Egg-free Easter Biscuits

Blogging Marathon #75
Day – 5
Name of the Bake – Easter Biscuits
Country -West country / England

I had a lot of choices for the letter E. Empire biscuits / Elephant ear cookies [Palmier] or Elisenlebkuchen. But I chose to make these Easter Biscuits!

History / Origin:

These biscuits are from West Country , England.These are the Traditional biscuits that are given as Easter gifts to guests on Easter Sunday.

The recipe uses oil of Cassia.This oil is obtained by distilling the leaves/flowers/ bark of the tree – Cinnamomum cassia. The bark is used as a flavoring in food and beverages and has a taste that resembles Cinnamon. This is also called Chinese Cinnamon.Now a days, lemon zest, nutmeg etc are used to flavor these cookies.

Black currant is used in these biscuits. I remember getting a pack of currants and keeping it somewhere safe.But till now, I cannot remember where I put it! So I added chopped cranberries to these cookies.

The recipe is similar to the cookies I made with the basic cookie dough that I posted earlier. So I made a big batch of that dough and prepared a lot of cookies! Yes, there are several versions of sugar cookies around the world, and the add ons and the flavors are what makes them different.

Step by step method to make Easter Biscuits:

I used:

Eggless Basic cookie dough– 200 grams
Dried Cranberries – 2 tablespoons, chopped
Powdered nutmeg- 1/4 teaspoon [adjust to taste]
Powdered sugar- to sprinkle on top

Take the cookies dough, powdered nutmeg, cranberry and mix to incorporate. Roll out to 1/4″ sheet and cut it with a fluted round cookie cutter.

Gently transfer the cut out cookies onto a baking tray lined with parchment paper. Gather and roll out the remaining dough. Bake in a pre heated oven at 18 degrees for 8 – 10 minutes / till the bottom is light brown.Leave it on teh baking tray for 5 minutes and transfer onto a wire rack. While the biscuits are still hot, dust them with powdered sugar.

Note:

• Use black currants if you can source them.
• The biscuits will be soft as soon as they are out of the oven.They will become crisp once cooled.

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM# 75