Cranberry and Apricot Swirl Cookies ~ Pinwheel Cookies

Christmas fruit cakes have been posted on many blogs, so I thought of doing something different and yet complement the Christmas flavour. My swirl cookies or pinwheel cookies are inspired by the classic swiss rolls. They are filled with the fruity combination of cranberries and apricots, infused with the flavours and aromas of Christmas spices (cinnamon and cardamom).


Ingredients:
11/2 Cup Maida / All Purpose Flour / Self Raising Flour
1 Teaspoon of Baking Powder
1/4 Teaspoon of Salt
1/2 Cup of Butter (Cubed)
1/2 Cup of Sugar
1 Egg
1/2 Cup of Cranberries
1/2 Cup of Apricots
1/2 Cup of Raisins
1 Tablespoon of Orange Zest
1/2 Teaspoon of Cinnamon Powder
1/2 Teaspoon of Cardamom Powder
1/3 Teaspoon of Nutmeg Powder
1/2 Teaspoon of Butter
1 Teaspoon of Honey

Method:
1. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together and keep aside.
2. Take cubed butter and sugar in a bowl, and with the help of an electric beater or hand blender whisk them together for almost 3 minutes or till the butter becomes very fluffy and double in size.
3. Now add the egg in the butter mixture and whisk it again for 5 minutes. The mixture will become very fluffy and will increase in the volume. Use hand blender for whisking it makes life easy.
4. In a food processor pour the butter , egg mixture and flour, blend it till the flour turns in to a soft dough. You can knead the dough with your hands, but I prefer blending cookie dough in a food processor as it is less messy and you don't have to handle soggy dough in your hands. The dough will be soft and fluffy.

5. Wrap the cookie dough in a cling film and put in your deep freezer for 40 minutes to make the dough tough.

6. Meanwhile prepare a fruity filling. Soak raisins in a bowl of warm water for 20 minutes. In a bowl, add Cranberries, Apricots, Soaked and drained Raisins, Orange Zest, Cinnamon Powder, Cardamom powder and Nutmeg Powder. Blend them together and form a Coarse paste.
7. Add honey and butter in this fruity filling and mix properly and keep it aside.

8. Remove the tough cookie dough from the freezer and place the dough in between two wax papers or oiled cling film and roll it in a long rectangular shape.

9. Remove the top wax paper / cling film and spread the fruity filling on the rolled cookie sheet evenly.

10. With the help of the wax paper below roll it up the cookie dough. Once the dough is entirely rolled up, again cover it with a cling film and freeze it inside the freezer for 40 Minutes.

11. Preheat the oven on 180 degree Celcius.
12. Remove the roll from the freezer, unwrap it and cut the roll in to slices. These slices gives the swirl effects.
13. Place these cookies of the ungreased cookie sheets or baking paper and bake on 180 degree celcius for 8 - 10 minutes or till edges are firm and bottoms are lightly browned.
14. Once baked, remove them from the oven and allow the cookies to cool on a wire rack.
15. You can have this delicious cookies warm as well as cold and they can be stored in the air tight containers for a week. I have stored them in a cute Christmas Box.

This is my entry for my very own Christmas Feast Event

This entry also goes for Santa's Holiday Challenge and Baking for Beginners event

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Chocolate and Walnut Brownie

The brownies, also refered to as a Boston brownie, are a dense squares of chewy chocolate cake, usually containing nuts, named after its color. Brownies comes in all kinds of sizes and shapes and sometimes glazed with fudge and often containing nuts, chips, peanut butter etc. Brownies are simple to bake and is often used as an example recipe for novice chefs and bakers.

It was my Hubby's B'Day and thought to bake a Brownie this time instead of Cake. Since Rahul is not so fond of Walnuts, I have also added Almonds along with Walnuts in the Brownie. Brownies also goes well as a delicious dessert for Christmas Parties.

Instead of baking them in traditional way, I have tried to introduce few shortcuts and make it simple, and the result was dark, nutty and moist Brownie.

Ingredients:
1 Cup Maida (Plain Flour / Self Raising Flour)
3/4 Cup Butter
3/4 Cup Cocoa Powder
2 Tablespoons of Coffee
1 Tablespoon Hot Water
1/2 Cup Sugar
2 Large Eggs
2 Teaspoons Vanila Extract
1/2 Teaspoon Baking Powder
1/4 Teaspoon Salt
3/4 Cup Chopped Walnuts and Almonds
1/4 Cup Chocolate Chips

Method:
1. Combine Butter and Coco powder in a bowl. Instead of following the traditional method of melting butter and cocoa on a double boiler, I have placed the bowl in a Microwave only for 1 Minute. Once the butter is melted remove it from the microwave and mix the butter with Cocoa well and see to it there are no lumps. It should be a smooth batter.

2. In a bowl break the eggs and add sugar to it. Use a hand blender and whisk the eggs and sugar together with the blender. Whisk the eggs till the mixture becomes double in size. One can increase the amount of sugar if one prefers more sweetness.

3. Since I prefer bitter Brownie, I have combine coffee and hot water and added to the butter and cocoa mixture.

4. Now combine the Egg and sugar mixture with the butter and Cocoa mixture. Add Vanila extract and mix both the mixture properly. Hand blender comes to my rescue, I have mixed both the mixture with the help of the blender. Keep this mixture aside.

