Carrot halwa recipe cooked in a kadai with step by step photo and a video !
Carrot halwa (Gajar Ka halwa In Hindi) is one of the most popular Indian desserts that is loved by all. Long back I had shared “How to prepare carrot halwa in pressure cooker”. That’s my go-to recipe for making easy and quick carrot halwa.
Yesterday for a change, I prepared this traditional method of making carrot halwa in a kadai by using milk, sugar and ghee. I offered it as prasadam for my Friday Lakshmi Pooja. For making carrot halwa, Delhi carrots are mostly used by North Indians whereas I made it with our South Indian orange carrots(Ooty carrot).
Traditionally it is prepared in a big iron kadai but I used my non-stick kadai that suits my Induction stove as I wanted to make a video recipe as well. So there are mild deviations from the perfect traditional ones but this one tastes and looks equally good. I have not used condensed milk ( Milk maid) Or Khoya/ mawa. So the preparation time and cooking time takes a bit longer than pressure cooker version. Still the final result makes you forget all the pain. Lets see how to make carrot halwa/ Gajar Halwa at home with step by step photos and video !!
Carrot Halwa Recipe - Gajar Ka Halwa
How to make carrot halwa - Gajar Halwa Recipe using milk
Wash and peel the skin of carrots. Grate it using a big sized holes grater. Do not use a small hole grater because halwa turns mushy and the end of cooking. Grate and keep in a plate.
In a kadai, heat 2 tbsp ghee and add the grated carrot.Saute well till the raw smell goes off and color of carrot changes to pale orange. It takes nearly 3-5 minutes.
Now add 1 cup of milk and mix well.Keep the flame medium and cover the kadai with a lid. Carrots get cooked in milk. Wait till all the milk is absorbed by the milk. Open the kadai every now & then, stir till bottom to avoid burning. Cooking takes nearly 10-15 minutes.
Now add 1/2 cup (heaped)sugar and mix well. Sugar melts and mixture will become watery.Check for taste and add 2 tbsp more sugar if needed. Keep the flame medium and keep stirring till 3/4th of the moisture is lost. When the halwa becomes thick and starts to leave the sides of kadai, add cardamom powder, 1tbsp ghee and mix well. When the halwa becomes thick, gathers in the center with very little moisture, remove it and sprinkle chopped nuts. Serve warm with ice cream or cold !
** Do not stir the halwa for long time to become thick & dry because when the halwa cools down, it will become hard & chewy.So remove it when there is very little moisture content. This halwa can be refrigerated and stored for a week.Reheat in a microwave for 1 minute and serve warm if needed.
Enjoy !
Note
Add more sugar ( 2 tbsp extra) for more sweetness.Sugar can be added any time while cooking carrot halwa.
You can use Delhi carrots instead of the regular orange carrot for bright color.
Serve warm with your favorite ice cream to enjoy its best taste !
Enjoy this delicious carrot halwa with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Its a blissful combo !!
As I had already shared a jamun kofta gravy recipe, I was looking for some other interesting recipes with gulab jamun mix and came across this eggless vanilla sponge cake recipe. I tried the recipe with small changes and the cake came out super soft, spongy and moist. Raksha loved it a lot and took it for her school Christmas & New year party. She said, all the cake pieces vanished in no time and it got rave reviews from her friends. I was very happy and wanted to share this easy, foolproof eggless vanilla cake recipe with you all.
So I made this as my first ever guest post in my blogger buddy Lubna Karim’s blog “ Yummy Food”. Today I have shared the same recipe with step by step photos. Friends, If you are looking for some easy, yummy recipes using left over gulab jamun mix, this is one of the best options. Do try it for this New year celebration and enjoy ! Its a best teatime cake recipe. Ok, Lets see how to make eggless vanilla sponge cake recipe using gulab jamun mix.
With this cake recipe, I am signing off this year 2016. I thank all my readers and friends for your continuous support and encouragement. With new hopes and dreams, I will catch you all in New year 2017 with a sweet recipe.
I Wish all my readers a very happy and prosperous NEW YEAR 2017 !!
