Asiago and Romano cheese rolls

M's favourite over the past year has been the new addition of cheese. A boy who loved to snack on string cheese and grilled cheese (mainly made of mozzarella) all these years has made an upgrade to Asiago cheese.  It opened up a whole another world for him!
 He loves  Asiago cheese bagels, tortilla toasted with Asiago, Quesadilla with Asiago, pizza bites topped with Asiago. Can one get serious medical condition from excessive Asiago binge? 

Here are his fav rolls  which he loves to eat hot off the oven with cold butter. Recipe is similar to laadi paav with the exception of placing the rolls with a little extra space so it spreads during 2nd proofing (2nd rise). Cheese lovers rejoice!

 In my 'To bake' list,  Parmesan knots from the Gourmet magazine is next.

2 cups warm water (110 to 115 degrees)
2 tbsp yeast
1 tsp sugar
2 1/2 tsp salt
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup Asiago cheese
1/2 cup Romano cheese
1 stick butter, cold, roughly chopped
5-5 1/2 cups AP Flour

Proof the yeast with warm water and sugar for 15 minutes in a mixer bowl.

Mix in eggs and rest (except the cheese) of the ingredients and mix on high for 5 minutes until the dough becomes slightly stiff and stretchy.  You can knead the cheese by hand if you are worried to ruin the shredded cheese texture. Add in cheeses and mix one last time. Scrape the bowl to make sure the bottom does not sticky. Cover the bowl with a wet kitchen towel and let the dough rise until doubled in size.

Punch the dough to deflate air and divide into 3 balls and further dividing each ball into 10 . This helps get even sized rolls. Place thirty rolls on a cookie (baker's half sheet pan)sheet (5 rolls by 6 rolls). Place the sheet pan in the oven to rise (No, we are not baking yet so don't turn the oven on).


  Let them rise on a cookie sheet until the rolls begin to touch each other filling all gaps. About 1 hour.

 Bake at 350 degrees on the middle rack for 25-30 minutes. Lightly butter the tops (cold butter from the fridge makes this part easy) after roll are out of the oven.

Smiley cookies

Photo enlarged!

  Cuteness Overload!  Where ever you see smileys it sure makes one smile. Aren't these the cutest little thing ever, created to bring smiles to the person receiving it? Be it with a card, at the end of a note or in an email. I just love smileys!!!

 

I figured these baby bites were the perfect treats for 7 year old cubs for their end of the year party at the scouts. Today we thank our Scout master for preparing  restless little boys into becoming responsible  citizens of tomorrow. I plan on sending these home as a favor with all that cubs that attend today as we ended up with way more that we should have in the house ;)

 

 Woot woot to my  little scout who is graduating from a tiger cub to wolf! 

 

I made a batch of  basic sugar cookie recipe  and the regular Wilton royal icing to make these.

• 2 sticks cold butter, cut up
• 1cup sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract/ paste
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 3 cups all purpose flour

 

 

In a mixer bowl, cream together butter cubes and sugar

 

This time I remembered to use vanilla paste (TJ Maxx, 6$...what a steal!) before mixing in the dough. Beat all ingredients till the mixture is creamy. Scrape bowl all the way to the bottom (crucial).

 

 

Add in egg and beat just until mixed.

 

 

Add in flour and baking powder and mix. At this point, be kind to your mixer and knead the rest with hand. (Using mixer to get a completely smooth dough will result in tough textured cookies and we don't want that!) The dough comes together sooner than you can sing your ABC's :)

 

 

See! Make two flat discs out of it.

 

 

Refrigerate. I don't track time, but usually while the discs are chilling, I prepare parchment lined pans, set aside a couple plates for placing cookies in freezer and am clearing up my area for rolling out the dough. What I mean to say is that timing does not matter here.

 

 Oh, and I have the dough disks in a bowl instead of saran wrap because I want to be able to switch the discs in between work. Keep following the  pics, you will see!

