Chikoo (Sapodilla) Cake

Have you watched the Jungle Book movie yet? I heard some mixed reviews, but I have to say I really enjoyed it. It brought back childhood memories of intently waiting every Sunday morning for The Jungle Book animated series on national television and singing “Jungle jungle baat chali hai…” (that was the title song written by Gulzar for the Hindi version of the TV show) along with thousands of other kids watching the same TV show in their homes. It was a time before Cartoon Network, with only a limited number of cartoons on Indian TV. Mowgli and his friends always made those Sunday mornings special.

This nostalgia might have subconsciously triggered the urge to make a chikoo based dessert. Chikoo, or sapodilla is a very common fruit in India and many other tropical countries. When perfectly ripe, this brown fruit is deliciously sweet and soft. Although the fresh version is hard to come by in my part of the world, the Indian grocery stores carry a frozen version of it. I wouldn’t want to eat the defrosted mushy fruit as it, but it works great in milkshakes, smoothies and ice cream… and apparently cake! I mashed up the defrosted chikoo slices and used it in cake batter as I would use mashed bananas or pureed berries. If using fresh fruit, make sure to pick ripe ones, peel and remove seeds, then mash or puree the fruit. The cardamom in this recipe gives it more of an Indian flavor, and if you didn’t know what chikoo tastes like you might think this is just a cardamom spice cake. It still tastes good though :). The texture turned out more muffin  like, and that’s the route I’ll probably go with the next time I make it. I generally try to stay away from adding unnecessary sugar, but the cardamom glaze on this cake really helps the flavor, so I would highly recommend using it - maybe add an extra hour of workout to your week to balance it out! ;-)

Ingredients:

2 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

¾ cup dark brown sugar

2 eggs

⅔ cup vegetable/canola/light olive oil

4-5 chickoo fruits peeled, deseeded and pureed or mashed with a fork (about ⅓-½ cup) - add a little water if required

½ tsp cardamom powder

A small pinch of salt

⅓ cup chopped walnuts/cashews (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 F. Prepare an 8” round baking pan by greasing the base and sides or lining with parchment paper.

Mix the flour, baking soda, salt and cardamom powder in a medium bowl.

In a large bowl, whisk the eggs and oil until combined. Add sugar, chikoo puree and whisk to break down any lumps in the sugar. Add the dry ingredients and fold with a spatula until everything is combined. This batter will be thick.

Pour the batter into prepared baking pan and smoothen out the top with a spatula. Bake for 35-40 minutes until toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Let the cake cool down for 10-15 minutes before removing it from the pan. Let it cool further on a wire rack.

Once the cake is out of the oven, make the glaze by mixing just enough milk/water with powdered sugar to make a runny paste. Add a pinch or two of cardamom powder and mix well. Drizzle the glaze over warm cake, slice and serve with a hot cup of tea or coffee!

~Gayatri

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Chocolate Chip Scones

Last year I got a nice little chocolate cookbook as a gift from a cousin. Her little daughter is one of my favorite baking companions - we’ve baked chocolate cupcakes, a princess cake and pink (strawberry) cupcakes, among other things. Given our penchant for making desserts, a chocolate cookbook was a fitting gift! Flipping through the book I landed on this chocolate chip scone recipe and the simplicity of the ingredients tempted me to give it a try. It only requires 5 ingredients, all of which I almost always have on hand. The added bonus was that it took under half hour from start of prep to end of baking - making it my new go-to recipe for last minute host/hostess gifts :)

Recipe source: 100 Best Delicious Chocolate Cookbook

Ingredients:
Base ingredients

2 cups self rising flour (See note below for recipe)

5 Tbsp unsalted butter

1-2 Tbsp sugar (Original recipe calls for only 1 Tbsp, but I wanted the scones to be slightly sweet so I added a little under 2 Tbsp)

⅔ cup milk + more for brushing tops of scones (I used 2% reduced fat milk)

Add ins
⅓ cup chocolate chips (I used mini semi-sweet chocolate chips)

Preheat oven to 425 F.

Cut the butter into small pieces. Rub the butter into the flour with your fingers until you get a crumbly mixture. Spend a few minutes doing this well because this step will guarantee the nice flaky texture of the scones.

