Butter cookies

Oh my God! That was a fabulous holiday in India!

Two months went off in a flash…soaking in the heat, dust, colours, hustle and bustle of our city. When I arrived back here, it was like flipping a page in a travel magazine…total change of scene…snow on the ground, all leaves gone and a general calmness. I am settling down to the quiet, cold Winter of Milton slowly.  Although I accept the white stuff on the ground with a little disapproval, the sudden silence and loneliness is hard to bear.

It was all those extra busy activities that spoiled me. I was completely lost in the frenzy of India with its tropical charm and unending cacophony. Basically, it was a November wedding which stole most of my time and attention.

The wedding was elegant and the feast was scrumptious. Now, I long for the taste of those creamy coconut dishes. I am planning to recreate some of them in the days to come.

My stay was around Diwali and jostling through dense crowd everywhere, I shopped until I literally dropped. Walking through the shops of silks,  jewellery, flowers, odorous markets and thick traffic, it was totally mesmerizing. I could rarely stay at home. This time Autumn in our city was hot and humid unlike the foggy old days I knew. I was sweating, cursing and enjoying it equally.

When I was annoyed by some people because of their manners and demanded orderliness they considered me weird. I was like a misfit complaining about power outage and water shortage when they had accepted it as common occurrence. When I travelled to my mother’s place in Kerala, it had unusual heavy rains but still hot and sultry. I drew some solace from its daily dose of glamourous sunrise.

Most of the time, I was idling around in quirky company and in high spirits, so could not continue blogging. The internet speed at home was not up to my expectation and the service provider was horrible.

Anyways, it is convenient to get back to familiar grounds and take charge again. I am happy the festivities are not over and it will continue for a while. Everything looks Christmassy and bright with twinkling cute lights. Now, I am decorating and baking, filling light and aroma in our house to lift the veil of melancholy.

When considering my new post I thought of Butter Cookies. What is Christmas without some sugary cookies? As a little girl, I remember getting a round tin of Danish cookies with neatly stacked precious cookies in butter paper cups inside. I was totally fascinated by those Danish butter cookies in a very bright blue tin with Royal Dansk printed on it and filled with melt in the mouth happiness. My mother used to store needle work stuff in the blue tin for a very long time.

I adore those cookies and when there was a chance to buy them after many years, I snapped up as much as possible. Invariably, I gift them and sometimes satisfy my own sweet tooth. This year I thought of making some butter cookies at home for the very first time. I found several recipes online but adapted them to suit my needs.

Ingredients

• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup salted butter at room temperature
• 1 egg at room temperature
• 3/4 tsp vanilla essence
• Colored sugar

1. Separate egg white and yolk.
2. Beat egg white until frothy by adding 2 tbsp water.
3. Beat butter with sugar until light and fluffy and add egg white and mix well.
4. Add egg yolk and vanilla mixing thoroughly.
5. Incorporate flour little by little and beat it just for the dough to come together.
6. Fit appropriate disk under cookie press and feed the dough for pressing.
7. Press cookies directly on an ungreased baking tray.
8. Sprinkle coloured sugar for decoration.
9. Bake it in a preheated 350° F oven for 10-14 minutes.
10. Remove the tray from oven when edges start turning golden brown.
11. Release the cookies from the baking tray to a cooling rack immediately.
12. Store it in an air tight jar after cooling.

These are  my buttery little treats with nostalgia attached to it. It was quite easy to bake them and had the satisfaction of recreating these historical butter cookies at home.