Colorful Gumdrops (Jujubes)

Jujubes would be the favorite chewy sweet of everyone. It brings back my sweet childhood memories! When I came across the recipe online, I was surprised that it could be made so easily at home. I immediately tried it and it came out perfect!

Badam Barfi | Almond Barfi

After a long gap, I got time to post a recipe here in my blog! And when it is after a long gap, it has to be a special sweet right?! So here is a very simple and absolutely delicious recipe that will make you drool over. 

It requires very few easily available ingredients and does not require ghee too. The richness of almonds will reflect in the taste of the dessert. 

Strawberry Yogurt

Hello all! Wish you all a very happy New Year :)

I've been quite held up with lots of cake orders off late and hence have not been able to post recipes quite often. After a long time, I am posting a recipe that does not involve baking ;)

Let's kick start the year on a sweet note!

Cake Pops

I have been doing a lot of special themed cakes in the last two months and always end up with some amount of cake crumbs after I carve the cakes. This time I made these colorful cake pops with the left over cake pieces/crumbs and chocolate ganache, for my little cousins.

These are not the typical, perfect cake pops and I have no specific measurements for this recipe, it was just an experiment, that ended up being successful :) 

So got any cake left after Christmas? Then try these colorful cake pops and let the celebration continue!

Kasi Halwa | White pumpkin halwa

Wondering why a traditional sweet recipe now? Ofcourse there is no reason required to have a sweet, but I tried this recipe on Diwali day and got time to post just now!! 

Kasi halwa is made with white pumpkin and is a traditional sweet that is served along with the grand breakfast during weddings and other family functions. It is pretty simple to make, do try it out and let me know how it turned out to be :)

Recipe source: Jeyashri's Kitchen

INGREDIENTS:

• White pumpkin - 2 cups, grated
• Sugar - 3/4th cup
• Ghee - 3 tablespoons
• Cashewnuts - a few
• Cardamom powder - a pinch
• Orange food color - a pinch

METHOD:

1. Grate the pumpkin. Slightly squeeze the water that is let out from the pumpkin. Do not overdo it
2. Heat a tablespoon of ghee in a pan and fry the cashewnuts. Keep aside
3. In the same pan, fry the grated pumpkin. Cook on a low flame, till the pumpkin is cooked well (About 15 minutes). The pumpkin has to become soft
4. Add sugar and food color at this stage. After adding sugar, the mixture will again become watery. Cook on a medium flame, adding ghee in intervals, till the halwa leaves the sides of the pan
5. Add cardamom powder and mix well
6. Remove from heat, garnish with fried cashew nuts and serve warm
7. You can also refrigerate it for 2 days, after it is completely cooled

See you all soon with another interesting recipe!

Hyderabadi Style Lunch menu - Vegetable Dum Biriyani and Khubani Ka Meetha

Traditional Hyderabadi Biriyani is prepared in a authentic way of slow cooking by sealing the pressure or dum. I have seen dum biriyani preparations only on television programs. I have not tasted it too! So I never thought about preparing a dum biriyani at home. 

Recently, after the festive season, there were lots of dry fruits at home. So I was hunting for a recipe with dried apricots and came across Khubani Ka Meetha in vegrecipesofindia. That's when I was hooked on to various vegetarian dishes from Hyderabad cuisine. Along with the dessert, I prepared this biriyani and it was a complete meal and a special one for a Sunday! The recipe might look quite long but do not panick, with proper planning and getting the ingredients ready, the process will be very simple. Try it out and do let me know how it turned out.

Khubani Ka Meetha (Dried apricot dessert)

Khubani Ka Meetha is an authentic dessert that is famous in Hyderabad. It is a perfect finish to a Biriyani meal :) Khubani is dried apricot and the sweet dish prepared with apricots is known as Khubani Ka Meetha. The amount of sugar added is very little (just about a teaspoon), as apricots have a natural sweetness in them. Enjoy the mild yet rich dessert warm or cold with fresh cream.

Gulab Semiya Kheer (Rose vermicelli kheer)

Mild sweet dish with a tempting rose fragrance, makes Gulab Semiya Kheer a divinely delicious dish. I came across this recipe in 101 diet dishes by Nita Mehta. The original recipe is a rice kheer flavored with rose. I replaced rice with vermicelli and was delightfully satisfied with the result. I had bookmarked this recipe almost a year back but I got to try it only recently when mom got these lovely paneer roses. The roses were fresh and had a wonderful fragrance. It is a very simple recipe and if you get these paneer roses, do try it out! So if you do not prefer high calorie loaded sweets for the festive season, then this is the best dish for you!

Traditional Boondhi Laddoo (A treasure from the kitchen of my great grand mother!)

