Kiddos! – White chocolate apricot shortbread

// 66 Comments
Months after I stepped to Finland in 2005, I got to know three wonderful Finnish family who have adopted three Indian baby girls, two from south  India and one from north. To connect with these family has been a blessing for me, have seen them growing for past five years. First time when I met one of those babies, her parents ran to me asking if was from south of India and could I speak in Tamil? Initially she used to very well understand Tamil and smiled when I spoke with her that’s when we started to connect later I got to know two other families. These days they hardly remember any Indian languages, but speak perfect Finnish!

I meet them now and then since not only I get chance to be with three lil girls but also with other blue eyed cute Finnish boys, families own kids. Most of the time, I hear their stories, though I don’t understand, play toys or just run up and down! My evening with them are so relaxing and enjoyable. Last summer (yes pretty old  recipe I say which was resting in hard disk, had to come out finally) for a evening with one of those kids, made apricot white chocolate shortbread, thinking she would like it. I was wrong!
                                              
As always we went around up and down, they had two fat cats, am not cat person they freak me out, knowing that she made sure cats sits on me and I was literally running from her, letting her to laugh loud and her mum saying stop!! 

Then came cookie time, the moment she saw my cookies, she asked “Mita…?” (what is ….)  followed by “Ei…” ” No….” all that was running in my mind was “Oh Ananda, you failed to impress a little girl, go jump into the lake”. Beside my shortbread, there was yum strawberry fresh cream cake glowing, no wonder she hardly had a look at my shortbread. Even-though her mum tried to convince her she didn’t bother much as she was licking clean her mum’s cake. I wasn’t sad but was smiling all the way and enjoying the cake aswell, but others were happy with my creations.
Later she was in the mission to teach me some Finnish, after hearing my poor Finnish pronunciation. We sat down and were learning, slowly her mum came and said in ears she is teaching you bad words. I was again thinking, 5 yrs in Finland, my knowledge level in this area is less than 5 yrs kids, jump again into lake. Oh don’t worry guys, I’m living city of lake!
End of day, I came back home, with some cartoon tattoos and stamps on my wrist, some flowers which she picked and some gifts from their trip to India, wonderful evening it was. Another lesson learnt, to bring food into kids attention is difficult. This is not the first time, I have failed with my niece as well. Have to work more on it!
Note: this recipes makes a big batch, following day took it to office for coffee, colleagues enjoyed it, realised it was more for grown ups!!

Ingredients

150 gram butter
200 gram sugar
230 gram cream cheese 
300 gram flour
200 gram white chocolate (chopped)
150 gram dry apricot ( cut in small pieces)
Method
Butter, cream cheese should be at room temperature.
Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy, then slowly mix in cream cheese till it is evenly mixed. Add in white chocolate and dry apricot, then gently mix flour till a dough is formed. Make small balls out of dough. Give a small stab with fingers to flatten a bit and bake at 165 C in preheated oven for 15- 20 mins till turn pale pink brown.. Cool them for while for them to crisp up a bit!

66 comments

  2. AMMU MOHAN says:

    Its indeed a wonderful thing they adopted child from our country…..i am very much happy to hear this, the children is living very happily with finland parents…..Great……. God bless you all……..

    Very nice shortbread….its a enjoyable thing when we have these with kids……

  3. Happy Cook / Finla says:

    So seet the kids, here too I know some familes who have adopted Indian kids, even the priest from one of the church here was adopted when he was a 2 year old boy.
    Some parents even take the kids to Indian to their roots which I think is lovely too.

  5. Nessie says:

    Kids say and do the darndest things don’t they! Never fails to make you smile though. I would have been very impressed with these cookies! What an awesome uplifting post :)

  6. An Open Book says:

    haha that made me laugh ananda and that 3rd pic is precious..kids thoroughly having such a nice time with u..u have a very nice heart.,.
    adding apricots sound like an awesome idea..the tangy taste would def add that bit of glamour 2 a plain cooking

  7. Anna Johnston says:

    I’m giggling away here reading your funny story with the girls, makes you realize children will be children right around the world huh.
    Well., you might not have impressed the kids Ananda…., but I for one would line up again for these cookies, they sound fabulous.
    Have an awesome week my friend :)

  8. Anonymous says:

    You take beautiful pictures. Your writing though leaves a lot to be desired! You should work on improving your writing skills.

