No Butter Chubby Oatmeal Cookie

This soft and chewy cookie is a decadent treat for those who watch their waistline. You can have it with your morning cup of coffee as breakfast or to satisfy your late night sweet-tooth. The recipe calls for brown sugar, but I replaced it with equal amount of date sugar. Date sugar is nothing but dehydrated dates ground into granulated form. It is a whole food, high in fiber, vitamins and minerals. I think it is a great substitute and the best part is you won't taste anything different. And here goes the recipe,
Ingredients:

3/4 cup APF/Maida

3/4 cup Rolled Oats

1/2 cup Date Sugar

1/4 cup White granulated sugar

1/2tsp Baking soda

1/4tsp Salt

1 Egg

1/3 cup Canola Oil

1/2tsp Vanilla Extract

1/2 tbsp Water

How to:

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
• Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper or use foil and spray it with oil.
• In a bowl, mix together the flour, baking soda, salt and oats.

• In another bowl, break the egg and whisk until frothy. Add date sugar and white sugar followed by oil, vanilla extract and water.

• Now slowly add the flour mixture into the egg-sugar mixture and blend'em well.

• Scoop equal amount of the mixture and place it on the cookie sheet. Then gently press it to flatten the mixture and bake'em for 10 mins.

• Cool completely on a cooling rack before storing.

 

•  Serve it as a snack or dessert.

Tips:

• Date sugar is available online or in specialty food stores.
• To make it even more decadent, add chocolate chips, raisin or any dried fruit into the mixture.

Tiramisu

A heaven in your mouth. Tiramisu  is a popular Italian cake, made of biscuits (usually savoiardi) dipped in coffee, layered with a whipped mixture of egg yolks and mascarpone cheese, and flavored with liquor and cocoa. After going through quite a few recipes, i picked Ina Garten's (from Food Network) Tiramisu and the recipe is quite simple to follow. It is crucial for the ingredients to be at room temperature for the tiramisu to turn out perfect. I made a couple of changes in the recipe after reading the reviews. First, i reduced the rum to half of what the recipe calls for and added kahlua to get more of the coffee flavor. Then, i used instant coffee powder to make strong coffee instead of espresso. I know its not Italian to use coffee, but it wouldn't hurt. The Tiramisu turned out absolutely moist and delicate, every bite just dissolved in our mouth. Mmm mmm 'licking the spoon' good!

Ingredients:

40 Savoiardi (Lady Finger Cookies)

16 oz Mascarpone cheese

6 Egg yolks

1/4 cup Kahlua (divided)

1/4 cup Dark Rum (divided)

1 1/4 + 1/4 cups Strong Coffee 

1/4 cup +1 tbsp Sugar

Cocoa powder (unsweetened)

(1/4 cup=4tbsps)

Also required:

Stand mixer/Hand mixer

13x9 Baking dish

Small Sifter (to dust cocoa powder)

Spatula (to spread out the filling)

How to:

• Bring the mascarpone cheese and the separated egg yolks to room temperature.
• Prepare strong coffee by dissolving 2 tbsp instant coffee powder in 2 cups of hot water and bring it to room temperature. (making an extra 1/2 cup of coffee, in case you run out of it)
• Add 1/2 of the sugar to the egg yolks and beat gently, until the sugar is melted.

• Cook the egg yolks in the double boiler for a min or two, i.e., by placing boiling water in a sauce pan on the stove and cook the egg yolks over the steam in a heat-resistant bowl, continuously whisking. (Careful, the egg yolks bowl should not touch the boiling water.)
• In a big mixing bowl, add the mascarpone, remaining sugar, 2tbsp rum, 2tbsp Kahlua and beat it with a hand mixer for a min.

• Then add the egg yolks-sugar mixture along with a 1/4 cup coffee to the mascarpone mixture and beat it in a medium speed until it starts to thicken. (This would be the filling)

• Dipping liquid mixture: Mix the remaining 2tbsp rum and 2tbsp Kahlua to the 1 1/4 cups of coffee in a shallow bowl.
• And its layering time. Make sure you have enough cookies, filling, dipping mixture and cocoa powder. We are ready to go.
• Arrange the cookies in the baking dish, by dipping each one in the dipping mixture for a second. (It absorbs the liquid quicker than you think. The longer you soak, the cookie will become soggy and break.)

• Now, transfer half of the mascarpone filling and spread it out evenly. Dust the top with cocoa powder.

• Make another layer with cookies and the filling in a similar way and dust it with lots of cocoa powder.