Diwali and Laddoo are synonymous at my home! Yes, this is the only time in the year, when mom and grandma prepare this divine sweet. So we tend to call it Deepavali Laddoo rather than Boondhi Laddoo :) This is a traditional recipe that has been passed on from my great grand mother! Every year while making this recipe, my grandma would recall how great grandma used to prepare 200 laddoos all by herself!! I can't even imagine that. Usually we prepare around 50-75 laddoos, during Diwali, for distributing among our relatives/friends/neighbors. But this year, as I am already preparing different types of sweets, to post in the blog, grandma made only 15 laddoos. This recipe was completely prepared by her and my mom helped her in mixing and shaping the laddoos. So my contribution here was to just admire my kitchen queens prepare the sweet and happily click pictures! I am very happy to share this traditional recipe with you all! Just follow the steps and the result would be great!!

Badam-Walnut-Poha Laddoo (Easy and healthy)

Can you imagine a laddoo without ghee or sugar and yet taste delicious??!! Here it is a vegan laddoo that is low in fat but high on taste! Filled with the goodness of almonds, walnuts and flattened rice (poha/aval) and sweetened with palm sugar. An absolute healthy treat for the festive season :)

Recipe source: Swathi's Recipe

Eggless No-bake Paneer Cheesecake with Mothichoor crust and Gulab jamun topping!

Diwali is nearing and I am very happy to experiment in My Cheerful Kitchen :) Trying a fusion dessert was in my mind for a long time. Then when I came across the idea of an Indian version of cheesecake in Sweet n Savory, I immediately bookmarked it and what other ideal time than Diwali to try this out!! 

I have never tasted a cheesecake before. So this is the first time I am trying and tasting one. Usually cheesecakes have a biscuit crust, cream cheese filling and a glaze top. This Indian version uses Motichoor ladoo for the crust, paneer for the filling and topped with Gulab jamun! I am sure most of us would be left with ladoos and jamuns after Diwali and this is an interesting recipe to try out with the left over sweets! 

Celebrate Diwali in style with this delicious Indian Cheesecake!

Soft Mysore Pak - Krishna Sweets Style

Mysore Pak is a lip smacking South Indian sweet that is made with Gram flour(besan), ghee and sugar. It is very famous during weddings and festivals like Diwali. The traditional sweet is quite hard but it was the popular sweet store "Sri Krishna Sweets" that gave this dessert a soft twist! Yes the Krishna sweets version Mysore Pak is loved by all for its divine softness. I never imagined we could make it at home too! This is the first time I am trying a traditional sweet like Mysore Pak and it was a success! I found this recipe in sharmispassion.com and was happy to try out this festive season! I must accept that I have not reached the softness of Krishna sweets but still the taste matched and the sweet just melted into the mouth. Try this out for Diwali and make your guests hard to believe that it was made by you and not store bought (No offense to Sri Krishna sweets but there is no harm in trying out a small quantity at home too :) )

Short-cut Shahi Thukda with Apple Rabdi

Shahi Thukda or Double-ka-Meeta is a rich Mughalai dessert that is famous in Hyderabad. Traditionally it is prepared by deep frying bread in ghee, soaking them in sugar syrup and then served with a topping of rabdi (combination of thickened milk, sugar and saffron). I can't even imagine the amount of ghee that goes into deep frying a bread! I was delighted when I came across the idea of using rusk instead of deep-fried bread in kamalascorner.com :) I modified the recipe by including a low fat apple rabdi(inspired from Tarla Dalal). For the sugar syrup, I used left over gulab jamun syrup and hence that made my job even more easier. A very delicious recipe for the festive season that is also guilt free! 

Custard Powder Cookies

After a wonderful Dussera season, I am sure all of us are gearing up for Diwali :) I am planning to come up with some interesting recipes as MyCheerfulKitchen celebrates its first Diwali!!! 

Our lovely guests during Navaratri gifted us with loads of fruits and mom prepared yummy fruit custard. While I was thinking about what to do with the remaining custard powder, I came across an interesting cookie recipe in Jeyashriskitchen.com. The original recipe uses vanilla custard. You can use any flavor of your choice. I used strawberry flavor and the result was just YUMM!! This can also be a wonderful gift for Diwali. Make small cookies and pack them for your dear ones and celebrate the festival with lots of love and sweetness :)

Thinai Payasam | Foxtail millet Kheer

Recently, at home, we have started including a variety of millets in our daily cooking. Mom makes tasty and healthy dishes like upma, dosa, pongal etc with millets! So, as we gear up for the festive season of Navarathiri, I decided to try out something sweet with foxtail millet (Thinai in Tamil) and came across the recipe in Padhu's Kitchen. I have modified the quantities and proportion according to my preference. If you are looking for a healthy and tasty prasad (divine offering), for the festive occasion, then this is a perfect recipe for you!

