a cookie, a brownie, and my valentine

After celebrating our first anniversary in January, and our first Valentine's together this February (I was in India last year), we had a festive start of the year again.  My hubby is usually the one planning surprises, and the only surprises I’ve given him are cooking his favorites ever since I moved here after marriage.  This Valentine's, I cooked a simple dinner at home – just Moussaka & Cacik, because I was busy preparing the dessert and a surprise.

So right after dinner, I surprised him by placing four fortune cookies in front and told him to choose two; the rest two would be mine.  I made the fortune cookies myself at home earlier that day.  Since I was attempting them for the first time, only four turned out good out of the eight that I had intended to make!  Anyway, so I had put slips of paper in the fortune cookie, one was "promise me you'll love me forever" ... another was "I'll make one of your wishes come true today" ... and the remaining two – well, I cannot write here!  *wink*

It was not only romantic, but also fun.  And then, I brought out the brownies baked that morning.  Since I’m not an expert at frosting and piping, I put simple cocoa-coffee glaze over it, topped with some strawberries and wrote "Happy Valentine's Sweetheart" with Cream Cheese icing.  And we cut it together like we would a cake, warmed it and ate with ice cream.

I didn't cook an elaborate meal, he didn’t bring me any diamond ring, I didn't decorate the house with hearts and balloons, and neither of us gave each other greeting card or roses.  But we had our first perfect Valentine's together.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -  - - - - - 

The eggless brownie was made from Tarla Dalal’s recipe "Sizzling Brownies" and is quite similar to the eggless chocolate cake recipe by Shobha Indani I’ve posted earlier.  The reason I tried Tarla Dalal’s recipe was to understand how same ingredients with different proportions and similar procedure of preparation, in comparison to Shobha Indani’s recipe, made a difference.

Calls for:	Shobha Indani – Chocolate Cake	Tarla Dalal – Sizzling Brownies
All-Purpose Flour (maida)	1 ¾ cup	1 cup
Cocoa Powder	¼ cup	¼ cup
Salt	1 tsp	–
Fresh Thick Curd (dahi)	16 Tbsp	6 Tbsp
Powdered Sugar	1 cup	¾ cup
Baking Powder	½ tsp	½ tsp
Baking Soda (soda bi-carb)	1 tsp	½ tsp
Oil or Melted Butter	8 Tbsp	5 Tbsp
Vanilla Extract or Essence	1 tsp	½ tsp
Chopped Walnuts (akhrot)	½ cup	½ cup
Milk	as required	5 Tbsp
Pan:	9” round	8 x 8” square
Bake:	10 mins @400oF then 20-30 mins @300oF	20-25 mins @350oF
Serves:	8 – 10	6 – 8

Verdict:  It was soft and nice, and I would probably call it Eggless Cakey Brownies or almost eggless chocolate-walnut cake.  Quantity of cocoa was more and liquid was lesser in the brownie batter compared to the cake batter (left column), hence giving it a cakey-brownie taste & texture.  Good and simple enough to make another time, but still on the lookout for a better, authentic, eggless brownie recipe.

How was your Valentine's?  Any favorite memory?

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Connect with Spusht : Facebook  |  Email  |  RSS  |  Twitter