Chocolate Raspberry Sandwich Cookies

   Sometimes you just want to kill the evening when you have a super excited son and a completely drained mommy. Those are the times when I want him to sit with something instead of frog hopping or running. I offered him a lot of options like reading, painting and all he did was suggest me frog hopping and running...offcourse with a smile that I cant say No to..Then I finally decided to tell him I will give cookies if you go and play..oh come on you guys do that too...right... So after 5 minutes of playing he came running for the cookies. Now to fight with a 3 year old over cookies is something you rarely want to do...because they always win it...No matter what.:(..So finally there I was searching for a simple recipe with less work.

    That when I found this recipe and thought of keeping my son busy with it. So we started with the work. Mixing and rolling was done by me and half of the cutting as my son got quite bored after doing one set. He was much interested playing with all purpose flour as a powder.So at the end I had a completely white faced son..:), quite bit of white floor and these delicious cookies.

Raspberry Jam:

Raspberry-1 cup
Sugar-1 cup
Lemon juice-1/2 tsp

Method of preparation:
1. Wash the raspberries and pat them dry.
2. Add the sugar to raspberries and crush them little and set aside for 15 minutes.
3. Heat a pan and add this mixture to it. Mash the raspberries little more and cook the mixture till it boils and then add the lemon juice and mix till it becomes thick. It wont take much time.
4. Turn off the heat when its done and transfer it to a clean bottle.

Chocolate Cookies:

All Pourpose Flour -3/4 cup

Cocoa Powder-1/2 cup
Butter-6 tbsp(at room temp)
Salt a pinch
Brown Sugar-3/4 cup+ 1 tbsp
Egg-1 large
Vanilla-1 tsp

Method of Preparation:
1. In a bowl mix the flour, cocoa powder and salt. Set aside.
2. Beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.Beat in the egg and vanilla on low speed.
3. Add in the dry ingredients and mix well. Roll the dough into two balls and set aside in the refrigerator to chill for about 1 hour.
4. Preheat the oven to 350F. Take a ball of dough and place it between two parcment papers. Now slightly press the dough and using a rolling pin roll it to 1/4 inch thick.
5. Using a cookie cutter cut out shapes. Do dip the cutter in flour to prevent sticking of the dough to cutter.
6. Place the cut out cookies on baking sheet and bake for 10 to 12 mins. Let cool on a wire rack.
7. Once cooled transfer them to an airtight container. Five minutes before serving sandwich the jam between two cookies.

Notes:
1. When the dough becomes soft and difficult to handle keep it back in the refrigerator.

Chakka varatti/Jackfruit preserve

"Chakka" in Malayalam means Jackfruit and "varatti" means to cook by continuously stirring until the water in it goes.Chakka varatti is a  traditional recipe in kerala. As jackfruit is a seasonal fruit and it grows in abundance in kerala people store them for future use by preparing this varatti. It has a long shelf life if prepared properly. This is prepared in a heavy bottomed vessel known as Uruli and it requires lot of muscles to stir...;)...
No No...I dint make it...Infact I got it without any pain...Mom made it for me and had packed it too...My hubby and airport employees helped me to get it to US..I enjoyed eating spoon full of these(still continuing) and made some recipes with it...
So here is the recipe from Amma...

Method of Preparation:
1. Clean and deseed the jackfruit(Varikkyachakka),Cut to pieces and pressure cook it for 2 whistle.(Add 1/2 cup water if u feel that the fruit has less water,like it has thin flesh).Open once pressure goes.
2. If water is there then dry it by heating with the cooker lid open.
3. Once cooled grind it to smooth paste in mixer.
4. Heat jaggery along with 1/2 cup water to form syrup.Strain the syrup for impurities and keep aside.
5. Now heat a thick bottemed vessel(usually uruli, but anything wud do) and add 2 tbsp ghee, add the jackfruit paste to it along with the jaggery syrup and cook on medium heat , stirring continuously.Keep on adding ghee in between see that varatti doesn't stick to the bottom of vessel.
6. Once it forms thick try aplying thin layer of the varatti at the bottom of uruli with laddle.Continue this along with stirring.See that the varatti doesn't stick at the bottom.Once it starts to come from the edges stop cooking.
7. Cool and preserve in bharani/glass jar.

Notes:
1. If you feel that you need more sweetness after completing the cooking, just add the jaggery syrup/cubes along with ghee(Step 5 & 6).
2. Whole cooking process to make chakka varatti can be done in 2 or 3 days.
3. 500 gms of ghee is completely needed for above process.Add more if needed.
4. Thick bottomed vessel should be used to make it.
5. The end product will be thick and in rollable  form.

Linking this to Serve it series-Serve it -Preserved @ Krithi's Kitchen and Denny's Space

Grapes strawberry Jam

My first attempt at making jams.....a great success...I never thought that its so easy...It turned out very good...and my kid loved it...

Red grapes-2 cup
Strawberries-10 no(hulled)
Lime juice- 1 nd 1/2 tsp
Sugar-10tbsp

1. Grind the grapes and strawberries to puree without water.If you want keep 2 to 3 strawberries without grinding, cut them to bit sized pieces and keep aside.
2. Add this puree,sugar,strawberry pieces(if using) and lime juice and cook over medium heat until it boils and becomes thick in consistency.Stop cooking when it becomes lmedium thick as jam thickens slightly when cooled.

** Adjust sugar if needed.
.I feel like blogger problems are not yet resolved...My followers list is still missing :(.