Mango cupcakes with Mango Buttercream frosting

The mango season came this year and has already almost gone. 

Summers for me has always been synonymous with the love for mangoes. I remember soaking them for few hours in water and then chilling them to devour after lunch and dinner. Yes, two times a day. I have always loved mangoes. For us the season to relish this fruit starts with the arrival of Langra. It is the most loved variety in my house. We do compromise with the taste of a Dussheri but that is when Langra has already bid farewell. 

Every year I look forward to all the yummy treats I can whip up with the King of fruits. But this year, mangoes arrived and I just did not feel like picking them up. The reason being last year Vaanya, my daughter, fell sick and developed rashes all over her body and we believed that it was the heat of the mangoes that made her sick. 

Only at the fag end when the mangoes are bidding adieu with the promise to come next year, I decided to put my hands on a Mango cupcake with Mango Buttercream frosting. 

I spoilt one batch of cupcakes due to my over enthusiasm of putting too much fresh pulp in the batter. For the next batch I decided to reduce the moisture from the mango pulp by cooking over low heat. This yielded me cupcakes full and bursting with the mango flavour. And I decide to get overboard with the flavour by adding some of it to the Buttercream frosting as well. I had made some Mango sandesh which I reserved to make some cute decoration to beautify my cupcakes. 

After clicking pictures, Vaanya leapt on the cupcakes and gave me the best compliments in her toddler language declaring them to be 'Delicious' and kept saying 'yum yum' throughout. Luckily with my camera beside, I could take some lovely shots of the beautiful moment. 

Ingredients : Yields 5-6 medium sized cupcakes

• 1/2 cup all purpose flour
• 50 gm butter, at room temperature
• 1/4 cup powdered sugar (adjust according to the sweetness of the mango)
• 1 egg
• Mango pulp from 1 medium sized mango
• 1/2 tsp baking powder

Frosting : 

• 3 tbsp white butter, softened (you can instead use amul butter and use twice the amount of sugar)
• 3 tbsp icing sugar
• 1 tsp or more of the mango pulp

Procedure : 

Mango Cupcakes :  

Prepare mango pulp by peeling and chopping the mango and processing it in a mixer. Do not forget to strain it to remove any threads from the fruit.

Take this pulp in a non stick pan and mix with 1/2 the quantity of sugar i.e. 2 tbsp. Cook over low heat, stirring continuously, till the mixture thickens and reduces to half the quantity. Keep aside and allow to cool.

Preheat oven to 180 degree Celsius and prepare cupcake moulds with a cupcake liner or simply grease and flour it.

Take butter and remaining sugar (2 tbsp) in a bowl and beat till pale and creamy. Add the reduced mango pulp and mix it well.(Keep a tsp reserved for the frosting)

Sift all purpose flour with the baking powder. 

Add egg and flour mixture to the butter-sugar mixture and mix till incorporated well. Do not overbeat.

Pour the batter equally into the prepared moulds till 3/4 full. 

Bake for 15-20 minutes or till a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Allow to cool.

Mango Buttercream Frosting : 

Mix butter and icing sugar very well. Add a tsp of the reduced mango pulp and mix. You may use fresh mango pulp too. Add more if you want more colour and flavour. 

Transfer to a piping bag fitted with a star nozzle and refrigerate for 15-20 mins to set and for the flavour to enhance.

Take it out before piping and allow to rest for 5 minutes.

Pipe on the cooled cupcakes and decorate with a flower and leaf decoration made out of Mango sandesh. Check here how to make Mango sandesh. 

I made the flower by pinching four small balls together and shaping them as a flower. For the leaf, I added a tiny drop of green food colour to the mango sandesh dough and shaped as a leaf. 

Notes : 

• Use 1/4 cup of fresh mango pulp in the cupcake batter instead of cooking the mango pulp.
• Do not add any water while making the mango pulp. And do not add too much of the mango pulp to the batter as too much liquid imparted by it will hinder proper baking.
• You may take the cheats way out and make the flower and leaf decoration with mashed paneer. Add food colour of your choice.
• You may enjoy the mango cupcake without any frosting too. 

Happy Mango relishing

Amrita

Linzer Cookies

Time and again I get into this phase where I do not get the energy or enthusiasm to write on the blog. Do not get me wrong. I do not stop experimenting and clicking pictures of the food that we eat. It is just that, you feel stuck at times and want some time to get out of it and share again. I have several recipes waiting in my drafts that I really want to share, some experiments that went surprisingly well, some grandma recipes that I relish everyday and also some recipes that failed.

So here I am back again sharing a recipe that I tried as part of our monthly challenge at Baking partners. February is the month of romance and the perfect month to put your hands on some warm and fuzzy bakes. I, as usual, reduced the recipe to suit our little family of three. 

