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Pomegranate Jewel Cake {Egg Free}

October 16, 2013 by TheWhiteRamekins

Pomegranate Jewel Cake {Egg Free}

Pomegranate Jewel Cake….got the inspiration to bake this wonderful ruby red pomegranate seeds studded cake from ever so enigmatic Nigella Lawson’s Feast. First time flipping through the pages of her enormous book on recipes around festivities round the year, this was one of those recipes which I lay my eyes on. And I wanted to bake this cake soon. I wanted to bake the recipe from her book, but I guess something else was destined. Right when I had got all the ingredients for the cake, my dear mother called me telling me to abstain from eggs or meat, as it was Navratri (nine days of fasting and having only satvik food). What a timing! But what could be done, the inspiration had already kicked in, and I didn’t want to get myself disappointed. So, I thought of taking the inspiration as the lead and bake an egg free cake. Though not a big fan of egg free cakes. I remembered, a dear friend of mine had given me this egg free vanilla cake recipe link at ChefInYou sometimes back. And I vividly remembered that the recipe had called for condensed milk. I opened my fridge and my eyes gleamed through. I had half a tin sitting in the back, left from the Iced Coffee I made last. So I was all sorted now. Happy happy moi. Pomegranates are in full bloom and have flooded the markets. You just can’t ignore them. Fruits when in peak of their season are always the best buy. And you never can go wrong with those lusciously naturally ripened gifts of mother earth. Like in this case, ruby red seeds pearls shine on top of this fragrant vanilla cake, look no less than an open jewel-case of a cake. And I took the flavors and the beauty of this cake to another level, by topping the cake with a generous layer of wicked dark chocolate ganache. What fun!

Pomegranate Jewel Cake {Egg Free}

Pomegranate Jewel Cake {Egg Free}

Pomegranate Jewel Cake {Egg Free}Pomegranate Jewel Cake {Egg Free} Pomegranate Jewel Cake {Egg Free}

Ingredients

1 cup (140gm) all purpose flour
3/4 cup (200 gms) sweetened condensed milk
1/4 cup (60ml) melted butter, cooled
1-1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup ( 5 tbsp/ 75 ml) of water
100 gm dark chocolate, chopped
50 ml low fat cream
2 big pomegranates

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 200 degree C and grease a 7″ circular pan and keep aside.
  2. In a bowl, sift together flour, baking powder and baking soda.
  3. In another bowl, mix together condensed milk, butter, vanilla extract and water.
  4. Pour dry ingredients into wet ingredients and fold gently without over mixing.
  5. Pour the batter into prepared pan and bake for 10 minutes and then reduce the temperature to 150 degree C and bake for another 15 minutes or until skewer inserted into the center of cake comes out clean.
  6. Let the cake cool in tin for 10 minutes and then invert onto a wire rack to let cool completely.
  7. Take juice out of one pomegranates and drizzle it on top of the cake.
  8. In a microwave safe bowl, heat the cream until it starts to boil. Add the chopped chocolate and let it stand for 5 minutes. Stir well to combine the chocolate and cream.
  9. Top the cake with chocolate topping and then scatter the seeds of second pomegranate on top of it and serve.

Filed Under: cake Tagged With: chocolate, egg free, eggless, food, Navratri, nigella lawson, pomegranate, vanilla cake

Roasted Strawberries & Buttermilk Ice Cream {Egg Free}

July 25, 2013 by TheWhiteRamekins

Roasted Strawberries & Buttermilk Ice Cream

I am kinda hooked on to this egg free ice cream base, which Jeni of Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams At Home has discovered. And why not, it’s super easy, free of hassle to cook the custard perfectly and nonetheless creamier than an egg based ice cream. And it comes without eggs, so you can feed it to a larger set of people and make them happy.

Roasted Strawberries & Buttermilk Ice Cream 4

This is my third attempt at her ice cream base, and I am a fan! I made lychee ice cream and mango and blueberry popsicle s {I didn’t write about those popsicles, we gobbled them up fast before I could take pictures} using the glorious base and they were super fun!

Roasted Strawberries & Buttermilk Ice Cream 2

This time I took a recipe from her book and made this roasted strawberries and buttermilk ice cream. A delish way to use the last of the strawberries stash from the freezer. In fact, I had reserved them for making an ice cream only {even before I bought her book}.

Roasted Strawberries & Buttermilk Ice Cream 3

Roasting the strawberries concentrated the flavor, with evaporating some of the water. And a touch of lemon juice and buttermilk helped drawing out the subtle tartness of the fruit. One spoon full of this luscious ice cream, and you are straight into the spring heaven.

Roasted Strawberries & Buttermilk Ice Cream 1

There is nothing like a homemade ice cream. The one which is devoid of any artificial colors or essence. You can play around with ingredients, flavors, fruits, veggies or for that matter even herbs. Yeah, a basil ice cream next has been playing on mind. Till then, enjoy this lovely full of spring roasted strawberries ice cream.

Roasted Strawberries & Buttermilk Ice Cream 5

Ingredients

Roasted Strawberries:

250 gm strawberries (hulled and sliced)
1/4 cup sugar
1 tbsp fresh lemon juice

Ice Cream Base:

1 1/2 cup whole milk
2 tbsp cornstarch
4 tbsp cream cheese (I used Amul cream cheese spread)
1/8 tsp fine sea salt
1 1/4 cup low fat cream
2/3 cup sugar
2 tbsp honey
1/4 cup buttermilk

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 190 degree C. Combine the sugar in glass or ceramic baking dish, stirring gently to mix well. Roast for 8 minutes or until just soft (increase the roasting time by 5 minutes, if using frozen strawberries). Let cool slightly.
  2. Puree the strawberries with lemon juice in a food processor.
  3. For ice cream base, mix about 2 tbsp of milk with corn starch in a small bowl to make a slurry.
  4. Whisk together cream cheese and salt in a medium bowl until smooth.
  5. Combine the remaining milk, cream, sugar, honey in a sauce pan and bring to rolling boil over medium high heat and boil for 4 minutes.
  6. Remove from heat and gradually whisk in the cornstarch slurry. Bring the mixture back to boil and boil over medium high heat and cook stirring about 1 minute. Remove from heat.
  7. Gradually whisk in the hot milk mixture into the cream cheese until smooth. Let the mixture come to room temperature.
  8. Add the strawberry puree and buttermilk and mix well. Chill it in fridge, at least 5 hours or overnight.
  9. Freeze the ice cream in ice cream maker as per the manufacturer’s instructions. Store in freezer for another 4 hours before serving.

