Khara Biscuits ~Indian Cooking Challenge

Indian Cooking Challengers are into baking for the May Challenge. Srivalli chose Khara biscuits and gave us Champa's recipe. The recipe is very simple with easily available ingredients.  It makes a great snack to go with tea. The recipe is a versatile one that you can add any spice of your choice and come out with various flavors. 

You need

• Maida/All Purpose Flour - 2 cups
• Butter - 1/3 cup softened 
• Sugar - 4 tsp
• Salt - 1 tsp
• Green Chillies - 6, finely chopped
• Curry leaves - 2 tblspn, chopped fine
• Curd -  3 tblspn

Method

Measure flour and salt into a bowl. Whisk well. Cream butter and sugar in another bowl.  Add 2 tblspn of curd to it and beat well. Add the flour mix to it and incorporate into the cream mixture. Just bring together the dough and don't knead it. Add chopped chillies and curry leaves.  If you feel the dough is too crumbly, add little more curd. The dough need not be wet, but you should be able to roll it. 

Roll the dough to 1/4 inch thick. Cut into desired shapes. Bake in a preheated oven at 160 C for 25 minutes. These cookies doesn't brown on top.  The bottom will be golden brown. You can bake it for few more minutes to get crisp cookies. The cookies when removed will be soft to touch and they firm up on cooling. 

Note: You can add crushed pepper for the heat in place of chillies. Mint/coriander leaves can be used.
The baking time may vary depending up on your dough and oven.

Eggless Fig cookies- using fresh figs

I think it gets little difficult to get back to blogging after a break, however short it is. I was out of station for the
first half of December. And before I realise, the New Year will be here. Time surely flies. Few days with my family was very relaxing. Enjoyed to the hilt, especially the shopping with my sister. Only two of us went and shopped till both of us could not carry any more.

I wanted to make this post just before I left, but couldn't. After the jam with fresh figs, my next was to bake with them. On searching the net, I came across various baking recipes and decided to go for the Italian fig cookies recipe. Do drop by the site to see the orginal recipe and the ingredient substitutions given. I have made few changes to the recipe. Here it is

You need

• All purpose flour/Maida - 1 cup
• Wheat flour/Atta - 1 cup
• Sugar - 1 cup
• Oil - 1/2 cup
• Milk- 1/3 cup
• Baking soda - 1 tspn
• Baking powder - 1 tspn
• Salt - 1/2 tspn
• Powdered cloves - 1/2 tspn
• Fresh figs, chopped - 1 cup
• Almonds, chopped - 1/2 cup

  

Method

Cream oil and sugar. Add milk to it.

Sieve both flours, salt, baking soda, baking powder into a bowl. Fold in the dry ingredients into the wet mix.  Mix in the figs and nuts.  

Drop tablespoonfuls to a greased cookie sheet. Don't get tempted to spread the dough. It spread on its own. Leave enough space for it to spread.

Bake at 175 C for 25 minutes, till the top turns golden brown. This measurement yields 24 nos. The cookies with fresh figs had a crisp crust with a moist inside.   I cannot say about the shelf life beyond three days, since it was all gone by then.

Bourbon Biscuits

After the chocolate cake, the next chocolate bake for my nephew and niece (S & S) was bourbon biscuits. I had bookmarked Nina's recipe as soon as it was posted. As with many other bookmarked recipes, it remained in the to-be-tried list. So when S & S was here, I thought this is the best time to give that a try. And it will surely be a hit with the kids. My niece was truly thrilled to see the look-alike of bourbon biscuits. He was falling short of words to express his feelings. For the first batch, I cut the dough into rectangles and sandwiched two bsicuits with chocolate cream. The second batch I cut with cookie cutter. In the hurry to make, I forgot to prick some holes and sprinkle sugar on top to resemble the store bought ones. For the second batch, I remembered coat with sugar. The glee on their eyes with the first bite said it all.

