Kulkuls | Goan Christmas Sweet

Ingredients:
1. All purpose flour/ Maida - 1 cup
2. Sugar - 1/3 cup
3. Melted butter - 1/4 cup
4. Salt - 1/4 teaspoon
5. Vanilla extract - 1 teaspoon
6. Oil for deep frying

Method:
1. Add sugar and vanilla extract to melted butter and mix well.

2. Take flour in a mixing bowl and add salt and butter mixture. Rub the flour between your palm to get a course texture.

3. Add water little by little and knead the flour into a soft dough.

4. Cover the dough and let it rest for 15 minutes.

5. Take small marble sized portion of dough and shape into a ball. Place the ball on the back of fork, flatten it and gently roll to form a shell shaped kulkuls. Do the same with remaining dough.

6. Heat oil for deep frying on medium flame.

7. When oil is hot, fry the kulkuls until they turn golden brown. Drain excess oil on a paper towel.

8. Cool them completely before storing in an air tight container.

Italian Biscotti

Adapted from: Allrecipes.com

Ingredients:

1. All purpose flour - 1.5 cup

2. Sugar - 1/2 cup

3. Egg - 1 medium

4. Oil - 1/4 cup

5. Baking powder - 1/2 tablespoon

6. Almond extract - 2 teaspoon

7. Almond slices - 1/4 cup (optional)

8. Salt - 1/4 teaspoon

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350 deg F and grease a cookie sheet or line them with parchment paper.

2. Combine all purpose flour, baking powder and salt and keep them aside.

3. In a bowl, add egg, oil, sugar and almond extract and beat well using a hand mixer. To this add the flour mixture and almond slices and knead into a dough.

4. Divide the dough into two and roll them lengthwise along the cookie sheet with 1/2 inch thickness(see figure 2 below). 

5. Bake in oven for 25-30 minutes until the surface turns golden brown. Remove from the oven and cool on wire rack for around 10 minutes. Slice the cookie widthwise into 1 inch slices. Place the slices back into cookie sheet with cut side facing up and bake for 5 minutes on each side.

Cool on a wire rack and enjoy with a cup of tea.

Figure 2- Before baking

Homemade Bordeaux Cookies

Bordeaux cookies are crispy and best enjoyed with a glass of cold milk. These cookies taste very similar to Pepperidge Farm Bordeaux Cookies.

Bordeaux is a port city on the Garonne River in southwest France. The historic part of the city is on the UNESCO World Heritage List as “an outstanding urban and architectural ensemble” of the 18th century. Bordeaux is also an upscale place- a city for luxury shopping, drinking, and eating. (Info from http://www.nomadicmatt.com/travel-guides/france-travel-tips/bordeaux/). 

Adapted from: Grandma Bees Recipes

Yields - 20

Ingredients:
1. Flour - 1 cup (I used whole wheat white flour, but you can use all-purpose flour)
2. Unsalted butter - 1 stick/8 tablespoon, softened
3. Brown sugar - 2/3 cup or white sugar - 1/2 cup
4. Baking powder - 1 teaspoon
5. Whole milk - 2 tablespoon

Method:
1. In a mixing bowl, cream together sugar and butter until smooth.

2. Add milk and baking powder and mix well.

3. Slowly add flour and combine together to form a dough.

4. Wrap the dough in a plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

5. When you are ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350 deg F.

6. Meanwhile roll the dough into 1/4 inches thick and cut into desired shape using a cookie cutter.

7. Place the cookies in parchment lined baking tray with at least 3 inch distance between each cookie. The cookies are going to spread while baking.

8. Bake for 7-9 minutes until the top of the cookie turns golden brown. These cookies are soft just after baking but they harden once they cool down. Store in an airtight container.

Submitting this recipe to "International Food Challenge", an event by Saraswathi of Sara's Yummy Bites.

Palmiers | Little Heart Cookies

Palmier is a French pastry made from puff pastry sheets. These cookies are also known as Elephant ear cookies or butterfly cookies. 

Ingredients:

1. Puff pastry sheet - 1 sheet

2. Sugar fine granulated - 1/4 cup

Method:

1. Thaw the puff pastry sheet.

2. Sprinkle little sugar on a clean working counter and place the pastry sheet on it. Use a rolling pin and roll the pastry sheet until it is 1/8 inch thick.

3. Sprinkle sugar on the surface of pastry sheet. Start rolling from two opposite sides of the pastry sheet until they meet in the center.

4. Press gently and cover this cylinder with a plastic wrap. Keep it in the freezer for 15 minutes.

5. Meanwhile preheat the oven to 400 degree F. Grease the baking tray with butter or line it with a parchment paper.

6. After 15 minutes, take the rolled dough from the freezer and cut into 1/2 inch thick pieces. Place these on a baking tray. Make sure to give some space between each cookies as they are going to expand while baking.

7. Bake in preheated oven for 7 minutes. Flip the cookies and bake for another 7 minutes until both sides turn golden brown.

8. Cool them in wire rack before serving.

Note: For flavouring, you can mix cinnamon powder/vanilla powder/cardamom powder along with sugar.

Shortbread Cookies

Its Christmas time and its time to bake some cookies. Shortbread cookies are rich, flavourful and have crumbly texture. These just melt in your mouth and are a huge hit in my family. 

These cookies have originated in Scotland. The traditional way of making shortbread cookies includes 1:2:3 proportions of sugar, butter and flour(Source: wikipedia). 

Recipe Source: JoyOfBaking

Yields: 24 small cookies

Ingredients:

1. All-purpose flour- 1 cup

2. Unsalted butter at room temperature - 1/2 cup

3. Powdered Sugar -  1/4 cup

4. Corn Flour - 3 tablespoon

5. Vanilla essence - 1 teaspoon

6. Salt - 1/8 teaspoon
7. Raisins/Candy Sprinkles - for decoration

Method:
1. Cream butter and sugar until smooth using a hand mixer.

2. Add in vanilla essence and beat again.

3. Add in all-purpose flour, corn flour and salt and mix well to form a soft dough.

4. Cover the dough with a plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour.

5. Preheat oven to 350 deg F. Place parchment paper in baking tray.

6. Roll the dough on working surface, cut into desired shape using a cookie cutter and transfer into baking tray.

7. You can decorate them with either raisins or candy sprinkles or just leave them plain.

8. Bake for 10-12 minutes until edges turn light golden brown in colour.

9. Cool on wire rack and store in airtight container.

Submitting this recipe to Priya's "Shh Cooking Secretly Challenge". For this month's challenge I paired with Niloufer Riyaz who gave me raisins and corn flour as my secret ingredients.