Cookie Memories

Recipe: Homemade Cookies

One of the fond memories I have as a child is of baking cookies at home... I liked to experiment in mom's kitchen in the late afternoons when she would be either taking her afternoon nap just before her second shift at work or catching up on her stitching...

I used to rummage through magazines looking for cookie recipes as well as other interesting things to bake.

Since we did not have cookie cutters, I used my mum's murukku-maker to squeeze out the cookie dough into interesting shapes... I could have just rolled out the dough and then cut it out with a knife... but this was more interesting to the 10 year old me.

Because of this childhood hobby of mine, my parents had gifted me with a Wilton's Cookie press sometime ago.

A couple of months ago (yes.. this post was lost in my drafts since over 2 months), when my son exclaimed that he wanted to make cookies, I was taken aback and for a minute I was lost in the nostalgic memories of my childhood... 

Knowing my son's interest in operating gadgets (even kitchen gadgets!), I knew this was the perfect time to take out the cookie press.

  Since I had moved many places for my education, I had long lost the hand-written cookbook of my childhood which had a treasure-trove of cookie recipes.   So I just used the Classic Spritz Cookie recipe that came with the cookie press with a few minor modifications. I omitted the egg as my son and I wanted to eat the cookie dough. I also omitted the almond extract as I didn't have any.    The original recipe was for 7-8 dozen cookies, so I used just 1/3 of the measurements as I didn't want to turn my kitchen into a cookie factory...  

  HOMEMADE COOKIES Adapted from the Classic Spritz cookie recipe that came with the Wilton's Cookie press.  Makes 10-12 cookies
Butter - 1/2 cup (I personally like to use salted butter here as it makes for a slightly salty taste in between the sweetness. But if you do not like it, use unsalted butter.) Sugar - 1/3 cup Milk or water - 1-3 Tbsp Vanilla essence - 1/2 tsp All Purpose Flour - 1 cup and 2 Tbsp Baking powder - 1/3 tsp
Preheat the oven to 190 degrees Celsius. 
Powder the sugar.   Mix butter and powdered sugar till smooth. To this add 1 tbsp  milk/water and vanilla essence and mix well.   In a separate bowl sieve together flour and baking powder a couple of times.   Slowly add the flour and baking powder mixture to the wet mixture and make a smooth dough. If the dough is crumbly and dry, add a tbsp of water or milk and mix again. Add more if needed.   Do not chill. Make the cookie dough into desired shapes either using cookie cutters, cookie press of just the knife. The centre cookie in the pictures above is just a small ball of cookie dough pressed in the centre with my thumb.   Bake for 12-15 minutes or until lightly browned on the edges. Let them cool on a wire rack. Once cooled completely, these cookies can be stored away for a week or so.   Enjoy these cookies as they are with your evening cuppa, or with a blob of jam or ..... even dipped in nutella - that's how we like them.