Cakes cookies n savory goodies

Eggless Wholewheat Vanilla cake

9:07 PM


The daughter is becoming naughtier day by day and she has a quirky sense of humour too. The other day I was talking to my brother on phone about how this time is so confusing. How we never had imagined that something like this could happen to the human race and so on. After I finished talking, the little 6 years old came to me and asked for something to eat. It was just 7 in the evening and they had their snacks and a drink around 5.30. On questioning, she replied, like you and Mamu (uncle), my tummy is super confused too. It can't keep track of the time and feel hungry all the time.

Cakes cookies n savory goodies

No Bake Strawberry Tart

11:03 AM


When Strawberries are in season you need to make something with them...well that's an assumption my kids always make. Every week when we go to the grocer, invariably 2 boxes of these ruby red fruit will come home. from their morning cereal to evening fruit bowl they just love to have a few pieces of it.

On the contrary the elders in the family are not very fond of the super tart taste of the Indian variety. Every time I make something they will pick out the fruit and give it to the kids. so this time I decided to make something that will not only complement the tartness rather make it indispensable. And this time also wanted to make a dish that does not need an oven or OTG. For all those readers who wanted something super simple, something that both kids and bigs can enjoy and something that is so so gorgeous that it could easily be the talk of your dinner table...let me introduce you to my no bake strawberry Tart. 

After you finish gawking at it's prettiness do note down the recipe and make it to surprise your family.

Breakfast

Handvo (Gujarati Lentil and rice Savoury cake)

6:51 AM


Remember that movie three idiots where drunken Kareena says to Amir Khan, tum Gujarati logo ka khana itna khatarnak kyon hota hai???? Dhokla, Fafda, handva, thepla...aise lagta hai jaise koi missiles hai ..." (why does the name of Gujarati food sound like dangerous weapons? Dhokla, Fafda, Handva, Thepla...sounds not like food but missiles).
Exactly my thought. I love Gujarati food especially their elaborate platters but the names always bring a smile on my face. while we were growing up we only heard of Dhokla, that quintessential sweet shop staple for breakfast. Yellow spongy squares of steamed gram flour batter soaked with a salty sweet spicy syrup and sprinkled with coconut and not so fiery fried green chillies. Seriously I can survive on this snack with some hot tea. but now with the globe opening up and people being interested in various cuisines more of Gujarati food are coming into limelight and more such names are being familiar. and I don't see anyone complaining. 

Bread Paratha etc

Garlic Knots

10:59 PM


Every night I try hard to make my two kids fall asleep peacefully. It has always been a difficult task but now with the husband being away it has become an herculean one. Every night a lot of effort and time is wasted to make them sleep. In my desperate attempts I start by reading them a bed time story, then I sing all the lullaby I know, I cradle the lil one till my back starts to hurt and then I move to the bed with the toddler on my lap and the first grader by my side. while I frantically move my legs up and down, up and down to rock the baby my right hand tugs and pulls the hair of the sonny boy to give them the comfort they need to fall asleep. and the worst part is till date even after 6 years of being a mother I could not establish a sure shot method to do this. 

 Every night I make a fresh start...trying all my ways to soothe their over active nerves...some days I fail and some days are just a tad better.

But this journey of motherhood is not about failure or success. 


Cakes cookies n savory goodies

Chocolate Frangipane Galette with Mosambi Orangette Syrup

11:39 PM


I love to bake and there are hardly any week goes by without me baking something or the other. But ever since I started taking baking orders under the name Homemade I have been busy baking varieties of cakes. Days are spent in whipping up Ganache or Italian meringue buttercream and smoothening the fondant on layers and layers of cake. and to tell you the truth I love doing that. Nothing gives me more pleasure in the kitchen than a pretty cake all made from scratch.
Cakes Baked by me more HERE

Cakes cookies n savory goodies

Best Ever Eggless Banana Muffin

1:14 AM

This shot is inspired by a similar picture of Dario Milano
Everyone makes lemonade when life gives us lemon. But a foodie thinks differently and she rather chooses to make some lemon curd. So few months back when I was endowed with huge piles of bananas I exactly knew what I was making. This dates back to this when my uncle was hospitalized for his bypass surgery. Its another story that the operation took him a whole of 3 months to finally  being discharged from the hospital.He kept going in and out of the hospital for several wrong reasons and negligence of the doctors.Thank God that he is finally fine and has joined work as well.

