Category: COOKIES

Baking | Dark Chocolate Walnut Oat Tart GF…everyone needs a chocolate hug!

“When you select the right kind of chocolate it is like giving your insides a hug. Everyone needs a chocolate hug”
Jean Kelsey

Dark Chocolate Walnut Oat Tart for times when you need a little more chocolate in your life. I know I just shared a chocolate cheesecake a few days ago, yet while doing that, I remembered this tart. How could I not have shared this too? So much chocolate, so little time!! This is a particular favourite since it has two things that I use most while baking. Yes indeed, oats and walnuts! Add to it brown sugar and ghee/clarified butter, and magic is guaranteed!It’s another simple fuss free recipe but delivers a sinful punch. I use a cookie dough for the biscuit base. Feel free to bake mini pies like those above, or cookies as below, with the dough instead if you like, maybe top them with a ganache. I really enjoyed making the Dark Chocolate Walnut Oat Tart. I love that recipes are so easily interchangeable, such fun to play around with, It’s not a lot to do actually because the biscuit base/cookie dough is a two step procedure, basically from the jar of one food processor into the bowl of the stand mixer. I use the basic recipe quite often.

It works well each time. This Mascarpone Lime Curd Walnut Oat Tart is testimony. The same cookie dough biscuit base again, topped in a spoon licking good mascarpone & lime curd topping! Hopefully I’ve got you convinced to give the Dark Chocolate Walnut Oat Tart a try. If not this one, then maybe do a variation on it!

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Dark Chocolate Walnut Oat Tart

Dark, divine, delicious is how this tart turned out to be topped with dark chocolate ganache! A healthy biscuit base makes the Dark Chocolate Walnut Oat Tart even better. You can make cookies with the same dough, as also use different fillings to top the tart.
Course Dessert, Snack
Cuisine American
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Total Time 2 hours 30 minutes
Servings 2 tarts {7" each}

Ingredients

Oat Walnut Cookie Base

  • 100 g oats
  • 85 g walnuts
  • 85 g brown sugar
  • 1/4 tsp baking soda
  • 40 g clarified butter/ghee chilled
  • 1 small egg cold
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract

Dark Chocolate Filling

  • 300 g 70% dark couverture chocolate
  • 175 g single cream
  • 30 ml full fat milk

Instructions

Oat Walnut Cookie Base

  • Preheat the oven to 180C.
  • Place oats, walnut halves, brown sugar and baking soda in jar of chopper. Blend in short bursts until you get a uniform brown sugar like consistency, just until it feels like moist breadcrumbs.
  • Don't overwork the blender or the walnuts will release oil.
  • Transfer to bowl of stand mixer, flat mixer attachment, add the clarified butter/ghee, egg and vanilla extract and mix at speed 4 until it comes together like cookie dough.
  • Line the base of the tart tins with parchment paper. Divide the cookie dough between the two. Work up t the edges, and then flatten the base.
  • Bake in a preheated oven for 20 minutes, then cool completely on cookie rack.

Dark Chocolate Filling

  • Warm the chocolate with the cream in the microwave, agitate it with a balloon whisk, added a splash of milk, agitate it a bit more. {Agitate means to whisk briskly until smooth & glossy}
  • Once it chilled in the fridge for 30 minutes turned it into the baked shell, and let it set for about 2-3 hours.
  • Top with dark chocolate shavings and dust with cocoa before serving.

Rosemary Garlic Sesame Millet Crackers with Lovilovi and Bird’s Eye Sweet Chili Pickle … earthy beautiful pairing





"There is a lot of food culture that goes on in the home and in the community in non-traditional ways. Food is a lot more than restaurants."
Eddie Huang


Rosemary Garlic Sesame Millet Crackers with Lovilovi and Bird's Eye Sweet Chili Pickle. These turned out to be crackers with a bite. Paired with the sweet chili pickle, they got just the right kick as well, some smoked Gouda on the side to balance the heat from the pickle. Both the crackers and the the pickle have much in common, other than the long name of course! Both earthy and rustic, both from local produce, they have a combination of flavours that compliment each other. The taste undertones are complex but subtle, individual ingredients in each that compliment the preparation. The good thing is that they pair together beautifully too!


