Eggless Banana Cashew Cookies

I had some ripe bananas at home that nobody wanted to eat instead of throwing them so I made these yummy cookies. I used mashed banana, butter, flour and toasted cashew. You can also add  raisins, chocolate chips, chopped walnut, almond or peanut if you want. The sugar is much reduced since the natural sugar in the banana makes it sweet enough. These cookies turned out so moist and tender on the inside but slightly crisp on the outside. The cookie has a lot of cashew nut and so it tasted nutty. Totally these cookies are irresistible!

Ingredients:

Flour / Maida-1 Cup

Butter-1/2 cup

Sugar-3/4 cup

Warm Milk-3tbs

Baking Soda-1/2tsp

Baking Powder- 1tsp

Broken Cashew-50gm(toasted)

Mashed Banana- 1 cup

Cardamom Powder-1/2tsp

Vanilla essence- ½ tsp

 

Method:

1.Take a mixing bowl, add all purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda and mix well.

2.Add butter, vanilla essence, Powdered sugar and mix well. Cream sugar and butter until fluffy

3.Peel skin and mash banana well using your hand or grind them to smooth paste.

4.Add banana mixture to the butter mixture and mix well with a wooden spoon.

5.Add this flour mixture to the butter mixture and fold in the flour.

6.Start kneading into dough. Finally add toasted cashew nuts. Add milk if required. 

7.If the mixture is too sticky add little flour. Knead the dough until smooth. 

8.Cover the dough with butter paper and keep in the fridge for 30 mins.

9.Shape into small balls. Please make thick balls not very thin balls. Cut it with cookie cutter.

10.Preheat oven &Bake at 180°C for 12 mins or until lightly browned. Don’t over bake. 

11.Serve with cup of tea/coffee.

Vella Seedai /Sweet Seedai

On this special Thirukkarthigai day, the temples are all lit up and special prayers are offered. All devotees traditionally offer pori, adhirasam, vella Seedai, vetrilai pakku, fruits as neivedhyam for God Shiva. Sweet Seedai or Vella seedai is another dish that is made for Krishna Jayanthi/ Gokulashtamiand for karthikai Deepam. I did not use uraddal flour for the vella seedai, you can include it.This vella seedai is my family favorite sweet dish.

Ingredients:

Rice - 2 cups

Grated Jaggery - 1.5 Cups

Sesame Seeds -50gm

Chopped Cocunut - 3tbsp

Cardamom Powder -1/2tsp

Method:

1.Wash the rice, strain and spread on a muslin cloth. Allow about 15 minutes for the cloth to absorb all the water from the rice until it is no longer moist.

2.Blend the rice and then Sieve and blend again repeatedly until into a fine powder.  Soak the sesame seeds in water.

3.Add 1 cup water to the jaggery and melt over a low flame. Strain to remove scum.

4.Again boil the jaggery water along with cocunut and sesame seeds and keep stirring it until the jaggery comes to one string consistency.

5.When we take a drop of jaggery water in a finger and rub it with another finger, it should form like a string. This is the correct consistency for the jaggery syrup.

6.As soon as all the jiggery attained right consistency , switch off the gas and add the flour mixture and mix it well along with cardamom powder. Keep this mixture aside for atleast one day

7.The next day, Make gooseberry sized balls of the vella seedai dough and drop around 5-6 balls once and fry it in oil.

8.Remove from flame when it is between golden brown and dark brown in colour. Drain the excess oil. Repeat the process for the rest of vella seedai flour

Mysore Bonda

Mysore bonda is scrumptious and a perfect tea time snack. . It  is so simple to make and tastes yummy. Here is the simple recipe..

Ingredients:

Urad dal-1 cup

Peppercorns 8 to 10

Fresh coconut chopped – ½ cup

Asafetida (hing)- ½ tsp

Rice flour - 1 tsp

Salt to taste

Curry leaves 10 to 12

Green chillis-2

Oil to fry.

Method

1. Clean, wash and soak the urad dal in enough water for atleast 2 hours.

2.Drain the dal and grind to smooth paste adding very little water. (Batter should not stick to your wet finger)

3.To the urad dal batter add salt, chopped coconut bits, curry leaves, pepper corns, and mix well.

4.Heat oil in kadai and keep a small bowl of water to , wet you fingers  to make small desired sized balls.

5.Drop the ball into hot oil carefully and continue with rest of the batter.

6.Lower the flame and Fry the bondas until golden brown in color and make sure inside is cooked well. 

7.Drain the bondas on a paper towel. Serve hot Bonda with Coconut chutney.