5. Now in a big deep bowl, sieve Maida, baking powder and salt together. Now add the dark chocolate combined mixture in the flour. Fold the flour with chocolate mixture and while folding the mixture add chopped nuts and chocolate chips in between. If you cannot find chocolate chips add grated dark chocolate bar or chunks. Remember to fold the mixture in one direction.

6. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celsius. Grease the Square baking tray or place a grease proof paper or Butter paper. Pour the batter in the tray, sprinkle few chopped nuts and chocolate chips on top, I have sprinkled chopped almonds as it gives nice nutty look to the brownie once it is baked. Bake the mixture for about 25 - 30 Minutes or when you pierce the tip of the knife and it comes out clean or there are cracks on the top of the mixture.

7. Remove it from the oven and allow it to cool. Then cut in to small square pieces. Brownies are best served when they are warmed and accompanied with cold vanila ice cream. The warm chocolate brownie compliments the cold ice cream.

The Other goodies prepared for the B'Day Boy will be posted soon.

This is my entry for my very own Christmas Feast Event

This entry also goes for Home Made Christmas Gifts , Santa's Holiday Challenge

and Baking for Beginners event

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Hema of Adlak's Kitchen has celebrated her 100th Post and she has showered upon me Best Blogger Friend Award, Thnak you Hema, I am really thankful to you.

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Potato and Noodle Bake, an Award and a MEME

The credit for this dish goes to my hubby. I was moarning over my injured finger and like a couch potato was watching 'Daily Cook's Challenge' on ITV. While watching this show my hubby, who is always interested in cooking unique and different dishes decides to enter the Kitchen and cook something new. I was checking with him what he is planning to cook so that even I can help him in the kitchen. As usual he replies, I dont know what I am planning to cook, will go to supermarket and pick up some ingredients and then will decide what to invent from the available ingredients. This is his old habit, he never reveals what he is planning to cook, because he himself is not sure about the same :), however his experiments are always successful and he comes up with really unique and lip smacking dishes. This time he came up with Potato and Noodle bake which was really different and delicious. So my injured finger turned out to be blessing in disguise.
Here is my entry fot Lore's Orginal Recipe Event

Ingredients:
3 Boiled Large Potatoes
2 Tablespoon of Chopped Chive (herb)
1 Cup of Boiled Black Eye Beans
11/2 Cup of boiled Noodles
1 Bunch of Spring Onions
1 Small Chopped Onion
1 Small Chopped Tomato
1 Teaspoon of Coriander- Cumin seed powder
1 Teaspoon of Red Chilli powder
1 Cup of Cheddar Cheese
Salt to taste
Butter
Oil

Method:
1. Mash the boiled potatoes, add chopped chive and salt to it and keep it aside.
2. Boil the noodles by adding one teaspoon of oil, so that they dont stick to eachother. Once the noodles are boiled drain the water.
3. Take a wok and heat the oil, add spring onion and saute them for a minute. Add the boiled noodles and salt and stir fry the noodles. Once the noodles are fried keep them aside.
4. In a same wok, heat the oil. Add chopped onions and saute till they are light pink in colour. Then add tomatoes, coriander-cumin seed powder and red chilly powder and cook till oil leaves the vessel.
5. Add boiled black eye beans, and mix well. Add 1/2 cup of water if required and in the end add salt. Cook till the gravy is thick.
6. Preheat the oven. Grease the dish with butter. Spread the stir fried noodles, then spread the Black eye beans mixture. Top it with the mashed potato mixture and in the end sprinkle cheddar cheese.
7. Bake it in the over on 180 degree celcius till the potatoes are baked and they start turning light brown.
8. Cut in to small pieces and serve it with desired sauce. We enjoyed the bake with peri peri sauce.

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Now one more feather on my blog - An Award

Suma has passed me "ROCKING GIRL BLOGGER AWARD".

Suma you have really Rock my world, thank you for thinking me worthy for this award.

I would like to pass this award to

Priti

Sripriya

Priyanka

Madhavi

Illatharasi

and

Rekha

Congratulations to all Rocking girls :)

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Now its turn for a MEME

Sripriya of Srikar's Kitchen, Sukanya and Divya has passed me with The Booky Meme.The rules of the tag are as follows:

• Pick up the nearest book
• Open to page 123
• Find the 5th sentence
• Post the next three sentences
• Tag 5 people and acknowledge the person who tagged you

Books my best pal, how can I miss this MEME. I am currently reading Jeffrey Archer's 'Kane & Abel'
These sentences happens to be:
1. ''I don't understand why you haven't opened that real estate business you ued to be so keen on, Henry.''
2. ''I can't. The time isn't quite right. The real estate market is not looking that promising at the moment.''
3. ''You've been saying that now for nearly a year; I wonder if it will ever be promising enough for you.''

I would like to pass this MEME

Priti

Sripriya

Priyanka

Madhavi

Illatharasi

Enjoy reading!!!

Don't Forget to participate in Festive Food Event ~ Rakhi - The thread of love

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