Home bakers challenge

Eggless American Snowmen Cookies

December 12, 2013 By

To kick start the up coming Christmas am here with a very fancy and perfect for the season . This month Our HBC host Priya Ranjit of Cook like priya had suggested wonderful array of recipes for this Christmas season. She had chosen a varieties of cookies , cakes and breads and I have here the first cookie from the list .As Christmas is not so long many will be looking for some seasonal recipes and so here is an exact cookie for the season .

I know every one love to make snowmen but it was fun work for me to make a snow men with cookie dough they looked so cute and my family enjoyed it a lot. Thanks to Priya Ranjit for suggesting such beautiful recipes. These snow men cookies were super yummy melt in mouth cookies and they look s fancy and attractive that no kid will refuse to adore it before enjoying these cookies . My kidooo just loved this snow man look and adored them before enjoying !! Lets move to the recipes ..

Recipe Source : Taste Of home

Yield – 12 cookies ( depends on the size)

Ingredients

21/2 cups all-purpose flour / Maida
1 cup butter ( softened)
1/2 cup sugar (I used powdered)
1 tsp water
1/4 tsp almond extract/ Vanilla extract
Blue and Red liquid or paste food coloring ( you can use green instead of blue)
Black and orange jimmies or sprinkles ( I used sprinkler)

Method

In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy . Beat in water and extract. Gradually beat in flour and mix well. Place 1/3 cup each in two small bowls. Add red food coloring to one and blue/ green to the other.Keep it aside.
Shape remaining dough into twelve 1-in. balls and twelve 1-1/2-in. balls. Place one smaller ball above one larger ball on ungreased baking sheets; flatten slightly.
For each snowman, shape 2 teaspoons of colored dough into a hat; place above head. For scarf, shape 1/4 teaspoon of each color into a 3-in. rope; twist ropes together, leaving one end untwisted. Place scarf around snowman’s neck. Insert jimmies for eyes and nose.
Bake at 350° for 15-18 minutes or until set. Cool on baking sheets.

Store them in an air tight container and enjoy.

Eggless Oats Chocolate Biscotti

November 19, 2013 By

This months challenge for HBC was hosted my +Priya Suresh aks and she challenged us with an array of delicious biscotti’s . This was my first ever biscotti I made they cam out so yummy . Infact I made them twice, the first time I didn’t get the exact look as priya aks lot . Her biscotti’s were perfectly cut and looked fabulous I didn’t wanted to post those biscotti as I haven’t got the exact shape and cracks were troubling me. But the second time I made them they turned of to be wonderful . I got addicted to these healthy and yummy biscotti’s it was worth making twice . Thanks for challenging and sharing this delicious recipe aks.

Biscotti are twice baked cookies which oblong shaped . They are generally dry and crunchy can be made with lots of variations. These are originated from Italy which are traditional served with drinks like coffee . Lets move the this delicious and addictive biscotti recipe.

Recipe Source : Priya’s Versatile Recipes

Ingredients

1+1/4 cup All purpose flour
1/2 cup Rolled oats
1 tbsp Cocoa powder
1/4 cup Chocolate chips ( Melted)
2 tbsp Chocolate chips
3/4 cup Powdered Sugar
1 tsp Baking powder
1/2 tsp Baking soda
2-3 tbsp – Milk ( optional)
1/2 cup Butter (room temperature)
1tsp Vanilla extract
A pinch Salt

Method

In a bowl take flour,rolled oats,cocoa powder,baking soda,baking powder,salt.
In another bowl whisk together the butter,sugar until they turns smooth. Add in the melted chocolate,vanilla extract and give a quick stir.
Now mix the dry ingredients,chocolate chips and knead as a soft dough, if its hard to knead and the dough is crumbly just sprinkle few drops of milk as needed to make is soft .
Preheat the oven to 350F..
Roll the dough as a 2 logs as shown in the pic below and transfer it to a baking sheet lined over a baking tray / a greased cookie tray.
Bake the log for 20-25 minutes. Cool it for 10 minutes.
With a sharp knife, slice it diagonally as 1 inch pieces or roughly to get around 15-20pieces from the log.
Bake it again for 5 minutes.
Flip the biscottis and bake again for another 5 minutes.

