Chocolate Ice Cream

I know that, people think, why should one make ice creams at home when it's easily available in varieties in the market. Its true, as its pretty time consuming. But the joy you get once you taste your homemade ice cream is out of the world. The best part is, that, you can make as much as you want and store it in your refrigerator throughout the year! And always play with the flavors and make it a memorable experience. So i have a added a lot more ingredients to make it extremely rich and creamy, as that's how i like my ice creams. So lets start making our very own homemade chocolate ice cream.


Ingredients:

• Milk- Half Litre (Keep Half of this for boiling)
• Sugar - 8 Tsp
• C.M.C- 1 Tsp
• G.M.S - 1.5 Tsp
• Cornflour - 1.5 Tbsp
• Milk Powder - 8 Tbsp
• Mascarpone Cheese- 400 gms
• Cocoa Powder - 2 Tbsp
• Fresh Cream - 200 Ml
• Chocolate - Melted- 150 Gms
• Chocolate Chips - 100 Gms (Optional)

Method:

Boil half the milk required and take it off the stove.

Mix sugar, cmc, gms, cornflour, milk powder, cocoa powder to the boiled milk and whisk well so that there are no lumps . You could even give this a good blend too.

Now, add the rest of the milk and return it to the flame and cook on medium heat until the mixture starts to bubble and thicken, stirring constantly or else the base might burn and taste bitter.
Make sure you are only doing this, when u make ice cream, it needs your complete attention.

Once it starts to bubble , switch off the flame and let this mix come to room temperature.

Now add the melted chocolate, fresh cream and mascarpone cheese. Give it a good whisk with your blender.

Refrigerate this ice cream for a couple of hours. Remove it and give a good mix again using  your machine to make it light and fluffy.

You can add chocolate chips at this stage.

Refrigerate again for upto 8 hours for the ice cream to set.


A few Tips:

• You can omit milk powder.

• You can omit fresh cream if you're using mascarpone cheese or vice versa. 

• Always taste your mix and adjust the sugar.

• Never boil your milk and directly add the dry ingredients on the flame as the base burns quickly. Always remove the hot liquid and add the dry mix and return it to the flame and whisk constantly.

• If you like your ice cream creamy, then you could leave out chocolate chips.

• If you're able to scoop out your ice cream, that means it has set or else give it some more time.

• You can get creative and add wafer bits, crushed cookies, gems etc to your ice cream.

• And if your looking at other flavours, just leave out cocoa powder and add other flavors, fruit pulps etc.

Do try this and leave me a comment!

Aloo Took

Ok this is by far the simplest of all recipes... Now, who doesn't like potatoes especially the fried one's... We all love french fries right and this, is a more crispier and flavourful potato. Try it and you'll love it. This is just a two ingredient recipe. This is my brother's fav snack.

Ingredients

• Baby potatoes 
• Chaat Masala
• Mint/Pudina Powder (Optional)
• Oil - For frying

Method

Peel all the baby potatoes and keep them in salt water so they do not turn brown.

Take a medium sized pan and heat the oil. 

Once the oil is hot, put the potatoes carefully and fry them for about 7-10 mins. They should be cooked mid-way (half cooked).

Now removed them on a kitchen towel. 

Take one potato at a time, place in on a kitchen towel. Now fold the towel and press the potato with your palm until it is flat.

Do this to all the potatoes and now fry them until they turn golden brown and crispy.

Remove them on tissue paper to drain any excess oil and dust them with chaat masala and toss them once for even coating. 

Serve them hot.

A Few Tips

• If you don't get baby potatoes,  you can use regular ones's and cut them into cubes and follow the same process.

• I make my own chaat masala. I will do it in a separate post.

• If you want you could coat them in cornflour for that extra crunch.

Do try this and leave me a comment !

Soft And Crumbly Chocofill Cookies

Do you remember, the cookies which are available in the market as ''dark fantasy'' ??
Well this is exactly the same cookie, but made at home. These are so so simple to make you'd be surprised as to how easy making cookies is, which tastes just like the store bought one's.
Once you bite into these cookies, the first feel is the soft cookie crumbling in your mouth to melt and then the burst of liquid chocolate just compliments the cookie so well. Its almost the perfect marriage of cookies and chocolate.
The only thing about cookies is that they need your constant attention so that they don't burn. I need to stand by the oven all the time checking on the cookies . 
I assure you once you try these you will definitely make them again..

Recipe Source- Rithika Chandran

Ingredients:

• Wheat Flour/Maida – 11/4 Cup
• Cocoa Powder – 2 Tbsp
• Unsalted Butter - Half Cup  
• Powdered Sugar- ¾ Cup
• Vanilla Essence- 1 Tsp
• Broken Chocolate Chunks – 4 Tbsp 
• Egg Substitute- 2 Tbsp Water + 1 Tbsp Oil + 2 Tsp Baking Powder = 1 Egg

          (Add all these ingredients in a bowl in the same order and beat it well till it becomes  

                 frothy)

Method:

In a bowl, add butter and powdered sugar.  Beat till it becomes smooth and creamy.

Now prepare the egg substitute- add 2 Tbsp from the mixture to the butter and beat it well.
Add vanilla essence and mix it well.

Sieve the flour and cocoa powder together and add to the wet ingredients and fold it well.

If the dough is sticky, that’s ok, as we would be transferring it to a ziplock bag and refrigerating it for 30 minutes.

This dough is going to be very limp, do not get worried.

Preheat the oven at 180C for ten minutes.

After 30 mins, take your dough from the fridge.

You could divide the dough into equal numbers and size using an ice-cream scoop, as per your requirement and shape it into a ball.

Now flatten the cookie dough (like how one would make kachoris :) )

Keep the chocolate in the centre and cover it and roll into a ball and slightly press them into discs.

Line the baking tray with parchment paper or lightly grease it.

These cookies will spread a little, so leave enough gap in-between each cookie .

Bake these for about  18- 20 mins.

Chocolate oozing from the cookie :)

A few tips:

• I used chilled chocolate ganache and rolled them into a grape size ball and used it as the stuffing as chocolate hardens up and that would be similar to a choco-chip cookie texture.
• You could get creative and use nutella..
• You may also add chocolate chips on top to decorate.
• You can refrigerate the dough and ganache upto two weeks.
• Just microwave this cookie for about 10-15 seconds in the microwave before you eat them. The warm cookie along with the warm melted chocolate tastes divine. This is totally optional !

Do try this and leave me a comment.