Guest Post by Shobana Sekar : Tutti Frutti Cookies

I still remember Shobana the first day she messaged me asking about life in Malaysia as she said her family will be following her husband who will be working here. We have been friends since then, I love her blog Kitchen Secrets, her photography skills always amaze me. Do visit her blog and you will be amazed too not forgetting she shares wonderful recipes that she have tried. Now let me pass over to her and let us see what she has in store for us.

We wish u a Merry Christmas.. we wish u a Merry Christmas and a happy New Year..... Merry Christmas everyone.. I's pleasantly surprised when Arthy of  Sumanarthy's Kitchen asked me whether I wanna do a guest post for her awesome blog. Yes, of course I would like to.. this is what I've conveyed her. So when I asked what should I make, am told it should be related to Christmas and New year bakes/ food. Also I've bookmarked this recipe from Sharmi's space few days back and when I told tutti frutti cookies, Arthy instantly agreed to the idea. 

Thanks Arthy for a great opportunity and also this is my first ever guest post in my 2 yrs of blogging. I've always been a big fan of Arthy's blog for her Asian recipes and traditional, which is her mom's recipes. I've already tried few noodles recipe from her blog and to tell u that tastes exactly like a take out from many restaurants here..I mean, way better than take out.. I know u get what I meant. One more thing is, she has many simple recipes that u can even make in a jiffy with no compromise in taste and it's speciality. Do check out her blog ppl..

  

 

Adapted from Sharmi's passions with changes:

Ingredients:

All purpose flour -- 2/3 cup

Almond meal -- 1/3 cup

Vanilla essence --1 tsp

Milk -- 2 tsp (add few more tsp if the dough needs)

Tutti frutti -- 1/3 cup

Unsalted butter -- 5 tbsp, @ room temp

Confectioner's sugar / Icing sugar -- 1/2 cup ( I feel 1/3 cup is more than enough, so add as per ur taste)

Method:

• Click here to know how to prepare almond meal. U may also grind the almond in a grinder to a fine powder and use it.
• Add the icing sugar + butter and beat until it's light and fluffy. Add the vanilla essence and mix using a whisk.
• Add the almond meal + all purpose flour + tutti frutti and mix them gently unyil it's combined. 
• The dough has to be bit sticky, so add a tsp of milk and check the dough. If u feel, u need to more, add a tsp again and mix thoroughly. Do not add any more than 2 tsp of milk.
• Now gather the dough and form a log. Take a sling wrap and roll the log in it. Cover all the ends and seal.

• Freeze the dough for 45 minutes. In the mean time, line the baking sheet with parchment paper, take the cutters,if using, and make ur work bench ready.
• Preheat the oven to 160 deg C.
• Take the log from the freezer and uncover it. U may cut the log into slightly thick discs and bake for 12 to 15 minutes.
• But, I used the cutter. Roll the log as slightly thick chappathi's and cut with ur cutters. Arrange the cookies on the baking sheet with the enough space from each other and bake for 15 to 21 minutes(my oven took 21 minutes) until the edges started changing to golden brown.
• Gather the dough and again form a roti and cut it with the cookie cutter's and do the same step until u r done with the dough.

Notes/Suggestions:

• My oven always takes more of the time than the already given timings to bake. All together my oven took 21 minutes forthe star shaped cookies and 24 minutes for the flower shaped cookies.
• But the recipe calls for 12 to 15 minutes max to bake the cookies in any shape. So keep an eye on ur cookies after 11 minutes of baking.
• I feel half cup sugar is a lot, and I always like mildly sweet cookies, u may reduce if u don't like very sweet cookies.

• Do not dump all the milk @ once, add tsp by tsp and check out the consistency of the dough. Remember, we've added 1 tsp of vanilla and that is a wet ingredient.
• U may substitute the tutti frutti with mixed nuts / dried cranberries / soaked cherries.

