Pedas in a jiffy

This is one of the quickest indian sweets to make. As we all know, indian sweets require a lot of labor to get the perfection. So such recipes are always welcome! I got this recipe from my friend R who in turn got it from here. The pedas are delectable!

Ingredients

• Instant Dry Milk (Milk Powder) - 2 cups (150gm). I used the Nestle Nilo Whole Milk powder
• Sweetened Condensed Milk - 1, 14oz can (396gm)
• Unsalted Butter - 1, 4oz stick (113gm)
• cardamom powder - to taste (I didn’t have any so I skipped this but I’m sure it would add a wonderful flavor)

Method

1. In a microwave safe dish, melt the butter.
2. Add in the rest of the ingredients and mix well.
3. Cook in the microwave for 3 minutes, stirring very well after every minute.
4. After the 3 minutes, mix well again and leave aside for the mixture to cool down enough to handle. I put the mixture in the fridge, as suggested by R, and it took it out after 15 or so minutes.
5. Once the mixture has cooled down, make small balls and gently press the balls and flatten them to shape. When I made the balls the mixture hadn’t completely cooled down.
6. I pressed the fork horizontally and then vertically to give a criss-cross pattern on the pedas.
7. Decorate them with colored sugar, almonds, cashews, pistachios or raisins.
8. Let the pedas set and cool down. Again I kept them in the fridge overnight.
   

Quick and easy rich Chocolate cake

One day I had a craving to bake a rich chocolate cake – by rich I mean it should ooze chocolate! So I started scavenging for it a recipe on allrecipes.com and came across this one which looked pretty easy.

INGREDIENTS

• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups milk

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9x13 inch pan. I used a round approx 6-7” pan and a loaf pan as I didn’t want to make a big huge cake.
2. Sift together the flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt, set aside. In a medium bowl, cream together the sugar and butter until smooth. Stir in the eggs and vanilla. Gradually mix in the dry ingredients, alternately with the milk. Once all of the ingredients have been incorporated, mix on high speed of an electric mixer for 2 to 3 minutes. Pour batter into the prepared pan.
3. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes in the preheated oven, until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. The time may vary from oven to oven, it took me around 45 mins.

The act of giving

The act of giving with wrong intentions is the most inferior.

The act of giving with selfish interests is mediocre.

The act of giving to please God is the best.

Even a tree spreads its branches far and wide to provide shade to strangers; it bears fruits to satiate the hunger of one and all. Then if a man does not give, he’s as good as dead and should be considered a sinner.

Yummy waffles!

Waffles are our latest faves! They are easy, quick to make and delicious!

Ingredients:

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 2 tablespoon sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1-2/3 cups reduced fat milk
• 1/2 a banana, mashed
• 6 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 2 large eggs
• handful of almonds (or any other nuts that you like), finely chopped

Method:

1. Put all the ingredients in a bowl and mix well with a hand mixer (or by hand if you want).
2. Let batter sit for 5 minutes.
3. Use little less than 1/2 cup of batter to make one waffle if you don’t want it to overflow on the sides and are fine with a few holes in the waffle. If you want a perfect round and are fine with cleaning the mess of overflowing then take a 1/2 cup. Pour over pre-heated waffle iron. Bake till ready! Tastes delicious with maple syrup. When we don’t add banana in the mix, we top it with banana slices.