Whole Wheat Chocolate Cookies..

I've already shared a chocolate melting moment recipe. And I love it..
Then why one more chocolate cookies recipe?! Because of my daughter Zini..
She had winter vacation last week and we were going mad in the evenings!! So I decided to do some baking projects with her. Where she mixed everything while i measured and baked. This way we baked Orange Chiffon cake and some cookies.
So for one evening I planned to make whole wheat vanilla and nut cookies. But when we started making it Zini asked for chocolate cookies. She said, "chocolate to daalna hi padta hai" meaning you have to add chocolate!! So the lazy me did few tweaks to the same recipe to get the chocolate cookies!!
Now why am I sharing it? Because it tasted amazing!!

Whole wheat chocolate cookies

Ingredients:
1.5 cups - 3 tablespoon whole wheat flour
3 tablespoon cocoa powder
3/4 cup butter
3/4 cup  powdered sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla powder (or essence)
1/4 tsp salt (skip this if using salted butter)
2-3 tablespoon milk (If needed)

Method:

1) In a mixing bowl take butter and sugar together.
2) Beat it till sugar dissolves and you get a nice smooth mixture. I used my new hand mixer for it and I am loving it. If using vanilla essence then add it and beat till it mixes well.
3) In another mixing bowl take 1.5 cups of whole wheat flour. Now, remove 3 tablespoon of wholewheat flour from the bowl. Now add 3 tablespoon of cocoa powder to the bowl. Why this skull duggery? This the tweak I was talking about.
4) Add salt and vanilla powder if using. Mix well.
5) Now add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and mix well.
6) If you don't get dough consistency then add 1 tablespoon milk at a time to get the dough consistency. you can add upto 3 tablespoon of milk.
7) Grease a baking tray. Make balls and flatten them using fork on the tray.
8) If trying to entertain a kid then use different cookie cutters and let your kid cut her favorite shapes!!
9) Bake in a pre-heated oven at 180 degree C for 15-20 minutes. Time may vary based on your oven type, bakeware and cookie size.
10) Take out and let them cool on a wire rack.

This post is part of Blogathon 2014.

+techie ZM 

Chocolate Melting Moments - Spritz Style!!!

You remember i made the Almond Cardamom cookies and how great they tasted?! But there was a little snag...My hubby didn't like them!! Why?!?! Because he hates Cardamom!!!!
Yes, unbelievable but apparently there are people in the world who don't like the Cardamom!!! And i married one of them....
So for the man i married, i wanted to bake some cookies...Once again i went to Nag's Edible garden and this time the Melting Moments caught my fancy (because it's easy, healthy and i had everything it asked for with me :) )
I made them and hubby loved them!!! This called for another batch :)
Meanwhile Mansi did a post on Spritz cookie she made using cookie press and i was intrigued...She also posted a picture of her cookie press, and i realized that it looks pretty much like my Sev no sancho (Kitchen press). So i decided to try the technique in my 2nd batch of melting moments..And i was able to make flower shaped cookies!! Thought they are not as pretty as Mansi's but Zini liked the shape :)

I made 20 cookies, but next day when i wanted to take the picture only this one was left!!! Hence a lone cookie's photo :) Made another batch hence updating the photos :)

Chcolate Melting Moments with choco chips!!!

Prettier than 1st attempt - Spritz style Chocolate melting moments

So here is the recipe :)

Ingredients:
Whole Wheat flour - 3/4 cup (The original recipe says Maida, you can use that for softer cookies, but whole wheat too works alright)

Cornflour - 3 tablespoon
Icing Sugar - 1/2 cup (I had the dried sugarcane juice/Jaggery powder i used that)
Granulated white Sugar - 1 teaspoon
UnSalted Butter - 1/2 cup(at room temperature) - You can use salted butter also, but then skip salt
Cocoa powder - 3 tablespoon
Salt - 1 pinch (If using salted butter then skip this)

Method:
1) Mix all the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl. Mix them well.
2) Add the butter and knead the dough.
3) Keep aside for some time (preferably in fridge).
4) Now preheat an oven at 180 degree C.
5) Grease a baking tray.
6) Take the dough of the size of a lemon and flatten it to get the circular, cookie like shape and arrange on the greased baking tray.
7) Using a fork, mark straight lines on the flattened cookies.

