Welcome!
Welcome to my blog! I’m writing to share things I love that are related to the themes in my books. For the most part, this means family, friends and food, but I may throw in some Shakespeare and science for good measure.
In celebration of the announcement of my middle grade debut, MIDSUMMER’S MAYHEM, a Shakespeare-inspired, Indian-American foodie story about discovering your talents and finding your place in the world, the theme for my blog from now until June 2019 will be “Found in Translation.” I’m going to share memories—some from childhood, some from adulthood, some from time spent with my own children—and translate them into sweet treats!
I’d love to hear from you! Feel free to comment on this post, or reach out to me on Twitter or Instagram.
Malted Milk Mornings
My childhood memories of visiting my family in India are filled with food.
My family lived in Bangalore, which had (and has) some of the best restaurants I’ve ever been to. But they paled in comparison to the mouthwatering food that came out of my aunties’ kitchens every day. Homemade, vegetarian, and healthy, they were filled with heady spices and made with love.
But today, I’m thinking of a beverage—one I started my day with every morning in India when I was a kid, before I became old enough to drink the tea and coffee enjoyed by the adults in my family.
I’m referring to Bournvita, a chocolate malted mix made by Cadbury and sold in the UK and India (and many other places, I’m sure, but not in the U.S. when I was a kid) as a healthy drink for children. It was really sweet, and really tasty, and no matter what vitamins it contained, I’m not sure it qualified as healthy. But that didn’t matter to my cousins and me, giggling at the table in the cool mornings, somehow feeling a little cold and a little sweaty at the same time. Before we took our baths, before my cousins got ready for school, we sipped Bournvita out of stainless steel tumblers. We felt the love and care that went into heating the milk and mixing it with just the right amount of Bournvita powder. We enjoyed the grown-up feeling of starting the morning with something hot. We tasted the sweetness of another day together.
For my treats inspired by those memories, I opted to use malted milk powder rather than Bournvita per se in order to better control the amount of sugar in these cookies. The cocoa powder makes these plenty chocolatey. If you eat them warm—I dare you not to try one—the malted milk doesn’t come through as much…but when they cool down, I think it’s a more prominent flavor.
These cookies bring me back to summer mornings in India sipping Bournvita with my cousins, looking forward to the day ahead. I don’t recommend you eat them for breakfast…but if you do, I won’t tell anyone!
Bournvita-Inspired Double Chocolate Cookies With Malted Milk
Makes 40-45 3-4 inch cookies
Ingredients :
2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup cocoa
1 cup malted milk powder (I used King Arthur)
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons cornstarch
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 large eggs
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350F. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper or silicone mats.
Combine flour, cocoa, baking soda, salt, cornstarch, and malted milk powder in a large bowl and stir with a whisk.
Cream butter and sugars together until fluffy. Add vanilla extract and eggs, one at a time, until everything is well-mixed.
Add the dry ingredients to the butter-sugar-egg mixture and mix until just incorporated.
Stir in chocolate chips.
Scoop in rounded tablespoons and space at least 1 ½ inches apart on cookie sheets.
Bake for 9 minutes, rotating sheets hallway through, until the cookies have lost their raw look. Cool on pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to wire racks to finish cooling. Enjoy!
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