Orange torte (gluten free)

I was dying to make something citrusy, something with a bright yellow colour, something that would remind me of sunshine and fill the house with summer smells of freshness.

I love desserts that have a citrus note to them and this torte was no exception. This sunny disc of luscious flavours is a gluten-free torte which I adapted from Stephanie Jaworski of joyofbaking.com . she has such a wonderful collection of fabulous recipes and it’s all explained in such perfect details that it’d be impossible to go wrong, and this torte was no exception. I came across her clemetine torte and knew that I had to make it.

I just want to emphasize on the luxuriousness of this cake and that it’s one of the best things to come out of my kitchen. It’s pure tasteporn..I mean it.

Since this is an orange torte you need oranges, almond flour, salt, baking powder, vanilla extract (I used a vanilla bean), sugar and eggs.

Before I start, I’d like to mention that these oranges need a good boiling because you want these golden beauties soft, soft, soft. I boiled these oranges a day in advance, and boiled them for about 1 hour until they were soft. Let them cool and store in fridge to use next day.

Also a word on almond flour/meal- please don’t get put off or think ‘meh this needs almond meal, who’s got that’? well I didn’t. I simply made it at home by blitzing almonds in a grinder until it resembled flour. It took me about 2 minutes. You can do it and you should, because this cake is extraordinarily delicious and moist and dense and orangey and you’d probably go to hell if you didn’t try this recipe.

ok moving on..

take a clean blender or food processor

throw in your oranges

crack in the eggs in the most clumsy fashion

add in the vanilla (I’m using a vanilla bean, but please use good vanilla extract if you want, I just happen to have a truckloads of these beans)

Once it’s all in

blitz to mix. It will turn into a golden pond of citrus love in a matter of seconds.

admire your handiwork and realize it resembles a milkshake and that you’re lactose intolerant..shed a few tears and get back to work.

in a separate large clean bowl.

dump in your almond flour/meal (whatever you call it)

add the sugar

in with the baking powder

don’t forget the salt

it’s all heaped in. good!

mix using a wire whisk. It’s just easier

mix well like so. I put a spoonful in my mouth and it tasted great already.

Now tip in your orange+egg+vanilla mixture

mix until it all comes together. Don’t be too vigorous.

let that rest a bit and prep the pan. Take a springfoam pan and using its base as guide, cut out a round piece of parchment paper. It’s not geometry, you needn’t be precise. (Again, don’t be put off by this step. It takes a mere minute and it’s important for the cake)

take a bit of melted butter and spread on the base of the tin.

like so.

this enables the parchment to stick better. Flatten it out well so that there are no air bubbles.

Brush the sides as well. I took an extra precaution and lined the base with aluminum foil to prevent any leakages. I have trust issues with this pan, and in return it doesn’t love me back.

Tip in your batter. Tap it a bit and bake @ 190℃

take it out after and hour. Check with toothpick in case it comes out clean and LET IT COOL COMPLETELY! I’m sorry for yelling but this how I yelled at the man who kept trying to eat it.

once completely cooled, very carefully and gently remove the base pan and peel off the parchment paper. Just be a little cautious. It’s a wonderfully moist cake so don’t be too heavy-handed with it.

cut yourself a piece and fall in love.

Note: this cake tastes best after a couple of days of making, and for best results you have to let it be undisturbed overnight.

Ingredients

Oranges : 450g (boiled until soft, best to do a day in advance)

Eggs: 6

vanilla extract : 1 teaspoon or vanilla bean.

Almond flour/meal : 250 g (if you can’t buy it, then grind the same wight of almonds until it resembles flour)

Sugar: 230 g

baking powder: 1 teaspoon

salt: a small pinch

How to: In a blender or food processor, blend in the oranges, eggs and vanilla.

In a separate large bowl mix in the almond flour, salt, baking powder and sugar. Pour in the batter and mix well.

Line your springfoam tin with parchment paper after greasing the base and sides. To prevent leakages line the outside base with aluminium foil.

Pour in the batter and bake at 190℃ for 45-60 minutes. Check with toothpick to see if it’s baked. Mine took one whole hour.