Say millets to me and a part of me shudders with fear, while the other part of thinks happily this might be the time for me to 'step out' and be millet confident. I've had a LONG unsteady relationship with millets, more hate than love. In the past I have found them uninspiring, sandy, gritty and rather unrewarding to work with. Yet a recent contest on Commeat which focused on millets made me sit up and take notice. Couldn't figure out why it had everyone so excited.Thus began a small journey. Though only a few weeks old, I am fast covering ground. Picked Madhuli's brains as she does a load of creative food with millet. I pestered her SO MUCH that she just mailed me many bags of different varieties.Then I shifted gears and pestered Ruchira, my other millet inspiration. She put me onto making the yummiest millet khichadi ever. So I bravely ventured further on my own, and here is my first experiment, millet crackers. Flavoured with my fave ingredients, garlic and rosemary, I threw in some sesame seeds too!Much reading online tells me that roasting the flour before using it reduces a characteristic mustiness the flour has. Did just that. Looked and felt like sand, or rather EARTH! Which gave me an idea. I decided to pair these earthy rustic millet crackers with this Lovilovi and Bird's Eye Sweet Chili Pickle from Place of Origin.On the onset, might I warn you that the flavours just explode in your mouth. Not for the faint-hearted, this intriguing pickle tempts you to dig in. The heart wants more yet the mouth is on fire! Smoked or herb cheese on the side balances it off!Made from the Lovolovi plums and the bird’s eye chilies that grow wild in the coffee estates of Coorg, The Earth Reserve's Sweet pickle is a must-have for all who love combination between sweet and spicy. One of the most piquant chilies and tartness of the berries combine to bring you a flavor that has a spicy kick but not mouth burning and you can still taste all the individual flavours. This pickle looks good, tastes good and provides you a versatile usage. Liven up a burger, serve with a cheese board or cold meats, spice up sausages, mix in to mayo…






Based in Scotland of India - Coorg, The Earth Reserve brings to you homemade products with a passion for bringing wholesome food to the table without any added colours, flavours, synthetic preservatives, taste enhancers or pectin. Free from harmful pesticides or any other chemical sprays, the ingredients are instead sprayed with the nourishing rains and mists that the hills of Coorg are blessed with. With its natural heritage and colourful history, India is the birthplace and home of a number of cuisines. The environment, soil, climate and history contribute to unique recipes made with locally sourced produce. Accordingly, every town in India is famous for select foods or food producers. As human beings, it is natural for us to have a strong emotional connect with the food we eat. There will always be some food products which trigger fond memories of familiar hometown flavours and gastronomical experiences – it could be the sweetshop from across the street from where you grew up or a confectionery in that hill station that you went to one summer. This pickle hits 'thta' spot and more! So if you make crackers like these, to set your world on fire with this fabulous pickle, PlaceofOrigin.in is the answer!!


 
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Rosemary Garlic Sesame Millet Crackers

Crisp, earthy, flavourful and gentle, these Rosemary Garlic Sesame Millet Crackers are a great wholegrain savoury bake. They are good on their own, and really good when paired with a dip , maybe cheese as well. Paired with Lovilovi and Bird’s Eye Sweet Chili Pickle, they got just the right kick, with some smoked Gouda on the side.
Course Snack
Cuisine Indian
Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Total Time 25 minutes
Servings 2 people

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup millet flour {ragi}
  • 1/2 cup wholewheat flour {aata}
  • 3 tsp white sesame seeds
  • 2 tsp black sesame seeds
  • 2 tbsp clarified butter {ghee}
  • 1/2 tsp rock salt
  • 3 cloves garlic minced
  • 2-3 sprigs rosemary finely chopped
  • 50-60 ml water

Instructions

  • Gently roast the ragi with sesame seeds over low heat until lightly coloured. Cool.
  • Preheat oven to 180C.
  • Place all ingredients except water in bowl of stand mixer.
  • Mix on low speed, then add 50 ml water to make a soft firm dough. Add a little more water as required. Knead the dough until smooth for 2 minutes.
  • Roll out as thin as possible between two sheets of baking parchment, cut into desired shapes, then transfer to baking sheet.
  • Bake for 15-20 minutes until they turn brown on the edges and feel firm.
  • Cool completely, then transfer t an airtight container.

Baking | Brownie Butterscotch Wholegrain Cookies … and some gorgeous table linen from IDAM


“I love linen in soothing colors for any room in the house.”
Nate Berkus

Brownie Butterscotch Wholegrain Cookies are possibly the easiest cookies to make ever. This is my favourite recipe as it is as simple as the end is delicious. Healthy too. For one the cookies are double chocolate {almost everyone’s favourite}, and they are also a 100% wholegrain. To make them better, I halved the butter! Guess I couldn’t ask for more! They turned out pretty effortlessly in the KitchenAidIndia stand mixer, which turned out a perfect cookie dough in a matter of minutes. Absolutely delicious comfort food!

