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| Just look at this riot of colours! Painting done by Appu (AM) |
Made these cookies primarily for my niece who was celebrating her 17th birthday the other day. I knew she would buy or get her own cake so I wanted to give her something a bit more healthy. This is a picture from the archives of us together. Got her feedback a couple of hours ago that they were really nice (damn good is what she said)! My sister had brought in a couple of cranberries for me to nibble on the other day, I added quite a few into this bake. I love to include dates, cranberries and many other dry fruits in my naked bakes. It was so nice to include this into this particular bake.
I also love chewy and healthy cookies. I added a cup and a quarter (1 1/4 C) Oats to a one and half cups (1 1/2 C) of All Purpose flour. To it I added two tsps. of baking powder, half a tsp.of ground ginger and a quarter tsp. of salt. Whisk all these together such that they are all incorporated well. Set aside.
In another bowl I added half a cup of unsalted butter (at room temperature) to a cup and a half of brown sugar. I would reduce that by two tbsp. the next time I were to bake this. Beat the butter and sugar until creamy. Found it a bit sweet in retrospect. With the help of a hand beater, I beat in two eggs one at a time to this mix and then drizzled in two tsps. of vanilla essence.
Once this wet mix was ready, I turned on the oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Chopped the white chocolate bar into small chunks, kept a cup and a quarter of cranberries to go into this cookie mix; you can reduce the amount if you are not fond of cranberries. You may use fresh or frozen if you prefer. The cookies will be moister. I have also added choco chips along with the white chocolate chunks to make it half a cup altogether.
The dry ingredients were slowly introduced into the wet ingredients. Do not over beat or over mix. The cranberries, chocolate chunks and choco chips were folded in slowly once the dry met the wet. Scoop them out into the lined baking tray and bake until the cookies are done for thirteen to fifteen (or less) minutes, depending on your oven and how the cookie bakes.
You may scoop them into the baking sheet with the help of your ice-cream scooper and bake them until done. Once baked and cooled, serve it right away with a tall glass of milk. I have gift-wrapped a few for my niece with the help of some jute twine,button mushroom storage containers that I cleaned out, colour paper and cling wrap (all the stuff that I have at home and recycled)
The containers were cleaned and dried. the colour paper was neatly placed into each to give it a festive feel and then I added three huge cookies each. Cling wrapped each container and tied a jute twine like a ribbon. This makes your presentation even more home made and from the heart!
That's a lovely painting done by one of our close friends' daughter Appu. When I had visited their home town, she was in a mad rush to give me one of her paintings as we were there for hardly two days, she sat through the night painting this for me and as she could not come personally, her mother came to our hotel (before we checked out) the first thing in the morning to gift me this.
I was truly touched! I am such a nobody but to have done something creative and as beautiful as this more than a year ago truly touched and pierced my soul! Grateful Appu mol! Rekha, as a mother you are the one who brought them up so I honestly know where this genuine love comes from. Thank you for such wonderful upbringing!
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