Eggless Sugar Cookies

I am always on the quest to find a good cookie recipe, and these nut-hugging bears cookies are by far my favorite!

Recipe adapted from Sharmis Passions.

Eggless Sugar Cookies

Ingredients

All purpose flour  – 1/2 cup

Wheat flour – 1/2 cup

Icing Sugar – 1/2 cup heapead

Unsalted Butter – 1/3 cup heaped (at room temperature)

Milk – 2 tbsp

Vanilla Essence -1 tsp

Baking Powder – 1/2 tsp

Salt – 1/4 tsp

Almonds or cashews – for decorations (optional)

Method:

• Sieve together flour, salt, baking powder.  Mix it well and set aside.
• In a mixing bowl, add butter, icing sugar, milk and vanilla essence and whisk it together.
• Then add the flour mixture and mix well to form a smooth dough.
• Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for ½ hour.
• Now roll out the dough with a roller just about 1/4 inch thickness. Use plain flour for dusting.
• Use a cookie cutter to cut out the shapes.  Decorate with almonds or cashews.
• Using a flat spatula place the cut out cookie dough on a baking tray lined with butter paper. Refrigerated it for 15mins before baking, this will ensure that the cookies doesn’t spread.
• Preheat oven at 180 deg C for 10mins then bake the cookies for 12 - 15 mins or until the edges turn golden brown.
• Allow them to cool in tray for few mins, and then cool them on wire rack. Once cooled store them in airtight container.

 Note:

• Be sure to keep the dough chilled until you are ready to cut your bears. This helps the cookies hold their shape when baked.
• Do not roll the dough too thin.
• You can use a simple bear cookie cutter, then use a toothpick to mark the eyes and nose.
• To make the bears hug the nut, press half an almond on the bear’s chest. And then to make the arms, use leftover dough to make tiny ovals and press it firmly to the sides of the bear and to the almond.   

Chilled dough, ready to go into the oven.