chocolate walnut brownies

 hey  these are  my  favorite.. i love  brownie and  specially  with  vanilla  ice cream. They are  so  nice   crunchy yet soft  and  walnut  adds more  yummmmmmmmm to it. i love the  crunchy crust and the chewy center with lots  of nuts which  makes  it  more delicious. i  have  been a great  fan   of  brownies   but  never tried  them at  home  and  so this   was  my  virgin trial  and  this  was  for yamini  who  had  this brownie craving in her 7th month of  pregnancy. The  sad  part  of the  this  was  i  was baking  it  for her farewell party. 
This recipe  is  from the  the  website  joy of  baking.

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup of unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon 
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter (2 sticks)
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2 teaspoons finely ground instant coffee
• 2 large eggs, preferably at room temperature
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup broken or chopped walnuts or pecans

How  i made it 

•  In a  double  boiler   melt the butter  and   to it add the  cocoa powder and  coffee powder. Mix well. let  it cool down.
• Now beat the  eggs   into it and   now  add  sugar  and vanilla  essence  mix well.
• Whisk in the  cinnamon and  salt  and  flour together.
• Add the flour  and  mix well till its  incorporated .
• Add in ur  walnuts   pour it  in a greased bake pan and  is  ready  to bake 

Prehaet the  oven  at  350 degree F  and  bake it  350 degree F for  30 mins.

Mango Ice - Cream

 Mango Ice  cream

Ingredients that we need

• 500ml of milk
• Fresh Mango
• 2-3 spoon full of corn starch
• 500gms of sugar
• Half tin( 150 ml ) of condensed milk
•  250 ml of heavy whipping cream 

How i did  it

• Boil the milk in a heavy bottomed vessel , Add about 400 gms of sugar to it, keeps stirring and reduce the flame. Once the sugar dissolves , remove the milk from the flame.
• Mix  the cornflour  in  litttle cold milk , and stir  the mixture into the boiled milk, keep the  milk  back on low flame , till it thickens.(u will know when you see it) Switch off the  flame and cool the mixture.
• Take Mango( the amount depends on  your taste buds. i used about 3-4 ripe) in the mixer add to it about  50 gms of sugar and  blend it  into a smooth pulp. u can add some milk  to it  to make it  more soft . Add this mango pulp to the boiled and cooled milk.
• Add the condensed milk  and freeze it in the freezer.
• let the mixture get semi freezed , thaw it  blend the mixture using a blender or mixer,  u can  use had mixer too.
• Add the whipped cream to the mixture, blend it again (i used the hand mixer), to it add small cut peices of  fresh Mango (i used around 3-4 of them) 
• Freeze  it , your Mango ice-cream is ready.

Whipping cream.

Freeze the bowl and the whipper blades  before starting the whipping process, it should be very cold.

 take the whipping  cream in  a cold  bowl (I used the store bought heavy whipping cream)

 and  whip it  using a  hand blender till soft peak are formed , donot over do it as it  will convert to butter. once the soft peaks are formed add 2-3 table spoons of sugar . Now its ready to use.

Ras Malai

This  one  is  consider as the  king of  milk sweet and  they  say  its  heavenly.I  have not tasted it as i  dont  like milk sweet , but  i  could not  keep  my   hands from trying  it  as its  my  mom favorite and  i wanted Rhea and  bass to  enjoy it as well. I made this  especially  for  my Mom. i am sure  she  would have  loved  it and appreciated my efforts.
Mom  this  is  for   u .

 Ingredients

 To  Make  Paneer

•  1 1/2 lts of milk (use any  milk  u  like   i  used the  whole  milk)
• 2-4 tsp of  vinegar  or  lemon juice 
• nice chesse cloth (  i used  white  thin cotton dupatta)  
• ice  cubes

 How  I made it .

