Pierre Herme’s Sable Viennois – Danish Butter cookies

I saw these beautiful cookies in Nisha’s blog and then navigated to Shirley’s from there. Loved these beautiful looking easily made cookies and gave a shot. Believe me it was a super hit here.

These beautiful cookies reminded me of the blue colour cookie box from Dubai. The taste was not that perfect as that, but yeah they were yummy.

Here comes that wonderful recipe.

Ingredients(Yields around 40 cookies):

All purpose flour           --  1 cup
Unsalted Butter              --  7 tbsp
Salt                                       --  a pinch -  Original recipe calls for Fleur de Sel
Vanilla essence              --  1 tsp
Powdered Sugar            --  1/3 cup
Egg White                         -- 1

Preparation of cookies:

Line a baking tray with parchment paper. Preheat oven to 350F.

Whisk the butter and salt until light and fluffy. Add the powdered sugar and beat sugar mix well and the mixture is creamy.

Add egg white followed by vanilla essence; as Shirley said,the mixture may curdle a little but it will smoothen out after flour is added. Now add the flour and mix until well blended.

Scoop batter into a piping bag with a star tip. Pipe circles on to the prepared tray.

                   

Bake for 10 -12 mins or until golden brown.

Cool down and store in air tight container.

Sharkkara upperi (Banana chips coated with jaggery n spices)

Back home, my father gets this only for onam and vishu and I would be first one to finish it… Always served with sadhya. And whenever we go for a marriage lunch, I loot these from my mom’s plate (ela – banana leaf in which the sadhya is served.)

Ingredients:

Raw Banana                 --   2 big
Jaggery syrup             --   ¾ cup(Might need around 7 -8 blocks)
Dry ginger powder    --   ½ tsp
Cumin powder             --   ½ tsp
Sugar                               --   3 tsp
Rice                                  --   5 tbsp
Cardamom powder  --   made from 3
Oil                                     --   To deep fry

Preparation of chips:

Peel the banana and cut it into half – length wise. Now cut them into ¼ inch thick pieces.  Transfer them into a bowl of  water to soak them as and when you cut it.  Apply oil on your hands / wear a gloves while cutting the banana to avoid stains. Once you are ready to fry, drain the water completely.

Heat oil in a heavy bottomed pan. The oil should be really hot before you fry. Test by dropping in a piece of banana. It should sizzle and come up. Reduce the flame to medium and add the first batch. Make sure that it is not overcrowded.Fry until golden brown.

Drain it into a colander kept on plate to collect the excess oil. Transfer this onto a paper towel and let it cool.

Dry roast the rice until it pops. Let it cool and then grind it into a fine powder along with sugar.

Meanwhile prepare the jaggery syrup by adding quarter cup of water to the jaggery. When the jaggery is completely melted, strain into another vessel to remove any impurities. Now boil the syrup by adding the ginger powder, cumin powder and powdered cardamom. Let it reach a sticky consistency. Switch of the flame and add the fried banana into it. Stir well so that the jaggery is coated on all the pieces.

Now add the rice & sugar powder and mix well until the chips are coated. This helps to the chips not to stick on each other.

Let it cool. Store in an air tight container. This stays good for almost a month.