Dulce de Leche Brownies

Well if you have already made Dulce de Leche, then you have got to make Dulce de Leche brownies! These brownies are fudgy, chocolatey and the Dulce de leche toffee like pieces in between make them incredibly tempting, it is difficult to stop just after one brownie.

(Recipe adapted from David Lebovitz)
Ingredients:

115g unsalted butter cut into pieces
170 g semisweet chocolate, finely chopped
25 g cocoa powder
3 large eggs
180 g granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
140 g plain flour
1 cup of Dulce de Leche (but if you are like me and love Dulce de Leche, you might want to use more than a cup!)
You can throw in about half a cup of roasted. chopped walnuts as well.

1. Pre heat oven to 175 ˚C fan oven.
2. Line a 20cm square or about a medium rectangular baking tin with foil and grease the foil all the way from bottom up to the sides with some butter.
3. Melt the cubed butter in a sauce pan and add the chocolate pieces, stir on low heat till all the chocolate melts. Remove from heat and whisk in the cocoa powder.
4. Add the eggs one at a time and whisk them in.
5. Add sugar, vanilla extract and flour and mix it in. Do not over mix, just enough to get a smooth batter.
6. Pour in half the batter into the prepared foil lined tin. Add dollops of a third of the Dulce de Leche and use a knife or a skewer to swirl it around. Now pour in the rest of the brownie batter and then top it with dollops of the rest of the Dulce de Leche and swirl again.

1. Bake in the pre heated oven for 35-40 minutes. Do not over bake or the brownie will come out dry.You can check it with a skewer, it should come out with a few crumbs stuck to it.
2. Cool and cut into squares.These brownies keep for 2-3 days.

Thanks for stopping by and please leave comments below.

Dulce de Leche

This has to be by far the easiest recipe ever!! Dulce de leche is basically really thickened toffee like caramelized sweetened milk. If you like caramel, you will absolutely love this! The first time I had Dulce de Leche , it was in the form of an ice cream flavor, the Haagen Dazs Dulce de Leche, and it is one of my favorites. The consistency can be variable depending on how dense or runny you want. Since it stores so well, I love to just have some at hand in my fridge for ice cream topping or to bake goodies with it.

400g of condensed sweetened milk and a few flakes of sea salt.
well that’s all you need really!

Pour the condensed milk into an oven proof shallow dish and stir in the sea salt, cover it tightly with foil. Put the dish into a roasting tin, pour boiling water in the tin such that the water reaches half way up the oven proof dish. Bake in a 200 ˚C pre-heated oven for 1 -1 ¼ hour. Keep topping up water in the roasting tin every 20-30 minutes.

Take it out of the oven and whisk it so that it becomes smooth. When cool, store it in a jar in the fridge for up to 4 weeks.

Direction to use: Open fridge-open Dulce de Leche jar- eat spoonfuls, smile out of the utter happiness you feel from its decadent taste ! If you really want to use it for something else then go on and pour it over your ice cream, on your cake, in your pies, on your toast!

Paris!

Before my trip to Paris, I did quite an extensive research on what I wanted to do there. The research was more to do with where I wanted to eat in Paris than what I wanted to see. Quite a few blogs and websites helped of course, one that stands out is David Lebovitz’s recommendations.  I did manage to visit quite a few foodie places on my list, missed a few mostly because they were either closed on the Sunday and Monday when I was there. Of the tourist must-dos, I missed out completely on all museums, not purposefully but mostly because of a delayed flight and short on time. But they are on my list for the next visit! As you will see my trip was mostly food-centric this time round!

Day 1:

Even though we left Edinburgh in the morning, a delayed flight and long train ride later, we reached Paris late in the afternoon. Right after we dumped our luggage in the hotel, our first stop was to see the Parisian icon- Tour Eiffel. I wanted the first day to relax, taking in the lights and the flavours of Paris, and the best way to do that is on foot. Walking along the Quai Branly road, approaching the Eiffel tour, the view is majestic as it rises in front of your eyes out of nowhere. We walked across the Siene river on the Pont d’léna, with the Eiffel tower behind us, we crossed the bridge towards Trocadéro. As the evening waned, the Eiffel lighted up bright behind us. Of course a few camera poses later, we walked towards the Arc de Triomphe taking the Avenue Kléber. The Arc looked glorious in the night lighted up against a deep blue sky.

