This is a continuation post of the Almond Joy inspired treats. The brownies were just a side treat but here’s what I did for S’s birthday cake. It’s the richest, softest vanilla cake I’ve ever made. It’s four layers of cake with coconut almond filling, coconut fudge filling, and topped with ganache.

I happened to have a can of Coco Lopez which is basically cream of coconut. I thought if I incorporated it into the cake I would get a really strong coconut flavor. So I ended up finding this recipe from here and using it for my cake. It turned out the cream of coconut did not flavor it much but i think  it made the cake really really soft. The recipe also calls for mixing in egg whites separately which always makes cakes fluffier too. It was not exactly what I was going for but it was one good tasting cake.

For the fillings, I made two. Unfortunately, somewhere between making the cake and writing this post, I misplaced the paper on which I had written ingredient amounts. Oopsies! I know this might not be what you were looking for but it is only missing the amount of coconut and almonds so you can always just adjust to your liking.

Recipe
1 cake recipe found here
Sliced almonds

Coconut Almond Filling
1 cup heavy cream
3 Tbs confectioner’s sugar
shredded sweetened coconut (add the amount to your liking)

Whip the cream and sugar  to medium to stiff peaks. Fold in the shredded coconut.  Set aside.

Fudge  Filling
1 1/2 Tbs unsalted butter
3 ounces of semi sweet baking chocolate
1/4 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups of confectioners sugar

Melt the butter and the chocolate together. Let it cool slightly and stir in the milk and vanilla. Stir in the confectioner’s sugar. Set aside.

Slice the two cake rounds into half for a total of four layers. Layer half the coconut filling over the first layer and sprinkle with sliced almonds. Top it with next cake layer and spread the chocolate filling over it, sprinkling more almonds over it. Repeat the first layer for the third layer and top it with last layer of cake.

Ganache Topping
100 ml heavy cream
100 g chocolate, chopped or use chips

Heat the cream to a boil and pour it over the chopped chocolate. Slowly stir with a whisk until it comes together and pour it over the center of the cake. Make sure the cake is on something that will catch the drips!. Let the cake set and add sprinkles if you like.

This is not the best photo in the world but I do not always like to spoil special moments by trying to get the best shot or save occasion cakes for blog photos. This will give you some idea of what the inside looks like…

As promised in my last post, I’ve brought to you a candy bar inspired recipe. Last week, was S’s birthday, so I started off with his favorite candy bar, Almond Joy, as inspiration. So the first recipe is for these lovely brownies. I was worried at first that the chocolate over powered the coconut flavor but it turned out to be a nice balance. S certainly enjoyed them but he preferred to add additional almonds as he ate them.I guess “sometimes you feel a little like a nut” but sometime you feel even more like a nut. Me? Well, you know I’m all about presentation. I like the look of the brownies when each square is topped with just one almond.  I thought about chopping the almonds and spreading them evenly over the coconut or using sliced almonds instead but that just seemed less like the candy bar. Maybe next time though! (These are not exactly perfect. See my presentation note at the end.)Anyways, here you go Almond Joy fans…

Recipe (makes about 40 two inch squares)

For the brownies
2 cups of semi sweet or bittersweet chocolate chips
1 cup unsalted butter
5 eggs
2 ¼ cup sugar
1 cup all purpose flour, sifted
¼ cup cocoa powder, sifted

Butter and line a 12 x 17 inch pan with parchment paper and preheat oven to 350ºF. Heat the chocolate and butter in a double boiler until the butter is just melted. Mix the eggs and sugar until light and fluffy. Pour the chocolate and butter mixture into the egg mixture. Add the sifted flour and cocoa. Mix to just combine. Spread the batter in the pan. Bake for 10-15 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let it cool in the pan.

For the coconut topping
1 1/2 Tbs butter
3 cups shredded unsweetened coconut
1 cup sugar
1 cup milk plus possibly more

In a bowl, mix the milk and coconut. Melt the butter in a skillet and mix in the coconut. Add the sugar.  Stir over medium heat until the sugar has melted and mixture has thickened. Depending on how dry your coconut is to begin with, you may need to add more milk a little at a time. Spread the mixture over the brownies and let it cool.

*For the garnish
1/4 cup chocolate chips, melted
30-50 whole almonds

Top with almonds. (I did one per square). Drizzle the melted chocolate. After the chocolate sets, cut into squares.

*Presentation: You may want to completely cool your tray and let it chill in the refrigerator. Then cut it into squares before garnishing. Chilling makes the cuts cleaner for better presentation and the chocolate drizzle won’t break up while cutting the way mine did.

