No-bake Mango cheesecake

I had my first piece of cheesecake at Cheesecake factory; and with the first piece, it stole my heart. Never having a sweet tooth for creamy cakes, the instant liking and craving for the creamy cheesecakes came as a surprise. My favorite is the classic vanilla cheesecake, with a strawberry coulis. However, I like tasting different cheesecake flavors. Therefore, this time I ventured to combine the flavor of my favorite fruit mango with the creamy goodness of cheesecake. The best thing is when I can enjoy a homemade cheesecake in the flavor of my choice and yet do not have to go through all the hassle of baking etc. This chilled no-bake mango cheesecake was delicious in its creaminess, and the drizzle of mango pulp on the top took the yumminess of the cake a notch higher!

You can print the recipe for your kitchen here: PRINTABLE RECIPE

INGREDIENTS:

(Makes 6 slices)

Crust:

1.5cup sweet biscuit crumbs

4tbsp butter (cold)

1tbsp water

Filling:

200g cream cheese

250g ricotta cheese

1.5cup mango pulp

4tbsp sugar (or to taste)

1pack powdered gelatin (or gelatin for 250ml liquid)

Mango pulp for garnish

METHOD:

1.      Mix the biscuit crumbs with the butter. The butter should melt while rubbing to form a uniform mixture. Add 1tbsp water. Mix a couple of minutes more.

2.      Line an 8-inch springform baking pan with baking paper. Press the crust onto the pan base in a uniform layer and 2cm up the sides

3.      Add the cream cheese and ricotta cheese in a mixing jar and whisk into a creamy uniform mixture.

4.      Soak the gelatin in 4tbsp warm water for 10 minutes (or prepare the gelatin according to the direction on the packet). Slightly warm the mango pulp and mix the soaked gelatin with it.

5.      Slowly pour the mango pulp in the cream and whisk well into a creamy blend.

6.      Pour the filling over the crust. Keep it in the fridge for a couple of hours until the cheesecake is set and chilled.

7.      De-mold the cheesecake. Cut into pieces. Serve garnished with mango pulp.

Amrakhand

Shrikhand is a simple dessert popular in Maharashtra (Western India). Yogurt is hung overnight to turn it into this thick creamy consistency. The sweet essence and flavor of freshly ground cardamom and generous scatter of nuts and raisins completes it. A popular variation, Amrakhand, has mango pulp added to it. And this is what I made the other day for my ‘mango pulp dessert’ series. A delicious refreshing bowl of mango-yogurt goodness.

You can print the recipe for your kitchen here: PRINTABLE RECIPE

INGREDIENTS:

(Serves 2)

500g yogurt

1cup mango pulp

4tbsp sugar (or to taste)

1sp freshly ground cardamom

1tbsp golden raisins

1tbsp broken cashews

INSTRUCTIONS:

1.      Prepare a clean muslin cloth and fold in half to get 2 layers. Put the yogurt in it and tie tightly. Let it hang over night to drain out all the water. This gives a thick creamy ball of hung yogurt.

2.      Mix the yogurt with the mango pulp and sugar. Whisk to a smooth creamy consistency.

3.      Put in serving bowls and keep in a the fridge for a couple of hours or more allowing enough time for the sugar to dissolve and amrakhand to cool down.

4.      Serve chilled, garnished with ground cardamom, cashews and raisins. 

Pumpkin halwa

Now we all know about the famous American pumpkin pies. Recently when I got a pumpkin from a friend’s garden, besides making the usual Bengali preparations, I decided to try something new, preferably for the sweet tooth. The popularity of the pumpkin pie seeded this idea in my mind. And when there can be an American pumpkin pie, there can be an Indian pumpkin dessert too. I decided to make something similar to Gajar Halwa, replacing the carrots with pumpkin in this case. Pumpkins often have an earthy wild smell to it that can be a bit unpleasant in desserts. Therefore, I decided to bake the little pumpkins with honey before putting it in the boiling milk and reduce it to a semi-solid consistency. The subtle taste of honey along with the ghee, cardamoms worked wonder. Only after preparing this rich creamy dessert, while it was cooling, I searched a bit on the internet and found out that pumpkin halwa actually exists (kaddu ka halwa). However, as it is neither a typical dessert of Bengal, nor a popular one like gajar halwa, I had never even heard of it before! However, the self-inspired pumpkin halwa was delicious and added to my little collection of dessert recipes.

