Double Chocolate Cookies | Recipe

Do you ever get confused about whether to have a chocolate cake or a cookie? Well I do, and these cookies are the perfect solution when that happens. It’s an amazing quick fix when your greedy heart wants all the chocolate. I found this recipe in the Anna edit blog ( it was named Vivianna does makeup when I first found it) and my gosh! I’m so glad I tried it. It has become my favourite ever since! I’ve made a few tweaks, for instance I add wayy less chocolate than the original recipe. I mean I’d go broke if I spent so much money on chocolate on a regular basis.  I’ve also halved it because the full recipe yields too many cookies to handle. So here it is:
Yield- 18 cookies

Ingredients:

Butter- 100g

Sugar-100g

Brown Sugar- 80g

Egg-1

Flour- 150g

Baking Powder- 1tsp

Baking Soda- 1/2tsp

Cocoa- 38g

1 bar (160g) of Dairy Milk Chocolate or any Chocolate of your liking, chopped roughly

Method:

1. Pre heat oven to 200c for 8-10mins. Prepare a cookie sheet lined with baking paper or silicone baking mat.
2. In a bowl, sift Flour, Baking Powder, Baking Soda and Cocoa powder and then using a whisk give them all a mix. Set aside.
3. In a separate bowl, using an electric mixer, cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy ( About 2 mins). Add the egg and mix just until combined
4. Add the Flour+Cocoa mixture to the Butter+Sugar+Egg mixture and mix until combined.
5. Finally, sprinkle in the chocolate chunks and give it one more mix. The dough will be a bit soft. Put in the fridge for 10 mins.
6. Take it out, roll the dough into little balls ( about 2 Tbsp size) and place them in prepared sheet. Keep some space in between each cookie as they will spread while baking. If you want to be a bit extra, press down the cookies to flatten them a bit and then place a chunk of chocolate on top of each cookies dough.
7. Bake for 8-10mins. Take it out of the oven, the cookies will still be soft, don’t touch them or try to eat them.  Have patience and let them cool for 30mins.

These cookies probably take less time than it took for me to write down the recipe, if you have the ingredients on hand that is. The waiting to cool part sucks I agree but still at the end of it all you will get to eat one of the best cookies you’ll have in your life! Try it, eat it, love it.

Tres Leches | Recipe

It’s no secret that we are big fans of the Tres Leches cake and we would love you to join this fandom as well.

Contrary to it’s fancy sounding name, this cake is quite simple. It’s basically a vanilla sponge cake soaked in three types of milk and topped with whipped cream.

The description may lead you to think that it’s just “milk overdose” ( I had that assumption as well before I made it myself ) but trust me, it’s all so well balanced and the fruit topping cuts through the richness so beautifully that you will forget that you ever questioned the taste of this dessert. So go get some milk and try it at home! Also, this cake is best served cold.

Ingredients:

For the cake:

• 1/2 cup (100gm) butter, cut into cubes
• 1 cup (200g) sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
•  4 eggs
• 1 1/2 cups (200g)  flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 3-4 Tbsp milk

For the milk soak and topping:

• 1 1/2 cups whole milk
• 1/2 can condensed milk
• 1/2 can evaporated milk
• 1 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
• 1 Can Peaches or 3/4 Fresh Mangoes

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180c. Line a square/rectangular baking dish.  A square/rectangular Pyrex dish is best as you will be able to directly serve the finished cake from it.
2. Whisk together the flour and baking powder. Set aside.
3. In a separate bowl, using a hand mixer, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy ( 2-3mins). Add the vanilla followed by the eggs one at a time, adding a spoonful of the flour mixture in between adding each egg.  Fold in the rest of the flour, add the milk and mix.
4. Pour the batter in prepared pan and bake for 25-30 mins or until a cake tester inserted into the cake comes out clean.  Let it cool for 10mins. At this point you can turn out the cake and transfer it to a serving dish (make sure the dish is deep enough to catch the excess milk) or if your cake pan is presentable enough you can finish the cake without transferring it anywhere else. Once you add the milk mixture to the cake you will not be able to transfer it to another serving dish (trust me I’ve tried and milk went all over the new plate and table).
5. Preparing the milk mixture: Combine whole milk, condensed milk and evaporated milk in a bowl/measuring cup.
6. Assembly: After the cake is cool, pierce cake several times using a fork or toothpick. Slowly, pour over the milk mixture and let the cake soak it all in. It will be very liquid-y and may look like this is too much milk but trust me the cake drinks it all up! Place it in the fridge for 30-40mins so that most of the milk is soaked in. Whip the whipping cream to stiff peaks and spread over the cake. Add any fruit topping of choice and refrigerate for at least 4 hours or overnight. This cake is best served cold.

