Mexican wedding cakes

Lets start off with a history on wedding cookies. A wedding cake is an essential element to celebrate and share your joy with others. If the couple has a connection in Mexico or loves Mexican cakes then they can serve them during weddings. Mexican wedding cakes have a very old tradition. They are traditionally prepared with help of butter, vanilla and nuts. These cakes are baked in the form of cookies. The finest quality of butter, vanilla and nuts will give the best quality Mexican cake. These cookies are white in color and served in a multi tier tray after the dinner. This cake has various names and versions. Some people add chocolate to this cake to give flavor.
These cakes became popular in 1950's and 1960's. They are part of all the celebrations like wedding, Christmas, etc. These cakes have roots in the Ancient Arab culture. They traveled to Europe and found variations in Spanish, Russian and Mexican civilization. These cookies are usually round or oval in shape. The variations are mixing fruits, chocolate, food color to the original six ingredients of the cake. The ingredients of this cookies are fine quality butter, vanilla, nuts, salt, powdered sugar and flour. The recipe of this type of cake is simple and easy to make.
Pastelitos de boda (literally,"wedding cookies") are a traditional dessert at Mexican weddings, made with walnuts, pecans, or almonds, they're a sweet way to thank guests for sharing the day.
Mexican Wedding Cakes are a melt-in-your mouth shortbread-like cookie that are also known as Russian Tea Cake, an Italian Butter Nut, a Southern Pecan Butterball, a Snowdrop, a Viennese Sugar Ball and a Snowball. They are very popular, not only at weddings but also during the Christmas season, and other festive occasions. Looking at these cookies you could mistake them for Melting Moments, as the only difference between the two is that Mexican Wedding Cakes contain ground nuts (either ground pecans, hazelnuts, almonds, or walnuts).
The secret to great tasting Mexican Wedding Cakes is to use a high quality butter and pure vanilla extract.

Ingredients : 
2/3 cup nuts (pecans, walnuts, hazelnuts)
1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1/4 cup confectioners' (powdered or icing) sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
Topping:
1 cup powdered (icing or confectioners) sugar, sifted
Directions : 
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (177 degrees C) and place rack in center of oven.
2. Toast Nuts: Place nuts on a baking sheet and bake for about 8 minutes, or until lightly brown and fragrant. Cool.
3. Once the nuts have cooled completely place them, along with 2 tablespoons of the flour from the recipe, into your food processor, fitted with a metal blade, or a spice grinder and process until they are finely ground (but not a paste). 

4. In a mixing bowl, with a electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy (about 2 minutes). Beat in the vanilla extract. Add the remaining flour and salt and beat until combined. Stir in the nuts. Cover and refrigerate the dough for about one hour or until firm.  

5. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. 
6. Form the chilled dough into 1 inch balls and place them 2 inches apart on the prepared baking sheets. 

7. Bake for about 12 - 15 minutes, or until the edges of the cookies start to brown. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool for about 5 minutes.

8. Meanwhile, place the 1/2 cup sifted confectioners sugar in a bowl. Take the still hot cookies and roll them in the sugar, one at a time. Place on a wire rack to cool. 

9. Let cookies cool 15 minutes, and roll again in remaining sifted confectioners sugar.Or you can simply place the confectioners sugar in a strainer and sift the sugar over the tops of the cookies.
10. Let cool completely before storing. Can be stored in an airtight container for several weeks. Can roll or sift the cookies in more confectioners sugar before serving.
11. Store cookies, putting waxed paper between layers, in tightly sealed container at room temperature up to 1 week or in freezer up to 3 months.

Note : I used pecans, walnuts, hazelnuts but you can use any nuts of your choice.

BADUSHA( Balushahi )

Ingredients :
1 cup maida ( 250 gm)
a pinch of baking soda 
1/3 teaspoon  baking powder
1/3 cup fresh curd (100 gm)
2 table spoons ghee ( 50 gm )
Oil for frying badushas


Sugar syrup :
1  cup sugar
1  water


Directions :
1. In a mixing bowl , add maida, baking soda,baking powder and add ghee. Mix well so that the ghee is incorporated nicely. Add curd and mix . The dough should be flaky and not soft.

( Need not add all the curd at once. Add until u get a flaky texture of the dough) 


2. Cover and let it rest for 20mins.
3. Make small balls and slightly press in the center with thumb finger.

4. Fry them on medium to medium high heat till golden brown.

5. Fry all the balls. Meanwhile make sugar syrup.
6. In a sauce pan add sugar and water and bring to boil. Boil till one string consistency. Then add 2 drops of lemon juice to prevent from crystallizing. 

7. Add the badushas to the syrup while the syrup is hot. Let them soak for 5mins.

8. Remove them from the syrup and store. Do not refrigerate. 

Caramel Filled Apple Pie

Ingredients :

1 Green Apple

2 table spoons 

caramel

1 table spoon crushed nuts ( walnuts, peacons, almonds)

1 puff pastry sheet.( Remove from the freezer 45 min prior to use)

Directions :

1.  Take a Medium size green Apple.

2.  Make a hollow hole from the top of the apple with the help of a scoop or a spoon. Should look like a bowl. ( Do not make too wide opening. Can be of 1 inch wide).

