Salted Caramel Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Let’s get in the Christmas Spirit with these Salted Caramel Chocolate Chunk Cookies, shall we? ❤

Chocolate Tiramisu

Bring in this weekend with Chocolate Tiramisu – a delish twist on the Italian classic that will have you swooning!

Orange Chocolate Marble Cake

This gorgeous Orange Chocolate Marble Cake celebrates the classic combination of citrus-y tart oranges and rich dark chocolate like no other! Don’t believe me? Try this recipe out! 😀

Perfect Egg-less Chocolate Cake

Have qualms about egg-less baking? This recipe for the Perfect Egg-less Chocolate Cake is the only one you’ll every need, I promise! 😀

 

Choco-Strawberry Tart

There is something so elegant about tarts that takes my breath away. They are dainty and beautiful. In their pretty little way, they pack in so many different textures and flavours. And they are ALWAYS such a treat! ❤

Yeah, I’m talking about these Choco-Strawberry Tarts!

Chocolate Ganache Bites

It’s been a month since I blogged and I truly missed it. But I’m back with a kickass recipe for these stunning Chocolate Ganache Bites that I hope will make up for being MIA all through April! 🙂

Chocolate Chunk Pancakes

Though I’m late, I wanted to wish you guys a belated Happy Pancake Day! 🙂 Pancake Day, also known as Shrove Tuesday, is celebrated on the day preceding Ash Wednesday (the first day of Lent) with a nice plate of soft pancakes, a dollop of butter (okay, not just a dollop) and loads of syrup (or/and jam, Nutella, chocolate, whipped cream… you get the drift!). While I cannot (and will not) confine my pancake eating to the one day, I believe celebrating pancake day is a necessity. I mean, what better way to go into 40 days of fast and abstinence than to scarf down pancakes the day before? I think its perfect! Now don’t get me wrong; I’m not assuring you that I’ll give pancakes up all through lent. But I’ll try. 😛

Molten Chocolate Cake

First off, Happy New Year to all you wonderful foodies out there! I hope you brought in 2016 with your favourite food. If not, now’s the time. Wait! Errrr, after you read this blog post is the time, actually! 😉

So, Molten Chocolate Cake. This dessert needs no introduction. The past couple of years have been what we can call ‘The Rise of the Molten Chocolate Cake’. It’s everywhere; home-bakers are acing it, it’s on pretty much every restaurant menu and if you do a Google search, there are a million different recipes for this chocolicious delight. It also goes by many names – Chocolate Fondant, Lava Cake, Molten Chocolate Cake, Chocolate Lava Cake.

Long before I began baking extensively, I wondered how this gorgeous pud was baked. After some research I learned that it had all to do with the baking technique. These little pots of pure chocolate indulgence are baked on high heat for a short time so as to have them firmed up on the outside while ooey-gooey and oozy on the inside; in which case, the egg yolks in the recipe help bring out that custard-y effect! But then I also came across a few recipes which suggested putting quick-melting cubes of chocolate in the centre of the mini-cake before baking to have a perfectly liquid centre. Personally, I prefer the former. And among the million recipes out there, here’s mine! 🙂

Here’s what you need:

• Dark Chocolate – 250 g, cubed
• Unsalted Butter – 113 g, plus extra for greasing ramekins
• Confectioner’s sugar – 200 g
• Eggs – 3 whole + 3 yolks
• All Purpose Flour – 120 g
• Vanilla Essence – 4 tsp

Here’s how you make this spectacular Molten Chocolate Cake:

Step 1: Preheat your oven to 200 degrees Celsius and grease glass or ceramic ramekins with butter. In a large bowl, mix cubes of chocolate and butter. Melt the butter and chocolate in the microwave at medium heat for two minutes. Take out and stir well until smooth.

Step 2: Sift in the icing sugar and all-purpose flour and beat until the mixture becomes doughy.

Step 3: Whisk in the whole eggs and egg yolks until the mixture is luscious and creamy. Add the vanilla essence and give it one final mix.

