Indian Sugee cookies

      Today marks Deepavali in Singapore. Deepavali, or Diwali, is a Hindu celebration. You can Google it to find out the customs and traditions surrounding this day but in my memory, Deepavali is the biggest celebration of the year. My family celebrated Christmas on a small scale but Deepavali was the one day that we prepared for every year. Of course the festivities dwindled down as my brother and I got older, but it still brings back fond memories. We would 'spring-clean' the house, buy new Indian clothes, cookies and goodies leading up to Deepavali and visit relatives' houses on the day.
   
      There would always be food in the houses that we visited, lots and lots of food. There was also lots of biscuits. Some were traditional, some weren't. It was customary to leave an assortment of cookies on the coffee table for visiting guests to help themselves. We would also give some cookies to some of our neighbours to share the good spirit of the occasion.
   
      One cookie that I always loved is called Sugee Cookies. 'Sugee' (or 'sugi') is used to refer to semolina in North India. In South India, this is more commonly referred to as 'rava' or 'rawa'. Semolina is used in some recipes for this type of cookie but I opted for a recipe that uses only wheat flour. Sugee cookies are balls of buttery goodness that crumble and melt in your mouth. Some people make it too crispy, which results in an almost non-existent 'melty' mouthfeel. That just spoils the beauty of these cookies. They are meant to be like a pale, crumbly shortbread. They have characteristic cracks on the tops, which are caused by the addition of baking soda in the dough.

      I have missed Deepavali in Singapore for 2 years. Naturally, I missed Sugee Cookies. I tried looking for the essential ingredient here in The Netherlands last year but had no success. Through the year, I found several shops selling this ingredient so I told myself I would bake these cookies these year. And I did. EVERY SINGLE PERSON who has tried these cookies that I baked has been wowed. 

      Anyway, what's this essential ingredient? Ghee, also known as clarified butter. This is sold in metal tins from Asian or Indian grocery stores. It is used widely in the preparation of a dizzying number of Indian dishes ranging from curries to desserts. Ghee does not smell very appealing in the tin, but releases a wonderful aroma and flavour when heated. It might look weird to you, but the flavour of it is very rich even in tiny amounts. The fact that I am saying this is not to be taken lightly because I am a person who uses as little fat as I can get away with when I'm cooking. It also has a higher smoking point than butter so it can be used at higher heat ranges.

     So, if you want to make these cookies you will have to hunt for Ghee. Without ghee, you might as well just bake a plain 'ol English shortbread cookie. This is an easy recipe with only a few ingredients so it's hard to go wrong. The golden rule of Sugee Cookies is that they have to be pale-coloured, not browned. If they are browned, they become crispy instead of crumbly. I have provided a scaled-down recipe here. However since there are no eggs used, it is easy to double, triple, or quadruple the recipe!

Sugee Cookies

makes approximately 50

135g ghee

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

250g plain flour (all purpose)

1 tsp baking soda (bicarbonate of soda)

85g powdered sugar (icing sugar)

1/3 tsp fine salt

food colouring (optional)

1. Scoop the ghee into a bowl

2. Melt the ghee on your stovetop or microwave. If using a microwave, check the ghee every 30 seconds to prevent splattering.

3. Leave the ghee to cool for a while then add the vanilla essence to the ghee.

4. Sift the flour, sugar, baking soda and salt into a bowl.

5. Make a well in the middle of the flour mixture, then pour the ghee in.

*You can use the remaining melted ghee in the bowl to grease your baking tray

6. Mix and knead to form a soft dough. The dough will be slightly crumbly.

7. Split the dough between two bowls so that you can work with a small amount of dough each time.

8. Place the bowls in the fridge to chill the dough for 20 to 30 minutes. This will make it easier to shape the balls of cookies.

9. Preheat your oven to 170°C. Line and lightly grease a baking sheet.

10. Now take one bowl of dough out of the fridge and shape into small balls. Each ball should be no bigger than 2cm in diameter. Use the other bowl of dough when you have finished working with the first bowl.

