Showing posts with label Sweet. Show all posts

Karachi Bakery Inspired Fruit Biscuits

Have you ever tried Hyderabad's famous Karachi Bakery Fruit Biscuits?

No? I suggest you go get yourself one packet right now, girl.

Yes? Aren't they super delicious? I absolutely love them... So I made them at home... Really!! Read on!

How to make vegetarian eggless Karachi Bakery Fruit Biscuit rose cookies cranberry cookie recipe at One Teaspoon Of Life www.oneteaspoonoflife.com

I had no idea I liked Rose flavored cookies until I tried the Karachi Bakery Fruit Biscuits. A colleague once got them from Hyderabad and I missed the first batch. Just to make up to all those late comers like me, he got more the next day. And I was converted!! Until then I thought I was a lover of all things chocolate, but rose suddenly rose to the top (hee hee... see my little pun there? okay, ignore it).

I absolutely love roses, not generally as a flower, I find them "meh" and over rated. But I love rose flavor! I'm all for Rose Faluda, Rose Lassi, Rose Ice cream and of course anything with Gulkand in it (Indian Rose Jam). And now Rose Cookies are added to the list.

I'm sorry that although the title says Fruit Biscuit, all I'm talking about is roses. While the biscuits or cookies have little bits of fruit in them, rose is the predominant fragrance and flavor in them. The fruit component of the biscuit is Tutti Fruiti. Tutti Fruiti are colored sweetened bits of dried papaya. Very popular in Indian desserts. If you cannot find it anywhere, you can add any dried berry like cranberries. Actually, this recipe is very similar to the Cranberry Cookie recipe with the addition of few very Indian ingredients.

One of those ingredients is the Vanilla Custard Powder. Traditionally custard is made with egg yolks, but ask any Indian how to make custard (well, almost any) and he/she will show you a little carton of Custard Powder that is completely eggless and allows any vegetarian to enjoy the flavors of a custard. There are several brands and flavors available, and while you can use any brand, I strongly recommend sticking to the vanilla flavor. If you cannot find custard powder, replace it with either milk powder or corn starch /flour. If using sweetened milk powder, remember to reduce the amount of powdered sugar used, else you may end up with a super sweet biscuit.

My recipe of fruit biscuit is a very simple recipe that any baking newbie can make. You start by creaming together butter and powdered sugar. I cannot emphasize the importance of room temperature butter enough. To get the right consistency of the dough and eventually the biscuit, you have to have butter at room temperature. Salted vs unsalted is a whole other argument. I've always used unsalted butter in baking so I cannot comment on how salted will work in this case. I assume they have the same texture, but using salted will just add a little saltiness to your biscuits. Whisk the butter and sugar until the butter is white, soft and fluffy. Then just add all the flours, tutti fruiti, cashew nuts, milk and rose essence and knead until combined. Shape into logs or into a large rectangular block like I did. Wrap it in cling wrap and store in fridge to harden a little. This just makes it easier to cut and get even shaped biscuits.

Bake at 180 degree C until the sides are slightly brown. Cool completely before storing in an air tight box. They will last you easily for 1-2 weeks. I really did not get any time to test the shelf life as these were over by day 4.

I can assure you the flavor of these biscuits is spot on with the Karachi Bakery Fruit Biscuits. The texture is slightly different. Mine were not as flaky and crumbly as the bakery ones, mine were more dense and crunchy. This could be because I have not used any leavening agent like baking powder or baking soda. My family loves crunchy biscuits that stay intact when dipped in tea over the crumbly ones, so we loved the texture. If you want softer ones, I suggest adding a little baking powder to a small batch of dough and seeing how it goes.

If you like this, you may also like:

Almond Cookies - Easy to make eggless almond cookies / biscuits.
Butter Cookies - Beautiful swirly eggless butter cookies.

Karachi Bakery Inspired Fruit Biscuit

Karachi Bakery inspired Fruit Biscuits are rose flavored biscuits or cookies made with dried papaya pieces called tutti fruiti.

