Kitchen Corner-Try It

   Easy Pineapple Cream Cheese Danish Cream cheese danish is one of my favorite pastries. Imagine biting into layers upon layers of wonderfully flaky buttery goodness, with a sweet fruit filling. Do you like flaky layered pastry? What is your favorite filling? This Pineapple Danish is to die for, super delicious with tropical flavor. You can use fresh pineapple, caramelized pineapple, cooked pineapple, or pineapple jam. Pineapple is my personal favorite, but you can use apricot, raspberries, strawberries, or whatever your heart desires. This delectable fruit treat is the perfect tea-time snack/dessert. If you love to entertain, this is a snack that never fails to impress. Danish pastry dough usually consists of flour, yeast, eggs, and butter. They are made with a butter lamination similar to puff pastry and croissants. Like croissants, Danish pastry dough is rolled out thinly and then folded with a layer of butter. It results in forming multiple layers that are buttery and fla...

   Chocolate Cream Cake/  Chocolate Pastry Cake  Chocolate cream cake/pastry cake is easy to make and sure to impress all chocolate lovers! This tiny layer cake is delicious and surprisingly easy to make. Are you looking for a cake that is elegant and easy to put together for Christmas? This chocolate cake is the kind of dessert you need for the holiday season to share with your family and friends. They are neatlyy sliced individual serving portions, and perfect for a party or get together. Chocolate cream cakes are childhood nostalgia, and the sight of these decadent slices of chocolaty goodness, displayed in the windows of pastry shops, and bakeries are hard to resist. They are dressed to impress all chocolate lovers. This is my favorite, easy to make, and the best chocolate pastry cake recipe ever! The best part of this cake is its light, spongy layers with delightful cream frosting. It has an incredibly luscious chocolate flavor, perfectly soft and moist. It is a...

Cherry Turnovers- Easy Puff Pastry Recipe Turnovers are crispy golden, buttery pastries with a sweet and tart filling. Cherry turnovers are homemade fruity treats and taste like the ones you get at bakeries or coffee shops. Store brought puff pastry sheets to come in handy, and you can make it in no time. Do you like flaky layered pastry? What is your favorite filling? Imagine biting into layers upon layers of buttery goodness, with a sweet and tart fruit filling. This delectable fruit treat is a perfect tea-time snack. You can sprinkle some sugar on the top or drizzle some glaze if you want it, extra sweet. Cherry turnover is my personal favorite. But you can use apples, strawberries, or whatever your heart desires. I made these turnovers last weekend. I brought a package of the puff pastry sheet to make some spicy puffs that are so popular in Kerala. Indian bakery puffs are a spice version of turnovers with meat, vegetable, or egg filling. Some people have a sweet tooth, so b...

Raspberry Cream Cheese Danish Cream cheese danish is one of my favorite pastry. It is quick and easy to make if you have store brought puff pastry sheets. Cream cheese with fresh fruit makes a delicious filling. But you can also make sauce or use jam filling.The flaky buttery puffs with creamy fruit filling is super delicious. Try this, you will surely love it. Ingredients Puff pastry sheet- 2 Cream cheese - 8 0z. Powdered sugar- 3/4 cup Fresh raspberries- 3/4 cup (or any fruit jam) Flour- 1 tbs Vanilla essence- 1 tsp Chopped nuts- 1 tbs Egg white-1 Using a hand mixer whip cream cheese till soft and creamy. Add confectionery sugar and whip till well blended. Finally add vanilla essence and flour and whisk till it is creamy.Add raspberry and fold in. Refrigerate till ready to use. Thaw puff pastry sheet according to package instructions. Pre heat oven to 375 degree F. Spread the puff pastry on an ungreased baking sheet. Spread the filling towards the center ...

Fig Layer Bars Fig bar is delicious,moist and flavor packed snack.It is not overly sweet and is perfect as a breakfast or as a snack. I made these bars with dried figs and fig jam,but you can replace it with fresh figs or with fig puree.Bars are easy to put together. It has a buttery crust, jam and dry fruit filling and a crumble topping.Try this, kids will surely love this.   Ingredients All purpose flour- 2 cups Fig preserve/jam- 1/2 cup Dried fig- 8-10 Chilled Unsalted butter- 1 cup ( 8 oz.) Egg yolks-2 Sugar- 1/2 cup Salt- 1/4 tsp Vanilla extract-2 tsp For the topping Sugar- 2 tbs All purpose flour- 1/4 cup Butter- 2 tbs Pre heat oven to 325 degree F and position rack in the center of the oven. Grease 13"x9" baking pan  and set aside. Soak the figs in warm water for half an hour and chop into small pieces. Using a food processor,mix flour,sugar and salt.Add pieces of butter and pulse 8-10 times till the mixture resembles course meal. Add...