My Meso works for Idian forest department and is an avid gardener. In their ancestral house they have a huge garden where every variety of fruits and vegetables are cultivated. It was pretty obvious that everyone who came to visit him during his stay brought bagfuls of fruits and vegetables from their garden. The variety kept on changing. Sometimes it was bagful of spinach, pointed gourds, brinjals and other times it was pumpkin, bottle gourd and mangoes. But one thing that was pretty constant to appear on a weekly basis was banana. Every time someone came, they brought bunches of banana, consisting of 50-60 fruits. So much so that even after eating them for breakfast, evening snack and after dinner dessert we had huge piles of bananas.  My so deep fry loving maternal uncle jumped with joy and advised us to make some kalar bora or sweet banana fritters. But I went bananas at the thought of using so much oil.
So I came up with this idea of making eggless banana muffins, full of nutrition from almonds and banana…healthy and delicious. The best part is it’s easy to prepare, easy to store, easy to carry and one can enjoy this as a snack or as a nutritious dessert. With this in stock you are sorted. Serve them to your sudden guests, pack them for hubby’s evening sncak or kids tiffin box. Everybody loved it when I first served it with evening tea. When my MIL who does not have much appetite for sweet things(including me*) reached for the second muffin I knew it’s seriously good.


On another note I went through a root canal treatment this weekend and its painful. while I recover and kill time with the internet you enjoy this recipe.

Here is my version of turning scrap to fab!

Cakes cookies n savory goodies

Nutty, Corny, gingery, Oatmeal Cookie bars

11:57 AM



I have become too busy lately. Busy with work, with the never ending needs of a growing kid, with chores that now I have to do single handedly as Hubby seems never to be at home. Either he is travelling or coming home at midnight. With these we have some added responsibilities that we never had to take care of before as we were away. Am not complaining a single bit as this is how life should be and thank God I have trenmendous support from my Brothers. But life is hectic and sometimes I feel exhausted. I am a kind of a person who needs sometime for herself. Give me 15 minutes for myself and I would be recharged. Remember this post where I talked about my 'Me time' with chai, cookies and books. Thats how it is till date, the only change is now I prefer coffee.

With the constant visits from family and friends and with so many cups of 'chai' been guzzled down I hardly crave it anymore. So my new found 'me time' companion is my South Indian filter coffee. Sometime black, sometime latte. With this I prefer some home made cookies. Not those buttery chocolaty ones but something healthy, something easy with some rustic flavours.  I really do not like to stuff my shopping bags with those overtly priced so-called fat free, gluten free, cholesterol free and don’t know what else snacks from the super market. Rather I prefer to make them at home.

I have recenty started experimenting seriously with whole wheat flour and these cookie bars that I adapted from Sunita’s blog are a real winner. These are enough to convert anyone who doesnot believe in whole grain baking. Simply try this once and you would be convert for life…just like my father and husband. Who always believed that cookies could never taste good without APF, now they are advising me to seriously thinking of opening a cookie shop. Yes these are that good.
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Desserts and Sweets

Cherry-Plum Cobbler

4:03 AM

Baking with fruits is a new phenomenon in my kitchen, which started last year. Thanks to the blog world and those luscious summer bakes that you clicked and presented and which made me droooool in all its true senses. Before that the frugal me never thought of buying those packs of overtly priced strawberries or cherries.  They looked oh so luscious from a distant with a divine aroma but when bitten makes you throw it as soon as possible for its more sour than lemon taste.  But anyways Hubby wanted to try them and brought a packet when they were offered at half their original price.  After looking for a good recipe to fit our circumstances I got one based on David Lebovitz’s. it was easy to assemble and called for very few things. So on one weekend night when the hubby was busy putting the baby to bed I made this to jazz up our healthy meal of Moroccan Harira. And boy did we like it??? We were totally floored with the union of this just out of the oven hot cherry-berry cobbler with vanilla ice cream...a match made in heaven.

Since then I have made it several times and every time I wanted to post the recipe. But just the thought of the cobblers cooling down made me sick. I wanted to enjoy the whole experience of scooping out a small spoonful of the bubbling fruit sauce with the soft buttery biscuit and then seize a tiny bit of melting vanilla ice cream and putting the dripping spoon in my mouth. Trust me its heavenly and by no means I could ever let it go, NO, not even for my blog. But this time when Hubby got a big packet of cherries from New market and we enjoyed the cherry cobbler for dinner for back to back two consecutive days….I finally was ready to click this blissful dessert for my blog.

