COOKIE DOUGH TRUFFLES - EGGLESS

Cookie Truffles

Its VALENTINE'S DAY and obviously its a ritul type for me to make something sweet to share with all of you :). My SIL being in town made me even more eager to make this sweet. Its always better when you have an extra helping hand :) :).. I m so glad we tried this sweet out and sure was a super duper hit among my neighbours. We were floating around the whole day on ninth sky  with appreciation ;) :D

Ingredients:

All purpose Flour - 2 - 2.5 cups
Brown Sugar - 3/4 cup (softened)
Vanilla Essence - 1 tsp
Condensed Milk - 1 tin (395 gram)
Milk chocolate Chips - 1/2 cup

For the coating:
Semi-sweet choco chips - 1 cup
Butter - 2 tbsp

Preparation:

In a bowl, mix brown sugar, butter and vanilla essence till creamy. I used a hand mixer for this. Then add in the condensed milk and mix again. Now start adding flour bit by bit till you get a dough. Once the batter starts thickening, start kneading with hand. Once you get a dough mix, add in the milk choco chips and knead nicely. Then keep in fridge for about 20 mins to harden the dough a bit so that its easy to roll into ball. Make small balls out of the dough, place them on butter paper and keep it in fridge again for a minimum of 2 hours atleast to harden the ball. Otherwise the balls will fall apart when you do the coating.

Now for the next step, Melt the semi-sweet choco chips by double boiler method and add butter to it. Once the chips have melted nicely remove and keep aside. now pick each dough balls and dip them in the melted chocolate, remove and place them on butter paper carefully. Sprinkle them with sugar strands in the end. Refrigerate overnight for best results and voila there you go! You have the best easiest cookie sweet you can make!!

Cheers,
Neetz ;)

Notes:
You will perfect round balls. I had feew extra melted chocolate so used to stick the sprinkles at the end :)..
Use all Purpose flour in accordance to the need for thickening the dough.

I would like to send this over to Valentine Fest , Bon Vivant, Just for Fun

CHOCOLATE NUTELLA COOKIES (Eggless)

Eggless Nutella Cookies - BHW

Another exciting wednesday for blog hopping came in and this time I was paired with one of my bloggy friend Priya :). I was so dleighted to know that I was paired with her as her blog as a treat to my eyes and i actually got confused what to make seeing all the wonderful dishes she have made. I was looking for simple recipe and as usual baking being my passion these days, these cookies were instant eye cather to me eyes. I did make changes to it and added extra few ingredients to it. I liked this biscuit coz unlike other biscuits it wasnt so sweet and for a family like mine, this was perfect :). Do find the link to the idea i got form her blog from here.

Ingredients:

All Purpose Flour - 1/2 cup + 1 tbsp
Cocoa Powder - 1/3 cup
Baking Powder - 1/2 tsp
Softened Butter - 1/4 cup
Sugar - 1/4 cup
Brown Sugar - 1/4 cup
Vanilla Essence - 1/2 tsp
Nutella - 8 tsp
Milk - 6 tsp

Preparation:

Pre-heat oven to 163C/325F

Sieve Flour, cocoa powder and baking powder and keep aside.

Now with a electric mixer beat sugars and butter till smooth. Add int he essence and nuteela and beat for another minute or so. Slowly add in the mixed flour and start folding in. Add milk in between and fold the whole mix into a soft dough. Refrigerate for 15-20 mins to make the dough hard.

Make small balls and place them on to a baking tray placed with baking paper. Flatten them with a bottom of a glass. Bake till slight cracks are formed and cookies are still soft. This wil take about 10 mins or so.

Cheers,
Neetz ;)


I would like to send this over for KIDS DELIGHT cevent onducted by Kavi and Srivalli and Valentines Event

                              Valentine fest serve with love

Bon Vivant Series

POTATO KIBBEH

Potato Kibbeh

Potato kibbeh is basically a middle eastern dish with potato and carmellized onions sometimes stuffed with meat (chicken, lamb). I would prefer to make this dish veg and then serve with non-veg to go with it. I surely would make this several times as its very healthy and filling too.

Recipe Source : Discover Lebanon

Ingredients:
Potato - 1 large boiled and mashed ( roughly about 1 cup)
Wheat Bulgar - 1/2 cup
Garlic Powder - 2 tsp
Salt
Pepper
Olive Oil - 2 -3 tbsp

Walnuts - 1 large handful
Onion - 1 medium chopped finely

Preparation:

Roast the walnuts in 180C pre-heated oven for about 55-7 mins till nuts turn slightly brown in color.
Roast the onions in 1 tsp of oil in a pan till lightly brown color.
Wash the bulgar and blend it in a processor.
Mix the mash potato, blended bulgar, garlic, salt and pepper.
Divide the mix into two parts. Place one part into the baking dish. Layer the onions and walnuts on top. Then layer with the second potato mix. Cut over the top into squares roughly and pour the olive oil so that it sweeps between the cuts.

