Baingan Raita - Grilled Eggplant in Yoghurt Sauce

Ingredients: 1 can Grilled Eggplant, or you can do you it over gas flame or in the oven 2 onions, chopped 8 cloves garlic, minced green hot peppers, chopped (as many as you desire) 1 Sliced red pepper salt, as per taste a pinch of sugar black pepper powder Good pinch turmeric 1 rounded tsp cumin powder 1 tsp coriander powder / handful chopped coriander leaves yogurt (I think about 1-2 cups) Method: Fry the chopped onions, till translucent (not golden brown). Add in the garlic and green peppers, and sautee for a few minutes. Add the sugar, salt, garam masala, the grilled eggplant, mix and turn off the heat after 5 minutes. Cool it completely and stir in the beaten yogurt. That’s it, serve at room temperature. Garnish with chopped cilantro and chopped green hot peppers (without the seeds if you dont want it hot). This is good as a side dish to complement Indian food, or as a dip with crackers.

World Peace Cookies Recipe

World Peace Cookies Recipe
Recipe from Dorie Greenspan’s Baking: From My Home to Yours, metric measurements from Deb Perelman’s Smitten Kitchen
Makes about 36 cookies
Ingredients:

1¼ cups (175 grams) all-purpose flour
1/3 cup (30 grams) unsweetened cocoa powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
1 stick plus 3 tablespoons (11 tablespoons or 150 grams) unsalted butter, at room temperature
2/3cup (120 grams) (packed) light brown sugar
¼ cup (50 grams) sugar
½ teaspoon fleur de sel or 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
5 ounces (150 grams) bittersweet chocolate, chopped into chips, or a generous ¾ up store-bought mini chocolate chips

Method:

Make the cookie dough: Sift the flour, cocoa and baking soda together. Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the butter on medium speed until soft and creamy. Add both sugars, the salt and vanilla extract and beat for 2 minutes more.

Turn off the mixer. Pour in the flour. Drape a kitchen towel over the stand mixer to protect yourself and your kitchen from flying flour and pulse the mixer at low speed about 5 times, a second or two each time. Take a peek — if there is still a lot of flour on the surface of the dough, pulse a couple of times more; if not, remove the towel. Continuing at low speed, mix for about 30 seconds more, just until the flour disappears into the dough — for the best texture, work the dough as little as possible once the flour is added, and don’t be concerned if the dough looks a little crumbly. Toss in the chocolate pieces and mix only to incorporate.

Turn the dough out onto a work surface, gather it together and divide it in half. Working with one half at a time, shape the dough into logs that are 1½ inches in diameter. Wrap the logs in plastic wrap and refrigerate them for at least 3 hours. (The dough can be refrigerated for up to 3 days or frozen for up to 2 months. If you’ve frozen the dough, you needn’t defrost it before baking — just slice the logs into cookies and bake the cookies 1 minute longer.)

Getting ready to bake: Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 325°F (160°C). Line two baking sheets with parchment or silicone mats.

Working with a sharp thin knife, slice the logs into rounds that are 1/2 inch thick. (The rounds are likely to crack as you’re cutting them — don’t be concerned, just squeeze the bits back onto each cookie.) Arrange the rounds on the baking sheets, leaving about one inch between them.

Bake the cookies one sheet at a time for 12 minutes — they won’t look done, nor will they be firm, but that’s just the way they should be. Transfer the baking sheet to a cooling rack and let the cookies rest until they are only just warm, at which point you can serve them or let them reach room temperature.

Serving: The cookies can be eaten when they are warm or at room temperature — Doris prefers them at room temperature, when the textural difference between the crumbly cookie and the chocolate bits is greatest — and are best suited to cold milk or hot coffee.

Storing: Packed airtight, cookies will keep at room temperature for up to 3 days; they can be frozen for up to 2 months. They can also be frozen in log form for months, and can be sliced and baked directly from the freezer, adding a few minutes to the baking time.

Tips: If you find it difficult to shape the dough into a log, do it between a piece of parchment paper. To avoid very crumbly cookie dough when slicing, ensure that the butter is soft at room temperature before mixing, the chocolate chunks are small and the dough cold but not freezing. Let it rest on the counter for 5 to 15 minutes after being removed from the fridge or freezer. To avoid spreading cookies, chill the tray of sliced cookie dough for 5 to 10 minutes before baking. If the log breaks while cutting, just rearrange the crumbs and press them together again to form a round cookie.

Matcha Almond Cookies Recipe

Matcha Almond Cookies Recipe

Yield 24 cookies | Prep Time: 15 minutes | Bake Time: 14-16 minutes

Ingredients:

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup packed powdered sugar
1 cup all purpose flour
1 tablespoon matcha powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup sliced almonds, lightly chopped

Method:

Sift together the all purpose flour, matcha powder and salt.

