Browned Butter Pound Cake

This is actually a one bowl pound cake and REALLY… addicting. Not one of those spongy / light and airy cakes, but the browned butter brings an exotic flavor to the cake. It is dense and very good to go with cup of coffee or tea in the evening.
Browned Butter Pound Cake Recipe / Recipes using Browned Butter
Ingredients
2 cups all purpose flour
browned butter (check notes) from 1 cup butter
3/4 cup Milk (at room temperature)
1 tbsp. pure vanilla extract
1 1/4 cup sugar
2 tsps. baking powder
1 1/4 to 1 /2 cup sugar
3 eggs, at room temperature

Method
1.Preheat the oven to 325 degree Fahrenheit. Grease and flour a 10 inch Bundt pan.
2. Sift together all purpose flour and baking powder twice. Add it to the bowl and bring rest of the ingredients. Beat at low medium speed until the ingredients are well combined. Beat at high for another 2 more minutes. The batter will be sliky smooth.
3. Transfer the batter to the pan and bake for about 45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. The outer layer will be dark because of the addition of browned butter. Allow it to cool and cut into slices.
Notes
Heat the butter sticks in a pan, at low heat until it is completely melted and then turns light brown. Filter and remove the residue. Allow it to cool and use in the recipe. Do not add it hot, as it will cook the eggs. give a couple of minutes before adding it to the above recipe.
Adapted from Miss in the Kitchen with changes

Read the entire recipe here

Spicy Shrimp / Prawn Masala–Era Thokku

 

This is one of my favorite recipes as it has shrimps and lots of masala’s to suit my South Indian tastebuds . I love to have it piping hot with a bowl of basmathi rice. The aroma of the Basmathi rice goes well with this curry.

Ingredients

1 medium size onion, roughly chopped

1 large size tomato, roughly chopped

1 1/2 tbsp. ginger garlic paste ( or substitute with equivalent fresh ginger n garlic)

3 to 4 tbsp. chopped fresh mint leaves

2 green cardamom

2 cloves

1 inch cinnamon

1 tsp. red chilli powder ( or as per taste)

2 tsps. coriander powder

1 1/4 tsp. meat masala powder ( preferably south indian – aachi or shakti brand)

few curry leaves

1/4 tsp. fresh lemon juice

2 tbsp + 2 tbsp Oil

Salt (as per taste)

To marinate

3 cups medium size uncooked white shrimps( peeled, deveined & tail off) – fresh / frozen

2 tsps. Kashmiri chilli powder

1/4 tsp. turmeric powder

some salt

Method

1. Wash the shrimps thoroughly in water. Marinate with the mentioned ingredients for about half an hour.

2. Meanwhile, heat a pan and add 2 tbsp oil, once it is hot, but not smoky add the onion. Fry until translucent. Add ginger garlic paste and sauté for few seconds. Bring in the tomatoes, mint leaves, whole garam masala and saute until the tomato turns mushy. Switch off the flame. Low it to cool and grind into a fine paste.

3. In the same pan, add the remaining oil, once it is hot, add the bay leaves and the shrimps. Saute for few seconds flipping the shrimps, so that the shrimps get a nice reddish color because of frying in the oil. But make sure not to cook completely. The shrimps should be only half cooked at this point.

4. Add the ground paste, curry leaves, salt, powders (chilli powder, coriander powder and meat masala powder), and cook at medium high until the gravy becomes thick and the shrimps gets cooked. Do not over cook the shrimps-if it is over done, it will become rubbery. If you feel there is more ground paste and would take longer to become thick – 1. reduce the amount of the ground paste or 2. Once the shrimps are half cooked, remove  and keep it aside. Add the ground mixture and once the quantity is reduced, add the shrimps and the powders and continue cooking until the gravy thickens and starts leaving the sides (Even more thicker than the last stage in the picture, I missed clicking that picture).

5. Serve it hot with rice .

Read the entire recipe here

Dulce De Leche Whipped Cream Frosting

 

As mentioned in the previous recipe, I tried this frosting for the first time for my second one’s birthday and it came out absolutely fantastic .  It was already late night when I started to make the frosting, so there is no stepwise pictures , but there is nothing much to do, put all the ingredients and whip for this delicious frosting. Inspired from Table for 2 blog, I decided to make the frosting my own way and was so happy with the output . The below mentioned recipe will yield a big batch of frosting. Half the recipe is enough to frost a 8 X 2 inch or a 9 X 2 inch cake.

Ingredients

4 cups Heavy Whipping Cream (Chilled)

8 tbsp. Jello Instant Pudding Mix (French Vanilla Flavor)

13.4 oz. dulce de leche (Used store bought)

Method

1. Chill the beater and a large size bowl in the freezer for 5 minutes.

2. Bring the heavy whipping cream, followed by the pudding mix and dulce de leche into the bowl and beat at HIGH speed until stiff peak forms. This would take 2 to 3 minutes. Make sure not to over beat, else the frosting would become buttery.

I baked two vanilla sponge cakes , stacked and frosted with this dulce de leche frosting. Wrapped it around with dark chocolate lace (scribbles ).

Recipe Source : ramyacooks original recipe

Read the entire recipe here

Crystal Cookies

 

It is already 9 P.M 10 P.M here and I have a big task to do . Tomorrow is my li’l one’s 3rd birthday and yet to frost the cake. Going to try a frosting for the first time .So, it is going to be an experiment and if it comes out good as expected , the recipe will be posted here .

Today’s recipe was in my wish list for so long and tried it for the first time for my lil one’s birthday party that we celebrated in advance, a week ago. I had no time to take proper picture of it, so baked them again to publish the recipe. These are melt in mouth to taste and absolutely beautiful to look at .

Ingredients

1 cup all purpose flour (maida)

1/2 cup ground almonds (check notes)

1/2 cup confectioners sugar (powdered sugar)

1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 cup ghee (clarified butter), melted

1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

any 3 liquid food color

caster sugar (as needed)- check notes

Method

1. Sift all the dry ingredients except the caster sugar and bring it to a large mixing bowl. Add the ghee and vanilla extract to it and slowly make a soft pliable dough.

2.Cover and let it rest for about 15-20 minutes.

3. Divide the dough into 3 portions. Add your favorite food color to each  portion. I added green, pink and yellow.

4. Pinch of very small portion of dough from each color and make it into a ball. Flatten slightly, making sure there the top of each flattened dough is smooth.

5.Place them on a parchment paper/ aluminum foil lined baking sheet, leaving enough space between each cookie dough. Bake at 300 degree Fahrenheit, for about 10 to 15 minutes ( depends on the oven and outside temperature), until the top slightly cracks and the bottom very slightly browns ( I couldn’t see cracks in the original recipe, but I made it twoce in this week, and both the attempts it cracked).

6. Allow it to cool completely. Dust each cookie with the caster sugar.

Notes

• Caster sugar / Superfine sugar – powder the granulated sugar in a blender or dry mixer grinder and that is the caster sugar. But do not substitute the same for the confectioners sugar. Confectioners sugar is different from caster sugar as it includes corn starch in it.
• I have the recipe for ground almonds in this post ( click), but recently I have found an easy method- that is by just grinding the slivered store bought almonds, the whole process is simplified and the results are also amazing. Try grinding the slivered almonds for the ground almonds .

Recipe source : Uma’s Kitchen Experiments

Read the entire recipe here