Almond cookie galore

Its cyclone Nilam today. Incessant rain, cold wind , dark clouds...consequently a chilly weather.One of those days when am thankful for not having a full time job so I can spend the day in the way that it ought to be spent. Curled up in the comforter with my favourite book, stare the garden outside and soak in nature, sip on a cup of steaming filter coffee and munch on cookies..Without any guilt , without any worry, without any work left incomplete..This is life...and this is how a rainy day ought to be celebrated..How many times in your life do you get to listen to your heart and do things the way the heart desires..not often I believe.That's why I feel thankful today to the Lord...To be able to do things the way the heart desires..surrender myself to the soul and let life take its own course...God thank you for this wonderful time, for this happiness in heart, for this beauty around.
The music of raindrops prancing on my rooftop stirs my soul and I am left mesmerised by the sights of  newly bathed greens outside..for once its difficult to focus on my favourite book too.I decide to warm my hands from the oven and spread some joy from my heart to the world. Its cookie time again.

I have to remind myself not to overindulge in this  happy state and stick to healthy stuff. (Yes worries of gestational diabetes still haunt me no matter how happy I am, especially with another blood test coming up next week). So I decide on some healthy ingredients that should satiate and delight and yet, not cause any stress.

Ingredients

Oats-1/2 cup (I used regular Quaker)
wholewheat flour- 1/2 cup
All purpose flour-1/2 cup
Sugar Powdered-3/4 cup
Almonds-3/4 cup
Baking powder-1 tsp
Salt-one generous pinch
Butter softened-1/4 cup
Oil-1/4 cup
Milk-1/4 cup

Powder the oats in the grinder and mix with wholewheat flour and AP flour.Also add the salt and baking powder to this mix and keep aside.
Whisk the sugar,butter and oil until creamy.
Toast the almonds lightly (for a wonderful aroma) and grind them.You can powder the almonds fine or if you like it chunky,keep the almonds to small bits or a coarse powder.
Sieve the flour mix into the butter and sugar mix.
Add the almond meal to this and mix gently.
Now use milk to bind this altogether to get a soft dough.

Now this where the fun begins. I have made three varieties of almond cookies from this dough and all of them have turned out a winner.

1.Standard almond cookie-Take small  balls from the prepared dough, flatten it on the greased cookie tray and bake for 15-20 min in a preheated oven at 180 centigrade. You can also decorate them with slivers of almonds if you want. These remained mostly white in colour with little specks of red brown which should be the clue that they are done and ready to be removed from the oven. Cool them on the wire rack for ten minutes to make them crunchy.

2.Choco chip Almond cookies- Press some chocolate chips on the cookies before baking-rest same as above.

3.Nutella stuffed melt in mouth almond cookies- .
Admittedly am new to Nutella. I picked it from the grocer for the first time last week and after I saw the appreciation for these heavenly gooey centred cookies, I feel I have missed a lot in life not using Nutella before.This turned out to be best and am surely going to try more with Nutella.Although it did take a little effort making these cookies but in the end it was worth it.

Make a walnut sized ball with the dough and flatten it. Scooping Nutella from the spoon was messy and difficult , so I piped some Nutella in my icing gun and from there it was a cakewalk.
For those who do not have a icing gun, make a plastic sheet cone like the ones they use for making henna decorations on the hand and fill it up with Nutella.
Put approximately 1/4 spoon Nutella in the flattened ball and enclose it. Reshape the ball and flatten it. Ensure that the filling does not ooze out.Bake for 15-20 minutes in a preheated oven at 180 centigrade.

Taste this piece of heaven and listen to your heart..Have a Happy day:)

 

Peanut cookies galore

The days are becoming shorter. The early setting sun comes as a harbinger of  'on the way' winters. It brings back a lot of memories from my childhood when winters really happened in the city I grew up in. Foggy mornings, basking on the charpoy in the sun,  peeling luscious oranges, the smell of naphthalene balls from pullovers in the trunk , smears of Charmis winter cream(brand is long dead now I believe),  the subtle fragrance of sweet pea flowers in the garden ,chikkis , ginger tea and peanuts. A childhood sans the cable TV made every movie on the idiot box a precious watch.
Huddled up with the family in  heavy quilts, cracking open the peanuts with eyes fixed on the telly..mum reminding to clean up the peanut skins..Those were the best days indeed.

