Guava Paste – Cream Cheese Pastry

Came across this wonderful recipe on TV. It is a treat for all the guava lovers. It is a wonderful mix of sweet guava and cream cheese that compliments the flavor. Serve it hot and no guava lover will stop at just one
Guava paste comes in a bar. I got it at Fiesta Grocery store.
In India you get mango that comes in a bar. That will taste yummy too.

Ingredients:

• Puff pastry sheets (I use Pepperidge farm)
• Guava paste
• Cream cheese
• Powdered sugar (optional, for dusting)

Method:

• Let the pastry sheet sit at room temperature.
• Preheat oven to 325F.
• The puff pastry has two big sheets. Each sheet has three folds.
• Take one fold and divide it into two small rectangles.
• Roll out one rectangle and place some guava paste and cream cheese on it.



• Fold the pastry sheet and close the edges using little water.
• Prepare a baking tray by lining it with foil and spraying some oil on it.
• Place the puffs on the prepared baking tray and bake for 18 minutes(approximate) or until the pastry turns golden brown.
• Sprinkle the pastry with powdered sugar(optional).
• Serve warm.

Uthappam

Uthappam is an alternative for dosa. It is a thick dosa, garnished with vegetables and served with sambar, chutney or vegetable kurma. You can use dosa batter or idli batter for this recipe.

Ingredient for dose batter – here.

Ingredient for idli batter – here.

• Spread the batter on the dosa griddle into a circle.
• Uthappam is thicker than dosa.
• Sprinkle the uthappam with chopped onions, chopped tomatoes, chopped green chillies, curry leaves and chopped cilantro.
• Drizzle some oil down the sides.
• Flip the uthappam over and cook both the sides.
• Serve hot uthappam’s with chutney, sambar or vegetable kurma.

Happy New Year 2012

Boiled Fruit Cake

Merry Christmas Dear Friends………..This is a simple fruit cake recipe that does not require soaking the fruits in alcohol. This recipe is from JoyOfBaking . I have included shahi jeera powder(black cumin seed powder) to it that gives it the taste of an Indian fruit cake. Simply grind the black cumin into a fine powder and use just 1/2 tsp for this recipe. The baked cake tasted better when it is wrapped in plastic wrap and consumed on the third day of baking.

Ingredients:

• Light brown sugar – 1 cup
• Hot water – 1 cup
• Unsalted butter – 4 tbsps
• Ground cinnamon – 1 tsp
• Ground cloves – 1/2 tsp
• Ground ginger – 1 tsp
• Ground black cumin powder – 1/2 tsp
• Salt – 1/2 tsp
• Raisins – 1 + 1/2 cup
• Candied and Chopped mixed peel – 1 cup
• Maraschino cherries – 10
• Large Eggs – 2, lightly beaten
• All purpose flour – 1 + 1/2 cups
• Baking soda – 1 tsp
• Vanilla extract – 1 tsp

Method:

• Butter a 9×5 inch loaf pan with butter.
• Cut a piece of parchment paper to fit the bottom of the loaf pan and let the parchment paper overhang from the long side of the loaf pan.
• Butter the parchment paper.
• Mix light brown sugar, water, butter,spices, raisins, cherries and candied peels in a sauce pan and bring it to a boil over medium heat.
• Let it boil for 5 minutes.
• Let the mixture cook down to room temperature.
• Preheat oven to 350F.
• Add the beaten eggs into the fruit mixture and mix until well combined.
• Stir in the salt, flour,baking soda and vanilla extract.
• Pour this mixture into the prepared pan and bake for 45 to 60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
• Let it cool on a wire rack.
• When it cools down completely, wrap the cake using plastic wrap and let it rest on the counter for 2 days.

Sugar Cookies

Sugar cookies can be made for every occasion and can take simple to festive shapes. You can use your creativity to decorate them. Simple sprinkles, coloured sugar or icing will work.

The ingredients below yields 25 cookies.

Ingredients:

• All purpose flour – 2 cups
• Baking powder – 1/2 tsp
• Salt – 1/4 tsp
• Unsalted butter – 1/2 cup, at room temperature
• Sugar – 1 cup
• Egg – 1
• Vanilla extract – 1 tsp
• Almond extract – 1 tsp (optional)

Method:

• Mix flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl and set it aside.
• Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
• Add egg, vanilla extract and almond extract(optional) to the butter mixture and mix till well combined.
• Add the flour mixture to it and mix until just combined.
• Knead the dough into two balls and flatten the dough into disks.
• Wrap them separately in plastic wraps and refrigerate for 20 minutes.
• Preheat oven to 325F.
• Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
• Take one dough disk out of the fridge and unwrap it.
• Place it on a sheet of parchment paper sprinkled with flour.
• Roll out the dough into 1/8 inch sheet and cut shapes using a cookie cutter.
• Transfer the cookies to the cookie sheet using a spatula.
• Bake for 12 minutes( approximately) or until the edges of the cookies turn golden brown.
• Rotate tray halfway as it bakes.
• Transfer the baked cookies to a wire rack and let it cool down completely.
• Roll the remaining dough and cut out into shapes and bake them.

Ingredients for icing:

• Powdered sugar – 1 cup + 1/2 cup (sifted)
• Water – as required
• food color – desired colors

Method:

• Add water little by little to the powdered sugar and mix without lumps.
• Mix it to the consistency that you require.
• If it is too watery, add more powdered sugar.
• You can dilute it with water if the icing is too thick.
• Add desired food color to the icing and mix well.
• Use icing bags or ziplock bags to frost the cookies.

Note:

• Let the frosted cookies sit on the wire rack overnight for the frosting to dry.
• The cookies were crunchy on the day I baked them, but turned soft the next day.
• It was even better on the second day.