Biscuit Brittle!!!

How does the title sound? Last time, during my visit to Hyderabad, attamma made this extremely easy to make, tasty dessert and me being a person with a sweet tooth, immediately fell in love with these cute biscuit brittles...I also found these on Nags Blog, attamma avoided cocoa powder, but I added this and followed Nags' recipe coz I loved to have chacolate color for my preparation.

Recipe is extremely easy, even kids can prepare this :D

Ingredients: (for 2 Bsicuit Brittles)

1. Marie Biscuits (I used rich tea biscuits) - 8

2. Milk - 1/2 cup

3. Coffee powder - 1 tsp

4. Unsalted butter - 1 tbsp

5. Powdered sugar - 1 tbsp (you can add more for extra sweetness)

6. Cocoa powder - 1tsp

Procedure:

1. Warm up the milk in Microwave and mix the coffee powder.

2. Now dip each Biscuit in this milk and stack 4 of them one above the other in a plate.

3. Make 2 such stacks.

4. In a bowl take the butter and warm up for about 30sec in the microwave.

5. Mix powdered sugar, cocoa powder with the butter and make a thick liquid like paste.

6. Pour this liquid over the 2 biscuit stacks and see that this paste covers all the stack uniformly.

7. Place the plate in the freezer for 1hr.

8. Break into 2 or more pieces and enjoy.

Store them in the normal refrigerator to consume later. Do not freeze them for more than an hr, orelse you'll have to test your teeth later :)

Semya Payasam - My favourite Dessert

My all time favourite Sweet is Gulab Jamoon...not the one made out of flour, instant mix etc etc...Ammamma makes Gulab Jamoon in a different style..She first makes Pala kova (peda)..it's a very loooooong process...Boiling the milk in a large pot, then adding sugar to that...and then stirring it continously for about 2hrs on medium flame until it thickens...and that's her Kova...which tastes heavenly...and then using this kova she makes the Gulab Jamoon...it totally takes about half a day to prepare Gulab Jamoon from Scratch...So I never even tried to make this by myself...

Next to Gulab Jamoon, I love Kheer...Payasam with Sago seeds, Vermicelli or using both...simply love it...not just becoz of the taste, its so so easy for me to prepare a neivedyam during weekdays for festivals before leaving to work...I've tried Kheer with Jaggery, rice flour, moong dal, Chana dal from various recipe sources..all of them tasted good and loved all the versions...However when it comes to choosing the favourite version of Kheer I opt the basic recipe of Sago/Vermicelli Kheer....So here's my version..

Ingredients:

Vermicelli/Semya - 1 cup (I do not know the exact way to measure this, but when broken and measured in a cup, 1 cup of raw vermicelli would serve 2 people)

Milk - 3 cups

Sugar (powdered) - 3/4th-1 cup (adjust to taste)

Ghee - 1 table spoon

Cardamom powder - 1 generous pinch

Cashews/Almonds/Raisins - 5 each (adjust acc to your preference n availability)

Saffron - one small pinch (optional)

Procedure:

1. Heat the Ghee in a pan and roast the cashews/almonds/raisins for about 2min. Remove and set aside.

2. In the same Ghee add the broken Vermicelli/Semya and roast until they start turning brown. Take care not to burn.

3. In a Milk Pan, heat the milk. When the milk starts to boil add the roasted vermicelli.

4. Cook for 4-5min or until the vermicelli is soft and well cooked. The mixture starts thickening.

5. Add the Cardamom powder and mix well.

6. Turn off the heat and add the powdered sugar. Mix well until the sugar dissolves.

7. Add saffron if you are using.

8. Garnish with roasted nuts and raisins.

Tastes great either hot or chilled...

This's my entry to WYF-Dessert event hosted by dear Hima of SnackORama.

Image courtesy - Google Search

Wholemeal Burfi

It seems like I can blog my recipes only over the weekend....weekdays I am being damn busy...tuesday 30th of Oct was my birthday and I had no time even to pamper myself with my favourite food item atleast..added to this I had to start off to work at 5.30AM that day...I've booked my holidays in December and 'm counting days...huhhh!

