Category Archives: Cookies

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I must say that this was one of the easiest DBC. As always I ended up participating at the last minute. The Sugar Cookies were very very easy to make. While doing my Wilton Course, I came across Royal Icing and completely hated it. It isn’t the kind of icing that I would like on my cake/cookies. Its also a little messy to handle. I didn’t want to go through the pain of making it all over again so stuck to the store bought ones which ain’t that expensive too. My mom helped me make this. Here is how we made it:

The September 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Mandy of “What the Fruitcake?!” Mandy challenged everyone to make Decorated Sugar Cookies based on recipes from Peggy Porschen and The Joy of Baking.


Mandatory

• Make the Basic Sugar Cookie recipe provided (unless specific diet restrictions apply)
• Must decorate the cookies with the theme of September, whatever that means.

Variations Allowed
• While you must use Peggy Porschen’s sugar cookies recipe, you are allowed to add your own flavourings to the dough, so if you’d like to add a pinch of cinnamon & nutmeg, substitute some of the flour for cocoa, or maybe add orange zest, go for it!
• You don’t have to make your own royal icing from scratch, you may use a store bought mix(which is what I did)
• You may make any shape cookie you like so long as it has the theme of September, this means you could do round or square cookies and pipe pictures/words on them or use specifically shaped cookie cutters (butterflies, flowers, hearts etc)
• You may also use coloured sugars, luster dust, edible glitter or flakes, dragees and coloured sprinkles to decorate your cookies.

Preparation Time
30 minutes: Making dough & rolling
1 hour min: Refrigeration
8-15 minutes: Baking per tray depending on size of cookies

BASIC SUGAR COOKIES
Makes Approximately 36x 10cm / 4″ Cookies

½ cup + 6 Tbsp Unsalted Butter, at room temperature
3 cups + 3 Tbsp All Purpose / Plain Flour
1 cup Caster Sugar / Superfine Sugar
1 Large Egg, lightly beaten
1 tsp Vanilla Extract / Or seeds from 1 vanilla bean

Directions
• Cream together the butter, sugar and any flavourings you’re using. Beat until just becoming
creamy in texture.
Tip: Don’t over mix otherwise you’ll incorporate too much air and the cookies will spread during
baking, losing their shape.

• Beat in the egg until well combined, make sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl.
Add the sifted flour and mix on low until a non sticky dough forms.
Tip: I don’t have a stand mixer so I find it easier to switch to dough hooks at this stage to avoid
flour flying everywhere.

• Knead into a ball and divide into 2 or 3 pieces.
• Roll out each portion between parchment paper to a thickness of about 5mm/1/5 inch (0.2 inch)
• Refrigerate for a minimum of 30mins.
Tip: Recipes commonly just wrap the whole ball of dough in clingwrap and then refrigerate it for an
hour or overnight, but by rolling the dough between parchment, this shortens the chilling time and
then it’s also been rolled out while still soft making it easier and quicker.

• Once chilled, peel off parchment and place dough on a lightly floured surface.
• Cut out shapes with cookie cutters or a sharp knife.
• Arrange shapes on parchment lined baking sheets and refrigerate for another 30mins to an hour.

Tip: It’s very important you chill them again otherwise they’ll spread while baking.
• Re-roll scraps and follow the above process until all scraps are used up.
• Preheat oven to 180°C (160°C Fan Assisted) / 350°F / Gas Mark 4.
• Bake until golden around the edges, about 8-15mins depending on the size of the cookies.


Tip: Bake same sized cookies together otherwise mixing smaller with larger cookies could result in
some cookies being baked before others are done.

Tip: Rotate baking sheets half way through baking if your oven bakes unevenly.
• Leave to cool on cooling racks.
• Once completely cooled, decorate as desired.
Tip: If wrapped in tinfoil/cling wrap or kept in airtight containers in a cool place, un-decorated
cookies can last up to a month.

Verdict : It tasted just like the usual Sugar cookies. As I mentioned, I am not a big fan of the icing so I prefer having them without it. Overall, it wasn’t time consuming or difficult….a complete easy one!!!


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It’s the holiday season everywhere.I so very wanted to have a Christmas Tree at home,somehow it just didn’t happen.I was happy to at least make the Gingerbread House and enjoy the festive mood.I wasn’t too confident when I read the Daring Baker’s Challenge for this month,wasn’t sure if wud be able to go with it.Finally made up my mind and decided to make it well in advance and there I go ..hell,the roof broke into two. I was thoroughly disappointed. Later,used royal icing to stick them togetherand hurray it worked. Luckily the shapes where not as bad as I had anticipated, after baking they had increased a lil in size but I cud easily trim them down.I wanted to make a very small house so used up a lil bit of batter to make cookies.Though the house looks good I had to hide a lot of cracks and cuts,to cover these up I brushed them with melted white chocolate.I cant think of anything other than chocolates for decoration so used a lot of chocolate morsels,sprinkles and M&M’s.Here I present my Gingerbread House.

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The December 2009 Daring Bakers? challenge was brought to you by Anna of Very Small Anna and Y of Lemonpi. They chose to challenge Daring Bakers, everywhere to bake and assemble a gingerbread house from scratch. They chose recipes from Good Housekeeping and from The Great Scandinavian Baking Book as the challenge recipes.

I used Y’s Recipe
Scandinavian Gingerbread (Pepparkakstuga)
from The Great Scandinavian Baking Book by Beatrice Ojakangas http://astore.amazon.com/thedarkit-20/detail/0816634963

GINGERBREAD HOUSE

Ingredients:

1 cup butter, room temperature
1 cup brown sugar, well packed
2 tablespoons cinnamon
4 teaspoons ground ginger
3 teaspoons ground cloves
2 teaspoons baking soda
? cup boiling water
5 cups all-purpose flour

1. In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar until blended. Add the cinnamon, ginger and cloves. Mix the baking soda with the boiling water and add to the dough along with the flour. Mix to make a stiff dough. If necessary add more water, a tablespoon at a time. Chill 2 hours or overnight.
2. Cut patterns for the house, making patterns for the roof, front walls, gabled walls, chimney and door out of cardboard.
3. Roll the dough out on a large, ungreased baking sheet and place the patterns on the dough. Mark off the various pieces with a knife, but leave the pieces in place.
4. [I rolled out the dough on a floured bench, roughly 1/8 inch thick (which allows for fact that the dough puffs a little when baked), cut required shapes and transferred these to the baking sheet. Any scraps I saved and rerolled at the end.]
5. Preheat the oven to 375’F (190’C). Bake for 12 to 15 minutes until the cookie dough feels firm. After baking, again place the pattern on top of the gingerbread and trim the shapes, cutting the edges with a straight-edged knife. Leave to cool on the baking sheet.

For the Roof-
1 cup white chocolate(bars/morsels)
Stirring in between, melt the Chocolate in the Microwave.Allow it to come to room temperature and gently brush it over the roof.Refrigerate,until use.Decorate it using Royal icing(recipe below)

Royal Icing:

1 large egg white
3 cups (330g) powdered sugar
1 teaspoon white vinegar
1 teaspoon almond extract

Beat all ingredients until smooth, adding the powdered sugar gradually to get the desired consistency. Pipe on pieces and allow to dry before assembling. If you aren’t using it all at once you can keep it in a small bowl, loosely covered with a damp towel for a few hours until ready to use. You may have to beat it slightly to get it an even consistency if the top sets up a bit. Piped on the house, this will set up hard over time.

Assemble the house Place a thick Cardboard for the base.I filled my pastry bag with royal icing and generously applied it at the bottom of the wall and used cans to support the walls.Add a second wall securing it with syrup on top and on the sides touching the first wall.Repeat the same for other walls as well.Allow it to dry before working on the roof.Apply the icing generously on all sides and place the roof and again wait till it dries completely.Use chocolate morsels,sprinkles and M&M to decorate the house.

The set up -

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Tah dah.I MADE IT:-D

Verdict: Its one of the best things that I have baked this season…it was total fun.I am surely gona make them each and every year.Thanks DBC!

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Note - I have moved my blog from www.aromasfrommykitchen.blogspot.com.

