Strawberry Santa Brownie Hats

Now I present to you some cute sweet snacks. Well, I have always learnt that we first ate food from our eyes. The food should be appealing to our eyes, then only we proceed to taste it. So, this is an attempt to make brownies look pretty. I know, when it comes to brownie, the tast is enough. It is chocolate, after all. But combine it with strawberries and voila, you have a new serving snack which would be gone in few minutes.

Ingredients:

For brownie:

Curd – 1 cup

Sugar -3/4^th cup

Baking powder – 1 ½ tsp

Baking Soda – ½ tsp

Flour – 1 cup (maida)

Cocoa Powder – ½ cup

Vegetable Oil – ½ cup

Vanilla essence – 1 tsp

Chopped walnuts (optional) – ½ cup

For strawberry topping with icing:

10-15 strawberries

2 tbsp cream cheese

2 tsp icing sugar

Method:

1. Mix the curd and sugar till the sugar dissolves.
2. Add baking powder and soda. Mix and leave to rise for 10 minutes.
3. Sieve the dry ingredients like flour, cocoa powder and keep it aside.
4. Add the oil and vanilla essence to the curd mixture and beat well.
5. Add the walnuts and flour mixture, and fold well.
6. Pre-heat the oven at 180 degrees.
7. Grease a baking tray and pour the mixture into it and bake for 20-25 minutes.
8. Check if it is done by poking the centre with a fork. If not done, then keep for another 5 minutes.
9. Let the cake cool.
10. Now, cut the cakes with a circular tin in small circular shapes, like in the picture shown.

Method for the icing:

1. Mix cream cheese and icing sugar till it thickens a bit.
2. Fill this mixture in a piping bag. If you do not have a piping bag, put it in a thick plastic bag and cut the tip. It would make a good enough piping bag.
3. Now, put this icing on the brownie as shown in the picture.
4. Cut the top of the strawberries and place a strawberry on top of each brownie.
5. Put little icing on top of the strawberry.
6. Ready to serve “Strawberry Santa Brownie Hats”

Baked Potatoes stuffed with Tomato and Onion

I saw many versions of baked potatoes earlier. But this one was just so simple, that I had to try it. It makes for a wonderful finger food and is done in a matter of minutes.

Ingredients:

10 baby potatoes (cut into half)

1 onion, finely chopped

1 tomato, finely chopped

1 cheese cube, grated

1 pinch of salt

1 pinch of ground pepper

½ tsp cornflour

Oil for frying.

Method:

1. Take the baby potatoes. Cut them into half and scoop the insides with the help of a knife or a scooper. Do not peel them. Roughly coat the baby potatoes with cornflour. It gives a good crunchy flavour.
2. Deep fry the potatoes till they are light brown. Keep aside in a plate.
3. Mix the finely chopped tomato and onion. Add salt and pepper. Mix well.
4. Stuff this mixture into the baby potatoes.
5. Sprinkle grated cheese on the top of the stuffed potatoes.
6. Put them into a baking dish and bake at 180 degrees for 5-7 minutes.
7. Serve with ketchup.

Tips:

• We can alternate the stuffing with any other, so long as it can be baked and goes well with potatoes.
• If you do not want to bake, u can have it without baking as well, as the potatoes are already cooked enough while frying.