3.  Mix the caramel and nuts.

4.  Fill the apple with the caremel.( Do not let it overflow).

5.  Take the puff-pastry sheets and cut it to 1 inch wide strips. You can roll them with chapati roller to make it long. 

6.  Wrap the apple with the pastry strips. You can stick two strips by touching some water at the ends. 

7.  Once you cover the whole apple, take a small square piece of pastry sheet and stick it on the top the apple( where you have the caramel).

8.  Then you can cut a small piece of pastry sheet to make a leaf shape and then stick it on the top. 

9.  Now Preheat oven to 350 degrees and bake it for 15 - 20 min. ( Until it gets lite brown)

10. After baking, take it out from the oven and cool it for 5 mins. 

11. Then cut from the top and enjoy the essence of the taste. 

Note : You can replace anything in place of nuts. ( Like brown sugar, corn flakes...) 

BM # 4 DAY 3 : Chandrakanthalu (Moong Dal Sweet)

I got this recipe from my mom. Chandrakanathalu are sweet moong dal diamond cuts, i used to love these as a kid. My sister and me.. we used wait for my mom to make these but this was usually made during festival times. While my mom used to fry these we used to enjoy eating the dough because its sweet and tastes very good and of course kid friendly . Rather than eating them hot or on a same day, i used eat them the next day. They taste great at room temperature.
I was so nostalgic while making these...hmmm .... memories of childhood just rushed through me .... i always ate these made by my mom but today i was making chandrakanthalu all by myself ..... hope you all like it :)

Ingredients :
1 cup moong dal
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
4 tablespoons freshly grated coconut
A pinch of salt
1/2 teaspoon cardamom powder
Measure sugar, water and moong dal with same cup.


Directions :
1. Soak moong dal for atleast 4 -5 hours.
2. After its soaked, blend the moong dal into a paste without adding water. The paste should not be very smooth or very coarse.
3. Heat a heavy bottom pan on medium high, add sugar, water, grated coconut, salt. Mix well and let it come to a boil.
4. Once the sugar dissolves add cardamom powder.
5. Reduce the heat to low and by continuous stirring add the moong dal paste. Mix well.

6. Let it cook on low flame till it reaches halwa texture. You should be able to form a ball with the dough and also it should not be sticking to your fingers. When it reaches this consistency, remove from heat.

7. Soak a cotton cloth or a cotton towel in water and squeeze out all the excess water from it. 
8. Transfer all the moong dal dough on to the wet towel and spread the dough to 1/2 an inch thickness. Its a bit difficult to spread the dough as its hot, so what i do is, i put the batter in one end of the towel and cover it with other end. I wet my hand and spread the dough or you can also use a rolling pin. Let it cool down completely.

9. Once it cools down, cut into desired shapes.

10. Heat oil on medium high heat and fry the pieces till golden brown.
11. You can serve them warm or at room temperature.

Note : Do not over crowd the oil while frying otherwise they will stick to each other.
They taste best when they are a day old. You need not refrigerate them, they have a shelf life of 4 to 5 days without refrigeration.


Check out whats cooking in my fellow bloggers kitchen today ....

Diabetes Diet/Management: Kamalika, Smitha, Suma  

Kid Friendly Recipes: Anusha, Cool Lassi(e)
Seven Days of Soup: Priya Suresh
Seven Days of Indian Bread: Jayasree, Pavani
Seven Days of Cakes:  Priya Vasu  
Seven Days of Preserves: Gayathri Kumar, Vaishali 
30 Minutes Meals: Priya Mahadevan, Srivalli  

Gulab jamun

Ingredients :
For Gulab Jamun :
1 Gulab jamun packet(200gms)
1/2 cup of milk
oil for deep frying
For Sugar Syrup :
3 cups of sugar 
3 cups of water
1/2 teaspoon cardamom powder
2 drops of lemon juice


Directions :
1. Empty the gulab jamun packet into a mixing bowl.
2. Make a soft dough by adding the milk slowly.Do not add all the milk at once. Do not over knead the dough.
3. Cover the dough and let it rest for 10mins .
4. While dough is resting prepare the sugar syrup.
    For Sugar Syrup :
     Add the sugar and water to a wide vessel.
    Keep the flame on medium high and let it come to a boil.
    Once the sugar is dissolved completely, add the cardamom powder.
    Add 2 drops of lemon juice(lemon juice stops the sugar from crystallizing) and mix well.
   Turn the heat to low and let it simmer.
5. Before making the gulab jamuns , get the oil ready for deep frying.Heat up the oil on low to medium heat.
6. Now make desired size balls from the dough and make sure they have no cracks otherwise they might break when you fry them .

7. To test the oil ,add a small piece of dough and if it sits at the bottom of the pan and floats to the surface slowly then the oil is ready .
8. Add a few balls to oil and fry them by rotating continuously.
9. Fry the jamuns till golden brown annd remove them on a paper towel.

10. Meanwhile bring the sugar syrup to a boil again.
11. Fry rest of the gulab jamuns .
12. Once the sugar syrup comes a boil, remove from heat and add the gulab jamuns.
13. Cover the vessel and let the gulab jamun rest for at least 3 hours.
14. Serve them warm or cold .


Note: Do not let balls sit for long before frying.They will become dry and can break in the oil.
Fry the balls on very low flame or they will get colour on outside but will remain uncooked from inside and stir them continously for even colouring.