Recipe Type: Dessert
Cuisine: Indian
Prep Time: 2.5 Hours
Cook time: 20-25 minutes
Yield: 30 biscuits

Ingredients:

100gms unsalted Butter
1 cup All Purpose Flour / Maida
1 cup + 1 Tbsp Powdered Sugar
1/2 cup Vanilla Custard Powder
3 Tbsp Tutti Fruiti
8-10 Cashew nuts
2 Tbsp Milk
1 tsp Rose Essence

Method:

Cream together butter and powdered sugar in a large bowl until soft and fluffy. Around 5-10 minutes with a electric hand mixer.
Sift in the all purpose flour and custard powder.
Add tutti fruiti, chopped cashew nuts, rose essence and milk.
Knead until combined.
Gently roll into logs using your hands and wrap in plastic cling wrap. Refridgerate for 2-3 hours until stiff.
Preheat the oven to 180 degree C.
Slice the dough into biscuits, about 5-6mm thickness.
Line the baking sheet with butter paper or parchment paper.
Place the biscuits on the sheet leaving enough space between the biscuits.
Bake for 20-25 minutes until the sides are slightly browned.
Cool on a wire rack.
Store in an air tight box.

Shavige Payasa | Semiyan Kheer | Vermicelli Pudding

Happy New Year!!!

I hope you had a great New Year's Eve!!

I ended 2016 with a sweet note. Read about it here.

In our culture, we start everything new with something sweet. I'm starting the new year with this sweet treat - Vermicelli Pudding or Semiyan Kheer or Shavige Payasa. Not that I need excuses to eat desserts, but then it is January, and I have resolutions made that I don't want to break in the very first week.

So, I just had one little bowl. But what a bowl it was, rich, sweet, fragrant, everything a kheer is meant to be.

Shavige Payasa is very commonly made for all festivals and is what we begin the meal with. It is one of the easiest desserts I know to make.

To make Shavige Payasa, we first need to roast the shavige or semiyan or vermicelli in ghee until golden brown. This is an important step as it prevents the vermicelli from clumping up when added to the milk. Also it imparts that rich taste of ghee to the entire kheer. You need to do this step carefully, stirring frequently and ensuring that the vermicelli does not burn. I always use wheat vermicelli that is not pre-roasted and is already broken into small pieces. I buy brands like MTR or Bambino

The second step is the dry fruits. I am a total "nut-case", I love nuts and dry fruits. I am extra generous with nuts and dry fruits when it comes to desserts and I also like to add a variety of them. This time I've used almonds, cashews, raisins and pistachios. The nuts and dry fruits need to be chopped and fried in ghee as well. Again, you need to be careful while frying in ghee. Ghee heats up quickly and you can end up with burnt nuts. So keep a watch on them. Stir frequently and keep the heat low. Fry the raisins separately as they burn quickly.

After this you are pretty much done with the "work". Just boil milk, add sugar and the roasted vermicelli. Give it a good stir to separate the strands of vermicelli and then allow it to simmer on low heat until the vermicelli is cooked completely but still retains it's shape. The vermicelli will give way when squeezed. About the sugar, I'd say start with less and add more if required later. Add around 3/4th the quantity in the beginning and you can add more after the vermicelli is cooked. Somehow, a lot of people think Indian Desserts are way too sweet and avoid them. But when you make it at home, you can adjust how much sugar you add depending on your taste. So Indian desserts don't have to be sickly sweet. Once the vermicelli is cooked and the sugar adjusted, add the cardamom powder and the fried nuts and dry fruits and mix well. If you have over reduced the milk and the kheer begins to look thick, add more milk and adjust the sugar.

Shavige Payasa is usually served hot to warm, but I like it at room temperature. I enjoy it even when it is cold.

If you liked this, you may also like:

Chana Dal Payasa - Kheer made from chana dal and coconut milk.
Gajar ka Halwa - North Indian carrot pudding made with grated carrots, milk, sugar, ghee and dry fruits.

Shavige Payasa | Semiyan Kheer | Vermicelli Pudding

Shavige Payasa | Semiyan Kheer | Vermicelli Pudding is a simple Indian dessert made by cooking ghee roasted vermicelli in milk.

