Orange Kissed Marmalade Bars!!

I don’t know what it is with me and the plain old freshly milled chapatti (Indian flat bread) flour. I remember in my childhood days when my mother would laboriously get the wheat kernels from the market, wash it, dry it in the huge balconies and then take it to the nearby milling shop to get it milled. She would wait till the time it’s milled to her liking and get it back at home to make fresh hot chapatti, a staple in our everyday food. Huge process!! I can’t be bothered so much. I simply just give the neighbourhood milling shop a call and get a freshly milled, warm pack of whole wheat flour at home. I am not against the ready-made packs available in the market, but really; I have never tried them, nor do I recommend using them. Anything fresh is always more beautiful and rather tasty!!

This cookie is a great way of making a filling snack for in between of bigger meals. The whole wheat flour adds on the fibre, with a fruity dose from the Kissan Real fruit Marmalade Jam.  This is my take on the various cream/jam filled biscuits available in the market. Why buy when you can make them using simple everyday ingredients???

Ingredients:

½ cup of Unsalted Butter

½ cup Vegetable Oil
2 Cup of Whole Wheat Flour
1 Egg
½ cup of Granulated White Sugar
½ tsp of Salt
2 tsp of Baking Soda
1 tsp of Vanilla Extract
Zest of 1 of an orange
½ to 2/3 cup Kissan Orange Marmalade Jam

Method:

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C and line a 9X9 inch baking pan with butter paper and set it aside for use.

In a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter, oil and sugar, till it’s light and fluffy. Add the egg, vanilla and orange zest and mix in until well combined.

Quickly with a wire whisk, mix together the dry ingredients, namely whole-wheat flour, salt and baking soda; before mixing it with the wet mix of butter, egg and sugar. It should form a pliable ball of dough.

Press 2/3 of the batter into your prepared pan evenly. Now smear on Kissan Orange Marmalade Jam all over; then crumble on the remaining dough on top. You can choose to be as messy or as precise as you wish to. Remember to leave a bit of room between the top crumbs for the jam to peek through the cookie dough.

Bake for about 30 minutes or until golden brown and crisp on top.

Allow it to cool completely, before cutting into mini bars as per your liking.

Cheers!!

Healthy Crumbs: Fig-gy Oats Cookie!!

Cookies have had a notorious reputation all its life!! It’s in actuality a meal in itself, but hardly ever consumed as one. It’s taken more as a tid-bit to be had with tea or coffee; more of a snack to be had in between big meals; an accompaniment for a sumptuous creamy dessert; anything but a healthy meal to be had alone.

I don’t think cookies are that bad if they are eaten in the right way. Even if it’s a traditionally made cookie, with refined flour, white sugar and butter, it has some nutritional content. It just has to be coupled with a high fibre accompaniment like a whole fruit smoothie or a fruit salad, and it makes an amazing meal, perfect for the two hour eating plan that many of us follow these days.

But, old habits die hard, and hence it’s very difficult to not reach for a cookie when we have a steaming cup of coffee in front of us. So here is my solution to this problem, a high fibre cookie which is made with no sugar, but is sweetened with the help of dry fruits and honey, packed with the fibrous goodness of chopped mixed nuts and complete with a little cheat ingredient, chocolate chips!!

I wasn’t confident at all about this recipe of mine. I felt it was too healthy for anyone to like. So sheepishly I took a few pieces along with me to a very health conscious friend’s dinner party and was amazed at the ladies freaking out on it. In fact I dedicate this recipe to the hostess and her friend who requested me to blog about them soon. So here are the healthy little bites which is completely guilt free and can be had and digested even as a midnight snack pang!!

Ingredients:

Dry

2 cups quick cooking oats 

¼ cup whole wheat flour

1 tsp baking powder

¼ cup flax seed powder

1 ½ tsp cinnamon powder

½ cup mixed nuts

½ cup chocolate chips

Wet

6 tbsp unsalted butter

1 cup fig

1/3 cup honey

1 egg

¼ cup fresh grated coconut

Method:

This is not one of the classic cookie recipes we have grown with. This requires few different steps, though all pretty easy to follow.

After preheating your oven to a standard 180 to 200 degrees c, get to the dry ingredients and mix them all in a big bowl.

Now melt the 6 tbsp butter and incorporate it well with the dry ingredients so as to get a lumpy wet cluster of oats and nuts. Set it aside to rest while we prep our wet ingredients.

In a food processor or a mixer, add the figs and the honey. Process till its relatively pasty and hardly any big lumps of fig is visible to the eye. Add the grated coconut and egg, and process once more to mix it well.

 Now very carefully fold in the dry ingredients to the wet ones and mix them well together. I find the handiest tool to do the task is good old pair of clean hands. That way, you are assured that every cookie gets equal amount chocolate chips and nuts.

Shape them in little spheres of 10 cm diameter. Lay them neatly on a baking tray, a cm apart, and bake them for 20 minutes or so in a preheated 180-220 degrees Celsius oven. Look for the top and sides to be browned. Once desired doneness is reached, lay it on a wire rack to cool completely. Store it for up to a fortnight in an airtight cookie jar.

Cheers!!