 

Roll out the dough between two parchment sheets or in my case Silpat at the bottom and parchment on top. Silpat at the bottom helps by staying stuck to the counter and does not slide like the parchment sheet does. Always!

 

 My cookie cutter was the 'inside' of linzer torte. Cut away!

 

 here's my linzer torte cookie cutter to show you what I mean!

 

 

Remove all the cookies and place on a plate( you can freeze directly on the cookie sheet too but my freezer does not allow my 9x 13 sheet to sit flat). So I always have one extra step....not a biggie!

 

 Freeze for 5 to 10 minutes. In the mean time, ball up the scraps and switch with the disc from the refrigerator. This is where using the bowl instead of cling/saran wrap helps. I mean do you seriously have the time to mess with saran at this point?

 

BTW, always always freeze before baking . That is if you hate mis-shapened cookie ( seriously, it will spread like nobody's business). Go ahead and bake!

 

 

Cool completely.  I let it sit 30 minutes.

 

 

Outline with thick royal icing.

 

 

 Flood with thin consistency.

 

 

Pipe in the details with 1m tip. Enjoy!

 

Key Lime Cookie

Cookies:

2 cups all purpose flour

3/4 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 cup granulated sugar

zest of 2 key limes

2 egg yolks

1/4 tsp. vanilla extract

1 TBSP key lime juice

Pinch of salt

In a medium bowl combine the sugar and the lime zest. Using a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, on medium-high speed, cream together the butter and lime scented sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.

Add yolks one at a time, scraping down the mixer after each addition. Mix in vanilla and key lime juice and beat for another 30 seconds on medium-high speed.

Add salt and flour and mix on low speed until ingredients are fully incorporated.

Divide dough into four logs. Roll so that they are easy to slice. Wrap them in plastic or wax paper and place into fridge for 1 hour. You can go as long as overnight if you have stuff to do.

Preheat oven to 350F. Remove cookies from fridge. Slice cookies to about ½ inch thick. Place on a parchment lined (or you can use baking spray) cookie sheet and space about an inch apart. They don’t really spread out all that much.

Bake for 14-16 minutes depending on the size of your cookies. They aren’t going to be a super soft cookie. More of a shortbread bite if you will. Let them cool, drizzle  glaze.

 Glaze

2 cups powdered sugar

1/3 cup key lime juice
Zest of 1 lemon

Whisk the sugar and juice together until it’s a thick but pourable glaze. Pour over cookies. Let glaze set up, sprinkle (don't know what the right word is) zest and eat.

Toasted Ravioli

1 bag  Cheese Ravioli
1 cup Italian Style Bread Crumbs
2 tsp Italian seasoning
A pinch of paprika powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg
Oil, For Frying

 Cook ravioli until al dente about 5 minutes. Cool.
 Have seperate bowl for egg (beat well) & bread crumb mixture ( paprika, bread crumbs & Italian seasoning & salt).
 Dip ravioli in beaten egg and then bread crumbs mixture. Do this twice to have a thicker coat. Set aside on a plate. Gently dip into hot oil and fry until golden brown, about 2-3 minutes.
 Serve with marinara sauce.

Dream bars

The desire to make this was very strong earlier today... one of the reasons maybe the favourite ingredient that goes into making these...pure white daintily piled up mound of sweetened snowflake coconut sitting pretty on my kitchen counter as a part of my gingerbread house snow scape OR that I badly want to make another use of my tart pan to justify myself for wanting a second pan that I'm eyeing at the William Sonoma.



Who except me cares what my reasons are to bake these, as long as these taste 'yum'. With the Christmas season here & many goodies to make & share, this comes im handy as well as adds to the beauty of my platters.

