BORDEAUX COOKIES

For february month's IFC Saraswathi suggested us some Bordeaux cuisine from France. Bordeaux is a port city on the Garonne river in southwest France. Bordeaux city is also an upscaleplace - a city for shopping, drinking and eating. It sits in the center of the world famous wine region that bears its name and thus tourists come here to eat, drink, experience wine and be merry.

Bordeaux cookies is very delicious and simple cookies with just few ingredients.

Recipe source : Grandma bees

Ingredients ;

1. Unsalted butter - 100 g
2. Brown sugar - 1 cup
3. Milk - 2 tbsp
4. Baking powder - 1 tsp
5. Flour - 1 cup

Method :

1. Beat the butter and sugar till creamy.

2. Add milk and baking powder. Mix.

3. Finally add flour and mix well.

4. Transfer to a butter paper and shape into a log. Chill for 2 hours.

5. Preheat the oven for 180 degree. Slice each cookie about 1/4 '' thick and place on a parchment paper or baking pan.

6. Leave space around each cookie. Bake for 7 - 9 minutes or until they are golden.

7. Remove from oven and cool.

BLACK FOREST BUN

I am a part of we knead to bake group, host by Aparna of Diverse kitchen. For this month choice is Black forest bun.  Black forest bun is all about chocolate cake, cherry compote and cream. But these buns use chocolate cake and cherry compote. Since these are the Black forest buns the obvious choice of jam to use would be cherry. If you don't have that you can use strawberry compote/ jam. 

The method of kneading, rolling out the dough, covering it with the filling, and then rolling it back   is just like cinnamon rolls. You can also add chopped nuts or chocolate chips if you like. Just make sure you roll the dough, with the filling, as tightly as you can because these buns swell up quiet a bit. 

Ingredients for the dough :

1. Milk - 1/3 cup
2. butter - 50 g
3. Water - 1/2 cup
4. Sugar - 1/4 cup
5. egg - 1
6. Salt - 3/4 tsp
7. Instant yeast - 1 1/2 tsp
8. Flour / Maida - 3 to 3 1/4 cup

For filling :

1. Chocolate sponge cake - 3 cup
2. Strawberry / cherry jam - 3/4 cup

For drizzling ;

1. Semi sweet chocolate - 1/2 cup

Method :

1. Pour the water and milk in a sauce pan, and heat  till hot but not boiling. Pour this mixture into a bowl and add butter and sugar.  Stir till the butter is melted and sugar is dissolved.

2. Cool the mixture into lukewarm. If it is too hot it will kill the yeast and curdle the egg. 

3. Pour the butter mixture into a large bowl. Then add egg and yeast.. Mix with a fork.

4. Then add salt and 1 cup of flour and mix well. Add more flour, as much as necessary , And knead the dough until it smooth, elastic but not sticky.

5. Continue to knead for 10 minutes till the dough is smooth and elastic.

6. Place the kneaded dough into a well oiled bowl , turning the dough till lightly coated with oil and cover loosely. Allow to rise double in volume for 1 to 1 1/2 hours.

7. Now place the  dough on a working surface and roll out into a rectangle. 

8. Spread the jam over the dough leaving a 1/2 inch.  Sprinkle the chocolate cake on top of this.

9.  Roll the dough tightly as possible. Try to pinch the dough closed as best as possible, or dampen the edge with a little water to seal well. 

10. cut the roll into 12 pieces. ( like cinnamon rolls )

11. Place them on a baking tray. Otherwise place them in a cake tin leaving enough space to expand .

12. cover loosely and allow to rise, for about 1 hour or till almost double. 

13. Bake at 180 degree for 25 to 30 minutes.  Remove from oven and cool completely.

14. Melt the semi sweet chocolate and drizzle over the buns.

BAKED BROWNIE PUDDING

For this month Home Bakers Challenge,  Rafeeda of The Big sweet Tooth  is hosting and she challenged us with some baked puddings.  I choose  brownie pudding. This is a smooth and tasty dish which everyone gonna love. This dessert is between a brownie and pudding. very rich and delicious.  Thanks Rafee for your great selection.

