COOKIES! I love cookies — looking at them, biting into them, and experimenting with ingredients to come up with unique, innovative and delicious new variants. Truth to tell: I bake cookies every Christmas to give away to family, friends and neighbors. Most of the time, baking cookies is also my little Christmastime business. So I’m always on the lookout for new and exciting cookie ideas. This one comes from The Maya Kitchen, which is one of my reliable sources of tried and tested cookie—and other — recipes.
I particularly like this recipe because it’s of a whole wheat cookie, which means it’s lighter and healthier than most cookies. It’s also easy to prepare because it makes use of a ready mix, Maya Whole Wheat Pancake Mix, which eliminates certain steps in making cookies. Yet it’s also delicious and attractive because they’re dressed in pastel-colored buttercream frosting with floral trimmings, studded with dragees and embossed with stars and what-have-yous.
It will be fun making them in your own kitchen.
THE MARSHMALLOW FONDANT:
16 oz. white mini marshmallows
2-5 tbsps. water
32 oz. powdered sugar, sifted
1/2 cup shortening
food color, as desired
1. Prepare marshmallow fondant. Melt marshmallows and 1 tbsps. water in microwave oven for 2 minutes.
2. Mix marshmallows until everything is soft and melted.
3. Put powdered sugar in a bowl. Make a well in the center and pour in melted marshmallow mixture. Mix until lumpy.
4. Sprinkle powdered sugar on working table and transfer the marshmallow mixture. Grease hands with shortening and knead marshmallow fondant. Keep kneading until smooth and pliable. While in the process of kneading, grease hands and working table whenever needed to keep marshmallow fondant from sticking to hands or working table.
5. Let fondant sit overnight before using. Color as desired.
THE COOKIES:
1 package Maya Whole Wheat Pancake Mix 200g
1 egg
1 tbsp. + 1 tsp. vegetable oil
2 tsps. water
1. Preheat oven to 350°F or 177°C. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.
2. In a bowl, combine all ingredients and mix until a dough is formed. Flatten to a disc and wrap in plastic film. Chill for 1 hour.
3. Roll out dough to 1/8-inch thickness and cut out cookies using a round cookie cutter or cut into any desired shape.
4. Bake for about 10 to 15 minutes.
5. Remove from oven and let cool.
THE BUTTERCREAM FROSTING:
1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
1 tbsp. milk
1. Cream butter using an electric mixer. Add vanilla.
2. Add sugar, 1 cup at a time, at medium speed.
3. Add milk and beat until light and fluffy.
4. To assemble, use same cutters used to cut cookies to shape the fondant. Spread a thin layer of buttercream on the surface of the cookies before covering with fondant and press down lightly to let it adhere to the cookie.
5. Decorate as desired.
Yields 13 12-inch in diameter cookies.
