Eggless M&M Cookies | Eggless Gems Biscuits

It's feeling a lot like Christmas!! 

Festive season and holidays, along with fresh home baked goodies! What more do we need to excite a kid or bring back the kid in us?!

I wanted to make some colorful cookies for my little cousins who would be coming home for their vacation. While hunting my refrigerator, I found a pack of M&Ms lying there unopened. It reminded me of a recipe that I had come across in Jeyashriskitchen.com and bookmarked long back. With pretty much simple ingredients and easy method, I tried them right away and yeah the colorful cookies are now baked to perfection and waiting to surprise my little cousins!

Wishing you all a wonderful holiday season :)

Check out these cookies too for this special season:

• Saffron-walnut cookies
• Custard powder cookies

INGREDIENTS: (Makes 15-20 small cookies)

• Maida - 1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons
• Baking soda - 1/4 teaspoon
• Sugar - 1/4 cup
• Milk - 1/8 cup
• Butter - 2.5 tablespoons (softened)
• Vanilla essence - 1/4 teaspoon
• M&Ms or gems - as needed **

** You could substitute the gems with choco-chips or any nuts or just omit them and make plain cookies too!

METHOD:

1. Sieve the flour and baking soda together
2. Powder the sugar and add it to the flour
3. In a separate bowl, mix together milk and softened butter and beat well till it is creamy
4. Add the milk-butter mixture to the dry ingredients and knead into a soft dough
5. Pre-heat oven to 160C and line a baking tray with parchment paper or any grease-proof/butter paper
6. Roll out the dough thin and cut them in your desired shape using cookie cutters/lids/knife. While rolling out the dough, I found it too sticky, so I added a tablespoon of wholewheat flour(atta), kneaded again and also dusted the floor with some flour and then rolled it out
7. Place them in the lined baking tray, leaving about half an inch gap between each cookie (as they expand a little while baking) and decorate them with M&Ms/gems as per your wish
8. Bake them for 10-15 minutes (Rotate the tray during the last 2-3 minutes)
9. The cookies will not brown much, just check if the sides are browned and then after they are baked, remove the baking tray and place it on top of the oven for 5 minutes, this will ensure the bottom of the cookies are also baked well
10. Cool them completely on a wire rack and store in air-tight container

Now it is time to munch!!

Sending this recipe to BakeFest event happening at Taste Junction