A Little Delectable Chocochip Brownie

Life gives us small surprises or we need to create them !! A brownie is the perfect american dessert. The most popular story about the origin of the brownie is about a housewife in Bangor, Maine. It says that the house wife forgot to add baking powder to a chocolate cake she was making. The cake did not rise but it was still delicious

They are either fudgy or cakey, depending on their density, and this version uses chocochips

Ingredients

• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 3 eggs
• 115 gm butter
• 115 gm chocolate bar
• 100 gm chocochip
• 1 tsp vanilla
• a pinch of salt

Procedure
Preheat the oven to 180 C,line a butter paper in a square pan.

Heat the chocolate with butter on double boiler,once chocolate melts fully keep it aside.

Beat the egg and sugar together with fork till it blends properly then add the melted chocolate and vanilla,salt and mix smoothly,now add the flour slowly and mix till all the flour blends with the mixture fully.Don't over mix this mixture.Now add the chocochips to this batter.

Shift the mixture to the prepared baking pan and bake it in pre heated oven for 30-40 min till its done.

Note:

1.Don't over bake the brownie otherwise it will end up with crumble n chewy

2.Don't over beat the batter as if you beat more then more air will get incorporated brownie texture will become like cake and not be dense and become fluffy instead

Bewitching Italian Chocolate Truffles

( Click image for enlarged view )

Happy Dewali ... to all my blogger friends ... wondering why I am wishing you all so early...well I am on my way now to India to celebrate Dewali. Got to catch a flight tomorrow morning !!

Last few days have been hectic and I have been unable to visit all your blogs .. I am sorry about that but I am sure I will be visiting your blogs when I settle down in India.. It will take a few days for me , I will really miss blogging and all your yummy recipes. I may post some wonderful creations of my MIL,Mom and my SIL : )

Before leaving I wanted to post this Italian chocolate truffle ... its very easy to prepare and it simply melts in your mouth. It is a soft chocolate with mild orange flavor that will tickle your tastebuds

Happy Dewali once again and have a wonderful time and here is the recipe

Cooking Time : 7 min

Preparation Time: 10 min

Make : 24 truffles

Ingredients :

• 6 oz semisweet chocolate (best quality)
• 1/4 tsp orange extract
• 3 tbsp unsalted butter
• 4 tbsp confectionery sugar
• 1/2 cup almond powder (finely grinded)
• 2 oz semisweet chocolate grated (for coating)

Making the Truffles

Melt the semisweet chocolate with orange extract in a bowl set over a saucepan of hot water,stir until well combined.

Add butter and stir until it melts,add sugar and almond powder and stir nicely

Let the mixture sit in a cool place until it is firm enough.Divide and shape them into 24 balls.

Place the grated chocolate on a plate and roll the truffles in it to coat them nicely.

Place the truffles in paper candy cases and let it chill. Your tempting truffles are ready.

Note:

You can melt ur chocolate in microwave ,but u have to stir it in every 30 second till it melts completely

In original recipe they used 2 tbsp orange liqueur but I replaced it with orange extract.

I am sending this truffles to

Anyone can cook hosted by Ayeesha

Bookmarked Recipe Every Tuesday hosted by Priya n Aipi

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tags: Italian, Chocolate, Dewali Treat, Deepavalli Sweet, Truffles

Rich Chocolate Almond Tea Cake

( Click image for enlarged view )

I wanted to prepare chocolate truffles but the chocolate seemed to be too rich with cocoa flavor with a mild bitter taste which didnt suit us so I modified it to make a rich chocolate cake.It came out very well and it is also my first chocolate cake !!

I was pleasantly surprised I didnt have to throw it away n could make another dish that balanced the bitterness of cocoa powder n its tasty too for chocolate lovers like my hubby.

Ingredients:

• 5 oz unsweetened chocolate bar (Bakers Brand)
• 1/2 cup grounded almond
• 1/2 cup all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/4 cup oil
• 2 tbsp butter
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp almond extract
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 cup finely chopped almonds (optional)

( Click image for enlarged view )

Baking procedure

Preheat oven 350 F.

Break the chocolate into pieces n melt it with almond n vanilla extract in a bowl set over sauce pan of hot water. Stir until well blended. Now add butter to it n stir till it melts.

Mix all purpose flour with baking powder, baking soda n grounded almonds nicely.

In another bowl beat the eggs and sugar for 3 min with a hand blender with medium speed till it become fluffy.Then add oil,milk and again blend till it all mix nicely.Then chocolate sauce to it n stir with spatula.

Take the flour and slowly add to the above mixture and stir till it blends properly .This can done with hand blender or even with a spatula.

Pour it into a well graeased 9x5 inch loaf pan n bake for 30 min. check with a toothpick if it doesnt stick its ready.

( Click image for enlarged view )

Serve with a cup of coffee or tea.

I am sending this chocolate almond tea cake to

Champa's Bake off event

Chocolate Dreams hosted by Shabitha

EFM - Bakes and Cakes Series hosted by Srilekha

________________________________________________________

Tags: Chocolate cake, cake, tea

Cheesecake Truffles

(Click image for enlarged view)

Cheesecake is one of my favorite desserts after coming to US.And before I go back to India I wanted to experiment as much as possible with baking. I got this recipe from Nags Edible Garden....the moment I saw the post I fell in love with truffles and seemed quite easy to prepare. Last weekend I bought all the ingredients needed to make cheesecake truffles and prepared it yesterday. They came out so well . I must give a BIG HUG to Nag for pulling out this recipe out of her cookbook.They tasted exactly as she described. Yumville !! You will find the original recipe here. I used the same measurements and technique.

Ingredients:

For Cheesecake

• 250gm cream cheese at room temperature
• 1/2 cup sugar ( or little less as per ur taste)
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/3 cup whipping cream
• pinch of salt

For Dipping Chocolate

• 8 ounces of semi sweet melted (I used Bakers semi sweet chocolate bar)

(Click image for enlarged view)

Cooking Procedure

Pre-heat oven to 350F. Line a brownie pan with parchment paper and set aside.

Beat together all the above ingredients for cheesecake.

Bake for about 30 mins until the cake is spongy and it should not dry up it should be lightly moist.Color should not change.Keep aside to cool.

Cut different shapes with cookie cutter.In the meantime melt the chocolate as per instructions on package and keep aside to cool.

Dip the cheesecake pieces into the melted chocolate and transfer to a plate lined with parchment paper.( Used a spoon to scoop the cheesecake out from the chocolate dip )

Freeze it for 2-3 hours and your truffles are ready !!

I want to thank Kiran of Sumadhura for a sweet thank you note for participation, who posted her Cooking With Whole Foods: Barley roundup. It is a fantastic roundup n never doubt what can be prepared with barley.....Thank you Kiran

And a paticipation certificate from Nivedita for the Event CELEBRATE SWEETS~HALWA which had a roundup on August 1st.It has a superb collection of Halwas which can be very useful for festival time... Thank you Nivedita.