Bourbon biscuits

A glass of warm milk and plate of freshly baked Bourbon biscuits, Oh its great !
Bourbon biscuit is one of our favorite biscuits from the childhood. We all grew up eating this biscuit. Hope everybody agree with me. Even last week we bought two pack from an Indian Grocery and finished it on our way back from the shop. FYI, the distance from the shop to our home is only 2 miles. We can't stop eating after having one. I like the large crystal sugar on top of the biscuit.

I used to wonder how they make this biscuits. Even in my dreams I never thought of baking one by myself. 
But I did it, I baked my all time favorite Bourbon yesterday.
Thanks to Nithu, she commented in couple of my earlier posts. When I visited her space the first post I saw in 'Nithus's Kitchen' was Bourbon biscuit. Can't believe by myself, can we do these biscuits at home? If yes, then why shouldn't I try at once ?

Whenever I am trying a new recipe, always I will call my husband and tell him . About this Bourbon, I didn't give him any clue. Wanted to surprise him. Quickly went to the kitchen, took all the ingredients and started working on the biscuits. Since its our favorite one, I doubled all the measures.
Did a couple of changes from the original recipe.
**Instead of granulated sugar, I used Brown sugar.
** And I used 1/4 cup Vegetable oil and 1/4 cup butter. This is because I had only one butter stick, I needed 1/4 for cream, so...
Rest all I followed the same from the original recipe For the recipe, click here

The biscuits turned out perfect. Indeed my husband was little shocked on seeing this. He was so happy and announced that from now on he is going to stop buying outside. How is it !

Healthy quick snack

First flurries of this season drizzling outside and I am feeling chilly and cold inside. Wanted to munch something hot to warm up myself from the cold. The first thing came to mind are Pakodas.

Sometimes if it is raining, my mom will make crunchy hot fried items like Pakodas, Bhajjis and Vathal. We all sit and enjoy eating under soft glow of candle light, this is because of the Power cut in India. As you all know if its electricity department see a lightning or a thunder they will switch off the power. Oh God, when this is going to change in India?

Now coming to my story, I wanted to eat hot crunchy pakodas at the same time I wanted it to be healthy. This again because of the spark from the sudden flash on Sunday. Didn't you read that yet, click here to know more about it.

I baked the pakodas, which I tried from Trendy Relish. To make little more healthier I added some vegetables in it. The recipe is very simple and easy. Hardly I spent 10 minutes to prepare and 20 to 25 min for baking.

Ingredients : 1cup -- Chickpea/Besan Flour 3 tbsp -- Rice Flour I no -- Medium size onion 1 cup -- cut vegetables** 2 no -- Green chillies Salt as per taste Oil ** I used some green and orange bell peppers, Cabbage. I stopped using baking powder for this, as this is baking well for me. But in the actual recipe they used 3/4tsp of baking powder. So the choice is yours. Method : --- Preheat the oven to 400 F --- Mix the dry ingredients well. --- Add cut vegetables, green chillies and onions to the dry mixture . --- To the mixture add 2 tsp of oil. Oil will give some crisp effect to the pakodas. You can very will omit this. --- Add water little by little to the mixture, until everything binds well. If its little watery no problem, add some more flour and adjust. --- Line the cookie sheet with Parchment paper, otherwise the batter will stick into it. I spoiled one cookie sheet like this. Experience talk :)) --- On the sheet, take the batter in small portions and arrange them. No need to give more space in between each uncooked pakodas, since its not going to expand like cookies. But make sure they are not touching each other, --- Using pastry brush, brush some oil on the uncooked pakodas. This is get a nice golden brown color on the pakodas --- Bake it in the oven for 20 to 25 minutes. After 10 minutes, take the sheet out and turn the pakodas and brush some oil and bake for another 10 to 15 minutes. --- After 15 minutes healthy crunchy snack is ready to serve.

This is one of the best way to make kids to eat vegetables.

Whole Wheat Pizza

Did anyone say NO to pizza ? That too if it is made of cent percent healthy stuffs.

Last Sunday, I took the kitchen cleaning job. Though I live in America, still my litchen is very Indian. Like our mom does in her kitchen, I changed all the kitchen cabinet papers and put them a new one. When I was doing so, I came across an article from a health magazine, which I was using to put inside the cabinets.
'7 Steps to eat clean and healthy food in the dirty world'

1. Be a (Mostly) Vegetarian
2. Eat Organic
3. Skip the White stuff
4. Count the ingredients
5. Identify it
6. Eat the whole thing
7. Ban the brew

Suddenly, a light flashed inside me. Being a vegetarian, at least I should follow some simple steps to stay healthy. This Whole wheat pizza is the one spark from that flash.
This is 100% whole wheat pizza with lots of green vegetables and cheese. In my dictionary, Pizza means cheese and cheese means Pizza. Everybody might think that this girl has put this much cheese on her pizza and still calling healthy. Oh yes, the main highlight in this Pizza is the cheese. Its a gluten free, cholesterol free with 0g trans fat. I found this amazing cheese alternative from 'Whole Foods' organic shop.

You can find lot different flavoured cheese alternative in this brand. I am a big fan of this. These cheese alternatives are best substitute for the fatty cheese.
Twice I bought whole wheat pizza crust, wanted to try the same at home and the result was very encouraging. I would like to share the recipe, so you all can also enjoy a healthy comfort cheese pizza.

Ingredients : For Pizza Base: 3 & 3/4 cup -- Whole wheat flour 1 pack -- Dry yeast 2 tsp -- Olive oil 1/2 tsp -- honey / sugar 1 tsp -- Salt For Topping 2 to 3 cups -- Rice shreds cheese alternative** 1/2 cup -- finely chopped green and yellow bell pepper** 1/2 cup -- finely chopped onion** 1/2 cup -- sliced tomatoes** 1/4 cup -- Organic tomato basil sauce** **Above are the things which I used, you can always change or add your style of toppings. Method: --- For pizza base, take a cup of  Luke warm water to activate the dry yeast. The water should be neither hot or cold. I do not have any food thermometer at home. To activate the yeast I take half a cup of water. Put it on the stove for about 30 - 40 seconds and switch off the heat and add remaining half cup water. This is my small trick to activate the yeast. If it works to you, share it with me. --- In the warm water add the full pack of yeast and honey / sugar. Let this mixture stand for 5 minutes. Warm water is to activate the yeast and Sugar/ Honey is the food for the yeast. --- Now you can see a thick layer of foam over the water, if not probably the yeast is not activated. Better luck next time, you have to try again with fresh pack. --- When the yeast is ready to use, mix it with the wheat flour + salt. Add water in little, as you start kneading the dough. ---  Once the dough is ready, apply the oil over the dough and cover it with a damp towel for couple of hours. --- This is the time span yeast will take to grow. After an hour you can see the whole dough has doubled in size. --- Knead the dough and again keep it for an hour. --- Pizza dough is ready to roll. Cut the whole dough into four quarters. You can make a 9" pizza from a quarter, if you  are not going to use all, take unused dough apply olive oil and put it in a zip log bag and throw it inside the freezer, it will last for minimum 2 month. --- Roll the dough to 1/4" thick, add the toppings and bake it in the oven for 425 F for 12 to 15 minutes. Yummy, cheesy, healthy pizza will come out of the hot oven.

Now tell me, did anyone say NO to this organic healthy pizza ?