CHOCOLATE YULE LOG CAKE




CHOCOLATE YULE LOG CAKE
Serves 6  Preparation time 1 hour
Ingredients

200 grams flour / maida
200 grams butter
4 eggs beaten
250 grams sugar granules powdered
3 tablespoons Icing sugar
200 grams sugar
3 tablespoons cocoa powder
2 teaspoon Nescafe
125 grams fresh cream
50 grams chopped walnuts
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt.

Sift the cocoa powder, Nescafe, flour and baking powder together. Cream the butter and sugar together well. Add the eggs one by one and mix well. Add the vanilla essence. Now add the sifted flour with the other ingredients and fold in the mixture to form a smooth slightly thick consistency without lumps.
Pour into a greased and papered long cake tin and bake in a moderate oven (125 to 130 Degrees) for 40 to 45 minutes till the cake is done. (Insert a tooth pick or knitting needle in the cake and if it comes out clean then the cake is cooked inside)

Remove from the cake tin when cold and turn it out on a sheet of paper, which has been liberally sprinkled with icing sugar. Roll the cake tightly with this paper so as to form a log and keep aside.

Beat the fresh cream with 3 tablespoons of icing sugar and 2 tablespoons of cocoa powder till peaks form. Unroll the log cake from the paper and place on a suitable plate. Using a spatula, cover the cake with the icing.  Then with a wet fork make long lines across the surface of the icing to create a bark effect on the log. Store in the refrigerator until required for serving. Before serving, dust with icing sugar and decorate with some fresh small leaves.

ROSE COOKIES / ROSA COOKIES / ROSETTE COOKIES

. ROSE COOKIES / ROSA COOKIES / ROSETTE COOKIES

Rose Cookies are delicious fried Anglo-Indian Christmas Treats. Though named as Cookies, they are not cookies in the strict sense as they not baked but deep fried in hot oil. Rose Cookies are also known as Rosette Cookies, Rosa Cookies, etc and are prepared with a sweetened batter consisting of Flour, Eggs, Vanilla Extract and Coconut milk. Believed to be another culinary legacy left by the Portuguese in India, they are known as Rose de Coque or Rose de Cookies in Portugual. (They are also known as Rosettes in Sweden and Norway). The crisp cookies are made by plunging a special hand-held ‘Rose Cookie Mould’ or ‘Rosette Iron’ lightly coated with a sweet batter into hot oil. The Rose Cookie Mould or Rosette Iron is a long handled gadget with intricately designed iron moulds of different flowers such as roses and daisies. The Mould or Iron is heated to a very high temperature in oil, dipped into the batter, then immediately re-immersed in the hot oil to create a crisp shell around the hot metal. The mould or iron is shaken slightly, till the Rose Cookie gets separated from it. The delicate golden brown, light and crispy cookie thus separated from the mould /iron floats to the top and is taken out from the hot oil with a flat porous spoon. Though a time consuming and laborious process, Rose Cookies are incredibly delicious.



RECIPE FOR ROSE COOKIES
Serves 6   Preparation time 1 hour
Ingredients

½ kg refined flour
250 grams rice flour (optional)                              
1 cup coconut milk
200 grams sugar                               
6 eggs beaten well
½ teaspoon salt                        
1 litre oil for frying
1 teaspoon vanilla essence      
1 teaspoon baking powder

Mix all the ingredients together to form a smooth slightly thick batter.
Heat oil in a deep pan till it reaches boiling point. Now place the rose cookie mould into the oil to get hot. When the mould is hot enough dip it half way only into the batter and put it back immediately into the boiling oil. Shake the mould gently to separate the cookie from it. Heat the mould again and repeat the process. Fry rose cookies till brown. Continue in this way till the batter is finished.

Note: The batter will stick to the rose cookie mould with a hissing sound only if it is sufficiently hot otherwise it will just slide off the mould