Rosewater Scented Thandai Spiced Biscuits

It has been quiet here from sometime and I am finding myself short of words now, it was difficult to stay away from my passion of food and blogging and I could not resist myself to come back with a post. 

We have been experiencing quite a few sandstorms since last month, usually I avoid going out in dusty weather but blame my fate, we went out on one such dusty day and I  subsequently fell ill with very bad allergic cough, which was not settling since weather continued to be bad, and after N number of doctor visits, drowsy days, sleepless nights, 5 boxes of tissues, 4 bottles of cough syrup and lots of homemade medicines later, I am finally al right...phew..what a relief.  

I missed playing holi and stayed away from Thandai, but I badly wanted to drink thandai and as drinking anything cold was not an option for me, I made biscuits instead with the thandai spice. These biscuits were super good with spices like fennel, cardamom and black pepper and fragrant with rose and rosewater. They were perfect for tea time.

Ingredients:


Powdered Sugar- 75 Grams
Butter- 100 Grams
Salt- A Pinch
All Purpose Flour- 150 Grams
Corn Flour- 30 Grams
Baking Soda- 1/4 Tsp
Ground Thandai Masala - 1/4 Cup 
Rose Water- 2 Tbsp


Procedure:

• Beat sugar, butter and salt together with a hand held beater on medium speed till creamy.
• In a separate bowl sift together all purpose flour, cornflour, baking soda, thandai spice powder.
• Add this flour mix into the butter mixture. Now add in rosewater.
• Mix everything together to form a dough. Divide  the dough into two parts. Out of one part make a rectangular log . Wrap the log in cling film. Repeat the same with other round of dough.
• Keep both logs to chill in the refrigerator for about an hour.
• Preheat the oven at 180 degrees C.
• After an hour take out the logs and cut them into approx 1/8 inch thick slices.
• Arrange the slices about 1/2 inch apart in a greased baking tray and bake in the pre heated oven initially for 12 minutes then flip the cookies and bake again for another 5-6 minutes. 
• The cookies will firm up on cooling.
• Once completely cool, store in an airtight container.

Thekua ~ Indian Cookies For Indian Cooking Challenge

This month for the Indian Cooking Challenge, Srivalli challenged us to prepare traditional Indian cookies from the state of Bihar and these are called as Thekua or Khajur. These are crispy biscuits which are deep fried in oil and makes perfect tea time snack.

I had been too busy this month and am very late to post this but still happy that I am able to join in the gang at ICC.

Ingredients:

All Purpose Flour- 2 Cups
Semolina- 4 Tablespoons
Powdered Sugar- 8 Tablespoons
Grated Dry Coconut- 4 Teaspoons
Cardamom Powder- 1/8 Teaspoon
Oil/ Ghee- 8 Teaspoons + More for deep frying
Water- To make a dough

Procedure:

Mix flour, sugar, coconut, semolina and cardamom together and add in 8 teaspoons of oil. Using water bring everything together to form a crumbly dough. Meanwhile keep the oil to heat in a deep frying pan at medium heat.

 Roll out the dough to about 3-4 mm thickness, then using a cookie cutter cut out the shapes. Gather the trimmed edges and again repeat the rolling and cutting procedure till all the dough is used up.

Prick the cookies with a fork to prevent them from puffing. Deep fry these cookies in hot oil on medium heat till they turn golden brown in colour. Remove the cookies from oil and place them on kitchen paper to remove excess oil.

Once cool store these cookies in an airtight container, these stay good for about 2 weeks.

Thinner cookies are more crisper than the thick ones and next time I would increase the sugar little bit more as my family has got sweet tooth.

Eggless Rosette Cookies

Christmas is around the corner and these Rosette cookies or Achappam as they call in Kerala ( Southern Indian State) are traditionally made around this festive time. To know more about their origin I took help of Wikipedia and it seems that these cookies originated in the Scandinavia.  

These cookies are made using special mould which is made of iron and has intricate design with wooden handle. The mould is dipped in hot oil and then immersed in the batter which is then fried to get these delicious treats.

I made these rossette for the first time and almost all the recipes call for eggs but since we don't take eggs I was little sceptical as how these would turn out, but these turned out super good and were a real treat.