I’m always searching for inspiration. I probably spend more time than I should on places like Foodgawker and Pinterest.  But sometimes great inspirations can come from things we’ve had again again, like candy bars! Last week, I wanted to make some desserts for S’s birthday so I thought about candy bars.

Almond Joy is one S’s favorites. I’m a big fan of coconut, chocolate and almonds too. So I used this as my inspiration for making some treats that I will be sharing here this week. Stay tuned for some almond joyalicious desserts.

In the mean time, here are some things to ponder. What candy bars would you like to see turned into a dessert? Check out these links from other food bloggers who have been inspired by candy bars…

Butterfinger Cheesecake from Baker’s Royale
Snickers Macaroons from 6 Bittersweets
Twix Caramel Cookie Bars from Dine and Dish

Searching for inspiration, I asked V what his favorite kind of cake would be. “Vanilla and chocolate mixed mommy”. And so began my search for the perfect marble pound cake recipe. I started with a base recipe from culinary school and my fancy bundt pan. The result? A cake that was way too buttery and not in a good way.

I sometimes wonder if over buttering the pan ruins the flavor of cakes too. Unfortunately, I see no way out of over buttering this particular bundt pan because there are so many nooks in it. Bottom line, I did not love this cake. Even V only took a bite or two and S tunneled out the inside only because the outer part of the cake just wasn’t very good.So I decided to try it again and this time stayed away from the pretty bundt pan. After much research, I came up with a recipe using less butter and incorporated some orange zest to enhance the flavor. This cake was much better and V ate the whole slice!Taking photos with V around can be quite a challenge. Sometimes it’s just easier to do as he says. So if the superheroes need their picture taken too then a superhero shot it is!

Recipe (makes an 8 1/2 by 4 1/2 loaf pan)

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2/3 cup unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
1 Tbs vanilla
zest of one orange
2 eggs
1/3 cup buttermilk
112 g bittersweet chocolate, melted

Butter a loaf pan and line it with parchment paper. Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt together in a bowl and set aside. In an electric mixer beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Mix in the zest and vanilla. On a lower speed, add the eggs one at a time until fully incorporated. Add the dry ingredients and buttermilk in three additions alternating between the two. Mix until just combined.

Set aside two thirds of your batter and mix the melted chocolate into the remaining third. (I weigh my mixing bowl empty and with the batter so I can calculate exactly how much to take out.) Make a checker board pattern by spooning in your two batters on the bottom of your loaf pan. Layer another pattern on top and alternate the batters so chocolate is on top of vanilla and vice versa. Using a butter knife, swirl the batters once in each direction. Do not over swirl or your cake will not look marbled. Bake at 350 °F for 50-60 minutes or until the a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean. Let the cake cool slightly and remove from the pan.

Chocolate babka, a sweet yeasted cake filled with chocolate and cinnamon. It just sounds so delicious. I’ve read about others making it on several blog sites. Quite often the post starts off something like this… “The only reference I have to chocolate babka comes from Seinfeld”….yadda yadda yadda…

Well, not to sound like everyone else but it’s true. Most Seinfeld fans will say that it is their only reference to babka. It’s amazing what a TV sitcom can do for food, isn’t it? For me, Seinfeld alone is responsible for introducing mulligatawny soup and Drake’s coffee cake. Oh and I can’t help but think of the show everytime I see a Junior Mint, black and white cookie or a nonfat frozen yogurt place. I suppose this is sounding a bit crazy to some of you and if you’ve never seen the show, I am probably boring you. So on with the babka!

I’ve been wanting to make this for a very long time now. So what’s taken me so long? Well, the only recipe I thought looks good comes from Martha Stewart and it bakes three loaves! Not having made it before, I did not want to scale down the recipe. I’ve been hesitant because I was not sure what I’d do with that much babka. I finally decided to go with it and assumed I would find a takers for the extras. That was not hard at all!

Recipe Notes:
If you are planning on trying this, give  yourself lots of time. The dough needs time to rise twice and the baking time is long. I ended up using mini chocolate chips instead of finely chopped chocolate. If you can, I would definitely finely chop the chocolate. I think this will give it a smoother texture. It may seem like you’ve made a lo of streusel topping but it all melts in and makes it even better so don’t skip it!

