Wednesday 6 June 2012

Persian Cookies-Dates Almond Cinnamon Cookies

I am soo sooooooo excited that i could not wait another day to blog about this recipe....




Persian cookies..... dates almond cinnamon cookies... They were yummmmmmm.... N's reaction to it  " fundooo bana hai"... i am soooo happy ... thank you sawsan @ this blog.There are so many recipes that i would like to try from her blog but i chose this today as

1)This was the first recipe i clicked open on her blog
2)I had all ingredients( normally at least one is missing)
3) Dates would go into it...Since we moved to Dubai ,dates are always there at home.As soon as one packet is over we get the other !!I wanted to bake something which would use dates and  and this one had it.

And believe me when i say this the aroma that fills in your house when you bake this-awesome.I could not wait to taste one and an as soon as i took my first batch out, i tasted one.. It was yummmmmm!!!1:).. i felt soooo happy.. i knew that this recipe was a keeper.



Then N came in  and he was surprised seeing the cookies.Immediately had one and went gaga over it and there i was jumping and dancing around... It just made my day !!!! All thanks to sawsan:)

By the way N wanted to take it to his office tomorrow but i am planning to take it to a get together we have on Friday at our friends place!!! That case stands pending;)

Don't worry seeing the long list of ingredients .. the method is simple and easy( if you have someone to chop the dates for u ).. Yes, the most time consuming part of this cookie making process is  chopping the dates..(and i did not have seedless dates:(  .. I wished i had someone to do that for me but thinking of the end result i went through that " hard"  task smiling!!!!


Ingredients

2  and 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon baking soda( i put 1/2 as i wanted my cookies crisp)

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup butter , softened ( sawsan says no substitution and i dint)

3/4 cup granulated sugar

3 large eggs

3 tablespoons powdered milk(actually i missed out on this , but the cookies were still tasty)

3 tablespoons cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon cardamom

pinch nutmeg (optional)

1 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon almond extract.

2 cups pitted chopped dates

1 cup toasted chopped almonds

Whole toasted almonds for decoration

Method

1)Mix the flour,cinnamon, baking soda,salt and nutmeg.Nutmeg was optional and i did not use that .( i used a whisk to mix it all well)

2)In another bowl beat the sugar and butter together till creamy.(I used my hand mixer).Then add the eggs and the essences and mix  till well blended.

3)Now add the flour.I added the flour in three parts and mixed it on slow speed.It will be one sticky lump like below.(Do not worry seeing the structure of the flour, the cookies will come just fine)


4)Once the flour has been blended in well,fold in the dates and almonds. I did this with hands i was finding it difficult to do with spatula( make sure that your hands are clean and dry).

5)Roll the flour between your palms and lay it on a baking sheet and decorate with an almond on top..keep the almond on top and flatten lightly.

Leave  1" inch space on all sides of cookies as they expand..considerably!!


Preheat oven to 180C .Keep the baking sheet in the lower rack.Sawsan talks abut broiling( honestly i do not know about that and i have never done it , so i stuck to the normal method of baking a cookie)
one is missing cos i ate it!Hope you understand how impatient i was;)

My Notes

I used 1/2 tspn baking powder as i wanted the cookies to be crisp.
I missed out on the milk powder and realized it only when writing this blog that i had missed out one ingredient.

I toasted the almonds on a saucepan after adding  a tablespoon of ghee(clarified butter)


Sawsan's Notes:



If you like your cookies more on the crisp side use 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda instead of 1/4 and after you have finished baking place the cookies in the warm oven, turn it off and leave the cookies there until the oven cools down completely.

Store these cookies in an airtight container and they will last for a month.


What more could you as for... munch on them for a month, if they last i.e... mine are definitely not staying for a month.. we are going to gobble it up!!!!


Do try this out  i am sure you will love it!!!We loved it :)

















3 comments :

  1. nice looking cookies.. do drop in my space Noel collections in your spare time

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you so much for the mention and for trying my recipe
    I am so glad that you loved them
    I agree about chopping dates being the most time consuming part but they are more than worth it and your baked cookies look amazing

    ReplyDelete
  3. awesome cookies.....superb

    ReplyDelete

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