Linzer cookies are famous all around the world and are pretty easy to make. All you need to do is make the dough and cut out shapes and bake. It is then sandwiched with jam. 

Let me confess that I have never liked jam in my life. I mean, I am the kind who hates the widely loved butter and jam sandwich. Therefore I bought a small pouch of jam good enough to just sandwich these cookies. To my surprise Vaanya, my almost three year old daughter, loved it immensely. She kept licking the jam so very sweetly and I as a mother was so happy to see it. 

These cookies were a winner at my home. In fact, I had to hide one sandwiched cookie for Vishal, as Vaanya and me were very quick to finish them. Truly a perfect Valentine treat for 14th February which also happened to be our 4th Marriage Anniversary this year.

Recipe source : Swathi Iyer, Adapted from the book by Alice Medrich, Chewy, Gooey, Crispy, Crunchy

Ingredients : I reduced the recipe by ¼ to yield 4 sandwiched cookies.

• ¼ cup All purpose flour
• 2 tbsp ground almonds, blanched and powdered (see notes)
• 3 tsp granulated sugar
• Pinch of salt
• ¼ tsp cinnamon powder
• 1 tbsp butter, room temperature
• A drop of almond extract(optional)
• ¼ tsp grated lemon zest
• Mixed fruit jam (or any other of your choice)
• Icing sugar for dusting

Procedure:

Combine flour, ground almonds, sugar, salt, cinnamon powder, almond extract, lemon zest in a bowl.

Add butter and mix well till the mixture comes together as a ball. (If required, add little milk)

Flatten the dough ball and wrap it with clingfilm. Refrigerate for 2 hours or overnight. You can even keep it upto 3 days. The dough can be freezed for 3 months.

Before rolling the cookies, allow the dough to come to room temperature. 

Preheat oven to 170 degree Celsius.

Take out the dough and roll it 1/8” thick.

Cut out 8 round shape with a cookie cutter. I used my 2” round cookie cutter.

You can use scraps and roll it again to cut shapes.

Cut out a heart shape in the middle of 4 round cut outs.

Line and grease a baking tray and place the cookie cut outs. Refrigerate for 15 minutes to firm up the cookies.

Bake for 20-25 minutes or till the cookies have browned well.

Allow to cool.

Spread a layer of jam on the round cookie and sandwich with the heart cut out. Sprinkle the icing sugar on top.

Notes : 

• Blanch almonds by dropping them in boiling water for 5 minutes. Strain and dry them on a kitchen towel. Dry roast on a pan or in the oven till just about dry, for 3-4 minutes. Do not let them brown.  Then grind them to a powder along with a tsp of sugar. 
• You can use any other shape of cookie cutter, though round is more traditional. 
• Try with any other flavour of jam.

Happy cookie making
Amrita

Mini Mug Gingerbread house

As a child, I,  like many others was always fascinated with the witches house in Hansel and Gretel. I mean who will not fancy a house made of Gingerbread  and cakes with candies and chocolate all over. Having never tasted a Gingerbread cookie and a long hidden desire to put my hands on a gingerbread house, made me decide to try these adorable mini Gingerbread houses. These can perch on your mugs and look very cute. 

I added my own touch to these cookies by adding Nolen gur in the dough instead of normal jaggery. Not being a big fan of ginger myself, these cookies are not overpowering with the ginger taste (as I always thought). In fact, the spices along with jaggery and honey gives it a very unique flavour. 

Ideally the Gingerbread house calls for the use of Royal icing to join the pieces together. Having my own constraint of not wanting to use raw egg whites, I decide to try a basic icing where icing sugar is diluted to required consistency with some lemon juice and/or milk. The Gingerbread house required heaps of patience as the pieces were so fragile while joining and would fall apart. I had to join them again and again and finally said a short prayer and left them to dry. Thankfully they held themselves together finally. 

I also made some Gingerbread men with the leftover dough and decorated them with the same icing. 

Recipe source : Adapted from Taste.com.au

Ingredients : For 5 Mini gingerbread houses and 15 Gingerbread men

• 50 gm butter, at room temperature
• 1/4 cup jaggery, grated(I used Nolen gur)
• 1/2 egg(Beat one egg in a bowl and use half quantity) 
• 1 1/2 tbsp honey
• 1 1/4 cup all purpose flour
• 1/2 tbsp ginger powder(I used saunth-dry ginger powder)
• 1/4 tbsp cinnamon powder
• 6-7 cloves, dry roasted and powdered
• 1/4 tsp grated nutmeg
• 8-10 black pepper, ground
• 1 cardamom, powdered
• 1/8 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• pinch of salt

Icing:

• 5-6 tbsp icing sugar
• few drops of lemon juice
• little milk for diluting

Procedure : 

Gingerbread dough:

Take jaggery and butter in a bowl and beat till pale and creamy. 

