Spiced Beet Sugar Cookies

   Cookies are my favorite munchies as these are easy to make with few ingredients; I prefer to make them often.

 

  For this month’s taste and create, I was paired with camila of culinary Adventure with Camilla. I searched through her blog and finalized this beet cookie recipe. I made this cookie as eggless.

 It was easy to make and was so delicious and colorful. I replaced half of the flour with the wheat flour and butter with canola oil and castor sugar with brown sugar.

Requirements:

All purpose flour – 1 cup

Wheat flour – 1 cup

Baking powder – ½ tsp

Sugar – ½ cup

Brown sugar – ½ cup

Butter – 2 tbs

Canola oil – 2 tbs

Grated beetroot – 4 tbs

Milk – 4 tbs

Vanilla extract – ½ tsp

Grounded cardamom – a pinch

Grounded cinnamon – a pinch

Grounded Nutmeg – a pinch

Grounded dry Ginger – a pinch

Method :

Sift the flours and baking powder together twice or more.

In a bowl , add the butter and sugar , whisk well.

Add in the oil and brown sugar, whisk again.

Add the grated beetroot and mix well.

Add in the spices and essence , mix well.

Now , add the flour mixture little at a time and mix well.

Add more milk if the dough was dry.

Knead into a smooth and soft dough and cover in a cling wrap.

Refrigerate the dough for atleast one hour.

Roll out the dough into ¼ inch thickness and ct into desired shape with the cookie cutter.

Arrange in the baking tray with 1 cm gap between each.

Refrigerate again for five minutes to harden the cookies.

Bake in the preheated oven for 220 * C for 20 minutes or till the cookies are slightly brown on edges and crisp.

Cool for 5 minutes and store.

Spiced beet sugar cookies are ready to serve.

  

Have a bite of these delicious cookies........

Doughnuts – Eggless

   For this month’s Baking Eggless , we has to make Doughnuts. For this month’s challenge was suggested by Jayanthi ofSizzling Veggies have suggested this delicious recipes.

  A doughnut or donut is a type of fried dough confectionery or dessert food . Doughnuts are popular in many countries and prepared in various forms as a sweet snack that can be homemade or purchased in bakeries , supermarkets , food stalls.

  They are usually deep fried from a flour dough and shaped in rings or flattened spheres that sometimes contain fillings. Other types of batters can also be used and various toppings and flavorings are used for different types.

   The two most common types are the toroidal ring doughnut and the filled doughnut, a flattened sphere injected with fruit preserves , cream , custard or other sweet fillings . A small spherical piece of dough may be cooked as a doughnut hole. Other shapes include rings , balls and flattened spheres as well as ear shapes , twists and other forms . Doughnuts are also divided into cake and risen type doughnuts.

 I had seen the making of doughnuts in many television shows. Didn’t tasted before , made for the first time and tasted , it was so delicious.

  I made the ring doughnuts and doughnut holes.

  Ring doughnuts are made sing by cutting out with the doughnut cutter or with any circle shaped lid and the center cut out a hole with a bottle cap , this is used to make the doughnut holes.

  After frying , ring doughnuts are often topped with a glaze or a powder such as cinnamon or sugar.

 Doughnut holes are small spheres that are made from the dough taken from the center of ring doughnuts or made to look as if they are.

 There are also beignets , which are square doughnuts topped with powdered sugar.

  Eggless doughnuts offer a delicious , tempting dessert treat to all sweet lovers who are vegetarians. The freshly baked eggless doughnuts taste awesome and makes for an enticing evening snack dish .

  I enjoyed making these doughnuts a lot.

Makes 22 doughnuts

Requirements :

For the doughnuts :

All purpose flour / maida – 4 cup

Vanaspathi / Butter – 3 tbs

Luke warm water – 1 cup

Sugar – ¼ cup

Yogurt – ¼ cup

Active dry yeast – 2 tbs

Baking soda – a pinch

Salt – ½ tsp

Oil for frying

For chocolate Glaze :

Icing sugar – 1 ½ cup

Cocoa powder – ¼ cup

Warm water – ¼ cup or less

Method :

Add the yeast and a spoon of sugar to the Luke warm water and mix well. Let it undisturbed for 15 minutes – yeast Proofing.

In another bowl , mix the flour , sugar and salt together.

Add the proofed yeast , curd and mix well.

Knead well to make a soft smooth and elastic dough.
Add the dough to the counter and knead it for 10 minutes .

Place the dough in a bowl and cover with a cling wrap.

Let it for rise , it will take 2 hours or more.

When the dough is doubled in volume and placed in the refrigerator overnight.

Next day, deflate the dough and knead once.