So I took out the linen I planned for the shoot, wiped the spoon and charged my camera battery.  However, once the cobbler was ready the scene was different. Hubby quickly grabbed one ramekin and asked me to manage with the other three. It’s always difficult to shoot a great dessert which is supposed to be enjoyed hot what aggravated the situation of the greedy hubby licking his spoons clean in front of me. After blaming him that he doesn’t show any support to my blog finally the foodie in me could not resist. I finished the shoot in hurry with whatever was in front of me.  So now, you know whom to blame for these lousy pictures. Right!!! But take my words on the recipe. Do yourself a favor a make a batch of this wonderful summer fruit dessert, and no matter what enjoy them hot.
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Cakes cookies n savory goodies

Eggless Stone fruit Tea Cake

1:02 PM


This post is for all those friends of mine who liked to read about my sonny boy and commented that he is soo sweet. Yeah!  I know he is a crowd puller in every true sense and I realised  it the time he was born.  That bald little bundle dint cry  for a second, rather looked amusedly at the doctors. Trust me am not making a single word when I say he actually winked at me the time he was brought to me for the first time.  He always has been a very quite boy but knows how to grab attention when he wants to.  Just like any other kid of his age he He loves to watch nursery rhymes on TV, listening to Rabindra sangeet and talking to his soft toys and between doing all these he does his things in silence. When you happily fold clothes thinking that the baby is watching cartoon network  he actually would be found in the bathroom, standing on a stool playing with the water.  He also has this peculiar habit of doing just the opposite what he is asked for. If we want him to sit with his books we actually have to tell him ' No no you dont have to study now, please put your books on the shelf’.  And there he is with his bookd, talking to himself, pointing to the pictures ‘this is a bus, that is a taxi…’

 Like any other kid of his age he does his share of mischief. The biggest problem with him is his inquisitiveness. I know that’s good but what if someone needs to know how it feels to lock Mummy in the bathroom. Yes that nightmarish thing happened to me during the time when we just shifted base and was staying with my parents. I am very scared of such mishaps around children and always prefer to make the house child safe. But that was only for a very small period of time and we always have full time house help. Still such a bad incident took place on a lonely afternoon when the househelp took a half day break and parents were on work. the brat suddenly woke up from his afternoon nap and decided to excite himself by just locking the bathroom door from outside. That was the most scariest one hour of my life when I pleaded the little one to try and open the door just the way he locked it and he kept on trying and saying ‘Hochhe na, hochhe na (Its not working)’. Finally the watchman had to break a lock and a door to save us.

Anyways let me get back to today’s recipe for now.  I got this idea of stonefruit cake from the blogosphere. When I saw this light and pretty  tea time cake with all those fruits peeking from it,  I knew I have to make it. Stonefruits are not very easily available here and this is the first time I tasted plum. Somehow this fruit never appealed to me when I was in Bangalore and I hardly thought about putting them in my weekly grocery bag. This time too I only bought one piece to bake with but that was so juicy and sweet, next day I went back to the shop and bought a huge batch. Also this is the first time I have baked a cake with flaxseeds.  Every other day you see articles about the goodness of these seeds and trust me it truly stands to its name of vegan egg.  You just have to soak some flaxseed powder in water for half an hour and at the end of this time you have sticky vegan egg ready for your baking spree. If you have been reading my blog you must have noticed that am not much eggless bake person but now am a believer and I really dint miss the egg in this cake. The only thing am skeptical about is the little soggy bits around the fruits. As I already said I made it for the first time and have never ate it elsewhere so am not sure if that’s normal with fresh fruit cakes. I would definitely appreciate your comments on this. If it’s a fiasco please tell me how to overcome this as I want to bake this again and again.
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Cakes cookies n savory goodies

Candy Cane Cookies (Eggless)

9:18 AM


So how was your Christmas this year? Did you have fun? Did you give in to the spirit of the season with all things glittery and shiny? I did. Though we dint bring any Christmas tree this year but the baby simply loved all the tinsels and baubles in the shops. Every time we went out he looked at all those Christmas lights with awestruck eyes. Finally when we bought some decorations to give our home a little touch of Christmas cheer, he was elated…and kept on jumping when his father finally switched on the lights. He loves glitters and glam and next year we will surely bring home a big Christmas tree for him.

I saw these cookies while searching for the Mince Pie recipe in Joy of baking and instantly knew I will make these. Give me something craft-y and am in anytime. These were perfect for son’s kiddy friends who received Christmas gift hampers from him this year. But the biggest hurdle was to make it egg less, as most of them are pure vegetarians. So, I added little more butter and 1/3 cup of almond flour and the final outcome was crisp, tasty and cutesy cookies. The shaping of the cookies is a little tricky, you will fumble with the first one or two but once you get the hang of it they will become easier. Have tried to give a pictorial on the shaping but the low light in my kitchen spoils everything. Still this would give you the basic idea.

Here is how I made these cutesy cookies, which were genuinely loved by the kids and their parents.

Eggless Candy Cane Cookies

Ingredients:
Flour: 2 cups
Almond flour: ½ cup
Butter: 10 tbsp
White oil: 4 tbsp
Powdered sugar: 1 cup
Milk: 2-3 tbsp (or less)
Soda-bi-carb: a pinch
Vanilla essence: ½ tsp
Red food colour: little

Method:
Mix flour, almond flour, soda and set aside.
With a electric mixer or whisk beat the sugar, vanilla, oil and butter till creamy. 


Mix in the dry ingredients in 2-3 batches and fold till you get smooth dough. If needed add the milk a spoonful at a time.

Take half of this dough and mix in the red food colour. I used powdered colour which I dissolved to 1 tsp of milk.

Cover the doughs separately in plastic wrap and chill for 20-30 minutes(if you find the dough too soft, otherwise you can make the cookies directly).

Once you are ready to bake preheat the oven to 160C and line a baking sheet with butter paper (I used my tracing papers and greased it with little butter.)

With greased hands start making the cookies. First take walnut sized ball from the white dough. Roll this between your palms or on a lightly greased surface to make a 4-5” long rope. I found it easier to make 2-3 long ropes and then joing them by pressing the edges together and then rolling.

Do the same with another walnut sized ball from the red dough.

Place the two ropes side by side. Now by slightly lifting one side try to twist the ropes together to create spiral. Do this little at a time or you will end up breaking the ropes. After every twist check the ropes if Broken somewhere. Do this by pressing the broken parts together and rolling.
Once twisted roll it back and forth on a lightly greased surface to secure the twists and to make it smooth.

Carefully transfer on the sheet and then slightly bend the top like a cane.

Prepare the other sticks and place them an inch apart on the baking tray.

Bake the cookies for 8-10 minutes (mine were ready in 8 minutes), check after 5 minutes if the sides are browing fast. If so adjust the heat.

Cool them on wire rack and store in airtight container.

A Homemaker’s Note:
  1. Don’t bake them on greased foil as the heat from the foil will make the bottom dark brown.
  2. The colour of the cookies is brighter when not over baked so please be extra careful to check the cooking time.
  3. The cookies would be soft even after baking. Be very careful in transferring.
  4. You can see the original recipe (with eggs) HERE.
Events:

1. Champa's Bake off.



Tags:
Candy cane cookies, candy bar cookies, how to make candy cane cookies, how to shape candy cane cookies, candy cane cookies tutorial, candy cane cookies pictorial, candy cane cookies step by step, egg less candy cane cookies with pictures, best candy cane biscuits, perfect Christmas gift, kids favourite, cookies for kids, children cookies, what to cook for children, best eggless crispy cookies, best eggless cookie recipe, perfect eggless cookie recipe, most cutesy cookies, easy to make cookies, almond meal cookies, almond flour cookies, Christmas gift, handmade christmas gift, what to bake for christmas, what to gift on christmas, 

Cakes cookies n savory goodies

Mince Pie with Homemade Mincemeat

9:01 AM


The Christmas fever has settled in and am baking like a maniac these days. Last Friday I baked a huge batch of coconut-chocolate chip cookies (recipe coming soon) for the kiddie neighbors and then went out with the baby for our evening stroll. After sometime got an incredible warming aroma of home baking. I tried to guess which house it was wafting from only to realize that we had reached the back of our own house and the very smell was the result of my whole afternoon slogging in the kitchen. Funny Eh!!!

Hubby wants to gift homemade cookies and cakes to his collegues in the new office and I plan to shower my sonny boy’s friends with some choclate treats. Then we have my cousin sister and her 4 year old little brat, some very good friends who would drop in to save us from anything even in the middle of night, some more friends who have invited us for Christmas and New year parties this year and for me something homemade makes the best hostess gift.  So baking, baking and baking some more for me this year and am loving every minute of it.

Last year I made this incredibly good Rich Fruit cake for Christmas. All our guests in the Christmas party loved the cake except Hubby. Somehow he dint appreciate the rich flavour of soaked dry fruits in rum and red wine. We still have a small jar of soaked fruits from last year and I was wondering what to make with that and zeroed on Mince pies. Watched the recipe on Rachel Allen’s 'Bake' a few months back and liked the idea of combining crunchy pastry shell with soft soaked fruits and nuts.

I followed this mince meat recipe from Joy of Baking and it tasted absolutely delicious. I almost convinced myself dropping the idea of baking the pies and eating the mince meat as it is. If you like the deep flavour of rum combined with the slight bitter-sweet rich taste of the soaked fruits and the heat from nutmeg and cinnamon…then this mincemeat is for you. But am glad that I only ate a few spoonful and finally made these pies…they look gorgeous but taste even better. It has a sensational sweet, crunchy, juicy taste or as our very own     
'Kalyan, The  Knife' describes, It gives you sheer Adult pleasure. Even while am writing this post am tempted to go and open the fridge to have another bite right away…on a good note even Hubby liked this taste and this morning lovingly added a couple of these mini pies to his lunch box.

Between, did you know that in the beginning mincemeat actually had meat and eggs. Later suet or kidney fat was replaced for meat. Now a days it is made with or without the fat, mostly with lots of dry and candied fruits and nuts soaked in good quality wine or rum.

Here is the very easy recipe
The mincemeat recipe is minimally adapted from here.

Mince Pie
(For 12 small pies)

Homemade mincemeat
Ingredients:
Green Apples: 2 (Used Granny smith Variety)
Apple Juice: ½ cup (Used Tropicana 100%)
Brown sugar: 3 tbsp
Butter: 1 tbsp
Candied gingers: 1 tbsp
Nutmeg powder: 1/3 tsp
Cinnamon powder: ½ tsp
Clove powder (I powdered 2 cloves)
Soaked fruits and nuts in rum and red wine : 2/3 cup (recipe HERE)

If you don’t have soaked nuts, add the following to the above ingredients
Raisins: 2 tbsp
Currants: 2 tbsp
Candied peels: 4 tbsp
Candied fruits like pineapple, mango etc: 2-3 tbsp
Tutti frutti: 5-6 tbsp
Rum/red wine: ¾ cup
Method:
Wash, Peel and chop the apples in small cubes.
Put everything in a heavy bottom pot. Mix well and boil on low till all the juice dries up and the fruits soak up all the flavours. Do this by occasionally stirring the mincemeat, otherwise it might burn at the bottom.

Cool it completely before use.

I dint store it but according to Joy of cooking it stays good in the fridge for a month if added little rum or wine every week.

The Pate Brisee or the pie shell

Ingredients:
Flour: 11/2 cups
Castor sugar: 2 tbsp
Chilled Butter: 6 tbsp
Ice cold water: as required

Method:
Take the flour and sugar in a big plate.
Rub the butter in the flour till a bread crumb consistency is achieved. If needed add more butter.
Pour ice cold water very little at a time and lightly mix it in the flour. Use only your fingers and at no point add pressure. That way the heat from your palms will melt the butter and the pastry would be heavy and chewy.
Just when the dough starts to come together wrap that in a cling film. Lightly tap and make a disk of 1” thickness and chill for an hour.

Assembling and baking
After the chilling time roll the dough between two sheets of cling film to ½” thickness.

Cut circles slightly bigger than the tart moulds. Spread the circle to cover the entire inside of a greased tart mould. Poke few holes with a fork and blind bake for 5 minutes in a preheated (200C) oven.

Roll out the remaining dough to ¼” thickness and cut any shape of your wish with a floured cookie cutter. Set aside.

Fill the tarts with the prepared mincemeat and top with a star shape. Bake for 15-20 minutes or till lightly browned on the sides.

Let it cool completely before trying to unmould.


Enjoy!!!

A Homemaker’s Note:
Generously butter the inside of the tart moulds or unmoulding the pies becomes very difficult.