Anyways coming to the recipe I was craving for some festive sweets for the past few days....I just made pulihora for Dasara and did no rituals...Even for Diwali I don't think I can perform the pooja bcoz it's on Friday and fridays are the most busiest for me now a days...So I made my Diwali sweet today itself...coconut burfi, besan burfi are the normal versions of Burfi I make..but this time I wanted to try something else...and there were few left over bread slices...recently I've come across the procedure to make bread crumbs on video jug....So I decided to make bread burfi..I just followed the traditional version of besan burfi made by my mom, just replaced besan with finely ground bread crumbs...The taste was delicious especially I loved the color....I used wholemeal bread and hence I've got a dark brown color to the burfi...

So here's my Diwali treat to my blog buddies...

Ingredients:

Bread Slices (white/brown) - 6 - maked about 2 cups of fine crumbs

Sugar - 1 cup

Milk - 1 cup

Water - 1 cup

Ghee - 1 table spoon

Elachi powder (cardamom powder) - 1 large pinch

Almonds - 10

Procedure:

1. Place the bread slices on a baking tray and bake in a oven at 120C for 30min. Do not bake at higher temperatures orelse the bread slices will get burnt. After 30min the breadslices turn very crispy.

2. Break these crispy slices into chunks and grind them to a fine powder. Set this powder aside.

3. In a wide pan heat the Ghee and roast the almonds for a couple of minutes and set aside.

4. In the same ghee add the finely ground bread crumbs and roast for 2-3 minutes. Take this roasted crumbs powder in a bowl.

5. Now in the same pan add one cup of water and bring to boil.

6. When the water starts boiling add the sugar and keep stirring.

7. The sugar syrup starts thickening after a few minutes. At this stage quickly add the bread crumbs flour and keep stirring to avoid forming lumps.

8. Add the milk and elachi powder to this and keep stirring for 3-5min.

9. When the mixture starts thickening remove from heat.

10. Grease a plate with ghee and pour this mixture into the plate. Level the top with a spatula.

11. Let it cool for 2hrs. Cut into desired shapes and garnish with roasted almonds.

Note: If the mixture doesn't get hard enough put it in a freezer for 30min to cut into desired shapes.

This' my entry to (Jihva Special Edition: The Festive Series) JFS:Diwali hosted by dear Vee of Past Present and Me

Soft Raisin Cookies for AFAM

Sunmaid raisins are my favourite snack pack for lunch whilst @ work....My foodie draw in my desk will be full of these packs always....So when I've seen Grapes as ingredients for AFAM event hosted by Swapna of Swad, Raisins first came into my mind....I had no other thought other than my alltime favourite raisin cookies...I normally buy them at stores, but now I thought I'ld bake them at home...

Then for the recipe Videojug came to my rescue...The original recipe here is for Rosemary-Raisin cookies...I've used honey in my recipe...The taste was so delicious...I made 16 cookies...and my hubby packed 12 of them to share with his colleagues...He ate 2 at home and poor me..:( was left with 2 cookies (that too shaped out ones)......takes only 20min to prepare and bake...and less than 2 min to gulp...:P

Ingredients:

All purpose flour - 500gm

Raisins - 100gm
Honey - 2 tbsp

Butter - 200gm (cubed)

Sugar - 2 tbsp

Salt - 1 tsp

Baking powder - 2 tbsp

Milk - 200ml

Procedure:

1. Soak the raisins in honey for 5min

2. Preheat the oven to 220C/425F

3. In a large bowl, add the flour, salt, sugar and baking powder and mix well.

4. Add the butter cubes and mix well.

5. Now add the raisins with honey and make the dough using the milk. Dough should be thick.

6. Roll out the dough into a circle of 1cm thickness and 30cm diameter.

7. Using a bottle cap or a cookie cutter, cut the large circle into small circles.

8. Grease a baking tray with little butter and place these small circles on it.

9. Bake for 5-8min. Cookies should be golden brown in color.

10. Serve with Tea

Note: The original recipe says the baking time is 15min. But my cookies were done in 6min.

So this's my entry to AFAM event hosted by Swapna of Swad

Coconut-Poppyseed Kheer-- Kobbari gasaalu paayasam

This is my first post after my blog reconstruction. Now since this blog will have only recipes, 'll have to take extra care whilst posting the recipes [:(]...I've moved my microcosm to Here

Ok, coming to the recipe..I always wanted to experiment different types of kheer/payasam for the Naivedyam...Sago seeds, moong dal, chana dal, vermicelli..I made payasam with all these ingredients..but never tried the holy ingredient coconut...Coconut is used in many naivedyam recipes, why not in Kheer...So I decided to give it a try...I added poppy seeds because excess of coconut can cause throat pain, so I used half n half (coconut and poppyseeds both give a rich texture to the payasam)...