Recipe Type: Dessert
Cuisine: Indian
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook time: 60 minutes
Yield: Serves 4-5

Ingredients:

0.5 cup Vermicelli or Semiyan or Shavige
4-5 cups Milk
3-4 Tbsp Sugar
1.5 Tbsp Ghee
3 Cardamoms
5-6 Cashew Nuts
5-6 Almonds
8-10 Raisins
4-5 Pistachios

Method:

Chop the almonds, cashew nuts and pistachios.
Heat ghee in a kadhai and add the chopped nuts. Fry them until they are a gentle brown. Do not allow them to burn. Keep stirring.
Remove the nuts and keep aside.
Add the raisins and stir fry them until they puff up. Remove and keep along with the nuts.
Add the vermicelli to the kadhai and on low heat roast the vermicelli until it is golden brown. Keep stirring frequently. Remove from heat and keep aside.
In the same kadhai, add 4 cups milk and bring it to a rolling boil.
Lower the heat and add sugar and simmer for 1 minute until the sugar dissolves.
Add the vermicelli to the milk and on low heat allow it to simmer until the vermicelli is cooked. Stir occasionally so that the vermicelli does not form lumps.
The kheer is done when the vermicelli is cooked. At this point if the kheer looks very thick, add the remaining milk and you can add more sugar and cook it until the sugar dissolves.
Crush the cardamom into a powder and add to the kheer. Simmer for 1 minute after mixing well.
Add the nuts and raisins and mix well. Remove from heat.
Kheer is usually served hot, but you can serve it at room temperature or even cold. As the kheer cools it ends up thickening. You can add a little milk to loosen the kheer while serving. You can add powdered sugar to adjust the sweetness as well.

Wedding Anniversary Gajar ka Halwa

5 years of love, 5 years of disagreements.

5 years of understanding, 5 years of why-can’t-you-understand-me moments.

5 years in happiness and sadness. 5 years of ups and downs.

5 years of sharing work, 5 years of fighting over the TV remote.

5 years of buying new stuff, 5 years of we-really-need-to-get-rid-of-stuff.

How to make gajar ka halwa or carrot halwa recipe at www.oneteaspoonoflife.com

5 years since we tied the knot. Sunday, the 16th was our 5th Wedding Anniversary. Somehow, being as different as chalk and cheese we’ve made it work.

10 years ago, I saw him across the room and wanted to get to know him. I did get to know him a few months later. We became friends, very good friends. Friends who fell in love eventually.

Raj is probably the nicest guy around. A man who hurts not even a mosquito (literally!!), much to my annoyance. A man with immense patience - he can entertain toddlers for hours and teach technology to senior citizens. But totally loses it when someone cuts in front of his car breaking traffic rules. A man who sings well but has two left feet when it comes to dancing (he may as well be fighting Kung Fu with me). Totally low maintenance guy, whom I love very much, no matter how much he annoys me at times.

Today morning as I was waiting for the bus, I was trying to think of the things we have in common and while we are more different than similar, we do have quite a lot of stuff in common…

Travel – We both love to travel, we’ve always loved to see new places and take long drives. We loved the snowcapped peaks of Manali just as much as the pristine waters of Phuket. We were equally mesmerized by the Taj Mahal as we were by the Sigiriya Rock in Sri Lanka.
Desserts – Both of us have a massive sweet tooth and are always trying to curb it. But yes, desserts are our weakness, no matter how much we try.
Movies – We may have different tastes in movies, I love rom coms and he love his action movies (typical Man.. Duh!), but give us an Animated Movie and we are willing to tolerate the headache we both get from the 3D glasses.
Jamie Oliver and Top Gear – He’s all about cars and I’m all food, but for a change we both love watching Jamie Oliver cook things we would probably never eat and watch them test drive cars on Top Gear that we will never buy.
Tea – Tea is what led to this marriage according to me. We bonded over cups and cups of tea and still cannot get enough of.

This Gajar ka Halway is a dedication to our 5 years of Marriage. 5 years ago, just before we got married, Raj told me he makes the most amazing Gajar ka Halwa and will one day make it for me. I’m still waiting for him to make it… I probably will be waiting for the next 5. So instead of denying myself of the sinful pleasure, I made it myself.

Gajar ka Halwa or Carrot Halwa is a traditional North Indian carrot pudding that is made by slow cooking grated carrots along with milk, sugar, ghee and dry fruits. It is a sweet rich dessert, fit for special occasions, like our Wedding Anniversary.