Bake in pre-heated oven at 10C for 40 mins. You will see it will turn lightly brown in color.

Serve warm as it is or you can have with tuna (which i had and it tasted superb) or with cooked chicken mince.

Cheers,
Neetz ;)

Notes :
You can add variations like cashew nuts, raisins or even cooked meat instead of walnut areas.

Eggless Vanilla Sponge cake-STEP BY STEP PICS

Eggless Vanilla Sponge Cake - Step by Step Intructions

I refer to many books on ccoking that i can get my hands on. I love baking everythig that I can and thats when i came across nita mehtas recipe cookbook on eggless ones. This is one of the basic ones and superly easy and yummy too. If you ask me whether I will make this again. Yes! a thousand times more.

Ingredients:
All purpose Flour - 1.5 cups
Baking Soda - 1/2 tsp
Baking Powder - 1.25 tsp
Castor Sugar - 3/4 cup
Curd - 1 cup (Use thick curd)
Oil - 1/2 cup
Vanilla Essence - 1.5 tsp
Milk - for brushing the top of bread

Preparation:
In a bowl beat sugar and curd till sugar gets dissoved. Then to this add baking powder and baking soda and whisk gently.Add in cooking oil and essence and whisk again.

My kitchen has less lighting effect. Thats why the pics looks dark :(

 Leave the mixture aside for 5-10 mins. You will see bubbles lightly forming on top. Then add in the flour slowly at a time and whisk till you get a thick creamy batter. Pour to a cake pan either placed with baking paper or greased with oil all over. I used a loaf one.

  Baked cake as soon as it is out of oven.

Pre-heat the oven initally to 200C and when you are ready to put in the batter adjust the thermo to 180C and put int the cake pan. Bake for 30 - 40 mins till the toothpick test come out clean.

After 25 mins take out the pan and brush the top with milk and put in back into oven till cake is done.

Cheers,
Neetz ;)

Notes :
-The original recipe asks for 1 cup of sugar. I reduced the sugar as we all are having less sweet tooth ;)
-You can use any vegetable oil and i used canola one.

I would like to send this over to the event Bake with your heart. yet another superb event coducted by Khushi. Thank u dear for conducting events like these for cookholics like us :D.
I would like to send this over for the event  Christmas Delicacy conducted by Julie. 

EGGLESS SOFT AND CHEWY CASHEW COOKIES

Eggless Cashew Cookies

Ingredients:
Cashew Coarsely grounded - 1/2 cup (take whole cashew in accordance to that before grounding)
All Purpose Flour - 1 cup
Cardamom Powder - a large pinch
Softened Butter - 1/3 cup
Castor Sugar - 3/4 cup (adjust the sweetness accordng to your needs)
Baking Powder - 1/4 tsp
Milk - 2-3 tbsp

Preparation:

Pre-heat the oven at 180C/ 375F. Place the measured whole nuts on the baking tray and bake for 10 mins till nuts are roasted. They will turn lightly brown in color. Keep it cool and ground coarsely.

Sieve the baking powder and flour.

In a bowl add in the butter and sugar. Beat till soft. Then add in the grounded nuts,cardamom, mixed flour and start to bind. If the binding gets hard and tough, add in tbsp of milk and see if you need more for binding to make a dough. Add only tbsp by tbsp if required. Bind to a dough and then keep it in fridge to set for 20 mins.

In a baking tray with a parchment paper, make small balls and flatten them slightly and place them on the tray with a 1 inch gap between each. Bake in a pre-heated oven for 10-12 minutes or till side turn slightly brown in color. Wait for the cookies to cool completely to thicken and enjoy with a cup of hot tea :)

Cheers,
Neetz ;)

WHEAT SANDWHICH BREAD LOAF

 Wheat bread

I have been planning to make wheat bread for a healthier diet and finally i managed to make today and i was so glad when i sliced the bread it was so much looking perfect and the taste was awesome!!!

Ingredients:

Wheat Flour - 2.5 heaped cups
All purpose Flour - 1 cup ( you can use whole wheat instead)
Warm Water - 1.5 cup
Oil - 4 tbsp
Sugar - 1/3 cup ( i used half white and half brown sugar)
Dry Yeast - 1.5 tsp
Salt - 1.5 tsp

Preparation :

Add in a bowl the suagr, warm water and yeast and keep it in warm place for 10 mins till the mixture turn frothy on top. By 10 mins your can smell the yeast in the whole kitchen. Add the salt and oil to the mix.

