Cookie update

But first -

Look what arrived in the post this week.

The most gorgeous wool coat from Bonnie at Lonemoose. I love it so so much. It's even better in real life. It has a pixie hood! I intended it for Isla when she gets a bit bigger but bonus, Liam fits it now - lucky guy. I tried to get a photo of him wearing it but he was most unobliging, all he'd give me was his toes. But if you have a look on Bonnie's blog you can see them being worn. Liam's worn it out twice this week already.

And now on to the cookies...

Two new cookies from the cookie book this week.

Firstly, sour cream cookies.

These are kind of what I imagined they would be like, quite light and delicate, kind of a little pastry-like actually. I like this recipe because it only has 3 tablespoons of sugar so they're not too sweet (which is a problem really because you end up eating lots) and also you don't need to cream the butter and sugar - which means I can make it easily when the kids are sleeping! Our house is very small and the only place I can safely use my electric beater without disturbing dreaming children is the bathroom, yes I know, crazy. And what makes it worse is there is no power outlet in the bathroom so I have to run the extension cord from the laundry. And what makes it even worse is that for some reason we only have a very long heavy duty bright orange extension cord that is always very tangled. So yes, no creaming is good in a recipe.

Ok so number two, totally at the other end of the scale are these sunflower and ginger cookies. Hearty and weighty and sticky and sweet - and oh so delicious.

Here is the recipe because you really should make these.

(Just let me know if you want any of the other recipies by the way)

:: Sunflower and Ginger Cookies ::

2/3 cup flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/8 tsp salt

1/4 cup (60g) butter, softened

1/4 cup (50g) firmly packed light brown sugar

1 large egg

1/2 cup finely chopped raisins

1/4 cup finely chopped apricots

1/2 cup finely chopped almonds

1/4 cup finely chopped sunflower seeds

Glaze:

1/2 cup ginger preserves

2 Tbsp butter

Mix the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt in a bowl. Beat the butter and sugar until creamy. Add the egg and beat until just mixed. Mix in the fruit and nuts, then the dry ingredients to form a soft dough. Form into a log (about 35cm long), wrap in plastic and refrigerate for 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 180 c (350 f/gas 4). Slice the dough 1cm thick and place on greased baking trays. Bake until just golden, about 10-15 mins. Transfer to racks and let cool completely.

Glaze: Heat the preserves and butter in a small pot and simmer for about two minutes. Drizzle the glaze over the cookies.

You don't really need that much glaze, I have about half of it left. Which is not necessarily a bad thing as I think it will be quite tasty on toast.

And a little tip, they don't spread much so make them pretty much the size you want them to be when cooked. Mine are kind of bite-sized (so once again you face the problem of eating lots at once!)

And something pretty to finish off with...

Sweet smelling jasmine that we picked on a walk to the beach this week, it's filling the house with it's sweet smell. I love jasmine.