Note: Around the 40 minute mark I covered the top with aluminum foil as it was getting a little brown.

Here’s another delicious picture. Enjoy!!

Stoners grub: Sausage, mushroom & cheese sandwich

When thoughts are dull, days are cold and pleasures scarce, it’s always the food we turn to for comfort. There are days when even the idea of having something virtuous like smoothies, salads and fruits makes you want to launch a crusade against health food, you turn to sustenance. Hearty, innocent, full-bodied food that’d make you tuck in like a tapeworm, food that’d make you cry with joyous tears.

This sandwich is the stuff that voluptuous dreams are made of. It’s the kind of food you’d want to have after a night of crazy drinking or a joint too many. For days when you want to carelessly binge, for moments when you want to feel fueled and for times when you have the munchies for planet portions of feel good food, this sandwich is a life saver.. and it’s easy enough to throw in a matter of moments.

This is a pretty versatile affair. You can stuff it with whatever you want, but I did mine like so… butter, cheese (emmental & cheddar), cured sausage, onion, mushrooms & bread.

Now before I start this, I’d like to mention that this is just my version. You can make this anyhow you want, using whatever cheese, whatever meat, whatever mushrooms, in fact whatever whatever. Just make sure its got plenty of meat and cheese and butter.

I started with the sausages and sliced them like so.

into a hot pan for a few seconds just to let them warm through. These are cured so they don’t really need any cooking. That makes this recipe so much easier.

Now very carefully because this step call for being an incompetent chopper, chop your mushrooms. Be very casual about it, because it’s not a gourmet sandwich meant for a Michelin table.

In a pan or skillet, heat a tablespoon of butter along with some oil.

add in the mushrooms because we want to cook them and turn them brown and get rid of their water. We don’t want a soggy sammy!

while that’s cooking away, in a similar incompetent fashion chop the onion. Make sure there’s nothing pretty about it.

check your mushrooms. add some crushed black pepper (entirely optional) but oh so good!

while the mushrooms are cooking up, grate your cheeses. In hindsight I realized I should have used a box grater because it took me forever to grate this but it doesn’t matter, the important thing is grated cheese.

checking the mushrooms they looked good and almost done.

add in the onion and just stir it in the mushrooms. We don’t really want to cook the onions just slightly soften them. This step is done.

This step is essentially building up your sandwich. I have here some hearty brown bread ( I don’t know why though), but use any bread you prefer.

Layer on the cheese

Pat it down so that it doesn’t bulge up and form a hump. then layer with your mushroom onion mixture.

like so.. and sort of flatten it a bit to prevent a dome formation.

layer your sausages and while layering I realized that the sausages were a lot more than the rest of the ingredients but you shouldn’t let trivial things like these matter, so build away. Finally top it with the remaining cheese.

Gently place the other half of your bread on top if this structure. Press down a bit, but honestly if you stuff your sandwich to this point some meat or cheese is bound to ooze out in the most gratifying way.

If you have softened room temperature butter then please violently slather it on your bread, I however had very cold butter which I simply dotted all over the top.

Melt a generous amount of butter in a pan

place your bread on it and move it around a bit to let it absorb all the butter. Once you feel it’s done from the bottom, carefully flip it and cook the top side. There might be some spillage in the process but i don’t think it matters.

There you have it, a meal fit for the gods of carnal pleasure. Get your munchies on, get rid of your hangover, binge eat and give up yourself to some sin. This is seriously good. Eat these with some delightful baked potato fries

Ingredients

cured sausage or meat of your choice diced into small pieces (crisped bacon, yesterdays chicken, can of tuna, anything you love) – 100-150g (mine was 1/2 cup)
sandwich bread slices
Emmental and cheddar cheese (or any cheese you love and have readily available) – 1/2 cup
mushrooms – 5-6 medium size
onion -1/2 of a big one or 1 small
butter – 4 tablespoons or more
salt & pepper to taste

Recipe: dice the sausages into pieces and let them warm through on a hot skillet. Keep aside.

