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Wednesday, 29 July 2015

Masala herb cookies


Savoury trinkets....

every indian loves kharis, and butters, and toasts...what if you get smething similar, but with added flavour, and a bit healthier..everyone is gonna say WHY NOT...
I loved the flavor of these cookies and the versatality, the herbs can easlisy be changed to whatever herbs you want to add and you can add or reduce, any herb that you don't have a liking for. The final cookies have a very subtly sweet n savory flavour that goes really well with a steaming cup of tea. It also make a nice snack to add to your little one's tiffin.
I adapted this recipe to my liking.

                          





Ingredients:

3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat
2 tablespoons fine white or brown rice flour (optional)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt (or according to your taste)
1/2 cup chilled butter, cut into small pieces
3/4 tsp dried ginger powder (optional)
1-1/2 teaspoon whole peppercorn, crushed coarsely
1-1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds, toasted and crushed coarsely
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
1-1/2 tablespoons finely chopped curry leaves
1 tablespoon each finely chopped fresh cilantro,mint and dill leaves
3 to 4 tablespoons cold yogurt

2 -3 tbsp toasted sesame seeds or flaxseeds or both.
A little oil to brush the tops of the biscuits/ cookies

Instructions
Put both flours, salt, baking powder and baking soda into the bowl of a food processor and add the pieces of chilled butter. Pulse until the mixture takes on the texture of breadcrumbs.
Now add the crushed peppercorn and cumin, sugar, the chopped curry leaves and coriander leaves. Pulse a couple of times to mix well.
Then add 2 tablespoons of yogurt and pulse again. Add one more tbsp of yogurt (or two, as much as needed), and pulse again until the dough just comes together and clumps together. You want a moist dough, not a wet one – somewhat like pie dough.
Do not over process or knead. The dough should be just moist enough for you to use your hands and bring everything together to shape into a ball. Flatten it into a disc and cover the dough with plastic wrap and let it rest in the refrigerator for at least hour. You can also leave it overnight (up to about 24 hours) and work on it the next day.
Pre-heat your oven to moderate 170 degrees and line your baking trays with parchment or grease them with oil.
Lightly dust your working surface and roll out the dough to 1/8”(3 mm) thickness, not more or your biscuits/ cookies will not be crisp. If using Sesame seeds, sprinkle it uniformly over the dough and use your rolling pin, very lightly, to press them in.Using cutters of your choice (about 2-1/4 inch in size), cut out biscuits/ cookies and place them on lightly greased baking trays. Brush a very thin coat of oil over them. This will help them brown while baking. Bake them in a preheated moderate oven for about 20 to 25 minutes or till they’re done and golden brown on the top. Remember the baking time will depend on the thickness and shape of your biscuits/ cookies. Let them cool on the trays for about 5 minutes and then cool them on racks. Once they’re completely cool, they should be a bit crunchy and not chewy.







I improvised and used my son's shape
 toys as cookie cutters to get all kinds of shapes
perfect for the tiffin !!



round one's to have with tea

Saturday, 11 July 2015

hazelnut thumprint cookies






Fun Prints...

Thumprint cookies look cute and are yum...they are also very versatile, you can fill them with any filling of your liking.. I especially like the soft crumbly cookie...reminded me of the cookies we used to get in lebanese bakeries....
the recipe is also very very simple and you can have a batch of cookies ready with hardly any fuss.
Its a classic hershey's recipe so you can't go wrong with it...

















Ingredients:
chocolate ganache or nutella
1/3 cup Cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup chopped hazelnuts (or any other nut)
2 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 egg
1/2 cup butter or margarine
2/3 cup sugar











Method:
1. Beat butter, sugar, egg yolk, milk and vanilla in medium bowl until fluffy. Stir together flour, cocoa and salt; gradually add to butter mixture, beating until blended. Refrigerate dough at least 1 hour or until firm enough to handle.
2. Heat oven to 350°F. Lightly grease cookie sheet or line with parchment paper. Shape dough into 1-inch balls. With fork, beat egg white slightly. Dip each ball into egg white; roll in nuts. Place on prepared cookie sheet. Press thumb gently in center of each cookie.
3. Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until set.
Remove cookies from cookie sheet to wire rack; cool 5 minutes. Spoon about 1/4 teaspoon ganache into each thumbprint.
Cool completely.
makes about 24 cookies

I tried the same recipe by substituting
 1/3 cup of ground almond and sesame seeds instead of the cocoa powder to make some almond cookies, and added a little bit of almond essence.. and got really nice chewy almond cookies.