I have never thought that making homemade chocolate fudge is so easy until I come across THIS easy, microwave chocolate fudge recipe with just 2 ingredients. As I wanted to share some easy recipe for Christmas & New year celebrations, I thought of posting this simple dessert recipe with you all. Basically old fashioned homemade fudge is made using cocoa powder, sugar, milk, butter and vanilla extract from scratch. But this is an easy and quick Chocolate fudge recipe with just 2 ingredients - Sweetened Condensed milk & Choco chips. It came out really well with soft, chewy texture. I have used microwave to melt the Choco chips. It can be done on stove top as well.You can make any number of variations in this recipe by adding nuts, raisins, variety of choco chips like dark, milk choco chips etc. Do try this easy homemade vanilla chocolate fudge recipe with condensed milk. I am sure you will love it a lot. Lets see how to make this easy chocolate fudge using 2 ingredients with step by step photos and a video !
Easy chocolate fudge recipe
Easy chocolate fudge recipe with condensed milk and Choco chips - 2 ingredient fudge recipe in microwave
Line a baking pan with parchment paper or thermal foil sheet.
In a bowl, take choco chips ( I used 1/2 cup of dark choco chips & 1/2 cup of milk choco chips) and sweetened condensed milk. Mix well
Microwave in high power (800w) for just 1 minute. Remove the bowl and mix well with a spatula till all the Choco chips melt completely. Add Vanilla essence and mix quickly. Mixture will start to thicken.
Immediately transfer the mixture to the baking pan. Level it with a spatula and pat it twice. Refrigerate the fudge for 1 hour.
Invert the fudge in a plate and peel the butter paper. Cut into squares and serve ! It stays good for 2-3 days without refrigeration.
Enjoy !
Note
I used a combination of dark & milk Choco chips in this recipe. You can use any as u wish.
Do not replace sweetened condensed milk with evaporated milk.It won’t work
Do not cook the mixture for more than 1 minute in microwave. Its enough for the Choco chips to melt. If not, keep for just 30 seconds more.
For variations, you can add finely chopped nuts, raisins, pecans to the melted chocolate.Just play around.
Enjoy this easy, yummy chocolate fudge for Christmas & New year celebrations !!
Eggless bread pudding with custard sauce is an easy to make and one of the most popular pudding recipes. Long back I had shared an easy pudding recipe with agar agar/ china grass. After that, I was looking forward to try some interesting pudding recipe.
Recently I came across this easy, eggless bread pudding recipe using bread, milk, custard powder, butter, raisins( dry grapes) and nuts in a You tube video. I tried it using my leftover 3 days old bread.Its a good option to use the leftover old bread slices. Pudding came out very well. Even though we are not big fan of pudding recipes, we liked this very much. I have followed baking method.
You can try it in pressure cooker as well.This eggless, custard bread pudding tastes really good.Kids would also love it. After making this, I am eager to try out eggless caramel bread pudding too.Friends, do try this easy, Indian style pudding recipe during Christmas and let me know your feed back. Lets see how to make bread pudding recipe without eggs and condensed milk with step by step photos and a video !
Check out my other dessert recipes using bread.
Soak dry grapes or raisins in 1/4 cup of hot water. Chop the almonds or cashews into small pieces.Take the bread slices and cut into small cubes. I din’t remove the sides of bread.
In a wide bowl, take the boiled milk.Add sugar, butter, custard powder, vanilla essence, cinnamon powder and mix well without lumps.( You can add condensed milk in place of sugar but quantity may slightly vary as per taste) Check for sweetness and add more sugar if needed. You can boil the milk for a minute till it starts to thicken.I din’t boil it. I added the milk directly to the bread pieces.
Now take a baking pan ( I used silver foil box). Grease it with butter. Arrange half of the bread pieces as the first layer. Pour half of the milk all over the bread pieces. Press it & Immerse the bread pieces in the milk using a spatula. Now sprinkle the soaked dry grapes and chopped badam/almonds.
Again layer the remaining bread pieces and pour the remaining half of milk. Press it well & Immerse the bread pieces in the milk using a spatula and mash it. Top it with the remaining soaked dry grapes and chopped almonds. Lastly sprinkle 1tbsp of sugar.
Preheat the oven in convection mode at 180c. Keep the baking tray inside the oven and bake it for 30 – 40 minutes OR till the top of bread turns golden brown. Remove the tray and slice the portion of pudding.Serve it hot or warm as you wish.Enjoy !
Note
Adjust the quantity of sugar as per your taste.
