Barely a few hours to leave for the Food Bloggers Connect in London and I am still hopelessly distracted. So much to do, so little time. And then the hair brained idea to use pink pepper in cookies.It keeps taking over my insane imagination, even though I knew I had so much more to do. Loose ends to tie, brownies to bake for the kids snack box, a pound cake to make for them too, apples that are lying on the kitchen counter crying themselves hoarse to be baked into dessert. I thought I would do no such thing, leave in a calm composed manner, let them miss me & dessert…realise my true worth etc!
In the meantime, the ‘mama‘ mode in Mr PAB hasn’t kicked in yet . He’s been trying to take over Mama duties in my absence, and it just isn’t happening. I’m still doing the laundry, making BIG eyes at him, saying this is what ‘Mama PAB’ should be doing now. Poor guy … he’s overwhelmed at the thought of running home & looking after the kids for 4 days. Ain’t easy to deal with a teen; thankfully the boy at 10 is a blessing; always a smile. And suddenly, with an uneasy feeling of her mother going, the daughter has begun to be rather nice, unlike the edgy teen we get to see!!
I’ve been in baking mode all of yesterday… something like jump into a bag & bake myself to death mode. Made them a coffee pound cake, made them brownies & made them some shortbread cookies. I have to admit they’re having a field day, & have had a good go at the pound cake & cookies.
The shortbread cookies are a sudden obsession. Of course I shouldn’t have made them as I didn’t have time … but the pink peppercorn that this lovely Mumbai blogger Anushruti @ Divine Taste mailed has had me mesmerised. It’s from her mother’s garden down in South India & the flavours are entirely intriguing. Mildly spicy, but with a lingering aroma. Used them in a pink peppercorn chicken curry a few days ago, but had cookies on my mind. Cookies for Anushruti because I know she’s a vegatarian, and bakes eggless too. Had an idea developing in my mind for a bit, and couldn’t resist throwing these together. They have a hint of a surprise if you are expecting just ‘sweet’ shortbread. The kids were slightly taken aback, but sports that they are, the taste grew on them. I like the idea of pepper, chili, chocolate in cookies desserts, and these were yum, simple & different. Without much ado, here we go…
Pink Peppercorn & Chocolate Chip Shortbread Ingredients: 1/2 cup butter (room temperature) 5 tbsps vanilla or Castor Sugar 2 tbsps pink peppercorn + 1/2 tsp granulated sugar 1 1/2 cup flour Powdered sugar for sifting on top Dark melted chocolate for topping if desired Method: Preheat the oven to 190 degrees C. Lightly grease 2 baking sheets. Coarsely grind the pepper in a pestle & mortar with 1/2 a tsp of granulated sugar. Beat the butter & sugar till creamy & soft. I do this by hand. Mix in the pink peppercorn coarsely ground. (I do this too by hand & don’t use the mixer at all for this recipe). Gradually add the flour and gently pull the dough in together to form a soft ball. Chill for an hour. Roll out on a lightly floured surface to about 1/2 ” thickness, and cut into shapes. Put on the baking sheet, bake for 12-15 minutes until light golden brown. Remove to a cookie rack to cool. Dip into melted chocolate & leave to set. Makes about 2-3 dozen 3″ cookies.
“It’s Spring fever. That’s what the name of it is.