 

 

You need

All purpose flour - 1 cup

Sugar - 1/2 cup

Butter - 1/4 cup

Baking soda -1/4 tspn

Honey - 1 tspn

Baking powder -1 tspn

Cocoa powder - 3 tblspn

Vanilla essence - 2 tspn

Cold milk - 4 tblspn

Method

Cream butter and suga until light and fluffy. Add essence, honey and baking soda. Seive together flour, cocoa and baking powder. Fold in the dry ingredients into butter vream mix. Bring together the dough. Roll into a rectangle on a lightly floured surface. Cut into bars of sixe 3 " x 1/2 ".

Bake in a preheated oven at 180 C for 15 minutes. Though the cookies are brown in color, you can make out from the color change from a dark to pale brown on cooking. The timings may change depending on the thickness of the cookies. Cool the cookies before filling with the chocolate cream.

For the filling

Butter -1/4 cup

Icing sugar -1/3 cup

Cocoa powder - 1 tspn

Vanila essence - few drops.



Beat all the ingredients together till its creamy.  Sandwich two biscuits with the cream and press lightly. It sets very fast.
 
 
 

 
 
Have a look at the bookmarks made by my neice, S , for me.
 
 

 
 
 
 

Mexican Wedding Cookies for Global Kadai Event and Thai Velli Kolam

The idea behind the Global Kadai event announced by Cilantro interested me - indianizing the recipe. One is free to make any changes to suit the availability of ingredients in India. the first recipe is the popular Mexican wedding cookies. Since no egg in the orginal recipe, I  didnot have to look for an egg replacer. No leavening agents like baking powder or cooking soda. I opted for coconut in place of pecans and used cardamom for flavor instead of cinnamon. Though i love cinnamon, to give an Indian flavor, chose cardamom. Coconut and cardamom paired well with the cocoa and its a keeper recipe. I had only 1/2 cup of butter so halved the recipe. I got 2 dozens of cookies.

Baking Temp : 180 C
Time              : 15-18 minutes
Yields            : 2 dozen


You need


Butter, softened - 1 cup

Powdered Sugar - 1/3 cup

Vanilla essence - 2 tspn

All purpose flour - 1 3/4 cup

Fresh grated coconut - 1 cup

Cocoa powder - 1/2 cup

cardamom - 3/4 tspn

Salt - a pinch

1/2 cup powdered sugar for coating the cookies



Method

Cream sugar and butter until light and fluffy. Add the vanilla essence. Mix the rest of the dry ingredients and slowly add to the creamed butter and sugar mix. Gather the ingredients and make a soft dough. Chill the dough for 1-2 hours to firm up. I chilled for 2 hours. Pinch off the dough and make small balls. Line it on a greased baking tray and bake at 180 C for 18 minutes. When warm, roll it on the powdered sugar and leave it to cool.

Though the cookies were less sweet on its own, the sugar coating makes it up. It was very tasty and could not stop with one. I baked it one evening and on the second day only 10 was left.

Here is the kolam for this Friday.

Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookies

It’s close to two months since I baked something. Last two months we had lot of festivals. And finally after Navarathri, I wanted to bake something, before the preparations for Diwali begin. There were many bananas to be used up. So baked Dates Banana muffin during the last weekend. I didn’t use any all purpose flour or maida. The reason being it not available in my pantry. So used whole wheat flour/atta and 1/2 cup of arrowroot powder. It came out very well - moist and light. I expected a denser muffin. I think the arrowroot

powder contributed to the texture. This was my first bake where in APF is not used at all.  And I was really happy with the result. So I decided to try my luck with whole wheat cookies. On browsing for a suitable recipe, I found one at AllRecipes.  I tweaked it to suit my pantry and made it eggless too. Now I have a whole wheat cookie recipe. I think with this as base, you can work on it for different flavor and combinations of nuts etc.

Yields: 20 Nos.
Temp: 190 C
Time - 18 minutes


Ingredients


Butter - 1/2 Cup

White sugar - 1 cup

Vanilla essence - 1 tspn

Flax seeds powder - 2 tspn

Water - 1/4 cup

Whole wheat flour/Atta - 1 1/2 cups

Baking powder - 1/2 tspn

Salt- 1/2 tspn

Chocolate chips - 1/4 cup



Method

Cream butter and sugar until creamy and light. Add vanilla essence and flax seeds powder  mixed in water.

