How To Tell At A Glance If My Bread Dough Has Doubled / How Do I know if My Dough Has Risen Enough

How To Tell At A Glance If My Bread Dough Has Doubled / How Do I know if My Dough Has Risen Enough. Watch my video!

Making your own dough rising bucket - big deal, hardly the greatest thing since the wheel! But I 'made' my dough bucket and thought its a very nice, if not really necessary thing to have. If you are new to baking yeast breads, yeast dough needs to be proofed till it has doubled, almost doubled etc. Since I am not a veteran bread baker (if you are one, please don't laugh!), what I normally do is place the dough in a container, stick a scale inside near the wall of the container, read the level. Then mark the level up to where it has to rise in order to double, proof till it reaches the mark. Works fine for me.

But when I saw dough rising buckets on some bakeware sites, I wishfully thought it would be really nice to have one. Then, made my own, one of those uber simple things which make you wonder why you did not do this before. Nothing very ingenious, but again, if you bake yeast breads, here is a nice, inexpensive but useful thing to have. Transparent food grade containers with lids, a permanent water-proof marker which works on plastic surfaces and a scale is all you need. And uh, maybe broad transparent adhesive tape to cover what you write, just in case the permanent marker turns out to be a temporary one.

So we first go to the nearby departmental store, buy a couple of suitable boxes. Maybe 2-3 sizes, for varying amounts of dough. I got 2. Naw, am lying, I got 3. I was scared I would probably draw a slanting line on the box and I would not be able to erase the 'permanent' mark. But my fears were completely unfounded. Nope, I did not draw a perfect straight line! I was able to easily erase the slanting line :(. So much for the permanent marker I got! Alright, slow me got another marker which read as water-proof, suitable for plastic, glass metal blah blah. The small ones for 1 1/2 cups of flour dough kind and a bigger one for more. Need enough space for dough to rise till double and still have more space left.

So wash and dry the containers. In the worst case and the poorest marker, we can use the markings at least once when we take pictures. And re-write with a better marker later! And cover with tape. Just to be sure.

I like to read the dough level in centimeters, so have marked accordingly, 1/2 a centimeter and 1 centimeter readings. Suit yourself. A straight line first.  My Math teacher will be proud of me (hopefully) - I start marking from where the scale reads 0 centimeters, then go on till the rim of the container. Allow it to dry, resist from testing the quality of the marker. Pictures first. Hardly a life-threatening situation, but take the risk later.

In goes my dough, press down gently to make it flat. Reads 4 cm. Either mark level (unbelievably, people like me actually tend to forget simple single digit numbers like 4!) with colored insulated tape kind of thing or make a note somewhere (avoid scribbling on your palm), preferably in a nice place like your baking book or recipe print-out.  And yeah, cover the lid. Keep in a warm place.

Now, when my dough reaches 8, yeah, 4+ 4 its time to put it in the pan! You could actually laze on the couch and ask your kids to tell you the reading. For all the holiday stress, this this the least they can do for you ;-). Its such a pleasure to not be in doubt whether the dough has doubled!

Please note : Let the dough proof covered with the lid closed slightly ajar, keep the bucket in a warm spot or in the refrigerator as specified in the recipe. Note down the time your dough takes to double. After you shape the bread, your dough will take approximately the same time to double again, sometimes a bit earlier too. If you press your fingertip into the dough and the indentation remains, you know it has doubled. Always follow recipe instructions. 

Now that I have shared my hi-tech bucket idea with you, could you please tell me fool-proof ways or things to permanently mark plastic with? Indelible ink? May be next time I go to cast my vote, I should bribe someone there to give me just 10 ml of that ink? How about black nail polish? Tell me!

The Island - A Review

Uncharacteristically scorching, unrelentingly hot, this is not the Bangalore I have known! The discomfort, the constant need to keep the fans whirring, guzzling gallons of buttermilk and water. Water as a drink, a sight and sound is so welcome!  An invite for dinner at The Island could not have come at a better time. Why, the name itself sounds like fun, the pictures of the restaurant charming. Well, few will not want to dine beside a cascade of water, the low tables set on raised platform, water gently flowing underneath, hammocks completing the picture. There is also an upper deck seating which gives you a view of the area below. Casual dining in a very pleasant, relaxed ambiance , think a casual party in your garden. A place where you don't need to 'dress up' for a meal out. The concept here, as the owners Mr. Kay Mikado and Mr. Pankaj Bhatia emphasize, is a casual dining lounge, affordable good food in a very nice beachfront kind of ambiance. The cuisine - Mediterranean, Fusion and Continental.

