Shrikand cookies

Cookies are always an essential bites at home.  They lift up every occasion and cheers us all.  Following Zebra cookies, here comes Shrikand cookies, made by hung curd.  This fusion cookie starts with rich flavour and ends on an sour note. 

Their speciality is their cake-like crumbly texture, appealing to crowd of all age.   I had them garnished with cardamon, almonds and saffron to coincide with traditional shrikand.  Here, everybody enjoyed the bite and are  having an good time :)  Hope you guys try and let us know.  

Gutti Wonkai - Andhra styled Stuffed brinjal in a tangy sauce

     Brinjal is not so pampered member of our kitchen.  They are utmost relished as spicy biriyani rice or as an curry.  They were in need of an desparate lift and this is why I bumped into one of my precious collections, 'The Essential Andhra Cookbook' by Bilkees I. Latif.  This book has various dishes as Hyderabadi and Telangana specialities.

So browsing under the vegetarian section, I got this Gutti Wonkai.  The ingredients were as simple, as to find in any South Indian Kitchen.  With sambhar and rice made, I moved on to make these.  Green chilly and coriander imparted an nice flavour to the brinjals.  And they tasted great with rice, though recipe suggested with roti.  After an good review from my mate, this is going to be an regular menu at our kitchen. Let's move on to the recipe.

Zebra cookies

   I was completely fascinated, when I found these cookies from the book, "100 BEST DELECIOUS CHOCOLATE".  The entire concept was fun, and reminded me of an long gap from my last baked cookie.  These striped cookies were very easy and required an total whisk with each and every ingredient.  You need chocolate buttons though, I did pipe few, a day before and that came in handy with the presentation and saved an lot of time.

I made these with milk chocolate, dark chocolate is also preferable.   This zebra cookies are very kid friendly and can be tagged as an party food too.  Dough can be kneaded in advance, because more the refrigeration, more the flavours enhance within these.  Fresh out of the oven, they had an crisp edges with an chewy middle.  With an ongoing monsoon, these cookies did an good pair with hot tea. Do try and let us know.   

Salted caramel pots de creme

Hi all, yes my summer vacations are over and here I am back to my pevilion :)   I did quite an few relaxed baking though, those, will try updating to you guys soon.  Back to Baking partners challenge, this month - Tamy had suggested us two wonderful custard based recipes.  I had choosen, this salted caramel pots de creme. 

Pots de creme, is an french based dessert which refers to an pots of custard or cream.  They are prepared with egg yolks, milk, cream and an flavoring (which here, is caramel).  The mixture so obtained, after straining  are baked in waterbath, cooled  and are refrigerated overnight for an firm custard.   These pots looked gorgeous after an sea salt sprinkle, would have be better with an whipped cream as well.  The firm crusted top with an gooey filling was like chewing into an toffee. The sea salt complemented very well with caramel filling and gave an crunchable texture to pots de creme.   At home, everybody enjoyed and licked the  ramekins clean  :)  Thanks to Tamy and Swathi for such an wonderful challenge.  Nothing would have cheered my family better :)

Chocolate banana muffins

   Chocolate is our all-time-favourite  food.  Whether, that's an cake, or candy or ice-cream they are relished with glee.  So, this time when I found some unattended bananas lying on the table, I decided to make chocolate banana muffins.  Though, I am going to add banana, I drizzled them with syrup and chocolate vermicelli for an extra chocolate crunch :)

These muffins were soo delecious and surpassed my expectations.  Chocolate and bananas complemented each other very well.  That said, these muffins are going to be an regular menu at our home.  The muffins were very moist and every bite had its own history of melting moments :)  

They required lesser time to prepare, but I suggest you to use fully ripe bananas in this recipe, otherwise you will not be getting this moist texture.  I took them for my neighbourhood potluck party and everybody enjoyed them.  Especially I got an greater credit from kids :)