Its Party Time.....

Its that time of the year again. Prepartion for Christmas presents and parties....chilling winter nights, having friends and family over for dinners, sharing of your best recipes with your loved ones and exchanging presents......Isn't it??? In my Christmas party, for my American friends, I am gonno makes some mouth-watering Indian dishes and some cookies and cake-rolls for the dessert. The cookie recipe that I am going to share with you today is my "Blue-Berry Muffin Tops". You must be wondering how did I came up with this name, "MUFFIN TOPS"? When I made these for the first time, my husband said, they are soft like cake and one of my friends 'J' said, they look as if you have made muffins and cut their tops off. Then she said, why don't you call them 'Muffin Tops' and thats how we came up with this name. Try it in your Christmas party and you will be surely securing some wonderful compliments for yourself.

Makes 18 Cookies

Ingredients:

All-Purpose Flour (2 Cups)

Baking Powder (1 1/2 Tsp)

Salt (1/4 Tsp)

Sugar (1 Cup)

Butter (1 Cup, Soften)

Egg (1, At Room Temperature)

Milk (1/4 Cup)

Vanilla Essence (1.5 Tsp)

Blue-Berry (1 Cup)

Almonds (1/4 Cup, Roughly Chopped)
Pistachios (1/4 Cup, Roughly Chopped)

Method:

1. Mix the above 3 ingredients together, keep aside.
2. In a large bowl, beat butter, sugar, egg and vanilla essence untill it becomes creamy and all the ingredients are well incorporated.
3. Now add the mixture of dry ingredients, in butter-sugar mixture, 2 tbsp at a time.
4. It will start becoming hard, so keep on adding a little bit of milk in between.
5. Scrape the bowl with a rubber spatula, making sure that everything is mixed in well.
6. Now, fold the blue-berries, almonds and pistachios in the mixture. Freeze for 30 to 45 minutes.
7. Preheat the oven at 350F. On a large baking sheet, with the help of a large ice-cream scooper, scoop out the prepared cookie dough on the baking sheet, keeping each scoop at almost 1.5 inch apart.
8. Bake for 25 -30 minutes. They will become golden-brown around the edges.
9. Serve them warm with chilled vanilla ice cream.

Tips: Use craisins along with pistachios instead of blue-berries and they will be more Christmas like. Always use a cold baking sheet for making cookies, they will come out perfect everytime.

Chocolate-Vanilla Medley Cookies

The recipe that I am repsenting today is very close to my heart. When I was a kid and used to live in India with my parents, there was bakery nearby and my dad always used to bring a cookie which had two flavours - Chocolate & Vanilla (two of my most favourite foods). I always used to wonder that how do they make two separate flavours in a single cookie (they call it biscuit instead of cookie, in India). But now I have figured out the secret and would like to share it with you all. I hope you will like it...

Ingredients:
Butter (1/2 Cup, Softened)
Sugar (1/2 Cup)
Eggs (1, Room temperature)
Vanilla Essence (3/4 Tsp)
Semi-sweet Chocolate chips (1/2 ounce, melted)
All-Purpose Flour (1 1/2 Cups)
Baking Soda (1/4 Tsp)
Salt (1/4 Tsp)

Method:

1. Sieve Flour with baking soda and salt. Keep aside.
2. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar with the help of a hand blender, until they are well incorporated.
3. Now add egg and beat. Add the vanilla essence and mix well.
4. With the help of a rubber spatula, fold in the sieved flour mixture, making sure that nothing is left on the sides of the bowl.
5. Divide the prepared dough in half and stir in the melted chocolate in one half of the dough. Now chill the dough for 4-6 hrs in the refrigerator.
6. With the help of a cookies scooper, from both the dough, take one scoop each and place on a cutting board. Cut the scoops into halves.
7. Now exchage the halves. Place one chocolate half with one vanilla half and roll them to make a small ball (which is one side vanilla nd one side chocolate).
8. Flaten the ball, a little bit, with your fingers and place on an ungreased cookies sheet.
9. Bake for about 12-15 mins on 350F (they will start looking golden brown and firmer).

