Rebecca from www.displacedhousewife.com and Teresa from now-forager.com are hosting a real life holiday cookie swap, and they were gracious to invite me to join the cookie swap along with a few other very talented food bloggers. We had to make 2 dozen cookies and ship it to one of the fellow bloggers. Rebecca’s son Gavin picked out the names and it was a secret as to whom we would receive the cookies from! Now how fun is that?!
I had to send the cookies to Rebecca – the cookie queen, I mean ofcourse!! She is AMAZING! Have you seen her website/feed on Instagram? And the cookie perfection is just beyond anything! I have personally made a couple of her cookie recipes, and they have ALWAYS turned out perfect to the T! I love her styling, food photography and her amazing recipes, and I hope to try more of her cookie recipes! Anyways, I was so nervous that I had to send the cookies to Rebecca, and was wondering what to make. I did want to put in a touch of my Indian roots, and that meant a ton of spices haha! 😉
I love shortbread cookies, they are my absolute favorite kind of cookies. I grew up with my mom’s family in the UK visiting us every year, when I lived in Mumbai, and they would get a ton of cookies, and chocolates all the time from the UK. Shortbread cookies were one of them. My grandmother as well, makes the most amazing shortbread cookies, and my mom learnt the same recipe too. Hence I decided to make shortbread cookies. I did not want to make plain ones, so I decided on Thandai Shortbread cookies.
Let me explain what THANDAI is! Thandai aka Thand means cold in Hindi. Thandai is a spiced boozy cold milk drink served during the Holi festival in India signifying the onset of Spring. It is made with a ton of nuts and spices steeped in warm milk, and then made cold before serving. My mom would make this drink for us as kids without the booze ofcourse, and it is my absolute favorite drink till date! The powder is made with almonds, cashews, pistachios, spices like star anise, fennel, cardamom, cinnamon, nutmeg, poppy seeds, cloves, black pepper. This powder is then steeped in milk for about 10-15 minutes with saffron and sugar. Once steeped, it is left to cool in the fridge, and strained before serving cold to get this luxurious, rich, delicious, spiced milk which is simply amazing!
I decided to make this powder, and then use it in shortbread cookies to make the Thandai Shortbread cookies, then dip them in tempered white chocolate, and add chopped pistachios and a dusting of dried rose petals on the top. I always made excess of the powder, so I can use it later to make my favorite drink ;). The thandai powder recipe makes for about 2 cups of the powder. I used 1/2 + 2 tbsp of the powder to make the cookies.
Kitchenaid recently sent me their new KitchenAid® Artisan® Mini Mixer to try out! I was super excited and could NOT wait to receive it! I love KitchenAid products! I bought my first Stand Mixer about 11 years ago, and just recently after 11 years of faithful running, it finally died a couple of months ago! They have such a good life span! I picked the metallic gray color cause its soo pretty, and modern! I decided to inaugurate my machine with these cookies! The cookie dough was made in this machine! It is the perfect size for small batch cookies when you don’t want to use your normal size Stand Mixer, OR you live in an apartment and you want something small and convenient to store on your kitchen counter that does NOT occupy too much counter space, which is, lets face it – so precious! They have such pretty colors too!! I loved how low it was on noise level as well, super quiet, smooth and very powerful, to be able to handle so much dough with so much motor power! I love it – and so happy to have received it, and to bake loads of amazing goodies with it!
Ok back to the cookies – so once the cookies were cooled, I dipped them in tempered white chocolate, added some chopped pistachios on the top, a dusting of powdered dried rose petals which really gave them a great texture, color and taste to the overall cookie! I was extremely happy with the end product and cannot wait for Rebecca to try it! I will definitely be making these cookies on repeat for my home!
I am excited to be a part of this holiday cookie swap with so many talented food bloggers! I have been seeing the creations on Insta stories for some of the bloggers, and I have been loving all the creations! The cookies are festive and beautiful, and perfect for the holidays. I am grateful to be a part of this amazing community that believes in good food, and sharing their recipes, tips and tricks with the world.
