Tomato Tart

Baking Tart was on my To-Bake-List since quite a long time and i finally ordered a Tart pan on Amazon and i was all set to make my very first Tart and as usual my guinea pig was my family and some friends....and the Test results were successful and the Tart was a hit !!!

It had a nice crusty crust with well done filling and nothing was burnt - Aditya said "it has a right blend of spices" and everything was just so right it.....

Ingredients

1 tbspn chopped garlic
3 tablespoons olive oil
All-purpose flour, for dusting
1/2 recipe of Pie Dough
1 cup ounces Ricotta cheese
1 1/2 pounds firm but ripe tomatoes (4 medium), cored and sliced 1/4 inch thick
Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper
Shredded cheese for topping
Italian seasoning (optional)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 
2. On a lightly floured surface, roll out dough to a 1/8-inch-thick circle, about 12 inches in diameter. With a dry pastry brush, brush off the excess flour; roll the dough around the rolling pin, and lift it over a 10-inch tart pan with a removable bottom. Line the pan with the dough, pressing it into the corners. Trim the dough so that it is flush with the edges; transfer to the refrigerator to chill, about 30 minutes.
3. Spread garlic evenly on the chilled crust. Sprinkle with half of the Ricotta cheese. Arrange the tomatoes on top of the Ricotta cheese, in an overlapping circular pattern. Season with salt, seasoning and pepper. Sprinkle with remaining Ricotta cheese, and drizzle with remaining 2 tablespoons oil and Shredded cheese. Transfer to oven. 
4. Reduce temperature to 400 degrees. and bake until crust is golden and tomatoes are soft but still retain their shape, 45 to 55 minutes. Transfer to wire rack to cool for 20 minutes, and serve warm.

Tart / Pie Dough

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon sugar

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, chilled and cut into small pieces

1/4 to 1/2 cup cold water

Directions

1. In the bowl of a food processor, combine flour, salt, and sugar. Add butter, and process until the mixture resembles coarse meal, 8 to 10 seconds.
2. With machine running, add ice water in a slow, steady stream through feed tube. Pulse until dough holds together without being wet or sticky; be careful not to process more than 30 seconds. To test, squeeze a small amount together: If it is crumbly, add more ice water, 1 tablespoon at a time.
3. Divide dough into two equal balls. Flatten each ball into a disc and wrap in plastic. Transfer to the refrigerator and chill at least 1 hour. Dough may be stored, frozen, up to 1 month.

Dark Chocolate Almond Biscotti

Last weekend i was so looking forward to the new target opening up within a mile from my apartment and to be honest it really did make me happy to finally spend couple of hours there..... I and one of my very good friend Rhonda had visited Target and when we were hungry we decided to have a cup of coffee in Starbucks which was located in it.

I decided to go for my favorite Cafe Mocha ~ No Whip - 1 pump of chocolate with Almond Biscotti ... while i was chatting with Rhonda and nibbling on Biscotti i said - " Rhonda i think i can bake this stuff " and being a very good friend of mine she agreed and said "Sure you can!" and that motivated me to take this one step and bake these dark chocolate almond biscotti's.

I did lot of homework on how to bake them and i was missing out on one or the other ingredients mentioned. Some said i need pistachios, some said i need some different kind of sugar... but i had to bake them at any cost so this baking devil in me is quiet... so i decided to bake with what i have at home and these biscotti's turned out to be really well - i replaced pistachios with Almonds and used a normal sugar what i had and chocolate chips with unsweetened chocolate so they are not very sweet. Believe me it did taste the same i had in "Starbucks".... I'm not exaggerating my baking here but these Biscotti's really made me feel good about myself :)  and they are damn easy ~ trust me !!!!

Ingredients

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened, plus more for baking sheet

2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for baking sheet

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup sugar

3 large eggs

1 cup chopped Almonds

4 oz unsweetened chocolate

Directions

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour a baking sheet; set aside.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt.In a double boiler melt chocolate and keep aside. 
3. In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs; beat until well combined, scraping down sides of bowl if necessary. Add flour mixture, and stir to form a stiff dough. Stir in almonds and melted chocolate.
4. Transfer dough to prepared baking sheet; form into a slightly flattened log, about 12 by 4 inches. Bake until slightly firm, about 25 minutes. Cool about 5 minutes. Reduce oven to 300 degrees.
5. On a cutting board, using a sharp serrated knife, cut biscotti diagonally into 1-inch-thick slices. Arrange biscotti, cut sides down, on baking sheet, and bake until crisp but still slightly soft in the center, about 8 minutes.

You can enjoy these with Tea/Coffee or just a lil snack as they are very light, crunchy and less in FAT !!!
Enjoy!!!

