Madhu Knits and Cooks

Recipe, knitting, and sewing project notes

Tag: Cooking — Desserts

  • A Note on Low-fat Brownies

    Several weeks ago, I found a 2005 Vegetarian Times recipe
    for “decadent brownies” in my recipe folder. 
    It was a low-fat recipe for supposedly fudgy and “decadent” brownies and
    I thought that I had stumbled upon something healthy and marvelous, but in
    baking this recipe for brownies, I learned an important lesson:  don’t make low-fat brownies.

    Well, I guess someone one can make them but only if the
    person goes into the process realizing that the brownies will taste low-fat (by
    low-fat I mean slightly bland, dry and just not that fulfilling).  So why not just make full-fat brownies and
    actually enjoy yourself instead of feeling unsatisfied and slightly upset that
    the brownies just aren’t that tasty?  
    That’s an important lesson that I learned for at least myself and my
    baking preferences this winter.

    For those of you though who have different preferences and
    enjoy – for whatever reason – low-fat brownies, you can find the recipe here: http://www.vegetariantimes.com/recipes/10209.   My suggested alteration to the recipe below the picture.

    Decadent Brownies (Lowfat - Vegetarian Times)

    I also added ½ cup of frozen raspberries to the recipe, and
    although the brownies were still not delicious or decadent or moist, I do think
    they turned out better than if I did not include them (or some other flavorful
    additive) in the recipe.

  • Madhu Knits and Cooks Returns — Best Pumpkin Pie EVER

    So three months after Thanksgiving, I have finally found the time to post about the pie I made twice during the week of Thanksgiving.  Despite how much pumpkin pie folks had consumed that week, this was deemed the best pumpkin pie EVER by all of those who consumed it.   I definitely owe thanks to the author of this AllRecipes.com recipe, as well as the Gourmet Cookbook authors for their traditional pie crust recipe which works wonderfully with any type of pie I make!  The pie feels incredibly light when you eat it because the eggs are separated, the whites are beaten until soft peaks form, and then you lightly fold them into the rest of the pie mixture.  The streusel topping is also a must — I have made this pie without the topping before, and the difference between the version with the streusel topping and the one without is really quite significant.

    Another tip when using a homemade pie crust — no need to pre-bake the crust prior to putting in the filling, and I usually put some foil around the edges during the last 30 minutes of baking or so.

    The AllRecipes.com recipe can be found here:  http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Brown-Familys-Favorite-Pumpkin-Pie/Detail.aspx.

    Best Pumpkin Pie Ever with Ice Cream

  • Banana Oat Chocolate Chip Muffins and Philadelphia Style Vanilla Chocolate Chip Ice Cream!

    Several weeks ago, I finally found the time to make two new items.   First, I had some ripebananas that I wanted to use, and instead of making the standard Moosewood Cookbook banana chocolate chip muffin recipe, I decided that I wanted to make them a bit more substantive and add some oats into them.  So I did a little google searching at work (shh!) and found this recipe from AllRecipes.com (http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Banana-Oat-Muffins/Detail.aspx). 

    I added in maybe 3/4 cup of chocolate chips into the recipe as well, made perhaps 15 muffins instead of the 12 in the recipe (some of my silicon baking cups seem smaller than standard).  They turned out really well, but I think adding another sweetening agent would be good because without the chocolate chips, they would have been rather bland (I think some people in the comments mentioned applesauce for vegetable oil — that might serve two purposes which would be good). 

    Another accompaniment that would make them tasty is something that I actually did pair with the muffins — homemade ice cream!

    Banana Oat Muffins and Philadephia Vanilla Ice Cream 

    I recently purchased an ice cream maker — yes, an ice cream maker.  Williams Sonoma hassome on sale for only $60 so I thought it was such a bargain, that I couldnt say no.  Its a Cuisinart 1.5 quart machine, and they added in an extra freezer bowl.  Its still on sale here:  http://www.williams-sonoma.com/products/9313347/index.cfm?cm_src=rel. 

