Twenty four hours is falling short now. It’s a month since we went out and it’s twenty one days since the official lockdown. Covid_19 has changed how the world functions. We are cooking, cleaning, doing all household chores, managing the kids and creating digital content. I almost feel like a droid, being programmed to do the same thing every single day. And then came Easter. My angel of a boy, Tugga, who has been mostly helpful and has his moments of anger and frustrations, cannot give up his food expectation. He is a child after all, I tell myself. “Mumma, are we not going to celebrate Easter? Are we not going to do some Easter egg decorations and bake Easter egg cookies? And what about hot cross buns?”

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Poor Mumma, too tired to bake, just couldn’t say no. Perhaps, I am indulging too much. Having said that, i restricted his expectation to only a batch of hot cross buns and Easter egg cookies. Tugga did, now and again, quite elusively bring up the topic of egg decoration and some gala lunch. Of course, I chose not to register that in my tired brain. Ultimately, I made him measure out the ingredients, put them together, stamp the cookies and clean up afterwards.

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Easter egg cookies with coloured dough

Most Easter egg cookies are sugar cookies coated with royal icing decoration. Royal icing decoration is a tedious job. It also requires a lot of icing sugar and we are under lockdown. There was no way that I was going to use up all my icing sugar on the decoration of those cookies. I chose the easy way out and that was to use food colour in the dough. Last year, I had tried cream cheese cookie dough recipe from Kankana who blogs at Playful Cooking. There was no cream cheese in my pantry as well. So the alternative was to make regular sugar cookie dough with food colour. It worked out quite well.

How to make Hot Cross buns pinterest

 

Stacked up Peanut butter cookies by Pikturenama

Stacked up Peanut butter cookies

Sometimes I wish Tugga never grows up . We baked hot cross buns last year 

This was one of our first baking blogposts . Recipe for Peanut Butter Cookies 

Tugga and I agreed upon blue, yellow and pink colours for the dough. They looked so pretty when we stamped them. One by one, we put them in the oven. Unfortunately, my tired mind forgot all about the pink batch that went into the oven. I was in the shower when I got a frantic knock on the bathroom door, which I decided to ignore. Once I was out, the whole house was smelling of burnt cookies and I realised what had happened. There were two panic stricken boys with a frown on their faces. I couldn’t care less. I was in that zone. At least, we had two perfect batches with us, blue and yellow and we will have to do with that.

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Nan Khatai was the original Indian cookies ? Whats your opinion ? 

On a sunday morning with a fresh cup of tea have Nan Khatai

Few tips for this recipe

  • The recipe requires icing sugar and caster sugar. If you have run out of both, use normal sugar and powder it. It need not be a fine powder. Little bit of grains will do.
  • The dough is extremely sticky. When the dough is brought together, transfer it to a covered bowl or wrap it in clingfilm and keep in the refrigerator for a couple of hours.
  • Once you take it out, divide the dough into three or four parts (for as many colours) and add food colour. Knead the colour in. Preferably use gel colour since it has less liquid.
  • Knead it and again, wrap in cling film individually and keep in the fridge for 10 – 15 minutes.
  • Take them out one at a time and roll out on parchment paper or work top which you have dusted with flour. You will need extra half a cup of flour to work with the dough. Dust some additional flour if it remains sticky.
  • While stamping, make sure to dust the cookie cutters with a little flour too or else the dough will stick to the cutter.
  • You can cut in any shape of your choice.
  • Bake at 160 degrees for 12 to 15 minutes. I bake at the top rack since the bottom of the cookies burns out quite fast. As soon as the bottom has a bit of colour, I take them out and gently slide them on a wire rack.
  • Once cool, these cookies can be stored in an airtight container.

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Storing Suggestions

You can store the cookie dough in the freezer for upto a month. When you want to bake, keep them out and depending on temperature of your place, it thaws pretty quickly. The cookies can be stored in an air tight container for upto 1 week (that is if they last ).

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Easter Egg Cookies

Madhushree Basu Roy
These Easter egg cookies use coloured dough and they are vanilla sugar cookies.
Prep Time 20 hours
Cook Time 15 hours
Resting time 2 hours
Course Cakes and Bakes
Cuisine Global

Ingredients
  

  • 150 gms butter
  • 275 gms all purpose flour extra for kneading
  • 50 gms icing sugar
  • 100 gms caster sugar
  • 1 tsp vanilla essence
  • 1 no egg
  • food colour of your choice

Instructions
 

  • In a mixing bowl, break and egg and lightly whisk it. Add rest of the ingredients and mix them. Bring it all together and tip it out on a work surface dusted with flour.
  • Knead the dough till it is smooth. It is still a bit sticky. Wrap the dough in a cling film and keep in the refrigerator for a couple of hours.
  • Take it out and divide the dough into three or four parts depending on the number of colours you have, In separate bowls, place the doughs and add drops of food colour. If it is gel colour, remember that very little is required. Also keep in mind that when the dough cooks, the colour mutes a bit. So keeping that in mind, add the food colour.
  • Then again wrap them in cling films and keep in the refrigerator for 15 to 20 minutes.
  • Take them out one at a time. Place a parchment paper and place the dough on the paper. Using a rolling pin, roll out the dough on the paper till it is 2 mm thick.
  • Take cookie cutters dusted with flour and cut shapes. Carefully remove the shapes using a flat knife and place on a baking sheet. These cookies don't really grow in size, so you can keep them an inch apart.
  • Pre heat the oven for ten minutes at 160 degree c. Then transfer the baking tray in the oven and bake for 12 to 15 minutes, till there is a light colour at the bottom.
  • Take the tray out and transfer to a wire rack for cooling. Once cool, store in an airtight container.
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