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Cookies, Cakes n Cavities, Decadent Desserts, Lockdown Recipes

Easy Caramel Custard

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This one’s hands down, one of the simplest, can’t-go-wrong desserts! It’s simple, basic, uses 4 everyday ingredients and goes down well on hot summer days or cool winter afternoons. Give it a go if you’ve got time on your hand!
“Life’s too short! Just buy those shoes, drink that wine and eat that caramel custard”
The Fact: Caramel custard is known by different names around the world; notably, ‘crème caramel’ or ‘crème renversée au caramel’ in France and most of Europe, ‘flan’ in Spain (where it originated), ‘crema caramella’ in Italy and ‘purin’ in Japan. It’s easy to confuse this dessert with crème brûlée (a variant of the dessert with a hard caramel top), which seems pretty similar, but isn’t.
The Inspiration: One Sunday afternoon, the husband and I got into one of those random, benign discussions-turned-arguments, which most couples have probably encountered… you know the one about whose turn it is to make breakfast. When these post-argument silences kick in, I’ve noticed that my almost-immediate reaction is to jump into the kitchen and whip up a dessert that’s been on my mind. And though the objective is always to eat most of it and just find bliss, it somehow finds its way to the husband’s stomach and suddenly all is forgotten and everyone lives happily ever after! That’s just what happened a few weeks ago and voila, there was caramel custard in the house… 😉

The Ingredients

Makes about one 10×10″ baking dish of dessert

  • 2/3rd + ½ cup sugar
  • 2 ½ cups milk (I used whole milk. You can substitute 1 cup with fresh cream for a richer dessert)
  • 4 eggs
  • 1 tsp vanilla essence or 1 vanilla pod
  • Optional: 2 – 3 pepper corns

The Method

Setting the caramel

Preheat the oven to 180C or 350F.

Place 2/3rd cup of sugar in a skillet or any thick-bottomed pan. Heat the pan on slow to medium heat (not on high because sugar burns quite quickly). Leave undisturbed (or swirl but don’t stir) as the sugar melts. This ensures that the sugar melts evenly and the caramel develops an even colour. However, if you’re running low on patience (or if you want a lighter colour), add a tablespoon or two of water to get the sugar to start caramelizing faster.

Once the sugar has fully caramelized and has developed that deep brown colour, remove from heat and pour directly into a baking dish or into individual ramekins. Swirl the dish/ramekins to evenly coat the bottom with the caramel. Also make sure you hurry with this process because the caramel will start to harden, after which it doesn’t flow easily.

Leave aside to cool.

Setting the caramel for caramel custard

Notice the height of the caramel in the baking dish in this image:

Caramel set aside to harden for caramel custard

Making the custard

Microwave or heat the milk in a saucepan on medium heat. If you’re using fresh milk, make sure you boil it well and then leave it to cool a little. If you’re using pre-boiled milk, simply heat it up, but do not boil it.

If you’re using vanilla bean instead of vanilla essence, add it in to the milk at this point to extract its flavor. I also threw in 2 – 3 pepper corns for added flavor.

Set aside to cool.

The milk and vanilla set aside to cool for caramel custard

Next, break the eggs in a separate bowl. I added a teaspoon of vanilla extract to it as well.

Eggs for caramel custard

Beat the eggs with the remaining ½ cup of sugar. When it’s light and foamy, add the warm milk to the eggs in a thin, steady stream. If your milk is too hot at this point, your eggs will scramble; you do not want this to happen.

If you’re using vanilla essence, add it in now and stir gently to incorporate everything.

Strain the custard.

Assembling and baking the dessert

Make a water bath: Take a tray that’s bigger and wider than the baking dish in which you’ve set the caramel. The tray should also have high sides. Fill the tray with about 1” of hot water. Place the baking dish/ramekins with the set caramel into the water bath. Make sure that the hot water level in the tray is not so high that it spills into the baking dish; so adjust the water level accordingly. Remember that the water bath is used to prevent burning and to ensure even cooking.

Caramel set and placed in a water bath for caramel custard

Check to see that your caramel is set or is hard to touch. By now, it should be. Now, gently pour the strained custard mixture into the baking dish (not the water bath tray), over the set caramel. Place the water bath containing the baking dish in the oven.

Bake for about 30 – 40 minutes at 180C or 350F, or until the centre of the custard is firm but slightly wobbly. Don’t overcook the dessert or you’ll end up with tough custard instead of a silky, tender one.

Remove from the oven and set aside to cool to room temperature.

Serving the dessert

Caramel custard is best eaten chilled. However, if you want to serve it warm, place the baking dish/ramekins in a cold water bath for about 10 minutes. Always make sure that the water level of the water bath is lower than the rim of your baking dish. Now, run a knife between the custard and edges of the dish/ramekins. Place the serving dish/dishes upside down over the baking dish/ramekins and quickly flip the two. Serve upturned with the caramel side up. The caramel will have turned into a delicious syrupy glaze.