You can print the recipe for your kitchen here: PRINTABLE RECIPE

INGREDIENTS:

(Serves 4)

250g pumpkin

1lt full cream milk

4tbsp honey

2tbsp ghee

1/2cup cashews and raisins

2 bay leaves

5-6 cardamoms

METHOD:

1.      Cut the pumpkin into small cubes. Add the honey and mix well.

2.      Bake the pumpkin in a pre-heated oven at 200°C for 20 minutes.

3.      In the meantime, start boiling the milk in a heavy bottomed pan. Bring to boil, add the bay leaves and cardamom. Simmer on moderate heat, taking care that the milk does not get burnt at the bottom.

4.      When the pumpkin is done, add the pieces in the milk.

5.      Reduce the milk, stirring occasionally, until the whole mixture is semi-solid.

6.      In a wok, heat ghee. When the nice aroma of ghee comes, add the nuts and raisins.

7.      Add the pumpkin-milk mixture.

8.      Cook on moderate heat with continuous stirring until the milk is completely reduced and the whole mixture is solid.

9.      Remove from heat and let it cool.

10.   Serve garnished with nuts and raisins.

Banana kolac

Sometimes when bananas are over ripe and turning almost black, it is not so appetizing to just peel and enjoy. And even though I would love to bake more, both me and Blaž are not huge fans of sweets and cakes. I still like to eat a piece or so, Blaž says, ‘sweets are just backup plans for when you do not have anything else nice’! Therefore, this simple cake using the over ripe bananas was a nice idea. It doesn’t use creams, thus it is more light and good for a quick snack. I always liked this one, and finally learnt from Blaž’s grandma to make it. A simple recipe resulted into this tasty quick snack for the times when one is hungry.

You can print the recipe for your kitchen here: PRINTABLE RECIPE

INGREDIENTS:

1tbsp margarine

1 egg

180g sugar

1tbsp vanilla sugar

3 very ripe bananas

180g flour

7g baking powder

METHOD:

1.      Peel and slice the bananas. Mash it using a fork.

2.      Soften the margarine a bit using hand blender. Add an egg and blend until fluffy.

3.      Add the sugar and vanilla sugar. Blend until everything is well mixed.

4.      Add the mashed bananas. Blend well.

5.      Slowly add the flour and baking powder while blending continuously. Blend until there is no lump and no flour is visible.

6.      Pour in a heavily greased long baking dish.

7.      Bake at 200°C for 40 minutes.

8.      Take the kolac out. Let it cool a bit and then de-mould. Dust with vanilla sugar powder.

'Farm - bread' cookies

I tasted these cookies for the first at a small local food exhibition/competition. Most of the foods displayed there were typical Slovene ‘farm’ food. And these ‘farm - bread cookies’ were among them. They looked exactly like little farm baked brown breads with nice cracks on top and dusted with flour, and hence the name. They were delicious, and I wanted to have the recipe so badly. Blaž’s grandma and mama did not know it. So, when we went to Blaž’s aunt’s place last weekend, I asked her if she knows. And she did!! She had got the recipe in some booklet that came with newspaper during Christmas one year with recipes of cookies and cakes, and had made it before. The cookies take very little time to prepare and bake. A clean simple recipe it is. They look so tempting. And taste so wonderful. The outside is very crunchy, and then inside, the flavors melt in the mouth. An interesting combination of textures, crunch, and melting flavors these cookies are.

You can print the recipe for your kitchen here: PRINTABLE RECIPE

INGREDIENTS:

(Makes ~50)

3 egg yolks

250g coconut flour

120g chocolate powder

120g ground walnut

3 egg whites

200g sugar powder

For coating: 100g sugar powder

METHOD:

1.      Mix well the egg yolks, coconut flour, ground walnut and chocolate powder.

2.      Beat the egg whites to form hard peaks. While beating, slowly add the sugar powder.

3.      Gently fold the beaten egg white into the coconut flour mix to form a uniform mass.

4.      With wet hand make little balls (~2cm) and roll them in sugar powder.

5.      Bake in pre-heated oven at 175°C for around 15 minutes (on the middle rack). While baking, the cookies will crack like farm-made bread.