Step 4: Pour the batter into the greased ramekins until they are filled to about two-third of their capacity. Place the filled ramekins on a baking tray, pop into the oven and bake for 13 minutes at 200 degrees Celsius. Take the cakes out of the oven and leave to cool for a few minutes. Carefully overturn the Molten Chocolate Cakes onto serving dishes and top with chopped strawberries. Serve Immediately.

We all know what the hero of the perfect Molten Chocolate Cake really is. That moment of joy when you cut into the cake and the molten chocolate lava flows out from the centre is unmatched. And that’s exactly what you will get from this recipe!

This Molten Chocolate Cake is mouth-wateringly delicious, to say the least. With the perfect balance of sweetness from the chocolate and confectioner’s sugar, the tartness from the strawberries and the richness of the molten centre, it’s everything you need to take you to chocolatey paradise (very a la the chocolate river in ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’)!

If you’re a die-hard chocolate fan, this dessert is for you. But then, you already knew that! 😀 And for those of you who like a touch of chocolate in your lives every once in a while, make sure you don’t miss out on this classic dessert, made easy by The Foodscape!

Get in the kitchen and get baking! Those New Year’s resolutions can wait a bit! 😛

Last-minute Chocolate Fudge

I think we can all agree that Christmas prep can be quite hectic. Between the decorating, cleaning, hosting family and friends, cooking multiple elaborate meals for them and getting on track with your Christmas baking and candy making, it’s hard to catch your breath during the holiday season. I face the same every year. Which is why I love this recipe for Last-minute Chocolate Fudge so much. You just need five ingredients – stuff you’ll always find in your pantry if you’re a baker, and/or a dessert person –  to whip it up, and 15 minutes later, Voila! Your Chocolate Fudge is ready! Minus the setting time, of course!

I like to put together this chocolate fudge a day or two before Christmas so that it sets into a nice hard layer that can be cut easily. You don’t want to make it much in advance, because, well, there won’t be a crumb remaining till Christmas! Remember those Christmas Tree Brownie Pops I posted about a few days ago? Yeap, not a morsel remaining! 😛

So without further ado, here’s the recipe for my Last-minute Chocolate Fudge.

Here’s what you need:

• Dark Chocolate – 400 g, roughly chopped
• Sweetened Condensed Milk – 400 ml (It’s called Milkmaid in India)
• Unsalted Butter – 30 g
• Walnuts – 200 g
• Vanilla Extract – 1 and 1/2 tsp

Here’s how you make it:

Step 1: Place the butter, dark chocolate and sweetened condensed milk in a bowl. Place the bowl over a pot of simmering water and stir slowly, making sure to mix the melted butter, chocolate and condensed milk without incorporating too much air into the mixture.

Step 2: Once the chocolate is completely melted and the mixture is dark and glossy, take it off the heat. At this point, add in the vanilla extract and fold slowly. Make sure not to overheat and avoid stirring too swiftly – this could cause the fudge to turn grainy.

Step 3: Add the chopped walnuts into the chocolate mixture and fold until well incorporated. Then pour the mixture into a box/baking tin lined with aluminium foil or parchment paper and smooth the surface with a spoon or offset spatula. Leave the fudge uncovered at room temperature to set for about 5-7 hours, or even overnight if you wish. Once the fudge layer is hard to the touch, pull it out of the box/tin and cut into squares and grab a bite before the chocolate lovers in your family get their hands on them! 😛

This fudge is smooth, luscious and oh-so-chocolaty. Once you’ve popped a piece into your mouth, it takes all of your strength to stop. The dark chocolate makes it rich and decadent, the condensed milk sweetens it up just the right amount and the walnuts add their crunchy bitter nuttiness to the fudge giving it a good bite. So wonderfully melt-in-the-mouth. 🙂

It’s Christmas eve, and if there’s one candy you must make for tomorrow, let this Last-minute Chocolate Fudge be the one! You’re going to love it, and the family is going to adore you all the more for making it! 😀

Here’s wishing you and your family a very Merry Christmas! May your day be filled with the joy of your loved ones’ company and tonnes of fun! 😀

Before I go, here’s a few tips for the fudge:

• You can substitute walnuts with any other nut (or a mixture of many) you like  – pecans, hazelnuts, cashews, pistachios. You could also make a Fruit N’ Nut version by adding raisins, cranberries and candied cherries to the chocolate mixture.
• You could always leave out the vanilla extract or substitute it with any dessert liqueur – kahlua and rum go great!
• It is imperative that you leave the fudge to set at room temperature. Do not refrigerate it as it may set faster, but will melt immediately when taken out to cut.
• Once cut, store the chocolate fudge in an airtight container at room temperature.