We were greeted by Priyanka of Avian Media and Mr.Vipul Khurana, the manager of The Island. Sweata, Aliena and Monika were yet to arrive. Once all of us assembled and settled down, the cool drinks were first of course. All of us opted for mocktails - The Bartender's special, Strawberry Pinacolada, Island Special and Fruit punch. They were pleasant enough, but a little too sweet to my taste. All of us could not help but notice a slightly predominant bubble-gummy flavor, almost over-powering the flavor of the fruit in the mocktails.

 

The Spicy Cheesy Corn Soup with Celery and Parmesan, served with bread was extremely tasty, quite spicy and quite unlike the ubiquitous corn soup. Don't go by the seemingly small portion of the soup, its quite heavy and you can't have one serving all by yourself unless you intend the bread and soup to be your entire meal. Definitely worth trying! There is a Chef's Special vegetarian soup and a couple of more non-vegetarian soups. We tried the House Chef Salad - greens with marinated cheese, olive, asparagus, sun-dried tomatoes, capers, oregano and vinaigrette dressing. Substantial, with lots of crunchy greens, I would have loved more of sun-dried tomatoes, cheese and asparagus in the salad, but there seemed to be almost none in the portion served, at least on my plate. I found the dressing way too sharp for us, am not sure if the salad is intended to be that way, so check before you place an order for this. If you fancy tequila, Fuji Apple and Fig salad with smoked almonds, honey, lemon and tequila dressing may interest you.

An assorted platter of appetizers was recommended by the staff as we could not decide on what to taste! The Beer-battered Onion Rings were crisp and perfect, so were the Spicy Rub Potato Wedges. The delicious Nachos (a huge serving at that) disappeared quickly, the gooey melted cheese on the crisp tortillas perfect, a very appealing contrast of textures and taste. Spicy, cheesy, gooey, crispy all at once! The Island Delight which was crispy fried vegetables in smoky BBQ sauce was truly good. The seasoned cottage cheese cubes, though very soft, tasted faintly of cardamom, but no other flavors came through, hence did not leave an impression. The Fried Cheese Balls were OK, or probably too cheesy for me. Moroccan Fried Mushroom, Bajan hummus, Per-Peri Grilled Baby Corn and Mushroom are a few more appetizers on the menu.

Predictably, our stomachs were creaking under the weight of all the food we had eaten and there was hardly any (note, I only said hardly, and not absolutely ;) space left for the main course. If Priyanka and Michelle, the internal PR Manager, were shocked at our enthusiasm to taste most of the stuff sent to us, they were too polite to show it :). The Penne Alfredo with roasted vegetables was tasty, but a tad too dry, I love my creamy pasta with lots more sauce. The Thai Red Curry with steamed rice was appreciated by the others, but I am not much of a Thai food lover. We absolutely loved the vegetable sizzler with aromatic and very flavorful rice and it was a shame I ate it when I was full (meaning when I had space only for desserts) otherwise, I would have surely loved to eat more of this. Do try this if you visit.

Now the most-looked-forward-to part of the meal - I must confess, while I am still ordering appetizers, I must have a quick peek into the deserts menu :) Dessert was sunken chocolate with a sweet coffee sauce. With a brownie like texture, barely sweet with a nutty, coffee flavor, it was a winner topped with the creamy coffee sauce. I don't know how the recipe works, but I would surely try recreating this at home - slightly sweet brownie, with a not-very-sweet sauce. Can't wait to try! There was a pineapple and coconut based dessert which was quite pleasing. There was another cheese-cake kind of textured dessert which was quite tasty as well. An enjoyable meal in great ambiance, good company and rounded off with good desserts!

Mr.Kay Mikado also plans to introduce Sunday brunch for kids with food, fun, magic and other fun activities. The idea is to get kids have a good time and great food, while the parents get to enjoy a quiet meal perhaps? A place to visit again for sure, may be when its cooler.

There is also a buffet priced at Rs.299 plus taxes from Monday to Saturday.

Go for a very pleasing ambiance and good food at affordable prices. The service was quite quick, valet parking available.The USP - the ambiance. Needs work - more desserts!  The seating can be more comfortable.

Meal for 2 - Approximately Rs. 1,200 plus taxes.

The Island is at

 #3, 80ft Road, Indiranagar, Bangalore, India 560038.

Apologies for not updating any food pictures here. I was not carrying a camera, the pictures above are courtesy Avain Media and  Burrp.

Microwave Dried Thyme & Confessions Of A Food Blogger

Cure for one obsession : get another one - Mason Cooley

Obsession - while this is not exactly unheard of, it gets a new dimension with food blogging. Obviously, people who are obsessed with food are the ones who write food blogs. This only compounds the obsession, taking it to greater heights. While the families do get to eat some new chow now and then, they also need to live with this species called as food bloggers. Here come some of my confessions about my passion and obsession...hopefully some common to the food blogger community and probably some specific to me(sheepish!)...

• Food is on my mind almost 24/7, no exaggeration. Dreams feature baking that perfect flaky croissant or what I can do next with the puff pastry. Nightmares are power cuts when your rich Christmas cake is baking or your trusted brand of chocolate out of stock...
• Storage space constraints just don't matter when I buy new baking pans or blog props. God forbid, you may see me limping tomorrow as one of these may fall on my foot - either from the overcrowded rack in the tiny dining room or from my overflowing wardrobe where I stash away some precious jumbo sized bake-ware. I guess some may be of no use to me currently, but am sure I will find it extremely useful ... may be 3 years down the line?
• Oh yeah, talking of props, those delicate dessert glasses are more for my pictures. Once I am done with the pictures and we eat out of them, any leftover desert the next day can be eaten out of the sturdy melamine bowls which can actually be tossed into the sink!
• My son mentioned he needed a plain white T-shirt for his school day, and I made sure he got it... after dragging the reluctant kid to may be just half a dozen shops for that perfect white shirt - he needs it you see. And may be it will also make a nice background for that ice cream in a cone shot, no?
• Love it when folk visit us. A chance to bake something - for a new post! That cake which I want to post, but the pictures are not quite nice. Bake it again, take the pictures, quick! hide any signs of 'shooting' before the guests arrive. But save the presentation and serve it to them like I that's how I eat food everyday!

 
• I was never interested in gardening - or may be I should admit, my only serious interest till date has been food. But I never find these fresh Italian herbs when I need them - so I grow them! Apart from oregano, basil, thyme and sage, and yeah, mint, coriander and red chillies make a great garnish, so I got to grow them all. Oh yes, I would have grown strawberries and oranges too, but I guess they don't grow all that well in a pot?
• I plan and plan for that birthday cake for hubby and kids, as I want to bake it for them of course ( please don't hurt my feelings by even thinking otherwise!). Guess it would also double up as a nice post for the blog anniversary or Valentine's Day or some such thing ?

• Just twice in my 2 years of blogging, I was so engrossed with hubby's birthday cake, I almost forgot to cook him a nice birthday lunch.. almost! - believe me. And when I am supposed to be happily singing the birthday song while hubby, son or daughter cut the cake (latest before 5.p.m before the sun goes down, we conspire for things to work like that ;-) ), I am more worried about how the cake will be cut. The first slice needs to pose for the pictures (a 15 minute break please) before its eaten...All food, freshly baked and cooked, will be eaten only once it gets photographed and cold . Patience is a virtue - which I enforce on hubby and kids - for my convenience, and my blog!

• Christmas fruit cakes - I made about 4, all different recipes of course, (picture me indignant looking) in a week. I had to get the recipe which made me happy. By the time, the 4th one was baked, hubby and kids did not want to touch candied peel or fruit with a barge-pole or smell cinnamon and cloves baking for the next 6 months. Poor things, for all that trouble, power cut ruined the best cake and blogger could not post it on Christmas Day...sigh!!
• I have more pictures of food on my computer than of my own kids. Forgive me kids - I don't even qualify for applying to be the best mother around.

• From the time I was in school, I never was one to show any bit of interest in art and craft. I filled up one entire 6'' square cloth with cross stitches, chain stitches, crochet of that vague resemblance of a flower...all over a period of one year, in that dreaded work experience class. Forgive me Sister Susan. I can still see that disapproval in your nod for the pathetic art and craft student. I hope you will be happy if you know that today, I am really interested in something which vaguely fits this category. chocolate borders, candied roses with orange peel, painting cartoon characters, heck I even made Practice 'Buttercream' - just to learn how to pipe those borders neatly.
• Being unable to attach a picture on the blog is a matter of emergency. Hubby is my tech support helpline, no down time please! My small expectations - he can request the airlines to delay the flight take off by about 10 minutes, before he flies to Dubai for that meeting to discuss software and other uninteresting things. Gosh, the internet is down and I need to recheck that recipe, he could quickly read it out to me? I promise I won't stop him from getting back on that con call with the waiting client soon after! 
• The friendly neighbor with the very pretty, immaculately manicured hands could please hold a basket of strawberries for my pictures...maybe a score or more till the non-photographer finally gets it right...Hey, hang on, I will just transfer them to the computer and check, in case I need to, could we redo?

I concede that being spouse/child/neighbor of a food blogger is not always easy, but hopefully not so bad either? All said and done, what's life if you are not passionate about something? It does make life a bit crazy at times, drives folk around you crazy...but would we have it any other way?

