Eggless Chewy Brownies

My last year's Valentine special dish was Shahi Tukda . This year i made some chewy, soft brownies that are everyone's favourite!!! Errr, did i say "everyone's"? No, not hubby's!!! Hubby dearest is not much of a chocolate fan, (I never really understand these people who don't like chocolate :)), but i wanted to bake some brownies since a long time! So, i decided to make them today and treat myself :) After all, i am my first Valentine, isn't it? 

You all must be thinking me to be a narcissist, but let me mention here - It is extremely important to love self! To pamper oneself, to take time out for oneself, to think about our own self and do what one likes to do! No, this doesn't mean being selfish, but this way we get a chance to look at our own inner being with a different perspective. The result is pure utter happiness. As is the famous saying, "You can't keep others happy unless you are happy". So at times, it is important to wear what you like to, eat what you relish and do things what makes you ,"YOU".

Well, enough of philosophy. Back to the post, hubby did eat it with vanilla ice cream :) But the brownies tasted great on it's own too. 

Ingredients:

All purpose flour (Maida) - 1 cup

Powdered Sugar - 3/4 cup 

Baking powder- 1/2 tsp

Baking soda - 1/2 tsp

Cocoa powder -1/2 cup

Milk - 1 1/4 cup

Oil - 1/3 cup (i used normal vegetable oil, but you can use olive oil too)

Vanilla essence - 1/2 tsp

Almonds and/or walnuts - 1/3 cup chopped

Vinegar - 1 tsp

Dairy milk - 1 medium chopped 

Recipe:

Let all the ingredients be at room temperature.

Grease a baking tray and keep aside.

Preheat oven to 180 degree Celsius.

Put about 1 tsp of flour in the nuts and mix together to coat the nuts. This is so that the nuts don't sink in the cake when you mix them.

Sift together maida, baking powder, baking soda and cocoa powder twice.

Add powdered sugar to this mixture and mix well.

Mix together milk, vinegar, vanilla essence and oil.

Now fold in the dry mixture into the wet mixture and mix everything lightly. Don't over mix.

Add the nuts and chopped dairy milk.

Transfer the batter to the baking tray and bake till a toothpick comes out clean. Takes about 30 minutes. Start checking after 25 minutes and bake more if required.

Let it cool, transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before cutting into desired shape.

The home smells of a lovely aroma... Oh, i love baking :))

Happy Cooking :))

Eggless Chocolate nut cake : Cake-mania

Cakes, Cakes and more cakes : One of the reasons we got microwave this Diwali was to bake!!! Me and Hubby both love homemade cakes... we are not much fans of icing and creamy layered cakes but the spongy fluffy ones, just which can be eaten with tea or coffee or as a snack... Or can even be a dessert with an addition of ice cream.... :)
I had learnt cake making in my college days of Home-Science, and also taken one baking lesson ( on insistence of my friend Ayuushi Agarwal, and thoroughly enjoyed it too ), but that was long back ! Since almost a year i had not baked any cake, and making one was making me nervous... I hope i get all the ingredients right... I hope i don't make it too buttery... I hope i don't make it too powdery... With all these questions in mind, i still got all the ingredients ready and decided to give it a go with a simple egg-less chocolate spongy cake topped with dry fruits and nuts !
And this is how it turned out....

Yes, as much as it looks yummy, it tasted great too... why don't you make one and give it a try??

Ingredients :

All purpose flour ( maida ) - 100 gms 

Cocoa powder - 2 tbsp

Butter - 2 tbsp ( heaped )

Soda water - 1/2 cup

Condensed milk ( milkmaid ) - 1/2 tin ( 1 tin is 200 gms available in market, so calculate accordingly and keep the rest in freezer for future use )

Powdered sugar - 1 tsp

Soda bicarb ( Baking soda ) - 1/2 tsp ( store in fridge when opened )

Baking powder - 1/2 tsp ( store in fridge when opened )

Vanilla essence - 1/2 tsp ( powder or liquid )

Method :

Preheat oven at 180 degrees. 

Grease a cake tin or any baking dish with butter and dust it with flour ( make sure to remove the extra flour while dusting, otherwise the cake tends to get dry)

Sieve flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and baking powder together for 2-3 times so it is very fine.

Beat Butter and condensed milk together... Add sugar and beat again till its fluffy.

Add soda water and dry ingredients ( flour mixture ) alternatively and keep mixing.

After adding soda water , don't keep the mixture out for too long. Put it immediately in the oven.

Pour the batter into the greased cake tin and add the nuts on top. You can even mix the nuts in the batter, but they tend to sink in. Adding them on top gives it an aesthetic appeal too :)

Bake at 180 degrees for 25-30 minutes approx or till it's done. Check with putting a knife in the cake , if it comes out clean it's done. or else bake for some more time :)

Your yummyliscious chocolate delight is ready !!!!

Happy Baking :)