Recipe (makes three 9 by 5 by 2 3/4 inch loaves) from Martha Stewart’s Baking Handbook

For the babka
1 1/2 cups warm milk
1/2 ounce of active dry yeast
3/4 cup plus a pinch of sugar
2 whole eggs
2 egg yolks
6 cups all purpose flour plus more for dusting
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup unsalted butter, cut into 1 inch pieces, plus more for greasing

In a small bowl, sprinkle the yeast and a pinch of sugar into the milk. Stir and let it sit for five minutes until foamy. In a medium bowl, whisk together sugar, eggs, egg yolks, and yeast mixture. In an electric mixer with a paddle attachment, combine the 6 cups of flour and salt. Add the egg mixture and mix on low until the flour is incorporated, about 30 seconds. Change to the dough hook. Add 1 cup of butter and beat until incorporated and smooth, about 10 minutes. Turn out the dough onto a floured surface, knead a few times until smooth. Place the dough in a buttered bowl and turn to coat. Cover with plastic wrap and let it sit in a warm place to double in bulk. (About an hour)

For the filling and egg wash
2 pounds semisweet chocolate, finely chopped
1 cup sugar
1 Tbs plus 1 tsp cinnamon
3/4 cup butter
1 egg
1 Tbs heavy cream

In a bowl stir together the chocolate, sugar and cinnamon. Using a pastry blender (or cake smoother) cut in the butter until combined. I another small bowl, whisk the egg and heavy cream and set aside.

For the streusel topping:
1 2/3 cups confectioners sugar
1 1/3 cup all purpose flour
1 1/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

Combine the sugar and flour in a large bowl. Cut in the butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

Assembly:
Generously butter three 9 by 5 by 2 3/4 inch loaf pans and line with parchment paper leaving a 1-2 inch overhang on the sides. Brush more butter on the parchment. Punch down your dough and transfer it to clean surface and let it rest for five minutes.

Cut the dough into three equal parts. On a floured surface, roll out one piece into a 16 inch square, about 1.8 inch thick. Brush the edges of the dough with the egg wash, crumble one third of the filling mixture over the dough leaving a 1 inch border. Roll up the dough into a tight log, then twist it five-six times. Brush the top of the log with egg wash and sprinkle some filling along the length. Fold the log into a horseshoe shape, then cross the right half over the left. Pinch it together to form a figure eight. Twist the whole thing again 1-2 times and fit it into the pan. Repeat with remaining dough.

Preheat the oven to 350°F, with a rack in the lower third of the oven. Brush the top of each loaf with egg wash and sprinkle each with a third of the streusel topping. Loosely cover each with plastic wrap and let them rise in a warm place until the dough is expanded, about 40 minutes.

Bake the loaves, rotating half way through until golden, about 55 minutes. Reduce the oven temperature to 325°F and bake until the loaves are deep golden, 20 minutes more. If it is browning too quickly, loosely cover with foil. Transfer pans to a wire rack and let them cool. Wrap in plastic and store at room temperature for up to 3 days.

I’ve taking a break from my kitchen this week so there has not been much baking going on here. However, I wanted to share some exciting news with you and wish everyone Happy Holidays. First, I hope everyone had a fabulous week enjoying the holiday season. I certainly did since I was away some place warm enjoying the sun, water, and cool drinks. But, I’m back now and looking forward to starting the new year. Hopefully, this will be a better blogging year than the last. Lol! I know, I keep saying that! As always, I am so thankful to have such wonderful readers, Twitter friends and Facebook fans and hope you will continue to stick with me. Happy holidays to all of you. Enjoy what’s left of 2011 and I wish you the best for 2012.

And now for the news…A few weeks ago I was contacted by the Hindustan Times to do a feature for DIY Christmas cookies in their city supplement for Delhi. I was completely swamped and unprepared with any ideas but the writer doing the feature was quite persistent and I knew this was not an opportunity to let go. So I did a redo on my chocolate naan khatai by making a colorful Christmas version. For those of you that missed that post, naan khatai are Indian sugar cookies that are eggless and spiced with cardamom. The newspaper article features a step by step photo tutorial on how to make the naan khatai pinwheels you see here. They have an e-paper edition and you can view the feature here. So there it is, my first published recipe in print! I can’t tell you how good it feels.

It’s far from spring cleaning time but I’ve been cleaning and de-cluttering the house for a while now.  I figured it’s the best time to make some donations and try to sell off some unused items. Anyways while sifting through various random papers, I came across this recipe for spiced walnuts that I wrote down years ago from someone else. What great timing too! Cinnamon, cloves, and sugar are perfect flavors for the season. The nuts make a great snack for a holiday party…How about packaging them up for nice holiday treat for a friend…Or like a I do with a lot of things, toss it into your ice cream…Whatever you decide, I promise this easy to make treat will not disappoint you.

