Chocolate fudge using Marshmallows

Phew, after 3 days of great struggle, I took this photo.

I know this is a not great looking photo, but Im happy to report that it tasted better than it looks. The day after I made this fudge, I was waiting for a clear morning sunshine but as it always happens, the whole day was fully dark and it was raining heavily. Next couple of days tried some shots and all were disaster. By this now, the jar of fudge has been reduced to just 4 pieces.

I was having some ingredients in my pantry hiding for a long days. So decided to put all in one and make a sweet dish and good thing is it turned out very good.

Ingredients : 3 cup -- Sugar 1 cup -- Heavy cream 1 cup -- Evaporated milk 200 gm -- Marshmallows 6 tbsp -- Unsweetened Chocolate powder 3/4 cup -- Unsalted butter 1 tsp -- Fine salt 1 cup -- Chopped nuts 1/4 cup -- milk Method: --- Take a big heavy sauce pan and mix the sugar, butter, heavy cream and evaporated milk in medium heat. --- Sieve the cocoa powder and mix the powder in the milk without any lumps. --- And the cocoa milk mixture and salt to the sugar and mix well. --- Stir the sugar mixture in medium heat until the quantity is reduced to half. No need to stir constantly, good news is you can very well take a break and do in frequent intervals. --- But have an eye on the mixtuure while boiling. Be careful the mixture might overflow, so tall utensil is preferable. I used a pan then in half way changed the mixture to pressure cooker, since the mixture started to overflow while boiling. --- Meanwhile toast the chopped nuts. I used almonds.And also grease the plate with butter and keep it ready. --- Once the quantity is reduced to 1/4th, add the marshmallows. --- And stir for few minutes till the marshmallows are dissolved in the cocoa mixture. --- Drop a spoon of gooey mixture in a cup of ice water, If you able to make a soft ball then immediatey switch off the heat and add the toasted nuts and mix well. --- Transfer the mixture to the greased pan and let it cool completely. --- Using a greased knife, cut the chocolate fudge.

I cut my fudge an inch size so I got around 60 - 70 pcs. Adding salt gave a unique taste to the chocolate fudge and marshmallows gave a nice soft texture.

Cardamom dry fruit cake

A day to go to reach a small milestone in my own blogging world.  Thank a lot to all of the enouragement.

Milestones have to celebrated, right? Right. So to celebrate the milestone and as a Thank You for all of you who dropped by, here is a Cardamom dry fruit cake. A simple cake with a lots of flavor. Often I try cakes using condensed milk , but this cake I tried with evaporated milk.

Ingredients : 1 1/4 cup -- All purpose flour 1 cup  -- Evaporated milk 3/4 cup -- Light brown sugar 2 nos -- Ripe banana 6 tbsp -- Unsalted butter 1/4 tsp -- Salt 1 tsp -- Baking powder 1/2 tsp -- Baking Soda 2 nos -- Cardamom 1/2 cup -- Chopped nuts and dried fruits Method : --- Pre-heat the oven to 170 C or 350 F. --- Grease a 8" pan with butter. --- Heat the evaporated milk along with sugar and butter, until the sugar dissolves. Let the milk to cool. --- Meanwhile shift the flour, baking soda and baking powder. --- Powder the cardamom and add to the dry mixture along with the dry fruit. *** Here's a small tips to powder the cardamom. In a blender take few spoons of flour and add the cardamom and blend it  to fine powder. If using for any other sweet or dessert, blend the cardamom with few spoons of sugar. So that you will not get the cardamom pods while enjoying the dessert. --- Mash the ripe bananas without any big lumps and mix it to the milk mixture. Add a 1/4 tsp of salt to it. --- Add the dry ingredients in batches to the wet ingredients and mix well.  --- Pour the cake batter into the greased pan and bake it for 25 to 30 minutes, till its done and a tooth pick inserted comes out clean. --- Cool the cake completely before serving. --- You can serve the cake with or without frosting. --- I frosted my cake with a thin layer of simple banana chocolate cream and dusted with dry coconut flakes and sliced almonds.

You can enjoy the flavor of banana, coconut flakes, cardamom and dry fruits in every bite.