You can either grate the carrots or use a food processor to shred them. Use juicy carrots, avoid fibrous ones. The grated carrots are first lightly roasted in ghee. Then they are slow cooked in milk on low heat. Traditional recipe uses full fat milk. I used regular toned milk. Once the milk has almost evaporated, add the sugar. The sugar will melt and you will again find liquid in your halwa. I love some desserts very sweet. Adding the 1 cup of sugar will make the halwa very sweet. I suggest adding half a cup and letting it evaporate, before adding more if you prefer your desserts to be less sweet. Once all the sugar has evaporated, add the cardamom powder. I also love adding a lot of dry fruits to my desserts. I added almonds, cashew nuts and raisins after lightly frying them in ghee.

Although I love cold Gajar ka Halwa, it tastes best when served warm. It also is great when paired with a scoop of Vanilla Ice Cream.

If you liked this, you may also like:

Chana Dal Payasam | Kadle Bele Payasa - Kheer made with lentils, coconut milk and jaggery.
Kaju Katli | Cashew Barfi- Fudge made from cashew nuts. Very popular Indian sweet.
Kashi Halwa - Halwa made from ash gourd or petha.

P.S - You know my biggest accomplishment? After 5 years, I finally got him to smile when the camera is pointed at him.

Gajar ka Halwa | Carrot Halwa

Gajar ka Halwa or Carrot Halwa is a slow cooked North Indian carrot pudding made with grated carrots, milk, sugar, ghee and dry fruits.

Recipe Type: Breakfast
Cuisine: North Indian
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook time: 1 Hour 45 Minutes
Yield: Serves 5 to 6

Ingredients:

3 cups grated Carrots (300 gms)
2 cups Milk
0.75 to 1 cup Sugar
0.5 tsp Cardamom Powder
3 Tbsp Ghee
8 to 10 Almonds
8 to 10 Cashew nuts
8 to 10 Raisins

Method:

Heat 2 Tbsp ghee in a kadhai and add the grated carrot.
On low heat, fry the carrots for 4-5 mins, stirring continuously.
Add the milk and continue to simmer on low heat until all the milk has evaporated. Stir occasionally.
This will take around 30-45 minutes. By the time the milk has evaporated, the carrots would have almost cooked.
Now add the sugar and continue to cook on low heat. The sugar will melt and the halwa will again have liquid in it. Continue to stir occasionally.
Once all the liquid has evaporated, add the cardamom powder and mix well.
Remove from heat.
Heat the remaining ghee in a small pan.
Add sliced almonds, split cashew nuts and raisins and saute until the nuts brown slightly.
Add the nuts to the Gajar ka Halwa and mix well.
Serve warm.

Eggless Banana Bread Recipe | How to make Banana Bread Without Eggs

Banana Bread recipe without eggs. This banana bread is a dense cake made from ripe bananas and without eggs. It is perfect as a breakfast or a tea time cake.

In a hurry? Jump to Video or Jump to Recipe

This time, my weekend has begun, unlike last week when I had to work a Saturday to make up for an unexpected holiday. I wish every night could be a Friday night when I get to lie down on the sofa and watch TV all night. I rarely cook elaborate meals on Friday night. Bare minimum to stop me from being hungry. So it is usually some kind of pressure cooker rice dish like Mint Pulao or Vangi Bhaat. I don’t like doing dishes either on Friday nights.

This week though, I have an added treat to my Friday night. We bought these large bananas on Sunday that were starting to go all black on the outside and ripe on the inside. I felt my whole house had begun smelling bananas. Usually, overripe banana means making Mangalore Banana Buns for me. But this time, I tried a new way of using them up in this zero effort Banana Bread. It takes like 10 minutes to whip up the batter and then just put it in the oven and allow it to cook while you continue with your other work.

This Banana Bread is dense and moist as any good banana bread is meant to be. It is perfect to eat at tea time as isn’t too sweet. I pretty much ate it for tea, snacks and dessert. So there isn’t a time when it isn’t the right time to eat this Banana Bread.

The Banana Bread has a slight hint of vanilla. I used condensed milk to add liquidity and sugar, and hence did not use sugar in the bread. If you want to skip the condensed milk, just use more of regular milk and sugar. You can also add maple syrup instead.