• Wrap it up and refrigerate it for up to 8 hours or overnight. 

• Serve chilled and topped with more cocoa powder or shaved dark chocolate.

Nan Khatais (Indian Butter Biscuits)

The treats are packed up and we are ready to hit the road tomorrow. We are going to California on a road trip and meet a couple of our friends and cousin on our way. I am very excited to see'em and happy to deliver these home made biscuits in person. Well, to talk about the biscuits, these are light, buttery sweetnesses that literally dissolves in your mouth. The nuts are so rich and crunchy, that makes irresistible and you can't stop just munching one. And these are egg-less cookies that are very popular and called biscuits in India. They are served as a evening snack along with coffee or tea. The buttery aroma while baking, smelt heavenly and perfumed the whole kitchen.  Also, i have made two versions of butter biscuits here, other than flour combination, the methods are pretty similar. Here it goes,

This is a pistachio butter biscuit, topped with chopped pistachios and made from a combination of three flours. This one was Senthil's pick among the two.
Ingredients:

1/3 cup APF (Maida)

1/3 cup fine Semolina (Rava)

1/2 cup Gram Flour (Besan)

1/2 cup unsalted Butter (at room temperature)

2/3 cup Sugar

3 green Cardamom Seeds (powdered)

1 pinch Baking Soda

1-2tbsp Pistachios (coarsely chopped)

 How to:

• Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil.
• Mix together the maida, semolina, gram flour, cardamom and baking soda.

• In another bowl, blend the butter and sugar together.

• Now, blend the flour mixture in batches to the butter-sugar mixture.

• Divide the dough into small lime size balls, smoothen'em with your palms, make a grid or star with a knife and gently press the chopped pistachios.

• Do the rest of the dough in a similar manner and arrange'em on the baking sheet.

• Bake for 13 mins or until they turn golden brown on top.

• Remove the baking sheet and let rest for 3 mins, before you transfer'em to cooling rack. (The half bitten biscuit, that was me hehe, couldn't resist)

• Serve as a snack or dessert.

Almond Pressed Butter Biscuit:

This is an Almond Butter Biscuit, made from maida (APF) and warm butter with an Almond pressed on each of its center. This one is the winner in my taste testing.

Ingredients:

1 cup APF (Maida)

1/2 cup Powdered Sugar

1/2 cup unsalted Butter (melted)

1/4tsp Baking Soda

3 Green Cardamom Seeds (crushed/powdered)

1 pinch Salt

8-10 Almonds (for garnishing)

How to:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil.
• Mix together the dry ingredients: APF, sugar, baking soda, cardamom and salt.

• Pour the butter over the flour mixture and knead, resulting a soft dough.

• Divide the dough into 12 equal parts, smoothen in between your palms and press the center with your thumb and place an almond.
• Follow the same procedure for the remaining dough and arrange it on the baking sheet.

• Bake for 20 mins and cool in a cooling rack.

• Serve the biscuit as a snack or dessert.

Chocolate chip cookie

Are you on a diet? Looking for a low calorie, healthy dessert to satisfy your sweet tooth?

Ingredients:

1 cup Canned White Cannellini beans (rinsed and drained)

1/3 cup Chocolate chips (semi-sweet)

1/3 cup Cacao powder (unsweetened)

2 Egg whites

1 cup Artificial sweetener (Splenda granulated)

1 1/2tbsp Agave syrup (light)

1/2tsp Vanilla extract

Cooking spray (for coating)

Also required:

Baking sheet

Parchment paper

Electric Hand mixer

How to:

• Preheat oven at 375 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper coated with cooking spray.(I coated with Organic Extra virgin coconut oil)

• Beat the egg whites with a hand mixer(whip attachment) until soft peaks form.

• Now add the artificial sweetener slowly and beat until its creamy and stiff peaks form, and keep it aside.

• Then, grind the beans, cacao powder, agave syrup and vanilla extract together until smooth, scraping the sides.

• Then add 1/3rd of creamy mixture with the cacao-beans mixture and blend for 30 secs.

• Now, fold the cacao mixture with the remaining creamy egg mixture until combined .

• Add the chocolate chips and gently fold to incorporate well to the batter.

• Drop spoonful of the cookie batter onto the sheet and spread out to form circles.

• Bake for 20 mins, rotating the sheet one turn halfway through baking.

• Transfer the cookies to a wire rack with a flat spoon or spatula to cool.

Mmmm! Crunchy outside, warm, soft and chocolaty inside.