Deepavali!
The word alone brings back memories for me. Suddenly I can visualise myself throughout my childhood – most of it centering around food, of course!
And recently when I had a request for a cookie bake to pass on to needy families, I agreed immediately. Each volunteer baker had to bake a certain number of jars of cookies, namely, chocolate chip cookies and cornflake cookies. The best part, all the bakers were not known to each other, but we introduced to each other in a “Whatsapp” group. So many messages and the person who brought us together is Sonia. She coordinated the bake, and gave us the recipes and instructions on how each cookie should look.
I am sharing the recipes here as they were very good. I did a sample bake of each cookie and passed them to about 30 people to taste test. I listened to their comments and did some very minor changes to make them the best tasting cookies.
I did a total of 70 jars of cookies. Even if it was for needy families whom I did not know, my intention was, and is always, very clear. When you give anything to anyone – it must of the best quality! So I did take the trouble to source for good ingredients as I wanted the end result to be the best!
As they turned out very well, I decided to do more of these cookies for my dinner party this week as a party favour for my guests, so that they could also enjoy these cookies with tea in the comfort of their own home.
Here’s the recipe for the cornflake cookies. Don’t forget to check out the recipe for the chocolate chip cookies!
INGREDIENTS:
200 g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
150 g butter
120 g castor sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
60 g cornflakes
60 g raisins
METHOD:
Sieve flour with baking powder. Keep aside.
Crush cornflakes using a food processor or just put them in a ziploc bag and crush with a rolling pin.
Cut each raisin into half or if very small – just leave it whole.
Preheat oven to 180C.
In a bowl, cream butter with sugar using a whisk until light and fluffy.
Add the egg and vanilla extract, continue to whisk well.
Fold in the flour and add in the cornflakes and raisins. It will be a sticky dough.
Using a 3 cm scoop, place the scooped dough onto a baking pan and bake for 20 mins or till slightly brown. Make sure they are placed about two fingers’ breadth apart as the cookies will rise and expand!
Each baked cookie will be about 3.5 cm in diameter.
Store it in an airtight cookie jar.
Notes:
This quantity yields about 60 cookies.
I decorated the jars with festive stickers and a smiley.
Raisins can be substituted with other dried fruits such as currants, cranberries etc.
You can add nuts such as pecans, almond nips etc. (toast slightly for added nutty flavour).
Since the dough is sticky, using a 3 or 3.5 cm scoop is easy to manage but if you don’t have it, you can use a rounded teaspoon too for even sized cookies.
