Heavenly Delight

The name says it! It's heavenly delicious. This 'melt-in-your-mouth' recipe was a hit when I had posted this on a recipe sharing group named Friends Cookys; 4 years ago.  I was in search of a name for this recipe, when one of my FB friends, Najiya Aziz, suggested this name.. Heavenly Delight.  The bottom layer of breads dipped in coffee, two layers of cream flavored with caramel and dreamwhip powder and a biscuits layer in between .. all together proved justice to the name. 

INGREDIENTS

(Prepared by Hanan)

White Bread                        a few pieces

Marie biscuits                      enough for the layer
Instant coffee                       3 tbsp
Creme-caramel sachet*.      1
Dream whip powder**.         1
Nestle tin cream                   2
Condensed milk                  1 tin
Gelatin                                 2 tsp
Sugar if required

1. Prepare strong black coffee with 2 cups water, 3 tbsp coffee and the caramel sachet (inside the Creme-caramel pack). Let it cool down.

2. Take a small pudding tray and keep it aside.

3. Dip bread in this coffee and then strain the coffee out by pressing in between your palms.

Layer this in the pudding tray.

4. Beat 1 nestle cream, dream whip powder & 1/2 condensed milk in a bowl.

5. In another bowl, beat the other nestle cream, remaining half of the condensed milk,caramel powder & sugar if required.

Keep both these bowls aside.

6. Dissolve gelatin in hot water (not boiling) & add half of this to both the bowls. Mix well.

7. Pour the first cream mixture on top of the bread layer.

8. T

hen layer biscuits dipped in coffee on top of that.

9. Then pour the next cream mixture.
let it set in refrigerator and serve cold.

*Instant Creme Caramel pack is used here. Two sachets are available inside the pack;one is caramel sachet and the other is Creme sachet. Both are used separately in this recipe. 

** Dreamwhip is whipping powder. You can use any brand. No need to whip first.Only the powders are used.

Linking this to Independence Day Event by Recipes Passioin

Your Best REcipe by Spicie foodie

Khaliat Nahal/Honeycomb Bread

Khaliat Nahal /Honeycomb bread (now popularly known as Hanan's Honey Bunny) is quite famous now in our family. Hanan(my sis) introduced this among our cousins and everyone just loved this. They are behind her now for the recipe and no better idea to share this here than sending to each one of them.

Khaliat Nahal, which means Bees' Hive, is a middle-eastern delicacy which get its name due to its appearance similar to the honeycomb. These are bite size stuffed buns which differs according to the filling or syrup used. Some are sweet while others savoury. Here is  sweet version with cheese stuffed and later soaked in sugar syrup. These buns are too soft that kids as well as elders would defenitely love this.

Bun:

Ingredients:
All purpose flour/Maida  3 1/2 cups
Milk 1 cup
Milk powder 2 tbsp
Water 1/4- 1/2 cup
Egg 1
Sugar 3tbsp
Oil 4 tbsp
Butter 4 tbsp,melted
Instant yeast 1 1/2 tsp*
salt 1/2 tsp
Triangle cheese- 6-8 pieces
Egg 1 , slightly beaten for egg wash
Sesame on top 2 tbsp (optional)

Method:
1. Sieve the flour, then add milk powder, sugar, yeast and salt to it. *If the yeast is granule type, then soak in warm water for 15-30minutes until it bubbles up. And if it is pizza yeast, just throw it into the flour.

2. Make a well in the centre and add oil, butter and the egg. Mix together. Now add all the milk. Start kneading together and gradually add the water a little at a time. You might not need it all, so add it sparingly until your dough is nice and soft. Knead for a good 8-10 minutes. The more you knead it the softer the buns will be.

3. Touch a bit of oil with your fingertips and apply all over the ball of dough. Cover in a bowl and set aside for 40mins to an hour for it to double in size. You can pop in the bowl into preheated oven and rest it there which would make the whole process fast. For this, you should preheat your oven to the maximum temperature and then turn it off before keeping the bowl inside.

4. Once it doubles in size, punch it down, and break off tiny bits of dough. You should get about 30-40 tiny pieces out of this. Take each piece of dough, and stretch it out with your fingers, then add a small piece of cheese in its center. Bring the edges together and form a ball so that the cheese is completely enclosed within the dough. Repeat this with all the dough.

