This month Food of the World is in Samoa, a country in the South Pacific Ocean. I made masi samoa, Samoan coconut shortbread cookies. Coconut milk is used extensively in Samoan cuisine and the magic ingredient in these cookies is coconut milk. From what I read about these cookies, these are very popular in Samoa and we for one were not sure if we liked or disliked the cookies. Though we could not decide on the liking of the cookies, we did finish all the cookies in a day. I had kept aside a few cookies to take pictures next day but then changed my mind took the pictures in the night itself, in case I did not have any remaining to take photos in natural light.

These cookies are also my day 5 entry for this month’s bake-a-thon. In fact I chose this recipe as I can use it for both the events; bake-a-thon and food of the World.

Source: here
Total Time: 35 – 40 minutes
Preparation: 10 – 15 minutes
Bake Time: 25 minutes
Yields: 45 – 48 cookies (1 ½” squares)

Ingredients:

• 4 ½ tbsp. Butter
• 1/3 cup Granulated Sugar
• 1 Large Egg
• 100 ml or 1/3 – ½ cup Coconut Milk
• ½ tsp. Vanilla Extract
• 2 cup All-Purpose Flour
• ½ tbsp. or 1 ½ tsp. Baking Powder
• Dash of Salt

Preparation:

• Preheat the oven to 350 F. Line a baking sheet with parchment or baking sheet.
• In a bowl mix together flour, baking powder and salt with a spoon and keep aside.
• Beat together butter and sugar until soft and creamy.
• Add egg and mix well until incorporated.
• Add coconut milk, vanilla essence and mix well.
• Add flour and mix until wet and dry ingredients are mixed and soft dough is formed. I used my hand held mixer until this step. One can use a whisk or a wooden spoon also.
• The dough will be sticky and might not form a nice dough with hand held mixture. Lightly flour a board or countertop and knead the dough. It will be sticky and may need to add a little flour. Do not add too much flour. Knead for few minutes to form a soft dough.
• Divide the dough into two balls, lightly sprinkle flour on the rolling surface and roll the dough into ¼” thick square or a circle.
• Cut the rolled dough into 1 ½” squares and transfer to the squares to a lined baking sheet. Roll the other ball and repeat the same. Gather all the scrapes and roll it again and cut it into squares. It is easy to cut the squares with a pizza cutter than with a knife. If using a knife, dip it in flour to stop the dough from sticking to knife.
• Bake in pre-heated oven for 22 – 25 minutes until golden brown. The squares when cooled should be hard and not soft. Squares will not expand in size/width when baking but will increase in height and rise when baking.
• Transfer squares to a cooling rack and cool completely. Store cooled cookies in an air tight container.

This day in 2013: Vegetable Pulao in Pressure Cooker

Events: This goes to Bake Fest #38, an even initiated by Vardhini. This is also my today’s post for Bake-a-thon 2014 and this month’s Food of the World.

Here is the Bake-a-thon linky

Please add your Samoan recipes to the linky below and visit my co-host to see what they are cooking.

Please visit the co-host blogs and follow their sites!

Diane: http://www.simplelivingeating.com
Adelina: http://www.homemaidsimple.com
Shey: http://justnotthecakes.blogspot.com
Lisa: http://cookingwithcurls.com
Mireille: http://www.eastwestrealm.com
Pavani: http://www.cookshideout.com/