Between many ideas on what to make for Valentine’s Day, I’ve chosen a few, and these Toasted Milk Powder Cookies come first on that list. Crisp and delightfully aromatic with an added flavour from the toasted milk powder, they’re easy to make and beginner-friendly. So, anyone can make them. You can totally dunk the cookies in milk to eat or enjoy them over the cuppas with your loved one. 🙂
Toasted milk powder has been there for some time now, but it was not seen much as an ingredient in recipes. I came to know about this from an Instagram post, and I’m telling you that this one ingredient has a lot of potential. Depending on your imagination, the toasted milk powder can be used in many desserts and baked items. The flavour of concentrated milk increases during the toasting of skimmed milk powder, it caramelizes lightly but remains in its powdered form, and the rich, nutty flavour is a gem of a thing.
Stovetop method of toasting milk powder
Use only unsweetened skimmed milk powder for toasting. The toasting can be done over the stovetop or in the OTG. The stovetop method is faster, for the oven method, you may check this post.
You’d need a nonstick frying pan and silicone spatula for toasting the milk powder. A silicone spatula tip bents easily, so it helps to quickly break the soft milk powder lumps that form during the toasting.
For stovetop toasting, start with ½ cup of milk powder, don’t increase the volume at first because it gets toasted quickly, if not handled well, a larger volume of milk powder might not get toasted uniformly.
Over low heat, start toasting the milk powder, stirring constantly, and continue to break the soft lumps that form at this stage. Toast this for 10 minutes, and you’ll see how the colour changes from ivory to golden, at the end the toasted milk powder will look like Gram flour (besan). Remove the frying pan after 10 minutes from the stovetop, and place it on the kitchen counter, continue with the stirring for the next 1 minute. Next, leave the toasted milk powder in the pan to be cooled at room temperature. Store the cooled milk powder in an airtight container and keep refrigerated, use it as required.
Toasted Milk Powder Cookies
Eggless Toasted Milk Powder Cookies that are delightfully aromatic with an added flavour from the toasted milk powder. They’re easy to make and beginner-friendly.
Ingredients
- ¼ cup / 48g- Unsalted Butter
- ¼ cup / 33g- Caster Sugar or White powdered sugar
- 2 tbsp / 14g- Toasted milk powder
- ½ cup / 63g- All-purpose flour / Maida
- A pinch of salt
Instructions
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Before I started, all the ingredients were at room temperature.
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Line a baking tray with butter/parchment paper.
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Mix all-purpose flour and salt in a bowl, keep aside.
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Cream the butter and sugar in another bowl, do this with a spatula, or use your fingers.
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Add the toasted milk powder to the butter mixture in two batches, and mix well.
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Next, add the flour mixture to this and start mixing the cookie dough by using your fingers. The dough might appear crumbly at this stage, but by pressing gently, you’ll be able to shape the dough as a log.
Make the Cookies
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Preheat the oven at 180 degrees C.
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You can make the cookies immediately from the dough if you’re using a mould the way I did, or if using a cookie cutter, or if shaping them between your palms.
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The other way of making the cookies is chilling the dough in the refrigerator for 1 hour, cutting the log into ⅛” thick slices with a sharp knife, and arranging them in the prepared tray by giving a 1” gap between them.
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Coming back to the mould or cookie cutter, these are two different tools for giving shape to the cookies.
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I used a silicone mould for my cookies. I didn’t chill the dough for this step. I took some portion from the dough, put it in the mould, pressed it, and then released the cookie and arranged them in the pre-lined tray.
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It’s a shortbread cookie dough, so the dough might appear crumbly during the shaping, but the cookies come out beautiful after baking. If using any regular cookie cutter, cut a small square (2.5” X 2.5”) from the baking paper sheet, place the cookie cutter over the paper, with one hand hold the cutter so that it stays on the paper, take some portion from the cookie dough and place it inside the cutter, shape through the inside edges of the cutter, and smooth the top with your fingers, the cookies shouldn’t be thicker than ⅛” by depth. Lift the cookie cutter gently. Then, lift the paper carefully and release the shaped cookie upside-down on the pre-lined tray.
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The simplest way of making the cookies is to take some portions from the dough, make walnut-sized balls, press them gently between your palms, and arrange them in the pre-lined tray.
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Bake for 10 minutes or until the bottom edges of the cookies start to appear brown in colour.
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Due to the toasted milk powder in the cookies, they tend to get brown quickly. So, keep an eye and don't overbake them.
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The cookies will be soft after baking, but they will be hardened after cooling, so don't worry about that. Let the cookies cool down for 4-5 minutes on the baking tray itself, and then shift them onto a cooling rack and leave there until they cool completely.
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Store the cookies in an airtight container. Consume within 10-12 days.
Recipe Notes
In my recipes, I use 225 ml cups. 1 cup = 225ml.
