So this Christmas we were looking at the list of Christmas dishes made across the world, but we just wanted to make some simple cookies that tasted like shortbread and were yummy too! Keeping our vegetarian friends in mind, we decided to make eggless Christmas cookies. And of course, to keep the processed sugar at bay, we replaced sugar with natural honey. You can use regular honey too. 😉
This recipe makes about 100 cookies, so if you want to make lesser, just use half or quarter the ingredients.
Ingredients:
500 grams plain flour (maida)
100 grams rice flour
250 grams butter
1 tsp salt
210 ml honey
1 tsp baking soda
Few drops color of your choice
If you want the cookies to taste more like Christmas, add in a tsp of cinnamon powder.
If you’re using powdered sugar instead of honey, the density changes and you’ll have to adjust the ingredients a bit. So use 280 grams butter and 175 grams sugar. Everything else stays the same. So let’s get to how to make vegetarian Christmas cookies, shall we?
How to make eggless Christmas cookies?
Start by sifting the flour and salt with the baking soda. Next, add in the butter and honey and mix together with your hands. Don’t beat together or massage the mixture too much since you want it to be light and airy. Then add in the color and form into balls. Freeze them for 30 minutes and they’re ready to go.
Now there are different things you can do. We had a few old tree and star-shaped cookie cutters that one of our Australian aunties gave us many years ago. So we rolled out the dough about half a cm thick and cut out those cookies first.
You can decorate these cookies with white royal icing if you want them to look more like Christmas sweets. But we didn’t because it will just be excess sugar. Also, if you cook them for longer, they become crisper, whereas if you keep them in the oven for a shorter time, they’re softer and more melt-in-the-mouth.
What we really love to do with cookies is make logs. This though, you have to do before freezing the dough. Just roll out the different colored dough into 1 cm or 1.5 cm thick logs first. Then place them one over the other in a chessboard pattern and squish it together. Yes, I said squish! That’s what we do. Then put it in the refrigerator for 30 minutes to 45 minutes.
Once your logs are frozen, cut them into quarter-inch thick pieces.
Line some trays with butter paper, and arrange the cookies on them. Preheat your oven to 200 degrees Celsius. Bake the cookies for 20 to 25 minutes and they’re ready.
And that’s it! Our yummy and tasty shortbread style cookies are ready. I love that the texture looks like scooped ice cream. And they just melt in the mouth! Try making them and see how fast they disappear off your shelf! We’re down half a batch already, and it’s not even Christmas yet. They disappear as fast as our traditional mass pav and vanilla cream!
Eggless Christmas Cookies Recipe (Vegetarian)
Ingredients
- 500 g plain flour (maida)
- 100 g rice flour
- 250 g butter (or ghee – Indian clarified butter)
- 210 ml honey
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp cinnamon powder (Optional)
- 2 drops Red Color
- 2 drops Green Color
Instructions
- Sift the plain flour, rice flour, salt and baking soda together.
- Add in the butter and honey and mix with your hands. (Don't beat as it will lose air. Using your hands to fold lightly ensures that the air stays in the mixture.)
- Add in the color and cinnamon powder (optional) and form into balls.
Option 1
- Freeze the dough for 30 minutes.
- Roll out the cookie dough half a cm thick and cut into shapes.
- Place on a tray lined with parchment or butter paper and bake for 20 to 25 minutes. (It varies from oven to oven.)
- Once the cookies cool, decorate with royal icing if you wish.
Option 2
- Roll out the different colored cookie doughs into 1 or 1.5 cm thick logs.
- Press 4 different logs together to form a chessboard pattern.
- Put the dough in a wrap and freeze for 30 minutes.
- Cut the dough into slices and bake on a papered tray for about 25 minutes. And that's it!