Baking time may slightly vary. Mine got done in 45 minutes. Bake till the crust changes to golden in color. Do not over bake, the bottom may get burnt. So keep an eye after 30 minutes.
If you boil the milk + custard mixture, 20 minutes of baking is sufficient. As I din’t boil the milk mixture, I baked it for more time.
Eggless honey cake recipe with step by step and video. Honey cake reminds our childhood days for most of us. Yes, when we were kids many of us would have tasted this cake from our local Indian bakery. The taste of this soft, juicy, moist, honey drenched sponge cake is still lingering in our tongue.
Whenever I visit Iyengar bakery here in Bangalore, I never forget to buy their popular stuffs like Khara bun, Benne biscuit, Baked Nippattu etc. Recent days I started buying few pieces honey cake as well. Raksha is not a big fan of this cake due to the extra sweetness from honey and fruit jam. But myself and Sendhil enjoy & love this cake a lot.
Recently many of our fellow bloggers are sharing their versions of eggless honey cake which tempted me very badly to try at home.Yesterday morning I got determined to try this honey cake without eggs and followed THIS RECIPE which I had bookmarked already. Actually I wanted to follow my eggless, butter less tutti frutti cake recipe for the base of this cake. But then I thought of trying the sponge cake base using condensed milk and butter so that I can learn another eggless, moist sponge cake recipe.
Cake came out porous, pillow soft, fluffy with spongy texture as I wished. I could really feel the taste of Iyengar bakery honey cake when I tasted a piece of this cake. I am completely happy with this recipe. Even Raksha liked it very much and taken for her snack box today. You can try this cake in pressure cooker as well. I will try to share a detailed recipe for eggless pressure cooker cake.
Friends, do try this easy, delicious cake for special occasions like birthday and anniversary. I am sure you will get perfect result and enjoy with your family. Now lets see how to make Indian bakery style eggless honey cake recipe with step by step pictures and VIDEO !
If you are looking for an eggless sponge cake recipe without condensed milk and butter, do check out this recipe. For eggless orange cake recipe using cooking oil, please check this link.
Eggless Honey Cake Recipe - Indian Bakery style recipe
How to make Indian bakery style honey cake recipe without eggs.
All purpose flour / Maida - 1. 25 cups / 1 1/4 cup
Corn flour - 1/4 cup
Baking powder - 1.5 tsp
Baking soda - 3/4 tsp
Butter - 1/2 cup (Soft at room temperature, do not melt)
Condensed milk - 1/2 cup
Boiled milk - 3/4 cup ( at room temperature)
Vanilla essence - 1 tsp
Vinegar or lemon juice - 1 tbsp
For honey syrup
Honey - 1/4 cup
Sugar - 2 tbsp
Water - 1/2 cup + 2 tbsp
Rose essence - 1/2 tsp
*Increase the quantity of ingredients for honey syrup if you like more sweet and juicy cake.
For sauce
Mixed fruit jam - 3 tbsp ( I used Kissan )
Sugar - 2 tsp
Dessicated coconut powder - to garnish the cake
HOW TO MAKE EGGLESS HONEY CAKE - METHOD
In a dry bowl, sieve maida, corn flour, baking powder and baking soda . Keep it aside.
In another bowl, take the butter at room temperature ( Do not melt) and add the condensed milk. Beat it well till it becomes smooth and creamy. It takes 2-3 minutes.So beat it patiently. To this, add vanilla essence and vinegar. Just Mix well. Do not beat.
Add the sieved maida mixture to the creamy butter mixture little by little ( say 1/2 cup), Simultaneously add boiled milk at room temperature little by little (say 1/4 cup). Use a spatula and fold the cake mixture. Never beat or mix vigorously. Do it gently. When all the flour and milk is over, check the batter consistency. It should not be too thick or thin like falling ribbon. It resembles creamy paste. So don’t panic.
Grease a baking pan ( use square pan ) with butter and dust with maida all over the pan. Pat the excess flour. Add the cake batter to the baking pan and level it.
Preheat the oven in convection mode at 180c. Place the baking tray inside the oven and bake the cake for 25 to 30 minutes. Original recipe mentioned to bake for 25 minutes whereas mine took nearly 35 minutes as I added more milk. So keep an eye after 20 minutes and check with the knife as explained in the next step.
