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Wholewheat Dark Chocolate Brownies

September 5, 2013 by TheWhiteRamekins

Wholewheat Dark Chocolate Brownies

Cooking with whole grains in India is as ancient as it can be. There are lot many Indian grains, which have completely disappeared from the increasingly modernized, urban kitchens. In fact, the whole grains which are more fashionably being termed as The Super Foods, were the staples of Indian homes ages back.

Wholewheat Dark Chocolate Brownies

And in most Indian kitchens, the benefits of whole grains only tend to get limited to wheat. Wheat has become the primary component of our diet, in form of rotis or chapatis. I can remember my mother spending a lot of time on procuring new seasonal whole wheat in bulk, storing them in a huge container and washing, cleaning and sun drying the grains and getting them milled at a local flour mill. In fact, she never used to sift the flour, so as to keep the bran and fiber intact. Taste of those whole wheat chapatis, smeared with desi ghee {Indian clarified butter}, is something which can never be replaced, I guess.

Wholewheat Dark Chocolate Brownies

But these days, because of the busy urban life, our whole wheat flour comes from a plastic bag now. Wish people had enough time for themselves, like they used to have in old times! But I feel that people are getting more and more conscious about their health these days, at least this is what I have experienced over past couple of years.

Wholewheat Dark Chocolate Brownies

You must have seen people buying a whole wheat or multi-grain bread more happily than a refined flour based sandwich bread or replacing their refined cooking oil with cold pressed olive or mustard oil. Now, how much nutrient value those foods bring to our diet is different question all together. But at least, the dietary scene is changing, however slow-paced it might be. This change could be partly be owed to the marketing gimmicks of packaged food industry. But that is bringing some awareness about the importance of whole foods to the fore.

Wholewheat Dark Chocolate Brownies

And I must tell you, my sweet blogger friends Sangeeta & Deeba have been inspiring me a lot these days to bake/cook with whole grains. Thanks a million…both you sweet ladies! I have tried replacing refined flour in my baked goods with wholewheat flour and other alternate flour in past too, and the results were quite good.

Wholewheat Dark Chocolate Brownies

My friends and family couldn’t make out the taste, until I told them. And this happened again when I recently baked these wholewheat brownies yesterday, for my office mates. I took them to my office and when I opened the box, I declared that these were made of whole wheat and I had replaced some of the butter with olive oil, most of my colleagues asked for a second. It gave them a healthy excuse…isn’t that sweet?

Wholewheat Dark Chocolate Brownies

And it made me happy happy. 🙂 And now, I am tempted to make a wholewheat chocolate fudge cake soon, until then keep watching this space!

Recipe source PassionateAboutBaking

Ingredients

60 gm butter
40 ml olive oil
80 gm wholewheat flour
2 large eggs
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
100 gm sugar
100 gm dark chocolate
50 gm chopped walnuts

Directions

  1. Preheat the oven at 180 degree C. Butter and line an 8 x 8 inch square pan with parchment paper and keep aside.
  2. In a big bowl, melt together the chocolate, butter and oil on a double boiler, making sure the bowl doesn’t touch the boiling water beneath.
  3. Once chocolate is melted. Let it a cool for 5 minutes. Whisk in the sugar. Beat in the eggs one at a time. Add the vanilla.
  4. Add flour, salt and baking powder and mix well. Mix in the chopped walnuts.
  5. Pour the batter into prepared pan. Bake for around 20 minutes.
  6. Let cool in pan completely. Cut into 16 equal squares.

Filed Under: brownies, chocolate Tagged With: baking, brownies, chocolate, food, healthy baking, wholewheat

Millet Brownies With Salted Butter Caramel

May 6, 2013 by TheWhiteRamekins

Millet Brownies With Salted Butter Caramel 1

A recent visit to the health foods aisle of a grocery store brought my attention to this earthy and wholesome millet (Ragi). I have been reading about the bakers trying out alternate flours for baking sweet treats, tarts and quiches,  truly for health reasons.

Millet Brownies With Salted Butter Caramel

Ragi and other finger millet are not new to me. It’s just that I hadn’t tried them in my baking. Even today, my mother cooks healthy and comforting pearl millet (bajra) and lentil soup during cold and dull winter days, and that is just awesome.

Millet Brownies With Salted Butter Caramel 2

So, I took home a small pack of this beautiful wholesome flour in a hope to cook some storm in the kitchen. Sadly, when I couldn’t think of much of a recipe, I thought of baking brownies.

Millet Brownies With Salted Butter Caramel 4

I replaced the butter with olive oil in brownies, because I had planned to serve them with a nice drizzle of salted butter caramel. And I didn’t want to kill the goodness of this super food by loading it with too much butter. I have baked brownies with olive oil before and trust me they come out really nice, moist and light. If you want, you can completely skip out caramel sauce and the brownies will still be very good.

Millet Brownies With Salted Butter Caramel 3

You can bake them in mini tart pans, like I did. Hassle free single serving mini brownies…I just love petite dessert simply because of them being non-fussy. But if you wish to be more conventional, feel free to bake them in a square pan.

