Valentine's Day cookies

These simple sugar cookies are sure to steal the heart of your loved ones............

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ingredients:
 

All purpose flour - 1 1/2 cups

Granulated sugar - 1/2 cup

Salt - 1/4 tsp

Baking powder - 1/2 tsp

Vanilla extract - 1 tsp

Butter - 2 tbsp.

Food color - optional



 

 

Method:

 

In a separate bowl whisk together the flour, salt, and baking soda. Set aside.

In the bowl of your electric mixer (or with a hand mixer), beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy (about 3 to 4 minutes). Add the vanilla extract and beat until combined. Add the flour mixture and beat until you have a smooth dough.

 

Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for about one hour (or overnight) or until firm enough to roll.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (177 degrees C) and place rack in the center of the oven. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. 

Remove the chilled dough from the refrigerator and, on a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough to a thickness of 1/4 inch. (Keep turning the dough as you roll, making sure the dough does not stick to the counter.) Cut out shapes using a lightly floured cookie cutter and transfer cookies to the prepared baking sheet. Place the baking sheets with the unbaked cookies in the refrigerator for 10 to 15 minutes to chill the dough which prevents the cookies from spreading and losing their shape while baking

 

Bake them for 12 - 15 minutes. Timings will vary for the oven. So always keep an eye as it will burn out easily. I decorated one batch of my cookies with food coloring. (I simply mixed sugar and food color and kept on top of the cookies). There are so many frostings available on market. You may try some of those to make your cookies more colorful..



My First Doughnut

It was my wedding anniversary a few days back. When I came across the recipe of Doughnuts, I've saved it for this occasion as we don't make desserts that often. And I did tried the basic sugar glazed doughnuts for the special day and we all liked it. Though it was not as good as the store bought fresh ones, it was close to it. And also I got the satisfaction of making it on my own. Next time I would love to try the different versions.

And I had some excess dough, which I don't want to fry and keep (as doughnuts loose their taste the next day), I made some naans with that, and they were really fabulous - super soft than my regular ones.. So its a two in one dough. Cool isn't it? So here comes the recipe.

Recipe Source: Vahrehvah

Ingredients:

All purpose flour - 2 cups
Egg - 1
Milk - 70 ml
Water - 70 ml
Active dry yeast - 1 tsp
Salt - 1/2 tsp
Sugar - 1 tsp
Butter - 1/8 of a stick

For coating:
Powdered sugar and cinnamon powder

Method:

Take a bowl add sugar, dry east, water, milk, salt, egg, mix it till the sugar melts,

Then add all purpose flour, mix it well make in to a dough and kneading for 5 to 7 minutes and add butter again kneading for 3 minutes and rest it for 30 minutes in a warm place, after 30 minutes give knock back and again rest for 30minutes.

Take the dough and with help of rolling pin roll it into ½ inch sheet and cut the doughnuts with doughnut cutter, transfer in to the tray, then rest for 10 to 15 minutes to rise.

Heat oil in a pan and deep fry the doughnuts in a slow flame till brown in color, take in a serving plate and sprinkle some casting sugar along with cinnamon on it.

Tips:
More kneading helps in a better soft dough and nice fluffy doughnuts

To cut the doughnuts, first cut the outer circle and remove them. Then cut the inner circle.

For frying, keep the flame very low. Don't overcrowd the doughnuts, as they will rise in the oil. Give some space.