Let them cool completely.
Store it in a air tightened box.

Eggless Ghostly Spider Cupcakes

October 11, 2013 By

I was so excited to try the Halloween delight being shared by our HBC host this month +nalini suresh of Nalini’s kitchen . She had challenged with wonderful halloween recipes for this Months challenge when saw the challenge I wanted to make at least two out of them and so I did 🙂 Here is the first one from her Ghostly cupcakes recipe , I made them eggless with flax seeds and they turned out super soft and spongy . You can actually convert this cupcake recipe in to cake by baking them in cake pan . Thanks to nalini for sharing such spooky recipes for halloween theme..we really enjoyed them a lot 🙂

Halloween in not much far and here is the perfect recipe to match the festive season, In the U.S when I first came across about this halloween festival, yes festival !! it is so celebrated like an festival ,so I thought how funny in india we run away from ghost and witches and here they wear ghost costumes and celebrate . But then I researched why exactly this festival is celebrated it is because in an year to remember the dead saints , martyrs , The eve of western christians feast or all hallows / saints . So they remember the faith departure they celebrate this day. The activities performed for halloween are Pumkin carving in to jack o lantern, costume party,and any spooky things are done and yeah Trick o treat which is one of my fav I enjoy when kids come knocking the door asking for trick or treat 🙂 Ok now speaking about halloween there are variety of spooky dishes made for it and these cupcakes as suggested by nalini It can be made into a mummy cupcake but I made a spider one . So for my eggless cakes theme as these cupcakes can be converted to can I made these super spongy cupcake.Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM#33.

Lets move to recipe ..

Recipe Source : +nalini suresh

Ingredients

3/4 cup All-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tbsp espresso powder / Instant Bru pd
11/2 sticks salted butter (room temperature)
1 cup sugar
3 tbsp ground Flax seeds + 6 tbsp water ( soaked for 10 mins)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup Yogurt
1/4 cup Milk ( extra if needed – optional)

For making spider garnish

Frosting
Chocolate vermicelli sprinklers
Black Licorice Strings
Candy pearls / M n M’s

Method

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line cupcake tin with holders.
In a bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder, espresso / Instant Bru powder, baking soda, and salt.
In a large bowl, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
Beat in the flaxseeds mixture and mix well. Add vanilla extract and beat until just combined.
Mix the flour mixture in butter mixture little by little and followed by yogurt , If the batter is too very thick you can add milk to thin a bit but now too very thin . Pour the batter into cupcake holders.
Bake until a toothpick inserted in the cake comes out clean.

I decorated my cupcake like spider but you can make mummy garnish too.
Frost the cake with blue or any color frosting and cover the frosted area with chocolate vermicelli sprinklers.
Cut black licorice strings to desired length for leg and insert on sides of cupcakes.
Use two candies / pearls for eyes.

Tips

Decorate cupcakes as you like can be a mummy , spider or boo any way to fit the halloween theme.
You can convert this cupcake in to cake by baking the batter in a cake pan.

Sending to just not the cakes

sending to cooking 4 all seasons

Short Bread Sandwich cookie

July 16, 2013 By

I am back with and delicious cookie recipe which was a part of the challenge in our HBC group .I loved the Strawberry nutella thumbprint cookie a lot and wanted to make these sandwich cookies even . So i gave it a try and they came out so well and where delicious i love short bread cookies as such but sandwiching then with jam made it look more attractive and taste was excellent .Thanks to +Vijayalakshmi Dharmaraj of Virudhu unna vanga who challenged us with these delicious cookies this month 🙂 Now lets move on too our cookies.

