Chocolate Fudge Ladoo

Happy Holi to everyone ! Decide to take a break from the annual Gujiya routine on Holi and try something different for a change. Very pleased with the results of the experiment which took all of 15 minutes to make :)

Ingredients (makes 18-20 small ladoos)

50 gms butter
5 tablespoons besan
1/2 can condensed milk
2 heaped tablespoons cocoa powder
1/3 cup crushed walnuts
12 powdered digestive biscuits (or marie biscuits).
Dessicated coconut powder (to garnish,optional)

1. In a non-stick pan or heavy bottomed kadhai, melt the butter. When melted , add the besan and stir continuously to avoid lumps. Keep the flame on sim.
2. Keep stirring till the besan is nicely roasted and turns ochre brown in colour(approx 5 minutes)
3. Turn off the gas. Add the cocoa and mix well.
4. Add the condensed milk and mix.
5. Next add the biscuit powder and the walnuts and mix till it all comes together into a lump.
6. When slightly cool enough to be handled, roll into small ladoos.
7. Garnish with walnuts or roll on dessicated coconut powder for garnish and an added flavour.

Dunkin Donuts

What's not to love about these feasts for the eyes and the tongue...age no bar! I have earlier been making eggless ones with yeast but have always found them cumbersome to make! Came across this super easy recipe from joyofbaking.com, tweaked it slightly and voila ! a gorgeous finished product.
I made a chocolate glaze as these were for a kiddies' treat, but just dust them with plain sugar or use your favourite jam as a glaze or even nutella... a world of options!

Ingredients (makes 8 medium sized)

1 and 1/2 cups flour
1/3 cup powdered sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
30 ml milk
1 and 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
pinch salt
2 tablespoons butter
Oil to fry

For the glaze
1 and 1/2 cups icing sugar
3 tablespoons cocoa
2-3 tablespoons milk

1. Sift the flour,baking powder and the salt together
2. Add the butter to lukewarm milk
3. Beat the egg with sugar till pale yellow in colour.
4. Beat in the vanilla essence.
5. Alternately beat in the flour mixture and the milk mixture in two portions each, the dough will come together and become tougher to beat! So you can eventually mix the ingredients with your hands till you get a soft and smooth dough, will be sticky though (see pic below)
6. Cover and leave for half an hour.
7. Dust your hands with flour and take out the dough and roll on a floured surface with a rolling pin till about 1/4 inch thick .
8. Cut out the doughnuts with a doughnut cutter or two cookie cutters of different sizes. Re-roll the scraps and cut out the shapes again.
9. Heat oil in a kadhai or any thick bottomed pan. Not too much oil is needed . Do not overheat the oil, to test drop in a piece of the dough and see that it does not brown immediately. If it does, turn off the gas for a minute or two and re-start on slow flame .
10. Fry the doughnuts one at a time , turning over each side so that it is uniformly browned all over. Remove when the colour is short of a deep brown, but keep the flame slow at all times.
11. For the glaze mix all the ingredients in a double boiler till you get a smooth glaze (I added a small dairy milk bar while heating the glaze)
12. Dip the doughnuts while still warm in the glaze and top with your favourite sprinkles.

Serve fresh!

Amla chutney with mustard oil

For all the health benefits of olive oil, my favourite oil flavour-wise still remains mustard oil ! Learnt this chutney from my childhood friend's mom. We grew up together and I have so many memories of all the super delicious food her mother used to stuff us with - who can match the appetite of teens anyways !
So after a decade nearly, relived almost every food memory with lunch again at her house- this time with a new addition to the menu..this super versatile chutney, packed with the Vitamin C goodness of amlas.You can reduce the quantity of mustard oil and/or jaggery to your taste.

Ingredients (makes one medium sized bowl)

4 medium sized amlas (Indian gooseberry)
1 small onion
2-3 green chillies
2 cups chopped coriander leaves
salt to taste
3 teaspoons mustard  oil
1 tablespoon jaggery powder

1. Wash the amlas and cut into pieces, discarding the seeds
2. Peel and roughly chop the onion
3. Grind the amlas and onion with the remaining ingredients in the mixer till you get a smooth paste.
4. Store the chutney in the fridge . Use with parathas, sandwiches, burgers etc....