My first party with homemade snacks

We don't get many visitors at my home. When they do come, they don't stay long. When they do stay its usually unplanned and with no time to cook a meal at home. We'd suddenly realise it was dinner time and order some biryanis. And this was never for more than four people. You can now safely assume that i don't have much experience in entertaining people at my home. You can also probably imagine how tensed i was when i had to host a pre-planned snacks party for eight and it was expected that whatever was served would be made by me.

Eggless Fresh Mint Ice Cream (Philadelphia style)

When looking up recipes for mint ice cream i gained enlightenment (or just information?) about naming of ice creams. And like i said before, when i learn something new i am compelled to tell you about it. Now if you 've tried making ice cream at home from scratch, you know that you can either make them with or without eggs. Ice creams made with eggs are cooked into a custard base and are supposedly richer and creamier than their egg less counterparts. Now did you know that the richer style of ice cream with eggs is called French style ice cream and the egg less version is called American or Philadelphia style ice cream? There, that's my revelation for today that i 've been bursting to tell you. When i write it down, it doesn't sound that great. I guess my surprise was that Americans are credited for creating a low fat ice cream and the French for the high fat ones but people of the two counties don't seem to bear testimony for that. Or maybe the quantity of ice cream consumed makes all the difference. Or my sample size is too small. I will leave it to you to decide.

Awesome Cocoa Brownies

Brownies are a beloved favourite for all chocolate fanatics. Don't be mistaken that it took me this long to try out some brownies, having started off with a chocolate cake recipe. No, i tried one a few months ago, for which i can't remember the recipe source. What I can remember is that it was not worthy of talking to you about. It looked more like a dense cake that forgot to rise or become fluffy and had cracks all over the surface. The husband had one look at the finished product and pronounced it ready for the trash can. I blamed myself, not the recipe, for the failure and kept away till now. But wait, why i am telling you so much about the wrong brownie. This post is about the one I baked last night, the one that turned out awesome. You don't need 70% dark chocolate for this brownie, just cocoa powder and butter and sugar and eggs will produce this rich, fudgey, chocolaty brownie.

Orange chocolate chunk cake/ Birthday Cake

My blog turned 1 month old on July 6th and i got invited to my nephew's birthday party who turned 8 on the same day. I couldn't have been happier to get this wonderful opportunity to bake a birthday cake! I wanted a cake that could hold its own without icing and was rich enough for a birthday kid. This was one cake where i wasn't going to substitute the usual low fat vegetable oil in place of butter. No, it was going to be rich, creamy butter all the way.

Chocolate Peanut Spread

Ever since i first saw 'make your own nutella' on SmittenKitchen website a few months ago, it has stayed resolutely in the back of my mind. Maybe even displaced other more important things in that little brain space. For those in India who don't usually have bread for breakfast, Nutella is a sweet hazelnut spread with cocoa. I suspect millions have it as part of their breakfast everyday around the globe. It is now available in supermarkets in India but quite expensive as it is imported. I have a weakness for all things chocolate and have been eyeing Nutella for a while now - though i don't care much for Hazelnuts. Sometimes i involuntarily reach up to the Nutella bottle on the grocery aisle, turn it around in my hand and decide it is still too expensive. I won't lie, this has happened a few times now. 

Saturday night i found myself home alone, when the husband went off for a boys night out and two of my girlfriends couldnt make it to a get-together (OK i am partly to blame, i called them at the last minute). Still, it only meant that the time was ripe for making my own choco-nut-spread. And i went looking for the recipe online again. I have followed the ingredient list as is but changed the method quite a bit to suit my kitchen. And while we are on the subject, i think you can do without the extra 1/4 cup of sugar. One cup should suffice.

Wholewheat chocolate chip cookies

My first chocolate chip cookie was at a Subway. The dark chocolate variety, with little white chocolate chips peeking through a rich, chocolaty, chewy flat cookie. Almost irresistible for chocolate lovers. Its like a dare to  the good minded people who go there to have their low fat sandwiches. Also, anybody ever notice there is always an ice-cream shop next to a Subway? As if the chocolate chip cookie wasn't temptation enough!

Break - had to munch on a chocolate chip cookie. All this writing making me hungry :-)

So every time we went to the Subway, i would opt for the cookies as part of the meal and deny my husband's favorite potato chips. Every time! Now such a proposition is not fair and cannot should not last long. But i had also become addicted to chocolate chip cookies. They are quite a comfort food. And so began my online search for chocolate chip cookies and, believe you me, there's no dearth of them online. I  then took the minimum ingredients listed in most recipes and tweaked it into a healthier version - so the wholewheat flour in the ingredients. You see, i had every intention of eating the whole batch of cookies and hence a small attempt at not feeling guilty at the end of it!

I had just about started my experiments in baking with cakes and breads at this time and what a huge surprise it was for me to find out that cookies were the simplest of all baked goods! Warm cookies are delicious. The only thing you probably have to get to make this recipe NOW is chocolate chips or chunks of chocolate. You can add some nuts into the dough if you want a chewier (is that a word?) cookie. I no more ask for the Subway cookie - i eagerly wait to get back home and have a couple of my home-made ones.

Easy Chocolate cake with cocoa

I never even dreamed that baking a chocolate cake could be so easy until the time i actually did it. And then i had to kick myself that it took me so long. Really? why did nobody tell me before? You tried, huh? I just didn't hear it. I will surely try  harder to keep  my ears open next time.

Bored one day of watching repeats of "Food Paradise" on TLC, I started reading through blogs and suddenly noticed all these people who were not cooks until they got married and how so many seemed to be baking cakes with ease. So i decided it was time for me to try it too. A decision i will never regret. And once this decision was made all the required ingredients magically made their appearance in the supermarket aisle. OK, you guessed it right, i just never noticed them before when they were right in front of my eyes. A case of you only see what you want to see. They say that once you buy a car or intend to buy a car, you start seeing the same model and colour everywhere! Right, right, I am going off the topic. In my defense, i am new to this - writing about a single topic.

Let me start again, if you even remotely like chocolate you simple have to give this a try. You don't need frosting to make it taste good, you can serve it warm or cold and it will keep for a week in the refrigerator.