Cream Scones

Updated with a better picture :)

Weekend Breakfasts are one important meal of the family. Unlike people back home,I dont like spending hours in kitchen for breakfasts. My aunts make delicious breakfasts in the morning like kaarayappam, neipathal, muttayappam etc. But here, i think of nothing more than eggs or pancakes, puttu or cereals. The dull expressions seen on the faces of my folks while serving repeated stuffs for breakfast forced me to try variations; but mess-free.

This small cake is a quick bread, similar to an American biscuit, made of wheat flour (white or wholemeal), sugar, baking powder/baking soda, butter, milk (whole, half and half, light cream, heavy cream, buttermilk, yogurt, etc.), and sometimes eggs. This produces a soft and sticky dough. It needs to be baked in a moderate to hot oven so the dough sets quickly thereby producing a light scone with a light to golden brown floury top and bottom with white sides. The texture of the interior of the scone should be light and soft, and white in color. Got this recipe from Here.

I did try scones before with whole-wheat flour. Here is the Link to the recipe. You may add raisins, cranberries, etc to it if you like.

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for work surface, hands, and cutter

3 tablespoons sugar, plus more for sprinkling

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

6 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

1/3 cup heavy cream, plus more for brushing

2 large eggs, lightly beaten

Strawberry preserves/jam for serving

Softly whipped cream, for serving

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper; set aside.

Sift flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt into a large bowl. Using a pastry blender or 2 knives, cut in butter until largest pieces are the size of small peas.

Using a fork, whisk together the cream and eggs in a large glass measuring cup. Make a well in the center of flour mixture, and pour in cream mixture. 

Stir lightly with fork just until the dough comes together (do not overmix).

Turn out dough onto a lightly floured work surface. With floured hands, gently pat dough into a 4 1/2-by-8 1/2-inch rectangle, about 3/4-inch thick. 

Using a floured 2-inch round cutter, cut out 8 to 10 rounds, and transfer them to lined baking sheet. Brush tops with cream, and sprinkle with sugar. 

Bake scones until golden brown, 16 to 20 minutes. Transfer scones to wire racks, and let cool. Serve warm or at room temperature, topped with strawberry preserves/jam and whipped cream.

Danish Butter Cookies-Coconut Flavored

Now, my friends and readers started inquiring me about my frequent blogposts these days. That's so sweet of them. :) There's nothing special about these days other than that I'm here at my mom's place and have lots of spare time to blog.. I was not active since a few months because of some personal problems. My family had to go through some tough times when I started staying away from blogs or other social networking sites. By the grace of God ,all is well now and back to normal lives. But I hate fb for the good now ,  unlike before. So I get to spend a lot of time  with family and kids these days.

Coming to the recipe, this is the best cookie I've ever baked. It's crunchy, buttery, coconutty and wat more. I 'm sure  kids as well as elders would love this so much. 

Ingredients:

Courtesy: Dodol Mochi

100 g cake flour* – sifted once

10 g cornstarch *– sifted once

20 g Dessicated coconut

75 g unsalted butter – softened at room temperature

50 g powdered sugar – sifted once

¼ tsp vanilla extract

* Check here for conversions

Method:

1.Mix flour, cornflour and coconut nicely and keep aside.

2.Beat butter and sugar on high speed till pale and fluffy. Add vanilla essence to it.

3.Fold the flour mix into the buttercream in two or three batches,using a wooden spatula  till a dough has formed. Don't overwork the dough as you may get tough cookies at the end.

4.Wrap the dough up in plastic film, then let it chill and rest in the fridge for about 30 minutes.

5.Remove the dough from the fridge. Then, scoop out a small dough for each cookie and roll it into a ball. Place the shaped cookie dough on parchment-lined baking sheet(s), leaving about 4 centimeters apart in between the cookies. The dough will spread during baking. Repeat till the dough is used up.

6.First, bake at 160°C for about 10-15 minutes. After that, turn off the oven and leave the cookies inside, with the oven door shut, for about 10 minutes.

1. * Since I tripled the recipe, I got more cookies. For my subsequent batches (after the first round of baking), they required less time to bake as the cookies seemed to brown faster in the seemingly hotter oven. Well, just monitor the oven closely while the cookies bake. *

Remove the cookies from the oven, and transfer them to cooling rack(s) to let cool completely before serving and/or storing in airtight container(s).

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Danish Butter cookies- The Swirl/Round One

Danish Butter Cookies in a Blue tin brings back lots of childhood memories. They were considered as the most cherished and premium cookies, li'l bit expensive and the first option opted as  gift while visiting guests. Things has not changed much inside the blue tin since years. They still look and taste the same. We kids took a while before selecting our favourites among them. Of all, the one with a whole in the middle and the one with raisins were my favourites. I always tried to insert my finger inside that whole of circular cookies and ate just like that, lol!! I couldn't stop with just one or two cookies at a time; Insanely addicted, I must say!

