The White Ramekins

Last Saturday, as being the long (3 day) weekend, I had decided to spend some time in baking, as I feel this one task, really relaxing. The sweet smell of baking gets entirely filled up in my whole apartment and that is no less than an aromatic and therapeutic treatment at some spa. So first thing in the morning I did, I called up my friend and asked him if he is free for sometime in late afternoon. After he confirmed, I googled through some sites to find out some easier recipes for muffins, as this was the first time I was trying them at home on my own. And the one which I decided finally (based on review comments), was banana muffins, for which I am sharing the recipe with you:

For Banana Muffins, you need
250 gm Plain Flour
1 tsp baking powder
1tsp biacrb of soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp grated nutmeg
3 large ripe bananas
1 egg
70 gm dark brown sugar
50 ml vegetable oil
30 gm raisins

Preheat the oven to 180 C and line 12 medium muffin tins with paper cases. Sift flour, baking powder, bicarb of soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg and set aside. In a separate bowl, mash bananas and beat them. Beat in egg, oil and sugar. Add mixed dry ingredients gradually and beat them moderately. Spoon 3/4th of muffin tins with batter and put them in oven for 20-25 minutes. To check their readiness, touch them with your fingertip gently, they should spring back.

There were slight variations I did to the original recipe, I added 100 gm of dark chocolate chips in the prepared batter. Also, I garnished the top of muffins with blanched almonds before putting them in oven.

Oh, I forgot to mention that these beautiful shots were taken by my friend.

I’ve always adored the sinful chocolate since my childhood, be it in any form. I remember those days, when on a cold winter night of north, we all friends used to go to cafe coffee day just to have sizzling brownies with a cup of hot simmering cappuccino. I always wished that I could try making them at home. But then instead of brownies, I came across a very nice recipe of white chocolate peanut butter blondies, which basically makes the saltiness of peanut butter go very well with the sweetness of white chocolate chips. I tried that at home in my samsung convection oven and it came out very nice and fudgy from inside. The key ingredients of the recipe are white chocolate chips and crunchy peanut butter, for which I went to my favorite gourmet shop, the Modern Bazaar in dlf phase 1, gurgaon and then I waited eagerly for the weekend to come.

To make these gorgeous blondies you need

100 gm butter

150 gm crunchy peanut butter

1 tsp vanilla extract

150 gm brown sugar

1 egg

75gm white chocolate chips

175gm plain flour

1 tsp baking powder

Preheat your oven to 180 C. Cut butter into small cubes and add peanut butter and beat them with a electric mixer or by hand so that they become light and pale. Add vanilla extract, sugar and egg and beat them again to make them light and fluffy. Then sift the flour and baking powder into the butter mixture and combine them nicely. And the add chocolate chips and mix well. Take a square cake tin and line it with a butter paper and pour the mix in the tin and spread it evenly. And then put it in oven for about 25 – 30 minutes. After they are done, take them out of oven and leave them to get cooled. They can be garnished with a little dusting of icing sugar (using a sieve). These can be enjoyed with a hot cup of coffee in the evening or with a scoop of vanilla ice cream in the dessert. The original recipe claimed that they can be kept for 3/4 days, but believe me, they wont last that long.