Baking Tips for Bars & Cookies

This tip i have noted down in my notebook from an old magazine some years back. Thought of sharing it here.

• Foil the line pans for baking bars. Once bars have cooled, you can lift the foil right out and cut the bars cleanly. The pans will only need a quick rinse & dry.
• Always bake bars on the middle rack in the oven & cookies on the top rack. If baking more than one pan at a time, place them at different angles on different racks to allow maximum circulation of heat. Alternate their placement on the racks halfway through the baking time.
• Cool cookie sheets between batches to keep unbaked cookies from melting and thinning at the edges before they can be set by the heat of the oven.

Image courtesy : google images

While cooking lentil / dhal

While cooking toor dhal / arhar dhal (thuvaram Paruppu) in pressure cooker, add 3 drops of oil to it, this will prevent spillage inside during boiling and also dhal will be cooked well.

Barley Dosai / Dosa

Barley helps in weight loss but as it generates body heat, it is advisable to have it only twice or thrice a week. My friend gave me the recipe for this Barley Dosai and it came out very well.

Ingredients :

1. Barley - 2 tea cups
2. Urad - 1/2 tea cup
3. Methi seeds - 1 tsp
4. salt to taste

Procedure :-

• Soak Barley, Urad and methi seeds together for 5 to 6 hrs.
• Grind to nice paste. The batter will only give a coarse texture, but if you touch it, will be smooth & soft.
• Mix in required salt and let it ferment till it rise.
• Heat a Dosa Tawa, grease it
• Pour a laddle of batter and spread it
• apply few drops of oil on the sides
• cook it on low flame so that you get a crispy dosa of right colour
• When one side is done (golden brown), flip it and cook till the other side is also done
• Serve hot with chutney/sambar

Chirote

This was a sweet snack recipe which i collected from my friend long ago. She got it from a recipe book. Easy to make. I made some changes to it to give it a good flavour.

Ingredients :-

Maida - 1 tea cup
Salt     - 1 pinch
Sugar - 1 1/2  tbsp
Cardamom - 3 - 4 nos.
Ghee -  1 1/2 tsp
Corn flour - 2 tsp
ghee for frying
Liquid edible Food colours of your choice



Procedure :

• Mix Maida & salt and sieve. Adding water little by litte, knead the dough
• Mix ghee & cornflour to a smooth paste. If you feel the ghee is not sufficient add few more drops to get the consistency.
• Divide the dough into equal portions as per the colours you are going to use. keeping one part plain.

• Mix each of the liquid  food colour to each part of dough and mix & knead well

• Flatten each coloured ball & plain one on a dusted board with rolling pin like a chapathi.
• Applly cornflour paste on the plain one, place a coloured one on top and apply cornflour paste on it. Do like this for all the coloured chapathis.

• Apply the paste on top chapathi and roll them together into a cylinderical shape.
• cut 1/2" thick slices, flatten them with rolling pin into thin puris.

• Heat ghee and fry them in low flame till crispy, turning the sides.
• Place on an absorbent sheet.

 

• Powder sugar along with cardamom.
• In a plate, arrange the colourful chirotes, sprinkle powdered flavoured sugar lavishly & serve.