Chocolate and Nuts Biscuit Cake | No Bake Dessert Recipe

Now-a-days I am making a lot of no bake desserts. In this past week, I have been experimenting with multiple versions of Chocolate Biscuit Cake. At the beginning of the week I made a divine one with biscuits and cinnamon crackers, then shortly after that one with biscuits and candy, and today I made one with graham crackers and toasted almonds!!

Buttery Brown Sugar Shortbread | Eggless Baking

Shortbread is the ultimate biscuit. At least I happen to think so. I got addicted to them many years ago when I traveled to Scotland on work. Being a regular in Edinburgh, it was impossible to walk past any store, tea shop, or grocer without seeing an assortment of shortbread. I always made sure I carried back a stash on return home:)

Almond Butter Oats Cookies | Eggless Baking

I am back to Sunday baking and loving it!! So many delicious breads, cakes, and cookies to be baked. I love that I make these baked goodies at home, instead of buying them in the store. The number of ingredients in an average muffin have always scared me. But over time the difference in fresh home baked and store bought has become so apparent that the sweet and salt levels in these goodies have begun to bother me. I love to tinker with ingredients when I bake so that I get the healthy balanced treat. Here's to home baking and guilt free eating:)

Frosted Chocolate Surprise Cookies | Cookies for Christmas

We had lots and lots of fluffy white snow over the last week, and were pretty much snowed in over Christmas. The white stuff covered the entire landscape and covered the branches of the bare trees too. The falling temperatures and the ice rain that followed froze pretty much everything in sight including the snow covered branches, and we felt we were in one of those picture postcards of a winter wonderland!! Sleigh bells ringing, reindeer, hot chocolate, and all!! Ahh Christmas!!

Cinnamon Walnut Cookie Logs | Cookies for Christmas | Eggless Baking

Its getting pretty chilly out here. There is snow on the ground and on some days the wind chills are below the freezing mark. With the Thanksgiving behind us, everyone seems to be in a great hurry to get Christmas preparations under way. Lights, trees, festive decorations, and candy are all out in plenty. Santa has set up his workshop in the malls and the smiles on the children's faces are a sight to behold!!

Classic English Digestive Biscuits | Digestive Cookies

The one biscuit that I came to love from my time in England is the English Digestive. Ubiquitous yet unobtrusive, this most English of biscuits has found a place in the heart of many a visitor an local alike. The story of the English Digestive goes something like this: Known originally as a Wheaten, this sweet meal biscuit came to be called a 'digestive' as the use of sodium bicarbonate in the recipe led people to believe that the biscuit had antacid properties. Though records of its existence in England go back to the 1870s, it is believed that such brown meal biscuits were sold by English bakers from the 1850s!

Cashew, Cardamom, and Butterscotch Cookies | Eggless Cookies

Our weekend was hectic but good. As it was a warm Saturday with milder breeze from the south and west and we were able to spend most of it out of doors. Sunday was so sunny but marked the return of the chilly north winds and so we stuck it out at home. We are in the midst of an unpredictable stretch of spring, complete with sunshine, thunderstorms, monsoon like showers, and snow - yes snow!!

Chocolate Chunks Cookies | Eggless Cookies

I like to bake cookies. Apart from the taste, I love knowing exactly what they are made of - no artificial ingredients, no colors, nor preservatives, no hydrogenated fats!! This is not to say that I am not occasionally partial to the biscuits I grew up eating in India. Its more that I am now more comfortable with the home baked versions. You can put them together so quickly and most of them can be stored for up to ten days, provided you can keep your hands off them.

Eggless Tutti Frutti Biscuits | Indian Bakery Style Cookies

Some years ago I was a regular visitor in Hyderabad. Work took me there every few months. Though I lived most of the time in the city, there were weeks when I was out in the field. Whenever I was out on a field trip, I would put up in rest houses surrounded by beautiful greenery and fields. Early mornings were beautiful and when it rained it was wonderful to see all kinds of birds, bugs, and frogs line up along the tiled courtyard and sing in relative harmony!!

Indian Bakery Style Zeera Biscuits | Sweet and Salty Cumin Cookies

The Daring Bakers had a great challenge for November 2012 - 12 Days of Cookies!! Unfortunately as I am away from both home and desk at this time I am unable to have a steady access to the Internet and computer. As a result I find my self posting my DB Challenge late for the month. With limited possibilities I have posted my own recipe of a cookie that is loved and enjoyed by many Indians in their homes. Zeera Biscuits are a staple at local bakeries throughout the country and as I never get to see them in the States I was keen to try my hand at baking them. I did and the result was delicious!!

