Kayi Obbattu / Thengai Poli - Ugadi Wishes!

Happy Ugadi to everyone.. In our house Ugadhi is celebrated in a simple way with decorating the main entrance of the house with mango leaves, preparing ugadi pachadi, making this obbattu and like in all other Indian festivals, worshipping God for health and wellness. Being in US though I do not have access to mango leaves or neem flowers to make ugadi pachadi, I thought why not try the obbattu part.. This is a very simple recipe to make and takes much less time to make unlike most other Indian Sweets.

Ingredients:
Yields 12 pieces of 4" obbattus
Maida / All Purpose Flour - 1 cup
Oil - 1 tbsp + more for spreading out the obbattu
Grated Coconut (unsweetened) - 1 cup
Sugar - 1 cup (Jaggery can be substituted, but this is how it is made at my home)
Water - 1/3 cup + more for kneading dough
Cardamom powder - 1/4 tsp
Salt - a pinch

Method:
Mix the maida with salt and add water little by little to make a loose dough. Knead until the dough becomes non-sticky. Coat with 1 tbsp of oil, cover and set aside for a minimum of 30 minutes. Meanwhile prepare the coconut filling. In a non-stick kadai, heat water and sugar with cardamom powder until all of the sugar dissolves. Add the grated coconut and mix in medium heat until most of the water evaporates and the mixture becomes sticky. Remove from heat and allow it to cool. When it is cool enough to handle, make 12 lime-sized balls. Divide the dough also into 12 portions. In a flat surface, spread a plastic sheet (cling film works good here) and apply little oil. Place a dough ball and spread into a circle (trust me it would be irregular, but no worries) of 4" wide using fingers. Place the pooranam-coconut filling in the center and cover with the edges of the dough to close the filling completely. Press and spread again with fingers to make obbittus(poli). Heat a tawa and carefully place the spread out polis and allow to cook. Flip over and cook for another couple of minutes until done. 
Notes:
1. Kneading well and setting aside the dough for 30 minutes ensures formation of gluten which enables the elasticity of the dough for easy stretching while spreading.
2. The filling has to be moist, frying it too much would dry it out and result in hard filling. It is impossible to use it as a stuffing then.
3. Oil/Ghee can be used while cooking. I did not use any.
4. I halved the above recipe to make 6 pieces just right for the 2 of us for a couple of days.
5. This stays good in room temperature for upto 3 days.

Linking this up to Celebrating Ugadi event of Madhu.

Pumpkin Pasties from Harry Potter

For all the Harry Potter fans out there... This is for you. Well, not a big fan of Potter? no problem you would love this too. I and DH are big fans of Harry Potter. If it is a boring weekend, not a great weather and nothing good on TV we will make it a "Harry Potter Weekend". We will watch all the eight HP movies back to back. A great way to spend the weekend isn't it? 
Pumpkin pasties are sold in the trolley run by Honeydukes express on the Hogwarts express. In the movie Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Harry first meets Cho Chang in the train when she buys pumpkin pasties. I have never thought on how it would taste like back then. It was recently when the foodie in me made me to try this lovely delicacy. I did some research and arrived at this recipe. So happy that it turned out awesome in the first attempt. This is a totally egg-less fare (when milk is used to brush the top) and super easy to make. If using home-made pumpkin puree, press out to remove extra water. Hooray, then you would get pumpkin juice, another Hogwarts specialty.

Ingredients:
Makes 8-10 pasties
For the Never Fail Pie Crust:
Adapted from Fine Cooking Magazine
All purpose flour  - 1 & 1/3 cups
Butter - 8 tbsp (cold, cut into cubes)
Sugar - 1 tsp
Salt - 1/2 tsp
Ice Cold water - 3 to 4 tbsps
For the filling:
Pumpkin puree - 1 cup (canned or home-made)
Light Brown Sugar - 1/2 cup + 2 tbsp
Ground Cinnamon - 1/2 tsp
Ground Ginger - 1/4 tsp
Ground Nutmeg - 1/4 tsp
For Brushing:
Egg - 1 slightly beaten and mixed with a tbsp of water or milk as required

Method:
Place all the ingredients for the crust in a blender or food processor except the ice water. Pulse for a couple of times until the butter almost disappears. Now add the ice water 1 tbsp at a time and pulse until the dough comes together. Remove the dough and pat to form a solid mass. Wrap in a cling-wrap and pop it into the refrigerator for about 2 to 4 hours.
Mix the ingredients for the filling in a pan in low heat until the sugar melts, just a couple of minutes. Allow to cool.
Preheat the oven to 350 F. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Thaw the crust in room temperature for 30 minutes. Flour a board and place the dough on it. Roll into about a 1/8 inch thick. Cut into little rounds with a cookie cutter or any bowl with sharp edge. Roll the cut out dough still more thinner. Place about a tablespoon (or more) of the filling on one half of the rolled dough. Fold over the other half and crimp the edges with your finger or fork. Transfer carefully to the cookie sheet. Make the other pasties similarly. The dough leftover from the cut dough can be made into a ball and rolled over again to be cut. Brush the top of the pasties with egg or milk and bake for 30-40 mins until golden brown on the outside.
Serve warm.
Note: 
1. Use a pastry cutter or two forks to crumble the butter if you are not using the food processor.
2. The amount of water needed for the dough depends on the humidity in your area. More the humidity, lesser the water. I used about 3.5 tbsps.
3. The sweetness in the filling is just right. You could make it more sweet per your taste buds.
4. Play around with the spices and make the filling spicy if you wish. There are no set rules.
5. This can be made totally egg-free by brushing with milk for browning.
Sending these baked beauties to the following events..
Know your Sweetness - Brown Sugar event by Jags
Serve It - Original Recipes from home event my me and Denny
Kid's Delight - Story Book Special
Merry Christmas Celebrations
Favorite Recipes - Christmas event
Lets Cook - Edible Gifts