*I have found that the best way to shape the balls is to pinch a small portion off the crumbly dough, place the portion on the palm of my left hand, then use my right hand to pinch the dough into one piece, and lastly, roll it between both palms to make a ball. Sounds tedious but it really isn't!

11. You can use the back of a toothpick to put little dots of food colouring on the middle of each cookie. Just dip the end of the toothpick in the food colouring and gently dot the colour onto the cookie. This is purely aesthetic, so it is completely optional.

12. Place the little balls, spaced apart, on your baking sheet. Bake for approximately 15 to 20 minutes. This depends on your oven. But the cookies are meant to look milky and pale, not brown.

13. Remove from the oven, leave to cool then store in airtight containers for up to 3 weeks.

      Easy-peasy, lemon-squeezy! Now enjoy your addictive, melt-in-mouth cookies!

Italian Tortano with ham & cheese

   Italian food. Ahhhhh. I can't think of anyone who doesn't like Italian food (maybe except my dad, who doesn't eat cheese, mushrooms, ham etc). To me, the best thing about Italian food is that you can easily cook it at home because once you have the commonly-used herbs in your cupboard, you're pretty much set up for any dish. I go through jars of oregano, basil and mixed italian herbs more than anybody else I know.

     This tortano is the result of a recipe that I chanced upon. I thought that it looked so pretty. Even though all the ingredients required for the recipe are items that I always have on hand, I didn't try making the tortano until 2 weeks after chancing upon the recipe. This is partly because I have a slight aversion to baking breads. I am no stranger to bread-making and used to make bagels regularly. However, I never seem to have success with baking simple fluffy white loafs. I am also sceptical of certain dry yeasts because I have bought packets of yeast that seemed useless. I woke up one morning and decided that I would finally give this a try. After some searching, I found packets of yeast in a Dutch supermarket. Hooray!

      I looked at the amount of flour needed for the recipe and wondered if I should halve the recipe. Something told me that I shouldn't. So I didn't. And, boy, am I glad I didn't! I cannot imagine the tortano turning out as well as it did if I had halved the recipe. So people, DON'T HALVE THE RECIPE. If you are cooking for 2 people like I was, just freeze the unsliced leftovers.

      So a tortano is a filled and rolled bread. You can fill it with mozzarella, olives, capers, prosciutto, cheese, mushrooms, ham etc. I guess you can fill it with most pizza topping-type ingredients. I opted for a simple ham and cheese filling.  This is a substantial loaf so I would suggest serving it with something light for a main meal or as a tapas for a party. I chose to serve my tortano with a simple tomato and basil soup. It takes some time to make this, as does most bread, but is not a whole lot of work.

Tortano with Ham & Cheese

makes enough for 4 to 6 people

7g instant yeast

300ml lukewarm water

1 TBSP olive oil

1 TBSP honey

1 TBSP salt

250g bread flour

180g wholemeal flour

4 large slices of ham (approx. 100g)

50 to 75g grated cheese (choose a strong cheese)

1. Combine the water, oil, honey and yeast in a cup/bowl. Stir to combine. Leave to sit for a few minutes.

2. Combine the flours in a large bowl. Make a well in the middle of the flours and pour the water/oil/honey/yeast mixture in. 

3. Stir with a sturdy spoon until most of the flour is wet, then use your hands to continue the mixing process.

4. Keep kneading the dough to thoroughly combine the wet and dry ingredients.

5. Lightly flour a work surface and continue to knead the dough until it becomes elastic.

*This will take about 10 minutes of kneading. You might have to add more flour to the dough. If necessary, do so 1 TBSp at a time. You want an elastic dough, not a dry dough so don't add too much flour unless your dough is too wet.

6. Oil a clean glass bowl with olive oil and shape the bread dough into a ball. Place the dough in the bowl and cover with a clean tea towel. Leave to rise in a warm place. 

*I put my microwave on for 1 minute then turn it off and quickly put the bowl in the warm microwave.

