Tag: valentinespecial


Feb
2014

‘Breakfast For Two’ ~ Savory Pear & Apple Dutch Baby

categories: Baking, Breakfast, Dinner, Lunch, Pancakes, Sides

Savory Pear & Apple Dutch Baby1

 

Good Morning & Happy Valentine’s Day ♥ Friends!

Roshni & I are back with our second installment of monthly cook-off. Keeping today’s lovey-dovey holiday in mind, the theme was a no-brainer – ‘Breakfast for Two’. So if you’ve still not thought of V-day breakfast for your sweetie then let us come to your rescue. I come bearing freshly baked savory German Pancake. Convenient without having to stand flipping pancakes on stove one by one and ready in 30 minutes! Slide it in the oven, go about your work (make coffee or arrange breakfast tray) and after 20 minutes, poof!, breakfast is served. No burnt sides too! 😉

Blogosphere is scattered with chocolates, berries and sprinkles for the occasion. Red and pink is so much in the air! I joined  the  bandwagon  too but if you’re not into sweet stuff then this recipe is just perfect for you.

 

Savory Pear & Apple Dutch Baby2

 

Pear, apple, some leeks and smoked Gouda… The fruit is cooked in a pan with some butter and thyme. Heavenly smell to wake up to, if you ask me! The fruit is then arranged in cast-iron skillet or baking pan. Egg and flour mixture is poured over the fruit followed by cheese. The prep requires mere 10 minutes of time and then whole business is taken care of by your beloved oven. It is baked until golden for about 20-25 minutes. Cut into wedges and serve immediately.

This dutch baby is perfect as a Brunch/Brinner too and should be made on any day, not only on V-day. Make this NOW & thank me later. If you want to make a sweet dutch baby, then try this recipe of mine. And now go to Roshni‘s blog for a great ‘Breakfast For Two’ idea! Let’s check out what she has in store for us all! 🙂

Have a great day all you happy lovers out there! ♥ ♥ ♥

Savory Pear & Apple Dutch Baby

Serves: 2 | Prep time: 10 minutes | Cook time: 20-25 minutes | Total time: 30-35 minutes

Ingredients:

  • 2 Tbsp butter (salted works too)
  • 2 Tbsp leeks, washed & thinly sliced
  • Half pear, peeled, cored & sliced
  • Half green apple, peeled, cored & sliced
  • few sprigs of thyme
  • 3 large eggs
  • 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 cup milk
  • Salt, to taste
  • 1/4 tsp lack pepper (or more)
  • 1/2 cup grated smoked Gouda cheese

Directions:

  1. Preheat the oven to 210ºC / 425ºF.
  2. Heat a small pan on a medium heat and add 1 Tbsp of butter to it. Once butter has melted, add leek, pear, apple slices and thyme leaves to the pan and let cook on a medium heat for about 3-4 minutes stirring occasionally. Set aside.
  3. Mix the eggs, flour, milk, salt and pepper in a blender on a medium speed until just blended, 5-10 seconds.
  4. Add rest of the 1 Tbsp butter in to a 9-inch cast-iron skillet/baking pan and put it in the oven. Wait until the butter has melted completely and sizzling then carefully take the pan out and swirl the butter around coating the pan completely.
  5. Spread the cooked mixture of leek, fruits and thyme to the bottom of the pan. Pour the egg mixture on top. Finally, sprinkle the cheese all over and slide it back into the oven to be baked for 20-25 minutes, until slightly browned on top. Cut the dutch baby into 4 or 6 wedges and serve immediately.
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Feb
2014

Browned Butter Red Velvet Brownies ~ From Scratch

categories: Baking, Brownies, Desserts

Red Velvet Brownies1

 

Hello! Meet the perfect Valentine’s day dessert!

Everyone loves a good brownie and when your regular brownies got a makeover, red velvet brownies were born. They become a thing of out-of-this-world! And they do not come from a box-mix! Yes, these are made 100% from scratch. So earn some extra brownie-points and make them for your Valentine!

