Eggless white-chocolate and fig cookies

I prefer baking egg-less cookies. When I baked the egg-less and with-egg versions of the same cookie and compared, I found the egg-less version tasted good even after a week of storage, whereas the with-eggs version were a still stale and had a very mild strange odor.

So instead of the regular chocolate chips, I decided to try a different combination and hence used white chocolate and figs. This recipe makes around 30 medium-sized cookies.
Ingredients
1/2 cup butter
6 tbsp granulated white sugar
6 tbsp light brown sugar
1 tbsp flax seeds
1 tbsp water
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 cup + 2 tbsp all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
a pinch of salt
3/4 cup of chopped white chocolate
1/2 cup of chopped dried figs

Method
Soak the flax seeds in water for 10 minutes. Grind to a fine paste.
Beat butter in a bowl until smooth and creamy. Add the white and brown sugars and beat until fluffy (2-3 mins). Add the flax seed paste and beat until incorporated. Add the Vanilla extract and beat again until incorporated.

In another bowl, sift the flour, baking soda and salt. Add the flour mix to the butter mixture and beat until incorporated. Add the chocolate chips and chopped figs at the end of the mixing stage.

If the dough is too soft or sticky to shape into balls, put it into the refrigerator for 20-30 minutes.

Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees C. Prepare 2-3 baking sheets with parchment paper.

Shape the dough the size of a gooseberry and place it on the parchment of the baking sheet. Make sure to have enough room between the dough balls. The dough spreads while baking.

Bake at 180 degrees C for 12-15 minutes until the cookies are golden brown around the edges.

The cookies feel soft at the end of the baking cycle. But they harden as they cool down. Move the cookies from the baking sheet after 5-7 minutes and then place on wire rack to cool completely.

Verdict The sugar can be reduced in half. The figs are sweet and the white chocolate also contributes to the sweetness. But otherwise the cookies were great in texture and lasted for a good 2 weeks for us.

Chocolate cookies

Here is the chocolate version of the basic cookie dough

 
Ingredients:
Flour - 1 1/4 cup
Powdered Sugar - 1/2 cup
Cocoa powder - 1 tbsp (I used Cadbury's)
Butter - 7 tbsp
Egg yolk - 1/2
Vanilla essence - 1/2 tsp
Cream - 1 tbsp (I used 1tbsp milk)
Salt - 1 pinch.

Method:
You can see that this is the basic cookie dough from my previous post.

Mix the flour, cocoa powder and sugar. Cut the cold butter into the flour-sugar mix. Mix with hands until the dough resembles a crumbly mixture.

Whisk together yolk, vanilla essence, cream and salt. Add the liquid to the flour-butter mix and knead softly into a dough.

Wrap the dough in parchment or wax paper and refrigerate for 20-30 minutes.

Pull out the refrigerated dough and on a lightly floured surface, roll the dough out to form a large rectangle about 3 mm thick.

Cover the rectangle with another piece of parchment and return the dough to the refrigerator for 10-20 minutes.

Pull out the rectangular dough from the refrigerator. Cut out 2 inch diameter discs using a cookie cutter.

I was able to obtain 20 discs. Place the cookies on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
Bake at 160 degrees C for 10-12 minutes. Cool the cookies, on the sheet for 5 minutes.
Transfer the cookies to a wire rack and cool completely. Can be stored in an airtight container.
It keeps well for a week to 10 days.

This is another entry to the Bakefest happening at Pumpkin food farm.

Verdict: Buttery, crumbly, chocolaty and just about sweet. It was perfect for our taste.