Roasted Almond Brownies

Can't See Eye to Eye-Take a Good Look at urself !!

This is for those who love brownies . I have never been particularly fond of them, but couldn't miss a chance to bake something new.  Though, I had planned to bake them on Friday night, but  that night we went to watch Biutiful- the spanish movie directed by Inarritu , and has the best actor of this generation Javier Bardem[IMO :)].  It is a very touching movie with brilliant acting by Bardem. Movies are ours [Animesh's and mine] other love apart from cooking  :) . So the baking was put on hold and I woke up early morning to make these brownies for my dearest friend Kshipra and her husband Hemant. Kshipra and I are soul-sisters. Our friendship is a decade long and when we were in a hostel together,many people mistook us for sisters.So, the first brownie experiment is on them :)  

My new cute little recipe diary is also going to be inaugurated today. I had been eyeing it secretly in Animesh's office bag and was thrilled when he gave me that.

The recipe is taken from PAB,who has taken it from Faith Heller Willinger’s cookbook,Adventures of an Italian Food Lover.PAB is a very famous blog by a very inspiring Indian woman who bakes most of the things from scratch, because of the lack of ingredients here in India. But that doesn't make any difference to the kind of cakes she bakes. It is world class,absolutely top-notch.

Ingredients

4oz dark chocolate

1/3 cup Olive Oil

3 large Eggs

1  cup Sugar

1 tsp Vanilla extract

3/4 cup all purpose flour

1 heaped tbsp Cocoa

1/2 tsp Salt

1/2 cup chopped roasted Almonds

Preparation

1. Preheat the oven to 185C. 
2. Line a  8 x 8 baking dish with parchment paper. Let the parchment paper overhang so that it is easy to pull the brownies when baked.
3.  In a small bowl melt the dark chocolate till smooth.
4. Whisk olive oil with melted chocolate and set aside.
5. Sift the flour, cocoa and salt.
6. In a large bowl,beat eggs, sugar and vanilla for 5 minutes, until nice and fluffy.
7. Fold in the chocolate mixture with a spatula. 
8. Fold in the sifted flour until just incorporated.
9. Add roasted almonds and mix.
10. Pour the batter into baking dish.
11. Sprinkle over with a few roasted almonds.
12. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean with few wet crumbs. Mine were done in 22 minutes. Since the brownies are supposed to be moist so you shouldn 't overbake them.
13. Cut them in squares once it is completely cooled.
14. Make a sizzling brownie by warming it and serving it with vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce. 

I am sending this to Divya for her Brownie event

Paneer Pasanda

There are so many different versions of Paneer Pasanda by popular chefs.I don't even know which one of them is the authentic one. I mysellf make two versions one with red gravy and the other one in white gravy. Both of them are very easy to make and yet very delicious.Here follows the recipe with tomato gravy.Addition of cashew-nuts makes this gravy rich and thick.

Ingredients 

For 2 people
150 grams paneer
1 small onion grated fine
1 medium tomato grated fine
7-8 cashewnuts
2 chopped green chilies [optional]
1 tbsp kashsmiri red chili powder [ This is not hot it only adds colour]
3/4 tsp cumin seeds [jeera]
1 tsp cumin powder
1 tbsp ginger-garlic paste
1 tsp kasoori methi
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup water
2 tsp.oil
Salt according to taste

Preparation

1. Grind cashew-nuts with 2-3 tsp water  to a fine paste.
2. Cut the paneer into small cubes.
3. Heat oil and add cumin seed.
4. When the cumin seed browns add  grated onions. Fry till light brown.
5. Add the ginger-garlic paste and fry for 1 minute.
6. Add the cashew-nut paste and the green chilies and fry for little while.
7. Add grated tomatoes,cumin powder and fry for 3-4 mins.
8. Add kashmiri chili powder and stir for 1 minute
9. Add milk and cook for few minutes.
10. Add  water and bring it to a boil.
11. Finally, when the gravy is thick ,add the paneer  and salt and cook for one boil.
12. Add kasoori methi towards the end and Serve!.

Notes :

1. You can omit water and just add extra milk instead. I prefer adding water as adding more milk takes away the vibrant colour.
2. I didn't emphasize enough earlier on  grating the onions. You have to grate it fine and not grind it or cut it. This is a trick I have learned from my mom-in-law and always follow it whenever I have to make a thick gravy.

Chocolate Cupcake

I love cupcakes. Since they are small,you can pretend that you are taking in less calories. Though, this doesn't hold true for me because once I begin eating them I can't stop picking up the next one. I have begun my baking journey by baking the simplest of them, the chocolate cupcake. I had planned to use a chocolate frosting but was in hurry the day these were made, so finally settled for the simplest buttercream frosting. If you look at the cupcake recipes online, plenty of frosting is used , But I have used it miserly as this frosting is very sweet.
As my learning process continues ,I have learned of many other kind of frosting techniques like Italian meringue buttercream , Swiss meringue buttercream  .I am yet to  try them.

Ingredients
For 16 cupcakes.

 1/2 cup  Dutch-processed cocoa powder

1 cup  hot water

1 1/3 cups  all purpose flour [maida]

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

1 cup granulated sugar

2 large eggs

2 tsp  vanilla extract OR 1 tsp vanilla essense [Preferably use vanilla extract]

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 185 degrees C. 
2. Line and butter cupcake pan with paper liners. 
3. In a small bowl stir  boiling water and cocoa powder till it is smooth.No lumps should remain. Cool it to room temperature. 
4. In a separate bowl whisk  flour, baking powder and salt. 
5. Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
6. Add eggs, one at a time, beat till smooth.
7. Beat in the vanilla extract/essence.
8. Add the flour mixture and beat only until incorporated
9. Add the cooled cocoa mixture and stir until smooth.
10. Fill each cup about two-thirds full with batter .Don't fill it to the full as the batter will rise it will overflow and lose its shape.
11. Bake for about 16-18minutes or until risen and a toothpick inserted into a cupcake comes out clean.
12. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool.
13. Start frosting when the cupcake is completely cooled.

Buttercream Frosting

2 cups sifted Icing or powdered sugar

1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

1 teaspoon vanilla extract OR 1/2 tsp vanilla essence

2 tablespoons milk or light cream

1. Cream butter till smooth.
2. Add the vanilla extract.
3. Gradually beat in the sugar. Add the milk or cream and beat on high speed until frosting is light and fluffy.
4. If you want coloured buttercream add some food colour.

The Recipe has been followed from JoyofBaking

Notes:

To make it more chocolaty add some melted chocolate in the cupcake batter. I felt a bit more chocolate flavor was needed.