The First Wedding Cake| Behind the scenes of Tira apu and Arnob bhaiya’s wedding cake

If I had to describe myself as a baker in one line I’d say…”I love me a good challenge and a new recipe!” Aand one fine November evening Nazia apu ( my most beloved co-worker and friend) gave me both!

She called me up and to my surprise just dropped the question “Ei tumi Tira’r wedding cake banaba ( Would you like to make Tira’s wedding cake?”). Let me give you two very important pieces of information so that you understand why this was a surprise. 1) I had never made a wedding cake before. 2) I had never expressed any intention of ever wanting to make celebration cakes let alone a wedding cake to her before!

While I gracefully accepted the offer of making a freakin’ wedding cake for the first time in my life, inside I was like…

Easiest Chocolate Chip Cookies | Recipe Video Tutorial

If the cookie world had a popularity contest, I’m pretty sure the Chocolate Chip Cookie would come out on top! Back in the day when I didn’t know anything about baking, I used to stare at the people who could make Chocolate Chip Cookies with awe and I’d think to myself “Man! their relatives are so lucky that they get to have this delicious treat at home and they don’t have to buy the overpriced packets from the store to satisfy their cravings!”

Evolution of Eid Desserts | What I made for Eid

Last ramadan my cousin asked me “Eid er jonno ki banachho? (What are you making this Eid?” and I replied “Oh I haven’t decided yet but I guess I’ll bake something from the new Nigella Lawson book that I got.” Hearing that she paused for a while and said, “I meant, what clothes are you making Zymin apu.” I think that gives you an idea of how excited I get about baking something (something new) for Eid!

As this year’s Eid draws to a close and I’m left with no desserts but a lot of leftover whipped cream (not complaining though, I love whipped cream!), here is a little roundup of all the desserts I’ve baked over the years for Eid and the inspiration/stories behind them.

Eid ul Azha 2014: Strawberry Tuille Cannolis and Petit Fours

Right before that Eid, I had gathered the courage and cash to splurge (I was a student back then) on my first baking book called Baking with Julia from a bookstore in New Market, Dhaka. Therefore, needless to say I was really eager to try out something from that book. So I made one of the easiest recipes from it named Strawberry Tuille Cannolis.

Kheer: The King of Comfort Desserts

A staple at my house, and many others every Ramadan and Eid, kheer has become the picture of warm comfort food for locals.

Friday Failure: Shahi Tukra

It’s Friday- This morning I woke up in the mood for a desi (traditional east-Asian) dessert. One of the most traditional items that mom never made was “shahi tukra”.

A Bengali Favorite: Carrot Halwa

Rich. Full of Ghee. And cooked to perfection in milk.

A sweet confection made with various kinds of flour, sweetener, milk, water, nuts, oil/fats, the “halwa” meaning “sweet”, has Arabic origins. Through trade and exchange of ideas and ingredients, the halwa has travelled eastward into the Indian subcontinent.

The Mughal/Persian influence in the subcontinent lead to the growing popularity of halwas, which today, are made with a variety of ingredients like various daals (lentils), to types of vegetables (such as carrots and bottle gourd) to those made simply with nuts (like badam ka halva or pista halwa).

This post is about one of Bangladesh’s favorites.

Trifle | Recipe Video Tutorial

Trifle- as the name suggests, is actually a dessert that is as simple as it gets. There are very few ingredients and very little hassle in preparing them. BUT…but what takes time is the assembly. I know a number of people who have taken the Trifle recipe from me but have not attempted it till date because the steps involved in making this dessert, when written down on paper sound quite intimidating. That’s one reason why I finally thought of making a video tutorial of how to make Trifle.

Croissants | 6 tips for making bakery style Croissants at home

As you might know I took an attempt (a successful one if i say so myself) to make Croissants a few months back.Even though I do not have a personal recipe to share, here are some things I’ve learned on the way which might come handy if you ever gather up the patience to make Croissants.

I’ve followed this recipe and I’ve found it to be pretty great! The GIF images to go with the instructions makes it really helpful!