Friday 10 December 2010

I'm on a bloggie break

Sorry peeps...I wasn't able to inform you lovely people that I was off to India. I actually wanted to do a post before I left London on 6th but then me being such a last-minute person unfortunately had planned to do a million other things and so had to leave the bye-bye post for another day.
I am in India, Kerala to be precise, at the moment and will be here for about 2 months..yeah sigh and ooh and aah all you want but I think 2 months in kerala can really get to me. But the good thing is, my lil brother (yeah the same one who asks me doubts about tomato rice and stews) is getting married to his school sweetheart in Jan and so I'm in the midst of wedding planning and shopping which I'm thoroughly enjoying..and the best part is..wait-for-it..that Ro is in Kottayam being pampered by his mom and not here with me in Trivandrum nagging me (oh and I have his credit card as well).
So anyhoo, my dads computer is so bloody slow and I hate working on it, and Ro has taken the laptop so I'm not sure how much of blogging I can squeeze and how much I can visit your blogs. In case I don't get to pop in and say Hi by this year end, here's wishing you all a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year...way in advance.
Take care and have a blast wherever you guys are.

Muah.

Saturday 4 December 2010

Vanilla custard yo-yo- biscuits

Another borrowed recipe. I know Ive been having too many of those, blame it on the weather or just the laziness in me to type out a whole recipe post. This way I just need too link it to someone else's blog and be done with it. The picture taking bit, I am obsessed with and with exactly about 3 or 4 hours of bearable daylight, I actually struggle to do that as well.

The initial hype of snow lasted exactly for 2 days...this was when we were in Chicago about 4 years back..and hence been dreading heading out when its so. Especially, the day after a heavy snow fall is pathetic with the roads being slippery and slushy and horrid. Being in London city, we have no choice but to make use of the local buses, subways and trams to get to wherever which on a normal day I love since the buses have a bus lane where we breeze through and the cars are all piled up in the next lane. The tube gets you anywhere in no time again. But the case is a tad worse in adverse weather conditions, but we have no choice but to go out in the weather anyway, if we needed to get our acts done. I actually was taking baby steps yesterday when I went out because it was so slippery and was so scared Id fall down.
London very rarely gets snow this time of the year and its usually Jan/ Feb when we are mostly snowed in. But past two days its been snowing quite a bit and yesterday I woke up to a surrounding in white. It was all so magical and in spite of me dreading going out, I was all excited at 9am to bake something. The easiest thing that came to my mind was Nithya's yo-yo biscuits. Well another reason being I had custard powder left over from my Custard cake episode and had to use it up in some way or the other. 
These were so nice to eat right out of the oven and I actually didn't wait for it to cool down on a rack (I love my cookies and biscuits and cake all crumbly and hot straight out of the oven). My huge floor to top windows in my living room are the best feature in my tiny apartment and so I made use of it thoroughly yesterday. Grabbed my book, coffee and these biscuits and enjoyed the morning reading, and most of the time day dreaming and watching people walk by (which is my fav. past time btw). Not many mornings of mine are as enjoyable as this because most of the time I'm all groggy and need at least 3 hours 2 settle, but this was a morning I loved. It all changed this morning when I looked out and say slush and ice. Case closed!
Self raising flour- 3/4 cup
Vanilla flavoured custard powder- 1/4 cup
Butter- 125 gms
Powdered sugar (icing sugar)- 1/2 cup
Vanilla extract- 1 tsp

Mix together the flour and custard powder in a bowl. Keep aside.
In a mixing bowl, using a hand whisk or an electric one, cream together the sugar, butter and vanilla till light and fluffy.
Add the flour mix and beat on low until just combined.
Line a baking tray and preheat the oven to 180C.
Pinch off small portions from the dough and roll them into balls, place on the baking tray at about 2 inches apart and with a fork, slightly press them down for that design to appear on top. This will flatten the ball a bit, but that's really the point.
Bake for about 12 to 14 minutes or till light golden brown.
Cool them on a rack and then store in an air tight container.
  Notes: The original recipe calls for Ap flour. Didn't have any so used self raising instead
I didn't bother to cool the dough in the refrigerator..no patience whatsoever. Tasted good anyway:)