Cookie Love

Posted on January 19, 2014 by Ayesha Sheharyar

Hello lovelies and lovelaas( lovelaas for males). Since English is not my mother tongue, I would be given a little leverage when I run off the track, or wouldn’t I? Anyway, this cookie recipe I’m sharing is an extremely tried and tested one at our place. So tried and tested that it has become completely run off the mill. But that doesn’t do away with the fact that these cookies are always high in demand at our house. I usually make them plain(Without cocoa powder, chocolate chips) but this time my chocolate love elbowed its way even into my cookie baking prowess.

Ingredients:( For approx 2 dozen + small ones,depending on size)

3/4 cup butter(softened to room temperature)
1 cup powdered sugar
1 egg
1 1/4 cup all- purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
1/2 tsp lemon zest (optional-if you like the lemoney scent )

Extra

I divided my dough into 3 parts. In the first part I kneaded in cocoa powder(1/4 cup). In the second part I added chocolate chips. The third part was left plain(I decorated these ones with roasted almonds after cutting out shapes).

How to go about it :

Add sugar,butter and whisk these together in a bowl.
Add the egg and vanilla and whisk well.
Mix the flour, baking powder, lemon zest and salt
Mix all the above ingredients in one bowl. Knead well.
Refrigerate for 3-4 hours or more.
Take the dough and use a rolling pin to roll out the dough
use the cookie cutters, to cut out shapes as desired.(Personally I love hearts)
Set to bake
Bake until the cookies get firm. Don’t over bake.

The last picture is of eclairs and chocolate truffles that a cousin bought on his way back from London…….! I just totally love chocolates. Excuse me while I devour this loveliness .

You’re not hungry by any chance, are you ? 😀 😛

Kulfi: Frozen Milky Cardamom Dessert

Posted on January 4, 2014 by Ayesha Sheharyar

Hello bloggy friends…..Hope everyone is fantastic and doing well. Taking a little extra care during winters,and not getting ill(Like I did). At the beginning of 2014, I decided that I am going to try out some of my mum’s recipes. She’s a fantastic cook. And best of all, she cooks with love. Love does makes things a thousand times more delicious. She used to make kulfis, or Frozen Milky Cardamom dessert for us a lot when we were kids. Now, she doesn’t have a lot of time to do such things,and it has been almost three months since I last saw a kulfi. Yesterday I was craving it so much. It isn’t just your average ice cream,it has its own distinctive crunchy and dry-fruity taste. Needless to say, I satisfied my craving by taking over the kitchen! Here’s a peep into what I did.

Ingredients(Serves 6)

1.25 litre milk
Seeds from 8 cardamom crushed
1/2 cup almonds
1/2 cup pistachios
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 tbsp cornflour
Crushed almonds and pistachios(To scatter over kulfis)

How to go about it

Put pistachios and almonds in a blender(Not a food processor) and pulse twice.Set aside.
Put the milk on medium heat and let it simmer.
Add sugar.
Add crushed cardamom seeds.
Add crushed pistachios and almonds.
Mix cornflour to two tbsp cold water.Add and mix the cornflour mixture into the milk.
Reduce heat to low, and let the content simmer until milk gets to half its original volume(Keep stirring after every 10 minutes all the while).
Let the milk cool completely.
Add cream into the milk and mix it well with a large spoon.
Pour the kulfi mixture into Popsicle molds or any other glasses. Put them in freezer.
After 1 hour of freezing an ice layer will form over kulfi mixture in glasses.Insert bamboo stick through it.
Put it back in the Freezer.Freeze it overnight or for 8 hours.
To take out kulfi from mold , pour hot water over the bottom of the glass.
Slide out kulfi and serve with a scattering of crushed pistachios and almonds.

http://verygoodrecipes.com/christmas-dessert

http://verygoodrecipes.com/christmas-menu-challenge

Sweet Rice Pudding!

Posted on November 27, 2013 by Ayesha Sheharyar

Sweet rice pudding is a wonderful dessert that is made from minimum ingredients and is therefore uncomplicated. I loved it as a kid and still adore it at 18. P.s Its so easy to make yet tastes so amazing especially when garnished with almonds and crushed cardamom.And since I like to celebrate my lazy days with minimum effort and lovely food, I am super infatuated with this dessert 😛

Ingredients:

2.5 litre milk
1/4 kg rice
15 cardamom crushed
300 g white granulated sugar
15- 20 almonds for garnishing (Crush half of them)

How to go about it

Soak rice in 2 cups water for 1.5 hrs
After having soaked them for 1.5 hrs, blend them in a blender(along with the water in which they were soaking)
Bring the milk to boil in a large saucepan
Put blended rice into the boiling milk. Stir for 5-7 minutes to incorporate rice into milk.(Stirring is important as the mixture can get stuck to the bottom of the pan)
Reduce heat levels. Leave this mixture to simmer for 1 1/4 hr. HOWEVER keep stirring on regular intervals all this while, to prevent sticking and burning.
When the rice and milk mixture has reached thick almost homogeneous consistency, add sugar and stir to incorporate it.
Put crushed cardamom and almonds into it. Stir.
Pour the mixture into pudding bowls.
let it cool in fridge for 1 hour or more.
Garnish it with whole almonds.
Serve.