The obsession also makes you feel insanely good about owning a pot of thyme, for stocking up on good fragrant dried herbs, something rare to find around here, something you don't get even for a price. Most of the times, I personally find the bottled ones less fragrant, the oregano seasoning sachets which come with pizza are something I love. I love thyme and when I get a packet of this fresh herb, I like to dry it in the microwave and store it.  You could dry the herbs in the sun, but outdoor space to safely dry them and good sunlight are both real luxury for a lot of us here. Alternatively you could slow dry them in the oven at a very low temperature. Here is how we do it in the microwave...

 
Idea adapted from Champa

Wash and drain the herbs in a colander. Shake off excess water, remove from the colander, shake off any more excess water. Wipe dry with a kitchen towel. Pick out the very thick stems. Spread the thyme on a microwave safe plate in a single layer. Microwave on high power for a minute. Mix the herbs, microwave again for 2 more minutes, redistributing the herbs once after a minute. The herbs will feel fairly dry by now. If your herbs are wet, it may take another minute for them to feel dry. Microwave 3-4 times on high power for 30 seconds, redistributing them once after every 30 seconds. Once the herbs are almost completely dry, remove the plate from the oven. The herbs will dry and crisp further as they cool. Once completely dry and almost crisp, crush them between your palms or grind in the smallest jar of your mixer. Store in an airtight container. I store mine in the refrigerator.

Its worthwhile taking some time and effort to dry your herbs as it adds a lot of flavor to breads, soups, pasta...

Please note: The microwaving time may vary depending on the quantity of the herbs you microwave at a time and the power of your microwave. Do experiment with what works for you best. Be careful not to overdo the microwaving, avoid microwaving the herbs for long periods at a stretch as this may cause the herbs to burn.

Just between you and me, do you have any confessions of yours to tell me?

Mock Puff Pastry - Easy And Quick!

I am so excited! I made puff pastry at home! Albeit something which goes by the name Mock Puff Pastry, it still made me do a little jig and my heart puffed with joy! The puff pastry most of us are familiar with, is layers of flaky pastry with a savory or sweet filling we get at bakeries. The thought that this is something which can be made at home to be stored and put to such versatile use is new to me. Thanks to blogging again! How do just four ingredients like butter, flour, salt and water metamorph into flaky layers? Got to be something of a challenge to achieve!

When I first checked recipes for puff pastry, it was one made by the Daring Bakers, Michel Richard's recipe from the book Baking With Julia. With breathtaking results, this one yields 2 1/2 pounds (1 kg plus some) of dough and is made in a food processor. I was not very sure if I could do this with a hand mixer and get similar results. Puff pastry not being exactly as simple as baking brownies, what if I try it without a food processor and I do not get even passable results? Going by the accounts of the DB members, a good number of people made it a couple of times before getting it right. And in my opinion, halving and quartering recipes won't work for puff pastry - at least if you are doing it for the first time or unless you really know what you are doing.


A couple of quick and easy recipes needed sour cream as an ingredient and again, I was not sure if yogurt would be a good enough substitute in this particular recipe. Sigh! And then I came across this recipe called Mock Puff Pastry in Alice Medrich's Chewy, Gooey, Crispy, Crunchy, Melt-in-The-Mouth cookies, which does not need a food processor or sour cream or a stand mixer and yields a modest amount of pastry. Perfect!! I am glad I did not miss this recipe in the book, as its easy to, because this recipe is given in the last few pages under the chapter "Components'.

The recipe involves mixing cubes of chilled butter, flour, salt and ice cold water, forming a barely cohesive dough. This needs to be rolled into rectangles of specific dimensions, chilled in the fridge and then re-rolled as directed. Chill again for a couple of hours and your puff pastry is ready to use! As Alice says, its hard to imagine and quite intimidating at first, to see the mass of flour and butter you are expected to roll out into pastry. Its fun and easy and the results will delight you she says. You could use this for baking tartlets, palmiers and other fancy stuff, within no time at all. Aye, aye!

Before we move any further, I must confess, that though the results really pleased me and was appreciated by folk around, I kick myself for slipping at the first step - could this have been even better? Is this as good as the intended result?  Very definitely, this is very much a matter of better results with more practice. I made this twice, once when I thought I had baked a complete disaster, but turned out decent enough to eat. Second time, with a couple of lessons learnt, but a new mistake done!! In spite of this, the outcome was flaky, crisp, pastry! Which gives me hope that making good puff pastry, although, mock, is not very far off... And of course, I can't wait till I get this per..rfecct before I share this with you.