I now realise the source of this flooding nostalgia...its the smell of roasting peanuts in the microwave which is pushing me down the memory lane and I don't feel like coming back..Gosh such a pull!
I don't have much to do today and I could happily wile away hours reminiscing about my good old days.I try not to give in to this pressure of idleness and figure out a middle path. I decide to bake peanut cookies. An unexpected treat for the family, munching on which I can go back to savouring my good old days...

 

To begin with I was actually roasting peanuts for a chutney to accompany my dosas for lunch ( recipe of which shall come some day soon on this blog ) but now I have saved a cupful of roasted skinned peanuts for my cookies. I am  beginning to feel kind of excited about the cookies and wish to deviate from the path most taken, the standard recipe. Another factor is I don't want to use egg..the smell still freaks me out and its Navratras too.  Okay so its going to be a variety of peanut cookies..Finally I decide to bake
1. Standard peanut butter cookies
2.Chocolate Peanut cookies
3. Coffee Peanut cookies

This recipe yields roughly forty mid sized cookies.

Ingredients

Roasted skinned peanuts -1 cup
Wholewheat flour-1/2 cup
Maida flour- 1/2 cup
Butter softened- 1/2 cup
Sugar powdered- 1/2 cup
Baking soda- 1/2 tsp
Milk-2 tsp

Optional
coco powder for 2) Chocolate peanut cookies
 2 tsp Coffee granules plus 2 tsp milk for 3) Coffee peanut cookies

 Preheat the oven at 200 centigrade. Grease the cookie baking tray and keep aside.
Grind the peanuts to a coarse powder.
Mix Sugar and softened butter vigorously.
In a separate bowl, mix the wholewheat flour, maida flour and baking soda.
Now combine this dry mix with the butter and sugar mixture and mix vigorously.
Whisk in the peanut powder.
Add milk if the mixture feels too dry and knead to obtain a soft dough.
Now divide the mixture in three  equal parts.

From one part,make small balls ,flatten and place it on the greased tray. Bake these peanut cookies at 200 centigrade for 15 minutes.Importantly cool before consuming.The cookies come out soft straight from the oven and get their crumbling hard texture on being cooled.

 

For the choco peanut cookies, add 3 heaped spoons of cocoa powder to the second part.Mix and knead again.Make small balls ,flatten and bake at 200 centigrade for fifteen minutes



For the coffee peanut cookies, heat two spoons of milk and add two spoons of strong coffee granules.
Cool this coffee liquid and mix it to the dough.Knead again. If the dough feels too wet to handle, use a sprinkling of flour and make small balls. Flatten and bake for fifteen minutes at 200 centigrade.

Enjoy the warm cookies with ginger tea and you can  almost taste the childhood days in the heart:)

 

Tea time coffee muffins

  The weather continues to be unpredictable.After a warm sultry night ,woke up to a lovely drizzle. As I opened my bedroom window ,the cool, wet grass scent laden breeze hit me. I gulped in the delicious air ,filled my nostrils with fragrance of wet autumn leaves and feasted my eyes on the freshly bathed trees and grass... Gosh!I can spend my entire life staring this and never get tired .
The weather continued to be like this the entire day.An overcast sky,a cool breeze with intermittent showers..The popular poem about having no time to stand and stare has never really been for me. I  spent most of my day in the balcony,staring the bathing birds,chirping with delight,the remaining raindrops on the leaves, the whole world looking neat and clean without a speck of dirt... This deep reverie of nature 's beauty sent my spirits soaring and I got in the mood to celebrate.
There is no pleasure like sipping on  a steaming cup of filter coffee and biting into coffee flavoured muffins with sweet chewy pieces of figs melting in the mouth...Along with the music of pitter patter of the raindrops outside...its a treat for the soul!