I received the cookies from the very talented Erin of @cloudykitchen ! She made Anzac Biscuits which were made during WWI, by the wives, for the soldiers! These cookies are made with oatmeal, coconut and golden syrup as far as I can tell from the flavors so far! They are chewy, perfectly sweetened, super delicious, and my family loves them with their morning milk and coffee! They are perfect! So happy to have received them from Erin! Thank you Erin! 🙂
I am excited to share this recipe, close to my heart with you and hope you get a chance to try it out! If you do try it out, please do not forget to tag me on Instagram with #thejamlab and/or leave a comment below on the blog.
Here is a complete list of all the participants in this fun Holiday Cookie Exchange Party 2016! What a fun party this is! I thoroughly enjoyed being part of it!! Much love!
Happy Baking!
Cheers,
XO
Amisha
Ingredients
- 1/3 cup almonds
- 1/3 cup pistachios and cashew nuts
- 1/4 cup poppy seeds
- 15 black peppercorns
- 12-15 cardamom pods
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 5-6 cloves
- 2 tbsp. fennel seeds
- 1 tsp anise seeds
- 10 dried roses
- 1 tsp nutmeg powder
- 1¼ cups (284 grams) unsalted butter, softened
- 1 cup (200 grams) granulated sugar
- 1 tablespoon (13 grams) vanilla extract
- 3 cups + 2 tbsp (375 grams) all-purpose flour
- ½ cup plus 2 tablespoons (70 grams) Thandai Powder
- ½ teaspoon (3 grams) table salt
- 2 cups good white chocolate chips( I used Ghirardelli)
- 3/4 cup of finely chopped pistachios
- 4 tbsp of powdered dried rose petals. (used a coffee ginder to grind up the rose petals)
Instructions
- In a small bowl, add in all the ingredients and mix them together roughly. In a coffee grinder, in small batches - roughly 3 batches, add in the mixture and blend well until finely ground.
- 1. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter and sugar at medium speed until creamy, 3 to 4 minutes, stopping to scrape sides of bowl. Beat in vanilla.
- 2. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, Thandai Powder, and salt. With the mixer on low speed, gradually add flour mixture to butter mixture, beating just until combined. Turn out dough, and divide in half. Shape into disks, and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 2 hours.
- 3. Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
- 4. On a lightly floured surface, roll half of the dough to ¼-inch thickness. Using a 2 inch fluted round cutter, cut dough, and place on prepared pans. Put the pans in the freezer for 10 minutes.
- 5. Bake on lower and middle racks of the oven until golden brown, about 16 minutes, rotating pans halfway through baking. Let cool on pans for 5 minutes. Remove from pans, and let cool completely on wire racks. Repeat with remaining dough.
- 6. In a small microwave-safe bowl, combine chocolate morsels and oil. Microwave on high in 30-second intervals, stirring between each, until chocolate is melted and smooth (about 2 minutes total). In another small bowl, stir together pistachios and rose petals.
- 7. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- 8. Dip one-third of each cookie in chocolate mixture, letting excess drip off. Sprinkle pistachio mixture onto chocolate, shaking off excess. Place on the prepared pan. Freeze until chocolate is set, about 5 minutes. If chocolate begins to thicken while dipping cookies, microwave for 10 to 15 seconds to rewarm. Store cookies in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks.
This is so beautiful Amisha! Can’t wait to try them!
Thank you so much Dale! I know you will love them! The spice powder can be used to make spiced milk which is so delicious 😀
I loved these cookies Amisha!! And I love that they have a part of your family in them…the spices, that perfect shortbread…just delicious. Your photos here are just gorgeous here as well. I wish we could all meet in real life and share all of our cookies — what an amazing day that would be!!! Sending lots of love!!! xoxo
Thank you soo much Rebecca! your comment totally made my day! 🙂 I am so happy you liked the post and the pictures. The spice powder would make an amazing Espresso Latte – which is going to be one of my next holiday recipes 😉 I sooo wish we could exchange cookies in real life too and have a dessert holiday party haha 😉 Thank you so much for including me as part of your amazing party!! 🙂 much love 🙂 xoxo
These cookies are just what I’m craving with my afternoon tea. Adore that white chocolate dip – it makes them (almost) too pretty to eat! 🙂
aww thank you so much Laura! They are perfect for dunking into tea or coffee! I kept some cookies for myself, and that is how I was eating them! Glad you liked them!! 🙂
I cannot wait to try these Amisha! The flavors sound amazing! Love the anise and fennel seeds and the rose petals in the garnish! Well done!
