Tea-time recipes: Nutella Squares, Swedish Chocolate Toscatarta

Food blogger Vishaka Rautela shares recipes to spice up your chai time.

Why head to a restaurant when you can dish up delicious tea-time cakes at home?

Try these recipes that your kids will surely love :)

Eggless Swedish Chocolate Toscatarta

Recipe by Anuja Sule from Simple Baking's Happy Bakes

Ingredients:

• 195 gm all purpose flour
• 200 gm caster sugar
• 25 gm cocoa powder, sifted
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 75 gm butter, melted
• 1 cup (240 ml) warm water
• 1 tbsp lemon juice (or vinegar)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract or essence

Method:

• Preheat oven to 175°C. Butter and line with parchment paper, an 8-inch round cake tin.
• In a bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, sifted cocoa powder, baking powder and baking soda.
• Add the melted butter, water, lemon juice/vinegar and vanilla extract. With a fork or whisk, mix all the ingredients together until well-blended.
• Spoon the batter into the prepared cake tin and bake for around 20-25 minutes. Insert a skewer into the centre. If the cake comes out moist but not totally clean, it will still need another 10 minutes of cooking. Increase the heat to 200°C.
• Just before the 25 minutes are up, make the topping. Place the butter in a saucepan over medium heat. When it has melted, add the remaining ingredients and bring to the boil, allowing the mixture to bubble away for one minute.
• After the cake has been cooking for 25-30 minutes, remove it from the oven, and spoon the almond mixture evenly over the top.
• Place it back in the oven and bake for about 10-15 minutes or until the topping is golden.
• Leave to cool in the tin for 10-15 minutes. Carefully remove from tin and place on a wire rack to cool completely.

Nutella Squares 

Recipe by pastry chef Pooja Dhingra

Vishaka writes, "I had bought Pooja Dhingra's The Big Book of Treats a while back, but had never attempted to bake anything from it.

"Recently I got to taste her renowned sea salt macaroons and cupcakes, they sure lived up to their reputation.

"So I picked up her book, drooled over each post, and finally zeroed in on the Nutella squares."

Ingredients:

• 75 gm dark chocolate
• 125 gm butter
• 50 gm brown sugar
• 100 gm all purpose flour
• 75 gm oats
• 400 gm Nutella
• 100 gm chopped roasted hazelnuts

Method:

• Melt chopped chocolate and butter in a double boiler.
• Add brown sugar and whisk till it mixes together perfectly.
• Fold in the flour with a spatula. Throw in the oats and mix.
• Preheat the oven to 180°C and line a tin with parchment paper.
• Bake for 15-20 minutes. Once cool, apply a generous coat of Nutella on top. You can then garnish with chopped roasted hazelnuts.

Dear readers, do you have interesting recipes to share?

E-mail your recipes to getahead@rediff.co.in (subject: Recipe) along with your NAME, AGE, LOCATION.

Also please provide a photograph and a brief description of the recipe (its history, significance etc), if possible.

 All photographs: Kind courtesy Vishaka Rautela