Filed Under: ice cream Tagged With: egg free, eggless, food, frozen, ice cream, jeni's splendid ice creams, strawberries

Lychee Ice Cream With Praline Almonds

July 8, 2013 by TheWhiteRamekins

Lychee Ice Cream With Praline Almonds

This has occurred to me previously too. A certain syndrome or phenomenon, whatever you might want to name it. That everything’s been running smoothly and peacefully on a steady pace. No hiccups, no hurdles. Almost reaching to a stage of complacency {read getting used to the ease of life here}. That peace and smoothness starts taking  it’s own toll. And slowly starts killing the creative being inside me.

Lychee Ice Cream With Praline Almonds 2

The inner me wants to surge out like ASAP, knowing that something’s not happening right. But it takes it’s own time.  Not sure, if this could be a reason I am somehow not able to conjure up my thoughts here and hence I have been finding reasons to stay away from this space. In fact, I have been talking to a close friend about this, but all I could put forward was a bunch of lame excuses. Though, I have been spending a lot of my time in kitchen besides work, churning, whipping, baking, cooking. Every time I  cooked and shot, I fell short of thoughts, that kept me away from all you lovely folks. {I know, all this blabbering sounds so lame…ain’t it!}. Yeah, I am still trying to figure this out. OK…I can’t burden you anymore with all this non-sense silly talk.

Lychee Ice Cream With Praline Almonds 5

Let’s talk about food, for the reason you and me are here. So, I ordered this wonderful and literally splendid book on frozen desserts, Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams at Home, a couple of weeks before. I went through all the recipes in the book, like I always do, as soon as I open the book for the first time. The way Jeni’s found a unique way of creating artisan american ice creams in home kitchens, is awe inspiring. And all that astonishingly yummy stuff is minus eggs.

Lychee Ice Cream With Praline Almonds 3

I fell in love with her ice cream base instantaneously. And I knew, which flavor I was going to make first. This one is not from her book, rather my own imagination fired by the abundance of this in-season fragrantly sweet juicy plump Lychee fruit. And for the Jeni’s ice cream base, I used all local produce. Made me all the more happy. Mother liked this one a lot, specially knowing that this was en egg-free dessert she could relish.

Her recipe uses cream cheese and double cream, which I replaced with locally available cream cheese spread and low fat cream (Amul). And I served the ice cream with some crushed praline almonds and that doubled up the joy of the most splendid ice cream, made at home.

Lychee Ice Cream With Praline Almonds 4

Lychee Ice Cream With Praline Almonds 1

Recipe adapted from Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams at Home

Ingredients

1 cup whole milk
1 tbsp plus 1 tsp cornstarch
3 tbsp cream cheese, softened
1/8 tsp fine sea salt
2 1/4 cup low fat cream
2/3 cup sugar
2 tbsp honey
1 cup Lychee pulp, divided

Instructions

  1. Take half of the lychee pulp and puree it in a blender or food processor and let it chill in fridge.
  2. Chop remaining lychee pulp and spread on a shallow glass dish and freeze.
  3. Mix about 2 tbsp of milk with corn starch in a small bowl to make a slurry.
  4. Whisk together cream cheese and salt in a medium bowl until smooth.
  5. Combine the remaining milk, cream, sugar, honey in a sauce pan and bring to rolling boil over medium high heat and boil for 4 minutes.
  6. Remove from heat and gradually whisk in the cornstarch slurry. Bring the mixture back to boil and boil over medium high heat and cook stirring about 1 minute. Remove from heat.
  7. Gradually whisk in the hot milk mixture into the cream cheese until smooth. Let the mixture come to room temperature. Chill it in fridge, stirring in between.
  8. Add the lychee puree to the ice cream mixture once cooled completely and chill the mixture completely until ready to make the ice cream.
  9. Freeze the ice cream n the ice cream maker as per the manufacturer’s instructions. Mix in the frozen lychee bits, just before ice cream is about to be ready in the ice cream maker. Store in freezer. Top with chopped praline almonds, while serving.

Praline Almonds

Ingredients

60 ml water
100 gm sugar
135 gm whole almonds
1/8 tsp coarse salt

Instructions

  1. Mix the water, sugar and almonds in a sauce pan. Put the pan on a medium high heat and cool, stirring constantly with a spoon, until sugar dissolves and liquid dissolves.
  2. Lower the heat to medium and continue cooking until the liquid crystallizes and becomes sandy. Very soon the crystals of sugar at the bottom of pan will begin to liquify. Stir the dark syrup at the bottom of pan over the nuts to coat them. Continue stirring and coating the nuts until the almonds are glazed and have a bit glossy and shiny skin.  Remove from heat and sprinkle the salt and scatter in a baking tray lined with silicon mat. Let cool completely. Break up the clusters if they stick to each other, once the nuts have completely cooled.

Filed Under: ice cream Tagged With: dessert, egg free, eggless, food, frozen, jeni's splendid ice creams, litchi, lychee, summer

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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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