Eggless Neapolitan Cake filled with Cherry Compote & Buttercream | Our Darling Daughter turns 1

Last year this time I was in hospital, recovering after the birth of our daughter. Time really flies! Our daughter turned 1 this week.

She has been an angel cum a brat in last 1 year. Everyone believed the elder brother will give her a tough time but seems to me like the opposite here.

Eggless Neapolitan Cake filled with Cherry Compote & Buttercream

Till now I’ve never made a pink cake but this time I fell for clichéd & wanted to celebrate her birthday with a pink cake. I’ve come across several Neapolitan Cake/ bars/ ice-cream etc on various blogs. So even I gave in to the rage & decided to do a Neapolitan Cake for her.

Eggless Neapolitan Cake filled with Cherry Compote & Buttercream

I wanted to keep the cake small so chose a small recipe & inspired my filling & frosting from Sweetapolita. I did a pretty sad job of decorating. V pitched in and salvaged some of it. Husbands have their uses too. To give due credit he seems to have a better flair at it than me.

Eggless Neapolitan Cake filled with Cherry Compote & Buttercream

I customized the cake – used regular milk for cake & felt that the batter was too thick so added another 1/4 cup milk. I baked the cake in 6″ pan. I made chocolate cake twice to get 2 layers. I increased the baking time accordingly. The cake was very soft & fragile & I strongly recommend using a baking paper on top to un-mold.

For frosting – I substituted raspberries with cherries in compote as it is easily available. I really wanted to use fresh mulberries as they are in season but to rotten luck I couldn’t find them on the weekend when I was ready to bake.

Cherry Compote

I also added lemon peel & cinnamon stick to compote. The cherry compote was the highlight of the recipe. It is really worth licking off the spoon!

I also read in many places that to counter the sweetness of american buttercream, it is advised to use salted butter. I did 50-50 – half salted & half unsalted. But honestly speaking the frosting was not really what we liked as a family & I would stay away from buttercream from now on. It is too sweet & V absolutely didn’t enjoy the sweety-salty taste. I would be sticking to my tried & tasted whipped cream. American crusting buttercream is all the rage but somehow I think I would give it a miss. The only place where I would want to use is to pipe some roses

Eggless Neapolitan Cake filled with Cherry Compote & Buttercream

The cake was really nice, despite the sad decorating skills the cake looked pretty tempting. Taste was gorgeous despite the buttercream.

I recommend this cake without buttercream frosting, with just compote as filling & topping. Or using whipped cream in place of buttercream.

Eggless Neapolitan Cake filled with Cherry Compote & Buttercream

Eggless Neapolitan Cake

Recipe Source – loosely adapted from Is that really Vegan??

Chocolate Layer -

Ingredients -

1/4 Cup – Butter, unsalted
1/2 Cup – Brown Sugar
1/2 Cup – APF
1/4 Cup – Cocoa Powder
1 1/2 tsps – Baking Powder
1/4 Cup – Apple Sauce
1 tsp – Vanilla Extract
1/4-1/2 Cup – Milk (adjust consistency as per your needs) Cup – Milk

Method -

Pre-heat the oven at 180 C. Line & grease an 6″ round pan.
In a bowl, cream the butter using a hand mixer.
Add in all the dry ingredients. Mix well.
Add apple sauce, vanilla & milk.
Pour batter into the prepared pan & bake for 25 mins. Cool on a wire rack. Place another layer of parchment paper on top of the cake & then flip over to remove from pan. Parchment layer will allow it to be removed without falling apart.

Vanilla layer -

Ingredients -

1/4 Cup – Butter, unsalted
1/2 Cup – Sugar, granulated
1/2 Cup – APF
1 1/2 tsps – Baking Powder
1/4 Cup - Apple Sauce
1 tsp – Vanilla Extract
1/4-1/2 Cup – Milk (adjust consistency as per your needs)

Method -

Pre-heat the oven at 180 C. Line & grease an 6″ round pan.
In a bowl, cream the butter using a hand mixer.
Add in all the dry ingredients. Mix well.
Add apple sauce, vanilla & milk.
Pour batter into the prepared pan & bake for 25 mins. Cool on a wire rack. Place another layer of parchment paper on top of the cake & then flip over to remove from pan. Parchment layer will allow it to be removed without falling apart.

