Oriental Spiced Cookies With Sprig Gourmet’s Malacca Spice Blend

I love the very interesting range of gourmet food products that Sprig offers. From their Mango Jalapeno Sauce and Passion Fruit Malagueta Sauce to their Natural Lavender Extract, from their Salted Caramel Sauce and Dulce De Leche to their Coconut Palm Sugar, Rosemary And Lavender-Infused Sea Salt, Six Pepper Medley and Nam Prik Pao, every product has piqued my curiosity and made me long to work with it. I am sure every foodie – irrespective of whether it is a home cook or a food blogger or a hotelier – would want to try out these gourmet products, try to create something fun using them.

I recently got my hands on one of the spice blends from the range offered by Sprig, an Oriental spice called Malacca. It is a mix of herbs and spices that are reminiscent of the Orient or South-East Asia, and can be used to jazz up a variety of dishes. I decided to use it in some Oriental Spiced Cookies, as opposed to noodles or fried rice or salads that first came to mind. The result thrilled me, totally. The Malacca has a lovely, mysterious fragrance to it, and the cookies turned out so very beautiful, gently spiced with the same hint of the exotic to them.

I used this recipe as the base, making one or two variations of my own.

Here’s how I made the Oriental spiced cookies.

Ingredients (yields 12-15 cookies):

1. Whole wheat flour – 1-3/4 cups
2. A pinch of salt
3. Powdered sugar – 1 cup
4. Unsalted butter – 1 cup
5. Almonds – 10-12, chopped
6. Chia seeds – 1/4 cup
7. Milk (boiled and cooled) – 1 tablespoon
8. Sprig Malacca Spice Mix – 1 tablespoon

Method:

1. Cream the butter and sugar together until light. Keep aside.
2. In a large mixing bowl, mix together the whole wheat flour, chia seeds, salt and chopped almonds.
3. Add the milk to the butter to make it a little runny, and add this to the mixing bowl too.
4. Meanwhile, gently mix together all the ingredients in the mixing bowl to form cookie dough.
5. Set the dough for about an hour in the refrigerator, covered.
6. After an hour, get the dough out of the refrigerator. Preheat oven at 200 degrees for 10 minutes.
7. Meanwhile, grease and flour a baking tray. Form cookies out of the dough and place them on the greased and floured baking tray, evenly.
8. Set the baking tray in the oven. Bake at about 180 degrees for 10-12 minutes or until the cookies turn slightly brown and crisp.
9. Let the cookies cool down completely before transferring them to an air-tight container.

Notes:

1. Maida can be used in place of whole wheat flour. I used whole wheat flour for the sake of health.
2. I used the same amount of butter that the original recipe suggested, but I could have used less. I think the Oriental spiced cookies would still have tasted awesome with a little less butter, so I might be doing that the next time.
3. The chia seeds add a nice crunch to the cookies, and go well with the oriental spiced taste. That said, they can be completely omitted if you don’t have any.
4. This is not a sponsored post. I write this simply because I am very interested in the whole range of gourmet ingredients that Sprig has to offer.

You like? I hope you will try out these Oriental spiced cookies too, and that you will love them as much as we did!