Crown cookies

The first sweet cookie recipe for this mega marathon is the Crown Cookies. The other options that I had for 'C" are either starting with Chocolate or starting with Christmas. Somehow I was not inclined towards both of them. Needless to say I picked the recipe from Gayathri's and didn't do any other research. Just followed her instructions.

Since I decided on joining the mega marathon quite late, the problem for me is that I cannot fail in any recipe. I most probably have only one chance to make the recipe and the outcome should be perfect or atleast near perfect. This recipe seemed bit difficult. So I read and re-read it until I kind of by-hearted the steps. And was very careful. But when the dates filling didn't look like the one shown in Gayathri's pics, I was really scared. Mine was quite thick and gayathri had filled it in a piping bag. Still I went ahead and placed the filling with the help of spoon and hand. The cookies came out ok. I was not very satisfied but as I said I didn't have time to repeat the recipe. Basically I felt the cookies were too big. I should have tried to make them smaller.

The taste of the cookies was awesome - actually not too sweet. Don't miss to dust with icing sugar in the end. Without that the cookies will taste quite blunt. This cookie takes quite some time to be prepared but worth the effort.

Recipe Source: gayathriscookspot
Country - Lebanon

Ingredients:

For The Dough:

Semolina/ Sooji- 1 1/2 cups
Butter-1/2 cup, melted
Water-5 tbs
Rose Essence-1/2 tsp
Icing sugar - 100 gm

For The Filling:

Dates-200 gm
Butter-2 tbs

Method:

• In a bowl mix together semolina and butter.
• In another bowl mix water and rose essence.
• Add this to semolina and mix.
• Transfer to a ziplock bag and chill it overnight. I actually chilled it for one whole day due to lack of time.
• The next day, bring it down to room temperature and process it in a food processor or a mixer.
• Add little by little water like 1 tbsp at a time, to moisten the dough. When the dough comes together transfer to a bowl and keep it covered. I had to use around 4-5 tbsp.
• Remove seeds from dates and add 1/4 cup of water. I had bought seedless dates from shop.
• Cover and cook until there is no water left.
• With a blender make it into a fine paste.
• Heat a pan and add butter. Add this dates paste and cook until thick. Allow it to cool. 
• Now divide the dough into 6 equal portions.
• Roll a portion into a thin log, place the log between two butter papers and roll into a thin ribbon.
• Carefully place the filling in the centre like a thin pipe.
• Now bring both the sides of the dough and seal until it becomes a rope.
• Cut it into two equal portions. Shape each rope into a circle and seal edges.
• Arrange on a baking tray.
• Bake in a 180°C preheated oven for 20 minutes.
• Cool on wire rack. Dust with icing sugar and serve or store in airtight jar.

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