With so little effort I turned my attention to some beautiful table linen from a concept store called IDAM. The beauty of this shot and the few others that I attempted to capture, IMHO, of course comes from their aesthetic and impressive range of linen. The more I shoot their linen, the happier I get. Do check out their work. It is so inspiring, so real. Importantly their statement of beliefs hit the right chord with me.

“Taking a step closer to sustainable and responsible design, we have pledged to use 100% organic fabrics for all our products. We use 100% fair trade certified fabrics. We carry over the great work done in the farms to our manufacturing factories, which always follow ethical fair labour practices. We take pride in our work ethics where we do not encourage child labour, gender discrimination or low wages.”

IDAM was born out of numerous car ride discussions to and from college between a duo of dreamers, Nayanika & Gazal. From an idea, it has now evolved to a full fledged print and surface design studio that translates its aesthetics onto contemporary home and lifestyle products. Each product is unique as it has a story behind it. Be it a doodle in a diary or the fallen leaves outside their studio, or how folk art adorns the streets of India, it’s all brought to you in an array of prints, almost like a glimpse into the dreamers daily escapades.

The  fabric is gorgeous, the attention to detail has me fascinated. It’s the small ideas that translate into print that makes me love them. Every piece is so me – the whites and blacks, the beige and slate grey, the blue and white, the understated Ikat print. This is just one small peep into their beautiful world. 

And of course, do bake up a batch of Brownie Butterscotch Wholegrain Cookies! I hope you enjoy them as much as we do.

 

 

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Brownie Butterscotch Wholegrain Cookies

A new baking recipe. An easy baking recipe. The Brownie Butterscotch Wholegrain Cookies are chippers gone healthy, yet still deeply satisfying. This is not your everyday quintessential chocolate chip cookie. This one is better and is also 100% wholegrain. Deep dark chocolatey + chewy + fudgy = comfort food! Makes approximately 2 dozen cookies
Course Snack
Cuisine American
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Total Time 40 minutes
Servings 24 cookies

Ingredients

  • 125 g dark couverture chocolate {I used 72%}
  • 50 g unsalted butter
  • 30 g good quality cocoa powder
  • 1 egg
  • 100 g brown vanilla sugar
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
  • pinch salt
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 15 ml yogurt {1tbsp}
  • 80 g oats {I used breakfast oats}
  • 75 g wholewheat flour {aata}
  • 50 g buttercotch chips

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 180C. Line 2 cookie trays with baking parchment.
  • Melt the chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl {in the microwave or over a double boiler}, whisk until smooth, then stir in the cocoa powder.
  • Place egg, yogurt and brown sugar in bowl of stand mixer, and whisk at high speed for 1 minute. Beat in vanilla extract, salt and baking soda, followed by the melted chocolate mix.
  • Fold in oats, whole wheat flour and butterscotch chips on the lowest speed until just combined.
  • Allow to stand for 5 minutes for oats to absorb moisture. {If the dough feels a little 'loose', add an extra spoon or two of oats.}
  • Scoop out dough with cookie scoop or drop spoonfuls on a tray, shaping as you go, at least an inch apart. Flatten with the tines of a fork.
  • Bake for approximately 20 minutes until the top feels set for a soft fudgy cookie, {I use the KitchenAid cookie tray for baking chocolate chip cookies, and the lower element only in my oven}
  • Leave to cool on tray for 5-10 minutes, then transfer to cooling rack to cool completely.
  • Store in a cool place.

Baking | Wholegrain Oatmeal Cinnamon Chocolate Chip Cookies. Chewy or crisp, pure comfort food any which way #makehalfyourgrainswhole

“Empty?! You took all the cookies!”
“They were crying to get out of the jar. Cookies get claustrophobia too, you know!”
Charles M. Schulz

Wholegrain Oatmeal Cinnamon Chocolate Chip Cookies. These are cookies that spell “P U R E  C O M F O R T”. Cookies are often the best bites to happiness, the shortest route to instant gratification. Even better if you bake them at home. These were just that and more. Some afternoons, I want need to just steal into the kitchen and bake myself into oblivion. There are a few hits and misses on days like these.Did I tell you that summer is practically here? Yes we’re on the border where spring meets summer. That means a few days of precious mulberries, curry tree blossoms, lime tree blossoms, kumquats too. Tomatoes that will hopefully ripen to a sun kissed red, then we look at notoriously high temperatures of 45C and above.

With the summer heat increasing, and the mercury literally rising by a degree everyday, summer baking needs to be minimal, quick and very fuss free. These cookies were surprisingly all this and more. They turned out darned delicious too. Inspired and adapted from a popular cookie by Deb @ Smitten Kitchen, I made mine wholegrain.

