Tag: gluten free

Chocolate Walnut Granola & a Coffee Chocolate Granola Tart

Chocolate Walnut Granola & a Coffee Chocolate Granola Tart … yes it’s two recipes in one post today because one thing led to another. The chocolate walnut granola I made is minimally adapted from the recipe at Minimalist Baker was fabulous and needed to be celebrated. I thought it might fit straight into a tart, yet I didn’t want to do a breakfast tart. The chocolate walnut granola needed some hard core coffee something and that’s just what the tart turned out to be.

It was just one of those days where I began sorting out the larder, and bits and bobs of leftovers were strewn across the counter. Some popped amaranth, a bag of flax seeds, a 1/4 tin of cocoa powder, some coconut sugar. Just looking at ingredients like this reminds me of granola, possibly cookies, and before I knew it I hit Google search! Easiest way to find a delicious end to small portions of leftover ingredients. In so many more ways than one, Google is still God! Always has an answer.

One of the first results was the granola from Dana who has one of the most fun pages on Instagram, a place where you can literally bookmark every recipe to try! Thought her feed is vegan and gluten free, I adapted her recipe to use things I had on hand. I just had to bake the granola a little longer as it took forever to crispen up. Of course, that was quite expected since I had lowered the baking temperature since I’m quite wary of chocolate burning in the oven. Also, as with any altered recipe, ingredients tend to behave differently, so it’s best to keep an eye out!

Both the Chocolate Walnut Granola & a Coffee Chocolate Granola Tart are relatively healthier and you get good plant fibre and a hearty dose of protein. The coffee cream is as simple as it gets. Whipping cream, mascarpone, instant coffee, sugar & Kahlua which nestles luxuriously in the baked chocolate granola walnut tart base. It’s eggless, it’s vegetarian and it’s gluten free. It can be easily turned vegan too if you follow the basic sea salt dark chocolate granola recipe. Also, for the filling, maybe use coconut cream? You could also make a vegan lemon curd if you like, and top the tart with berries! All yours!

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Chocolate Walnut Granola & a Coffee Chocolate Granola Tart

This Coffee Chocolate Granola Tart is a relatively healthier tart since you get good plant fibre and a hearty dose of protein. The coffee cream is as simple as it gets. Whipping cream, mascarpone, instant coffee, sugar & Kahlua which nestles luxuriously in the baked chocolate granola walnut tart base. It's eggless, it's vegetarian and it's gluten free. It can be easily turned vegan too.
Course Breakfast, Dessert
Cuisine American
Keyword chocolate, dessert, eggless, gluten free, glutenfree, homemade, sweet
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour
Total Time 3 hours 10 minutes
Servings 8 people

Ingredients

Chocolate Walnut Granola

  • 3 cups whole oats
  • 1 cup toasted walnuts chopped
  • 1/3 cup cocoa powder
  • 3 tbsp flax seeds
  • 1 cup popped amaranth
  • 3 tbsp coconut sugar
  • 1/2 tsp Sea salt
  • 1/2 cup honey
  • 1/4 cup clarified butter {ghee}

Coffee Chocolate Granola Tart

  • 2 cups granola {recipe above}
  • 1/2 cup walnuts
  • 2 tbsp honey
  • 2 tbsp ghee

Coffee Kahlua Cream

  • 250 g whipping cream chilled
  • 100 g raw sugar
  • 1-2 tbsp coffee {to taste}
  • 150 g mascarpone
  • 2 tbsp Kahlua {optional}

Instructions

Chocolate Walnut Granola

  • Preheat oven to 150C
  • Place the clarified butter/ghee and honey in a pan, and simmer until just warm. Stir to mix.
  • Place all the dry ingredients in bowl of stand mixer with paddle attachment. Mix on lowest speed.
  • Pour in the warm honey mixture. Stir on lowest speed until the wet mix coats the dry mix, 1-2 minutes.
  • Turn onto baking sheet.
  • Bake for 30-45 minutes at 150C, stirring once in a while.
  • Cool completely, break into clumps and store in an airtight container.
  • Note: Mix in chocolate chips or dried berries if desired.

Coffee Chocolate Granola Tart

  • Preheat oven to 180C.
  • Run in processor until blended and comes together between the fingertips.
  • Grease lightly a loose bottomed 8" tart tin.
  • Press aboue into tart tin, building up sides first , then firmly patting the bottom.
  • Bake for 15 minutes, then cool completely on rack.
  • Top with coffee cream.