Sharing my experience, I think some pre-planning and careful execution, can surely make this easier and leave less room for error. One of the very important things is the temperature of the butter when you actually use it. Cutting the butter into cubes well ahead of time (previous day or at least 4-5 hours ahead) and refrigerating it can help. Do not freeze or pop in the freezer for some time (as I did), or it will be a wee bit hard and you won't be able to roll the dough easily. Keep the cubed butter in the fridge till you are all ready. Cut the butter into 1/2 '' cubes and chill (not chill and cut just before you use as this may cause it to soften). You may think of this as funny, but I took the half inch part quite seriously. Take no chances!

The water needs to be ice cold and you mean business here. Keep the measured quantity of water in the freezer an hour or so before you make the pastry. You don't want to measure later and find that you are short of water. You want very very cold ice water, but not ice. Adjusting the temperature of the water when you are making the pastry may make your butter softer and the dough more prone to tearing.

And remember, you need to be quick as you work with the dough throughout. This will help keep the butter and the dough cool, easier to work with.

Things you will need:
A 14'' scale
A large, wide bowl
A large metal spoon
Dough scraper
Aluminum foil - a large sheet or plastic wrap. (this needs to be big enough to wrap a 10'' sq pastry in)
A big rolling pin
A flat plate (10'' sq or more ideally, I used my 9'' sq tin)
A plastic file or a thin, flat, clean, plastic table-tennis bat kind of thing or a stiff piece of cardboard (to lift the rolled dough)
A print-out of the recipe right next to you, so that you can read it as you work.
Space in your fridge to house a 10'' sq..
An apron!

Please note : The ideal temperature to make puff pastry is apparently around 18 C. So its best made either in winter or in an air conditioned room.

Ingredients: I have weighed the ingredients

All purpose Flour - 1 3/4 cups - 220 grams / 7.875 oz
Salt - 3/4 teaspoon -
Butter, unsalted, cut into 1/2'' cubes and chilled - 227 grams / 2 sticks / 1 cup
Ice cold water - 1/2 cup, plus 2 tablespoons (if needed), keep them in separate bowls
A lot of flour for dusting the counter

Procedure: Mise en place. Clear the counter, clean, wipe dry, you need lots of space. No extra water or coffee here please, we can't risk spillage when you are engrossed in rolling the dough. Kids away please - at school preferably. Mark a rectangle of 8 by 16 inches on your counter (using a non-toxic crayon) , the 8'' side facing you. This will help you roll the dough to this dimension. Elongate the sides and mark a little away too. Once the counter is covered with flour, you can't probably see where the mark is!

Now ad verbatim from the book, some bits from me. Sift the flour and salt and put it in a large, wide bowl. Then add the chilled butter. With a large metal spoon, stir until until the butter bits are separate from each other and coated with flour. Separate the butter pieces with your fingers if needed.( I had to). Drizzle in most of the water (from 1/2 cup) and turn the mixture gently with the spoon till the water is absorbed. Lift the mixture to one side with the spoon and pour the remaining water onto the flour in the bottom of the bowl. Stir and lift the mixture until there is no longer any dry flour left at the bottom of the bowl. Add the extra 2 tablespoons of water one tablespoon after the other if necessary. (I used the extra 2 tablespoons both the times) The mixture will be loose and shaggy, literally a bowl full of butter chunks coated with damp flour amid damp raggedy pieces of dough. Do not over mix or let the butter get soft.

Now dust your counter heavily with flour. Flour your rolling pin. You need to keep dusting the work area and the rolling pin as you work if you need. (At any point of time, if you need to flour the counter, lift a part of the dough, just enough to flour underneath if needed, don't try to lift the dough completely off the counter as it will tear) . Scrape the mixture on the counter and shape it into a rough rectangle (using your hands) Press and roll out the dough to a rectangle 8'' by 16'' inches, the narrow 8'' side facing you. (Try to roll as evenly as possible. The mistake I did here was my butter was a bit too hard as I had popped it into the freezer for some time and then put in the fridge and this made rolling the dough tough. So I gathered the dough again and rolled. Ms.Alice will not approve of this, am sure! And at this point I was very very convinced that I have ruined the show again) You will see distinct pieces of butter and loose pieces of flour in the dough.  Run the flat plastic file or cardboard under the dough to detach it from the counter. Fold up the bottom third of the dough and top third of the dough down over it to make a new rectangle about 5 1/3 by 8 inches. If the dough is not cohesive enough to fold without significant breakage, slide the file folder to help you lift and fold with minimal breakage. (Dust the counter and rolling pin again if needed. In case, there is any butter sticking on the counter, scrape it off with the bench scraper).

