Eggless Strawberry Nutella Thumbprint Cookies - Home Baker's Challenge # 3

Hey Friends.. I'm back after a month of blogging break.. My Father-in-law passed away on the 9^th of last month.. Just before the arrival of the auspicious month of Ramadan.. May Almighty bless his soul and grant him Jannah…

Last month's challenge for Home Bakers Challenge was announced by Viji of Viruntha Unna Vaanga . She chose cookies for this month's challenge with two choices – Eggless Strawberry Nutella Thumbprint Cookies, Peanut Butter Cookies, Pinwheel cookies and Shortbread sandwich cookies. Out of these, I chose to bake the Strawberry Nutella thumbprint cookies. It was a huge hit with the kids. I’m really sorry for the late post dear but I didn't want to miss this post. Hence posting it now.

Ingredients:-

• 1½ cups all-purpose flour
• 7 tbsp sugar
• 4 tbsp unsalted butter (room temperature)
• 3 tbsp strawberry crush
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• ½ tsp baking powder
• a pinch of salt
• nutella for filling 

Method:-

• Sift the flour, salt and baking powder together in a mixing bowl. Set aside.
• In another bowl, cream the softened butter and sugar using a hand whisk or electric blender for about 4 minutes.
• Add the vanilla essence and strawberry crush to the bowl and combine well with the butter mixture using a whisk.  
• Fold in the flour mixture with the butter mixture gently to form dough. The dough will be soft and a little sticky but not loose. Do not over mix. You might need to oil your hands and bring the dough together. 
• Once combined, cover the dough with plastic cling film and refrigerate for ½-1 hour.   
• Preheat the oven to 350 F/175 C. 
• Line your cookie sheet with a parchment paper. 
• Take out the refrigerated dough, lightly oil your palms and make small balls with it. (You can use 1 Tbsp or ice cream scoop for even measurement). Put the balls on the cookies sheet and press down slightly to flatten out.  
• With the help of your thumb or back of a tea-spoon make a small hole in the middle of the cookies where you’ll fill the nutella after baking.   
•  Bake the cookies in the oven for about 8-12 minutes or until the bottom starts turning brown. Do not bake them beyond 12 minutes. These will continue to cook after you take them out of the oven.
• Take out the cookie sheet from the oven and using the teaspoon again press out the hole in the cookies. You will not able to do this after the cookies have cooled. 
•  Once cookies have cooled, fill in the nutella in the little holes in the cookies.    

Notes:-

• You may replace the nutella with your choice of filling like melted jam or melted chocó chips. 
• Do refrigerate the dough to work easily.  
• Every oven is different, hence the time of baking may vary from appliance to appliance.

Happy Baking!!

Sending this entry to :- Birthday Special Event