Rum and Brown Sugar Banana Fool

Fool? Yes! This dessert is interestingly called a "Fool" by the English and is considered one of their classics. A Fool is a dessert made with cooked and mashed/puréed fruit and fluffy cream. The benign bananas are drizzled with spiced rum and baked till caramalized and then folded into light and fluffy whipped cream!! As easy a dessert as can be, this one is sure gonna blow your mind away, with its taste and its uniqueness. Try it, please!!

P.S.: Recipe adapted from Bake Happy

Ingredients 

2 very ripe bananas (I used frozen bananas as I had a huge stock of them and so froze them in ziplock bags to avoid getting spoilt)

2 tbsp white, dark, or spiced rum (I used 3 for some extra punch)

2 tbsp packed light brown sugar 

1 cup whipping cream 

Freshly grated nutmeg for garnishing

Freshly grated chocolate for garnishing

Direction 

Preheat the oven to 220 degree celcius. Line a 9" baking square dish with foil. Place the serving bowls/glasses in the freezer if you intend to serve the dessert right away. 

Arrange the peeled bananas in the prepared baking dish. If using frozen bananas, take them out from the freezer and let them come to room temperature before using. Drizzle them with the rum and sprinkle the sugar on top. 

Bake for 15-20 minutes or until the bananas are caramalized and soft. Remove the baking dish from the oven and let the bananas cool, then mash them in the baking dish. 

Meanwhile, whip the cream in a medium bowl until stiff peaks form and fold the whipped cream into the mashed, caramalized bananas using a spatula. 

Divide the fool among the prepared serving glasses or bowls. Top each portion with some grated nutmeg and grated chocolate and either chill it in the refrigerator until serving time or serve immediately in the chilled glasses. Enjoy!

Homemade Pure Ghee Motichoor Laddoos

Homemade Motichoor Laddoos!! Someone must be really crazy to attempt it at home. After all, who has the time and patience to go through this fuss. These were my thoughts initially when I saw some people post their pictures and recipes on CaL. However, I did save the recipe and every time there was a post, I would diligently go through each procedure and compare who did what differently. Basically, even though subconsciously I knew I will make it some day, the lazy me would always keep it for some other day! With all the ground research done and critical points understood, it was time I prepared myself for the challenge. On a recent trip to the Indian store I quickly grabbed a small slotted spoon/laddle before I could change my mind and thus my basic preparation was done. 

Motichoor Laddoos are actually quite easy to make and if you have already attempted Jallebis at home, these are a cake walk! Just three basic ingredients, Ghee, gram flour/besan, and sugar, and you can have the most amazing and fresh homemade motichoor laddoos made with lotsa love! With the festive season just round the corner,  you wouldn't mind trying these at home, do you?

                                      

Ingredients

1 cup besan (I used little less than that as my stock was over)

1/2 cup water (you might need a little more, about 3/4 cup, if using an exact 1 cup of besan)

1/4 tsp baking soda

Pinch of orange/red food coloring

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup water

1/2 tsp cardamom powder (optional; I skipped as I did not wish the smell and flavor of ghee to be subdued by any other flavor)

Chopped nuts/melon seeds (optional)

Ghee as required for frying

Direction

Start with preparing the sugar syrup. Mix the sugar and water and bring to a boil. Reduce the flame to minimum and let the syrup simmer for 5 minutes till it gets a little thicker. I did not let it reach the one-string or two-string consistency as the fried boondies need to soak the syrup and so a thicker sugar syrup will result in crusty laddoos. Add a pinch of food coloring and keep aside.

                                    

Now prepare the batter. Take the besan in a bowl and add water little at a time till you get a thick but pouring consistency batter. Add the soda and pinch of food color and mix well. 

                                        

Heat ghee in a pan. Take the slotted spoon and put a tablespoon of the batter and rub it with the back of the spoon while constantly moving the slotted spoon over the hot oil so that the boondis do not remain clumped up at one place. You can do a trial over the bowl of batter before doing it in the hot oil for some practice.