Rotate the dough a quarter turn (now you will have the narrow 5 1/3 '' side facing you) , there may still be loose bits, roll it out again to 8 by 16 inches. By now the butter will have somewhat softened and the dough should be more cohesive, but it may still be breaking at the edges. This is OK. Using the file again, fold the bottom up and the top down to make a rectangle of 5 1/3 by 8 inches (same way as you did above). Wrap tightly in plastic wrap (I used foil) and (place it carefully on the plate or back of a square tin) and chill for 2 hours.

Clean and scrape the work surface if needed to make it smooth again. Mark a dimension of 8 by 20'' on the counter. Lightly flour the surface and the rolling pin. Working rapidly to keep the dough cool, unwrap the dough and roll it out to a rectangle 8 by 20'' inches. Fold the bottom edge up to the center and the top edge to the down to the center. (the edges will meet). Now fold the new top edge down to the bottom edge (there will be four layers of dough in a rectangle of 5 by 8''). Flour the dough and the work surface, rotate and repeat the last rolling and folding steps. Now flour the dough and roll it into a 10'' square. You could brush off any excess flour. Wrap securely with plastic wrap or foil and chill for at least 2 hours and up to 2 days. Freeze for longer usage.

Whew! I think this is easier done than said !! Before I sign off, I think of this as a good attempt, but don't you think it would have been even better if I had not slipped at the first step? There is certainly room for improvisation in terms of handling and rolling the dough evenly, getting consistent results every time. Any insights from puff pastry veterans most welcome! For puff-pastry newbies like me, its simpler when you do it, so don't shy away reading this very lengthy post! Am sure, if you follow the directions to the T, your pastry will be better than mine in terms of texture. You can be sure of updates for this post as I make this make more attempts.

For now, this space will see a couple of recipes using puff pastry as the base, at last!!

Cookie Fest - Round Up And The Winner!

As I had promised, here is the round-up of the entries I have received for my Cookie Fest. The theme was cookies of any kind, crunchy, crispy, chewy, gooey or melt-in-the-mouth..Of course the giveaway is (as if you have not read me mention this in every other post of mine recently!) is Alice Medrich's Chewy, Gooey Crispy Crunchy Melt-in-The Mouth Cookies. A very nice book with a great deal of lovely recipes listed according to texture, lots of tips and fabulous pictures which will inspire you to bake some every now and then. One book, you must add to your collection!

The entries here are mostly are in random order, but mostly in the order I have received them. Forgive me if I have messed the order! Take a look at these and bake some for yourself or scroll right down to the bottom of the post and see the winner! And no, I won't do anything funny  like I did last time. God Promise! Now please don't tell me it was not-so-funny and break my heart!!

So here we go!

Almond Flour Coconut and Cashew Cookies from Sadhana of SensibleVeg. Gluten free and egg free with a predominant almond flavor and coconut too! Yumm!! Thanks Sadhana!

Butterscotch Cookies from Aliena of What's Cooking Today. Fudgy, gooey, buttery...Butterscotch chips in every bite! Do you have any of these chips? Put them to good use! Thank you Ally!

Eggless Double Chocolate Cookies from Gayathri Ramdas Srikanth. A double dose of chocolate and eggless too, enjoy these yummy treats with a glass of milk! Thanks Gayathri!

Nan Khatai from Jyothi of Pages. The well known Indian cookie! Presented like this, its impossible to resist, particularly if you like your cookies simple and buttery...Thanks Jyothi!

Eggless Nutella Brownies from Jyothi again! Now, isn't this very serious temptation? As if brownies are not tempting enough, she adds a huge dollop of Nutella too! Am coming right over Jyothi! Thanks so much!

White Chocolate And Kaju Cookies from Simran of Lazy Cooks Kitchen. What do you do when you do not find macadamia nuts where you live? Use good old cashew-nuts instead and give them a completely new taste partner, white chocolate! Very interesting, not to mention delicious!Thanks Simran!

Eggless Lemon Cornmeal Cookies from Priya Of Priya's Easy And Tasty Recipes. One of the most enthusiastic foodies I have seen, Priya dishes out something new everyday for her family! Kudos lady! And when you host an event, she will very surely send something your way! Here are some zesty, refreshing cornmeal cookies!

Eggless Sweet Potato And Raisin Cookies from Priya of Priya's Easy And Tasty Recipes. Cookies with a hint of sweet potato and raisins too! Isn't this innovative?

Eggless Orange,White Chocolate & Oats Cookies from Priya Of Priya's Easy And Tasty Recipes. Me, for one, just can't resist the orange and dark chocolate pairing. Now white chocolate and orange, must be lovely too! Thanks for sending all these lovely cookies for me Priya!

Red Velvet Checkerboard Cookies  from Priya of Culinary Chronicles. Eye catching cookies, tough to be a kid and not find these inviting! When are you hosting the next kiddo party? Here is something for you to bake! Thank you Priya!

