Eggless Almond Coconut Cookies

2011 has indeed been an eventful year for me. I did a few things I'd never dreamt of doing - wrote the 100th post in my blog, drove hundreds of miles on the freeway, ran a half marathon, learnt (a bit) of swimming, indulged in some water activities. If you ask me whether I want to live 2011 all over again, I'd say, hell yeah! But 2012 is already here bringing with it some new promises, a few challenges and lots of aspirations.

One more development that happened the previous year was I got a very good camera (thanks to my husband), so my pictures are getting better. I have started liking photography and love taking pictures of food. Previously, clicking pictures at night proved to be a challenge since taking close-up pictures meant having to tackle unnecessary shadows.

Coming to the cookies, these are a crispy crunchy lot with a delicate tinge of almond and a subtle flavour of coconut. These were actually supposed to be almond nankhatais. I was experimenting by adding almonds and coconut, with a few changes and substitutions (butter for ghee, sugar for powdered sugar). But the top did not crack like a good nankhatai's should, so I prefer calling them eggless cookies :).

Ingredients: 
1 cup almonds
1/2 cup butter, at room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup grated coconut (not sweetened)
1 cup all purpose flour or maida
1/2 tsp baking soda

Method:
Grind the almonds (without water) for 15 to 20 seconds till they are powdered. [I did not soak them or skin them, so these are almonds with the skin].

In a large bowl, mix butter and sugar with a fork or spoon. You can very well use your hands. The butter should be soft (need not be completely melted) so that you can mix it easily with the sugar. Add almond powder and coconut and mix well.

To this add the flour and baking soda and knead very well with your hands till you get a soft dough. Leave aside for 5 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350ºF.

Line a baking tray with parchment paper. Scoop out tablespoon measures of the dough. Roll into a ball, flatten and place on the baking tray a couple of inches apart. Using a tablespoon each time will give you cookies of the same size.

Bake for about 16 minutes or till the edges turn brownish. The center will be soft. Allow to cool for a few minutes. The cookies will harden once they cool completely. This recipe yields 30 to 32 cookies.

More eggless cookies-
Nankhatai
Eggless Chocolate Chip Cookies
Eggless Oats Dates Cookies
Jeera Biscuits

Gingerbread Men / Gingerbread Cookies

It's that time of the year again when the streets are lit beautifully. Every store you go, every place you visit, the spirit of the season is unmistakably infectious. It's the most wonderful time of the year is played almost everywhere and you cannot help but feel wonderful.
My (almost) 3 year old has now started understanding several things around him. And this season seems to be his most favourite yet. (Oh that is what I felt about Halloween too). His vocabulary nowadays has been widened with 'snowflakes', 'snowman', and of course, 'Santa Claus'.
The whole of yesterday, he was insisting that it was gingerbread boy and not gingerbread man while, to humour him, I was telling him otherwise. Kinda reminded me of the 'coffee - toffee' ad I heard growing up. Boy or man, these gingerbread cookies sure made our day so much more 'wonderful'. From the time I told him - 'let's bake some gingerbread cookies' to the time those cookies went into his little tummy, my restless li'l boy, though still restless, was the most well-behaved! He patiently waited as I was browsing for a recipe, was very careful when I was measuring the ingredients and used a lot of "please" when he wanted to help me cream the sugar and butter - something which he considers his job now! The two hours of wait time when the dough was in the refrigerator was the toughest for him but Dora, Diego and Team UmiZoomi came to his rescue. A couple of times, I did hear the fridge door opening but I blame myself for forgetting the safety lock.
When it was finally time to roll the dough, there he was, standing on his little chair, holding the little cookie cutter with a big smile on his face. His joy on my letting him cut a couple of gingerbread men left me so happy.
When the cookies were finaly done (he brought my attention to the beeping timer), "Amma, where are your oven mittens" took me by surprise.
When I was decorating the cookies he sat next to me instructing me where to put the eyes, the smiley etc - something he remembered doing in his school where they had to decorate a foam cut-out of a gingerbread man. Thank you gingerbread man, you sure made my day!

Recipe from here (with minor changes)
Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup mollases (I used Grandma's brand)
1 egg
2 1/4 to 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour (maida)
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp ginger powder
1 tsp cinnamon powder (I used only 1/2)
1 pinch nutmeg powder

Icing
1 cup Powdered sugar, 1 tbsp juice of lemon, water

Method:
Bring the butter to room tempertaure. With an electric mixer, beat butter and sugar. To this add molasses and egg and beat further. Scrape the sides as you beat .
In a bowl, combine flour, baking soda, salt and the spice powders.

Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix well. Beat with the electric mixer for a few seconds till they combine well. The dough will be sticky. Knead a bit with your hands and refrigerate covered for 2 hours. [The dough may smell strongly of molasses but will be ok after baking. Also, make sure you refrigerate the dough for 2 hours otherwise it will be sticky when you work on it.]

Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Line a cookie sheet (baking tray) with parchment paper. Remove a small portion of the dough from the fridge (about 1/3rd).
Spread some flour on a clean countertop. Roll the dough to 1/4 inch thick. Spread some flour on top. With a cookie cutter cut into the desired shape. Arrange on the cookie sheet a couple of inches apart. Bake for 9 to 10 minutes. If the cookies are thinner, bake for a shorter time. The edges should look done. The centre will be soft but will  harden as the cookies cool.
Repeat with the rest of the dough.

Here's a simple icing that you could make in seconds. Just mix 1 cup powdered sugar with 1 tbsp juice of lemon and approx 2 tbsp water till you get a thick but flowing liquid. If it becomes too flowing, just add some more sugar.

Transfer the icing into a piping bag or ziploc. Snip off a very small portion. Decorate the cookies.

Eggless Oats - Dates Cookies with a Soft Chewy Interior

First of all, what's with the name? It's like this: This recipe was a last minute hodge-podge done after I realised that we were out of biscuits/ cookies, sort of a must-have in the home of a toddler, because you don't know when they will ask for one.
So I threw in some oats, some dates and then some, which resulted in a pretty tasty cookie, except that the interior was chewy, almost like it was a filling in the cookie. It wasn't uncooked, it was definitely baked, but it was still not how the inside of a cookie should be. I figured too much milk was the culprit and decided to not blog about these cookies at all and maybe modify the recipe and try some other day.

However, after I refrigerated the cookies for a couple of hours, the centres became harder and the cookies turned out to be just what they are supposed to be - crunchy, chewy cookies. To add to this, my son and my husband loved the cookies so I thought of blogging about them anyway.
If you plan to try this recipe, you decide whether you would like a soft- chewy interior or a crisp-chewy interior and refrigerate/ do not refrigerate accordingly.

Ingredients:
20 dates, pitted
1/2 cup hot milk
1 cup oats
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted

Method:
Soak 10 dates in hot milk for a few minutes. Chop the remaining 10 dates finely.

In a large bowl, combine oats, wheat flour, baking soda and sugar. Add melted butter and mix well.

Grind the soaked dates and milk into a smooth paste. Add to the above. Add chopped dates. Mix well to form a sticky dough.

Refrigerate the dough for one to two hours.

Preheat the oven to 375ºF.
Line a baking tray with parchment paper. With a tablespoon measure scoop out the dough, form into balls and place on the sheet two inches apart. Using a tablespoon measure will give you cookies of the same size.

Bake for 13 to 14 mts till the sides look brown. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. The interiors will be soft and chewy. For crispy interiors, refrigerate for a few hours.

Makes approx 24 cookies.

Peanut Butter Cookies

I remember as a child, my brother and I used to hog on peanut butter. My aunt used to get us a jar each during her India trips and we used to relish both the creamy and crunchy versions. My love for peanut butter continues and now it's my son who shares it with me. Since he loves cookies I decided to make some peanut butter cookies for him.

My son was very excited about the cookies. When I asked him, 'shall we make some peanut butter cookies?', he, with a big grin on his face said, 'yes, maaamy' (he learnt the mummy part from Caillou, he otherwise calls me 'Amma'.) Infact, those who watch Caillou (or can't help watching it thanks to their two to four year olds at home) will definitely know that Caillou knows a great deal about food, helps his 'maamy' in the kitchen sometimes and even dreams of making his own pizzas. My son has learnt a few terms thanks to him - one day he actually asked me for some mushrooms!

I let my son do the creaming of the butter and sugars(with a firm hand on the mixer, ofcourse) and he was fascinated by it. He even let out a 'wow' here and there. It was such a fulfilling experience for me!

Coming to the recipe, I saw some basic recipes on the internet, mixed the usual ingredients and came up with the following :

Ingredients :
3/4 cup whole wheat flour (atta)
1/2 cup all purpose flour (maida)
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup peanut butter (I used Skippy, creamy)

Note - You can substitute peanut butter with almond butter.

Method :
Combine the flours, baking soda and salt and keep aside.
In a large bowl, with an electric mixer, beat butter and sugars until creamy. To this add egg and vanilla and beat. Scoop in the peanut butter and beat till it mixes well.
Add flour mixture little by little and beat till well incorporated. [You can even mix with a large spoon or knead with your hands].The dough will be sticky. Refrigerate for one to two hours.

Preheat oven to 350ºF.

