Chocolate khoya peda

Happy Deepavali!
Renewing my blogging after a long gap on this festive day. I tried out the chocolate peda with homemade khoya with inspiration from Raks kitchen recipe. This recipe turned out to be a quick and easy one and well suited my limited time for festive preparation due to work and home.

Homemade khoya ingredients:

Non fat milk powder.               - 1 1/2 cups
Whey protein.                            - 1/2 cup
Milk.                                             - 1/2 cup
Ghee(clarified butter)               - 2 tbsp

Ingredients for peda:

Homemade khoya                        - 2 cups
Unsweetened cocoa powder      - 1 tsp
Sugar.                                              - 1/4 cup
Ghee or butter                                - 1 tsp
Elaichi powder.                              - 1 tsp(2-3 elaichis)
Almonds(chopped).                      - 1/4 cup
Salt.(optional)                                - a small pinch
Toasted Pistachios( chopped)    - 1 tbsp


Steps to make Khoya:

Heat the milk and the ghee in a pan just enough to start boiling. Take off heat. In a bowl add the milk powder and whey protein powder and mix well. Add the warm milk to this milk powder mix and stir till it all blends into one thick mass. This can be made  into desired shape hile warm and refrigerated for future use. As it cools it will retain that shape.

Steps to make peda:

Heat a thick bottomed vessel in low heat. Add the khoya, cocoa powder, sugar, almonds, ghee and elaichi powder. If the mixture is too thick add 1-2 tsp of milk or water as desired. Mix them well to remove all lumps and to form one smooth mixture. Raise the heat to medium and keep stirring.Once the mixture becomes more of a liquid reduce the heat. The mixture will thickens, at this point add the salt. Stir until the mixture leaves the bottom and sides of the pan as one whole solid mass. Switch off the heat and transfer to another flat plate or pan to let it cool.
Once cool enough to handle, grease your hands and start rolling them into balls and place them on a parchment paper. Flatten them into 1/4 inch thick circles. Decorate the center with chopped pistachios. Refrigerate for 30 minutes to an hour before serving.

Tips:

1. The original recipe for khoya suggested using full fat milk powder.
2. Whey protein was an optional addition which I tried, if you dont have it you can just use milk powder.
3. I refrigerated the mixture for about 15-20 minutes before rolling them.
4. Allow the mixture to cool well before rolling into balls else it will be hard to shape it.
5. Reduce heat of pan once mixture thickens to avoid clumping and the mixture burning or becoming harder in texture.
6. Transfer to plate in room temperature or you can chill the plate before transfering from pan. This will stop the cooking in the mixture and get you the right texture for shaping.

Orange nut muffins

Maida                     - 1 cup

Whole Wheat flour - 1/2 cup

Butter                     -  2 tbsps

Agave                    - 1 tbsp

Orange juice          - 1 cup

Active dry yeast     - 1 1/4 tsp

Salt                        - 1/4 tsp

Nuts of your choice- 1/2 cup(chopped)*

* I used almonds

Add  the salt to the flour followed by the butter. Mix it well so that the butter blends with the flour. Then add the yeast to the flour and mix well with your hands.

Add 1/2 cup lukewarm water to the orange juice and add this along with the agave to the flour and mix well into a soft dough. Knead for about 3-5 minutes. Cover and place it in a warm place until the dough doubles in size. It took me about 4 hours for this when placed in the oven with the light on.

Kneaded dough

Take the dough and knead for a couple of minutes. Then divide the dough into 6 balls.

Roll out each ball into 1/2 inch thickness circles and place about a tsp of chopped nuts in the center.

Roll out risen dough and fill with nuts

Cover it and close it all around shaping it like a ball.

Rolled out dough in greased muffin pan

Place these nut filled dough balls in greased muffin pans and let it stand for half hour.

Preheat oven to 450 F and bake the muffins until the top is light brown or well done.

It took about 30 minutes for mine to bake.

Oats Laddu

Ingredients

Old fashioned oats                    - 1 cup

Powdered Jaggery                     - 1/2 cup

Chopped Pecans and walnuts    - handful

Cardamom powder                   - 1/2 tsp

Clarified butter (ghee)              - 1 tbsp

chopped fresh coconut              - 1/2 cup

a very small pinch of salt                 

water as needed

Heat a pan and add all ingredients into it.Cover the pan and let the the oats cook and all the ingredients blend together. Switch off stove once the oats is cooked. 

Roll them into balls while mixture is warm. Makes about 15 small sized balls.

Recipe source : http://quicknhealthy.blogspot.com/2013/03/aval-laddu.html

Made the below nutriball with chopped dried plums, chopped toasted walnuts, almonds and pecans.

carrot wheat flour brownie

carrot brownie

Carrot wheat flour brownie. Recipe from http://litebite.in/eggless-wholewheat-carrot-brownie/

Modifications:

Atta flour instead of whole wheat flour, a couple of drops of banana essence and just almonds for the nuts.

I made it for half cup of flour as a trial, turned out well.

CORN BREAD

Equal amounts of yellow or white grits and Whole wheat flour( can use atta or maida) (I used 1:1)
a pinch of salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
pinch of turmeric
shredded cheese
chopped coriander leaves(cilantro)
chopped green chillies(optional)
black pepper powder(optional)
ginger powder(optional)
curd/yogurt - 1 1/2 to 2 cups
1-2 tsp oil

Mix the dry ingredients, cilantro, green chillies, shredded cheese.
Then add the yogurt and mix it well to cake like/idli like batter( not too runny or too thick).Let it set for half hour.
grease a baking pan with oil.Add chopped nuts( I used pecans) and shredded cheese at the bottom of the pan. Pour the batter into the pan and
bake at 475 F for 30 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.
It wasn't too soft, you can add a little more yogurt if you need it softer.