Category Archives: Cookies

Cakes and Bakes, Cookies

Cashew Butter Cookies | Using wheat flour and Jaggery

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Hello dear readers, I am back after a very long break. I know I have been taking many breaks now and then but I also know you all will understand me. I had travelled to India, to my hometown Udupi in Karnataka, last month which was after a period of 2.5 years and had a wonderful time with my Amma along with my dearest family members. ❤️

After coming back to Qatar, my kids started school, with my son joining kindergarten too. I miss the kids specially my son a lot as he was always stuck to me (fevicol ka jod 😄) but as they say, we have to accept whatever life brings and I have got accostomed to his absence in the mornings too (though I get teary eyed each time he leaves 😁 #motherhood).

When he comes back though, I get smothered with hugs and kisses from him which compensates for everything 😍😍. My daughter comes a little later and then an hour goes by with her narrating what happened at school. Her stories remind me of my younger self who used to tell each and everything to my mother after she came back from work. ❤️

When they are at school, I cook or bake something special just to see their excitement and the way they enjoy it. 😍 That’s how I baked these Cashew Butter Cookies which both the kids loved a lot.

These cookies are healthier as compared to store bought ones and very tasty too. Once you get the trick on how to make it well, it’s very easy and hardly takes 30 mins to bake a batch of cookies.

Hope you all try and love these cookies. Do let me know if any doubts and it will be a pleasure to help. Happy and healthy baking! ❤️

RECIPE: { My 1 Cup = 250 ml }

Ingredients: { Makes about 15 cookies }

100 grams Salted Butter ( 1/4 Cup + 3 Tbsp) (Add a pinch of salt if using unsalted butter)

3/4 Cup Whole wheat flour or Atta

1/2 Cup finely powdered Cashews ( + 2 to 3 Tbsp if needed)

1/4 Cup Jaggery powder

Step by step recipe:

1. Soften butter by keeping it at room temperature for little time. (Do NOT melt it in microwave or so.) Just place it at room temperature till it turns soft. Now add jaggery powder.

2. Combine both well with a spatula till jaggery powder blends with the butter.

3. Add cashew powder and mix well using the spatula.

4. Now add wheat flour.

5. Combine well to form a non sticky dough. At this step, if needed add extra cashew powder or wheat flour if the dough is very sticky. The dough should not be very hard but should not be sticky too. It sometimes takes me extra 2 Tbsp of cashew powder to get non sticky dough. Depends on your wheat flour/ butter brand.

6. Cover and refrigerate the dough for 10 to 15 mins so that the dough becomes firm. After that Preheat the oven for 180 C for 10 minutes in the center rack of the oven.

7. Now make roundels using your palm and place on a greased (with butter or ghee) oven proof plate. Grease your palm too if needed.

8. After the oven finishes pre heating, place this plate in the center rack of the oven and bake at 180 C for 12 to 15 mins. My cookies get done at 14 mins.

9. When done, the cookies turn slightly brown at the edges and are hard to touch in the center. If the cookies look underdone, bake for couple of mins more.

10. Once baked, allow the cookies to cool completely. As they cool down, they start getting firmer but these cookies are more on the soft side and not the crispy kind of cookies. Enjoy soft, melt in the mouth homemade cookies! ❤️

Notes:

* Store the cookies in a dry, air tight container and it lasts well for two to three days. Mine gets finished off by my family before that. Will last longer if handled well, free from moisture.

* They are very soft and break upon touching on warm. As they cool down, they will harden but still not very hard like store bought ones as we have used only butter. The texture is melt in the mouth softer version of cookies.

* These cookies do not need baking soda nor baking powder. They still grow in width during baking process. I too was amazed the first time I tried it as I always thought cookies needed either baking soda or powder.

* Baking time depends on your oven. In some ovens, it can be done at 10 mins while in my OTG, it takes 14 mins. So keep an eye but don’t open the oven door before atleast 10 mins into the baking time. Else it will lead to uneven baking.

