Semolina Cookies

I was feeling a lil homesick and was craving for 'Malaysian' cookies!! One of the things that i've missed most about Malaysia since being in Adelaide for the past 4 1/2 years is celebrating Malaysian festivals and eating all the lovely cookies and yummylicious food!

I can't remember the last time i celebrated Deepavali back home or Chinese New year or Hari Raya. Oh how i missed my mother's peanut cookies and jam tarts! Since i'm thousands of miles away from home, i made my mind up to make some asian cookies for a change. But the million dollar question was, What kinda cookies are easy and fast to make?? I was riffling through my favourite malaysian recipe site, cyberkuali from 'The Star Online'. It's the best site ever especially for homesick students who are yearning for Malaysian cuisines.

I was trying to remember all the palatable cookies that i've had in my life. It felt like i had pressed the rewind button on a tape player.. *hehe*. And KABOOM!!! Suddenly my thoughts stopped and focused on the cookies my best friend Ching fern and her mom had made for me once when i was vegetarian at home. Semolina cookies they were. Its called Suji biscuit among the Indians.

Semolina is used alot in Indian cooking. I was quite amazed that my dear Chinese friend uses semolina too in her cooking and made cookies out of them. Here's the recipe:

Ingredients

150g butter

80g castor sugar

3/4 tsp vanilla essence

Sifted

150g plain flour

3/4 tsp baking powder

40g ground almonds

50g semolina

1/8 tsp salt

Some castor sugar for dredging the baked cookies

Method


1.Cream butter, sugar and essence until creamy. Beat in sifted ingredients, ground almonds, semolina and salt.

2.Mix until well combined. Refrigerate mixture for 10-15 minutes if it is too soft.

3.Roll out the dough on a lightly floured tabletop. Use a cookie cutter and stamp out desired shapes or, if preferred, roll out into small balls, the size of small limes.

4.Arrange them on a lightly greased tray. Press down the small balls of dough with a fork to create an impression. Bake in preheated oven at 170°C for 15 minutes or until golden brown.

5.Place cookies on wire racks to cool before dredging in extra sugar.
For all you vegetarian readers out there, here's a recipe you should try! These cookies reminds me of butter cookies and melt in your mouth as soon as you take a bite into it!

Ps- I finally got to try out my new cookie presser! It makes cookie making sooo easy! I use to hate making cookies as they take up too much time. Guess i'll be making lots of cookies from now!