Kitchen Sink Cookies

Man, it's been such a long time since I wrote a real post... I think that with everything that has been going on in my life, the last thing I wanted to do was cook at all. For me, that's really saying a lot! I'm the type of person who finds cooking and baking to be extremely relaxing and therapeutic. Well, I finally started to feel a bit of motivation to bake again.

I actually made an almond cake last week, but it sort of cracked coming out of the pan and was quickly devoured, so I never took pictures. And now, I made these delicious cookies. I call them kitchen sink cookies because they contain everything but the kitchen sink! I guess I was feeling a bit gluttonous, but they turned out so good. These cookies are chock full of oats, chocolate chips, coconut, walnuts and raisins. Mmm... Just heaven in every bite!

Ingredients:

Butter - 1 cup, softened to room temperature
Brown sugar - 3/4 cup, firmly packed
Cane sugar - 1/2 cup (Feel free to use regular sugar instead. Use 3/4 cup for sweet cookies)
Eggs - 2, at room temperature
Baking Powder - 2 tsp
Baking Soda - 1 tsp
Salt - 1/2 tsp
Vanilla extract - 1 tbsp
Milk - 1 tbsp
White whole wheat flour (or all purpose flour) - 1 1/2 cups
All purpose flour - 3/4 cup
Rolled oats (regular or quick cooking) - 2 cups
Semisweet chocolate chips - 1 cup
Raisins - 3/4 cup
Walnuts, chopped - 3/4 cup toasted for 5 minutes at 350 F (until golden)
Sweetened shredded coconut - 3/4 cup toasted for 5-7 minutes at 350 F (until golden)


Method:

1. Preheat oven to 375 F.

2. Beat butter and sugars in stand mixer or using hand mixer until soft and fluffy like whipped cream.

3. Add eggs, milk, and vanilla. Beat to combine well.

4. Now, add in the flours, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Stir together by hand or on slow speed in stand mixer until just combined. Do not overmix or you risk getting tough cookies.

5. At this point, stir in the oats, chocolate chips, raisins, toasted walnuts, and toasted coconut gently to combine.

6. Drop onto cookie sheets by heaped tablespoons or by using a tablespoon sized scoop (My favorite tool!). Bake at 375 F for 8-10 minutes until the cookies are light golden at the edges and are just set. They will not appear fully cooked, but it's fine. This will result in chewy cookies. For crisper cookies, bake for an additional 1-2 minutes, but be careful not to burn them! Keep in mind that this batter is meant for chewy cookies...



7. Remove from oven and allow to cool on cookie sheet for 1 minute. Then, remove to a cooling rack and cool fully.

Enjoy with a tall glass of milk or on their own. Kids will love these too (especially if they like chocolate and raisins).


Update: I'm sending these cookies in to Mansi, of Fun and Food. She's hosting Sugar High Fridays where the theme is Fruit and Nuts. Click here for more info!

Crazy for Cookies!

So, I've been on a bit of a baking spree for the past few days... Blame it on the upcoming holidays and having to mail things out to people! Guess it's pretty obvious that I've baked a bunch of cookies and want to share the recipes here.

Benne Biscuit:



This is one that my husband and sister-in-law were telling me about. Apparently, it's a butter biscuit that they used to love eating in Bangalore. So, I looked up a recipe and decided to try it. The results were delicious!! Original recipe can be found here. I didn't make any changes to the recipe and they came out awesome!

Eggless Chocolate Oat Cookies:



This one was a special recipe that I found to send to my cousin's kids. Her two little ones have eczema and can't have dairy or eggs. What to send? Well, I didn't have to look far for this one. Sailu's blog came to my rescue with this recipe. The cookies were slightly chewy when warm and turned crisp on cooling. They had a nice chocolatey flavor and the oats texture really shined through. Perfect treat for little ones! No changes to this recipe either. Sailu's instructions were perfect!

Gingersnaps:



These are the perfect all-American holiday cookie... A little spicy, a little sweet and crispy. They keep forever (if you can hold on to them for that long!) and are perfect for dunking in tea or hot apple cider. The following recipe is from my King Arthur Flour cookbook.

