Coal Pieces | No bake | Christmas| Chewy Cookies

Who would believe that 3 INGREDIENTS and NO-BAKING, could lead to these amazingly amazing CHEWY COOKIES, perfect for Christmas and New Year. They look like pieces of coal hence the name.
I found this little recipe on Pinterest and I made these over New Year.

There won't be much text in this blog recipe only pictures...and my request for you to try these out- THEY ARE YUM AND YOU CANNOT MISS THESE.

Ingredients:

• 20-25 Marshmallows 
• 3 small cubes of butter
• 16-20 Oreos

Steps:

1. Empty the packet of Oreos and take off the cream, and just keep the cookies aside.
2. Reduce the cookies into a coarse crumb-like form. We do not want fine powder. Set aside.

 3.Take a microwave safe dish and dump all the marshmallows in it. Add the cubes of butter and microwave it for about 1 minute and 30 seconds, till the marshmallows get soft, bubbly and bloated.

4. Pour the oreo crumbs over the melted  marshmallows and combine the two ingredients well till you have a clump in the dish.

 5. Line a baking tray or any flat dish with aluminium foil, grease it a little by rubbing a little butter over it and pour the oreo and marshmallow mixture that we just prepared. Pat it down, so that it looks even.

6. Refrigerate for about an hour.

7. After an hour, take the tray out of the refrigerator and you'll have this rock like thing. I tried cutting it with a knife but to no avail. So I cracked the clump up using a 'pestle'...thats how I got uneven sized/ not-so-square shaped cookies.

They seem very tough to bite into but once you do get into this cookie ,I bet you'll come back for more, I speak out of experience. 

Enjoy!

-bPv

Guest Post (September): Focaccia Bread

"Good things come to those who bake."

Hi everyone,

It is time for me to introduce yet another friend who loves baking, confectionary and patisserie. We've been friends since the age of four. Sharleen. A, Sara. R and yours truly were in the same kindergarten class and in the same school bus too. As we grew up we made new friends and moved away nevertheless all three of us are still in touch like there was no distance or time apart.

Sharleen who is now pursuing her M.A in Economics is also doing her Advanced Diploma in Patisserie and Confectionary at one of Mumbai's leading group of hotels.

She doesn't really remember when she started cooking or baking but confectionary items interested her the most (for sure it came to her naturally). I say 'naturally' because, I remember clearly, one lunch at Sharleen's place when she used to reside in Bahrain, her mum cooked a variety of dishes and the most memorable part of that lunch was, her mum baking chocolate chip cookies. That aroma of cookies baking in the kitchen filled the hall is still etched in my mind, it has been over fifteen years and I remember that pleasant aroma so well and that is enough proof of how good those cookies were. Her mum packed a few in sandwich bags and gave us all a bag to take home. I bet Sharleen gets it from her mum!

Sharleen A. shared a bread recipe with us. This bread is a popular Italian bread and can be used as pizza bread/ base too. It is called Focaccia Bread.

Focaccia Bread is a flat oven baked Italian bread, which may be topped with herbs or other ingredients. It is usually seasoned with olive oil and salt, and sometimes with herbs. It is often said to be an alternative to Garlic Bread. Texture wise it is crusty on the outside and chewy on the inside. It can be eaten as is or sliced and used for making sandwiches or used as a quick pizza crust.

Ingredients:

• Refined flour- 200 gms
• Salt- 3 gms
• Sugar 5 grams
• Yeast 8 grams
• EVOO (Extra Virgin Olive Oil) 20 ml
• Water 120 ml
• Rock Salt 5gms
• Herbs- oregano or Rosemary (adjust quantity as per your liking)
• Additional toppings: Onions, olives, cheese etc

Procedure:

1. Sieve the refined flour and salt together and make a well in the center.

2. Dissolve the yeast and sugar and water.After that put that into refined flour and make the dough and knead it nicely till it forms an elastic.