Cherry Compote -

Recipe Source – adapted from Sweetapolita

Ingredients -

1 1/2 Cups – Cherries
1 Cup (100g) – Sugar, granulated
1 Tbsp – Lemon Juice
Lemon Peel of 1 lemon
1/2″ – Cinnamon Stick
2 Tbsps – Water
pinch of salt

Method -

In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine 1 cup of cherries, sugar, lemon juice, water & salt until they start to break down, stirring often, about 10 minutes.
Lower the heat & simmer until the compote coats the back of a spoon, about 15 minutes.
Remove from heat, and allow it to cool down. Remove lemon peel & cinnamon stick. When slightly warm, using a hand blender, blend the mixture till smooth. Since I used cherries, it was not very smooth.
Stir in remaining cherries. Keep covered & chilled for 3 days.

American Buttercream -

Recipe Source – adapted from Serious Cakes

Ingredients -

1 Cup – Butter, unsalted+salted
1/8 – 1/4 Cup – Cream, I used Amul
1 tsps – Vanilla Extract
4 Cups – Confectioner’s Sugar
a pinch of salt
75 gms – Dark Chocolate
Few drops Pink Color (optional) – I skipped it

Method -

Put room temperature butter in a large bowl & beat well for few minutes till no lumps are left.
Add vanilla, salt & cream. Keep the mixer going while adding. Make sure that they are well incorporated before adding sugar.
Add in sugar slowly so that it doesn’t fly around all the time beating. Continue beating till incorporated well.

Assembling the Cake -

Divide the buttercream in half. Add 3 Tbsps of Cherry Compote (1 Tbsp at a time) to one half of buttercream. You can add pink color here if desired. Set aside.
Divide the remaining buttercream into half. Add melted & cooled chocolate in one half of it & mix well till incorporated. Leave the remaining butercream vanilla.
On a flat base/ cake board/ turntable/ plate place a small dab of chocolate buttercream in the middle & then place 1 layer of chocolate cake on top of it, face up. Cover with 3/4 cup of cherry buttercream, leaving with about 1″ clearance around the edges. Now place a few spoonfuls of cherry compote in the center on top of buttercream.
Place vanilla cake layer on face up on top and repeat with cherry buttercream & compote. Place the last layer of chocolate cake face down. Cover the cake in plastic wrap & gently press the cake with your hands for aligning the layers if required. Chill for 30 minutes.
Remove from refrigerator. Remove the plastic wrap, do a crumb coat with vanilla buttercream. Chill again for 30 minutes.
Cover the bottom half of cake (sides) with chocolate buttercream, top half (sides) with vanilla buttercream & top of the cake with cherry buttercream. Pipe design as desired.

Sending this to -

1. Bake Fest # 19 hosted by Tangy Minds, event started by Vardhini

Aam ka Panna | Raw Mango Cooler | Re-visiting Through the Lens

Posted by Confusion Cook

Aam ka Panna

I’ve talked a bit here & here about my food photography journey, changes, growth, some good & some bad shots. To this effect I’ve been reading & reading a lot especially in the web world. Everywhere people talk about similar journey and how is one tempted to change their earlier photographs & then they decide to leave them un-touched to show the growth.

Aam ka Panna

I totally agree. Even I would not like my readers to feel that I was always a pro in food photography. No! This is far from truth. It still is very far but I’m taking baby steps & for me that counts a lot!

Aam ka Panna

So I decided to re-visit some of my old recipes/ photos and re-shoot them. The wonder in these photographs is not the recipe or the glass but for me it is the amazing difference with exactly the same camera & same eye. Ya, I am talking about my eye

Aam ka Panna

My camera is still very much the same – Canon Powershot AS 710 IS – a point & shoot & I still have the same eyes.

Aam ka Panna

Here is the first re-visit – Aam ka Panna a.k.a Raw Mango Cooler - Beat the heat!

I tried various backgrounds, some shots are clicked with my easy & cheap DIY lightbox, some using natural light, some overhead shots, some with rustic background, etc.

Aam ka Panna

All of them gave a different look & feel to the drink. I liked many & couldn’t decide which conveys my mood most. It will be nice & fun if you tell me which appeals most to you & may be take a guess at the light used!

Aam ka Panna

My last shot is my Husband special – Panna Martini. He had a brainwave & decided to have a shot of Vodka with Panna. He was quite in his cups when he made this, so don’t remember the exact vodka, panna & soda combination. Go ahead and make your own & share with me too.

Panna Martini

Both my kids have taken to Panna like fish takes to water. Can’t find fault, in this heat, nothing beats it as well as Aam ka Panna!