These cookies are made from the normal short bread cookie dough. I had already made Some Royal short bread cookies which where dipped in melted chocolates But these sandwich cookies are sandwiched with jam and they taste so yumm my family thoroughly enjoyed each bit of it 🙂 Lets move on quickly to the recipe 🙂

Ingredients

All purpose flour – 3 ½ Cup + more for dusting the work surface & rolling pin
Salt – ¼ Tsp
Unsalted butter – 1 ½ Cup (3 Sticks)
Granulated sugar – 1 Cup
Vanilla essence – 1 Tsp
Raspberry jam or fruit jam of your choice ( I used blueberry jam) – ¾ Cup Confectioner’s sugar or icing suagr – For dusting the cut-out cookies.

Method

Preheat the oven to 350 F/175 C.
In a bowl mix together butter and sugar until they are just combined.
Add the vanilla to it and mix it once.
In another mixing bowl sift together the flour and salt, then add them to the butter and sugar mixture and combined well to make dough.
Dump onto a surface dusted with flour and shape into a flat disk. Wrap in plastic and chill for 30 minutes.
Roll the dough ¼ inch thick and cut 2 ¾ inch rounds with a plain or fluted cutter. With ½ of the rounds, cut a hole from the middle of each round with a heart or round shaped cutter. (I used heart shaped and a small round shape for inner part) and leave some cookies flat so that you spread some jam … Place all the cookies on an ungreased baking sheet and chill for 15 minutes.
Bake the cookies for 20-25 minutes, until the edges begin to brown. Allow to cool to room temperature.
Spread the jam on the flat side of each solid cookie.
Dust the top of the cut-out cookies with confectioner’s sugar (this is completely optional ) and press the flat sides together, with the jam in the middle and the confectioner’s sugar on the top.

Tips

You can make these cookies in any shape you like and i also tried making them in thumprint cookie shapes even that came out good 🙂

Thanks to Viji for this delicious cookie challenge this month i thoroughly enjoyed baking them 🙂

Strawberry Nutella Thumbprint Cookie |Thumbprint Cookie Recipes

July 12, 2013 By

Today am here with a delicious cookie which +VIJAYALAKSHMI DHARMARAJ of Virthu unna vanga had challenge for our Home Bakers Challenge this month 🙂 I really loved baking this delicious and attractive cookies . Thanks to viji for challenging this wonderful collection of cookies . These cookies where so delicious and looked so beautiful .. My hubby was like wooow 🙂 and i was so happy that i impressed him 🙂 😛 . Thanks Once again to viji and HBC group for this lovely cookie challenge . Viji had challenged 4 cookies in which i made two of them .. This is the first one 🙂

As these cookies are made with fresh strawberries they so delicious and we get the lovely pink colour naturally :)..The combo with strawberry cookies and nutella makes it a sinful desserty cookie 🙂 Me and my H loved it a lot 🙂 Lets move on to the recipe to make these delicious baked goodie 🙂

Recipe Source : Sinfully Spicy

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
4 tbsp unsalted butter [softened]
7 tbsp granulated white sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp baking powder [use aluminium free]
pinch of salt
3 tbsp thick crushed fresh strawberry mix [homemade by crushing strawberries with 1 tsp of milk [if required]+2 drops of red food color]
Nutella [for filling in the center part of the cookie]

Method

Sift the flour, salt and baking powder together in a bowl.Set aside.
In another bowl, cream the softened butter and sugar using a hand-held mixer for about 4 minutes.
Add the vanilla extract and crushed strawberry to the bowl and combine well with the butter mixture using a whisk.
Fold in the flour mixture with the butter mixture gently to form a dough.The dough will be soft and a little sticky but not loose.Do not over mix. You might need to oil your hands and bring the dough together.
Once combined, cover the dough with a plastic cling film and refrigerate for 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 350 F/175 C.
Line your cookie sheet with a parchment paper.
Take out the refrigerated dough,lightly oil your palms and make small balls with it.Put the balls on the cookies sheet and press down slightly to flatten out.
With the help of your thumb or back of a tea-spoon make a small hole in the middle of the cookies where u ll fill the nutella after baking.
If at this point you feel that the butter in the cookies is melting, refrigerate again for about 15 minutes.
Bake the cookies in the oven for about 8-12 minutes or untill the bottom starts turning brown. Mine took 10 minutes exact.Do not bake them beyond 12 mins.These will continue to cook after you take them out of the oven.
Take out the cookie sheet from the oven and using the teaspoon again press out the hole in the cookies.You will not be able to do this after the cookies have cooled.