3. Cover the dough with the help of a moist cloth. Give it 10 minutes rest. 

4. After 10 minutes knock back the dough . 

5. Add oil and herbs into the dough and knead the dough till it is absorbed. 

6. Grease the baking tray then flatten the dough in the tray. Keep it for proving*/proofing*. 
After proving dock the dough with fingers then bake it at 170 for 20-25 minutes, till it gets a nice colour.

7. After baking remove the tray and then make holes in the focaccia, then put EVOO in it and make some more on it. Then keep it for some more time to get softer.

8. Serve as a side, or eat as a plain bread or use as a pizza crust by adding some toppings like cheese tomatoes and olives.

*Proving: Often called 'proofing', means to allow the bread to rise. This word is commonly used in bread making which require yeast.


Thank you Sharleen. A  for sharing this recipe with the readers at Bits & Pieces from Venus.

Wishing you success in everything you take up.

-Love
bpV

"God gives us the ingredients for our daily bread but he expects us to do the baking."

Roti Jallas (lacey net breads)

I got to know this recipe a couple of months back while watching one of India’s Master Chef episodes, where the chefs shared a recipe sent in from a viewer from Singapore.

I liked the name of this dish and it probably got stuck in my head and I also liked the way it was prepared on the show.

So I looked up the recipe, and I found two comprehensive recipes for Roti Jallas (www.Rasamalaysia.com and www.singaporelocalfavourites.com ). A little digging around, led me to learn that ‘Roti Jallas’ are famous in Singapore and Malaysia, they go really well with coco-nutty curries and sambals (spicy curry).

They remind me of ‘neer dosas (in Kannada)/ paan-polays (in Konkani)’ served in the Karnataka (India) with a variety of gravies and chutneys. They lacy and look like someone crocheted them.

However Roti Jallas (roti-bread, jallas- net) are more on the yellow side, because of the turmeric used in preparing the batter, and taste lightly like coconut milk, which again is an important ingredient in this delicacy. You of course do not crochet them though; you just use a ‘roti- jalla cup’ to get that crochet effect.

Here is what a roti jalla cup looks like,

Picture Source: WWW.fussfreecooking.com

I tried to follow the recipe as closely as I could but I had to play with the quantities a little.

Ingredients:

(Makes 30 rotis- Preparation time: 10 minutes Frying time: 60 to 90 minutes)

•  3 and half cups of flour
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp turmeric powder
• 2 cups water
• 1 and half cup coconut milk
• 2 tsp salt

Cooking tools needed:

• Roti Jalla Cup or a bottle closed tightly and a hole made on its cap or a squeezy ketchup bottle.

Steps:

1. Mix all the ingredients together to form a thick batter. The batter should have no lumps you could both strain and remove lumps or you could use an electric beater and get a thick lump-less batter.

2. If you have a roti jalla cup use that. Or else, take a dry and clean empty bottle, make a hole on its cap (or use an empty ketchup squeezy bottle), enough for the batter to pass through in like thin straw. Pour the first round of batter in the bottle. And closely tightly.

3. Take a tava as used in the Nutty Tava Fried Prawns recipe on this blog or a non stick pan; heat it up on medium flame.

4. In a small bowl, pour some EVOO/ cooking oil and stick a quarter of an onion in a fork and dip the onion in the oil and rub it onto frying pan/ tava. Do this before every roti jalla is to be fried.

5. Pour the batter from the bottle on to the tava/ pan and create three big circles, and continue making many more circles within those. Try and make sure that most of the circles are linked with each other.

6. Let them fry for about 30-40 seconds. Once they are fried, they will start peeling off the pan like the below picture.

7. This is a good indicator that, it is time to fold the roti into quarters and take it off the pan. You do not have to fry the other side.

8. Repeat the steps for the rest of the rotis.

*Serve warm with a nice gravy/curry/sambal

I served these with Coconut Chicken Curry.

Enjoy!

