I stumbled upon these when when my DS, who is now in lower secondary, brought a few buns that he baked in school. I was amazed that he can do some baking/ cooking on his own, as at home he rarely steps in kitchen. :P
Okies, so we tried them and liked them instantly. So I asked him to bake a fresh batch at home as well. " Ohh, its very simple recipe, lets make it " . He took out a printout of the recipe with the ingredients and its amount and viola, there was no butter/ margarine in the list. Other ingredients were sure out of proportion as well. :(

But since we loved the buns and he insisted the recipe is simple and need not to be so proportionate, I decided to google the recipe and try it. Upon searching I came to know that all lower secondary kids are taught to make rock buns to demonstrate the rub-in method. There is actually no specifics to the amount / ingredients used. Its depends upon your taste buds how you want to it soft , hard, crunchy, nutty ....
They got there name, as they are rough looking and hence dont soomthen them down.Rock buns are a specific type of pastry, distinguished by the hard, crust-like texture and sweet taste. Good Old Rock Cakes These were once economy cakes, not too expensive, providing cake for large families.

Ingredients:

200 gms ( 1 1/3 cup) All purpose flour
75-80 gms Melted Butter
75 gms Sugar
1 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Salt
1 Egg
75 gms Berries/ Raisins
1 Tbsp Milk 
1tsp Vanilla essence

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F and grease the baking tray
2. Sieve the flour in a large bowl
3. Pour melted butter over it and with hands rub the butter over the flour. All grains of the flour should be coated with butter and resemble breadcrumbs
4. Add sugar and dried fruit mix.
5. Finally add egg, milk , vanilla essence and mix thoroughly.
6. Using two forks, lift up small portions of the mixture and place on the baking sheet more than an inch apart.
7. Place the tray in the preheated oven for 10-15 minutes until golden brown. Leave it inside oven for about five more minutes, then transfer to a wire tray to cool.


Tips :

1.The buns need to be rough looking, do not smooth them down while placing them in baking tray
2. You may vary the ingredients / proportion , depending upon you like harder or softer buns.

During the last year end holidays, ventured back into baking after a long time with kids. There were many incentives to do so. It was New year and Christmas time, with kids eager to try their hands out with some baking. And also, I had bought my new Panasonic Convection cum microwave oven a few weeks back, which was looking at me with anticipation to get its first baking done :D

So eventually thought of baking some cookies, as my previous attempt with baking Choco chip cookies was not so exciting due to the older oven with its round tray :( . So I was sure , my new oven would be far better and we wont be disappointed with the results . And viola, it was a breeze making these cookies. The faster I made them, even faster all the cookies were gone.


Below measurement yielded me about 27 medium sized cookies, which I baked in 3 batches. By the time, I put in my 2nd batch, my first batch was already gone ;)

Ingredients:

Dry Ingredients:
3/4 cup (105 gm) all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon (optional)

3/4 cup (170 gm) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup (210 gm) packed brown sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract

3 cups (260 gm) old-fashioned rolled oats
1 cup walnuts or pecans (optional)
1 cup white or dark chocolate chips (optional)

Method:

1. Toast the nuts and then chop into pieces after its cooled . Set aside.
2. Whisk together all the dry ingredients in a bowl. Set aside.
3. In the bowl of your electric mixer (or with a hand mixer), beat the butter until creamy and smooth (about 2 - 3 minutes).
4. Add sugar and mix for another 2-3 minutes.
5. Add the egg and vanilla extract and beat to combine.
6. Add the dry ingredients and beat until incorporated.
7. Finally stir in the nuts, oats, and dried cranberries or chocolate chips.

Now our batter is ready. Refrigerate for 1-2 hours , so that the butter hardens back.

Preheat oven to  190 degree C. Line baking sheet with parchment paper.
Use a spoon or a ice-cream scooper to scoop a spoonful of the batter in the baking sheet about 2 inches apart.
With your fingers slightly shape and flatten the cookies to be about 1/2 inch thick.
Bake the cookies for about 10 - 12 minutes or until it gets a light golden brown color along the edges and is still soft and a little wet at the center.
Remove from oven and let it cool a few minutes and then transfer them to a wire rack to cool.