You can also brush the top with little milk to get golden brown colour.


Events:

1. Champa's Bake off.



Tags:
Mincemeat, mince pie, continental pie, continental sweet tart, tartlet, mini tart, christmas pie, christmas dessert, chirstmas treat, fruit n nut treat, rum soaked dry fruits, wine soaked nuts, delicate flavours, pate brisee, shortcrust pastry, how to make pate brisee, how to make pastry shell, eggless tart case recipe, best sweet pie recipe, mincemeat dessert, mini pie for kids, best sweet tart recipe, spicy tart, nutmeg, cinnamon powder dessert.

Cakes cookies n savory goodies

Baked Savory Onion crackers or Nippatu

10:34 AM


I guess this is the most famous cracker recipe in the Indian Food blog circuit. The original recipe was shared by Supriya of Redchillies, which went straight to Soma’s kitchen. Somehow Sharmila spotted it there. Immedieately she made them and tempted me enough with her gorgeous pictures to enter the kitchen with all the necessary ingredients. Uff that’s a long chain, (almost like Arusuvai) linked with one single recipe.

But you might think, whats so great about these that so many people cant stop making and baking and praising them? Well the answer would be please try it yourself…especially if you are a fan of onion pakoras. Even if you hate onion pakoras like me you would find these little disk from heaven absolutely delicious. It tastes even better just out of the oven…all that onion-y flavour merged with the heat from green chillies and the freshness of coriander leaves…is simply sensational. This has become very famous among friends also. Some of them even come straight to the kitchen asking for more. We generally eat these with roasted tomato and coconut chutney but tastes great even with ketchup. 

I baked it many a times at home and yes like some of you I also have twisted the recipe a little bit. Baked this batch when my father was here. When I served this with his evening tea he could not stop eating and finally when I had to stop him he said that these crackers should come with the tag line ‘no one can eat just one!’ very true to believe just bake a batch for yourself and join me when I say “ummmm, these are good”

Before I get into the recipe here is a quick reminder of the ongoing Arusuvai Friendship Chain. The pass-it-on ingredient game has already started. HERE is the link for all of you who wants to participate.

Nippatu

Ingredients:
Flour: ½ cup
Whole wheat flour: 1 cup
Onions: 2 (medium)
Green chillies: 2
Curd: 2 tbsp
Olive oil: 4 tbsp
Baking powder: 1/3 tsp
Soda-bi-carb: a pinch
Seasame seeds: 11/2 tsp
Sugar: 1/3 tsp
Salt

Method:
Slice the onion very fine in half moon shape. Chop the chillies as fine as possible.

Mix flours, salt, sugar, baking powder, soda, sesame seeds, chillies and half of the chopped onions in a big bowl. Add the curd and oil. Mix and make a dough (if required add water. Do this very carefully by adding a spoonful everytime).
The dough would be thick. Knead for a couple of minutes. Cover and keep aside for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven at 170 C and line a baking tray with greased foil.

Pinch small balls from the dough and place on the foil. Flatten with the back of a bowl. Poke a few holes with fork. You can also roll it out as a thin sheet and cut round disks with cookies cutters.

Bake for 30 minutes or till the sides turn light golden brown.

The marvelous savory low fat snack is ready enjoy with any chutney or sauce of your choice.

A Homemaker’s Note:
The original recipe calls for butter and all-purpose flour. But I twisted it to make mine a little healthier so that I can keep on munching on these J without guilt.

You can experiment with the flavour. Sharmila has added kasuri methi. I once flavoured it with oregano and also used red chili flakes instead of green chillies.


Events:
1. Champa's Bake off.

tags:
onion bake. onion cookies, Indian baked snack, Indian bakery snack, savory cookies, eggless bake, salted bake, best ever baked cracker, baked starter, low calorie starter, low calorie snack, between meal healthy snack,low fat snacks, appetizer, baked onion biscuit, savory biscuit, nipattu, nippattu, Bangalore bakery items, baked goodies, savory baked crackers, how to bake crackers, how to bake biscuit, how to make salted cookies, best ever onion cookies, perfect party starter, perfect cracker recipe. 