Recipe source : Barefoot contessa
Ingredients : 

. Butter - 200 g
. Egg - 4
. Cocoa powder - 3/4 cup
. sugar - 1 1/2  cup
. Flour - 1/2  cup
. Vanilla essence - 1/2  tsp

Method :

1.  Lightly butter a pudding dish and preheat the oven to 180 degree.

2. Sift the flour and cocoa powder and keep aside. Melt the butter and set aside to cool.

3. Beat the egg and sugar with an electric beater at high speed, until very thick.

4. Then lower the speed and add vanilla essence and flour cocoa mixture. Beat only until combined.

5. Finally add melted butter and beat only until combined.

6. Pour the brownie mixture into the prepared baking dish and place it in a large baking pan.

7. Add enough hot  water to the pan to come half way up the side of the dish.

8. Bake for 1 hour or until a toothpick inserted in the cake comes out clean. Cool and serve with vanilla ice cream.

MEDOVIK / RUSSIAN HONEY CAKE

This month International Food Challenge drives us to Russia, world's largest country. Our host, Sara challenged us with 3 Russian authentic recipes and i choose Russian honey cake. Russian cuisine is a collection of the different cooking traditions of the Russian people. The cuisine is diverse like it's area.

Medovik or honey cake is one of the most popular cakes in Russia. Each layer  is soaked with creamy caramel filling and covered with crushed biscuits. There are many variations of this cake. This version is honey with dulce de leche. My family loved it a lot. Thanks sara for this wonderful recipe.
Recipe adapted from : Cooking Melangery

Ingredients :

For layers :

1. Flour - 5 cup
2. Sugar - 1 cup
3. Egg - 3
4. Butter - 100 g
5. Honey - 2 tbsp
6. Baking soda - 1 1/2 tsp

For cream :

1. Milk - 2 cup
2. Eggs - 3
3. Cornflour - 2 tbsp
4. Dulce de leche - 1 tin / 400 g
5. Honey - 1 tbsp
6. Butter - 100 g

Method :

1. Whisk together the eggs and keep aside.

2. In a saucepan bring some water to a simmer. Place the sugar, butter and honey in a heatproof bowl and set over the simmering water. When it melts, add the eggs, and mix until pale in colour. Add baking soda and cook for one minute.

3. Transfer the egg butter mixture into a mixer or food processor and add flour. Mix on low speed until combined. It should be very soft. Do not put more flour.

4. Sprinkle some flour on your working surface and place the dough. Knead it few times and form into a ball.

5. Divide the dough into 8 pieces and shape each piece into ball. Cover with a kitchen towel.

6. Take one piece and roll into a thin circle.

7. Use the bottom of a round pan to cut around it with a knife. Save all scarps just the way you cut them and place them on a baking sheet and then bake.

8. Bake it for 3- 5 minutes. Repeat for the remaining 7 balls.

9. Finally crush the saved scrapes into crumbs.

Method for cream :

1. In a large saucepan, heat 1 1/2 cups of milk, but don't boil.

2. In a small bowl, whisk the remaining 1/2 cup milk with egg and cornstarch until smooth. Slowly whisk the egg mixture into the warm milk, bring to a simmer over moderate heat. Whisking constantly very thick. Remove and cool.

3. Whisk in the butter and dulce de leche.

Assemble the cake :

1. Top each cake layer with 1/2 cup of cream and spread it around evenly. Repeat with all the cake layers. Spread the cream evenly over the top and sides of the cake.