I've been thinking about baking this for a while now. My kids now started liking home baked goodies more than the shop bought ones. That's a bit relaxing for me too as I can play with certain ingredients to make it healthier and also keep my kids away from preservatives or the kind.So googled it and found the recipe here. It's too delicious. I've baked one more flavor which will soon be posted here.

 Baking cookies is not a big deal though; this one especially is so easy as we don't have to keep it for resting in refrigerator or no hassle with mixing or beating butter... Just mix all the ingredients together, pipe it onto baking sheets and bake it for 8-10 minutes; that's it!

Ingredients

1 egg (60g)
200g butter
130g icing sugar
320g flour
1 1/2 tbsp of vanilla essence

Method

1.Mix all the ingredients together using egg beater or hand mixer.

2. Pipe wreaths (circular shapes) onto cookie sheet or baking tray using an open star tip. I used Wilton 1M , but you can use a smaller one too.

3. Bake in a preheated oven at 200C for 7-8 min. I baked at 170C for 9-10 mts. 200 degrees was too much for my oven.

4.Leave to cool slightly before removing from cookie sheet.

5.Transfer cookies into airtight container after cookies are at room temperature.

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Kovakka Mezhukkupuratti /Ivy Gourd Fry

Ivy Gourd/Tindora/Kovakka is a very famous vegetable in South India. It has a crunchy texture which is similar to cucumber. It is seen at home gardens back home in Kerala.  From thoran to dal, we make a lot of dishes with this vegetable like avial ,sambar etc.

Ingredients:

Oil 2 tbsp

Mustard seeds-1 tsp

Curry leaves-few

Kovakka/Ivy Gourd/Tindora- 3 cups

Garlic -2 cloves

Onion - 4 tbsp, chopped

Green Chilli- 1

Chili powder - 1 tsp

Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp

 Method :

Slice Kovakka lengthwise ,each into 4 pieces . 

Heat oil in a pan and add mustard seeds .Let it splutter. Saute in onions until they are transparent.

Add garlic and saute it for 2 to 3 minutes. Now add the spices.

Throw in the kovakka and mix it well. Pour a little water in it and cook it covered till done. Take off the lid and fry it well by stirring occasionally. Serve warm with rice.

Linking this to:

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Conversions

Measuring ingredients is one of the most important step in cooking; especially in baking,where precision counts. Using a digital kitchen scale is the best option while baking as it gives the exact measure each time you measure; whereas if you measure in cups,  it may vary every time when you shook the cup slightly, packed in the flour, levelled off the top etc.

To measure the flour or sugar, spoon flour/sugar from the container into the measuring cup lightly. Do not shake the cup or pack/press the flour. Level off the top (as shown in the picture below) using a flat knife or spatula.

Here, I had tried to measure all these ingredients on my own and then noted down . There might be slight difference here and there, but this is what I got while measuring and it's fine. I had baked cakes and cookies for months without kitchen scale using these conversions.



The measure I use:

1 cup           250ml
3/4 cup        180ml
1/2 cup        125ml
1/3 cup          80ml
1/4 cup          60ml

1tbsp   15ml
1tsp       5ml

CONVERSIONS(cup to grams and viceversa)

All Purpose Flour/Self- Raising Flour

1 cup           126g
3/4 cup           94.5g
1/2 cup           63g
1/4 cup           32g
1/3 cup           41g

100g              3/4cup + 1 tbsp
250g              2 cups + 1 1/2 tbsp

Cake Flour

1 cup             100g          
3/4 cup            75g
1/2 cup            50g
1/4 cup            25g
1/3 cup            33

100g               1cup
250g               2 1/2 cups



Brown Sugar

1 cup               200g
3/4 cup            150g
1/2 cup            100g
1/4 cup              50g            
1/3 cup

Caster Sugar

1 cup              225g
3/4 cup           170g
1/2 cup           110g
1/4 cup             56g
1/3 cup             75g

100g               1/3cup + 1 1/2 tbsp

Icing Sugar

1 cup           110g
3/4 cup           80g
1/2 cup           55g
1/4 cup           28g
1/3 cup           36g

100g              3/4cup + 1 tbsp
250g              2 cups + 1 1/2 tbsp

Butter

1 cup             225g
3/4 cup          170g
1/2 cup          113g (1 stick)
1/4 cup             56g
1/3 cup             75g

100g               1/3 cup+ 1 1/2tbsp

Cocoa Powder

1 cup           93g
3/4 cup           69g
1/2 cup           45g
1/4 cup           23g
1/3 cup           30g

100g              3/4cup + 1 tbsp
250g              2 cups + 1 1/2 tbsp

Hide N Seek Biscuits (Replica)

I was wanting to try out this recipe ever-since I've seen this in a blog (Hamaree Rasoi), some 2 years ago. But it got delayed and somehow managed to bake this during Childrens Day last year. You can't imagine how excited my kids were when they knew I was going to bake one of their all time favourites. I think there's no any kid who don't like Hide n seek Biscuits. Grabbing one whole packet within seconds is not a big deal for them.