 In a  nice  big  vessel take  in your milk , keep on medium flame and  bring  it  to a  boil, once  it  comes to a rolling  boil , add  diluted  vinegar or  lemon juice  to it  and  keep  stirring , the  milk will start  curdling once u  see the  water seperating  add ice  cubes and  switch of the  flames . The  addition of ice  cube  is to  stop furthur curdling of the milk . Strain out all the water  and  take  the  cheese/ paneer in ur  chesse cloth, close  all the  four  ends of the  cloth, like   making a   knot, squeeze out all the   water ,   rinse  with fresh  water  to remove the  last traces of  vinegar, now  tie a  knot  hang it for  30 -40 mins so that all the water is drained.  Your paneer for Ras malai is  ready.

To  Make the Ras ( milk sause)

Ingredients

• 1 lts Milk
• sugar
• Cardamom Powder
• Nuts (pista and badam)
• saffron strands.

In another  big vessel take  milk and  keep in a  low  flame , bring the  milk to boil , add strands of  saffron.You get a  nice  mild yellow  colour  and  keep stirring , its  its  reduced to half of the volume. Once the  volume is  reduced add sugar and  nuts. Keep it aside to cool.

To make the  paneer dumplings .

Take the  paneer that  was  made , and knead  it slightly  so that  it becomes  soft  and smooth , take a  small bit and  with the  help of   your palm  make a  small  dumpling and  the  press it  to  flatten it .  In  another  big  bowl  take  sugar and  water  in 1: 5  ratio, that  is  1 cup of  sugar and  5 cups  of  water.  Bring it  to a  rolling  boil once its  boiling add these  5-6 dumplings  to it , and  cover it . Boil the  dumplings for about 5-6 mins. you can see that the dumpling   have increased in  volume and  has become soft and  fluffy. Strain them and  add them to the  Ras /milk cream u  prepared in step 2 .Repeat the  same  process for all the  dumpling  made . Note that  the  sugar syrup dosent   get  thick.
Keep the  Rasmalai in the fridge and  serve it cold.

Dil pasand Bakery style

 The  word Dil Pasnad  directly  takes  me  back  to my  childhood , all of  which i grew  up eating Dil-pasand and honey cake  and  cream bun from Bangalore iyengars bakery. Yummmmmmmmm !!!!!!!!!!!!!  i still can  feel the  taste and   will never forget it. Every interval  at school , every special class and every outing was incomplete  without  it ,  Infact when i was pregnant , this  was  there in my  big  wish  list i had  of  food, Believe  me or not i  went to bakery  in my  ninth month  and  had this  without anybody  knowing,  as i was  on  strict no-sugar diet. i cannot  resist the  hard crisp coat  with  cruchy  coconut filling with lots  of  tutty- futty. I  relished it and  i did not want Rhea  to miss out on this  and  therefore  tried this .

 Ingredients:

• 1 puff pastry sheet  (pepper ridge) Thawed at  room temperature.
• 2 cup Shredded coconut( i used the  store bought ) Thawed  at  room  temperature 
• 1 cup Tutty frutty 
• 2 cups Sugar
• 1tsp cardamom powder.

 How i made it.

Take a wide pan  add sugar to it add water just enough to dissolve the sugar, Keep  it on  medium flame , Allow it  come to a boil  now   add the shredded coconut , tutty  futty  and  the  cardamom powder. Mix  up all the  ingredients  in a  such  a  way that  they  get  blended . If  u feel that  the  mix  is  a  little  runny  then keep it up on flame till its dry .
 Mean while  get ur  pastry  sheet ready , Thaw  it in room  temperature and open it  up , cut   out a  big circle  from one  of the  sheets  and  another  circle  from another  sheet  but  a  little  smaller in size than the  first circle.
Now put  in the  coconut stuffing  on the  center of the  first  circle and  spread , cover  it  with the  second  puff pastry sheet. Seal the  edges  and is   ready to  bake ,  Bake  it  at 350 degree F, for  20-30 min or  till its golden brown  in colour.
With the  left  over  puff pastry  sheets   use your  own imagination and makes  diffent shapes and  sizes.
Enjoy the Di pasand  with ur  child hood  memory , iam sure  u will  love  and  crave  for  more .