Chocolate Cake Batter Cookies with Almonds

Chewy, fudgy and rich chocolate cookies loaded with Almond crunchy goodness.

The world of easy cookie recipe cant be any better than this. When you have the most easy recipe at your hand which would yield you the better than the best tasting cookies, you just cant be happier. I am a sucker of simple or rather I should confess “Simplest recipes”. Complex and elaborated recipes are for Chefs and Professional not for home bakers. We bake for taste, joy and above all love. Love for baking, love for the products, love for the entire home fill with the great aroma of baking and above all for people who gonna eat our dishes.

I have been a “Crazy Cookie Lady” lately. Whatever spared minutes and seconds I have got from my busy life, I spend it searching, surfing and reading cookie recipes. Chocolate, vanilla, whole wheat, coffee, fruit flavor based, crunchy, chewy or soft..there is no limit of variances. I came across cake batter cookies…Voila!! Well to tell you honestly it was not a new thing to me. Few cakes I made in my teens but more like cookies then cakes but I did not know at that time there could be such a thing like cake batter cookies.

This recipe is dedicated to all the people who think cookie baking is technical, go through the steps and you would be baking these lovely cookies even before you know it.

1 Pack Cake mix (I used Pillsbury’s chocolate cake mix)

½ cup refined oil (Canola, Sunflower anything will work)

1 Cup curd ( or 2 eggs)

1 Teaspoon Baking powder

1 Teaspoon Vanilla exract

1 Cup chopped Almond, take out 1/3 of this for decoration

Preheat oven to 180 °C.

Add all ingredients to a bowl and mix well. The mixture not be that wet and will take some efforts to get it all combine. Chill in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes.

Pour chopped almonds onto a plate.  Form dough into tablespoon-sized balls and roll in the almonds.

Line a tray with baking paper and place prepared dough balls on it giving enough space to expand.

Bake 10 minutes. Let cool on the sheet for another 10 -15 minutes after removing from the oven.  

You will not be able to resist these chewy and fudgy chocolaty bits.

The Magical GEMS Cookies

Want to see BIG twinkles in eyes and big WOW expression on your love ones face??? Continue reading…

Because here I present the simplified version of world famous M&M cookies (knows as GEMS here in India).

Would you not love to make something super special for your lovely family and friends this holiday season…Yes of course!!! That’s why when I was counting days for my year end vacations I thought of baking these cookies for my dear daughter as she is a big fan of Gems. I have to admit I still find it challenging to go through much elaborated cookie recipes. I had read so many M&M cookie recipes and I love Sally’s cookies Here. But I am not big fan of eggs in the cookies so I went through few more recipes and finally derived this one based on my liking and comfort.

The result is chewy, thick and delicious soft cookies loaded with chocolaty Gems. This recipe is no brainer such one bowl and you are done!! One caution – how your love to the dough and chill it for some time (at least 3 hour). A tip from Sally and I think it’s the best on when comes to cookies. Thanks Sally!!. Second have everything are room temperature.

2 Cup Flour

½ cup Granular Sugar

½ cup Brown Sugar

½ cup Butter

½ cup Curd

½ Teaspoon Baking Soda

½ Teaspoon Baking Powder

½ Teaspoon Vanila Extract

1 Cup chopped Gems, few unchopped for decoration

All you need to do is

1.    Cream the butter for 2mins until light and then add both the sugars. Beat till its light and pale in color. Add curd and vanilla extract and beat for another minute.

2.    Shift the flour, baking soda and baking power together.

3.    Add this dry mixture in the wet mix small amount at a time and mix till the all of the flour mixture is incorporated. You will get a dough, which is quite easy to handle. If you find yours too stickly don’t worry and if its too hard you and sprinkle a tablespoon milk to loosen it up.Try not to over work the dough, you will not get the right texture.

4.    Bring the dough together by gently working on it and make a ball, wrap it with cling film and keep in the refrigerator for chilling for atleast three hours.

5.    Pre-heat the oven at 180 Degree C. Take out the dough from refrigerator and make 11-12 dough balls. Line the baking tray with baking paper and place them slighting apart from each other. You might need to press the dough balls a bit to help them get the cookie shape sooner if the dough it too hard after chilling.

6.    Bake at 200 degree C for 15-20 minutes until light golden brown. After 1o minutes you can quickly stick the Gems on the cookies for looks. Be careful as everything would be super-hot at this time.

7.    Cool for 10 minutes before serving. I have observed the good crunch and chewieness get set after  the cookie is cooled enough.

Make this with love and share with your circle of love and lot’s of twinkles in the eyes and wows will make you feel very happy. Happy holidays!!!

Molten Lava Cake - Oozy surprise

Welcome to chocolate indulgence. Molten lava cupcake is all about super rich chocolate taste and an encapsulated molten center in its super gooey texture.

Let me begin with asking you a question. Do you like surprises?

Who does not!!! And that’s exactly I adore about lava cup cake. Best enjoyed just out of oven and when you cut into it and molten chocolate oozes out….Yummmm!!

I don’t know why but I just feel excited every single time. The joy get triple fold when your home baked lava cup cake behaves the same. I have to admit I used to intermediated thinking about how the bake such a thing. I have gone through lot of recipes of lava cake but I was just scared to try them as most of them are too technical for me. Then I stumbled upon this super duper simple recipe…and wasted no time in embracing it my own. Simple chocolate cake better play with some simple trick and Viola!!! Done.

Try this out…take my words you will love it.

