Home-made Ice cream, from scratch.

Hello friends <3  We are going to witness the making of Vanilla Ice-cream, from scratch.  One of our viewers have requested for the same in our Facebook page, and this recipe is dedicated to her.  The most common ingredients used are Condensed milk and whipping cream.  I have tried recipes from Youtube videos that suggests almost equal parts of these both for this dessert.  Often, these were too sugary and I had to thrown them away to the bin.  Finally I gave a try to two parts whipping cream to one part of condensed milk and this ratio worked like a charm.
 

Yesterday we had a few guests at my home, so I had prepared a good amount of vanilla ice-cream with Dairy whipping cream.  They were not only smooth and delicately textured, but also had a rich, milky taste to them.  All the credits goes to my Almarai dairy cream which whipped like a charm.  

 

Now, off to our recipe.  I will mention cup measurements, as you guys find them easier to deal with.  My cup has 200 ml capacity, and the ingredients needed are 

• 13/4 cup or 300 grams of Almarai whipping cream
• 1/2 cup + 1 tbsp Icing sugar (You can skip sugar if you are using Non-dairy/sweetened cream)
• 3/4 cup or 150 grams of Nestle condensed milk
• 1 tbsp Vanilla extract 

This recipe utilizes proper whipping of cream till stiff peaks comes, for those who are new to this cream  or find them unavailable at your place, don't worry I will drop a few links  for Dairy/Non-dairy/Instant cream.  Depending upon the availability, you  could use them in the recipe.

Whipped cream from Dairy cream

Whipped cream from Amul tetrapack

Whipped cream from Non-Dairy cream like Tropolite

Whipped cream from Commercial Powder like Bluebird

This recipe utilizes three main steps, for your conveniance I have included a video.  Please watch them after reading every step.  This could help you to understand how they are made.

STEP 1 - Chill your whipping cream and beater blades for minimum of three hours.  Pour your dairy cream to the blender.  Add in Icing sugar and vanilla.  Keep them beating, and gradually increase the speed.

STEP 2 - Whip them till they get beautiful stiff peaks.  In the video, I have shown you a close-up look of how stiff peaks looks like.  You could also go through some of my links above, that gets you step-by-step pic of how stiff peaks are achieved.

STEP3 - Add condensed milk and beat them on highest speed for not more than 5-7 seconds.  You will note that they have turned soft, transfer this mixture in a plastic container and freeze for a minimum of 6 hours.  After that, you could scoop them in and enjoy.

 I just added dark chocolate syrup (2 parts of dark chocolate with 1 part of cream and heat them on a double boiler till chocolate melts)  with a touch of sprinkles.  You could serve them plain as well, it will be very tasty. 

This is the basic version, you could also add on your own flavors like Coffee, Chocolate/Chocolate chips, Butterscotch etc.  Do try them at home and let us know how it turned out.  Good day to all <3

Tiramisu cupcakes

  After making Mascarpone cheese, I didn't want to make this winner dessert right away.  I took some time to go through what I wanted.   With guests at home and my kid waiting to get pampered, I could not have settled less for the cupcake.  Yes, super soft and moist coffee cupcakes paired with Mascarpone cheese icing, with a hint of coffee on top.  I got this super-soft sponge recipe from Natasha's Kitchen. With coffee flavour infused, they were great even when had straight away from the refrigerator.

So, what's this Tiramisu?  What makes them so special and so romantic?  Tiramisu meaning 'pick me up' or 'lift me up', is a popular Coffee-based Italian dessert.  It is assembled with ladyfinger -(a sponge cake in a shape of a finger) dipped in coffee syrup and arranged with a layer of mascarpone cheese and whipped eggs, topped with cocoa.  It's this beautiful combination of coffee, cocoa, and cream that can light up the romance in the air.  <3  <3

So, let me hope that you agree with  the same and bake them for ur better half's ;)  ;)

Zebra cookies

   I was completely fascinated, when I found these cookies from the book, "100 BEST DELECIOUS CHOCOLATE".  The entire concept was fun, and reminded me of an long gap from my last baked cookie.  These striped cookies were very easy and required an total whisk with each and every ingredient.  You need chocolate buttons though, I did pipe few, a day before and that came in handy with the presentation and saved an lot of time.

