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KISS THE COOKIE! Peanut Butter Blossoms by Manjula Vijh

Traditionally called as “Peanut Butter Blossoms”, these are soft, chewy peanut butter cookies, rolled in sugar and then topped with a Hershey’s Kiss Chocolate!

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It was during one lazy winter afternoon, while I was surfing the internet for some cookie recipes, that I came across these beauties. I had never worked with peanut butter as the main ingredient for cookies, but these looked so beautiful that I couldn’t resist giving them a try.

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The recipe for these lovely looking cookies was first developed in 1957, by Mrs. Freda F. Smith of Gibsonburg, Ohio for the Ninth Grand National Pillsbury Bake-off competition. It’s an American classic recipe and many versions of this recipe are available online. My recipe is inspired from the one given on Hershey’s website, but since I am a vegetarian, I have modified the recipe to be an eggless one. These are chewy from the center and crisp from outside, and since these are topped with Hershey’s Kisses, I have named these cookies as, “Kiss the Cookie!”

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When I first tried this recipe with one of my friends, I made them with store bought peanut butter. They came out nice but were little extra sweet. This time I tried them with the Natural Homemade Peanut Butter curated by Mr. Mohit Arora, which is available at Masala Monk. The peanut butter by Masala Monk has the right amount of salt and sugar unlike store bought peanut butter. The cookies came out to be perfect sweet and soft! They look lovely when presented and you can also gift them to your loved ones during festival time!

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KISS THE COOKIE

Preparation time: 20 minutes

Cook time: 10 minutes

Serves:  40-45 cookies

Ingredients

  • Condensed Milk: 1 Can (400 gm.)
  • Peanut Butter: ¾ cup
  • All Purpose Flour: 1.5 cup
  • Baking Powder: 1tsp.
  • Butter(softened): ½ cup
  • Vanilla extract: 1tsp
  • Caster sugar for rolling the cookies: ½ cup
  • Hershey’s kisses: 40-45

Instructions

  1. In a medium bowl whisk together, flour and baking powder.
  2. In another bowl cream together, butter, peanut butter and vanilla to mix them well.
  3. Add the flour and make a dough. If, you are mixing with hands, and the dough sticks to your hand you can sprinkle some flour, apply butter to your hands and then again mix. You can taste the cookie dough too!! I did and it tastes great!
  4. Chill the dough to set. Cling wrap it and then keep it in the refrigerator for few hours.
  5. Preheat the oven at 190ºC.
  6. Shape dough into 1″-1.5″ balls, roll it in finely granulated caster sugar, and keep them into a baking tray.
  7. Bake the cookies at 190ºC for about 10-11 minutes, till cracks appear on sides. Do not over bake them. These cookies will not get brown in color.
  8. Meanwhile unwrap Hershey’s Kisses.
  9. After the cookies are baked, take out the baking tray, and gently press one kiss on each cookie. The warm cookies will melt the chocolate a little, but it will set after a while.
  10. Transfer the cookie onto a wire rack for cooling
  11. Store it in an airtight container.

Notes:

** Please check your oven temperature for baking.

** You can use a small ice-cream scoop, or a melon ball scoop to take out equally sized dough balls. I used one of my measuring spoons.

** You can keep the cookie dough cling wrapped for 2-3 days.

** If you want to cut down the recipe to half, you can do so. It works fine! I suggest to start with half the recipe if you are baking them for the first time.

** Use softened butter and not melted butter. I made this mistake and result was flat cookies.

** Chill the cookie dough before baking.

** If the chocolate falls of the cookie, you can dab little peanut butter on the bottom of the chocolate and press it back.

References:

http://www.post-gazette.com/life/food/2012/09/06/Cookies-Tracking-the-tale-of-a-favorite-the-Peanut-Blossom/stories/201209060264

https://abountifulkitchen.com/peanut-butter-blossoms/

http://americanheritagecooking.com/2014/12/peanut-butter-blossoms/

https://www.hersheys.com/kitchens/en_us/recipes/chewy-peanut-butter-blossoms.html

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5 Food Items That Are Surprisingly Vegan

Go Vegan

For all the vegan monks out there, let’s add some masala to your platter! Turning vegan or being a vegan is no more a tasteless affair with Masala Monk’s array of products that shout ‘delicious’ in every possible form.  With the rising awareness on animal rights and global warming happening due to human consumption of animal meat, veganism is on the march, and even we jumped into the vegan wagon, but with a twist. We curate food products that are deliciously sinful, but not ethically. Moreover, the usage of fresh wholesome ingredients balances the nutrition missing in a vegan diet.