If you have never baked a cake in your life, then I’d suggest starting out with this Banana Bread, it is a no fail and zero effort recipe.

If you made this recipe, let me know! Leave a comment here or on Facebook, tag your tweet with @oneteaspoonlife on Twitter and don't forget to tag your photo @oneteaspoonoflife on Instagram. You can also email me at onetspoflife@gmail.com I'd love to see what you are up to.

If you like this recipe, do not forget to share it with your friends and family!

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Video Recipe

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Eggless Banana Bread Recipe | How to make Banana Bred Without Eggs

Moist Eggless Banana Bread made using ripe bananas, condensed milk and all purpose flour.

Recipe Type: Dessert
Cuisine: International
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook time: 40 minutes
Yield: 1 loaf

Ingredients:

3 ripe Banana
1.5 cups All Purpose Flour (Maida)
100gms sweetened Condensed Milk
1/3 cup Butter (melted and cooled)
1/2 cup powdered Sugar
1/4 cup Milk
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
1 tsp Baking Powder
1/4 tsp Baking Soda
1/4 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp Cinnamon Powder (Optional)

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degree Celsius.
2. Brush the bottom and sides of a loaf tin with butter and dust with flour. I used a 9"x 3"x 2.5" loaf tin.
3. In a large bowl combine the flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda and keep aside.
4. Mash the bananas.
5. Add the condensed milk, melted butter or oil, milk and vanilla extract to the mashed bananas and mix until combined.
6. With a wooden spoon or a spatula, fold in the dry ingredients gently into the wet ingredients until you get a thick batter. Do not over mix, else the bread will become hard.
7. Taste the batter and if you feel it needs more sweetness, add in powdered sugar as desired.
8. Scrape the batter into the greased loaf tin.
9. Bake for 35-40 minutes until the top is golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
10. Remove the bread from the pan after 5-8 minutes. Cool on a wire rack.
11. Allow it to cool and then slice it.
12. Serve at room temperature or warm.

If you liked this, you may also like:

Honey Cake

Vegan Date Walnut Cake

Banana Buns / Mangalore Buns

Shankarpali / Shankarpole / Shakarpara (Video Recipe)

How to make shakkarpara recipe, shankarpole recipe at www.oneteaspoonoflife.com

Aren't road trips so much fun??? :D

Not knowing where you may end up, what you may end up eating is so thrilling.

We, hubby dearest and I, have more differences than similarities, but in this one matter we are made for each other. Come long weekend, and off we go. No clue of the destination, only the direction. No planning, no hotel booked, no real map in hand and no real food to eat. All we have is a hurriedly packed bag of clothes, my trusted camera, bottles of water and of course, my iPod and we are all set.

We've done instant trips to Ooty, Wayanad and our latest was to Belur. We had a long long weekend last week. I miss it already, We started on the most peaceful day of the year - Oct 2nd, with our basic necessities dumped in the car. When we started out we weren't sure if we were planning to go north or west. Finally thought of west and I'd never seen ShravanBelgola, so that became Destination number 1, With some Kunigal Tatte idlis in our tummies, we scaled the hill to see the Bahubali statue.

Halebeedu became destination number 2. The beautiful architecture of that temple puts to shame even the best architects today I think. The workmanship is awesome. If you haven't seen it, it's time to visit. Belur was our next destination. Similar to Halebeedu, the architecture is simply amazing. The only sad thing was by the time we reached Belur, night had fallen, so we could not really spend a lot of time there.

Bangalore was 5 hours away, it was 7pm, crazy as we are, we decided we should go ahead instead of returning, So off we went to Karkala, hubby dearest's hometown and spent our extremely looong weekend there.

Back to my recipe now, Monday was a holiday for me. Alone on a holiday gets boring sometimes, So what better to occupy myself than cook, right? I've been wanting to make Shankapali for a long time now. This is a traditional Maharastrian fried sweet made especially during the festival of lights - Diwali.

I'd gotten multiple recipes from my mom, mom in law, sister, her mom in law etc. I think you get the picture. I finally mixed them up and made my own recipe that turned out pretty great. Really! And I could not believe it is so easy to make. Only tricky thing is the temperature of the oil, Once you get that correct, you needn't worry about anything,

The below recipe makes 150-200. Don't worry, they are sooo yummy, they won't last too long. They stay fresh for weeks in stored in air tight container.