    For my first homemade ice cream experience, I decided to pick a simple recipe with no cooking required.  I chose the Philadelphia Style Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Williams Sonoma:  http://www.williams-sonoma.com/recipe/recipedetail.cfm?objectid=E2192A50%2D00D5%2D4D3D%2DBCCDF7E7E0EEFEBF.  I followed the recipe exactly, except for deciding to throw in some chocolate chips at the end of the freezing process.  It turnedout to be the best ice cream I've ever had, but I only finished about an eighth of it before having to throw it away because it had been in the freezer for too long!  Unfortunately, I think my current lifestyle is not only suboptimal for making ice cream (and really any sort of food) but also apparently for eating things I make.   In a few months, I am hoping to spend some quality time experimenting with different types of ice creams, frozen yogurt and sorbets — just in time for a cold winter, I'm sure.  Some of the recipes I want to try are:  lavender, green tea, peach, strawberry basil, raspberry, and of course, plenty of versions of chocolate!

  • Vanilla Cream Pie — My First Pie in Three Years!

    Vanilla_cream_pie_2

    The first time I made a pie in May 2005, I had to borrow a food processor from Mike R. (who taught me a good chunk of what I know about baking) because at the time, I was such a cooking novice, I didn’t even own a food processor!  I made a banana cream pie with a chocolate cookie crust for my first pie, but was so busy the weekend I made it that I didn’t even get a chance to eat a slice.   

    I guess that experience of putting so much time into a pie to only let it go to waste dissuaded me from making any more pies as it took three years — until 2008 — for me to make another pie.  I admit that I only made the pie because Andy really, really wanted a homemade pie.  He wanted a pie with a traditional crust, no fruit, and only plain vanilla cream.  So I searched the internet to find a good recipe, and found that most vanilla cream pies have a meringue topping so instead of just doing a cream pie, I followed the trend of putting a meringue topping on the pie.   I used the vanilla cream and meringue recipe from this site:  http://www.recipetips.com/recipe-cards/t–2100/vanilla-cream-pie.asp and used the traditional pie crust recipe from the Gourmet cookbook.  I thought the recipes for both the pie crust and pie filling were perfect, and highly recommend this as a summer treat.

    Vanilla_cream_pie_slice_2

  • Chocolate Cream Cheese Brownies

    I’ve been looking for a recipe for cream cheese brownies for some time, but never have really invested my time to really find a good one.  Thankfully, my colleague Ian told me recently that his mom has a fantastic recipe for cream cheese brownies, so I just made my first batch for Christmas Eve at the office (yes, unfortunately the office was open on Christmas Eve).   Cheryl’s (Ian’s mom) recipe is below the picture of Ian with the brownies.

    Chocolate_cheese_cake_brownies_with

    The only recommendation I have is to NOT use fat-free cream cheese (that’s all I had in my fridge, so that’s what I used — but I think it can be much better with low-fat or original cream cheese).  I would also recommend you use electric mixers with the cream cheese blend so you get rid of all of the chunks.  You may also want to refridgerate the brownies after making them to make them more fudgy.

    Ingredients:

    One 8-oz. package of cream cheese, room temperature

    1 and 1/3 cup sugar (keep the 1 cup and 1/3 cup seperate)

    3 eggs

    2 1-oz. squares of unsweetened chocolate

    1/2 cup butter

    3/4 cup flour

    1/2 teaspoon baking powder

    1/2 teaspoon salt

    Directions:

    1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees

    2.  Blend cream cheese, 1/3 cup sugar and 1 egg until well mixed, and then set aside.

    3.  Melt chocolate and butter together.

    4.  Beat 2 remaining eggs until fluffy, then pour chocolate mixture and add 1 cup sugar to the mixture and mix well.

    5.  Combine dry ingredients and stir them in to chocolate mixture.

    6.  Pour 1/2 chocolate mixture into a greased 8 x 8 inch pan.

    7.  Add cream cheese mixture.

    8.  Add remaining chocolate mixture in scoops, and then pull a knife or spatula through it to create marbled look (I did not create the marbled look with my brownies, but learned this technique from other recipes online).

    9.  Bake 45 – 50 minutes.

    Thanks Cheryl and Ian!

  • Soft Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

    The office birthday baking continues!   This week, I made soft oatmeal chocolate chip cookies for Mark. 