My obsession with the #makehalfyourgrainswhole often works well. With cookies, it’s a near 100% pass rate. I’ve really never understood why brownies or cookies should use refined flour since they taste really great with wholegrain. I recently made wholewheat shortbread too, a recipe I still have to share. That was another winner.These are as simple as can be. Stir a dry mix, whip the wet mix, stir gently to mix the two and you’ve got great tasting cookie dough. If the eggs are pasteurised, you could eat the dough by itself!! It tastes that good! I know because I had a little helper who was stealing away bits of dough!

So here we go. Get the stand mixer going, and in 2 minutes you have cookie dough. I love the big handy bowl of the KitchenAid. Best design ever. If cookies are comfort food, the KitchenAid is equally comforting, magical too!

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Wholegrain Oatmeal Cinnamon Chocolate Chip Cookies

Wholegrain Oatmeal Cinnamon Chocolate Chip Cookies that come together in a matter of minutes, fuss free and absolutely delicious. That they are 100% wholegrain makes them a winner. Swap the chocolate chips for raisins, maybe add some walnuts, or make them coffee chocolate chip cookies. Either way, these will disappear before you know it! This is pure comfort food.
Course Snack
Cuisine American
Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 15 minutes
Total Time 25 minutes
Servings 20 cookies

Ingredients

Dry Mix

  • 75 g wholewheat flour {aata}
  • 120 g oats
  • 3/4 tsp baking soda
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 75 g dark chooclate chips

Wet Mix

  • 100 g unsalted butter, room temperature
  • 115 g brown sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 15 g yogurt
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 3/4 tsp cinnamon powder

Instructions

  • Place all the dry ingredients in a large bowl and stir to mix.
  • Place all the wet mix ingredients in bowl of KitchenAid Stand Mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment, and process for 2 minutes on speed 3.
  • Add the dry mix and stir with paddle attachment on slowest speed for 30 seconds.
  • Let the mixture stand/rest while you preheat the oven to 180C {15-20 minutes}
  • Line 2 baking sheets with parchment.
  • Place scoops of cookie dough on the parchment, 2 inches apart,12 on each sheet. Flatten gently with the tines of a fork. {Sprinkle over a few more chocolate chips if you are feeling particularly indulgent}
  • Bake for 15-20 minutes, until the edges are done, light golden brown, and the centre is still a little soft. {Bake further 5 minutes if you like crisp cookies}.
  • Remove tray from oven, allow to stand for 5 minutes, then cool the cookies completely on the rack.

Wholegrain Dark Chocolate Almond Biscotti

“So much chocolate, so little time.”

Wholegrain Dark Chocolate Almond Biscotti … chocolate yet again because it was a hurried baking batch. Same story, different biscotti. With the better half set to travel and a last minute change in plans, I had little to almost no time to bake. I hurriedly threw these together this morning adapted from a recipe from Smitten Kitchen. One stop over at Deb’s blog, or leafing through her cookbook, leaves you inspired to hit baking mode.

For me chocolate is one of the easiest and most forgiving mediums to bake with. With my hashtag #makehalfyourgrainswhole, I can blindly experiment, knowing in the end we’ll have something edible, if not delicious. Going the whole food way has been possibly one of the most satisfying journeys of my life, if not the most exciting. Makes me want to constantly experiment, try new things. That makes life a lot less mundane too. This biscotti did just that giving me room to change things around.

Hazelnuts out. Almonds in. I added butter since I often find biscotti a little ‘skinny’ or dry. Personal choice definitely but a delicious end nevertheless. I also added dark couverture chocolate just because I like cookies that have deep, chocolaty flavour. Cocoa powder often is not enough to get you the indulgent edge. Since I threw these together with limited time on hand, I cut the slices quite thick. Taking advice from my chef friend Ruchira, next time I will freeze them a bit to try and get thinner biscotti. That is my dream and hopefully I get there one day. Biscotti with plain flour behaves a lot easier for thin slices, is also easier to handle. Thick chunky biscotti is a healthy trade off I guess!!

Recipe: Wholegrain Dark Chocolate Almond Biscotti

Summary: Comfort cookies with deep chocolaty flavour, and toasted almonds just hitting the right notes. Wholegrain Dark Chocolate Almond Biscotti might just be the answer for comfort food; never mind what the question is!!

