Eggless Brownie Cookies | Chocolate Brownie Biscuit

All of a sudden we had heavy rains and it was so worse that roads got blocked within minutes. I didn't even know until it was time to leave for home and on the way back, I saw that we had a real heavy downpour, result was the schools were declared off. I always keep wondering how we used to have school come what may. To my knowledge except for one season when we had a cyclone, school always functioned during all days, no matter how heavy rains we had. However now, even if it rained for a day, that is during late evening or night, the next day school is closed.

Anyway because of which the kids were at home and you can imagine the sudden knowledge of being at home creates lot of excitement for them. On top I was baking non stop, which meant the boys were always at heel, wanting to grab before I could do anything else. I had wanted to bake these brownie cookies that I had seen Suma making. I must say these turned out so delicious, just like brownies yet crispy enough to munch on.

Eggless Brownie Cookies

Baking Mode : Convection
Preparation Time : 10 mins
Baking Time : 20 mins at 186 C

Ingredients Needed:

All purpose flour / Maida - 1 cup
Baking soda - 1/4 tsp
Butter - 1/4 cup
Sugar  2/3 cup
Cocoa powder - 1/3 cup
Brown sugar  - 1/4 cup
Buttermilk - 1/4 cup

How to make:

Combine flour and baking soda in a bowl and set aside.

MW butter for 30 secs, then stir in sugar, cocoa powder and brown sugar. Add buttermilk and flour. Blend everything to smooth paste. The dough will be sticky, drop using a spoon on a greased baking tray. The cookies will spread while baking and so space them accordingly.

Preheat the oven at 185 degrees C.

Bake for 15 mins, until the cookies get done. Since the cookies were still gooey, I baked for another 6 mins.

Transfer to a wire rack after a couple of minutes and let cool.

Notes

Instead of buttermilk, you can use sour milk, which can be prepared by mixing 3/4 teaspoon lemon juice or vinegar with enough milk to make 1/4 cup total liquid; stir. Let mixture stand for 5 minutes before using.

Since the dough will be loose, you can cover and chill the dough for an hour. When you remove the dough out, it would be firm.  And for final serving you can sprinkle powdered sugar. I didn't use as my boys don't like it.

You can check out other bloggers who are doing the Bakeathon: Champa, Sumana Deepak, Priya Suresh, Veena Krishnakumar, Preeti Deo

Orange Cashew Wheat Cookies | Eggless Wheat Cookies with Orange and Cashew

For the second day of Bakeathon, I decided on a simple cookie that had only Wheat cookie recipe and also called for an addition of Orange Juice. After baking I almost thought this was a flop, only I decided I would bake it further and see what happens. I was pleasantly surprised at the way this turned out.

I must note here that this is the best tasting cookie I have baked and would make sure I repeat this again. Fearing that it might turn out so so, I had halved the recipe, which I sorely regretted. I must have gone ahead and made the full recipe. Having decided on the entire set of recipes that I want to bake, I keep out the butter everyday and then keep it back in again. Finally I was able to bake late in night and managed two in one shot, though I had wanted to do three. So this repeated for the next two times. I guess this is easy to manage with cookies and cakes, though yeast bread might end up little tough to manage in a late night drama. The recipe is adapted from my filed collection.

Baking Mode : Convection Mode
Preparation Time : 10 - 12 mins
Baking Time : 20 - 25 mins at 185 Deg C

Orange Cashew Wheat Cookies

Ingredients Needed

Whole wheat flour - 3/4 cup
Butter - 1/2 cup
Powdered sugar - 1/4 cup
Baking powder - 1/4 tsp
Baking soda - 1/4 tsp
Chopped cashew nuts - 5 whole,
Orange juice - half of a whole orange (2 tbsp)
Milk - almost 1/2 cup or as required
Butter for greasing

How to bake Orange Cashew Wheat cookie

Combine all the ingredients together in a bowl and whisk to get a soft dough.

Pre heat the oven at 185 Deg C.

On a greased tray, scoop out a spoonful of batter. Bake at 185 deg C for 20 mins.

Depending on the crispiness, bake for another 5 - 7 mins or till the cookies are golden brown in colour.

Cool completely and store in an air-tight container.

Notes:

You can freeze the dough for 10 mins and then cut out shapes or using a piping bag, press out even discs. Depending on the nozzle, you can shape the dough out.

I started with baking at 15 mins, then continued for 5 - 6 mins.

Baking time can vary depending on the moisture content with the milk and orange juice added. You can always take a risk at opening it in interval to check on the done ness of the cookie.


