Apple Cinnamon Shortbread Cookies

A couple of weeks ago I went into a baking overdrive. It was Swedish rye cookies and Carrot and Apple Shortbread cookies from 101recipies.com and two kinds of Jackfruit cakes – one with eggs and one without, all within an afternoon. The cookies were very good, but the Jackfruit cakes, I am still experimenting with. Anyway… the Carrot Apple shortbread cookies were a big hit with the family. The carrots however added only to the look and not the taste, so I decided on making cookies with only apples.
The recipe requires semolina flour and whole wheat pastry flour. I substituted chiroti rava to the semolina and Ashirwad Sharbati atta for the whole wheat flour, since the texture of the Sharbati wheat flour is smoother and softer than mill ground wheat flour. Instead of brown sugar I used grated light jaggery. Thanks to my messy kitchen which has teeny jars of leftovers from previous experiments, I saw the few teaspoons of cinnamon sugar which was previously used in the cinnamon buns. So I flattened out the dough into two rectangles about half an inch thick each and spread a teaspoon of cinnamon sugar on each of the rectangles. I then rolled the dough into tight logs and sealed the edges, covered them in plastic wrap and put them in the fridge for about an hour till they were hard enough to be cut. I baked the cookies for about 10 to 12 minutes till the cookies browned around the edges. Verdict - yum yum yum. For all the apple pie fans, this is a must bake.







Method:
Ingredients:
¼ cup semolina
1½ cups whole wheat flour
¼ tsp salt
¼ tsp baking powder
½ cup brown sugar
½ cup butter
½ cup peeled and grated apple
3 tsp cinnamon sugar


1. Sift together the flours, salt and baking powder and keep aside
2. Cream the butter and sugar using a hand mixer or a whisk till smooth and fluffy
3. Add the sifted flour mix and grated apple to this and mix it till it becomes a soft dough and knead for a couple of minutes till the dough comes together in a ball
4. Divide the dough into two and flatten each part into ½ inch thick rectangles either with a rolling pin or with your hands and sprinkle a teaspoon and a half of the cinnamon sugar evenly on each of the rectangles.
5. Roll the rectangle tightly along the longer side and seal the ends so that it forms a log.
6. Cover the logs well in a plastic wrap and refrigerate for an hour.
7. Preheat the oven to 200 degree Celsius. Sprinkle some cornmeal, semolina or flour on a baking tray.
8. Remove the chilled logs from the fridge and cut it into ¼ inch thick slices.
9. Place the baking tray in the oven and reduce the temperature to 180 degree Celsius. Bake for about 10 to 12 minutes till they slightly brown at the edges.

Makes about 3 dozen.

To make cinnamon sugar:
Mix 6 tablespoons of castor or very fine sugar with a teaspoon of finely ground cinnamon. Store in an airtight container

Sunday Lazies

Sundays are meant to be siesta filled. At least thats what a majority of folks seem to practice. With the cousin at home, that was excuse enough to get going with pizza's. Its been a while since we had them and considering my cheese-making's gone into cold storage for a while, I thought I'd get my hands dirty.
Peter Rheinhart mentions that pizza dough needs to be made a day in advance. Kinda late for that considering Saturday was eventful enough for a 10pm lights out. Had to make the most of what I had. Used normal flour, wheat and rye to get going. By 7am,I'd got my initial dough together and let this develop for the next 6 hrs.
The toppings were simple - milky mushroom (with hilarious packaging), green peppers & onions. The terracotta pan served as a stone.
The pizza's came out well done, the crust being a little chewy. A so-so effort I'd say considering pizza making is rocket science at home anymore.

Home Alone

With Rahul working late and Arnav away at his grandparents place, I got so engrossed reading that time just passed by without making the slightest of sounds. There was no desire of venturing out at 8:00 for a dinner out or ordering out, so I decided to do what the husband does - look into the refrigerator - see what has to be finished and then decide on the recipe. With carrots, radishes and some frozen peas, I thought about a salad with some leftover bread - dumped the idea as quickly as I thought about it since eating raw radishes wasn’t exactly my idea of pleasing the palate. The Sichuan pepper which I had been in search of for the past year and a half and finally found was staring at me accusingly stating that I hadn’t yet touched it after all that I went through to find it. So it was time to make the amazing Chinese five spice powder which was so freely available in all supermarkets in the US but you just can’t find here. The mortar and pestle got from Coorg was useful to grind the Sichuan pepper, fennel seeds, star anise, cloves and cinnamon. I always feel the stone ground spices are better than mixer ground ones - more oils are released with the pressing and tearing the spices. I used roughly the same quantity of each of the ingredients except for the cloves which I feel is a stronger spice and so could mask the aroma of the others.

Made ribbons of the carrots and radishes with a vegetable peeler and dunked them along with peas in boiling water for about a minute. Then fried about half a teaspoon of sesame seeds in about a teaspoon of oil and tossed the vegetables in it with half a teaspoon of the five spice powder and some salt. The subtle aroma of the sesame seeds with the spice was delightful with an accompaniment of brown rice cooked with salt and lemon peel.

No Idiot Box, No Problem - Mango Panacotta

No television at home for the last 4 months means there's been so much time available for experimenting with food. With the mango season in full bloom, other fruits seem to have taken a backseat.
A simple mango panacotta seemed to be an easy enough way to play around with what was available at home. I'm no a dessert person, but panacotta allows you to enough leverage to create something unique everytime. This one was simple enough to create in under 20mts (though it set for 4 hrs).
A touch of nutmeg makes a world of difference to anything sweet, no exceptions here.