Sending this to -

Black & White Wednesday # 83 hosted by Shruti. BWW is an event started by Susan, now managed by Cinzia.
Mango Delight by Kauser
Favorite Recipes Event: Drinks hosted by Swathi

Eggless French Opera Cake – A Perfect Delicacy to Celebrate Dual Occasions

Posted by Confusion Cook

Opera Cake as the name suggests is a French Torte and is beautiful to behold & delicate to create. Traditionally it has 4 layers of joconde (almond biscuit/ cake) soaked in potent coffee syrup, filled with coffee buttercream, ganache & coated with glaze. And then topped with edible gold leaf.

Eggless French Opera Cake

This cake has been in my bookmarked folder for a long time but I was waiting for the right occasion to celebrate with this cake. Last week the occasion presented for double celebration – my blog turned 2 and our marriage turned 7. Yes double anniversary celebration!

Eggless French Opera Cake

I came across a Vegan Opera Cake recipe and decided to go ahead with it. The recipe says the batter will make 3 layers but mine gave me 5 layers. Thank God I didn’t tell V that I’ve 2 extra layers, else he would have eaten them straight out of oven. Opera cake need gentle hands which I sorely lack. Initially I was very skeptical about my handling capabilities of a thin batter and baking each layer separately. But thankfully the baking bit happened without any mishap and gave me GOOD dose of confidence.

Eggless French Opera Cake

Like most cakes, I pre-made all components & assembled one day. I had some leftover dark chocolate ganache from here, I used that. You can use tempered chocolate but I like to use my leftovers when possible. I also trimmed the cake only at the last stage, my cake was quite small as it is.

My cake was exactly 4 cm tall just like an Opera Cake should be though this was by chance and not design on my part. I also trimmed the layers quite with conservation as my cake was already quite small in size & I didn’t want to trim all of it away.

Eggless French Opera Cake

I am quite bad at writing using pastry bag so I totally skipped writing ‘Opera’ as in a traditional French Opera Cake. At the last-minute I settled for adding white chocolate chips. I kept it in refrigerator for 2 days. This cake is best served cool not chilled.

Eggless French Opera Cake

On D-day V came home from office & we ate it together with my son. The cake was beautiful, moist (would be after so much soaking) and totally melt in your mouth. I do not know how a traditional French Opera Cake would taste but I know that I fell in love with this one. I also loved the crunchy flavor given to it by use of almond meal. I would try making this again & not let it remain once in a lifetime bake. For V this cake surpassed all my earlier cakes.

Eggless French Opera Cake

The only damper was that I let the cakes outside just covered with a net for 24 hours before assembling. This, I believe, made the cake layers dry, but nothing that extra soaking didn’t take care of. However, I recommend covering cake layers and keeping them in air tight container at room temp if you plan to assemble them next day like me.

Eggless French Opera Cake

Check out Joe Pastry for wonderful tutorial on assembling an Opera Cake

Eggless Opera Cake

Joconde

Recipe Source – minimally adapted from Dayna of Vegan Visitor

Ingredients -

1 Cup – Ground Almonds, blanched & ground
1/4 Cup – Confectioner’s Sugar
1/2 Cup – Cake Flour
1 1/4 Cups – Milk
1 tsp – Baking Soda
1 tsp – Baking Powder
1 Tbsp – Vinegar

Method -

Pre-heat the oven to 200 C.
Line a 5″ X 8″ loaf pan with parchment paper & grease.
Add the dry ingredients together into a large bowl.
Combine the milk & vinegar in a separate cup, then add to dry ingredients. Mix vigorously with a fork. Once combined consistency will be similar to a pancake batter.
Pour 1/2 cup of batter into the prepared pan to cover the bottom to the edges.
Bake for 5-7 mins or until the top appears golden, begins to dry & edges starts leaving the sides.
Loosen edges with a knife, if necessary and top with another layer of parchment paper.
Flip pan to remove the cake, cool on the rack.
Reline the pan and repeat with the rest of the batter, baking 3-5 cakes

Chocolate Ganache

Coffee Buttercream

Recipe Source – loosely adapted from eHow

Ingredients -

1 1/2 Cups – Confectioner’s Sugar
1/2 Cup – Butter, unsalted, softened at room temp
1 tsp – Almond Extract
2 Tbsps – Instant Coffee
2 Tbsps – Boiling Water
2 Tbsps – Milk (optional)

Method -

Dissolve coffee in boiling water. Allow it to cool.
In a large bowl beat butter & sugar on slow speed until the sugar has blended in. This will keep the sugar from jumping out of the bowl.
Then switch to medium & beat for 3-5 minutes.
Add almond extract & coffee mixture. Continue to beat for another minute. If frosting is too thick you can add milk or heavy cream till desired consistency is reached.

