Chocolate-Peanutbutter cookies & Muesli Cookies!

My internet connection was down for past few days.Got it fixed last night only.Forgive me,friends for the delay in commenting at your blogs.

These two cookies were made long time back and it was in draft to get posted.I think this is the right time to post them.Thanks to Srilekha for coming up with the wonderful theme-'Cookies'.I love cookies especially the one loaded with chocolate.I had a last batch of crunchy peanut butter in my fridge.I used them to make this chocolate-peanut butter cookies.It was great and I love the tiny peanut bits in it.I have no idea how I created the recipe and I just followed my instincts and got these lovely cookies.I baked them for a bit longer and it got  little dark .But there is no compromise in the taste.

The muesli cookie recipe was taken from thatslife.com.It turned out to be chewy,wholesome cookies.

Chocolate-Peanut butter Cookies :

You will need :

2 cups of All purpose flour/Maida

1/2 cup butter,melted

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup castor sugar

3/4 cup brown sugar

1 egg

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 cup Peanut butter

1/2 cup chocolate chips

Beat together sugar(castor and brown sugar),butter and oil.

Break in the egg and add vanilla essence .Beat well.

Sift salt,baking soda and flour.Add this flour to the egg/sugar mixture.Combine well.

Dump in the peanut butter and chocolate chips.Mix well .

Drop cookie dough using a tablespoon on to the baking tray giving 2 inch of spacing for each cookies.Bake in 250 C preheated oven for 20-25 mins.

(This one is taken with flash-on whereas the first picture is taken under sunlight without flash..hence the difference)

The cookie will be soft when removed from the oven.Once cooled down they become crunchy.Store in a air tight container.

Muesli Cookies :

You will need :

1 cup or 80g butter,at room temp

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 egg whites

1 tsp vanilla essence

3/4 cup maida/All purpose flour

1/4 baking soda

1 tsp cinnamon

1 3/4 cup of muesli

Place the butter,sugar,eggwhites and vanilla essence into a bowl and beat with electric beaters until creamy.

Sift in the flour and cinnamon ,and mix with a wooden spoon.Add the toasted muesli and mix to combine.

Roll 2 teaspoons of the dough into a ball.Flatten slightly and place on prepared baking sheets.Repeat with remaining mixture.Bake in 250C preheated oven for 8-10 min or until golden.Allow cookies to cool on trays before storing.

Along with Chocolate-Peanut butter cookies & Muesli cookies,I'm also sending the following cookie recipes from my archives to EFM-Cookies event hosted by Srilekha,

Nankhatai

Raisin bars & Raisin rocks

My chocolate-Peanut butter cookies goes to Poornima's For the Love of Chocolate event.

Tried out the following recipes this week and they were just amazing..

Sriharivatsan's Cluster bean rice-A very unique rice with cluster beans and we liked the flavors of it.It was spicy and just right.I should try this rice with capsicum.Thanks,Sriharivatsan :)

Vishali's Cabbage stir fry-Loved this so much and I had it with rotis for dinner.I made it again for sandwich the next morning.Both were so good .Thanks ,Vishali :)

Deesha's Bread Poha-I found this recipe through google's search which is eventually at Deesha's place.The recipe is so simple and sounds very delicious so I tried it immediately.It tasted great..Thanks,Deesha :)

Have a great weekend!

Orange Cake with Candied Orange!

I made orange cake recently for my grandfather's b'day.Orange cake is his favorite and so I made this zesty cake for him .He became so happy and enjoyed it so much.Everybody who tasted the cake told me its so nice.So I wanted to post it here.

I checked out numerous recipes over the internet and finally adapted the recipe from buttersugarflour..I made some changes in icing the cake.I made orange flavored buttercream for the frosting and decorated it with some candied orange...Here comes the recipe ..

For the cake :

You will need :

2 cups of flour

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp soda

3 eggs

1 -3/4 cup of sugar

1 cup yogurt,beaten

2 tbsp orange zest

3/4 cup orange juice

Beat sugar and 3 eggs together.

Add butter to the egg/sugar mixture and beat them well.

Pour the yogurt ,orange juice n orange zest and combine them well.

In a separate bowl sift together flour,soda and salt.

Add the flour to wet mixture and combine them well using a spatula.