Ingredients:

Fine Rice Flour- 3/4 Cup ( Make sure to use non roasted flour)

All Purpose Flour- 1/2 Cup

Sugar- 1/2 Cup

Banana Purée- 1 tbsp

Thick Coconut Milk- 1/2 Cup

Cardamom Powder- 1/2 Tsp

Black Sesame Seeds- 1 Tbsp

Water- To make the batter

Salt- A Pinch

Oil - To Deep Fry

Procedure:

• Heat oil in a frying pan and keep the rosette mould immersed in hot oil.
• Prepare the batter by mixing rice flour, all purpose flour, sugar, banana purée, coconut milk, cardamom powder, black sesame seeds, salt together and add water to make a smooth, lump free batter of neither too thin nor too thick but of flowing consistency.
• When the oil is hot enough take out the mould from it and immediately immerse the mould upto 3/4th in the prepared batter. Take care not to fully immerse the mould in the batter else the cookies will not come out of the mould.
• Take out the mould from the batter and immediately immerse it in the hot oil. 
• Let the batter fry for 20-30 seconds in medium heat along with the mould.
• Now gently tap the mould to release the cookie in the oil. If the cookie doesn't come out on it own then use a skewer to remove the cookie. However with practise these cookies come out perfectly.
• Fry on both sides till the cookies turn slight golden. 
• Make sure to fry only a couple of these at a time, since these turn dark very quickly.
• Also the mould has to be hot each time before being dipped into the batter. If the mould is not hot then the batter won't come off in hot oil.

Linking these to #cookielove blog hop co hosted by me along with other wonderful bloggers. Do check them here.

Cookielove~ Savoury Cookies~ Mathri

This is the time for love blog hop and the theme for this month is cookie...so get ready for some cookielove. My family loves cookies and I always keep my cookie jar full, my DH and daughter have got sweet tooth and always prefer sweet cookies but I like to munch on savoury ones with my cup of tea. These spiced cookies are called Mathri in India and are generally deep fried. These cookies are very crunchy and flaky, the more the amount of fat used the more crunchy these will be.

Instead of deep frying I have baked these cookies and to make them vegan I have used canola oil instead of ghee (clarified butter).

I have used dried fenugreek leaves (Kasuri methi) to flavour these cookies.

Another spice which I have used is Black pepper..really adds a pep to these cookies. But these spices are optional and can be adjusted according to the tastebuds.

Ingredients: 

Whole Wheat Flour- 1 Cup

All Purpose Flour- 1/2 Cup

Gram Flour (Besan)- 1/2 Cup

Semolina- 2 tbsp

Turmeric Powder- A pinch

Raw Sugar- 1 tsp

Dried Fenugreek Leaves ( Kasuri Methi)- 1 tbsp

Black Pepper Powder- 1 tsp

Cumin Coarsely Crushed- 1/4 tsp

Salt- To Taste

Oil/ Clarified Butter- 1/2 Cup (hot)

Warm Water- 1/2 Cup to make the dough

Procedure:

• Preheat the oven at 200 Degrees C.
• In a large bowl mix together all the ingredients except oil and water. 
• Add hot oil to the flour mix little by little and mix everything together with a spoon. 
• Now add warm little by little and bring the dough together. Do not knead.
• Now transfer the dough on a clean surface and roll with a rolling pin. The dough will not be sticky because of the presence of fat.
• Roll the dough to the desired thickness and cut into round shapes with the help of cookie cutter.
• Arrange in a baking tray and bake on the top rack for about 10 minutes, after 10 minutes turn over the cookies and let them bake for another 10 minutes. 
• Keep a close eye on these as they brown very quickly.
• Let the cookies cool  and store them in an airtight container. These cookies have shelf life of almost a week.

On another important note we celebrated UAE National Day on 2nd December. UAE turned 40 this year. This is a country which has provided good opportunities to many in all the fields along with being a safe and  multicultural nation.

And the kids celebrated the National Day in school with great joy and my daughter came back home singing "Let's salute the UAE on 2nd of December...."

And on this day I am celebrating my first blog anniversary. It had been a fun year filled with lots of good experiences...I got to know so many wonderful bloggers without whom this journey of mine would not have been possible. 

From being Raji who was only a mother and a wife I transitioned into being Raji At Vegetarian Tastebuds and truly cherished each and every day of blogging. Each new post brought me close to new friends. I came to know people from different countries and learnt about their food cultures, I tried my hands on various cuisines which I never thought I would try, I stepped towards a healthy life and I started socializing on social network sites like Facebook and Twitter...what more can I ask? 

