"Whole Wheat" Almond and Chocolate Chip Cookies

I agree to Lisa Leake, from "100 Days of Real Food" : There is "Traditional Junk Food" Versus "Artificial Factory made Junk Food". At home, even if you bake with things like butter, all purpose flour, sugar...which most don't consider 'healthy'....you still are doing much better than eating a cookie from a store with 20 ingredients/ additives/ chemicals...you can't spell and don't know what they do to your body.

 And then there is that 'concept' that processed foods have built into us. For eg: a store bought bread...is extra fluffy ..soft ...looks 'picture perfect'. But a bread baked at home...may not come out as "picture perfect' and fluffy and soft. Well...at the factory they added all those conditioners and other chemical additives to make your bread that way. At home...you are eating "pure"....a bread..like bread should be!! But in our minds..the texture and 'look' of bread is "like the store bought"...

So....Spring break started and we needed some 'activity' to keep the Lil' ones busy!

We managed to bake a 'Healthier Version" of  Chocolate Chip Cookies!!!

Ingredients:(Makes 24 cookies)
 1 Cup Whole Wheat Flour
1/2 Cup Almond powder
1/2 cup All purpose flour
1/2 cup Sugar
1 Stick unsalted butter (slightly cold)
2eggs
1/3 cup Chocolate chips
1/3 cup Peanut butter chips(optional- you can double the chocolate chips and leave out peanut butter chips)
1/2tsp Baking soda
1/2tsp vanilla extract
1/4tsp salt

Method:
1)  Sieve together whole wheat flour,all purpose flour, salt and baking soda.
2) Beat the butter with electric beater for 3-4 mins until creamy.This is important!!Add sugar and eggs and beat for another minute or so.Add the vanilla extract and mix.
3) Add the sieved flours,almond powder and beat till blended.
4) Add the chocolate and peanut chips and mix

5) Chill the batter in refrigerator for 15-20 mins. Pre- heat the oven to 375F.
6) Place spoonfuls of batter onto a ungreased cookie sheet. For 'better looking' cookie..make the batter into rounds and press.I just leaved the batter as is.

7) Bake for 8-10 mins till golden. Do not let them burn on bottom.Let them cool.

 The cookies will puff up, are crisp on the bottom, little soft in center and delicioussss ....as cookies should be:))

"Sweet Treats"- Nankatai ( Indian sugar-butter cookies)

So far through the pregnancy, I have craved the foods that we made and used to get in India. All the tempting chaats, mouthwatering spicy- tangy dishes and some(few) Indian sweets and desserts. Nankatai was one of my favorite cookies as a child. And it happens to be 'M''s too ( as a kid , he called those 'Nankati- taai'  cookies...LOL!!) So few years ago, when M's parents visited us here in USA, M's mom taught me this recipe. It was so easy , quick and gave us the taste of 'Nankatai' here in USA....  away from India. Like parents-like son......'E' loved the 'Nankatta cookies' (as he calls them) and munched on them throughout the day!

Nankatai has a sugar- butter- flour base and then you can jazz it up with whatever nuts and flavors you want. But a typical nankatai will be ' creamish white' in color and may or maynot have any nuts. When you bite into this blissfull cookie it just melts in your mouth....

Ingredients:

3/4 cup Unsalted butter

1 cup powdered sugar

1 and 1/4 cup all purpose flour ( approx)

1tsp vanilla essence

1tsp baking powder

Nuts like Cashews, Almonds, chopped Pistachios

Method:

1) Fold room temp butter till very smooth.No lumps should be seen.

2) Mix powdered sugar,vanilla essence

3) Add the all purpose flour(mixed with baking powder) spoon by spoon, to make a smooth dough.Use only as much needed to make smooth dough.

4) Roll into small balls (about size of a 'Pedha' )

5) Garnish with the nuts.Or make a 'grid' or 'Tictactoe' like design on top of the cookie with a knife and garnish with pistachios.

6) Preheat the oven to 250F. Place the nankatai on cookie sheet with some space between each of them.They will 'spread' will baking.

Bake at 250 F for 20 mins. Watch out! They will burn from the bottom easily.You don't want to darken them.

7) Makes about 40 Nankatais.Store in airtight container.

Enjoy this buttery-sugary..'Melt-in- your-mouth' cookie with a cup of hot tea/ coffee