Video Recipe

If you made this recipe, let me know! Leave a comment here or on Facebook, tag your tweet with @oneteaspoonlife on Twitter and don't forget to tag your photo #oneteaspoonoflife on Instagram. You can also email me at onetspoflife@gmail.com. I'd love to see what you are upto.

If you like this recipe, do not forget to share it with your friends and family!

You can follow One Teaspoon Of Life is there on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and Google+ or you can subscribe to One Teaspoon Of Life and receive all the latest updated via Email (How convenient!!)

If you liked this, you may also like:

Modak - Steamed dumplings stuffed with coconut and jaggery.
Khova Peda - Peda (fudge) made with milk from scratch.
Coconut Laddoo - Easy to make laddoos with only 4 ingredients.

Shankarpali / Shankarpole / Shakarpara

Light and crisp bite sized sweet snacks

Recipe Type: Dessert / Snacks
Cuisine: Indian
Prep Time: 60 minutes (Includes resting of dough)
Cook time: 60 minutes
Yield: 250-300

Ingredients:

6-7 cups Maida / All purpose flour
3/4 cup Chiroti rava / Fine semolina
1 cup Milk
1 cup Ghee / Clarified butter
2.5-3 cups Powdered Sugar
1 tsp Salt
Oil for deep frying

Method:

Mix the milk and ghee and microwave on high for 30 seconds until the ghee melts. You can do this on stove too, just don't heat it too long or the mix may curdle. If the ghee is already liquid, skip this step.
Add the sugar to this mix and stir until it dissolves.
Add salt, semolina and the flour by the spoonfuls. Stir to remove lumps.
Once all the flour is added, knead the dough using your hands for 2-3 mins until it is one shiny mass.
If after kneading the dough, you feel it isn't sweet enough, then take a little milk and dissolve the required amount of sugar in it.Add this to the dough and knead well. Add a little more flour if needed.
Cover and allow it to rest for at least half hour.
Divide the dough into smaller balls and roll them out to approximately 3-5 mm thickness
Cut into diamond shape with each side of appx 1.5-2cm. You can use the crimped cutter, pizza cutter or a knife. Don't worry if the shape or size is not consistent. It does not change the taste.
Heat oil in a thick bottomed kadhai.
The oil should not be too hot or too cold. I test fried a couple to get the temperature right. Between Low to Medium heat works well. If the oil is too hot, the shankarpali will turn brown but will not be cooked, too low will make them oily.
Remove them when they turn golden brown and crisp.

Eggless Butter Cookies

“Sometimes me thinks, what is a friend?

And then me say.

Friend is someone to share last cookie with.”

~Cookie monster

How true is the wisdom of the little Muppet called Cookie monster. We should share our cookies with our friends, but when cookies are as tasty as these butter cookies, sharing becomes really really difficult. I am an absolute cookie/biscuit lover. Ah! The pleasure of dunking a biscuit into tea or milk. As kids, we could eat up entire packets of biscuits in a single go. My sister recently remembered that there was a time when she was given tea but there were no biscuits and she was confused on as how to have tea without any biscuits to accompany it. This was apparently the reason why my mom ended up restricting out biscuit consumption to 4 a day. My love story with cookies has come a long way now, instead of just eating them, I’ve moved on to baking them.

I saw some awesome cookie recipes recently and really wanted to try them out. But they all contained eggs, and as I am an eggless baker I had to improvise. I did take the basic recipe and modify it a little to come up with what’s below. Previously, when I made cookies, I added some leavening agents to it. The difference here is, there is no leavening agent whatsoever. This makes the cookies crisp and they don’t end up being cakey. The only advice I have is do not skimp on the butter. The butter is essential to give the cookies their correct texture.

Eggless Butter Cookies

"Light and crunchy Butter Cookies made without using Eggs"

Recipe Type: Dessert
Cuisine: International
Prep Time: 30 minutes
Cook time: 2 Hours (Considering 6 batches)
Yield: 40-50

Ingredients:

120 gms unsalted Butter
80 gms Sugar (powdered or icing)
30 gms Corn flour
120 gms Flour / Maida
½ tsp Vanilla essence
½ tsp Salt
2 Tbsp Milk

Method:

The butter needs to be very soft. I left it out on the counter overnight.