Millet Brownies, recipe adapted from Martha Stewart

Ingredients

100 ml olive oil
170 gm dark chocolate
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 cup millet flour
1/4 cup corn flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
1 cup sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup strong coffee

Instructions

  1. In a bowl, melt chocolate, cocoa powder and oil over a double boiler or in microwave.
  2. In a separate bowl, whisk together millet flour, corn flour, salt, baking powder and keep aside.
  3. In another bowl, beat sugar and eggs for about 3 minutes, until pale and fluffy.
  4. Beat in vanilla extract and coffee, followed by chocolate mixture.
  5. Add the flour mixture and stir to combine well.
  6. Pour the batter into buttered square pan or into 8 2″ tart pans.
  7. Bake for 20 minutes (tart pans)/35 minutes (square pan) in a 180 degree Celsius preheated oven.
  8. Let cool in pan completely.

Salted Butter Caramel, recipe adapted from Two Pea And Their Pod

Ingredients

50 gm salted butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup low fat cream

Instructions

  1. In a non reactive saucepan, heat the sugar on a medium high heat. Keep whisking until it starts to melt.
  2. Stop whisking once it has melted completely and let it cook until it reaches dark amber color. You can swirl the pan to move sugar around but do not whisk.
  3. Once it has reached the dark amber color, add the butter and let it melt completely.
  4. Take the pan off the heat and add cream and whisk vigorously and carefully (it will splatter at this stage) to make it a smooth and creamy sauce.
  5. Let cool in pan for 10-15 minutes and then store in sterilized glass jar. It can be stored in fridge for about 2 weeks.

Filed Under: brownies Tagged With: alternate baking, chocolate, cocoa brownies, dessert, food, gluetn free brownies, health flour baking, millet recipe, salted butter caramel

Milk Chocolate Brownies from Tate’s Bake Shop

January 7, 2013 by TheWhiteRamekins

Tate's Bake Shop Milk Chocolate Brownies 3

It is so freezing cold here in Delhi. From past few days, we’ve been shivering due to this severe temperature down, we are not used to. It has broken the record of last 40 years and we’ve been trying hard to fight this cold weather. And these days, I have been thinking of only hot comforting food, the food which I can enjoy in a bowl or a mug while I am still covered under my comforter. And as I am writing this post, I am sipping into my mug of hot chocolate.

Tate's Bake Shop Milk Chocolate Brownies 5

And this was time, when my 4 years old niece called me up and told me to bake her something chocolate. Anything chocolate, she just loves it. And I guess, that I have reiterated this here, not sure how many times. And I love to bake a chocolate cake, muffins, brownies or our good old chocolate chip cookies for her.

Tate's Bake Shop Milk Chocolate Brownies 1

And truly speaking, it gave me a reason to warm up my house a little with the oven churning out some hot comforting stuff.

Tate's Bake Shop Milk Chocolate Brownies

Few days back, I had ordered this beautiful book Baking for Friends by New York’s famous Tate’s Bake Shop owner Kathleen King. I saw a review of the book at Deeba Rajpal’s blog. I just loved the way, the author of the book introduces herself to her readers. Whenever she bakes something, there is someone special in her mind. And the happiness and the sweetness she spreads through her food brings her the title of The Sugar Fairy from her friends. Her recipes listed in the book are not that fancy looking, rather they are simple yet honest recipes of a household. Some of the recipes are even from her one of those ordinary days, like Hurricane Irene Cookies, something she discovered out of ingredients she had at hand at a morning of the hurricane.

Tate's Bake Shop Milk Chocolate Brownies 2

And to please the kid, I thought of baking these milk chocolate brownies from Kathleen’s book. Though, I have never baked with milk chocolate before, I still thought to give it a try, since it is the milk chocolate, which little chocolate lover prefers over dark one. They came out really nice and moist, and they had enough chocolate-y-ness to tantalize the taste buds of an adult too.

Tate's Bake Shop Milk Chocolate Brownies 4

 

Ingredients

250 gm milk chocolate chips
100 gm salted butter
1/2 cup sugar
2 large eggs, at room temprature
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
3/4 cup all purpose flour
1 tbsp cocoa powder

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven at 180 degree Celsius. Lightly butter a 9 inch square pan and line the pan with a parchment paper, with paper over hanging the sides of the pan.
  2. In a small saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the chocolate and and let it stand for 1 minute . Stir until chocolate is completely melted and smooth. Scrape it in a medium bowl and let cool slightly.
  3. Add the eggs, sugar and vanilla to the chocolate and mix well. Add the flour and cocoa and stir until smooth.
  4. Spread the batter evenly into the prepared pan.
  5. Bake until a skewer inserted into the middle of the brownies comes out with a moist crumb, about 20 minutes {mine took a little longer}.
  6. Let cool completely. Lift up the brownies out of the pan with the help of over hanging paper and cut into 16 squares.

Filed Under: brownies Tagged With: baking for friends, food, milk chocolate, milk chocolate brownies, tate's bake shop

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Hi! I'm Himanshu - a home chef who loves to cook, bake, style and photo shoot... Read More…

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