Whole wheat nankhatai and the weekend that went

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Whole wheat nankhatai | The novice HousewifeDuring the weekend we met up with our friends and one of them mentioned how she had made nankhatai for evening tea the other day. And that how quick it was. I was reminded how I had not made these eggless indian cookies for a while now and thought I should.

So yesterday I made them from a recipe that I posted 4 years back. The previously posted nankhatai recipe is now updated with a printable version and you can check it out here. A few people have used the recipe to give as diwali gifts too . Since diwali is not any time soon, you can just bake them for a nice evening time snack. The hint of cardamom combined with rich taste of ghee, make this cookies a great tea time treat. Generally made with all purpose flour, I use whole wheat to make them a little healthier.

Besides talking about nankhatai, we had a great weekend. V was out the whole week for work and came back on Saturday. Three of his Duke friends were also in town for the weekend and it was two days filled with drinking, eating and lot of fun.

Coconut rice pudding at Malai Kitchen

Coconut rice pudding at Malai Kitchen

 

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Chocolate Crinkle cookies

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Chocolate Crinkle Cookies| The Novice Housewife

There is not enough that I can say that would do justice to how good these chocolate crinkle cookies were. Crunchy exterior and almost a cake like interior and the perfect treat for any chocolate lover. Take my word for it and bake them today.

I have never had these cookies elsewhere but the texture of these always intrigued me and after I saw a few of my favorite IG accounts posting about them, I had to try them out.

I got the recipe off the America’s Test Kitchen Step By Step Holiday Baking Magazine. Its on their website as well and if cooking is your love their site is a good place to search for recipes. I tried a bunch of the magazine’s recipes during christmas- besides the chocolate crinkle cookies I tried their rosemary and olive bread and the british scones. All were great and made our christmas meals special.  You can see pictures of the food on my instagram account.

Chocolate Crinkle Cookies| The Novice Housewife

While the cookies are relatively straight forward to make, they are a few points for a successful crinkle cookie that America’s Test Kitchen tells to keep in mind:

  • One is the use of both baking powder and baking soda.
  • Two, bake from dough that has been left at room temperature for ten minutes and not straight out of the refrigerator.
  • Three, using unsweetened chocolate keeps the cookies from being overly sweet
  • Four, roll dough in both granulated and confectioners’ sugar. The granulated sugar acts as a barrier that keeps the confectioners sugar from dissolving into the cookie while baking; thus resulting in crinkle tops with a black and white top.

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Peanut Butter Cookies

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cookies-062
I know its a Tuesday and I know I haven’t been regular with GMT postings but I am sure the recipe for these peanut butter cookies will make up for the lack of me posting something Indian.

Last week was rough- a tragedy happened during the renovation of our house which ended up in a worker’s death. It shook all of us and I can not even imagine what his family must have gone through. But life had to move on.

Then an order that I worked on did not survive the 5 hour journey the customer took and it was the first time I was experiencing such a thing, so that to did not bring any cheer to the week.  But lessons were learnt and hopefully it won’t happen again.

Anyway, I guess life is too short to live in worry and stress and sadness. We need to accept that things won’t always sail smoothly, and its ok.

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