Last time when aayi told me to eat almonds, I bought a big pack of it, put it in freezer and forgot all about it!. I have been thinking to finish it off for a while now. But that didn’t happen. I tried to give those to Ishaan a couple of times, but he doesn’t like them. Then I made badam milk for him, but forgot all about it soon.
So last week, when I was coming home from Ishaan’s daycare, all I could think of was almonds. I wanted to bake some cookies. Ahh, it has been ages since I baked cookies. So as soon as I reached home, I baked these. I wasn’t sure if they would come out well. But they tasted heavenly, they were very crunchy and had amazing aroma of saffron. Even after almost 1 week, they tasted great.
Ingredients: 1 cup almond flour 1 cup all purpose floor 1 cup sugar 1/2 cup butter 1/8th tea spn saffron 2 tbl spn milk 1 tea spn baking powder
Method: Preheat the oven at 350F for about 10mins. Powder the almonds (I use them along with skin). Measure the powder, use 1 cup of flour. Mix the almond flour, all purose flour, sugar, baking powder. Melt the butter. Add the butter to the mixture. Mix the saffron in warm milk. Add to the mixture. Mix everything. Make small balls from the mixture and bake them in the oven at 350F for about 40mins (time depends on the size of the cookies).
Makes about 2 dozen cookies
Pictorial:
In our region, finger millet is used by many people along with other cereals. It is called Raagi in Kannada and Nanchano in Konkani. It is healthy and nutritious besides being cold to the body. It is used in preparing nanchanya bolu(a kind of drink) and nanchanya udaak especially in summer. Nanchanya duddali is a common preparation among Konkanis. It is generally prepared with coconut. We make it without coconut also. I will post that version soon.
Dals and cashew pieces are added to give a nice bite to the otherwise very soft duddalli. Serve as it is or topped with a dollop of ghee on top.
Ingredients: 1 cup finger millet (ragi/nanchne) 1 cup grated coconut 1 cup Jaggery 1 tbl spn toordal (optional) 1 tbl spn chanadal (optional) 1/2 tbl spn cashewnut pieces 1/2 tea spn cardamom powder
Method: Soak millet in water for about 2-3 hours. Grind it in mixer with about 2 cups of water and filter it using a clean and thin cloth separating the skin. Keep the filtered mixture for about 2-3 hours and discard the water that stands above the millet paste. Cook toordal, chanadal and cashewnut pieces. Coarsely grind coconut with 1/2 cup water. Add coconut paste, jaggery, dals and cashew pieces to paste and mix well. Add a little more water to keep it in liquid state. Cook it in a thick bottom pan and go on stirring. When cooked, the mixture gives transparent look. Take off the heat, add cardamom powder to this and mix well. Pour it onto a flat plate coated with ghee. When it cools, cut it with a knife coated with ghee to the size and shape of your choice.
Serves : 3-4
Pictorial:
