Skip to main content

Gem of an Idea

I spotted organic raw sugar on my supermarket counter the other day, and picked it up thinking it will come handy in baking. Or more specifically, baking cookies, which has become a weekend ritual!

Started by mixing 100 gms of butter with 40 gms caster sugar and 30 gms raw sugar, and beat them until light. Then added 175 gms flour and ½ tsp vanilla essence and mixed everything into a smooth dough. Rolled it into a log, then left it wrapped in a buttered sheet in the fridge for half an hour.

By this time, the dough is a bit harder and easy to cut into thin cookies. My raw sugar is not very fine, so the cookies were speckled with brown. To give it extra color, I added Gems in the center of all cookies. If you don’t have Gems handy, use M&M.

I baked the cookies at 180C for 15 minutes, and they came out looking nice and brown. What a difference from the pale yellow cookies I’ve been baking past two weeks.



This recipe makes about 24 cookies, and my small oven can’t take more than 12 at a time. So I baked 12 yesterday and left half the dough in the fridge until today. The next batch, baked a day later, came out tasting great so the dough keeps well for a day. And the cookies keep for at least 3-4 days if left in an airtight container.
Labels:

Comments

Aparna Balasubramanian said…
These cookies look cute. I have tried making cookies with gems by incorporating them in the dough. My daughter loves them.
Saw your link from Joanna's blog.
March 17, 2008 at 4:04 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

I've found my perfect cookie

It's a bite sized cookie, with flavors of a pie, shape of a croissant and a pretty, pretty name. It's Rugelach. I first heard of this cookie when it became the baking pick for Tuesdays with Dorrie a couple of months back. The looks, the concept - everything was fascinating. And I've dreamed of making this cookie ever since. I ditched hundreds of recipes floating around and went straight to the master. It's Dorie Greenspan's recipe that I used, and ain't I glad I got it so perfect the very first time. So what's rugelach? It's cream-cheese pastry dough, rolled then cut into wedges, spread with jam and sugar and fillings of choice, rolled into crescents and baked. First the dough. Dorie did it in her processor, but I just went and did it by hand. Put 100 gms cream cheese and 100 gms butter out of the fridge until they were soft but still cold. Added both to a cup of plain flour (I omitted the salt because I use salted butter). Rubbed the flour and but
10 comments
Read more

Aloo Paranthas

In all these years of blogging, I've somehow never managed to talk about aloo paranthas, the potato stuffed flatbread that's a standard breakfast in North India. Possibly because they are such a staple in our home, I found there wouldn't be enough interest in the recipe. But I've also realised over time that my mom's recipe is unique, using a combination of flavours and spices that make these paranthas delicious. But that's not the only reason for this post. I also wanted to tell you about a super cool party and some ways we found to make aloo paranthas even better and believe it or not, healthier. The party in question was hosted by Rushina at her cooking studio a few months back. For a while now, Rushina has been talking about the merits of cling film, parchment and something called cooking foil made by Asahi Kasei. Because we won't believe that you can really cook without oil but using science, she invited a bunch of us over for a potluck lunch.
1 comment
Read more

Mystery Fruit

This only happened a few times every year, just when the rainy season kicked in. A street hawker will come by, straw basket on head. He will yell "kaul chapni" and I will run out to buy a bundle of these. Stuck together like flowers, they looked like a bouquet. Every hole contains a little fruit. You break out the package, peel the tiny fruit that pops out and eat it. Done slowly, it can take you an hour to eat an head. Or did, when I was about 12 years old. That was the last time I saw this fruit. I've never seen it again, didn't even know what it was called or where it came from. Three weeks back, Vikram Doctor wrote about a store in Khar that sells Sindhi foods. He described this fruit and I knew it came from my vivid childhood memories. And finally, I knew we were talking about lotus fruit. Now talk about coincidences. Last weekend, I was passing by a lane in Bandra and for the first time in many, many years I saw the straw basket filled with my mytery fru
14 comments
Read more