I sincerely want to thank each and every reader of mine who has taken time out to read my posts and drop in their comments.A big big thank you.  

Sending these cookies to Vardhini's Bake Fest event hosted by Sangeetha at Spicy Treats and to Radhika's Let's Cook #10 event.

Now Coming to the Cookielove..I am co hosting this blog hop along with-

Badger Girl Learns to Cook/ Kimberly Aime/ @BdgerGrl

Baking and Cooking, A Tale of Two Loves/ Becky Higgins

BigFatBaker/ Erin Meyer/ @BigFatBaker

Bloc de recetas/ Salomé/ @Blocderecetas

Bon a croquer /Valerie/ @Valouth

CafeTerraBlog/ Terra Baltosiewich / @CafeTerraBlog

Cake Duchess/ Lora/ @cakeduchess

Creative Cooking Corner/ Karriann Graf/ @KarriannGraf

Easily Good Eats/ Three-Cookies

Georgiecakes /Georgie Kubarych /@georgiecakes

Hobby And More / Richa/ @betit19

knitstamatic / Deb/ @knitstamatic

Mike's Baking / Mike R./ @mikesbaking

Mis Pensamientos / Junia/ @juniakk

No One Likes Crumbley Cookies / T.R./ @TRCrumbley

Oh Cake / Jessica Hose/ @jesshose

Queen's Notebook /Elizabeth Quirino/ @Mango_Queen

Savoring Every Bite /Linda Geiler/ @Spicegirlfla

Simply Reem / Reem /@simplyreem

Soni's Food for Thought / Soni/ @sonisfood

Teaspoon of Spice /Deanna Segrave-Daly/ @tspbasil

That Skinny Chick Can Bake!!!/ Liz / @Thatskinnychick

The Art of Cooking Real Food / Laura /@TAofCRF

The Spicy RD / EA Stewart /@thespicyrd

The Wimpy Vegetarian /Susan Pridmore /@chezsuzanne

Vegan Yack Attack! /Jackie Sobon/ @veganyackattack

December is #cookielove month!

Please join in on the #cookielove fun by linking up any cookie recipe from the month of December 2011. Don't forget to link back to this post, so that your readers know to come stop by the #cookielove event! The twitter hashtag is #cookielove 

Khara Biscuits For Indian Cooking Challenge

It's not very long since I started baking but each time I bake something I enjoy the experience thoroughly. Kneading, rolling, shaping gives me lots of relaxation. And the joy of seeing the perfectly baked goodies out of the oven is priceless for me. I had not baked anything since last month..you know..trying to loose weight before my vacations... but still each time I saw any baked goodies in my fav blogs I was so tempted to bake..I only know how much will power it required to stop myself from baking anything sinful.

And while I was trying not to indulge in baking anything Srivalli announced the Indian Cooking Challenge for this month...I have to confess..I got so happy when I saw the challenge...baking...wow..that too savoury biscuits. Since I had missed last months challenge I was determined not to miss this months. The challenge was to make Karnataka special..Iyengar bakery khara biscuits...recipe to be referred was that of Champa's. And champa does not require any introduction. Her baking recipes are always fool proof...so I had even more reasons to be happy...yippee...these biscuits does not require loads of butter and moreover these are savoury ones....these are really so addictive and vanished in no time.

I did very few changes in the original recipe. Added sesame seeds and ground ginger, green chillies and coriander instead of chopping them. I have convection oven so I baked these at 180 degrees.

Ingredients:

All Purpose Flour- 250 gms

Butter- 1/3 Cup

Sugar- 4 tsp

Salt- 1 tsp

Green Chillies- 5

Coriander Leaves- 3 tbsp

Ginger- 1 Inch Piece

White Sesame- 1 tbsp

Yoghurt- 3 tbsp

Procedure:

• Preheat the oven to 180 Degrees C.
• Line the baking sheets with slightly greased aluminium foil and set aside.
• Grind coriander, chillies and ginger together and keep it aside.
• Sift flour and salt together and keep aside.
• With the help of beater cream butter and sugar till smooth and creamy. 
• Now in the creamed butter and sugar mixture add in the flour and salt mix along with ground green paste and sesame. 
• Make a dough using yoghurt...add little by little and make a stiff dough. Don't over knead the dough. The dough should not be very wet.
• Roll out the dough in 1/4 inch thickness and with the help of desired cookie cutter cut into shapes.
• Bake in the pre heated oven for around 23 minutes.
• The biscuits will be soft when done but will firm up on cooling.
• When cool transfer these biscuits in an air tight container. 

