Whole wheat almonds and hazelnut cookies with saffron and cardamom flavor

Easy and tasty recipe of yet another cookie

Ingredients
Whole wheat flour - 2 cups
Butter - 1 cup
Sugar 3/4 cup ( powder it )
Almonds -1/2 cup ( I use mamra variety of almonds, powder it)
Hazelnuts - 1/2 cup ( powder it)
Saffron - a pinch
Cardamom powder - a pinch

Method
In a large mixing bowl throw in all the ingredients and knead softly and gently, once the dough come together make small balls and place in a baking tray, press slightly with a fork. Preheat the oven at 150 degrees Celsius and place the tray in the top rack of the oven. Bake for 10-11 mins and then grill for 2-3 minutes, now that's how I do and been doing :)
Once done, remove from the oven and slowly place each cookie on the wire rack to let it cool.
Once cooled store in an airtight jar.
Done!!! .. Enjoy!

Walnut and hazelnut wholewheat brownies

Its been sometime that I have not baked cake/brownie, the reason being I am becoming a little averse when it comes to adding the raising agents in the bakes. I am sure a person who loves baking cannot have such expectations but seriously speaking I hold back my selves from it. As it is there are a lot of unwanted things going into ours and ours kids body, so why more , got to wait and see as to how long it goes :)
You would have noticed that I love baking cookies, reason being we can bake cookies with min or no raising agents. But when last week when my son pleaded me to bake something I just couldn't say no to him and I started googling and found this wonderful recipe. I did give some slight  modifications but totally worth it. This recipe is worth saving with or without the changes, as the original recipe says it the best ever brownies..So here it goes

Ingredients

Butter - 185 gms
Cooking chocolate - 185 gms
Whole wheat flour +cocoa powder (3 tbspn)- 1 cup
100 gms - white chocolate bits
Half cup of hazelnuts and walnuts - coarsely chopped.
Vanilla essence - 1 tspn
Eggs- 3 
Sugar - 3/4 cup

Method

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius and prepare a wide square pan and keep aside.
Melt the butter and chocolate in a double boiler, once melted keep the mixture aside and let it cool.
Sieve the flour and cocoa and keep aside in the sieve.
Break the eggs and add in the sugar (powdered) and beat until soft and fluffy for around 5-7 mins. Add vanilla essence.
Gradually add the cooled chocolate-butter mixture and stir slowly with a spatula, making sure that you don't break the air in the beaten eggs.
Now gradually sift the flour-cocoa mixture into the batter and slowly fold in the batter using a spatula.
Finally add the white chocolate bits and the nuts bits and fold in again.
Now pour the batter in the pan, spread it out evenly and bake in the preheated oven for about 30-40 mins or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
I bet this brownies are yum!!!

Whole wheat oats cookies with almonds, sweetened with jaggery

Whole wheat oats cookies with almonds, sweetened with jaggery 

A mother of school going kids often breaks her head for ideas for snacks box for the kids, and these days mothers are more aware to add something healthy. In this recipe instead of using sugar, I used jaggery syrup to sweeten the cookies.

Following is the recipe
Ingredients
Whole wheat flour- 1 cup
Oats- 1 cup
Butter - 1/2 cup
Jaggery syrup - 1/2 cup *
Blanched peeled and halved almonds- 1/2 cup
Baking powder - a pinch / 1/8 tspn
Cocoa powder - 2 tbspn

* I melted 1 kg jaggery in I cup of water , strained and used 1/2 cup of this liquid for the recipe. 

Method
As simple as said always take a big bowl and throw in all the ingredients and mix well, it will be a little wet and sticky because of the jaggery syrup. Scoop out small spoons of the dough and place it in a greased baking tray, press it lightly with the back of the fork.
Bake for about 10 mins in a preheated oven at 150 degrees Celsius and grill for another 4-5 mins.
Remove and let it cool in a wire rack and then store in a airtight container.
Enjoy! :)

Instant Chocolate Fondant

That was a weekend and I wanted to have something like this and also surprise the kids too. Hence made this after lunch. Have to tell you its very easy, quick and tasty tooo.

Following is the recipe

60g (2 oz) butter, plus more for greasing

80g (2 1/2 oz) dark chocolate

2 eggs

60g (2 0z) sugar

40g (1 1/2 oz) flour

Confectioner' sugar, for dusting

Preheat oven to 210ºC (410ºF). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Grease two medium ramekins with butter. Melt the chocolate and butter in a double boiler.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk the eggs and sugar, then add the flour. Pour the chocolate-butter mixture over the eggs-mixture, whisking constantly.

Divide the mixture into the ramekins and place on the prepared baking sheet. Bake for about 10 minutes, until the edges have set and a crust has formed on the top of the cakes, and the centers have risen, but are still very jiggly.

Dust with confectioner's sugar and serve immediately.

