Old fashioned Ginger Cookies

30th Dec, 2011

Let us have a sweet ending to the year with these sweet and aromatic cookies. As these spicy cookies bake, the kitchen will be filled with a wonderful tempting aroma. Children as well adults like it equally and will end up fighting for the last cookie left (as happened at my house). Make sure you bake enough of these to go around the neighborhood and spread the warmth of the holidays.

Preparation time – 15 mins
Cooking time – about 12 mins for each batch
Difficulty level – medium

Ingredients – Makes around 60 cookies

• All purpose flour – 2 ½ cups
• Baking soda – 1 tsp
• Ground ginger – 1 ½ tsp
• Ground cinnamon – ¼ tsp
• Ground cloves – ¼ tsp
• Butter – ½ cup (room temperature, diced)
• Caster (super fine) sugar – 1 ¾ cup
• Egg – 1
• Molasses – 4 tbsp
• Fresh lemon juice – 1 tsp

Procedure –

• Preheat the oven to 325 F and grease 3 baking sheets.
• Sift the flour, baking soda and spices into a small bowl and set aside.
• Place the butter and two-thirds of the sugar in the bowl of the mixer and cream together until light and fluffy. Lightly beat in the egg and stir it in.
• Stir in the treacle and the lemon juice. Now add the flour mixture and mix in thoroughly to make soft dough.

• Shape the dough into 2 cm balls. Roll these balls in the remaining sugar to coat and place them on the prepared baking sheets, spaced around 2 inches apart to allow the dough to spread.

• Bake for about 12 minutes, or until the cookies are just firm to touch. With a spatula transfer the cookies to a wire rack and cool completely.

Notes and observations –

• Always use fresh spices when making any cookies. Spices left in the spice rack for over a period of time lose their flavor and aroma.
• These cookies need to be baked in batches. It is best not to put more than 2 trays in the oven at a time.

Storing-

The cookies store well at room temperature in an airtight container for a week.

Wishing all my friends and family a very Happy New Year 2012. Let us enter the New Year with sweet thoughts and pleasant memories and make the upcoming year the best one yet.
See you all in the next year!!!

Banana Walnut Bread (Egg less)

27th Dec, 2011

This recipe was passed on to me by my cousin and ever since then I make it whenever I have overripe Bananas in my fruit basket. This holiday season, I found that this made a wonderful gift and because this is an egg less recipe, I was able to give it to my friends who have children with egg allergies. This also makes a wonderful hostess gift. As mentioned in my earlier blog, I am also including pictures of how to wrap it as a present. Do pass on your comments.

Preparation time – 10 mins
Cooking time – 45 mins
Difficulty level – easy

Ingredients – makes 2 standard loaf pans

• Bananas (mashed) – 3 ripe (over ripe bananas work very well)
• Vegetable oil – ¼ cup
• Vanilla extract – 1 tsp
• Sugar – 1 cup
• All purpose flour – 2 cups
• Salt – 1 tsp
• Baking soda – 1 tsp
• Walnuts – 1 cup(chopped)

Procedure

• Preheat the oven to 350 F.
• In a mixer, add the mashed bananas, oil, vanilla and sugar and mix well.
• In a separate bowl, sift the flour, salt and soda together. Add this to the banana mixture and mix well until the flour is well blended. Do not overbeat. Add the walnuts and mix well.
• Pour the mixture in the loaf pan and bake for around 45 mins. Baking time would vary depending on the size of the pan. Check the bread with the toothpick.
• Cool 10 mins in the pan and then remove it on a wire rack and let it cool completely.

I used around 4 small loaf pans to bake the bread. Mine was done in about 30 mins.

To serve- Slice the bread and serve with a dollop of whipped cream.

Storing

The bread keeps well for about 4 days outside. If you want to store them longer, the best way would be to freeze them. Once the bread is cooled completely, wrap the whole thing in a plastic wrap and place it inside freezer bags and freeze them. To use it from freezer, thaw it in the microwave. If freezing, I would not slice the bread. This way the moisture is locked inside and the bread won’t dry out as much.

Packing

Let the bread cool completely. Put it back again inside the same pan you used for baking it (I bought several aluminium baking pans). Wrap the whole thing in a plastic wrap and then put it inside small colorful goody bags and tie it using twist ties. Decorate it with bows and ribbons.


Happy Holidays!!!

Sending this recipe to
Know your Flour, Jagruti's page
Cookeatdelicious-walnuts, Raven's page 

Coconut Macaroons

21st Dec, 2011

Holiday season is here and the joy of giving is in the air. What could be a perfect gift other than a tin of homemade goodies?  Me and my son sat down and came up with a list of his teachers and other acquaintances, we had to buy gift. That is when I thought, for a change I am not going to be buying gifts, but rather be making them. This weekend we started on the “project baking” and the pleasure I got out of the whole thing was so immense that I have no words to describe it.

