Almond Banana Milkshake

I never skipped breakfast till now. No reason behind it. I am wondering now, why I never skipped it? I had many times missed my college bus only because of my breakfast.



I remember my aunt yelling at me for missing bus and not keeping up with my time. She tried to change me. Finally she changed herself and packed breakfast in a box. Advised me to have it during the long(?) journey to the college.



Then, in the crowd among all the other students, I started to have my breakfast in the bus. I didn't feel shy at all.  I never worried about others unnecessary annotations and weird look. I know my mind always thinks about eating at correct time.



Well, Last week, I visited my aunt's house. She is still yelling, not with me but with her son. She packed breakfast for him and gave it to him. but the box was returned in the evening untouched. I understand, these days kids are not concentrating on food while going to school in the morning even though they are good at eating.

The next day, I prepared this milkshake and gave it to him instead of breakfast. Hah... Success...He finished it while tucking his shirt in. Why can't you try this simple breakfast for your kids for instant energy? It is good to you too.



Basic Information:

Preparation Time: <15 minutes (except for soaking almonds)

Serves: 2

Ingredients:

Banana - 2 nos

Almonds - 8 nos

Milk - 1 and 1/2 cups

Sugar/Honey - 2 tablespoons (Optional)



Method:



1) Soak almond for overnight/2 hours and remove the skin. Slice the banana into slices.

2) Put almond first in a mixer/blender and blend it for a minute.

3) Add milk and banana slices now and continue blending for another minute or until you don't find any lumps.

4) Add sugar / honey and blend it just enough to mix.

5) Pour in glasses and serve chill.

Note:

1) Add vanilla ice cream/ice cubes if your prefer.

2) Add a teaspoon or two of cocoa powder for chocolate shake.

3) You can also prepare this drink instantly without soaking almond. However, it is advised to remove the skins, if you are going to serve for kids to avoid digestion problem.

4) Almonds are sometimes difficult for few people to digest because of an enzyme-inhibiting substance in their brown coating. Soaking or sprouting removes this inhibitor so that the enzymes secreted during digestion can do their job.

Coffee Cupcakes

I prefer to use Camp Coffee when cooking. It's a rich syrupy strong liquid coffee. Alternatively you can use instant coffee mixed with water; 1tsp of instant coffee mixed with 1 tbsp of water is the equivalent of 1tbsp of Camp Coffee.

We made coffee cupcakes using camp coffee, here's the recipe

Ingredients

6oz SR Flour
6oz Caster Sugar
6oz Butter
3 Eggs
4 tbsp Camp Coffee
1 tub Mascapone
2 tbsp Soft Brown Sugar

Method


Mix together the flour, caster sugar, butter eggs and 3 tbsp of coffee until smooth. Fill 12 muffin cases and bake at 170C (fan) for 25 mins. When cooked remove from tin and allow to cool.

Now make the icing: mix together the mascapone brown sugar and 1 tbsp of coffee until well blended and pipe onto top of cupcakes.

I have recently bought some Wilton piping nozzles and have found them to be marvellous, it's sometimes better to invest in a good product. It's certainly the case here.

This is the nozzle I used for these cakes:

Raisin Soda Bread - Daring Bakers Challenge, February 2012

For this month's Daring Bakers Challenge, Lis of La Mia Cucina, asked us to bake Quick Breads. I m still in a great mood for baking even after the BM, My Oven still hot and running baby!!!! I tried baking Raisin Soda Bread from Joy of Baking. We loved it!!!  Seeing the top of bread brown and rising was a sheer bliss!!! Lets hop on to the recipe!!!!

Ingredients

3/4 Cup All Purpose flour

3/4 Cup Whole Wheat flour

1.5 tablespoons granulated white sugar

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1.5 tbsp cold unsalted butter, cut in small pieces

1/2 Cup raisins, I used sun-Maid California raisins (or any dark raisin)

3/4 Cup buttermilk (soured milk)

Method

• Preheat oven to 190C. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
• In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt. 
• Cut the cold butter into small pieces and blend into the flour mixture, with a pastry blender or best, your hands, until the mixture looks like coarse crumbs. 
• Stir in the raisins. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and add most of the buttermilk. Using your hands,mix (adding more buttermilk if necessary) until you have a soft moist dough.
• Transfer to a lightly floured surface and gently knead the dough into a round. Place the round on your prepared baking sheet and then, with a sharp knife, cut a 1/4 inch deep "X" across the top of the bread.

• Bake for about 40 - 50 minutes or until nicely browned and a toothpick inserted into the center of the bread comes out clean. You can also test that is fully baked by tapping the bottom of the bread - it should sound hollow. Remove from oven. 
• The bread tasted heavenly with a blob of butter on top. Loved the Raisins in every bite.