5. Grease your pan/pans with butter. Place the balls of dough in a 'honeycomb' pattern. Try to get them close to each other so that there are no or very little spaces in between.

6. Cover the pans and set aside for a second rise, about half an hour. Sprinkle sesame on top (if using)

7. Now apply egg wash on the balls, preheat your oven to 180 C and bake for about 20-25 minutes, or until the bread is nice and golden on top. If your balls are smaller 15 minutes might do.

8. Remove from the oven and pour your syrup all over the hot bread. Remember that the syrup needs to be cool and the bread needs to be steaming hot straight from the oven. Turn it out and place on a rack to cool and for the syrup to glaze slightly.

Sugar Syrup/Glaze:

Ingredients

Sugar 1 cup

Water 3/4 cup

Honey 1 tbsp

Saffron a pinch

Method:

Boil sugar,water and saffron together until all the sugar melts and the syrup is slightly thickened. Remove from heat and add honey. Mix and set aside to cool completely. 

LInking this to  Bread from Scratch Event hosted by he Big Sweet Tooth & Cooks Joy 

Lal Qila Mutton Biriyani

It rained again a day before!! Isn't that a good thing? :)

 It's vacation here for a couple of weeks and we mothers were fully engaged with our kids while the UAE weather turned mild and pleasant this week. The climate was heading to summer  and the newspapers predicted much hotter summer days than usual that we were getting sort of mentally prepared for that. That's when it rained here and brought a cooler and pleasant weather for the week.  We went downstairs and for a ride to savour this rare UAE rain. I was fasting and was hard to wait till the sun sets to sip in coffee . Thank God that there were some frozen Kaayadas (unnakkaay/plaintain snack) to pair up with my mug of coffee while looking at the rainsplattered window ;)

First week of vacation is over and we have had lots of fun. The whole generation was here with me , 7 of them(3 boys and 4 girls).. We had lots of fun, playing,baking, roaming and of course, fighting. A gang of kids means a Noisy House. They play and interact, fight at times etc. when they feel bored and have nothing to do. So it's better to keep them engaged with some or the other tasks. I always ask them to help me out while cleaning or baking. They love baking goodies. They even baked some chocolate chip cookies & Cornflakes cookies all by themselves.

Now about the recipe:

It's my sister Hanan's contribution to the blog. She is very good when cooking biriyanis. This is my 9th post on Rice label. Her BBQ Chicken Biriyani is now quite famous here. There are many more biriyanis in my drafts to be posted soon. This one is also as delicious and simple to try out. 

Ingredients:

Courtesy: Shireen Anwar

For marinade:

Mutton 1/2 kg

Tenderizer 1 tsp

Ginger & garlic paste-1 tbps

Yoghurt- 1 cup (reserve 3 tbsp for dum)

Salt- 2 tsp

 Marinate together for atleast 1 hour

Other Ingredients:

Basmati rice. -1/2 kg. [ cook with 2 tsp salt]

Bay leaf -1

Cinnamon -1 inch

Pepper corns- 10

Cloves- 5

Green Cardamom -5

Black jeera -1/2 tsp

Red chilly powder- 2 tsp,

Turmeric -1/2 tsp

Cumin/Jeera - 1 tsp

Water- a little

Tomato- 3. Blended

Brown onion- 1 cup (sliced and fried)

Potato 2

Boiled egg - 3

Method:

Fry onions till brown and crisp. Crush it in grinder when cooled.

Deep fry potatoe cubes in the same oil till brown.

Heat Ghee in a deep dish and add whole garam masalas (mentioned in the list). Saute for a few seconds till its aroma comes out. Add a little hot water( a few tbsps to avoid burning) ,turmeric and red chilli to it. 

Now add mutton and fry in high flame for about 5 minutes. Cook till it is half done.

Blend tomatoes and add to it.

Now add the crushed brown onions. Mix well to coat the mutton pieces nicely. Cook till mutton is completely cooked. Sprinkle garam masala powder to it. Add the fried potato cubes to it.Now the masala is ready. No need to add herbs of any kind.

