Daring Bakers - November - Twelve Days of Cookies

It's time for November Daring Bakers.

Holiday season is the time for sharing and Peta of Peta Eats is sharing a dozen cookies, some classics and some of her own, from all over the world with us.

I am very time poor at the moment, so I only made one of Peta's 12 cookie recipes, and the simplest one I could find.  My choice was the Foaming Milk Cookies.  Peta explains:

Foaming Milk Cookies are an old family recipe from my mother in-law, perfect for the allergy sufferers. There are no eggs in the recipe. I have made these with water, juices and a variety of milk substitutes. I have used butter and margarines. I have used gluten free, rice, nut and coconut flours. I have added spices, nuts, dried fruits and chocolate chips. This recipe always works.

Even better, they take 10 minutes to prepare, 1 hour to freeze while you go off and have a life, and 10 minutes to bake.  What could be easier?

The dough was very soft, but froze into logs well.  I rolled my logs in red sanding sugar to make them festive with as little effort as possible.

Here is te recipe for those who are interested in making these cookies:

Ingredients

1½ cups (340 gm) (12 oz) sugar
½ cup (120 ml) milk
4 cups (560 gm) (20 oz) all-purpose (plain) flour
1 cup (240 ml) (225 gm) (8 oz) softened butter
1 teaspoon (5 gm) bi-carbonate soda
2 tablespoons (30 ml) hot water

Directions

1. Preheat oven to moderate 350°F/ 180°C/gas mark 4.
2. Rub the butter into flour until it looks like fine breadcrumbs or blitz together in a food processor.
3. If you use your food processor tip the flour and butter into a metal bowl.
4. Melt the milk and sugar together.
5. Dissolve the bi-carbonate soda into the hot water.
6. Add to the milk and sugar and mix quickly into the flour/butter until well combined.
7. The mixture will be runny but it will firm up as it cools.
8. When the dough has cooled roll it out to 1/5-inch (1/2-cm) thick and cut out with the cookie cutters or roll into logs and freeze for ½ - 1 hour until firm and cut it.
9. Place on greased trays and bake in a moderate oven for 10 – 15 minutes or until golden.
10. Allow to cool slightly on the tray and then move to cooling rack.

Thanks to Peta for hosting us this month.  To check out many other Christmas cookies, view the slideshow in the Daring Kitchen website.