To be honest, all we had in mind was to help small vendors grow fresh products and deliver them directly to our customers post-processing. And in the process, we never realized we are contributing to the vegan world as well. With our unique creation of ‘vegan in a jar’ using fresh and exotic ingredients, we bet being vegan had never been this delicious and exciting.

Selecting a vegan dish is not an easy task as it involves a lot of research on whether every ingredient in the dish is vegan. But this blog will spice up your vegan lifestyle and make your animal-free eating simple and easy to maintain.

Vegan Spreads: In Masala Monk we care and respect the vegan diet and here we present to you a range of spreads to add flavour and nutrition to your daily breakfast. The unsweetened Chocolate Hazelnut Butter is just a raw mix of roasted hazelnuts and 100 per cent natural cocoa powder. Use it as a spread on a well-toasted slice of your favourite bread or use it as a dessert sauce and spread over pancakes and cakes, or just lick it like that. For a healthier version, check out Almond Butter, a jar full of nutrition and deliciousness. Or, how about Chocolate Peanut Butter for a change? The gooey peanut butter blended with the rich flavour of pure chocolate is the perfect product to say out loud, ‘vegan is not a tasteless diet’. But if you like the taste of classic peanut but, you get the option to choose how you like the texture of your peanut butter – chunky or smooth.

Oh, did you know that nuts are high on proteins! So go, spread the word that one need not be cruel to animals to suffice their protein intake. And with Masala Monk’s wide array of nut butters, protein intake for vegans just got delicious.

Jamun Relish: Paint your tongue purple and say hello to the new item in your vegan menu. This lip-smacking jam made out of fresh, juicy, plump jamuns, will make your vegan snacking more interesting. Dive into your fond childhood memories as you relish the sweet-sour fruit with a dash of green chilly. Available in a preserve able jar, pair it with your favourite snack and forget about boring vegan snacking.

A healthy tangy relish post monsoon

Ammiji’s Chai Masala: Hey chai can be vegan too! Just replace animal milk with any plant based milk of your choice and there you are ready to rock India’s favourite beverage. On that note, we have something to make the taste of your chai perfect. Our collection of Ammiji’s Chai Masala ranging from Immunity, Vitality, and Digestion can be easily used in your cup of vegan milk tea or black tea to enhance the flavour and nutrition. This homemade product, straight from Ammiji’s kitchen is an exotic blend of aromatic and nutritionally enriched spices to add the right flavour to the tea. You can even use this masala in your vegan cakes or pancakes or for that matter, use it in your nimbu paani as well and feel the burst of exotic flavours.

Imli Ka Amlana: This instant power mix is the best product for your on-the-go ‘sippy’. Completely plant-based, your favourite age-old Imli Ka Amlana is now available in an easy-to-take form. The blast of taste from dried raw pulp along with pepper, mint leaves, black salt and cardamom makes for great refreshment which helps in your digestion as well. Moreover, this product is a rich source of vitamin B, C, potassium, magnesium and loads of antioxidants which helps balance out the nutritional deficiencies of your vegan diet.

Imli ka Amlana by Masala Monk

Instant Thandai Powder: Nope, not making you cheat your diet here. But did ever you realize that vegans can also relish the delicious thandai, a Holi special Indian milk-based drink. With a variety of plant-based milk available in the market and with Masala Monk’s array of instant thandai powder, all you need to do is mix the both to enjoy the taste of real thandai and add some good dose of nutrition as well. Made with premium and exotic nuts, spices and dried fruits the product will not only cool you down but will also give your body the strength to fight the heat. Out of Kesar Pista Thandai Mix, Zero Sugar Thandai Powder, and Rose Thandai or Shardai Powder, select your favourite flavour or go for all of them and enjoy the taste of original thandai.

Orange and Whiskey Marmalade: Well, for all those who think vegan is boring, it is time to add some boozy twist to your diet. We have infused Jack Daniels and Jameson Irish whisky (which are 100 per cent vegan) in a jar full of Seville orange marmalade, a spoon full of which will make you go ‘oh so yum’.

Celebrating a year since this yummiliciousness happened