Just before Christmas, pastry chef and owner of Le15 Patisserie, Pooja Dhingra, launched a baking book for kids, titled Little Book of Cookies. It has 24 eggless cookie recipes that are easy and fun for kids to recreate.
Dhingra’s baking journey began at the age of 6. With this book, she intends to infuse young readers with the same joy she experienced as a young baker. The dream for writing a baking book for children was seeded when she, as a curious child baker, got her first cookbook for kids by Tarla Dalal. The dream took shape when she started to spend a lot of time with nieces, nephews and children of close friends in the recent past.
“Working on a recipe book for children, with an eager bunch of them involved, has been an inspiring journey. I have learnt so much about them, too, and I hope that the spirit of fun and joy is evident in this book," she shares in a press note. Here’s a recipe for banana bread cookies with chocolate chips excerpted from the book:
Banana Bread Cookies
Makes 15-20 Cookies
Ingredients
1 cup flour
Half cup bananas, mashed
One-third cup softened butter
One-third cup brown sugar
One-third cup dark chocolate chips
Half tsp baking powder
One-fourth tsp vanilla essence
One-fourth tsp cinnamon powder
A pinch of salt
Method
1. Preheat the oven to 165 C.
2. In a medium sized bowl, cream the butter, sugar, and vanilla essence for 2 to 3 minutes, until soft and fluffy. Add the mashed bananas and mix well.
3. In a separate bowl, dry whisk flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon powder together.
4. Add the dry ingredients to the butter and banana mixture and combine gently to from a dough. Fold in chocolate chips, using a spatula or with your hands.
5. Line a baking tray with parchment paper or foil.
6. Measure out tablespoon-sized balls of dough, and place on the lined tray.
7. Bake at 165C for 15 to 16 minutes.
Also read | Shivesh Bhatia’s special cookbook for young bakers
