Eggless No-Bake Biscuit Brownie

Another one of gems off Nags' Edible Garden.

The recipe is so ridiculously simple that the moment I read through it, I knew I had to try it out.

And it was a success...everybody who had it, loved it.

Although, it is called biscuit 'brownie', the texture doesn't quite feel 'brownie'-ish. Umm....its more towards creamy. So if a brownie and a fudge had a baby, it would be this ! Yup...thats how it is. 

Now, without much further ado, here is how it goes.....

Recipe sourced from : Nag's -  www.ediblegarden.com 

Makes around : 12-15 squares.

What goes in:
20-25 Marie biscuits 
3 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 cup roasted hazelnuts - chopped coarsly
2 tsp sugar
200gm tin condensed milk 


What to do:

1. Crush the biscuits into bits and powder. I ran the batch in the grinder attachment of food processor.

2. Add the cocoa powder to this and mix well.

3. Add the sugar and roasted nuts to this mixture and mix again. Amount of sugar is variable. 
Depending on your choice, add more or omit. Remember the condensed milk is already sweet too.

4. Pour in the condensed milk and mix it all using a strong wooden spoon. It gets verysticky and hard to mix. So a strong spoon is advised.

5. Line a baking dish with baking parchment. I had additionally greased the parchment paper with a little butter too. (m jinxed when it comes to stuff that promises not to stick!)

6. Transfer the mixture into the baking dish.

7. Wet your fingers a little and press down the mixture evenly.

8. Now, and this is the most difficult one, wait! Refrigerate overnight. A minimum recommended is 4 hours.

9. Once it is set, just transfer on a plate and cut to desired shape and enjoy!

Brownie-y. Fudg-y. Nutty. Chocolate-y. No butter. No baking. Fool proof. Whats not to love!

Garlic-Pull-Apart Rolls

On a personal level, the year of 2012 has been a very happening-exciting-fulfilling for us. After spending most part of the year in anticipation and preparation, we welcomed two new members in the family. 

Met a lot of new interesting people. Made a few friends. A few that I wished, I had met a little earlier.

One of them is a very sweet girl who shares my passion for all things food ;)

So, since she told me today that she loves garlic breads, I thought I would post this recipe for garlic pull apart rolls. This one is for you Anji.

Recipe sourced from : Suhaina's www.mysingaporekitchen.com

Makes around 20 rolls.

For the dough :

3 cups plain flour

2 tbsp sugar

1 tsp salt

1tbsp yeast

1cup warm water

Garlic spread :

10 tbsp. salted butter at room temperature

chopped coriander leaves to taste

1 full minced garlic

What to do :

1. Mix all the ingredients for the dough together and knead into a soft dough. Wet your fingers with a little oil and knead it into the dough.
Using warm water helps activate the yeast action.

2. Cover the dough with a cling film and keep in a warm place for 45 min. The dough will rise to double its size.

3. To make garlic spread, simply mix all the ingredients together.

 

4. Dust your work surface with a little flour and knock out the air from the dough.
4. Divide the dough into 4 balls. Roll out one of the balls into a rectangular shape. About the thickness of a pita bread.
    Apply the garlic spread generously.
    Start rolling along the shorter edge.

5. Cut it with a knife into half. And again cut them into equal size portions.
6. Repeat the same with the remaining dough balls.
7. Line them in a greased baking pan, cut side up. Top up with remaining garlic spread and sprinkle with sesame seeds.

8. leave them to rise again for 20 minutes. Meanwhile, fire up your oven at 180 degree C.
9. Bake for 30 minutes. Till the top becomes golden crusty.

10. Remove and enjoy warm with a hot cup of tea.

I have made these rolls a few times and they have always been a hit. A real crowd pleaser!

(They do look like a bunch of roses. Might be a good valentine idea to make for a sweetheart who is not too much into chocolate!)

So bake away these golden rolls and share with your friends. 

Because garlic breath should always be shared :D

Chocolate Vanilla Cookies

The title was supposed to read "Spiral cookies". 

Well, a year and a half ago, I discovered Nags. Was completely bowled over by her food photography and easy to follow recipes. Have been a regular visitor to her website http://www.cookingandme.com ever since.
It was here that I stumbled on a very easy looking (although Nags insists its a messy recipe), chocolate-vanilla- spiral cookies. And i had to try these. And try I did.
Ahem...
It is quite a simple recipe and the results are very satisfying.
My only word of advice would be - do NOT go stingy on the butter. I made the mistake and the result was that my chocolate dough was not soft enough and refused to be rolled. Everytime i tried, it kept
breaking up. I finally ended up stacking the layers and having a batch of striped cookies.

They were super fun to make though and were absolutely yumm...

I have used her exact measurements here.

Ingredients :

For Vanilla Dough
1.5 cups  All purpose Flour
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 egg yolk
Vanilla essence
Pinch of salt

For Chocolate Dough
1.25 cups All purpose Flour
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 egg yolk
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder.

How I Made It :

1. Separate the yolk and white of one egg. Beat the yolk well and divide in two parts.

2. Mix sugar, butter, salt. Add one half of the egg yolk and vanilla essence to this.

3. Add all purpose flour to this and mix together into a soft dough. (You do not need to knead it)

This takes care of the vanilla bit of the cookies.