    Oatmeal_chocolate_chip_cookies

    I used this great recipe from AllRecipes.com, http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Soft-Oatmeal-Cookies/Detail.aspx, and added in about 3/4 cup of regular semi-sweet chocolate chips and 1/2 cup of white chocolate chips (as you can tell if you’ve seen the past few posts, mixing different types of chocolate chips have been popular in my kitchen the past few weeks).   I also increased the baking time to about 12-14 minutes because the cookies seem to only be fully baked when they are browned throughout (not just the edges).   

  • Andy’s Papaya Shakes (Vegan and Wonderful!)

    This weekend, Andy made some Papaya shakes with soy milk.  They were incredibly tasty and healthy, so I asked him to email the recipe to me for madhuknitsandcooks.com.  They are not too sweet and wonderfully creamy.  I highly recommend you try them! 

    Papaya_shake_with_cinnamon

    Here is the recipe, which makes 4 large servings or 8 smaller (approx. 8 oz.) servings:

    • 1 ripened papaya that is skinned, pitted and cubed
    • 1/2 large carton of cold vanilla soy milk (approx. 4 cups)
    • 3-4 tablespoons of sugar
    • 1 teaspoon of vanilla
    • Ground cinnamon

    Note:  If you have a standard size blender, you will probably be able to only make two shakes at a time so just halve the ingredients for each blend cycle.  These directions reflect usage of a standard size blender.

    Directions:

    • Place half of cubed papaya in the blender
    • Cover the papaya with soy milk
    • Add 1-2 tablespoons of sugar
    • Add 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla
    • Blend until there are no more papaya chunks (the mixture is smooth)
    • Pour into glasses
    • Add some ground cinnamon as a garnish.  Although you may think that cinnamon makes no sense at all in this recipe (as I did), just try it — you won’t regret it!
    • Serve immediately

    Papaya_shake

  • HUGE Chocolate Chip Cookies

    The birthday baking for co-workers continues to get more and more delicious.  This time around I made some gigantic cookies for Carlos.  I found the recipe at AllRecipes.com at http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Best-Big-Fat-Chewy-Chocolate-Chip-Cookie/Detail.aspx.  The recipe is really easy and quick.  However, you only get about 12 cookies or so in a batch because you drop the cookies onto the baking sheet at a quarter of a cup of dough for each cookie.   I would recommend making a few batches at a time because these soft and chewy cookies go quick!

    Instead of using just regular semi-sweet chocolate chips,  I also used white chocolate chips as well.  I put in about a cup of regular chocolate chips and about 3/4 cup of white chocolate chips.  The result was fantastic.

    Giant_cookies_for_carlos

  • Birthday Lemon Bars from the Gourmet Cookbook

    Given that four of my co-workers have had birthdays the past few weeks, I have been quite busy making them their promised choice of baked goods.  For Heather, I attempted my first batch of lemon bars.  Although it was a great learning experience, and I got to dust off my zester which I thought I would never use again, unfortunately Heather was unexpectedly traveling for work when the lemon bars were brought in and was unable to eat them.  So, it looks like I will be trying to make lemon bars again, potentially with a different recipe than the Gourmet Cookbook one I used this time (p.690 of the 2004 version).

    Lemon_bars

    Although my other co-workers really liked the bars, I think there is room for improvement, especially with the lemon topping which I thought could have a more smooth consistency.  So I’ll make sure to post if I find a better recipe.

    The best picture though out of this baking experiment was of my co-worker Carlos who enjoyed a lemon bar while browsing www.madhuknitsandcooks.com!

    Carlos_and_lemon_bars

  • Gourmet Tiny Chocolate Chip Cookies

    I finally started using the Gourmet Cookbook that I bought last year by using my last egg in a soon-to-expire carton to make the Tiny Chocolate Chip Cookies on page 662 of the 2004 version of the cookbook.  The recipe is also available free online at epicurious.com at:  http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/recipe_views/views/106172

    Tiny_chocolate_chip_cookies

    I made two modifications to the recipe: 

    • I substituted mini chocolate chips for regular size semi-sweet chips
    • I reduced the baking temperature by about 25 degrees and shortened the baking time to about 4-5 minutes because the first batch got a little too burnt at the bottom even though the baking sheet was placed on the farthest rack from the heat source.

    These are a really great snack — no one can say no to them given how small they are.   They also melt in your mouth given how buttery and small they are.