Thumbprint Cookies

Hello everyone, hope you all had a great Christmas! Thought of ending the year with this cute Thumbprint Cookies recipe that I tried couple of times and came out well. It’s a very easy recipe, you can fill the cookies with any jam/preserve or even citrus curd of your liking. Do try and let me have your feedback.

 

Thumbprint Cookies

(From here)

Ingredients:

Unsalted butter - 1 cup (226g), softened to room temperature

Sugar - ⅓ cup (70g)

Light brown sugar - ⅓ cup(70g), tightly packed 

Egg yolk -1 large 

Vanilla extract - ¾ tsp 

All-purpose flour -2 ¼ cup (280g)

Cornflour - 2 tsp 

Salt - ½ tsp 

Sugar - ½ cup for rolling (optional)

Jam or preserves - ⅓ cup (I used strawberry jam)

Method:

• Place butter in the bowl of a stand mixer and beat until creamy.
• Scrape down the sides of the bowl, add sugars, and beat, gradually increasing mixer speed to medium-high until ingredients are well-combined.
• Add egg yolk and vanilla extract and beat well.
• In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, cornflour, and salt. 
• With mixer on low speed, gradually add flour mixture to wet ingredients until completely combined.  This dough will seem very dry and crumbly, so be sure to pause occasionally to scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl. 
• Scoop cookie dough into small sized balls and roll very well.
• Roll in granulated sugar (if using) and place on a wax-paper covered plate or small cookie sheet.  Use your thumb or the rounded back of a teaspoon to gently press an indent in the centre of the cookie dough.  Repeat until all the dough has been used.
• Transfer cookie dough to freezer and chill for 30 minutes.
• Once dough is done chilling, preheat oven to 375F (190C) and place your jam in a small microwave-safe bowl.  Heat 5-10 seconds or until jam is no longer firm and is easy to stir.
• Spoon jam into each thumbprint, filling each indent to the brim.  
• Once oven is preheated, place cookies at least 2" apart on a parchment paper-lined cookie sheet and bake on 375F (190C) for 11 minutes or until edges are just beginning to turn golden brown.
• Allow cookies to cool completely on baking sheet and store in an airtight container.

 

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Classic Chocolate Whoopie Pies With Marshmallow Crème Filling ~ December Daring Bakers' Challenge

Whoopie pies are a cross between a cookie and a cake (not a pie!), with two round, mound-shaped halves sandwiching a sweet creamy filling. 

The December Daring Bakers' Challenge had us all cheering - the lovely and talented Bourbonnatrix of Bourbonnatrix Bakes was our hostess and challenged us to make fun, delicious and creative whoopie pies! Delicious little cake-like cookies sandwiching luscious filling in any flavors we chose... What else is there to say but "Whoopie!"

Since this is the first time I am making Whoopie Pie I wanted to stick to the Classic Whoopie Pie recipe. For filling I couldn’t find Marshmallow Fluff/ Marshmallow Crème in the market here, so I had to make it at home. Found an easy recipe for the fluff on the net. It was really fun making whoopee pie, marshmallow fluff and the filling all from scratch. This time my super picky eater son loved the whoopie pies and he was the one who ate the most!

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Passion Fruit Mille-Feuille / Napoleon / Custard Slice for Daring Bakers’

This month’s Daring Bakers’ challenge is to make Mille-Feuille, the popular French patisserie treat. ‘Mille-feuille’ is French for ‘a thousand leaves’ (or ‘layers’), which is very apt, as it contains both layers of pastry (usually three) and layers within each pastry sheet..... Making puff pastry (or pâte feuilletée) basically involves a simple pastry dough, which is folded around sheet of butter (the beurrage). You then roll out your butter pastry package, fold it, roll it out, fold it, etc. – creating seams of butter that will puff up into distinct crispy layers when baked. The traditional mille-feuille is filled with a vanilla pastry cream (crème pâtissière) and is also known as a Napoleon, a custard slice or a vanilla slice. It’s often topped with royal icing and distinctive chocolate squiggles, and is popular the world over....

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Gingerbread Men

I made these Gingerbread men for my little one’s school Christmas party. I adapted the recipe from Joy of Baking with slight changes as I didn’t have molasses at home and I didn’t want to buy one full bottle just to make these cookies. So I substituted molasses with brown sugar dissolved in water. These cookies tasted really good and his friends loved the shape and the icing :) … I got around 40 gingerbread men and a few snowflakes from this recipe.

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Iced Cherry Rings

Hope you all had a lovely holiday..... During this holiday season I baked a couple of cookies and this Iced Cherry Rings was one of them..... The recipe is from The Big Book of Baking which I won from Divya’s blog..... It is a good book with lot of recipes..... These buttery cookies studded with glazed cherries and lemon glaze were a perfect holiday treat :)......

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Sugar Cookies

I made these cookies for my little one’s school Christmas party. Sugar cookies recipe adapted from Joy of Baking, I was a little skeptical of making Royal icing for these small kids because of the raw egg white it contains. Looked for an eggless cookie frosting and ended up in this beautiful blog with stunning cookie decorations. I made these cookies and decorations in a hurry, so I am not too pleased with the decoration. But the cookies and the icing are delicious and my little one loved it.