With an electric mixer at medium speed, cream the butter and powdered sugar until fluffy.

Lower the mixer speed. Add in sifted ingredients 1 tablespoon at a time until dough is formed.

Add in the sliced almond in 3 batches and stop the mixer immediately once all combined.

Remove the dough and place on a 22 inches long plastic wrap. Roll the dough into a 1 1/2 inches thick log. Wrap the log with the plastic wrap and freeze for 30 minutes.

Pre-heat the oven to 325 degree Fahrenheit. Line two baking sheets with parchment papers.

Remove the dough from the freezer. Use a sharp knife and cut the dough 1/4 inch thick each. Arrange the cookie dough on the baking pan 2 inches apart.

Bake them for 14-16 minutes on the middle rack. Remove the cookies to wire rack to cool completely before storing in air tight containers.

Cook’s Notes:

1. If using salted butter stick, omit the salt in the ingredients.
2. Culinary quality matcha powder can be found at Japanese grocery stores.
3. To convert to metric measurement, please use the conversion tool.

Toddler walnut cookies

My daughter loves making these biscuits, though hers tend to be on the very large side at the moment.....

Ingredients makes about 15 biscuits
220 g (8 oz) spelt flour or superfine whole meal flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
100 g (4oz) ground walnuts
100 ml (4 fl oz) raw honey, warmed
100 ml (4 fl oz) walnut oil or sunflower oil

Method
1. Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/gas 6
2. Mix all the dry ingredients together
3. Add the wet ingredients and mix to form a dough
4. Form the mixture into small balls, place on a baking tray giving each one space to spread, and flatten with a fork
5. Bake for 5 minutes
6. Cool biscuits on a wire rack

Tip: you can replace the walnuts with almonds, hazelnuts, brazil nuts or any other suitable nut. I've also tried sunflower seeds.

Banana Yoghurt Cake

Ingredients:
2 small or 1 large ripe bananas
1/2 cup natural yoghurt
1/2 cup unhydrogenated margarine (I use sunflower oil instead)
1 large organic egg
22gg (8 oz) spelt flour
1/3 cup fructose (I use honey instead)
3 teaspoons baking powder
a dusting of icing sugar (optional)

Method:
1.  Preheat oven to 180 C/350 F / Gas 4.
2.  Combine the banana, yoghurt, margarine, egg, and fructose in a food processor until smooth.  Add flour and baking soda.  Pulse till mixed through.
3.  Scrape the mixture into a well-greased loaf tin.
4.  Bake for 45 ins to 1 hour until cooked through.
5.  Put on a wire rack to cool and sprinkle with icing sugar before serving.

Tip:  For toddlers, allow them to spoon into cup cake cases, and add toppings as desired before or after baking as appropriate (e.g. marshmallows, raspberries)

Banana pancakes

Ingredients:
200g plain or SR flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp baking soda  (or if SR flour 1 tsp baking soda)
50 g sunflower oil
2 medium eggs
300g milk plus a little more
2-3 ripe bananas (depending on how banana-y desired)

1.  Put all the ingredients in the TM bowl.  Mix 20 seconds / Speed 6.  The mixture should be the consistency of double cream.  If it's too thick, add a little more milk and mix again.

2. Heat pan to right heat at low-medium flame.  Add a little oil - use kitchen towel to wipe over whole of pan, and mop up excess.  Pour to make pancakes of desired size.  Turn when bubbles have just stopped forming.

Tip:  Serve with strawberries, blueberries, maple syrup, nectarines, oranges etc - whatever fruits are in season.  Also works with savoury toppings - e.g. goats cheese, salami..

Easy Peasy Waffles

From this link

Ingredients

15 g sugar
60 g butter (90g butter if using semi-skimmed milk)
400 g milk
2 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla or maple syrup
1 pinch salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
250 g SR flour

Preparation

1.

Mill sugar on speed 9 for 3 seconds
Add butter to TMX bowl and melt for 1 minute at 90° on soft speed
Add milk, vanilla/syrup and eggs to TMX bowl and beat for 10 seconds on speed 4.
Add remaining ingredients and mix for 10 seconds on speed 6
Cook as per your waffle maker instructions. Enjoy!

Adriana's Amaretti Biscuits

Adriana's Amaretti Biscuits

Ingredients:
2 egg whites
2 tsp honey
1 pinch sea salt
180 g ground almonds
150 g caster sugar/fine sugar
100 g dried fruits e.g. apricots, cherries, prunes (not dates) snipped into quarters
100 g nuts e.g. pistachios, almonds, hazelnuts
icing sugar for dipping

Method:
Insert clean Butterfly Whisk into clean grease-free TM bowl.
Whisk egg whites, honey and salt 2 minutes/Speed 3½/Measuring Cup OFF.  
Remove the Butterfly Whisk and add the remaining ingredients.
Stir Speed 2/Reverse Blade Direction until mixed, about 20 seconds.

