of the rainbow. 


  The rainbow has 7 colors and there are 8 of us. So I decided to add White. After all white is the resulting color when all the colors of the rainbow are fused together. The colors were randomly picked by the free- sprirters. I got the color violet.

The rules were simple:

• The food must be naturally colored. The dish(s) could be sweet or savory and of any course, without using or minimally using food coloring.
• The dish can be of a certain color by itself or it can be representative of the flavor in it. For example, I made pistachio rose water cupcakes. I added 3-4 tbsp of rose water in all but I had to add pink coloring. So usage of food coloring in such situations is OK. You can also get creative and avoid it completely, that would be ideal.
• Of-course you can add garnishes and accessorize you final dish, but the focus should be on the color assigned.  

  This got all us, the free-spiriters busy thinking and cooking. My first thoughts obviously went to desserts (my favorite course of the meal!). I decided to use some ingredient I have never used before or make a dish I have never made before. I zeroed in on Lavender, and a pie. I thought it was going to be as easy as a pie. Boy! was I wrong. The whole process was so lengthy! The result however, was very delicious. Lavender was a new flavor for me, the taste was very new and refreshing.


Recipe for the pie filling adapted from here
Recipe for the crust adapted from here


For the Pie Crust: Makes one 9 inch pie crust. Make it 1 day before you make the pie.


1 1/4 cups of All purpose flour
1/2 tsp Salt
1 Tbsp Sugar
3 Tbsp Vegetable shortening, chilled
4 Tbsp Butter -cold, unsalted and cut into 1/4th inch pieces
4-5 Tbsp Ice water

• Stir together flour,salt, and sugar in a large mixing bowl.
• Add the shortening and beat until the mixture resembles coarse sand. 
• Scatter butter over the flour mixture and cut butter into flour using a pastry cutter or you can use your finger tips, until the mixture is pale yellow and resembles coarse crumbs. The butter bits should not be bigger than small peas.
• Sprinkle 4 tbsp of ice water over the mixture. Using a silicone spatula  mix into a sticky dough.If the dough does not come together sprinkle upto 1 tbsp of ice water more.
• Flatten the  dough into a 4 -inch disk, wrap in plastic and refrigerate atleast an hour, or upto 2 days before rolling.
• Remove the dough from the refrigerator( if refrigerated for more than an hour, let stand at room temperature until malleable). 
• Roll the dough into a 12 inch circle on a lightly floured surface  (I even floured my rolling pin).
• Transfer the dough into the pie plate by rolling the dough around the rolling pin and unrolling over the pan. Working around the circumference of the pie plate, ease the dough into the pan corners by gently lifting the edge of the dough with one hand while pressing into the pan bottom with the other hand. Trim the edges.
• Refrigerate the dough-lined pie plate until firm about 40 minutes, then freeze until very cold , about 20 minutes.
• Adjust an oven rack to lower middle position and heat to 375 F. 
• Remove the pie plate from the freezer, press a 12 inch sheet of foil inside the pie shell. Distribute the pie weights evenly.
• Bake leaving the foil and weights in place, until the dough looks dry and is light brown in color. Takes about 23-30 minutes. Carefully remove the foil and pie weights. If you want a partially baked crust bake for another 5-6 minutes. If you want a fully baked crust continue baking for about 12 minutes till golden brown.
•  Transfer to a wire rack.

To make the filling:

For the lavender cream:

2 Cups Heavy cream

1 Cup Half and half  or Milk

3 Tbsp Dried Lavender buds (I would add lesser next time)

For the cooked blueberries:

1 Tbsp Butter

12 oz Blueberries (I used frozen)

2 Tbsp Cornstarch

For the Custard:

3 Whole eggs

3 Egg yolks

1/2 Cup Sugar

1 Tsp Vanilla extract

Pinch of salt

To make the lavender cream: (If you are making the pie too, make this cream before you start baking the pie.)

• Pre-heat the oven to 325 F.
• Warm the cream and milk together until it starts to simmer. Turn of heat and stir in the lavender buds. Allow to steep for 30 minutes

To make the cooked  blueberries:

• Set a colander over a bowl.
• In a large skillet over medium heat add the butter. When the butter is fully melted and starts foaming, add the blueberries.
• Cook until the blueberries are soft and much of the juice has run out. After about 3-5 minutes turn off heat and pour into the colander. Set aside the drained blueberries.
• Mix cornstarch with the blueberry juice and set aside.

