3 ingredients strawberry jam

Yes you read it right! Its super easy and quick to make your own strawberry jam without any preservatives. I had

been longing to try this for sometime now but as fresh strawberries cam into season and landed up in my refrigerator I had no more excuses to let this chance go. Well the so called 'fruit jams' which are easily available in market are less about fruits and more about ingredients hiding in there to give it a larger shelf life and vibrant colors! Not to mention the sugar content. This is the first time I have tried any fruit preserve and what I know is it can last good for 10 days when refrigerated only if it can manage to last that long in my home! So without much ado let get into business and here goes the recipe. 

Don't tell me it's so easy to make that I need not post it as I had to do this to keep track of trials and errors for record.

Ingredients:

300 grams fresh and ripe strawberries

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup white sugar

Juice of one large lemon

Recipe:

Finely chop the straberries. Pour in all ingredients in a pan and cook on a low flame. It will soon start to bubble up. 

Keep an eye and dont let it burn. At this stage I mashed it using a potato masher as I was looking for not so chunky jam. But its upto you. Let it cook for 10 to 15 minutes.

Switch off the stove and leave it to cool completely before storing in an airtight container. I had a beautiful mason best for the purpose. Try to use glass container .

Now enjoy with a toast of bread or parantha or can simply lick it once in a while.

Choclate cake with ganache

Well if you have seen other posts from my blog you would know by now that I try to keep white sugar, butter and flour at bay for most of the recipes and instead opt for dates, oats, wholewheat flour and canola oil. But for this one I bend the rules and went a little overboard with my otherwise healthy recipes! That is so as I had to bake a birthday cake rich and moist and its okay to let your hair down once in a while isn't it!

Well I could still eliminate butter and used canola oil. This one is with choclate ganache but you may skip it completely . It tastes perfect anyways.

I had some frozen blueberries and fresh strawberries to use as toppings. You may use any other fresh fruits available.

Ingredients:

1.5 cup flour

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder 

1.5 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup canola oil

1 tablespoons vanilla extract 

1 egg

1 tablespoons baking powder

1 tablespoons baling soda

1 tablespoons salt

2 tablespoons curd

1 tablespoons instant coffee

1/2cup boiling water

For chocolate ganache:

1 cup heavy whipping cream

2 cup dark chocolate 

Toppings(optional):

Handful blueberries

A few strawberries

Whipped cream- 2 table spoon

Cholclate figurines

Recipe:

Preheat oven to 180C. Sieve together all the dry ingredients- flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, salt in abowl.

In another bowl blend wet ingredients- egg, sugar, oil together. Add curd and vanilla extract using electric beater. Now gradually add dry ingredients . Add the coffee to boiling water and mix well. Add it to batter and mix together. Prepare a baking pan . I used a spring foam one and lined the removable bottom with aluminium foil. Brush it with oil and dust with flour. Pour the batter and bake in oven for around 40 minutes.

Once it has cooled down a bit scrap the top if you want to level it . I had to ice it further so scrapped top to make it even. 

To make ganache, heat the cream on gas top. Chop the choclate finely or run in processor. Once cream has reached boiling point pour it over choclate. Stir with spoon to dissolve the choclate completely in cream. Let it cool to come at room temperature before frosting the cake. It thickens as cools down.

Garnish with whipped cream and fruits.

Spiced pumpkin cake

I never believed that pumpkin can be used to prepare any sweets. My mother in law once told me about pumpkin kheer she was going to make. But I really doubted how it will taste . I even told her so and said I will not eat that! But to my surprise it was really good and didn't taste like pumpkin at all. It tasted somewhat like sweet potato kheer. That was my first experience with pumpkin in sweets.
While looking for various cake and bread recipes I had come across pumpkin cake but never though of trying it until I was bored of making carrot, zucchini, banana and beetroot cakes over and and over again. So for a change bought the pumpkin and decided to try this cake. This is not very sweet and I skipped butter, white flour and sugar completely this time. Still it came out really moist and the spices added to the taste. This one is really guilt-free and can be indulged into anytime without thinking twice!

Ingredients:

1 cup quick cooking oats (grinded)

1 cup wholewheat flour

1 tablespoons baking powder

1 egg

1 cup date syrup

1 tablespoon cinnamon powder

1/2 tablespoon grated ginger

1/2 tablespoon grated nutmeg

1/4 cup dark chocolate chips

1/2 cup canola oil

Handful of raisins 

1 cup pumpkin puree (recipe below)

Recipe:

Preheat oven to 180C. In a bowl add dry ingredients- oat flour, whole wheat flour, all spices, baking powder.

In another bowl mix egg, date syrup , oil and pumpkin puree together, now gradually add dry ingredients and fold in together. Add choclate chips and raisins.Bake in preheated oven for 45-60 minutes.

To make 1 cup pumpkin puree I took around 100 grams of pumpkin and baked it with skin in oven for an hour at 180C, once it cools down just scrap the flesh with spoon and mash it well. You can blend it to get smooth consistency.