CARAMEL SHORTBREAD COOKIES

Since I discovered my love for cooking and baking, a few chefs have been inspirational. Some are simply too inventive, I can only admire their work, attempting to copy them is kind of intimidating. Some like Donna Hay and Rachel Allen just make baking and cooking seem too easy for words. Last but not least, Nigella Lawson, I got interested after watching her cook. And after Masterchef Australia, my list has grown. Can't say I like the other versions of the show around. Anyways, I found this recipe ont he net, and since I had some leftover caramel (or Dulche De Leche) I decided to make this and they turned out wonderful. So here's the recipe,

[ From Donna Hay Magazine ]
Ingredients
150g butter
1/3 cup (55g) icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cup (225g) plain flour
2 tbsp cornflour

2/3 cup (200g) dulce de leche ( you can used readymade dulche de leche or make your own caramel from condensed milk, see my recipe for Dulche De Leche)
Method
1. Place the butter, sugar and vanilla in a mixer and beat for 8-10 mins or until pale and creamy
2. add the flour and cornflour and mix until a smooth dough forms
3. Roll the dough out (5mm thick) between two sheets of baking paper and place in the fridge for around 30 mins
4. using a 4.5 cm round cookie cutter, cut our your cookies and transfer the dough to a a baking tray
5. bake at 180 degrees celsius for 6-7 mins and check to see if they are done. If not, continue cooking for another few minutes keeping a close eye on these babies!
6. cool cookies on a wire rack
7. Pipe caramel onto half the cookies and sandwich with the remaining ones

EGGLESS PINEAPPLE UPSIDE DOWN CAKE

I was browsing through my facebook page today. Among other pages that I look through on a regular basis is Nestle's Milkmaid Sweet Moments. They have such good recipes posted, especially eggless ones. Right now they are having "Cool Cake Saturdays" where they share cake recipes every saturday. The first recipe they posted today is this Pineapple upside down cake. My cake is in the oven as I write this post.  Hopefully it will turn out good, The usual eggless recipes that I make are not satisfactory, because the cake usually turn out dense. The texture of this cake as I was beating the mixture was quite light and frothy so hopefully, it will be alight cake.
             So, here's the recipe:

                     EGGLESS PINEAPPLE UPSIDE DOWN CAKE
Preparation time: 15 mins
Cooking time: 45 mins
Serves: 10

Ingredients:

NESTLE MILKMAID Sweetened Condensed Milk - 1 tin (400g)
Maida - 200 g
Butter - 100 g
Pineapple slices - 6
Baking powder - 1 tsp
Soda bicarbonate - 1 tsp
Aerated soda - 1 cup (150 ml)
Pineapple essence - ½ tsp
Sugar for caramelisation - 5-6 tbsp
Yellow colour (optional) - ½ tsp

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 180° C. Grease an 8" diameter cake tin. Arrange the pineapple slices at the base. Heat sugar in a pan till it melts and becomes brown. Pour this hot caramel over the pineapple slices and keep aside.

2. Melt butter, cool slightly. Add the NESTLE MILKMAID and beat well, add the essence. Sieve together maida, baking powder and soda bicarbonate. Add some maida to MILKMAID mixture and then add some aerated soda and mix well. Repeat, alternatively maida and aerated soda till both are used up.

3. Pour batter over pineapple slices in the cake tin and bake at 180°C for 45 minutes or till cake is done. Remove from oven, loosen the sides of cake using a knife and immediately turn onto a plate.

     This cake doesn't need decorating at all. Although some dark red cherries contrasting with the uellow of the pineapple do look wonderful.  As for me I don't have any cherries now so I'll probably be decorating with some coloured gel or jam. I don't know I'll see when it comes to taking the cake out of the oven. 

 I'll be sharing more of milkmaid recipes as time passes, but for those who would like to check out Nestle's page, here's the link-    

http://www.facebook.com/NestleMilkmaid

ALMOND COOKIES

Ingredients•    2 cup almonds
•    2 cup oat flour
•    1 cup maple syrup or honey
•    1 teaspoon almond extract (or vanilla extract)
•    10 - 12 roasted almonds  (halved) to decorate

Directions
1.    Preheat oven to 135 degrees C. Spread the almonds onto a baking sheet, and toast until the nuts start to turn golden brown and become fragrant, about 45 minutes. Watch the nuts carefully as they bake, they burn quickly. Once toasted, set the nuts aside to cool to room temperature. Finely grind the almonds in a food processor.
2.   Alternatively you can roast the almonds in a pan or wok over low to medium heat on a stove top.
3.    Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C.
4.    Oil a baking tray with vegetable oil or line it with parchment paper.
3.    In a bowl, mix together the ground almonds, oat flour, maple syrup, and almond extract. Form the mixture into small balls, decorate with a halved almond and then flatten the balls into cookies about 1/4 inch thick. Place cookies onto the prepared baking sheet.
4.    Bake until crisp and brown around the edges, 10  to 15 minutes; watch them carefully because they burn easily. Remove the cookies carefully, and allow to cool.


                           This is a recipe for those who love almonds. This recipe also works well for vegans. 

SUGAR COOKIES

    This recipe was given to me by my friend, Tarang. It is easy to make, the ingredients almost always are easily available at home.  It is soooo easy I let my kids make some for themselves (under adult supervision, of course).The dough after mixing has a shelf life of more than a week ( my cookies always finish in a day or so, therefore I need to make more so the dough never lasts for more than 2-3 days )
A slight change in the flavours can also give entirely different versions from the same basic dough. For example, I have added a tsp of ground ginger and ground cinnamon and got gingerbread type of cookies. I have added cocoa powder and got chocolate cookies. I have added chocolate chips and got chocolate chip cookies. The way the cookies are rolled and decorated also changes the look and taste of these cookies. So this is a basic dough, very versatile, just waiting for you to try it out. let me know how your cookies turn out.

INGREDIENTS:

            1 1/2 cup. Icing sugar
               1 cup butter
               1/4 cup milk
               1 tsp vanilla essence
               2 1/2 cup all purpose flour
               1 tsp baking soda
               3/4 tsp bakin powder

            

METHOD:
 

                Mix all ingredients together . Make a dough. Wrap in clingfilm. Refrigerate it for 3-4 hrs. Roll out, use cookie cutters. Bake at 180 degree for 8-10 mins.. Very simple to do.

For the cookies in the picture, I divided the dough into two equal parts, and added cocoa powder to the second half. I refrigerated the dough for 2 hours and then rolled each half into 5 mm thick discs, placed them one above the other, and rolled them into a log. Then I wrapped them in clingfilm, and refrigerated for another couple of hours. After 2 hours, I cut out 2 to 3 mm discs out of the log, and baked them in a 180 degree oven for 10-12 minutes.

For serving, you can decorate these cookies with a simple sugar mix or use dulche de leche or chocolate sauce or buttercream or any jam to sandwich two cookies together.

        For the sugar decorations, just warm up 2 tbsp water and add about half to a cupful of icing sugar and mix. Depending on the consistency required  you can add more or less water to this. Add colour for more effect. And, before I forget, sprinkles and silver balls and glitters, make these cookies a great item for kids parties.