Coffee-flavoured Cake Syrup

Recipe Source - Joe Pastry

Ingredients -

1 Cup – Water
1/2 Cup – Sugar
3 Tbsps – Instant Coffee

Method -

Combine all the ingredients in a heavy bottom pan.
Heat till the sugar dissolves. Bring the mixture to simmer. Remove from flame.
Allow it to cool & store in refrigerator till needed. It can be stored for a week & more.

Assembling

Source – Joe Pastry

The ‘up’ side of joconde layers when they finished baking should remain their ‘up’ side as they are more porous and will more easily absorb the syrup.
Melt little chocolate in a microwave for 30 secs on high. Keep repeating spurts of 10 secs till it is melted. Allow it to cool down using tempering.
Move a layer (which will form the bottom layer) of joconde on a separate parchment by flipping over. Apply a thin layer of this melted chocolate on it. Allow it to firm up for few minutes, then place it in the refrigerator for another few minutes. This will make sure that the cake doesn’t stick to the platter when sliced & served apart from adding chocolatey deliciousness.
Flip it back (chocolate side down) on to the platter or cake board to start assembling. Gently peel the parchment back, you may re-position the layer to center it. And we are good to go!
Apply coffee syrup thoroughly soaking it. This gives the melt-in-the-mouth texture that Opera cakes in Paris are known for. Layers should be soaked till they are brown all the way through.
Spread buttercream on top of the soaked layer. Apply evenly & slowly from side to side about 1/4″ thick.
Place your next layer, making sure that ‘up’ side of baking is ‘up’ side for soaking. Soak it as in earlier step.
Now spread a layer of thin ganache. It should be spread thinner than buttercream. I warmed it slightly to get a thin layer.
Place the next layer of the cake. Soak it. Spread buttercream.
Place the next layer of the cake. Soak it. Spread thin layer of ganache.
Place the top layer. If there are any high spots, you can press them down gently with your palm.
Soak it in coffee syrup. Now apply a thin layer of buttercream similar to a crumb coat to allow even application of chocolate layer.
Apply ready ganache/ tempered chocolate. Spread evenly & quickly. It is ok if it drizzle down a bit on the sides. Again I used slightly warm ganache to cover the top layer. You can use tempered chocolate as used traditionally.
Let the chocolate/ ganache firm at room temp or in refrigerator for 10 minutes. Then dip a knife in hot water & dry off on a towel, quickly trim off the edges to show the layers. You can keep the trims to enjoy the goodie before anyone else in sneak
It is best to slice the cake into servings at this time to avoid breakdown of the cake later. Again using knife dipped in hot water & then dried, slice the cake into any size serving you like.
Do not separate the slices, and place your cake in refrigerator. It is best to cover the cake in a cardboard box before placing in refrigerator to avoid condensation.
Refrigerate for 1-2 days. Before serving remove the cake an hour before serving. Separate the already sliced pieces using a warm knife dipped in hot water & then dried. Serve slightly cold.

Sending this to -

Flavors of France for May – guest hosted by Shruti & an event started by Nayna of Simply Foods
Black & White Wednesday # 82 hosted by Alex. BWW is an event started by Susan, now managed by Cinzia.
Bake Fest # 19 hosted by Tangy Minds, event started by Vardhini

My Food Photography Journey on 2nd Blogversary

Posted by Confusion Cook

Confusion Cook a.k.a CC is 2 years old today. I thought it was time for change, some new beginnings… but will have to wait awhile. To celebrate my journey I’m sharing how I’ve developed my food photography skills in last 2 years as I and You can see a remarkable difference from where I was w.r.t my photos.

Some of you may be familiar with my wishlist about this blog. My interest has developed everyday from baking, to decorating, to styling, to photography, to DIY, to setting-up my studio through this blog. I’m becoming adventurous in everything I do here, the latest which has taken shape very strongly is food photography.

When I started this blog, I took some interest & ended up making friends with Ronit, a food photographer based in Pune. Soon after I took a break & had to restart all over again. This time around, I’ve been reading - practicing, reading – practicing, and reading – practicing almost everyday. I’m reading from styling food, composition, lighting, photography equipment, camera, accessories, must-haves, best buys, tips & experiences, etc etc etc from wherever I can.