Ingredients:

All purpose flour - 1 1/3 cup
White whole wheat (or all purpose) - 1 cup
Dried ginger powder - 2 tsp
Cinnamon - 1 tsp
Cloves powder - 1/2 tsp
Salt - 1/2 tsp
Baking soda - 2 tsp
Butter - 3/4 cup, softened
Sugar - 2/3 cup (1 cup for more sweet cookies)
Egg - 1 large
Molasses - 1/3 cup

Coarse sugar to roll cookies in - about 1/3 cup

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 375 F. Grease cookie sheets or line with parchment paper.

2. Sift or whisk together the dry ingredients (flours, spices, salt, and baking soda) in a small bowl. In another larger bowl, beat together the butter, sugar and egg until light and fluffy (like whipped cream). Now, beat in the molasses until well combined. At this point, add in the dry ingredients and stir together to form a soft dough.

3. Now, take 1-2 tsp of dough for each cookie, form into a ball and roll each ball into the coarse sugar to coat. Place about 2 inches apart on the greased or lined cookie sheets.

4. Bake at 375 F for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown. They will appear soft when you remove them from the oven, but will harden on cooling. Cool on cookie sheet for 2 minutes, then remove them to a wire rack to cool completely.



Enjoy with beverage of your choice!

In honor of the events going on in the blogosphere, the first 2 cookies are going to Sharmi's cookie event as well as JZ's Santa's Holiday Challenge.

Gingersnaps are headed to the monthly mingle at Meeta's blog!

And with that, my friends, am going on vacation and will be back in 10 days or so. Hope everyone has a great rest of the year!

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

I'm not sure how many of you have seen Sesame Street (the kids show). Well, cookie monster is a character on the show who is obsessed with cookies. Every time he sees a cookie, he becomes a little crazy and proceeds to devour it with such enthusiasm, it's hilarious! No idea what I'm talking about? To see Cookie Monster in action, click here.

So, what does Cookie Monster have to do with this post? Well, these peanut butter chocolate chip cookies could very easily turn you into a cookie monster who wants to devour them all in one sitting!!


I have a favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe that I've used for years. I don't know about you, but I am a die hard fan of the soft and chewy type of chocolate chip cookie. Just the thought of them makes me drool!! One fine day (many years ago), I decided to see what would happen to my favorite cookie recipe by adding a bit of peanut butter. Well, after some experimentation, I think I got to the right level of peanutty goodness to compliment the chocolate chips. And, viola! A new cookie favorite was born!

The recipe I've used is based on a recipe from my Pillsbury Complete Book of Baking book.

Ingredients:

All purpose flour - 4 1/4 cups
Baking soda - 2 tsp
Salt - 1/2 tsp
Butter - 1 1/2 cups, softened
Brown Sugar - 1 1/2 cups, firmly packed
White Sugar - 3/4 cup (increase to 1 cup for more sweet)
Vanilla Extract - 2 tsp
Eggs - 3
Peanut Butter - 1 cup (I used creamy)
Chocolate chips - 1 (12oz) bag of semisweet or bittersweet chips

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 375 F.

2. Using a stand mixer or hand mixer, beat the butter with both sugars until light and fluffy. It will look sort of like lemon colored whipped cream at this stage.

3. Add vanilla extract, eggs, and peanut butter. Blend well to combine.

4. Now, mix in the flour, baking soda, and salt. Once everything is well mixed, toss the chocolate chips in and stir to combine.

5. Drop the dough by rounded tablespoonfuls onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Note: I find this easiest to do with a tablespoon sized scoop.

6. Bake at 375 F for 8-10 minutes until barely light golden brown. They will feel soft and mushy if you try to touch them, but will firm up on cooling! If you continue to bake them until they appear firm, they will not be chewy after you've cooled them.

7. Cool on the pan for 2 minutes, then remove to a cooling rack to cool completely. Enjoy with a glass of cold milk. :)


Seeing as how chocolate chip cookies are the quintessential American cookie, I'm sending these delectable morsels to Dhivi at Culinary Bazaar for AWED American. Hope all my friends in the US had a wonderful Thanksgiving! :)

Back with Blueberry Scones!

