Eggless Short Bread Cookies – Version 2

Long back I have posted Eggless Short Bread Cookies and now posting the second version with little changes in it. Christmas is nearing, so I thought of preparing and posting new recipes of Eggless Cookies and Cakes in my blog. Whether it is a particular festival or evening supper, most of us especially children love snacks. Evening tea time, we are tempted to peek in the snack box. One time you make these cookies can be stored for 15 days. So you can serve this for your guest too and get the praise for your homemade cookies. They look very attractive to give away as Christmas treats to children.

My co-sister and co-writer of my blog Mansi bought Sparkle Gel tubes from US. I made use of this Gel for decorating the cookies. They look very colourful. I am yet to try the homemade icing for decoration of the cookies. Here I have done in two methods; one is decorating with Gel and other by dipping the Eggless Short Bread Cookies in melted Chocolates. Both gave a good taste to the Cookies. You can have plain as it is, if you do not want to decorate. You cannot store the Gel-decorated Eggless Short Bread Cookies, as it will stick to each other. If you are making Chocolate-dipped cookies, it can be stored after completely cooling. Since I use convection oven, I have explained that process too.

It is easy to prepare dough, than the rolling and cutting part. You need to prepare dough by adding all the ingredients together. Allow it to rest for an hour, roll it and cut with the cookie cutter. Repeat this process for the entire dough. Refrigerate the cut cookies for 10 minutes and bake it in oven. Note that here we do not use the Baking Soda or Baking Powder (the cookies must not spread or stick to each other). Hence we call it as Short Bread Cookies. Decorate in your own style or munch as it is.

Time to Prepare: 15 minutes

Resting time for dough: 1 hour

Baking Time: 15 to 17 minutes for each tray

How to Make Eggless Shortbread Cookies – Version 2:

1. In a bowl, add All Purpose Flour or Maida, Corn Flour and Salt. Mix well all these 3 ingredients using a whisk so that everything is evenly distributed.

2. Take another bigger size bowl and in that add softened Unsalted Butter, Powdered Sugar. Beat these two items using the whisk till it becomes smooth and fluffy.

3. At this stage, add Vanilla Essence to the Butter-Sugar mixture from step 2 and stir once to ensure all are well mixed.

4. Now to this, add the Flours-Salt mixture (from step 1) by dividing the flour into 4 parts, add one portion at a time and mix well. Do this mixing with your hand till you use up all the flour.

5. You should get soft dough like the Chapati dough. While mixing, if you find the dough is not coming together, add few drops of milk and kneed. Wrap the dough in a plastic wrap and chill in refrigerator for an hour until firm.

6. Remove the Cookie dough after an hour from the refrigerator. Sprinkle some flour on the Chapati roller or on a butter sheet. Roll out the dough to form a big circle of 1/4 inch thickness. Cut the dough into desired shapes with the help of cookie cutter.

7. Transfer the prepared cookies on a butter sheet and refrigerate for 10 minutes. Repeat this process for the rest of the dough. Every time refrigerate the cut cookies for 10 minutes before you start baking.

8. Meanwhile preheat the oven for 10 minutes on 180°C. Remove the butter sheet from refrigerator and transfer them to a baking tray. Keep this tray in preheated oven and bake at the same temperature for 12 to 15 minutes or until the edges change to golden colour.

9. Once the Short Bread Cookies are baked, remove slowly from the tray and cool it on a wire rack. These Short Bread Cookies are soft when they are hot, but they turn crisp once cooled.

Convection Oven Method:

1. Preheat the oven at 200°C for 10 minutes and reduce the temperature to 180°C for baking the cookies. Keep the prepared Cookies on the non-stick tray (which comes with the oven).

2. Use the lower rack grill on which you place the Short Bread Cookies tray. Bake for 15 minutes at 180°C in convection mode. It usually takes 15 to 17 minutes for the first batch and then on time will be minimized as the oven is more heated.

3. Once the Short Bread Cookies are baked, remove slowly from the tray and cool it on a wire rack. These Short Bread Cookies are soft when they are hot, but they turn crisp once cooled.

Decorating Eggless Short Bread Cookies using Sparkle Gel:

Take each cooled Cookie in hand and decorate it in your own style using the Sparkle Gel tube. Serve immediately, you cannot store it, as the Cookies stick to each other.

Decorating Eggless Short Bread Cookies using Chocolate:

1. Chop the Chocolate using knife and transfer to a bowl. Microwave for 2 minutes and remove it. Mix well with spoon till it melts completely. Or you can do the double boiling method. See the post on how to melt the Chocolates.

2. Take each cookie in hand. Dip one end of the cookie in melted Chocolate and place it on a cookie sheet or parchment paper to harden the chocolate. Once it cools completely and the Chocolate is stuck to the cookies properly, transfer them to an air tight container. You can store this for 15 days.