Mix in sugar and chocolate chips. Add the milk slowly and mix till everything comes together as a dough (using hands definitely works better than a spoon/spatula/whisk). Do not knead the dough.

On a floured surface, roll out the dough into a square about an inch thick. Cut into 16 pieces. Place them on a greased cookie sheet leaving some space between the scones.

Generously brush the tops and sides of the scones with milk. Bake for 12-15 minutes until golden brown. Let scones cool down before storing in airtight container to prevent them from drying out.

These little flaky pastries are quick and easy to make, they are great for tea time and also make a lovely gift!

~Gayatri

Note: Self rising flour can be made by combining 1.5 tsp of baking powder with each cup of all purpose flour. Use same ratio for wheat flour, but increase the liquid quantity in the recipe.

Cookie-Dough Brownies

Are they cookies that look like brownies? Or are they brownies that look like cookies? It's the best of both worlds in one awesome dessert!
 
This recipe has been on our to-post list for almost four years - oh, the golden grad-school years! In those days, we typically celebrated our colleagues' birthdays by baking something for the whole research team. We had done cookies, and we had done brownies...it was time to try something different! We thought - why not combine the two? Consequently, our fellow researchers unknowingly became our research subjects (aka guinea pigs). Fear not - we taste-tested our "prototype" before releasing it to the hungry masses!
 

 
Ingredients for cookie dough:
1 cup flour (I'll typically do half all-purpose, half whole wheat)
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt (optional)
1/2 cup butter (softened)
5 TBSP granulated sugar
5 TBSP brown sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 large egg
1/2 cup chocolate chips (I prefer dark chocolate)
1/4 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
 
Ingredients for brownie:
4 oz. (1/2 cup) chocolate chips (again, I prefer dark chocolate)
2/3 cup butter
2 cups sugar (I typically do half regular sugar, half brown sugar)
4 eggs
1 1/4 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
 
Chocolate glaze:
1 cup chocolate chips
1 TBSP butter or canola oil 
 
Mixing the batters
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease a 13x9 pan.
 
For the brownie batter: melt the chocolate and butter together in a microwave-safe dish for 2-3 minutes on 40% power. Beat in the sugar and eggs. Stir in flour and baking powder. Spread into the greased baking pan.
 
For the cookie dough: Combine flour, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk butter, sugar, and vanilla together until creamy, then add the egg and mix. Pour dry ingredients into the wet mixture and stir to combine. Mix in chocolate chips and nuts. Drop by rounded tablespoons into the brownie batter, pressing down slightly so it sets in the batter.
 

 
Bake for 30-40 minutes until brownies set and the edges look a little dry. Let cool 10-15 minutes.
 

 
Glazing the goodness
Melt the chocolate and butter or oil together in the microwave as described above for the brownie batter. A second round of heating may be necessary to melt all the chocolate chips. Once all the chocolate is melted, pour over the cooled brownies and spread evenly. Refrigerate for a few hours so the chocolate glaze will set.
 

 
When it's time for a dessert or snack, slice and enjoy!

~Karla 
 

(Seriously!) Healthy Oat Chocolate Muffins

Our good friends Mike and Erika gifted a beautiful teapot for Karla’s wedding last fall, and we had been planning to have a tea party for a while so we could use it. So a couple weekends ago we got together to have refreshing tea with cookies and muffins. That was my first attempt at baking oat muffins, which turned out okay, but not quite how I wanted. They were not as moist as I thought they would be, and the texture was a bit dense. So after making some modifications to the recipe (and a few spills and burns later), I am pretty happy with the result – a light and moist chocolate muffin, which really is healthy!

Ingredients (Makes ~12 regular or ~36 mini muffins)

1 ¾ cup old fashioned oats

¾ cup unsweetened cocoa

½ tsp cream of tartar (or 2 tsp. vinegar)

1 ½ tsp baking powder

1 ½ tsp baking soda

¼ tsp salt

2/3 cup agave nectar (or 1 cup granulated sugar)

½ cup unsweetened applesauce

½ cup yogurt (I used low fat)

3 egg whites

1 tsp vanilla extract

2/3 cup hot water (1 cup water if using granulated sugar instead of agave nectar)

Chocolate chips (optional)

Heat oven to 350 F. Line a muffin pan with muffin liners (or prepare any other baking pan by lightly greasing).

