Let Me Take You Down, 'Cause I'm Going To...

Strawberries!

How I love thee.

I've made so many crazy things with strawberries this month, I don't know which one to post! Help.

We started off with those crepes. Baby steps into Strawberry Fields Forever.

The Strawberry Swirled Cheesecake with a Dark Chocolate Brownie Base? With a Strawberry Sauce to add fire to the whole thing.

W loves his Warhol-esque photowork!

Roasted strawberry-balsamic jam goes into it. So does brown butter and Milkmaid and a lot of fattening things that can only churn out Deliciousness on a plate.

Maybe the Strawberry Yogurt cake is a better place to start. It's easy, quick and one-bowl. And also the adaptation of the Spanish Orange Cake, which is one of the most popular recipes on the blog.

You know what's better than a rich, dense New York-style Cheesecake?

A cloud-like concoction of cream cheese, whipped cream and condensed milk. Very easy and disproportionately delicious NoBake Cheesecake. With a homemade strawberry topping, buttery graham cracker crust and chocolate-ganache covered strawberries.

They taste like bliss.

As do Strawberry Cheesecake Truffles. Dipped in Chocolate Ganache made with Toblerone.

And you know how I'm always mouthing off about brownies being akin to bread?

You know: putting Dulce de Leche into them, browning butter, drenching them with caramel?

Turns out that if you bake them with a Strawberry swirl, your olfactory mechanism might have the best party of their lives.

The smell of chocolate brownie baking, strawberry juices reducing and a tiny waft of brown butter?

You can't be an atheist if you've smelt this stuff. It is heavenly. Standing in front of the oven, with preprandial glee and a jackass-smile? One of the best five minutes of my culinary life.

And if you think all these calorific treats should remain rare treats, I'd suggest you make them all and often and Phone A Friend!

I'm properly confused. Time for a Strawberry-Cucumber juice. Let's hope my luck with the berries continue.
Stock your freezer with washed/dried/hulled strawberries in airtight freezer-safe boxes... the berry season is drawing to a close. This way, You Can Be Taken Down...

Strawberry Fields Forever.

Pimp My Pastry. Back-to-back episodes.

I have a secret. It's an embarrassing one.

I spend nearly an hour each day just looking at food blogs.

Not about the commercial use of Mycophenolate Mofetil in India for Myasthenia Gravis. Not about various religious worship in contemporary culture. Not even tidbits on Dexter Season 6. Food blogs. I'm doomed. The knell has sounded.

You'd think that eye-feasting on about 40 recipes per day would have me trying new things left-right-and-centre, right? How wrong you are.

Sometimes, when you need to impress peers or you need to not feel like a failure or just have a comforting bowlful to gobble up, you make stuff from standby recipes that you love and cherish. And it's OK to make your insecurities public these days. People make a lot of money off it on television. I need to get out of my scrubs and get me a Snooki-pouff.

So. I thought I'd put up a few photos demonstrating how your trusted recipes can be jazzed up. I played around with my cocoa brownies.

Made Chocolate-chip cookie rolls out of my most-treasured cinnamon roll recipe. Thank you, Pioneer woman. Let the unadulterated parade of eye candy begin! Even though my photos never do the dish enough justice.

Dulce de Leche brownies:
(idea from David Leibovitz)

Make a batch of fudgy, gooey brownie batter. Don't bake it just yet.

Brown the butter, add dark chocolate, whatever it takes to make it happen.

Make a batch of Dulce de Leche with one can of Nestle's Milkmaid.

Pour half the brownie batter into a greased pan. Add 1/3rd of the cooled Dulce de Leche in random spurts.

Run a knife through it, creating a swirly pattern. Go on, run amok.

Add the remaining brownie batter. Repeat the same dab-and-swirl thing with the rest of the Dulce.

Bake for 5 minutes less than the stipulated time. Check for done-ness. It's good to underbake than to overbake brownies.

Cool for around 15 minutes. Cut into slices and dive head-first in.

Ooooh. Yes.

I've unlocked the secret to happiness. And simultaneous obesity.

Chocolate chip cookie rolls:

Make half a batch of cinnamon roll dough.

Roll the dough out in the usual manner.

Chop up about a cup and a half (or so) of Lindt dark chocolate into chunks. You can also use chocolate chips but it won't kick ass as much.

Dab the roll with 1/2 a cup of melted (salted) butter, coarsely ground brown and white sugar (together totalling around 1 to 1.5 cups, max) and 1/2 a cup of chopped up almonds/pecans/walnuts.

