Eggless Sugar Cookies

My family, on both sides, is largely non egg consuming and to send across any baked goodies their way I am constantly in search of eggless recipes and good substitutes. I have experimented successfully with flax seeds, yogurt, bananas and found them to taste as good.

Sugar cookies have been on my mind for a long time, more for the glaze and how the amazingly talented people on YouTube are able to create pieces of art from them.

Found a recipe here on my search and found them to turn out beautifully with no loss in shape or them expanding, with no refrigeration required. The texture was more shortbread like, very good. I made half the recipe using All purpose flour entirely as I needed a pale background for the glaze. You can mix whole wheat flour and All purpose in the ratio of 2:1.

Next up, was a search for an eggless substitute for the royal icing that is usually used to glaze the icing.. had been dying to get my hands dirty (literally speaking) with the glaze. Found a good one here.





Lined up pretty!

The hand painted one

The Cookies

Beat the sugar and butter in a bowl, with a hand mixer, till smooth and fluffy. Add the milk and vanilla and beat until combined.

In another bowl bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. Add this to the wet ingredients in batches, and mix well by hand till combined. If the dough isn’t quite coming together, add a tsp or so of milk and knead. Do not be tempted to add too much milk or aim for a smoother consistency by kneading too much, the cookies may become tough.

  

On a flour dusted surface, roll the dough out uniformly till just about 1/4" thick. Cut out cookies with your cookie cutters and place them on parchment paper lined baking tray.

Bake them at 180C for 10 to 20 minutes, mine took 18-19 minutes. Look out for the cookies to turn golden at the edges staying pale inside. Cool on the tray for about 5 minutes and then cool completely on a rack.

Ingredients:

1 cup sugar

 200gm butter, softened at room temperature

3 to 5 tbsp milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt



The Marbled effect



Doting on..

The Glaze

In a bowl, mix the corn syrup, sugar and milk thoroughly. You can add a drop of vanilla or almond extract or a few drops of lemon juice if you like. Put in an icing bag and use it to glaze the cookie. Create an outline first, it will harden almost immediately. Flood the enclosed design with more icing. You can make it smoother flowing by adding some milk, add a drop at a time. There are many helpful videos on YouTube.

Ingredients:

1 cup finely ground sugar

1 tbsp Corn Syrup

1 tbsp milk

A few drops of lemon juice

A few drops of vanilla/ almond essence









The Best Vanilla Cake

I do want to have "The Best" in my repertoire - the best chocolate cake, the best chocolate chip cookie, the best vanilla cake... you know, get the basics right with some foolproof recipes (and 2 kinds at that - With and without egg, because quite some of my immediate family do not eat egg). And with cakes, I am looking for cakes that use oil versus those that have butter. While there is no match for the flavor and texture butter brings in, it means that that you can't put it together just whenever you would like to what with the time required to soften it etc.

So coming to the cake, this is the best vanilla cake with eggs and with oil that I have baked/ had yet. I have been on the search for one for a while now. Among homemade cakes, I have a very special corner for Vanilla cakes a favor them even more than the chocolate ones. Some years back when Nestle was running small cafes in Delhi, there was a chocolate chip muffin they used to retail which I absolutely loved, so much so I even traced its origin to the Standard Coffee shop in Connaught Place. This cake, was very close to that, here it is.

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C.
2. In a bowl, whisk together all purpose flour, corn flour, salt, baking powder till evenly mixed.
3. WIn another bowl, whisk the eggs for 15 seconds with an electric mixer. Add the sugar and whisk for 30 seconds more. Add the vanilla and oil, whisk a little more.
4. Add half the flour mix to the wet mix and blend it slowly, add half the buttermilk followed by rest of the flour and rest of the buttermilk. Scrape down the sides and blend it in.
5. Bake for 35 minutes, browning the crust a little.

Ingredients
1 cup All purpose flour (maida)
1/4 cup Cornflour
1/2 tsp Salt
2 tsp Baking powder
3/4 cup powdered Sugar
1/2 cup vegetable Oil
2 Eggs
1.5 tsp Vanilla extract
1/2 cup buttermilk (If you dont have this on hand - Just add 1 tsp vinegar to 1/2 cup milk and allow to stand it for 5 minutes. Shake and use it.)