                                     

Now take one tablespoon at a time and while reducing the flame, drop boondies on the hot ghee and keep stirring on a medium flame till golden and crunchy. Drop the fried boondies immediately into the prepared syrup as you move on to fry the next batch.

                                    

                                     

Make sure you keep stirring the boondies in the syrup so that they absorb it uniformly. Repeat the process till all the batter is used up. Add the chopped nuts and cardamom powder and mix well. The syrup will all be absorbed by the boondies by now and you will have a mixture ready for shaping. At this point, I coarsely grinded the mixture with a hand mixture as some of my boondies were rather big. This helps in getting a more fine mixture as well. Pinch out small portions of the mixture and shape them into laddoos and place on mini cupcake liners. Store in airtight containers or consume immediately or gift to your friends and family!

                                    

Devil's Food Cake with Secret Creamcheese Filling

I take my home baker status quite seriously and so when it was my birthday on the first of this month, I was quite sure that while I would not mind a nice dinner outside, I would definitely love to bake my own cake, however simple it may be. 

On my recent trip to Bali, I brought back a wonderful book called "Bake Happy" by Judith Fertig. The book is a lovely collection of easy and interesting recipes and what better way to start than a special family day. Everyone loved the cake and it was my fastest moving cake till date. Got over in just one day!! Baking the cake was a bit tricky as I thought that the cake was baked but it wasn't actually which I knew only once I flipped the cake upside down. I immediately put it back in the oven with the top gently covered with an aluminium foil and my cake was perfectly done!! 

Ingredients 

Secret Creamcheese Filling 

1 package (8 oz/226gms) creamcheese at room temperature 

1 large egg beaten

1/2 tsp fine salt

1/4 cup brown sugar (original recipe called for 1/3 cup sugar but 1/4 was just perfect for me)

Devil's Food Cake

3 cups all purpose flour (I used cake flour)

1 1/2 cup brown sugar (again reduced the sugar from 2 cups to 1 1/2 cup as given in the original recipe and it was perfect)

1 tsp fine salt 

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

2 tsp baking soda

2 cups hot water

2 tsp apple cider vinegar (I used balsamic vinegar as I did not have at home)

2 tsp Vanila extract 

2/3 cup vegetable oil (I used rice bran oil)

Direction 

Preheat the oven to 180 degree celcius. Now you can either prepare a muffin tray or a 10" cake pan for baking the cake. If baked as cupcakes, it will take lesser time and is more hassle free. I did both ways and find the cupcakes were easier to bake. It will take you two batches to bake the cupcakes in a 12 hole muffin tray. 

For the secret cream filling, in the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the cream cheese until smooth and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Beat in the egg, salt, and sugar. Set the filling aside while you prepare the batter. 

For the Devil's Food Cake, in a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, salt, and cocoa powder. In a separate bowl, mix together the baking soda and hot water, then stir in the vinegar and oil. Pour this mixture into the dry ingredients little at a time and whisk with a balloon whisk or a spatula until the batter is smooth and evenly colored. 

Fill each cupcake liner (if using muffin pans) half full with batter. Spoon a large tablespoon of the filling on top of the batter in each cupcake liner. Cover the filling again with more batter. Repeat the process for all the prepared liners. If using a cake pan, grease it well and line it with parchment paper and grease again. Now pour half the batter, top it with the cream filling and cover it up with more batter. 

Bake the cupcakes for 20-25 minutes or the cake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. 

Please note, that the toothpick might have traces of the cream filling sticking to it. Look out for a clean chocolate crumb to ensure that the cake is cooked through. If the top seems to be getting too browned, cover it loosely with an aluminium foil. 

Remove the cake/cupcakes from the oven and let them cool for 10 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and cool completely. 

P.S.: You can skip the cream filling part and enjoy the eggless chocolatey cake as is. It tastes absolutely delicious!!