Banana Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies | Cookie Recipes

This is an entry from my oven after a long time. I hadn't been baking much lately due to pregnancy. Now that my LO is here I am planning to experiment more in baking (with his "schedule" permitting me of course). I made these little drop cookies to finish the leftover bananas on my fruits basket. With this scorching summer banana gets to over-ripe very fast, don't you agree? I followed this recipe from Namitha's space.

Ingredients:
Wheat flour - 1/2 cup
All purpose flour/Maida - 1/2 cup
Quick cooking oats/Rolled oats- 3/4 cup
Cinnamon powder - 1/2 tsp
Baking powder - 1/2 tsp
Baking soda - 1/2 tsp
Salt - a pinch
Butter (room temperature) - 1 stick or 1/2 cup
Light Brown sugar / Granulated sugar - 1/2 cup
Mashed banana - 1/2 cup (1 big)
Egg - 1
Vanilla extract - 1 tsp
Chocolate chips - 1/2 cup

Method:
Preheat the oven to 350 F/175 C. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Sieve/mix together the flours, oats, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a bowl. Set aside. Whisk the butter and sugar until light and fluffy using a whisk or hand mixer. Add the egg, mashed banana and vanilla extract and mix well. Add the dry ingredients to the banana mixture and fold until mixed. Use a rounded 1 tbsp to measure the dough and drop into the cookie sheet. Place the dough two inches apart. Bake for 10-12 minutes are until light brown. Remove from the oven and let it cool in the cookie sheet for a few minutes and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. These cookies also tastes good when warm.

Sending these scrumptious cookies to the following events.
Let's Party - Go Bake It;
Taste of the Tropics - Cinnamon;
SYF&HWS - Cinnamon of Anu;
Lets cook with Fruits;
Bake Fest #10;
Bake Along Challenge: Bananas;

Bridal Shower for Nithya - Toll house Cookies

The day a girl becomes a bride, is like no other. It is one of the few most cherished moments of life. It is the day she embarks the new journey of life. Holding someone's hand, with dreams in heart and sparkle in the eyes. Having mixed feelings of missing her mother's home, excited and anxious about the new home. It is indeed a special day for her!! Very soon one of our friends, a lovely blogger and a beautiful photographer, is going to enter into wedlock. I believe you would have guessed who it is by now. For those who are still wondering, it is none other than Nithya of 4thsensecooking who is getting married this November.

Thanks to the advent of technology, the world has become very small. Though nothing can equal the joy of celebration in person, we all would want to wish her and celebrate with her, the most joyous period of her life. Here we are all, united, to wish her all the best and a very Happy Married Life. So today we are throwing this virtual bridal shower for Nithya to express our happiness and to celebrate with her.

And what could be a better way to celebrate than with food, the quintessential subject, that binds us all... So we decided to cook it up, literally and that too Nithya's own dishes from her own blog - 4thsensecooking. I chose this Tollhouse Cookies and Badam Kheer(do check out this space in a few hours). Hope she likes the recreation of her own favorite dishes and gets a taste of it through the world wide web. See Nithya's recipe here.

Ingredients:

Makes - about 3 dozen cookies
All purpose flour - 1 1/2 cups
Baking Soda - 1/2 tsp
Salt - 1/2 tsp
Sugar - 1/2 cup
Brown sugar - 1/2 cup
Butter - 1/3 cup
Eggs - 2
Pure Vanilla Extract - 3/4 tsp
NESTLÉ® TOLL HOUSE® Semi-Sweet Chocolate Morsels - 1 cup + 1/4 cup for topping

Method:
Preheat the oven to 375 F. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Sift the all-purpose flour, baking soda and salt together. In a  mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugars with a hand mixer or whisk until the sugars gets dissolved. Add the eggs one my one mixing well after each addition. Mix in the vanilla extract. Add the flour mixture in 3 or 4 batches, mixing well after each addition. Add 1 cup of chocolate chips and fold in using a spatula. Take one tablespoon measurement of the dough and place in the cookie sheet, each at least 2 inches apart. Top the cookie dough with the remaining chocolate chips. Bake in the preheated oven for 12-14 mins. Repeat for remaining dough. Serve with a cup of milk.
I made these cookies specially for Nithya's Bridal Shower.
This is for you Nithya and for all those visiting this virtual bridal shower!!