* Do refrigerate the dough for atleast 10 to 15 mins as it helps combine the ingredients well and also helps us form cookies well without sticking in our hands.

* Place the cookies in the center rack of your OTG or with both rods on if using microwave with conventional mode oven.

* I have not replaced butter with ghee or oil in this recipe. So can’t say about the outcome.

* I use Pillsbury brand of wheat flour for my bakes and it works very well for me.

* For making powdered Cashews, just put the cashews in a mixer and pulse it in regular intervals till it turns into fine powder. Keep checking in between so that it does not leave oil and become a paste.

* Leave space between cookie dough while keeping on the tray as they increase in width as they bake.

* When they fully bake, you can see the surface is free of raw dough and edges are slightly golden in colour. It is enough. You can remove the cookies out of the oven.

* Cashews can be replaced with Almonds like in these Almond Butter Cookies.

* You can check my Healthy Cakes and Cookies compilation for more cookies and cake recipes.

* For beginners in baking, you can check my Baking Basics for beginners post.

I have tried to note down as much points as possible so that it’s easy for you all to follow but if you still have any doubts, either comment here or message me on my Facebook page Healthy cooking with mitha or on my Instagram handle and I would be happy to help.

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Cakes and Bakes, Cookies

Wheat Butter Cookies | Easy wheat jaggery cookies using 5 ingredients

2 Comments

As I start writing, I can’t believe this year has almost come to an end. 2020 has been a huge life changing year for me. A year which taught me many things. A year where I understood myself more than ever and an unforgettable year for sure. If you ask me why, it is the time I got being home bound , which otherwise was always filled with the chaos of busy life.

Would love to share some positives that this year has brought in my life with all of you.

# Restarted listening to music (my long lost love ❤️), all thanks to my favorite singer Arijit Singh and Spotify which was my best friend all throughout the year. Music is truly healing and I don’t know why I had forgotten it all these years. 2020 can be called the “musical” year of my life for the amount of songs that I have heard this year. 😅

# Found love in birds and nature ❤️. With all the time in the world, I started observing the birds sitting in the backyard and would spend hours there without getting bored looking at them fluttering around. Along with that, I found an amazing Insta handle of our family friend, @mvbhaktha through whom I saw many beautiful varieties of birds. Sharing one of my favorite here. The innocent eyes of the bird is which attracts me the most. 😍

# Got a little more closer to my Krishna by listening to his bhajans and also by reading more about the unconditional true love that Radha had for Krishna. It taught me the way to love truly in life, without any expectations and always praying for the happiness of our loved ones, no matter what happens. ❤️

# There are two youtubers who deserve mention as I spent most parts of these last few months looking at their videos. One is Patrick Micheal and the other is Shivesh Bhatia. Looking at Patrick sing, his magical voice, feeling the lyrics of the song, touches you so emotionally that my eyes welled up many a times listening to him. His singing is definitely very special and I am very happy to have found such a soulful singer. Sharing my playlist here if you like to listen too. It is mostly malayalam and tamil songs though.

# Shivesh Bhatia from “Bake with Shivesh” is a delight to look at and he is a boy with so much knowledge about baking that I am amazed each time. He has been my inspiration to bake and the Chocolate Chip cookies on my blog are his recipe. When I want to divert myself towards something productive, Shivesh videos it is!

Finally after all the talking about my year (hope it was not boring 😄) , I want to share about these cookies which are not only my kids’ favorite but became my neighbor’s son, Ryan’s favorite too. I had shared some with them for Christmas wondering if they would like it as it is made with wheat flour and jaggery. But when I got a message the next day by Ryan’s mother saying he loved it so much that he is sad that it got over, I felt so happy that he loved it and promised to bake again for him.