I made these with milk chocolate, dark chocolate is also preferable.   This zebra cookies are very kid friendly and can be tagged as an party food too.  Dough can be kneaded in advance, because more the refrigeration, more the flavours enhance within these.  Fresh out of the oven, they had an crisp edges with an chewy middle.  With an ongoing monsoon, these cookies did an good pair with hot tea. Do try and let us know.   

Whipped cream - From Amul tetrapack

Whipped cream is essential in any baking.... sandwich them between cake, pastry or top in your favourite puddings, trifle... this cream enriches every dessert  :P  Though they are also made from non-dairy cream (which is far less expensive and requires lesser time to whip), the latter's  reduced reach or availability makes it an tougher part to execute.

Though, whipped cream is said to be undone with tetra packs due to those  interrupting stabilizers , separating the liquid cream from solid one helps us to recover from the same, also increasing the fat content in the cream.  I just went through the fact, when I had an glance at Nita Mehta's Cakes and Cake Decorations. She has clearly explained that separating liquid cream, and whipping up the solid one might result in good outcome and all thanks to her, it did :D

So, here comes the mighty solution for all-time-bakers.....

You will be needing 200 ml of Amul fresh cream, 2 tbspn of castor sugar (or icing sugar)

Do not shake the Cream, refrigerate for minimum two hours.  Open the Amul Fresh Cream pack, and separate the creamy part, reserve liquid in separate bowl (You can use liquid cream for cooking purpose)

And this creamy part is placed below ice-bath (an large bowl filled with ice-cubes)  and we start to whip using electric blender.  

After five minutes, when volume almost doubles, add icing sugar and continue to whip.

It will take another ten to twelve minutes, and there you get nice stiff peaks.

Aren't they lovely??

DO NOT OVERBEAT THEM, as there are chances of butter separating from the mixture.  Use them as such.  If you want to store, freeze.

Linking this to CCC Challenge, hosted by Srivalli

BOUNTY BAR/ COCONUT BAR - (Without chocolate mould)

  Ever since I have started my blog, many requested me to post some chocolate recipes.  Am sooo sorry that I was not able to post this earlier :(  Very idea for posting this bar struck me, when I was searching for some offline content.  Yes, they were for CCC Challenge.  It was then, that I stumbled upon my chocolate recipes notebook.  I used to treasure them a lot, because saving them from Varsha's clutches is really, really an hard deal :)  And yes, like all you wished, I am planning to pen down more and more of chocolates :)

Bounty chocolates are regular chocolates stuffed with moist coconut filling.  Every bite is heavenly as we can relish the goodness of both chocolate and coconut.  These are sure to delight all-ages.  Shama liked them a lot and Varsha is also growing fond of them.  You can surprise the kids or allot them for party.  New Year is also approaching, by the way, why dont you guys give them a try?

Tutti- fruitti cookies

      I am so delighted to find Savaadhjevana FB page hitting more than hundred likes.  To dedicate this success, I made tutti-fruitti cookies.

  Initially I wanted to make them with wheat flour, but realized that these tutti-fruiti would be better with a white background than with a brown one.  That is with wheat flour, they can be hardly seen giving an less appetising look.  So,  I opted for tutti-fruiti with white or much lighter background.  As soon as I decided on white, the first three things that crossed my mind was Regular flour (of course, maida!), Cornflour and Rawa or semolina.  Hence with a mixture of abovesaid, I continued with addition of butter,  sugar and finally blended with delecious, colourful tutti-fruitti cookies.  After baking them, they were so crisp, light-coloured (though I browned a few  in my first batch!) and fell very less on stomach too!!