Dum Process or Layering:

For this, layer the mutton gravy/masala at the bottom, followed by rice. Take some yogurt and add turmeric or yellow color(saffron) to it and sprinkle on top of the rice layer; here and there. Cover and keep in dum for 10-15 minutes. Serve hot! Don't mix biriyanis while serving. It should be served always as you see in the picture. You can serve with boiled eggs. Here, boiled eggs are deep fried which is entirely optional. Take care while frying and avoid frying if the egg is cracked somewhere; otherwise it may explode in oil.

Strawberry Cloud Cake

Cloud cake is a no-bake, flourless cake which is a summer dessert and perfect for special occassions, where you can prepare this ahead of 3-4 days and pop it in your freezer. This is as light as cloud and melts in mouth . The crunchiness of biscuit base with coconut flavour gives a tropical touch to the dessert. It was so difficuilt to click pictures to show its texture as it was melting, melting and melting... :( still i think I should post atleast one picture. Let me check if I could find one in the folders.

This was made by my sis Hanan and thank God that I was there to taste this awesome dessert. It was lightier than ice-cream and is good when you are expecting some guests and you are not sure about their time of visit. You can make this and dump it in your freezer; make sure to serve as soon as you take it out of the freezer.

Ingredients:

For the base:

Biscuits( digestive,marie or any plain biscuits ) 150g
Butter 1 stick (1/2 cup)
Dessicated Coconut (dry coconut) 50g

Filling:

Eggwhite 2
Sugar 1 1/4cups
Lemon juice 1 tbsp
Vanilla essence 1tsp
Strawberries 250g

Method

1. Line the base and sides of a spring form cake tin with baking paper or waxed paper to lift the cake out easily after freezing.

2. Crush the biscuits into crumbs. For this, put biscuits into the freezer bag or any plastic bag,seal it and then crush it using a rolling pin.

3. Mix well, the biscuits,melted butter and coconut in a bowl. Press firmly into the base of the tin. Keep this tin in the freezer till you prepare your filling.

4. Blend all the remaining ingredients in a dry bowl of electric mixer/blender/juice machine on high speed for about 5-8minutes until the mixture turns thick and fluffy . The sugar should be dissolved by then. To test, take a bit of mixture and rub it between your fingers and if you don't feel grainy sugar, it's done.

5. Pour this mixture in the prepared tin and wrap it with a baking paper or foil . Freeze it for atleast 4 hours or until set. You can store this in airtight containers for a month or so.

Serve this with fresh berries or canned berry topping.

*use a large blender as eggwhites once beaten,increases its volume .

Floating Island

Floating Island is a classic French dessert with floating meringue clouds. These poached meringues are floated on a soft vanilla custard. It tastes divine and so is its texture. When we Malabaris have their own version of almost all classic desserts; this dessert closely resembles with Pinnanathappam -the white steamed cake served along with muttamala. It is the custard and the caramel on top that distinguishes this dish from the latter and I must say, the response in our family was superb! Hanan couldn't ressist herself from making this as soon as she saw her favourite Shireen Aapa showing this on tv. Now this is her contribution to the blog after a very long time.

Ingredients:

Milk 1 cup

Cream 1/2 cup

Vanilla essence 1 tsp

Eggs 3, separated

Salt a pinch

Castor Sugar 70gm

For caramel syrup:

Sugar 150gms

Water 100ml

Method:

Meringue Floats:

1. Heat the milk and vanilla essence in a dish for 3 minutes and keep aside.
2. Whisk egg whites and salt until stiff.

3.Then gradually whisk in half the sugar.

4. Drop four or five spoonfuls of the meringue mixture (egg white mixture) into the milk and heat for a minute.
5. Now take the white puffs and drain on paper towel, repeat until all egg white mixture has been used.

Custard: (you can either make custard using instant custard mix )

1.  Now strain the milk.
2. Beat egg yolks with remaining sugar until thick and pale in color.
3.  Then add strained milk and cream till combine then cook for a while until thick custard is been formed. Allow it to chill.

Caramel syrup:

 Combine sugar and water, cook till the sugar dissolves completely and caramel is been formed.