Alright am back.Welcome to my site,I am extremely delighted about having my own space for blogging. A big big thanks to friend R who helped me work this out. After having made peace with Plagiarism I have decided to move on.Thanks for your solidarity.This site was completed a few days back,but had a lil bit of technical glitches here n there, its all done now . up and running(Haven’t you heard that a zillion times at work:-))

I wanted to come up with something different and unusual. On my page, you would find Kitchen Vocab & Chemistry -where I will share some tips,ideas etc.The Art work section is for all my creative work.I have worked a lil on these pages for now,however I will keep updating them . Recipe Index ? the name says it all.

I wanted to start blogging with a sweet and baked these cute lil ones.Rugelach is a cookie made with cream cheese dough spread with any filling such as jam,syrup,cinnamon and nuts.It is called the “ultimate pastry cookie”,also referred as butter or nut horns(origin being European Jewish Community).As far as I know,they come in two shapes,one in the form of small rolls and the most popular being the crescent shaped one.There are again ways to make them,some use sour cream and others use cream cheese (like I did).These doughs are rolled out into circles,sugar,cinnamon and nuts are spread over,cut into pie shape/pizza shapes and rolled up in the form of crescents.I believe in the US the dough is called as ?cream cheese dough?.I have tweaked the recipe a lil as per my requirement.

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Recipe Source : Joy of Cooking book

Preparation Time: 40 min(including baking time,excluding cooling time)

Servings: 16 large crescents and 14 small rectangles

RUGELACH

Ingredients:

1 Cup Butter (2 sticks),softened
6 ounces cream cheese(softened)
2 Cup All Purpose Flour
A tsp ground Cinnamon
1/3 Cup Sugar
A cup Strawberry Syrup(The original recipe asked for any fruit preserves or Jam)
1 Cup mini chocolate chips(Raisins can also be used)
3 tbsp grounded Walnuts/Almonds(coarsely grounded)

Method: Beat Butter and Cream Cheese on medium speed until blended(I used my Kitchen Aid,an electric mixer will do good too).Add the flour and beat until; the dough comes together. Divide the dough into three parts.Flatten one part of it into 6×4 rectangle or 6 circle. Wrap in a plastic and refrigerate for an hour.(I divided them into 1 rectangle and 2 circles).

Preheat oven to 350F.Cover a cookie sheet with Parchment paper.Work with one portion of the dough(leave the remainder refrigerated).Mix Sugar and cinnamon together.

Rectangular Rugelach:

Shape by rolling each portion in to a 16X10 rectangle,about 1/8 thick.Use flour for dusting.Leaving border spread 1 rectangle with the syrup,place a line of chocolate chips in one end.Sprinkle sugar cinnamon mixture and nuts.Roll the dough starting at the chocolate end ,gently tucking and tightening as you go.Cut the roll into 1 1/2 slices.Repeat with remaining rectangles.(I wanted them to look like cinnamon rolls hence,sliced them really thin).

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Crescent Rugelach:

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Shape by rolling each portion into a circle about 14 in diameter.Spread the jam in thin layer,sprinkle cinnamon mixture and the nuts.Cut the circle like a pizza,creating 8 large or 16 small even triangles.Roll up from the wide end to the point,tucking the point under.Repeat with the remaining circles.(I made a small and a large circle)

Place the Rugelach to the cookie sheet and sprinkle each cookie with the cinnamon sugar mixture.Bake until bottoms are golden brown (top will still be blond),about 25mins.Remove and let stand on a rack until they firm slightly.

Verdict:

I usually buy the crescent rolls and bake them at home, which makes a perfect snack for evening.But nothing can beat the home made ones.The nutty texture really stands out.Its not that fluffy as the usual crescent that we get in grocery store.Its very easy to bake and the ingredients arent that complicated.Rugelach rocks!!!

You may also like-

Butter Cookies

Scandinavian Pecan Cookies

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The July Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Nicole of Sweet Tooth. She chose Chocolate Covered Marshmallow Cookies and Milan Cookies from pastry chef Gale Gand of the Food Network.

This is my first experience at the Daring Baker’s Challenge and am looking forward to more of it.

