“Things need not have happened to be true. Tales and adventures are the shadow truths that will endure when mere facts are dust and ashes and forgotten.”- Neil Gaiman

Do you remember the 8-year-old you?

Did you read Enid Blyton?

Did you long for a dog like Scamper?

Did you create a very secret detective group with your friends (password included)?

Did you try looking for the Faraway Tree?

Did you scrape your knees searching for pixies in gardens?

Did magic seem possible?

And most importantly do you remember the food?

Did you ask your mother to make you a shiny trifle or a wobbly jelly?

Did you wonder what scones with clotted cream tasted like?

Do you remember how cookies and cucumber sandwiches sounded like the most delicious things ever?

Today let’s go down the rabbit hole.

Let’s eat some cookies and recall that feeling.

The feeling that anything was possible.

It all begins with black and white. Doesn’t everything?

How glossy and perfect is the chocolate?

Then it becomes a gorgeous brown.

Pack it up. BTW Don’t you just love bags you can label?

Get your instruments ready.

Line ‘em up.

They look good, don’t they?

Say hello to them just out of the oven.

These are not safe to keep around the house. They vanish. I don’t know how 🙂

Chocolate Cookies

Recipe from: Smitten Kitchen’s Brownie roll-out cookies (adapted slightly)

Prep time: 10 mins

Cook time: 12 mins

Makes: depends on the size of the cutter you use. I made 32 from about half the dough.

Eat this with: A mug of hot chocolate or a light coffee

Ingredients:

400 g plain flour

½ tsp salt

½ tsp baking powder

220 g butter, melted but warm

300 g brown sugar (granulated)

3 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

90 g cocoa powder

Method:

1. Put the flour, salt and baking powder in a bowl and dry whisk them together. Set aside.
2.  In another bowl, mix the warm melted butter and sugar together. The butter will melt the sugar granules slightly. This is good! Now add the eggs, vanilla extract and cocoa powder and mix well.
3. Add the flour mixture (a little at a time) to the cocoa mixture, stirring well to incorporate. Do the final mixing by hand. You should have a pretty solid chocolate dough at this stage.
4. Wrap in cling-wrap or zip-lock bags and chill for about one hour. The dough freezes well at this stage. I like to make little bags, so I can take them out even weeks later and bake small batches whenever a sugar craving comes calling.
5. When you are ready to bake, preheat the oven to 180º C. Take the dough out of the fridge and roll it out gently to about ¼ inch thickness. Dust with a little flour so it doesn’t stick. Use cutters to cut into whatever sizes or shapes you wish.
6. Line a baking sheet with parchment and line up the cookies on it. They don’t spread at all, so you can fill up the tray with just a little space around each. Bake these for about 12 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.