To Serve:

Now pour the prepared custard in the dish, the prepared egg white floating islands on the top and drizzle caramel on the top.
 Sprinkle the nuts on top and serve.

Paneer Kulcha (Paneer stuffed bread)

 Kulchas can be a great meal to be planned  for special dinners and parties; with or without some awesome stuffings . The  cheese(paneer) stuffing used here gives  a delicious touch to this bread that this can be a complete meal in itself. You can use different spices to the stuffing to make it more spicier.

Ingredients 
Recipe: Sanjeev Kapoor


Refined flour (maida) 2 cups
Salt 1/2 tsp
Yogurt 1 tbsp
Baking soda 1/4 tsp
Sugar 1 tsp
Milk 1/2 cup

Stuffing:

Paneer/Cottage cheese 200gm
Red chilli powder 1 tsp
Chaat masala 1/2 tsp
Salt to taste

Method

 

 

Take refined flour in a bowl. Add salt, yogurt, soda bicarbonate, sugar and milk and knead into a soft dough. Cover with a damp cloth and rest for an hour.

 Preheat oven to the maximum temperature. 

Make pedas of the dough and rest for five minutes. 


For Stuffing:

Take paneer in a bowl, add salt, half teaspoon red chilli powder and chaat masala and mix well. 

Roll each dough peda to a small puri, place a portion of the paneer mixture and roll into a ball again. 

Rest the stuffed balls for five minutes.

 Pat each ball into a six inch round kulcha and place on a baking tray. 

Rub a little water on the surface and sprinkle some red chilli powder. 

 Bake in the preheated oven for five to seven minutes. Serve hot with a dollop of butter on each kulcha.


 

(Hanan's )Chocolate Spiral Buns

This one is baked by ma sissy Hanan. These were so simple and yummy buns that her kids didn't leave anything for their aunt (me)  :( They just luvd it and I did know from them that their mom baked this again .

Ingredients


(Recipe Courtesy: Zarnak Sidwa)


Flour 3 cups
Salt ½ tsp
Sugar 2 tsp
Instant yeast 1 tbsp leveled
Warm milk ½ cup
Warm water as required
Butter melted 2 ounces
Chocolate spread as required
Cinnamon powder 1 tsp
Granulated sugar extra 2 tbsp
Butter melted extra 2 tbsp


Method


Sift together flour sugar and salt in a bowl. Add instant yeast and mix.


Add Luke warm water and melted butter .Knead until the dough is smooth and elastic
.
Place dough in a greased bowl, cover and leave to rise for 1 hour until the volume doubles.


Punch down dough, roll into rectangle brush with extra butter, spread evenly with chocolate spread. Sprinkle with extra sugar and cinnamon, roll like a Swiss roll, cut into 2 cm thick slices, place on a greased baking dish, allow to rise till double in volume.

Bake at 200 degree C for 10 minutes, reduce the temperature of the oven to 180 Degree C, bake for a further 10 minutes.





Linking this to Valentines Event by Anzz Cafe

Teenz Yummy Delights

Kid's Delight hosted by Edible Entertainment

Chocolate Mela

Mocha Brownies

Ingredients:
(Makes 16)


Butter 2 oz
Chocolate 4 oz
Brown Sugar 6 oz
Eggs 2
Coffee 1 tbsp, dissolved in 1 tbsp hot water
Plain Flour 3 oz
Baking powder 1/2 tsp
Chopped walnuts2 oz

Method:


Melt chocolate and butter and set aside to cool.
 Beat sugar and eggs and fold in the chocolate mixture and cooled coffee.
 Fold in sifted flour ,baking powder and walnuts. 
Pour in a greased and lined 8" square tin and bake at 180C for 25 minutes. Cool in tin and then remove from tin, peel off paper and cut in squares and serve.


FOR GANACHE


Nesquick Chocolate milk powder 1 tbsp
Caster Sugar 1 1/2 tbsp
Whippin Cream 2 tsp
Butter 1 tbsp


Melt these ingredients in a pan untill warm. Pour this over the brownies.


Chk this too..CLASSIC BROWNIES




Linking this to Desserts event hosted by Ramya