 Merry Christmas to all,

Happy Baking,

Shanavi

Non-Dairy PanaCotta Guest Post by Sherin Deepu

I have been admiring Sherin Deepu @ Kuk's Kitchen ever since I got to know her through her blog a few months back, despite being a busy doctor she still seem to find time to cook for her family and most importantly maintain a wonderful blog of hers. Her blog is so well managed with mouth-watering and healthy recipes and her clicks will make you drool to have the dish on your plate.

When I contacted her to do a guest post for my blog she agreed right away and emailed me the recipe very quick. Sherin thank you so much for sharing this recipe with us. Now let us check what she has in store for us.

Let's read this recipe with her own words;

My son went through a phase of milk protein intolerance and I was trying to make his favorite desserts milk protein-free. I present here one such effort.

Ingredients for one layer:

Plain almond milk - 2 cups

Vanilla extract - 1 tsp

Sugar - 1/4 cup

1 envelope powdered gelatin

Water - 4 tbsp

Method:

In a saucepan, combine the almond milk, vanilla and sugar. Turn the heat on and cook on medium heat until the mixture begins to simmer, stirring frequently.

Pour the gelatin into a small bowl and then pour the 4 tablespoons of water over the gelatin. Let sit until spongy, about 5 minutes or less.

When the almond milk mixture gives the first bubble, remove from heat.

Pour a small amount of the almond milk mixture in with the spongy gelatin, let sit for a minute and then stir. Pour the gelatin mixture back in to the saucepan containing the almond milk and stir until the gelatin is dissolved.

Pour the pannacotta mixture to a mould, cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge for 8 hours or overnight to set up.

Serve with slices of peach and orange rind for that bite.

To get the layered effect.

Strawberry essence - 2 drops + Edible pink colour - 1 drop (or use strawberry dairy free powder)

Chocolate chips / powder dairy free - 1 tbsp

Mix the above portion with chocolate chips (or powder), pour in a mould and leave in the fridge for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile prepare a second portion of the panacotta following the above recipe again and mix in strawberry powder (or essence +colour) and mix well to combine. Pour this carefully over the set chocolate panacotta making sure not to disturb the bottom layer. Leave in fridge for another 10 minutes.

Now is the time to prepare a third portion of panacotta using the above recipe again, leave it plain and pour this over the second layer, carefully again. Cover with plastic wrap and leave in fridge for 8 hours or overnight.

Almond London Cookies

No story today, I'm extremely busy meeting customers orders all the stock must go out in next few days, I have tried this recipe from Mat Gebu's Dapur Tanpa Sempadan. This is a very simple recipe but very time consuming because I prepared more than 500 pieces, I don't know how this cookies got its name but I'm sure its not available in London. 

Let's look at the recipe;

Ingredients: (Recipe Yields-300 pcs)

250 g of butter

550 g of all purpose flour

140 g of castor sugar

1 tsp of emplex (for cookies crispiness-I didn't add)

300 pcs of whole almond ( baked for 10 minutes)

2 egg yolk ( I have used whole eggs)

1 tsp of vanilla extract

300 pcs of small paper cups

Topping:

600 g of cooking chocolate

1 tbsp of vegetable shortening

50 g of almond nibs (baked for 5 minutes)

Whisk butter, sugar, vanilla extract, eggs incorporate well

Add flour knead the dough well until soft and pliable

Take 1 whole almond and wrap some dough covering it, per piece should be 5g each 

and arrange on a baking tray, bake at 150 degree for 10- 15 minutes

All perfectly baked, set aside to cool down while we prepare the topping

Double-boil the cooking chocolate and once it completely melted turn off the flame 

and add the shortening for shine, I kept the bowl over the water bath until I completely 

finish decorating the cookie as the chocolate will harden if left too long outside

Arrange cookie on a small paper cup 

Spoon over some melted chocolate over the cookie

Drain the excess chocolate

Cookie well coated in melted chocolate

Add some almond nibs and let the chocolate harden

Cookie coated in melted chocolate and almond nibs

All the cookies should be arrange very near to achieve the oval shape, 

once chocolate harden transfer to a container and seal tight

Do try and let me know how it turned out!

I'm sending this recipe to Love2Cook Malaysia's Event Deepavali Deights 2012