Pumpkin pie

November 2, 2017 Gayatri S

I’m in Chicago - it’s new, exciting, scary all at the same time! Chicago is big and exciting just like you’d expect it to be. Tall buildings, beautiful lake, the works. But Evanston - the suburb where I really live - is a tiny, cute little town where things close early and buildings are old and creaky (at least, my apartment building is). It’s literally one Luke’s Diner short of being exactly like Stars Hollow (Gilmore Girls binge watchers will know).

Last week I went to a baking class. I feel like I need to share this pumpkin pie recipe with you all because it is amazing. Disclaimer: I’m a shameless, proud, pumpkin lover - in this old post, I might have mentioned that I would use pumpkin spice candles, bath salts, whatever you give me. But even if you are one of those pumpkin loathing people who think the internet has blown the pumpkin fad out of proportion and cringe at pumpkin shower cream variety of consumers like me, you will still love this recipe. Enough said.

PIE CRUST:

1 1/3 cups all purpose flour

½ teaspoon salt

½ cup all vegetable shortening

3 to 6 tablespoons ice cold water

Blend flour and salt in a large bowl. Cut shortening into flour mixture using pastry blender or fork. Stir in just enough water with fork until dough holds together.

Test dough for proper moistness by squeezing a marble-sized ball of dough in your hand. If it holds together firmly, do not add additional water. If the dough crumbles, add more water by the tablespoonful, until dough is moist enough to form a smooth ball when pressed together.

Shape dough into a ball for single pie crust. Chill in freezer for 15 minutes or refrigerator for 30 minutes. Roll dough from center outward into a circle about 2-inches wider than pie plate on lightly floured surface. Transfer dough to pie plate. Trim edges of dough leaving a 3/4 inch overhang. Fold edge under. Flute dough as desired.

FILLING:

One 15 ounce can of pumpkin

One 14 ounce can of sweetened condensed milk

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon of cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon of ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon salt

One 9 inch unbaked pie crust

Preheat oven to 435 degrees F. Whisk pumpkin, sweetened condensed milk, eggs, spices and salt in medium bowl until smooth. Pour into crust. Bake 15 minutes.

Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees F and continue baking 35 to 40 minutes or until knife inserted 1 inch from crust comes out clean. Cool. Garnish with whipped cream. Store leftovers covered in refrigerator.

Milk chocolate chip and gems cookies

June 9, 2016 Gayatri

For most desserts, there’s a way to eat it. Let’s say a cheesecake or a pudding, typically eaten after a meal. You’d slice a piece, put it on a plate, pick up a fork and eat, neatly polishing it off until the entire slice is gone and you’ve drifted into dessert heaven. Now you’re done and it’s likely that you’ll put back your plate, and get on with your day.

But cookies are different. Cookies don’t demand the sophistication of putting them on a plate or the civility of cleaning up after. Eat them directly from the jar or box, nibble at them while you watch a movie, scarf them down while you work on a stressful project, or read a thrilling book. Cookies are fuss-free, anytime snackage food which makes them one of the most comforting foods ever because it is completely acceptable to eat them anytime your sweet tooth demands..

I ate my friend Neimat’s most delicious milk chocolate chip and gems cookies at 3am on a random friday night and i am not exaggerating when i say that they were the best chocolate chip cookies I have ever had. Maybe it was the 3am sugar itch or maybe just the fact that chocolate chip cookies are always a good idea anyway, but they were seriously ridiculously good. I might add that Neimat is a trained chef but her chocolate chip cookies reek of that delicious, homely comforting flavour that chocolate chip cookies are meant to have.

I know most recipes ask for bittersweet chocolate and I’m a huge fan of 70 per cent but in defence of milk chocolate, nothing can replicate childlike flavours like the combination of unapologetically sweet milk chocolate chips in a salty-sweet cookie dough. PLUS GEMS! 90s kids will know. These cookies are soft with chewy edges, bursting with gooey milk chocolate and the crunch of gems. Basically quite a perfect bunch of textures.

This recipe is an easy drop and bake recipe and doesn’t require rolling out cookie dough. I suggest using a cookie scoop or small ice cream scoop to get even sized cookies. Also, seriously seriously invest in good quality milk chocolate chips. I use

Ghirardelli (the blue bag)

but if you don’t find those,

Choko La

also makes really nice ones! Here is the recipe:

2 1/2 cups flour

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup powdered sugar

2 eggs

200 g butter (soft, not melted)

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp sea salt

2 cups milk chocolate chips

1 cup gems

Preheat your oven to 180 ˚ C and line a baking tray with an un-greased cookie sheet/ silpat or butter paper.

In a bowl, mix the flour and baking soda and sea salt

Beat the butter and both sugars in a large bowl

One at a time, add the eggs and then the vanilla

Now add the flour mixture one spoonful at a time and mix until a cookie batter is formed

When done, add the 2 cups of milk chocolate chips and the gems and mix it into the batter with a spatula

Use a cookie scoop to spoon out round cookie batter onto the cookie sheet.

Bake for about 8 - 10 minutes.

Let them cool and then eat!

Notes:

The batter should be

sticky

- not runny, but not doughy either. If it is too liquid/runny, add more flour.

The cookies will be very soft when done and that's fine. They are meant to be soft and will harden a little as they cool.

Make sure the butter is soft/ room temperature, but not melted. Melted butter could cause the cookies to spread too much in the oven.

Classic Hot Chocolate (with video!)

December 1, 2015 Gayatri

It’s snuggle season guys – I don’t know about you but Delhi winter is my favourite time of the year. (I have been talking about the weather an awful lot haven’t i). The city is heavy with festivity, string lights, music and basically just good cheer and while whether that compensates for the traffic and smog is debatable, let’s at least acknowledge that festive season means we are officially allowed to eat as much comfort food as we want , GUILT NO BAR! Seriously – they even have a term for it – Holiday Weight. It is totally one hundred per cent legit, so toss your guilt in a box with your flip flops and shorts and label it ‘things I don’t have to deal with until summer’. ‘Nuff said. Anyway, nothing says COMFORT FOOD like hot chocolate in the winter amirite? Besides which, I am a strong proponent of the idea that chocolate really deserves as much attention, research and experimentation as is possible

Alice Medrich says that hot chocolate need not necessarily be the richest, thickest and creamiest because that steals attention from the flavour of chocolate – she recommends chocolate with milk and water (water!!) , but didn’t we grow up on a cup of creamy and milky hot chocolate loaded with thick whipped cream, and marshmallows and chocolate sauce ? So the dilemma is - what’s the real hot chocolate ?

[embed]https://vimeo.com/153621987[/embed]

Search #ProjectXHotChocolate on the blog and on Instagram (for sneak peaks) this whole winter to follow my experiments with hot chocolate, more theories (LOL), snuggly winter stories and some kickass recipes.

BUT FIRST – here’s my recipe of Classic Hot Chocolate – I swear by it.

Melt 25 gm of dark chocolate pieces (I use Ghiradelli 60 % cocoa) in saucepan, with 1 ½ tbsp. cocoa powder and ½ cup of milk. Stir over low heat until completely mixed and smooth.