4. Similarly for the chocolate dough, mix together butter, sugar and the remaining half egg yolk.
5. Add cocoa powder and flour to this and bring it all together to make soft chocolate dough.
    (Like for vanilla dough, this doesn't need to be kneaded either.)

6. Cover both doughs in saran wrap and refrigerate for 30 mins. Refrigeration gives a little rigidness/
    body to the dough and makes it easier to handle.

7.  Remove from fridge and gently roll out the doughs on a floured surface.
     It helps to do this between sheets of baking parchment. Also makes it easier when you want to
    transfer the rolled out chocolate dough on top of the rolled vanilla dough.

    Do not panic if it does not look perfect yet.
    It will all fall in place once the baking is dine.

    So, the chocolate layer is transferred on top of vanilla layer. This is where you start rolling them
    gently to make a single cylindrical roll.
    Unfortunately for me, everytime i tried rolling, it started crumbling (remember : stinging on butter
    will do that).
8. So I did the next best thing and cut the layers into stripes and stacked them on top of each other.

   Cut the stripes to your desired width and stack to desired height.
   Cover with saran wrap and refrigerate again for 15 minutes.

9. Preheat the oven to 180C for 15 minutes. Meanwhile take the refrigerated stack of chocolate-vanilla
    dough and cut slices that would become your cookies.

10. Arrange the cookies on a baking tray and put in the oven for approximately 15 minutes. Although
      keep checking on them, for when the vanilla bit turns golden.
      Mine were done in around 12 minutes.

11. Remove from oven and allow to cool on wire rack. Store in airtight container (if they make it past
      the day! ).


They smelt heavenly and were devoured with great delight as soon as they were cool enough.

Enjoy with your cuppa !

Have bookmarked a few more recipes from Nag's Edible Garden. Would be trying them out soon.

Malai Koftas

Aaaannddd...I have been trying to get back to my cooking. Now that I am spending more time at home and have a little extra time at my hands. As a guideline I am using the menu of a near by restaurant and making stuff off it.
So I tried - for the nth time in my life - making Malai Kofta (dumplings in mild sauce).

It came out extremely nice for a change. And the cheats I employed are shared below.

For now here is a delicious looking picture of the aforementioned Koftas.

So, for anybody who is interested, here is how I made it.

For Koftas -                                                        For the Gravy - 

3 Medium potatoes, boiled, peeled, mashed              3 medium Onions,

1/2 Cup carrots & peas, half boiled, mashed              1 Cup Tomato puree

1/2 Cup paneer, grated                                            1/4 Cup Paneer, grated

2 medium green chillies, chopped                           1 Tbsp, Ginger paste

2 tbsp cornflour                                                    1 Tbsp, Garlic Paste

Salt to taste.                                                         2 Green Chillies, finely chopped

                                                                           1 tsp Coriander powder

                                                                           1 tsp Cumin powder

                                                                           1/4 tsp Turmeric powder

                                                                           1/2 tsp Red chilli powder

                                                                           1 tsp Shah Jeera

                                                                           1 tsp Garam Masala

                                                                           1/2 C Fresh Cream / Half & Half

                                                                            2 % Milk, as needed

                                                                            Salt to taste

                                                                            Oil 3 tablespoons

How I made it - 

1.   Mix all ingredients required for kofta. Refrigerate the mixture.

2.   Peel onions, cut them into halves and boil with a cup of water for ten minutes. 

      Drain excess water, cool onions and grind them into a smooth paste. Set Aside.

3.   While the onions cool, divide the Kofta mixture in golf ball size portions. Flatten a little.

      Deep fry in hot oil.

4.   On the other side heat oil in a kadai, add shahjeera, boiled onion paste and cook for five 
      minutes. Add ginger & garlic, few chopped green chillies, all the masala powders, and salt.
      Cook for a minute.

8.   Add tomato puree and red chilli powder and cook on medium flame until oil 
      separates from gravy. 

9.   Add cream along with some water & bring it to a boil and simmer for ten minutes on a 
      slow flame. Stir occasionally. 

10.  Stir in fresh cream and garam masala powder. 

11.  Float in all the koftas in the gravy when ready to serve. Simmer for another 
       2 mins and enjoy.

Cheats - 
Cheated majorly. In the following ways.

1. Koftas are ideally made of boiled potatoes, mashed, rolled in small balls, flattened, stuffed with paneer etc. and the selead closed. And then these deep fried in hot oil. I have had past - quite traumatic - experiences of the koftas breaking up while frying, or not being sealed properly and stuffing coming out in oil.
 So here, I just mashed everything together and rolled them. So no danger of of stuffing coming out. saves time. same taste.

2. It is quiet difficult for me to find potatoes that don't go all gooey and sticky after boiling and mashed. So, I resorted to baking them here. Same effect.Lesser hassle.

3. Cornflour is your friend in this recipe. But not best friend. Go easy on it or the koftas would just be too airy.

So anybody who is planning to try this recipe, I hope these tips are useful. Good luck. And happy cooking.