6.      After cooling, they should be crunchy outside and soft inside.

Kheer patisapta (Rice flour crepe with kheer stuffing)

Makar Sankranti  or  Pongal is one the harvest festivals in India. It is celebrated as Poush Parbon or Poush Sankranti  Bengal on the last day of the month of Poush. The freshly harvested paddy, date palm syrup and abundant coconuts are used to make traditional and delicate Bengali sweets, the different varieties of Pithe. I remember my grandma making all the delicious Puli pithe, patisapta, gokul pithe and so on. My parents talk about all the other tens of varieties of Pithe they had had when they were young. This time also my parents made puli pithe and patisapta at home. And I also got inspired to carry on the tradition. And maybe more than tradition, I guess I was just craving for all these sweet delicacies. Therefore, I decided to make Patisapta. It is rice flour crepe stuffed with coconut or kheer. I went with the kheer stuffing. In India, I would have used khoya to make the kheer. Here I substituted it with ricotta cheese and condensed milk powder. It was perfect and delicious. And here goes the recipe..

You can print the recipe for your kitchen here: PRINTABLE RECIPE

INGREDIENTS:
(Makes around 15)

For filling:

250g ricotta cheese

1cup condensed milk powder

500ml full cream milk

3tbsp light yogurt

For crepe:

1cup rice flour

1/2cup semolina flour

~350ml milk

2-3tbsp sugar (as per taste and sweetness of filling)

METHOD:

Mix all the ingredients for filling together.

Pour in a heavy bottomed pan and cook on low-medium heat with occasional stirring. Take care that it does not stick to the bottom.

Cook until the milk condenses and it forms an almost solid mass.

Let it cool and then separate into 15 portions.

Roll each portion into a cylinder.

Soak semolina flour for 30 minutes with minimum water. Mix it with rice flour.

Make a batter with around 300ml milk. Do not add all the milk at once. Add as required to get the right consistency. It should be quite a bit thinner than pancake batter.

Grease a griddle and lightly warm it.

Add a small ladle full of batter on it. Quickly spread it to make an even crepe. This has to be done quickly before the batter sets. The heat should be low-medium.

After the batter sets, flip over. Cook for a minute more but do not let it brown.

Add the filling in center and roll the crepe.

NOTE:

For this particular rice flour batter, the batter has to be very thin; otherwise, the crepes will be hard and unpalatable when cold.

When pouring the batter make sure that the griddle is not too hot, or the batter will start setting before it is spread. 

There is no need to grease the griddle before making every crepe.

Mango Panna Cotta

I wanted some easy simple and no-bake Italian dessert. And the panna cotta idea sounded great. I had some mango pulp can and decided to make mango panna cotta instead of a plain one. The first idea was to mix the mango pulp in the milk-cream mixture. Then I thought better. Why do not I make two separate mixtures and pour them in a beautiful layer? And why to de-mold it? Instead I will use some wine glasses. I had seen some pictures of some layered desserts (I think it was Tiramisu) served in glass, and decided to use the idea. It was smooth and creamy, fragrant with mango and cardamom. It looked great and tasted even better. What a yummy creamy evening!

You can print the recipe for your kitchen here: PRINTABLE RECIPE

INGREDIENTS
(Serves 12)

400ml milk

400ml cream

200ml mango pulp

Gelatin for 1lt liquid

8-10 cardamom pods

1/2cup sugar

Chopped almonds for garnishing

METHOD:

1.       Toast the cardamom pods. Crush gently and remove the seeds from within. Pound into a fine powder with mortar and pestle.

2.       Mix 250ml milk and 250ml cream in a pot and add half the cardamom powder. Bring the milk-cream to a lukewarm temperature.

3.       In the meantime, prepare the gelatin according to directions on the packet for 500ml of liquid.

4.       Take the milk-cream off the stove. Add sugar and dissolve it. Add the gelatin until completely dissolved.

5.       Pour equal porting of the mixture in little serving bowls/dessert glass/wine glass etc (or in a tray if the plan is to de-mold and cut later while serving).

6.       Cover with plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for 2-4 hours (or until set).

7.       Mix 200ml mango pulp, 150ml milk, and 150ml cream. Add cardamom powder.

8.       Put it on low heat and warm it to lukewarm temperature.

9.       Prepare gelatin for 500ml of liquid according to directions on the packet.

10.   Remove mango mixture from heat. Add sugar if necessary and dissolve.

11.   Mix with gelatin until the gelatin dissolves completely.

12.   Remove the panna cotta from the fridge and unwrap. Top each serving with equal amount of mango mixture.

13.   Cover again and refrigerate for another 2-4 hours (or until set).

14.   Garnish with chopped almonds and served chilled.