Coffee Cream

  • Whip the whipping cream with sugar, coffee powder and Kahlua until it holds stiff peaks.
  • Gently whisk in mascarpone. Don't overmix or the filling will lose volume and not hold. {Filling should be quite firm.}
  • Taste and adjust sweetness as required. Ladle into cooled tart shell, and spread.
  • Top with crumbled chocolate walnut granola and dark chocolate shards.
  • Chill for about 2-3 hours to set. Slice and serve.

Salted Caramel Sauce … simple goodness back to the basics

Salted Caramel Sauce … some recipes are so simple yet so amazing that you keep going back to them over and over again. This recipe for Salted Caramel Sauce is one of them. Basic, simple, four ingredient, indulgent good and always handy to have on hand. Dangerous too since you somehow keep walking towards the jar to get ‘just another little spoonful‘!

Everyone has their own version of it, and why shouldn’t they. Something this simple should be stirred up often, shared often, gifted for no reason at all, drizzled over dessert. Just a tiny serving of this sweet salty magic adds so much oomph to dessert, whether chocolate or otherwise. It makes for a great gift too if you can keep yourself from spooning it into your mouth before that. It’s also great drizzled over ice cream, pies, in cookies, over waffles, on cheesecake … so much!

The recipe doesn’t require fancy equipment like candy thermometers etc. Also it needs is just 4 simple everyday pantry ingredients namely sugar, butter, cream and salt. Most importantly, it needs your attention, so keep that phone at bay. Also, since sugar can burn very easily and is very very hot once melted, best to keep kids and any other distraction away as well.

You simply need to melt the sugar down in a heavy bottom pan until it’s completely dissolved and looks clear and a beautiful light golden. From here on move fast, so keeping the ingredients lined up is key. Add the butter to the beautiful golden melted sugar and you’ll find very rapid bubbling takes place for a couple of minutes while the butter melts. That’s the different temperatures and consistency trying to even out. I added diced butter straight out of the freezer and it was no problem at all. Once that sizzles and spatters, melting into the sugar giving out the most delicious aromas, you gently add the cream.

Here is where you need to be even more careful because again for a few seconds the mixture sizzles and coughs at you like an angry monster {okay, slight exaggeration, but I did need you to be careful}. Then it all submits most beautifully into a Salted Caramel Sauce! As you can see, I use it often!

See, S I M P L E! Told you. Please make a jar ASAP. I know it’s indulgent, I know the calories are high, but just a little drizzle goes a long way mostly…… unless of course you want to make a Chocolate Salted Caramel Tart! Now we’re talking. Honestly. I made a gluten-free Quinoa Chocolate Salted Caramel Tart a few days ago while working with organic flours  for a client. That turned out drop dead delicious. Tell you what. You make a jar of this Salted Caramel sauce, and I’ll share that recipe next! Deal?

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Salted Caramel Sauce

Salted Caramel Sauce … some recipes are so simple yet so amazing that you keep going back to them over and over again. This recipe for Salted Caramel Sauce is one of them. Basic, simple, four ingredient, indulgent good and always handy to have on hand. Dangerous too since you somehow keep walking towards the jar to get ‘just another little spoonful’!
Keyword dessert, eggless, glutenfree, homemade, no bake, sweet
Prep Time 2 minutes
Cook Time 10 minutes
Total Time 12 minutes
Servings 1 jar

Ingredients

  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • ½ cup single cream
  • ½ cup unsalted butter
  • ½ tsp Sea salt

Instructions

  • Keep all the ingredients ready. Be careful when you work with melting sugar.
  • Place the sugar in a heavy bottom saucepan over medium heat, stir a couple of times, else swirl the pan.
  • Once all the sugar has melted to an even brown, work swiftly because sugar tends to burn very fast. Immediately add the butter {mine was straight out of the freezer} and simmer until the butter has melted, stirring often, for a couple of minutes. Be careful since the mixture might splatter.
  • Now carefully drizzle in the cream as the mixture will continue to bubble rapidly and splatter until the temperatures settle.
  • Stir in the sea salt, simmer for a minute. Allow to cool a little bit, then pour into a jar, or use as desired. The sauce continues to thicken up as it cools.
  • Refrigerate the sauce once cool. It stays good for up to 2 weeks in the fridge.

Notes

Note: Store in a lidded glass jar. Heat in the microwave briefly for 10-20 seconds before using.