My Photography Gear - The reason I choose to mention this here is that I am a point & shoot girl, Canon Powershot A710 IS which is 6 years old. I don’t own a dSLR and do not foresee owning one in near future as well, due to constraints, coz I realized it is not just dSLR, I would need to invest in upgraded PC/ laptop, tripod, lenses, image editing software and other accessories. We have just bought our own apartment and similarly experienced flat owners tell me, that first 2-3 years are of frugal living. So I would continue with my P&S for a while.

Along with this, in last 6 months, I have hoarded few scraps of fabric, mats, mount boards, wooden crate, etc. – though clearly I have not been using them wisely or aesthetically yet. I intend to use new apartment perks like leftover tiles and wooden boards as backgrounds. Also it would give me a dedicated space to set-up my studio. All these props require minimal investment from my side.

I came across Nicole S. Young’s Book on Food Photography – From Snapshots to Great Shots and convinced V for buying it for me. Calling it an excellent book is an understatement. I easily get lost in too much technical information, so for me this book was perfect, it is not technical but at the same time, gave me a clear understanding of depth of field, wide aperture, shutter speed etc. I think the biggest reason is having stunning photos depicting each with different settings, so one realises how the change in aperture would change the same photo.

Before reading this book, I had already started working on my lighting which I shared with you here using both natural set-up & lightbox. I had already read my camera manual inside out & was shooting on manual mode. After reading this book, I realized that there were somethings which were bang-on & some totally off! My natural light set-up, against a north facing window, was perfect. Most food bloggers use that but for me it was unintentional, purely matter of chance and availability of space in my tiny apartment. But I was over-exposing my images, I did not know how to use my zoom lens well so there was lot of background noise, I didn’t know what a histogram is and how it will help me take better pictures to start with initially. In short, I can say this book helped me realize full potential of my camera – Yes, a point & shoot also has a lot of potential!

This book gave me huge insights about composition, styling, props, etc, which is a subjective influence and needs to be slowly developed and cultivated with lot of trial and error. As I’ve read other famous bloggers & food photographers say that using inspiration develop your own style. I am probably not even on step-1 of this journey but I know I am on the right path.

This book also gave detailed instructions of Work-flow or image editing in Lightroom, Photoshop & Photoshop Elements. I sadly have not been able to use this information as I shoot with P&S.

I started observing lot of photos, images and even movies around me after reading this book. A recent status update on my Facebook Page - “Two things I gained from 2.5 hrs of Lincoln – Daniel Day Lewis & Lincoln is all about Chiaroscuro i.e. dark food photography in my food & photography world.”

I was recently told by a professional food photographer cum instructor that my photos are decent and my level is not that basic. It made me feel good & proud. It also made me believe that it’s not just the camera, even a P&S can give good results and there are many more things to photography than just dSLR.

Note: The purpose of sharing my photography journey through my ‘inglorious’ mistakes is to assure nascent photographers like me that there is a learning curve, sometimes one doesn’t know how to apply the knowledge one has, sometimes the gear is not the best – BUT if you persist, you will do better & better results with each click & the journey is continuous.

Besan Ke Ladoo | Gram Flour Balls

Posted by Confusion Cook

Besan ladoos need no introduction, no background! I won’t be far off the mark, when I say that Indians grow up on these ladoos across regions, states and cities.

This is my take on these ladoos.

We add little semolina to give extra graininess to the taste & texture. Enjoy this festival & staple Indian snack.

Besan ke ladoo

Besan ke Ladoo

Ingredients -

1 Cup – Besan (Gram Flour)
1 Tbsp – Semolina
2 Tbsps – Ghee (Clarified Butter)
1 Cup – Castor Sugar (Bura)

Method -

In a thick bottom pan or wok, add ghee & besan. Now roast the besan till it starts emitting nice roasted aroma. Besan upon roasting leaves more ghee, so add ghee accordingly. Remove from pan and keep aside.
When it is just lukewarm quickly add in castor sugar. Mix well.
Roll small balls using hands. Serve with tea or coffee or as a dessert after dinner.

Grilled Stuffed Capsicum

Posted by Confusion Cook

This again is my ~~mom’s recipe & style,~~ well no actually my dad’s! He would happily grill these for us while mom looked after other chores, in those days a husband cooking or even making a cup of tea, was a very welcome change in an Indian household. So some very special memories attached to this recipe!

Grilled Stuffed Capsicum

This is a quick snack or side dish for a party, if done well it makes great presentation. As you can see I did try to make the presentation for the photo, but failed miserably (story of my blogging boo hoo…)

Grilled Stuffed Capsicum

V like as a snack with drinks sometimes, I like it both ways.

