Cookies | Aapplemint

Vanilla Cookies

Dec 182012

Baking cookies with my little man has become a Christmas tradition with us now. Last year we made gingerbread men and vanilla cookies,which was a lot of fun. He loved doing the cut outs of gingerbread men, but didn’t quite enjoy eating them, so this year we decided to stick to the basic Vanilla cookies. Turns out, even all the kids at his Christmas playdate loved them, specially the sprinkled sugar bits. We had a little pre christmas playdate for all his friends at home, as everyone was travelling for the holidays. We set up the tree, decorated it, got lovely presents for everybody, which was the highlight (for me) because I cannot wait to share with you my prize find : Cuponation ! Yup thats the place I did all my online shopping for gifts from, and I got some really really good deals. So very satisfied, both the kids and me ! We sang carols, we ate , played games … it was the best playdate ever. For now I’m off to HongKong to celebrate Christmas with my family.

I hope you are all having a lovely Christmas season.

May love be filled in your life, May hope be in your heart, May peace be in our world

May this Christmas end the present year on a cheerful note and make way

For a fresh and bright New Year

Here’s wishing you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year !

Ingredients

125 gms unsalted butter

250 gms all purpose flour

110 gms caster sugar

1 egg

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/4 tsp salt

sugar to sprinkle

Cream the butter and sugar till pale and fluffy for about 5 mins on medium speed. Add the egg and vanilla till well incorporated for about 2 mins and add the flour. Beat till all is combined and add a wee bit of extra flour if required. Knead into a ball and roll flat between two sheets of greaseproof paper . Refrigerate for about 30 mins to an hour.

When ready to bake,Preheat the oven to 160C. Use all the shapes of cookie cutters you need to and place them on non stick baking paper/mats. Sprinkle with sugar and bake for about 12-15 mins or till they begin to lightly brown. Repeat the process with the left over dough, returning to the fridge if you need to. Let them cool completely before you store then in an air tight container.

Here are some posts I’ve done in the past for Christmas

Lamingtons for Christmas

Cookies For Beginners

Carrot n Coconut Cupcakes

Chocolate Financiers topped with Roasted Almonds in Caramel & Chocolate

Christmas Financiers

Boozy Balls for Christmas

A Christmas Cake and Seasons Greetings to All

Hazelnut Crinkle Cookies

All, Baking, Featured 10 Responses »

Oct 022012

Last week Gabrielle, a very dear friend of mine, who moved to New York a couple of years ago, visited me here in Mumbai. She always wanted to visit India, and since she’s getting married next month, she decided to make this a shopping cum holistic trip. After attending a months course at the yoga ashram in Kerala, she landed here to catch up with me and get some wedding shopping done. Since she already had her bridal jewellery sorted by her inlaws, she was keen on getting some beautiful info-western fusion wedding gowns. My sister makes the most beautiful wedding lenghas and gowns, and Gabby couldn’t ask for anything more. Actually she did – she asked me to bake for her !

Recently my inlaws travelled to Istanbul, and brought back gifts for everyone from their travels. Knowing what a hopeless foodie I am, they got me a KILO of Hazelnuts. Yup a whole kilo. How apt ! I was saving them for the right occasion and recipe, and luck favoured Gabby : its her favourite nut and I had plenty. Now I was torn between making rich sinful chocolate hazelnut brownies or plain hazelnut cookies. Knowing the brownies would be heavy on the calories I didn’t want her to gain those extra pounds before the big day, and yet I had to bake something a little more than just plain old cookies. So I picked Crinkle Cookies. Having made the regular chocolate crinkle cookies many times, ( which I’m wondering why I haven’t shared on the blog yet : I will do soon ) I knew are simply irresistible.