Ingredients:

Milk - 300ml
Dessicated coconut - 2 table spoons
Poppy seeds - 2 table spoons (soak in warm water for 10min and drain)
Sugar - 4 table spoons ( I used brown sugar) - adjust according to taste
Ghee - 1 table spoon
Cashew nuts - 8 (roasted in Ghee)

Procedure:

1. In a tava, heat the Ghee and fry the dessicated coconut for 3-4min. Set this aside.
2. Take the milk in a pan and Heat. Bring to boil and then add the sugar and soaked n drained poppy seeds.
3. Stir continously and add the fried dessicated coconut.
4. Reduce the flame and simmer for 5min until the kheer starts to thicken.
5. Decorate with roasted cashews
6. Serve warm.

Watermelon Halwa

This's one of my recent cooking experiments...I found these watermelons at a very low price in the local farmer's market and hence purchased one and brought home...I carried it all the way home by walk...And then came up the question..What do I do with it...We both ate few slices each (3-4), but still there was so much left to be stored in the fridge...I made some juice, bottled it up and stored....But still I had 2 large slices left...hmm then I wanted to try some new recipe with watermelon...




My ammamma used to make pumkin halwa...So I started to make something similar with watermelon...Both of them look alike, but there's lot of difference in the inner texture of both these fruits...I realised that I cannot just replace the pumpkin with watermelon to make the halwa..But by then I already started so wanted to go ahead..Finally it came out with a nice color and texture...Taste was lil bit different...It was for sure eatable...Here's the recipe..

Ingredients:

Watermelon pieces - 2 cups (cut into chunks)
Suji/Semolina - 1 cup (roast it in a table spoon of Ghee and set aside)
Milk - 2 cups
Sugar - 3/4th cup
Cardamon powder - 1 pinch
Cashews - 5 (roast in ghee and set aside)
Raisins -5 (roast in ghee and set aside)

Procedure:

1. Crush the watermelon pieces and mix the sugar. Take this mixture in a sauce pan and simmer it for abt 3-4min. Do not add water. Set this mixture aside.
2. In a heavy bottomed vessel heat the milk and bring to boil.
3. When the milk starts to boil reduce the flame to low, add the cardamon powder and roasted suji. Stir continously to avoid any lumps.
4. After 1-2min, when the contents start to thicken add the watermelon and sugar mixture to this and mix thoroughly.
5. Decorate with roasted cashews and raisins.
6. Let it cool for 30-40min.

This Halwa can be consumed as it is or can be shaped n cut into thick slices after cooling.

Custard-Dates Cake

I'm back on to my baking spree...From 14th of august we enter into Sravana Masam which's considered very auspicious and many poojas are performed on the tuesdays and fridays of the whole month...we offer authentic Indian Naivedyam (sweets like paramannam, pongali, pulagam etc etc) to God...I'll be cooking (experimenting would be a better word) many of these dishes all thru the month for my poojas...So I thought I'ld bake a cake today and then start off with my Indian sweet dishes in the coming few weeks...



I never tasted the combo of cake n custard until I came to the UK. Chacolate cake topped with custard used to be our staple dessert in thursday's menu at the canteen in LG. I liked the taste a lot...So I decided to try it at home today...But Suman doesn't like chacolate flavour..He's a vanilla lover..So I made a vanilla sponge cake, topped it with whipped cream, custard and dates...Very easy to prepare and tasty too...Here goes the recipe..

For the Custard,

I used readymade custard powder (Bird's Eye). All we need to do is dissolve this powder in hot water, stir continously to remove any lumps, let the mix cool and refrigerate it for a couple of Hrs. The final outcome should be a custard mix of thick consistency (like Jam).

For Sponge Cake,

Ingredients:

All purpose flour - 1 cup
Unsalted Butter - 1 cup (melted)
Sugar - 1/2 cup (powdered) - I used brown Sugar
Milk - 1/2 cup
Egg - 1
Vanilla Essence - 1 teaspoon
Baking soda - 1 pinch
Baking powder - 1 teaspoon

Procedure:

1.Pre-heat the oven to 200C
2. Sift flour and sugar together.
3. Take a bowl, add the milk and break the egg into the bowl. Beat thoroughly. Now add the butter to this and beat well.
4. Mix the flour/sugar into this mixture.
5. Add the vanilla essence,baking soda and baking powder and mix thoroughly.
6. Take a baking tray (cake pan), grease the bottom with some butter and dust the tray with some flour.
7. Pour the cake mix and see that it's evenly leveled.
8. Bake this mix for about 20min or until the cake is done.
9. Cool on a wire rack. Cake should be completely cooled.
10. Invert this cake pan onto a plate and carefully seperate the cake from the pan. Set aside.