Enjoy these with a cup of hot tea.

Peanut Butter And Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Melt in the mouth goodness is what these cookies are. Though I am not a very big fan of peanut butter but I cherished these cookies till the last bite...even reached for second helping...some scrumptious bites they were. The cookies were not overtly sweet. Had a great time making these with my daughter who was very enthusiastic to help me in dropping the dough.

The original recipe here called for 1 egg but I conveniently replaced that with flaxseed...also used only 1/2 cup of chocolate chips as otherwise 1 cup mentioned in the recipe. I used an ice cream scooper to drop the dough so got big sized cookies. Without further ado let me come straight to the recipe.

Recipe Source: (Brown Eyed Baker)

Ingredients: (Yields 16 big cookies)

All Purpose Flour- 1 Cup

Salt- 1/4 tsp

Baking Soda- 1 tsp

Oats- 1/2 Cup

Unsalted Butter- 1/2 Cup (At room temperature)

Creamy Peanut Butter- 1/2 Cup

Granulated Sugar- 1/2 Cup

Light Brown Sugar- 1/3 Cup

Vanilla Extract- 1/2 tsp

Chocolate Chips- 1/2 Cup

Ground Flaxseed- 1 tbsp

Procedure:

• Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C. Line the baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
• Sift together APF, Salt and Soda together and set aside.
• In small mixer jar add ground flaxseed along with 3 tablespoons of water and run for some time till the liquid gets frothy. Set aside.
• Using hand mixer cream together butter, peanut butter, both sugars and vanilla extract at medium speed for about 3 minutes.
• Add in flaxseed liquid and keep beating.
• Add in the flour mixture, oats and chocolate chips and beat till just combined.
• Using an ice cream scooper drop the dough onto the prepared baking sheet about 2.5 inches apart.
• Though the original recipe calls about 10 minutes baking time but it took 22 minutes in my oven to get the cookies golden.
• Cool completely in the baking sheet and then store in airtight container.

Linking these to Priya and Aipi's boomarked recipes- Every Tuesday Event

Sending these to Hearth and Soul Blog Hop co hosted by Kankana.

Rainbow Cookies

My family is never tired of cookies. They are always happy to try out any kind of these buttered goodies...and I am always happy to see them smile. The reason I made cookies was to send these to my daughter's class party, the kids had their last day at lower kindergarten class and they will be going to upper kindergarten from next month...that's really a proud day for them..and my daughter insisted on some home made goodies for her friends.

I used shortbread dough for these cookies and added some colour sprinkles to give these rainbow effect. And I had one proud daughter who was so happy to share her mamma made cookies.

Ingredients:

APF- 2 Cups

Corn Flour - 1/2 Cup

Butter - 1 Cup (Room Temperature)

Castor Sugar - 3/4 Cup ( Since I was making for kids I used 3/4th cup but 1/2 cup will do)

Vanilla Essence - 1/2 tsp

Rainbow Sugar Sprinkles - 3 tbsp

Procedure:

• Beat the butter in a bowl with electric beater for about a minute and then add sugar and beat in medium speed for around 3-4 minutes till it turns creamy.
• Add in vanilla essence and beat again till just mixed.
• Add APF , Corn flour and Rainbow Sprinkles. Mix everything together and bring the mixture to form a ball of dough.
• Keep the dough wrapped in cling film to chill in the refrigerator for about half an hour.
• Pre heat the oven to 180 degrees C.
• Take out the dough and roll out on a lightly floured surface to about 3-4 mm in thickness.
• Cut the desire shapes with a cookie cutter and bake them in an ungreased baking tray in the pre heated oven for about 13- 15 minutes or till its very slightly golden around the edges.
• The cookies will be soft and crumbly as soon as they come out of the oven but they will harden once they cool.
• Cool them on a wired rack completely before storing them in air tight container.

Sending these cookies to Champa's bake off.

