Peanut butter cookies, eggless

Original recipe link - Flavor Mosaic's Best old-fashioned eggless peanut butter cookies

A beauty called Shahi Tukda…

Also known as Double ka Meetha , Shahi Tukda is a typical Nawabi dessert, served at most Hyderabadi weddings and functions.

However, I’ve been led to believe that  these two – Double ka Meetha & Shahi Tukda have slightly different methods of preparation.

Homemade Pop-corn

I love pop-corn. Well, who doesn’t, tell me?

As kids, much before Act-II made the instant pop-corn famous, the only time we would get to eat pop-corn was in movie theatres, and I remember very well that my friends would buy me an extra packet of pop-corn… always…

Hot Chocolate, inspired by a book

This is Valentine’s Day week, and as I-don’t-think-love-needs-a-day as I am, I am not letting this blog go without posting atleast one chocolate recipe this week.

And the chocolate... Do you see the nutmeg sprinkled on top?

I lifted the recipe directly from The Language of Baklava, a book I read a couple of months ago. I was sooo in love with the book and the recipes in it that I read it back to back in just under 2 days, I think. More about the book on my other blog, here.

Masala Milk

 

Every Sharad Purnima, this friend of mine hosts a fabulous dinner party for some friends of hers. We chit-chat a lot, eat dinner and have the masala milk , my favourite part. She reduces about 10 litres of milk to approximately 7 litres, adds a lot of spices that make the milk taste yummy and serves them hot. I fell in love with this milk the first time I had it, but never thought I should/could try it. This time, I stood by her when she was adding the masalas, pestered her for the recipe, promptly forgot it and came back home to try it.

I am not sure if this is the recipe for the masala milk she served, but it tastes similar, and I love this taste. Now this is a regular in my after-Sunday-night-dinner menu. I reduce about 3/4 litre milk to be 1/2 litre, the exact measurement of my milk mug, sit with this in front of the TV or the computer and get on to work. My favourite part of the evening, it is.

Ingredients
3/4 litre milk
1 tbsp MTR Badam Milk powder
1 tbsp sugar
2 tsps nutmeg powder
1 tsp cardamom powder
2-3 strands saffron

Instructions
In a thick bottomed saucepan, heat the milk. Add the sugar, Badam milk powder, half the nutmeg, the cardamom powder and heat the milk. Keep the milk on the stove till it reduces to 1/2 litre. Let the cream on the milk mix into the milk again. (I know this adds to the fat content of the milk, but trust me, it makes the milk taste heavenly). Mix in the saffron strands, and boil the milk some more.
Pour it in the mug, garnish with the mug. Sit back and enjoy the milk.

Guava Kebab

 

Growing up, guava is the least favourite of all the fruits in our house. We all knew that it was good for health and all, but the seedy and hard texture of the fruit,and its near-neutral taste have been huge turn-offs forever. The only variety that was given any interest was the one with pink center, but that too was for the looks and never the taste. As I grew up, and read up on the nutrients in this fruit, I kept on thinking on how to include it in the diet atleast once in a week, and this dish came as a total pleasant-life-saver-surprise for that need.

The other day, I was lunching at the Great Indian Kebab Factory with my team. It was the lunch buffet, and that was when I tasted this dish. It was called fruit chat, and he served Pineapple and Guava grilled in some masala. It wasn’t the first time I was eating pineapple as a savoury (I’ve always loved the smoked pineapple panna at Sahib Sindh Sultan and the pineapple-vodka pizza in Little Italy) but eating a savoury version of guava was a total bumper. And my, did I love it. I asked for a second, third and a fourth helping of the guava pieces, and even licked my fingers as I finished it. I loved it so much that the taste stuck to my tongue, and my mind started wondering how exactly it was made.

This evening, fresh from my outing at the farmer’s market, I had a couple of good guavas at hand, and lots of time to try something new too. Giving some reins to the imagination, I quickly made a marinade of whatever nice and spicy was at hand, and cut the guava into pieces, and grilled it. The result was a lip-smacking kebab, which though didnt taste like the one I ate at the TGIKF, but was good to be served as a starter when friends come over.

Ingredients:

1 measure cumin powder
1 measure coriander powder
1/2 measure dry ginger powder
1/2 measure chilli powder
Sea salt – to taste
Orange juice – just enough to make a paste out of the above ingredients
1 guava – cut to 1 inch pieces

Method:
1. Pre-heat the over to 215C
2. Mix all the above ingredients except guava into a thick paste.
3. Put the guava pieces into the paste, and roll it, so that the paste coats the piece. You can also marinate the guava in the paste for 2-3 hrs.
4. In a baking tray , bake these pieces at 200C for 15 mins.
5. Let it cool for a minute or two, and dig in ! :)

Variations:
You can also add ginger-garlic paste, green-chilli-coriander paste also to the marinate , but in my opinion, the paste should be tangy in taste. Only then the chatpata-flavor of the kebab will burst in your mouth as you eat it.