Melt one tablespoon of butter with some oil and add in the chopped mushrooms till they are cooked and their water has evaporated. Add in the chopped onions and pepper and salt and cook for another minute. You don’t have to cook the onions completely.

For the assembly, start with layering the cheese, followed by the mushroom onion mixture and then the sausages. Press down a bit after every layer to prevent the formation of any bulges.

Heat some butter in a skillet and place your sandwich on it and move around to help it absorb all the butter. Also butter the top part of your sandwich and once the bottom is nicely browned flip it over carefully.

If there is any spillage, you can always push them back into your sandwich.

Make this!!!

Enjoy.

Baked potato fries

Potatoes!! Is there anything as comforting, as loving, as selfless, as versatile, as sexy, as sensuous as potatoes?? No, the answer is no!! Potatoes love you back they understand your feelings, they believe in giving and they care.

Sadly with modern times now, these beautiful spuds of love have been maligned as fattening food.. gasp! people are told to steer clear of them if they want to lose weight.. I say, what rot?? It’s not true. Potatoes aren’t bad for you, you’re bad for potatoes. Who thought of loading them with MSG and packing them into airy bags? you did! who thought of over salting them to the point of oblivion?? you did!! So please do not blame these humble vegetables for making you fat. Blame yourselves. Fried food WILL fatten you, it does not take a rocket scientist to know that, but when you bake these beauteous vegetables with the right amount of love, they love you back.

Case in point are these baked fries. They require no effort but give you all the love you need these winter months. Not only do they satisfy your spud cravings but they also don’t make you feel bad about it.

So for those moments of anguish when only a potato will do, bake these fries and get caught in the rapturous greed of smug satisfaction.

Just potatoes, garlic, olive oil (any oil really), mixed italian seasoning, paprika and sea salt.

before you start, line your baking sheet with foil.

wash and peel your potatoes. Remove any eyes and anything weird you don’t like seeing on your fries. You can keep the skin on the potatoes if you wish, just wash and scrub them really well.

Since my potatoes were not exactly equal in size, I cut mine to make three roughly equal sized potatoes. You don’t have to do this if your vegetables are symmetrically proportional.

I cut each potato segment into three, because I don’t exactly like very skinny fries, but if you do, please go ahead and make them as thin as you like.

So many potatoes.

I cut each segment in three’s.

I had almost equal sized fries, those which were a bit thick I cut them to size. Nobody messes with the size okay!

Into a pot of cold water to rinse away the starch. Let these be for a while now.

Now about their massage oil. Peel your cloves of garlic and mince them fairly well or chop, whatever you prefer.

add the seasoning mix. I’m using dry simply because It’s too cold and I have no fresh herbs left, but if you wish you could as easily use them fresh. Dried is just easier. These mixed Italian seasonings are pretty nifty.

in with the paprika. As little or as much as you like.

a glug of oil. This is about a tablespoon, but you could use more, you could use less.

stir with a spoon of choice until all is well combined.

Drain the potatoes and pat them dry with a kitchen towel or cloth of your choice.

give them a good pat. You want them completely dry.

tumble onto your lined baking sheet

make sure there isn’t a single wet spot. (snigger)

pour over the massage oil and this gets a little messy because you need to use your hands to evenly coat them

like so. Make sure the oil is distributed evenly and that every piece is well bathed.

sprinkle on the salt and into the oven at 200℃ for 35-40 minutes.

this is what they looked after 30 minutes of baking and the kitchen was smelling so divine. Garlic infused herbal incense. I was mesmerized and hungry.

like this at 38 minutes of baking, and I turned on the broiler for about 2 minutes because I was getting impatient and I love it when they turn golden and crisp on the top.

like so!!

How were they? what can I say? see for yourself. They were beautiful, they were crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside. I gave them a final sprinkling of salt before I served them.

A flask of masala tea and potato fries.. what more can I ask this winter?