    Sofie

  11. Tanvi@SinfullySpicy says:

    Beautiful pictures Ananda!! So nice to know about such careful families.Loved reading about the time you spent with the kids.I have to make these shortbreads soon- love apricots & white choco!

  15. Nithya says:

    Wow.. looks like you had a great time with kids. I love kids too and enjoy being with them :)

    You cookies look so damn attractive to me. Don’t worry you have impressed the kid in me 😛 Apricot in shortbread sounds so good to me :) Yummmmm :)

  26. Priya (Yallapantula) Mitharwal says:

    Read your whole post, lol on how a 5 yr. old was trying to teach you bad words :)

    The cookies look simply awesome. Even my kids stay away from all sweet stuff and do not like to experiment much, so I don’t have any chance to making something new and even expect them to like it… but that’s how they are…

  27. Sobha Shyam says:

    Great to know about the wonderful families who adopted the indian kids..:)..nice to read abt the lovely time u spent with them..the cookies look fabulous..amazing clicks…

  28. Ananda Rajashekar says:

    Sofie, Thanks a bunch, point noted. i’m will put my best foot fwd to work more on my writing. Am grateful to you for taking effort to let me know, means a lot to me!!

  32. Manisha says:

    Such adorable little girls! You are lucky to have been a part of their lives and they, yours!

    Dried fruits and little kids usually don’t go well together. Chocolate chips, on the other hand, might have been more of a hit. That said, I am pretty sure I would have enjoyed these cookies!

  35. kankana says:

    They looks so flaky and white and perfectly baked cookies :)
    Those three little girls looks so cute and happy. beautiful post !

  37. Indie.Tea says:

    It sounds delicious. I think the apricots and white chocolate would be great flavor combination and contrast. But definitely one for grown-ups!

  42. Nami @ Just One Cookbook says:

    Ananda, what a lovely story and thanks for sharing! The pictures and your story totally show how wonderful person you are. :-) These cookies look delicious! Never thought of adding apricots in white chocolate cookies. Wonderful idea!

  45. Sanjeeta kk says:

    How thoughtful of you Ananda to entertain and bake for those lovely kids! Love the white cookies..apricots in it makes it more exotic. You look cute in the picture :)

  52. MaryMoh says:

    Oh Ananda, this is such a beautiful, touching post. It just warms my heart. You have such a touch of love around you. The pictures of you with the kids are just so sweet! 😀 Love your shortbread. I really must steal some time today to make them otherwise I think I will dream of them tonight 😀 Thanks very much for sharing. Hope you have a wonderful start to the week.

  53. Catherine says:

    Aww the children are just too cute! I’m not surprised your colleagues enjoyed the shortbread more, they look utterly moreish! :) I really want some white chocolate now…

  54. Cheah says:

    Gosh Ananda these are mouth-watering cookies. I’ve never tried baking with white chocolate, maybe it’s time to try!

  56. Gulmohar says:

    Beautiful kids and lovely you…loved all the pictures :-)
    Kids are kids ! I always make things thinking about how my kids will like it.Sometimes I fail miserably, though I am their mom and I know them really well (at least now!) 😉 so don’t you worry..they like one thing today and dislike the same thing tomorrow…quite unpredictable

  58. Swathi says:

    I have seen lot of foreign families adopted indian kids, for adoption you need a bigger heart. Don’t worry about impressing kids, it is difficult part. Even with little one i am finding it harder as she likes something in one day next day she hates it.

  59. Choclette says:

    Those cookies sound fantastic and I know I would have been over the moon when I was little if you’d bought some of these around. I love the colour of these too – jewel like amber shining through the white.

  61. Radhika @foodfor7stages says:

    I feel too outdated when I talk to kids here. They are really smart. But it feels really good to spend time with them. It literally rejuvenates me. Love these cute little apricot white chocolate cookies.

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