I was having this same conversation with my long time friend on facebook and that is when few things came to my realization. Every year when I am buying gifts, I am thinking about budget and how not to go over the budget. This year since I was making all the goodies at home, all I was thinking was the fun part of giving and sharing. This was such a break from the regular hassle of beating the holiday rush. I know for lot of people it is very hard to be making things at home, but I request all my friends to try out few things at home. With this kind of gift we are always giving more and nothing can be more personal than a container full of love that we put into making these goodies at home.  One of my other friend mentioned to me that by doing this I am not only creating cookies but also great memories for my boys.

During the course of next couple of weeks, I will try to put up few easy cookies and bread recipes and also tips on how to wrap them and use them to as gifts. As always please pass on your comments. It means a lot to me. Happy Holidays to all!!!

This recipe for the Coconut macaroons is very simple and can be prepared in a jiffy. This is more of an adult cookie. So try to include this in the assortment of cookies to please the adult members of the household.

Preparation time – 10 mins
Cooking time – about 20 mins/batch
Difficulty level – easy

Ingredients – (makes around 30)

• All purpose flour – 1/3 cup
• Desiccated coconut (unsweetened) – 2 ½ cups
• Sweetened condensed milk – 2/3 cup
• Salt – a pinch
• Vanilla extract – 1 tsp

Procedure

• Preheat the oven to 350 F. Line two baking sheets with waxed paper or parchment paper.
• Sift the flour and salt into a large bowl. Stir in the coconuts.
• Make a well and add the condensed milk and vanilla and stir together to form a very thick batter.
• Drop mounded tablespoonfuls of batter on the prepared baking sheets about 1 inch apart and bake for about 20 mins or until golden brown. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Storing and packaging

• These cookies can be stored at room temperature for about a week. Store them in an airtight container lined with waxed paper.
• When giving out as gift, use pretty storage containers. They are available in a wide range of materials from cardboard boxes to tins. Line the box with several layers of waxed paper and arrange the cookies neatly. Pack the box with a bright ribbon or raffia.
• The cookies can also be packaged in cellophane and then tied with a colorful ribbon. This form of packaging is not very airtight and hence should be wrapped at the last minute.

 Happy Baking!!!

Poori Masala (Deep fried Indian bread with potato curry)

16th Dec, 2011

This is one of the very famous south Indian delicacy which is easy to make and absolutely kids friendly. Going back to my childhood days, whenever we go out to eat, we force our grandmother to come with us. This is the only thing that she would eat in a restaurant and it used to be an absolute pleasure to watch her enjoy the dish and eat. Even now when we go out and bring back food for her, this would be the one we would bring back for her. Patti, this one is for you 

Ingredients
For the Poori – (makes around 20 pooris)

Aata (Wheat flour) – 2 cups
Salt – ½ tsp
Sugar – 2 tsp
Ajwain (carom seeds) – 2 tsp
Warm water – as needed to knead the dough
Oil – for deep frying the poori

For the Potato Masala – (serves approximately 4)

Potato – 4 medium
Onion – 1 large (Chopped)
Tomatoes – 2 (chopped)
Green chilies – 2 (Slit lengthwise)
Ginger – 1 inch piece (grated)
Green peas – About ½ cup
Mustard seeds – 1 tsp
Urad dal – 2 tsp
Asafetida – ½ tsp
Turmeric powder – 1 tsp
Chili powder – ½ tsp
Curry leaves – few
Cilantro – few (Chopped)
Salt – to taste
Oil – 1 tblsp

Procedure
To make the Poori

• Mix all the ingredients except water in a bowl. Add the warm water little by little and make it into soft dough. The dough for the poori has to be slightly wet. This enables fluffy pooris.  Moisture in the dough forms steam when deep frying which in turn fluffs up the pooris.
• Let the dough rest for 15 mins. In the mean time heat the oil in a deep pan. Roll the dough into small circles and deep fry them until slightly brown on both sides. Drain on a paper towel lined dish and serve hot with the masala.

To make the Potato Masala

• Boil the potatoes, peel the skin and then mash it with a fork or a potato masher. Do not mash it too fine.
• Heat 2 tblsps of oil in a pan and add the seasonings (mustard, urad dal, asafetida, curry leaves). Then add the onions, green chilies and ginger. Sauté until the onions turn translucent. 
• Then add the tomatoes,  green peas along with salt, turmeric powder, chili powder and cook for about 5-7 mins. 

• Now add the mashed potatoes and about a cup of water and let it simmer for about 10 mins. Depending on your preference, the consistency can either be thick or you can dilute it by adding more water. Garnish with cilantro and serve hot with pooris.

Happy cooking !!!