February 14, 2007

Heart Shaped Cookies

Happy Valentine's Day!



Roses and Hearts all wrapped up in a love boat..
These are my mom's donut cookies reinvented as heart shaped cookies. She made them shaped as donuts cut with two circular metal lids. One was an old 777 sambhar powder's tin lid, and the other the cap of a vanilla essence bottle. I loved doing the cutting, figuring out how many I can get from each batch and now I see the same thrill on my son's face when he does the cookie cutting with cookie cutters.
He also sprinkled the sugar on the cookies after frying them.

We grew up on these and always thought donuts looked and tasted as these cookies. So imagine my surprise when I first saw a Dunkin Donut. It looked like my donuts on steroids! And it was so cakey in texture!
So now while I love the cholesterol laden donuts from Krispy Kreme(and some from Dunking Donuts), I had to try and recreate the old donut-cookies for nostalgia's sake.

So here is the recipe, straight from my mom. Be warned, it is not too sweet and it is fried.:)This is also my entry to Trupti's Little Chefs In The Kitchen Event.

You will need: To make about 24 cookies
All Purpose Flour ( Pilsbury or Gold Medal)-8 tbsp
Yogurt-1 tbsp
Melted Butter or Ghee-1tbsp
Powdered Sugar- 4 tbsp
Baking Powder-1 tsp
Vanilla-1tsp
Egg-1/2 beaten egg
Oil for frying
Cinnamon sugar- Mix ½ tsp cinnamon powder with 2-3 tsp powdered sugar and keep aside.

Preparation Method:
1. Mix all the dry ingredients together. Pour the melted butter, yogurt and vanilla into the mix and blend evenly by hand. Now slowly add the mixed egg, a little at a time, just enough to form a soft dough. Do not pour the egg all together. I judged it to be half an egg but depending on the size of the egg, you may need more or less. So add a drop as you knead along to moisten the dough till it reaches the correct consistency. The dough should feel dry and not sticky.
2. Keep for 10 minutes and then take a small ball and roll it out with the rolling pin. Sprinkle some flour as you roll if it sticks to the rolling pin. The thickness should be around 3-4 mm. Use a cookie cutter and cut out the shapes.
3. Heat enough oil in a pan or kadai, for deep frying and when it is hot enough, lower the heat to medium high and slide in the cookies, 5-6 at a time depending on the size of your pan. Fry them as you would fry puris. Turn them almost immediately after sliding them in and let it fry on each side for a minute or so till they turn golden in color. The heat should not be too low or too high.
4. Drain onto paper towels and sprinkle some cinnamon sugar on them while they are hot.
These stay fresh for about 4-5 days.

24 comments:

jacob said...

as usual that's beautiful. hope th recipe follows soon.

Prema Sundar said...

Just now saw heart shaped cookies in Seema's blog and here I come to see it agin ..perfect valentine's treat.. isn't it

Anonymous said...

Those cookies look so special.. Awesome pic :) Happy Valentine's to you!

Pravs said...

Wow nice cookies !
Just to let you know about cuttlefish....Cuttlefish is not a fish, like the name suggest. It's Like the squid or the octopus.

Mythreyee said...

thanks and happy valentine's day to you too.

FH said...

Beautiful cookies!!Happy V'day!:))

Ashwini said...

What a coincidence Shaheen...I made something similar. The donuts/ cookies look great. And congrats dear girl for the nomination.

indosungod said...

Cookies look adorable. Donut cookies are new heard them here first

TNL said...

Hi Shaheen,

Thanks so much for the entry! It is perfect, must try these for my kids!
A big thanks to your son for helping!

Cheers,Trupti

Anonymous said...

The cookies look so delicious.I am a novice in cooking and your blog has been of great help for me.Just wanted to ask you..can we make doughnuts at home??Is it possible?If so ,can u post it?Anyways, going to try out the cookies ..Thanks for the nice recipes..

Menu Today said...

Hi,
perfect valentines day treat!!!! Looks superb... Thanks for sharing.

Mrs. K said...

Great looking cookies. We just finished off a box of krispy creme donuts yesterday...creme filled, chocolate glazed...yum!

Bong Mom said...

Mmmmmmmm...great Cookies Shaheen

Anonymous said...

Donuts on steroids? Haha..that was haha..downright funny. Nice recipe. I like your mom's donut style. Nice recipe. Congrats on the nomination! and Happy belated v-day wishes to u too.

Anonymous said...

Wow Shaheen,

Beautiful pictures and pleasing cookies...only for eyes...wish if it could please my taste buds too....will try out soon...and wud update u on this!!

Revathi said...

how many times do i have to tell myself not to visit ur site when it is 5:30 and I am all readyto go home.. but hten food is not waiting nor interesting.. fish molleee, calicut biryani, fish varatiyadhuuu.. huuuuummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Anonymous said...

Hahaha Doughnut on steroids!!!! LOL That was a good one. :)

Lovely cookies shaheen.... I never thought cookies can be made fried as well!!! :)

Shah cooks said...

jacob.. here is the recipe.:)

Prema, hearts are cheesy the rest of the year but at valentines's day it looks appropriate.

Babli..happy valentine's to u too.

Prav,thanks and if i get hold of it, will try it.

Mythree, Thanks a lot.

Asha, Sweetie happy V to u too.

Aswini, I saw them, I guess our hearts were in the same place at the same time.Thanks for ur wishes.

Indo, my mom used to call them that so we did too.

Trupti, thanks a lot.

Anon, I don't know how to make real donuts, sorry. But do try this.

Shah cooks said...

Menutoday,Thanks and do try them..

RP, i want krispy kreme too.

Sudeep bro, thanks for your support as always. :)

A.Yunus, do try them. u will like them.

Sandeepa, Thanks and a happy V to u.

Revathi, I am off this weekend else most of the day I am in ur predicament of going home hungry and then I start cooking.SO don't feel bad. Most of my elaborate cooking is on the weekends!!

Hema and Cofee.. Isin't it true that eveything here is big.. whether it is the produce or food servings?

Sia said...

hi mallugirl:)
ur message on my blog got me here:)
first of all congrats for being nominated and good luck.
my amma makes same cookies and u just made me walk down the memory lane. thank u for that. its gonna take long time to browse through all ur recipes and i am gonna start it right now:)

Chandrika said...

Shaheen, those cookies look yummy and the picture is so good...Happy Valentine's day!

Freshma said...

you mentioned "One was an old 777 sambhar powder's tin lid, and the other the cap of a vanilla essence bottle"
It highlights the ingenuity of our indian mom's. here in melbourne i see specific items for everything and i constantly recall my mum and other mums using simple techniques to achieve amazing outcomes

thanks for reminding me of simple things your observation is excellent

Vini K said...

I used to have a malayali friend,she was my classmate and christain.her mom used to make these donuts for christmas every year.I loved the taste of it,but never found the recipe.Thank ou so much Shaheen,for posting this one!It is interesting how we our moms and grandmas improvised on all those moulds available now!

LERA said...

Nice pic! belated happy valentine day to you!