-bpV

Striped Jello bites (Red and White)

Hi all, I'm back with yet again another jello related recipe.
I some can't seem to get enough of this ama-jiggly-zing dessert (says the child in me).

What you will need for this recipe:

• Your choice of jelly (1 pack) I chose Strawberry and Banana
• One, 75gm envelope of unflavoured gelatin 
• 2 cups of hot water (boiled)
• 1 cup cold water
• 1 cup milk
• 1 tbsp sugar

Steps:

1. Empty the flavoured gelatin mix in a bowl and pour in 1 cup of hot water and stir until the granules have dissolved. Next add 1 cup of cold water to the mix.

2. Stir well and pour half of it into a separate dish and allow the jello to set. Keep it in the freezer for 15 minutes.

3. Next take another bowl, add really hot water to it carefully, empty the unflavoured gelatin powder to the water and stir until the gelatin powder has dissolved well. You will get a golden colour semi thick liquid. Add the milk and sugar to this mix and stir well.

Unflavoured Gelatin dissolved.

4. By this time the 1st flavoured jelly may have set. Pour half of the milk gelatin mix to this set jelly, gently to avoid the jelly splitting. Allow this set. (keep in the freezer for about 15 minutes for it to set quick)

5. You will have two bowls left with you containing, half of the flavoured jelly and another bowl with half of the milk jelly mix. 

Bowls containing half of the mixes.

 6. Now add the next red layer and allow this to set for 15 minutes in the freezer.
 Once set pour in the milk layer carefully. And keep this in the fridge not freezer for 2 hours till the jelly is firm.

All SET to pour in the last layer.

7. After the two hours are up, boil some water in a kettle, pour it into a wide skillet. Place the dish which contains the jelly into it for about 15 seconds. This will help loosen the jelly from the dish and we can place flip it onto a plate.

                                                                   Demoulding process.


8. Once the jelly has been de-moulded onto a plate. Cut it into cubes and serve up immediately on a plate or cup cake tree/stand

There you have your 'striped jello bites' , makes the perfect dessert for adults and kids on Bahrain's National Day or For Christmas.

You could increase the number of layers or include colours/flavours of your choice.

You also could substitute the milk with whipping cream/low fat yogurt.

Serve up & Enjoy!

-bpV

Sober/Virgin Jello shots

The first time I tried doing something different with jello was when I was much younger, I just threw in a few diced apples in to my partially set jello. Don't ask how it turned out!After a good number of years, I attempted something different with plain old jello, and I was quite happy with the results. My dad's jaw dropped when he saw the finished product. Here is a snap,

For those who have never attempted this way of serving regular jello,

The steps to preparing this are very simple however,I will drop a few hints, so you can get it right just like I did.

1.Slice an orange into two halves and juice them. Once you have all the pulp out you can keep these slices aside.

2. Next, take your regular jello pack and prepare the jelly by following the instructions mentioned on the pack. That's quite simple,hence it shouldn't be a problem.

3. Once you've prepared the liquid mix, and it had cooled down a bit, pour the mix into the orange halves.

4. Keep these halves steady on a firm base and place them in the refrigerator to cool and set.

5. After the jello sets, depending on the temperature and time, you can cut the halves further into halves (basically you've made quarters)

And serve them up.

Tips:

1. If you intend on using oranges, make sure they are of the kind that can be juiced. You don't want to be stuck with stubborn oranges.

2. You could also use lime/lemon instead of oranges.

3. You need to follow the jello pack's instructions properly.

4. And don't keep opening the refrigerator's door to check on the jello, I'd suggest giving it  a good three hours to set.

5. I doubt, leaving the jello in the freezer to set would help, but then again, you never know. However, I'd suggest that you alternate between the freezer and the fridge. Keep the jello in the freezer for half an hour and then the rest of the time in the chiller.

Once ready, plate them up and plop them into you mouth, keeping the peels away.

Jello-appetite!

bpV