The KOLAVERI ERA and COOKIE TIME -Eggless Double Chocolate Cookies

I was wondering recently what would the world have been today without Youtube?? Would Kolaveri-di and the infamous Santhosh Pandit have seen light if it weren't for Youtube? Or how else would I have whiled away all my time during my home-maker stint? 

Those days, I was addicted and I do mean ADDICTED to watching videos of cooking shows. Infact now whenever I see those videos, I get nostalgic of our old house, the one which I had come to immediately post marriage and about all those times of my never-ending cooking experiments. Strangely miss the time I idled away doing nothing but cook,clean and ofcourse waiting for the husband to come back home post work. New house has brought new joys and new appliances but the idle time seems to have flown out of the window. Strange isn't it how that grass is always greener on the other side? :)

Drifted away too much and yes, coming back to the cooking videos; I used devour upon (metaphorically..!!) on Nigella Lawson, Sanjay Thumma's Vahrehvah, Lakshmi Nair's Magic Oven and ofcourse the ladies from Showmethecurry.com. They kept me close company during those long days and waiting periods. 

My recipe for this post comes from the collection of Showmethecurry.com. I just absolutely adore those lovely ladies and what I really admire about them are their perfect precision and clarity of the recipes. They make the toughest recipes seem so simple. I had tried out their Samosas with a chicken filling and they came out absolutely superb ( as per my toughest critic's opinion). Will post my version in the coming days..

But for now, let me present you with:

EGGLESS DOUBLE CHOCOLATE COOKIES

(closely adapted from here)

INGREDIENTS:

• Softened Butter – 10 tbsp [ I used 2T margarine+4T butter+3T ghee only because I ran out of butter and margarine at the same time !!]
• Powdered Sugar – 1/2 cup  [Pulsed my granulated sugar in my Preethi mixer :) ]
• All-Purpose Flour – 1 cup
• Unsweetened Cocoa Powder – 2 tbsp
• Baking Powder – 1 tsp
• Vanilla Extract – 1 tsp
• Chocolate Chips – 1/4 – 1/2 cup  [Used about 1/3 cup]

METHOD

• Combine the Softened Butter (Butter,margarine,ghee mixture in my case) and the powdered sugar and mix till creamy using your hand blender for less than 5 mins.
• Add in the Vanilla Extract and mix. Keep aside.
• In a separate bowl sift the dry ingredients: All-Purpose Flour, Cocoa Powder and Baking Powder and mix [which I was too lazy to do and only combined them well using my balloon whisk].
• Add the dry ingredients to the Butter mixture a little at a time, mix and incorporate well.
• Add in the Chocolate Chips the batter and mix.
• Allow the dough to chill the refrigerator for 30 minutes [I froze the first batch only for 5-10 mins as I was in a hurry to finish it off the preps].
• Pre-heat oven to 300 Degree F/150 degrees C.
• Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
• Once out of the fridge, roll out approximately lime-size cookie balls and place them about 3″ apart.
• Decorate with a Chocolate Chip on top if desired.
• Bake in the heated oven for 20 minutes or until done [Mine took about 22 minutes]. 
• Once out of the oven, allow them to cool on the cookie sheet for about 5 minutes before gobbling them down.
• Allow them to cool all the way through and store in an airtight container.

HOW WE LIKED IT?

This time around, my new victims were my colleagues. One of my close friends didn't even acknowledge the cookies and I was forced to ask him how they were. He said they they were o..k before going on to claim in my low voice that I had baked it. He was completely thrown off and assumed I had just offered him some good old store-bought cookies. So that was my biggest compliment.

I personally found it really rich and soft due to the addition of ghee. A whole different flavour as opposed to pure butter. These just melt in one's mouth. Perfect for the festive season.

Sending these cookies as an entry to Suma Rowjee's Cookie Fest..

But frankly, I actually did enjoy Kolaveri-di.. Did you ?? Also do you guys enjoy watching videos of cooking shows? If so, which ones?