Dark Chocolate Buckwheat Dessert Cakes … Happy World Chocolate Day

Dark Chocolate Buckwheat Dessert Cakes. Happy World Chocolate Day!! For this special day, I’m sharing something indulgent, something simple, quite delightful, immensely satisfying, pretty, petite … so many adjectives to describe these little cakes. Then again, that’s the beauty of baking with chocolate as an ingredient, and also why it has its own special day!Volumes has been written on the benefits of chocolate, how good it is for you if used well. The more I work with chocolate, the more I fall in love with the promise it holds. It’s an empty canvas to play with, it seldom disappoints, there’s always takers for the end product, and you got to admit, it makes for pretty pictures.There was a time I used to find shooting chocolate very challenging indeed. To be able to bring out the beauty of chocolate desserts or bakes is now quite fun. I sometimes get it right, sometimes not, but it’s a fabulous learning experience. I have had such a satisfying time styling and shooting chocolate, that any opportunity is grabbed, no questions asked!So obviously, for World Chocolate Day, I HAD to share something chocolate, something I baked two days ago, something that I got a whole lot of requests for on Instagram where I shared an image. These petite indulgent Dark Chocolate Buckwheat Dessert Cakes.These little beauties are gluten free, use buckwheat flour – a pseudo cereal, are refined sugar free and use clarified butter. The Dark Chocolate Buckwheat Dessert Cakes are rich and indulgent too, just apt to celebrate this special ingredient on its special day! Do remember to serve them at room temperature or not straight out of the fridge at least. The high ratio of chocolate and clarified butter needs to soften up to allow for the taste to come through! Serve them with a drizzle of unsweetened cream, a cream chantilly, a fruit compote, a coulis, fresh berries, salted caramel sauce, whatever catches your fancy. 

Oh, and HAPPY WORLD CHOCOLATE DAY! Treat yourself to a ton of this good stuff!

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Dark Chocolate Buckwheat Dessert Cakes

Deep, dark, CHOCOLATY, indulgent and gluten free, these Dark Chocolate Buckwheat Dessert Cakes do really please the die hard chocolate lover. Use a semi sweet chocolate if you like instead, top these with unsweetened cream, a cream chantilly, a fruit compote, a coulis, fresh berries, salted caramel sauce, whatever catches your fancy.
Keyword chocolate, dessert, glutenfree, sweet
Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 15 minutes
Total Time 2 hours 20 minutes
Servings 6 servings

Ingredients

  • 150 g dark couverture chocolate
  • 35 g honey
  • 85 g clarified butter {ghee}
  • 1 egg
  • 30 g brown sugar
  • 20 g buckwheat flour {kuttu ka aata}
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla bean powder

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 170C. Line 6 3″ dessert rings with foil. Place on baking tray.
  • Place the chocolate, butter and honey in a large bowl. Microwave for 2 minutes, one minute at a time until melted and smooth. Cool slightly.
  • Beat the egg with the 30g brown sugar and vanilla bean powder until fluffy and mousse like.
  • Fold 1 tbsp chocolate mix into beaten egg to lighten it. Fold remaining egg mix into chocolate mix. Gently fold the buckwheat flour in.
  • Divide into desert rings and bake for approximately 15 minutes, until slightly firm to touch.
  • Cool completely in rings and chill for 30 minutes.
  • Top the cooled cakes with dark chocolate shards and berries.
  • Serve at room temperature. { Can be made a day ahead and chilled. Allow to come slightly to room temperature before serving}

Jamun/ Wild Indian Java Plum Mousse … simple summer dessert

Jamun/ Wild Indian Java Plum Mousse. When Jamuns {wild Indian Java plums} are in season, a Jamun Mousse is always on the cards, a simple no bake dessert made at least once in the season. Jamuns are an acquired taste because of the astringent edge the fruit has, so the jamun mousse also carries a hint of that edge. If you enjoy jamuns, you will enjoy this. The secret to a smooth mousse is a smooth fruit puree, and this is no different. When we were kids, the first jamuns would only appear during the monsoons. We’d shake them off the trees, foraging was the only way to get to them. A small sprinkle over of rock salt and they would macerate, yielding the most amazing purple juice and taste that would shock the tongue in the nicest of ways. That the clothes would be purple, not to forget purple stained teeth, tongue, fingers & nails for days together. That was the joy of being oblivious to the parental stares of disapproval!Slowly over the last decade, jamun trees are the domain of birds, and kids nowadays don’t love the astringent taste as we did. Besides, they’re so spoilt for choice with so many more fruits now available, so foraging is a thing of the past. Lives in my memories with other fruit like shahtoot {mulberries} , ber {Indian jujube} and mangoes we ate off trees. Now everything comes neatly packaged at the local fruit vendor!However, to cut a long story short, must make the best of what the times have to offer. Use fruit in season when the taste is the best, ripeness at its peak. With jamuns flooding the market, this regional stone fruit makes for a great dessert, the Jamun/ Wild Indian Java Plum Mousse.… and with some left over fruit puree, I made these chia seed breakfast puddings. I’ll share the recipe next if you like!