Preheat the oven to 170 degree Celsius.

Add the sugar and salt to the butter. Start with around 60 gms and then add more depending on the sweetness of the sugar and your taste. I like my cookies sweet and the sugar I had was very mild, so I used up all the sugar.

Beat/ whisk it until it is almost 4-5 times the volume. This will take around 10 mins with a hand mixer.

Sift the corn flour and the flour together.

Add the flour in 3 additions to the butter mix along with the vanilla essence and milk, and beat until just mixed. Do not over-mix this.

Line a cookie sheet with butter paper.

Fill the cookie dough in a piping bag with a star nozzle and pipe out swirls.

Space them at least 1-1.5 cm apart as they will flatten and spread out while baking.

Bake for around 13-15 mins until the sides of the cookies are slightly brown. Mine took 14 mins. Wait for around 5 mins and then move them to a wire rack as they are very fragile when you remove them from the oven.

The recipe made many many cookies :) Somewhere around 50 (I really did not count) but I have a tiny oven and I had to pipe out 6 batches. Don’t be overwhelmed by the number and decide to cut down the recipe to make less, cause they are sooo delicate and melt-in-your-mouth cookies that you won’t even realize where the 50 or so just disappeared :)

Notes:

I made 4 batches of regular butter cookies. To the remaining dough I added 2.5 tbsp of dried desiccated coconut. If you plan to do so, add a little more milk, else the dough becomes very hard and difficult to pipe. You can top it with dry fruits like raisins or almonds.

Coconut Laddoo

We Indians love our sweets. I don’t think there is any other place in the world that has as many varieties of sweets as much as we do. Every festival or any good news is marked with at least one type of sweet. We even invented the art of refining sugar from sugar canes. So our love story with sugar and sweets is a long and strong one.

These days with our hectic lives, we mostly end up buying sweets outside except may be on festivals. What if we could make an awesome sweet in less than 30mins? Yes, 30 mins aka half an hour. I saw this easy coconut laddoo recipe on Fox Traveler’s Food Safari when they showed the India episode. Since the day I saw how easy it was, I wanted to make it. And to think I didn’t even like coconut laddoos (until of course, I made it myself and ate it). So on a weeknight, when I came home early from office, I thought why not make these yummy laddoos. It needs only 4 ingredients. I always have cardamom at home and butter/ghee is also generally available. So I needed to just buy the coconut powder and condensed milk. I found the coconut powder at Nilgiris. I know that FoodWorld also stocks it. I’m sure a lot of supermarkets stock it. Coconut powder is not the same as coconut milk powder. Coconut powder is just desiccated coconut but it is slightly dried. You get this in all Indian stores abroad.

The below recipe made 20 small laddoos.

Coconut Laddoo

Sweet Indian fudge made with coconut.

Recipe Type: Dessert
Cuisine: Indian
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook time: 30 minutes
Yield: 20

Ingredients:

200gms Sweetened condensed milk
1.5 cups Coconut powder
2-3 pods Cardamom
½ tsp Ghee / Unsalted butter

Method:

In a kadhai or a pan (preferably nonstick), pour the condensed milk., 1.25 cups of coconut powder to it and mix well.

Add powdered cardamom and mix.

Place this on the stove and on low heat cook for around 8-10mins stirring occasionally. Be careful and don’t let it burn.

Remove from heat and allow it to cool for 5 mins.

Grease a plate with ghee/ unsalted butter.

Now very carefully, take little of the mix and make a ball with it. Remember, the mix is hot but this can only be done when it is hot/warm. It will set as it cools.

Roll it in the remaining coconut powder and place it in the greased plate.

Leave it to cool for 20-30mins.

Serve it with love

Ras Malai

When one thinks of Bengali sweets, the first thing that comes to mind is the Rasgulla... the next is its creamier and richer relative, the Ras Malai. Whenever we enter a sweet shop, hubby dearest always drools over the ras malai. This was my biggest motivation to try and make it at home. I did fear initially that it is difficult to make, but I was simply fretting. I actually made it on a weekday evening when I was home early and in a good mood :)

Clockwise from top left: Curdled milk, Chenna, Kneaded dough, Flattened balls

Flattened balls in sugar syrup, After cooking

The below recipe makes around 13-14 pieces.

