Guilt-free sweets

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It’s the simple, humble dahi — usually eaten at the end of a meal or along with it in the form of raita. Even though reams have been written, debated and discussed about this milk product, it often ends up being one of those dishes that occupy a place in the backdrop of a buffet, quietly adding flavour and complementing the stars on the

menu. However, there’s more than raita and kadhi to dahi. It is also often used as a substitute in eggless desserts or, these days, by those who are watching what they eat. Skim milk curd is used in place of cream cheese, whipped cream or even sour cream with equally pleasing results. No, don’t wrinkle your nose! Just try out any of these and you will be ready to worship this divine probiotic creation.

Strawberry cheesecake
This is adapted from a recipe for a no-bake cheesecake that required cream cheese. But after running across the city in vain for a 200 gm tub of cream cheese, I thought I’d rather have my imagination get the better of me. Fingers crossed and voila! No one could tell the difference.

Ingredients
For the base:
1 packet of Oreo cookies (you can use any whole wheat or multi-grain biscuits too, but personally I favour the strawberry-chocolate combination)
3 tsps of melted butter
For the filling:
250 gms of fresh strawberries (use any seasonal fruit, if you are looking for a different flavour — mango, passion fruit or even kiwi works well)
2 cups of hung yogurt
2 tbsp of gelatin
¼ cup of warm water
½ cup of milk
1½ cups of powdered sugar (adjust according to sweetness of the fruit)
To garnish: A few slices of fresh strawberries and a sprig of mint

Method
To make the base:
Put all the cookies in a mixie and blitz till it forms a smooth powder. Now mix this with the melted butter and spread evenly on the base of the dish that you plan to use for the cheesecake. Adjust the amount of butter according to the texture of the biscuit crumbs because the cream in the Oreos sometimes makes it easier for the crumbs to bind together. Place this in the freezer for about half an hour or until it has set.

To make the cheese cake:
Mix the gelatin in warm water until it has dissolved and keep it aside. Puree the strawberries to form a paste.
Beat the hung yogurt with sugar until it is fluffy and light, add the strawberry puree to this along with the milk. Now add the gelatin and mix well.
Pour this over the biscuit base and place it in the fridge overnight and allow it to set. Garnish with slices of fresh strawberries and a sprig of mint or even chocolate curls just before serving.

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Yogurt-fruit Parfait
This dessert can be put together with anything that you have at home and is a superb way to make use of leftovers. I’ve even tried with a little bit of yesterday’s chocolate mousse for a variation. At large gatherings, you can even put out the various ingredients on the table and encourage guests to come up with their own combinations!

Ingredients
½ litre of thick skim-milk yogurt, sweetened with
4 tbsp of honey
½ cup of muesli
1 cup of fresh fruits, chopped into small pieces
½ cup of blueberry preserve
3 tbsp of toasted almond slivers
½ cup of butter cookies, broken into small pieces
For adults-only variation: 2 tbsp of Kahlua or Grand Marnier

Method
Take a tall glass and first line it with the cookies followed by the yogurt. Now add the muesli and fruits followed by some more yogurt, add the blueberry preserve and finish off with another dollop of the yogurt. Garnish with almond slivers. Repeat. Enjoy.
For the adults-only variation: Drizzle some of the liqueur just after adding the cookies so that it soaks up the flavour.

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Guilt-free Shrikhand
Sometimes you have those days when you just have to give in to those sweet cravings, but then there comes the thought of working it off the next morning with an extra half-hour on the treadmill. The result: A dilemma of to eat or not to eat. Here’s an easy way out.

Ingredients
3 cups of thick homemade yogurt
3-4 tbsp of honey (adjust according to taste, you can also add a sugar substitute but I like keeping my food substitute-free)
2 green cardamoms, peeled and powdered
Fresh fruits or/and nuts

Method:
Beat the yogurt and honey together using an electric beater until you get a smooth, free-flowing texture. This will take about five minutes. Now add the cardamom powder.
Chill this for some time and mix the fruits or nuts into it. Serve chilled.
For a different twist: Caramelise the fruits and nuts on a low flame with some jaggery.

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Cinnamon cake with marmalade-yogurt glaze
I often use yogurt while baking cakes because it works well as a substitute for eggs and even otherwise, dahi adds a very silk-like texture to cakes and makes it very light and fluffy at the same time. This is inspired by a recipe I saw on a food blog, I decided to add the cinnamon because I’d had caramelised oranges with a hint of cinnamon just the other day and the combination was a winner that I was just dying to try out. As easy as it is to make this cake, it gets polished off just that soon. Be warned!

For the cake
1½ cups of maida
2 tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
½ tsp of ground cinnamon
3 eggs
1 cup curd
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 cup sugar
½ cup vegetable oil

method
Sift the maida, soda, salt and cinnamon, keep this aside.
In a big bowl, beat the eggs, sugar, curd, oil and vanilla essence together. Now add the flour mixture to this and fold it well, don’t beat too much otherwise the cake won’t become fluffy. Pour the batter into a greased pan and bake for 30 mins at 180 deg. or until it’s done to a golden brown.
Now, while the cake is cooling... This is what needs to be done:

For the glaze:
½ cup orange marmalade
½ cup yogurt

method
Put the marmalade in a saucepan and melt it over a low flame till it becomes a sauce-like consistency. Remove it from the heat, slowly stir in the yogurt until it blends in well... Now pour this on the cake while it is cooling. Don’t worry if it dribbles on the sides, it only adds to the yummy-ness!
Cool. Cut. Enjoy. Lick your fingers, yes just do it!