Recipe courtesy: Chef's select coconut

1 1/2 cups flour
2 cups brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup butter
3 eggs
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups coconut

Mix together flour,1/2 cup brown sugar & butter until particles are fine. Press into bottom of ungreased 13x9" pan.bake at 350F for 15 mins.

beat 1 1/2 cups brown sugar with eggs until just blended. Mix in remaining ingredients. Spread over partially bakes crust. bake 20 to 25 mims or until golden brown.

Cool.Cut with sharp knife.
Makes 24 bars

whoopie pie

A well known little pie that doesn't look anything like one; made of two soft chocolate cookies sandwiched with sweet creamy filling has been another favourite that my 10 yr  old loves to bake.

 The recipe  is not only super-easy to follow for my bake addict kid  &amp is  just as satisfying for this chocolate lover  but my best reason;  I don't have to bake a real cake & worry  about what to do with  about half the cake that sits in the refrigerator as a leftover. It is just the right size for a lumch dessert + freezes easy. You know how just how much I love a twofer idea!

Cookies:
2 cups All purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
1stick (8 Tbs) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 cup buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg
1tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

Whisk together flour, baking soda & salt in a bowl until combined.
In a separate bowl, stir together buttermilk & vanilla.
With a mixer, beat together butter & sugar at medium speed untill mixture is plale & fluffy ( about 3 mins).
Add egg, beat till combined. Reduce speed to low & alternately mix in flour mixture and buttermilk in batches, scraping down the sides of the bowl after each addition. Mix until smooth.

Preheat oven to 350F. Line the sheet pan with parchment paper & spray with cooking spray.

Spoon 1 tbs mounds of batter. bake until tops are puffed & cookies spring back when touched, 8-10 mins. Mine took 14 mins as  the batter was slightly more than a tablespoon. Yeah, I don't spend time to measure each scoop. :0
 Transfer to a rack & cool completely.

Marshmallow filling:
1 stick ( 8tbs) unsalted butter, softened
1 1/4 cup powdered sugar
2 cup marsmallow cream ( fluff)
1 tsp vanilla extract

In a bowl, beat together butter, powdered sugar, marshmallow cream & vanilla to fluff it up.

Assemble the pies by spreading a teaspoon of filling on one  flat side of half of the cookies & top with the  other flat side. Repeat with the remaining.

Store: Refrigerated for a week, frozen upto 2 months. Serve at room temperature.

Doodh peda

The need to make this came from a  dear friend  Deepa Pai who inspires me with her ideas & we've  been wanting to make this for a couple weeks now. I have been hearing about this at every phone conversation for the past week, so we decided to pic a day &  make this at our next meet. The Tuesday where D's dreams of doodh peda was about to come true was finally here.
The peda making started in full josh and the microwaving part was done. The excitement died just as fast when it came to dinner time (that's where I screwed up, big time!) We let the mixture cool down completely (not deliberately, of course)  as we were busy yapping off  & leisurely relished our dinner. The ending result was the crumbled up balls( flattening them made it look worse) of peda. The flavor was the only thing unaltered, thanks to condensed milk in it.
The peda making dream stuck with me since I was on a quest to make the kind with kesar & dried nuts as a garnish to beautify it. Making such a easy sweet dish did not do justice if I didn't put extra little effort in it. Hence, the birth of these sweeties.

Ingredients:
Milk Powder – 2 cups
Condensed Milk – 1 can (14 OZ)
butter- 1 stick
Saffron – few strands

Method:
Take a wide microwave safe bowl and heat the butter just until it melts.
Now add both, the condensed milk and milk powder and microwave for 5 mins stirring (use the sturdiest sspoon you have)after every minute.
Here's where I tweaked, I added 1 heaped spoon of malt (badam doodh) powder + 2 tbsp kesari milk masala (Everest brand), elaichi + kesar for garnish.Mix the above to dough, knead to smooth texture. Cool the mixture for a few mins for you to handle the warm dough. Now roll the pedhas into a ball, flatten it then press saffron strands to the center.
Share these sweeties( along with the recipe) at your next girls meet & talk about the ease(that went into making) of this sweet.