Line a cookie sheet (baking tray) with parchment paper. Scoop out one tablespoon of the dough at a time. Shape into balls,  press lightly with your fingers and place on the cookie sheet two inches apart. Using a tablespoon measure each time gives you cookies of the same size.

With a fork make the signature crisscross design on the cookies. [Dip the fork lightly in water to prevent it from sticking. Press the fork hard on the cookie batter, otherwise the lines will disappear].

Bake for 13 to 14 minutes or till the edges look brownish. The centre will be soft and will harden once the cookies cool. Allow to cool for a couple of minutes on the cookie sheet and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. [For the next batch if the dough appears sticky, refrigerate again till firm].

Makes 32 to 35 cookies. But then again, I can't be sure since some dough found it's way into my tummy!

Valentine Cookies

Color flow icing was something I wanted to try for a long time now. Before making it from scratch, my curiosity led me to my favourite store - Michael's, to my favourite aisle, Wilton. However I ended up buying the Cookie Icing bottles. I did not follow the instructions of microwaving the icing, but used it as is, transferring it to a piping bag. Results were not too bad. Took me some time to get the hang of it, but once I did, armed with a toothpick in one hand and the piping bag in another, there was no stopping me!

For the cookies, I used Alton Brown's recipe which I used to make the Halloween Cookies earlier, using heart shape cutters instead of the pumpkin cutter. To get the step-by-step pictures go here.

Wish you a Happy Valentine's Day!

Eggless Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ever since I tried milk chocolate oatmeal cookies and enjoyed the whole experience, I wanted to try the Nestle chocolate chip cookie recipe. So finally when I got around to making them, I thought of replacing the eggs with ground flax seeds (alsi - I've mentioned about it here)

I read about flax seeds as egg replacers on several websites and was very keen on trying this method out. I was specially motivated when I read about it in this book. Here is the equation as per the book -

1 tbsp of ground flax seed +  3 tbsp water to replace 1 egg.

Just dry grind a few tablespoons of flaxseed for 10 to 15 seconds. You can store the extra powder in an airtight container (in the freezer) for later use.

Take 3 tbsp very hot water in a bowl, add 1 tbsp flax powder and stir vigorously. Set aside for 5 to 10 minutes. The mixture will turn thick and viscous like so - 

                                 (the picture shows 2 tbsp flax powder + 6 tbsp water)

Since the recipe calls for two eggs, I did the needful, creamed all the wet ingredients and reached for the all purpose flour. I had just about a cup! So good old atta (whole wheat flour) came to my rescue. The result - not too bad! The cookies were slightly denser and did not easily flatten out like (I presume) they should (the absence of eggs could also be the reason for this). But they tasted great and crunchy with that li'l chewiness in them - the main reason why I loved chocolate chip cookies since I was a little girl!

Since I was adding flax seeds, I added a little extra vanilla - just to make sure the nuttiness of the flax seeds did not overpower the taste of the cookies, but all was good at the end. Also, I added a little more baking soda since flax seeds do not have the leavening properties of eggs. I also used a little less chocolate chips than the original recipe.

So with all these changes, here's the recipe :

Ingredients :

1 cup all purpose flour (I used maida) + 1 1/4 cup whole wheat flour (atta)

[ OR 2 1/4 cup all purpose flour in total]
1 1/4 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1 cup butter, softened

3/4 cup granulated sugar

3/4 cup brown sugar

1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

2 tbsp flax seed

6 tbsp warm water

1 3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate morsels

Method:

Mix 2 tbsp ground flax seeds with 6 tbsp warm water and set aside for 10 minutes until the mixture turns viscous.

Meanwhile combine all purpose flour, wheat flour, salt and baking soda and set aside.

In a separate (large) bowl, with an electric mixer, cream butter, sugar and brown sugar. Add vanilla and flax mixture and beat further. 

Add the flour mixture little by little and fold in with a spatula. Since whole wheat flour is used here, mix gently - otherwise the cookies can become hard and dense; but make sure it's mixed well. 

Add chocolate chips and mix well.

Refrigerate the dough for about an hour. (Since it's winter now, I refrigerated it for just a few minutes. However if it is hot and humid, you need to refrigerate it for a longer time in order to roll the dough into balls. The original recipe doesn't call for refrigeration, but I do so since I prefer to roll the dough into balls). 

Preheat the oven to 375F.

With a tablespoon, scoop out the dough and make balls. Place them on an ungreased cookie sheet, about two inches apart and flatten them a little with your fingers. 

Bake for about 11 minutes - till the the edges turn slightly brown. The center will be soft. Remove and allow to cool on the baking tray for two minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. The center will harden once the cookies cool.

Like I mentioned earlier, the cookies were slighlty dense, owing to the whole wheat. But I have no complaints since whole wheat is definitely a better option, specially for kids.