Tips:

1. We ca replace chocolate chips with dried cranberries or raisins o make it even more healthier.
2. If we don't have unsalted butter, use salted butter and omit the salt added n dry ingredients.
3. Batter can be mixed and kept in refrigerator ahead of time.
4. If we need to bake the cookies in batches, keep the batter back in refrigerator, else the cookies flatten a lot gets cooked really fast ( may burn)

After baking the Indian eggless cookies, i.e, Nankhatai's,  here comes my next attempt at baking cookies, and that too on demand by kids, 'Choco Chip Cookies'. The cookies came out perfect, both taste and look wise, though with a bit of hiccups. As I am new at baking and also am using convection microwave oven for baking , the setting and all while baking needed to be varied accordingly.

The recipe makes about 40; 3 inch cookies. I did made half batch only, as this was my first attempt at baking cookies, so made 20 only. Also I did baked it in 3 small batches, out of which one batch got overcooked, and thus got burned at the bottom :(

The recipe is very easy and it takes very little time to bake these cookies. Its one of the easiest, most delicious and a basic choco chip cookie recipe.  It uses a combination of white and brown sugars, producing a rich and chewy cookies with caramalised edges.

Ingredients:

1 cup (226 grams) unsalted butter @ room temperature
3/4 cup (160 grams) firmly packed brown sugar
3/4 cup (150 grams) granulated white sugar
2 eggs large
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups (295 grams) all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups (270 grams) semisweet chocolate chips

Method:

Preheat oven to 190 degree C (375 degree F). In a bowl, beat the butter until smooth and creamy. Add both the white and brown sugars and beat. Then beat in eggs, slowly one at a time. Add Vanilla extract and mix. In a separate bowl mix flour, salt and baking soda and then add this to the egg mixture and beat well. You can use a hand mixer or a kitchen aid as the dough tends to be a bit stiff at this stage. Lastly fold in choco chips and make sure they  are evenly dispersed so we have enough chocolate in each cookie. The dough is now ready.

Now before baking the dough needs to be a bit stiff, if you find the dough a bit soft, refrigerate until firm (upto 2 hours) Drop dough on a lined baking sheet by 2 rounded tablespoon about 2 inches apart . The chocolate chip cookies need to be this far apart because the dough spreads during cooking. Bake for about 10-12 minutes or untill golden brown on edges.At this stage the cookie may look a bit uncooked but they will finish cooking through out of the oven.

As for my oven i did baked it in cookie mode for 10 minutes. It has a auto preheat and after preheating cookie balls in a parchement paper along with the tray needs to be placed inside the oven. Finally cool on a wire rack completely before storing as the cookies are very soft when hot.

Tips:

If you are using kitchen aid, better use the butter still in quite firm state, though not cold, and thereby aviding the need to refrigerate it. Just take it out from fridge and microwave it for 10- 15 sec.
You can use a icecream scoop for dropping in the small balls of dough. Its very convinient and mess free.
You can also add about 1 cup (100 grams) walnuts or pecans, coarsely chopped after adding chocolate chips.
Also, you can make balls and freeze them for future. Just bake the frozen balls directly, adjusting the time a little more.

I wanted to try baking for a long long time and finally ventured into it, when my new Sharp Convection oven finally came into my life (read house). The first thing that i tried baking were the traditional nankhatai's, the one's as seen in my chilhood, my mom and my elder sis baking, and eventually its aroma filling the whole house. And voila, my first attempt at baking was succesful. The recipe is indeed very simple and easy. My mom used to make a small cross in between and then press a cubed red cherry nut, which i didn't had,so i just pressed some choco chip instead, giving it a more cookie like look...

For others who do not know about Nankhatai, can say its a eggless indian biscuit.

Ingredients: