AMAZING MAIZE & CORNY COOKIES
It’s nice to experiment with different grains, & coincidentally found a post on different grains at Food Blogga @ Susans‘…‘How Many Whole Grains Can You Name? Hmmm…test your knowledge there; I was surprised to hear of so many whole grains! A little about corn…the word “polenta“ can be used to refer to the ground cornmeal itself, or to a prepared dish after boiling cornmeal with water. Corn is a good source of vitamin B1, vitamin B5, folate, dietary fiber, vitamin C, phosphorous and manganese.
I’ve adapted these cookies from The Great Big Cookie Book…a book that keeps me endlessly entertained . The original cookie is the ‘Sultana Cornmeal Cookie’…little yellow biscuits from the Veneto region of Italy. I didn’t used sultanas coz the boy won’t touch them anymore…so I substituted them with pistachios. Made a nice chunky cookie with a crunch to it! I didn’t have Marsala, so used vanilla extract instead. Go ahead & use Marsala…am sure they’ll taste wonderful! Made some nice biscotti with cornmeal too, but will post that another day…
Chunky Cornmeal Pistachio Cookies, adapted from The Great Big Cookie Book, pg 86
Ingredients:
Finely ground yellow cornmeal – 1/2 cup
Plain flour – 3/4 cups
Baking Powder – 1 tsp
Pinch of salt
Butter – 1/2 cup
Granulated sugar – 1/2 cup
Eggs – 1
Vanilla extract – 1 tsp (or Marsala – 1 tsp)
Pistachio nuts – 1/2 cup; roughly chopped
Method:
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Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C. Grease 2 baking sheets.
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Sift the cornmeal + flour + baking powder + salt. Set aside.
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Cream the butter & sugar; beat in the egg, followed by the extract/Marsala.
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Add the dry ingredients & pistachio nuts & stir until well blended.
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Drop heaped teaspoonfuls & bake 12-15 minutes till cookies are light golden.
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Cool on racks. The cookies will continue to harden as they cool.
My almost ‘poifect‘ Macaroons a la espresso
Looks can be deceptive. Take a look at my almost perfect macaroons, no cracks & beautiful from above. But somethings missing…. 
This brings me on to my great disaster…which was my ‘Blueberries on the ceiling’ type of a moment for me. Having seen some great macaroons @ Cherrapeno & macarons @ Homemades, I naively got tempted into making these frightening things. The beginning was great & I was very impressed at the perfect creatures that I piped out. Left them to dry for an hour as the recipe suggested….looks good eh? What do you say?
So far, so good…
Popped them into the oven to bake & went off to do a chore for a couple of minutes & heard a shriek from the son, ‘There’s something alive in the oven…& it’s bubbling!!”. Almost had a heart-attack, but raced with macaroon-like poise to see all the cookie batter bubbling away merrily, in an ocean like gooey slime in a witches cauldron, & little macaroon caps floating on top. I was too shocked to take pictures then, but did manage to salvage all the airy (literally full of air) tops! Take a look…
Disaster. What lay beneath my very airy macaroons…just air!!
Can’t imagine what happened coz I followed the recipe to the t. Any clues anybody??? My only regret was the waste of precious almonds & my dreams of an opera macaroon floating away. The kids were too happy to oblige & quickly devoured the light left-overs. To make something out of nothing, am gonna send this off to Food Nerd who is graciously holding an appropriate event...“Blueberries on the Ceiling” is your chance to write about your most disastrous (and hopefully hilarious) kitchen mishap.
Deeba @ PAB
About me: I am a freelance food writer, recipe developer and photographer. Food is my passion - baking, cooking, developing recipes, making recipes healthier, using fresh seasonal produce and local products, keeping a check on my carbon footprint and being a responsible foodie! I enjoy food styling, food photography, recipe development and product reviews. I express this through my food photographs which I style and the recipes I blog. My strength lies in 'Doing Food From Scratch'; it must taste as good as it looks, and be healthy too. Baking in India, often my biggest challenge is the non-availability of baking ingredients, and this has now become a platform to get creative on. I enjoy cooking immensely as well.
12 Comments
Cynthia
You are lucky to have such fresh ingredients to bake with.
Astra Libris
Such a wonderful story! I love hearing about mishaps, ’cause they do happen to us all – and they make for wonderful tales! 🙂
Your cornmeal cookies look positively heavenly… I adore cornmeal, and love the idea of using it in cookies!
mimi
oh no, look at those caps! they still look like they probably tasted yummy though, so hope you still were able to use them!
Manggy
Ooh yum, corn cookies! I wonder if they taste like corn muffins. I love those things.
I’m not at all experienced in macaroon making but it sounds like it was underwhipped or the ingredient proportions, particularly the sugar, were not right.
Asha
lacy on the bottom, looks wonderful!:)
Native Americans use corn often in their cooking.
pearlsandchocolate.com
These cookies look great! I can’t wait to try them!!!
Susan from Food Blogga
Oh, my gosh, Deeba cornmeal and pistachio cookies sound fantastic! And you know how much I love my corn in all of its forms. 🙂 Thanks for the link, my dear! Sorry, I don’t have any suggestions about the macaroons.
familiabencomo
Sorry about the macaroons…. Not a clue what happened, however I’m glad to hear that I’m not the only with a mishap every now & then. Your cornmeal pistachio cookies looks oh-so-yummy! Why do you torture me like this? You know what these cookies would taste good with? Mango ice cream! Can you believe we still have plenty left?!?! Your recipe makes such a generous amount. I’m already plotting out when to make it again. However, this time I’m going to have the cookies ready. Thanks for the great recipe.
Tanti baci, my friend,
Amy
Rosie
Cornmeal Pistachio Cookies – oh my goodness Deeba they look so good!! Gosh sorry about your macaroons i’m not sure what happened here either!!
Rosie x
Anitha
Truly said, Homemade cookies are always yummy 🙂
Those cookies turned out wonderful.
Anitha
SMN
never tasted this cookie luks so yummy deeba..
nicisme
Oh no!! I’m trying hard not to laugh about the macarons, but I really can’t help it – the thought of your son is cracking me up! At least you tried them, and I bet they didn’t taste like a disaster!
I’ve had so many kitchen disasters I could write a book!
Now, those little pistachio cookies look like the business to me! Very yumilicious!