Sift together wheat flour, baking powder and salt. Gently combine the dry ingredients into the wet mixture. Mix until it’s just combined. Fold in the chocolate chip cookies. Don't knead. Just gather the dough together. Pinch off a lemon sized dough and shape it. I didn’t shape it much. Just flattened it little with a fork to get a rustic look.

Bake in a preheated oven at 190 c for 18 minutes or till you can find brown specs on top. Leave it on the cookie sheet for 10 minutes. Don't try to remove them immediately. It will be very soft and will harden on cooling. The cookies were crunchy. It is a treat to have with tea or a cup of milk.

I am taking these healthy cookies to the High Tea  hosted by Aparna as part of Meeta's Monthly Mingle

Lemon Poppy Seed Cookies for T & T

When Curry Leaf announced Tasty Palettes for Zlamushka's T &T, I knew what to make, since her vegan lemon poppy seed cookies is in my bookmarked recipes for a long time. As soon as I saw the event announcement, I immediately noted the recipe and baked it.

Here is the recipe

All purpose flour - 1 cup

Poppy seeds - 1 1/2 tblspn

Arrow root powder - 1 1/2 tblspn

Nutmeg powder - A big pinch

Salt - a big pinch

Butter - 5 tblspn

Sugar - 1/3 cup

Lemon 1 tblspn

Lemon Zest - 1 tspn

Vanilla essence - 1 tspn

Water - 3 tblspn

I have used white poppy seeds and arrow root powder in place of cornflour. Suganya had made it vegan by using margarine and I used butter.

Method

Mix flour, poppy seeds, arrow root powder, nutmeg and salt.Cream together, butter, sugar, lemon juice, zest and vanilla essence. Mix the dry ingredients into the wet mixture. Add water little by little to form the dough. Don't add 3 tblspn of water at one go.Pinch off a tablespoon of dough and shape in to a ball and slightly flatten it.

Bake in a preheated oven at 180 C for 25 minutes or till the sides starts browning. The original
recipe said 18-20 minutes, mine took extra 5 minutes. The timings may vary according to your
oven settings. Suganya's has got a nice brown color. Mine remained mostly yellow except the sides which were slightly brown. Don't know if it has anything to do with the use of butter in place of margarine. It was definitely tasty.

The cookies were melt in the mouth kind with a tangy flavor. It gives a nice feeling to bite into the poppy seeds. Thanks Suganya, for a keeper recipe.

Raagi Biscuits

I made raagi biscuits inspired from Cham and Shilpa's Varada aayi's posts. My recipe is a combination of those two recipes.

Ingredients

Raagi(Finger millet) flour - 1 cup

All purpose flour - 1 cup

Powdered sugar - 1 cup

Butter - 1 cup

Cardamom powder - 1/2 tspn

Baking powder - 1 tspn

Milk - 1 tblspn
Chopped nuts to garnish

Method

Roast raagi flour for about 5 minutes till you can smell the aroma of raosted raagi. Whisk butter and sugar till creamy.Mix roasted raagi,all purpose flour, baking powder and cardamom powder well.Stir in the dry ingredients to the butter-sugar mixture. Mix to make a soft dough. If you find the dough dry, add about a teaspoon of milk. Pinch off a lemon sized dough. Shape into a ball and flatten a bit. garnish with chopped nuts. Press it down using a fork.
Bake in a preheated oven
Temp -180 C

Time - 30 min

Yields - 16 nos

Verdict - crisp,soft, melt in the mouth cookies.

I have made these biscuits more than once.

Dates Cookies and a Cake (Eggless)

Dates is a regular in my pantry. Though, I just like to eat it as it is, I sometimes chop them and add to my cup of cornflakes or salads. It also is made into milkshakes. Ever since I saw Shilpa's Eggless Dates Cake, I have baked it more than once. It is not only the most popular post in her blog, I think its one of the most tried out recipe in the blogosphere too. There isn't nothing much to go wrong in this cake. Even a beginner can make an attempt without any worries.