Peanut blossom cookies from Priya of Culinary Chronicles. Priya is not a fan of peanut butter, but loved these cookies! Now, I love peanut butter, so you better hide the cookie jar from me Priya! Thanks for sending these Priya!

Gingerbread Men from Swapna of Swapna's Cuisine. Cute little smiling gingerbread men, all dressed up in colorful icing. Christmas or not, these will bring a smile and a splash of festivity any time of the year! Thanks a lot Swapna!

 Iced Cherry Rings from Swapna of Swapna's Cuisine. Cookies with glace cherries in every bite!A holiday treat, you can't say no to! The gingerbread man there looks so happy,  hey,  they are all not for you, save some for me too!

Banoffee Slices from Swapna again. Crispy cookie base, topped with gooey caramel and further topped with whipped cream! Cookie slices which are crisp and gooey at the same time!

Garam Masala Macaroons from Deeba Rajpal. The diva of Indian baking blogs of course needs no introduction at all! I doubt if there is anything she hasn't baked and any food she has not made look anything less than absolutely stunning! Am truly, truly honored that she sent these cookies my way, thanks a zillion Deeba! Am thrilled to bits!

Macarons with a twist, Garam masala! Sandwiched with salted caramel butter cream! Super-inviting!

Vanilla Bean Chocolate Chip Wookies.
Cookies or waffles? These are wookies! These transform from sticky batter to crisp chocolate chip treats in just 2 minutes! Wondering, who emptied your cookie jar Deeba? I gobbled them up of course!!

Lemony Shortbread Cookies from Sanjeeta of Lite Bites!. She made a hundred of these buttery, zesty treats for her hubby's co-workers! With pistachio meal and the zing from lemon zest, these got to be a real treat! Thanks Sanjeeta!

Nankhatais from Sumana of Sum's Cuisine! Buttery and delightful cookies, she has managed to bake these not withstanding her super hectic schedule, just for my event! Am so very glad and touched that you baked these for me Sumana, thank you so much!

Macadamia And White Chocolate Chip Cookies from Champa of Versatile Vegetarian Kitchen. Truly a very versatile foodie, extremely talented baker, the lady who taught me to love yeast! White chocolate and macadamia nuts in a cookie, make it a real treat!

Quick Palmiers from Champa again! Flaky, sugar kissed palmiers from scratch, made quick and easy with a flaky quick base almost similar to pie crust she says, but with the addition of sour cream. Surely got to try this!

Hundereds and Thousands from Veena of Kitchen Celebrations. As you know, she is a food blogger as well, but due to some technical issues, unable to access her blog. Thanks so much for sending these colorful cookies for us Veena, and hope your blog will be up and running even before you know!

Apricot Nut Slice - Apricot jam ,nuts, coconut and cocoa topped on a par-baked cookie base and baked further. Delicious! Thanks Veena!

Snowballs - Cookies masquerading as snowballs! These come together in a flash, baked and then rolled in icing sugar. Wouldn't this be nice on your Christmas table?

A few of my cookies for the event...

Bittersweet Decadence Cookies - A whole lot of chocolate with just a little flour to hold it together, and very little butter! These make very very chocolaty cookies which are more dangerous because you can freeze the dough and have these in a matter of minutes!

Citrus Tuiles - Super thin, crisp and elegant cookies, you could decorate and shape as you wish. Little baskets, cigars, twisted strips...fill them with whipped cream or serve with ice cream! Will you believe, these are darn easy and quick to make?

Stained Glass Window Cookies  - Whole wheat and eggless, these cookies have a 'window' filled with crushed candy, which melts and hardens as you bake. This makes for ornamental cookies with  translucent centers. Perfect to hang on your Christmas tree !

New Bittersweet Brownies - Brownies with a deep chocolaty taste, a texture somewhere between cake and mousse. Do you love your chocolate? You got to try these!

 

 Thanks ladies for sending your cookies my way, am honored to receive these entries from you! Hope I have not missed out on any...

And now for the the winner....

Its Gayathri!

Congratulations Gayathri! Please email me your mailing address and your copy of the book will be very very soon on its way!!

Hard Rock Cafe - A Review

Hard Rock Cafe - Opened first in London, England, started by two music loving people, Isaac Tigrett and Peter Morton. History has it, Eric Clapton, the famous English guitarist, loved to eat at this then small American diner called Hard Rock Cafe. Clapton was a regular here and became friends with the proprietors and asked them if they could save a regular table for him and put up a plaque sort of thing for his table. The proprietors laughed and asked him if they could put up his guitar on the wall and he handed it over to them, it was put up on the wall. In a weeks time, another guitar arrived from Peter Townshend, the famous English guitarist, this was slapped on the wall as well. What started with one guitar on the wall now is 70,000 guitars, drums, pianos, scarves, jackets, handwritten lyrics and lots of other rock memorabilia, in fact, the largest collection of its kind in the world. Hard Rock Cafe now has over 173 venues across 52 countries in the world. A place for good music and great times, with American fare served here, this place believes in 'Love All, Serve All'' philosophy, welcoming everyone regardless of class or creed.

