Nutella cookies

Nutella Cookies

What a day it has been!! I have barely slept in several nights, thanks to the kids becoming poorly one after another. Not to mention that has not left me with my usual energy levels, however, when special days come around, one just has to find the energy from somewhere. So what was special about today, it was my kid’s first day at school! I wanted to make something that he would like to have as an after school snack and thought a chocolate cookie is unlikely to go wrong. I wanted it to be reasonably unhealthy as well and not pure indulgence so I added millet flour and wholewheat flour. I tried dusting the cookies with icing sugar before baking them hoping it will have a nice white appearance when baked but it did not turn out as expected as it melted in the oven. However, it did give an interesting texture and taste and was not all too wrong afterall. You may want to try it or skip that bit.

4 tablespoon nutella

80 gram i.e. 1/3 cup butter, softened

½ cup sugar

½ cup wholewheat flour

½ cup ragi flour (if you do not have any, you could use any other millet flour or more wholewheat flour)

½ cup all purpose flour

¼ teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon soda bicarbonate

1 tablespoon milk, if needed

2 tablespoon icing sugar

Preheat the oven to 180 degC. Line the baking tray with greaseproof sheet

Cream together the butter, nutella and sugar

Sift the flours with the soda bicarb and baking powder. I also added a tablespoon of coco powder to make it more chocolatey. Mix to form a soft dough, add a bit of milk if needed. When you pinch a ball and roll, it should just about hold comfortably

Pinch small lime sized balls and flatten with your hand by pressing down. Dust the cookie in icing sugar and line on the tray with atleast an inch between each other

Bake for about 8-9 minutes. Be careful as i is hard to determine if the cookies have browned as the chocolate is already brown. I usually go with the smell. By eight minutes, it is aromatic, utmost a minute more would usually be enough.

Leave on the tray outside for about ten minutes as they will be very soft. Then cool completely in a cooling rack

Nutella Pinwheel Biscuit

Nutella Pinwheel Biscuit
It is customary to take some gift when you visit people in their house but I do not find it particularly easy buying something especially if we barely know our host. You never know if they will like it, if it will be useful, if it is appropriate etc. and for that reason I have started resorting to home-made gifts, especially edible ones! Just gobble it, like it or leave it. On one such occasion, I decided to make a variety of biscuits to make an assorted biscuit box. One of the varieties was this pin-wheel biscuit. It is actually very easy to make it, although you may not believe me until you read the recipe. It can be a bit misleading as it appears quite small before it goes into the oven but grows inside, thanks to all the butter and rising agent. So make sure you leave enough gap between them while placing on the tray. Here is a simple yet delightful biscuit.

1 ¼ cup flour

½ cup butter

¼ teaspoon soda bicarbonate

3-4 tablespoon nutella

½ cup sugar

Cream together the sugar and butter

Add the flour and soda bicarb and make a soft dough

Roll it into a disc about 5 mm thick and spread the nutella. I placed this on cling film and rolled flat so it becomes easy to roll it up.

Roll it up and refrigerate

Cut into about 5-7mm thick discs and place it on lined baking tray, atleast an inch apart.

Bake at 170degC for about 8-10 minutes, until sides become light brown.

Cool completely and store in air tight container

Poppy Seeds Salt Cookies

Poppy Seeds Salt Cookies

If you follow my blog on facebook, you have probably read about my plan to write a book on eggless baking. Well the idea is to have atleast 20 recipes including cakes, muffins and biscuits. In my mind this book should help anyone, be it beginners or pro, start to believe in eggless baking and that it does not mean the end result is not enjoyable and delish. To draw more inspiration, I am trying a few recipes to understand them better and this is from one of the books I have. I struggled to keep myself away from the end result. I do not bake savory often because it is normally just me that likes it and can’t be bothered to please myself. This however, went down well with my son as well and I was selfish enough to keep them away from my husband (he was not even told I had made this and in my defense, he probably does not like savory bake)! I had so underestimated the flavour of these teeny tiny seeds! Here is the recipe...

1 cup flour
1 tablespoon poppy seeds

1 tablespoon butter

6-7 tablespoon single cream

1 teaspoon sugar

2 pinches salt

Bit more salt (don't avoid this else you are missing the kick)

Sift the flour and salt

Mix together the sugar and poppy seeds with the flour

Rub the butter so the mixture resembles bread crumbs

Add just enough cream to make a stiff dough

Roll to a disc of about 4-5 mm thick and cut into about 20 pieces (I was in a rush so could nto be bothered with regular shapes) and place on a lined baking tray. Sprinkle some salt on top

Bake in a preheated oven at 150degC for about 25-30 minutes until crisp, still pale.

Cool completely and store in air tight container

Jam Custard Biscuit (eggless)

Jam Custard Biscuit (eggless)

Why I like jam biscuit, well, I don’t know. I remember one of my milestone recipes was a wholewheat jam biscuit. It was slightly elaborate but very effective in getting down wholewheat down a toddler and adults alike. I have a box of custard powder sitting on my shelves and custard is not something my son likes eating. I have to figure out other ways of using it up and thought a biscuit would be a good idea. I googled a bit and came up with this combination of mine. We do not like it being overly ‘custardy’ so I used only about quarter cup of it. I added ground almonds as the combination of nutty flavour with jam, I thought, will be good. In the end, it all came out very well and my husband said it tasted like bakery biscuit i.e. baked by professional. On that good note, here is the recipe...