Coconut Laddoo

Laddoo's are Aditya's fav and i think every other Indian loves them :)
These coconut laddoos are very easy to make and are not very sweet in taste... and whenver you offer them you will always get a compliment :) in return..... I learnt them from my Mom and here goes the recipe...

Ingredients -
1 small can - Condensed Milk / Milkmaid (in India)
3-4 cups - Dessicated coconut
1/2 cup - Dessicated coconut for layering
1/2 cup - Sliced Almonds (Optional)

Method -
1] In a saucepan, warm up the Condensed milk.
2] Add desicated coconut and Almonds to the saucepan and mix well for 3-4 mins till themixture looks cooked.
3] Take it out of the heat in a dish and make small laddoos out of it and roll it in the 1/2 cup dessicated coconut.

That's it - isnt it easy :)
Try it out :)

Lemon Cookies

I was going through my refrigerator and saw these nice fresh Lime lying there and the first thing came to my mind was lets Bake Lemon Cookies !!!

But i had this big question in front of me - how do i bake them? then i started adding all the ingredients i thought will be required and made these cookies and they came really well - they are less sweet, gives a hint of lime and not at all buttery :) just the way i like them ..... and luckily these were appreciated by friends and family as well ....and guys they are EGGLESS .....

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups All Purpose flour
3/4 cup Sugar
1 cup butter, softened
Zest of 1 lemon ( Medium size)
Juice of 1 lemon ( used the same lemon from which i scraped the Zest)
2 tspn Baking Powder
1 tspn Baking soda

Directions:

1. Mix all the dry ingredients except sugar in a large bowl and keep aside. 
2. In a bowl, mix sugar and butter. Beat with hand till the mixture becomes creamy. Do not overdo this step as it will introduce lot of air in the mixture which is not good for cookies. 
3. Add lemon juice and zest to the sugar-butter mixture and mix well. 
4. Add this mixture into the dry ingredients and knead a dough. 
5. Make 1/2 inch balls out of this dough and press them with hand and place on parchment paper on cookie sheet. 
6. Preheat oven at 350 degree F. Bake these cookies for 15-20 mins - Monitor in between, if you see cookies are turning golden brown, take them out from the oven. 
7. Let the cookies cool on the cooling rack for 10 mins and they are ready to eat.

These cookies are really good with Coffee :) and very light as well. 

Enjoy !!!

Cupcakes

Cupcakes ~ Yummmmm !!! thats what comes to my mind when i hear the word Cupcakes :) I had been to Indian Grocery store and i picked up Tooty-Fruity packet.... All Indians must have eaten tooty-fruity cake or tooty-fruity ice cream for sure and when i saw this packet i thought of baking a cake first; but then i thought lets try Cupcakes and i also was baking a Marble cake for one of my dear friend and some batter was left so decided to make Chocolate cupcakes as well. And both the experiments were really successful - they were Yummmy :)  Simply loved them !!! so did my friends and family.
Ingredients:

1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
4 large eggs
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup tooty-fruity pieces
1 tbspn cocoa powder

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners. Process whole pistachios, sugar, and salt in a food processor until finely ground.
2. Add butter, vanilla, and eggs, and process until smooth. Add flour, and pulse until just combined.
3. Divide batter in two bowls. In one bowl add the tooty-fruity pieces and in other bowl add cocoa powder. Mix well and fill in the muffin cups.
4. Preheat the oven at 350 degree F.
5. Bake until firm and pulling away from liners, about 28 minutes. Let cool in tins on wire racks.

Enjoy these yummy cupcakes - they are light, spongy and less sweet :)

Baked Mathri

Ingredients:

1 cup Wheat Flour
1/2 cup All-Purpose Flour (or Maida)
1/4 cup Sooji or Rava
1 tbspn Ajwain Seeds
1 tspn Black Pepper
Salt as per taste
2 tbspn Oil
Cookie Cutters (optional)

Directions:

1. In a container mix all the dry ingredients and keep aside.
2. In a small pan, heat oil and then add to the dry mixture. Mix well.
3. Knead the dough using water and wrap it up with moist cloth or cling film for 1 hr.
4. Later, divide the dough into 2-3 balls. Roll each ball and using fork poke the rolled dough. This will help the Mathris to stay flat.
5. Using cookie cutter cut the rolled dough into shapes you like. If you dont have cookie cutter, you can use any small bottle lid and cut the shapes.
6. Preheat the oven at 350 degree F (180 degree C). Arrange all the cut shapes on cookie sheet and Bake for 13-15 mins. 
7. Remove the cookie sheet when Mathris turn golden brown. 

Enjoy this healthy snack with Tea / Coffee or just like that :)