Recipes From Deepa's Kitchen: Shortbread Cookies

For a long time now my dear friends at IndiAanya have been asking me to write and each time I have promptly come up with some excuse or the other. "I am pregnant." "I have just had a baby." "My kids are sick." "My husband is travelling."

This time I was asked to write on a topic I could not resist.  Before my mouth could say no and my mind could conjure an excuse to go with it my fingers typed, "Yes!" And so with great excitement I am about to venture into something I've never done before, blogging about my recipes.

I love food. I love the taste, smell, sight, texture, everything about it. In my almost 10 years of marriage, I have cooked quite a bit. Initially I used to follow recipes to the letter, and then I started playing around a little, tweaking a thing or two, here or there - and voila! My family seemed to like my concoctions and experiments better than the original recipes. Feel free to do the same with the recipes I share here. After all, you are the best judge of what your family likes.

The first one that came to mind is Shortbread Cookies. Although it sounds fancy, it's a fairly simple and versatile recipe. In fact, you could even make this with your kids. My kids enjoy "helping" in the kitchen (and yes, in mom language, that translates as more work)! But I do enjoy the time spent with them in the kitchen. It reminds me of the time I spent with my mother in her kitchen, her able hands guiding my inexperienced ones. She incorporated my 'help' and in doing so, she gave me a love for cooking. Today I want to do the same for my kids.

For shortbread cookies you need three simple ingredients: maida (flour), butter, and sugar. Most recipes call for unsalted butter, but I have used Amul butter (which I know is salted) or even Nutralite and it has turned out fine.

First beat the butter and sugar together. (Feel free to add a teaspoon of vanilla essence at this point. It gives the cookies a wonderful smell.)

Then add the flour, a little bit at a time, holding back some for dusting. Do not over mix. It should look crumbly like this:

After this use your hands to knead the dough. This is the part my kids love (apart from shoving the freshly baked cookies down their throat). Once it's kneaded, roll it out with a rolling pin (about half an inch thick) and cut it out into desired shapes.

Set the cookies on a greased cookie tray. Bake them at 350°F or 180°C for 10-11 min.

Your cookies are ready. Enjoy them with your evening tea or coffee, or pack them as an extra snack for kids to carry in their tiffin box.

Shortbread Cookies

Ingredients

1/4 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup butter
1 cup flour
1 tsp vanilla essence

Method

Preheat oven to 350°F or 180°C
Beat butter and sugar
Add vanilla essence
Add flour a little at a time, constantly mixing it into the butter sugar mix
Once all the flour is added, and looks crumbly, use your hands to knead it into a smooth dough
Roll it out on a flat surface, to about half an inch thick (dust it with the remaining flour if it's sticky)
Cut dough out into desired shapes and set them on a greased cookie tray
Bake for 10-11 min
Enjoy!

Photo Credit Arpit Vedhanayagam

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Deepa David

Deepa David skillfully juggles her various roles as a wife and mother of three kids. Her biggest role is to support her husband in ministry, bringing stability into a demanding ministry environment. She has a heart for underprivileged women and has served with commercial sex workers and women in situations of exploitation and abuse. She is also theologically trained with an MA in Christianity from SAIACS. She is joyful all the time and never tires of hosting people in her home.

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