Roll it up. Makes several rolls.

Bake as you would for the normal recipe.

Top with cream cheese frosting or just scarf it down straight from the pan. The leftovers can be cooled to room temperature and frozen for up to 2 months (unfrosted). You can eat them selfishly over the course of a week.

If you have any doubts regarding the techniques and measurements, refer to the original post. God, I feel like Padma Lakshmi and my Biochemistry Professor at the same time. All this butter surely has to dull one's brain.

Cocoa Brownies with Browned Butter and Walnuts/ Wholly-holy yum.

I'm not a picky eater. I'm not! Don't believe everything my friends tell you.

Some food, however, it's hard for me to eat if bad. Curd rice, coffee, biryani and the like.

Brownies come under that category. It's one of the first things I baked, at the ripe old age of 13. I used a boxed mix... Betty Crocker, I think. My parents gloated for days.

The uncool thing about baking/eating brownies so many times is that I can't eat a bad brownie any more. We've talked about this earlier.

Most brownies I eat are bad brownies. It's justifiable, spending 100 bucks on a decent brownie... it has to live up to every penny and every calorie, though. I'm sure the good people of Cake Walk still remember the emphatic speech I made about their terrible brownies.

Ooh. When you want to impress people, make brownies. That's the first of the many things I've baked for the W. You can go wrong with the baking and the mixing, but until you've eaten 100 brownies, you won't know the difference. These bad boys usually turn out good, in any way, shape or form. Even the burnt, biscuit-y bits are divine.

I use a basic fudge brownie recipe, usually. This time, I was lured by Bon Appetit's cover shoot of Alice Medrich's brownies. I decided to elevate the gourmet quotient by browning the butter and adding a healthy mix of plump American walnuts and flavourful little Kashmiri akhrots. And a couple of teaspoons of espresso don't hurt, either. And Toblerone chocolate chips.

I can't promise you that this will be my regular brownie recipe. But what I can promise you is that if you're on my A-list, you'll probably get a little parcel of these soon enough!

And fellow brownie-connoisseurs, don't turn your nose up at cocoa brownies... you might have to bite your words. Taste wholly/holy yum with a slice of brownie and glass of cold milk.

Cocoa Brownies with Browned Butter and Walnuts

Ingredients:

10 tablespoons (150 g) unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch pieces

1 1/4 cups powdered white sugar

3/4 cup cocoa powder

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

2 teaspoons water/ brewed coffee

1/4 tsp salt

2 large eggs, chilled

1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon all purpose flour

1 cup walnut pieces, chopped

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C or 350 F.

Place aluminium foil over an 8 x 8" pan, leaving some over the edges so you can pull up the brownies with ease. Grease the pan, keep aside.

Browning butter:

Cut the butter into tablespoonfuls for the sole purpose of ease.

In a heavy bottomed pan, add the butter. Heat it over medium heat. The butter should bubble up, and you should keep stirring this.

When the froth clears up, check the bottom of the pan to see if brown bits have formed. If it has, STOP. It's better to under brown than burn. You'll know when this gorgeous smell permeates through every nook of the kitchen.

Take the butter off the heat. Immediately stir in the cocoa, sugar, water/coffee and salt. Beat until well-combined. It will be gritty, so don't panic. You can use a hand-mixer.

Let this cool for 5 minutes. Beat in the eggs, one at time, stirring until well-combined. Fold in the flour with a spatula.

Stir in the nuts. Pour the batter out into the prepared pan. I added a handful of chocolate chips (fashioned out of Toblereone) and created a swirly pattern.

Bake for 20 minutes, and start checking. You don't want to over bake it... it needs to have a shiny shell on top, and pure fudge-y goodness underneath. Cool in pan for 15 minutes. Pull it out of the pan with the foil overhang, and cool for two more minutes. Cut into 16 squares.

If you cut it too soon, it'll crumble and make an almighty delicious mess. Perks of being the cook.

You'll have to taste. As I did.

I put these brownies in a Ziploc bag when they were FULLY cool. And then hid them in the last place that people would look.

Apparently, it can be stored at room temperature, in an airtight box for about 48 hours. Apparently.

The Snickers Cake/Mmm. Food. turns six... months!

6 months and 62 posts later, who thought I'd still be here, eating and baking and posting with a passion that I thought would run out, but has only increased exponentially?

