Celebrating Mother's day with a skillet full of love!
I am talking the best skillet brownies , warm, gooey & chocolatey and sighing love with every drizzle of the amazing salted caramel sauce. Treat your mum to this absolute delight, and laugh together at the oft repeated dinner stories, the way you can only with your mum.
Happy Mother's day to all my gorgeous mommy friends and to the one person who's the centre of our universe, Sumitra Mishra , this one is for you Ma!
"My mother… she is beautiful, softened at the edges and tempered with a spine of steel. I want to grow old and be like her."
I probably will never be ..since I lack her patience and generous heart.. But almost everything I am or know, can be traced back to her.
Mother's are such wonderful creatures, aren't they? They give birth to us while living with discomfort and pain for 9 months, they nurture us, care for us like no one else can. They are our first playmates, our primary walker, the person who twirls you around the room in her arms while you squeal with joy, the one person who can tickle you senseless..the person who you love seeing dance. Your first words were probably a mama, ma or mommy..the first few months of gibberish you spoke were nothing short of literature toher. Your halting nursery rhymes became her favorite poems as she forgot her beloved Wordsworth, Keats & Eliot to remember your Ba- ba black sheep and Mary had a little lamb!
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| Frangipani from the garden , gifted by baby D <3 |
The clock loses all meaning..it is morning when you open your sunshiny eyes and night when you lay asleep in her lap, finally , after an hour of rocking, story telling and lullabies. There are no emergency unless it involved you, you became her top priority.. Your tiny tears made her eyes moisten and her world turned frowny and your sickness made her world come to a grinding halt. Your smile is all she needs to pick her up, and a hug and kiss from your sweet self can set everything right.
And this feeling is Universal, to all moms. Working, working from home, stay at home, new, seasoned, old. Every mother in the world has gone through these feelings, these emotions that have wrecked havoc and bought ecstasy on the mothers of the world don't see your caste, color, religion, region, your earning power or even your work status.
I was brought up by a working lady, my mom is a principal of a college, a professor of English, a published author, an NCC Major , a trained classical singer and a much adored person in general. There are few women who can match upto her, not because of her exalted standards or the moral high ground she has over others, not coz of her natural, graceful beauty or her keen intellect. But people have loved her for her selfless nature, her generous spirit and for being the kind of woman who always managed to balance everything seamlessly without upsetting anyone.. and did that with a smile on her face and sweet words.
THAT to me is a saint. I take after my more feisty and passionate dad, and although I love both of them , there are times I wish I had my mom's patience or sweet nature.
Being a mom is such tough work. Few moms admit it. Even fewer say it. Most would probably feel guilty about thinking such a thing or feel that it made them a bad mom. But me, I laid the beast called guilt to rest long time back. As far as I am concerned, my baby and me , WE are much more happy when I get time to be me, along with being her mother. Yes, I am her mom. Yes, I do everything I am supposed to do and yes, I am a good mom. But hey, I am ME too.. and I make sure my baby realizes that, understands that and respects that.
This mother's day I just wish for one thing, apart from the love of my child.
Its for every mother to realize that its fine to be a woman, to live a little for herself too, to have some time to herself , and to have your children respect that about you.
This mother's day let's all just love and celebrate our mothers, for the amazing woman they are, and not just coz they are our mother.
Coming to the food, now that needs no reason for celebration!! Its a celebration in itself, of all the good things in life.
Think chocolate brownies with awesome salted caramel and Lindt chocolate swirled right into the batter and baked in a skillet. YUM. Make this soon. Pretty please.
Serving suggestions: with a side of vanilla bean ice cream and some salted caramel sauce drizzled on it.
You can make this in a normal baking pan if you don't have a cast iron skillet, works just fine.
And if for some reason you don't like salted caramel , then smack yourself in the head! haha...kidding.
Then make regular caramel sauce (although, try a teeny bit of salted one..it will change you). It really will.
This makes enough for a 6"skillet, but you can easily double this for a 12 inch skillet. It serves 8-10 medium sized slices which is about perfect for a house of two and a half people ;)
Made with a whole lot of love,
XoXo,
S :)
PS: This post got me over 2.6K likes in one day on my Instagram feed @ https://instagram.com/p/2gX5v9PB9j/ .
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RECIPE:
Ingredients:
- 100 gm unsalted butter
- 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
- 3/4 Dutch-process cocoa
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 3/4 teaspoons sea salt
- 1 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 large eggs
- 3/4 cups all-purpose Gold Medal flour
- 1/2 cup Lindt chocolate chopped up
- 1/2 cup Salted Caramel Sauce
- Extra salted caramel sauce and ice cream, for serving, optional
Directions:
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease a 6 inch cast iron skillet and set aside.
- In a large saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the sugar and stir to combine. Return the mixture to the heat and stir until smooth and the mixture is shiny.
- Remove from heat and stir in the cocoa, baking powder, salt, and vanilla extract.
- Whisk in the eggs, stirring until smooth.
- Add the flour and chocolate bits. Stir until just combined.
- Pour the brownie batter into the prepared skillet. Drizzle the salted caramel sauce over the brownie batter and gently swirl the caramel into the batter with a knife.
- Bake the brownies for about 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out with just a few moist crumbs clinging to it. The brownies will be a little gooey. Remove the skillet from the oven and cool completely on a rack before cutting and serving. Serve with ice cream and additional salted caramel sauce, if desired.
For the salted caramel sauce:
Yield: 2 cups
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 10 minutes
The BEST salted caramel sauce! It's easy to make and is great drizzled over ice cream, cake, cookies, cupcakes, cheesecake...and anything else you can think of!
Ingredients:
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 12 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature, cut into pieces
- 1 cup heavy cream, at room temperature
- 1 tablespoon fleur de sel or Maldon sea salt flakes
Directions:
1. First, make sure you have all of the ingredients ready. Once you start the caramel sauce you have to pay close attention so you don't burn it. To begin, heat the sugar over medium high-heat in the bottom of a heavy 2-3 quart saucepan. When the sugar starts to melt, start whisking the sugar. The sugar will clump up, but keep whisking. It will continue to melt. When the sugar is melted, stop whisking. You can swirl the pan to move the sugar around.
2. Continue cooking the sugar until it reaches a deep amber color. Make sure you watch the pan very closely. This is where it is easy to burn the caramel. You want the caramel to reach 350 degrees F. If you are new to making caramel, I suggest using a thermometer.
3. As soon as the sugar reaches the dark amber color, carefully add the butter. Whisk until butter is melted. If the sugar gets stuck to the whisk, you can switch to a wooden spoon.
4. Remove the pan from the heat and slowly pour in the heavy cream. Whisk until cream is incorporated and caramel is smooth. Whisk in the fleur de sel or Maldon sea salt flakes.
5. Let the caramel sauce cool for about 10 minutes in the pan. Pour the caramel into a large jar and cool to room temperature. Put the salted caramel sauce in the refrigerator. Store the salted caramel sauce in the refrigerator for about a month.