Bebinca

With Christmas around the corner, I am sure most of you might be baking a lot of goodies for your family. With the covid-19 and lockdown here, we have been indulging in a lot of cooking experiments. It just doesn't see the light of the blog. Well the reason is pure laziness which I try to cover up by blaming on the technical glitches - instagram which doesn't let me post the links, image hosting sites changing their storage policies frequently etc.  Anyways, I am trying to make sure, that I post atleast one post per week this christmas season. I thought the comeback should be done with a special bake of the festive season - Bebinca. It is an Indo Portugese desert which is very popular esp. during the christmas season in Goa. This melt in the mouth pudding does require some effort, but all the effort seems to be worth it when you happen to taste it. So yum !

Without waiting another minute, lets move on to the recipe. I came across this  recipe when a fellow blogger had published it during my initials days of blogging. The very look of it made me tempt, because I had been looking out for the name of this dessert which I had, when I was a kid, and my tastebuds seemed to have recollected it from the memories. Without wasting any time, I tried the recipe. As usual, when a recipe is a success, I do note down the recipe, for future reference. Now when I look her up, I am unable to locate the blog. Well this is exactly what happens, when we stay disconnected with the blogging world. I hope that if you are reading this post, let me know so that I can link back to your blog. 

Tutti Fruiti Cookies

When its the happiest time of the year, you got to cook something that would look happy too. These cookies bring out that prettiness in the form of mosaic pattern of red, green and yellow that makes it so perfect to bake in this season.

Not just in its looks, they taste great too. Moreover, it is very easy to make. I usually do these for parties, where in I just make and chill the dough the previous day so that all I got to do is just slice and pop it in the oven on the day of the party. That way I don't have to deal with the messier part of making these cookies. At the same time, serve these cookies fresh for the party. 

Ingredients

1. 1 stick of softened unsalted butter
2. 1/3 cup of sugar
3. 1/2 tsp of Orange zest
4. 3/4 cup of tutti fruiti
5. 3/4 tsp fo vanilla extract
6. A pinch of salt
7. 1 cup of flour

Method

• Beat the softened butter and sugar untill creamy. Add the orange zest, tutti fruiti, vanilla extract, salt and flour.
• Beat it again untill combined.
• Remove the dough on to the counter top and shape it into a log of about 1 1/2 inch in thickness. Wrap it in a cling wrap and chill it in the refrigerator for about an hour.
• Preheat the oven to 350 F.
• Slice the dough log into cookies of even thickness and spread it on a baking sheet.
• Bake it in the oven for about 12-15 minutes or untill they are golden brown around the edges.
• Remove it onto a wired rack to cool down before you store it in a air tight container.

Tips

1. Chilling the dough helps to let the dough turn firm to help in cutting it evenly. So do not skip on that one.
2. If using salted butter, avoid adding the salt in the recipe.

Cranberry and Pistachio Cookies ~ Eggless

Eggless christmas treats is always a thing of worry for me when I pack the christmas treats for friends who don't consume eggs esp. because I believe that eggs is an unavoidable ingredient in cakes and cookies. Their absence is always felt in terms of quality of a baked goodie. But this cookie proves it all wrong to me. Its eggless and I can't tell you how many I ate at one go and so did my two boys. They are so good with the bite of cranberry and pistachio as a bonus. They hardly last at our place.

I have a recent crush on these cranberries. I didn't like them earlier but since last year I am kind of hooked. I can't get enough of them, either in the form of fresh or dried ones. They have been impressive every single form that I have tried it. These cookies are just one of them. The recipe for these awesome cookies is as below.

Chocolate Crinkle Cookies

When you have a chocolate fan at home, most bakes tend to be chocolaty. Jordan keeps asking for chocolate cake, chocolate cookie at weird hours of the day - just before going to bed or as soon as he wakes up. And I keep promising that I would offer him soon if he does his jobs quickly. He usually takes an hour or more to finish breakfast. So these chocolate cakes/cookies turn out to be something to bribe him to make eat something healthy before going for it.

These cookies were a super hit the first time I made it. He was little then. I handed over one warm cookie, while he was watching TV and he not only ate it but also kept calling out to me saying 'It's nice mama...It's delicious Mama...It's tasty Mama...:) Now he usually acknowledges, when something served to him is good or delicious. But this time it happened when he was totally engrossed into Peppa Pig. So I knew it was really yum for him and he kept coming back to the kitchen to get another once and then another. After couple of them I had to literally hide it. Kids, I say, are the honest of all taste testers. Jordan wouldn't hesitate to say straight on my face that 'Mama It's yucky' if he doesn't like something. So I have hired him as my taste tester ..he he. And he has been doing a good job so far.