NanKhatai(Indian Biscuits)

This is usually served with tea in India.

This is an eggless butter cookie liked equally

by young and old.

When I was small this used to be one

of my favorite summer project with my mom.

Those days we used to have the aluminum electric round oven that has a glass lid on the top.

I would check the oven every 2 minutes and see how it expands and lightly brown on the bottom. I was telling my kids this story and they wanted to do the same thing with me. Kids had so much fun making them and they were very proud of the final product.

I have made some variations in this recipe to suit kid's likings.

Ingredients

All purpose flour - 3 cups

Butter - 1 cup(room temperature)

Sugar - 1 cup

baking pdr - 2 tsp

baking soda - 1 tsp

cardamom pdr - 1tsp

cocoa pdr - 2 tbsp

pistachio (ground) - 1 cup

cashew , almond - few for decorating

Strawberry/peach jam for decorating

Method

1. In a bowl mash the butter with a spatula. Add the sugar and make it into a paste by stirring for 8-10 minutes.
2. Then add the flour,baking powder and baking soda and mix well. The dough should not be too soft.
3. Divide the dough into 3 different portions.
4. Add vanilla essence to one portion.
5. Add cocoa powder to the next portion.
6. Add cardamom and 1/2 of the ground pistachio to the 3rd portion.
7. Roll the dough into small balls. Flatten them in your palm.
8. Decorate them with dipping them in ground pistachio or cashew or jam in the center.
9. Make a small ball of white and cocoa dough. Combine them to make desired pattern.
10. Take a cookie sheet. Spread parchment paper and put the cookies 2 inches apart.
11. Preheat the oven to 310 degree fahrenheit. Bake the cookies for 25-30 minutes in the oven. Keep an eye since oven can vary. The cookie is done when you can see light brown color on the bottom of the cookie.
12. Take it out and keep it for cooling before tasting and storing.

Pretty Flowers

This is my first cake made from scratch. I usually bake cake with the ready made cake mix you get in the super market. I would also buy the frosting and just pipe it which ever way I want. But then I came across Spicyana where Archanas cakes are reaalllllyyyyyyyyyyy beautiful. I went to her blog everyday for one week especially her cakes and would stare at the photos. I started to get inspired and thought to try it myself. So last weekend I went to Micheals and did some shopping for the decoration. Got a book called 'Joy of Baking' by Barbara Grunes from the local library. On Saturday after lunch kids and hubby went to take a nap and I staterd my experiment. The cake came out really good. I cut the cake into half and filled some apricot preserves covered it with other layer of cake. With rolled fondant made the flowers when the cake was baking. Covered the cake with icing.Then a layer of white fondant and fixed all the flowers. It took straight 3 1/2 hrs to do the cake and decoration. But it was fun. My older one is so fond of cakes that as soon as he saw it he started singing happy b'day. So I thought okay why not lets celebrate with cake and milk.




Walnut Cake
Ingredients

Butter – ¼ cup
Sugar – ¾ cup
Vanilla – 1 tsp
Eggs -3
Flour – 2 cups
Cornstarch – 4 tbsp
Baking pdr – 2 tsp
Walnuts – 1 cup chopped

Method

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. and grease a round cake pan.
2. Cream the butter until fluffy. Add sugar and mix well. Add vanilla essence.
3. Add 1 egg at a time, beating well with a beater.
   
4. Sift the flour, sprinkle it and beat it again.
   
5. Add cornstartch and blend well.
6. Add the walnut in the end and mix it well.
   
7. Pour it into the greased cake pan. Always grease only the bottom. If you grease the sides the cake will not rise very well. Also place a parchment paper at the bottom of the pan so that the cake doesnot burn in the bottom.
8. Bake for 35-40mnts.

Decorate the cake to your choice.

Almond Cookies

Ingredients

Butter – 1 cup(room temperature)
Sugar - 1cup
Vanilla 0r rose essence – 1 tsp
Salt – 1/4 tsp
Almonds(skin removed)- ½ cup
All purpose flour – 2 ½ cups

Method

1. Powder the almonds in the mix .
2. Mash the butter in a large bowl till it is smooth and fluffy with an electric mixer.
3. Sprinkle sugar and mix. Add the vanilla or rose essence and salt.
4. Add the almond pdr and mix it.
5. Then add the flour little by little and knead it. The cookie dough is ready.
6. You can use a cookie press for different shapes or make thin rounds with hand.
7. Preheat the even to 375 degrees.
8. Press cookies onto a nonstick cookie sheet. Bake for 10-12 mnts in the middle rack.

Let it cool and then store it in a container. This will make around 50 cookies.