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.

Focaccia caprese / Rosemary and onion focaccia

Focaccia is the bread, I always wanted to make since I started baking. It is said to be a very easy one, and one of the very first bread, you should try when you start learning bread baking. I am learning to bake a bread a month, since I joined +Aparna Balasubramanian 's bread baking group and this is the bread we are baking in January 2014. Focaccia is kind of a flat bread which originated in Greece, though it is made in different ways in different parts of Italy. There is even a sweet version.

Focaccia Caprese

Rosemary and Onion focaccia

It looks similar to a pizza, some of the differences are that focaccia is usually has a thicker and more spongier crust and pizza has a thinner and crispier one. Focaccia is usually topped with herbs, oil and garlic and pizza has different toppings. Focaccia is served warm or at room temperature and pizza is generally served hot, right off the oven... well, that's the trivia and more about it here.....:)

I made Focaccia Caprese, a version of focaccia made in the Capri region of Italy. The toppings used for this version of focaccia are tomatoes, fresh basil and buffalo mozzarella cheese. I also had some fresh rosemary leaves, so I made another one with the topping of herbed oil, rosemary and onions. Both, versions of bread were very tasty and were gobbled down by all of us in matter of minutes. I served it with "Couscous and chickpea salad" and it was a wonderful meal. Recipe adapted from "The kitchen whisperer" 

Ingredients:

For the dough:

• 2 tsp instant yeast
• 1 and 1/2 tbsp of sugar
• 3 and 1/2 cups of bread flour(I used regular all purpose flour)
  
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1 to 1 and 1/2 cup warm water
• A little more olive oil to knead and brush on the dough (1-3 tsps)

For the herbed oil:

• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1 tbsp of mixed dried italian herbs like dried basil, oregano, etc
• 3-4 garlic cloves grated
• 1 tsp red chili flakes
• 1/2 tsp salt

For the topping:

• 2 tomatoes cut in thin slices
• buffalo mozzarella cheese cut to disks(I used the regular mozzarella)
• fresh basil leaves to garnish
• 2 sprigs rosemary
• 1 onion cut to discs, or chopped to thin long slices and separated.

Recipe:

• Grate the garlic and whisk all the ingredients for herbed oil together and keep it aside.

• You can make the dough with hand or by machine.
• Take the flour, sugar, salt, yeast, and oil in a food processor or a large bowl.

• Mix them well, with hands or a whizz in the machine for about 30-40 seconds.
• Add water and continue mixing, till it comes together as a non sticky dough.
• Take it out in a well oiled bowl and knead with hands for about 2-3 minutes till it comes together as a smooth ball of dough. 

• Keep it aside, covered with a plastic wrap or kitchen towel till it doubles up in volume. It will take about an hour or hour and half.

• I used a rectangular pan 22 cm by 18 cm and a square pan with 20 cm sides.
• Divide the dough according to the size of the pan u use. I divided the dough in 3 parts.

• Oil the pan and stretch the dough by patting it. Top with a tsp of olive oil and keep it to rise for another 20-30 minutes.

• Make some dents/dimples on the surface of the dough with your finger and pour about 2-3 tsp of herbed oil on top of the dough.

• Bake it for 18-20 minutes in a preheated oven at 210 degrees centigrade.

• Take the focaccia out when the top is golden.

• Get the ingredients ready for topping. Slice tomatoes and cheese to thin slices. Wash and clean the basil and rosemary. Chop the onions.

• Layer mozzarella slices, tomatoes, rosemary and onions and top with more herbed oil. 

• Increase the oven temperature to 230 degrees and bake for another 5 minutes till the mozzarella is melted and the top is golden brown.

• Serve cut into slices or squares warm or at room temperature.

Quantity:

• about 3 focaccia breads... 2 of 22cm*18cm and 1 square pan size of 20 cm.
• serves 4 people along with a side comfortably.

Notes:

• You can make 4 small individual serving breads. Divide the dough into 4 equal portions are roll them(press them) to 5 by 7 inch ovals.
• Cut them out in squares or slices for easy "pick me up" snack.

Gajar koshimbir (Carrot salad)

Koshimbir is a salad, served as a side in a full Maharashtrian meal.( Maharashtra-- a state in India). It is generally made with different crunchy vegetables like cucumber, carrots, tomato, onion, etc which are grated or chopped to tiny pieces and mixed with simple seasonings like salt, sugar and lime juice. Peanut powder or yogurt are also part of this salad. It tastes yummy just by itself, but I usually make it as a part of the meal with chapatis, dal, dry vegetable curry, etc.

For this recipe, I found the unusual purple carrot. (It looks a bit dark pink in pictures here) Any other variety of carrot like the regular orange one or the deep red one can also be used. I thought that purple is some new variety of carrot, but I googled for this information about them and was really surprised to know that they were grown as early as 2000 BC. The orange carrot that we know and use are of much newly modified variety. More information about PURPLE CARROTS HERE.

Ingredients:

• 1 large purple carrot (or orange or the red one)
  
• 1/2 -1 tomato
• 1 green chili
• a bunch of coriander 
• 1-2(or more) tbsp of roasted peanuts crushed to powder
• salt and sugar to taste (about 1 tsp each)
• juice of 1/2 lemon
• A seasoning made with 1/2 tsp of mustard seeds,1/4 tsp asafoetida and some curry leaves added to a heated  tsp of oil/ghee) --- optional

Recipe:

• Wash, peel and grate the carrot after chopping off the top part.

• Chop tomato and green chili.
• Add it to the grated carrot. 

• Add crushed peanut powder and mix it well with a spoon.

• Add salt, sugar and lemon juice.
• Mix it well.

• Garnish with chopped fresh coriander leaves.

• Serve it as an accompaniment to an Indian meal or as a meal by itself.

Quantity:

• 4-5 servings as a side to a meal with other accompaniments.
• 2 servings as just a meal by itself.

gajar koshimbir with black urad dal, chapati and onion

Notes:

• You can use other colored carrots.
• Increase chilies, peanut powder and seasoning according to taste.
• Chill it in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes or so before serving.
• You can add a "tadka" made with mustard seeds, asafoetida and curry leaves heated in some ghee or oil and pour it over the salad at the time of serving. I served it as is...without this optional seasoning.