Apple Crumble

The very thought of the wafting smell of apples and cinnamon in my kitchen motivates me to prepare this recipe, again and again.. Of course, its a favourite in our family! Its just quick and easy.. And you will love it.. (Especially when its served warm alongwith cold Vanilla icecream!)




Ingredients for the Crumble

300g plain flour, sieved with a pinch of salt
175 brown sugar
200g unsalted butter, cubed at room temperature
Knob of butter for greasing

For the Apple filling:

2 big apples, peeled, cored and cut into small cubes
50g brown sugar
2 tsp butter
1 pinch of ground cinnamon


Method :

1. Preheat the oven to 180C
2. Prepare the Crumble - Place the flour and sugar in a large bowl and mix well. Taking a few cubes of butter (this should be at room temperature) at a time rub into the flour mixture. Keep rubbing until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
2. For making the apple filling - Heat a non stick pan. In a medium flam, add butter and when it melts, add the cut apples. Close and cover it for 2 minutes on a low flame. After this, sprinkle over the sugar and the cinnamon powder. Stir well & be careful not to mash up the apples. Let it cook on slow fire for 2 more minutes and switch of the gas.
3. Butter a round, thin ovenproof dish. Spoon the fruit mixture into the bottom, then sprinkle the crumble mixture on top.
4. Bake in the oven for 40-45 minutes until the crumble is browned and the fruit mixture bubbling.
5. Serve with thick cream or custard.

Quick Lemon Pie (Eggless)

Chewy lemon pie made in a jiffy! The use of fresh lemons gives the fresh tang and you just need marie biscuits for the base. I am sure your guests would enjoy this dessert option..


Ingredients

10 Marie Biscuits
20 gm butter
2 tsp Demerrara sugar

For the topping

Equal amounts of Condensed milk and chilled cream (Amul Cream)
Juice of 2 small lemons


Powder the biscuits by crushing them with a rolling pin. Heat the butter, add this to the biscuits along with the sugar. Knead well and line this in a baking dish, press well and bake for 5 minutes. By then the top of the crust would become golden brown.

In another bowl, whip the cold cream, add the condensed milk. Lastly add the lemon juice and mix well. Pour this topping on the crust, chill for 2-3 hours. For the first hour you can put this is the freezer and later on transfer to the regular chiller in the fridge.

Cut in to squares and serve. Watch the lemon pie melting in your mouth..

Mixed Fruit Custard

Luscious desserts give THE finishing touch to any perfect meal! Some spectacular desserts, like the Mixed fruit Custard can be made with little time, turns out be delicious and not too over sweet.. Chennai summer makes us crave for something chill and this dessert is good for any time of the day..And what’s more, everyone loves it..



Ingredients

1 whole cup of fresh fruits – Banana, apple, ripened mangoes, pomegranate pearls, pineapple etc.,
2 teaspoon full – Custard Powder (Vanilla Flavour)
Milkmaid – Condensed Milk – half a tin ( adjust to your sweet buds!)
Vanilla Essence – Few Drops
Milk – 2 cups

Preparation :

Warm the milk just for 2 minutes and add the custard powder to it. On a slow flame, stir in regularly without any lumps till it becomes semi-thick. It would take just 3-4 minutes. Switch off the flame.

Now add the condensed milk and mix well. Cool it. Add the Vanilla essence.

Whip this mixture in a mixie just for ½ a minute, now it transforms in to a divine creamy mixture.

Transfer this sauce to a bowl and chill in a refrigerator. (If the mixture becomes a little thick, you can add in a spoon of cold milk or some more milkmaid..)

Mix this creamy custard and fruits and serve in individual bowls. The heavenly dish is ready to be served. If you not the calorie conscious kind, add a generous dose of whipped cream as topping to make it more heavenly. Indulge!

Trivia about Custard

Custard is cornflour-based and thickens to form a sauce when mixed with milk and heated to a sufficient temperature. Custard was invented by a Birmingham scientist, Alfred Bird in 1837, because his wife was allergic to eggs - Eggs were the key ingredient used to thicken traditional custard.

After he discovered his custard (Bird’s custard powder)and became popular, he formed Alfred Bird and Sons Ltd., in Birmingham. By 1843, the company was also making the newly invented baking powder and by 1844 was promoting custard powder nationally. By 1895 the company was producing Blancmange powder, jelly powder, and egg substitute. In World War I, Bird's Custard was supplied to the British armed forces. It was later on acquired by General Foods in 1947 and has been part of Kraft Foods since 1989.

Chocolate Brownies

It is very hard to resist yummy dark, fudgy chocolate brownies, whether it is served with a cup of hot coffee or with scoops of vanilla ice-cream. My son and my dear friend J will vouch for this along with me.

I used to drool for the choco brownies sold at Auroville and Fab India and my passion for the perfect eggless brownies has been finally perfected over time. This churns out the same every time and you can make this in a jiffy.

The preparation time is about 10 minutes and the cooking time is even more less – for microwave it is 7 minutes and in the oven it takes 15 minutes.