First of all, I just want to say it feels really good to be doing something productive again! I also want to thank each and every one of you sweet girls who have been so supportive with your emails, comments and positive energy for me in what's been a difficult time. Without getting into too much detail, suffice it to say that I've been dealing with major health issues for a very long time and things were getting to be too much to handle in the past few months. My mind was just not able to function and somehow even blogging didn't seem like a release! I'm still going through a lot of procedures, tests, etc., but will definitely be blogging when time and energy permit.

So many of your comments touched me and goodness knows I've missed you all dearly! I love the unique connection that blogging allows all of us. To think that so many lovely women whom I've never had the pleasure of meeting are so encouraging and truly care about my well being has touched me in ways that I never imagined. You gals are the best!

Tired of my self-purging? Ok, ok, ok. Thanks for bearing with me! I'm getting to the recipe now. With the weather here getting colder and this awesome scone recipe in my drafts, I figured I'd give one last throwback to summer before kissing it goodbye (sigh).

I absolutely adore blueberries! I always have since childhood. So, all summer, I tend to be on the lookout for more recipes to use these gorgeous berries. This summer, I wandered onto the King Arthur Flour recipe website and found a recipe for blueberry scones that sounded awesome! (The link is here.)



These scones are almost more along the lines of drop biscuits. They're pretty easy in the sense that you just scoop the resulting dough out using a measuring cup or ice cream scoop. There's no requirement for kneading or shaping. So, you can bet I made these more than once!

They just melt in your mouth and the juicy, sweet blueberries provide a pop of flavor that is just amazing! Talk about a symphony of flavors!! Enough buildup, you say? Well, let's get to the recipe! I pretty much followed the recipe on the website, except to substitute 1/2 whole wheat flour for 1/2 of the all purpose flour.

Ingredients:

1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup white whole wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
6 tablespoons cold butter, cut into pieces
1 cup fresh blueberries
2 large eggs, beaten
1/4 cup plain, lowfat yogurt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon grated lemon zest
2 tablespoons coarse sugar, for sprinkling on top

Recipe:

1. Preheat the oven to 375°F. Lightly grease a baking sheet, or line with parchment.

2. Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl. Add the butter and work it into the dry ingredients using your fingers until the butter crumbles so that some of it is like coarse crumbs and others are like peas. Mix the blueberries into this dry mix. Be careful that you don't break the blueberries while tossing!

3. Stir together the wet ingredients (eggs, yogurt, vanilla extract, and lemon zest) in another bowl. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir very gently, just until combined. The dough will be pretty moist at this point. Don't worry! It's supposed to be moister than biscuit dough! :)

4. Use a muffin scoop or 1/4-cup measure to scoop and drop the dough onto the prepared sheet, leaving about 2" between the scones. Brush each ball of dough with a bit of milk or cream, and sprinkle with coarse sugar.

5. Bake the scones at 375 F for 20 to 24 minutes, or until lightly browned and a cake tester inserted into a scone comes out dry. Remove from the oven, remove to a cooling rack and allow to cool slightly. Serve warm with butter or jam and enjoy with tea!

Makes 12 scones.

Note: These scones reheat well, too! That is, if you have any leftovers... Just pop them in a 350 F degree preheated oven for 8 to 10 minutes loosely wrapped in foil! :)

P.S. Best of luck to all those running the recipe marathon!

Rockin' with Mango Scones and Okra Corn Cakes!

Are you someone who likes a sweet breakfast? Something light, flaky, and warm that doesn't take up lots of time to make? If so, you'd probably like this recipe. I was in my kitchen the other day and had a ripe mango that needed to be used up badly. After a bit of deliberation and perusal through some baking books, I settled on making scones using mango and coconut.


Let me tell you that these scones are definitely a treat for the taste buds. Be sure to use the ripest, most flavorful mangoes you can find. The flavor of mango is accented by bits of sweetened shredded coconut and perfumed with the ethereal fragrance of cardamom. Need I say more? If you don't want them for breakfast, they'd make a fabulous snack with tea!