To make the Custard:

• Whisk the eggs, egg yolks,sugar and vanilla lightly and set aside
• Strain the Cream into a large saucepan and discard the lavender.
• Whisk in the blueberry- cornstarch mixture. Bring to simmer over medium heat. The color looks gorgeous!!!
• When the mixture boils and starts to thicken lightly, remove from heat.
• Whisk in a little of the cream mixture into the egg mixture to temper it. Add this mixture to the cream mixture and whisk vigorously. It will look curdled and broken at first but it will come together into a satiny, glossy and a very violet mixture!
• Stir in half the reserved blueberries.
• Pour the mixture into the pre-baked pie shell and bake for 30 minutes.
• after 30 minutes sprinkle the rest of the blueberries on top. Bake for another 15 minutes, until the center is wobbly but firm. and the crust is nice and golden.
• Take out and rest for 15 minutes before serving. Serve with whipped cream or ice cream.

  The pie was very tasty! Specially with a scoop of icecream on the side. The one thing I would keep in mind the next time is reduce the quantity of lavender as I felt it was very overpowering, it was so strong that I didn't taste any blueberry! Other than that I felt lavender was a very unique flavor it had some cardamom notes to it and a soapy feeling(I guess that's just me, I got a new body wash that is made of pure lavender and it smelt exactly like the packet of dried lavender buds!!!). Also If you have a very dark colored vanilla extract  use a lighter colored or colorless vanilla extract, because that kind of made my violet a bit grey-ish.

Do check whats happening with the other colors of the rainbow! Anu, Deepti-Orange, DK- Yellow , Lataji - Red, Mads, Nags- Blue, and Siri - Green

Pie anyone?

Brown Eyed Susan Cookies/ Chocolate Thumbprints (Eggless)

  I am back to blogging after almost a month!  Has been a crazy moth with a lot of baking and cooking. To top it off, with Christmas and the New Year peeking from the corner, I have lots more baking left to do... Not that I am complaining!
  I made these Brown Eyed Susan cookies last year when I went to meet my best-est friend after 2 years and I made it now for a "Cookie Exchange" event in my husband's office. The only difference is that I made them look neater this year. These cookies had a buttery melt-in-your-mouth texture and the dark chocolate in the middle was absolutely wicked! These were a big hit at the Cookie Exchange and I am happy!

Recipe source: BrowneyedBaker
Ingredients:
For the Cookies : Makes 2 dozen
8 Tbsp Butter ,(unsalted) room temperature
1/2 Cup Confectioners Sugar (Sifted)
1/4 Tsp Salt
1 Tsp Vanilla Extract
1 1/4  Cup All Purpose Flour (Sifted)
1-2 Tbsp Milk (Only if neccesary)

For the Center
2 oz Chocolate, Chopped (any variety you like, I used bittersweet)
2 tbsp Butter, Unsalted
3/4th Tsp Corn Syrup ( I forgot to add this!!!)

• Preheat your oven to 350 F. Grease your cookie sheet and set aside. You can use parchment paper or a baking mat too.
• In the bowl of your mixer fitted with paddle attachment, Beat the butter, sugar, vanilla, and salt until fluffy. you can do this with your hand or with a powerful hand mixer if you don't have a stand mixer.
• Add the flour gradually, in small portions.
• Add the milk only if you feel the dough is really dry. The dough will look crumbly but when you make a ball it will hold together well.
• Scoop out heaping teaspoons of dough to form a dough ball and place on the baking sheet. I placed them about 1 inch away from each other.
• This step was not there in the original recipe- I very lightly flattened the cookie dough  before putting it into the oven. Bake in the middle rack for 8 minutes. Remove from the oven and make an indentation with your finger (Ouch!) or the back of a small spoon or something (I used the nicely rounded bottom of my icecream scoop). This might lightly crack the sides of the cookie, but that is totally OK. Also the cookies will be very soft at this stage so be careful not to disfigure them like I did the first time!
• Put the cookies back into the oven and bake for another 8 minutes. Once baked, place on a cooling rack to cool.
• Melt the chocolate, butter and corn syrup over a double boiler or microwave (at 50% power at 30 seconds interval), until smooth and shiny. You can spoon the melted chocolate into the indentations or you can pipe it in. I used a squeezy bottle it made my life much easier and I got neater cookies. Allow the chocolate to set a bit before you can eat  it all up! While you wait for the chocolate to set on the cookie, you can eat up the leftover melted chocolate (unless you already did that)!

Compliments to the photographer - My Husband, who has clicked these pictures and some others in previous posts. He took such wonderful pictures that I did not even  have to edit them! So much time saved, and reminded me of how crappy my pictures turn out on first take! :-/. I have a loooooooong way to go *sigh*