Once the cookies have cooled, fill in the nutella in the little holes in the cookies.
Serve with cold milk.

Notes:

The consistency of strawberry mix is of real importance.Make a thick, almost paste like mix in your processor/blender.If some bits remain, it does not matter but the mix should not be runny or watery.
The color of cookies/dough can differ depending on how red your strawberries are.I chopped off the white portions and used red part only.
I made my cookies less sweet because with nutella filling they could be very overwhelming.
The dough can be slightly difficult to work with,but refrigerate and it will be manageable.
Since every oven is different, the time of baking may vary from appliance to appliance.
You can fill in the cookies with any jam or melted chocolate chips too.
Shape the cookies and refrigerator it so that you have less crackers in your cookies instead of refrigerating and then shaping .

Sending these cookies to Our HBC group Host for the month +VIJAYALAKSHMI DHARMARAJ of Virudhu unna vanga

Sending to Guru’s cooking

Sending to Daily swad sugandh

Mango Chocolate Marble Cake – Eggless & Butterless

June 12, 2013 By

Hi friends !! Sorry i had been absent in this blogging world for about a month i hope.. My lappy crashed and i was missing it badly for so long hope all are doing gud :).. Sorry bcoz of this was unable to hop to you your lovely blogs 🙂 Now am back with lots of delicious recipes to come..

The much awaited reveal date for pizza has already come and sorry that am the last to complete my challenge. Thanks to +Priya Suresh aks for this lovely group she created in the name of “Home baker challenge” where we get to bake each month with different and delicious baking challenges being challenged by the group members. So glad am a part of it and happy to finish my second challenge. This months challange “Mango chocolate marble cake” was challenged by my dear +Sangeetha M of ” Spicy treat”. Am a mango lover and this was the perfect challenge for this season 🙂 Thank you for this delicious challenge sangee we loved and enjoyed every bite of this cake :)..

Ingredients

All Purpose flour- 2 cups
Baking powder- 1 and 1/2 tsp
Baking Soda- 1/2 tsp
Salt -1/4 tsp
Sugar – 3/4 cup
Oil – 5 tbsp(i used Extra light Olive oil)
Vanilla essence-1 tsp
Chocolate chips- 1/4 cup ( melt them in microwave for 30 minutes at a time and repeat this till completely melted string them every 30 minutes interval)
Mango Pulp-1 cup ( i used fresh mango pulp)
Milk- 1/4 cup
Buttermilk 1/4 cup

How to make Buttermilk for cakes ?

Ingredients

Milk (just under one cup)
1 Tablespoon white vinegar or lemon juice

Method :

Place a Tablespoon of white vinegar or lemon juice in a liquid measuring cup.
Add enough milk to bring the liquid up to the one-cup line.
Let stand for five minute. Then, use as much as your recipe calls for.

Now lets move on to the cake recipe 🙂

Method ( For preparing cake)

Preheat oven to 350 degree Fahrenheit and Grease & line the pan with parchment paper.
In a large mixing bowl, combine sugar & oil then to this add mango pulp, milk, yogurt, vanilla, buttermilk and mix well.

In another small bowl, combine flour, baking soda, baking powder & salt mix and now add this flour mixture to the mango-milk mixture and mix until everything combine well.

Now take a small cup, add Melted chocolate and mix well.

Then transfer half of the mango batter to another bowl and add this cocoa paste and combine well.
Now both your mango batter & chocolate batter are ready.
Then to the lined loaf pan or a round cake pan , add mango n chocolate batter alternatively like a checker board pattern or simply fill with vanilla/mango batter then add remaining chocolate batter in 3 small circles, make swirls using a skewer as u like.