 

The Perfect Pancake

Good breakfasts are a rarity in The Foodscape household. We either wake up just an hour before we need to leave the house in the morning, which means we grab a bowl of cereal before we head out, or on days when we’re home, we wake up very close to lunch time and grab a smaller bowl of cereal. I’m not kidding, the boyfriend and I give Kellogg’s Chocos some serious business! 😛

So when I woke up last morning, I was quite surprised with my extreme hankering for pancakes. I say ‘extreme’ because I forewent my ritual of lazing in bed for just a few more minutes, and almost instantly was up on my feet, whisking away in the kitchen. That positively never happens. Well, I guess for pancakes, anything, yeah?

In these pancakes, I decided to use baking powder instead of baking soda which is the usually recommended choice when it comes to a pancake recipe. I remember reading somewhere, a while ago, that using baking powder makes fluffier pancakes. So I thought, why not? The key to making these pancakes light, soft and fluffy is the way you beat the batter. You have to make sure that you beat it enough to incorporate air into the batter, but also not over-beat it that you end up knocking out the air from the batter. Tricky, yes; impossible, no! All you need to remember is, the airier the batter, the fluffier the pancakes turn out.

Here’s what you need for The Perfect Pancake:

• All Purpose Flour – 1 and 1/2 cups
• Castor Sugar – 3 tbsp
• Baking powder – 1 tbsp
• Eggs – 2
• Milk – 1 cup
• Butter – 1/4 cup, melted
• A pinch of salt
• A pinch of cinnamon powder
• Vanilla Extract – 2 tsp
• Nutella – 1 cup

And here’s how to make it…

Step 1: In a deep dish, mix the milk, eggs and melted butter.

Step 2: Sift in the flour, and add baking powder and sugar and beat until just incorporated.

Step 3: Add salt, cinnamon and vanilla extract and give it a final mix, but be sure not to over-beat.

Step 4: On a low flame, heat a flat pan or griddle and grease it with butter.

Step 5: Pour 1/4 cup of batter into the centre of the pan and let it cook. When bubbles begin popping on the surface of the pancake, flip it over and fry until the other side is light golden. When you’re happy with the colour of the pancake, take it off the heat and fry the next.

Step 6: When you’ve fried the entire batch, stack them up, pull your cellphone out and take a drool-worthy picture of them to share on Instagram like I did. When the pancakes look this good, this is an essential step! 😉

Step 7: Sandwich a teaspoon (or two, three, four!) of Nutella in between each pancake.

Step 8: Pour the remaining Nutella over The Perfect Pancake stack, allowing it to flow over the edges. Top with strawberries or any fruit/sprinkle of your choice and eat right away.

I’ve made pancakes before, always using baking soda, but they’ve never turned out like these. They’ve always been clumpy, flat and rubbery – the exact opposite of how you want your pancakes to be. I don’t know what the science behind it is, but baking powder works perfectly! I must tell you, it was incredibly hard to stick to clicking photographs of them when I so badly wanted to stick a forkful in my mouth! God bless the boyfriend for bearing with the incredibly long photoshoot on a hungry tummy, with only the occasional ‘How much longer?’ 😀

These pancakes are subtly sweet, buttery and pillowy; just like the ones in dreams (that’s assuming you, like me, dream about pancakes). The cinnamon and vanilla give them a light fragrance; aromas you’ll enjoy as they melt in your mouth. And if you’re not a fan of Nutella, they go perfectly well with butter, maple syrup, sticky toffee sauce or just as. And it’s super easy to make them as well – 20 minutes, tops!

Whip up a batch of these perfect pancakes and eat up. Breakfast doesn’t get any better than this! 😀