 

Red Velvet Brownies2

 

These brownies turned out so dang awesome that they were demolished FAST. It’s only 2 of us and with some self-control we made them last 48 hours! Every single piece and each last crumb was devoured with so much happiness. 9 pieces had to be equally divided among the 2 of us, such a difficult task! It was natural that I get an extra piece which I had happily consumed anyway while photographing these beauties. I mean who could resist? 😛

These brownies were supremely moist, fudgy and soft. Browned butter gives a unique depth of flavor. I like to use both white and brown sugar for a perfect brownie. Brown sugar attributes to a caramelized flavor while white sugar contributes to a crisp, shiny top! I’m a plain brownie person so I went plain with mine but you may fold in white chocolate chips and sprinkle some on top before baking for that extra chocolate-kick.

 

Red Velvet Brownies3

 

 

You may decorate these in many ways. I had them plain, with some powdered sugar sprinkling, with Nutella frosting and warm brownie topped with Double Chocolate Ice-cream. You bet I was completely ruining my healthy diet those 2 days and it was absolutely worth it! Sorry to all my Instagram followers for torturing them with all that #foodporn. Now you’ve got the recipe, time to treat yourselves!

Browned Butter Red Velvet Brownies ~ from Scratch

Yields: 9 pieces | Prep time: 15 minutes | Bake time: 20 minutes | Total time: 35 minutes

Ingredients:

  • 2/3 cup butter
  • 1/2 cup white granulated sugar
  • 1/4 cup brown sugar
  • 2 + 1/2 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1/4 cup buttermilk (or 3 Tbsp milk + 1 Tbsp vinegar)
  • Red food color
  • 1 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 tsp salt

Directions:

  1. Preheat the oven at 180ºC / 350ºF. Line 8×8 inch square baking pan with an aluminium foil and grease it with oil. Set aside.
  2. Melt butter in a large saucepan over medium high heat. Stir constantly until butter has reached a light brown color and little bits have formed. It will be difficult to see the color of the butter as it foams a bit, so I go by smell– it will be very fragrant.
  3. Pour the butter in your mixing bowl(no need to cool). Add the sugars and cocoa powder and beat until smooth. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing in between each addition until almost creamy.
  4.  Add the salt, buttermilk, red food coloring and vanilla extract.
  5. Add the flour and mix well. Batter will be of cupcake consistency.
  6. Spread the batter in baking pan and bake for 19-22 minutes (mine were done in exactly 20 minutes) o until toothpick inserted in a center comes out clean. Let cool completely before cutting into pieces. Serve with a sprinkle of powdered sugar, Nutella frosting or warm with a scoop of ice-cream.
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Jan
2014

Red Velvet Cake Donuts ~ Valentine’s Special

categories: Baking, Desserts, Doughnuts

Red Velvet Cake Donuts1

After being on a month long health-kick, I think it is time to introduce a little indulgence. After all, it is last day of January.Valentine’s day is just round the corner so today’s post was definitely called for. I’m giving you a gorgeous sweet something for the occasion.

I have already professed my love for donut pan to you before. Ooh, how much I adore it. I want to bake everything into donut now, yes, obsessed is the word! But come on, how cute are these baked donuts?! You’re definitely going to have hard time deciding, eat them for breakfast or dessert! Or may be have them for both 😉

Red Velvet Cake Donuts2

These baked donuts are smothered with cream cheese frosting. Purr..fection! They are soft, tender and fluffy. They come together quickly and uses just a bowl. Baking is done in 8 minutes flat! Takes about 20-25 minutes start to finish. Of course, you will need to wait for donuts to cool completely before applying the frosting. I know which is quite difficult! So you may make them a day in advance, frost them and sprinkle sanding sugar just before serving. No more waiting, problem solved!

I made a small batch of 6 which is perfect if you’re still dieting. They are not obnoxiously fattening. I counted calories to be sure and each donut has 210 calories with frosting. Not so bad, right? Perfect for a cheat day with minimal cheating which means, yes, go ahead and have two!

So make them for Valentine’s or make them now. Bake them as donuts or as cupcakes. Just make them! 🙂

Red Velvet Cake Donuts3

Red Velvet Cake Donuts

Yields: 6 | Prep time: 15 minutes | Bake time: 8 minutes | Total time: About 25 minutes

Ingredients:
For donuts:
  • 2/3 cup + 2 Tbsp all purpose flour
  • 1 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1 large egg
  • 1/4 cup white granulated sugar
  • 3 Tbsp oil
  • 5 Tbsp yogurt/buttermilk
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
  • Red food coloring
  • 1/4 tsp apple cider vinegar
For cream cheese frosting:
  • 3 Tbsp plain cream cheese, at room temperature (I used plain spreadable cream cheese)
  • 3 Tbsp icing sugar, sifted
  • 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
  • Splash of milk, only if needed
  • Red sanding sugar, to decorate

