Harveen's Baking Affair

I have learnt my lesson. Never promise cookies to a bunch of neighborhood girls working hard on their project ! Okay, let me rephrase that ...never promise ..just bake and give them..By promising you just increase their anticipitation and then are bound to be bombarded by "Are they ready"  questions . It doesn't help when the recipe is also not working even if you have diligently followed it ...you need piece of mind to change proportions in an exact science like baking and the constant quering just adds to the confusion. But we love our girls and  maybe it is the magic of  their eager and innocent cravings that makes the recipe work out beautifully in the end. The recipe for these mocha cookies comes from a famous bakery in Melrose Avenue , Los Angeles and bears the crown of being selected as the best cookie recipe for the year 1990 by Gourmet magazine. If you have been following by blog, you know that I have been trying other award winning recipes from the Gourme

Admit it , we all get impressed by fancy sounding desserts especially when they are as glamorous sounding as macaroons. Also, admit truthfully that we tend to think that actually making one of this fancy sounding dessert will be a tedious task involving multiple steps and lots of patience and precision. That is where we all are wrong . Yes, I did include myself in the process. Mention the name "Macaroon" or "Macaron" to me as a baking choice and  I will keep finding ways to put it at the very far end of "things to try in baking list". It's not that I havent tried them before but it has been a long time and hence they did not occupy their righful place in my blog. All that changed when I got a request for making them from one of my page followers. I promised him that I would change their order in my "to do list" and sure enough they bragged the spot and here they are on my blog. Not only do they sound glamorous but they are also quite

My interest in baking may suggest otherwise but believe me when I say that I grew up as a pakka tomboy. My knees used to be perennially scraped from all the climbing (tress and wall included ) and my somewhat limited collection of toys only had a single doll . As such , my childhood memories seem to more of playing cricket rather than arranging elaborate "gudda-gudiya ki shaadi". While I like to believe that helped me to shape my personality in a positive manner but some where my girly girl  side feels betrayed for not being adequately nurtured . That is why for my daughter , I aim to encourage both the sides..her tombiy side which wants to copy everything which her bother is doing and  her sweet girly girl one which loves all things glittery and fancy . Tea party fits right in , don't you think ? Why the sudden interest in tea party ? Well it is summer and we have already taken care of lemonade stand from  our summer bucket list . It was a success and along simi

If you have been following me on Facebook , you must be aware that it is about to rain in my neck of woods and that has put me in a generous, cheerful mood. Summer days live up to their reputation here and any relief from this scorching heat is always welcome and bound to life one's spirits. Now, that you got a general gist of  the reason behind my cheerfully benevolent mood , let's move on to the promise part . Many of my loyal followers are always on the lookout for eggless and whole wheat recipes and today with the rain gods being merciful and all that , decided to try the aforementioned bake. Zucchinis are my current obsession . It would be grammatically correct to say that trying them in varied bakes is my current obsession. Also, the first statement also happens to be factually incorrect as it appears I always get obsessed with zucchinis bakes this time of the year. It all started with a zucchini "apple" crisp , followed by "chocolate zucc

Now , this is a recipe very close to my heart . It comes from  a very beloved kids book called teh "Just Desserts Club" by Johanna Hurwitz. two years ago I had found the aforementioned book displayed at our local library and had picked it for my daughter who was getting interested in all things baking. She loved reading the book and afterwards we both had fun trying out the recipes featured in it. What made it all the more special and fun was the fact that many of them contained zucchini as a surprise ingredient .I was definitely hooked and when the bakes turned out exceptionally moist , I knew I had found my calling ...baking frim scratch and too with myriad fruits and veggies ! Every year during zucchini season , we check out the book from the local library and try put one new recipe. One year it was zucchini pie and the next was zucchini sweet bread. This year we tried our hand at Brownie surprise cake with the surprise being the 2 cups of grated zucchini added