Chocolate Cookies

 The word biscuit literally means “twice cooked”; originally they were baked first and then left to dry out in a slow oven. A cookie is a small flat-baked treat, usually containing fat, flour, eggs, and sugar. In most English speaking countries the most common word for this is biscuit. A general theory of cookies may be formulated this way. Despite its descent from cakes and other sweetened breads, the cookie in almost all its forms has abandoned water as a medium for cohesion. In the cookie, the agent of cohesion has become some form of oil. Oils, whether they be in the form of butter, egg yolks, vegetable oils or lard are much more viscous than water and evaporate freely at a much higher temperature than water.

In America, a cookie is described as a thin, sweet, usually small cake. By definition, a cookie can be any of a variety of hand-held, flour-based sweet cakes, either crisp or soft. Each country has its own word for "cookie." What we know as cookies are called biscuits in England and Australia, in Spain they're galletas, Germans call them keks or Plätzchen for Christmas cookies, and in Italy there are several names to identify various forms of cookies including amaretti and biscotti, and so on. The name cookie is derived from the Dutch word koekje, meaning "small or little cake." Biscuit comes from the Latin word bis coctum, which means, “twice baked.” According to culinary historians, the first historic record of cookies was their use as test cakes. A small amount of cake batter was baked to test the oven temperature.

Chocolate cookies is one of my biggest weakness. It has a crunchy texture and it can be made in a jiffy as I always use an egg beater for the creaming part.

How I make cookies:

Dalda or any vegetable fat: ½ cup.

Flour/Maida: 1 cup.

Baking powder: ¼ tsp.

Sugar: ½ cup (powder it).

Cocoa powder: 3 tbsp.

Egg: 1

Chopped nuts: ¼ cup.

Salt: ¼ tsp.

Method:

• 1.     Beat dalda and powdered sugar with an egg beater. When it is mixed well. Add Cocoa powder and 1 egg; mix well.
• 2.     Now add the flour sifted with baking powder and salt. Mix well with hand into a neat dough. Put in the chopped nuts and mix well.
• 3.     Roll into small lemon sized balls and flatten with your palm and arrange it on a greased tray.
• 4.     Bake for 20 minutes in a preheated oven. Cool on a wire rack. This recipe gives me about 20-22 cookies.

Information source: Wikipedia.