The cookie had a nice and inviting brown colour with a delicious after taste. You are left with wanting to bite more. The cashew bits added to the richness and you wouldn't think this was baked with just wheat flour.

You can check out my partners in crime doing the Bakeathon: Champa, Sumana Deepak, Priya Suresh, Veena Krishnakumar, Preeti Deo

Cinnamon Butter Cookies | Eggless Cinnamon Biscuit

December is always a month that turns out to be so nostalgic. As every year passes by, I end up thinking how quickly the days fly and before you know, December is right there in front of you! Anyway December apart from being a month to think back and wonder if you have done all that you wanted to do, it's also a month when I think of Christmas Cakes and those evenings spent wondering how it will be if it snowed in Madras. I know you think I am crazy, my fondest wish has been to get a snow cad December in Madras.

Anyway if horse fly, I can take wings as well. Now don't ask me why I quote it wrongly, well I take my creative license a bit far. Posting on this space has been sparing and that's exactly what prompted me to jump in when Champa announced her Bake-A-Thon. When she did last year, I badly wanted to join, but I knew I won't be able to make it. This year it was too much of a temptation. If there was one thing that rings quite often at odd times, then it's Oscar Wilde whispering "The only way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it... " and I did just that.

So whole of this month you will end up reading non stop about baked goodies. Of course Champa has been kind enough to give us a day off in between each post. After all, this has to be fun and if we are always tensed and don't enjoy these, what's the point.

Since a week, I have been short listing fourteen different baked dishes, mostly they ended up being cookies or cakes. And I have made sure these don't feature chocolate much, as I am planning on taking up those themes in BM # 23. So you see I am going to be one busy person this month.

Hopefully I get to find somebody who will mind the business of eating these cookies and I won't be tempted in eating them myself!

As always composing these cookies to look decent is quite a task. I was in a hurry to finish up as well. I wonder why I always worry about seeing if the set up is good, then only to find that I am in a hurry to finish up.

Cinnamon Butter Cookies

Ingredients Needed

Whole Wheat Flour - 1 cup
All purpose flour - 1/2 cup
Powdered Sugar - 3/4 cup
Cinnamon powder - 1 tsp
Butter - 1/2 cup
Milk - 2 tbsp or as required


How to make the Cinnamon Butter Cookies

In a bowl, take the wheat flour, Maida, powdered sugar and cinnamon powder. Mix well.

Then add softened butter, and crumble well.

Add milk  to get a smooth dough.

With a ladle, scope out the batter and place on a greased tray for baking

Pre heat the oven at 185 deg C and then bake for 30 mins.

 

Notes:

My batter turned out very creamy after adding butter to the powdered sugar mix. Without checking I added 2 tbsp at one shot, you can mix first and then add if required.

If you want a thick batter and cut out shapes, you can refrigerate the dough for 30 mins, then cut out shapes.

I started the baking for 15 mins, then increased by 10 mins to reach the 30 mins mark. You can slowly increase to check if the biscuits turn out crispy or not.

Toppings can be either, icing sugar,, grated chocolate on warm cookies or slivered almonds to the dough.

You can even add vanilla essence, somehow I don't prefer that in my cookies.

The other enthusiastic bakers who have jumped in with me, are seasoned bakers who are doing this for the second time. 

Champa

Sumana Deepak

Priya Suresh
Veena Krishnakumar
Preeti Deo

Spice Cookies | Spiced Sweet Cookies

After the Coconut Squares and Chocolate flowers, next was a spiced Masala Cookies. I used Spice powders to enhance the flavours. Though you might think the powdered spice hits you when you add it, after baking you are left with a lingering taste of the spice and it's not strong at all.

Infact I added three pinches and still felt could have added more. Though the baking spree, I was searching for my molds. Finally got hold of these molds and ended up making tree, heart and mulberry leaves shapes. I loved those hearts as the mold was something that we flicked from the kids toys. Though the first batch had leaf and tree, the second batch was only heart and trust me, they turned out so crispy.

If you must know it was one long session of baking and I wanted to make sure I didn't end up with loads of dishes to wash. So all the sweet cookies were creamed in one vessel. Well that resulted in the last batch to have little bit of chocolate blended. All the good right!

Off these go for my Cookie Mela

Step by Step Pictures

Spice Cookies

All purpose flour / Maida - 1 cup
Butter - 150 gms
Clove, Cinnamon, Cardamon powder - 3 pinches
Salt a pinch
Icing sugar - 1 cup
Baking powder - 1/2 tsp

How to bake spice cookies:

Cream the butter and icing sugar in a bowl. Add the spices, salt and baking powder to the flour. Then slowly add to the butter mix.

