Date Snack

Make your own Date Laddoos and have them sugar free at home (apart from the sugar from the dates of course)

There is a lot of back end work for this, but it is so satisfying to eat these delicious little parcels of joy. What I use for this are the really good and plump and soft dates. Only with these you will get that great stickiness to bind everything together. I make this really simple but you can put all sorts of things in these rolls like Grated Coconuts, Flax Seeds, Sunflower Seeds, Walnuts, Cashew nuts, Apricots etc.. Of course all the things need to be in proportion and you need to use less almonds and pistachios for the same.

What I use to make for a stash of around 4 dozen Balls or Laddoos
Dates: 1 kg Soaked in boiling water for half an hour and kept aside
Almonds: 500gm
Pistachios: 250 gm
2 tbsp oil
2 tbsp ghee (Come on, it's one whole kilo of dates!!)

What you need to do for the almonds and pistachios is all the hard work and will take half a day to do

• Take boiling water and put the pistachios in the water. 
• You will immediately see some of the skins coming out and floating on top and you can switch off the gas, remove the water, drain and place on a cloth to dry. 
• Take out the skins and roughly chop the Pistachios
• Same process is to be used for the Almonds
• Chop up the dates in a food chopper or by hand - don't put any additional water in them to do this
• Take a large wok and add the oil and ghee
• Put in the dates and keep making sure you stir with a wooden spoon and pray that you will not have to do arm exercises for a long time because this is strenuous! 
• Take off the gas and add the chopped almonds and pistachios
• Put a dot of oil on your palms and start rolling these into little balls 

Voila, you are ready to have your Date Dessert - much healthier than the rest and a great gifting idea for your friends and family. 

Divine Ginger - Chocolate Dessert

Who said the best things in life have to be complicated?

This uber easy yet classy dessert is just that - simple and delicious. This is a dense, dark, goey kind of dessert with a kick of ginger. It is not a very sweet dessert and just the kind that I like to have.  I had friends over and got rave reviews for this dessert so at least I know that I'm not just going on about this dessert without a solid reason :)I have simplified this version from my Mom's famous Ginger Chocolate pie so that not only can it be made in 4 ingredients only, it is so easy, you'll be laughing all through the process. What's more, you can tell your friends that you slaved for hours for this delectable treat and they would never know your secret!

Ingredients:
2 packets Ginger Biscuits (you will need about 16 - 18
500 gm Chocolate (I use dark chocolate, but it is upto you)
200 gm Cream
3 heaped tablespoons instant coffee powder
2 cups hot water (okay this is the fifth ingredient, but I don't consider it really an ingredient!!)
Optional - garnish with almonds or grated chocolate

Method:

• Chop up the chocolate and put in a microwave safe bowl with the cream
• Heat for 30 seconds, take out and stir carefully
• Repeat this process till you get on thick, goey, shiney, gorgeous chocolate paste with no lumps. It should look like this - 

• Let this cool a bit so that it is at almost room temperature
• Take small bowl, mix the two cups hot water with the coffee powder so that you get a really strong coffee. Feel free to make espressos if you have the machine or opportunity to do so. 2 espressos in 1 1/2 cups hot water
• Dip half the Ginger cookies in the coffee and place at the bottom of a medium sized bowl
• Put half of the dark chocolate over this
• Repeat the process, putting the ginger biscuits dipped in coffee on top of this and topping with the chocolate
• Put in a refrigerator to set for an hour and then you can take it out and leave it as is. 

I would preferably have this on it's own because I love the intensity of the chocolate, however most people prefer to have this with Vanilla Ice Cream