The use of demerara – the brown cane sugar imparts a natural flavour to this recipe. Demerara sugar is a type of unrefined sugar with a large grain and gives a crunchy and chewy texture to the brownies. It is much better than using powdered sugar.. (saves time too..). The cold milk is actually a substitute for eggs.

Enjoy the sizzling sinful brownies and forget about diets and calories.. Sometimes it makes sense to live to eat, rather than eat to live!

Ingredients

Maida – 1 cup
Demerara Sugar – 1 cup
Baking powder – ½ tsp
Unsalted butter – 3/4 cup
3 tsp of unsweetened cocoa powder
Vanilla Essence – 1 small tsp
Walnuts / cashewnuts – handful
Cold Milk – 1.5 cups
Hershey’s Choco syrup

1. Heat butter in a microwave bowl for 1.5 minutes. Take the melted butter and whisk in 3 tsp of cocoa powder, Keep it aside.

2. Mix all the dry ingredients together - Maida, Sugar and baking powder. Add Vanilla essence, cold milk little by little and gently mix in the melted butter-cocoa mixture along with walnuts or cashew nuts.

3. Grease a baking pan and fold in this batter.

4. If you are using a microwave, use a microwave safe dish and bake it in high for the first five minutes and low for the rest 2 minutes. The brownie should be little moist while done in a microwave, and will still continue to cook in the standing time. Allow to cool.

5. If you are using a conventional oven, bake it for 15 minutes at 150 deg C.

6. Allow to cool before you invert in to a plate. Generously add Hershey’s choco syrup as a topping sauce so that it retains the chewy moisture and you can later cut in to squares.

Apple Kheer

Instant and yummy Kheer at a moment's notice! Preparation Time : 5 minutes - No Cooking required
Serves / Makes : 4





Ingredients:

2 apples
Condensed Milk -1 tin
Chilled Milk - 2 cups
Slivered Almonds/ pista, saffron for garnishing

Method:

1. Make a kheer base out of condensed milk and chilled milk. You can adjust the sweetness / thickness of the kheer according to your taste.

2. Peel and grate the apples. Add to this mixture.

3. Garnish with almonds/pistas and saffron and whip it up with a ladle - Lo! here's your kheer to serve your guests! Serve it cold.

Variation - Add finely chopped litchi (fresh / tinned), or strawberries. Yumm! Just make sure that the milk is always Chill..

Tender Coconut Jelly

Got hooked to this dish which used to be served at office lunch (RSA).
A nice and light dessert, watch it disappear when you serve to your guests!
Once you perfect this dessert, you can also try out with watermelon juice..

Ingredients

1 Tender coconut water ( scoop out the tender flesh, if any)
2 tsp sugar ( Adjust according to the sweetness of tender coconut)
1 small packet of Agar – Agar / China grass (Agar-agar/China grass is a setting agent made from seaweed. It sets quickly without refrigeration)
½ cup - Water

Method :

1. In a saucepan, heat the water. Add the china grass in medium heat.
2. When it fully dissolves, add the tender coconut water with sugar and mix it well.
3. All this should be done on medium heat only, switch off the flame and let it cool.
4. Take an ice cube tray (or you can use small cups to set the jelly individually), pour this tender coconut mixture and freeze it for an hour.
5. Small strips of tender coconut flesh can be used as topping (optional)
6. The jelly would be set after an hour, and you can transfer it from the freezer to chiller in the fridge. Serve it chilled.
7. Variation : You can also mix it 1 tablespoon of milkmaid after adding the tender coconut water.

Watermelon Cups

This is an amazing dessert to finish off with a good meal! I learnt it from an Italin chef. The crunchy water melons in sugar syrup is a light, yet tasty dessert..

Ingredients :

1. Scooped balls of water melon
2. Equal parts of water melon juice and sugar syrup
3. Orange Juice
4. Rum ( as per taste)
5. Mint sprig for decoration

Method :

1. Cut the water melon in to half. With a small fruit scoop, make water melon balls as shown in the picture (removing seeds, if any). You can prepare this & refrigerate earlier also.
2. Make Water melon juice from the left over parts and add equal amount of sugar syrup.
3. While serving in a glass, first add 3/4 of juice + syrup, then add orange juice and rum (according to your taste) and top it with 10-11 Water melon scoops.
4. Top up with a spring of mint and enjoy your dessert...

Mango Rasmalai

An "instant version" of original Rasmalai.

The coarse feel of juicy bread flavoured with milk and mango makes it taste just like rasmalai..
A quick dessert when you run out of time, or just to have mangoes in yet another way!

Ingredients :

1 big ripe mango, peeled and chopped finely
5 bread slices
½ litre milk
4 tsp milk powder
2 tbslp sugar
1 tsp pista/almonds
Saffron – pinch

Method :

1. Boil milk, thicken it for 5 more mins. Add milk powder and sugar. Dissolve the Saffron in warm water /milk and add to the milk.

2. Cool the milk in the fridge.

3. Remove the side slices of bread, moist the bread with milk, add 2 tsp of mango mixture and make it in to balls / flattened rasmalais.

4. Place this in the serving bowl, add the balance chopped mangoes. Pour the chilled milk on top of this. Garnish with pista and almonds and serve..