This calls for a celebration. Celebrations of the chocolate and sugar variety. There haven't been many other kinds in my life, lately.

Now's a good time as any (may be a little bit more) to finally tell you how you play with sugar-chocolate-peanuts to make a cake that tastes like a Snickers bar that accidently melted into brownie batter. I don't know how many calories that sentence is loaded with, but everybody in the world makes exceptions for birthdays, no? Even half-birthdays. So true.

At the risk of being judged for making things that call for a kilo of butter in them, I'm going to put it up any way. Bookmark it for an occasion; good or bad. Halve the recipe and share with ten good people. Have a slice in lieu of meal. Make it happen. You will either thank me or send me an exasperated e-mail. Again.

Incidentally, I made this cake for a fitness freak's birthday. I'm sure I was hated.

Since I make a lot of birthday cakes I don't get to cut and taste-test, I pour some of the batter into a cupcake liner, just so I know that it is bonafide yumminess and not set myself up for potential embarrassment.

Oh, and this recipe has been floating around for ages. The chances of it flopping are slim to none... it's a Dorie Greenspan recipe. Now you know. Just remember not to overbake the brownie base (dry-crusty brownies are blech) and test the caramel a million times (utmost attention, people, pay  utmost attention). I've added as many photos as I could click with burnt fingers. Hope that helps.

Caramel Topped Brownie Cake/The Snickers Cake!

Ingredients:

For the brownie base:

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
¼ tsp. salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces
140 g (5 oz) dark chocolate, coarsely chopped
3 large eggs, at room temperature
½ cup packed light brown sugar
¼ cup white sugar
3 tbsp. light corn syrup
½ tsp. vanilla

For the caramel peanut topping:

2 cups white sugar
½ cup water
1½ tbsp. light corn syrup
2/3 cup heavy cream
2 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup honey roasted peanuts

Directions:

For the brownie cake:

Preheat the oven to 200 C or 350 F. Grease and flour an 8 inch pan.

Combine flour, baking soda and salt in bowl and mix well. Set aside.

Over a double-boiler/bain marie (a pot over a pan of simmering water), melt butter and chocolate together. Stop when it melts, heating it too much would cause the butter to turn into ghee.



I cheated and microwaved the butter-sugar. You have your work cut out for
you, so every shortcut helps!



In a large bowl, whisk the sugars (powdered slightly) and eggs until well-blended. Beat in the sugar and corn syrup.

Beat in the butter-chocolate mix and combine.



Shiny-shiny batter!



Fold in the dry ingredients until just comvined. Pour the batter into the pan.

Bake for 35-40 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the centre is just about clean (not too dry!)

 Take the cake out and let it cool at room temperature for 15 minute. Turn it out onto a serving platter. Let it cool completely.

Cupcakes take way lesser time.

Don't freak out if there's a huge crater in the middle... it's supposed to happen, a natural vessel for the gooey caramelly goodness. Wrap a strip of aluminium foil around the cake so that the caramel can be held within the cake.

Topping:

Combine the sugar, water and corn syrup in a thick-bottomed vessel, stirring just once to combine the ingredients. Place the pan over medium-high heat. DO NOT STIR.

The liquid will turn into caramel in 5-10 minutes, depending on the heat, saucepan size, etc. Do not leave the stove, the transition takes seconds.



The amber at 12 o clock is what you're looking/hoping for.

 Testing the caramel on a white plate helps you decide when it's just done. It should be an amber colour... don't be too worried, a light-yellow is NOT good, and dark brown is just as bad.

Take it off the heat. Add in the cream and butter. IT WILL SPLATTER, so be wary. You can stir the caramel. Stir in the peanuts.

Pour the caramel over the cake. Let it set for around 20 minutes before serving. Remove the foil strip.

 I'm guessing it'll stay for a whole day at room temperature.

You can open a Snickers bar and see if I haven't convinced you yet.

You'll have extra caramel, which is best had over a cold scoop of vanilla ice cream. Just make sure it's before midnight, so the birthday excuse holds.

The Next Best Thing Since Sliced Bread.

Brownies. Not the toughest thing in the world to find or make. All you do is walk down the Fancy Foods aisle (randomly made that up) at Nilgris and pick up Betty Crocker's Fudge Brownie mix. Or buy a dry rock-like concoction any where. From Barista to Hot Breads. The worst I've had are the ones Cake Walk makes. Ragi puttu mixed with ghee and shaped into a square lump, it tastes like. The Muffin Tree at Courtyard at Marriott makes a delicious brownie; your best bet, at Madras.

