Independence Day - Vintage Bangles

Happy Independence day to everyone who love India. I imprinted the words on the flattened cookie dough and then contoured into semicylinder. Immediately after baking I shaped it into the shape of ancient kappu or bangle narrowing the gap. I painted with gold using sponging technique. The dauber brush sponging and shaping of cookies immediately after baking are some techniques I've learnt and used here. Thank you so much Julia and Manu.

Very great work dear Joanna!! Love the bangles!!  @Joanna Manuel ❤️

@Icingsugarkeks posted:

Very great work dear Joanna!! Love the bangles!!  @Joanna Manuel ❤️

Thank you very much @Icingsugarkeks ❤️

@Joanna Manuel - Congrats on being the first entry! The bangles look great, and I love the idea of further shaping them while the dough is still warm.

Can you tell us more about the dough you used? What recipe? And did you need to adapt the recipe in any way for contouring? The dough actually looks like it was rolled rather thick (how thick?), so I am surprised to see so little cracking or misshaping of it.

Congrats Joanna! Not only the shape of the bangles is perfect but also the embossed lettering is impressive. Well done!
You have been also following the demo live on Facebook, do I remember well… ?

@Julia M. Usher posted:

@Joanna Manuel - Congrats on being the first entry! The bangles look great, and I love the idea of further shaping them while the dough is still warm.

Can you tell us more about the dough you used? What recipe? And did you need to adapt the recipe in any way for contouring? The dough actually looks like it was rolled rather thick (how thick?), so I am surprised to see so little cracking or misshaping of it.

Thank you very much @Julia M. Usher. I use my traditional recipe for all sugar cookie designs (both flat and 3D). First I mix well one egg, half a cup sugar and about 60gms butter (modified according to the people I serve). Then I add baking powder and vanilla(measurement depending on the age group). Finally one cup of refined flour and one cup of wheat flour is incorporated. I don't add any other liquid not even an extra spoon of essence because that would result in disaster.

Yes, I rolled it a bit thick because I was afraid that it would break. The painting technique was so good and I hope to make some using natural colors so that I can excite diabetic people too.

I use less butter and baking powder for young ones and older people.

@Manu biscotti decorati posted:

Congrats Joanna! Not only the shape of the bangles is perfect but also the embossed lettering is impressive. Well done!
You have been also following the demo live on Facebook, do I remember well… ?

Thank you very much Manu. Yes, I was but not till the end because it was midnight here. I enjoyed that live demo and did learn a lot

@Joanna Manuel posted:

Thank you very much @Julia M. Usher. I use my traditional recipe for all sugar cookie designs (both flat and 3D). First I mix well one egg, half a cup sugar and about 60gms butter (modified according to the people I serve). Then I add baking powder and vanilla(measurement depending on the age group). Finally one cup of refined flour and one cup of wheat flour is incorporated. I don't add any other liquid not even an extra spoon of essence because that would result in disaster.

Yes, I rolled it a bit thick because I was afraid that it would break. The painting technique was so good and I hope to make some using natural colors so that I can excite diabetic people too.

I use less butter and baking powder for young ones and older people.

Ahh, your use of wheat flour may make your dough more flexible and easier to handle at that thickness (as opposed to just using all-purpose flour; wheat flour has a higher gluten content). I could never roll my dough that thick and not get it to crack on a curved shape. I'd also be interested to calculate your flour:fat ratio (by weight) and see how it compares to mine. Have you done that? If so, I'll try to make some rough conversions when I have more time based on the info you gave me here.

@Joanna Manuel posted:

Thank you very much @Julia M. Usher. I use my traditional recipe for all sugar cookie designs (both flat and 3D). First I mix well one egg, half a cup sugar and about 60gms butter (modified according to the people I serve). Then I add baking powder and vanilla(measurement depending on the age group). Finally one cup of refined flour and one cup of wheat flour is incorporated. I don't add any other liquid not even an extra spoon of essence because that would result in disaster.

Yes, I rolled it a bit thick because I was afraid that it would break. The painting technique was so good and I hope to make some using natural colors so that I can excite diabetic people too.

I use less butter and baking powder for young ones and older people.

I actually just did a rough estimate of your flour:fat ratio. Assuming the same weight for all-purpose flour as wheat flour (which is actually a bit heavier), I get 257.2 g of flour (2 cups) in your recipe. Then, 257.2 g divided by 60 g (of butter) is about 4.2, which is higher than the flour:fat ratio in my gingerbread. So your recipe was probably already decently formulated for contoured baking without having to make any recipe adjustments. Your nice results seem to indicate this too! I just wanted to verify that my "recipe math" (shared in my first video) also worked in your case, and it seems it did.

@Julia M. Usher posted:

I actually just did a rough estimate of your flour:fat ratio. Assuming the same weight for all-purpose flour as wheat flour (which is actually a bit heavier), I get 257.2 g of flour (2 cups) in your recipe. Then, 257.2 g divided by 60 g (of butter) is about 4.2, which is higher than the flour:fat ratio in my gingerbread. So your recipe was probably already decently formulated for contoured baking without having to make any recipe adjustments. Your nice results seem to indicate this too! I just wanted to verify that my "recipe math" (shared in my first video) also worked in your case, and it seems it did.

I use wheat flour because it's good for health and now glad that it has it's advantage in cookie shaping. Yes, the ratio is a bit high(because less fat means more health) which my mom use to criticize but she accepts the taste. I had experimented with different ratios and different flours like rice, ragi and finally settled with this recipe.

@Joanna Manuel posted:

I use wheat flour because it's good for health and now glad that it has it's advantage in cookie shaping. Yes, the ratio is a bit high(because less fat means more health) which my mom use to criticize but she accepts the taste. I had experimented with different ratios and different flours like rice, ragi and finally settled with this recipe.

Makes a lot of good sense.

I adore India. Thanks for so gorgeous set that remaining me about this.

@Goloven Olga posted:

I adore India. Thanks for so gorgeous set that remaining me about this.

Thank you very much

Excellent work Joanna! Your contoured dough looks perfect!

What an awesome application of the different ideas that Julia presented in the Challenge demo @Joanna Manuel!! You did such a wonderful job and the result is beautiful ❤️❤️ Hugs...

@Cookies Fantastique posted:

What an awesome application of the different ideas that Julia presented in the Challenge demo @Joanna Manuel!! You did such a wonderful job and the result is beautiful ❤️❤️ Hugs...

Thank you very much