MANGO KESAR SHRIKHAND COOKIE
Diwali is around the corner, and although I am very busy with the book launch stuff, I could not let Diwali pass without making some goodies for this beautiful, most festive time of the year! I have had this cookie idea for a long time now, and I have been really excited to execute it.
Have you seen Sarah Kieffer’s Neopolitan Cookie? It is basically one dough that is divided into 3 portions. Each portion is colored and flavored in a different way. The pink dough has freeze dried strawberry powder in it, and the chocolate dough has cocoa in it. I really wanted to Indianize this cookie and have been thinking for a while.
HOW DID I COME UP WITH THIS IDEA?
I came up with an eggless Mango Shrikhand Cookie. I started to conceptualize, as to how I would put all the flavors of a Mango Shrikhand into this 4 inch cookie! I would ofcourse add freeze dried mango powder to one layer. I get my freeze dried fruits from Trader Joe’s or Target! They both have freeze dried fruits that I blitz in my high speed blender to get a fine powder, that is fantastic to flavor any baked goods.
This time I got my freeze dried mango powder from Amazon. Here is the link to the powder. I wanted to also get the yogurt, tangy flavor into the cookie. After much thought, I started looking for yogurt powder and found it on Amazon! Here is the link to the yogurt powder.
I also made an eggless cookie dough as many Indians do not eat eggs, and I thought this would be such a great cookie to pack in a box to give!
The dough is flavored with the yogurt powder, and ground cardamom, and also finely chopped pistachio, just like a normal shrikhand! The dough is divided into 3 portions. I keep the white dough portion slightly higher, as I am not adding anything to that dough.
VIDEO of the BAKED COOKIES AND HOW TO SHAPE THEM ROUND.
YELLOW DOUGH:
The yellow dough has saffron that has been steeped in milk, and a bit of additional flour, to prevent the dough from getting sticky, and a bit of color, to give it the pretty yellow hue. This is the kesar(saffron) layer. It requires a bit of mixing for the color to be consistent throughout.
ORANGE DOUGH:
The orange dough has freeze dried mango powder, a bit of milk and color in it, to ensure the same consistency as the other doughs. This is the mango layer. It requires a bit of mixing for the color to be consistent throughout.
Each dough is divided equally into 15~16 gms each. That way the cookie will be even and the 3 layers will be equal as well. I take a piece of each colored dough, make a ball, and then combine the 3 balls together to form a cohesive ball. Be gentle with the dough. You will get a peace sign as the top view. Press it gently to form a disc, roll in the granulated sugar and place it on the baking tray with parchment paper.
Do not over-bake the cookie for more than 14-15 minutes as it will not be soft otherwise.
TIP:
Test one or 2 cookies first as the oven temperature varies from home to home.
When the cookies are almost done, at around 12 minutes, I remove them and bang the tray 2-3 times to flatten the cookie a bit. I put a few slices of pistachio on the top and gently press them into the dough to adhere. The cookies are baked for 2 more minutes and then removed, and set aside to cool.
The cookies are SO SO good with some milk or just as is! They taste like mango kesar shrikhand and the texture of the cookie is beautiful too!
I hope you get a chance to make these cookies for Diwali! They do make a wonderful treat!
Some more mithai coming for you soon!
XO
MANGO KESAR SHRIKHAND COOKIE
Ingredients
- Makes 16~17 cookies
- 2 ¼ cups (270 gms) all purpose flour
- ¼ cup (40 gms) yogurt powder
- 2 tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp table salt
- 1 tsp ground cardamom(if bottled) or ½ tsp freshly ground cardamom(more potent)
- 1 cup( 2 sticks; 226 gms) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 2 tbsp (36 gms) cream cheese, at room temperature
- ¾ cup + 2 tbsp (180 gms) granulated sugar
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 3 tbsp pistachios, finely chopped
- Yellow cookie dough:
- ½ tsp whole milk
- ¼ tsp saffron
- 1 to 2 tsp all purpose flour
- 2-3 drops of Americolor yellow gel
- Orange cookie dough:
- 15 gms freeze dried mango powder
- ½ tsp whole milk
- 2 to 3 drops of Americolor orange gel
- ¼ cup (50 gms) granulated sugar for rolling
- 3 tbsp of sliced pistachios
- Cookie cut half an inch bigger than the cookie
Instructions
- In a small bowl, add the milk and saffron and set it aside.
- In a medium bowl, add the all purpose flour, yogurt powder, baking soda, cardamom and salt. Whisk to combine.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, with a paddle attachment, add butter, cream cheese and granulated sugar. Start at slow speed and gradually increase to high speed for about a minute, until light and fluffy.
- Add the vanilla extract, scrape the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula, and whisk to combine.
- Add the flour mixture in 2 portions and whisk to combine. Do not overmix.
- Add the pistachios and whisk to combine again.
- Weigh the entire dough and divide it into 3 portions. The weight will be around 770 gms. I divided it into 250/250/270 gms.
- Yellow cookie dough:
- In the 250 gms portion, add the saffron milk mixture, 1 teaspoon all purpose flour and the color and mix between the palms of your hands to combine. Add one more teaspoon of flour if the dough is wet. You can knead it gently to combine as well. You want the color to be even throughout. It will take 2 to 3 minutes for the dough to be cohesive. Set it aside.
- Orange cookie dough:
- In the 250 gms portion, add the freeze dried mango powder, milk and the color and mix between the palms of your hands to combine. You can knead it gently to combine as well. You want the color to be even throughout. It will take 2 to 3 minutes for the dough to be cohesive. Set it aside.
- Wrap the individual portions in plastic wrap and put it in the fridge for 30 minutes.
- Assembly and bake:
- Set aside 2 baking trays with parchment paper.
- Set aside a bowl with the granulated sugar.
- Set aside a bowl with the sliced pistachios.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- Remove from the fridge.
- Pinch out about 15 gms of each dough (PLEASE WEIGH to get exact cookies!). Roll each dough to form a ball.
- Combine the 3 balls and slowly roll it vertically between the palm of your hands. You want all the doughs to stick to each other. Press gently between the palm of your hands such that you can see a peace sign as the top view with 3 distinct colors.
- You want to cup the dough in one palm and rotate it with the other to form a perfect round.
- Gently press it to form about a ¾ inch disc.
- Repeat steps 6 to 9 for all the remaining dough. You should get about 16 to 17 discs in all.
- Place about 6 to 7 on a tray at a time and bake in the middle rack of the oven for a total of 14~15 minutes.
- At the 12th minute, remove and bang the tray 2 to 3 times, to get cracks on the top. Sprinkle lightly with some sliced pistachios and gently press it into the soft cookie.
- Put it back into the oven for 2 more minutes and then remove the tray from the oven. Immediately take a cookie cutter half an inch bigger than the cookie size, cup a cookie and circle it around to shape the cookie into a perfect round. Set the tray aside to cool.
- Repeat steps 11 to 13 for the remaining cookies. You can keep the cookies aside from the first tray, and use that for the remainder of the cookies left after the 2nd tray is in the oven for baking.
- Once completely cooled, store in an airtight container for upto a week.
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