¼ cup   Chocolate chips

¼ cup   Cherry filling

2 cups   Refined flour

1 tsp   Baking powder

¾tbsp   Sodabi-carb
1cup   curd
A few drops  Vanilla essence
1cup   Milk
¾cup   White butter
¾cup   Caster sugar
6 tbsp   Cocoa powder

1. Preheat oven to 170*C. Grease a cake tin and line it with butter paper. Mix the chocolate chips with cherry filling and keep aside.

2. Sift flour, baking powder, soda bicarb and cocoa powder together. Heat the milk till it is lukewarm.
3. Whisk the curd, caster sugar, butter and vanilla essence together till smooth and frothy.

4. Fold in the flour mixture alternating with milk. Mix quickly but gently to a smooth batter.
5. Pour into well-greased muffin moulds and spoon chocolate chips & cherry filling mixture in the centre and bake on the center rack for 8 minutes.
6. Check the cake, remove cake from the oven and after a few seconds, demould it and serve

Chocolate Glazed Doughnuts

Ever since I have made Doughnuts at home (Yes, I can proudly say that) my husband is just not interested to eat any store brought one (Yes I am writing from Cloud number nine ;)) and Now I am making them quite often.

This time I thought to upgrade them with a glaze and no marks for guess, Chocolate is the most obvious one.

How to make doughnuts part is not changed at all and here is your Recipe of doughnut.

 

Sky is the limit when it come to glaze these doughnuts, its just the matter of what you find handy to play around with. As we don’t get many exiting sprinkle options here in grocery next door or even in Super markets. I would insist on sticking to using only good tasting options rather than anything available.

I used plane dark chocolate glaze which is super easy and taste good.

All you need is:

1 Cup Chopped Dark Chocolate

½ Cup Unsalted Sugar

1 Cup Confectioner Sugar

1 Tbsp warm water

Melt the butter and chocolate together in the microwave for 2 minutes giving a stir every 30 sec .

Add sugar and water in small amounts and mix well after every addition to form a nice glossy not so thik paste.

Dip the doughnuts one at a time and keep on a wire rack to catch the access.

Let it cool for a while, you can place the tray in refrigerator for 5 min for quick set.

If you want to perk them  some little sprinkles, it will be fun.

Peanut Butter, Oats and Chocochip cookies

It’s true that love has no definition, no boundaries, no rule and not even remains the same forever. Look back in your life and you would know what I mean. As a child we loved our parents and thought there in nothing beyond their love, then came our siblings and friends. In our teens we make a picture of love of our life and how we would be when in love. When in love we evolve as well as let go a lot. We always want to be in love yet so much change around this emotion. From one dimension to other love is so dynamic. What is so amazing that I find its true for my love of baking as well (Burrrrrrhhhhhhh…..) Lol!!! I started with cakes, which lead to cupcakes and now I am more drawn to cookies now days. Every cookie I taste, see or read about just want to bake. So I came across this flourless peanut butter recipe and jumped on it.

 

Though I am not a Peanut Butter fan specially the store brought one, but started making it at home for my daughter after one of my friend told me about this super easy recipe she use to make at home. Believe me, I did not know one can make Peanut Butter at home and second it could taste far better than store brought.

 

 

As my Peanut butter was sorted it was so easy to get on to make cookies. What we are aiming is to get thick, soft and chew cookies, which will remain soft even after 3-4 days after baking but I can bet they will not last that long. The key to make chew and soft cookies is to use brown sugar. It not only give a good color but the nice chewy texture too. So please don’t compromise on it. I have used egg, if you don’t want to use leave and use a splash of milk instead.  Cooling the dough is the essential step of making this cookie so please doesn’t skip it and give at least 30 min of chilling in the fridge. 2 hours to overnight rest will be even better.

For Peanut Butter

2 Cups Peanut

1 Tbs Butter

½ Tsp Cinnamon Powder

2 Tbs Honey (Optional)

Heat a pan and melt the butter. Add peanuts and road them evenly. Add cinnamon when peanuts are light brown.

Add honey if desire. It will give nice sweetness to the peanuts and enhance the flavor of cookies. It’s important to keep stirring the mixture till it cools off completely otherwise the peanuts will get stick to the pan and will form big lumps.

So next step process the cooled peanuts in a processor till its smooth and creamy. That’s it, you have a fresh and super tasty peanut butter.

For Cookies

2/3 cup (58g) Rolled oats

1/2 tspn ground cinnamon

1 tspn baking soda

1 large egg

1 cup (250g) Peanut Butter at room temperature

6 Tbsp Brown sugar 

1/2 cup Dark chocolate chips

Mix the oats, cinnamon and baking soda together in a bowl.

 In another bowl beat the egg. Mix in the peanut butter and brown sugar with a spatula until combined. Pour in the dry ingredients and slowly mix until everything is combined. It will a thick mixture, if you use peanut butter at room temperature if will easier to combine everything.

 Fold in the chocolate chips.

Chill the cookie dough for 2 hours ideally and minimum 30 minutes. This step is a must.

Preheat oven to 350F degrees. Line large baking sheets with  parchment paper.

 Scoop the dough, about 1.5 Tablespoons each, onto prepared baking sheet. Place the dough in the form of mounds to get think cookie and do not press them down or spread at this point.

Bake in two to three batches depending upon your tin size, just making sure you are giving enough space for cookies.

Gently press down on the dough mounds with the back of a spoon to slightly flatten.

Bake for 12 to 14 minutes for soft yet crispy cookies.

Allow the cookies to cool for 10 minutes on the baking sheet before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. 

Keep them in air tight container and they will be fresh for a week. Enjoy your flourless thick and chewy cookies with coffee. Kids will love them with a glass of milk.