7. In about 45 minutes, the dough should have risen to double its size. You can now prepare your filling ingredients.

8. Put the dough ball on a well-floured surface and pull/stretch the dough to form a 1cm-thick rectangle, with the long edge (length) facing you. Resist the temptation to use a rolling pin or to knead the dough because that will knock too much air out of it.

9. Making sure to leave a border around the edges, arrange the ham slices on the dough and sprinkle the cheese.

10. Starting from the long edge closest to you, roll the dough Swiss-roll style as tightly as you can, pinching the dough to length when you have finished rolling.

11. Now bend the roll into a wreath, leaving a fist-sized hole in the middle and pinch the ends to seal them together.

12. Leave to rise for 30 minutes. Preheat your oven to 250°C.

13. After the dough has risen for 30 minutes, knock the oven temperature down to 200°C and put the bread in the oven.

14. Bake it for 30 to 35 minutes, then remove from the oven to cool on a rack.

15. Slice as thick or thin as you want, then serve!

Healthy Aargau Carrot Cake

      I fancied carrot cake one afternoon. Actually, that's a lie. I was thinking of carrot cake all morning and fantasized about sinking my teeth into a slice of carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. I remembered that some time ago in Singapore, I baked a carrot cake that used ground almonds as a base for the recipe. I remembered that the name of that type of carrot cake starts with an 'A'. 
 
      So I looked it up and I found it: Aargau carrot cake. Aargau is the name of a canton in Switzerland that is famed for its carrot cake. There are a few recipes out there that claim to be authentic but all are very different from each other. The most popular recipe seems to be one which contains no added fat besides the fat that is in the almonds and the eggs.

     Being a person who can hardly leave a recipe alone without making alterations to it, I made an already healthy cake a little healthier by reducing the sugar content very slightly, increasing the amount of carrots and using whole wheat flour. I also added some spices to the cake for some warmth. It turned out with a dense crumb and the whole wheat flour gave it a slightly crunchy top. I spread some light cream cheese frosting on it and it was so good!

     Without further ado, here is the recipe along with the recipe for light cream cheese frosting.

Healthy Aargau Carrot Cake

makes one 8-inch cake

3 eggs

1½ cup grated carrots

1 cup ground almonds (almond meal)

2 TBSP lemon juice

1 tsp grated lemon/orange rind

1½ tsp baking powder

1/3 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup caster sugar

1/4 cup whole wheat flour

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

1/4 tsp ground cardamom (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Grease and line an 8-inch cake tin with baking paper.

2. Sift the flour, baking powder and spices in a small bowl

3. Put the sugars into a medium sized bowl.

4. Separate the eggs, putting the egg yolks in the same bowl as the sugar and the egg whites in a separate bowl.

5. Beat the egg yolks into the sugar thoroughly, for about 2 minutes.

6. Add the lemon juice, rind, ground almonds and flour mixture into the egg yolk/sugar mixture and mix well.

7. Beat the egg whites until frothy. This will take at least 3 minutes if done by hand.

8. Fold the beaten egg whites into the batter until well combined.

9. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake in preheated oven for 35 to 40 minutes

* The top of the cake may brown too quickly, so after the cake has been in the oven for 10 minutes, check on it and cover it with foil then continue baking. Leave to cool completely.

Light cream cheese frosting

makes enough to cover cake

90g light cream cheese

2 TBSP orange juice

2 TBSP honey

2 TBSP light margarine (approx 15g) 

I used Flora Light

1. Whip all the ingredients together with a whisk or electric mixer

2. Add more honey if desired

3. Spread on cooled cake

     Let me know your results if you try this recipe! I would love to hear from you. 

Banana-only 'Ice Cream'

    How do you like your ice cream? Soft and creamy like soft-serve? Thick and creamy like Ben & Jerry's? Do you like it smooth or with chunky bits in it? I'm a Ben & Jerry's fan. I have a reputation for finishing entire pint-sized tubs in one sitting. We all know that's very, very unhealthy so when I saw a recipe for a one-ingredient ice cream, I had to try it!
     The one ingredient is: Bananas. "But just bananas? Isn't that very plain?" you ask. Yes, it is very plain. And that is why I added some extras to it. I added some honey, praline almonds and maple syrup.....anything goes really. The point is that you CAN make something similar to ice cream using just bananas!