Using wet hands, shape into small rough dough balls and dip half the ball into the icing sugar. Place on a lightly greased baking tray, icing sugar side up and bake at 190°C with fan/375°F/gas 5 for 12 minutes or until just golden. Aga ovens: Bake on the rack set on the floor of the Roasting Oven for 9 to 12 minutes.

Alternative:  At step 2 add 50 g of dark or white chocolate chips.

Suggested combinations: Cranberry and pistachio Apricot and almond Cherry and almond Fig and walnut Prune, apricot and pistachio Prune and walnut Cherry and dark chocolate chip (omit nuts) Pistachio and white chocolate chip (omit fruit) Hazelnut and white chocolate chip (omit fruit)

White Chocolate Raspberry Cookies from vanillasugarblog.com

Cookies:

1 cup + 2 ½ TB all purpose flour

1/4 cup Dutch processed cocoa

1 & ¾ sticks (7 ounces) unsalted butter, room temp

1/2 cup powdered sugar, sifted

1 and ½ ts pure vanilla extract

2 TB (or more) of whole milk

¼ ts salt

.

Filling:

½ cup + 2 TB good quality white chocolate chips or chunks

¼ cup (more or less) raspberry coulis (see below)

.

Raspberry Coulis:

1 pint fresh raspberries

2 TB granulated sugar, or to taste

1 TB fresh lemon juice, or to taste

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Cook notes: The raspberry coulis can be made a couple days ahead of time. Simply keep it in the fridge, tightly covered until ready to use. When ready to use, please let it come to room temperature before using. The melted white chocolate will seize up if you add a cold coulis to it. If you don’t want to make the coulis you could easily just fill the thumbprints with melted white or dark chocolate. Or even any flavored Hershey kiss would work. It is hard to tell when the cookies are done because of their dark color. They won’t brown, but look for dry cookies or cracked. Don’t bake them any longer than 10 minutes! Mine were done in 8 minutes.

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For the coulis: Put all the ingredients in medium sauce pan and cook over medium (not high!) heat until fruit is mostly dissolved and mixture has reduced a bit as well as thickened up; about 30 minutes or more. Strain through a fine mesh sieve, pushing down on the solids. You might have to let this sit for a while to finish draining—it takes a while. Don’t forget to scrape off the bottom side of the sieve for all the juicy, thickened pulp. Discard the seeds. Taste and add more sugar or lemon juice if needed; it shouldn’t need anything. Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.

.

For the cookies: Sift flour and cocoa together into a medium bowl. With a hand mixer or a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter and sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.

Add the vanilla and salt; continue beating until blended and smooth, about 1 minute more.

Add the flour-cocoa mixture and mix on low speed until a soft dough forms, about 1 minute. Then add in the whole milk—it might not need the whole 2 tablespoons, but use enough to help it come together. This is a dry dough, so don’t add in any more than 2 TB. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator until firm enough to roll into balls, about 60 minutes (or longer).

Position a rack in the center of the oven and heat the oven to 350°F. Line two cookie sheets with parchment or nonstick baking liners. Using your palms, roll heaping teaspoonfuls of the dough into 1-inch balls. Or 2-inch balls. Arrange them 2 inches apart on the lined sheets.

With a lightly floured thumb or index finger-tip, press straight down into the middle of each ball almost to the cookie sheet to make a deep well. (Or use the end of a thick-handled wooden spoon.)

Bake one sheet at a time until the tops of the cookies look dry, 8 to 10 minutes.

Gently redefine the indentations with the end of a wooden spoon.

Let the cookies cool on the sheet for 5 minutes and then let them cool completely on racks.

If you’ve made the coulis ahead of time, now is the time to take it out of the fridge and let come to room temperature.

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For the filling: Put the white chocolate over a double boiler over low heat. Melt slowly and keep stirring until melted. Once melted add in the raspberry coulis, slowly, a bit at a time, all the while stirring. You can use as much or a little raspberry coulis as you like. The coulis is strong, so a ¼ cup is plenty.

Using a small spoon simply fill each cookie with a teaspoon amount of filling. You could also pour the chocolate mixture into a pastry bag or plastic bag and pipe in the filling. I found a small spoon to work wonders. Cool completely before serving or storing. Should make: if you rolled them into 1-inch balls about 34-36 cookies; if you rolled them into 2-inch balls about 16-19 cookies.