Hazelnut butter

I  bought hazelnuts and hazelnut oil to make home made nutella (I dont buy Nutella), I did hazelnut cupcakes too with hazelnut oil and this time I tried hazelnut butter. You can avoid hazelnut oil or use any non flavour oil to make this butter. It super easy too, hardly take 10 mins and a very healthy butter is ready as a spread!

Ingredients
Hazelnuts - 100 gms
Hazel nut oil - 1 - 2 tspn

Honey - as required

Vanilla pod - half of  pod

Method
Take a thick bottom pan and dry roast the nuts for sometime, just enough to heat it and then put it in a mixie jar or a blender or a food processor. Pulse it until it starts releasing oil. Scrape in the vanilla pod and also add the oil. Finally add honey as a sweetener. If you want exclusive hazelnut butter stop with oil , don't add vanilla or honey :). If you add cocoa or scraped chocolate nd replace honey with sugar you get nutella.

And yea 'keep refrigerated'
So try and enjoy!!

Fresh fig cookies

As I mentioned in some other posts, living n Bangalore we get exposed to many varieties of  fruits and vegetables and I always get tempted to pick it up , taste, explore and one such baby is this fresh fig cookies and the result was not bad either ..Following is the recipe

Ingredients
Fresh figs puree- 1/2 cup ( remove the skin and blend)
Whole wheat flour - 1 and half cup
Butter - 1/3 cup
Sugar - 3 tbspns
Baking powder - 1/3 tspn
while chocolate chips ( optional)

Method
Preheat oven to 150 degrees
Mix the flour, butter, fig puree, sugar, baking powder  into a soft dough. Sprinkle the while chocolate chips if you have ( this is just for the extra USP with kids ) and then is is easy . Make small balls and place it in the greased tray and press slightly with a fork and bake in the top rack of the oven for 8-10 minutes or until you feel the bottom is browned and them change the mode of the oven to grill mode and grill for another few minutes till the top turns brown. Remove the tray from the oven and remove the cookies from the tray and let it to cool in the tray. The cookies should become hard and crisp when cooled. Enjoy!

Chocolate eclairs

My son has been behind me to make this chocolate eclairs ever since I bought the book Sanjeev Kappor's cakes and bakes, but have been prolonging due to some or the other reasons and finally I decided to make it today. I just started to make the puffs for the eclairs and it started disappearing quickly and I really saved the second batch of puffs to make the eclairs and voila that was also disappeared in minutes.Yes it is surely irresistable with the fresh cream fillling and the chocolate coating.

Following is the recipe

Pastry

3/4 cup Whole wheat flour

a pinch of salt.

75 gms butter

3 eggs , beaten

Filling

1 cup fresh cream whipped with 3 tbspns of powdered sugar

Chocolate icing

50 gms dark chocolate

25 gms unsalted butter

Method

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius

Sfit flour with salt. Place the butter and one cup of water in a non stick pan and stir over low heat until the butter melts. Add in the flour and stir along till you see that the flour has come together into a ball and started coming out of the pan. Remove from the pan and place the mixture in a bowl. Add in the beaten egg one by one and mix well to the mixture until the dough becomes smooth and soft. You can either spoon the mixture into a piping bag with a wide nozzle and squeeze in a greased baking tray or simply scoop the mixture with a spoon in a baking tray in a line or in a shape of sausage.

Bake in the oven till the mixture puffs up and browns on the top, remove and slit open one side of the puff to let the steam open to prevent the eclair from being soggy ( mine became soggy tho') it doesnt matter if it is soggy too.. will tell you the secret why later.

For the filling whip the cream in a bowl until it is just thick enough. I used fresh cream , hence it was not thick , but again doesnt matter :)

Also temper the chocolate in the meanwhile.

Fill the eclairs with the whipped cream using a small nozzle piping bag ,. Dip one side of the eclair in the tempered chocolate and leave the eclairs on the wire rack until the icing sets. Once the chocolate sets the sogginess of the eclairs disappears and the chocolate holds the eclairs fine!

If you want to taste it please do it soon, else you might not get even one if you have kids at home. Experience speaks!

Whole wheat butter cookies

Whole wheat butter cookies

Ingredients 

Powdered sugar- 1/2 cup
Butter - 1/2 cup
Milk or orange juice- 6 tbspn
Vanilla essence - 1/2 tspn
baking powder - a pinch

Method

Bake at 150 degrees Celsius it in the preheated oven for about 10 - 12 minutes. 
Bake at 150 degrees Celsius it in the preheated oven for about 10 - 12 minutes. 

Whole wheat flour- 1 1/2 cup

Mix all the ingredients and make a very soft dough, Make small balls , roll it between you palms, flatten it a little and keep in the baking tray, press the balls slightly with a fork.

Barley cookies

Barley cookies


Ingredients

Barley flour- 1 cup
Powdered nuts ( almonds, cashews)-1/2 cup
Powdered sugar- 1/2 cup
Butter - 1/2 cup
Baking powder 1/2 tspn

Method 
Mix all the ingredients and make a dough, Make small balls and keep in the baking tray, press the balls with a fork.

Bake at 150 degrees Celsius it in the preheated oven for about 10 - 12 minutes. 