Grease a 12" baking tin and pour the batter.Preheat oven for 250 C.Bake the cake for 20-30 mins or until the toothpick comes out clean when inserted in center.

Cool for 10 mins.Transfer the cake in a wire rack and allow to cool completely.

For Candied Orange :

You will need :

2 Oranges

2 cup water

3/4 cup Sugar

Slice the oranges as shown in figure.

Bring the sugar and water to boil.

Add the orange slices and let it cook for 30 mins in low heat.Turn the slices now and then.

Once they are done.Remove them and allow it to cool on a butter paper/parchment paper.

You can make this ready when the cake is baking.

For the Orange Buttercream :

You will need :

1/2 cup butter,at room temperature

2.5 cup Icing Sugar

1 tsp of orange zest 

1 tbsp of orange juice

Cream together butter and icing sugar.Add juice n zest combine well.

Spread this cream over the completely cooled cake.

Make sure that you cover the sides too.

Place the candied orange over the sides..Sprinkled orange flavored drinking Tang powder on top..

I reserved some of the buttercream.I colored it orange and used it to write the b'day wish and for some piping.

I think I should have used brown color for piping..Anyways,It tasted good ..Before I could take a picture of sliced cake,it was gone :(

I'm very glad to say that I won the Cook n Create with luv and luv event hosted by Priyanka of asankhana.Its so sweet of her to choose me as winner ,though I'm a beginner in cooking when compared to many expereinced people out there.This is the first time I'm winning in such event.

 Although I thanked her personally thru mail,I felt I must thank her here,Thank you ,Priyanka :)

I made my very own cookie cutters by myself for the heart-shaped marshmallow for the event...It came out successfully ..So I made some more cookie cutters like that and made these savory crackers 'Muthiya' y'day ..I followed the recipe posted by Mahimaa ..Check out the recipe here ..We all loved them..Thanks ,Mahimaa

I feel the best thing about blogging is ,having so many friends of same interest..All of you are so kind and enthusiastic...

Varsha & Malar are so sweet that they shared with me this following award..

,which states that :
"These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers. Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award."

I feel soo good that they thought of me too..

Now its hard for me to choose 8 persons..I wanna  pass this award to everyone..All are equally sweet and they mean so much to me...

Anyways I'm passing this to the following 8 friends..

*Sriharivatsan

* Archy

*Cham

*Priyanka

*Asha

*Nithya

*Priya

*Mahimaa

And these 8 friends will pass this to my other friends :)

Icecream Cake~The Ultimate Dessert!

Wish you all a very happy new year!

2009 has started and lets all hope this year brings us luck and happiness in our life.when I look back at 2008 ,I could see that my biggest exploration in 2008 is, my culinary skill.2008 was not at all bad for me,I started blogging,cooking etc.I kept myself very much active in this year.Although there were some bad times,I could recollect year 2008 as an year of revelation of myself.Overall its an year of learning for me.I learnt various things and spent most of my time by engaging in some activities.I believe the coming year will be much better than the previous one.

Today is my sister's B'day.So we got two reasons to celebrate Jan 1 every year.Last night I made two different cakes for the eve(s).For my sis ,I made Chocolate Sheet Cake.

                                                    with my impatient icing skills :(

And for the New year ,we had 'Ice cream Cake'.

My cousins were here and so we had a bashing good time.We hosted the lunch party at our home.SakaraPongal,Chilly Mushroom,Roasted Turnips,Poori,Punjabi chole Masala,Bisebelabath,Cucumber Raitha,Onion Vadams,Curd Rice and Ice cream Cake were on the menu.

 Ice cream Cake was such a hit and my 'Athai' commented it 'Rich n De-li-ci-ous'..So I wanted to share it with my viewers.This is actually Nigella Lawson's Ice Cream Cake which I tweaked a bit.

I couldn't get the chocolate chips/buttons.But I was having lots of Hershey's kisses in my fridge.I chopped them to make Chocolate Chips.I also skipped the Butter Scotch Sauce instead used Chocolate sauce!

This cake is so easy to make and can be made a day before and stored in a freezer compartment.

You will need:

1 liter Butterscotch Ice Cream( softened)

1 Pack of Bourbon Biscuit

1 cup of chocolate chips

2 snickers or five star chocolates

For topping :

Hershey's quick freeze Chocolate Sauce

Kellogg's Chocos

Make the chocolate Chips ready by chopping your fav chocolate.