So I baked them again for him yesterday and these cookies are definitely special because of that. Ryan gave me a beautiful memory with these cookies forever and I will never forget how much he loves these. Also, it has given me confidence to try more cookies for next year. A new zeal for baking! ❤️

Here’s wishing all of you a very happy new year in advance. Hope you all have a wonderful year ahead filled with love and happiness. Loads of best wishes. Happy and healthy cooking! ❤️

RECIPE:

Ingredients: { Makes about 10 cookies }

1/2 Cup Wheat flour or Atta (I use Pillsbury brand)

50 grams salted Butter (1/4 Cup)

3 Tbsp Jaggery powder

1/2 tsp Baking powder

1 Tbsp Milk

Step by step recipe:

1. Take wheat flour in a bowl. Add cold butter, directly out of the fridge, cut into small cubes into it. Mix with your fingertips till the butter and wheat flour mix well resembling coarse texture. (Make sure there are no large chunks of butter and all the butter has been incorporated well into the wheat flour.)

2. Now add baking powder and jaggery powder to this. Sieve it if the baking powder or jaggery has big granules.

3. Mix once really well. Then add milk and bring the dough together. The dough will be little sticky. Refrigerate this dough for atleast 15 mins.

4. Preheat the oven at 180 C for 10 mins. Remove the dough from the fridge and make small balls out of it. Flatten it and cut using cookie cutter into different shapes. Place them on a greased (generously with ghee or butter) oven proof tray.

5. Bake in the center rack of your OTG (or bake mode or with both rods on in your conventional mode oven) at 180 C for 10 to 12 mins. The sides of the cookies will turn slightly brown and the surface will change colour to pale golden. The center surface of the cookies will also be hard and not soft. If you bake more than 12 mins, it will turn crispy.

6. Allow it to cool down. It will harden as it cools. Initially it will be very soft but will turn crispy as it is kept at room temperature. Enjoy the cookies!

Notes:

* Store in a container free from moisture. Will last for 3 to 5 days if handled well.

* I always use only Pillsbury brand of wheat flour for all my cakes, cookies and bread. It gives a great flavour and perfect bakes. Have tried with other brands but it does not give the desired result.

* I used salted butter. Add a pinch of salt if using unsalted butter.

* Don’t melt or soften the butter. Take it directly out of the fridge, cut into small cubes and mix into the wheat flour, crushing the butter with your finger tips. Make sure there are no large chunks of butter left in the mixture.

* Don’t add more milk then mentioned as it can lead to the mixture being very sticky. If by mistake, your mixture has become sticky, refrigerate longer and it will be easier to handle.

* Jaggery powder can be reduced too to make it plain biscuits. The sweetness in this measurement is not much though.

* Refrigerating the dough is very important to give it that firmness so that the dough can be easily handled while shaping them into cookies.

* These cookies turn soft if made in big sizes (like my heart shaped ones) and crispy if made in small sizes (like the flower shaped ones).

* If you have under baked the cookies by mistake (you realize the cookies are breaking after it has cooled down), preheat the oven and bake for 3 to 4 minutes again and it will be firm.

* If you over bake these cookies, they can turn very crispy.

* Best is to keep an eye after 10 mins and take them out when they turn brown at the edges. Remember that since they are small, cookies continue to cook on the tray even after removed from the oven. So best is not to over bake the cookies.

* These are two other cookie recipes which are a huge hit with my readers:

Ragi Butter Cookies and Almond Butter Cookies

I have tried to note down as much points as possible so that it’s easy for you all to follow but if you still have any doubts, either comment here or message me on my Facebook page Healthy cooking with mitha or on my Instagram handle and I would be happy to help.

Cakes and Bakes, Cookies, Snacks

Almond Butter Cookies | Easy 4 ingredient healthy recipe using wheat flour and jaggery

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When I posted the Ragi Butter Cookies which was my friend Anvy’s recipe, she asked me if I had tried the almond cookies that she had shared on her Insta handle, Homemade by Anvy. I told her I don’t have almond meal with me (it sounded so exotic 😬) but I did have loads of almonds with me (which I had bought to eat daily to increase my memory. Now if anyone would remind me to eat them 😂).

