Shortbread cookies

Blog Hop Wednesdays initiated by Radhika of Tickling Palates enters another week and this week my Blog Hop partner is Monika of Sin-A-Mon blog..The Alphabet shortbread cookies from her blog very attractive and I chose to try them out..They were really good and vanished away quickly..Thanks Monika for this delicious one..Since I tried just half the quantity, the measurements given below are also half of the original. Also I skipped lemon zest since I didnt have any.. 

Ingredients

 3 cups all purpose flour/maida

1.5 cups soft butter

1 cup powdered sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1.5 tsp vanilla essence

Sugar candies for toppings

Cream the butter well. Add sugar powdered and mix again till creamy. Add in the essence, salt and flour and make a soft dough. Cover in a plastic sheet and refrigerate for atleast an hour.

Take a small portion, roll into a thick round, sprinkle candies and cut desired shapes.

Line on a baking tray and chill for 15 minutes. Preheat oven at 175 degrees and bake for 8 minutes.

Cool well and serve.

Carrot Onion chutney

Ingredients

3 big carrots (skin peeled and grated)
1 medium onion (chopped)
Salt to taste
2 red chillies
2 tsp oil
Bit of asafoetida

Heat 1 tsp oil, add onions  and fry till light pink. Remove the onions and heat the remaining 1 tsp oil. Add the grated carrots and fry till the raw smell goes off. Cool and grind with red chillies, asafoetida and salt till smooth.

Tasty and healthy chutney to go with dosa/idli/upma varieties.

Eggless Butterless Oats cake

This week, my partner for the Blog Hop Wednesdays stared by Radhika of Tickling palates is Kalyani of Sizzling Tastebuds..I chose to try her Eggless Butterless Oats cake but brought in minor changes to make it a Vanilla flavoured one.

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1/4 cup coarsely powdered oats

1 1/2 cup sugar (powdered)

1/2 tsp baking soda

Salt 2 pinches

10 tbsp cooking oil

1 cup water

1 tsp vanilla essence

Sieve the flour with salt and baking soda 2-3 times. Add the sugar and oats to it and keep aside. Beat cooking oil, water and essence for a few minutes and add the flour mix to it. Gently get everything together and pour in a greased pan. Preheat oven to 180 degrees and bake for 30-40 minutes checking if the cake is done by getting a clean toothpick back when inserted in the cake.

Cool well and garnish as desired. I cut the cake into two and make a orange flavoured butter cream with orange essence, butter and icing sugar. Spread the cream over one part and cover it with the other part. Spread some more butter cream over it and in the sides.  Add a bit of red orange colour to the remaining butter cream mixture and garnish the cake as desired.

Although this cake wouldnt be fluffy and the texture wouldnt be like the normal cake because of the addition of oats, it definetely is a good option to try for kids evening snacks.



Nutritious cereal bar

Ingredients

2 cups crisp breakfast cereals with nuts

1/2 cup honey

1/4 cup demerara sugar

2 tbsp butter

Heat butter, sugar and honey on low flame till sugar melts. Add in the cereals and mix well.

                                     

Spread on butter paper or greased plate and roll slightly with the greased rolling pin to even it out. Let it cool for 10 minutes and cut into bars.

Cool well and serve.



Budding blogger : Lakshmi

Meet Lakshmi of Laxmi's Samayal in the Budding blogger series

She says -

I am Lakshmi senthilkumar. I am a happy house & I love cooking. I am the queen of my kitchen. I love my kitchen and cooking. I feel so happy when my hubby and my family enjoy my food and eat nicely. I have a great passion of cooking, I started this blog to share my recipes with my friends. Food should be shared with everyone. Nowadays in nuclear family its not possible. Now I am going to share my recipes with everyone through my laxmi’s samayal blog.I am from tamil nadu. In tamil samayal means cooking.I have posted lot of tamilian recipes. i am very happy of it. We can feel all are close to each other and sharing there foods as family. All visitor of my blog are in my family. My motherinlaw always says cooking doesn’t finish after cooking. It gets completed only after serving it with smilin! g face. Its true whatever it is serve it with smiling face will give extra aroma to your food. I invite every with a great smile to my blog..

1000 posts and 4 years of Simple Indian Food

Simple Indian food blog completes 4 wonderful years and also celebrates the 1000 th post today..

Thanks readers, subscribers, bloggers..everyone who commented and encouraged us and all those silent readers too who kept us going by visiting us often..

Here is a simple four tier vanilla cake with pista flavoured butter cream icing for the occassion

Chocolates with cereal

Recipe source: Aarthi's recipe at Yummy Tummy

Ingredients

1 cup breakfast cereals

2 tsp butter

125 grams chocolate bar

Chopped nuts or white chocolate or multi colour sugar balls for garnishing

Heat the butter and chocolate pieces using double boiler method and when it melts, slowly add in the cereals little by little. Mix well till the chocolate coats the cereals well.

Put a big spoon full into cupcake liners, garnish and refrigerate it for minimum 2 hours.

Quick to make and heavenly in taste...

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