Dust the kitchen counter and place the dough.

Roll out into a thickness of 1 cm and cut out into round circles, doughnut cutter. I used a lid of small container.

 I used the bottle cap to cut out the hole in the center.

 Repeat till all the dough is used up.

Arrange in the tray, cover and let it for second rise it will take an hour or more.

Heat oil in a pan , and deep fry each doughnut in medium flame till golden brown on both sides.

 I fried the doughnut holes too.

While frying the doughnuts will rise up and will be fluffy.

Chocolate icing :

 Mix the icing sugar and cocoa powder together.

Add little warm water at a time and mix well to make a thick icing.

Dip each doughnut in the icing , when the  doughnuts are still warm.

Sprinkle the colourful sprinklers on top while the glaze is still wet.

Let it dry in the rack for an hour.

 For the doughnut holes , I simply dusted the icing sugar.

Store in air tight containers and refrigerate.

Serve the round crispy doughnuts with chocolate glaze.

Dhokar Dalna – Bengali Lentil cake Gravy

  
This was the authentic Bengali gravy made with lentil cakes and the potatoes simmered in coconut milk. 

This was the challenge for this month’s south VsNorth challenge. Nabanita of Esho – Bosho – Aahare has challenged the south team with this delicious gravy.

  This is a traditional Bengali satvik dish with out onion and garlic. In this deep fried lentil cakes are simmered in a rich gravy of coconut milk, cashew – raisin paste and potato and seasoned with cumin, ginger paste and garam masala.

  Though the Bengali meaning of dhoka is “to cheat”, here the dhokas are the fried lentil cakes.

 The lentil cakes tastes similar to masal vada somewhat. I munched few when fried.

 The making of this gravy may seem difficult for the beginners but I find it was easy.

Requirements:

For lentil cake:

Channa dhal – 1 ½ cup

Matar dhal  / Split peas dal ( Pattani paruppu ) – ½ cup

Grated coconut – ½ cup

Ginger paste – 1 tsp

Onion seeds – 2 tsp ( I didn’t use )

Red chilli – 3

Turmeric powder – 1 tsp

Salt to taste

Oil – 1 tbs

Oil for frying the lentil cakes

For Gravy :

Potato – 3

Tomato – 1

Coconut milk – 2 cup

Grated coconut – ½ cup

Ginger paste – 1 tbs

Asafetida – ¼ tsp

Cumin seeds – 1 tsp

Cumin powder – 1 tbs

Slit green chillies - 3

Garam masala powder – 2 tbs

Red chilli powder – 1 tsp

Turmeric powder – 1 tsp

Cashew raisin paste – 4 tbs ( 20 cashew and 15 raisins )

Oil – 2 tbs

Salt as required

Method :

Making of Lentil cakes :

Wash and Soak both dhals for 2 hours.

Drain out the excess water and grind into a coarse paste with the ginger and red chillies. Green chilli is used in original recipe , I used red chilli instead.

Add in the turmeric powder , onion seeds , salt , grated coconut and mix well.

Heat a tablespoon of oil in the kadai and add this mixture and cook in medium flame.

Keep stirring till the mixture is cooked well. It will change color to darker. It won’t stick to the pan.

Add this to a greased flat tray and let it cool.

Cut into pieces of required shape , I cut into squares.

Heat oil in a kadai ,  deep fry these lentil cakes till golden brown.

Making of gravy :

Soak the cashew and raisins for 20 minutes and grind into a fine paste.

Chop the tomato into fine pieces.

Chop the potato into cubes.

Heat a tablespoon of oil in a pan , and sauté the potatoes.

Add in the turmeric powder and half a teaspoon of salt.

Sauté till the potatoes are became golden brown in colour.

Take out and keep aside.

In the same pan , add the remaining oil , cumin seeds , asafetida and let it crackle.

Add the slit green chillies , ginger paste and chopped tomatoes , sauté well.

Add  in the cumin powder , red chilli powder , turmeric powder , garam masala and mix well.

Add the grated coconut , coconut milk , cashew raisin paste and mix well.

Add in the sauted potatoes and required salt.

Let it simmer for 5 – 8 minutes.

Add in the lentil cakes and mix well.

Take off from flame and serve.

Serve along with rice , roti. We had it with chappati.

This gravy was with the flavor of coconut and dhal . It has a combination of tastes like sweet and  spice.

Note :

Add the lentil cakes just before serving.

To enhance the taste add a spoon of ghee to the gravy.

Coconut milk must be medium thick.

While cooking the grounded lentil mixture use a tablespoon of oil only not more than that.

Deep fry lentil cakes gently in a medium flame for even cooking.

        

  @ foodelicious