Extra Rich Caramel Custard

Heat a cup and a half of full cream milk till warm. Add half a cup of condensed milk to it. Taste if more sweetening is needed. Add more condensed milk if needed to sweeten more. Beat 3 eggs with a tsp of vanilla. Don't overbeat. Take warm milk and rapidly mix the egg mixture with the milk mixture. I find adding a tbsp of store brought custard powder to this add to the taste.

Heat 3/4 cup of sugar and a few drops of water till sugar dissolves. Swirl around the pan to ensure even heating. Once the sugar caramelises to a golden color take off heat and pour in the baking dish you will be making custard in. Swirl to cover the entire surface of the pan. Once the caramel sets pour the custard mixture in the baking dish.

Bake in a Bain Marie- Fill a larger dish with water till the level reaches half way up the baking dish. Cover the baking dish with foil. Bake for 45 minutes at 180 degrees or till done.

Variations you can have by adding one of these to the custard mixture:
lemon zest
Ginger powder
Coffee
Cinnamon
All Spice and dark rum
orange zest

Strawberry Shortcakes

In a sudden flash of inspiration brought two packets of fresh strawberries. Baked a chocolate strawberry cake (threw strawberries in the chocolate cake batter, was quite good actually), made some strawberry jam (recipe shall follow shortly) and was still left with some. So I tried a hand at making shotcakes.

Mix

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons sugar
1 stick butter, chilled
2/3 to 3/4 cup half and half, milk, or cream

Combine the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar and cubes pof chilled butter. Mix using your fingertips. Mix on until the mixture resembles coarse meal, but with few pea-size chunks of butter left in the mixture. Transfer the mixture to a large bowl and make a well in the center. With a fork stir in the cream or milk, just until dough is moist. Be very careful not to overwork. The dough doesn't have to hold together well at this point. Let the dough stand for a minute. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead the dough 2 or 3 times, until it is holding together and is less sticky.
Gently pat the dough into a rectangle about 3/4-inch thick and cut into biscuits with a floured round cutter. Transfer to a greased baking sheet. Brush on a little milk or cream and arrange some strawberries in the center. Bake for 10 to 15 minutes in a pre-heated oven at 180 degrees, until risen and golden brown.

Let cool before sprinkling some icing sugar on top. Serve with whipped cream.

The texture of a shortcake was a cross between a cake and cookie. I felt , as I do with puff pastries as well, that too much effort goes into making them compared to the speed with which they vanish from the plate and you are left wondering whether toiling for an hour was worth it!

Pista Kulfi

Its crazy hot in Bangalore. Eating this calorie rich kulfi isnt goin to reduce the fat layer on me (that makes me sweat more) but atleast it'll make one feel better about it being summer season!

So for 6 people boil 1/2 litre of milk
Add 200 grams of crumbled Khoya to this and continue cooking till Khoya dissolves in the milk.
Add 3 tb sp of Bandam- Pista powder (Thandai mix works great or use the flavoured Milk shake mix powder)
Chop Pistachio finely and add to mixture
Add a pich of Cardamom powder
Taste once (the readymade podwer has sugar in it) and add sugar as per taste.

Take it off heat and beat the mixture with a ladle like mad. Or you could run in a food processor (in which case add the chopped pista after done beating). Well beaten Kulfis are lighter. Let cool completely.

Pour into air tight moulds. Freeze for 6-8 hours. Serve