Eggless Strawberry Melting Moments—melt-in-your mouth sandwich cookies for the holiday season

October whirled by quickly, and can hardly believe it is November. 

Sweet, sweet November with its brisk freshness and excitement of utterly lovely things—cool nights with cozy cashmeres and warm woolen blankets, strong cups of chai in the morning, and many memorable evening with scented candles and the intoxicating fragrance of fresh roses.

Last week was filled with the magic of Eid and still-lingering memories of a lovely escape to this newly renovated resort on an artificial island to the north of Doha. Holidays enveloped in warmth and laughter, food, family, friends, and a few stolen moments watching endlessly blue waters and crashing waves, golden sunset and the enchanting beauty of the early morning sky.

Here are some photos from our Eid trip to Al Ghariya.

Inspired by the chill in the air and the festive cheer, I’ve been busy baking. I did a batch of pink buttery treats spot on time for the holidays, and immediately fell in love with their soft beauty.

Petite, pretty, pink, and showered in confectioners’ sugar, they looked so utterly fascinating, I had to immediately capture them on frame. And within minutes I was positively brimming with energy, styling and photographing them to exhaustion. See the pictures?

If you remember, I shared the recipe for melting moments last summer. It is, without doubt, one of the simplest recipes, and one of my most popular cookie recipes, tried by lovely blogger friends Reshmi, Nandita, Ginza, and my best (non-blogger) friend, Joyce. If you are new to baking this is a good place to start with.

Many of you may be familiar with this shortbread type cookie by a different name. For it is also know as yo-yo, snowball, Mexican wedding cake, Russian tea cake, butter balls, butter cookies—all with slight variations, but three basic ingredients, butter, flour and icing sugar.

This year, quite smitten with the idea of delicate pink cookies, I used strawberry flavored custard powder to make these bite-size, delicate, buttery, crumbly melt-in-your-mouth’s. Then, I sandwiched them with delicious butter cream with a touch of fragrant strawberry essence. So, so easy, and oh so photogenic. Um, don’t they look amazing?

This recipe requires just the basic cookie ingredients — fat, flour, sugar — and what’s more, it requires no eggs! Plus, there’s absolutely no puttering around in the kitchen with your arms in flour. All you need is a bowl, electric mixer, and few minutes of your time to whisk and roll. It’s even faster in the oven, takes about 12 to 15 minutes only!

The only cookie advice is to soften butter at room temperature for a minimum of 1 hour prior to creaming. Hard, cold butter will not mix properly with the sugar. You may also microwave butter for a few seconds to soften it as long as you don’t over soften — dough with over softened butter will be too thin and sticky to roll into balls. Then again, if the dough is difficult to roll, cover and chill in the fridge for 30-60 minutes before handling, or to firm it up as needed.

The basic melting moment cookie dough is like a blank canvas waiting to be painted with delightful colors, flavors, textures and shapes. Use your favorite flavorings—vanilla, lemon, passion fruit, cocoa or cardamom, or any other flavoring ingredient you fancy. Add texture with nuts. For variations in design, spoon dough into a piping bag fitted with 1cm-fluted nozzle, and pipe into star shapes.

Soon it will be time to start thinking about Christmas cookie baking, or why not whip up a batch for Diwali, or thanksgiving, that’s around the corner? And oh don’t forget to include this in your list of pink party ideas served with a shot of strawberry milk by the side—how awesome!

Now, on to the recipe.

Eggless Strawberry Melting Moments

Makes 20 filled cookies

Prep + cooking: 25 min

Ingredients

125g (4oz) unsalted butter, softened (I used Lurpak)

½ teaspoon vanilla extract (or use vanilla essence)

½ teaspoon strawberry essence

¼ cup confectioners’ sugar (icing), sifted, plus more for dusting

¾ cup plain flour (all-purpose), sifted

¼ cup strawberry custard powder, sifted (I used Foster Clark’s)

Strawberry butter cream filling

3 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

1/3 cup confectioners’ sugar (icing)

1/8 teaspoon strawberry essence

¼ teaspoon vanilla essence

Directions

Preheat oven to 160^oC/325^oF. Line baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.

Use an electric mixer to combine the butter, vanilla extract, strawberry essence and sifted confectioners’ sugar in a large bowl until pale and fluffy.

Sift together the plain flour and strawberry custard powder into a separate bowl. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture, and beat on low speed until just combined, making sure to scrape down the bowl.

Roll teaspoonfuls of dough into balls—this gives you perfect sizes for sandwiching cookies. Place on the lined tray about 1" apart—cookies will expand slightly in the oven. Use the end of a fork to press down lightly on top of each ball.

Bake in preheated oven for about 12-15 minutes or until just set, do not brown. Remove from oven and stand 5 minutes in tray before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Repeat with remaining dough. Dust with extra-sifted confectioners’ sugar before serving cookies without filling, if you like.

To make the filling, beat the butter, icing sugar, strawberry and vanilla essence in a medium bowl with an electric beater until pale and creamy. Spoon into piping bag fitted with a plain nozzle and pipe onto the base of a cookie and gently sandwich together with another. Alternatively, use a small spatula to spread the filling.

Dust the top of cookies generously with sifted confectioners’ sugar before serving. Savor with warm tea or a shot of milk.

These cookies are quite delicate, so handle with care. Unfilled cookies will keep in an airtight container layered between sheets of parchment or wax paper for upto two weeks. Filled cookies will keep for a few days in the fridge.

And before I wrap up, I’m so excited to share with you the fall/winter issue my special friend Divya’s online magazine. Ready to be swooned? Then here we go, enjoy!

{ps} thank you so much for all the love and wishes here, x