Eggless crunchy choco chip cookies

Egg less crunchy choco chip cookies

Whole wheat flour- 1 cup
Softened butter- 1/2 cup
Crushed or powdered nuts ( I took almonds) - 1/2 cup
Powdered coconut- 1/2 cup
Choco chips- 1/2 cup to 1 cup
Powdered sugar- 1/2 cup
Baking powder- 1/2 tspn
Milk- 1/4 cup - 1/3 cup

Method


Mix all the ingredients except the choco chips in a large bowl. Knead into a very soft dough adding few spoons of milk in between to get a sticky soft dough. Finally add the choco chips and mix well.

Drop in cookie dough with spoon or hand in the cookie tray and bake in a preheated oven for around 10 minutes at 150 degrees Celsius

My process of baking cookies is as follows:

I preheat the oven ( I bake in my OTG) for ten minutes at 150 degrees celsius, place the cookie tray in the top rack and bake for around 6-8 minutes, when you feel that the bottom of the cookies are baked slowly shift the mode of the OTG to grill mode and grill for another 5-8 minutes..make sure that the top and bottom should not get dark brown , it should be just golden brown.

Remove the tray from the oven and remove each cookie carefully ( it would be soft ) from the tray using a flat spatula and let cool till it turn crispy and then store in airtight jar.

Pink cookies

Pink cookies 

Whole wheat flour- 1 cup
Almonds- 1/2 cup ( powdered)
Sugar- 1/2 cup ( powdered)
Baking powder- 1/2 tspn
Butter- 1 /2 cup
Beetroot pulp - 6 tbspn


Method
Mix all the ingredients adding the beetroot pulp in the final stage of mixing and form  a soft dough. Spoon the dough into the cookie tray and press it with a fork and bake in a preheated oven at 150 degrees celsius .

Cornflakes chocochip cookies

Cornflakes chocochip cookies

Whole wheat flour- 1 cup
Almonds- 1/2 cup
Sugar- 1/2 cup
Butter- 1/2 cup
Baking powder- 1/2 tspn
Choco chips- as required
Corn flakes crushed - a handful
Milk- 4-6 tbspns

Mix all the ingredients except choco chips and cornflakes in a bowl , Add in the milk if required to make a soft dough. Finally add the chocochips and cornflakes and spoon in the dough in a baking tray and bake as said in the description of the cookie album.

Alternatively u can make a ball of the dough and roll in cornflakes and bake it

Chocolate butter cookies

Chocolate coated butter cookies ...
For the cookies
Atta- 1 cupButter- 1/2 cup
Sugar - 1/2 cup powdered
baking powder- 1/2 tspn
Vanilla essence - 1/2 tspn

For the chocolate coating - 150 gms cooking chocolate.

Method
Knead all the ingredients for the cookies to a soft dough and bake as usual .

Melt the chocolate pieces in a a bain marie (double boiler )until the heat is well incorporated in the grated chocolate pieces. Stir it to ensure that it is melted.

Once the cookies are taken out and cooled, dip one side on the cookie into the melted chocolate and let it set in the refrigerator for not more than 8 -9 minutes. take it out and store in a container. 

Choco peanut cookies

Choco peanut cookies
Butter- 1/3 cup
Atta- 1 cup
Peanuts - 1/3 cup powdered or crushed
Vanilla essence- 1/2 tspn
Baking powder- 1/4 tspn
Milk- 1 -2 tbspn.. just enough to bind the dough softly
cocoa powder- 1- 2 tbspn
Sugar - 1/2 cup powdered


Method
Mix all the ingredients into a soft dough and bake at 150 degrees Celsius in a preheated oven.

Rajgira almond with chocochips cookies

Rajgira almond with chocochips cookies
Rajgira flour- 1/2 cup
Whole wheat flour- 1/2 cup
Almonds - powdered- 1/2 cup
Sugar - 1/2 cup
Butter - 1/2 cup
Baking powder- 1/4 tspn
Vanilla essence - 1/2 tspn

Method ..
Mix all the ingredients smoothly into a soft dough make balls, flatten it with fork and bake at 150 degrees celsius.
Quite simple na.. Try it soon !

Anzac biscuits

Anzac biscuits

Ingredients

1 cup plain whole wheat flour
1 cup oats
1 cup dry coconut (copra)
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup butter
2 tbsp dates syrup
1/2 tspn baking powder
2 tbspn milk
Method
>preheat oven 180C / 350F. mix together flour, oats, coconut, baking powder and brown sugar
>melt butter and mix with date syrup.
> Mix the melted butter to the flour mixture and add upro 2 tbspn of water to bind the dough.
>roll spoonful by spoonful of mixture, about the size of a walnut shell and place onto an oven try lined with baking paper. leaving space again between dollops to allow for spreading.
>press dollops down with a fork to flaten and proceed to bake for 15-20 minutes, Cool on a wire rack and seal in airtight containers.

Original recipe http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/11144/anzac-biscuits-