Fruit and Nut Pinwheels Merry Christmas to all my friends and readers! Today's recipe is baked  fruit and nut pinwheel pastry. It is made with ready made puff pasty dough.You can also use yeast dough for this recipe instead of puff pasty( check recipe here ). This is a delicious treat of flaky pastry with slightly caramelized sugar and a simple  holiday treat.Serve this with a cup of tea and enjoy! Ingredients Puff pastry -2 sheet Granulated sugar- 1/2cup Cardamon powder- 3/4 tsp Salt- a pinch Fruits and nuts mix- I used glazed cherries, golden raisins, pistachios and cashew nuts. Thaw puff pasty as per package instruction.Pre heat the oven to 350 degree F.  On a lightly floured surface, roll out the pastry. Spread the sugar evenly on top and using a rolling pin gently roll on top so that the sugar so that it sticks on the dough. Leaving an inch on all sides spread the fruits and nut filling. Lifting the side close to you and roll the doug...

Baking partners challenge for this month is Galette. When Swathi asked me to make and share this recipe, I was excited to try and immediately decided to make one with a peach filling. Galette is an open crust French pie. It has a flaky pastry dough like pies and tarts and a filling that can be either sweet or savory. They have a very rustic look. The filling is placed in the center and the dough is folded in an over lapping fashion on top of the filling. Galettes are perfect for pot luck parties as they are sliced and served like a pizza. You can make with any kind of fruit like peach, strawberry, blueberry or apples. Try using tomatoes/sun dried tomatoes, sausages,meat and cheese if you like the savory version. Recipe is adapted from Williams-Sonama ... http://www.williams-sonoma. com/recipe/berry-galette.html  Julia Child's recipe of Fast French Puff Pastry( Book:Julia Child and Company,Alfred A. knopf,Inc, US,1978 Ingredients All purpose flour- 1 cup Cake Flour- 1...

Cream Puffs With Chocolate-Orange Mousseline Filling Are you looking for delicious and impressive party foods? Cream puffs with chocolate-orange mousseline filling are a quick dessert and taste amazing. Citrus flavored desserts are much loved, and orange and chocolate are such a classic combination. The pastry cups with the delicious filling will look festive and elegant. It is simple to assemble this finger food – it is easier than you think!. The contrast of textures is interesting with thin layers of crispy, buttery puff pastry and the sweet,  creamy filling. The mousse has cream and eggs and has an airy texture. Chocolate-Orange Mousseline is a dessert on its own, puff pastry cups are great for individual servings. These easy elegant pastry bites are perfect for entertaining. The filling is versatile and can be used for tarts or pastry filling. Cherries or raspberries also go well with chocolate. The ready-made frozen puff pastry cups are a lifesaver, and you can get cr...

 Opera Cake Baking partners challenge for July is the yummy and famous  French pasty Opera cake. This months recipe was suggested by Savitha of Savitha's Kitchen . Swathi also shared one recipe with me. You can find the recipe here . If you take a look at the  recipe you will notice that  there are different stages to make this cake before the final assembly. This cake has a rich almond coffee flavor. It consists of almond sponge cake with layers of  French coffee butter cream, chocolate butter cream and chocolate ganache on top. Thanks Savitha and Swathi for this recipe. Ingredients For the almond sponge Cake flour-3 tbs Egg- 2 large  Almond flour - 1 cup Confectionery Sugar- 1/2 cup Egg whites-2 Cream of tartar- 1/8 tsp Salt- 1/8 tsp Granulated sugar- 1tbs Butter unsalted- 2 tbs For the coffee Syrup Espresso powder- 1 tsp Water- 1/2 cup Sugar- 2 tsp Coffee Butter Cream Granulated sugar-  1/2 cup Egg yolk-2 Butter- 1...

Pumpkin Whoopie Pies  Baking partners challenge recipe for November is Whoopie pies-a delicious treat loved by both young and old. Since this is the month of pumpkins, Swathi suggested making something with pumpkin as the key ingredient. This recipe was suggested by Anitha of Anitha's Kitchen Diary. Whoopie Pies is a traditional Amish recipe. It consists of sandwiched cake like cookies with a sweet cream filling and you can make a variety of flavors and fillings. Here I used cream cheese filling, you can also try vanilla butter cream or marshmallow fluff cream. Pumpkin whoopie pies is moist and  delicious and a great holiday treat. Thanks Anitha for this wonderful recipe. Ingredients All purpose flour- 1 1/2 cup Brown Sugar- 1/2 cup Sugar- 3 tbs Butter - 1/2 stick (4 tbs) Egg-2 Pumpkin puree- 1 cup Baking soda- 1/2 tsp Baking powder- 1/2 tsp Salt- 1/2 tsp Ground ginger- 1/2 tsp Ground cinnamon- 1/2 tsp Clove powder- a pinch Nutmeg- a pinch Vanilla e...

