Chocolate Brownies

Its been a while since I posted,call it blogger’s block or just plain laziness,I took a self-proclaimed break for a while and decided to come back with a bang!!I’ve not been bloghopping too off late and sorry if I haven’t visited your blogs for a while,soon soon,I promise.

Even though I had not planned to stretch this break for so long,my Camera played spoilsport and I couldn’t take any pictures so I did not cook anything new..yeah:).I was forced into coming back to blogging by none other than Ajay who felt no blogging meant nothing new to eat!!He went and bought a kilo of Aavin butter recently because I keep cribbing about its non-availablity,but a kilo..??I had to do something soon.

I was craving for a Chocolate cake and wanted to try out a new recipe.But on second thoughts,I felt I should make Brownies instead,at least I could freeze any leftovers and have it later[not that there were any,but by chance].I decided on a very simple recipe from Sanjeev Kapoor’s Cakes and Bakes.

Brownies are one of America's best-loved culinary inventions. "Although the origin of brownies is not clear, they have been eaten in the USA since the 19th century, first appearing in the 1897 Sears, Roebuck Catalog," says Alan Davidson in the Oxford Companion to Food. James Trager, author of The Food Chronology, says the first brownie recipe was "probably created when a careless cook failed to add baking powder to a chocolate cake batter." This has been traced to a housewife in Bangor Maine, when her chocolate cake didn't rise properly and she cut out flattened pieces from the pan.

Chocolate Brownies
Recipe source – Sanjeev Kapoor’s Cakes and Bakes
Makes 16 Brownies

Ingredients

Dark Chocolate – 100 gms,chopped
Butter – 90 gms
Flour – 1 cup
Baking powder – 1 tsp
Caster sugar – ¾ cup
Eggs – 2
Vanilla essence – 1 tsp
Walnuts – ½ cup,chopped

Method

Preheat the oven to 180*C.
Grease/line an 8’ square baking tin.
Sift the flour and baking powder together.
Melt the chocolate and butter in a double boiler OR microwave it on High for a minute.
Beat in the sugar,eggs and vanilla essence and blend well.
Add the sifted flour and walnuts and mix well.
Pour the batter into the tin and bake for 40-45 minutes.
Cool and cut into squares.

Churmundo ~ A sweet start for the New Year!!

Wish you all a very Happy and prosperous New year!!

As always,a sweet start for the new year and the new decade.Churmundo literally means Churma laddoo,ie laddoo made with atta/wheat flour.I’ve always been a lover of its cousin Besan laddoo and thought both were the same when I had it first.Boy,I was wrong.Churmundo is a totally different kind of laddoo,one which literally melts in your mouth.Or rather,powders in your mouth.

I’ve not always had success while making this laddoo.Maybe it was lack of practice or maybe I did it wrong.Few days back while ma-in-law was here,we did this together and I realized,the making of laddoos into round balls was the toughest thing…:).Rest of the method is Jujubi[non-Chennai-ites please excuse..this is a famous Rajni slang:)]

At the cost of sounding immodest,this laddoo won me second prize in a Cookery competition held at our colony as part of the Annual day celebrations..:)

Churmundo / Churma Laddoo
[Wheat flour Laddoo]

Ingredients

Atta/wheat flour – 2 cups
Sugar – 2 cups
Cardamom – 2-3 seeds[whole]
Ghee – 6 tbsps
Cashewnuts,raisins – a handful,fried in ghee[optional]

Method

Powder the sugar along with the cardamom.
In a thick bottomed kadai,add 5 tbsp ghee and let it liquefy.
Add the atta and mix well-the mixture will start bubbling,keep stirring.
Roast the atta for 20-25 minutes on low flame stirring continuously.
Switch off the flame and add the powdered sugar.
[you could add the nuts at this point,if adding]
Melt the remaining 1 tbsp ghee and add it to the mix and make laddoos while the mix is still warm.