live life, celebrate food, share both with those you love

Thursday 15 August 2013

C is for cookie... Date and Walnut cookies to be exact!

It’s always been my opinion, that homes with kiddies should always smell like freshly baked cookies… yum! My mum baked cheesecakes, carrot cakes and chocolate cakes but I don’t really remember her as a cookie baker. Yet my fondest childhood memories come flooding back when I smell cookies baking in the oven… yeah, I’m weird, this is not news to me!

I’ve struggled for quite some time to find a cookie recipe that’s simple to make and also spreads well yet doesn’t over crisp.

Last night I had success!! So ladies, gents and kiddie-winkles, may I present… Date and Walnut cookies!

This recipe makes around 40 small cookies if you can keep husband/child/nonna from eating the raw cookie dough!


Ingredients
185g butter, at room temp
½ c caster sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg yolk
1 ½ c self raising flour
½ tsp cinnamon
½ tsp nutmeg
100g chopped dates
½ c walnuts

How to...
- Preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius.
- Using electric beaters, beat the butter, sugar, vanilla and egg yolks for a few minutes until pale and fluffy.
- Add all the remaining ingredients and stir well. I found the mixture a little hard to mix, so with clean hands, I scrunched and squished the dough into submission.
- Roll teaspoons of the dough into balls and place on a lined baking tray, about 4cm apart as these cookies will spread.
- Bake for 12 minutes or until just golden.
- Leave the cookies on the hot tray for a few minutes to firm up before you transfer to a wire rack to cool.
- Once completely cooled store in an airtight container for 3 days or freeze for 1 month.