 

Take a Ziploc bag and put the bourbon biscuits and snickers chocolate.Close it and smash them using a rolling pin.

They should not be powdered but should have bite sized pieces.

Put the broken biscuits/snickers,chocolate chips in a large bowl containing softened ice cream.Combine well.

Line a round tiffin box with a cling wrap,pour the ice cream mixture and bring the rest of the cling wrap covering the top surface of the ice cream cake.

 

Close the tiffin box with its lid and put it inside the freezer.

After 4 or 5 hours,the ice cream would be set .Take it out of the tiffin box and gently unwrap it.

 

Pour the quick freeze Hershey's chocolate sauce.It will be frozen to a hard chocolate shell.Make your desired icing.Or assemble the chocos on the top surface of the ice cream cake.

Slice into wedges,drizzle some chocolate syrup and serve before it melts..

Cross Sectional view..

Have a Happy 2009!

Strawberry Torte

Merry Chirtsmas! 

This could be my first attempt that I managed to make an exquisite Cake for Chirstmas.

Torte is a cake made with many eggs and it is usually layered.

I got this recipe from 'ZoeBakes'.I was so fascinated on seeing her cake and I wanted to give it a shot.I couldn't make it as adorable as she did.But the way she expalined was so simple that anybody could reproduce the recipe.It took me almost half a day for me to finish making this cake.In the end ,its all worth it.All thanks to Zoe..

This is some kind of cake which I never tried from our town bakeries.

I wouldn't say this is a successful one.But it doesn't tasted bad and I have to agree upon the fact that it is definitely different from the original recipe in terms of look and taste.

There are many factors for the variations.Firstly,I couldn't get all the ingredients actually required to make this cake.This recipe called for fresh strawberries.I replaced it with Strawberry Crush.And I did inumerable mistakes.Instead of baking the dacquoise in lower temp setting,I did that in high temp to quicken the process.Eventually,it turned out over browned and sticked to the wax paper.I took hell a lot of time to paitently remove the baked dacqouise from the wax paper.The cake came out perfectly.I patted myself for that.I adored the lovely orange tinted cake for a while before icing it.

I must admit ,Im awful in doing the icing part.I became so impatient and just spreaded it over the cake.

Inspite of that,it did tasted good.Everybody at my home loved it.But I must learn to make it perfect next time and should concentrate on minute details.

For the Dacqouise,I used 2 egg whites,1 cup of coarsely ground Cashew Nut(instead of almonds as in Zoe's),1/4 cup of Sugar

I beated the egg white for soft peaks.Added sugar and beated for a couple of mins until I get the glossy appearance.

Added the coarsely ground Cashews and folded it with the beaten egg whites.

I spread the mixture in a circular motion on a wax paper.

I baked in a preheated oven until they are cripsy.One should take care not to over brown it.Unlike me ,make sure to bake it in a lower temp like 110 C for about an hour.

For cake,

1 3/4 cups of flour

1/2 salt

1/2 Sugar

1/2 cup of orange juice

6 egg whites

6 yolks

3/4 cup Sugar

1 tsp Orange Zest

Sift the flour and salt and keep aside.

In a clean bowl,I beated the egg white using electric whisker with 1/2 cup of sugar until soft peaks.

In another bowl,I beated the yolks by gradually adding sugar.I continued beating until it is thickened and smooth.(Make sure that you wash and dry clean the whisker).

I poured the orange juice and zest and blended it well.

Then I Added the flour to the yolk mixture and folded well.

As Zoe mentioned,I folded the egg whites to the yolk/flour mixture in portions.

Lined a baking tin with parchment paper and poured the batter in it allowing some depth for the cake to rise.Baked the cake in a preheated oven of 250 C for 30 mins.

Allow the cake to cool completely.

I sliced the cake horizontaly into 2 portions.

Strawberry Crush..

I made the Strawberry Cream by combining 3 tbsps of Strawberry Crush with thick fresh cream.

I spreaded some strawberry preserve over the bottom layer of the cake.And I crumbled the 'supposed to be Dacqouise' above it.

Spreaded half of the strawberry Cream on it.

Then I placed the other half of the cake above it.And spreaded the strawberry preserve on top of it.Spreaded the remaining strawberry cream.Its done!