Ingredients:

Mangoes, diced - 1 cup
Shredded sweetened coconut - 1/2 cup
All purpose flour - 1 cup
White whole wheat flour - 1 cup (you can use AP flour instead if you want)
Sugar - 1/4 cup
Salt - 1/2 tsp
Baking powder - 3 tsp
Cardamom powder - 1 tsp
Yogurt - 1/3 cup
Eggs - 2, beaten
Cold butter - 6 tbsp, cut into pieces

For the top:

Melted butter - 2 tbsp
Granulated sugar - 1-2 tbsp

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 375 F.

2. In a large bowl, combine the flours, sugar, salt, cardamom, and baking powder together. Whisk lightly or sift. Add the butter pieces and break them up using a fork or your fingertips. You want to get to a consistency where you have some pieces of butter that are the size of peas and some that are like grains of sand. Don't overwork it or else your scones won't be light and flaky.

3. Mix the eggs and yogurt together in another bowl. Add to the dry ingredients along with the mangoes and coconut. Stir until it's just barely mixed together. The dough will be very sticky, but that's ok. The end result will be worth it!

4. Turn out the dough onto a very well floured surface. Sprinkle the top with flour and knead it 2-3 times to just pull the dough together. Pat it out into a rectangle about 1 inch thick. Cut the dough into triangles using a sharp knife. I was able to get about 12 triangles out of this batch.

5. Place the cut scones on a baking sheet/cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Brush the tops of the scones with melted butter and sprinkle with granulated sugar.

6. Bake at 375 for 20 minutes or until golden on top. Enjoy warm from the oven with tea!

Off these go to Arundati of Escapades who's hosting this month's WBB with the theme of mango madness. Hope she likes them as much as we did!

Not in the mood for something sweet, you say? How about something savory?

Dhivi and Siri had started dining hall and I was intrigued by their International Food League event. So, I cracked open my account to receive the following riddle:

I have a crown yet I am not the king
You cut my crown and feet off with a fling

I carry lots of eggs, yet I nothing but a veggie
Even with all that I am thin and long not pudgy

I am green and I am gooey
If u don't pay attention, I will make your dish go mushy and chewy

I do good to your health and to you brain
Which is what your elders told you without refrain
Now its up to you to think and guess
To who I am ...Cos I am good too and no less

Luckily, I managed to guess okra correctly on the first guess! My next task was to come up with a dish using okra. What have I cooked up this time, you ask with bated breath? Yes, that was my idea of a lame joke. Haa haa.

The dish is Okra Corn Cakes. I was browsing recipes on the net and saw a lot of Southern style recipes using okra, mostly fried. Eventually, I saw a few that were more along the lines of corn cakes using okra. After a lot of serious Indianization and modifications, this is what I came up with:

Without any further ado, let me get to the recipe... :)

Ingredients:

Okra - 1 cup, sliced finely
Onion, chopped - 1 small
Green chillies - 6-8, chopped, or to taste
Cumin powder - 1 tsp
Chilli powder - 2 tsp, or to taste
Salt - to taste
Egg - 1, slightly beaten
Water - as needed
Cornmeal - 1/2 cup
All purpose flour - 1/2 cup
Salt - to taste
Baking powder - 1 tsp

Method:

1. Heat oil in a pan for shallow frying on medium-high heat.

2. In a large bowl, mix okra, onion, chillies, salt, chilli powder, cumin powder, and egg. Add the flour, cornmeal, and baking powder. Stir together. Now, slowly add water and mix until you get the consistency of a pancake batter to bhaji batter thickness.

3. Drop the batter by spoonfuls (I used a small ice cream scoop) into the hot oil and shallow fry until golden brown. It takes about 2 minutes per side or so. Drain on paper towels and serve warm with ketchup, chutney, or a sauce of your choice. Enjoy!

These delicious bites of brain food are on their way to Open Sesame at International Food League.

I'm also sending them in to Mansi who's hosting this month's monthly mingle themed appetizers. Monthly mingle was started by Meeta of What's for Lunch, Honey?


Just to make my day perfect, Madhavi of Vegetarian Medley passed on the rocking girl blogger award to me! Thank you so so so so much, Madhavi!!! I am totally thrilled and ecstatic to have received this from you, dear! I know that a lot of you have already received this award, but would like to extend it to Cham, Uma, Sagari, Pravs, Namratha, Dhivi,and Siri. Congrats and enjoy it! :)

Have a wonderful weekend, all!