Eggless Whole Wheat Thumbprint cookies

Background daemon threads running every now and then in the back of my mind - gotta use up the jams, gotta use up the whole wheat flour before it expires, expiry date of cream is nearing, expiry date of milk is nearing and so on. It is so difficult to live in a developed country where everything is sold in bulk. So what do I do with all the store bought jam? I now have 3 jars of homemade blueberry preserve (recipe coming soon - blame on laziness to edit the pictures) and so had to get rid of the store bought jam especially since we had stocked up on them during the "super deal of the week" at the supermarket. No, I don't want to be done with my own preserve, I want them to last as long as I possibly can but before they expire. I was too lazy to make these whole wheat pop tarts so I decide to take a short cut and try my version of the jim jam biscuits that I so loved from britannia.

Super easy and super fast. Not to forget the heady wafts of the butter as the cookies bake. Not only was I in seventh heaven while they baked but later too when Pras downed them one after another without allowing them to completely cool.

Ingredients (Makes 28 cookies of 2cm diameter each) :

1. Whole wheat flour - 1 cup
2. Chilled unsalted butter cut into cubes - 100g
3. Ice cold water - 1/4 cup
4. Salt - 1/4 tsp
5. Jam/Preserve - enough to fill all the cookies

How I made it :

1. In a food processor bowl, add the flour and salt.
2. Pre-heat the oven to 190 degree C.
3. Add the chilled cubed butter.
4. Turn on the food processor and wait till the flour starts to form crumbs.
5. Now, start slowly pouring in the cold water. You may not need the entire amount. You need to add just enough to get the dough to come together in a lump. 
6. Stop the food processor. Split the dough into small balls of desired size.
7. Take each ball in your right hand and make a deep impression with your thumb. You may need to adjust the other sides which could get a bit thick. Place onto a baking sheet/tray. The cookies have enough butter so there is no need to grease the tray. Repeat for all other balls. 
8. Bake for 12 minutes in the oven.
9. Now take the cookies out of the oven. Don't turn off the oven yet. Put in the jam into each of the cookies. Don't overfill as it will ooze over. You may need to press the cookies a bit as the centres may have risen.
10. Bake for another 8-10 minutes.
11. Cool 

I am not sure how long they will stay as ours were over before I knew it. I am going to make it a point to make better use of the oven and bake in slightly larger quantities.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

The course on haute cuisine that I have enroled in had the recipe of nestle tollhouse chocolate chip cookies and explains why you must stick to the recipe and try to exact the measurements specified. So, I decided to give it a try. The first time I made it with the exact directions and it turned out exactly like the cookies that I used to have at the Hilton in Roseville, California. I did feel really guilty eating those as they had loads of butter and sugar in them. I was happy that I had made a small batch of 15 cookies.

I was having two people, whom I am very fond of, visiting us this evening and so decided to make these cookies but decided to give them a little healthy twist. The result was different but good as well.

Preparation Time : 10 minutes
Cooking Time : 11 minutes
Equipment Required : Oven, egg beater/hand mixer
Source : http://allrecipes.com/recipe/original-nestle-toll-house-chocolate-chip-cookies
Ingredients (Makes about 24-30 cookies depending on size):

1. Whole wheat flour - 1 cup + 2 tbsp
2. Salt  - 1/2 tsp
3. Baking powder - 1/2 tsp
4. Baking soda - 1/2 tsp
5. Chopped nuts - 1/4 cup
6. Chocolate chips - 1/4-1/2 cup
7. Vanilla essence - 1/2 tsp
8. Unsalted butter - 1/4 cup melted
9. Granulated white sugar - 1/4 cup
10. Raw brown sugar - 1/4 cup
11. Egg - 1 large

How I made it :

1. Preheat oven to 190 degree C.
2. Prepare the baking tray. I covered a cooling tray with aluminium foil and spread some flour over it.
3. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
4. Beat the sugars, vanilla essence and butter for 2 minutes on high.
5. Add the egg and beat well till the mixture is creamy. I beat mine a bit too much such that the mix got quite thick. This gives it a more crumbly texture. 
6. Add the mix from step 3 and mix till well combined.
7. Shape into cookies, press in some nuts and chocolate chips. Now, if you had not beaten the egg stiff, you may have a moist dough. In that case, use a spoon to place spoonfuls on the baking tray and press in some chocolate chips and nuts.
8. Bake for 11 minutes. 
9. Cool for 30 minutes and store in airtight containers.

Beetroot cake

I had this one odd beetroot lying around in my vegetable basket and I really did not know how to use it up. I usually make a beetroot paratha which hubby hates - I've not figured that out till date.
I browsed around a bit as I did remember seeing quite a few beetroot cake recipes when I made the eggless beetroot chocolate cake sometime back. Here is Nigel Slater's version of the beetroot cake.
Fortunately, this cake was ready just in time for guests. They loved it.