Knead to a soft dough. Flatten on a rolling board and cut out shapes using molds of your choice.

Pre heat the oven at 185 deg C and bake for 16 mins. Second batch took me only about 14 - 15 mins.

Allow to cool, before storing them in an air tight container.

Coconut Square Cookies | How to make Coconut Cookies

With the Cookie Mela coming to an end shortly, I couldn't miss baking some cookies. As luck would have it, I had an unexpected off from work and what better work than baking those cookies that I have been planning to bake since a month. Almost for a week now, every day I would get the butter come to room temperature, only to put it back.

So finally I had enough time and energy to bake these and I decided I might as well bake as many as I can. I have been baking non stop since evening and baked around four different varieties. As always the one with chocolate and looking brown was a hit with kids. Rest of course we enjoyed.

Coconut Square Cookies

Since it's going to be four different varieties, will be posting on both the blogs. So stay tuned for some exciting versions of cookies that you can enjoy anytime anywhere.

These Coconut square Cookies always remind me of the bakery biscuits. Having excess of fresh coconut on hand, I thought I should try out some Coconut cookies. Since I didn't have the dried coconut, I dried it in microwave for 2 mins and added to the flour. Maybe next time I might try caramelizing for more effect. Though it was coconutty in taste, I think the bakery one has sugar coated on top. However these tasted awesome just the same!

I also make some Chocolate Piped Cookies and two more to share which will be up tomorrow!

Off these go for my Cookie Mela

Step by Step Pictures

Coconut Square Cookies

Ingredients Needed:

All purpose Flour / Maida - 1 and 1/2 cup
Butter - 150 gms
Fresh Coconut, grated - 1 cup
Salt a pinch
Icing sugar - 1 cup
Baking powder - 1/2 tsp

How to make the Coconut Square Cookies


Grate the coconut and microwave for 2 mins with one minute interval. This will make sure the coconut is dried up.

In a bowl, cream the butter and sugar together until the mix is very creamy. Shift the flour together with baking powder and salt.

Slowly add to the bowl and continue creaming. If the dough is thick, knead with your hands. Add milk if required.

Grease a rolling board with greased rolling pin. Pat on the sides to make sure you get a square. Cut into small squares.

Meanwhile pre heat the oven at 185 Deg C. Once done, arrange the squares with enough space on the tray and bake at 185" C for 15 mins. Start at 12 mins and continue for the next 3 mins if required. I had to complete the entire 15 mins.

Allow to cool before digging in.

Notes:

The coconut I used was enough to give a good coconut taste. The ones you get in the bakery is really loaded with coconut. For that effect you can increase by another half cup of coconut.

Chocolate Fudge Cookie | Eggless Chocolate Fudge Cookie

Though I have been planning to make some cookies for the Cookie Mela, I never could get myself make some. Yesterday Peddu threw a tantrum saying I was going to make him some cake, showing me the butter box that has muffins on them. So I was forced to make some muffins, so I ended up making some Chocolate Fudge Lava Cake.

With the same dough, I just reduced the milk and rolled out some cookies. These chocolate fudge cookies were chewy and soft. If you want to make it crispy, them you can reduce the butter and increase the baking soda.

Sometimes I think chewy cookies taste great, especially with so much chocolate in it.

Chocolate Fudge Cookie

I was shooting the pictures in the morning and Peddu was up by then. He was eagerly looking at what I was doing. I asked if he would hold them for me. He was so glad to be asked for help.

Chocolate Fudge Cookies

Makes - 12 mini muffins

Cake flour - 1 cup
Cooking chocolate - 2 slabs
Drinking chocolate - 1/4 cup
Icing sugar - 1/2 cup
Milk powder - 1/4 cup
Baking powder - 1/4 tsp
Baking Soda - 1/4 tsp
Butter - 1/2 cup
Milk as required (1 tbsp)

How to make the cake

Melt the butter in microwave for a minute. Chop the chocolate slabs into smaller pieces and melt for 30 secs.

In a bowl, shift the flours together with sugar and milk powder. Into the butter, slowly add the flour and blend well. The dough will have to shift.

Freeze the dough for 10 mins. Then make balls and flatten them on a greased tray.

Pre the oven at 185 deg C and bake for 15 mins.

These are for my Cookie Mela and I am hoping to be making more for the event!