Eggless crinkle cookies
I distinctly remember tasting these cookies for the first time around christmas when I was preggers with Adya. My baker friend Accu had baked these most insane cookies that literally melts in your mouth. She said they are called crinkle cookies. I still remember my nephew Athu & I devouring on the whole batch she’d given us. I had ZERO guilt gorging on these beauties. Ever since then I have been trying my hand out at making an eggless version of these beautiful cookies & none of the recipes I tried worked well. Finally found a winner recipe.. made some variations and it worked perfect for me. It came out just the way I remember tasting it the first time. Aaaah, that bliss you get when you chew into these cookies cannot be explained in words.
Anywho, my niece Sam aka Samyuktha (she hates being called with her full name fyi) was here with her family for a vaca in Dubai. Tash & Sam are Dinesh’s brothers’ kids. While Tash lives in Dubai, Sam lives in Chennai. When I was in chennai last time, she had told me how she enjoys looking at my blog & how she would love to eat some of the stuff that I had made. So immediately in my mind I knew I wanted to make a few items for her when she was here. She wanted to eat some fudgy cookies but my mind wanted to try & crack these crinkle cookies since I knew she would love them. One afternoon when they had all come for lunch, I set out to making these cookies. Sam was my sou-chef for the day. She was extremely interested in mixing up the ingredients (found it a bit difficult to work with the hand blender so left that job to me :D) & also helped me handle Mr Adyant Ramasundar who just wanted to be a part of the kitchen mess :D. The best part of the whole cookie making process was how when I was explaining to her that I am looking at creative ways to present these cookies, she suggested I use cotton balls to depict snow (since crinkle cookies are christmas delights) & I was totally wowed by her suggestion. I vaguely remembered seeing some rose flowers in the fridge (mil had kept some for some pooja) & I thought I could add some rose petals for the typical red & white christmasy effect. The below setup was completely done by Sam. Tash & Adya if I may add. He always wants to participate in whatever Sam & Tash are doing and he’s doubly happy when it’s the final food picture process cos he is very well aware of what happens in it. I was really really impressed with the creativity of the kids these days & ofcourse a specific mention to my nieces for the creativity portion instead of generalizing under the ‘KIDS’ tag :D. Tash added those 2 rose petals in between the cookies for an added effect :D. I love the girls in general but when they are super cute helping me like this, I love them even more.
Also, while I was clicking the final pics, they were sitting patiently on the bean bag right next to the food setup waiting to get their hands on the cookies. That was one thing they weren’t too thrilled about.. having to wait to eat their cookies :D. As soon as I finished clicking the pictures, the cookies went straight into their mouths. They loved it a lot & I got all the thumbs up. Even Adya liked it a lot & munched on 2 cookies right away. Overall, 23 cookies were gobbled down the very hour by the members of my family with Tash & Sam taking 70% of the credit :D.
Tash, Adya & Sam (Left to Right)
And ooh, how can I miss mentioning this. Tash & Sam are major supporters of my blog in all possible ways. Sometimes when they are bored, they just go to my blog & start reading the preludes of my blog :D. How sweet is that now?! 🙂
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 3/4 cup white sugar
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp instant coffee powder
- a pinch salt
- 2 flax eggs See ingredients below
- 1/4 cup room temp butter
- 1 tsp vanilla essence
- 1 tsp flax seed powder
- 3 tbsp water
- 4 tbsp icing sugar
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In a small bowl, mix together 2 tbsp flax seed powder & 6 tbsp water (the measure required for 2 flax eggs). Set it aside for 10-15 minutes to thicken. After 10-15 minutes, you will see that this mixture resembles that of an egg (in texture).
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Meanwhile, in a large bowl mix together all purpose flour, unsweetened cocoa powder, instant coffee powder, baking powder & salt.
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In another large bowl, beat sugar & softened butter using an electric hand blender/ beater till soft.
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Add the flax eggs & vanilla essence to the wet mixture & continue to blend till all ingredients are well incorporated.
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Now add the dry mixture part by part, 1/2 first & blend. The second half & blend.
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If you find it hard to use the hand blender at this stage, switch to a fork.
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Once all the ingredients are mixed well, you cookie dough is ready.
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Roll the cookie dough into 24 equal gooseberry sized balls.
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In a small plate add some icing sugar. Roll the cookie balls onto it to coat with the icing sugar.
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Place the cookie balls on a baking tray lined with some butter/ oil.
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Bake in a preheated oven of 180c for 12-15 minutes. Keep an eye out the last few minutes to ensure you don't burn the cookies.
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You know you are done when the cookie top is soft but not wet (not even a bit). Take out the cookies & let it cool.
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Dig in to some warm chewy chocolatey goodness. If you want to store them, store in an airtight container for up to a week.
- If you find that your cookie dough is a little sticky and you think you won't be able to roll balls out of it, stick it in the freezer for 10-15 minutes or refrigerator for 1 hour.
- The cookies will harden a bit during the cool down process.
- The consitency I like is NOT crunchy but nice & chewy (softish) cookies. If you like them a bit more harder, then you can flatten the cookies a bit before the baking (just a light press on top).
- These cookies will not be flat. They will be more like a macaron. Â
Stepwise pictures
In a small bowl, mix together 2 tbsp flax seed powder & 6 tbsp water (measure for 2 flax eggs) & set it aside for 10-15 minutes.
After 10-15 minutes, you will see the mixture resemble the consistency of an egg. So your flax egg is ready for use.
Meanwhile, take a large bowl & add all purpose flour, unsweetened cocoa powder, instant coffee powder, baking powder & salt. Mix everything with a fork. Set it aside.
In another large bowl, cream together soft room temperature butter & sugar using an electric hand blender, beater.
Blend for 2-3 minutes or till the sugar starts to become soft & less granular.
Add the flax eggs, vanilla essence & blend.
Continue to blend till the mixture is well incorporated.
Now add the dry ingredients. Don’t everything at one go. Add 1/2 at first, blend.
Then add the remaining 1/2 after, blend. It will be a bit tough to blend at this stage. You can opt to mix everything using a fork at this stage if you want.
Once the dry & wet ingredients are mixed together, you will have your awesome cookie dough ready.
Roll this into 24 even size gooseberry size balls.
Roll the cookie balls onto a plate of icing sugar.
Place the sugar dusted cookie balls on a baking tray lined with a thin coating of butter/ oil. Space them out evenly. The cookies will spread when baked, so don’t place them very close to each other.
Bake in a preheated oven of 180c for 12-15 minutes. Keep an eye the last few minutes to make sure the cookies don’t burn.
You know the cookies are done when the top is soft but cooked (not wet). Take the cookies out & let them cool (cooling down will get the cookies to harden a bit).
Enjoy the cookies warm. They are soft & chewy as you bite in. They are not overly sweet as well, so very very palatable. If you want to store them, store in an airtight container & have it within a week.
