Tea time treats

4 pm hunger pangs are real. Be it for a school going child or an adult taking a break during a busy work day. Tea time is that time of the day when one wants a small nibble that is enough to satiate the little cravings, yet not big enough to kill dinner appetite. A snack or a small eat with a hot cup of tea or milk for children is a good way to refuel. Try the vitamin and mineral packed version of vegetable cutlet using beetroot, almond pistachio that can be baked and stored for upto a week or make the most of the last of the mango season with a moist mango cupcake

Mango Cupcakes

Ingredients

Unsalted butter at room temperature ½ cup

Sugar (powdered for ease of mixing) 2/3 cup

Eggs (or 3 tablespoons of plain yogurt for an egg-less variant) 2 medium

Mango essence 1 tsp

Maida/ all purpose flour 1 ½ cup

Baking powder 1 ½ tsp

Baking soda 1/4 tsp

Salt ¼ tsp

Mango puree 1/2 cup

(mango pieces chopped and pureed in a blender with a splash of water)

Method

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit or 175 Celsius and line muffin trays with paper liners
• Cream butter and sugar till light and fluffy. Add the yogurt (or eggs, beating well after each addition) and beat well. Beat in the mango essence.
• In another bowl, whisk the flour with salt, baking soda and baking powder
• Add the mango puree and flour to the butter-sugar mixture alternately, beginning and ending with flour.
• Evenly fill the paper liners with batter and bake for 18-20 minutes or till a tester comes out clean.
• Leave to cool on a wire rack before frosting.
• Sometimes the consistency of the mango pulp/ puree can make the batter thicker than desired. Adding 2-3 tablespoons of milk / water to the batter to get cake batter consistency will help.

For mango butter-cream frosting

Ingredients

Unsalted butter at room temperature 1/2 cup

Sifted confectioner’s sugar / icing sugar 11/2 cup

Mango essence 1/2 tsp

Salt 1 pinch

Mango puree 1/2 cup

Method

• Whip the butter for 1 minute on medium speed with a hand whisk/ blender until creamy. Add the sugar in 2-3 batches and whip on low speed till it has mixed well. Add the salt, essence and mango puree and mix till blended. Use as required. If the buttercream is too runny, add upto 3/4 cup more icing sugar to make piping consistency.
• Use a star tip nozzle to pipe swirls on the cooled cupcakes. Add a few slivers of chopped fresh mango as garnish.

Almond and Pistachio Biscuits

Ingredients

Almond and Pistachio nuts, chopped small ½ cup

Maida 2 cups

Vanilla custard powder ¼ cup

Milk powder (optional) 1 tbsp

Baking powder ½ tsp

Cardamom powder 1 ½ tsp

Sugar ¾ cup

Unsalted butter (at room temperature) cup

Vanilla / Almond essence 1 tsp

Water/ Milk 1 Tbsp

Method

• Mix in a large bowl the dry fruit, maida, custard powder, milk powder, baking powder and cardamom powder. Set aside
• Cream the butter and sugar till fluffy. Add the essence and fold in the dry mixture gently. Do not over mix. add the milk / water if needed.
• Flour a surface and roll out the dough gently. shape into a rectangle and cut into small equal squares of 1½ inch approximately.
• Place them on a baking tray lined with butter paper and bake at 180C for 15 minutes
• Cool completely before packing into air tight boxes.

Beetroot Cutlets

Ingredients

Beetroots (boiled and mashed) 3 medium

Potatoes (boiled and mashed) 2 medium

Mint and coriander leaves (finely chopped) 2 tbsps

Red chilli powder ½ tsp

Garam masala ¼ tsp

Salt to taste

Lemon juice 1 tsp

Fresh or dried bread crumbs 3 tbsp

Method

• Boil and cool the beetroot and potatoes, remove the skin and mash well.
• Mix all the ingredients together to form a firm mixture.
• Check for seasonings and adjust.
• Shape into cutlets and fry till brown on hot tava / griddle in about a tablespoon of oil. Serve hot with sauce or chutney.