So she told me almond meal was nothing but powdered Almonds (my plinggg moment!! 🤣). So I had to try it and imagine my happiness when it came out so good. I already made them thrice in the past week as it tasted so heavenly and since it was so easy to make with only 4 ingredients. Also, never knew homemade almond cookies could turn out so pretty. Could not keep the beauties down. 😍

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Off they went into my kids’ “choti bhook waala dabba” (their snack box for mid meal hunger and mine too for my sweet tooth 😬).

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It has been only an year since I joined Instagram and as much I like it, there have been times when I wanted to just come out of it as I had a tendency of over sharing stories. Finally, got rid of that habit ( some self control that was 😄) and now just using instagram to post my recipes while following some amazing accounts like that of Anvy’s.

Thank you so much dear Anvy @homemadebyanvy for yet another great recipe of yours. We absolutely love it! ❤️

Hope you all try it too. You will definitely love it. Happy and healthy baking!

RECIPE: { My 1 Cup = 240 ml }

Ingredients: { Makes about 12 cookies }

100 grams Salted Butter ( 1/4 Cup + 3 Tbsp) (Add a pinch of salt if using unsalted butter)

3/4 Cup Whole wheat flour or Atta

1/2 Cup finely powdered Almonds (or Almond meal)

1/4 Cup Jaggery powder

Sliced Almonds for garnish (optional)

Step by step recipe:

1. Soften butter by keeping it at room temperature for little time. (Do NOT melt it in microwave or so.) Just place it at room temperature till it turns soft. Now add jaggery and mix both together using a spatula till they combine. Also add the finely powdered Almonds.

2. Now add wheat flour and mix using hands till it forms a dough. It will come together and will be slightly sticky. Refrigerate for about 15 mins. It will turn firm.

3. Meanwhile preheat the oven at 180 C for 10 mins. Take small balls of the dough and flatten with your fingers. Place them on a greased (with ghee/butter) oven proof tray leaving space among them as it increases width on baking. Decorate each with slices of almonds.

4. Bake in the preheated oven at 180 degree Celsius (350 – 375 F) for 10 to 14 mins in the center rack of your oven or with both rods on in your conventional oven. Mine gets done at 14 mins.

The colour of the cookies are brown and not the colour above. It is due to the reflection of my kitchen lights that the cookies have a light shade in the picture. I still added it to show how much the cookies increased in width after baking.

5. Remove and allow it to cool completely. As you keep it to rest, it turns hard but not very hard as butter cookies are supposed to be melt in the mouth and on the softer side.

Notes:

* Store the cookies in a dry, air tight container and it lasts well for two to three days. Mine gets finished off by my family before that. Will last longer if handled well, free from moisture.

* They are very soft and break upon touching on warm. As they cool down, they will harden but still not very hard like store bought ones as we have used only butter. The texture is melt in the mouth softer version of cookies.

* These cookies do not need baking soda nor baking powder. They still grow in width during baking process. I too was amazed the first time I tried it as I always thought cookies needed either baking soda or powder.

* Baking time depends on your oven. In some ovens, it can be done at 10 mins while in my OTG, it takes 14 mins. So keep an eye but don’t open the oven door before atleast 10 mins into the baking time. Else it will lead to uneven baking.

* Do refrigerate the dough for atleast 10 to 15 mins as it helps combine the ingredients well and also helps us form cookies well without sticking in our hands.

* Place the cookies in the center rack of your OTG or with both rods on if using microwave with conventional mode oven.

* I have not replaced butter with ghee or oil in this recipe. So can’t say about the outcome.

* For making powdered Almonds, just put the almonds in a mixer and pulse it in regular intervals till it turns into fine powder. Keep checking in between so that it does not leave oil and become a paste.

* Leave space between cookie dough while keeping on the tray as they increase in width as they bake.

* When they fully bake, you can see the surface is free of raw dough and edges are slightly golden in colour. It is enough. You can remove the cookies out of the oven.

