7 layer magic bars / cookies

This is one of the most popular and old fashioned american desserts. I tasted it for the very first time last year at halloween. I had taken my little one for a halloween experience at a "haunted house" place.... with my friends. The Dousman Stagecoach Inn museum was a spookily decorated little house with a fortune teller.... and the kids really enjoyed the visit. The package included some treats for the kids and that's when i came across these magical bars. I couldn't help putting 3/4 pieces in my mouth...and they were absolutely delicious. 

The old lady who made these gladly shared the recipe. It's really simple -- layer 7 ingredients one after the other and bake..... :) 

I have come to know many shortcuts and quick fix meals in USA... and this is one of the best desserts you can make which is a hit for any get together or party. People can't stop eating it ...it's bite sized and heavenly..... I made it 3-4 times and the last week, I made it for my friends' baby shower. 

Ingredients:

• Condensed milk 1 can (14oz/396 gms)
  
• Graham crackers crushed to powder -- 1 and half cups
• Unsalted butter -- 1/2 cup (melted)
• Walnuts -- 1 cup (broken to small pieces)
• Dried flaked coconut -- 1 and 1/3 cup
• Dark chocolate chips -- 1 cup
• Butterscotch chips -- 1 cup

Recipe:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees f.
• Line a 13 by 9 inch glass pan with parchment paper or aluminium foil.
• Melt the butter in the microwave.
• Grind the graham crackers in a food processor.

• Mix the melted butter with the graham cracker powder.

• Press down the graham cracker and butter mix firmly on the bottom of the pan.

• Pour condensed milk over the graham cracker crust.

• Spread the chocolate chips and the butterscotch chips over the condensed milk.

• Add walnuts.

• Finally, spread the coconut.

• Press everything down with a spatula.

• Bake in a pre heated oven for 30 minutes.
• Let it cool for about 10-15 minutes, then chill it in the refrigerator.
• Pull out the parchment paper, and lay it flat on a cutting board. 
• Cut into squares. 

Quantity:

• This recipe makes around 24 pieces about 1 and half inch size.

Notes:

• You can change the order of the layers ...with coconut in the middle ...and pour condensed milk in the end.
• You can use other nuts like pistachio, almonds etc.
• You can use white or milk chocolate chips or mini marshmallows.

Easy 3 ingredient dessert

My kids school restarted after a long long summer break.....and that means I am totally free for a few hours in a day. I like to take long long walks, try out new recipes, photograph stuff and best of all meet other "free" moms for a "kid-free" meet .... :) I may be exaggerating, but a "mom's time out"......without her kids is so relaxing. You do not even have to go out.....just get together at some place, have "chai" and chit-chat. I love these sessions and I am lucky to have found wonderful women to share this with in all the places, I have lived in.

Usually, morning after the kids leave for school works best and me and my friends decided to meet for a potluck brunch. It was an impromptu decision and yet all of them came up with lovely dishes.

For me, cooking something suddenly for anyone other than my kids is bit daunting ... all I make for breakfast is cold cereal, oatmeal or eggs. To cook something out of the blue, requires me to look at fridge 100 times and search google 500 times ..... :D and then I am inspired to cook!! So with all this search...the actual time for cooking is very less.... well, this recipe requires very less time to cook and is delicious.

Ingredients:

• Puff pastry -- 1 sheet
• Strawberries -- 7
• Nutella -- 6 tsps (or more)
• Powdered sugar -- 1 tsp (optional)
• Cocoa powder -- 1 tsp (optional)
• milk -- 1 tbsp (optional)

Recipe:

• Thaw the puff pastry sheet on the kitchen counter for about 40 minutes.
• Unroll, it on a flat surface and cut into squares or rectangles.
• Pre heat the oven and line a baking tray with parchment paper.
• Put all the puff pastry squares on the sheet with about 1/2 inch space between each.

• Brush the top of the pastry with milk.

• Bake for 15 mins at 400 degrees F(about 200 degrees C )
• Take them out and let it cool on the baking tray.

• Chop the strawberries.

• Spread about half teaspoon (or more) nutella on the baked pastry square.

• Top it with chopped strawberries.

• Drizzle cocoa powder or powdered sugar on top with the help of a sieve.

Quantity:

• One sheet makes 12 pieces (1 inch by 2 inch)

Notes:

• You can use any fruit available, raspberries, blueberries, kiwi, mango, banana or any combination of mixed fruit.
• You can make a big fruit tart instead of individual pieces.
• You can sprinkle cinnamon with sugar instead of cocoa.
•  All pictures taken with my phone, as I made this along with the kids lunches and the morning rush of getting them ready.

Dark Fudgy Brownies

Re-starting my blog from the USA after a long break. I moved here about 4 plus months ago. New place, cold weather, moving to an apartment and unpacking and long summer holidays with grandparents left me with no time for cooking for the blog....rather clicking for the blog. Today, I made the all time popular American dessert. I still have to buy a cake whisk for baking, but this recipe is quite simple with all the ingredients to be mixed in one after the other to create the famous kid approved dessert.

Ingredients:

• 150 grams dark chocolate ( with 70 percent or more cacao)
  
• 1/2 cup (or 1 stick/113 gms butter) -- I used "salted". "Unsalted" is preferable.
• 1/4 cup (20 grams) cocoa powder
• 3/4 cup (100 grams) all purpose flour
• 1/3 cup (70 grams) sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 3 eggs
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips (I used "white". Dark chocolate chips can be used)
• 1/4 tsp salt (I didn't add -- as I used salted butter)
• 1/4 cup water

Recipe:

• Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C and grease the baking dish with oil or butter. I used a brownie pan. I greased the individual slots with oil.
• Melt chocolate and butter in a bowl on a double boiler. (Take a pan. Boil water. Put the glass bowl on top of the water. The glass bowl should be bigger than the vessel in which the water is boiling. Add the chocolate and butter in the bowl and melt it with the heat of the steam from the boiling water. The bottom of the glass bowl shouldn't touch the water)

• Once the butter and the chocolate is melted, mix it well with a spatula and keep it aside to cool.

• Add cocoa powder to the flour and sift the mix of dry ingredients and keep it aside.

• Add sugar to the cooled butter /chocolate and mix it well with a spoon or a spatula.

• Add eggs one at a time and mix.

• Add the vanilla extract.

• Lastly add the flour/cocoa and mix. At this point, I found the mixture to be very thick, I added about 1/4 cup of water. Mix till everything is smooth and to the dropping consistency.

• Pour the mix in the greased baking tray. If using the brownie pan, add about 1/4 cup of the mix in each slot. Top with dark or white chocolate chips.

• Bake for 20 minutes at 180 degrees centigrade (350 degrees F)
• Turn off the oven and leave the tray/pan in the oven for about 5 minutes.
• Let the brownies cool in the tray for another 10 minutes.

• Then cut them to squares or take them out in a plate to serve.

Quantity:

• Makes about 9 pieces (2 inch squares about an inch thick)

• Serve them warm or room temperature or with icecream.

Notes:

• The sugar is very less in this recipe. You can increase the sugar to 1/2 or even 1 cup.
• I preferred slightly bitter taste with bits of sweetness from the white choco-chips.
• Use good quality dark chocolate, with no or very less sugar.
• You can also use nuts(walnut, pistachio, almonds) instead or with chocolate chips.