Chocolate cheese cake

Ingredients (Serves 12)

Cheese cake crust
1 1/2 cup    All Purpose flour
3/4 cup       Cold Butter ( cut into cubes)
1/3 cup       Sugar

Cheese cake filling
1 1/2 Lb     Cream cheese
1 cup          Sour cream
1 1/2 cup    Dark chocolate
1 cup          Sugar
3                 Eggs
1 tsp           Vanilla extract

Meathod

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Butter a 10 inch spring form pan.
Combine all-purpose flour, Sugar and cold butter in a bowl until u get the texture of coarse crumbs. Press this onto the bottom of the spring form pan and bake for 25 minutes or until lightly browned.
Meanwhile melt the chocolate.

In a large bowl, using a hand/stand mixer beat the cream cheese, sour cream and sugar, vanilla extract until well combined. To this mixture add the eggs one at a time and mix well.
Reserve 1/4 to 1/2 cup of this mixture.
Add the melted chocolate to the remaining batter and mix until the chocolate is well combined.
Pour this batter over the crust and spread it evenly around the pan.
Drizzle the reserved batter on top and swirl it around with the back of a spoon to give marble effect.

Bake it for 50 to 55 minutes. 
Once the cake has cooled down, chill it in the refrigerator for 3 to 4 hours or preferably overnight before slicing.
There could be few cracks on the cake and the white colour fades out. But don't worry about the cracks.. no one would notice it once u slice the cake.

 

Yogurt Chocolate Cake

I love making desserts, especially when i have guests over for dinner or lunch. Yesterday was one such day where I had guests for dinner  and i was out of milk and running out of eggs. I have never baked a cake without milk or heavy cream.. So yogurt being the only substitute I could use, I decided to make a yogurt chocolate cake.. I was skeptical about the flavor..but unlike what I expected, the cake turned out well and it tasted really good with the melted chocolate topping.

Ingredients (Serves 8-12)
1 cup       All-purpose flour    
1/4 cup   Butter                     
3/4 cup   Sugar                       
1/4 cup   Unsweetened Cocoa powder           
1 cup       Plain yogurt ( I used fat-free plain yogurt)
1   Egg
1 1/2 tsp  Baking power
1/2 tsp     Baking soda
1/4 tsp     Salt
1/2 cup    Dark Chocolate chip ( optional)

For Chocolate Topping
1/4 cup    Dark chocolate
1 tbsp      Milk chocolate
2 tbsp      Butter

Method
You will need 2 mixing bowls, 9 inch round cake pan and hand/stand mixer.
Preheat the oven to 350 F. Butter the cake pan and line the bottom of the pan with circle parchment paper.
In bowl 1, mix all-purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cocoa power and keep it aside.
In bowl 2 mix the softened butter and sugar until creamy. To this add the egg and beat until smooth.
Now add yogurt and mix until well combined.
Add the ingredients from bowl 1 to bowl 2. Mix it until all the dry ingredients from bowl 1 is well incorporated to the wet ingredients in bowl 2.
Finally add the chocolate chip and spread it around with a spatula.
Pour this batter to the prepared pan and bake for 20-25 minutes or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.

Melted chocolate topping
Place the chocolate and butter in a heat proof bowl. Melt it using microwave or double boiler ( Refer Notes under One Bowl Brownie recipe). 
Once the cake cools down, remove it from the pan. Pour the warm chocolate frosting over the cake before serving.
Do not avoid the topping. Warm melted chocolate with this cake is something u can never resist. That's what happened to my little guest.. he just loved it :)

 

 

One Bowl Brownie

I love brownies.. who doesn't right?? Sunday afternoon after a spicy lunch, all i could think of was dark chocolate chip brownie. Most of the baking requires at least 2 bowls, mixers, measuring cups... I was too lazy to wash so many dishes after baking, so I decided to bake my brownie using 1 bowl and a spatula!!

Ingredients ( Servings 10)

All purpose flour     3/4 cup

Dark Cooking chocolate/Chocolate chip  1/2 cup + 1/8 cup

Butter         1/3 cup

Sugar          2/3 cup

Egg             2

Vanilla extract       1 tsp

Salt       1/4 tsp

Method

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Line a 9in x 5in baking tray with parchment paper.
Melt butter and 1/2 cup chocolate in a large heat proof bowl. You can either melt in a microwave or use double boiler(refer notes for double boiler technique).
Combine the chocolate and butter well. To this add sugar, vanilla extract and salt and mix until smooth.
Add egg one by one and mix it well. Finally add  all purpose flour and mix until well combined.
Pour this into the prepared tray and sprinkle rest of the chocolate chip on top of the batter.
Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until a knife inserted in center comes out clean.

Notes: Double boiler Technique
This is a method used to melt chocolate under indirect heat. All you need is a saucepan to hold hot water and a bowl that can fit securely over the sauce pan.
Pour hot water to the sauce pan. Heat the saucepan until water begins to boil. Turn of the heat and place the bowl with chocolate over the water. Be careful not to mix  water with chocolate.
Once the chocolate starts melting, stir it gently with a spatula. When almost all the chocolate is melted, lift it from the saucepan. Stir continuously until the chocolate is smooth and shiny.

Peanut Butter Cookie

Ingredients ( Servings 30)

All Purpose flour              1 1/2 cup    

Peanut butter                    1 cup                 

Unsalted butter                 1/2 cup or 1 stick

Granulated white sugar    1/3 cup

Light brown sugar            1/3 cup 

Egg                                   1

Vanilla extract                  1 tsp

Milk                                 1 Tbsp

Baking soda                     1 tsp

Cinnamon                        1/2 tsp               

Salt                                  1/4 tsp ( avoid salt if using salted butter)

Chocolate Chip to garnish

Method

You will need two mixing bowls, Hand mixer, Piping bag and 1 M piping nozzle.

Preheat the oven to 375 degree Fahrenheit.

Line a baking tray with parchment paper.

In bowl 1, whisk together  all-purpose flour, cinnamon, baking soda, salt and keep aside.

Bring the butter to room temperature. In bowl 2 mix  butter, peanut butter, granulated white sugar and light brown sugar until smooth and fluffy. 

Add the egg, vanilla extract and milk to the peanut butter mixture and mix until well combined 

Add the dry ingredients in bowl 1 to the mixture in bowl 2 and beat until the batter is smooth.

Now load this batter to piping bag with 1M nozzle and do the swirl design, just 1 layer on the lined baking tray.

Garnish it with chocolate chip.

Bake for 10- 12 minutes.