Ingredients

Potatoes (as many as you want)

Garlic- 2 to 3 cloves

Italian seasoning – 1 teaspoon

Paprika – 1 teaspoon

Salt to taste ( I used 1 1/2 teaspoon of sea salt)

Olive oil/any vegetable oil – 1 to 2 tablespoon

RECIPE: Line a baking tray with aluminium foil. Wash and peel your potatoes and cut each into 3 segments and each segment into two or three fries, depending on how thick or thin you want them. Soak them into a bowl of cold water to remove excess starch.

Into a separate bowl, mince your garlic, add in the Italian seasoning, paprika and oil and mix well.

Drain the potatoes and dry thoroughly.

Tip them on your aluminium lined baking tray and pour over the prepared oil mixture and coat every fry with the mixture, making sure they’re all evenly coated.

bake at 200℃ for 35-40 minutes until deeply golden. Depending on your oven the baking time will vary. In some ovens it might take longer in some lesser, so keep an eye.

Enjoy!!

Lemon bars

These winters when the sun is scarce and sky seems frozen, these lemon bars will inject that bit of sunshine and tang to your day. I had earlier been of the view that chocolate heals all ills, chocolate is the universal answer and that chocolate gives meaning to your life… however once I made these bars I realized It’s actually these sweet lemon bars that can actually bring about world peace. No seriously, its true!! These lemon bars aren’t just good they are dazzling with sexy oomph!

They are super chic, exquisite and the taste is like a mouthful of magnificent citrus love. It makes no sense because these bars make no sense. They are so ridiculously good, very zippy, tart, sweet and rich all at the same time. You have to MAKE THESE to believe it, and you’d say, that crazy internet girl was right about this one.

The best part about these is that they are easy to make. Not fussy like a lemon meringue pie. Easy to put together and easier still to eat. But careful, these yellow babies are rich!!

These bars are made of a shortbread base and a mouth-watering lemon filling. Here is how its done.

For the shortbread base

very easy. Just three ingredients. Butter, sugar and flour.

In a clean bowl with a hand mixer, cream the butter and sugar, until it’s umm creamed. It should resemble something like this or better.

Add in the flour and beat again

until it just starts clumping together. Once it starts coming together we stop.

Tip this shortbread mixture into a baking vessel of choice. Mine happened to be a square silicon mould (7 x 7 inches).

spread it around as well as you can and bake at 180℃ for 15-18 minutes or until the sides just start turning a shade brown.

like so. Leave this to cool and prepare the filling.

The filling is fairly straightforward. Just eggs, lemon juice, sugar, lemon zest and flour.

we start with eggs

followed by sugar

then light mixing.

and some lemon zest

add in the lemon juice

finally in with the flour and a good beat up.

Mix it until it looks something like this, which means stir without caution for a couple of minutes and you’re there.

tip this batter in the now cooled shortbread base

making sure it’s evenly spread and bake at 175℃ for 18-20 minutes

My oven got a little too hot, hence the tan, but if you think the top of the bars is getting browned too quickly then just tent it with silver foil. This tan is not going to affect the final outcome because it’s just pleasantly golden not overly burnished, so don’t worry. You will know the top is done when it’s just set and there’s a slight jiggle to it.

You have to let it cool complete before you do anything to it. Mine took about 45 minutes.

pass some powdered sugar through a sieve.

blanketing completely

cut into squares and thank Ma nature for creating lemons.

I cut mine into fairly small bars, simply because these are so rich and so sweet and citrusy that it’s all too easy to eat them.

You wouldn’t believe the smugness you’d feel after making these, because they come out perfect every single time, even if you’re making these for the first time. They work great as desserts and taste unexpectedly delicious. Make these Now!!

Recipe

For the shortbread

butter 110 g ( a little less than 1/2 cup)

powdered sugar 30 g (about 2 tablespoons)

flour 125 g (about a cup)

– In a clean bowl cream together the butter and sugar using a hand mixer.

add in the flour and beat until it just starts to come together.

Tip into a baking dish and evenly spread to form a base.

Bake at 180℃ for 18-20 minutes or just until the sides lightly brown

allow to cool.

For the lemon filling

Eggs 2

sugar 170 g (a little less than a cup)

lemon juice 70 mls (2.5 tablespoons)

lemon zest 1 tablespoon

flour 30 g (about 2 tablespoons)

– In a clean bowl beat the sugar and eggs until smooth.

add in the remaining ingredients and mix well.

