Chocolate Truffles

I made these a week ago and it was worth a try!
Truffles are the most divine and delicious candies. Delicate and pure, they melt in your mouth and leave you and your guest speechless! And they are easy and most simplest to make. But you have to make sure that you use Good high quality chocolate and cocoa.


Ingredients:
Dark chocolate 8.8 oz/250 g
Cream 165 ml/5.8 oz
Butter 1.2 oz
Water 2 tbsp
High quality cocoa powder 1 and a 1/2 cup


Method:
In a bowl take 2 tbsp water and add chopped chocolate and melt it in a double boiler till 8 minutes, it shouldn't be dull in colour. Add cream mix gently with heat on. Once mixed remove from heat and let it cool. Now add butter to ganache put the mixture back in double boiler. After few minutes remove from heat, put the ganache in a bowl and refrigerate it for 8 hours.
After 8 hours this mixture hardens. Using two spoons form even and round balls and roll them in cocoa powder. Refrigerate for another 1 hour.
ENJOY!

Moist Chocolate Cake

Hey everyone,

Have been busy these days with my studies but not to worry I have a new recipe of Chocolate Cake and this cake to absolutely the one to die for. I am not exaggerating I mean it. 

It is just heavenly absolutely light, soft and spongy.

When I sliced the cake it came out to be so soft, moist and fudgy. 
And the best part is when you pour the rich, creamy chocolate ganache on top and it runs in all directions. 

Yumm! :)

The final mixture of the cake before its kept in the oven is very thin and runny nothing to worry about and it takes plenty of time to bake my cake batter took fifty minutes the time varies depending on the different oven.


Ingredients:
flour 1-3/4 cup
baking powder 1-1/2 tsp 
eggs 2
Hot boiling water 1 cup
Oil  1/2 cup
Milk 1 cup
Cocoa Powder 3/4 cup
Salt   a pinch
Castor Sugar  2 cups
Baking Soda  1-1/2 tsp


Method:
Preheat oven to 180 degrees.
Stir together sugar, salt, flour, cocoa, baking powder and baking soda.
Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla beat on high speed for two minutes.
Stir in boiling water. Don't worry the mixture will be runny.
Pour in prepared greased pans and bake for 45 minutes. (Personally it took my cake 50 minutes to bake)
when the skewer comes out clean and the cake is firm to touch the the cake is baked.


Icing:
I keep my icing quite simple so here are the ingredients:
Tetra pack cream    1/2 cup
cooking chocolate    50 g
Icing sugar sifted      1/4 cup


Combine chocolate and cream on a double boiler and let the chocolate melt and get incorporated in the cream. When done take out the bowl and let it cool.
Then add in the icing sugar.


When the cake is cooled slice it in the middle and sandwich the cake with the icing and cover the entire cake with it.....
Or
Just pour it on top! 

Its now ready to serve...

Donuts

Long time i have been busy with lots of stuff first I got over with exams and now half of my vacations went by just like this but any how i got admission at Agha Khan College where I always wanted to go. And from next week I'll be taking baking classes so really looking forward to that.

But I still have a recipe to share with you guys so here it is: 

Ingredients:

Milk                        1/2 cup

Yeast                       1 and a 1/2 tbsp

Butter                      1/3 cup

Castor sugar            3 tbsp

Egg                         1

Flour                       1 cup

Baking powder        1 tsp

Salt                          1/2 tsp

Method:

Mix yeast in warm milk and set aside for five minutes.

Beat the butter and sugar until pale then add the egg and baet for another 20 seconds.

Add in the flour, baking powder. salt and the yeast mixture and knead into a dough.

Keep it in a warm place for an hour till its double the size.

Then roll the dough in 1/4 inch thick and cut donuts by using 2 cookie cutters, large to cut the donut circle and small to cut the centre. Place donuts in a large tray, cover and let it sit for another 3o minutes.

Heat oil in a deep pan and fry the donuts until golden brown.Let them cool.

CHOCOLATE ICING:

Ingredients:

Cream                      2 tbsp

Cooking Chocolate   1 cup

Cocoa Powder         1 tbsp

 Melt the chocolate in the double boiler along with the cream.

When its melted stir in the cocoa powder and let it cool so that it comes to the right consistency to ice the donuts.

When cooled dip one sid of the donuts in the chocolate mixture, this will also set in a few minutes.

Now you donuts are ready to serve! 