Recipe:

Unfortunately, I have decided to remove the recipe from this post. I did not remember where it originally came from and realized later that it belongs to someone who did not want it known. However, I’ve left the photos and ideas as holiday inspiration to use for your own version of candied nuts.

Occasionally, I try to fuse Indian flavors into my desserts or turn my traditional Indian recipes into something not so traditional. I’ve never truly loved traditional Indian sweets but I am learning to experiment with flavors more and more. Cardamom has become a favorite. 

Gnaana is an Indian parenting resource with a great retail site as well as a blog that addresses how to incoporate traditions into our multicultural lives. They have been having fusion food week on their blog. I’m excited to be a contributer and you can read all about my  inspiration for these Cardamom Chocolate Truffles and find the recipe there.

Links to other fusion recipes by Dessarts:
Chocolate Burfi
Chocolate Naan Khatai
Rangoli Cookies

I love pumpkin and the smell of apples and cinnamon together. This is what obviously comes to mind when trying to think up a Thanksgiving dessert. But aren’t we forgetting something? There are some gorgeous pears out there right now. So, while I’m not quite ready for my peppermint, I’m saying goodbye to my pumpkins. Hello pears and warm fall spices…It’s a bit last minute, but if like me, all you have in your fridge are pears, then try this out. Upside down cakes are not as hard as they look. Just don’t use a spring form pan. I’ve had the sauce leak out and make a mess in my oven.

Recipe (adapted from Williams Sonoma)

1 cup unsalted butter, divided
1/2 cup light brown sugar
3/4 cup granulated sugar plus 1 Tbs
2-3 ripe pears
1 tsp cinnamon, divided
1 tsp ground cardamom, divided
1/4 tsp ground clove, divided
1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
3/4 cup whole milk
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 large eggs

Grease a 9 inch round pan with butter and line the bottom with parchment. Grease it with butter again. In a small saucepan combine 1/4 cup unsalted butter with 1/2 cup brown sugar. Mix on low heat until the butter and sugar are melted. Pour it into your cake pan and evenly cover the bottom.

Peel, core and thinly slice your pears. Sprinkle them with 1 Tbs sugar, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/2 tsp cardamom, 1/8 tsp clove. Toss to evenly coat. Arrange them over your sauce in the cake pan in a nice fanned out design. Remember the arrangement will show as the top so be neat!

Combine the flour, baking powder, salt and remaining spices in a large bowl. In an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time. Add the vanilla. On low speed alternate adding the dry ingredients with the milk in two batches. Beat on medium for 2 minutes.

Pour the batter into the pan. Bake the cake until the a tester comes out clean, about 60-70 minutes.

As soon as the pan is cool enough to touch, place a plate over the cake and invert the cake onto the plate. Gently shake the pan to release and carefully remove the parchment paper if it sticks. Serve and serve with ice cream if desired.

Enjoy! Thanks for stopping by and have a very Happy Thanksgiving.

For the first time ever, V asked me if we could make some cookies. He almost never expresses any interest in my baked goods. (So odd for a kid, but he does not have much of a sweet tooth.) It was too cute. How could I say no? So we made some cookies together.

Sometimes the best recipes are the ones right in front of you. I’ve made this recipe from the back of Nestle’s butterscotch morsel package so many times and it never disappoints. They have a great texture from the oatmeal. I like them just as much as chocolate chip cookies and I LOVE a good basic chocolate chip cookie. The only change I make is substituting some of the butterscotch morsels for chocolate ones or sometimes just adding chocolate ones to the full amount of butterscotch morsels.

The recipe works really well, but I thought it was time to experiment a little.  I substituted about half the all purpose flour for atta (Indian whole wheat flour used for making rotis). Why not? It’s much better for you. It turned out that these cookies are so rich in butterscotch flavor and oatmeal texture that the flour substitution is not noticeable. So here is the slightly healthier chocolaty version of Nestle’s oatmeal butterscotch cookies.

Recipe (makes 4 dozen cookies)
adapted from Nestle

3/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 cup butter
3/4 brown sugar
3/4 sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla
3 cup quick oats or old fashioned oats
1 cup butterscotch flavored morsels
2/3 cup chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 375°F. Combine the flours, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt in a large bowl. Beat the butter, sugars, eggs, and vanilla in an electric mixer. Gradually beat in the the flour mixture. Stir in the oats and the morsels by hand. Drop cookies a tablespoon at a time onto cookie sheets. Bake for 9-10 minutes or less for chewier cookies.