Pour over the now cooled shortbread base making sure it’s evenly spread out.

Bake at 175℃ for 18-20 until just set with a bit of jiggle. If the top starts getting too brown, tint with a foil.

Allow to cool completely and sift some powdered sugar on top before cutting into bars.

You do not want to miss this.

Enjoy!!

Bread Pudding

Feast yer eyes, for this is the easiest, most heavenly addictive dessert you’d make. Bread Pudding evokes everything that is homely, classic & decadent.

Put together in a matter moments, nothing gets easier than this dessert.

I haven’t got any step by step pictures for this recipe since there really weren’t too many steps and because I was making it to satisfy my man’s cravings for something outrageously weekend.

Did I eat this? Not a lot, since I’m 50 shades of Lactose Intolerant, but really I did sneak in a few bites here and there, and they were so gorgeous I could have kicked my system for hating on milk.

Also the bread pieces are slathered and sandwiched with orange marmalade and this is what gives it a different flavour with every bite, but of course you could as easily change that to any jelly or jam of your choice. From blueberry to ginger jam to pineapple to mixed fruit.. Suit yourself. It’s a very forgiving recipe

Ingredients

Milk 500 mls (2 cups)

Eggs 2 and 1 egg yolk

Sugar 50 g (3 tablespoons and 1 teaspoon) + extra for topping

vanilla extract 1 teaspoon

Bread preferably stale (baguette would work great) or 6-8 slices of bread

Orange marmalade or jam/marmalade of your choice

Butter 20 g (1 tablespoon)

Recipe: Make sandwiches out of your bread pieces with jam of your choice. The bread amount can be varied. It could be 6 or 8 slices of regular bread or half a baguette as I used here. If your bread is too big you can make triangles out of them, if it’s the same size as the baguette here, then just cut about 1/2 inch thick pieces and slather them generously with the marmalade.

Fit them snugly in the oven dish of your choice, making sure it’s buttered well.

In a separate bowl, mix in the milk, eggs, egg yolk, sugar and vanilla. Mix well making sure the egg is incorporated.

This batter now resembling the summer outside needs to be poured over the bread pieces in the dish. Pour it evenly so that no bread remains dry. Gently coax them into the eggy custard, do not mush them. Sprinkle some more sugar on top so that it caramelizes in the heat of the oven, bronzing the top and adding crunch.

Awesome, now let the dish stand this way for about 10-15 minutes and finally dot the top with some butter to make it golden and sunny and crunchy, after which bake it in a 190℃ oven for 15-20 minutes.

The results are fabulous, every bite is a song and you’ll fall in love with how easy this recipe is.

Enjoy!!

Spicy masala cookies

For some reason these harsh winters have put me in a cookie mode. I’ve been buying, eating and baking cookies. But aha.. these are not sweet cookies but salty spicy ones.. well not spiky salty like chips or crisps but very mildly saltish to the taste with a twang of spice. The spices being rather mellow, subtly biting and very addictive.

I had no recipe to start these cookies with so I was just trying and testing in the kitchen but accidentally or rather Fortunately these cookies turned out excellent. They tasted exactly how I wanted them to and I penned down the recipe and I’m sticking to it. I am !!!

Since these were just testing I didn’t bother with making a huge batch. You can easily double or triple the amount. These cookies are not thick and big, but dainty and petite which makes them all too easy to eat.

see !! not fat at all..

Ingredients

70 gms butter (you can also use salted butter for these cookies)

1 egg

1 tbsp sugar

2 tsp salt

125 gms flour

SPICES

1 tsp cumin seeds

1 tsp mustard seeds

4-5 curry leaves

1/4 tsp freshly ground pepper

1/4 tsp chilly flakes

RECIPE

In a dry pan fry the spices (except pepper and chili flakes) for a couple of minutes until browned. The mustard seeds will starts spluttering and you will get the most heavenly spiced aroma. Make sure the pan is dry. You don’t need to add any oil.

