Mexican Wedding Cookies for Global Kadai

Does running around for an hour with your four year old count towards a workout? I hope so because it is fun and tiring and a great way to keep a toddler occupied when the 'No TV' policy is still on. It also gave me a chance to burn off the Mexican Wedding Cookies I have been eating since the day they came out fresh from the oven.
The cookies were made for Global Kadai, a wonderful monthly event, started by Cilantro to Indianize international cuisines, one recipe at a time. This month's recipe is by Karen Ginnes and below is my Indianized version of the same.

I added nutmeg and ground ginger for flavor. I wanted to add finely ground almonds but ended up with some chunks in it and they gave a nutty texture to the cookies which tasted like a slightly spicy, less buttery, chocolaty version of the Indian nankhatai. Making the dough was simplicity itself and the cookies took about 10 minutes to bake to perfection.

(Makes about 3 dozen cookies)
Ingredients:
1 cup butter, room temperature
1/2 cup fine sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 + 3/4 cups APF
1 cup almonds, (1/2cup ground fine and the other half coarse)
1/2 cup chocolate chips, chopped coarse
1/2 cup sweetened flake coconut (optional)
pinch of salt
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp dry ginger powder (optional)
1/2 tsp instant coffee powder (optional)
1/2 cup confectioner's sugar, for dusting

Method:
Cream the butter and sugar together till light and fluffy. Add the vanilla extract and beat some more.
In a separate bowl, combine all the dry ingredients thoroughly.
Gradually add to the whipped butter till well incorporated.
Wrap tightly in the shape of a log in a plastic wrap and refrigerate for an hour.
Preheat the oven to 325 degree F (180 degree C).
Cut one inch discs out of the log and roll into balls.
Place an inch apart on a parchment lined cookie sheet and bake for 8 - 10 minutes till the cookies are firm to touch.
Transfer to a wire rack to cool and after a minute dust the confectioner's sugar on top with the help of a small strainer.

Note: The coarsely ground almonds and chocolate chips give a bite to the cookies. You can ground the almonds fine or substitute with walnuts or pecans.

I liked the flavor of nutmeg but ground cardamom or cinnamon powder can be substituted.

These cookies are being shipped to Mahima's Indian Vegetarian Kitchen and to Sara's Corner.

Vermicelli Kheer (milk pudding)/ Sevainya/ Shevayachi kheer

As promised in my previous post here’s the recipe for Vermicelli Kheer with pistachios and golden raisins and delicately flavored with cardamom pods. In Marathi vermicelli or sevainya is pronounced with an ‘H’ in front of the ‘S’. The taste remains the same.
Let me correct myself. The taste of the vermicelli stays the same but depending on how much elbow grease you are willing to put in boiling the milk, the taste of the kheer changes from good to delicious to decadently rich. On the few occasions that I make it, I like to take the time and effort to cook it to a consistency where the milk starts turning yellowish from all the boiling and the spoon starts picking up the soft layers of cream with every swirl.

Ingredients:
1 gallon or about 3 liters of milk
1 cup of sugar
1 tsp of ghee or unsalted butter
1 ½ cup of vermicelli
6-8 pods of cardamom, powdered
1/2 cup of golden raisins, pistachios and cashews (or any other nuts of your choice)

Method:
In a small kadahi or wok heat a teaspoon of ghee. On low heat toast the vermicelli until it is golden brown. Be very careful not to burn it. Take off the heat and keep aside.

In a heavy bottom pan, bring the milk to a rolling boil. Turn the heat to medium and keep the milk on a gentle boil. It is very important that you stir and scrap the bottom of the pot every five minutes.

If the milk starts sticking the bottom and you ignore it, it will eventually start burning and you do not want to taste burnt milk in your kheer. So ladies, just for this one, do not multi task, concentrate on the milk at hand (in the pot).

In about 30 to 40 minutes, told you lots of elbow grease, the milk will have reduced to 1/4th of the original amount.

As you keep stirring and scraping the milk, you want thin layers of cream (malai) floating in the pan. The more layers of cream you have, the richer your kheer will be.

At this point add the toasted vermicelli to the boiling milk. Add the sugar and the raisins.

Keep the kheer on a gentle boil, still stirring so the vermicelli doesn’t stick together. The vermicelli is done when it plumps up, about 10 minutes.

Check the kheer for sweetness and add some more sugar if desired. Turn off the heat and add the powdered cardamom and toasted pistachios and cashews.

As the kheer cools, it will get thicker so decided how thick or runny you like it and boil the milk accordingly. In my house, we like it thick like a custard.

Garnish with additional cashews and pistachios before serving.

Baked karanji for Diwali

I know Diwali is come and gone, but indulge me with this and the next post. I did make the kranji and the savory shankarpali, just never got around to posting it before Diwali. I had a busy week making the faral (snacks or munchis, mostly fried, like this one), cleaning the house and cooking for five families for the weekend Diwali bash. Not much time left for posting or visiting a lot of blogs.

After the high of instant coconut barfi, I decided to google baked karanji and found a recipe here. The brilliant lady had used frozen Pillsbury Pie Crust to make the casing for karanji. Karanji for the uninitiated is half moons of falky dough, stuffed with delicious sweet filling of coconut, sugar and nuts and deep fried in ghee. In the interest of heart healthy goodness, I did not want to deep fry my karanjis in ghee, so I was all for baking the pie crust dough.

For the filling:
1 cup fresh coconut, grated (frozen is fine too)
1/2 cup sugar
4 – 5 cardamoms, crushed into powder
A few nuts like cashews or almonds, roasted and coarsely chopped
A handful of raisins

Method:

In a heavy bottom kadhai or a non-stick pan, roast the coconut and sugar on low heat till the coconut starts to turn a little red and the sugar melts.

Turn off the heat; add cardamom powder and the nuts. Let cool.

Unroll the pie dough on a lightly floured surface and roll it thinner.

With a cookie cutter or the lid of a ricotta cheese container, cut rounds. Save the scrapes, wedge them and reuse to cut some more circles.

Place a teaspoon of filling in the center of each circle, run a finger dipped in some milk around the edges, fold the circle in half and seal the edges shut.
Keep aside on a cookie sheet, covered with a moist towel. This takes a little time so if possible keep the prepared karanjis in the fridge till you are ready to bake.
Preheat the oven to 350 and place the karanjis in the oven. Bake for 10 – 15 minutes till they start turning golden brown.

Take out and let them cool before eating them.

Note: The dough is a little salty to pass off as authentic karanji but apart from that the crust is as flaky and crunchy as the original.
The dough gets softer after a lot of handling on account of the amount of butter it has. Try to make this in the day, when you don't have to switch on the overhead lights.

Next time I will try it with Puff Pastry Sheets rolled thinner to avoid a lot of flakes.