PEAR & CHOCOLATE CRUMBLE...perfect for the season!

This season, some of my favourite fruits have vanished from the scene...but some not-so favourite ones before, are becoming my favourites now :-)  Pear is one amongst them. Yes, they are crunchy, sweet and juicy but they just cannot beat the Bing Cherries! Surprisingly, one of my friends, kind of hates cherries. Umm..so maybe it depends from person to person.
Crumbles are a firm favourite with us. I have made a Cherry crumble before and Jobin was hooked on to it. Then I made an Apple crumble which never appeared on the blog because it was a big hit amongst Jobin and his mom. We dug into the bowls like there was no tomorrow! :-)

Everytime I go near the produce section of our supermaket, I become very slow. I drag the cart along. Jobin sometimes seem to be lost ,thinking why do I behave like that everytime 'all of a sudden'...you know like the 'slow motion' scenes in movies? Hehe,I love  looking at all the colourful fruits that we get here and those we never get in India. I somehow enjoy taking a stroll around the fruits and thinking about what I can possibly do with each one of them...but in reality, it rarely happens because I can get very lazy at times and eat the fruit as it is! :)

This time, it was Pear & Chocolate Crumble for our 'Sweet Punch' bake for the month of December.We all were given a recipe but I chose to go with my own measurements. It is so perfect for these cold days that we are having right now in Minneapolis.We need something warm to keep us warm...be it dessert or clothes!

PEAR & CHOCOLATE CRUMBLE
My own recipe
Serves-2

Ingredients:
2 pears, peeled, cored and chopped into 1" pieces
Sugar to taste
1 tsp lime juice
3 oz milk chocolate, roughly chopped

For the crumble:
1/2 c all purpose flour
1/2 c oatmeal, crushed by hand
Sugar to taste (use light/dark brown sugar, if available)
1 tbsp cold unsalted butter, diced
2 tbsp almond slivers, broken up

Method:
Pre- heat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas mark 4.Grease 6 oven proof ramekins.
In a bowl, mix together the chopped pears,sugar,lime juice and half the chocolate.Divide them equally among the ramekins,spooning over any remaining juice.
For making the crumble,mix together flour and butter and rub it with your fingertips till it resembles fine breadcrumbs. Stir in rest of the ingredients.
Spoon the crumble over the pears. I always like to make extra topping,so that there is a good crunch all the way.
Transfer the crumble to a baking sheet and bake for 30-40 minutes or until golden and bubbly.
Serve with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.

Verdict: Jobin eyebrows shot up as he took the first bite.I closed my eyes and enjoyed the chocolate and pear combo...
In Jobin's words,' It was a very yummy dessert!' :) As always,we loved the crumble, maybe a bit more this time...because of chocolate!

I am sending this dessert as an entry to Monthly Mingle- Chocolate Extravaganza hosted by myself :-)

2 BIRTHDAY'S & A SWEET PUNCH!

M
y brother,my only brother,my 17 year old only brother is a foodie through and through.The only dessert that he asks me to bake over and over again is 'Molten Lava Cake'. I must have baked this yummiest chocolate-y gooey dessert umpteen times by now. And I continue the same as Jobin and our friends here simply love it. One of our friend,saves it & eats it for brekky ! :)

This blog post of mine, today, has 3 intentions.

1.I couldn't bake a cake or even a cookie for my brother, Ritchie for his birthday on 27th September. So this is for him, from me :-)
2.My own baking group rather our baking group Sweet Punch, baked a Molten Lava Cake last month.So this is my entry for the month.
3.This little space of mine turn 2 years today :-) So, this is the way we are celebrating this year! :-)

Talk about killing a bird with 3 stones :-D

I am not typing out the recipe once again instead you can find it in my previous post here. This is not how I wanted to celebrate the 2 years since this space came into existence. I had  big big plans and I still do. It's just that I am a bit short of time these days...but I promise you that my plan will see the day light soon :-)

All those who are interested in baking with us every month, send an e-mail to asweetpunch AT gmail DOT com . Thank you !