HRC Bangalore, is on St.Marks Road, opposite the LIC building. You can't miss the retro feel of the place as you enter it, housed in an old building on the busy road, valet parking is available, thankfully! The cafe consists of a 100 seat restaurant, a bar and the signature retail rock shop. HRC with Avian Media had called a few food bloggers including Geetha, Ally, Madhuri and me for a sampling of their Mexican menu as part of the Mexican Fiesta which was on till 20th of this month. My sincere apologies to Avain media for being unable to put up this review earlier.

The first thing that you notice about the place is its remarkably different ambiance, with its very high ceilings, the rock memorabilia on the walls. If you are a hard rock lover, you would love to soak in this and take a leisurely walk through the cafe, browse the collection and take your time over the meal with your favorite numbers played by the live band. Since we were there at lunch time, the music was very noticeably low, very much unlike a rock cafe. The music goes up a few decibels only during the happy hours and in the evenings, we were told.

 Mexican food is synonymous to spicy and tongue tickling fare and having it in a place as well known as the HRC was indeed very enticing. Since most of us were vegetarians and we wanted to taste all the vegetarian dishes on the menu, we requested for a serving of each of the dishes. The Chef obliged and made vegetarian versions of the non-vegetarian dishes as well. Geeta and Madhuri ordered their cocktails, while I asked for a Virgin Pina Colada. It was really refreshing and delicious, but I could get no further beyond the first few sips when our food started to arrive. The first to arrive was Spicy American Corn and Danish Mozarella Samosette which was extremely delicious, with the burst of melting cheese encased in crispy Pyhllo. Yummm!! I loved eating this as is and chose to taste the fresh roasted tomato salsa separetely. The pesto mayonnaise was a true creamy, creamy delight and we could not get enough of the samosette and the dip, requested for another serving.

We had a vegetarian version of the Seasoned Chicken and Corn Tacos, with cottage cheese in place of the chicken. Crisp taco shells filled with a spicy mix of cottage cheese, lettuce, tomatoes,olives and spring onion , served with homemade guacamole and sourcream. The tacos were good, though I must say the guacamole did not impress.

We also tasted the Tostadas topped with cottage cheese, caramelized onions, roasted sweet red peppers, topped with cheddar cheese and jalapenos. Since the portions are huge, our tummies were already groaning under the wight of all the food and drink. Then came the Albequerque Cottage cheese & Veg Burrito which are tortillas laced with chilli garlic mayo, topped with tomato rice, cottage cheese and assorted vegetables. Served alongside fries, guacamole and sour cream. Very, very, very substantial to say the least!!

We were still left with the famous burgers of HRC and we could seriously eat NO MORE! We had tiny portions of the vegetarian burger, which again came with Cajun fries and guacamole. The burger was good, but given that we were stuffed completely, we could do no justice to it.

A stuffed stomach still and always has room for dessert. The only dessert on the Mexican menu was Black and White, chocolate pyramids with roasted cinnamon, served with vanilla ice cream and a drizzle of chipotle sauce. I am not much of a chilli in my desserts person, so I can' really say I enjoyed the dessert with the spicy sauce. But it was a huge disappointment to not have choice for dessert as I was really really looking forward to this part of the meal with more authentic Mexican desserts.

My opinion: Non-vegetarians will have a ball at this cafe, but the vegetarain versions on the Mexican menu could certainly do with more than cottage cheese in most dishes. And less ice in the drinks would be a suggestion as my Virgin Pina Colada which was really refreshing the few sips, was nothing much than sweetish cold water by the time we were half way through the meal. Food presentation and plating definitely can do with a lot more attention.

The regular menu has better options for the vegetarians - of them Nachos, salads, onion rings, white cheddar smashed potatoes, burgers and of course the desserts! More information on their site here.

Vegetarian, love hard rock and fine with limited food options? You must then surely go, more for the ambience than the food. Not a hard rock person and vegetarian? This is not the place for you. Non-vegetarian, love your cocktails and crazy about rock?? You must surely go!

Thanks HRC and Avain Media for having us over. A special note of thanks to Chef Vikas Pathak for accommodating our request for veggie versions and dishing up the Mexican fare for us. We will not forget the samosette in a hurry!