Pumpkin Pie Pumpkin pie is perfect holiday recipe. It has a flaky and tender crust and a smooth custard filling. The filling is sweet and mildly spiced and easy to make. In order to  make tender and flaky crust, make sure that the ingredients are cold and work quickly to avoid the butter from melting. This recipe is adapted Joy of Baking and William- Somona Ingredients For the crust All purpose flour- 1 1/2 cup Cold unsalted butter- 1 1/2 stick Sugar- 1 tbs Salt- 1/2 tsp Ice water- 5 tbs Filling Pumpkin puree- 2 cup Egg- 3 Heavy cream- 1 cup Sugar- 3/4 cup Brown sugar- 1/2 cup Salt- 1/2 tsp Cinnamon- 1 tsp Ginger- 1/2 tsp Clove- 1/8 tsp Nutmeg- 1 pinch  To make the pie crust , put all the ingredients in food processor ( except ice water) and process for a few seconds till the butter gets incorporated with the flour and resembles course sand. Add ice water little by little, till the mixture combines and will hold together when pinched. If it...

Cheddar and Sage Scones Baking partners challenge for this month is savory tart and scones. I have already posted two scone recipes,one citrus flavored and one with coconut and butter scotch. But when I saw this recipe of cheese scones, I wanted to give it a try.Scones are perfect snack with a cup of coffee. It is buttery and tender in the inside and crispy in the outside.This recipes  are suggested and tried and tested by Archana of The Mad Scientist’s Kitchen. I added sun dried tomatoes and one egg in my recipe.Thanks Archana for sharing this yummy recipe. Recipe Source: bbcgoodfood.com , http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/cheddar-sage-scones Ingredients Self Raising flour- 225 grams+ extra for dusting English Mustard powder- 1 1/2 tsp A pinch salt A pinch pepper Clove powder- 1/3 tsp Sun dried tomatoes chopped- 3 tbs Butter- 50 grams chilled and cubed Cheddar cheese- 75 grams grated 1 tbs dried Sage + ½ tbs Heavy cream- 1/3cup Egg-1 Milk- 1/4 cup 1 t...

Chocolate Walnut Bars Baking partners challenge for this month is bar cookies. I always wanted to try them and when Swathi asked me to suggest two recipes  for this months challenge,I readily agreed. Thanks Swathi for this opportunity. Enjoyed this challenge! This is the second bar recipe for this months challenge. The first one is Lemon Bars.Chocolate Walnut bars is yummy,easy to make and kids will love this. It has a buttery dough, a chocolate raspberry filling and a crumble topping.   Recipe source Faye Levy's Chocolate Sensations,Hp Books,Canada,1986. Ingredients Walnut cookie dough Walnuts- 1 cup (3-3/4 0z.) Egg yolks-3 Sugar- 1/2 cup Salt- 1/4 tsp Vanilla extract-2 tsp Grated lemon zest- 2 tsp Chilled Unsalted butter- 1 cup ( 8 oz.) All purpose flour- 1 3/4 cups Chocolate Raspberry filling Raspberry preserve- 1/2 cup Semi sweet chocolate cut into chunks- 6 oz. Nutty crumble topping Sugar- 2 tbs All purpose flour- 1/4 cup Walnuts- 1/4 cup To...

Meyer Lemon Bars Baking partners challenge for this month is bar cookies. I always wanted to try them and when Swathi asked me to suggest two recipes  for this months challenge,I readily agreed. Thanks Swathi for this opportunity. Enjoyed this challenge! Lemon bar is a very popular bar cookie and lemons are available all year round. This makes a perfect summery treat. Here I used the Meyer lemons, which are sweeter  and not as tart as the regular lemons.I always loved sweet and tart lemon curd.This recipe has a basic lemon curd technique with the addition of condensed milk and flour. It is smooth and creamy and sets firm in the oven.Allow it to completely cool down and chill before you slice them. Try this recipe,you will surely love it. Recipe source The Secrets of Baking, Sherry Yard and The Good Cookie by Tish Boyle . Ingredients Basic short crust recipe All Purpose flour- 1 1/4 cup Confectioner's sugar- 2/3 cup Pinch of salt Cold uns...