Tag: chocolate

Instant Pot Nutella Bread Pudding

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BM# 103: Week 2, Day 3
Theme : Recreate into a new dish

I always pack snacks for my son so that he has something to eat on the way back home after his practice or a match. He is very hungry at that time and can eat one or two sandwiches easily. Sometimes I pack a little more than what he needs as his hunger quotient cannot be exactly determined. So it’s not too uncommon to be left with some leftovers. Recently when I ended up with two extra Nutella sandwiches, instead of devouring it immediately, I decided to make bread pudding out of it.

I made some more sandwiches, cut it into big cubes and added a custard made with eggs and milk/cream to it. Traditionally bread pudding is made in oven, but I used the Instant Pot instead and the pudding was so moist and delicious! I loved the taste of it, it wasn’t too sweet and the Nutella tasted great in there. The next time, I might add some Nutella or chocolate chips to the custard as well, because everything tastes a little better with chocolate.

Read on for the recipe.

Recipe source : Nutella Croissant Bread Pudding

Ingredients:

  • 6 Nutella sandwiches*, cut into cubes
  • 4 large eggs
  • 1 cup heavy cream
  • 1 cup milk
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • Almond slices for serving, optional

*I used bakery bread with about 2 teaspoons of Nutella for each sandwich.

Method:

  1. Mix the eggs, cream, milk, vanilla and sugar in a bowl. Whisk well to combine.
  2. In a big tray or plate add the sandwich cubes and add 1/2 of the whisked custard. Let the bread absorb some of the custard.
  3. Now transfer this to a stainless pot or Pyrex bowl that fits well inside the Instant Pot and add the rest of the custard on top of it.
  4. Add one cup of water to instant pot bowl and place the trivet inside it. Place the bread pudding inside the Instant Pot bowl and cover it with a lid that fits or aluminum foil.
  5. Set instant pot to Manual mode and set timer to 25 minutes. Let the pressure release naturally. Serve warm or cold with sliced almonds on top.

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Checkerboard Cookies

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1checkerboard-cookies

BM# 100: Week 4, Day 2
Theme : Pick an alphabet

I make cakes regularly. Cookies – not so much, but I used to make it often earlier. The main reason was that my recipe sources were my cookbooks. I had excellent baking books and it was my habit to go through those regularly. I would try out the recipes and my first baking book – The Essential Baking, got me hooked to cookies. I never knew it was so easy to make cookies.

I have made checkerboard cookies also many times, but I haven’t had great success with the shape ever. I prefer making spiral cookies using the same recipe. The simple reason that it’s easier to make the spiral cookies. The shape doesn’t require you to bring out measuring tools.

Now a days, the recipe source for me has shifted from books to the Internet. So sometime back when I came across this recipe online for checkerboard cookies, I decided to give it a try. These were made as a gift and were well received.

Read on for the recipe.

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Recipe source: Taste of Home

Makes about 4 dozen cookies

Ingredients:

  • 1 1/4 sticks ( ~140 gms) butter, softened
  • 3/4 cups sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 2 cups all purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 2 tbsp chocolate chips, melted and cooled or 1 tbsp cocoa powder

Method:

  1. Using a stand mixer or hand mixer, cream the butter, sugar, baking powder and salt until light and fluffy. Add in the egg and vanilla. Beat everything until its combined well. Slowly add in the flour in batches beating at a low speed until everything is well mixed.
  2. Divide the dough into two batches. Add the melted chocolate or cocoa powder to one part and mix it in.
  3. Follow this video for instructions on how to shape the cookies. Pictures or videos explain the process a lot better than words.
  4. Clingwrap and Refrigerate the dough until the time of baking.
  5. Pre heat oven to 350F/180C. Slice the cookie log into 1/4″ thick cookies. Spread them evenly on a baking pan, leaving some space between the cookies. Bake for 8-10 minutes until the cookies are set and edges start browning a bit. Take off the oven and let them rest in the pan for 5-10 minutes before removing to a cooling rack. The cookie hardens as it cools.

3checkerboard-cookies

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Brigaderio – Brazilian chocolate truffles

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BM# 96: Week 4, Day 3
Theme : Southern Hemisphere

On Day 3 of Blogging under recipes from countries in Southern hemisphere theme, I am here with a dessert. Brigaderio are chocolate fudge/truffles made from condensed milk and cocoa powder. It’s a very popular dessert in Brazil and is extremely easy to make.

I have followed the instructions and recipe from Easy and Delish. You can check out the videos by Tasty too where they share more flavor ideas. I have tried the cocoa version here.

All you need to do is cook, stirring constantly, condensed milk, a little butter and cocoa powder. In about ten minutes, the mixture will become shiny and start to pull away from the sides and bottom of the pan. The cooking part is over! The next part is harder though – the waiting time! You can refrigerate the mix to cool faster but even then you are looking at at least 30 minutes. Once it cools down completely and then all you need to do is roll it into small balls and serve.

The serving size is a little difficult to generalize since it would depend on the size of the truffles. If you take bigger scoops to make the balls, then you would have lesser number and if you stick with smaller scoops you will have more truffles. I got around 11 truffles, each slightly smaller than a golf ball.

Ingredients:

  • 1 (14oz) can condensed milk
  • 4 tablespoons cocoa powder
  • 2 tablespoons butter
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • Chocolate sprinkles for decoration

Method :

  1. In a thick bottomed pan, add the can of condensed milk and cocoa powder. Mix well until no lumps remain. Add butter.
  2. Heat this mixture, stirring continuously, until it becomes shiny, thickens and starts to pull away from the sides and bottom of the pan. It takes about 10 minutes. When you run the spoon in the middle, you would be able to see the bottom of the pan. It should take a couple of seconds for the fudge mix to come back together.
  3. Take off the heat at this point and add the vanilla. Transfer to a greased plate and refrigerate for 30 minutes or leave them at room temperature until it’s completely cooled down. At that point, grease your hands and roll them into small balls. Dredge carefully on top of chocolate sprinkles to coat and serve on mini cupcake liners.

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2 Ingredients Hot Chocolate

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BM# 95: Week 2, Day 2
Theme : Winter warmers

When you say winter, the first thing that comes to mind is Christmas. And the second thing is hot chocolate. A cup of hot chocolate goes a long way into uplifting your mood on a cold day. I don’t like the readymade hot cocoa packets that you just have to mix with hot water and drink. I prefer the old fashioned from scratch method using cocoa powder.

It is a simple basic method of mixing one tablespoon of cocoa powder and sugar as needed to a cup of hot milk. I also like using a candy cane as a stirrer to infuse peppermint flavor into the drink. This morning I tried a peanut butter version where you add a tablespoon of peanut butter to the basic hot chocolate recipe. I am big fan of peanut butter, so for me it was delicious.

But for my son, I wasn’t sure whether he would like it. So I made this much simpler version of hot chocolate. It uses only chocolate chips and hot milk. I added a tiny pinch of instant coffee powder to boost that chocolate flavor a bit more. And of course some marshmallows for topping!

Read on for the recipe. This post goes to Kids Delight event, hosted this month by PJ under the theme Winter warmers.

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing this BM#96

Ingredients

  • 1 cup milk
  • 2-3 tablespoons of chocolate chips
  • 1/4 spoon instant coffee powder, optional
  • Mini Marshmallows for topping

Method:

  1. Heat milk. Turn off heat before it starts boiling.
  2. Add chocolate chips and instant coffee powder, if using, mix with a spoon until it’s melted. Pour into a mug and serve topped with mini marshmallows.

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