Ras Malai

Bengali dessert made with cottage cheese/ paneer and almond flavored milk

Recipe Type: Dessert
Cuisine: Indian / Bengali
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook time: 2 Hours
Yield: 13-14

Ingredients:

1.5L of Milk
3/4 cup + 1/3 cup Sugar
2.5 cups + 2 tsp Water
1 Tbsp Cornflour
2-3 Cardamom
8-10 Almonds
8-10 Pistachios
1/2 tsp Turmeric or a few strands of Saffron
1 Tbsp Lime juice

Method:

To make Ras malai, we first make chenna.
Bring 1L of milk to a rolling boil. Lower the flame and add 1 tbsp of lime juice to help curdle the milk.
One the milk curdles, allow the milk to boil at low flame until all the milk solids come together into a lump.
Strain the milk using a muslin cloth. Tie the muslin cloth loosely and apply a weight on it. Or you can hang the cloth for around 1 hour until all the water drips off.
If applying the weight, allow the weight to be on the chenna for around 5-8 mins.
Take a large pan, add 2.5 cups of water and 3/4 cup of sugar. Boil until the sugar is dissolved. Continue to boil for 5 mins. Switch off the heat until you are ready to cook the ras malai.
Place the chenna onto a clean surface or in a large bowl. Add 1 tbsp of cornflour and knead. If it feels too dry, add 1 tsp of water and continue to knead for 5-10 mins. You know you are done with the kneading when you can make balls out of the chenna which do not have any cracks. Kneading for too long will make them rubbery and chewy.
Make small balls of the chenna and flatten them using your hand. These are boiled in sugar syrup, so remember they double in size.
Turn on the heat on the sugar syrup. Let it stay at medium heat. Place the flattened balls gently in the sugar syrup. Do not overcrowd them. Cover and cook for 15 mins.
You will know that they are done, when you touch the balls and they spring back. Do not overcook them, they will become hard.
Remove from heat and allow it to cool.
Once the balls are completely cooled, heat the remaining milk in a pan.
Boil the milk until it reduces to half.
Add the 1/3 cup of sugar and the turmeric/saffron strands. Boil until sugar dissolves.
Crush the cardamom into powder.
Add the cardomom powder to the milk and boil for another minute.
Remove from heat.
Add slivers of almonds and finely chopped pistachios.
Remove the balls from sugar syrup. With the help of 2 spoons, gently squeeze the balls to remove excess sugar syrup. Be very gentle. Place the ball into the sweetened milk.
Allow it to cool and then refrigerate it.
Serve chilled, garnished with more almonds and pistachios.

Khova Peda

A free Saturday morning got me in experimental mood. I'm generally stay away from making sweets unless it's a special occasion or a festival, but this Saturday I was in the mood for something sweet. And without any recipe in hand, I decided to make khova pedas. Luckily for me, they turned out great.

Khova peda

Khova

Khova peda

Khova Peda

Cardamom flavored milk fudge

Recipe Type: Dessert
Cuisine: North Indian
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 90 minutes
Yield: 20-25

Ingredients:

1 litre full fat Milk or 3/4 cup Khova
5-6 tbsp Powdered sugar
2-3 Cardamom
5-6 Almonds(Optional)

Method:

I made fresh khova, 1 litre of milk gave me 3/4 cup of khova. You can use store bought khova too.

Add 1 L of full fat milk into a non-stick pan.

Allow the milk to come to a boil and then lower the flame to low.

Keep stirring occasionally. I stirred once every 5 mins.

Once most of the milk has evaporated and you can see mostly milk solids, keep a close watch on the pan, you don't want to burn the whole thing. Stirring may be frequently needed.

Powder the cardamom and add to pan. Mix well.

Add the sugar by the spoonful until you get the desired sweetness. I added 5.5 tbsp. of powdered sugar.

Keep stirring and cooking until the whole mixture is one mass and sticks together.

Remove from the stove and cool for 10-15 mins, until you can shape them into pedas