Prep Time: 15 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour
Ingredients:

  • 75g almonds, toasted, roughly chopped
  • 50g unsalted butter
  • 75g dark chocolate
  • 1 tbsp espresso powder
  • 3 eggs
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 150g wholewheat flour
  • 60g all purpose flour
  • 40g almond meal
  • 30g good quality cocoa powder
  • Pinch of salt
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 3/4 tsp baking powder
  • 200g brown sugar

Method:

  1. Preheat oven to 180C. Line a heavy baking tray with parchment.
  2. Melt the butter and chocolate in the microwave, 1 min. Stir until smooth, then stir in espresso powder.
  3. In a large bowl stir together wholewheat flour, plain flour, almond meal, cocoa powder, salt, baking powder, baking soda, sugar and chopped almonds.
  4. Place the egg and vanilla extract in bowl of stand mixer. Whisk on high speed for 15 seconds, then add melted chocolate mix and stir on low speed for 15 seconds to combine.
  5. Add the dry mix and run mixer for 20-30 seconds on slow speed to combine. Don’t over work.
  6. Turn out onto work surface and divide into 2. Form into 2 long flat logs about 8-10″ long {or as desired}
  7. Transfer to prepared baking sheet, brush gently with water, and sprinkle over with brown sugar.
  8. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until firm to touch.
  9. Remove tray from oven, allow to cool for 5-10 minutes, then slice at an angle as thin as you like with a good sharp serrated knife.
  10. Reduce oven temperature to 150C. Return the sliced cookies back to the tray, cut side down {and up of course!} and bake for a further 20-25 minutes until crisp and dry.
  11. Cool completely on racks before storing.

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Baking | Oats Nut Crispbread … delicious, light, addictive. Simple too #wholegrain #healthy

“I figure it’s a European thing to eat cheese and crackers before a meal – that’s my afternoon snack, or I do it before dinner.”
Andrew Luck

Oats Nut Crispbread … some pleasures in life are simple. These are one of those. Nibble, nibble, nibble. This crispbread is just the right thing for healthy snacking. Also just right for the cheeseboard, with dips, fruit, crumbled over salad, layered into a savoury parfait … or then, the dough baked into bite sized canapes.

Need I say more? It’s a recipe I developed for the Saffola Fit Foodie website, and it’s one I now make often. It’s amazing how versatile oats as an ingredients can be, and also how much you can push your boundaries if you think out of the box. This recipe is just a small beginning to get you going, to encourage you perhaps to get off the refined way of life. It’s not that I don’t used all purpose flour at all, but I’m happy to say it might be a mere 5% of my baking that sees it. The odd birthday cake, some in a pizza base, maybe in bread dough paired with wholewheat, yet it’s an achievement.

And one of the easiest ways to make the wholegrain transition is via crackers. They are easy, versatile, can be rolled into submission, heartlessly broken into shards or daintily cut into perfect shapes. They are also an absolute treat to eat. Grab some really nice cheese, a chilled glass of wine if you like, fresh fruit and dry, salad leaves, micro-greens, cold cuts, some good company {else a good book} … settle yourself in a heap and get nibbling!

For me these are good any time of the day, any day of the year. Of course I love putting them together more in winter when beet greens and rocket are flourishing. Yet summer is here, a dab of feta, some caramelised onions & garlic jam, balsamic mushrooms, olives, sun dried tomatoes …. you get the drift? Now all you need to do is to make these! You knead to roll!!

Recipe: Oats Nut Crispbread

Summary: Delicious, light, addictive, versatile and simple to make, this Oats Nut Crispbread is very addictive and makes quite the perfect snack for a hungry nibble. If you are adventurous enough, you can even bake the dough into bite sized shells for canapes!

Prep Time: 15 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour
Ingredients:

  • 160 gm whole wheat flour
  • 115g oats {1 cup}
  • 40g walnuts, roughly chopped
  • 20g white sesame seeds
  • 20g black sesame seeds
  • 1½ tsp salt
  • 1½ tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp garlic powder
  • 2 tbsp /30 ml extra virgin olive oil
  • ¾ cup / 175 ml water {approx}

Method:

  1. Preheat oven to 180C. Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper.
  2. Place the flour, oats, salt, garlic powder, baking powder and walnuts in bowl of food processor, and pulse for a few seconds to chop walnuts. Add seeds and oil. Pulse briefly to mix.
  3. Turn into a large bowl, add 1/2 a cup of water and knead into a smooth firm dough, adding more water as required.
  4. Knead for 2-3 minutes, and allow to rest, covered, on the counter for 15 minutes.
  5. Roll out on a lightly floured counter, and cut into desired shapes with a fluted pastry cutter, a pizza cutter or a knife
  6. Place on prepared baking sheets and bake for 15-18 minutes until lightly coloured and golden brown on the edges.
  7. Cool on racks. Store in an airtight container in a cool place.
    Serve with dips, on a cheese board etc.

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