Sankranti Cookies

I have just learnt that I have to work tomorrow, on Sankranti. Sniff! :'( The thought of loosing any holiday to work is sad enough to have it happen close to a weekend is just unfair!

Faced with such a grim weekend, there was only one thing to do - Bake. Keeping in mind the festival I thought Id bake Sesame Cookies. And it had to be egg-less because of my aversion to eggs and because its a festival day.

I tried my best and came up with no eggless sesame cookies that was good enough for the lazy baker. I did however find this nice blog and this recipe which I modified.

Refer to the original site for the recipe.

My modifications:
1. I halved the quantity and made 11 cookies.
2. Substituted crushed almond skinless for cashews ( I roughly crushed around 10 cashews in a mortar and pestle - skinning almonds is just too much work)
3. I added 4 table spoons of fresh grated coconut ( which I took straight from the freezer - no time to thaw )
4. I added a few drops of vanilla essence
5. After flattening the cookie ball I dipped them in white sesame seeds to cover and placed in oven.

I baked on butter paper. Done in a jiffy and with no mess too.

Results: Crisp cookie ( soft when out of the oven, leave to cool and harden ). Sweetness is just right. I think i could have added more cashews. A kind of good-day biscuit like taste. :)
Out of the 11, there are only 3 left at the time of posting this blog - i think that speaks for itself.

Wikipedia informs us that in Karnataka it is called 'Yellu-Bella'. Yellu means 'til' or Sesame seeds and 'Bella' is Jaggery. Traditionally a mixture of sesame seeds, jaggery, coconut and groundnuts are distributed to relatives and friends. ( This cookie covers everything expect the peanuts - jaggery is basically from the same stuff as sugar - not bad no ? )

There is a saying in Kannada "Yellu bella thindu olle maathadi" which means 'Eat the mixture of sesame seeds and jaggery and speak only good'.

Happy Sankranti to you all.