Thank you so much Mary Ann! Yes, I loveee the flavors of star anise, and fennel seeds 🙂 It is a total flavor packed cookie!
these cookies are so pretty and sound delicious! i love baked goods with lots of spices so i’m excited to try these. do you have any tips on where to buy dried roses? i’ve never baked with them before so i’m not sure exactly what to look for. thank you!
aww Thank you Kate! I love spices in baked goods too, hence all my recipes contain spices in baked goods 😉 I buy dried rose petals from Amazon.com. They have organic ones as well, and a little bit goes a long way!
awesome, thank you! i will check that out.
There’s so much I love about these cookies.. that they are family heirlooms, packed with warming spices and that white chocolate dip! I’m finding us Tarines have a lot in common – shortbread is my fave too!! There are SO many cookies on my list… December is not long enough (or my stretchy pants big enough) to bake them all, so it’s just going to have to fall into the new year! hehe… That Kitchen Aid?! A workhorse indeed! I’ve had mine for 14 years and have put it through the wringer! It’s still going strong. A mentor baker aquaintance of mine uses them in her cafe’/bakery. She’s had one walk off the counter while making brioche 😮 ! She picked it up, sat it on the counter, turned it back on and it kept right on working! LOL! They are tough machines! Thank you for sharing this delightful cookie and your story Amisha! It’s been so fun partying with you! xo
haha! Traci I hear you! There are soooo many cookies on my list too! December needs to last 2 months right? 😉 Thank you so much for your lovely comment Dear! I always love hearing from you! Yes, the spice powder is just soo flavorful! I am thinking should I try an Espresso Latte with it ?! maybe!? Yes! I love that new mini Kitchenaid! It is so powerful! My original one broke down after 11 years, and I had to buy a new one 🙁 I was so sad! I loved the cookie exchange so much! It was so much fun! 🙂
These are beautiful cookies, Amisha! I’m always impressed by your creative genius. Love that these are dipped in white chocolate too. Another fantastic recipe of yours to add to my ‘to-do’ list. All my love to you! xoxo
Thank you so much Teresa! It means a lot coming from you! I really look up to you for the most delicate beautiful pastries/baked goods! I love the spice mixture a lot, and it reminds me of home! The fragrance during baking these is really lovely! Thanks for checking out my post 🙂
Amisha, these are so lovely. Love shortbread cookie and it’s always a great thing to add a touch of spice to oomph it up. Love how the final product looks like. We were lucky to try them out and enjoyed every single bite.
Thanks for sharing my dear.
xx
Thanks my dear! Yes! spice in shortbread cookies is soo fantastic! Spice in anything is 😉 Thanks so much for your comments, it means a lot! I loved loved your cookies! Cant wait to make stuff and gift you for xmas! 🙂
All your photos are gorgeous! Thandai sounds delicious and I love that you incorporated it into a cookie. This cookie exchange was so fun and a perfect way to kick off the holiday season!
Thank you so much Samantha! The spice mixture is uber delicious! I seriously feel I could make it in bulk and send it to all of you haha! The cookie exchange was so much fun! Really enjoyed it !
These cookies look and sound so delicious, Amisha! Love your creative flavor combos and the beautiful sprinkle of pistachios and rose petals. You are amazing, my friend!
thank you so much for your kind words Joscelyn! You are amazing and super talented, and I love your creativity too! That smores tart?! genius!!!!
This recipe is making me nostalgic! Haven’t had thandai in years but the flavors are so memorable. Great idea! These look fantastic.
Thank you so much Jenny! Thandai has to be one of my favorite indian drinks. I am coming up with another recipe soon! Pretty excited about it :). Glad you have had a chance to taste thandai 🙂
OMG – the way you describe the thandai drink – not only do I want to try that, but I also am sooooooo hungry for these cookies! They’re so beautiful and anyone who received these in the mail is a lucky person!!
Aww thanks so much Sarah! Well, when we meet next, I will be prepared to get these cookies for sure! Thandai is one of my favorite drinks! It is seriously very delicious! 🙂