ahmi

Nankhatai is a cookie, famous in pakistan and in india. Nankhatai is a basic eggless cookie made with clarified butter(ghee). When Bina posted her nankhatai recipe on daily tiffin, i tried it immediately and fell in love with these cookies, but it took too long (2 years) to post here.



whenever we crave for crispier biscuits, i would make nankhatai in minutes. its so easy to make. moreover, you can make it quick.

I find Scones are very easier ones to try. Scones are always loved at Home. Last Saturday i decided to make these Cranberry scones for break-fast. A typical English Break-Fast after watching the Royal Wedding! It was easy to make and it tasted Great!! I referred Soma's Cranberry and Almond Scones and Joy of Baking to prepare these Delicious Scones.


Ingredients:

All Purpose Flour - 1 and half cup
Dried Cranberry - 1/4 cup
Chilled Butter - 6 tbsp's
Sugar - 1/2 cup
Baking Powder - 1 tsp
Milk - 1/4 cup
Egg - 1


Method:

Pre-Heat the oven to 200C.

Chop the dried Cranberries and set aside. Beat the Egg with 1/4 tsp of water and keep aside.

In a Big Bowl, add the Flour,Sugar, Baking Powder and mix well. To this add Chilled Butter and mix with your hands, the final mix should be like Bread Crumbs.

Now add Dried Cranberries and mix. Add Milk little by little, to gather the dough together. slowly knead the dough and roll the dough for 1/2 inch thickness, with rolling pin.

With the help of Cookie cutter, shape them. place them on greased baking tray with gap inbetween to let the scones expand while baking.

Give an Egg Wash over the scones just before baking.

Bake the Scones at 200c for about 15 minutes till the bottom of the scones gets golden colour.

Once Baked, let the Scones Cool down in wire wrack for about 10 minutes and Serve.

These Butter Cookies remembered me the Butter Biscuits. During my childhood, i remember my mom used to send all the necessary ingredients for the butter biscuits in big buckets(thooku) to our nearby town villupuram. Our Helper Pushpa takes them to some bakery in villupuram and comes home with butter biscuits taking pain in lifting all along thru bus. Life at villiage surely lacks luxuries but i bet, They are Full of Memories!!


These were Melt in mouth kind of cookies, and at home we all loved it much. When there is so much of butter will it go wrong?

Recipe for Butter Cookies:
Makes about 40 cookies
Recipe from : http://e-bookdown.com/311-cakes-and-bakes.html

Ingredients:

3/4 Cup of Butter (at room temp)
3/4 cup of powdered sugar
1 egg
2 cups of All Purpose Flour / Maida
1 tsp of baking powder
1 tsp of baking soda


Method:

Pre-Heat the oven at 180C for about 10 mins. Line the Baking tray with butter paper or aluminium foil sheet.

Whisk a egg and keep it seperate.

In a mixing bowl, put the butter and powdered sugar and whisk until light and fluffy either with your hand mixer or a whisk. add the whisked eggs.

Sieve the flour with baking powder and baking soda for about 2 or 3 times. add the sieved flour to the mixing bowl and gently fold in. make sure to mix with spatula and fold the flour gently.

Pinch a small amount of dough, roll it with your palms to the thickness of your finger, place it on the butter paper and shape it in "S" shape.

Give enough space between cookies, so that it can expand while baking.

Bake the cookes at 180C for about 12-15 mins, till you see the bottom of the cookies turn golden in colour.

Cool the Cookies after baking and transfer them to an air tight container.


I also made round cookies, as i did not have patience to shape all the 40 cookies. S shape was much loved by the kid! It will be a great school snack and party snack!

Note:

1.You can give egg wash over the cookies to get crisp cookies. this cookies can also be prepared without eggs.

2.The Cookie Dough can be wrapped up with cling wrap and cooled at fridge. after cooling, knead them gently and roll them off into 1/2 inch thickness. you can then use cookie cutter over the rolled dough and furthur bake them.

3. The Actual recipe used silvered almonds as the topping to the cookies, do try it out to.

Wishing You All Very Very Happy New Year! Last decade had more for me, College, Marriage, Kid and learning at different stops of Life. One big thing i learnt in last decade is Cooking. When i got married in 2004, i knew to make Maggi Noodles, Bread Upma, Pizza's with store bought Pizza Base. In the last 6 years, Cooking turned to be a big Passion for me. as a result you are reading this Food Blog:)

Okay, what's my New Year Resolution? Its not just for this Year, as i think, it will be in long term, for the next decade atleast. One is to feed the Family Healthier way. Second, I should Think several times before taking important decisions. Third, to enjoy every bit of Life.  in simple, iam trying to correct the mistakes of last decade.

If you ask me what happened to my last Year's Resolution, Yes i was able to follow it for 6 months atleast.

Last Year's Resolutions were, not to expect other hands for help.( it purposely meant, that i should do all my house-held work without maid). I survived without domestic help for 6 months. later i was pushed to have a helper, as hubby went abroad, and i needed someone to looks after the kid, when i had to look after outside work.

Next was to reduce maida, oil in cooking.  and i have reduced the oil consumption from 1 and half litre a month to 1 litre. but could'nt reduce maida, as iam experimenting on baking mode, maida/APF becomes  must for the experiments.

Coming to the Chocolate Temptations Cookies, I tried it out, from my Cakes and Bakes Book. I just followed the recipe. It turned out fabulous and vanished in just two days. My Son and I loved it!

1. Pre-Heat the oven to 180C. Line a Tray with Butter Paper and Grease it with butter.

2. If you have Double Boiler, Melt the 225gms of chocolate, Butter  along with Coffee.

               (or)

Boil 2 cup's of water in a bowl and simmer it.  find another fitting bowl, that could sit over the boiling water bowl and place it over the boiling water bowl. add 225gms of dark chocolate, 1/2 cup butter and Coffee to the bowl and melt them together.

3. Beat 2 eggs in a bowl until fluffy. whisk in sugar gradually till the  mix, turns thicker. Remove the chocolate melted, and add to the egg-sugar whisked. Mix them all together, till they are mixed well and becomes Thicker.

4. Sift the Floour, Baking powder, salt  into a bowl. add the melted chocolate-egg mix to the flour and give a mix with spatula or wooden spoon. add chocolate chips, almond extract and nuts and give a mix to get the cookie dough.

5. Spoon in the cookie dough over the greased butter paper and bake in the pre-heated oven for 15-17 minutes. Transfer the cookies to wire-wrack once its baked.

With the help of double boiler or in double boiling method(refer step 2), melt the chocolate, butter and icing sugar together. once the chocolate gets melted and mix turns thick, add milk to make the mix thinner.

Pour the mix to a Piping bag and pipe lines over the cookies.

* I used Milk cover instead of Piping Bag.

* I did a foolishness of using Demarara Sugar instead of Icing sugar and it did'nt melt and struck in between while piping chocolate lines.

I baked Cookies for first time, and it came out okay. it got crispier texture out and little crumble texture in. But we all liked it a lot. I was not so dare enough to try chocolate cookies or choco-chip cookies, as this is the first time, fearing that it would not turn good. Using Cinnamon was also easier, the flavour and taste was really good. so any first time bakers reading this, Just go ahead with Cinnamon cookies, if you are baking cookies for the first time.
I referred lots of website's and took bits and pieces from each recipe. and now presenting what i did.