Caramel custard

If you’re serving the dessert chilled, allow the baking dish to cool before refrigerating it. Refrigerate for a few hours until it has chilled completely. Serve by running a knife between the custard and edges of the dish/ramekins and then flipping the dessert onto the serving dishes, with the caramel side up.

Caramel custard

For an extra treat, serve with fruit or whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.
Bon appétit! 🙂

 

Cookies, Cakes n Cavities, Decadent Desserts, Lockdown Recipes, Tea-time Titbits, Vegetarian Varieties

Banoffee Pie

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Make this one out of love for the name of the dessert, if not the banana-toffee combination 🙂

 

“Q. Ever wondered where the phrase “to go bananas” came from?
A. Why try when banana pancakes, choco-banana cakes, banana splits, and banoffee pies are all capable of driving you crazy?”
The Fact: Banoffee Pie was invented in 1972 at the Hungry Monk restaurant in England. It is rumored to be Mrs Thatcher’s favourite pudding.
The Inspiration: It was 10pm on the 11th of August, the eve of my birthday. As weird as it sounds, I love baking my own birthday cake, but this time, I wanted something different… “Why not some pie?”… thought I (rhyme attempt alert!).

The Ingredients

Makes 12 – 15 servings
The Base
  • 100 g melted butter
  • 250 g digestive biscuits; crushed (wrap up the biscuits in a soft cloth and beat it up any way you like; it can be a lot of fun)

The Toffee Filling

  • 100 g butter
  • 100 g Demerera sugar or any other soft brown sugar (avoid the regular white sugar because it makes the dessert too sweet)
  • 400 g condensed milk (sweetened)

The Topping

  • 6 – 8 ripe, but firm bananas (make sure that the bananas are sweet or the topping ends up being quite tasteless)
  • 250 g whipping cream

The Method

  • Take a 9-inch, loose-bottomed pie pan/tart pan and tip the crushed biscuits into it.
  • Add the melted butter to the crushed biscuits and mix well. Using the back of a spoon,  press the mixture into the bottom and up the sides of the pan, firmly, to form the pie shell. Chill in the refrigerator until the filling is ready.

Biscuit base pie crust

  • Place a frying pan or a skillet on the fire, on medium heat. Add the brown sugar to the pan. As the sugar starts to melt, add the butter.
  •  Butter and brown sugar blend
  • Stir together lightly and then leave undisturbed till the sides begin to melt. Nudge the edges from time to time, but avoid disturbing the melting process. Remember that you want the lovely burnt caramel colour and aroma; don’t worry about burning the sugar too far as long as the stove is on medium heat and not on high. The colour of the toffee depends on the colour of the caramel. 

Butter and brown sugar blend

Butter and brown sugar blend for banoffee pie

  • When the sugar has completely melted, add the condensed milk and bring the mixture to a boil on medium heat, stirring continuously. Turn off the heat as soon as the now-formed toffee takes on the right colour.

Toffee for banoffee pie

  • Pour the toffee into the biscuit base and leave undisturbed to cool. Move to the refrigerator and leave until the toffee becomes firm. This should take a few hours if the toffee has been cooled sufficiently before refrigerating.

Toffee for banoffee pie

Toffee for banoffee pie

  • After the toffee is firm, slice the bananas and place them over the toffee layer. Avoid slicing the bananas too much in advance because they’ll turn black due to oxidation, and won’t make a pretty plate.

Sliced bananas

Sliced bananas decorated for banoffee pie

  • Quickly whip up the cream and place it over the bananas. You can add your layers in any way you like it and can vary the thickness of each layer too.
  • Chill the dessert before serving it, if not, it makes the servings difficult and messy to cut through.

     

    Eat away. Bon appétit! 🙂

Banoffee Pie

Breakfasts n Brunches, Cookies, Cakes n Cavities, Decadent Desserts, Lockdown Recipes, Tea-time Titbits, Vegetarian Varieties

Mango Milkshake

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Summer is gorgeous—it’s pretty, it’s colourful, it’s vacation time, it’s hot (not always a good thing—ask the 42°C outside), it’s time for fun clothes, and in my part of the world, it’s also mango time! And though winter will always be my favourite month, nothing beats mangoes and fresh mango juice, mango salsa and mango milkshake!

 

“Sometimes, a summer afternoon needs a whole mango to be kept entirely for oneself, and eaten in one sitting.” – Alison Pill
The Fact: The mango is the national fruit of India, Pakistan and the Philippines. It is also the national tree of Bangladesh.
The Inspiration: It’s summer. The markets are filled with that lovely sweet aroma that draws you, no matter which market you go to. It’s another thing that I’m grateful for when it comes to India and or warm, tropical climate. So, the mangoes called out to me… I bought a few dozens… didn’t know how to finish so many mangoes before they got overripe… solution: mango milkshake. And though I agree that this probably didn’t require a post because, I mean, “Who doesn’t know how to make milkshake, right?” But then the pictures that I took with my Samsung Galaxy S4 were so lovely, I just had to put this up.