If you're baking, Brownies-from-a-box are something you'd make someone as an obligation. Not for the people you love. Won't do.

That, to me, is sacrilege. Unless I melt that luscious bar of butter and chocolate, bain-marie style (double-boiler), they aren't The Brownies.  This snobbery melts away just like the aforementioned bar of butter when I'm broke, and I pull out my alternate recipe.
The brownies have that perfect crust-on-top-chocolate-explosion-below.. beyond Bodacious. I’ll post that recipe sometime soon.


The recipe I'm posting here does not call for a quarter of a kilo of bittersweet chocolate. They deliver on the Chocolate OD-factor, though. So important. Ask any girl with PMS. These simpler ones can be made at midnight, with most of the ingredients hiding in various corners of the kitchen.

If you know me moderately well, I've probably made you a batch of these brownies. I feel almost sad giving up this recipe, but I know it's my way of spreading good karma around. A fitting first post, because brownies are practically my signature dish.

 Nobody has complained about these brownies, except to say that the quantity was borderline meagre. Bake these when you're depressed and plop in front of a miscellaneous episode of Friends. Bake these when you want to impress people but aren't gifted with talents of the artisan patisserie-variety. Bake these when a good friend moves out of Madras or for a new neighbour. Bake these when you want to say Sorry. I do.

The recipe has been modified from Nigella, Hershey's and Allrecipes.

Quick-Fix Brownies.

Ingredients:

1 cup unsalted butter (115 g)

1-1/2 cups sugar (300 g)

 2 teaspoons vanilla

4 eggs

1 cup maida (no need to sift) (190 g)

3/4 cup cocoa (I use Cadbury) (170g)

1 teaspoon baking powder (use a 5 ml teaspoon)

1/2 teaspoon salt (do not skip!)

Miscellaneous items of your liking and/or out of foreign relatives' goodie bags (think M and Ms, walnuts/almonds/pecans/macadamia, Reese's pieces, white/dark chocolate chips)


Method:

1) Powder the sugar. It does not have to be super fine, so do not use caster or icing sugar. Keep aside. I find Parry's sugar perfect for baking.

2) Melt the butter; not so much that it becomes ghee. I do it over the stovetop, because you don't have as much control using a microwave. Stir in the sugar and vanilla whilst lukewarm. Do not waste a vanilla pod (if you're lucky enough to lay your mitts on one) on this. Not worth the expense, where they'd be playing second fiddle to chocolate. Beat in eggs only after the mixture has cooled, because you do not want cooked eggs in your batter.

3)Now would be the time to preheat your oven to 175-degrees-celcius (350 degrees farenheit).

4) Combine all the dry ingredients in a pan - maida, cocoa, baking powder and salt. Salt is something I use fanatically in my baking. It adds another dimension, and cuts through the sweetness. Think salty caramel. If you have sea salt/kosher salt, I hate you. Beat in the dry ingredients into the batter, with a wooden spoon. Yes, I use a hand-mixer, but I only stir with it; it's switched OFF. Do NOT overbeat. Unless you want it to be a cake/brownie lovechild. It should look like this:

4) Throw all worries about raw eggs and Salmonella out the window and have a tiny taste of the batter. Yum. Stir in a cup of random goodies. I use walnuts and chips I make out of whatever chocolate is stashed in the freezer (Kinder, Kisses, Dairy Milk). Get creative.

5) Line a 13 x 9 or 8 x 8" pan (for fat, greedy brownies) with aluminium foil. Grease it with butter, slightly dust it with cocoa powder. You can pour it straight into the greased pan, but washing up? Pass.

 6) Make sure you even out the top and slid it into the middle rack of a preheated oven. Within 20 minutes, check on your brownies. You do not want sad, dehydrated rocks. You want moist, fudgy bars.

7)Set them out to cool. Do not cut them right away, like I do EVERY time. I've the mess to prove it.

8)Do not let them cool too much and stick to the foil though. Making a mess is second nature to me. Cut them up, as pretty as you can, and pack!

These, I made for Diwali. Hence, the cheesiness.

And do not worry about the little bits and pieces that do not look pretty. Here's what I do with them (the ones I salvage from people I cook around, at any rate). Make a sundae! Best had at midnight. That way, you don't have to share. Nigella says so. It must be true.