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Jamun/ Wild Indian Java Plum Mousse

Jamun/ Wild Indian Java Plum Mousse When Jamuns {wild Indian Java plums} are in season, a Jamun Mousse is always on the cards. Jamuns are an acquired taste because of their astringent edge, so the jamun mousse also carries a hint of the edge. If you enjoy jamuns, you will enjoy this. The secret to a smooth mousse is a smooth fruit puree.
Keyword dessert, eggless, fruit, gluten free, glutenfree, no bake, sweet
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Total Time 3 hours 40 minutes
Servings 4 people

Ingredients

Jamun puree

  • 500 g Jamun/ Wild Indian Java Plum
  • 50 g raw sugar/boora
  • 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar

Whipped cream filling

  • 50 ml milk tepid
  • 1 1/2 tsp gelatin
  • 100 g white chocolate
  • 400 ml single cream
  • 30 ml clarified butter {ghee} melted, cooled
  • 50 g raw sugar/boora

Topping

  • 1 tsp brown sugar
  • 1 tsp lime juice
  • Pinch Himalayan pink salt
  • Fresh mint to garnish

Instructions

Jamun puree

  • Wash the jamun well, drain, ass 50g sugar. Leave to macerate for about 30 minutes. Mash well with clean hands, removing as much pulp as possible. Blend the pulp until smooth, stir in the balsamic vinegar. Chill. Can be made a day in advance if need be.
  • Reserve 1/2 cup for topping. Add 1 tbsp brown sugar to this reserved cup, and microwave for 30 seconds, full power. Stir to mix, then stir in lime juice and salt. Chill.

Jamun Mousse

  • Melt the white chocolate with 100ml cream. Whisk until smooth. Leave to cool.
  • Sprinkle the gelatin over 2 tbsp of warm water. Leave to soften, then stir until clear. {Stand the bowl over warm water if required}
  • Place chilled cream, sugar and clarified butter/ghee in bowl of stand mixer and whisk on highest speed for 5-7 minutes until medium stiff peaks form.
  • Gently stir in the melted white chocolate mix and jamun puree, taking care not to lose the whipped in lightness of the cream. Taste for sweetness.
  • Strain over the gelatin mix, and gently fold in. Reserve 1/2 cup and pour the rest into stem glasses.
  • Stir about 1 tbsp of the reserved jamun pulp into the 1/ 2 cup reserved mousse, and top each glass. Leave to set in fridge.
  • Once set, top with jamun topping and fresh mint leaves.

Notes

Dark Chocolate Panna Cotta … simple pleasures of life

This Dark Chocolate Panna Cotta recipe post is somewhat  special for me and I’ll just tell you why! Other than the dessert being drop dead delicious of course, the recipe share on my blog comes along as I struggle to feed my hungry blog. I’ve been traveling a bit of late, and sometimes things get too hectic. In the midst of all that the poor blog suffers.There was a time where if we had broadband network issues, I’d throw a royal fit, mope for hours and nothing at all would get done. I wouldn’t even feel like shooting the dessert I created because what was the point anyway thoughts ran through my head. All that’s now history and it’s thankfully been that way for a while. Honestly, once you get used to a good or rather a great network, life seems SO EASY! Of course it’s not a great idea to get addicted to the net, but if your work revolves around it, you need certain comfort levels that are assured, and my Airtel 4G network does more than that!Hmmm where do I begin? It’s to strange that when you begin thinking about how basics we take for granted make life so much better, it surprises you and how! Makes you think too! For something as simple as this blogpost, I wrote it up while sitting at the airport in Hyderabad a couple of nights ago. Just what I love about a dependable network. Transferred the images from my cell phone in seconds, and these are heavy files mind you. It was as easy as quick basic editing online, uploaded to the blog in seconds and I was good to go.The speed is great. I’ve used this network forever, and it just seems to get better and better. There’s no way I am changing it. In Hyderabad, I enjoyed snappy Airtel 4G speed, uploading stories non stop to my Instagram handle.And just a few days before Hyderabad, we visited Tanhau, a boutique resort in Ghweri, Uttarakhand. It was SO REMOTE that cell networks barely worked, yet even there I managed to download high res files from my wireless SD card to my cell, then shared them over wifi to stories on Instagram. A nice set of Tanhau Tales actually if you’d like to stop by and see the highlights on my Instagram handle!Being connected all the time has made my life simple and my work stress-free, leaving me so much time where it matters. Anyone who depends on connectivity and networks will know what I mean.I’ve made this recipe a couple of times already. It’s that good! Try it and tell me if you love it as much as I do! Why experiment when others have?