Pardon my bad lighting

      For me, the texture of this turned out to be on the icy side. I would describe the texture as a cross between a sorbet and soft-serve. Nevertheless, if it's ice cream that you want but not all the sins that go along with it, this makes a decent substitute. It will taste of bananas, but there are plenty of possibilities for things you can add in to customize this 'ice cream'. There is a lot of potential to make this into a Ben & Jerry-esque chunky ice cream.

      This is also a great way to use up brown, speckled, overripe bananas that might be sitting in your fruit bowl. In fact, overripe bananas are perfect for this because they are naturally sweeter than just-ripe bananas. Of course, you can also use overripe bananas in cakes and other bakes....but I digress.

      I now present you with my take on this one-ingredient ice cream, using more than just one ingredient.....

Banana 'Ice Cream'

makes 10 small scoops

4 large bananas 

(the riper the better!)

2 to 3 TBSP milk or cream

(cream will give a nicer texture but will add to the fat content)

1 to 2 TBSP honey/maple syrup (optional)

1. The night before you plan to make this ice cream, cut the bananas into 1cm-thick disks and freeze in a container. Alternatively, lay the sliced bananas in a single layer on a baking sheet and freeze for about 4 hours, until frozen solid.

2. Take the bananas out of the freezer 10 minutes before you are ready to make the ice cream. Get your food processor ready.

3. Separate the slices of banana as much as possible, then tip into the food processor.

4. Turn the food processor on to high speed and process the frozen banana until they look like small grains.

5. Scrape down the bowl then process at medium speed for another 1 to 2 minutes.

6. While the food processor is running, add the milk or cream into the feeder tube of the food processor 1 tablespoon at a time, until the bananas look creamy.

7. Stop the food processor and scrape down the bowl, then turn the motor back on to medium-slow speed.

8. Now add the honey 1 tablespoon at a time, depending on how sweet you want your 'ice cream' to be.

9. If you want your 'ice cream' plain as it is, you can now scoop the mixture out of the bowl and into a freezer-safe container or eat it right away (soft-serve texture)

10. If you want to add mix-ins, now is the time to do it.

       I scooped out half the banana mixture into a container so that I could compare the plain banana 'ice cream' with the other half. I then added my praline almonds to the other half and turned the food processor on to break up the praline pieces. I scooped it out into a separate container then swirled in some maple syrup before putting the tub in the freezer.

      My verdict? The maple-almond praline version is nicer than the plain version. But that's just me. Maybe you like yours plain? Here's a link to other mix-in options. I think maple-cinnamon would be go well with the bananas. 

      Please note that you will have to take the tub of 'ice cream' out of the freezer 5 to 10 minutes before serving so that it softens enough for you to scoop it. By the way, scooping it can be a real pain the butt so I made a few scoops at one go, then froze the scoops of 'ice cream'. 

Served on 'Better-for-you Peanut Butter Cookies'

Better-for-you Peanut Butter Cookies

     I bought a jar of peanut butter a few days ago because I needed a tablespoon of it for something. I love peanut butter, but it has to be the right kind. It is easy to go wrong with peanut butter (too salty or too sweet) and this jar that I bought wasn't the kind that I would keep spooning into my mouth. I knew it would just sit in my pantry looking desolate, so I thought of making peanut butter cookies.

     Peanut butter cookies are not my favourite thing in the world. Actually I wouldn't even say that I like them very much; but maybe I've only had greasy, butter-laden artery-cloggers that were too chewy. I looked up recipes and was quite horrified and puzzled as to why people would use butter AND peanut butter in the same recipe. Peanut butter has a high fat content so surely that provides sufficient fat in baking recipes...? I don't know. I'm not a food scientist.