In a food processor, grind all the dry ingredients together (except chocolate chips). Add the wet ingredients and blend. The hot water should be added in the end, just before you start blending, or you might lose all the fizz from the baking soda which helps with the airy texture.

Fold in the chocolate chips in the batter. Fill the muffin cups ¾ full, and bake for 10 min. After 10 min, sprinkle chocolate chips on top of the muffins, and bake for another 3-4 min, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out with some cooked batter stuck to it (not liquid!). Do not wait for the toothpick to come out clean, or the muffins might be too dry.

~Gayatri

Mini Whoopie Pies

The past few months have gone by really fast. Karla and I finished grad school…Yay! We had so much fun being roommates for three years. Lots of baking, shopping and traveling :) …. and since we will be working together in a few months, hopefully we’ll get to do more of that!!

After defending my dissertation this spring, I spent a couple months in California, where I had another baking buddy! My sister and I baked some goodies for her baby shower. Since we had to make a lot of food, I chose mini whoopie pies as one of the desserts since it bakes and cools down very fast, and is super easy to assemble.

Ingredients: (Recipe source: http://www.projectwedding.com/blog/)

2 cups flour

1 cup granulated sugar

1 tsp baking soda

1 egg

1/4 cup oil (I used canola oil)

3/4 cup milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

For the filling:

1/2 cup butter/margarine
1 cup confectioner’s sugar
1 cup Marshmallow Fluff
1 tsp vanilla extract

Food coloring (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Beat egg, oil and sugar. Add vanilla extract. Mix flour and baking soda in another bowl. Add the flour mixture and milk alternately to the egg, oil and sugar mixture.

Cover a cookie sheet with parchment paper and drop teaspoonfuls of dough on the sheet, leaving about 2 inches between drops.

Bake 6-7 minutes (times may vary for different ovens, the original recipe says 5 minutes). Gently touch the top of the cakes to check. If baked well, the top should spring back. Let the cakes cool completely before spreading the filling.

To make the filling, mix all ingredients and beat well. Spread the filling on the flat side of one cake and top it with another cake. We used a couple drops of red food coloring to make the pink filling and added colorful sprinkles to pretty up the whoopie pies for the party!

~Gayatri

Savory Cornmeal Muffins

The weather has been awful for the past couple days so Purdue had cancelled classes. I didn’t dare to venture out in the freezing cold to go to the lab, and there is only so much work that I could do from home. After watching The Office on Netflix for about 4 hours, I had to do something productive! Baking seemed like a good way to kill time as it generally takes a while to bake something and there is also a lot of cleaning involved :). We’ve had a packet of cornmeal in our freezer for a while, so I thought of experimenting with it and cornmeal muffins with soup seemed perfect for a snow day. They turned out really good and I’ll definitely be making more of these in the future.

Recipe adapted from: http://www.cooksimple.com

Ingredients (for 12 muffins)

1 cup cornmeal

1 cup wheat flour

1 tbsp sugar

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp black pepper

1 egg (Didn’t have eggs, so I used Egg Beaters. Egg whites can be used as well.)

3/4 cup milk

1/4 cup oil

2 tbsp melted butter/margarine

~1.5 cups chopped vegetables (I used peas, carrots, green and red pepper and green beans. Any other vegetables can be used as well.)

Preheat oven to 400 F. Mix the dry ingredients (cornmeal, wheat flour, baking powder, sugar, salt and pepper) in a bowl. In another bowl, mix egg, milk, oil and butter and then slowly add the liquid to the dry ingredients. Stir until mixed. Add the chopped vegetables to the batter and mix well. Grease muffin tins and fill each cup ~3/4 full. Bake for ~25 minutes until golden brown.

That’s the generic recipe, but it is pretty versatile. You can add your favorite spices, herbs or cheese to the batter. Enjoy the warm muffins with soup, chili, or just some butter.

~Gayatri