Then we walked along the Champs-Élysées, home to the designer stores, a broad shimmering street. Even in the freezing cold of Paris, this street was packed with shoppers. At the end of this street we walked towards the river Siene, it was a perfect walk along the river, beautiful and romantic, essentially Paris! By this point, we were very hungry. We headed towards Luxembourg, having no energy left to look for any of the restaurants that I had listed to eat in Paris, we just went into the first one that looked inviting and reasonably priced- Le Luxembourg brasserie near Jardin du Luxembourg. I had the most amazing chicken dish (wish I had remembered the name of the dish) and an utterly divine chocolate cake. A good start to Parisian food!

Crème brûlée

Day 2:

We started the day with a very good French breakfast at Le Danton (103 Boulevard Saint-Germain,) near Odeon metro.  Charming little place, it was a very authentic and old fashioned French braserrie. We ordered croissants, coffee and hot chocolate. The coffee was very good and the hot chocolate-remarkable. Right across from there was the Georges Larnicol’s shop, a must visit stop in Paris, full of such delicious looking goodies!! I bought myself some Kouign Amaan, a pastry like cake, a couple of kouignettes (smaller kouign amaan in different flavours, I got pistachio and chocolate ones) and a pot of salted butter caramel. I brought all these back from my trip (imagine the temptation to eat it all there and then!). The Kouign amaan when warmed up in oven was a buttery delight, an absolutely delicious sinful thing to eat, made my pain of leaving Paris a wee bit less. And the pot of caramel only lasted a few days as I basically just ate spoons full of caramel everyday as a treat after dinner !!

Georges Larnicol

Kouign Amaan

salted caramel pot

So after leaving Georges Larnicol’s, we headed to Place Saint-Michel for a walking tour around the city. Even with what felt like sub zero temperatures and wind and sleet, Paris looked beautiful. We walked along the right bank of the river, passing the Lovers bridge or Pont des Arts, a pedestrian bridge which is covered with pad locks, towards the Louvre.

Padlock bridge

After a short introduction to the Louvre, we stopped at a café by Rue de Rivoli to re-fuel ourselves on sweet stuff which is when I had the creamiest tarte au citron! I was in a state of deliciousness induced coma (read- too greedy) at the time to click pictures of my tart. I also bought some Eric Kayser ‘s caramels which were on sale in this café. I had to try really hard to make them last more than 3 days after coming back from our trip.

Caramels

After some more interesting history of the Louvre and its gardens we headed to Saint Chepelle. What a sight it was- as soon as you enter the top floor of the stained glassed chapel, you are in awe of the room.

Saint Chepelle

It was raining on that day, but I can only imagine what a spectacular sight it would be on a sunny day with sunlight filtering through the coloured glasses creating a magical spectre of colours. After a long rainy wait in the queue to get into the Notre Dame Cathedral and a quick run through the beautiful building (again beautiful stained glass windows all around), we headed to find the famous Berthillon’s ice cream. Clutching the umbrella against the now stormy sleet, we managed to find the place. And a relief it was to get out of the rain. Finally when we settled near a window seat, we ordered an ice cream sundae with raspberry, blackberry and cherry ice cream with fresh cream and cherries. Can you believe an ice cream in such a cold weather was such a great comfort?!

Day 3:

It was the last day in Paris and finally the weather opened up a little and it didn’t rain for most of the day. We did the essential Eiffel Tower climb. From there, as the sun began to peek out of the clouds , we headed to the Monmartre district to see the Moulin Rouge and Basilica of the Sacré Cœur.  Monmartre is a beautiful district, and I loved the narrow hilly streets all around. On the way to the Basilica we passed by this really inviting looking patiserrie, as usual I was eyeing the window display, excitedly. I went into the store- Le Grenier à Pain (38, rue des Abbesses – 75018), I chose an apricot and chocolate cake and pistachio madeleines- bliss!

Apricot and chocolate chip cake

After a leisurely walk around the Basilica, we came upon the painters square. What a picturesque sight! Very touristy but still pretty.