     I did find a recipe that used only four ingredients: peanut butter, sugar, egg and baking powder. However, even that didn't satisfy me so I played around with the proportions of the ingredients and ended up having to add an extra ingredient to it: flour. The result is a cookie that is lower in sugar because I halved the amount of sugar used. You can add an extra tablespoon or so of sugar if you want your cookies sweeter. This recipe will give you crispy cookies with slightly chewy middles. That's just the way I like it! The cookies can burn quickly so please watch the oven while the cookies are baking.

Small-sized

Peanut Butter Cookies

makes 24 small cookies or 8 large cookies

1 large egg

1/2 cup white sugar

120g peanut butter*

40g self-raising flour (approx 1/4 cup)

1/4 tsp baking powder

1. Preheat oven to 175°C. Line 2 large cookie sheets with lightly greased baking paper.

2. Put the flour and baking powder in a small bowl and whisk to combine.

3. In a separate bowl, whisk the egg and sugar together for 1 minute.

4. Add the peanut butter to the egg/sugar mixture and whisk to combine.

5. Lastly, tip the flour in and mix well.

The batter will have the consistency of thick honey

6. Drop the batter onto the cookie sheet by teaspoonfuls or tablespoonfuls, depending on the size of cookies that you want.

 Be sure to leave space between each cookie to accommodate spreading! 

1-inch space around each cookie should be sufficient.

7. Bake in preheated oven for 10 to 12 minutes (timing depends on your oven), until the edges of the cookies are medium-brown.

8. Remove from oven, leave to cool on the baking sheet for a 5 to 10 minutes, then lift the cookies onto a cooling rack.

Large-sized

These cookies can be stored for 3 days in an airtight container.
*To measure 120g of peanut butter, put the jar of peanut butter on a digital weighing scale, set the tare to 0g then spoon out 120g. Easy!

The large sized cookies make a great base for a dessert. This was my creation for a girls' night in dessert: Peanut butter cookie topped with Banana-only 'Ice Cream', with a smaller peanut putter cookie on top!

Cranberry Oat Biscotti

     Today I decided to bake something that I used to bake when I was in Singapore: biscotti. I think it has been almost 2 years since I have baked biscotti. Biscotti is a twice-baked biscuit that originated in Italy. It's lesser known name is cantuccini. There is also a Jewish version of this called mandelbrodt. While biscotti is often made with many variations such as pistachio, aniseed, almond & chocolate, mandelbrodt is traditionally made with almonds (because 'mandel' means almond in Yiddish). 

     Biscotti is easy to make but it does require more time because of the slicing and double-baking. It is certainly so easy that it makes no sense to pay something like $2 for a piece of biscotto (singular form of the word) in a cafe. I reckon you can make the entire biscotti recipe below with $2. And you will get 48 pieces for that! AND my biscotti are low in fat. They are definitely suitable for people who like a cookie with their coffee but want to watch what they eat. Each biscotti is a very reasonable 52 calories. I will provide the full nutritional values after the recipe.

       I added a little wholewheat flour and some of Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf's White Chocolate Powder because I have a jar of it at home that will expire soon. You can choose to leave this out or substitute with powdered milk and sugar. The most difficult part is forming the batter into log-shapes. I halved the recipe when I made it, so feel free to do so BUT you will have to deal with weird amounts like 1½ egg!

You CAN bake these

Cranberry Oat Biscotti

makes 48 pieces

2 cup plain flour

1/2 cup wholewheat flour

1/2 oats (rolled or quick)

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground cardamom (substitute with cinnamon)

3/4 cup white sugar

3 eggs 

1 tsp vanilla extract

4 TBSP white chocolate powder (optional)

or 

4 TBSP powdered milk + 2 tsp sugar

100g dried cranberries

1. Preheat oven to 175°C. Line a big baking sheet with greased baking paper.

2. Whisk flours, oats, baking powder/soda, salt and spices together in a bowl.

3. In a medium bowl, whisk the eggs and sugar for 2 minutes until smooth and light.

4. Add vanilla extract and white chocolate powder to the egg mixture and whisk to combine.

5. Now add the flour mixture to the egg mixture and stir until well-combined. Stir in the cranberries.

*The mixture will be a thick batter, not a dough.

