Recipes For A Sweet And Festive Weekend

Chocolate Chunk Cookies by Chef Devika Kumari and Chef Rithvik Anantharaman, Chef Owners, Project Sweet Dish

Ingredients 

Flour - 330 grams Butter - 220 grams Brown Sugar - 170 grams Eggs - 2 each Castor Sugar - 110 grams Baking Powder - 5 gram Baking Soda - 2 grams Vanilla Extract - 3 grams Salt - 4 grams Dark chocolate chunks 160 grams Milk chocolate chunks-160 grams

Method

Cut room-temperature butter into 1-inch dice and add to a bowl. Add brown and castor sugar and mix with a hand beater until incorporated. You should still be able to see some small grains of the sugar (Note It is important not to overbeat the mix at this stage as it has the ability to capture air into the mix and thereby give you a greasy, flat cookie)

As the butter and the sugars slowly mix, sieve the flour, baking powder and soda together to ensure they are all mixed evenly. (Note This step is a non-negotiable as it helps to homogenise the dry ingredients)

Add the eggs (they have to be at room temperature or the same temperature as the rest of the ingredients) one by one into the butter and sugar mixture and mix until incorporated. If, by chance, the batter looks curdled, do not worry, you can fix it with the next step.

Add the sieved flour mixture all together and fold the mix in with a spatula or a spoon. Do not use your hand beater as you will agitate the flour's protein, making the cookie chewy and not very appealing. Finally, fold in chunks of chocolate once all the dry ingredients are incorporated.

Divide this batter into 50-gram balls (they don't need to be even in shape at this point) and drop it on a greased tray or a piece of parchment paper. Cover this and allow it to rest in the fridge for 4 hours. Overnight resting in the refrigerator generally gives the best results.

Preheat the oven to 170 Degrees C - After resting, remove from the fridge and roll them up into an even shape. Space the cookie evenly on a tray, ensuring they do not touch each other as they flatten out while baking.

Press the cookie slightly, so the top surface looks flatter rather than curved and rounded. - Bake it in the oven for 16-17 minutes till the edges of the cookie are golden brown. Once baked, cool down to room temperature before consuming. TOP TIP Flake sea salt over the cookie before baking for a massive depth of flavour once baked.

Red Velvet Banana Pudding by Bobbie Lloyd, Chief Baking Officer, Magnolia Bakery India

Ingredients

One 14 oz. can sweetened condensed milk 1 ½ cups ice-cold water One 3.4-ounce package of instant vanilla pudding mix (preferably Jell-O brand) 8 oz. of cream cheese, softened and cut into 8 pieces 3 cups heavy cream One 9 x 13-inch layer of red velvet cake (see below for recipe) 4 &ndash 5 ripe bananas 1 cup of mini chocolate chips

Method 

In a small bowl, on the medium speed of an electric mixer, mix the sweetened condensed milk and water until well combined, about 1 minute. Add the pudding mix until there are no lumps and the mixture is smooth about 2 minutes. Cover and refrigerate for 3-4 hours or overnight.

Place the pudding mixture into the mixer bowl with the whisk attachment, and add the cream cheese to the pudding mix. Mix until thoroughly combined and smooth. Place in the refrigerator while you prepare the whipped cream.

In a clean mixer bowl with the whisk attachment whip the heavy cream on medium speed for about one minute until the cream starts to thicken, then increase the speed to medium-high and whip the cream until stiff peaks form. Be careful not to over-whip. Carefully add the pudding mixture to the whipped cream and mix on low speed until well blended and no streaks of pudding remain.

Cut the red velvet cake into 4-inch squares. Cut each square into ½&rdquo layers. Set aside. Select a trifle bowl or a wide glass bowl with a 4-5-quart capacity to assemble the pudding. Spread a layer of pudding on the bottom and layer with enough slices of the red velvet cake to cover the layer, add sliced bananas to cover the cake and sprinkle with 1/3 cup of mini chips. Continue layering with 1/3 of the pudding mixture, another layer of cake, sliced bananas and mini chips. Repeat one more time, ending with pudding. Sprinkle the top with crumbled red velvet cake and a tablespoon of mini chips. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for 4 hours or overnight before serving.