Custard Malai Cookies

Source:

Asma Haidery, HBG


Ingredients:

Maida - 2 cups

Custard Powder - 1/2 cup

Malai/Milk Topping - 3/4 cup

Oil - 1/4 cup

Baking Powder - 1/2 tsp

Baking Soda - 1/8 tsp or a big pinch

Icing Sugar - 1/2 cup

Powdered Sugar - 1/2 cup

Salt - 1/4 tsp

Vanilla Essence - 1 tsp

Milk - At room temperature, just enough to add if you feel your dough is dry

Method:

1.  Preheat oven for 10 minutes at 160 degrees.

2.  Sieve maida, custard powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.  Keep aside.

3.  In a bowl, whisk together icing sugar, powdered sugar, malai, and vanilla essence to form a smooth paste.

4.  Then, add oil and mix well until combined together.

5.  Add the sieved dry ingredients slowly to the whisked wet ingredients and mix well.  Do not knead the dough too hard.  Just bind all the ingredients together softly.  The consistency of the final dough will be soft, shiny, and yellow in color.  Because of the oil in it, it will not stick to your hands.  You can apply ghee to your hands while rolling the dough balls if you desire.

6.  Make smooth, round balls and place it in a greased or lined baking tray.  Make in batches of the quantity that your baking tray would hold.  Place the dough balls at a distance between them as they would need space to expand while baking.

7.  Now, with a fork, press each of these cookie dough balls to make it a bit flat.

8.  Bake these cookies in a preheated oven for 12 to 15 minutes at 160 degrees.  The time may vary according to the size of your cookies. So, just keep a watch on them and switch off the oven when the edges start to change color.

9.  Once done, cool them down to room temperature.  They will be soft at the beginning but will become crispier and crunchier after sometime.

Store in airtight containers.

Khoa Peni

Source:

Mrs. Visalakshmi Ravi


Ingredients:

For Khoa:

Milk - 1 liter

Sugar - 100 gm


For the Poori:

Dalda - 100 gm

Maida - 400 gm

Salt - As per taste


For the Sugar Syrup (Jeera):

Sugar - 400 gm

Water - 100 mL


Process:

1.  For khoa, boil milk in medium flame until it is thick and reduced and becomes almost half liter.  Now add sugar and boil more until it becomes semi solid to khoa consistency.  Cool.  Keep aside.

2.  For poori, sieve maida and add melted and cooled dalda and salt and make a dough.  If needed, sprinkle water to make poori dough.  Keep closed for 1 hour.

3.  For the jeera, boil sugar and water to one string consistency.  Keep aside and allow to cool.

Make big sized chappathis/rotis and cut out medium sized pooris with a lid from it.  Place about a teaspoon of khoa in the center.  Close the poori to make a semi circle (half moon shape) sealing the edges with water applied on one side of the poori to stick it up.  Deep fry these khoa stuffed pooris in hot oil on medium flame.  Soak them in sugar syrup (jeera) for about 2 minutes and place them on a separate plate.  Allow to cool and serve garnished to finely chopped nuts.  Your khoa peni is ready.