Now take the custard mix and spread it on the top of the cake. Decorate it with whipped cream and Dates(Sliced). Refrigerate for about 30min for the custard to set. Slice the Cake and Serve.




I haven't done much to prepare this.....Luckily the cake turned out very well and hence the taste was good.

Can someone name these?...Bobbattlu???

There's an age old idiom in telugu "Ayyavaari vigraham cheyabothe adi pilli ayindi"...That's what happened today...

I wanted to make coconut jaggery sweet...the famous kobbari louju...but it turned out to be something like bobbatlu (Puran poli), with a different stuffing....

I chose kobbari louju because it's a very easy recipe...Dissolve grated jaggery in water, boil it to a thick consistency (theega pakam), add freshly grated coconut and cardamon powder, mix well..cool and spread it evenly on a greased plate, cut into pieces with a knife when it solidifies...so easy...

So Get set go..I started with boiling the water with Jaggery...I think I've added too much water and hence I was not able to get that consistency (theega pakam)....hmmm I had no more jaggery left to add so that I can get the required consistency...Then I decided to add something else...I found dalia (fried chick peas)..I quickly measured a cup full of dalia and blended them to a smooth powder using the mill.

I then added this powder to the jaggery mixture...hmmm, now I got the required thickness...Then I added the fresh grated coconut and mixed well...Put off the flame..cooled down and made lemon sized balls like laddus....I thought "Hammayya, it's not a failure atlast"..

Suman returned back home from his sunday cricket practice...I proudly showed him my new creation....I didn't tell him about the addition of dalia powder..Just told him that I made kobbari louju....He was so delighted...Tasted it and said.."It's something different but good, what did u do papa?"....

Then with my trade mark wicked smile I told him about the recipe....He sighed n said..."Hmmm another experiment...but this's good, it tastes like the mix inside our bobbattlu"....

Haayyyyyyy....he unintentionally used the term bobbattlu...Then I jumped into the kitchen and started making the flour for bobbattlu...He screamed "Ippude ga chesaav, malli em chesthunnav?"..I told him that I was making bobbattlu...

He's totally puzzled...I couldn't explain his facial expressions, but his inane feeling was "Ee pillatho nenu ela vegaali devudaa..God how do I tolerate this girl?"

He was just yelling, but I continued...mixed a cup of all purpose flour with ghee and water and made rotis with that dough...stuffed that kobbari louju(???) into these rotis and made bobbattlu...

They tasted good, very different from normal bobbattlu because of the stuffing I used....Normal bobbattlu contain boiled chana dal, jaggery ground to a paste...My recipe contained dalia (very close to chana dal), jaggery and haa grated coconut is an addittion...so what...coconut tastes good when cooked with jaggery...all that matters is the taste..Isn't it?

Now my hubby wants me to make some more bobbattlu so that we can take them to our friends' home who invited us for dinner today...well, that explains a lot..that my new experiment isn't a fiasco...

For those brave souls who want to try this recipe here are the measurements...

Grated Jaggery - One cup

Grated coconut - One cup

Dalia/Roasted chick peas/Putnalu pappu - One cup (powdered)

All purpose flour - One cup

Water

Ghee

Cardamon powder - 1 pinch

They taste well when topped with a drop of Ghee and served hot..Just as the normal bobbattlu

Biscova...my new experiment

Last weekend when we were out for Grocery Shopping I happened to see a condensed milk tin in Tesco...I've been hearing about it that it's already sweetened and can be used in various sweets. The tin seemed so attractive with a recipe printed on it (Bannofi Pie)...So I thought I'ld make it and hence purchased the tin.

Yesterday when I wanted to make the Bannofi Pie, one of the cheif ingredients for that, 'BANANA' was missing at home...Huhhhh...I thought I shld have read the recipe there in Tesco so that I could check for the ingredients and purchase...hmmm lesson learnt...

