INSTANT BADAM MILK USING HOME MADE KESAR BADAM MIX

How about having a glass full of goodness? I would call this badam milk a super drink. Yes, look at those ingredients, all are claimed to be the most nutritious things on this earth! Just mix a spoonful of this powder in a glass of milk and feed your kids, there is nothing better than this. delicious, healthy and vitamin rich drink.

There are lots of brands of badam mix are available in the market. But have you ever taken a look at those ingredients listed on that packets. If not please do read it before buying.It contains very less percentage of almond and a huge numbers of artificial preservatives and flavorings.so next time rather buying a ready mix get some almonds and make your own within minutes.here goes the recipe.it is super simple and easy. Do give a try and enjoy…

  KESAR BADAM MIX

Ingredients

1.     Almonds- 20

2.     Saffron-  a pinch

3.     Cardamom-  1, skin removed

4.     Sugar- 1 or 2 tbsp.

5.     Turmeric powder- a good pinch

Method of preparation

Dry roast the almonds in a pan for a minute. Put all ingredients in a blender and grind in to fine powder. While grinding stop the mixer in between ,scrape it from the sides and pound again to ensure uniform mixing. With this measurement around 3 glasses of badam milk can be made.

Store this in an airtight container and use within one month.

INSTANT BADAM MILK

Ingredients

Milk- 1 glass

2.     Badam mix- 1 heaped spoon

Method of preparation

Boil milk. Add the powder and mix well. Serve warm or chilled. Sugar is not needed as it is already added.

RAVA KESARI

This is one of the easiest sweets.it can be done within minutes.do try and enjoy this delicious sweet J

 Ingredients

1.    Rava (semolina)-1/2 cup

2.    Sugar-1/2 cup

3.    Cardamom- 4 no’s (powder cardamom pods with a tbsp. of sugar)

4.    Water-2 n ½ cup

5.    Food color- a pinch (optional)

6.    Ghee-2 tbsp.

7.    Cashew nuts-a few (optional)

Method of preparation

1.    Heat a tbsp. of ghee in a pan. Roast cashewnuts (if using) and keep it aside. add rava into the ghee and fry for 2 minutes.

2.    Transfer the roasted rava in to another plate.in the same pan pour water mixed with food color. Bring it to boil. Add roasted rava into this. Stir well. Cover the pan and cook in medium flame for 2 or 3 minutes or until the water dries up and semolina are well cooked.

3.    Add sugar,remaining ghee and cardamom powder. Mix well. Let the sugar melts and the mix thickens a bit. Switch off the flame. Transfer kesari into a greased plate. Garnish with cashew nuts.

4.    Let it cool a bit. Kesari will set once it cools down. You can either cut into squares or just scoop it with a spoon.

MOTICHOOR LADOO

For all Indians the word ladoo is the synonym of happiness.  ladoo makes its appearance on each and every occasion. This motichoor ladoo is different from normal ladoo in taste, size of the boondhi and also in texture. This ladoo is more soft, moist and tastier. Making ladoo is really simple and easy. Am wondering why i never tried making this before. But there are two things we should be really cautious, one is to get the sugar syrup in one string consistency and other is, the boondhis should not be crispy fried. If these two can be nailed, anyone can make ladoo.Do try this awesome recipe J

Ingredients

1.   Gram flour- 1cup

2.   Sooji rava (semolina)-1 tbsp., ground to powder

3.   Orange food color-2 pinches

4.   Sugar-3/4 cup

5.   Water –as required

6.   Cardamom- 3 or 4, powdered

7.   Nuts-around 10 or 15 nos,chopped

8.   Oil-for frying

Methof of preparation

1.   Take a mixing bowl, mix together gram flour, food color and rava.Make a medium thin batter by adding water little by little. The consistency supposed to be little thinner than dosa batter.

2.   For frying the boondhis we need a perforated ladle or a steel strainer with medium holes. Heat oil in a deep bottomed pan. When the oil is medium hot, take a ladle full of batter. With the other hand keep the perforated ladle above the frying pan, pour the batter through the holes in to the oil. It will fall as small drops. Once it falls into the oil, it will go down and within seconds these would come up. You can see it floating over the oil.At this moment boondis should be taken out from the oil or else it will turn crispy. It should not be crispy. Fry whole batter like this. Keep fried boondhis aside.