Insert a knife and check if it comes out clean. If the knife comes with uncooked batter, bake for 2-3 minutes more. Again check it. Bake the cake till the inserted knife comes out clean or with crumbs. Remove the baking tray and let it rest for 15 minutes. Run a knife along the sides and invert the cake in a plate.
Cake will come out easily if its properly cooked. You can trim the brown part of cake on the sides if you wish. But I din't remove it. Now prick the cake with a fork for the sugar syrup to spread inside the cake.
Now make the honey syrup and fruit sauce. For this, take a small kadai. Add sugar, water and boil till sugar dissolves completely. After the sugar is melted, switch off the flame. Add rose essence, honey after the sugar syrup becomes warm. Mix well and keep aside. Pour this honey syrup all over the cake. As soon as you pour, cake will absorb all the syrup. ( You can increase the quantity of honey if you like the cake to be more juicy and sweet)
In another kadai, take the jam and sugar. Mix well and melt in medium flame till the jam becomes thin. Switch off the flame and immediately apply the sauce all over the cake. If the melted jam cools down. it will start to solidify. In that case, you can heat and melt the jam again to coat over the cake. Atlast sprinkle the dessicated coconut powder for garnishing and cut into pieces.
Enjoy !
The outer layer/ crust of cake will dry if you leave it open for long time. So keep it covered in an air tight box till use. If you want to prepare this cake in advance, you can do it one day before and refrigerate the cake in a box. You should bring it to room temperature before serving.
Note
The outer layer/crust of cake will dry if you leave it open for long time. So keep it covered in an air tight box till use. If you want to prepare this cake in advance, you can do it one day before and refrigerate the cake in a box. You should bring it to room temperature before serving.
Do not beat the batter while adding milk. Fold the batter gently.
The base of this cake is not so sweet. So if you apply sugar syrup and jam sauce, sweetness will become perfect.
Do not more milk and make the batter thin. It takes longer time to cook.
Keep an eye after 20 minutes and check with the knife. Keep checking like this for every 3 minutes. Remove only after the knife comes out clean.
Original recipe told to bake for 25 minutes whereas mine took nearly 35 minutes.So baking time may slightly vary as per the oven temperature.
Do not invert or remove the cake when its hot. It will break. Invert the cake only after it cools down.
Enjoy this juicy, soft honey cake for special occasions. Have a great, sweet filled celebration.
Gulab jamun using instant MTR readymade mix - step by step recipe and video. Diwali celebration is incomplete without these yummy Gulab jamun. Its an universally loved Indian dessert recipe. In most of the Indian households, Gulab jamun recipe will be in the Diwali sweets menu for sure. Many people make it as the last minute sweet for Diwali and other special occasions like birthday, anniversary, New year celebration and even for Valentine’s day.
Most of us opt for Gulab jamun recipe using readymade, store bought Instant mix as its easy and quick to make, cheap in price compared to other sweets in shops. Even though the ingredients used in the gulab jamun mix are the same, there are many brands available in the market with their own variations & style. Some of the most popular ones are MTR, GITS, Aachi, Bambino and Orkay. Recently my reader friend Harini requested me to share Gulab jamun recipe using MTR jamun mix.
So I bought a pack of jamun mix in buy one get one offer and tried it yesterday by getting some inputs from my friends Tara, Megha and Swarna. They make Gulab jamun using readymade mix very often. So they shared some useful tips to make soft, smooth gulab jamun without breaking and cracks. I watched this YouTube video tutorial as well. I followed the steps carefully and the result was awesome, perfect !! I was elated to see my soft, Gundu Gundu gulab jamun and jumped out of joy.
Raksha and Sendhil relished this yummy dessert recipe with ice cream. Most of you may think, making gulab jamun using instant mix is not a big deal or rocket science. Yes, its true. But beginners may face some difficulties to prepare a perfect Gulab jamun. So this post is explicitly for them. Even bachelors can also give a try. Experts, please excuse me and do share your favorite jamun mix along with some tips if any. Lets see how to make Gulab jamun recipe with MTR instant mix at home with step by step photos and a video tutorial !
Gulab jamun recipe with instant mix
How to make Gulab jamun using readymade, Instant, store bought mix
Read the instructions given on the pack. In MTR mix, its mentioned to add 1 part of water for 4 parts of mix. 400gms of sugar for 150 gms mix packet. So i followed the recipe accordingly.
