Eggless Flavoured Custard Cookies

Its raining cookies at our place and I cant agree with Sharmila more that Cookie baking is addictive...yes it indeed is. For the last few days am just baking batches and batches of different types of cookies. The best part is I never did that before.... A big thanks to Sunita whose recipe was a spot on Hit and I made by first successful batch this year, ever since then every evening its happening in different colours, flavours and shapes.

Though we don’t celebrate Christmas but love the festive feelings and the aroma of freshly baked cakes. A Christian family lives here in my neighborhood. They already have got the decorations on. From our bedroom window we can watch the colourfull fairy lights twinkling in the dark and emanating a cozy, warm, festive and holiday feeling. Baby H looks at these red green yellow lights with awe.

Back home, its also festive time for all in Santiniketan. It’s that time of the year, when the annual fair and festival Poush Mela takes place. This fair is observed to celebrate the acceptance of Bramho Dharma (a religion) by Maharshi DevendraNath Tagore, the father of Rabindranath Tagore. At the crack of dawn of 7th Poush (22nd or 23rd December) we wake up to the tune of Sahnai and join the Vaitalik group (morning prayer) in white clothes. The group walks around the whole Ashrama area (hermitage) singing Tagore’s songs. The fair is then inaugurated in the morning at Chatimtala with prayer meetings and Rabindra sangeet. Then all head to the fair ground where numerous different types of shops coming all over from India exhibit and sell their products.  Their is a separate food court where food loving Bengalis have their feast. But the main attraction is the live performance by the folk singers mainly Baul fakirs and tribal sports by local Santhals. On the second day of the fair, homage is paid to all dead persons of the Ashrama by offering Hobishanno, which is a meal prepared in one pot for the family members who lost their near ones. The third day is the day of Christmas and in evening the whole Brahma Mandir or famously known as the glass Mandir is decorated with candles and students sing songs and offer prayers to Jesus Christ. The whole fair and all the functions associated with it, have an old world, back to your roots charm. It’s a true reflection of our heritage.

As kid I loved each and every part of the fair and the festivities without understanding anything. What attracted me most were the shops and the firework show on the second day. After school I used to sneak in to check the preparation at the fair ground and to bring home some hot jalebis. As I grew old I was taken in the groups to design alpona (design made on a base with colours), or to recite from Veda at the morning function. Then when I grew more I started understanding the meaning of Tagore's songs and the philosophies behind those functions. Now as a mother I want my son to know his culture and connect to his roots through these festivals.

I have asked my brother to send me some photos of this fair and will upload them soon. In between if you are interested to know more about Santiniketan go here. It’s the official site of Visva Bharati University.

Now back to the cookies. This recipe was lying in my recipe diary for god knows how long. Finally got this courage to give it a try. It’s very easy, just like 1,2,3...with an outcome of superbly crumbly, melt in the mouth cookies. I experimented a lot and came up with four flavors vanilla, strawberry, Green tea and that obvious one chocolate. I also discovered that Custard powders are nothing but normal corn flour with added flavour and colour. Here is how I made it

Eggless Flavoured Custard Cookies

Vanilla Cookies

Ingredients:
Flour (Maida): 2 cups

Custard powder (vanilla flavour): 1/2 cup

Oil: 1/2 cup

Powdered sugar: 2/3 cup

Baking Powder: 3/4 tspoon

Soda bi carb: 1/3 tspoon

Warm milk: 2 Tbspoon

Vanilla essence: 1/2 tspoon

tutti frutti: for decoration

Method: sieve flour, custard powder, baking powder and soda.

Cream the sugar, vanilla essence, milk and oil very well.

Tip in the dry ingredients and mix gently to have soft dough. Chill for 10 minutes.

Line a baking tray with silver foil and preheat the oven at 175 degree C.

With slight damp hands make small balls and flatten a little bit in your palm. Arrange them on the tray little apart from one another. Place some tutti frutti or nuts of your choice in the middle and press gently.

Place the tray in the middle rack and bake for 10-12 minutes. You will find them a little soft to touch when warm.

Cool them completely and the store them in an airtight container.

Strawberry flavoured Custard Cookies

For this I used the same recipe as above. But instead of custard powder I used same amount of corn flour. You can use strawberry flavored custard powder for this. Also replace milk with same amount of strawberry preserve or freshly crushed strawberries.

Don’t use the vanilla essence in this as it could suppress that delicate smell of strawberry.

Green Tea N Custard Cookies

For this I used the same recipe but ground the content of a green tea bag and mixed it with a pinch of green colour to make it look nice. 

Chocolate N Custard Cookies

Just add 5 tablespoon of melted dark chocolate and a spoonful of coco powder instead of milk. 

These cookies head straight to Sara's corner for her Cakes n Cookies event. 

Check out this space as I have joined Nupur's 7 day recipe marathon starting from 25th December'09. We are going to try some brand new recipes for that week.