Khara Biscuits | Masala Biscuits | Indian Spice Crackers

Khara Biscuits are a typically Indian bakery biscuit. Khara means salty or savoury, and this biscuit could be spicy too depending on where in India you buy it. Like the Nan Khatai, Khara Biscuits are a wonderful accompaniment to hot sweet tea and are often served at tea time in small local bakeries hot out of the oven. These biscuits can be of two types. One is crunchy on the outside and flaky within and is usually made with a puff pastry kind of dough. The other is made with a biscuit or cookie dough and is crumbly and soft. Both are equally delicious!! I made a batch of these for Holi this year with some mint and cilantro. They turned out just yummy.

Trick or Treat: Cookies for Halloween

After making some delicious sugar cookies for Daring Bakers September 2010, I was inspired to make a whole new batch for Halloween. I made some decorated pumpkins and ghouls. They are headed to a Halloween Party at work tomorrow!!

This time I followed the DB recipe, using egg in the cookies. But I stuck to the eggless icing. Both worked well and I got some nice colourful and crunchy iced sugar cookies!!

Hope these happy fellas will win some hearts and taste buds tomorrow:)

These lovely cookies go out to Akhila @ Learning To Cook for her ongoing event Dish Name Starts With: C.

All content, text and photographs in this blog, unless otherwise noted, are Copyright of © Annarasa 2007 - 2013. All Rights Reserved. Kindly do not reproduce without permission.

September 2010 Daring Bakers Challenge: Sugar Cookies

Making and decorating Sugar Cookies was a great challenge. The cookies turned out delicious. I made an eggless version of them! And the icing was eggless too. Used my new cookie cutter set to do Halloween shapes and some stars and butterflies.

Almond-Mandarin Macaroons

The 2009 October Daring Bakers’ challenge was brought to us by Ami S. She chose macarons from Claudia Fleming’s The Last Course: The Desserts of Gramercy Tavern as the challenge recipe.

All text and photographs in this blog, unless otherwise noted, are Copyright of © Annarasa 2007 - 2009. All Rights Reserved. Kindly do not reproduce without permission.

July Daring Bakers - Milan Cookies, My Way

The July Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Nicole at Sweet Tooth. She chose Chocolate Covered Marshmallow Cookies and Milan Cookies from pastry chef Gale Gand of the Food Network.

As we could decide which of the 2 recipes we wanted to indulge in, I chose the Milan Cookies. I made only 1/3 of this recipe. The cookies came out beautifully. Thanks Nicole for this great pick :)

Milan Cookies
Recipe courtesy Gale Gand, The Food Network

Ingredients:
12 tablespoons (170grams/ 6 oz) unsalted butter, softened
2 1/2 cups (312.5 grams/ 11.02 oz) powdered sugar
7/8 cup egg whites (from about 6 eggs)
2 tablespoons vanilla extract
2 tablespoons lemon extract
1 1/2 cups (187.5grams/ 6.61 oz) all purpose flour

Cookie Filling:
1/2 cup heavy cream
8 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped
1 orange, zested

Method:

1. In a mixer with paddle attachment cream the butter and the sugar.
2. Add the egg whites gradually and then mix in the vanilla and lemon extracts.
3. Add the flour and mix until just well mixed.
4. With a small (1/4-inch) plain tip, pipe 1-inch sections of batter onto a parchment-lined sheet pan, spacing them 2 inches apart as they spread.
5. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 10 minutes or until light golden brown around the edges. Let cool on the pan.
6. While waiting for the cookies to cool, in a small saucepan over medium flame, scald cream.
7. Pour hot cream over chocolate in a bowl, whisk to melt chocolate, add zest and blend well.
8. Set aside to cool (the mixture will thicken as it cools).
9. Spread a thin amount of the filling onto the flat side of a cookie while the filling is still soft and press the flat side of a second cookie on top.
10. Repeat with the remainder of the cookies.

All text and photographs in this blog, unless otherwise noted, are Copyright of © Annarasa 2007 - 2009. All Rights Reserved. Kindly do not reproduce without permission.

Tuiles from the Daring Bakers

This month the Daring Bakers Kitchen set us a lighter challenge than those we have grown accustomed to in the last few months of 2008. It's the ultra light French cookies known as Tuiles!! This month's challenge is brought to us by Karen of Bake My Day and Zorra of 1x umruehren bitte aka Kochtopf. They have chosen Tuiles from The Chocolate Book by Angélique Schmeink and Nougatine and Chocolate Tuiles from Michel Roux.

Despite it being an unusually busy time of the year, I really was very excited about this challenge. And was even happier when I saw that a savoury version had been added. I don't have much of a sweet tooth, and so just the thought of a savoury alternative made me happy, more so as I knew that I would not really have the time to hunt for alternative recipes this month. The Savory Tuile recipe provided via DBK is from Thomas Keller The French Laundry Cookbook.

