Valentine Vanilla Cookies | Basic Vanilla Cookie Dough

February is such a lovely month for me..not only that Valentines Day is round the corner..but its our marriage month too :) I still remember those lovely Feb days 2 years ago..busy in shopping..chatting over phone with sleepless nights..but still feeling fresh in the mornings..altogether it was so tired..lovely and a happy month..We are going to celebrate two years of our happy togetherness this Feb 13th..:)Thanks a lot to my dear daddy aka hubby for encouraging and supporting me in all aspects including professional and personal front..Without him I would not have been able to concentrate on career..without him I would not have been able to balance my interests over career..blogging..photography..writing..and to say every interest of mine..I still remember those deadly tired and late working nights where he extended his helping hands not only in cooking some simple meals but also fed me with lots of love and patience..like a mother...!!

I somehow felt to bake something sweet to celebrate my happiness and since its a valentine month decided to make it LOVEly..and here you go..the sweet and simple valentine vanilla cookies..I totally enjoyed baking these..took a day off and had my own day recollecting all those sweet memories..Marriage is really a delicate flower vase..!!the more you handle with care the more its shininess:)

Lets dig  into the recipe for  vanilla cookies now..I will explain you the process for basic cookie dough in this post which will be a bse for so many different tasty cookies..You can use the same recipe..

Takes 1 hour, Makes 20-25 cookies

INGREDIENTS:

1. All Purpose Flour - 1 Cup
2. Powdered Sugar - 1/2 Cup
3. Vanilla Essence - 2 tbsp
4. Egg - 1
5. Baking powder - 1 tbsp
6. Butter - 90 gms

METHOD:

Line up all your ingredients.Take butter,vanilla and sugar into a mixing bowl.Using and electric beater beat till pale and fluffy which takes 5 to 8 minutes.If using hand it requires at least 15 minutes to mix it properly.Crack an egg into the mixture and start beating again on medium speed for 5 more minutes.

You can see the texture in the below picture.By now the mixture will become little bit runny.Add flour and baking powder to the butter and start mixing with a spatula or a spoon.Beat again for 5 more minute until the dough becomes smooth and fluffy.Then remove the beater and start kneading the dough with your hands.If you feel the dough becomes dry add few drops of milk and knead it to smooth dough.If its sticky add little flour and powdered sugar.

Refrigeration the dough for at least 10 minutes so that it becomes firm and handy while rolling.Sprinkle some flour on your clean kitchen platform.knead it once more and start rolling into a flat sheet like seen below.I would like to make my cookies a bit skinny so you roll the sheet into desired thickness.Using your fav cookie cutter start making the cookies.

So cute shapes isn't it :)Line up a baking tray with silver foil or baking paper.Arrange the cookies with minimum gaps in between.They don't expand much so you don't need to leave much space in between.While you start rolling the dough preheat your oven to 150 degrees C(10 minutes).Bake them for at least 20 min by checking in between.Each oven behaves differently.My batch took a good amount of 30 min.Trick is to keep the temperature low and bake for more time as the color should remain whitish.

Now all baked into beautiful shapes.Allow them to cool on a wire rack.they turned out so crispy and melting in the mouth.Remember not to keep the temperature more than 150 degrees.

Super melting vanilla cookies are ready!!

NOTES :

• Once you take out the dough from fridge knead the dough well to make it smooth.Kneading helps the cookies to give them an even and uniform surface.
• Melt some cooking chocolate and mix while kneading the dough to make chocolate cookies.
• Adjust milk if dough looks dry and add flour and powdered sugar if it turns out sticky.
• I made the cookies with salted butter so didn't add any salt.If using unsalted butter add a pinch of salt too.
• However using of unsalted butter gives a better taste to the cookies.

Hope you have totally enjoyed reading this post.I wish you all a very lovely February month <3!!