Tap the pan gently to set the batter evenly and bake it for 50-55 minutes or until done(check by inserting a knife or toothpick which should come out clean). Voila our yummy mango chocolate marble cake is ready 🙂

Notes

I used fresh mango pulp for this recipe but store bought sweetened mango pulp but reduce the sugar to 1/2 cup .
This cake won’t rise too much so u can fill up to 3/4 of the pan, as i wanted to show the checker board marble pattern in detail added only half batter,
But u can make it smiple marble pattern by adding mango butter first then pour the chocolate batter and make swirls as u like..
U can also add chopped nuts to this.
Instead of melting the chocolate an adding to the chocolate mixture you can use Cocoa Powder 1/4 cup ( mix with 2 tbsp warm water) and mix them for chocolate batter.
I used melted milk chocolate chips you can use dark chocolate chip even.
I also made a muffin out the extra batter left

Thanks for the lovely challenge sangee 🙂 i enjoyed making this marble cake and they really tasted yummy 🙂 Thanks to HBC for this lovely opportunity to bake lots of new bakes 🙂 Sucessfully completing last months challenge 🙂

Cake pan Veggie Pizza (From scratch )

May 16, 2013 By

Hi friends !! The much awaited reveal date for pizza has already come and sorry that am the last one to complete my challenge. Thanks to +Priya Suresh aks for this lovely group she created in the name of “Home baker challenge” where we get to bake with each month with different and delicious baking challenges being challenged by the group members. So glad am a part of it and happy to finish my first challenge. This month first challenge was challenged by +Divya Prakash of “Divya’s Culinary Journey” . She had shared an yummy recipe of pizza this month 🙂

I am great lover of pizza and my lil girl also love pizza . So i was so excited to finish this challenge soon . Pizza’s was originated from Italy and a most like fast food by all. Do u know they celebrate October month as pizza month :). So i am here with my version pizza made for Home baker’s challange.

For Pizza Sauce

Ingredients

2 tbsp Olive Oil
2 tbsp grated Garlic
2 cups Tomato Puree
1 tsp Oregano
1/4 tsp Black Pepper
1/4 tsp Chilli Flakes
2 tbsp Brown Sugar (optional)
4 tbsp Tomato Ketchup
1/2 tsp Basil Leaves

Method

Cook the Tomatoes in boiling water , when they are well done remove the skin and seeds . Grind them in a blender and make a paste
In a large saucepan heat oil , Add grated ginger ,red chilli flakes, tomato paste,basil leaves, tomato ketchup and cook them . Add remaining ingredients; mix well. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Reduce heat; cover and simmer stirring occasionally. Cool.
Pour into freezer containers, leaving 1/2-in. headspace. Freeze for up to 12 months.

Pizza base

Ingredients

1 envelope active dry yeast
1 cup warm water, 110° F.
1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
2 1/4 tsp 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
Corn meal or fine semolina for dusting

Method

Put warm water in a cup; sprinkle yeast over water and stir in sugar; let stand for about 10 minutes, or until it begins to bubble.
Combine 2 1/4 cups flour and salt in a large bowl; pour in oil and yeast mixture and stir until a stiff dough is formed. Turn dough out onto a floured surface; knead about 5 minutes, or until smooth and elastic. Add extra flour as needed to keep from sticking to hands and board.

Place in a large bowl greased with shortening or butter; turn dough over to coat the dough well. Cover with towel and let rise in a warm place for about 30 minutes to 1 hour.

Dough should double in bulk. Punch down the dough and shape to fit a lightly greased pizza pan which as been sprinkled lightly with cornmeal or fine semolina .

Assembling Pizza

Toppings (Of your choice)

Sliced Capsicum 1 no
Onion sliced 1 no
Tomatoes cut into circles – 1
Jalapeno cut in to circles -1 no

You can add any topping may be veggie or a fruit topping on this pizza .Above listed are toppings i used.

Method

Keep dough slightly thick around the edges. Fill with favorite filling and toppings top them with Mozzarella cheese and bake it in cake pan for about 15 to 20 minutes at 425°. I like to bake my pizza till the base gets slight brown color on top.