Mix in honey and egg.

Sift flour, ginger powder, all spices, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add to the bowl.

Knead dough using hands till it comes together smooth and soft. 

Wrap in a plastic and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 180 degree Celsius.

Roll out dough 1/4 " thick and cut out desired shapes form it.

I used my Gingerbread man cutter and a template for the Gingerbread house.

Place on a butter paper/parchment lined baking tray and bake for 8-10 minutes or till they brown well.

Allow to cool.

Icing:

Mix icing sugar with few drops of lemon juice and some milk to get a thick consistency good enough for piping. 

Fill a piping bag/Ziplock/plastic bag with this icing and snip off the end.

Make desired design on all the pieces.

Use some icing to stick colourful sprinkles on the cookies.

Leave to dry.

Use the same icing sugar as a glue to join pieces of the gingerbread house.

Note : 

• Cut out the template on a piece of thick paper/cardboard and use it to cut out shapes from the dough.
• Keep a check on the cookies while baking to prevent overbrowning.
• You can omit the egg and use some milk for kneading the dough. 
• The joining of Gingerbread house pieces require some patience and precision as the house can fall apart. After fixing the pieces let it dry completely before touching.

Sending this recipe to 'Kolkata Food Blogger's ongoing baking event 'Baking Palooza 2013

Happy Mini Gingerbread house enjoying
Amrita

Rangoli Shortbread Cookies

Diwali is the festival of lights and is a contaction of the word Deepawali which literally translates to 'rows of lights'. 

Living in kolkata, I have been lucky to be part of the amazing culture where each and every festival is celebrated with equal zest irrespective of the religion. Diwali for us at home meant lots of homemade sweets, lots of cleaning before the festival and lots of fun decorating the house with candles/diyas and then playing with fireworks. We would go to our nearby Gurudwara in the evening to light candles and diyas there, the significance of which I learned later. 

For Sikhs, Diwali is particularly important because it celebrates the release from prison of the sixth guru, Guru Hargobind, and 52 other princes with him, in 1619 and hence called Bandi Chhor Diwas. The Sikh tradition holds that the Emperor Jahangir had imprisoned Guru Hargobind and 52 princes. The Emperor was asked to release Guru Hargobind which he agreed to do. However, Guru Hargobind asked that the princes be released also. The Emperor agreed, but said only those who could hold onto his cloak tail would be allowed to leave the prison. This was in order to limit the number of prisoners who could leave. However, Guru Hargobind had a cloak made with 52 pieces of string and so each prince was able to hold onto one string and leave prison.

Sikhs celebrated the return of Guru Hargobind by lighting the Golden Temple and this tradition continues today.

 

 Ingredients : 

For around 10 shortbread cookies

• 1/2 cup All purpose flour
• 2 tbsp sugar, powdered
• a pinch of salt
• 1/4 cup unsalted butter
• 2-3 drops vanilla essence

For the sugar icing 

• 1/4 cup icing sugar
• 1 tsp milk (you may require more for diluting) 
• food colours

Procedure :

Shortbread cookies

Beat butter in a bowl till creamy. Add sugar and beat. Mix in vanilla and stir in flour and salt. Knead the ingredients into a ball and wrap in a plastic to refrigerate for an hour. 

Preheat oven to 180 degree Celsius. 

Line a baking tray.

Roll out dough to 1/4 " thick circle and use a cookie cutter to get the round shaped ones. 

For the diya shaped cookies, make markings on the rolled dough with a knife and cut through.

Place all cut cookies on the baking tray and refrigerate for 15 mins. 

Bake for 10-15 mins or till the cookies get a nice brown tinge. 

Sugar Icing 

Combine icing sugar and milk till smooth. Try to get a thicker consistency so that you can pipe the design on the cookies. If it looks runny add more icing sugar to get it right. 

Fill a piping bag/plastic cone with the sugar icing and pipe rangoli outline designs on the cookies. 

Dilute the remaining icing with little milk and take spoonfuls of it on a plate according to the number of colours you plan to use. 

Add few drops of the food colour to each and adjust the colours to your liking.

With a toothpick fill the outlined cookies with the desired colours. 

Allow to dry completely.

My ccokies in progress

 Notes : 

• The sugar icing gets dried fast so you cannot make it and leave. You will need to fill the cookies with it immediately.
• Make different shapes by simply making designs on the rolled dough with a knife.  You may also make templates on a cardboard and then place on the rolled dough.
• Refrigerate the cut cookies form the dough so that they maintain their shape while getting baked.

Wishing you all a very happy and safe Diwali

Amrita and Vishal