Chocolate chip muffins with cake mix

I had this Pillsbury cake mix for quite a long time.  For some reason, I bought two packages of this and when I baked a cake with one of them, I felt the sugar content is very high in these cakes.  The second package was sitting in my pantry from then on.  Nowadays my elder son is in fond of chocolate muffins and very often he's been asking me to bake them.  I decided to use this cake mix to make some chocolate muffins and you know what, they turned out just yummilicious.

What I used:

Pillsbury Classic Yellow Cake mix : 1 package
Hershey's chocolate syrup : 2 tbs
Cocoa powder : 1/4 cup
All purpose flour : 4 tbs
Milk : 1 cup
Oil : 1/3 c
Eggs : 3
Baking powder : 1 tsp
Semisweet chocolate chips : 1/3 cup

How I did:

• Preheat your conventional oven to 350 deg F and prepare the muffin pan with liners or grease with some butter.
• In a bowl, mix all the dry ingredients (cake mix, cocoa powder, baking powder and flour).
• In another mixing bowl beat eggs and add oil, milk, chocolate syrup.  Beat for a while just till blended.
• Incorporate the dry ingredients into this wet mixture and beat for two minutes.
• Fold in the chocolate chips and fill the mixture into the muffin pan until 2/3 level.
• Bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.
• Serve warm.

French Vanilla Frappe

What I used:

French Vanilla Ice cream : 3 to 4 scoops
French Vanilla Cafe Coffee Powder : 4 to 5 tsps
Ice cubes : 1 cup
Milk : 1 to 1/2 cup
Sugar : 3 tsps or as required
Whipped cream : as required
Caramel syrup : as required

How I did:

• In a blender take ice cubes, ice cream, milk, sugar and french vanilla coffee powder and blend together until the ice cubes are crushed.
• Pour into serving glasses and top up with whipped cream and caramel syrup.

Cranberry Pickle

What I used:

Fresh Cranberries : 1 cup
Tamarind : 1 big marble sized (soak in a very little amount of water)
Red chilli powder :  tbsp
Salt : 1 tbsp
Mustard Powder : 1/2 tbsp
Oil : 3 tbsp
Ginger garlic paste : 1 tsp
Mustard seeds : 1/2 tsp
Cumin seeds : 1/2 tsp
Urad dal : 1/2 tsp
Curry leaves : a few
Red chillies : 1 or 2 broken into bits
Fenugreek seeds : 1/2 tsp

How I did:

• Wash cranberries and pat them dry with a paper towel.
• Heat 2 tbsp of oil in a saucepan or kadai, add ginger garlic paste and saute for a minute.
• Add cranberries and soaked tamarind and cook for about 2 minutes.  They cook real fast.
• Switch off the stove and let cool for a while.  Mix in the red chilli powder, salt and mustard powder.
• Heat 1 tbsp of oil in a pan, do the tadka (fenugreek seeds, mustard seeds, cumin seeds, urad dal, red chillies and curry leaves)
• When the seeds splutter, switch off and pour into the pickle.
• Mix thoroughly and let cool completely before storing in an air tight container. 

Almond Cookies

What I used:

All purpose flour (Maida) : 2 1/4 cup
Unsalted butter : 1 cup 
Sugar : 3/4 cup
Light brown sugar : 3/4 (firmly packed)
Eggs : 2
Almond extract : 1 1/2 tsp
Baking soda : 1 tsp
salt : 1/2 tsp
Sliced Almonds: : 1 cup or as required

Makes approx 40 cookies

How I did:

• Preheat oven to 350 deg F with rack in center of oven.  
• Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.  Alternatively you can grease with butter.
• In a mixing bowl, beat the butter until smooth and creamy with a hand mixer or an electric mixer.
• Add the white sugar and brown sugar and beat for atleast 2 minutes or till fluffy.
• Break the eggs and pour in.  Beat well and add the Almond extract.
• When combines, sieve in the flour along with baking soda and salt.
• Beat till all the ingredients are combined properly.
• Scoop a tablespoonful of batter and drop onto the baking sheet leaving about two inch space between each cookie.  Sprinkle almond slices on the cookie drops.
• Bake for about 10 to 11 minutes or until the edges turn to golden brown.
• Remove from the oven and let cool for 10 more minutes on the same baking sheet.  Remove and let cool completely before storing.
  