Ingredients:
1/4 cup plus 3 tablespoons (65 grams/2.1/4 ounces) all purpose flour
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon sugar 1 teaspoon kosher salt (= 2/3 teaspoon table salt)
8 tablespoons (114 grams/4 ounces) unsalted butter, softened but still cool to the touch
2 large egg whites, cold
2 tablespoons black sesame seeds

Method:

1. In a medium bowl, mix together the flour, sugar and salt. In a separate bowl, whisk the softened butter until it is completely smooth and mayonnaise-like in texture.
2. Using a stiff spatula or spoon, beat the egg whites into the dry ingredients until completely incorporated and smooth. Whisk in the softened butter by thirds, scraping the sides of the bowl as necessary and whisking until the batter is creamy and without any lumps.
3. Transfer the batter to a smaller container, as it will be easier to work with. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Make a 4-inch hollow circular stencil.
4. Place Silpat on the counter (it is easier to work on the Silpat before it is put on the sheet pan). Place the stencil in one corner of the sheet and, holding the stencil flat against the Silpat, scoop some of the batter onto the back of an offset spatula and spread it in an even layer over the stencil. Then run the spatula over the entire stencil to remove any excess batter. After baking the first batch of cornets, you will be able to judge the correct thickness. You may need a little more or less batter to adjust the thickness of the cornets. There should not be any holes in the batter.
5. Lift the stencil and repeat the process to make as many rounds as you have molds or to fill the Silpat, leaving about 1 1/2 inches between the cornets. Sprinkle each cornet with a pinch of black sesame seeds. Place the Silpat on a heavy baking sheet and bake for 4 to 6 minutes, or until the batter is set and you see it rippling from the heat.
6. The cornets may have browned in some areas, but they will not be evenly browned at this point. Open the oven door and place the baking sheet on the door. This will help keep the cornets warm as you roll them and prevent them from becoming too stiff to roll. Flip a cornet over on the sheet pan, sesame seed side down and place 4-1/2 inch cornet mold at the bottom of the round. If you are right-handed, you will want the pointed end on your left and the open end on your right. The tip of the mold should touch the lower left edge (at about 7 o'clock on a clock face) of the cornet.
7. Fold the bottom of the cornet and around the mold; it should remain on the sheet pan as you roll. Leave the cornet wrapped around the mold and continue to roll the cornets around molds; as you proceed, arrange the rolled cornets, seams side down, on the sheet pan so they lean against each other, to prevent from rolling.
8. When all the cornets are rolled, return them to the oven shelf, close the door, and bake for an additional 3 to 4 minutes to set the seams and color the cornets a golden brown. If the color is uneven, stand the cornets on end for a minute or so more, until the color is even.
9. Remove the cornets from the oven and allow to cool just slightly, 30 seconds or so. Gently remove the cornets from the molds and cool for several minutes on paper towels. Remove the Silpat from the baking sheet, wipe the excess butter from it, and allow it to cool down before spreading the next batch. Store the cornets for up to 2 days (for maximum flavor) in an airtight container.

I followed this recipe but I have to say that it did not work too well for me. For one, the batter consistency was not as I would expect to make Tuiles! Secondly, the oven baked Tuiles did not take a shape very well. They are more on the crisp side and broke rather readily. I tried several batches. Above are the ones I managed to save!! And finally, the taste just did not sit well on our palette :( Maybe I'll try the sweet cookie next time. Hoping for better luck then!!

All text and photographs in this blog, unless otherwise noted, are Copyright of © Annarasa 2007. All Rights Reserved. Kindly do not reproduce without permission.

Christmas Cookies: Cinnamon-Chocolate Swirls

Now home-baked cookies and I have a history of sorts. I developed an avid interest in baked goodies early on, and as time went by it turned into a passion of sorts. Yes, there's always a time for a story and this is one for Christmas cookies. As I stumbled across Susan's Christmas Cookies from Around the World 2007, I was inspired to dig out my old faithful - a treasured recipe book which holds a collection of my very favourite tried and trusted cookie recipes. Just a turn of the page and memories of baking batches of cookies for school events, for family, friends all came flooding back. Just as much as I loved the aroma of my Mum's kitchen every time I loaded in a fresh batch to bake, the fact remains that I really have not had the time or the opportunity to indulge in this joy for several years. Now thanks to Susan I have come back to delight in baking cookies. Of course half the joy of baking cookies at home (read from scratch) lies in the sharing. With every fresh batch I have been counting off friends and family to whom I am shipping off these delectable delights. May be that is the true spirit of a Christmas cookie - its sharing!! I have picked my favourite cookies - Cinnamon-Chocolate Swirls to share with everyone at Eat Christmas Cookies!