Lisaopolis.comA Nurse's Journey to a Healthy and Balanced Life

This evening I was in the mood to do some Christmas baking. I decided to make some shortbread cookies. I compared three recipes, and in the end came up with my own. Here it is.

Shortbread Cookie Recipe

(Makes about 60 cookies depending on the size)

4 cups all purpose flour

4.3 oz olive oil margarine

2/3 cup not packed brown sugar

3 tsp vanilla extract

5-6 tsp semi warm water (as needed)

Combine the flour and sugar, and mix well (make sure there are no clumps of sugar). Add the vanilla extract and margarine. Beat the dough with an electric mixer. Now knead the dough until it is a consistency that allows for it to be rolled. You will likely need to add the water at this point. Add enough water to just make it a consistency that allows for it to be rolled (knead it into your dough). Preheat your oven to 320 degrees F. Roll dough into snake like rolls. Cut cookies to desired thickness (I made mine on the thick side so they were less likely to burn). Bake for about 15-20 minutes in your preheated oven (I baked mine for 17 minutes and they were the perfect texture). Enjoy.

Here is a recipe I tried from fellow blogger friend Fahriye. The cookies turned out yummy. Crunchy, yet soft, and not too sweet. The recipes makes about 40 cookies. Enjoy.

I did modify the recipe slightly. I searched all over the small city where I live and was unable to find rose water. Instead I made a very concentrated rose hip tea and used about ¼-½ cup of this instead of the 2 tbsp rose water.

I also used 4 tbsp raisins instead of two, and 4 tbsp hazelnuts (flaked) instead of two.

I used strawberry and raspberry yogurt because we didn’t have any plain yogurt.

Finally I added baking powder 3 tsp, because we don’t have self rising flour (only all purpose).

Here is Fahriye’s Blog. http://www.fahriyeskitchen.blogspot.com/

Hazelnut Cookies

1 cup natural yogurt

1 cup sugar

2 eggs ( keep one yolk for the top of the cookies )

Half a cup vegetable oil

2 tbsp chopped hazelnuts

2 tbsp raisins

2 tsp cinnamon

2tbsp rose water

4 cups self raising flour

First mix the sugar and oil well together, add the beaten eggs. Mix well. Add the hazelnuts, raisins, cinnamon to the flour and mix with all the ingredients into a smooth dough with the rose water. Shape into rounds, brush it with egg yolk and decorate with whole hazelnuts. Cook in pre-heated oven on 175C for 10-15 minutes. Serve warm.

This evening I was in the mood for baking. I searched for a cookie recipe that appealed to me. I found a recipe that I liked at about.com in the southern food section titled: Chocolate Chip Cookies with Oatmeal. I modified the recipe greatly, and came up with my own version. Here it is.

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 cups all purpose flour

1/8 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

¾ cup margarine

1 ½ cups brown sugar

3 eggs

¾ cup unsweetened shredded coconut

½ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

2 cups uncooked rolled oats

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp Kahlua liquor

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a bowl combine flour, salt and baking soda. Blend. Add the margarine and brown sugar (cream this mixture). Add vanilla, eggs, Kahlua, and beat well. Add rolled oats, and mix well (you may need to knead the dough). Once the dough is well formed knead the coconut and chocolate chips into the dough. Drop the cookie dough onto cookie sheets and bake until slightly golden in color (about 12 minutes). Makes about 36 medium sized cookies.

The cookies turned out well and were a household hit.

Below is an image of one of the cookies.