INGREDIENTS:

• Foxtail millet/Thinai - 1 measure *
• Water - 4 measures
• Jaggery - 2 measures **
• Ghee - 1 tablespoon
• Cardamom powder - 1/4 teaspoon
• Raisins/Cashewnuts/Almonds - as needed for garnish
• Milk - as needed

* The proportion for Thinai : Water : Jaggery  is 1:4:3 , A quarter cup of Thinai will be perfect to serve 4 (In that case, you need to use 2 cups of water and 1/2 cup of jaggery)

** The jaggery I used was sweet enough. So this quantity was perfect for me, you can increase it to 2.5 measures

METHOD:

1. Melt ghee in a pan and fry the cashewnuts, almonds and raisins (I did not add cashews)
2. Remove the nuts from the pan and in the same pan, roast the millet, till a nice aroma arises. You can add more ghee if you wish to
3. Pressure cook the roasted millet with 4 cups of water for 4 whistles
4. In the meanwhile, add a quarter cup of water to jaggery and heat it for 2 minutes. Switch off the flame and allow the jaggery to melt. Then strain the jaggery to remove any impurities
5. Mix the cooked millet, melted jaggery and cook on a medium flame. Allow it to boil well
6. Now add the fried nuts, cardamom powder and remove from heat
7. Add milk according to the consistency and sweetness that you require (I added about half a cup of milk)
8. Serve warm or chilled :)

Ada Pradhaman

Ada Pradhaman is a traditional Kerala dessert, which is made out of ada (rice flakes) and coconut milk. It has a rich texture and tastes divine when served warm :)

I made ada pradhaman for Onam and all of us at home enjoed it!

Recipe Source: mariasmenu.com

Chocolate kozhukattai (Chocolate Dumplings)

I am back after a long vacation! It took me sometime to get back to routine and that is the reason for this delayed post in MyCheerfulKitchen. Wishing you all a very happy Vinayaka Chaturti! This time, I made chocolate kozhukattai for my dear modern Ganesha :) I am very happy to share the recipe with you all.

INGREDIENTS:

For the kozhukattai/dumpling:

• Rice flour - 1/2 cup
• Water - 3/4 cup
• Milk - 4 teaspoons
• Salt - a pinch
• Oil - 1 tablespoon

For the filling:

• Grated Coconut - 1/2 cup
• Ghee - 1 teaspoon
• Grated chocolate - 1/4 cup

METHOD:

1. Take a heavy bottomed pan and mix all the ingredients required for the kozhukattai/dumpling
2. On a low flame, keep stirring continuously. You will notice that the mixture will thicken
3. Once it starts to leave the sides of the pan and forms a soft dough consistency, switch off the flame. This should take about 3 to 5 minutes
4. Grease your hands with little oil and knead the dough to remove any lumps. Keep aside, closed
5. Heat a teaspoon of ghee in a pan and add coconut to it. Fry for a few minutes till a nice aroma spreads and the coconut changes color
6. Remove from fire and add in the grated chocolate. Mix well. Keep aside
7. Grease you hands with little oil and make small balls (pebble sized) of the dough
8. You can use a modak mould or shape them like you do for usual kozhukattai. Fill it with a spoon of the chocolate filling and and seal the edges
9. Grease an idly tray with oil and place these sealed kozhukattais in it
10. Steam the dumplings for 3 minutes and they are ready to be munched!!!!!!

Note: I used chocolate ganache instead of grated chocolate and hence the filling was a bit gooey but still tasted great! You can use grated chocolate/ chocolate syrup / melted chocolate according to your preference 

Apple Kheer

Happy Raksha Bandhan to all my dear brothers! Here is my sweet treat for this special occasion. 

About two years ago, I had come across this recipe in tarladalal.com and I did it for mothers day with just 2 teaspoons of sugar as my mom is diabetic. Now I have altered it with a little extra sugar for taste and added in more nuts, for the richness!

INGREDIENTS:

• Milk - 1 litre
• Apples - 3 medium
• Sugar - 1/2 cup or more according to your taste
• Almonds - 10
• Pistachios - 10
• Cardamom powder - 1/4 teaspoon
• Saffron strands - 3 - 5

METHOD:

1. Soak almonds in warm water for 15 minutes, remove the skin and finely chop them. Finely chop the pistachios and keep the nuts aside
2. In a heavy bottomed wide pan, boil milk in medium to high flame. This takes about 10 minutes
3. Take two to three tablespoons of warm milk and soak the saffron strands in them. Keep aside
4. Reduce the flame to low-medium and keep stirring the milk. Scrape the sides of the pan in between and stir in the contents
5. Continue this till the milk reduces to half. This takes about 20 minutes
6. In the meanwhile, core and peel the apples. You can either finely chop them or grate them
7. Cook the apples with a cup of water on a medium flame, till the apples get soft (about 10 minutes)
8. Add sugar to the milk that is reduced to half, mix well and cook for 2-3 minutes
9. Drain water from the cooked apples and add the apples to the milk-sugar mixture
10. Finally add the chopped nuts, saffron strands soaked in milk and mix well. Switch off the flame
11. You can either serve this kheer warm or chilled