Once the spices are browned and giving off their aromatics take the pan off the heat and crush the spices. You can do these win a mortar & pestle. I used my rolling-pin. Keep these aside.

In a large bowl beat the butter with the sugar and salt for a minute or so. add in the egg and beat again.

Now add the crushed spices along with the pepper and chili flakes and beat until the spices have turned your beautiful yellow butter to tarnished brackish spiced goodness. Add in the flour, and at this moment its best to use your spatula or wooden spoon to incorporate everything together.

Once it has formed a sort of dough and you can see the flecks of spices dotting your mixture, believe me it only gets better now.

Roll this cookie dough on a lightly floured surface. You can make these cookies fat or thin, depends how you like them. I roll them out quite thin perhaps 1 cm or less (you can see in the picture above)

Once they’re rolled out you can use any shaped cookie cutter and stamp out shapes. You can make them round or just basic square.

Place them on a sheet. These cookies don’t spread, so you can space them close.

bake in a pre heated oven at 180℃ for about 12-15 minutes, or until the edges have browned slightly. It also helps me to rotate the cookie sheet after 8 minutes or so.

Let them cool slightly and they are ready to eat.

You can either eat them on their on as they are or even use some dip or salsa or even this hummus

Another picture to inspire you to make these immediately..

Enjoy !!!

Hummus

Yes!!! I love ze hummus. I love hummus on bread, on crackers, on everything that can be dipped. I love absolutely love hummus. Thank you Middle East for giving us the gift of hummus.

What I don’t love is the hummus you find in jars. Ewww.. its everything thats hummus shouldn’t be. Making your own hummus will give you an air of smugness and a feeling most satisfying.. You’re creating hummus.. at home.!!!!

After many try outs, recipes, and taste tests, I finally figured a hummus recipe which is loved in my house. Easily devoured and makes a decent quantity. It’s just a bread away from being a supper in it’s entirety. Works fabulously as a crowd pleaser and a party piece. Just put this on a table with torn pieces of breads, and you’ve got yourself a fantastic appetizer..

Chickpeas, garlic cloves. tahini paste,Extra virgin olive oil, salt and coriander powder.

I don’t use canned chickpeas, though if you wish you can use those. I soak the chickpeas for 6-10 hours. Overnight works best and boil them till they are tender.

Dump everything together in a food processer, you can use a blender of you wish. for me this ferocious little chopper works best.

Add in the extra virgin olive oil and whizz to a paste. If you feel it’s too dry you can add a bit of water, though this won’t happen if you dont go too easy on the oil.

Garnish with some more lovely green olive oil and paprika..

such miraculous, gratifying results.. This is the kind of hummus you just can’t go wrong with. Of course there isn’t a set recipe for anything. It’s always to your taste, so play with it. Adjust quantities and seasonings to your liking and the results are highly rewarding…….. Enjoy !!

Ingredients

150 gms chickpeas (cooked and drained)

4 garlic cloves

25 gms tahini paste

1/2 tsp coriander powder

1 tsp salt (adjust to taste)

75 mls extra virgin olive oil + more for drizzling before serving

1/2 tsp paprika (optional) for sprinkling before serving.

additionally you can also use some lemon juice about 1 tsp if you wish

Recipe:- In a food processer or a blender process together the chickpeas, garlic, tahini, salt and coriander powder with the olive oil. If it’s too dry or thick add in 1 tsp water or olive oil until you get the consistency you want. Keep tasting for salt. It should be according to your taste.

To serve drizzle some olive oil and some paprika for a burst of colours. Serve with pita, baguette or even crackers..

Apple Cobbler Crumble

What what? a cobbler and a crumble together? Yes indeed.. for why just have a cobbler when you can also have a crumble and vice versa.

This idea happened not because I was feeling very inventive, well maybe I was.. I was greedy and the fat juicy apples sitting in front of me asked me how they’d like to be cooked.. now I’m just hallucinating. Actually I initially wanted to make a crumble but midway I started making a cobbler and then came back to crumble.. I’m confused that ways. But seriously, once you’ve had this divinity, you’d probably end up making this all the time.