1 cup flour

100g butter, softened

¼ cup custard powder

¼ cup ground almonds

2 pinches baking powder

60g (1/2 cup) icing sugar

1 tablespoon milk, if needed

Jam of choice

Cream together the butter and the sugar

 Add the flour, ground almonds, custard powder, baking powder and if required add milk to make a soft dough. You just want everything to come together and no more. Do not knead the dough

Divide the dough into two parts and roll each into about 5mm thick disc and cut using suitable cookie cutter. Then press with your finger in the centre to make a crater and place on lined baking tray

Using a small spoon, put some jam in the crater and bake at 160degC for about 10-12 minutes, edges would brown

Transfer to cooling rack after resting it in the tray for five minutes or so. Store in air tight container

Lemon Biscuit (eggless)

Lemon biscuit

There was one particular week when I wanted to bake a variety of biscuits and was looking for many recipes. I came across lemon biscuit in Tarla Dalal’s website and thought it was an interesting flavour. However, I was not too sure that was the recipe I wanted to make. I then tried to incorporate rice flour as it adds crispiness to the biscuit which is a good thing considering it is an eggless biscuit. I sprinkled some sugar on top of the biscuit before baking to give it a nice melt when we bite into it. That is purely optional but shouldn’t hurt! I quite liked the biscuit but I am conscious that not everyone can appreciate lemon flavour in their biscuit. For someone like me, here it is...

½ cup rice flour

½ cup wheat flour

½ cup all purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/3 cup butter/margarine

1/3 cup brown sugar

2 generous pinches cardamom powder

Rind of one lemon

1-2 tablespoon milk

Combine sugar and butter

Sift in all the flours along with baking powder

Add cardamom powder and lemon rind

Make a soft dough, use little milk if needed

Divide into small portions and roll into about 3mm thick disc. Cut to desired shape

Place on lined baking tray and bake in preheated oven at 180degC for 13-15 minutes, until edges are brown. If you want the biscuit fully crisp, bake until centre also begins to brown a bit. I sprinkled some sugar on top before baking, just to jazz it up.

Transfer to cooling rack, allow to cool completely and store in airtight container.

Bajra Cranberry Biscuit (Millet Cranberry Biscuit)

Bajra Cranberry Biscuit

How often do you end up wondering how on earth you are going to make your child eat healthy food? Or for that matter, how often have you been guilty of snacking of high sugar or high fat food? Recently, I have been concerned about my son’s food intake as he barely seems to be eating. Or this reason, I have been thinking hard to find ways of increasing his nutrition in every bite he takes.  I have always found finger foods or snacks an easy way to pack with nutrients because it fits with their ‘busy schedule’ of nonstop playing. At this day and age, we seem to have a need to sneak in good ingredients rather than taking them consciously, knowing exactly what it is. My ancestors used to include so many different grains, millets, vegetables etc. and lived quite healthy. Sometimes when I add some ‘healthy’ ingredients in some dishes I do get a funny look from my husband, although he eventually eats them and appreciates but he still gives me that look. Anyway, long story short, I found a great way to include millets – biscuit. If it is added in increased quantity, it is not particularly tasty, so it was better to combine with wheat flour. I added dried fruits to lend some sugar and more taste in every bite. The millet flour has no gluten so it tends not to come together really so I decided to make my own egg substitute – cornflour paste. You could not tell it had millets and trust me the satisfaction of knowing you are having a rather healthy snack is immense.

½ cup bajra flour

½ cup wholewheat flour

¾ cup all purpose four

1 ½ teaspoon baking powder

½ cup brown sugar

1/3 cup dried cranberry

¼ cup black currants, soaked in water for five minutes or so

1/3 cup butter/margarine

1-2 tablespoon milk

1 tablespoon cornflour mixed in 2 tablespoon water

Combine the butter/margarine and sugar together

Add the cornflour water mixture and whisk

Add the flours with baking powder, cranberries and currants and mix to make a dough. You may need to add a spoon or two of milk to make the dough

Divide the dough and make discs about 3mm thick and cut to desired shapes (cutting them in attractive shapes makes them even more appealing)

Bake at 180degC for 13-15 minutes, until edges brown and you smell the wonderful biscuit

Transfer to cooling rack and store in air tight container

Fig Rolls (eggless)

Fig rolls

Newton bar need no introduction and it is not a surprise that they appealed to me straight away. The idea of using dried fruit stuffing to lend sweetness to a snack and reducing added sugar is obviously attractive. I wanted to make eggless version and here it is. The use of jam, I think makes the bars soft the next day but you could try baking it longer to make it crisper. I made it with wholewheat four making it even healthier. This made these bars an ideal snack. They were especially handy when I was desperate for food but had to cook and absolutely had to snack on something. This recipe is a keeper because of the rich iron content, wholesome nature, far less added fat and sugar. Here is my version...

¾ cup all purpose flour

¾ cup wholewheat flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

¼ cup brown sugar

3 tablespoon butter/margarine/oil

2-3 tablespoon milk

For filling:

10 dried figs

3 tablespoon date syrup

3 tablespoon sugar

3 tablespoon apricot jam or any other jam of choice

Few nuts, chopped

Bring together the flours, baking powder, brown sugar, butter and required milk to make a soft dough

For the filling, blend together all ingredients mentioned, except the nuts. Try not to puree it too much, coarsely blended consistency should be fine

Divide the dough into two and roll into a 5mm thick disc and cut into half

Towards one side of the dough place generous portion of filling as shown in the picture. Sprinkle some nuts on top

Fold the dough over to make a log and place on greaseproof baking paper

Bake in a preheated oven at 180degC for 20-25 minutes, until it starts to brown (longer if you like the outer even crisper)

Cool and cut the log into smaller pieces and enjoy the goodies