One bowl Cocoa bars

A while back, I won a giveaway held by Aparna. Aparna sent me a lovely book called Weeknight Desserts by Beatrice Ojakangas. It is full of simple,quick and delicious sweet treats.
This one bowl cocoa bar is from the book that she sent me. It is quick and super easy to whip up and tastes really good. My daughter who is a big fan of Cafe Coffee Day brownies said that this tastes just like that....and coming from a cake-a-holic, that is a H.U.G.E compliment.

What you need:
All purpose flour - 1.5 cups
Cocoa powder - 1/2 cup
Butter - 4 oz
Vanilla extract - 1 tsp
Egg - 1
Baking soda - 1/2 tsp
Sugar - 1 cup
Buttermilk - 3/4 cup

Mix all the ingredients in a large bowl until well blended. Preheat oven to 175 degrees. Pour the batter into a greased baking pan and bake for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Cool and cut into squares.
There, didn't I say this was simple?
Enjoy!!!
This is my third post for BM#6 and the theme for the day is Shelf stable goodies for kids.
Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM#6 hosted by Srivalli

Iyengar bakery style stuffed potato buns

These buns are fresh off the oven. I just made these, ate one.....have a plate with another one on my side.....and am typing out this recipe as I take generous bites. These are seriously so soft,so good and so tasty......just like you would get at any of the Iyengar bakeries in Bangalore. I have decided that whenever the craving for these strikes, I am making them at home, and not buying them. They are that good.
Before I tell you again how good they are, I must thank Lata for giving me this recipe, and also for being kind enough to convert the recipe from measurements in grams to cups. Thank you, Lata.
Before I start raving about how good these are AGAIN, let us get to the recipe.
What you need:
Maida/All purpose flour - 2 cups, heaped
Active dry yeast - 1 tbsp
Salt - 1 tsp
Sugar - 3 tbsp
Milk - 2/3 cups
Softened butter - 2 tbsp (heaped)
Vanaspati/Vegetable shortening - 1 tbsp
Curd/Yogurt - 1 tbsp
For the masala/stuffing:
Potato - 3 small, cooked, peeled and mashed
Carrot - 2 small, cooked and mashed
Onion - 1, chopped fine
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
Oil - 1 tbsp
Garam masala - 1/4 tsp
Corriander leaves - a little, chopped fine

Heat oil in a pan. Add the onions and saute till they begin to brown. Add turmeric powder, mashed vegetables, garam masala and salt. Add 1/4 cup of water. Stir well and then heat until moisture evaporates completely and the masala comes together. Garnish with corriander leaves and keep aside.

To make buns:
Take the maida,salt and sugar(keep aside a tsp for proofing yeast)in a large mixing bowl. Add a tsp of sugar and a little lukewarm milk to the yeast. Keep it covered until it starts to bubble. Make a well in the centre of the flour and pour the yeast in. Mix in butter, vegetable shortening, milk and yogurt. Knead to a soft, pliable dough. Keep covered until it doubles in volume. This take about an hour and a half. Punch down and divide the dough into eight equal balls. Divide the prepared masala into 8 balls that are half the size of the dough balls. I had some left over masala which was tasty enough to eat on its own. Now, take one ball of dough in your hand and flatten it into a circle. The dough has enough butter in it to not stick to your hands. Place the masala ball in the centre and then pull the sides to close the masala. Flatten and smooth into a circle again. Place it in a greased baking tray with the closed side facing down.
Cover with a wet towel and set aside for 15-20 minutes for it to rise again. Meanwhile, preheat your oven to 175 degrees. All my baking is done in a convection microwave oven. I do not have a preheat function in my oven....so usually I just turn it on for 10 minutes at 175 degrees and that does the trick.
Just before baking, apply an egg wash to the top of each bun. To prepare egg wash, lightly beat an egg, along with a tbsp of water and then brush it over the top of the buns. Bake for 20-22 minutes or until the top turns a nice brown and the centre, when touched, has a nice spring to it.
Eat hot off the oven, or warm up and serve later.

This is my first post for Blogging Marathon#6 week 2, under the category picnic food.
Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM#6 hosted by Srivalli

Bangalore Iyengar bakery Kara biscuit - Indian Cooking Challenge

When Valli announced the Indian Cooking Challenge for this month, I was thrilled. I had already seen this recipe at Champa's and written a mental note to myself to try it out. One of the things I like most about living in Bangalore is the abundance of Iyengar bakeries and the small eats that they serve. Kara biscuits are the husband's favourite, while I am partial to the potato buns.

What you need:
Maida/all purpose flour - 2 cups
Butter(at room temperature) - 1/3 cup
Salt - 1 tsp
Sugar - 4 tsp
Green chillies - 4
Coriander - a fistful, chopped fine
Curry leaves - a fistful, chopped fine
Curd/yogurt - 7 tbsp

Mix the flour and salt together in a bowl. Cream the butter and sugar well. Add the curd and continue beating. Add in all the other ingredients and gently continue mixing. The original recipe only calls for 2 or at the most 3 tbsp of curd. However, this gave me a very, very crumbly mixture which could not be rolled out. So I kept adding curd, 1 tbsp at a time and trying to roll out the dough. This could be done only after adding 7 tbsp of curd.
Roll out the dough into a 1/4 inch thick circle.
Cut it into desired shape using a cookie cutter. I shaped some into diamonds and some into hearts.
Bake at 150 degrees for 20 - 25 minutes or until the biscuits start to brown at the bottom.
What I think of the biscuits:
Everyone else who has tried this for the ICC is singing praises of these biscuits. So I am sure I must have done something wrong, though I can't figure out what it is. Maybe it is all that extra curd or all that extra baking time.
While I have a really nice tasting biscuit, I could never serve it to anybody and tell them that it is supposed to be a biscuit because it just doesn't have the crispness or the texture that you associate with a biscuit. It was kind of soft when I took it out of the oven and even after cooling, baking for another five minutes and then heating in microwave mode for 2 minutes, the inside remained chewy and soft, though the outside turned brown. As far as the taste and the aroma goes, though, this one scores big. I just wish I could have got the right texture.