Ingredients:
(Recipe Courtesy:Hamaree Rasoi)

1/2 cup Unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 cup Powdered sugar
2 Egg yolks
1 1/2 cup All purpose flour
2 tbsp Cocoa powder
2 tsp Chocolate/Vanilla essence
1 tsp Baking powder
1/2 tbsp Choco chips +1/2 choco chips for decoration
Pinch of salt

Method:
Pre-heat the oven to 170 C.

Sift flour, baking powder, cocoa and salt .

In another bowl, beat butter and sugar using a beater till it turns fluffy and light.

Beat in essence and egg yolks one by one. Gently stir in the flour mixture and mix well.

Finally add in the chocolate chips and combine well.

Wrap this dough in a cling film and keep it in the fridge for 1/2 hour.

Take out the dough and take out a small chunk, roll it between your palms and press it on the baking sheet. You can use a roti press/maker for this. With a square cutter, take out the extra dough to make it a complete square. Try to maintain the same thickness while you are pressing the dough balls.

As soon as you are done with 12 biscuits on the tray, with a toothpick, draw slanted lines across the cookies.

I know this the worst picture I've ever posted.. but only for you :)

And sprinkle the rest of the choco chips on top. Bake these for 10 to 12 minutes. Don't over bake them. Cool them on wire racks and later store them in an air tight jars.

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Idly-Soft and Perfect!

Ramadan is over and hence back to the routine. The same old breakfast,lunch,tea and dinner :( I miss Ramadan a lot this time. How nice it was to sleep late, wake up late and no hassles early morning. Kitchen was so clean at mornings. This time both my kids were fasting and so no hunger cries were there too.  Now kids wake me up saying 'I'm hungry Mom'.. and so I jump to kitchen directly from bed and make arrangements for breakfast .

Idly is so easy to make in the mornings when half of your job is done at previous nights. Grinding is done beforehand and sometimes I fill my idly cooker with water , cover it and keep on stove just like that so that I could wake up 5 minutes later :)

No introduction is needed for Idly these days as this has now turned to be so famous worldwide. This steamed cake made from rice and black lentils was not a regular dish at our places , but now it has added up to the favourite lists. We just love them because of its nutritional values and no oil part. I make sure to cook this atleast once a week so that kids get benefited of its protein, iron, carbohydrates and other nutritions.

After marriage, when I asked Jab about the dishes we served as to whether he liked our food or not ,what he said was he liked everything else except our idlys. I was surprised to hear that as it was soft and fluffy. He then took me to a restaurant at Calicut to show me the kind of Idly he liked. It was so delicious. It smelled nicely, was light and not sour at all. I then realised the difference of taste and I decided to try different proportions until I got this correctly. Before we used to take urad dal more and so its flavor was kind of predominating over others.

Ingredients:

Urad dal 1/2 cup

Idly rice/ parboiled rice 1 1/2 cups

Rice flakes/ aval/ poha 2-3tbsp(optional)

Fenugreek seeds/uluva 1 tsp

Water 2 cups

Method:

Soak urad dal and rice separately for a minimum of 3-4 hours. Soak fenugreek seeds with any of these.

Drain water from this using a strainer so as to add exact measure of water. Grind these separately and keep them for fermentation overnight in two different bowls.(see notes)

When fermented, fold these together adding salt to taste. Do not overmix the batter.

Now keep the idly cooker ready by filling water. Pour big ladleful of batter in each mould and steam it for 10-20 minutes at medium flame. This varies according to the type of idly cooker or the dish you use. Some need little time and some need more. Insert a toothpick or knife into idlys and if it comes out clean then it is done.

Take the moulds out ,sprinkle some water, let it cool for 5-10 minutes and then take it out with the help of a spoon. You can take it out hot too, but it might get sticky and you might find it difficult to unmould. Anyway,the taste is not going to change.

Serve it hot with Sambhar or Chutney.

Notes:

Fermentation time depends on the temperature of your kitchen. It's so easy here in middle-east kitchen during summers, other than airconditioned ones. It takes 5-6 hours in my kitchen. You add a pinch of yeast if you find it difficuilt to ferment. Adding 1 or 2 tbsp of cooked rice or rice flakes/aval/ poha also eases fermentation. You may either heat up your oven for 10-15 minutes, turn it off and then keep the batter inside.  Try any one of these techniques but not two techniques at a time.  Don't keep it so long to turn it sour. 

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