The recipe yields about 5 dozen cookies (great solution for a potluck party!), if you can refrain yourself from sneaking in some cookie dough to yourself. But I guess with the absence of raw eggs in the dough, it may not be too easy!

Sugar Cookies - for Halloween

Last Halloween, my son, then 10 months old, was dressed as a tiger. This time I got him a pumpkin costume. One of his friend's mom from his playgroup is hosting a Halloween party this week. Decorating these pumpkin-shaped cookies sounded like fun so I decided to make them for his cute little friends.

After scouting for a while, I came across this recipe on Food Network, by Alton Brown. 

Ingredients :

3 cups APF (I used maida)

3/4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1 cup unsalted butter, softened

1 cup sugar

1 egg

1 tbsp milk

Method :

Cream butter and sugar. Add egg and milk and beat further. 

Combine flour, baking powder and salt and add to the above little by little, beating until dough forms.

Divide the dough into two and refrigerate for 2 hours.

This is where I made a big mistake. I made the dough, refrigerated it and went to put my toddler to sleep. I was so exhausted, I decided to bake the cookies the next morning and fell asleep.

When I started rolling the dough the next day, this is what happened :

The dough had become hard and started to crack as I rolled it. I patched it up carefully. Next time I make this I'm going to use up the dough within two hours! 

The recipe asks us to roll out the dough on powdered sugar instead of flour, to 1/4th inch thick. Using a cookie cutter, cut the rolled out dough into desired shape. I used a pumpkin shaped cutter. Remove the extra scraping and keep aside. You can roll them out again for more cookies.

Arrange atleast 1 inch apart on a greased cookie sheet [I lined mine with parchment paper]. 

Bake in a preheated oven at 375ºF for about 7 to 9 minutes [mine took 8 minutes] or till the edges start browning. Cool on the baking sheet for a couple of minutes and transfer onto a wire rack to cool completely. (The centers will be slightly soft but will harden as they cool)

Repeat for the next batch, till you finish all the dough.

To decorate the cookies, I used Wilton's buttercream icing.

I took a little bit of icing and added green food colour. I added orange colour to the rest of the icing. For the black colour, I used store bought icing because I have had terrible experiences trying to colour the icing black. You can even use chocolate chips for the eyes.

To decorate the cookies, the tips I used were 5, 12, 18 and 1M.

Here's hoping my son's little friends enjoy eating these decorated cookies as much as I enjoyed making them.

These cookies go to Food Palate Series.

Baked Yellow Squash Treats

  

Yellow squash is a great source of vitamin C. Flax Seeds are rich in Omega 3 Fatty acids. When I saw a recipe that included both and used whole wheat flour and the goodness of honey, I almost jumped with joy. This solved my problem of what to give my toddler as an evening snack.

I love the look and taste of yellow squash. I think it is the cutest vegetable and I usually toss it into my soup or pasta.

Flax seeds (also called 'alsi' in hindi) was something I wanted to use in my cooking for a very long time. Since my husband and son are both vegetarian, this would be a good way of consuming the Omega 3 fatty acids which are predominant in fish oils.

A couple of things though. The recipe called for whole wheat pastry flour. I did not know what that meant, and did not bother to find out and just went ahead and used whole wheat flour. Probably that made a difference. The cookies that they were supposed to be, turned out soft and the taste and texture was more of a cake. But the taste was great and my son loved it! So when I made the second batch I altered the method a little bit. Read on.

Ingredients :
2 cups whole wheat flour (check original recipe )
1tsp baking powder
1/2  tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

2 eggs

1/3 cup honey
4 to 5 tbsp oil
2 tsp vanilla
2 cups greated yellow squash
2tbsp ground flax seeds

Method:
Preheat oven to 375F.
Combine all the dry ingredients.
In a separate bowl, beat eggs, mix well with honey, oil and vanilla.

Add the dry ingredients, squash and flax seeds and mix well.

Grease a baking tray (cookie sheet). Divide the dough into 2 or 3 batches. 

Spread the batter evenly across the sheet like so:

Bake for 12 to 15 mts or until top has browned slightly. Repeat for the next batch.

Cool and cut into desired shapes. I first cut them in squares and then realized I have a heart shaped cutter. 

When I offered these treats to my toddler in a bowl, he went straight for the hearts! 

My friend Michelle makes something similar, with bananas. The proportions may vary, but just thought I'd let you know so you could try it, in case yellow squash is not available/ liked. (Not sure how it will turn out for this recipe since I haven't tried it but if you do, do let me know ). She calls them banana fritters and she roasts them on both sides on the pan, instead of baking them. So there, you don't really need an oven. I did not know what to call these, so called them treats. Any suggestions are welcome.

The treats hop on to 'Only Kid's Delight'.