* Garnishing with almond slices are optional. Avoid the slices if making for kids less than 2 years as it can be a choking hazard. Else just finely chop and garnish. Anyhow, the cookies tastes good even without it.

* You can check my Healthy Cakes and Cookies compilation.

* For beginners in baking, you can check my Baking Basics for beginners post.

I have tried to note down as much points as possible so that it’s easy for you all to follow but if you still have any doubts, either comment here or message me on my Facebook page Healthy cooking with mitha or on my Instagram handle and I would be happy to help.

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Cakes and Bakes, Cookies, Millet recipes

Ragi Butter Cookies | easy recipe using Jaggery

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The above picture is of “melt in the mouth” Ragi Butter cookies before two storms struck in 😅. Will come to that later. Right now, I just want to thank my school friend Anvy Susan Thomas who is a great baker ( I am her huge fan! 😍) for this amazing recipe of hers. She has an instagram page homemadebyanvy where she makes us drool with her delicious bakes.

As all of you know, I love baking and I bake atleast one kind of goodies everyday for my family (my daily dose of happiness ❤️). One of my regular bakes are these Ragi Butter cookies which turns out so good that you will never realize you are enjoying a healthy version of cookies. The kids are HUGE fans of it and you can see what I meant by storm strucking in. Here is my 5 year old daughter slowly coming in the frame to grab one of these cookies (storm no 1 😂).

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And when she gets her share, how could the little one be left far behind? Here is storm number 2, my two year old son grabbing the cookies. I loved their cute hands on the cookies that it became my favorite picture too. ❤️❤️

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These cookies are very easy to bake and turn out too good to be true. You won’t feel like getting cookies from outside once you bake them, that’s for sure. I always believe that it’s best we bake and make everything possible at home since we don’t know what kind of ingredients have gone in store bought ones.

Hence sharing one of my most favorite cookies. I whole heartedly thank my friend Anvy @homemadebyanvy for this recipe. Hope you all try it out too. Happy and healthy baking! ❤️

RECIPE:

Ingredients: { 8 Cookies }

100 grams salted Butter (add a pinch of salt if using unsalted)

1/3 Cup powdered Jaggery

1/2 Cup Ragi flour or Finger millet powder

1/2 Cup Whole wheat flour or Atta

1/2 tsp Baking soda

Step by step recipe:

1. Soften butter by keeping it at room temperature for little time. (Do NOT melt it in microwave or so.) Just place it at room temperature till it turns soft. Now add jaggery and mix both together using a spatula till they combine.

2. Now sieve ragi flour, wheat flour and baking soda over it.

3. Using hands, mix everything well till it forms a dough like shown below. Refrigerate it for 15 to 20 mins.

4. Preheat the oven at 180 C (350 to 375 F) for 10 mins. Make small balls of this dough and flatten with your fingers (like making pedas). Make lines over it with knife as shown. Place over a greased (with butter or ghee) oven proof plate. Keep distance between them as they increase in width as they bake.

5. Bake in the center rack of your OTG or with both rods on if using a conventional mode oven at 180 C (350 – 375 F) for 10 to 12 mins. Mine gets done exactly at 12 mins. Each oven is different. So in some ovens it may take upto 20 mins for it to bake completely. The surface will be smooth to touch and will be dough free. Also will have a golden tinge on the edges.

6. Allow it to cool slightly and enjoy the cookies.

Notes:

* They are very soft when they are right out of the oven but harden as they cool down. So do not keep a lot of time in the oven thinking the cookies are not done yet. Once the surface is free from dough and they are smooth to touch, they are ready to be removed from the oven.

* I used salted Butter for this recipe. Add a pinch of salt to the mixture if using unsalted butter.

* Also, don’t melt the butter. Just soften it by keeping it at room temperature.

* Refrigerating the dough is very important. Please don’t skip it.

* Place the cookies at little distance before baking as they increase in width as you can see from the pictures.