2. Sprinkle the crushed cake scrapes over the sides and top of the cake. Refrigerate for 8 - 10  hours.

PIZZA PINWHEELS

For Home bakers challenge group, Gayathri challenged us with great 4 recipes. I am very thrilled to try the 4 recipes. Usually i am making sweet items. So i want to try something different and decided savoury. And will try the rest whenever i get time. I am using chicken for this item, but you can use corn, paneer etc instead of chicken. Anyway thanks gayathri for your wonderful challenge.

Ingredients for dough :

1. Flour - 2 cup
2. Instant yeast - 1 1/2 tsp
3. Egg - 1 ( lightly beaten )
4. Curd - 1 tbsp
5. Salt - 1/2 tsp
6. Sugar - 1 1/2 tsp
7. Milk - 1/2 cup

Filling :

1. Pizza sauce - 1/2 cup
2. Mozzarella cheese - 100 g
3. Chicken - small 5-6 boneless pieces
4. Onion - 1
5. Capsicum - 1/2
6. Dried oregano - 1/2 tsp
7. Dried basil - 1/2 tsp

Method :

1. Cook the chicken pieces with some red chilly powder, salt and pepper powder. Heat 1 tsp in a pan and just stir fry the chicken and cut into small pieces.

1. In a large bowl combine together flour, yeast , sugar, salt, curd and egg. Mix well with your hands.

2. Now add enough milk and knead till it forms a soft dough. Continue to knead till the dough is smooth and elastic.

3. Shape the dough into a ball and place in a well oiled bowl. Cover with a cling wrap and leave in a warm place to rise till double in size. ( 40 - 50 min )

4. Deflate the dough and roll out into a rectangle.

5. Spread pizza sauce all over the rectangle. Sprinkle oregano and basil over the sauce.

6. Add sliced onion, Chopped capsicum and chicken pieces. Sprinkle grated mozzarella cheese.

7. Sprinkle grated mozzarella cheese.

8. Starting at the long end, roll the dough tightly to form a log and slice into 1- inch pieces.

9. Place the rolls on greased baking pan and bake for 10 - 15 minutes or until browned on top.

fresh out of oven.....

CONCHAS / MEXICAN SWEET BREAD

Pan Dulce or Conchas is one of the main treats in mexico. This bread is considered to be one of Mexico's most inexpensive treats and is consumed daily as breakfast.

Mexican Conchas bread is a crunchy one with fluffy inside. Normally conchas wont dip in sugar, But here i dipped it in sugar for more crunchiness. Its an optional method for you. Here i used  food colours and cocoa powder for the cookie dough.You can use vanilla powder or cinnamon powder. These are the best eaten the day they made.

Recipe : All recipes
Ingredients :

. Flour - 4 cup
. Butter - 1/3 cup
. Instant yeast - 2 1/2 tsp
. Sugar - 3/8 cup
. Salt - 1/2 tsp
. egg - 1
. Milk - 1 cup

For topping :

. Butter - 100 g
. Flour - 1 cup
. Sugar - 2/3 cup
. Cocoa powder
. Red, green colour.

Method :

1. In a large bowl combine flour, sugar, melted butter, salt, egg and yeast. Mix well with your hands.

2. Gradually add milk and knead until the dough is smooth. Knead for 10 minutes, until soft and elastic.

3. Shape the dough into a round and place in a well oiled grease bowl and turn it to coat well. Cover with cling wrap and allow the dough to double in volume, about 1 hour.

4. Make topping : Beat sugar and butter until light and fluffy. Stir in the flour and beat together until just combined.

5. Add colour of your choice and mix well. wrap and refrigerate the cookie dough.

6. Once the dough has doubled, divide the dough into 12 pieces. Shape each piece into a ball. Also devide the cookie dough into 12 pieces.

7. Flatten the cookie dough and place on top of the dough balls. Roll in sugar ( its optional ).

8. Use a knife to cut marks on the top.

9. Place on a greased baking sheet and let rise until doubled

10. Preheat the oven to 200 degree and bake for 20 - 22 minutes, or until lightly golden brown. These are the best eaten the day they made.