Chocolate Muffins (Eggless) ~Blog Hop Wednesday

Delicious chocolate muffins  that are healthy simply scrumpticious.

 This is my 1st entry for Blog Hop Wednesday started by Radhika of Tickling Palates. Its a beautiful concept where not only do you get to make new  blogger friends, cook from their blogs but in return they visit your blog and try out your recipes too.

My allocated blog for this  post was Pinky's Pink recipe Diary. I was excited to visit this blog and was amazed at the wonderful and diverse recipes on offer. Browsing through them I stumbled at a chocolate muffin recipe  that I was drawn towards as it was eggless and also used an ingredient "vinegar " that I had not tried in baking before. The original recipe can be found here.

Changes I made were :
Used milk chocolate instead of dark.
Substituted  flora cuisine  for butter
Iced the muffins with chocolate ganache .

Verdict- 

• Yielded 8 generous sized muffins .
• Muffins turned out wonderful  and tasted delicious,although  they craked slightly at the top during baking .I resolved this by covering them with chocolate ganache.
• I found them not quite sweet enough so next time I will add 1 tablespoon extra sugar.

Ingredients:

 Dry Ingredients:

11/2 cup All purpose flour
1 tsp Baking Powder
1/4 tsp Baking soda
3 Tbsp Cocoa Powder
1/4 cup grated milk chocolate

Wet Ingredients:

4 Tbsp Brown Sugar
90 ml Flora Cuisine
1/2 cup milk  + 2 tbsp
11/2 tsp vinegar
1/4 cup grated milk  chocolate.

For Decoration:
Chocolate Ganache:
90 grams/ 3 oz milk chocolate
1 tablespoon icing sugar
2 tablespoons milk.
Candy sprinkles.

 Method:

1.Line a muffin pan with muffin cases and preheat oven at 175 Degrees C for 10 mins.

2.Sieve flour , baking powder, baking soda and cocoa powder in a bowl.
3.Melt butter in a pan , add milk and more than 1/4  cup chocolate and brown sugar.
4.Whisk the mixture till the chocolate has completely melted, and when cooled add vinegar.
5. Mix the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and fold gently. Do not over mix.Add the remaining chocolate and fold again.
6. Using an icecream scoop to get even  size portion scoop the batter into  8 large muffin cases.
7. Bake the muffins for 20- 25 mins at 175 degrees C /350degrees F. To check if muffins are done  insert a toothpick at this stage and see that it comes out clean.(Mine were ready in 20 minutes)
8. Once baked remove from oven and cool the muffins .

9. To make the chocolate ganache, add the milk and chocolate in a microwaveable bowl and melt for 30-40 seconds. Remove from microwave and sieve the icing sugar into the melted chocolate and mix well.
10.Dip the muffins into the chocolate ganache and  sprinkle with candy sprinkles.Leave to set.

You may like :

Banana Muffins

World Peace Cookies -August ~ Secret Recipe Club challenge.

This is my 1st assignment with the Secret Recipe Club.The aim of the club is that you are allocated a blog from which you have to select  a recipe and make it and blog about it.
My assignment was from  Kirsty's blog called Darn Near Domestic. Kirtsy's blog has many wonderful recipes and to select one from it was quite a challenge in it self, however looking through the recipes I selected World Peace cookies as they looked delectable and the recipe was simple to follow.
I followed the recipe almost to the T from here the only changes I made were:

• Used 240 grams butter instead of 11 tablespoons as I guessed it was the equivalent.
• Instead of making a sausage shape of dough  and chilling  prior to slicing cookie shapes , I made walnut size balls and chilled them first  and flattened them using a fork before baking.
• For easier handling, I added 1/4 cup more flour as my dough was rather soft and sticky.

The results were  an amazing  36  soft chewy cookies although were not uniform in shape tasty brilliant and were simply divine. This recipe I will definitely make again especially as its eggless. I did find the cookies a little too sweet for my palate so next time I will leave out the 60 grams white sugar.

Ingredients:

300 grams flour
80 grams  cocoa
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
240 grams butter ( soft room temperature)
160 grams brown sugar
60 grams white sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
180 grams chocolate chip
1 teaspoon vanilla essence

Method:

1. Cream the butter and sugar together.
2. Add the bicarbonate, salt and vanilla and mix well.
3. Fold in the flour and the chocolate chip.
4. Pinch walnut sized balls and place them on parchment paper on a baking try.(Spread out as cookies will expand during baking) Chill for 15 minutes.
5. Remove from fridge and using a fork flatten the dough balls to form round cookies approx 8 mm thick.
6. Bake them in a pre heated oven 160 degrees Centigrade/ 325  degrees Fahrenheit for about 10 minutes.
7. After 10 minutes  cookies will look soft and slightly under cooked , however  once they have  cooled they will be  perfect soft and chewy.

Serve with a glass of cold milk.

Cherry Milkshake

Delicious and refreshing cherry milkshake that will cool and tantalise your palatte in the summer heat.

Ingredients:

300 ml skimmed milk
4 scoops  home made cherry icecream
Handful ice cubes

Method:

1.Place the icecubes and milk in a blender jug  and blend.
2. Add the ice cream and blend again.
3. Pour into tall chilled glasses and serve immediately.

You may like:
Strawberry milkshake

Puffed rice Khichdi

Creamy and satisfying one pot meal that makes the perfect comfort food.

Ingredients:

240 grams puffed rice
1 medium potato peeled and diced
60 grams precooked sweet corn
2 spring onions finely chopped
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds
2 green chillies finely chopped
2 curry leaves
1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
2 tablespoons tamarind pulp
2 tablespoons oil
1 cup water.
1 red dried chilli

Method:

1.In a pan heat the oil when it is hot add the red chilli, mustard seeds and curry leaves.Wait for the mustard seeds to splutter.
2. Add the potatoes and sweet corn and half the onions, saute for 5 minutes till potatoes are almost cooked.
3.Add the salt, turmeric and the green chillies and mix well.
4. Place the puffed rice in a strainer and run some cold water over them and drain them.
5.Add the drained puffed rice to the cooked vegetables and mix well.
6.Mix the tamarind pulp with the water and add to the rice and veg mixture,
7. Cover and cook for 8-10 minutes on a low heat until all the water has been absorbed.
8. Transfer the khichdi to a serving dish and garnish with remaining spring onions.
Serve hot.

You may like:
Sabodana Khichdi

Semolina Idly (steamed savoury cake)

Spongy and perfectly soft idly made instantly in jiffy.

Ingredients:

500ml  natural  sour yoghurt
480 grams/ 16 oz fine semolina
75 ml water
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons fresh ginger paste
2 teaspoons finely chopped green chillies
1/2 teaspoon turmeric  powder (optional)
2 tablespoons sunflower oil
2 teaspoons eno salts

Method:

1.In a mixing bowl add the yoghurt, water, and semolina and mix together to form a dropping consistency batter.
2. Add the salt, turmeric,powder  ginger paste, chillies and oil and mix together.
3. Divide the batter into two parts.
4.  Heat water in a steamer and oil  idly mould.
5. Add 1 teaspoon eno salts to one of the parts of batter and mix well.
6. Pour the batter into idly moulds and steam for 15 minutes.
7. Idly is ready when it is set and feels spongy to touch.
8. Remove from steamer and repeat for second batch of batter a per instruction  5-7.

Serve idly with hot red pepper chutney.