So, like everyone else around the world, we have been cooking up a storm in our household. And with all of us in our family having a major sweet-tooth, dessert was definitely one major part of our cooking. I am starting off this short series of cooking adventures, with some recipes of course, with the KoVid Kitchen: Dessert edition (KoVid(ya) Kitchen, I mean)!

It has been a while – a really long while – since I posted a recipe on my blog; but I am going to try to make it a more regular feature (as originally planned when I first started it)

The KoVid Kitchen: Dessert Edition

Here is a sampling of some of the desserts we tried April through last week.

Pictured: L to R:

• 1st row: Banana bread, kulfi, chocolate burfi, (more) banana bread (another round of it)
• 2nd row: Nutella brownies, power bites, macaroon(ish), whole wheat coconut cookies
• 3rd row: Another pic of the whole wheat cookies, rava(semolina) ladoo, candied orange peel, another pic of the power bites
• 4th row: Banana bread (once again) with nutella cookies, candied pecans, two-ingredient chocolate cake, pound cake (with whatever was at home – no all purpose flour in this, at least directly)

To be honest, most of these are ones made by my teens. I am truly enjoying that part of staying home where they are experimenting and trying out things in the kitchen. Not that my 14 yo daughter needs any persuasion at all! She was the most excited about the purchase of all purpose flour and almond flour this past grocery run, even more than the ice cream or the chips she loves.

I have not included all the desserts we tried, either for lack of a clear/good photo or of a photo at all in the first place. And a couple have been repeated; though not the banana bread – each pic of the banana bread is of that made freshly on a different day. Speaking of which, we need to make another batch again.

Many of the ones I attempted were straightforward and simple recipes; and today I have included recipes for a couple of them. For the rest and the ones my kids made, I need to ask them for the source and will include that in future posts. I will either provide a link to the original recipe or a quick version of the tweaked/made up/improvised recipe I used based on various other recipe sources – both online and offline.

Today’s Featured Recipe

Date and Nuts Power Bites

Time Needed: 10 minutes (more or less!); Makes: 15 – 18 pieces; Difficulty: Super Easy

Ingredients

• 1 cup of mixed nuts (equal or desired quantities of any nuts you wish; I used cashews, almonds, pecans, and walnuts since they were what I had)
• 1/4 cup desiccated coconut (unsweetened)
• 1/2 cup dates paste (or make a coarse paste using about a dozen pitted soft dates, mejdool is a good variety to use) Note: I used about 1/2 a cup but you can adjust based on the sweetness and the stickiness needed to make the balls.
• 1 tsp of ghee (clarified butter) or butter

Steps

1. Heat ghee and lightly roast the nuts for a couple of minutes. Take care not to brown them. Add the desiccated coconut and roast for a minute or two as well. Let it cool.

2. Add the cooled nuts to the food processor and powder coarsely. Add the dates paste as well and run through the processor until it is all mixed well.

3. Now, roll them into desired size to make your power bites; and enjoy them.

Notes:

• If you do not have date paste, use a dozen mejdool or other soft pitted dates and grind them to a coarse paste beforehand.
• While I have not added any additional sweeteners to this other than the dates, you could add some(about a tbsp or so) powdered jaggery or coconut sugar towards the end if you wish.
• The dates will provide the stickiness needed to make these no-cook, healthy, and yummilicious snacks that you can make literally in minutes.
• I bought the date paste at a local ethnic store and the nuts at Costco. The ghee is homemade using butter from Costco.
• You could make this vegan by simply roasting the nuts and coconut directly for a couple of minutes (without the ghee) to release the flavors; or use them directly as well.

And a bonus recipe, thanks to Tasty!

Two-Ingredient Chocolate Cake

My daughter made this one, and she did so a few times already. Each time, we barely took the time to take a pic and it was over before we thought we need more.. (even though we took our seconds and thirds too!)

This totally easy to make yet totally delish chocolate yumminess can be found at Tasty. We ate it just as is, minus vanilla icecream as suggested on the recipe linked, simply because we couldn’t resist ourselves!

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