Nothing gets me going like a good recipe and a new dish to bake. The planning, the excitement when the dish looks like its working out, the joy of seeing my family and friends gobble it up and eagerly looking forward to what I can bake next, everything about baking makes me happy (the messy kitchen counter top aside :p) Here's a peek into my kitchen, my cooking, my wonderland.


Sunday 16 March 2014

Choco Mint Cannon balls

Choco mint cannon balls

A select few combinations evoke a sense of utter pleasure and chocolate and peppermint/mint is one of them. I’m a sucker for After Eights and back in university, all of my friends knew what to get me as goodies. Year after year, I’d get a big stash of them and I’d ration them so that they would last. When we started getting them in India, I was over the moon. But I still waited for my holiday stash (greedy me). Once, I found a box that had After Eight balls, not your usual square ones. I still remember, back then, that it was priced at Rs 400 bucks or more for a small box the size of your average mint box. Quite a lot to pay for a treat so tiny, back then, living on a meager stipend from my first job. Nevertheless, the love for chocolate and mint made me take the plunge and I don’t regret it one bit. Sadly, since then, I never found it.


I always looked out for it but in vain. When I rediscovered my joy of baking when I took a short break in my career, this was one of the first things I attempted. I remember whooping with joy when I made them and memories came flooding back of me buying that box at Landmark one evening and having that eternal debate in my head over whether I should be spending so much money on this, was it worth it, was I being wasteful, so on and so forth. We all have that voice in our head, don’t we? And boy am I glad I didn't listen to it. Biting into them balls of melting minty yummiliciousness is a memory that this very forgetful girl still remembers vividly.


This recipe is an oldie and one that’s very special to me and I hope it can be to you’ll as well.

Monday 10 March 2014

Cheat's chocolate mousse

Easy peasy chocolate mousse


While I do like to occasionally slog it out in the kitchen when it comes to certain recipes and dishes, for the most part of it, I like my desserts to be simple and as less time consuming as possible. I'd rather spend that extra time gobbling up another portion rather than slaving away for it. Most of my cravings come unannounced and come with a sense of urgency that only quick fix recipes can fix and here's one such recipe. This time's craving was dark chocolate mousse and even without the craving I wouldn't go through the traditional route of a mousse under normal circumstances and that's when my bookmarked Nigella's recipe came out. I am a big Nigella fan and her show is one of the first cookery shows I started watching and this has been on my to do list for a while now. This truly is an instant mousse recipe and so intensely rich and delicious that your mousse cravings will be well and truly satiated, as was mine. The trick here is mini marshmallows and it gives you the airy mousse like texture without slogging over the dish for hours.