They are crispy on the outside but with a soft chewy centre and loaded with nuts.This is where a brownie meets a cookie, the best of both worlds. The recipe calls for a jar of Nutella and 2 cups of roasted hazelnuts. There is no need to add extra chocolate, as the Nutella is enough. I used this recipe, but I had to change it to my needs. A rule for baking cookies is always do a test batch first. Never blindly follow the recipe, as ovens differ and you may not want to risk all your cookies. Try baking one or two just to make sure you get it right, before you bake the whole batch. My first two batches resulted in black bottomed and hard cookies. So I kept the cookie batter in the fridge for a couple of more hours and baked them at a lower temperature for a few minutes longer. The result is in front of you. Bake them to believe me.

Hazelnut Crinkle Cookies

Makes about 3 dozen cookies

3 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 cups Nutella
4 tablespoons butter, at room temperature
1-1/3 cups granulated sugar
2 eggs, at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon instant coffee
1/3 cup milk
2 cups hazelnuts, toasted and finely chopped
1 cup powdered sugar

Combine the dry ingredients : flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl and set aside. In another bowl, beat the Nutella, butter, and granulated sugar for about 2 minutes with an electric beater. Add the eggs, vanilla, coffee and mix until incorporated. Reduce the speed to low and alternate additions of flour mixture and milk, starting and ending with the flour, and mixing until just combined after each addition. Fold in ½ cup of the chopped hazelnuts. Refrigerate the dough until firm, at least 2-4 hours. 8 hours worked best for me.

Preheat oven to 160 C. Line your baking trays with baking paper. Place the remaining hazelnuts and the powdered sugar in two separate bowls. Take about a tablespoon of the mixture and roll the dough into balls, roll in the hazelnuts, then roll in the powdered sugar. Place the balls 2 inches apart on the baking sheets. Bake until the edges are set and the middle still looks a little soft, about 13-15 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Store cookies in an airtight container at room temperature. Just before serving, to jazz them up, drizzle with some Nutella.

Cookies for Beginners

All, Baking, Featured 5 Responses »

Jan 312012

I’ve waited for the longest time to have my lil guy, one day, join me in the kitchen and make lots of goodies. My son is now a couple months over 2 years and its the perfect time to start involving him and introduce him to cooking and even more fun – baking. We decided to get into the whole cookie making experience, which would actually be even a first for me. I’ve never ventured into making cookies and eversince Christmas I’ve been thinking Gingerbread Men, simple vanilla cookies, melt in your mouths, the chocolate variety and sugar coated ones. Of course, we don’t eat a huge amount of sugary foods but I find that in comparison to a chocolate bar or bag of sweets, when treats are made at home the child is really able to enjoy the entire experience and hold onto it for longer. Part of the slow food movement shall we say ! Being new to this game of cooking sweets for children though, I always do a little bit of food health research before stepping into the kitchen. I just look up ‘health consultants in the UK’ to get some better quality sites as, the internet does seem to be filled with many, many untrusted sites these days. Anyway, we did make our gingerbread men, which didn’t survive long enough to take pictures of … but since I learnt that cookie making is actually so simple, I couldn’t stop of thinking of trying my hand at some more. And just then as if God was listening to me, the Donna Hay issue arrived in my mail, loaded with cookie recipes ! I encourage you to try out these simple yet devastatingly divine cookies. And before you know it, you’ll finish them and find yourself baking a new batch …. just like me .

Ingredients

(Adapted from Donna Hay Christmas issue 2011)

125 gms softened unsalted butter

110gms caster sugar

1 egg

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

225gms plain flour – sifted

1 tablespoon dutch cocoa – sifted

A pinch of salt

Place the butter and sugar in an elecrtic mixer and beat for 8 mins or until fluffy pale and creamy. Add the egg and vanilla essence and further beat for 2 mins or until combined. Add the flour little by little and beat till a soft dough forms. Remove 2/3rds of the dough and set aside. Add the cocoa poedwer to the remaining dough and beat until well combined..

Roll ech dough portion out between 2 sheets of greaseproff paper to 3mm thick and refregerate for 30 mins or until firsm.

