Bourbon Biscuits and am back!!!!

Okie…am back,not that I ever left,am back to the blogging world! I thought I would take a moment today to welcome myself back from a long and a wonderful vacation.Am I happy or sad???? Well,I have mixed feelings,feeling bad coz am missing my family,happy coz am back to my space,my sweet home. It was a long long….very long vacation,huh and its over now!

As it is said,”If you come as happy as you leave,you have had a good vacation”.I am thoroughly happy to get back,whatever it is end of the day you really wana get back to your den!. Have you heard this one too – “No one needs a vacation more than the person who just had one”.So am ready,P wat say,eh?

Few bloggers thought I disappeared, few kept checking on me…felt nice with all responses.Thanks a lot for stopping by my blog even in my absence. To kick off,I decided to make something sweet, which is actually both P’s & my favourite – Bourbon Biscuits.Does it ring a bell??? Yeah this is the one which is like a sandwich biscuit consisting of two thin dark chocolate biscuits with a chocolate cream filling.This one was one of my all time fav as a kid,I remember licking the cream inside first and then have the biscuit. It surely is a hit amongst kids.The chocolaty color makes this all the more appealing:)

This is P’s cousins recipe, I believe she learnt baking before her wedding and his Aunt collated all the recipes n gave it to me during my visit this year.I did change a li’l as per requirement.

Ingredients –

All Purpose Flour/Maida – 1 cup
Sugar – 1/3 cup
Butter – ¼ cup
Baking Soda – 1/4tsp
Honey – 1tsp(optional)
Baking Powder – 1 tsp
Cocoa – 3 tsp
Vanilla Essence – 2tsp
Cold milk – 3-4 tbsp

For Filling(Butter icing)-

Butter – 1/4cup
Icing Sugar – 1/3 cup
Cocoa – 1 tsp
Vanilla Essence – a few drops

Method:

Beat the butter and sugar till light and fluffy. Add essence,honey and Baking Soda and blend well.Sieve the Flour with Cocoa and baking powder.Mix the Flour to the creamed mixture and form a soft dough.Add cold milk to this dough.Roll out the prepared dough on a board(You may use a li’l flour for dusting) and cut with a biscuit cutter(I cudn’t find mine,hence used a knife to cut into rectangles).Prick on top of the cut shapes with a toothpick and sprinkle sugar.Place on a greased and floured baking tray and bake at 355F for 8-10mins.Cool it for 2mins before using the filling.

For the filling:

Mix all the filling ingredients to a smooth paste.Sandwich the biscuits with this chocolate butter icing.

Brown is one of my fav colors too,hence this recipe perfectly fits in for FIC:Favourite.So here it goes to Curry Leaf who is hosting this event originally started by Harini of Tongueticklers.

Except for the baking,which is less than 10min this one is an easy stuff to make.So off it goes to 15 minutes cooking,hosted by Mahima of the Indian Vegetarian Kitchen.

I have missed alot of awards,i did see messages from alot of them about the same.Am yet to check and accept,however would like to thank each and every individual for having thought about me & passing it to me.Thanks a bunch!

Butter Biscuits

I am reminded of a quote – “ Men are like wine. Some turn into vinegar, but the best improve with age”:-P

Today is my husband’s birthday.I have planned a lot of things. All started with a wonderful game – “Treasure Hunt”.I had hidden around 12 clues in the house ,each one linking to the next clue and the treasure was nothing but the “Birthday Gift”.Unfortunately he got stuck with the last clue, but after whacking his brains for long…he finally found the treasure…it was fun to see him run around the house.

Yesterday was the coldest day in December in the last 12yrs, so we weren’t expecting any friends to drop in at midnight to wish him . To our surprise, jes a l’il before 12, four friends dropped in all of a sudden with a cake in their hand. We were very delighted to see them.That was really appreciable!

I had also picked up a “Banana Truffle Cake”.When the clock struck twelve, he cut the cake and I sang the B’day song…ha ha it was a great moment.The cake was yummy too!!!!! My husband mentioned to me that “this year was the best b’day he has ever had”……hope i keep this enthu alive for all the years to come!

The two special things that I made for him, was the “Carrot Halwa” so called the “Gajjar ka Halwa” and “Butter Biscuits”.My Mom used to make Butter biscuits and I have thoroughly enjoyed it .Those days in India,we had an Oven which looked like a cooker,but unfortunately it stopped working and that was the end of my Mom’s baking days.Somehow we forgot about it and never thought about buying a new one.Now,I have started trying my hands in baking too. This is how I made the Butter Biscuits

Ingredients:-

All Purpose Flour (Maida) – 2 cups
Sugar – 3/4th cup
Cardamom(Elaichi) – 4
Butter/Ghee – 1 ¼ cup melted
Baking Soda – 1 tsp
Method :-
1.Grind the Sugar and Cardamom together.
2. In a large bowl, mix the Flour,Sugar and Baking Soda
3.Heat the butter/ghee in a kadai till it melts and add it to the flour.
4. Mix all the ingredients together ,press hard with hand as the mixture tends to loosen. Do not add water .If required, melt some more ghee(this wudnt be ideally required for the ratio mentioned) and add it to the mixture. Make a tight dough.
5.Keep it aside for 4-5 hrs.
6.Now, you will find the mixture to be a li’l hard, don’t panic(I remember panicking for the first time), just press it hard with hands and it should be fine.
8.Make small rounds and flatten it li’l(not too flat,just press a l’il on the top).The mixture might loosen out in between. If so, use li’l ghee in hands and apply pressure .
9.Preheat the oven at 300F.Place the balls(space it well) in a greased oven proof dish and bake it for 25-30min.Once done store it in a air tight container.

I have done a lot of experiments with this recipe. I tried to bake it as soon as the dough was made (ie., without keeping it for 4-5hrs) the taste was fine but the balls flattened completely,stuck with each other and turned brown in color in no time.I suggest, keep checking in between as the base tends to become too brown.These taste all the more good when they are hot or warm.

This is going to participate in FIC-White hosted by Kitchen Flavours started by TongueTicklers

This also goes to Susan’s Eat Christmas Cookies event.

This is off to Trupti‘s Winter Treat Event

I am sending this to Sindhirasoi‘s Just for you event hosted by Alka.