NOTES:

• You can add a quarter cup of condensed milk to the boiled milk and this will thicken the milk faster. But make sure to reduce the sugar accordingly

Dates Kulfi (Low fat)

Last week mom got some Arabian dates while doing her regular grocery shopping. The big black dates were so sweet and tasty and that was enough to tempt me to try out some interesting recipe with it. 

I have already tried sticky date pudding before. So this time I wanted to make a dessert without any baking involved. While browsing the net, I found various recipes for dates milkshake, dates payasam/pudding/kheer etc. 

I finally decided to make my own dates payasam by adding all that I wished to! I used the one spoon of condensed milk that remained after doing toffees, then included some remaining fresh cream that was lying in the refrigerator and I wanted to use it in a day or two. So the final product was a creamy and yummy dates payasam/pudding/kheer or however you wish to call it. I left it to cool and I thought I could refrigerate it and serve it chilled. But I decided I would not blog it here, as there was nothing special in it. 

Then came my mom with a fantastic idea. As I had added fresh cream in the recipe, she asked me to freeze it in kulfi moulds and freeze it! And look at how it turned out! My God.. Moms' are always the best! Don't you agree?? 

INGREDIENTS: (Makes 7-8 mini kulfis)

• Dates - 5 big (deseeded)
• Milk - 1/2 cup
• Condensed milk - 1 tablespoon (absolutely optional, I just wanted to empty the remaining condensed milk in the fridge)
• Sugar - 2 teaspoons (This depends on your taste and also the sweetness of dates)
• Fresh cream - 1/2 cup (I used low fat fresh cream. You could use the full fat cream too)

METHOD:

1. Soak the dates in 1/4 cup of warm milk for 15 minutes
2. Grind the soaked dates into a smooth paste. You can use the milk in which you soaked the dates, for grinding
3. Boil the remaining milk and add the dates paste
4. Stir continuously and cook in low flame for 5 to 10 minutes
5. Add in the sugar, condensed milk (optional) and fresh cream
6. Cook for 2 minutes and once it starts to bubble, switch off the heat
7. Allow it to cool
8. Pour it in kulfi moulds and freeze it for a minimum of 5 to 6 hours or overnight
9. Just before serving, take a bowl of water and dip the moulds in the bowl of water for 10 seconds and then pull out the kulfi
10. That's it!! Start licking and enjoy this low fat but rich in taste dessert, absolutely guilt free!

Note - It is not necessary to freeze in kulfi moulds. If you don't have them, then you can use small mud pots (matka kulfi!!) or just freeze them in an air tight container and while serving, just scoop and serve like ice-cream!

Chewy Caramels (Toffee)

Thinking of caramel toffees, makes me feel nostalgic. During my primary school days, birthdays of friends would make any of us excited and the main reason behind that being the caramel toffees that the birthday boy/girl would give us! Apart from chewing the toffees, playing with the wrapper by pulling it from either side with all our strength was even more fun!

I had some condensed milk remaining after making caramel custard and while I was browsing for some interesting recipes with condensed milk, I stumbled upon a youtube video by Nigerian Food TV that showed a 3 ingredient easy toffee recipe. I tried it immediately and am very happy to share the recipe with you all here.

INGREDIENTS:

• Butter - 1 tablespoon
• Condensed milk - 300 grams (You can use one full tin too)
• Vanilla essence - 1/4 teaspoon (optional)

METHOD:

1. Melt butter in a pan (preferably non-stick pan) and add condensed milk to it
   
2. Keep stirring continuously and once the milk starts to boil, add the essence to it
   
3. Continue to stir and you will notice that the milk thickens and starts to leave the sides of the pan. Keep scraping the edges to avoid crystallization
   
4. After about 15 minutes, you will notice the color changing to light brown. Switch off the heat at this stage
   
5. Take an aluminium foil or butter paper and grease it. Spread the caramel on to it and level it with the back of a spoon
   
6. Allow it to cool for 15-20 minutes
7. Cut them into desired shapes
8. You can also wrap them as shown and it would be a perfect gift!

NOTE:

• It is better to wrap the caramels in wax paper or foil, put them in a zip pouch and refrigerate them. This is the best option for storage in any hot and humid regions (a useful tip from joyofbaking.com)

Yummy chewy caramels are ready! But BEWARE.. They can be really addictive!!