Mallow experience -

I was very fascinated with the entire process.Though the time mentioned in the original recipe was very reasonable but it took a li’l long for me.I have never used marshmallows in my baking and this was the first time.I had some store bought ones which came handy.I had halved the quantity of the ingredients which means I should have ended up with 24 cookies but I ended up with 36 of them!

Mallows (Chocolate Covered Marshmallow Cookies) Recipe courtesy Gale Gand, from Food Network website
Prep Time: 15 min (cookies only)
Inactive Prep Time: 1 hours or up to 3 days (cookies only)
Cook Time: 10 min (cookies only)
Serves: 36 cookies

CHOCOLATE COVERED MARSHMALLOW COOKIES

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups All purpose flour
? cup white sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
6 tablespoon unsalted butter
2 eggs, whisked together

Homemade marshmallows, recipe follows(However I used the store bought ones)
Chocolate glaze, recipe follows

1.In a mixer with the paddle attachment, blend the dry ingredients.
2.On low speed, add the butter and mix until sandy.
3.Add the eggs and mix until combine.
4.Form the dough into a disk, wrap with cling film or parchment and refrigerate at least 1 hour and up to 3 days.
5.When ready to bake, grease a cookie sheet or line it with parchment paper or a silicon mat.
6.Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
7.Roll out the dough to 1/8-inch thickness, on a lightly floured surface. Use a 1 to 1 1/2 inches cookie cutter to cut out small rounds of dough.
8.Transfer to the prepared pan and bake for 10 minutes or until light golden brown. Let cool to room temperature.
9.Pipe a kiss of marshmallow onto each cookie. Let set at room temperature for 2 hours.
10.Line a cookie sheet with parchment or silicon mat.
11.One at a time, gently drop the marshmallow-topped cookies into the hot chocolate glaze. Lift out with a fork and let excess chocolate drip back into the bowl.
12.Place on the prepared pan and let set at room temperature until the coating is firm, about 1 to 2 hours.

Note:If you dont want to make your own marshmallows,you can cut a large marshmallow in half and place on the cookie base.Heat in a preheated 350-degree oven to slump the marshmallow slightly,it will expand and brown a little. Let cool, then proceed with the chocolate dipping.

Prep Time: 5 min (marshmallows only)
Inactive Prep Time: 2 hours (marshmallows only)
Cook Time: 10-20 min (marshmallows only, includes cooking sugar & whipping marshmallow)
Serves: About 4 dozen cookies at 1 - 1.5 inch
Homemade marshmallows

1/4 cup water
1/4 cup light corn syrup
3/4 cup (168.76 grams/5.95oz) sugar
1 tablespoon powdered gelatin
2 tablespoons cold water
2 egg whites,room temperature
1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1.In a saucepan,combine the water,corn syrup,and sugar,bring to a boil until ?soft-ball? stage,or 235 degrees on a candy thermometer.
2.Sprinkle the gelatin over the cold water and let dissolve.
3.Remove the syrup from the heat,add the gelatin,and mix.
4.Whip the whites until soft peaks form and pour the syrup into the whites.
5.Add the vanilla and continue whipping until stiff.
6.Transfer to a pastry bag.

Prep Time: 5 min (glaze only)
Inactive Prep Time: N/A
Cook Time: 5-7 min (glaze only)
Serves: Enough to dip about 4 doz. cookies at 1 - 1.5 inch

Chocolate glaze:

12 ounces semisweet chocolate
2 ounces cocoa butter or vegetable oil

Melt the 2 ingredients together in the top of a double boiler or a bowl set over barely simmering water.

Verdict

The cookies even without the chocolate glaze tasted very well.I didn?t use a cookie cutter hence my cookies were quite big in size and the marshmallow on top looked too small.End of the day,I am satisfied with my experience with the mallows.It was tasty and very chocolaty.Since I had used store bought marshmallows,I had to bake it for few mintues.Guess I had left it for a longer time and they turned completely flat.Had to redo it.

I love the Peperridge farm Milano Cookies,was too keen on making them.However due to time constraint I had to choose between the Mallows and the Milano cookies.Chocolate always comes first,hence I decided on the Mallows.Will need to plan ahead of time in the future.Am eagerly looking forward to the other Baker’s post.

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