Banana halwa

2 ripe bananas
Raw Sugar to taste
Milk powder
2 Tbsp ghee (preferably homemade)

Method:
Mix everything except the ghee together and cook the mashed bananas in a low flame by stirring continuously. You may also use cardamom or cinnamon powder to enhance the flavor. You may also try a variation with jaggery instead of using sugar.

What to do with extra apples?

Apple turnover

Apple tart

Double chocolate brownie cake with roasted hazelnuts

This is a quick recipe for a tasty brownie cake and you simply can't go wrong with this.

1 egg
1/4 cup water
1/3 cup vegetable oil
3 cups Ghirardelli Double Chocolate Brownie Mix (or 2 cups sieved flour, 1 1/2 tsp baking powder, 1 cup cocoa powder and chocolate chips)

1. Whisk the ingredients (measure accurately) well and bake at 325 F for 25 mins.
2. Dry-roast a handful of hazelnuts and rub them in paper towels after they cool down. Hammer or crack them and toss in a small sieve to remove rest of the skin. 
3. Pour chocolate sauce and serve.
   
   You may want to warm it in the oven before serving.

Dessert in a mason jar: cherry compote, whipped cream and star shaped pie crust.

4th July special, cherry compote, whipped cream and star shaped pie crust. (baked a little more than I wanted, oh well)

Jibe goja (Baked)

I abhor most store-bought sweets and pastries, they are too sugary for my palate. SG loves to gorge on them though. When I made the blueberry pie, he bit into the short crust and said,'It's like jibe goja.' So, I decided to try an experiment : Baked jibe goja using pie crust. (It comes pre-rolled too!) The only caveat is- you have to pay attention the first time to see how well the dough cooks. I found it is optimum at 300 F for 20 mins.

Method:

1. Traditional: Roll all purpose flour with water and ghee/butter into a soft dough. Using a rolling pin, make sheets of dough of even thickness and slash the dough with a knife. Leave about 1 cm in the top and botton and twist it into Elo-jhelo. Alternatively, you may use a pre-made pie crust dough and cut into equal sizes. This will look like concentric circles.
   
2. Bake them at 300 F for 20 mins.
3. For syrup: Boil a little water , add saffron strands and sugar.
4. Pour the syrup on the dough in a flat dish and allow the syrup to set in.
5. You may add crushed pistachios for decoration. You may also fill the dough with nut paste for a richer sweet.

Vanilla custard with mangoes

Here are two methods to do it A and B.

1. You can use (A) milk, vanilla custard powder of you choice or work with (B) coconut milk, egg yolks and vanilla essence.
2. Use ripe but firm mangoes, cut them into bite sized cubes.
3. (A)In a saucepan, bring milk to boil, add 4 tsp of custard powder and 2 tsp condensed milk. No sugar needed. OR alternately, (B) you can bring coconut milk to boil and whisk in 3 egg yolks, sugar to taste and vanilla essence. In either case, stir continuously so no lumps are formed.  You may also strain the custard through a sieve as an extra measure.
4. Pour into ramekins, add the mango and cool. Serve cold.

My mom makes it differently (the best way so far)- In step 3, she reduces the milk in saucepan while she mixes the custard powder in a little cold milk and add its later on.

In case there are lumps, you can sieve the custard to remove them.

You can also skip the mangoes and pour caramel over the custard to make vanilla creme brulee.