Preheat the oven to 160C . Using a 7 cm round cookie cutter , cut 8 rounds from the vanilla dough and using a 4 cm star cutter cut out stars and place them on top of the vanilla rounds. Place the cookies on a non stick silicon mat and bake for 12-13 mins or until lightly golden.

You can use the left over cookie dough to make smaller cookie of different shapes and bake all the smaller one together for about 8 mins.

Cool on wire wrach and store in an air tight container.

Ma’moul

All, Baking 72 Responses »

Aug 092008

Ma’moul is a beautiful Middle Eastern cookie. Made from Semolina and stuffed with dates, its hard not to like it.Traditionally they are made in wooden stamp molds a lot like the Chinese mooncakes and are available with different fillings of dates and nuts. I bought some from a Lebanese supermarket the other day, and realized how much i loved them and had to make my own. Obviously as usual, like every creative cook, i had to give it my twist Also i did not have the molds and rolled them with hand instead.They turned out a bit different than i expected, but I’m guessing that’s cuz its homemade and not made on an commercial level. Also recipes differ from person to person, but i quite loved these.

1 cup flour
2 cups semolina
230 gms butter
1/4 th cup sugar
1/4 th tsp baking powder
2 tbsp orange blossom water
1/4th cup water
pinch of salt
1 1/2 cups pitted dates
100 gms unsalted pistachios

Start with mixing the dry ingredients i.e the flour, semolina, salt, baking powder together. In another bowl, cream the butter n sugar together till light n creamy. Slowly fold in the dry mixture and then lightly knead in with the orange blossom water and the normal water. Dont be afraid the water is not too much, the semolina will soak it all up. Cover and keep aside for 30 mins. In the meantime chop the dates with a heavy cleaver and mash it all together making a paste. Now roll them in elongated rolls, and keep it ready to stuff the cookies. Chop the pistachios roughly and spread them on a plate. To make the cookies simple take a decent amt in you hand, roll and ball and push in the date filling and cover it with the cookie dough, roll in the pistachios and put it on your silicon baking sheet. Bake for 15 mins at 180C . Remove and cool completely, and try not to eat them while they are still warm , as you may feel a little disappointed. They taste better a few hrs after baking. I would’ve loved to tell you how many this portion makes, but I’ve lost count, i ate far too many and by the time i finished baking i packed the rest off to my mum in law … after taking these pictures ofcourse !

The Easy Option

All, Baking 9 Responses »

May 092007

Well so there is one more addition to master patissier Pierre Hermes fan club. Just recently got myself a copy of his Chocolate Desserts and i’ve been dying to try something from it.Oh…what a book…what beautiful cakes n cookies n desserts.Obviously it will take me a while before i try some of those beautiful recipes, and since i had to make something from the book i chose the easiest recipe in there.The Viennese Chocolate Sables. I must tell u that they are insanely easy to make. Anyone can make it and look like a star. And all from the ingredients from your cupboard.A little tip though, make sure the butter is really soft for the best results.

You’ll need

260 gms all purpose flour
5 tbsps of cocoa pd.
100gms confectioners sugar , sifted
200 gms salted butter
3 tbsps egg whites

Pre heat the oven to 180 C and line a baking sheet.First start with mixing the flour and cocoa pr in a bowl. Set aside. Then in another bowl whisk the butter till light and creamy.Add in the sifted sugar and then the lightly beaten egg whites.The mixture will look curdled at this point but as soon as you add the flour mix it will be ok.Very gently mix the flour in in batches.Mix only till the flour has incorporated with the butter mix.Over working it will make the cookies dense and hard.Put the mix in a piping bag and pipe out actually any shape u like.I stuck to one in the book,the authentic stuff. Bake for 12 mins.U’ll be in the kitchen for a while if your oven is small like mine, as there are quite a few cookies to bake.I could tell u how many but i lost count of them as i cant remember how many i wolfed down before they even cooled down Make sure they are stored in a air tight container.Will stay for a week…..nah i doubt that…. !