Also do check out the virtual bridal shower party also being hosted at
Anamika - Taste Junction
Archana - Mad Scientist's Kitchen
Priya Mitharwal - Mharo Rajasthan Recipes
Priya Mahadevan - Priyas Now Serving
Priya Suresh - Priya Easy n Tasty Recipes
Priya Sreeram - Bon Appetit
Radhika - Tickling Palates
Radhika Vasanth - Food for 7 stages of life
Reva - Kaarasaaram
Rupali - Recipe Grab Bag
Sanjeeta - Different Strokes
Vardhini - Zesty Palette

Brazilian Coffee Cookies | Cookie Recipes

I am not a regular coffee-drinker, but would not say no to a cup of joe on busy and cranky days. It is my pick me up. But I love coffee flavored bakes very much. The wonderful aroma of coffee which fills the whole kitchen when baking reminds me of the smell of the filter coffee brewed at home. I baked these Brazilian Coffee Cookies from Sailu's space before a couple of weeks for my friends. 
Also do check out my other Coffee flavored bakes - Mocha Chocolate Muffins and Coffee Almond Biscotti.

Sending this to Susan's Black & White Wednesday.

Ingredients:
Adapted from Sailu's Recipe here
All purpose flour / Maida - 2 cups
Baking soda - 1/4 tsp
Baking powder - 1/4 tsp
Salt - 1/2 tsp
Light brown sugar - 1/2 cup
Sugar - 1/2 cup + more for dusting
Unsalted butter - 1/3 cup (room temperature)
Egg - 1 (room temperature)
Milk - 1 tbsp
Vanilla extract - 1 1/2 tsp
Instant coffee powder - 2 1/2 tbsp
Hot water - 1 tbsp

Method:
Preheat the oven to 390 F / 200 C. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Mix the hot water to the coffee powder and set aside. Whisk/sieve together the flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda. Cream the butter and sugars with hand mixer until light. Add the egg and mix well. Mix in the milk and vanilla extract followed by the flour mixture. When the dough comes together, cover with a plastic wrap and pop into the refrigerator for 15 mins. Make lime-sized balls of the dough and place on the parchment paper. Press down with a fork or a slotted spatula and sprinkle some sugar over the top. Place the balls with about one inch gap. Bake for 12 - 15 mins. Transfer to a cooling rack and cool for 30 minutes and store in an airtight container. Repeat with the remaining dough in batches.

I am sending this to 100 day Global Food Festival event by Kalyani.

Goan Pancakes

This is my first post in the blog world. I have been a regular reader of Oh taste N See, my friend Denny's blog and had tried many of her recipes which came out really well. I always wanted to post recipes from my grandma, aunt, MIL and my sister and so here I am starting a new blog. Denny's 'Flavors of Goa' event kindled an interest to try something new.

My recipe today is Goan Pancakes.
I have rarely tried something sweet since my DH is not a big fan of sweets, but he did like this.
                                         
Ingredients:
Yields - 12 pancakes
Preparation time - 15 mins
Standing time - 30 mins
For the Pancakes:
Maida/All-purpose flour - 2 cups
Egg (Room temp) - 1
Milk - 1 1/2 cups (I used 2% milk)
Water - 1 1/2 cups
Butter - 1 tbsp
Vanilla essence - 1 tsp (optional)
Salt - 1/2 tsp
For the Filling:
Palm Jaggery - 3 medium diamonds - ~ 3/4 cup
Grated Coconut - 1 cup
Cardamom powder - 1/4 tsp

Method:
In a mixing bowl add the AP flour, salt, butter,vanilla essence and egg yolk.
Whisk the egg whites seperately until frothy and add to the flour mixture. Mix the flour with a hand mixer/whisk/fork adding milk first and then the water. The batter should be of thin and pouring consistency without lumps. Set aside for 30 mins.

In a small kadai, add the powdered jaggery together with the coconut and place on medium heat until the jaggery is incorporated well in the coconut and the coconut takes the color of the jaggery. Make sure to stir the mixture frequently when on heat (approx 15 mins) to avoid burning. Switch off heat and let cool.

After 30 mins, heat a pan (a wide kadai or a dosa pan will do) in medium high heat and spray some oil all over the pan.
When the pan is hot, pour a ladle full of the pancake batter in the center and swirl the pan/kadai in a circular manner so that the batter spreads on the pan like a crepe or an aapam. Allow to cook on one side for approximately 60-90 secs. Flip over with a spatula and cook on the next side for around 60 secs.
When done transfer to a plate or a cutting board.

Take one spoon of the coconut-jaggery mixture and place in one corner of the pancake like below. Fold the right and left edges slightly over the filling. Roll the pancake starting from the filling side and until the end to make it look like a spring roll.

I am sending this to Denny's Flavors of Goa event.

Iam also sending this to Food Palette Series-White event by Torviewtoronto