Take sugar and water in a wide bowl and mix well. Keep aside, let it dissolve. In the mean time, take the gulab jamun mix in a wide plate. I used my thambalam/ big round plate. Usually I make chapati dough and other dough in my thambalam as its spacious and convenient to mix well. If the mix has more lumps, sieve it once. Break the lumps with your fingers while sieving. Do not discard the residue. Add it to the mix again. I got around 1.5 cups of powder.
If you are using ORKAY mix, do not sieve the mix. Just break the lumps using your hands.
Now add the milk little by little and gather all the flour with your fingers. The mixture will become wet and very sticky. Do not worry. Gulab jamun will come out soft if the dough is sticky. I used 1/4 cup + 2 tbsp + 1 tsp milk. So add milk carefully at the end. If you add more milk, jamun will flatten and break. Do not knead the dough using your palm. Mixing should be done only with your fingers. Cover the dough with a plate or invert a bowl. Let it rest for 15 minutes to 1 hour.
In the mean time, heat sugar + water and melt it. Add saffron threads, cardamom or rose essence. Boil the syrup for 10 minutes in medium flame till the syrup turns slightly sticky to touch, glossy & resembles oil in consistency. Keep aside. Let the syrup becomes warm.
After 30 minutes, take the dough.It will be soft to touch.Do not knead it. Grease your palm with ghee. Make a big gooseberry sized ball by rolling the dough between your palm. Give gentle pressure and roll it continuously for 30 seconds to make it smooth and crack free. As the dough is sticky, jamun balls will not get cracks. If you feel there are cracks, just roll it tight. Cracks will disappear. I made around 20 balls.
Heat oil in a kadai and when it gets heated , put a pinch of dough in the oil. If it rises to the top slowly, oil heat is perfect. Now stir the oil with a ladle in the corners. When the oil starts to rotate, drop the jamun balls. I cooked 4 per batch. Stir the oil continuously without touching the gulab jamun. You will find jamun rotate with oil and turns bigger in size. The color of jamun balls change slowly and it cooks uniformly.
Once it turns golden brown, remove it in a tissue paper. Do not fry for long time. Jamun will become hard and it will not absorb the syrup. After frying, open & check if its cooked well. Leave the cooked jamun for 2-3 minutes in tissue paper and then drop in the sugar syrup. ( If you feel difficult to stir the oil, just keep the flame low, add the balls, flip every now and then till jamun turns golden. Then remove it)
If the sugar syrup becomes cold, heat till it becomes medium hot. i.e vapor should start to come from the syrup slightly. Deep fry all the balls in batches, drain in the tissue and drop in the syrup. Let the balls soak in syrup for minimum 3-4 hours. It will soak well and double in size. Remove and serve in a bowl. Transfer the gulab jamun to a tight box and store it for days.No need to refrigerate.
Enjoy !
Tips
Adding milk for making the dough helps to give soft jamun. You can use water as well. My friend Swarna adds just a tsp of milk in the beginning and add then water to make the dough. You can try this too.
Dough should be really sticky to get soft Gulab jamun. If you have added more milk by mistake, don’t panic. Just cover the dough with a lid and let it rest for an hour.Grease your hands and make smooth balls. If it comes out without cracks, then proceed and deep fry only one ball for a trial. If it disperses in oil, then add a tsp of maida, mix well and make another ball. Test it and proceed further. But adding more milk flatten the jamun. So please be careful while adding milk.
Jamun balls should be crack free. Roll it for 30 seconds continuously. This helps to seal the cracks while rolling. Do not press it too hard while rolling, but give gentle pressure.
Deep fry the balls only at low temperature else balls will get browned quickly without cooking inside.
Gulab jamun balls will disperse in oil or cracks more if the oil temperature is too low. So Check the temperature before you drop the balls.
Similarly cracks will form if the jamun balls become dry. So keep it covered all the time till you finish the procedure.
Sugar syrup should not be too hot while you drop the jamun. It should be medium hot or warm. Similarly Gulab jamun should not be too cold.
Gulab jamun will flatten if you add more milk. It will also flatten if the sugar syrup is less. Make sure the sugar syrup is enough for all the balls to absorb and dunk in completely.
If the quantity of sugar syrup is less, then jamun will not turn soft and double in size.
Try this delicious, yummy cute Gulab Jamun recipe for your Family and have a great Diwali Celebration.