3.   Mix sugar and ¼ cup of water. Stir well to dissolve the sugar. Heat this sugar mix until it forms one string consistency.it may take 3 or 4 minutes in medium flame. To check the one string consistency, with a spoon take the sugar syrup and when you pour it from little height it will fall down as thin thread OR you can check with your fingers. Since the syrup is really hot checking with fingers is difficult.

6.   When the sugar syrup has attained one string consistency, pour it over the fried boondhis. Add cardamom powder and chopped nuts in to this. Mix well. If this mix is hot, let it cool.

7.   With the help of a mixie,grind this mix. Just one or two pulse is enough. This is to make the boondhis tiny in size. Do not over grind.

8.   Transfer the above mix in to a vessel. Grease your hands. Shape this mix into lemon sized balls.

Delicious ladoo is ready to be served.

MILK PEDA

Milk peda is one of the most famous Indian sweets. When I searched its recipe I could find many easy recipes using milk powder and condensed milk. Since I did not have condensed milk on hand I decided to try this version. The ingredients for this recipe is really simple and are easily available in every kitchen. The two essentials for this recipe are time and patience (many of us including me lacks those two J) but the end result totally worth of all the efforts. This is a foolproof recipe when you can put a little time and patience…hope everyone will give a try.

Ingredients

1.    Milk- 1litre

2.    Sugar-1/2 cup

3.    Curd- 4 tbsp

4.    Cardamom powder- ½ tsp

5.    Any nuts- a few(optional)

Method of preparation

1.    Take a thick bottomed vessel. Heat milk. Once it comes to boil, add sugar and cardamom powder.

2.    Reduce the flame to medium and keep stirring the milk. Once the milk reduced to half (it may take nearly 20 minutes) add curd.

3.    Now the milk starts to curdle. Keep on stirring until the entire water content evaporates and the mix thickened enough .Turn off the gas. Let this cool a bit.

4.    Grind this mix in a mixer grinder into smooth paste.

5.    Grease your hands. Shape the peda mix into balls or any desired shapes. If you want, you can keep few nuts on the top and serve.

CHOCOLATE CAKE



Though this cake is not picture perfect. This is the best chocolate cake I ever make. Rich, moist and not overly sweet. Also the preparation is quite easy as no hard work required to make this cake. Please try your hands on it .I am sure all chocolate lovers will seriously fall in love with this dark rich chocolate cake J

Ingredients

1.    All purpose flour/maida-1/2 cup

2.    Cocoa powder-1/4 cup

3.    Butter -50gms

4.    Oil-30ml

5.    Baking soda-1/4 tsp

6.    Baking powder-3/4 tsp.

7.    Salt –a pinch

8.    Egg- lightly beaten,2 tbsp

9.    Sugar-1/2 cup

110     Milk-3/4 cup

11.    Vanilla essence-1tsp

Method of preparation

1.    Grease an 8” inch round cake tin. Keep it aside. Preheat oven at 180 degrees Celsius for 10 minutes.

2.    Mix flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt well using a whisk.

3.    Heat milk and butter together till the butter melts. Let it cool to room temperature. Add sugar, vanilla essence, oil and cocoa powder into this and mix well until sugar dissolves.

4.    Add flour and egg into this. Mix again to incorporate all the ingredients

5.    Bake in a preheated oven at 180 degrees Celsius for 25 to 30 minutes or until the inserted knife comes out clean.

EGGLESS WHOLE WHEAT BANANA BREAD

Fruits are one thing which iam not interested in, particularly bananas. Once it gets dark spots poor bananas find its space in trash. But that was an old story. After making this banana bread iam waiting my banana to get spots  :).This banana bread is totally addictive. One can’t stop eating just a piece. It almost taste like ‘unniyappom’. Above all you don’t feel guilty while having an extra piece since it is made with healthy ingredients. The bread is soft and moist. It was as delicious as I was eating it continuously. It was hard for me to keep few pieces even for my Husband :).The whole loaf was finished within few hours. Do try this healthy delicious bread. It might satisfy even the banana haters!!