Sugar Cookies
(Recipe adapted from here)
Makes about 36 - 4 inch (10 cm) cookies
Ingredients:
3 cups (390 grams) all purpose flour 
1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 cup (227 grams) unsalted butter room temperature

1 cup (200 grams) granulated white sugar

2 large eggs

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Method:

• In a separate bowl whisk together the flour, salt, and baking soda.
• In the bowl of your electric mixer (or with a hand mixer), beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy (about 3 to 4 minutes).
• Add the eggs and vanilla extract and beat until combined.
• Add the flour mixture and beat until you have a smooth dough.
• Divide the dough in half and wrap each half in plastic wrap.
• Refrigerate for about one hour or until firm enough to roll.
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (177 degrees C) and place rack in center of oven. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
• Remove one half of the chilled dough from the refrigerator and, on a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough to a thickness of 1/4 inch (1 cm). (Keep turning the dough as you roll, making sure the dough does not stick to the counter.)
• Cut out desired shapes using a lightly floured cookie cutter and transfer cookies to the prepared baking sheet.
• Place the baking sheets with the unbaked cookies in the refrigerator for 10 to 15 minutes to chill the dough which prevents the cookies from spreading and losing their shape while baking.
• Bake cookies for about 8-10 minutes (depending on size) or until the edges are just starting to brown.
• Remove from oven and let cookies cool on baking sheet for a few minutes before transferring to a wire rack to finish cooling.
• Frost with icing / , if desired. Be sure to let the icing dry completely before storing. (This may take several hours.)
• Frosted cookies will keep several days in an airtight container. Store between layers of parchment paper or wax paper.

Sugar Cookie Frosting Recipe

(Adapted from here)

Ingredients:
1 cup Confectioners’ Sugar (powder sugar)
1 Tablespoon Milk
1 drop Lemon Juice (fresh or processed)
1 Tablespoon Light Corn Syrup

Method:

• Combine powder sugar, corn syrup, and lemon juice in a bowl.
• If you need a thicker frosting, say for outlining your cookies, add LESS milk. Just a drop at a time.
• If you have already outlined your cookies and need to fill in or ’spill’ your cookies, you can add more milk (as much as you would need) to make your frosting very runny.
• If you are using food coloring, be sure to use LESS milk. Most food colorings are liquid and can make your frosting more runny. If you are using a gel food coloring, your milk quantity can remain the same.
• If you want to add different flavors, you can add drops of vanilla extract, almond extract, lemon, etc. to flavor your frosting.
• If you want more SHINE, use more corn syrup and less milk.
• This frosting will stay good for days in the fridge.

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Basic Biscuit with Vanilla Icing

Basic Biscuit

Ingredients & Method:

Preheat the oven to warm 160C (315F/ Gas2-3). Line a baking tray with baking paper. Beat together 125gm (4 oz) cubed butter and 1/2 cup (125g / 4 oz) caster sugar until creamy. Add 1 egg and 1/4 teaspoon vanilla essence and beat well. Sift 1 cup (125g/4 oz) plain flour and 1 cup (125g/4 oz) self-raising flour and fold into form a soft dough. Turn out onto a sheet of baking paper, cover with another sheet and roll out to 5 mm (1/4inch) thick. Using biscuit cutters, cut out shapes and place on the tray. Bake in batches for 10-15 minutes, or until lightly golden. Cool on a wire rack, then spread with Vanilla Icing. Makes about 50 biscuits




Vanilla Icing

Ingredients & Method:

Sift 1 1/4 cups ( 155g/5 oz) icing sugar in a bowl. Add 1 tablespoon cubed and softened butter, 1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence and 1-2 tablespoons boiling water. Stir until the mixture is smooth and spreadable. Spread or pipe the icing on biscuits.

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Night Sky Cookies!

Ingredients:
125gm /4 oz butter softened
3/4 cup /170g /5 1/2 oz caster sugar
1/2 tsp
1 egg, light beaten
2 cups/ 250 g / 8 oz flour1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 cup / 60 ml/2 fl oz milk
90gm /3 oz white chocolate, melted
125gm / 4 oz dark chocolate, melted

Method:

• Place butter, sugar and almond essence in a bowl and beat until light and fluffy. Gradually beat in egg.
• Sift together flour and baking powder. Fold flour mixture and milk, alternately, into butter mixture and mix to form a soft dough.
• Roll out dough on a lightly floured surface to 5mm/1/4 in thick. Using a star and a moon-shaped cookie cutter, cut out cookies.
• Place cookies on lightly greased baking trays and bake at 190C / 375F for 10 minutes or until cookies are golden and cooked. Transfer to wire racks to cool.
• Dip tops of moon-shaped cookies in white chocolate {I skipped this as I didn't have white chocolate with me :)} and tips of star-shaped cookies in dark chocolate. Place on wire racks to set.

Tip:

• As an alternative, brush the cookies with beaten egg and sprinkle with sugare before baking.
  

Recipe adapted from craving cookies recipe book.

This goes to Kids Delight event by Srivalli and to CFK - Chocolates guest hosted by Hema, mastermind of Sharmi

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