Cakes cookies n savory goodies

Baked Masala Peanuts and Pumpkin Seeds and Arusuvai Friendship Chain

6:49 AM

It was the Durga Puja time when the package carrying Bharathy's mystery ingredient arrived at my doorstep, but I was not present at home. My cousin sister just moved to town the week before and I went to help her with the unpacking. With two super mischievous toddlers at tow, it was way more difficult than I thought. We were totally drained and were almost shouting after the kids when Hubby called up to say a courier has come for me. With the entire running around my mind was blank and I felt totally clueless. Who could it be? was my first thought and Hubby replied Bharathy. That made me coming to the real world and I exclaimed with joy 'Arusuvai'. It must have been a pretty hard exclamation as when I look up saw sis, bro-in-law and even the two brats looking at me in utter awe. But I wasn’t ashamed a bit and didnt even try to explain what it is all about. As I was pretty sure that non bloggers wouldn’t understand its importance. Just informed Hubby not to open it till I reach home...I wanted to experience and savor every moment of having the package by myself.
That evening when the exhausted us reached home the baby was already asleep and after putting him to the bed I hurriedly reached for the packet. As I thought it came with a lot of goodies, the mystery ingredient and a beautiful handmade card by Bharathy herself. It made me feel special to be a part of a chain that I always wanted to be...for me it was like reaching the end of a full circle. We were exhausted so thought of taking the pictures in the morning. but God did I know what a mistake that was. By the time I opened my eyes, the baby was already up and almost finished the chocolates by himself (with a little help from his father). Am so sorry I cannot show you all the things she sent and below is what I managed to save and click. (Still now when I was editing this picture he was yelling 'thocolate thocolate').

My mystery ingredient was Pumpkin seeds. And with a look at it I instantly knew what to cook with this. I had bookmarked this recipe from Jugalbandi long back. The time was apt as my father who is a big fan of masala peanuts was coming during Diwali. So baked masala pumpkin seeds it was for me. I almost followed their recipe with a little bit of change in the seasoning and it came out delicious. A guilt free snacks, which has become our family (does that count friends too?) favourite and I have already made it twice since then.

I have tweaked the recipe a little bit and added a spoonful of olive oil to make it crunchy and a little less hard. This stays good for a couple of weeks if stored well in an airtight container.

Before I talk about the recipe here is a quick reminder for Arusuvai Friendship chain. This is a very famous Food blog friendship event, which am sure most of you have known. For those who are new HERE is the link of the Arusuvai Post.

 Arusuvai is a friendship chain among food bloggers where one person sends a mystery ingredient to the other to cook with it. The receiver then carries the chain by sending another package with a food ingredient to another friend. That way it not only brings friends together but also gives an opportunity to learn and taste various cuisines. Lathamma of the famour ‘Yum blog’ created this beautiful chain and later Bharathy and Srivalli carried on the good work by coordinating the whole process. This year we have again united to celebrate this unique friendship with Arusuvai Friendship chain. Bharathy has started the Chain by sending the ingredient to me and I am going to send packages full of hope and mystery ingredient to another 2 bloggers very soon. We need all of you to come up and join hands. Have you become a part yet? Please check THIS, THIS or THIS for more information.  

Now the recipe

Baked masala peanuts and pumpkin seeds

Ingredients:
Pumpkin seeds: 1 cup
Gram flour: 11/2 cups
Rice flour: 2 tbsp
Olive oil: 1/2 tsp
Soda-bi-carb: pinch

Seasoning:
Chilli powder: ½ tsp
Carom seeds (ajwain); 1/3 tsp
Chat masala: ½ tsp
Salt

Take same amount of ingredients for a cup of peanuts as well.

Method:
Dry roast the peanuts and seeds for a few minutes. Take out and spread on a paper.

Mix the gram flour, rice flour, soda and the entire seasoning ingredient in a bowl.

With the half of the gram flour mixture make a smooth paste by adding little water. The batter would be thick and lump free.

Mix this to the pumpkin seeds and mix to coat well.

Now start sprinkling the dry flour-spice mixture to it. The seeds would be coated with dry flour.

Spread the coated seeds on an oven proof tray (I lined mine with silver foil to make my cleaning work less messy). Try to break the lumps as much as possible, which wont be too easy.

Bake for 10 minutes at a preheated oven of 200 C.

Mine was done at the end of it, if required bake it for another 4-5 minutes till they turn golden brown and crisp.

Take out on a plate and let it cool.

Repeat with another batch of peanuts.

Store in airtight container. Tastes amazingly good with evening tea or coffee.


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