Basic Cookie Dough recipe

1/2 c. butter
1 c. sugar (granulated or powdered
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
2 1/2 c. sifted all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder

Mix butter with sugar. Beat with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs and vanilla until well mixed. Add flour and baking powder and blend well. Refrigerate overnight in a airtight container.

Its not very sweet at all. So you can add honey, walnuts. choco chips etc etc to make any version of cookies.

Bake at 425 for about 5-8 minutes.

Orange Cake

See Lemon Cake.
Replace Lemon Zest and Lemon Juice with twice the amount of orange zest and orange juice (Additionally I used some of the strained pulp as well).
Also I added 1/4 cup more sugar.

Lemon Cake

Step 1:

2.5 Cups Flour
1.5 tsp baking powder
0.25 tsp salt

Mix the dry ingredients together and keep aside.

Step 2:

1 Cup Butter
1.5 Cup Sugar

Beat the above together.

Add 2 large eggs and 2 egg yolks
+ 1 tsp vanilla essence
+ 1.5 tsp lemon zest ( grated lemon peel)

Whisk above to together well into a smooth mix.

Now Slowly beat in 1/4 cup freshly squeezed and strained lemon juice. It may look like its going to curdle but beat it into a smooth mix.

Step 3 :

At this point fold in the dry mix along with 1/2 cup of milk alternating the two to get a nice even batter.

Step 4 :

Pour into a greased baking dish and bake at 425 for 25 minutes.

For the Topping:

Chopped fresh strawberries
1 Cup Fat free whipped cream. ( I used cool whip)
1 tbsp sugar

Mix the above in a bowl and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

After cake is done and cooled down, evenly spread this on top of the cake and refrigerate until you serve. Alternately you can split the batter to make two small cakes and use this as a layer in between.

Chocolate-Banana Cake

You need:

1.25 cups sugar
1 3/4 cups flour
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1.5 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

2 eggs
2 bananas
1.5 cup milk
1/2 cup oil

How to:

1. Mix all the dry ingredients together and keep aside.
2. Whip all the wet ingredients together.
3. Slowly fold in the dry ingredients mixed.
4. Pour in a greased baking tray.
5. Bake in a pre-heated oven at 400 for about 40 minutes.

Enjoy !

Mango Pie

I tried this at Sujata Auntie's house and fell in love with it. Its an amazingly simple recipe. And spectacularly delicious. Here is the recipe if you want to try it out for yourself.

Ingredients:

1 Pie crust (plain, trust me the chocolate one in the store is not good)
1/2 can - mango pulp.
3 tbsp - sour cream.
1/2 cup - sugar (skip this if you use sweetened pulp that you get in Indian grocery stores)
1 packet - unflavoured gelatine.

1.Dissolve gelatine in hot water.
2.Mix the rest of the ingredients and slowly stir in the gelatine water.
3.Pour into the pie crust. Decorate by sticking pieces of mango (or strawberry if you want to make it colourful)along the crust edges like a flower.
4.Allow it to chill overnight and set completely, in the fridge.
5.Serve with cool whip.

Voila !

Banana Chocolate Chip Bread

You need (Serves 6):

1/2 cup margarine or butter
1/4 cup sugar
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup chopped nuts
3 ripe bananas, mashed
1/2 cup chocolate chips
3 eggs
1/2 tsp salt

How to:

1.Cream together margarine( or butter) and sugars.
2.Beat in eggs and banana. Add flour, salt and soda. You can do these two steps in a regular blender. Makes life easy and turns out just fine.
3.Stir in chips and nuts.
4.Bake in greased loaf pan for 50 minutes in 350-degree oven.

Enjoy!

Swedish Apple Cake

Ingredients (Makes 6 servings)

5 Apples
4 c Dry bread crumbs (not seasoned)
1 c Butter (softened)
1/2 tsp Cinnamon
1/2 c Granulated white sugar

How to:

1.Boil apples in minimal water till they soften. Add 2 spoons of sugar to boiling water to sweeten.
2.Melt butter in pan; add crumbs, sugar, and cinnamon.
3.Butter deep cake pan well. Put crumbs and apples in layers, crumbs on bottom and top.
4.Bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes. Serve with vanilla ice-cream.

Trust me its YUMMMMMMM !!!!

Chocolate-Rum-Coffee cake

You need (Makes a decent size cake)

1.5 cups all-purpose flour

3/4th teaspoon baking soda

3/8 teaspoon salt

3/8 pound fine-quality bittersweet chocolate (not unsweetened), chopped

1.5 sticks (3/4 cup) unsalted butter, cut into pieces

1/3 cup dark rum

1 cup strong brewed coffee

1 cup granulated sugar

3 eggs, beaten lightly

1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence

Procedure:

1. Preheat oven to 300°F.
2. In a bowl whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt.
3. In a large metal bowl set over a saucepan of barely simmering water melt chocolate and butter, stirring until smooth.
4. Remove chocolate from heat and stir in rum, coffee, and granulated sugar.
5. Beat in flour, 1/2 cup at a time, scraping down side.
6. Beat in eggs and vanilla until batter is combined well.
7. Pour into a pre-greased pan and bake cake in middle of oven (about 40 minutes) until a tester comes out clean.
8. If you have enough batter for two not so thick cakes, you can stack them on each other with sweetened raspberry pulp in between. Else you have one nice moist cake.


Hmmmmm.. Rummmyyyy.. :)

P.S: Thanks Nija for the recipe.