Peanut Butter Choco-chip cookies

Ever since I read on JoyTheBaker’s blog about Peanut butter and chocolate together, I have been drooling. No, am not kidding. I have been literally thinking about how awesome peanut butter would taste if I make a brownie with it or a cake with it and so on…

For someone who has discovered peanut butter very recently(just about an  year ago), I have taken to it like its my staple diet. If I was not worried about the fat I’d pile on with all that eating of PB, I’d probably have it everyday for breakfast and lunch and dinner also. Yes, thats how much I love PB. And every time I have it with jam and bread for breakfast, I remember the taste the whole day and grin to myself. Yes, the way I love PB is just weird!

So imagine how much I’d have been craving and thinking about PB being in one of the baked dessert items. Yes, it was on my head ever since I read that post.

Just the other day, I came home frantically wanting to make something with PB. I rushed through my bookmarked recipes and found this recipe(the one listed at the bottom of this post, under Recipe Courtesy) . And I was about to start making it, when I realized I had run out of baking soda. Aaaaah! The horror! So I ended up making Dark Chocolate brownies, which turned out to be heavenly and is a totally different story. But remember, my PB craving has not been satiated yet.

As much as I loved the thought of the Dark Choc brownie around me – in my fridge, in my tummy, in my mouth – anywhere, I was waiting for it to be finished, so I could try something with PB. Yes, I have to wait for one dish to finish before I start baking another, this is the only way I can kill the guilt that eats me up!

Going to Mom’s house came as the perfect opportunity, and I jumped to it. That was when this awesome cookie was baked, and was loved by both of us. (For the total non-dessert eater that S was, its sad how I have changed him. He eats everything I try and gives me very constructive criticism if its gone bad and reaches out for the second piece every single time :D)

Ingredients:
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup creamy peanut butter
1/8 cup water
1/2 cup oil 
1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup semisweet mini chocolate chips
8 spoons of milk(If the batter is too dry, mix spoon by spoon)

Procedure:
1. The usual drill – pre-heat the oven to 200C and prepare your baking sheet. Mine is as usual foil wrapped on my grill
2. In a large mixing bowl, mix the peanut butter with the sugars, water, oil and vanilla extract
3. Sieve the flours with baking powder, baking soda and salt
4. Pour the flour mixture into the wet ingredients mixture and mix just enough
5. If you see that the mixture is too dry for you to roll the dough into balls, add spoon by spoon of milk into the batter, till you see the right consistency (This piece of advice came as a life-saver from N at the right minute for me)
6. Add the choco chips to this mixture and do not over-mix
7. On the baking sheet, take a spoonful of the dough and roll it into a small round ball. Flatten it on the sheet. If you would like to beautify it, do so with fork impressions, which is what I did.
8. Bake this for about 20 mins at 200C and flip the cookies to ensure that the other side is baked as well
9. Bake the other side for about 10 mins at 185C

This cookie does not melt in the mouth as I have seen, but it tastes brilliant. The PB taste is not too much to overpower your other taste buds, but is still distinctly felt. On cooling, this cookie does turn out to be a little hard, but I am okay with it, since the overall fat content of this cookie is way lesser than the other pure-butter ones. And next time I try this, I am going to do this with whole-wheat flour.

Recipe from – My Diverse Kitchen

Espresso choco chip shortbread cookies

 

Now, cookies are something I always see on blogs, drool  upon, wonder if I should try them and tell myself that I can never pull them off and close the blog dejectedly. In addition to my doubts on my baking capabilities, there is one more reason. I can never afford to eat that much butter. The amount of butter in the cookies is just plain… humongous! And there is no way on earth I can make and eat them and not feel guilty.

But this one particular evening, after having had loads of cookie discussions with friends on Twitter, and after having stared at this recipe page (link in the Recipe courtesy below) for a considerable amount of time, I decided I will try baking this one.
So what if it uses an entire butter stick! (Too scared of the amount of butter in this, I decided to halve the portions, though)

Oh but then, I knew I was having guests who were to stay over, so I thought I’ll bake these cookies for morning coffee and impress them.

Ingredients:

1/2 tablespoon instant espresso powder(Nescafe it is!)
1/2 tablespoon boiling water
1 sticks (4 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature(I used 100g of Amul butter)
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup store-bought mini chocolate chips
 

Procedure

1. No need to preheat the oven now :)
2. Mix the espresso powder with the hot water to make strong coffee and set it aside to cool
3. In a large mixing bowl, mix the butter and the sugar well enough to make a smooth mixture. Add the coffee and the vanilla essence to this mixture
4. Add the flour to this mixture and mix just enough

5. Take a small sized zip lock bag and transfer the batter into the bag. Lay it on the counter and even it out carefully, so that there are no creases in the plastic sheet. Also be careful to not let the batter out of the bag. Once the batter is spread evenly to all corners of the bag and is of even thickness, close the bag and put this in the refrigerator