Jeedipappu Payasam (Kaju Kheer)

What I used:

Milk : 1 1/4 cup
Unsalted Cashews : 1/2 cup
Sugar : 1/3 cup
Non fat milk powder : 3 tbs
Water : 1 to 2 tbs
Sliced almonds : few
Ghee : 1 tsp

How I did:

• Soak cashews in water for an hour or more. Drain and grind them into smooth paste.
• Combine cashew paste and milk in a saucepan and bring it to boil stirring in between.
• Make a paste by dissolve milk powder in 1 or 2 tbs of water. Add sugar and milk powder paste to the boiling milk and cook until all the sugar is melted and it comes to a boil stirring continuously.
• You can completely avoid milk powder and add 1 or 2 more tablespoons of sugar for the sweetness which it gives but the milk has to be boiled for quite a long time to thicken.
• Switch off the stove and transfer to the serving dish.
• In a pan heat a little ghee and toss the almond slices in it for a while.
• Sprinkle these almond slices on to the payasam.
• Serve as a dessert.

Sending this recipe to "Celebrate Sweets - Kheer" event hosted by Ayeesha of Taste of Pearl City started by Nivedita.

Tomato Nilava Pachadi (Tomato Pickle)

What I used:

Tomatoes : 3 lbs
Tamarind : 1 lemon sized
Ginger garlic paste : 1 tbsp
Red Chilli Powder : 1/2 cup or as required
Salt : as required : 1/3 cup or as required
Mustard seeds powder : 1 tsp
Mustard seeds : 1 tsp
Cumin seeds : 1 tsp
Oil : 3/4 cup
Curry leaves : a few
Red chillies : 2  to 3 broken into bits
Asafoetida : a big pinch
Turmeric powder : 1/4 tsp

How I did:

• Wash tomatoes and wipe them dry. Chop them into medium sized cubes.
• Heat 4 tbs of oil in a kadai on medium flame, add chopped tomatoes, tamarind and turmeric powder to it.
• Cook covered until the tomatoes are completely cooked.  Add some salt and cook uncovered until all the water is evaporated and mixture starts leaving the kadai.  Switch off the stove.
• In a pan heat the rest of the oil and add the tadka (asafoetida, mustard seeds, cumin seeds, ginger garlic paste, curry leaves and red chillies)
• When the seeds splutter switch off the stove and pour into the tomato mixture.
• Mix thoroughly.  When the mixture is completely cooled, add red chilli powder, mustard powder and any salt if required.
• Store in an air tight container. Refrigerate for longer shelf life.

Sending this recipe to Nivedita's  "Complete My Thali( CMT ) - PICKLE" event started by Jagruti

Pesara Sunnundalu (Moong dal laddoo)

What I used:

Split green gram dal : 1 cup
Sugar : 3/4 cup
Ghee : 4 1/2 to 5 tbsp

How I did:

• Heat a heavy bottomed pan or any non-stick pan on medium flame and roast green gram dal till golden brown.
• When cooled grind them in a mixer grinder into a coarse powder.  Not too coarse, should resemble a fine powder but when you touch it, you must still feel the grain.
• Grind the sugar too into a fine powder.
• Sieve both the powders together into a large mixing bowl.  
• Fold in the ghee and with the help of your hands roll them into small lemon sized balls.  The gram and sugar powder mix can be made ahead and preserved.  Make laddoos whenever you want by adding ghee to it.
• Serve as a dessert or a snack.

Sending this recipe to "Only" Festive event started by Pari of Foodelicious and now hosted by Preeti of Khaugiri and also to "Celebrate Sweets - Laddoo" event started by Nivedita of Nivedita's Kitchen and hosted by Nithu of Nithu's Kitchen .  They all have a lovely space, do check their blogs.