And when you’ve got it, you want… oh, you don’t quite know what it is you do want,
but it just fairly makes your heart ache, you want it so!” Mark Twain
It’s Easter Sunday, the kids are chomping away at these yum shortbread cookies like little Easter bunnies. Making these iced cookies have been a totally relaxing & therapeutic experience for me. Colour=Mood Upliftment! Good tasting, good looking food is even better! I’ve been trying to put this post out since early this morning, but somehow life doesn’t respond to my hypnotic powers on holidays. It’s almost evening & I’ve now got a little time to myself. I have many people in mind as I post these… my friend Chhoti in Kiev who was my Easter connection here, Chrissie in France who just made an orange chutney to go with duck, Hopie-an American in Paris who is my BFF from BloggerAid , Coco-the Purple Foodie who I wish I could mail these to, Rosie in the UK who was my source of inspiration for these, Nic in Kent & Manggy in Manila who crack me up with their banter & nonsensicals…I was exhausted. Decided to Spring clean, & the kids decided to call friends over. I was run ragged racing around because they’ve been home for the last too many days … Spring break of sorts here! My life’s turned upside down, dragging them out of bed at 9, when I’m pretty much used to them being out of the house by 7.30! Twitteredabout it, & Meeta tweeted back to say, ‘Go & bake Deeba, it’ll relax you’. Do you TWITTER? Well if you don’t, this might be a good time to begin. Must warn you that it’s addictive … as all good things in life are!How right that sounded, only that I’d baked pizzas for them all morning, but was off looking for inspiration almost instantly.Where else to seek sweet relief but blog land! Batteries recharged, was back with many plans the next morning … the primary one being iced cookies for Sunday. Other plans that materialised were a ‘Cheese, Garlic & Oregano Swirled Artisan Loaf’, oven roasted new potato wedges inspired by Helen’s tweet a few days ago, served with a chipotle based dip using a mind-blowing Mexican chipotle paste Nic mailed from the UK recently, & fresh herbs marinated grilled chicken. Aaaaaaah bliss! Will post the bread soon…
Easter has a strange significance in my life having studied in convents all along. It’s many things that mingle … Spring, Easter lilies, the bunny & Easter eggs that my aunt would get from London each year – all in one! I still remember going to the beautiful church in CJM, New Delhi, to escape classes, & standing in long lines for ‘Holy Communion’ with my bunch of friends, often trying to climb the metallic steps to ring the bell. That never happened, but I can still feel the the calmness & coolness of the interiors of the cathedral that we used to shatter with our incessant giggling!
When I had kids, Easter meant an egg hunt for my little ones, bonnet for the daughter, basket & all. Now they’ve grown up, but still went on a ‘silly’ hunt today just to munch on some sweet treats. The daughter has been on my case for ages to do some fun stuff in the kitchen. One look at Rosie’s post & I was INSPIRED! I hardly do iced cookies any more since the kids have grown, but these had me hook, line & sinker. I wanted to make them right away. First thing in the morning yesterday, made my brown sugar shortbread cookie dough. It’s simple; I beat it by hand & love the results. Have to keep in mind the warm weather here though, because they tend to get a little fragile in summer (I increase the flour a bit if need be).I used those as a base for the royal icing & boy, did we have fun all afternoon. Sonny boy got VERY involved too as he wanted to “ice too Mama”! Before I knew it, almost all the little flowers had been smuggled out, silently, one by one, by his little hands. He plastered each one of them with smileys!!I got 1-2 initially, but that was all. For probably the first time in my life, I let go & let the 2 of them enjoy themselves with the icing. I’m so proud of myself that I didn’t lose control & yell at the mess & sugar all over my hair & theirs. Take a look … that’s exactly what they did – have FUN as the daughter’s cookie states! Even managed half a smile when they were done, & just said bye & walked off leaving me with a hugely messy kitchen!
ICED BROWN SUGAR SHORTBREAD
Ingredients:
125gms butter; room temperature
5 tbsps brown sugar; ground
1 1/2 cup plain flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
A pinch of salt
1 tsp almond essence; optional
Icing:
200gms icing sugar
1 egg white
Food colouring as required
Method:
Preheat oven to 150C. Lightly grease 2-3 baking sheets.
Sift the flour + baking powder + salt.
Beat the butter, sugar & essence till fluffy.
Put the flour in & mix to a dough. Chill for an hour in clingwrap.
Roll out, cut shapes & bake for 12-15 minutes till light golden brown. I roll mine out fairly thin so it takes about 10-12 minutes. Thicker shortbread takes longer.
Cool completely on racks before icing.
Makes 2-3 dozen cookies depending on size & thickness.
For the icing:
Whisk the egg white till soft peaks form. Gradually add the sugar & whisk till of desired icing consistency. Put into separate bowls & colour as desired. Leave a little white for outlining & detailing. You can thin some of the colours with a drop of water for flooding.
Pipe onto cookies. Allow to set completely before stacking.