6. Drop ¼ of the batter by large spoonfuls side-by-side onto the baking sheet, then use a spatula and spoon to form into a log shape. Repeat with the remaining batter. You should have four logs, making sure there is enough room to accommodate for spreading

Make sure there is enough space for spreading.

7. Bake in the preheated oven for about 15 minutes, until the logs are lightly browned.

8. Remove from the oven and leave to cool for about 25 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 150°C

9. Using a serrated knife, slice the logs into halves first then slice each half into 1/2 inch-thick slices.

*Some people say don't use a sawing motion to slice, but I did.

Sliced and ready for second round of baking

10. Lay the sliced pieces on their sides in a single layer on baking sheet

11. Bake in the oven for 12 to 15 minutes, then remove from the oven.

12. Flip the slices over and bake again for about 10 minutes.

13. Remove from oven and leave to cool.

Your biscotti is now ready to enjoy with your coffee as a healthy alternative to a cookie!

Nutritional values per biscotto:

52 calories

Fat 0.6g, Saturated fat 0.3g, Carbohydrates 10.9g, Sugars 5.2g,

Fiber 0.4g, Protein1.2g

Oatmeal Chocolate Chunk Muffins

     So what do you do when a bad dream awakens you at 5:30am and you have a bar of dark chocolate that's not very nice for eating on its own? Me...I bake. I've recently returned from a vacation in Spain and bought a bar of sugar-free dark chocolate to take home with me. Something about that chocolate made me put it down when I started eating it, and that doesn't happen very often. However, it wasn't so bad that it had to go in the bin right away. I decided I could use it for baking. However, if you are making this recipe at home, regular dark chocolate would be perfect.
   
     The Spanish seem to have some sort of love-affair with sugar-free chocolate. The most prominent Spanish chocolatier Valor sells sugar-free versions of many of its chocolate. Even Nestle, which doesn't make very nice chocolate in my opinion, rolls out its own sugar-free milk chocolate in Spain. 

Furthermore, the sugar-free chocolate is always kept on the supermarket shelves right next to the regular chocolates, not in a separate aisle or shelf for special dietary needs like in most other countries.

     So anyway, having been awoken from my sleep, I did a quick search for recipes. I knew I wanted to bake something that would use that sugar-free chocolate up and I knew I wanted to add oats in it too. I found recipes for oatmeal cakes, oatmeal cookies and the like. I didn't have butter on hand, so cookies were out of the question. I ended up basing my muffins on a  recipe for chocolate chip muffins which I tried a month ago. I adapted it to suit myself and it worked out well.

     The oatmeal gives the muffins a nice 'bite' and a crispy top. The addition of cinnamon complements the oatmeal nicely. On hindsight, some desiccated coconut would have given the muffins a more irresistible allure. In future, I will add 2 tablespoons of desiccated coconut to the batter. This is a simple recipe that is quick to make, especially if you use chocolate chips.

Oatmeal Chocolate Chunk Muffins

makes 12 regular or 16 smaller muffins

175g plain flour

75g rolled oats

110g caster sugar

3 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

85ml vegetable oil (1/3 cup plus 2 tsps)

180ml milk (approx 3/4 cup)

1 large egg

85g dark chocolate, chopped into small chunks

(or semisweet chocolate chips)

2 TBSP desiccated coconut (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Grease the bottoms of 12 muffin cases.

2. Put all dry ingredients except chocolate & coconut in a medium-sized bowl and whisk to combine.

3. In a smaller bowl, combine all the wet ingredients

4. Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients and pour in the wet ingredients

5. Whisk the batter till well-mixed

6. Finally, reserve a small handful of the chocolate then stir the remaining chocolate and coconut (if using) into the batter.

7. Fill each muffin case 2/3 full and scatter some chocolate chunks on the top.

8. Bake 12 to 15 minutes, until golden brown. 

Don't overbake or the muffins will become a little tough.

LEAVE TO COOL FOR AT LEAST 15 MINUTES THEN DEVOUR!