Cookies on a greased baking tray

8) I baked them at 180 Degree C for 15 minutes (Original recipe says 30 minutes - i think your bakeware, oven and the size of cookies impacts the baking time. So keep an eye on the 1st batch to decide the baking time for your version of cookies)

9) Once baked, take them out and cool them on a rack...

The 1st attempt at Spritz...

To make the Spritz cookies:

1) Fit your Kitchen press with the decorative plate (Jaali) that you fancy.

My kitchen press with decorative plate (jaali) to make the spritz style cookies!!!

2) Fill your dough in your kitchen/Cookie press.

3) Then keep the bottom of the press on the greased baking tray.

4) Pull the handle of the press to drop the cookie. you will feel the press coming up due to pressure of the dough. And you will see your chosen shape of cookie on the baking tray!!! Magic :)

5) Proceed to bake in a preheated oven. Once baked cool on a wire rack :)

And enjoy!!! 

These cookies reminded me of Hide and seek, now only if i had chocolate chips!!! Once i get hold of some choco chips, i am soooo adding them to these cookies :)

Notes:

1) Nags' recipe says that beat the butter and sugar well to get them creamy. But i remembered this instruction only after i had mixed everything!!! But still the cookies tasted great!! So in next batch i continued without beating.

2) In the 1st batch i used the homemade butter (that i make from the malai/cream). Let me tell you that using homemade butter improved the taste immensely!!! In absence of it, Amul butter too worked alright, but if you have homemade butter handy then use it....

+techie ZM 

Almond Cardamom Cookies | Nan khatai | Cookies with Indian twist

I have been trying to make cookies since some time now, but my cookies tasted more like Sakkarpara ( Goodpara).Yes I love Sakkarpara, but I still wanted to make cookies!!! Yes, I am stubborn that way, can't get over a mis-adventure, even if the outcome was delicious. So I continued to dream about the perfect, melt-in-your-mouth, tasty cookies!!! And then I came across this recipe of Almond Cardamom cookies on Nag's Edible Garden (who in turn had this adapted from Manjula's Kitchen)...And when Nags asked me to do myself a favor and bake these tasties ASAP, i had to obey ;) and the best thing about them (apart from being tasty) they are also healthy with whole wheat and no baking powder!!!

And finally I can rest, coz I found the perfect cookies recipe :) I did some experiments with these cookies and finally realized that this recipe works best...

So here is the recipe...

Ingredients:

1.5 Cups whole wheat flour

3/4 Cup Sugar - powdered (I had bought dried sugar-can juice, which is more like jaggery - i used that)

3/4 Cup butter - softened to room temperature (Nags says unsalted butter, but i had the regular Amul butter, so i used it)

1/4 teaspoon salt ( I skipped this as i had used salted butter, if you are using unsalted butter, then add the salt)

1/2 cup sliced almonds (rather than grating, i used my mortar and pastel to get big chunks of almonds)

3/4 teaspoon cardamom powder

2-3 tablespoon of milk (if needed)

Method:

1) Mix all the dry ingredients (i.e. wheat flour, sugar powder, salt-if using, almonds and cardamom powder.

2) Now, add the butter. It really is important to keep it at room temperature.

3) Mix well and knead the dough. If needed add milk, little by little and knead.

4) Pre-heat the oven to 150 degree C.

5) Grease a baking tray.

6) Take the dough of the size of a lemon and flatten it to get the circular, cookie like shape and arrange on the greased baking tray.

7) Using a fork, mark straight lines on the flattened cookies.

8) Bake the cookies at 150 degree C for 25 minutes (time may vary depending on your oven).

9) I flip them at around 15 minutes (but i think even if you don't flip, there won't be much harm)

10) Take out and cool on wire rack. Store in an air-tight container and enjoy!!!

I enjoyed mine with my evening milk and a book :) and oh, Zini had them in the morning!!!

Notes:

1) If you reduce the amount of butter and compensate that with milk, then your cookies will be hard. So, no compromise on the amount of butter, please (I made that mistake and realized that was not a good idea)...

2) I also tried replacing, cardamom powder with Vanilla powder, these cookies too were okay. But i think, next time I will add at least 1 tablespoon of Vanilla powder for improved flavor....

P.S. - Yes, I am techie2mom from techie2mom.wordpress.com and momscookingadventures.wordpress.com... I have decided to shift my food blog to blogger. will be moving recipes from wordpress to here soon.