Everyone likes vanilla shortbread cookies, particularly children. It requires few ingredients, the flavours are mild, and it pairs well with any hot beverage. I make it in different shapes – such as squares, stars and circles – with lots of chocolate drizzle and colourful sprinkles on top, so that children can eat one and guess the shape.

  • Serves

    6

  • Cook Time

    01 h 10 m

Ingredients

  • 200 gm all-purpose flour
  • 140 gm salted butter (softened, but not melted)
  • 85 gm sugar
  • 1 tbsp Hudson Canola oil
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp vanilla essence
  • Semisweet chocolate, to drizzle
  • Colorful sprinkles, for garnish

Preparation

  1. Preheat the oven to 180 degree Celsius. Prepare the baking tray by greasing the bottom with a little Hudson Canola oil, and lining with parchment paper cut to the size of the base.
  2. In a large mixing bowl, cream together the softened butter, Hudson Canola oil, sugar and vanilla essence with an electric beater or stand mixer till the sugar crystals seem to dissolve and the mixture becomes pale, fluffy and creamy.
  3. Add the flour to this mixture, gently folding it in with a spatula. Beat for about 30 seconds, scraping down the sides of the bowl to ensure all the ingredients are properly mixed. Bring together the dough with your hands. It should be stiff enough to roll into a sphere.
  4. Roll the dough into a ball, cover it with cling film, and flatten until the surface is completely even. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
  5. Once chilled, soften the dough by flattening it against a clean kitchen counter with your hands. Dust the kitchen counter with a little flour, and roll the dough out with a rolling pin to an even thickness. Cut fun cookie shapes and place them on the prepared baking tray.
  6. Bake for about 20-25 minutes, or until the cookies are a lovely golden-brown.
  7. Once done, remove them from the oven and let them cool on the tray for a bit. Meanwhile, melt the semisweet chocolate in a microwave or on a double boiler, pour it into a piping cone, and cut a tiny hole in the tip of the cone. Pipe the chocolate on to the cooled cookies in any design, and quickly put the sprinkles on top before the chocolate sets (else, they won’t stick).
Written by

Sana Nair

Happiest when cooking for others, Sana Nair has never known a life without love for food and baking. Catching the passion from her grandfather, she start creating in the kitchen when she was still a young adult. It was after baking for friends and family for years that she realised that she could only see herself doing something food-related. That is when the business graduate enrolled at Le Cordon Bleu, one of the foremost culinary schools in the world. Sana started The Mellow Yellow Co. in Delhi in December 2014, serving everything from comfort treats to her experiments with classics.

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