Grilled Stuffed Capsicum

Grilled Stuffed Capsicum

Ingredients -

2 – Capsicums, medium
3 – Boiled Potatoes, medium
2-3 – Green Chillies
1/4 tsp – Turmeric Powder
1 tsp – Coriander Powder
to taste – Salt
1-2 Tbsps – Oil for grilling

Method -

Carefully remove the core from capsicums, leaving the shell intact. Slice them about 1/2″ thick rings.
In a separate bowl, break down the boiled potatoes using your hand. Add in spices & green chilli. Mix well. I prefer the chunky bites of potato in this. If you like finer, you can grate the potatoes.
Now place a capsicum ring on your palm and then using the other hand, press the potato filling in each capsicum ring. Do not be afraid and try to press in as much filling as you can without breaking the ring. Upon grilling, capsicum will loose its firmness slightly & if the filling is not compact then it might come off during the process. Repeat this for all rings.
Heat a large gridle and spread 1 Tbsp oil. Carefully place all the prepared rings on the hot gridle leaving space between rings to turn around them later. Now grill them on slow fire for about 15-20 mins.
Using a flat spatula, turn them around gently for the other side to grill. You can add more oil at this point if you want. Again allow it grill on slow for another 10-15 mins.
Once done, remove on a platter and serve hot with paranthas or Indian flat bread.

Sending this to Color Me Green photography series by Priya.

Ghujjia/ Karanji/ Sweet Coconut Filled Dumplings

Posted by Confusion Cook

The sweets or snacks I share here on CC are my family’s or my absolute favorites. We don’t indulge regularly in these and are made only on special occassion once a year. Holi for me is associated with colors, ‘palaash ke phool’ or Butea monosperma, ghujjia and a dip in huge tub by all family members. Before the easy invent of coarse & harmful colors, which were sometimes even glass mixed, all households used palaash flowers to make natural color for playing holi. I can proudly say that in my house that’s still the custom.

Ghujjia/ Sweet Dumplings

To make natural color, just boil some palaash flowers in big vessel with water for few hours and you have fresh, natural color to play holi.

Ghujjia/ Sweet Dumplings

Now coming to ghujjia, I will own and say that before marriage I knew the basics of cooking but not the delicacies. Slowly when you run your own kitchen & realise that there is no mom to make you lovely treats on festivals & store-bought never have that charm or taste then you start getting out of the stupor & make efforts to learn all that you enjoyed and took for granted in childhood. In last 3 years, I’ve started making ghujjia knowing that I won’t get them otherwise. As with everything, these also have improved with practice.

Ghujjia/ Sweet Dumplings

I’ve been told that this year’s have been far best in taste as well as look. And the best compliment was when my son had 2 as soon as he came from school. I will ignore the fact that he didn’t have a single bite after that. What else do I want except next years kids will eat more of these.

Ghujjia/ Sweet Dumplings

Ghujjia – makes 30-35

Recipe Source – my mom

Ingredients -

250 g – APF
125 g – Khoya
400 g – Powdered Sugar/ Castor Sugar/ Bura
2 Tbsps – Ghee/ Clarified Butter
1 Tbsp – Muskmelon Seeds/ Cantaloupe Seeds
1 Tbsp – Chironji/ Buchanania lanzan Seeds
1 Tbsp – Raisins
1 tsp – Ground Cardamom
1/2 Cup – Dessicated Coconut
Dumpling Mold

Method -

In a large bowl, add flour & ghee. Knead the dough using water. The dough should be firm to touch. Cover with a wet muslin cloth for few minutes.
In a small pan, lightly roast the khoya. Add muskmelon seeds, chironji, raisins, coconut & cardamom powder. Allow the mixture to cool down to room temp. Add sugar quickly to prepare the filling.
Make small balls from the dough. Roll out each ball into a circle. It should be big enough to cover the dumpling mold with a little overhang. Fill in about 1 Tbsp filling in the center. Gently rub a wet finger (you can keep a bowl of water & dip your finger) around the edges of the mold & quickly close the mold. Wet finger will seal the mold well. Press & remove any extra dough outside the edges. Open the mold, gently remove the dumpling. Cover the dumpling with a slightly wet muslin cloth & continue with other dumplings.
Heat oil in a deep wok, once the oil is hot fry the dumplings. Serve warm with tea or as sweet.

Linking this to What’s Cooking Wednesday @ Buns in My Oven