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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Chewy Coconut Cookies

I think these cookies are adult favourites as children mostly prefer chocolate chip cookies or cream biscuits. Here we both like these cookies but our son doesn’t like it at all. If you like coconut flavour I am sure you will love these coconut loaded chewy and delicious cookies. I really love the combination of coconut and cardamom flavour. So I sometimes add cardamom powder and it tastes heavenly!

Chewy Coconut Cookies

(Recipe from here)

Ingredients:

All-purpose flour - 1 1/4 cups

Baking soda - 1/2 tsp

Salt - 1/4 tsp

Butter - 1/2 cup

Brown sugar - 1/2 cup, packed

White sugar - 1/2 cup

Egg - 1

Vanilla essence - 1/2 tsp

Cardamom powder - 1/2 tsp (optional)

Flaked coconut - 1 1/3 cups

Method:

• Preheat oven to 175˚ C / 350˚ F.
• Combine the flour, baking soda, salt and cardamom powder (if using); set aside.
• In a medium bowl, cream the butter, brown sugar, and white sugar until smooth.
• Beat in the egg and vanilla until light and fluffy.
• Gradually blend in the flour mixture, then mix in the coconut.
• Drop dough by teaspoonful’s onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Cookies should be about 3 inches apart.
• Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until lightly toasted.
• Cool on wire racks.

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Brazilian Coffee Cookies Recipe

I have been trying a variety of cookies recently. We really loved this coffee flavoured cookies. While baking these cookies our flat is filled with the aroma of freshly brewed coffee…. If you are a coffee lover I am sure you will love these cookies…

Brazilian Coffee Cookies Recipe

(Recipe from here)

Ingredients:

All-purpose flour / Maida - 2 cups

Salt - ½ tsp

Baking soda - ¼ tsp

Baking powder- ¼ tsp

Butter- ⅓ cup (75 gms)

Brown Sugar - ½ cup

White sugar - ½ cup

Egg - 1

Vanilla essence – 1 ½ tsp

Milk - 1 tbsp

Hot water - 1 tbsp

Instant coffee powder - 2 ½ tbsps

Method:

• Sieve together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Keep aside.
• Add hot water to the coffee powder and keep aside.
• In a bowl, cream together butter, brown sugar and white sugar until well blended. Beat in the milk, vanilla essence and egg until light and creamy. Add the coffee mixture and mix.
• Mix in the sieved ingredients until just blended. Cover with plastic foil and place in refrigerator for 10-15 miniuts.
• Prepare small lemon sized balls and place on baking sheet that has been lined with butter paper. Place each ball about 2 inches apart as they spread. Lightly flatten the balls with a fork. Sprinkle some sugar on top of each ball.
• Bake in a pre-heated oven at 200˚C for about 10-12 mts till the edges are slightly toasted or till done. Once baked, the cookie will feel soft on touch but once cool it will harden.
• Cool on a wire rack. Repeat with remaining dough. Store in airtight container.

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Chocolate Crinkles

I made these Chocolate Crinkle Cookies during Christmas for my son’s class party along with MeltingMoments. Somehow got delayed in posting the recipe. Chocolate Crinkles are deliciously soft, fudge-like cookies that are covered in icing sugar. These cookies are rolled in powdered sugar before baking and the cookies expands during baking resulting in beautiful black and white crinkles or cracks! The original recipe contains vegetable oil, but I prefer to use melted butter instead. The dough is extremely sticky, thus it is very important to refrigerate the dough. Do try the recipe, I am sure you will enjoy it :)

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Melting Moments

May every day of the New Year glow with good cheer & happiness for you & your family.

Happy New Year!

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Old Fashioned Indian Doughnut Recipe

This is the first doughnut recipe I have tried in my life. Got this recipe from my mother in law. This was one of mummy’s signature snack recipes during my husband’s childhood days. Unlike the soft doughnuts we make these days, this one is hard in texture and can be stored for several days. I always felt these doughnuts are a "cousin" of VettuCake and Diamond Cuts we make back home in Kerala. Kids will love this snack and you can also pack it for those staying in hostels. It's also a great snack to give away during Christmas time!

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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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Candy Cane Cookies

May this Christmas fill your hearts with warmth, peace and joy! We Wish You and Your Loved Ones A Holy and a Blessed Christmas!

During Christmas season I try to bake at least one new cookie every year. This year I tried the Candy Cane Cookies for my little one's school Christmas party. It was a little more time consuming than I expected but it was fun. Hope all of you are ready with your Christmas menu and if you are looking for ideas please go through my Christmas special menu…

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Vettu Cake Recipe / Deep Fried Sweet Cake ~ A Special Chayakkada Palaharam of Kerala ~ Step by Step Recipe

Vettu (Cut)Cake is a famous chayakkada / local tea shop palaharam (snack). Amma used to make this when we were kids and I used to help her cutting and shaping the dough while she fried them in hot oil. The cross like cut on the square shape should be deep, so that when we add the dough to the oil it will puff up and the cut will open up and resemble a flower.... Well mine didn't come out perfect in shape as I was doing it all alone and by the time I started frying the cuts had started joining back :D.... So the point is if you want a perfect shape like a flower ask someone to help you while you are frying them :D.... Eggs used in the original Vettu cake recipe are duck eggs and since I don’t have duck eggs I used large chicken eggs. Another important point while frying is that the heat should always be on medium low; do not over fry vettu cake.... Since its summer holiday time in Kerala make this for your hungry kids and their friends while they are enjoying their holidays! 

