Fig and Date rolls

I have been away from blogging for a long time.  First I was busy with trip planning and then trip. Once I was back....it's my sheer laziness. This is kind of new beginning, so I want to start it with sweet. 

Date rolls are very common in our home during winter time. It's very healthy and easy to make.  I had some dates and figs both in the fridge.  Figs and dates, both together tasted really good. 

Ingredients

2 cups figs

2 cups dates

3-4 tbsp roughly chopped almonds

3-4 tbsp roughly chopped cashews

4 tbsp ghee

2 tbsp shredded coconut.

Soak the figs in water overnight, if you have dried figs. Otherwise soak them in water for one hour. Drain the water and make smooth puree with a very little water or without water.

Soak the dates in the water for one hour. Drain the water and make smooth puree of dates in similar way. 

Take one pan and heat ghee in it. When ghee is heated, add both purees. Cook the mixture stirring continuously on medium flame till excess moisture dries up. Then add all the nuts and mix well.  Let it cook for fifteen-twenty minutes, stirring continuously. Cook it till the mixture leaves the sides of pan.

Let the mixture cool for some time. Take some ghee between your palms and make bit size rolls. Coat with coconut and enjoy!!!

Notes:-

You can add other nuts as per your taste. You can also increase or decrease the quantity of nuts as per your liking.

If you have to add more water to make puree, then mixture will take more time to dry the moisture. So water will just increase the cooking time.

Ghughara/Gujiya with a Twist

Happy Holi to all!!! Finally I am out of my so called vacation mood after coming back from India trip. I wanted to make traditional holi sweet gujiya. I gave the twist to traditional recipe, because of the two reasons. The first one was to make gujiya healthy. The second reason was that I don't get ready made mavo/khoya here. I had some coconut in my freezer, so I make the filling which is normally use in modak. So here you go with the modak filling baked gujiya/ghughara...

For cover

3/4 cup maida/all purpose flour

1 to 2 tsp ghee or melted butter

luke warm water or milk

flour for dusting

For filling

3/4 cup jaggery/gud

1 cup fresh shredded coconut

1 tsp ghee

1 tsp cardamom powder

For cover

Take all the ingredients except milk, in one bowl. Knead the soft pliable dough using luke warm water or milk. Cover it and keep aside for some time.

For filling

Put the pan with ghee on medium flame. First add jaggery and when it is melted, add coconut. Cook till the mixture comes together. Add cardamom powder in the end and keep aside.

Divide the dough into 9 to 10 equal parts. Then roll them into round shape of around 3 to 4 inch diameter. Put the filling mixture on one side and then seal it using your wet fingers. Repeat the procedure with all the parts of the dough.

Preheat the oven to 375 degree F. Arrange all the gujiyas in baking tray. Bake them until both the sides are light brown.

Alternatively, you can fry them also.

Notes

There was change in taste because of baking.  If you want authenticate taste, fry them.

Event Submission

This baked  gujiyas are on their way for Purva's Holi event.

Tropical Cheesecake

It's time of holidays and everybody is baking some goodies. We had series of potlucks during last weekend. I was also thinking to bake something appropriate for Christmas. But then G wanted to eat something different in dessert or sweet. So I decided to try this tropical cheesecake, though it is not summer. Any kind of cheesecake is my favourite. Hope you all start your new year with this dessert!!

Ingredients

For crust

250 gm crushed coconut biscuits

4 tbsp unsalted butter

For filling

12 oz fat free cream cheese

1 cup reduced fat cottage cheese

one and half cup coconut cream

1 cup whipping cream

1/2 to 3/4 cup sugar

1 can crushed pineapple

2 tsp gelatin

1/4 cup passion fruit concentrated juice/any other fruit juice

For crust

Bring the butter at room temperature. Take one bowl and add coconut biscuit powder. Add butter in it. Mix it with your hand, till resembles to bread crumbs. Line the base of serving dish evenly and smoothly with biscuit mixture. Put in the refrigerator to set.

For filling

Hung the cottage cheese in cheese cloth/muslin cloth for 2-3 hours. Take one big mixing bowl. Add cream cheese,whipping cream,hung cottage cheese,coconut cream and mix well. Then add sugar in the mixture. Beat it well till it becomes smooth mixture. You can mix everything with electric hand mixer also.

Remove the excess water from crushed pineapple. Make sure there is not any water in the pineapple. Add pineapple in the cream cheese mixture.

Take one small bowl and pour fruit juice in it. Heat it 30 to 60 sec in microwave. Add gelatin in juice and stir it till it dissolves fully in it.

Add gelatin in the cream cheese mixture. Again mix everything well. Pour this filling mixture on the set base. Let it set in the refrigerator over night or at least 4-5 hours.

Serve cold by cutting into triangle pieces. Garnish with coconut flakes, sliced kiwis or any other fruit you like.

Notes:-

To cut the cake easily, run the hot water over the knife. Repeat the procedure before cutting every slice.