G's note: Recipe used was from "show me the curry" at my friends place.
Second attempt by me was using the same recipe with a couple tweaks. I'm impressed myself! All thanks to D for the push. Can't wait for us to try something new again!

Hiatus & a sweet comeback

My little blogging hiatus has been getting to me lately. I have no reason to explain my disappearance but let me do it any way for a moment so as to give my friend bloggers a peak at what I experienced this summer. Here goes!

The usual worries with the onset of spring about the upcoming 10 weeks of summer vacation, entertaining or at least arranging activities for the kids was more like a research. Just a few of the things in my list of responsibilities were organizing tons of play dates + watching few extra kids as a favour, stocking up the freezer with all kinds of frozen goodies, keeping the popcorn & DVDs stocked up for sleep-overs, the drop off to camps, pick ups, finding THE reliable back up, striking off the list of promised activities such as ride to the local ice cream shop, the Zoo, the playground, the pool...oy ve! all as the norms of a parent in the U S. It's fun & all but sometimes, I'd rather mop my house twice and refold my laundry.

As any parent would want/ wish, I for one sure wishes my kids to remember their vacation as a great one & us as their parents who are COOL(er) than the Jones's.
As it turned out, I could have my wish granted. I consider myself one lucky mom this summer. Everything went well as planned.... a trip to India which would cover all of the above.

My dreams of being in India for the whole season & spending endless days with the extra set(s) of hands in the kitchen, hands & foot service, the spontaneous drop im of the relatives, worry free child care was actually going to happen. All of the luxuries to be pampered, to be free was happily accomplished. I can go on & on but enough already! The point has been made.

So my sweet dish after the break is Dudholi which you can find here.

Maggie...top 5 fav's

Upma

The upma served here with tea, bhusa mixture and parle-G, just the way my babies love it.

Ingredients:
Rava 2 cups
mustard seeds 1/4 tsp
urad dal 1/4 tsp
green chillies 4, slit
curry leaves 1 sprig
water 4 cups
ghee 3tbsp
cocnut 4tbsp
sugar 3 tbsp
salt

Method:
Boil the water and keep aside.
Heat ghee in a kadai and season with mustard, urad dal, green chillies, curry leaves.
Add rava and roast on low flame till the rava has a toasted aroma. Add salt and sugar mix well and take off flame. Pour the 4 cups of boiling water, coconut and mix well. cover and and cook on low flame for 15 mins which will completely cook the rava and doubles up in volume. Stir to mix up all the seasoning that settled on top of the upma. Serve it with poha, bhusa mixture, chivda or as is.

Sugar cookies

Ingredients
5 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 1/2 cups butter, softened
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tsp salt

Method:
In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Stir in the flour, baking powder, and salt. Cover, and chill dough for at least one hour.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
Roll out dough on floured surface or in between two sheets of parchment paper, about 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. Cut into shapes with any cookie cutter. Place cookies 1 inch apart on parchment lined cookie sheets. Do not grease or flour the sheet.
Bake for 6-8 mins (the edges will turn slightly brown). The cookies at this point will look under done but it is completely cooked. Remove the baking tray and let cool( if not cooled, the cookie will crumble during removing from the sheet) 2 mins on the counter top, remove cookies with a statula and lay them on wire rack to cool.

Note: this dough can be made and shaped into a log, covered with parchment paper, saran wrapped and stored in ref/ freezer for later use. If frozen, thaw it for 1 hr before slicing.Refrigerated and sliced cookies can go right in the oven with the addition of 2 mins during baking time.

Pancakes

2 eggs,
1/2 c. sugar
1 1/2 c. flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
1 1/2 c milk
2 tbsp buttermilk pwd



Instructions
Combine egg and sugar. Beat the egg/sugar mixture.Stir in flour, baking soda, baking powder, milk and buttermilk pwd. Fry on griddle until golden brown and center cooked.