Out of habit I always make a lot of crumble topping and freeze it for instant crumbles, so of course I had the crumble ready.. you never know there might be a surplus of fruits and you’d want to top them with crumble.. Be prepared in life I say.

Okay, so this is how I went with it..

I know, I know.. I couldn’t resist another picture of the gorgeousness that was this crumble cobbler or vice versa.. yes it’s an ice cream atop that.. Yes it’s winters, and yes its French vanilla ice cream.. thank you.

These are 3 apples. Peeled, cored and sliced. Use whichever ones you want. In your baking dish try to pile them evenly.. I did say TRY !!

Sprinkle some sugar. I used about 3 tablespoons of granulated white sugar

Sprinkle some cinnamon.. you can be a bit more generous.. I couldn’t because le huzbend don’t like no cinnamon very much (cry a little)

Set the apples aside and start with the crumble topping. I have flour and salt (mixed), sugar, baking powder, butter, egg and vanilla.

Sift together the dry ingredients and in a separate bowl melt the butter, add the vanilla, and bet in the egg.. so basically a bowl of dry ingredients and a bowl of wet ingredients.

Mix in the dry ingredients into the wet one or vice versa. and mix till all’s well mixed. It’ll be a thickish batter. If your batter doesn’t get to a dropping consistency then add 1 tablespoon of milk.

Spoon the batter over the apples.

I spooned over the batter in 9 uneven albeit somewhat pretty dollops. Don’t laugh.

Here’s another close up..

Here’s the crumble part. I added a bit of rolled oats to the crumble. As I said I had this crumble ready in the freezer for any passing fruit might need it..

Now sprinkle the crumble over the exposed apple parts. Honestly I didn’t mean for it to sound dirty. Sprinkle the crumble over the non cobbler parts and bake @ 180℃ for 20-25 minutes.

the baked result.. Let it cool a bit. Cut a generous slice, top with vanilla ice cream and please eat it already..

Le another picture.. ok no more.. Enjoy !!!

Ingredients & Recipe

3 Apples

2 tbsp granulated sugar

1/4 tsp cinnamon powder

For the cobbler

1/2 cup flour

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

2 tbsp butter melted

1 egg

1/2 tbsp vanilla

For the crumble

1 cup flour

1/4 cup sugar

1/3 cup almond flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/3 cup cold butter cut into cubes

2 tbsp rolled oats.

Recipe

Peel core and slice the apples and line into your baking tray. Try to make them even.

Sprinkle the sugar and cinnamon and set aside.

For the cobbler, mix all the dry ingredients into a bowl. In a separate bowl mix the melted cooled butter with the vanilla and egg and mix.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry and form a batter. If the batter is too thick add in 1 tbsp of milk. Spoon the batter over the apples.

For the crumble sift together the flour,sugar, almond flour and baking powder. Cut the cold cubes of butter. You can either use a food processor, pastry cutter or simply your fingers. Once your mixture reaches a porridge like consistency add in the oats. Let there be clumps of butter since these will brown and give your crumble a burnished look.

Sprinkle this crumble mixture over the apples which do not have any cobbler on them. Make sure your apples are mostly covered with either cobbler batter or crumble mixture.

Freeze the remaining crumble mixture and use them as and when needed..

Bake 180℃ for 20-25 minutes.

Pretzels with beer cheese sauce

Not exactly a revelation but a suggestion from my dear friend Aarti who replied to my desperate tweets on a Sunday afternoon, answering my “what should I eat today” question. She sent me this beautiful link from Curvy Carrot adding that If I was up for something elaborate then this is what I should make.

Looking at the blog’s beautiful pictures and totally mesmerized by the words ‘Pretzels’, ‘beer’ & ‘cheese’ in one sentence I knew this is what I would make.