In the a big bowl mix both the flours nicely and then add the yeast water and knead to a dough. its gonna be a messy job with your hands. If the dough is too sticky use oil on your hands and knead for 10 mins or more till you get the dough like an elastic (This is very important for the bread to come out nicely). Rub oil all over the dough and keep this dough covered with a cling film in a bowl and keep it in warm place for 1 hour till the dough doubles in size. fter 1 hour, on a well foured surfce, gently punch down the dough to release the air trapped inside and gently knead again for a min. Shape the dough like a loaf and keep it in bread pan and covered for another 45 mins to double in size.

Pre-heat the oven to 180C/350F . Brush milk on top of the bread and then spray water inside the heated oven to create a moisture and put in the bread pan. Bake for 30 mins. By now the whole house will be smelling with awesome smell of baked bread. I felt i was in bakery store ;).

The pic shows as soon ,after the baking was done

Then roughly cover with aluminum foil and bake further for 10 mins and allow the bread to cool on rack itself. To know if the bread is done, tap at the bottom and it will sound hollow.

Let the bread cool down completely before slicing it and enjoy!

Cheers,
Neetz ;)

STUFFED MUSHROOM SNACK

Stuffed Mushroom Snack

Ingredients :

Large Mushrooms : - 6 nos

For the filling:
Onion - 1 no chopped
Garlic - 1 large chopped
Black Olives - 10 nos desseded and chopped
Parsley - few chopped
Grated Cheese - 2 tbsp
Butter - 2 tbsp
Salt
Olive Oil

For covering the filling :
Breadcrumbs - 4 tbsp
Grated Cheese - 2 tbsp
Butter - 1 tbsp
Oregano - 1/2 tbsp


Preparation:
Clean the mushrooms and then in a pan with sufficient water boil them for about 5 mins or till done.

Then carefully with a knife remove the stem from the base if the head ( without tearing the head) and keep aside. The chop finely the stem.

In a pan, add butter and saute onion and garlic. Once onions turn light pink color, add in the salt, parsley, cheese and olives. Cook for 1 min on low flame and switch off.

In a bowl. mix the breadcrumbs, butter and cheese.

Marinate the olives with olive oil inside out. Then stuff the olive filling first and then the breadcrumb mix on top and press lightly. Repeat this for all the rest of the mushrooms.

For Baking/ Grilling:

Put in a baking tray with parchment paper placed on top and then at 180C bake till the top layer of the stuffing ( breadcrumb mix) becomes light brown in color or you can grill for sometime till brown color appears.

For frying:

In a pan add a little butter (1 tbsp) and then fry the mushroom with the stuffed part facing down first and then reversing. It will take only few mins for this to be done.

I am sending this over for the event Sunday Special conducted by Roshan.

Cheers,
Neetz ;)


Note :
For healthier verison you can substitue olive oil for butter.
I used cheddar cheese rather than processed cheese.

A SIMPLE EGGLESS CHOCOLATE CAKE- Baking for beginners

Eggless Chocolate Cake

Its my hubby's bday and i was on the spree of baking. I have never ever baked a cake in my life!. Ya i know thats really sad :(. But then i stated off making this simple cake and initially i had trouble with knowing the temperature of the oven, i got the cake all torned and burned! But then i m not a person who will accept defeat so fast. So i baked again and Voila!! I got a beautiful cake which my hubby did appreciate a lot. As i thought baking is actually not so hard and after all, its fun :)

Ingredients:

All purpose Flour/Maida - 1.5 cup
Unsweetened cocoa powder - 3 tbsp
Baking Soda - 1 tbsp
Brown Sugar - 1/2 cup
Sugar - 1/2 cup
Salt - a big pinch
Vegetable Oil/Butter - 5 tbsp
Vinegar - 1 tbsp
Vanilla Essence - 1 tsp
Water - 1/2 cup
Milk - 1/2 cup ( i used low fat)

For the Frosting:
Cooking Chocolate - 200 gm
Butter - 100gm


Preparation:

Sieve Flour, cocoa powder, baking soda for about 2-3 times to evenly mix the powders. Then add in the oil, vinegar, salt, sugar, vanilla extract, milk and water. Whisk nicely the mix till you get a smooth thick batter.


Meanwhile preheat the oven to approx 180C. Grease the cke tin with butter or oil and pour in the cake batter. bake the cake for 20-30 mins till you get a tooth pick clean when inserted into the middle of the cake. Aloow the cake to cool completely.

Preparing the Frosting:

Melt the butter in a microwave or through double boiler (Keep a pan on top of another pan filled with water). Then add in the cooking chocolate and melt. Keep aside the mixture to cool down till you get a thick texture. Take saptula and spread the choclate texture over the cake.

yuummmmmmmmmm... I didnt have any cream with me to decorate so with my little kiddo i decorated the cake with m&m's :).... how better can it get!

I m sending this recipe over for the event Food palette series finale rainbow colours hosted by http://torviewtoronto.blogspot.com/.

Cheers,
Neetz ;)

cake recipe courtesy : hersheys.com ( with small changes from my side)