Eggless Ragi cake

"Eggless" tag is something I always wanted to try from the time I started baking. Never had the guts. Always felt nervous to try something without egg ( I really donno an exact reason for this fear). So finally threw all those silly fears only after I came across this recipe. I really wanted to try it once I saw this name "Ragi". I knew the starchy stuff will for sure give a good shape. So tried and tasted.

For recipe, click this link http://litebite.in/ragi-cake/

Indian butter biscuits

I never thought one of the things I would miss after coming to US would be the tea kadai butter biscuits. Every time I land home, the one thing I crave for is these biscuits. I completely spoil myself but eating packets and packets of this biscuits with my everyday coffee/tea. I try to compensate all those days of not having this biscuit. Yes, back at home we call these biscuits and not cookies. Finally, I can prepare some in my oven, I am simply loving this.


For the recipe please check the link below.
http://edivyaraj.blogspot.com/2010/05/nankhatai-indian-butter-cookie.html

Chocolate Pine nut cookies

My first from the scratch cookie. Not a bad idea!!

Everytime I buy one of those ready made cookie powders and bake them. I always wanted to try it from the scratch. Most recipe mentioned brown sugar as the "sweet" ingredient. Unfortunately, I forgot to buy brown sugar. Instead I used these
1/3 cup of powdered jaggery
1/2 cup of sugar
2 tbs of sweetened condensed milk.
I love all these three source of sweet ;)

Or simply use 1 1/2 cup of tightly packed brown sugar.

After watching so many baking shows, I learnt my first lesson. Always mix the dry and wet ingredients separately. Then mix them together in batches.

Dry ingredients
1 3/4 cup of all purpose flour
3/4 cup of Hersey cocoa. ( I chose the bitter one)
3/4 teaspoon of baking soda
1/2 cup of sugar

wet ingredients
1/2 of powdered jaggery competly dissolved in 1/2 cup of water.
2 tablespoon of sweetened condensed milk
1 egg
3/4 cup of oil
2 tablespoon of milk

Make sure the jaggery is completely dissolved. Remove the excess lumps of jaggery before mixing all the wet ingredients to the dry mix.
Beat the wet ingredients to mix well.
Now in batches, add the dry ingredients to wet ingredients. Mix well without any lumps until the entire dry ingredients are completely blend.

Do taste you mixture for sweetness. This will help you to know how sweet you want your cookie to be.

I prefer medium sweet.
Finally to add a little crunch, I added a hand full of pine nuts. You can add almond, walnut or cashew nuts too.

Now baking time.
Preheat your oven to 375 and raise it to 425 bake for 10-13 minutes to have your cookies little crispy. If you want them soft bake for just about 8-10 minutes.
Remember not to pour too much of you cookie on your baking sheet. Else you end up getting pancake sized cookies. :)