CHOCOLATE ROULADE with PEACHES & CREAM

Sigh! Sometimes you start with something and end with a totally different something! I had bought a tin of cherries a few months ago and since we were getting fresh ripe juicy cherries, I didn't bother opening that tin. But when the Sweet Punch Bake for the month requested for a tin, I opened it. Pop!

Yuck! It smelled so bad and it tasted even badder! I turned the tin to check it's expiration date, a long way to go! The next thing I knew was that it went straight into the bin. I usually have a stock of fresh cherries at home, but that day I had some peaches,red plums and black plums. There was no time for me to go out and get the cherries, because I didn't want the cake to cool so much that it would crumble when I roll it up! So, peaches & cream it was!

The whole affair was a breeze. The cake rolled beautifully, except that it had some cracks when I tried to lift it from my baking tin. Otherwise, everything went smooth.

CHOCOLATE ROULADE with PEACHES & CREAM

Recipe source for the cake : AWW through Maria

Recipe for the filling : My own

Ingredients:

Cake:

Semi-sweet chocolate- 200g , coarsely chopped (I used choc. chips)
Hot water-1/4 c
Instant coffee powder- 1 tsp ( I used Bru)
Eggs- 4 , separated (at room temp.)
Caster sugar-1/2 cup + 1 tbsp extra for sprinkling

Filling:
Peaches- 1 large, chopped into small pieces
Cream- 1 cup
Sugar- to taste ( optional , I avoided it)

Method:

Cake:

• Pre-heat the oven at 180 C /350 F.
• In a heat proof bowl, melt the chocolate, coffee and water together either by double boiling over simmering water or by using a microwave oven.
• Beat the egg yolks and sugar together till pale and fluffy,about 4-5 mins.
• Add the egg yolk mixture to the cooling chocolate and mix well.
• Beat the egg whites till soft peaks and fold that into the chocolate mixture in 2 batches, carefully. Do not deflate the egg whites as it is the main ingredient which gives the body to the cake.
• Pour into a parchment lined swiss roll tin /rect. baking tin and bake for 12- 15 mins or till the top is springy to touch.
• Lay a sheet of parchment on a cutting board and sprinkle it with 1 tbsp of caster sugar.
• As soon as the cake comes out of the oven, invert it onto the sugar- sprinkled parchment , cover with a tea towel and let it cool completely.

Filling:

• Whip the cream to stiff peaks. Add sugar if needed.
• Keep 3-4 tbsp of whipped cream aside for garnish.

Assembly:

• After the cake has cooled completely, remove the tea towel.
• Spread a layer of whipped cream and arrange the chopped fruit on it.
• Keeping the long side of the cake parallel to you, start rolling it away from you using the help of the parchment paper.
• Decorate on top with dollops of whipped cream and fruit slices.

Verdict: 'It looks so beautiful!' 'Mmmm, it's delicious!' 'Sure, I can have some more!' 'Mmmm, that was good!'...those were the responses of 4 people who ate it (including Jobin, excluding myself).

My verdict? YUM! YUM! YUM!  :) It is worth all the anxiety that you go through while rolling it up! :)

TIRAMISU CAKE IN A CUP...for A Sweet Punch! #1

Remember A Sweet Punch? No? I think you should know what it is :-) Well, it is a baking group started by Divya,Maria & Myself and since it was my brainchild, I got to choose the recipe for our first month. I chose Tiramisu Cake by Dorie Greenspan. It was something that I have made many times before, so that perfectly fitted the bill of tried, tested & trusted recipe.Since the recipe is already on my blog, I am just posting a final picture of how I made it...I piled it all in individual sized glasses.

You can see all the beautiful creations by our members in 2-3 days time at our official blog .

If you want to be a part of our group, drop us an email  at  asweetpunch AT gmail DOT com and we can carry on from there!