food & photography
I believe, chocolate is the most sensuous of all foods which has power to evoke emotions, desires and fascinations. A soft voluptuous melting bar of dark chocolate on the palate gives the kind of pleasure which is hedonistic in nature. A drizzle of chocolate on your ice cream or a slice of good old chocolate fudge cake or for that matter an amazingly dark chocolate bar is all you need for your pursuit of happiness. …
Mincemeat Granola Snack Bars! Right when you would be thinking about what to do with the leftover mincemeat from your Christmas fruit cake and mince pies you had made last year. I know, it sounds a tad bit late, but you know, I am quite lazy in cleaning up my fridge sometimes. And some of the times, it might take a couple of months too. Now that might look gross to you, but thank God, stuff like mincemeat keeps pretty well even for that long a duration. Last year I had made leftover mincemeat fruitcake cookies with this gorgeous stuff from the holidays. And I love mincemeat filling, it tastes just divine and takes you back to the holiday time once again. And that is the reason, every year I soak the dry fruit more than what I would need for a certain recipe. Last year, when I was done baking enough of Christmas Mince Pies, I was still left with it which was good enough to bake a smallish fruitcake. I wanted to do so, but then that just kept on getting procrastinated. And with each passing day, I had lost the feel of baking fruitcake either. I always struggle to make a good breakfast on a work day in winters {too lazy to leave the blanket and get up on time, you see}. That is when these yummy mincemeat granola snack bars come really handy. A glass of milk or a shot of espresso with these hearty fruity granola snack bars saves my day very well. So that is the reason I keep on baking granola so often at home. Homemade granola has got no comparison at all. The stuff is awesome and so healthy that you wouldn’t even mind binging on them. While I was mixing the granola, I got reminded of few of the food gifts I got from my dear blogger friend Deeba, few days back. So in went some lovely chocolate chips and the rind from the kamquats to make them little indulgent and citrusy at the same time. Chocolate and orange marry so well! And it becomes all the more special when you get that as a gift. These snack bars are sweetened by the sweetness from orange juice which went into making the mincemeat and some honey. You may skip the chocolate chips completely, if you want them strictly healthy. But I guess, that much chocolate would no harm. In fact, your kids would love them, if you pack these in their lunch box.
Stone fruits are back in season and cherries happened to be the first one I baked with this weekend. These wholegrain cherry brownies were fab to start with! Stone fruit means summer to me. Loads and loads of them, in different shapes and varieties will remain there for a couple of months to come. And every year, I wait eagerly for their season to come.
I was supposed to bake a cake this weekend, as I had to travel back home. Kids would be waiting for me to come get bake them a cake. But sadly, due to a last hour call at work, I had to cancel my travel. Poor kids would have to wait for another week. So, I dropped the idea of baking a cherry cake and instead baked these lovely, hearty, wholesome, filling wholegrain dark chocolate brownies topped with loads of fresh cherries.
Now when I say, they are wholesome, I literally mean it. All because, they have the goodness of oats and wholewheat flour. I just completely skipped out the refined plain flour. I keep on trying baking with whole grains these days. Though it seems daunting initially, but it actually isn’t really.
Wholegrain work well with earthy flavors such as a cinnamon scented coffee cake or for that matter they go equally good with chocolate too {got this inspiration from a sweet blogger friend, Deeba Rajpal of PassionateAboutBaking, an amazing baker and fantastic food stylist, a true source of inspiration}. These are full of energy and good to be packed in lunchbox or for an afternoon snack.