* Do grease the oven proof plate well with ghee or butter so that it does not stick to the plate.

* Bake in the center rack of your OTG or with both rods on if using a conventional mode oven. It is very important for even baking of the cookies.

* Mine gets done exactly at 12 mins. Might vary depending upon your oven. But don’t open the oven door before 8 mins into the baking time or else it will leave to uneven baking.

* Store in an air tight container at room temperature. Mine has never lasted beyond a day as my family finishes it off before that. 😀

* You may also want to try this Ragi chocolate cake which is my kid’s favourite (and her friends love it as well 😅). One of the most tried recipe by my readers.

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Cakes and Bakes, Cookies

Chocolate chip cookies | Soft and melt in the mouth cookies using wheat flour and Jaggery

6 Comments

I am lucky and blessed to have few of my readers who are very encouraging and comment very lovingly. One among them is Rajee D Kurup aunty who is part of the food groups that I am in. She thanks me for the recipes that I post and always asks me to take care and stay safe. It might be a small thing but it means a lot to me. ❤️

So when she requested for a cookie recipe and that too to make for her pregnant daughter in law, I just had to post one soon, just for her. 😍

This recipe belongs to Bake with Shivesh whom I admire a lot for his healthy recipes and mouth watering bakes. Do check his Instagram handle and you are sure to drool.

So here’s presenting a soft cookie which you are sure to fall in love with. Happy and healthy baking!

RECIPE: {Credits : Bake with Shivesh}

Ingredients:

1/2 Cup Ghee

1/2 Cup Jaggery powder/ Cane sugar

1 tsp Vanilla Essence

1 Cup Wheat flour or Atta (I use Pillsbury brand)

1/2 tsp Baking soda

A pinch of Salt

1/4 Cup unsweetened Cocoa powder

1 tbsp Corn flour

1/4 cup Milk

Chocolate chips as required to top the cookies

Step by step recipe:

1. Take sieved jaggery powder, vanilla essence and ghee in a large mixing bowl and mix together using a spatula till it combines well and turns fluffy. (Takes about a minute. Important step to get perfect cookies)

2. Now sieve and add wheat flour, corn flour, baking soda, salt and cocoa powder in the same bowl.

3. Combine well till they mix.

4. Now add milk and mix well till it forms a wet mixture. Refrigerate it for 15 mins.

5. Meanwhile preheat the oven at 180 C for 15 mins. After 15 mins of the mixture resting in the fridge, remove it and placed equal sized balls on a ghee greased oven proof plate at little distance from each other as shown.

Note: It is important to keep distance between the cookies as they expand while baking. Also, use ice cream scoop for scooping the dough for equal sized cookies.

6. Pat each cookie slightly with your fingers and place some chocolate chips on top as desired.

7. Bake in the center rack of the oven at 180 C for 12 to 15 mins. Mine took exactly 15 mins.

Note: Don’t open the oven door before 12 mins into the baking time or uneven temperatures can lead to the cookies not coming out right.

Look at the perfectly baked cookies 😍😍

8. Allow them to cool slightly. Remove and enjoy these soft cookies. Look at the inside. I absolutely loved the texture! ❤️

Notes:

* These cookies don’t turn out crispy but soft and melt in the mouth.

* For slightly crispy cookies, skip corn flour in the recipe.

* Remember to sieve all the dry ingredients to avoid lumps of any flour in the cookie.

* Also grease the oven proof plate very well with ghee so that the cookies don’t stick to the plate. You can use silicon mat or parchment paper instead but I prefer the good old method of greasing.

* Do remember to keep the cookies at a distance before baking as they expand well while baking.

* Use ice cream scoop for even sized cookies.

* You can skip chocolate chips if not available and make plain chocolate cookies.

I have tried to note down as much points as possible so that it’s easy for you all to follow but if you still have any doubts, either comment here or message me on my Facebook page Healthy cooking with mitha or on my Instagram handle and I would be happy to help.