Ingredients
Dates - 100 gms /18 nos

Milk - 3/4 cup

Sugar - 3/4 cup

Maida - 1 cup

Oil - 1/2 cup

Baking soda - 1 tspn

Chopped cashew - 1 tblspn (optional)

Method
De seed the dates. Soak the dates in warm milk for an hour. This will make the dates soft and easier to grind. Depending on the type of dates you use, the soaking time can vary. Add sugar to the soaked dates mix and grind them to a fine paste. Add oil to the ground mixture and keep it aside.
Sift maida and baking soda. Slowly stir in the flour to liquid mixture. Add nuts and mix. Transfer to a greased tin and bake in a preheated oven at 190 C for 40 minutes or till a skewer inserted comes out clean.

My next recipe is a dates cookie tried from DK's blog. It was an instant hit. Do visit her blog for the step-by-step pics.

Ingredients

Maida/All purpose flour - 2 cups

Baking powder - 1 1/2 tspn

Butter -4 tblspn

Sugar - 1/4 cup

Chopped dates - 1/3 cup

Milk- 1/3 cup
Melted butter for glaze.

Method
Sift flour, salt and baking powder. Rub in butter to the flour mixture to resemble bread crumbs.
Mix in sugar and chopped dates. Make a well in the centre add milk. Knead to a soft dough. Adjust the quantity of milk since you may not need the full amount of milk. Knead the dough on a floured surface for few seconds. Roll into 1/2 inch thickness. Cut into circles or any desired shape. Brush with butter for glaze. (I forgot this part). Bake in a preheated oven at 220 C for 20 minutes or till it rises well and turns golden brown. It was very crisp with a soft inside.

These dates goodies are making to Sunshinemom's FIC-Brown

Cheese Garlic Biscuits -MBP

My bookmarked recipes folder is ever growing and my attempt to bring the number down is not showing any results. When you have so many wonderful cooks around, dishing out equally appealing dishes, I think the only way I can clear up my bookmarked folder will be to start a new one. So I get a false joy of clearing the folder. Though I know there is a new one growing at the other drive. When the theme for MBP was announced by Siri, I knew what I was going to make, since this recipe is bookmarked ever since Cham posted it in her blog. As she says, its easy to make. I replaced all purpose flour with wheat flour/atta, since AP was out of stock. May be I would have used half and half. Except for that, I have followed her recipe.

Whole wheat flour - 1 cup

Sugar - 1 tspn

Baking powder - 1 1/2 tspn

Baking soda - 1/4 tspn

Butter - 1/4 cup

Grated cheese - 1/2 cup

Garlic - 2 cloves, finely chopped

Buttermilk - 3/4 cup

Preheat the oven at 230 C
In a bowl, mix the dry ingredients. Cut the butter into flour to resemble crumbs. Add the garlic and cheese and stir in buttermilk to form a dough.Either roll to 1 inch thick dough with some flour and cut into any desired shape, else drop spoon full of the dough onto a cookie sheet.
Bake for 15 minutes or until top is brown.

P.S
I was in a hurry while mixing the ingredients that I forgot to add the baking powder. So mine did not rise well. It had a crisp crust but inside tasted like garlic bread. Later I popped them in MW for a minute and it was crisp in the inside too. Now I have a reason to bake it again.

Eggless Oats-Cocoa Cookies

Recipe source - Sailu's kitchen

I followed Sailu's recipe to the T. No modifications made. I had to bake few minutes more than what she had mentioned.



Ingredients


Quick cooking oats - 1 1/4 cup
Vegetable oil - 1/2 cup
Maida - 1/2 cup
Powdered sugar - 1 cup
Unsweetened cocoa powder - 1 1/2 tblspn
Baking powder - 3/4 tspn
A big pinch of baking soda
Vanilla essence - 1 tspn


Method

Sieve maida, baking powder, baking soda and cocoa powder.

Blend powdered sugar and oil, till smooth. Fold in the sieved ingredients into the sugar-oil mixture. Add vanilla essence, oats and knead to a soft dough. If you are not able to bring together, add little milk. I did not require milk. In case of adding milk, chill the dough for 5 minutes before you proceed.

Pinch off small balls from the dough and flatten them. Arrange on a greased baking tray and bake at 180 C for 15 minutes.

Crisp and melt in the mouth cookies are ready. I had sent some cookies for my friend's son. She called me to say they all liked it very much and will be happy to receive some, during my next bake. This is a keeper recipe for sure.