Thursday, December 18, 2008

Crazy for Cookies!

So, I've been on a bit of a baking spree for the past few days... Blame it on the upcoming holidays and having to mail things out to people! Guess it's pretty obvious that I've baked a bunch of cookies and want to share the recipes here.

Benne Biscuit:

Benne Biscuit

This is one that my husband and sister-in-law were telling me about. Apparently, it's a butter biscuit that they used to love eating in Bangalore. So, I looked up a recipe and decided to try it. The results were delicious!! Original recipe can be found here. I didn't make any changes to the recipe and they came out awesome!

Eggless Chocolate Oat Cookies:

Choc Oat Edited

This one was a special recipe that I found to send to my cousin's kids. Her two little ones have eczema and can't have dairy or eggs. What to send? Well, I didn't have to look far for this one. Sailu's blog came to my rescue with this recipe. The cookies were slightly chewy when warm and turned crisp on cooling. They had a nice chocolatey flavor and the oats texture really shined through. Perfect treat for little ones! No changes to this recipe either. Sailu's instructions were perfect!

Gingersnaps:

Gingersnaps

These are the perfect all-American holiday cookie... A little spicy, a little sweet and crispy. They keep forever (if you can hold on to them for that long!) and are perfect for dunking in tea or hot apple cider. The following recipe is from my King Arthur Flour cookbook.

Ingredients:

All purpose flour - 1 1/3 cup
White whole wheat (or all purpose) - 1 cup
Dried ginger powder - 2 tsp
Cinnamon - 1 tsp
Cloves powder - 1/2 tsp
Salt - 1/2 tsp
Baking soda - 2 tsp
Butter - 3/4 cup, softened
Sugar - 2/3 cup (1 cup for more sweet cookies)
Egg - 1 large
Molasses - 1/3 cup

Coarse sugar to roll cookies in - about 1/3 cup

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 375 F. Grease cookie sheets or line with parchment paper.

2. Sift or whisk together the dry ingredients (flours, spices, salt, and baking soda) in a small bowl. In another larger bowl, beat together the butter, sugar and egg until light and fluffy (like whipped cream). Now, beat in the molasses until well combined. At this point, add in the dry ingredients and stir together to form a soft dough.

3. Now, take 1-2 tsp of dough for each cookie, form into a ball and roll each ball into the coarse sugar to coat. Place about 2 inches apart on the greased or lined cookie sheets.

4. Bake at 375 F for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown. They will appear soft when you remove them from the oven, but will harden on cooling. Cool on cookie sheet for 2 minutes, then remove them to a wire rack to cool completely.

Gingersnaps CloseUp

Enjoy with beverage of your choice!

In honor of the events going on in the blogosphere, the first 2 cookies are going to Sharmi's cookie event as well as JZ's Santa's Holiday Challenge.

Gingersnaps are headed to the monthly mingle at Meeta's blog!

And with that, my friends, am going on vacation and will be back in 10 days or so. Hope everyone has a great rest of the year!

27 comments:

Sunshinemom said...

Benne biscuit rocks! We do not get molasses here but I would love to try those gingersnaps with brown sugar instead! Look professional!

Cham said...

I love benne biscuit probably i will give a try also :) Came out perfect :) The gingersnap is just awesome!

lubnakarim06 said...

Wow yummy, crunchy and gr8 looking biscuits.

indosungod said...

Happy Holidays!
I am sure each one of those cookies will be devoured with pleasure.

Laavanya said...

Everything looks awesome and how sweet of you to bake and mail these.. :) The gingersnaps are so perfect and are a favorite for me and my daughter.

Unknown said...

woow..loved all the cookie recipes..am going to give that gingersnaps a try..

AnuSriram said...

Lovely cookies! Can i grab some?

Mythili said...

awesome anni, those look exactly like the ones that we used to have in bangalore :)...

Usha said...

All the cookies look tempting and perfect :-)

Uma said...

yummy cookies Kalai! looks wonderful.

Bharathy said...

Wow..I see cookies in blogs..but here its just raining in just one post...love all :)...

kamala said...

Drooling over all the cookies Kalai..Never made ginger snaps..Bookmarking this..

Meeta K said...

all three look delicious! i am a fan of gingersnaps and so this is perfect! thanks for the entry!

Raks said...

Lovely cookies and enjoy your vacation,Kalai!

Gita Jaishankar said...

All the cookies look so tasty....

sra said...

Kalai, a very happy new year to you and your family!

Miri said...

Happy Vacation and a very Happy New year! The ginger snaps look perfect!

Raks said...

Happy New Year to You Kalai!

Cham said...

Happy New Year to u and ur family, my Dear Kalai !

Meera said...

Happy New Year!!

Neha said...

nice bunch ofcookies, n wish u too Happy New Year..

TBC said...

A very happy new year to you and your family too, Kalai.
Have a wonderful 2009.:D

Daily Meals said...

Cookies look delicious Kalai!
Wish you a happy and prosperous new year 2009!

Deepa Hari said...

nice cookies...loved the benne biscuit.

Chitra said...

Hi kalai,
cookies looks awesome!! Searching this recipe for a long time!!Thanks a lot.will sure give it a shot!!Do visit my blog when u find time:)

Seena said...

Hi Kalai, how r u, happy new year to you!

Anonymous said...

Hi Kalai, butter biscuits from B'lore…oh that brings back childhood nostalgia. That's a lot of baking you seem to have mastered, and the pics look so tempting too!