Ingredients : 

1. 1 cup whole wheat atta + enough for dusting
2. 1 cup brown sugar
3. 180ml oil + 1tsp for preparing the cake tin.
4. 1/3 cup raisins
5. 1/3 cup chopped walnuts
6. 2/3 cup grated raw beetroot
7. 3 eggs separated
8. 1tsp baking powder
9. 1/2 tsp baking soda
10. 1 tsp ground cinnamon powder - I usually grate a stick then and there as needed

Other equipment required :

1. Grater
2. Mixer
3. Hand blender or egg beater
4. OTG or Microwave with Convection option

How I made it :

1. Preheat the oven at 180 degree C.
2. Prepare the cake tin by first rubbing a layer of oil followed by a dusting of flour. I used a square 20 cm tin. The original recipe called for the use of a rectangular loaf tin. However, there as no difference in cooking time.
3. Sift the flour with baking powder and soda. This is to incorporate air into the flour.
4. In a mixie jar, beat the oil and sugar together.
5. Add the egg yolks one at a time, beating well in between additions.
6. Mix in the beetroot, walnuts and raisins.
7. Fold in the sifted flour mixture along with the cinnamon powder.
8. In a separate bowl, with a hand mixer beat the egg whites till soft peaks form.
9. Gently fold until well combined into the mixture at 7. Please ensure that it is well combined. 
10. Pour into cake tin.
11. Bake at 180 degree C for 55 minutes. Cover with aluminium foil after 30 minutes. 

It was truly delicious - moist and hearty. Healthy too. 

Eggless Chocolate Banana cup cakes with Pomegranate

I got home today, thinking about the enthusiasm of my friends who travel with me to work. They have immense energy and always manage to try something new after work. And I went, why could I not show more zeal. They were planning to make cup cakes and I said, why should I not do so too. So, I quickly found this recipe to use up the pomegranates that we'd bought during our grocery shopping and decided that it was what I was going to make. I made an eggless version using banana puree instead of the egg and I quartered all the ingredients as I did not want to make 24!!! I also had half a coconut with which I thought I would make bounty bars - this again inspired by the same friends. Posting that recipe soon.

Ingredients (for 6 cupcakes) : 

1. 1/4 + 1/8 cup flour
2. 1/4 cup cocoa powder
3. 1/8 tsp vanilla powder or essence
4. 1/8 tsp baking soda
5. 1/4 + 1/8 tsp baking powder
6. 1/8 tsp salt
7. 1/4 cup sugar
8. 1/4 cup milk
9. 1/8 cup oil
10. 1 medium banana - ripe
11. 1/4 cup pomegranate seeds
12. 1/8 cup boiling hot water

How I made it :

1. Preheat oven to 190 degree C.
2. Blend the banana, milk and oil in a mixie jar and keep aside.
3. Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda and cocoa powder.
4. Add the salt and vanilla essence to the flour.
5. Add the sugar followed by the blended mixture of step 1.
6. Add boiling water. Mix well into smooth mixture.
7. Throw in the pomegranate seeds.
8. Line muffin tins with liners.
9. Pour in mixture upto 3/4th level
10. Bake at 190 degree C for 25 minutes.

These were amazing. The flavour of chocolate and banana with the bite of pomegranate here and there. Loved them and they were gone in hours.

My take on the nippattu

My good friend gave me a sample of her baked nippattu one morning and I flipped. It was just so god damned good. I knew I had to give it a try.
Those of you who do know me very well, I am a sindhi who loves her koki. This dish reminded me so much of the koki. Koki is an onion and green chilli mixed paratha. It is a very famous breakfast across all Sindhi households, eaten with curds, pickle or white butter and sugar.
Now, the nippattu is similarly flavoured and hence the instant liking. The original recipe is here but I added my own twist to it. Instead of 2 cups of plain maida, I used just 1. To substitute the remaining 1 cup, I added 1/4 cup makki atta (cornmeal), 1/4 cup rava, 1/4 cup rice flour and 1/4 cup whole wheat flour. I also skipped the baking soda. I never buy baking soda cause it can be quite harmful for the body I hear. However, I also hear that it is a fabulous household cleaner.

I did follow this recipe and tried baking the nippattu. There were two things that went wrong
1. I lost patience as I was able to bake only two at a time in my oven.
2. Mine were quite crumbly in nature cause of the rava that I had added to the dough.

I left half of the dough back in the fridge and today on this cold rainy afternoon, I fried them as small vadas instead and they were yummy and gone in minutes.

Ingredients :
1 cup maida
1/4 cup makki atta - cornmeal
1/4 cup rice flour
1/4 cup rava/semolina
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1 large onion finely chopped
4 tsp white sesame seeds
1/3 cup oil
2 tsp sugar
Freshly chopped coriander leaves - as much as you like
1 tsp salt
4 tbsp melted butter - I used salted
3 finely chopped green chillies
1/4 cup warm water

How I made it :

1. Mix all the flours together. Add the salt, white sesame seeds, onion, green chillies, sugar and coriander leaves.
2. Make a well in the center. 
3. Pour in the melted butter and oil. Mix till the mix resembles coarse bread crumbs.
4. Now add the water cautiously. Add little by little until the dough comes together. You may not need to add the entire quantity. As the author of the original recipe suggests, the little water you use, the easier it is to roll out in the baked version.
5. Cover this with a damp cloth or cling film and keep aside for 30 minutes. 
6. Heat oil in a fry pan. 
7. Make small rounds out of the dough and when the oil is hot, drop these rounds in and fry till golden brown on both sides.

Serve hot.