This is my entry to Purva's christmas feast event, tasty treat's santa's holiday challenge and yummy food's FIC white event.

Tiramisu Icecream

Tiramisu is my favourite dessert after cheesecake. This recipe is my kind of version of tiramisu ice cream. Though it is not authenticate, I like this recipe because it is quick and easy. This kind of dessert is really helpful for holiday season. The picture of this recipe doesn't look so good, because I was in hurry to cut it fast and eat right away!!

Ingredients

half pound chocolate sponge cake

1 cup mascarpone cheese

2 cup melted vanilla icecream

3 tsp instant coffee powder

1 tsp cocoa powder

1/3 cup water

Take water in one bowl and add 2 tsp instant coffee powder. Heat coffee and water mixture in microwave for 30 to 60 sec.

Take one big bowl with melted vanilla ice cream. Whisk it until smoothen with hand or electrical mixer. Then add mascarpone cheese. Again mix with mixer until ice cream and cheese mixed well.

Cut the cake into thin slices. Make lining of cake slices along the wall and the base of the serving dish. Pour half of coffee mixture on cake lining. Then pour half of cheese and ice cream mixture. Cover the entire surface of ice cream mixture with cake slice. Add the remaining coffee powder into cheese mixture. Mix it well and pour it over the cake slices.

Place the cake tin in freezer until fully set. Cut into the slices to serve. Sprinkle some cocoa powder for garnishing.

This is my entry to mansi's vegetarian thanksgiving event.

Notes

Mascarpone cheese is easily available in grocery stores.

Til/Tal ni chikki

Chikki is generally made during cold winter days from various nuts. It can be made either with jaggery or with sugar. I always like jaggery version. It is made in somewhat different way in Gujarat. You may need some trial and error to get the right kind of chikki.

Ingredients

1/2 cup jaggery

1/2 cup tal/til (sessame seeds)

1 tsp ghee (purified butter)

1/4 cup water

1 tsp sugar

Take one wide sauce pan and put it on medium heat. First add ghee. When it is heated, pour water in it. Once water start boiling, add jaggery. Stir it with spatula. Cook jaggery till it turned into brown in color.

To check the type of consistency for jaggery needed for chikki, put one small drop in cold water. If it doesn't get dissolved in water, then jaggery chasani/payo is done. Else cook it some more time and check it again in the same way.

When jaggery is cooked, add tal. Mix all of them well. Take it off from the stove. Sprinkle sugar on one flat surface. Put mixture of tal and jaggery in the centre. Roll it with rolling pin quickly. Make sure to roll the mixture before it is cooled. Roll it as thin as possible.

let it cool completely and enjoy!!

This is my entry to Madhavi's children's day event ,Srilekha's Sweets event and Daily Tiffin's low sugar sweet treats.

Puran Poli (stuffed lentil flatbread)

Puran poli is one of the famous sweet dish of gujarati and maharashtrian cuisine.It is my brother's favourite sweet dish. It is flatbread stuffed with lentils. Normally it is served with lot of ghee(purified butter). Normally it is made with tuvar dal(red gram) in gujarat and chana dal (bengal gram) in maharashtra. I use both of them and result was good. I also suggest use of jaggery if available, because it really makes difference in the taste when you use jaggery instead of sugar. Though it requires a lot of time and patience, believe me it is worth to try!!!

For Puran(stuffing)

1/2 cup tuvar dal(red gram)

1/2 cup chana dal(bengal gram)

1 cup jaggery of sugar

1/2 tspn cardamom powder

1/2 tspn nutmet powder

2-3 tspn ghee

For dough(for cover of stuffing)

3 cup whole wheat flour

water

Soak the tuvar dal and chana dal for 2-3 hours. Pressure cook both the dal in the cooker for 3-4 whistles. Let it cool for some time. Remove the extra water from the dal.

Take one big sauce pan and put it on the medium flame. Put 3-4 tspn ghee in it. When ghee is hot add jaggery in it. Once jaggery is melted, add the dal in it. Now keep the flame slow. Keep stirring the mixture continuously, so there is not any lump and to prevent it from sticking in the sauce pan. Be careful while stirring, because this mixture splutters a lot. It is done when the spatula can stand still in the mixture. At the end add cardamom powder and nutmeg powder and mix well. Take of the mixture from gas and let it cool completely.

Knead the dough using water. (dough should be soft and easily pliable life chapati dough.) Divide the dough into small balls. Roll out one ball on the flat surface into approx 75 mm dia. circle. Now place spoonful of puran(stuffing) in the centre. Fold the edges of the dough over stuffing mixture and pinch the edges together to cover the stuffing. Flatten the dough again with rolling pin into approx 100 mm dia. circle.(Apply gentle pressure while rolling otherwise stuffing will come out) . Cook it on the tava or flat griddle till the both sides are golden brown.

Smear it with ghee and serve hot with any curry or just puran poli itself.

Tips

You can make puran in microwave to save your cooking time.

Normally in gujarat puran poli is served with kadhi and moong dal.