Nutella Palmiers

This is one of the easiest thing I have ever baked. My lil one is so fond of nutella that she can start her day with nutella bread and end her day with nutella paratha. She has caught flu and was at home today so I though of making these cute palmiers to cheer her up. Well..needless to say she enjoyed these a lot and is now demanding me to make some more to take to school tomorrow.

Palmiers is a french cookie also known as elephant ear cookie. These were very cute and delicious. To get good elephant ear shaped goodies the puff pastry sheets should be rolled out rectangular in shape but I had square sheets so got not so perfect palmiers.

Ingredients:

Puff Pastry Sheets

Nutella

Procedure:

Thaw the puff pastry sheets according to the instructions given in the package. Spread nutella on the sheet. Take longer side of the sheet and start rolling inward and stop in the middle then roll inwards from the other side. Apply little water to join where the rolls are meeting in the middle.

With knife cut the dough in approximately 1/2 inch thick slices.

Place the palmiers in baking sheet leaving enough space in between. Bake the palmiers in pre heated oven at 200 deg C for 10-15 minutes or till the puff pastry turns golden.

Sending this to Ayeesha's Any One Can Cook Series 17 and to Torview's Food Palette Series Brown

Almond Cookies

Cookies are always a treat for my family and I can say that these were the best flavoured cookies I have ever baked. Served as a snack with milk for my daughter and she also took these in her lunch box.

These cookies are packed with the goodness of almonds and dough can be made in advance and stored in fridge for about 2 days and in the freezer for almost a month.

Original Recipe Source : Gourmet Magazine 2005 Aug

Makes about 45 cookies

Ingredients :

APF - 1 cup

Almonds Sliced - 1 cup

Baking Soda - 1/2 tsp

Salt - 1/8 tsp

Butter Softened - 6 tbsp

Granulated White Sugar - 1/4 cup

Light Brown firmly packed Sugar - 1/4 cup

Golden Syrup - 1 tbsp

Vanilla Extract - 1/2 tsp

Procedure:

• Sift together APF, salt and soda.
• Beat together butter, syrup, vanilla extract and both sugars till soft and fluffy for about 5 minutes. I used electric beater.
• Add the flour mixture and mix everything till a dough begins to form.
• Add in the sliced almond and mix everything well. (If the dough is very dry add 1 or 2 tbsp of milk)
• Form a dough and divide it in two parts. Out of one part make a rectangular log about 6 inches long , 2 inches wide and 3/4 inch thick. Wrap the log in cling film. Repeat the same with other round of dough.
• Keep to chill both logs for about 2 hours.
• Take out one log after 2 hrs and cut in 1/8 inch thick slices.
• Arrange the slices around 1/2 inch apart in greased baking tray and bake in pre heated oven at 180 degree C for about 12 minutes or until brown.
• Repeat with the other log.
• Transfer the cookies to a rack to cool and store in airtight container when completely cooled.

These cookies very loved by everyone and my daughter had a big smile on her face.

Sending these cookies to Priya and Aipi's bookmarked recipes event and also to Champa's Bake off.

Plump Orange Cookies

My kitchen was filled with aroma of oranges when these plumpish cookies were being baked. I have a small collection of Women's Weekly -Australia magazine recipes and adapted these from there.

Ingredients: Yield 23 cookies

All Purpose Flour - 1 cup

Whole Wheat Flour - 1 cup

Almond meal - 1/4 cup

Zest of 4 oranges

Powdered Sugar - 6 tbsp + little more for sprinkling on top of cookies

Baking Soda - 1/2 tsp

Milk - 1/2 cup (cold)

Oil - 1/3 cup (I used canola oil)

Procedure:

• Pre heat oven at 190 deg C.
• Sift APF, WWF, sugar and baking soda together in a big bowl.
• Add in almond meal and orange zest and mix everything together nicely.
• Add in milk and oil and bring the mixture together.
• Make small balls of the mixture and place in baking tray a little apart from each other.
• Bake the cookies for 30 mins or till golden brown from outside.
• Take them out and let it cool for sometime , sprinkle some powdered sugar on top with a sieve before digging into them.

Store in an airtight container. They tasted so nice and were crispy with cracks. Very light cookies served as a good evening snack for my daughter.

Sending this to bake off event started by Champa of Versatile Vegetarian Kitchen.