Painters square

From there we took the subway to visit Jacques Genin’s store in rue de Turenne. Unfortunately it turned out to be closed. I should have checked but I always assume everything is open on a Monday! I was totally gutted.

We spent the evening relaxing with a few cocktails near the Louvre, putting a pad lock on the lock bridge with our names and year on it (haha ,I know we are totally cliché and such predictable tourists!!), couple of more sweet things stuffed in my mouth and a quick shop to get a few souvenirs. And we ended our wonderful trip with a walk around the Eiffel tower at night. It truly looks magical at night, more so when it sparkles, truly magnificent and perfect way to end our trip. I have to say, Paris is pretty by day and enchanting by night. Anyone visiting Paris- I would strongly recommend on a magical evening walking by the river and the Eiffel tower.

Since coming back, I have been obsessed about all French food, and have been trying to re create some of the things I had there. Like that yummy tarte au citron which I tried to re create here. Also the cholocate cake which we had on out first night dinner, I tried to re create but have not achieved that light mousse like texture. If anyone has a better recipe for that kind of Parisian/French cake I would really appreciate it! I also bought back some different flavoured marshmallows, one of them being violet flavoured- they were interesting, I wouldn’t say I am totally sold on them but yes I would definitely try more flavours again.

flavoured marshmallows

I had also been to couple of other stores like Pierre Herme’s on Rue Bonaparte for some fantastic macarons and a couple more which were unfortunately closed on the days I visited. Next time then!!

I would love to hear about your Parisian adventure, please leave comments below!

Coffee Caramel Cake

Hi all,

I have shamelessly neglected to update my very new blog!!A combination of a long holiday during December, moving home and general life came in the way of making time for blogging.

So, I went to India for a month-long holiday with an added celebration of a family wedding during the visit. Of course, the agenda of each day was ‘ what are we going to eat today!!!’ :D. Had loads of awesome food to eat, tried out quite a few new stuff as well. But that will be in another section of my travel food notes (which will be coming soon).

I tried out this cake for a friend’s birthday and it came out pretty good. Nice and moist and a great caramel icing on it. I am sorry not very many pictures since there was not much day light to click a nice picture and well, the cake was gone next day.

Ingredients

2 tsp instant coffee granules
2 tsp hot water
175 g softened unsalted butter (I used Stork)
2 eggs
2 tbsp golden syrup
200 g self-raising flour
4 tbsp milk

To make the cake a little chocolatey, substitute 2 tbsp of flour with 2 tbsp of cocoa powder.

For the Icing:

50 gm unsalted butter
1/3 cup soft brown sugar (can also use dark brown sugar)
¼ cup double cream
200 g icing sugar
½ tsp vanilla essence
1 tsp instant coffee powder dissolved in a little cream.

• Pre-heat the oven to 160 ˚ C. I use fan oven so adjust the temperature according to your oven. Line 8 inch cake tin with baking sheet.
• Dissolve the coffee into hot water and keep aside.
• Mix all the ingredients except the coffee in a food processor and mix it for 2-3 minutes till it was a smooth mixture. Add the coffee mixture to it and mix again. If the mixture seems too thick, add another tablespoon of milk.
• Pour into the prepared cake tin and bake in the middle of oven for 30-40 minutes or till a skewer comes out clean.
• Let it cool on a wire rack and turn it out on a plate.

To make the icing:

• In a heavy base saucepan, on a low heat, melt the butter.
• Once it has melted add the brown sugar and stir with wooden spoon. Keep stirring till it all of it dissolves and stir for another 2 minutes till it starts bubbling. Take care that the sugar does not burn else take it off heat.
• Add the double cream and keep stirring constantly for 2-3 minutes till the mixture is smooth and glossy. It will thicken a little.
• Let it cool for 5-7 minutes.
• At this point you can use the food processor to beat in the icing; you can beat in the icing sugar by hand as well.
• Sieve the icing sugar to get ready of any lumps. Now add the icing sugar to the mixture and process for 2 minutes or till it is incorporated into smooth icing. If it is runny add more icing sugar, if it seems too thick add some more cream.
• Add the coffee mixture and mix well.
• Cut the cake through the middle and use 1/3 rd of the icing to do the filling. Use the rest to spread on top of the cake.