More cookies!! Yes 😀 Coz it’s the season to be merry! I am going to be posting a lot of cookies before I leave for a longish vacation next weekend. I plan to take boxes of them as gifts! Hence, the cookie overload.  Please bear with me.I played around with my chocolate chip cookies recipe and baked these.

These cashew and cherry studded,bejewelled beauties make for a pretty gift. They are eggless (can be made with egg too) and super easy to put together. I haven’t tried a whole wheat version yet, but I added some oatmeal to kinda add a healthy touch. The oats did good things to the texture!

1 cup /130 grams plain flour/Maida
½ cup/50 grams oatmeal (grind the regular oats in a mixer-grinder)
½ cup /110 grams unsalted butter, at room temperature ( Skip salt if using salted butter like Amul)
1 cup brown sugar/200 grams, closely packed ( May use white sugar if brown is not available)
½ cup thick curd  at room temperature (or an egg)
1 tsp vanilla extract or essence
½  tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt (skip if using salted butter)
½ cup chocolate chips (dark/milk/milk chocolate or a mixture of all three)
½ cup cashwes
½ cup glace/candied cherries, chopped into halves

In a small bowl, sift together flour, baking soda and salt.
In a large bowl, beat butter till creamy. Add the sugar and beat till soft and fluffy.
Add the yogurt (or egg, if using) and vanilla and beat till all is homogenous.
Add the flour mix to the wet ingredients and fold in gently.
Add the chocolate chips and mix till they are evenly distributed into the dough.
Cover the dough with cling film or slightly greased aluminium foil and refrigerate for an hour.
Preheat the oven to 180C and line or grease a baking tray.
Taking 1 tbsp of dough at a time (you may use an ice cream scoop) make small balls and flatten them to discs. Stick cashews and cherries on the cookies.
Lay them on the baking tray 2 inches apart.
Bake for  11-14 minutes till the chocolate melts.  Watch for the bottoms of the cookies changing colour. As soon as the bottoms just begin to brown, remove and cool on the tray for 5 minutes. Gently move them to a wire rack and let cool completely. They stay good for a week in an airtight box.