Directions:

  1. For donuts: Preheat oven at 180ºC / 350ºF. Spray the 6-count donut pan with oil. Set aside.
  2. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
  3. In a another mixing bowl, whisk together egg and sugar till nicely incorporated. Whisk in oil, yogurt/buttermilk and vanilla extract. Slowly mix in dry ingredients to wet ingredients with the help on spoon or rubber spatula. Mix until just combined. Do not over-mix.
  4. Add red food coloring as required stirring minimally. Finish with whisking in vinegar to the batter. Divide the batter equally and fill the mold no more than 3/4th. Bake for 8 minutes. Cool in pan on a cooling rack for 5 minutes. Then carefully turn out doughnuts directly onto rack to cool.
  5. Cream cheese frosting: In a small mixing bowl, whisk together cream cheese, sifted icing sugar and vanilla extract until smooth. If the consistency is too thick, add a dash of milk. Spread the frosting on completely cooled donuts. Sprinkle with red sanding sugar just before serving as the colors will bleed. Doughnuts will keep in an airtight container for 2-3 days stored in a refrigerator.
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Jan
2014

Skinny Strawberry Chocolate Chip Muffins ~ Eggfree

categories: Baking, Breakfast, Cupcakes & Muffins
Skinny Strawberry Chocolate Chip Muffins1
Skinny breakfast for your honey on Valentine’s day coming right up! It has lots of strawberries and just the right amount of dark chocolate… Match made in heaven! Indulgent yet skinny. Celebratory yet healthy. Befitting, don’t you think?
While posting these Skinny Muffins last week, I realized that I have few recipes posted here and wanted to set that right. Now that this sappy, lovey-dovey day is just round the corner, I had a perfect excuse to whip up this breakfast treat for the blog!
Skinny Strawberry Chocolate Chip Muffins3
There is nothing better than a warm muffin served with a hot mug of coffee. It gets better if served in bed! This muffin is a flavor bomb! Bits of strawberries and chocolate chips in each bite is blissful. These muffins are soft, moist and surprisingly skinny. So flavorful and fluffy. No dry crumbs in sight here.
They need very few and simple ingredients. One of the most magical ingredient of them is applesauce. Unsweetened of course. Applesauce will make sure that you don’t need to use any oil or butter! I wanted to keep the refined sugar to the minimum without making them taste cardboard-like. So I used combination of brown sugar and honey to sweeten them. I’m glad to report they were perfectly sweet!
Skinny Strawberry Chocolate Chip Muffins4,jpg
The batter comes together quickly and so easily! No mixer required. The batter is going to be quite thick but don’t worry. You will be able to scoop it easily in the muffin pan with ice-cream scoop. Do not use muffin liners as muffins may stick to the liners. I filled the muffin moulds to the brim and got 6 large muffins but you may fill them till 3/4th mark and get about 8 regular-sized muffins. Do as you please. Just make them already as they certainly don’t need an occasion! 😉
Skinny Strawberry Chocolate Chip Muffins2
Skinny Strawberry Chocolate Chip Muffins5
Skinny Strawberry Chocolate Chip Muffins ~ Eggfree
Yields: 6 large or 8 regular-sized muffins | Prep time: 15 minutes | Bake time: about 20 minutes
Ingredients:

  • 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 2/3 cup unsweetened applesauce (I used homemade)
  • 1/4 cup brown sugar
  • 1/4 cup honey
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 3/4 cup diced fresh strawberries (you may use frozen berries)
  • 1/3 cup dark chocolate chips (or semi-sweet)
Directions:
  1. Preheat the oven at 180ºC/350ºF. Spray 6-count muffin pan with oil*. Set aside.
  2. In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together flours, baking soda and ground cinnamon. Set aside.
  3. In another medium bowl, whisk together applesauce, sugar, honey and vanilla extract. Add the wet ingredients to the dry until *just* combined. Fold in the strawberries and chocolate chips.
  4. Divide the batter evenly between 6 muffin cups. Bake for 16-20 minutes. Mine took exactly 18 minutes. Let them cool for about 5 minutes before releasing from pan.

*Do not use muffin liners as muffins may stick to the liners.

Note: Do not use whole wheat flour entirely as the muffins may not be turn out as soft.

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