Ingredients

1.      Whole wheat  or Atta-1.5 cup

2.       Grated Jaggery or sugar-1/2 cup

3.      Ripe banana mashed-1 cup,(I used robusta variety, around 3 or 4 medium sized can yield 1 cup)

4.      Baking soda-1/2tsp

5.      Baking powder-1 n 1/2tsp

6.      Oil-3/4cup

7.      Cinnamon powder-1tsp

8.      Vanilla essence-1tsp

Method of preparation

1.      Preheat an oven at 180◦ c For 10 minutes. Prepare a loaf tin and keep it ready

2.      Mash bananas using a fork or mixie without any lumps.(use over ripened bananas).

3.      Mix wheat, baking powder, baking soda and cinnamon powder using a whisk or swift all the dry ingredients.

4.      In a mixing bowl mix oil, vanilla and jaggery well.(Jaggery may tend to form clumps with oil. Do not worry, go head. It will dissolve upon adding flour).Add all the dry ingredients little by little and mix to incorporate everything. Do not over mix as it will make cake dense.

5.      Now bake at 180◦ for 50 minutes or until the inserted toothpick comes out clean.

6.      Allow it to cool .Slice and serve.

JAM ROLLS

Jam roll was in my to do list for long time. But the thought of getting it right made me stayed away from it. But once I made this, I realized how simple and fun rolling a sheet of cake.jam rolls are my brothers favorite. He buys this on every bakery purchase. Definitely anything sweet is my favorite too :)

For making this, very few ingredients are needed.Success of the recipe totally lies on the beating of eggs.So make sure you beat the eggs till fluffy.When I googled I could see lots of recipes which doesn’t call for any leavening agent but I was bit skeptical about the result.So I chose this recipe which uses baking powder.Anyway i am glad that I got it the way I expected it to be..

Ingredients

1.      Maida or All purpose flour-3/4 cup

2.      Eggs-3nos

3.      Sugar-1 cup

4.      Baking powder-1tsp

5.      Salt-1/4tsp

6.      Vanilla essence-1tsp

7.      Water-60ml

8.      Powdered sugar- around ¼ cup

9.      Jam-100gm

Method of preparation

1.      Preheat the oven at 200◦line a baking tray with foil paper or butter paper. Grease with oil or butter sprinkle flour all over .invert the pan and tap to remove excess flour.

2.      In a bowl beat eggs for 5 minutes until thick and fluffy. Add in sugar and beat again. Add water and vanilla essence and give a gentle mix. Now add the flour, baking soda and salt. Gently fold in.

3.      Pour into the prepared baking tray. Bake at 200◦ for 10-12 minutes or until the inserted tooth pick comes clean.

4.      Mean time, keep a clean cloth ready. Spread it on a table or kitchen top. Sprinkle powdered sugar over this with the size of the cake.

5.      Once the cake is cooked, loosen the sides of the cake from the pan and carefully invert the tray over the cloth sprinkled with powdered sugar. Then remove the foil carefully.

6.      Beat jam with a whisk or a fork to loosen it. Then apply this all over the cake .Gently roll the cake along with the cloth. Keep it tightly wrapped for 10 minutes. Then remove the cloth .A log of jam roll is ready. Slice and serve..

                                                                                                                       

WHOLE WHEAT CARROT MUFFINS

Here I have used the same recipe of my carrot cake with very few variations. I made this ‘n ‘number of times. This has become our family favorite. When I prepared this last time, I thought to make it healthier by substituting Maida with Wheat flour and I converted it as muffins. I did not have any clue how the texture would be as the cake with wheat flour tend to become little dense. But to my surprise, it was as soft as the one with all purpose flour. More over it tastes more delicious. Over to the recipe…

Ingredients

1.      Carrot grated -1 n 1/2 cup

2.      Whole wheat flour or atta-1 cup

3.      Egg-2 nos

4.      Sugar-1 cup

5.      Baking powder-1tsp

6.      Salt-less than ¼ tsp

7.      Refined oil-1/2cup

8.      Vanilla essence-1 tsp

9.      Cinnamon powder- 1tsp (optional)

Method of preparation

1.      Preheat the oven to 150degree.

2.      Line  a  muffin tray with paper liners or just grease the tray.

3.      Combine flour, baking powder and salt together. Keep it aside.

4.      Beat egg till frothy. Add sugar in and beat again. Add oil,  grated carrot and vanilla essence. Give a gentle stir. Now add the combined flour mix. Fold in gently using a spatula or a spoon.

5.      Fill only 3/4 th of each liner. Bake at 150 ◦ for 20 -25 minutes or till the inserted toothpick comes out clean.

6.      Transfer it into a cooling rack. Let it cool completely.

With this measurement I got around 9 medium sized muffins.

 

thats my little one trying to take the  cakes while i was picturing it :)