6. I let this bag be in the fridge overnight, and removed it the next morning
7. Preheat the oven to 200C and line up the baking sheet. I wrap my grill with aluminium foil and use that as the baking sheet. Gives me a lot of space. Yet again, a friend gave me this idea.
8. Cut open the plastic bag, and cut even squares of the batter

8. Put these on the baking sheet atleast 2 inches apart from each other and bake them at 185C for about 15 mins.
9. I had to flip the cookies and bake the other side for 4 mins too

10. Did you spot a mistake that I did here? Well, I turned lazy midway and tried putting as many cookies as possible on the sheet, and see what happened. Luckily, this wasnt a huge mistake, and I could easily break off the cookies that were stuck to each other

We enjoyed them in the balcony with lots of conversations, and had a great time. But there is no way I am going to bake these cookies all for ourselves. I even gave away half the amount of cookies to S’s colleagues. They were addictive and we were scared we’d eat them up ourselves and then roll over in guilt :)

Recipe Courtesy : Smitten Kitchen (Check out her photos. They are enough to make you drool!)

Cake experiment - 1

 

Ever since I laid eyes on Arundati’s whole wheat nutmeg honey cake, I could not rest at all. No, I am not kidding. The desire to bake it and taste it has been so intense that I had to eventually give in to it, and make it.
May be it was the brilliant recipe or the need to prove to myself that I can bake a decent cake, or to have a nice cake recipe at hand when I call N and her family over for dinner, I baked it last night, on an experimental basis. The idea was that if this turns out good, I am going to bake it this weekend, for N! :)

I had all the necessary ingredients at hand, and since the recipe is so simple and easy, I came back from work, I got around to mixing the ingredients. After seeing how N had baked her cake(which btw was the best cake I ever ate, still waiting for her recipe so I can try it too) in small aluminium foil boxes, I decided to do the same too.

So, this is the recipe. I didn’t want to fiddle around with the ingredients and replace any, since I wanted to be honest with it.

I did some variations, though.

1. Instead of dry ginger powder, I grated fresh ginger and mixed it with the wet ingredients.

2. I felt I didnt need 1/2 cup of milk, and so I added milk at the end, directly to the batter when I felt it got a little tight, like the muffin batter. Thankfully it mixed well. I must’ve used up 1/4 cup of milk

3. I ran short of honey too. It was little less than 1/3 cup of honey and so I compensated it with sugar

4. Now to the part that I am not proud of. I got lazy and didnt powder the sugar. I mixed it as it is into the dry ingredients and then cursed myself for having done that. Thankfully, it mixed well and I could not feel the crystals when the cake was done

The cake needed exactly 35 mins of baking at 185C, and it came out of the tin pretty easily, though I didnt dust it. The picture does not do any justice to how the cake tasted, honest to God! And the fact that it doesnt have any maida(I dont use maida at all! AT ALL!) made me feel really good about it.

There it is, my first ever proper cake. I did bake a carrot nutmeg cake for the husband on his birthday, but I knew I could’ve done much better than that. The husband who is a total non-sweet-lover also loved this cake, and asked for a second serving, which is a lot! :)

Basic Whole Wheat Crackers

 

Now, I’ve been looking at cracker recipes and drooling at the photos for a while.

Also, after the recent Chocolate-Apple-Cake debacle, I needed to do something to get confidence on my baking. That was when Nandita suggested me to take a break from baking cakes and do something different. Finally yesterday, I decided to start off and bake my own crackers, something basic just to get the hang of it.

Ingredients:

1 Cup Whole wheat flour (I used Ashirwad multi grain flour mixed with bajra and ragi flour – basically my roti flour)
A pinch of salt
Some chat masala
A tsp each of Thyme and Rosemary
5-6 Tbsps of Olive oil
Half a cup of water(or as needed)

Procedure:

1. Preheat the oven for 15 mins at 200 C

2. Meanwhile, mix all the ingredients into something which would resemble the roti ka ata

3. On a rolling stone, with the help of a rolling pin, roll the dough into a perfect circle

4. Using a pizza cutter, cut the circle into diamond shapes. Alternatively, you can cut them into circles using a sharp-rimmed glass

5. Put holes all over the shape using a fork and bake these in batches in the oven

6. With the above ingredients, I had to bake the crackers in 3 batches, and each of them took me around 20 mins at 185 C. This time and temperature is highly dependent on the make and model of the oven.

7. Bake till you can break one cracker and feel the crispiness in it. Or till the color turns a good golden brown.
8. Eat at tea-time or during the day, like how I did!

What I loved the most about these crackers is that they are absolutely healthy with nothing except Wheat flour in them, and the fragrance of the herbs used also added to the pleasure!

Variations:

I was thinking that the next time I bake these, I’d add some butter to make them a little softer and add other herbs like some oregano or sage . I was also thinking about adding some pesto next time to get some basil flavour, or see if I can add some hummus to this to up the protein content. Since this is a basic recipe for crackers, I guess one can experiment as much as they want with this!