Tip: Substitute All-purpose flour with wheat flour to make them more healthy and they will taste as good as ever.

Kaju-Pista Tealight

Kaju Katli, Pista roll....Oh we need a change. We need something more elegant and sophisticated, something different from the regular stuff. I generally make Kaju Katli at home but on this Diwali, I thought of giving it a different look. My Kaju-Pista tealight is a twist on Kaju-Pista roll... I added pista filling to Kaju burfi and rolled it in a dice shape. Made the base with the same pista filling and added an almond on top. Garnished with silver foil(varq) and served in muffin cups. These tealights made my diwali celebration more colorful and bright...

Gulab Jamun

Gulab Jamun, the name itself, makes you feel of a festive environment or some special occasion; if they are home-made, then nothing like it. Here is my recipe for making Gulab Jamun at home and celebrating each day like a festival...

Makes 50 Pc
Serving Size 2

Ingredients:
Mava (1 Kg)
All-Purpose Flour (250 gm)
Refind Oil (25 ml)

Soda (5 gm)
Cardamom (1 Tsp, Powdered)
Water (1/2 Cup)
Oil (for frying)

For Sugar Syrup:
Sugar (2 Kg)
Water (2 lt)

Method:

1. For making Sugar syrup: Heat water and sugar together, and bring it to a boil. Keep aside.
2. Combine water and soda in a small bowl and then mix it with rest of the ingredients. Make small balls with it (little smaller then a ping-pong ball, because they will increase in size after putting them in sugar syrup). Keep covered with a wet kitchen towel.
3. Heat oil in a kadhai or a deep bottom pan. After it hot, put the flame on low and fry the balls made previously. Remember to stir them constantly otherwise they will burn very quickly.
4. Directly from the pan or kadhai, put them in the sugar syrup for at least 1 hr.
5. Serve them hot, garnishes with pista and silver foil (varq).

If you want, you can stuff them with dry-fruits (cashews, pista and chironji), kesar, Yellow food color and mishri mixed in 3 tbsp of mava. Just put a little bit of this mixture in the centre of each ball.

If mava is not available easily, make paneer and when its soft and most of the water is squeezed out from it, heat a pan, put prepared paneer in it and keep on stirring it until its dry and starts to leave a little bit of oil. Let it cool and use as required.

Italian Pound Cake

Here is my favourite recipe for making a pound cake. Its called pound cake because in earlier days all the ingredients used in this cake measure upto a pound like a pound of sugar, a pound flour...etc. Use of Extra Virgin Olive oil instead of Butter makes it more Italian and a bit more healthy...

(Makes 10-12 servings)
Baking Time 30-35 mins at 350*F

Dry Ingredients:
Maida (All-Purpose flour) (1½ Cup)
Baking Pwd (2 Tsp)
Baking Soda (1 Tsp)
Sugar (1 Cup)
Salt (½ Tsp)
Powdered Sugar for decorating

Wet Ingredients:
Eggs (3, whole)
Extra Virgin Olive Oil (3/4 Cup)
Milk (¼ Cup)

Method:

1. In a bowl mix all the dry Ingredients, except Sugar and keep aside. Break three eggs in the stand mixer bowl and put 1 cup of sugar and beat till sugar is well incorporated in eggs. Now add milk and EVOO (can be substituted for Extra Light Olive Oil). Beat again for 3-5 mins or till the time everything is well incorporated. Also frequently stratch the bowl with the help of a rubber spatula, during the whole process.
2. Now add the dry mixture into the wet mixture, 2 tbsp at a time, on medium speed. After that Preheat the oven at 350*F and grease the pan (9½ in. in diameter by 4½ in. in depth). Pour the mixture into the pan and bake for 30-35 mins at 350*F, untill the top is brown.
3. Once it is done take out and let it rest for about 10-15 mins on a wire rack.
   Now sprinkle Powdered sugar, cut into slices and serve.
   (Make it sugar free by adding 1 cup of "Slpenda" instead of 1 cup of sugar.)