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Onion and Poppy Seed Crackers ~ Daring Bakers’ challenge, February 2013

Sarah from All Our Fingersin the Pie was our February 2013 Daring Bakers’ host and she challenges us to use our creativity in making our own Crisp Flatbreads and Crackers!  

I missed the last DB challenge and I didn’t want to miss this month too… February was a very busy and hectic month for me, birthday, Church Harvest festival and 5 days of long holidays and I somehow managed to bake these crackers on time… Thanks to Sarah for making this month’s challenge so simple and easy! These onion crackers are very easy to make and are very addictive to munch on… I also served these with little cream cheese topped with some fresh vegetables and herbs… Instead of cream cheese you can mix some Mayonnaise with a dash of Sriracha sauce too… I served these crackers with wine to my guests and they all loved it!

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Christmas Tree Cookies

It’s the time of the year I bake the most in a month.......Since my son doesn't eat Christmas Fruit Cake I baked these Christmas Tree Cookies for him and frosted it with Royal Icing using Meringue Powder.....You can find different cookie frosting ideas that I have posted earlier here.......While making the cookies if you find the dough sticky or difficult to handle, chill it a little longer or roll it between sheets of nonstick baking paper. Don’t add extra flour to the working surface as this will spoil the texture of the biscuits.

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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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Double Chocolate, Almond and Flax Cookies

Remember the Chocolate Chip, Cranberry, Flax Cookies I made some time back? Well it was a huge hit in my family. I have made it umpteen times since with different dry fruits and nuts.... Last week when I was searching for a healthy chocolate cookie recipe I found Miryam posted the same recipe with the addition of cocoa powder..... I made it immediately and again it turned out to be a big hit:)... Since I am not a big fan of walnuts I substituted it with Almonds and I used sunflower oil....

Before going to the recipe I want to share something with you all..... Have you noticed the new red badge on the right side? Yes! It’s my first ever DMBLGIT (Does My Blog Look Good in This) win:).... It was a wonderful surprise early this morning to find out that my Banoffee Pie Served in A Glass has won 3^rd place… I always wanted to get one of those badges for my blog and it is like a dream come true for me :).....

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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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Oatmeal, Coconut and Almond Cookies

On a recent hunt for some healthy cookies I come across Miryam’s Oatmeal, Coconut and Almond Cookies... I loved the recipe as it has all the healthy ingredients.... oatmeal, whole wheat, almonds and no egg.... We really loved the coconut, almond and oatmeal combination and will be baking it regularly..... Do try these eggless, healthy and tasty cookies.....

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Zebra Biscuits

I was planning on making the beautiful Zebra Cake which is famous in the blog world...... When I saw these Zebra Biscuits in one of the recipe books I have, I thought of trying it first before the cake....... Biscuits came out perfectly and my little one was really amused by the beautiful zebra pattern on his cookies :)...... Try this kid friendly biscuits for those naughty little ones and you will surely win their minds!

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Chocolate Chip Cranberry Flax Cookies

This must surely rate amongst the tastiest & healthiest cookies that I have baked recently. You can make different variations by mixing dry fruits or nuts of your choice. I have already tried cranberries, raisins, and a mix of raisins and almonds.... every time it came our perfectly and delicious and filling too…Like Miryam wrote on her blog these are cookies that don’t taste like healthy cookies :)…  you can even replace some of the flour with cocoa powder… haven’t tried that though… try these cookies I am sure you will love these healthy cookies!

(Featured on Foodbuzz Top 9)

Chocolate Chip Cranberry Flax Cookies

(Recipe Source: Eat Good 4 Life)
Yield: 28 – 30 small cookies

Ingredients:
¾ cup whole wheat flour (can replace with ¼ cup cocoa powder)
¼ cup ground flaxseed
½ cup oats
1 teaspoon baking soda
¼ cup canola oil
⅔ cup packed light brown sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup dry cranberries (You can do a mixture of dry fruits, nuts, or just use 1 ½ cups of chocolate chips. I already tried with ¾ cup raisins and ¼ cup chopped almonds)
½ cup dark chocolate chips

Method:

• Preheat oven to 350°F / 180°C. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.
• In a medium bowl whisk oil, sugar, egg and vanilla. Add flour, flax, oats, baking soda, chocolate chips and cranberries and combine with a rubber spatula.
• Drop rounded scoops onto a lined cookie sheet and bake for 10 to 12 minutes.
• Cool in the cookie sheet for 1-2 minutes and transfer to a wire rack. 
• Enjoy!

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Whole Wheat & Oat Raisin Cookies

I have tried these healthy cookies from Deeba’s blog several times. I changed the recipe a little bit to make it healthier by reducing the amount of butter, omitting and replacing to raisins…. Try these Whole Wheat chocolate chip Cookies either by adding chocolate chip like in the original recipe or by replacing it with raisins or any other fruits like I did… either way it is delicious J… Here is how I made these healthy cookies….

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Whole Wheat Almond Eggless Cookies

This month’s Sweet Punch challenge was to make Whole Wheat Almond Eggless Cookies from Manjula’s Ktchen. These are absolutely easy to make cookies. You can give this recipe to kids who are interested in baking as their first experiment. I am sure they will be happy to make such tasty cookies by their own :) :)… I have already made these cookies twice in a month! I am trying to cut down the butter intake as far as possible, so first time I only added 1/3 cup of butter and the cookies were just fine and second time I reduced it to ¼ cup and increased milk to 2 table spoons more….second time also cookies tasted good but was not as crumbly and melt in mouth type… Do try these easy cookies with the actual amount of butter or by reducing it, the end result will be really delicious cookies to munch :)...

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