I tweaked the recipe a bit to suit whatever ingredients I had handy that afternoon, but the results were nothing short of ecstatic. Once the pretzels were hot out of the oven and the beer cheese sauce gooey and warm, I nestled myself on the couch in front of the television, refusing to acknowledge this world or any other existence. For 20 minutes until there were but crumbs on my plate did I lift my head up to realize, the television was on, playing something absolutely unnecessary.. but did I care? No!!!.. this sauce is a fuzzy warm beery heaven, a grotto of pleasure worth visiting every time you can make any excuse for a dip.. at least I do..

I adapted my earlier Pretzels recipe already on this blog and instead of making miniatures, made two fat patties and continued with the recipe here

as for the beer cheese sauce…

Ingredients for the beer cheese sauce (adapted from curvy carrot)

6 tbsps butter (I used salted)

1 cup spring onion

1 bay leaf

4 tbsps flour

1.5 cups beer (any beer is fine)

3/4 cup cream (I used single cream)

1 tsp fresh ground pepper (not so fine pieces)

1/4 tsp allspice

nutmeg (a pinch)

1 cup cheddar cheese

1/2 cup cream cheese (room temperature)

Salt to taste

a dash of cayenne

Making this sauce wasn’t difficult at all. In fact I started making it once the pretzels were popped in the oven.. working fast I melted the butter on medium heat in a pan of choice.

Add the onions and salt and cook until translucent. Add in the bay leaf, pepper and mix for a couple of minutes.

Add the flour and mix for a bit, the roux will look all sorts of lumpy and dry but really it’s a good thing.

Slowly start adding in the beer, and keep mixing constantly to remove any lumps and, watch it all thicken.. apart from the beer facial you will get when you keep smelling it constantly. I did this for a couple of minutes .. kept smelling along with mixing.

Now add in the cream and stir as usual. add in the nutmeg, allspice and cayenne. Cook and stir and mix and let it lightly simmer. ensure that this mixture thickens as you’re cooking it on slow heat. Mine took about 15 minutes.

Just as it has thickened add in the cheese, turn off the flame and let it all melt and meld together.. of course keep whisking and stirring and mixing until all cheese has melted in it.

Serve warm ..

This is it.. beer cheese sauce. You can adapt, make changes to suit however you want your dip or a sauce to be. you can use all cheddar or any other cheese you fancy. I used whatever I had on me that time and it turned out fabulous.

The point is, when you have beer, cream and cheese all together you can’t really go wrong with it.

Enjoy !!!

Cheesy stuffed potato jackets

The pictures aren’t really great this time. I decided to make these one evening, when I was both hungry, bored and craved something EVIL. These fat beauties are so luscious and filling and cheesy that the guilt doesn’t stay too long.

The stuffing is actually entirely up to you and what you happen to have on you at that moment . I had some mozzarella leftover from a few days, and well that’s how I decided to use it. So here goes.

I had a few medium-sized potatoes, which I baked for 45 minutes at 220℃. Yes I inserted a very thin knife to check for doneness. You can see the surgery mark in the second potato.

oil the baking tray and the set these cut up potatoes, skin side down.

Scoop out their innards as much as you can without really tearing up their skins. You don’t have to be overly careful or scoop within an inch of their lives. The green tinge is from a tinted window, I know these aren’t the most fab pics. I have made peace with it.

here’s the filling. It has the scooped out potatoes, 1/2 cup mozzarella cheese, crushed garlic, mayonnaise, a dash of salt and a bit of crushed red chillies. These have to get a mixing and smoothed together until its come to a consistency where it somewhat resembles a thick paste of gloriousness.

The hollow potatoes are now stuffed. It took about a tablespoonful in each, and then topped off with more grated mozzarella. I also drizzled some olive oil on top to make them a bit more brown, burnt and oozy.

Bake them at 200℃ for 30 minutes, or until you can see the cheese swell up, and tan.

This came out smelling hot and so gorgeous. It was practically oozing all over the tray. A bit of mustard and you’re done. You might not fit into your pants the next day, but it’s totally worth it.

Ingredients

– 3-4 medium-sized potatoes

1/2 cup mozzarella cheese

1 tablespoon mayonnaise

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp crushed red chillies

2-3 cloves garlic (crushed.)

2 tbsp olive oil (any regular oil will do)

You know the rest.. right.

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