Food for thought? Choose your recipes wisely. And your mobile network too!

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Dark Chocolate Panna Cotta

Delicious, divine, sinful and silky, if you love a good panna cotta and chocolate is your flavour, then dive right in! This might just be the dessert you are looking for!
Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 15 minutes
Total Time 4 hours 20 minutes
Servings 6 people

Ingredients

  • 500 g single cream
  • 2 1/2 tsp gelatin
  • 125 ml whole milk
  • 120 g brown sugar
  • 150 g dark couverture chocolate 52%

Instructions

  • Sprinkle the gelatin over the warm milk and leave to soften.
  • Meanwhile, put the chocolate, cream and brown sugar into a heavy bottom pan, and simmer over gentle heat.
  • Stir the cream mixture and take off heat when small bubbles begin to appear around the edges at the bottom. Stir in the gelatin mix. Taste and adjust sugar if desired.
  • Allow to cool until lukewarm, then pass through sieve and pour into serving glasses/bowls.
  • Chill for at last 6-8 hours, better overnight.
  • You could pour unsweetened single cream on top for a colour variation, and berries if you like. Finish with a dusting of chocolate shavings. That's optional

Roasted Cauliflower Salad – making the most of vegetables! #glutenfree #plantfood

Roasted Cauliflower Salad … not sure why it took me so long to discover this. There was a time that I disliked everything cauliflower other than a cauliflower based lamb curry or Gobhi Gosht that my mother made every winter. Cauliflower was the most boring vegetable at our place, and we looked in wonder as the literal truckloads that the farms around our place produced.Then I began gently trying a few things. First the raw nibble,then a quick stir fry, a vinegar based raw ferment. Then soup. Hmmm, now so bad. The big breakthrough came when I began making stuffed parathas {flatbreads} and everyone at home began enjoying them. Next a quick Indian stir fry that became one kids favourite. Yes, there was hope!Then one day I thought the oven is on, let me toss a quick lot of sliced cauliflower in olive oil and grill it. Turned out quite delicious and I couldn’t stop eating them off the tray. Be warned that this is addictive as it comes out of the oven, especially the bits that are crispy brown on the edges. Also be warned that the cauliflower shrinks quite a bit while baking, so a medium head of cauliflower might yield enough for 2 servings only.This Roasted Cauliflower Salad a great salad for winter, and also for spring. I have served this warm from the oven, as well as chilled overnight. It’s addictive good both ways. I have to say I love it because the garlic just shines. I usually up the garlic quite a bit. If you love garlic, you might consider doing that too!

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Grilled Cauliflower Salad

Grilled Cauliflower Salad is a great salad for winter, and also for spring. I have served this warm from the oven, as well as chilled overnight. It's addictive good both ways. I have to say I love it because the garlic just shines. You can play around with the dressing as you like.
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Total Time 40 minutes
Servings 2

Ingredients

  • 1 medium cauliflower

Dressing

  • 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
  • 3-4 cloves garlic minced
  • 1 tsp red chili flakes
  • Sea salt
  • Juice of 1/2-1 lime

Garnish

  • 1/2 cup pomegranate pearls
  • fresh rocket beet greens etc.

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 180C.
  • Slice the cauliflower vertically to get a cross section of florets.

Dressing

  • In a small bowl, whisk together the olive oil, garlic, red chili flakes, sea salt and lime juice. Taste and adjust seasoning.
  • Place cauliflower in a large bowl. Pour the dressing over and toss gently to coat.
  • Lay the florets out on a baking tray in one flat lot. Do not overlap else the baking will be uneven.
  • Bake for approximately 30 minutes, until the edges begin to brown.
  • Serve warm or chilled pomegrabate pearls, rocket, beet greens etc.
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