This is a print preview of "Orange Shortbread Cookies | Egg free / Dairy free" recipe.

Orange Shortbread Cookies | Egg free / Dairy free Recipe
by Radhika

I did tell you that I had an over load of oranges that were waiting to be used up soon in the Orange Cake post. Didn’t I ? As we all share a unanimous love for citrus bakes at home this is the next thing that I baked. The fragrance of the oranges and the zest in every bite was so refreshing that made my tea time a bliss. Earlier I made this 2 months ago when Brother-in law came to our place for the treatment but back then this was not a vegan one and also I did not have the time to take snaps.

This time though I wanted to see if the same recipe could be baked dairy free and Bingo the taste was same and I could not find any fault with the texture too. This cookie recipe can be adapted so easily and is a definite keeper. You can convert the recipe into a lemon cookie by replacing the oranges with lemons.

As the Instant Almond drink mix itself has sugar in it I have used only 3/4 cup of sugar but if you are using almond meal increase the sugar to 1 cup. I baked the cookies in 2 batches and took the first batch out at the 8th minute as both myself and the little one prefer a chewy cookie. The next batch was baked to its full time which turned out a little crisp around the edges.

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven at 180 Degrees Celsius.

2. Sieve together all purpose flour, baking powder. To this add the instant almond drink mix (Badam Drink Mix) or almond meal and keep aside.

3. Cream together Vanaspati / Vegetable shortening and powdered sugar till smooth. It took me 5-7 minutes.

4. To this add the sieved dry ingredients, orange zest and mix with your finger tips. It will be crumbly now. Add Orange juice by 1 tsp at a time and bring everything together into a smooth dough. Do not knead.

5. Now make small balls and flatten them between your palms.

7. Place the tray in the pre heated oven and bake for 15 minutes if you want a crisp cookie, else for 10 minutes if you prefer the cookie with a chewy gooey center.

8. Let it cool for 10 minutes outside the oven and store in an airtight container.

Notes:

You can use butter or vegetable oil instead of vegetable shortening.

If you do not like the orange flavor leave out the zest and use vanilla essence and instead of orange juice use milk.

Use only required amount of orange juice.

You can also use replace half the all purpose flour with whole wheat flour.