Biscuits are the snack time favorites of people of all the ages. We are also biscuit lovers and keep browsing for new varieties of them. Apart from store bought ones, I would love to prepare different types of biscuits at home. When it comes to bakery style food like Benne (Butter) Biscuit, Nippattu, etc., hubby prefers and love to eat the home made ones.
Many of you must have heard of Karachi Bakery in Hyderabad. They are famous for their food products especially Fruit Biscuit and Cashew Biscuits. When we were in Bangalore, we were sure to get a parcel of these goodies if anybody among the friends or family is visiting Hyderabad! My sister's family who stays in Hyderabad, will bring Karachi Biscuits every time when they are coming for vacation. These days, we can find these biscuits in some of the shops in Bangalore as well. 
I was planning to prepare this kind of biscuits at home and was not sure how to prepare. I just went with my recipe of Orange Shortbread, made slight changes and prepared Cashew Biscuits. Hubby and daughter appreciated these biscuits a lot and I was up in the air! Prepared it several times already and the biscuits were sold out quickly! 
Sharing the recipe of these tasty and addictive Cashew Biscuits here with you. Merry Christmas to all!


Preparation Time: 25 - 30 minutes
Baking Time: 20 minutes
Yield: 30 biscuits (depending on the size)
Difficulty level: Medium

Ingredients:
  • All purpose flour / Maida - 4 1/2 cup
  • Butter (at room temperature) - 185 gm
  • Sugar - 3/4 cup + 1 tbsp
  • Vanilla essence - 3/4 tsp
  • Broken cashews - 1 1/4 cup (as desired)


Method:
  • Take out the sugar and make a fine powder using an electric mixer or blender.
  • Beat the butter till its creamy. I have used hand mixer for beating. It can be done using the egg beater as well.
  • Add the sugar powder in 2 - 3 batches to this butter and beat till its fluffy and creamy. Finally add the vanilla essence and beat it for a while.
  • Add the all purpose flour gradually and make a soft, non - sticky dough ball. 
  • Pre-heat the oven to 170°C and line the baking tray with parchment paper. 
  • Divide the dough into two or three equal parts according to your convenience. Roll each dough ball into a square or rectangle of half inch thickness. 
  • Spread the broken cashews generously on the top of rolled dough. Roll it gently to make sure that the cashews are fixed into the dough properly. 
  • Cut them into squares or rectangles and line them on the baking tray. 
  • Bake the biscuits for about 18 - 20 minutes till they turn into light golden color. Mine got done exactly at 20 minutes. 
  • Take the biscuits out after 4 - 5 minutes and allow to cool on a cooling rack.
  • Enjoy the delicious biscuits with a cup of tea or coffee!

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Normally it happens every time when we bring big bag of onions to home. We won't use them daily and hence, most of them will be spoiled and become waste. This time also, leaves started coming out from the onions. What I did was I just planted those onions in the backyard. They grew up nicely and I was so happy to use those spring onions for cooking! 
Spring Onion Rotti is my new experiment using these home grown spring onions. We usually prepare different varieties of roties with various vegetables. How about preparing Rotti with spring onion? I just tried it and rotti came out really well! Since these leaves won't have much water content like most other vegetables, I have used some curd and little water in this recipe. 
Below is the recipe of Spring Onion Rotti..hope you like it and give it a try!


Time required: 1 hour
Yield: 8 roties of medium size
Difficulty level: Medium

Ingredients:
  • Spring onion - 1 bunch
  • Onion - 2 (large)
  • Rice flour -1 1/2 cup (my cup weighs around 200 gms)
  • Green chillies - 2 or red chilli powder - 1 1/2 tsp (adjust according to taste)
  • Curd - 3/4 cup (see Tips)
  • Salt to taste
  • Sugar (optional) - 3/4 tsp
  • Water - 1/4 cup
  • Oil or butter - for cooking the Rotti

Method:
  • Chop the spring onion, green chillies (if using) and onions finely and and combine in a mixing bowl. 
  • Add salt and sugar to this mixture and mix it well. Keep it for 10 minutes and allow them to leave off the water content. 
  • Then, add the rice flour and mix it nicely. If not using green chillies, add the red chilli powder at this stage. 
  • Add the curd little by little and prepare a smooth, non sticky dough ball. Add some water (I added 1/4th cup), if needed. 
  • If you have time, leave the dough for 10 minutes before using. If in a hurry, it can be used instantly, no worries!
  • Prepare big lemon size balls from the dough. Grease the plantain leaf or plastic sheet with a tea spoon of oil. Pat the ball into a thin circle using your fingers. 
  • Take out the rotti carefully and cook it on the hot tawa on both the sides. Add little oil or butter while roasting the rotti which makes it more tasty.
  • Serve the hot Rotti along with butter. This Rotti tastes better when its hot.


Tips:
  • I have used sweet curd (regular ones) here. If the curd is sour in taste, use less curd and increase the quantity of water you are adding.
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Mangoes are my all time favorite. For mango lovers like me, anything with mango tastes good! This year, we had enjoyed the mango season in India to the full extent and now, its the time for mangoes here in Australia! Last week, we had been to the market and saw plenty of delicious mangoes on the store racks. I just picked some and brought them home. Whenever there are plenty of mangoes, I love to prepare Mango Seekarane / Rasayana. This time also, I prepared Mango Seekarane and wanted my daughter to taste it. She is not very much fond of sweets and said 'no' to it, as expected. Instead, she wanted me to bake a cake for her. I just googled for the mango cake recipes and finally, this is the outcome!
This was my first baking attempt using mango. While searching the recipes, I just stopped at Julie's space and found her Mango Cake recipe interesting. I have made some small changes in the original recipe according to my preferences and prepared this delicious loaf cake. This cake is perfect for tea time and also for kids snacks. Give it a try and enjoy eating!


Preparation time: 15 minutes
Baking time: 35 - 40 minutes
Yield: 1 loaf
Difficulty level: Medium

Ingredients:
  • Maida / All purpose flour - 2 cups (my cup weighs around 75 gms)
  • Fine rava (semolina) - 1/2 cup
  • 1 large mango - fully ripened (which amounts to 2 cups of puree)
  • Sugar - 1 1/2 cup
  • Big pinch of salt
  • Milk - 1/2 cup
  • Oil - 1/2 cup
  • Baking powder - 2 tsp
  • Baking soda - 1 tsp
  • Saffron strands (optional) - 8 to 10

Method:
  • Combine maida and baking powder in a mixing bowl and sieve it 2 - 3 times. Fold in the rava and mix it once.
  • Pre heat the oven to 175 °C. Grease the loaf pan and keep it ready.
  • Remove the peel and the seed part of mango. Chop it and blend them along with saffron strands and make a thick puree.  
  • Add salt, sugar and milk to this puree and mix it till sugar dissolves completely. Add beking soda and oil and mix it lightly. 
  • Fold in the sieved maida little by little and prepare the dough.
  • Transfer the dough onto the greased loaf pan and bake it for 35 - 40 minutes until the toothpick inserted comes out clean. Mine got done exactly at 38 minutes. 
  • Allow it to cool down and cut into slices once it becomes cool. 


Tips:
  • You can substitute the fresh mango puree with store bought mango pulp.
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