Never mind, there are loads of recipes on the net with condensed milk...So I was browsing and came across a recipe called Kalakand (microwave version) with very few ingredients (Condensed milk,Yogurt and ghee)...Hehehehe...seemed to simple (Thanks to Prathibha for this quickie, It's on http://www.indiaparenting.com/cookingclub/mainrecipe.cgi?recipe_id=929&cuisine_id=10)

So I started to make this...While I was searching for my ghee tin, I came across a pack of McVities Tea biscuits...Poor biskies, they were there since one month...ehahahaha...I had a cruel smile, with a raised eyebrow...I had a thought "what if I crush these poor biskies to a powder and mix with the kalakand"...Afterall it's my experiment and I am the one who has to taste it..Ofcourse Suman as well...But he never complains abt my cooking..So I've altered the kalakand recipe and ended up doing a cake shaped sweet with biscuits n Kova (kalakand)

Biscuits + Kova - Biscova....Hehehehehe...I could name this on my own...I googled if there is anyword like Biscova. I found in some other language..[:o] definitely not in English...So please dont take me wrong if it means something weird in that language.

It's very easy n simple. So I'm posting the recipe I followed here,

Ingredients:

Condensed milk - 1 tin (400gm)

Yogurt - 2 table spoons

Elachi powder - from 5 pods

Cashews - 10-15 (roasted in Ghee)

Ghee - 1 tea spoon

Biscuits - 6 ( I used tea biscuits) - Grind them into a powder.

Method:

In a microwave safe bowl pour the condensed milk, add yogurt and mix well. Microwave on high for 2 min. After 2 min take out the bowl and mix well. Put it back on high for 2 min. Take it out and mix elachi powder and put it back for 4 min. Now the mix turns to slight brown color. At this stage remove the bowl from microwave. (If it doesn't turn brown cook for further 2min sessions until done). Let it cool. Now add the biscuits powder and mix well thoroughly. I shld be like a paste. Now grease a plate with Ghee and pour this mixture. Make cuts with a knife and put it in the freezer for 1-2hr. Cut across the lines and garnish with roasted cashews at the end.

This shld be eaten within a day or so I think. I made only 6 slices, we both liked the recipe so we finished them in 24hrs.

Banana and Dates Cake

My colleague's wife makes delicious Banana bread and the moment I tasted it, I wanted to learn the recipe and make it at home. I didn't have a loaf mould at home and hence I used my cake mould to make a banana cake. I also added dates to the recipe. This was my second baking trial..

Ingredients:

All purpose flour - 1 cup

Bananas - 2 (Ripe) - Mash them to a smooth paste

Dates - 5-6 (make small pieces)

Melted Unstalted Butter - 1 cup

Milk - 1 cup

Baking Powder - 1 Tea spoon

Baking soda - 1 pinch

Method:

Mix all the ingredients (solids first and then liquids(butter, milk) thoroughly to a batter consistency, grease a baking mould with butter sprinkle some flour and pour this batter into the mould and bake it in a pre-heated oven to 200C for about 20 min or until cake is well done. Insert a knife into the cake and pull it. If the knife comes out clean, cake is done. Cool on a wire rack. Reverse the mould onto a plate to seperate plate. I did not do any decorations for I wanted to enjoy it alone without any added flavours.

My Baking Spree

A couple of months back, I was head over heels in love with cakes...I didn't prefer to buy a cake off the shelf frm Tesco..I wanted to bake it myself...So on one saturday when Suman was not at home I've started experimenting..here goes my baking spree...

Ingredients:

All purpose flour - 1 cup

Powdered sugar - 1 cup

Unsalted melted butter - 1 cup

Semi-skimmed milk - 1 cup (I preferred this cup measurement because it was easy to remember)

Egg - 1

Vanilla Essence - 1 tea spoon

Baking soda - 2 pinches

Baking powder - 1 tea spoon

For decoration - Whipped cream, chacolate curls, Strawberry flakes and a colored cream cone.

Method:

In a bowl mix flour, baking soda, baking powder and sugar powder thoroughly. In a seperate bowl add milk, egg, vanilla essence and butter and whisk them together. Add this mix to the flour mix and beat thoroughly to a batter consistency. Pour this batter onto a baking mould (greased with butter and little amount of flour sprinkeled) and place it in a pre-heated oven to 200C, bake it for about 20min or until cake is well done (You can check this by inserting a knife into the cake, if the knife comes out clean, cake is done). Cool on a wire rack and reverse the mould onto a plate to seperate the cake. Decorate it with the whipped cream first and then colored cream, decorate with chacolate curls and strawberry flakes.

Start decorating the cake only when it is fully cooled. Orelse the whipped cream loses its nice texture.