The Ingredients

Makes 4–5 milkshake servings
  • 4 sweet, fully ripe mangoes

The colour does not determine the ripeness of the fruit; the smell and firmness do. When you lightly squeeze the head or the stem end of the fruit, it should lightly give in. The stem end should also give out a lovely sweet, ripe smell. Remember that the sweetness and flavour of the mangoes decide what your milkshake will taste like. Get the mangoes wrong, and you’re not quite going to enjoy the milkshake.

  • A cup of milk (or more, depending on what thickness you prefer)
  • Sugar to taste
  • Optional: one scoop of vanilla flavoured ice cream
  • Optional: A sprinkling of cardamom (peeled)

The Method

  • Wash, dry and peel the chilled mangoes. Using warm mangoes will give you a warm shake—something you definitely do not want.
  • Roughly chop up the mangoes, while carefully discarding the seed. Try not to get too close to the seed; it’s usually not as sweet as the fleshy part of the fruit.

Chopped mango bits

  • Toss the chopped up mangoes, the ice cream, the sugar and the peeled cardamom into a blender/grinder and blend the ingredients together.

Chopped mangoes, ice cream, sugar, and peeled cardamom in a blenderChopped mangoes, ice cream, sugar, and peeled cardamom in a blender

  • After a smooth paste is formed, stop the blender and pour in half a cup of milk. Then, blend once more. 
  • In this way, keep adjusting the milk until you reach the desired thickness. There’s no harm in tasting the shake until you get exactly what you’re looking for.

Mango milkshake in progress

  • Serve in lovely tall glasses. If you prefer a cooler milkshake, toss in a few ice cubes—just not too many or it will water down the milkshake. Cover and store in a refrigerator for a day or two.

chilled mango milkshake

Cookies, Cakes n Cavities, Decadent Desserts, Lockdown Recipes, Vegetarian Varieties

Panna cotta

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The quickest, sophisticated-looking, and by far, the easiest dessert recipe I’ve ever known…

 

“In the 1960s, you could eat anything you wanted, and there was no talk about fat and anything like that, and butter and cream were rife. Those were lovely days for gastronomy, I must say.” – Julia Child
The Fact: Panna Cotta is an Italian dessert that literally means “cooked cream”.
The Inspiration: Honest. I didn’t have the time or the ingredients for anything else. My in-laws were coming home for lunch. My main course was almost done. And I’d forgotten about dessert!!! So I held the refrigerator door open and stared at my options for a whole minute. My panna cotta ingredients practically called out to me, saying, “Use meeee” 🙂
So if you find yourself in a similar situation, you know what to do.

The Ingredients

Makes about 8 servings
  • 2 ½ cups heavy cream
  • 1 ½ cups whole milk
  • 2 tablespoons cold water
  • 1 tablespoon powdered, unflavoured gelatin
  • 5 tablespoons sugar (flat; not heaped)
  • 1 vanilla bean, split in half lengthwise, or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • Optional: a few tablespoons of rum
  • Optional: a handful of strawberries or any fruit of equal measure

The Method

Making it

Pour the water into a bowl and sprinkle the gelatine over it. Stir and set aside. The gelatine will absorb the water, soften and swell up.

In a saucepan, combine the cream, milk, sugar and split vanilla bean (if using the vanilla bean; if not, incorporate the vanilla extract in the next step), and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Do NOT let it boil.

Remove the saucepan from the heat, and stir in the softened gelatine and the vanilla extract (if using extract; if using the vanilla bean, at this point scrape the vanilla seeds from the bean pod into the mixture, and discard the pod).

Whisk the mixture until it reaches room temperature. If you have a warm kitchen, whisk the mixture with the saucepan in an ice bath.

Check to see whether your mixture is smooth and that the sugar and gelatine have dissolved completely.

If you like a slightly rummy taste in your panna cotta, add in the rum now. You can taste the mixture to check whether you’d like a little more and adjust accordingly.

Setting it

Now to set the panna cotta… I like the quick and simple presentation where I set the panna cotta in whatever I’m going to serve it. I use wine or shot glasses. If not, you can lightly oil a few ramekins or any bowl with a neutral oil and then use them (the oil so that the set panna cotta comes out easily).

Pour the mixture into the preferred containers and chill at least 4 hours or overnight. If you’re keeping them longer than overnight, cover them with plastic wrap.

What I like to do almost always is add some fresh fruit (strawberries on this day) into the serving mould or serving glass and pour the panna cotta over it so that the fruit sets in the panna cotta itself. It’s the lazier and easier way out.

pannacotta2

Serving it

You can serve panna cotta with whatever you want—fresh fruit (my favourite), berry compote, chocolate shavings and even leftover cake crumbs—like I said, absolutely anything.

If using a mould, before serving, run a thin-bladed knife around the inside of the mould. Dip the mould briefly in a bowl of hot water, and then carefully invert onto the serving plate and tap slightly. If the panna cotta doesn’t unmould right away, return it to the hot water bath for another five seconds and repeat. If stressed for time, do it my way and serve it in whatever you’ve set it in, without unmoulding.