Coffee muffins

Ingredients

Flour- 1 1/4 cup
Sugar-3/4 cup
Oil- 3 tsp
Milk- 3/4 cup
Baking Powder- 2 tsp
Salt-1 pinch
Egg-1
Strong coffee granules- 2 heaped spoons
Figs chopped-1/4 cup
Optionally- any chopped nuts


Preheat the oven at 180 centigrade.
Heat the milk,dissolve the coffee granules and cool for five minutes.
Whisk the egg, oil and sugar together till creamy.
Add the coffee milk, mix.
Sift in the flour, baking powder and salt together.

Mix lightly and add in the chopped figs or nuts.

Pour the batter in the greased muffin moulds and bake at 180 centigrade for twenty minutes or till the skewer comes out clean.

Wholewheat Apple raisin bread

Its been a sad and a dull week. V succumbed to the changing weather and was on bed with throat infection and fever.It was miserable to watch him suffer:( . Though he was up by Friday but he had a lot of trouble swallowing because of a persistent throat ache.The entire week we had soups and bland daals and khichdi. So Friday I decided to bring in some cheer and bake a healthy apple bread.It was demolished in moments and only the crumbs remained which said a lot about the taste and the soon vanishing throat ache:)

Ingredients-


Whole wheat flour( atta)-1 cup
Baking soda-1/2 tsp
Baking powder- 1/2 tsp
Salt- 1/2 tsp
Apple-one (peeled and diced small)
Cinnamon powder- 1 large tsp
Brown Sugar-1/2 cup
Egg-one
Oil- 1/4 cup
Raisins-1/4 cup
Curd-4 tsp
Chopped nuts-optional

Its a simple bread procedure wise.Sieve the first four ingredients together and keep aside.
Sprinkle half a spoon of cinnamon on the diced apple and keep aside.
Now whisk sugar,oil, curd and egg together.Add the flour mix gradually followed by diced apples,leftover cinnamon powder, raisins and nuts if using.Add more curd if the mixture feels too dry. I used 4 X 8 inches loaf pan for this bread.Bake in a preheated oven at 180 centigrade for forty minutes or till a skewer comes out clean.

 

 

 

 

Masala Oats bread

Last week was a week of indulgence..with cakes and cookies. In my heart I am scared if I pushed my sugar limits too high,so here I begin a week of austerity with a fat less,egg less, oatmeal bread..surprisingly it is yum in spite of how lacklustre it sounds and I can survive on this without complaining.

Although its a quick bread,does not requiring the tiring labour with yeast, it still needs to be done a little bit in advance. Also a word of warning,this bread does not bake tall. It is a heavy bread in texture and not a light springy bread that we pick up from the market. It best goes with a bit of butter or cheese spread,but thanks to my austerity drive, I had it with a cup of coffee for breakfast and it tasted wonderful.
Apart from the health factor, I love this bread for its versatility.One can make so many variations of this.I chose cumin and kasoori methi flvaour but one can go for curryleaf, dillweed, coriander..sky is the limit.

Ingredients

Oatmeal-225gm
Buttermilk-360ml
Baking powder-2 tsp
Plain flour-100 gm
Salt-1/2 tsp

Buttermilk tempering-Below is what I chose for my bread but you can change and choose from other spices depending on your taste.Also you can totally omit the tempering and make a plain bread if you desire.

Oil-1tsp
fenugreek seeds-1/4tsp
Cumin-1tsp
Chilli powder-1/2 tsp
Kasoori methi-2 tsp

Heat oil in a small skillet and add cumin and fenugreek seeds.Switch off the gas as they splutter.Add red chilli powder.Pour this tempering on the buttermilk and add kasoori methi. Mix.
Soak the oatmeal in this buttermilk overnight.

Next, put together salt, baking powder and flour and gradually start adding it to the soaked oatmeal.

 

Once done mixing,you will get a sticky dough. Place it in a greased tin and bake it for 40 min in a preheated oven at 180 centigrade.Optionally you can also brush the dough with melted butter before baking for a smooth brown top.I did not do that:) Instead I added flaxseed to my batter to boost up the health quotient.