Butter Cookies

Hey everyone,
Hope you all are doing good and yeh I am back with another recipe which I tried today only and seriously the whole house smells like bakery.
Butter cookies! Ah the name tells it all these cookies are as heavenly as they sound they are sweet, buttery and delicious. The more it tastes good the more it is easier to make. You can make these two ways either make a log and cut it with a knife or roll it out and cut what ever shapes you like. So starting off with the ingredients we have:
Butter                75 g (at room temp)
Castor sugar      2 oz
Flour                 2/3 cups (if the dow is still sticky you can always use a bit more of it)
Vanilla Essence  1/2 tsp
Salt                   a pinch
Egg yolk            1

Method:
Beat the butter with an electric beater until creamy then add the castor sugar and salt till its smooth and creamy. Then add the egg yolk before adding it to the butter beat it separately with a drop of vanilla essence so that the smell goes away then you can add it to the butter mixture and bat till its incorporated in the butter.
Then you can sieve in the flour and make it into a dow. Now make a log out of the dough and cover with butter paper and refrigerate for atleast 1 and a half hour.
After that slice it into cookies and bake in a preheated oven at 220 C for 10 to 12 m till the edges are firm and golden brown.
You can bake this in the preheated stone oven too but on top of the stones place a wire stand then the baking tray or your biscuits will get burn. in this the biscuits will take atleast 15-20 minutes to bake.
Let them cool and its ready to serve.

Like I said its all worth it at the end.

Brownies

I am back with another recipe which i tried on my brother's birthday and he seriously loved these Brownies!

Ingredients:
cooking chocolate  100 g
butter                      70 g
eggs (beaten)          1
castor sugar             1/2 cup
cocoa powder         3 tbsp
flour                        1/2 cup
salt                          1/4 tsp
vanilla essence         1 tsp

Method:
Preheat oven at 180 d. Grease your baking tin with butter and dust with some flour.
Melt chocolate over a water bath (double boiler) along with the butter.
When your chocolate and butter has melted completely. Take it off the heat let it cool a little bit then add the sugar and beat it well until sugar has dissolved then beat in the egg. After that mix in the vanilla essence for about 20 s then fold in the dry ingredients i.e (flour, salt, cocoa powder). Then pour the batter into the prepared baking tin. Let it bake for about 20 m or until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean. This means your brownie is done. You can bake this too in the stone oven (described in my previous post)
This is a must try recipe. It is heavenly and very fudgy.

Joy of Baking

Hey everyone, hope you liked that pizza recipe and stone oven method. Well that was easy wasn't it?
Well let me get this clear that baking is not difficult at all its just a lil effort you have to put in and at the end its all worth it.
I started baking a few months ago, when i was baking for the first time i went a little afraid whether the cake will turn out good or not or what if I end up wasting all the things. But all these fears were gone when my cake can out of the tin. The recipe of the chocolate cupcakes that I posted months ago was the recipe i tried for the first time. 

Making food for friends and family has a powerful effect on both giver and receiver. But from my experience I have learned that in baking you have to be good with the measurements and ratios of all the things you put in or if you mess around with the quantity, your effort and everything will get wasted. Its a continuous process by time it gets better and better.
'Practice makes a person perfect'.

Pizza

Hey everyone,
                     hope everyone is doing well and wish you all a very Happy New Year may this year bring us lots of happiness and peace.

So since I am back after two whole months I will share a pizza recipe with you guys and during these two months thats what i did baking and baking. My new found obsession!
This recipe is especially for those people who don't have an oven
For the Pizza Dough:
Flour                    1 cup (heaped)
Instant Yeast        1 tbsp
Milk                     1/2 cup
Sugar                   1 tsp
Salt                      a pinch
Cooking oil          1-2 tbsp

For Pizza Paste:
garlic                    1 clove (chopped)
onion                    1 (sliced)
tomatoes               4-5
oregano                2 pinch
chilli flakes            1 tsp
salt                        to taste
sugar                    1/2 tsp
oil                         2 tbsp

For Topping:
boneless chicken   50 g
salt                        to taste
chilli sauce             2 tbsp
capsicum               1 large (sliced)
olives                     8-9
mushrooms            5 (sliced)
chilli flakes             1 tsp
mozarella cheese    1/2 cup grated
cheddar cheese      1/2 cup grated

Method:
Dissolve the yeast in luke warm milk along wid sugar and keep aside for 5 minutes until it gets frothy
After that mix it wid rest of the ingredients and knead them with warm water. After that brush it with some oil and keep it in room temperature until it gets double in size.

For the paste:
in boiling water make slits on the tomato from the top and put it in water for just 20 seconds (not more than that), then peel out the skin and slice it, take the seeds out and make a pury out of it.
Heat the oil and saute the garlic in it until golden brown, then add onions saute it more until its soft then add tomato pury you just made cook it until the extra water drys then add oregano, chilli flakes, salt and suger.
Cook it till its thick in consistency.

Topping:
After the dow is double in size punch it and take the air out.
Roll it with rolling pin in the size of your pizza pan spread the sauce that you just made add a little cheese the the rest of your topping and finally spread all the cheese over it.

Now that's how it looks after doing all the topping
Now here comes the baking part people who dont have an oven can use a big saucepan fill the surface with stones of same size cover it with a lid and tuen on the heat of the stove on high preheat it for atleast 45 minutes before baking
Then you can put the prepared pizza in the saucepan and close the lid and turn the heat to medium.
Let it cook for 20 to 25 minutes.
And the oven owners can bake this at 230C for 5 minutes until it rises ythen lower the heat at 180C until the cheese melts and its nice and crusty.

This is how it looks after being baked. I personally baked it in a stone oven.
hope you'll try this recipe and give me your feedbacks.